Elesse, the Arcanist

Elesse, the Arcanist

(this is one of my favourite ideas, balanced or no, I really enjoyed writing this one, please comment and criticisms welcome!)

Once there stood a fantastic structure in the Aldrean Highlands. It was a Arcanists school, where all of the ones blessed with arcane might could train and study to further improve their powers and capabilities. Now, all that remains of that school is rubble and flames, as the school was destroyed by ones versed in elemental arts. It all went wrong when a student called Cybil Harkendawn used her powers and knowledge of the arcane arts to smite all other lesser magi. The elemental mages decided they would have no more of this "arcane magic", and so they destroyed the school.
Fifty years later, a small girl of only nine walks among the wreckage, looking for small treasures to take home as a keepsake, her name Elesse Whitenhon. The young girl stumbled across a stange magical orb, infused with lost arcane powers. As soon as she did as little as hold it in her hands, she was filled with magical powers. Since that day, Elesse had been studying constantly, hoping to discover what she could really do with such powers, she has learnt many things since then, new spells and new ways to use the arcane magic.

Health: 490
Mana: 330
Strength: 18
Agility: 20
Intelligence: 23
Armour: 3
Movement Speed: 315

Elesse is a ranged intelligence hero who serves as a carry/semicarry or midlaner. She has many spammable spells, and a passive which grows stronger the more she casts spells.

Innate Passive) Arcanists Blessing: (becomes active when Arcane Meltdown has been skilled)
With each spell Elesse casts she gains the said amount of stacks for Arcanists Blessing, which grant her many bonuses. Stacks are limited to 40 which is upgraded each time the ult is leveled. Each stack lasts 10 seconds, and the countdown to the stacks expiring is renewed by 5 seconds each time a new spell is cast.
1 Stack gives 2.5 mana regen
1 Stack deals 4 damage per second in a 1200 radius.
1 Stack grants 5 bonus damage
1 Stack increases the amount of damage her spells do by 8
1 Stack grants 1.5% movespeed

Q) Arcane Jolt:
Elesse shoots a sharp jolt forwards, which stabs an enemy with arcane powers.
Elesse learned to conjure blade like arcane magic which could almost slice any enemy into pieces.

Damage: 80/100/120/140
Arcanists Blessing Stacks: 0/1/2/3

Cooldown: 3/2/1/0.5 Mana: 70/80/90/100

W) Arcane Arc:
Elesse twists and bends arcane powers, firing and arc of damage which damages all enemies that is passes through.
Elesse gained the powers to bend arcane energy itself to mow down the opposition.

Damage: 130/160/190/230
Arcanists Blessing Stacks: 0/2/3/4

Cooldown: 7/6/5/4 Mana: 150/170/180/200

E) Arcane Spirits:
Elesse summons 4 arcane spirits, which circle around Elesse for a few seconds, providing her passive mana regen, until firing off and homing in at the nearest enemies (will prioritize heroes, an enemy can only be hit by two spirits total)
Elesse gained such power she could even disturb and shatter into the 4th plane, summoning long lost arcane spirits.

Mana Regen Duration: 3
Mana Regen: 40/60/80
Damage Per Spirit: 100/170/220/250
Arcanists Blessing Stacks: 0/8/10/12

Cooldown: 25/23/19/16 Mana: 150/180/220/260

R) Arcane Meltdown:
Elesse uses all current Arcanists Blessing stacks to deals humongous damage to all enemies in a massive radius. The spell must be channeled for 2 seconds in order to be used. Elesse will be reduced to 25% hp when the spell has been cast.
Elesse gains so much magical power she acts like a nuclear explosion, dealing massive damage to herself, and enemies.

Max Stack Limit: 40/50/55 (scepter 60)
Damage Per Stack of Arcanists Blessing: 35/45/55(Aghs upgrade damage: 45/55/65)
Radius: 700 (scepter 790)

Cooldown: 100/90/80 Mana: 200/250/300


(Might have some responses coming soon?)

I don't think Arcane meltdown should make herself take damage, otherwise she'll die right after the cast (unless that's what you were going for). Anyway, she is a powerful nuker with good mana sustain, and she is strong in the midlane as she can get levels and therefore stacks of Arcanist's Blessing quickly.

Hm, I kinda want her to take some damage from it, I might increase the amount of damage done slightly and reduce the amount of damage taken maybe? Anyway thanks for checking it out, glad this didn't go as horribly as the last one :s

The passive stacks is a fun idea to mess with. By the way, is arcane spirits supposed to be a almost mana-free spell? I just did the math for fun and the mana cost/ mana regen balance out to 40-20 mana cost per cast. Is the point of the large mana cost/ almost as large mana regen just so she cannot cast it when she is too low? that seems to be the only explanation that I can think of, other then just for the sake of variety.

Unless the mana regen is per spirit. Then it is a a very powerful spell at level 4 doing 500 damage to 2 targets, or 250 to 4, and regening 3 times the mana spent.

Her ult is a little overpowered. at max level, just casting all her ther spells ONCE will make her ult do 1,045 damage. you can add a few hundred more from the damage built up from her Q. I know she is reduced to 15% health and It is a 2 second channel, which balances It out pretty much, but the maximum potential damage from her ult alone, with the stacks lasting ten seconds is...

About 2,275 AOE MAGIC DAMAGE, IN A "undefined" MASSIVE RADIUS. I dont think that is overpowerd, seeing as how she will have to target her spells for ten seconds, channel for two, and drop down to 15% health. but I wanted to to the math, and that number is large for an aoe that is massive, and i define massive by how the game describes it (AKA ravage)

I really like this hero, and I would have to do a lot more math and situational strategy in my head to tell you if this hero is truly balanced. Keep up the good work.


Edit: Just to make thing less complicated, I would suggest making her innate passive a function of herult. I like innate ability's when there is no other choice and it fits really well, but you can just stick all these passive affects onto her lvl 6. And since her ultimate is very hard to use early, it will give playes motivation to level it up at 6/11/16.

The arcane spirits is not mana regen per spirit, but a base mana regen. It has to be high since the mana regen only lasts for 3 seconds, which will be 3 instances of the mana regen if that makes sense.

Also I really couldn't do the maths at the time for the ult, but I can add a few representations of the damage if you want?

Also I like the idea of the passive being upgraded alongside the ult, but I wanted the passive to really have some sort of impact on the early game.

Thanks for the reply! I want to refine this as much as possible so I might change a couple of things like you said.

Right now with the lack of spamability in her spells at low levels, it is unlikely that her passive will do anything before level 6. And I was not implying that her passive SCALLED with her ult, taht it was just a innate part of it. It just seems odd to me having an innate passive, te only real one in Dota 2 is silencers intelligence steal, and it is not complicated enough to warrent its own slot.

And I already did the maths for the ult, but If you are designing a hero you at least should do some of that just for balancing, even if you dont write it down. You should always know the maximum potential, minimum potential, and skill level required, so balancing is just those larger numbers.

But I was just writing that on the fly after lookng at your hero for about 70 seconds, so it is up to you to judge my advice and compare it to your expectations and what you beleive the hero should be able to do. I love thinking about these things, so it is no pronblem of me to write it.

So I change the passive so it becomes active once the ult has been skilled? Thanks for the help, although this may bot be the most balanced hero idea it was really awesome to write this one!

Stat growth?

I actually never have written stat growth on any ideas, I will have a think and make some for the first time haha!

Oh. Yeah, 'cus I want to know how many times he can spam Q with his manapool.