Razul, The Summoner (HCC Contest Entry)

Razul, The Summoner

Lore

Razul was one of the founders of the great university of magic and wizardry in the world, back when the world was yet young, and the stars shone with vigilance. The Invoker, born some three-hundred years before him, was his greatest idol as a child; his greatest goal was to achieve the same might the Invoker possessed. The Summoner learned quickly; in his youth he learned three spells, and a fourth when he turned forty. When he managed to cram a fifth spell into his mind as an aged man, the Invoker learned of him and, seeing the man as an amusement, decided to cast the Sempiternal Cantrap on the wizened mage.
However, after meeting the Grand Magus and founding the university with him, Razul learned of the Invoker's contempt for all others. He at first attempted to push him towards what Razul considered "the light", but his attempts failed; finally he could bear the burden no longer and confronted the Invoker with his complaints. Far from the idol of his childhood, the Invoker scorned the Summoner and sent him away, promising that "No mage who casts so few petty magicks as thou and thine ilk will ever criticize me again: I AM THE INVOKER!" With the power he held as the Grand Magus, the Invoker exiled Razul.
Razul could not suffer this alone, and he sought to prove the Invoker's tyranny. Even in exile, his wealth was great; a mage does not learn 5 spells and remain unheard. He bought entire libraries of spellbooks on golemancy, conjuration, and the nature of life, and he purged his entire memory of spells, which were cluttering his mind. Then, he studied. For two thousand years he studied and formulated three spells like which the world had never seen before.
He returned to the Invoker, who in shock stood paralyzed. The entire council of mages watched in increasing awe and silence as the Summoner presented not five, not ten, but fifteen spells before them all. He then demanded the Invoker be deposed. The Invoker, finally coming to his senses, weakly commanded the mages to arrest Razul. However, many of the council finally saw that raw power did not equal leadership ability, and bickered amongst themselves. Most were in support of Razul.
During their squabbles, the Invoker had secretly been preparing himself to cast two almost-forgotten spells. He had not been idle in the millennia since his last meeting with Razul, either. With a wave of his hand, Razul disappeared from the chamber. He was trapped in a cage from which there is no escape; Carl had banished him from time itself. A single other word from the Invoker's mouth, and the outraged council found their memories, not only of the day but of the merest mention of the name Razul, erased.
For even longer than his original exile, Razul pondered over all he had learned. Eventually, he managed, through sheer ingenuity or pure luck he knows not, to cast a sixteenth spell which enabled him to escape from his bubble in time by removing temporarily the concept of time from the entire universe. Finding the world trapped in the midst of a war he was well equipped for, he set out with one thought; revenge.

Basic Stats (Primary Stat: INT)

Strength: 13+1.8 58 at level 25
Agility: 19+2.1 71.5 at level 25
Intelligence: 21+3.5 108.5 at level 25
Health: 500 at level 1, 1364 at level 25
Mana: 310 at level 1, 1024 at level 25
Damage: 67-79 at level 1
Movement Speed: 285
Turn Rate: 0.5
Attack Range: 575
BAT: 2
Armor: 2

Spells

Sun!

The Summoner fashions an elemental from the rays of the sun, twisting their light into a physical shape. The elementals of the sun can consume its energy to smite the Summoner's enemies, create a searing, blinding beam of light; it can meld the sun's burning fires of rage with an ally's weapon; and it can freeze the rays of the sun, allowing safe passage, or passage of any sort, to none.

Health: 400/700/1000/1300
Physical damage reduction: 10%
Magical damage reduction: 80%
Movement Speed: 300/333/366/400

Star!

Far beyond the moon, the silent stars watch. With this spell, the Summoner calls upon their distant might to aid him. Star elementals can shine a light on an otherwise obscured location; they can grant the blessing of the skies, increasing the strength of magics cast by a select few; they can absorb magical energy to sacrifice themselves, as stars sometimes do; and they can protect an ally from all ill magic while they still live.

Health: 250/350/450/550
Physical damage reduction: 98%
Magical damage reduction: 0%
Movement Speed: 300/333/366/400

Sea!

Far beyond the river, the violent, unknown seas clash. The Summoner traveled over them in his exile; they return to him to serve when this spell is cast. Sea elementals can grant an ally protection for a brief window; or create water in their enemies' lungs; they can manipulate the winds; and call upon nature's most destructive force.

Health: 500/700/900/1100
Physical damage reduction: 40/45/50/55%
Magical damage reduction: 40%
Movement Speed: 300/333/366/400

Time!

The Summoner used this spell to escape his prison; he found it also vital for his elementals. The world cannot allow a mage control over more than one element at once; for the sun, stars, seas, storms, stone, and sparks all intersect in the element of time. Outside of time, no such limitation exists, and the Summoner - or rather his conjurations - may cast his full arsenal at will.
Duration: 5/8/11 seconds
200 mana, 120 second cooldown

Aghanims Scepter

Each elemental gains 100% health.

Talents

Level 10: All elementals +15% health / +15 strength
Level 15: +40 movement speed / -45 second Time! cooldown
Level 20: +450 mana / +15% elemental spell amplification
Level 25: All elemental spells are level 4 / -32.5 second cooldown Sun!, Star!, Sea!

Playstyle

The Summoner is certainly the most difficult hero to play because of the sheer number of spells he has. Theoretically, every single spell of his could be cast during Time!, which could result in either the complete destruction of his enemies, a violation of the laws of physics, or a fried motherboard. Unlike Invoker, however, you don't have to be able to type 200wpm to cast all his spells; you can cast all of them with 16 key presses to invoker's 50. Instead, he is difficult because you have to know the right combination of spells to use at the right time; of which there are many.
To give a sample of some of his combos, you could
Hurricane a group of enemies and then trap them inside with solid light
Push someone into or out of a fight with Gale, then Formless armor and Watery Cage.
Cast Hurricane, give an ally Burning Light, and then give that ally Silvery Armor.
Cast Searing Ray on an enemy, drown their friend, plop a star on them, and supernova.
Burning Light, Time!, Sea!, tell Sun to attack, Drown, Gale, Star!, Silvery Armor, Solid Light, Hurricane, Supernova.
There are also probably tons of ways his spells could combo with allies; plop a Silvery Armor on an Enigma in the middle of his black hole to make sure he gets it off, or use Solid Light to prevent anyone from escaping the Underlord's Firestorm.

The Summoner is, as such, an intelligence spell-based carry, much like his enemy Invoker. You play him trying to amass experience to get your spells to higher levels, so you can wreak havoc; and you should probably end the game before the enemy Sven gets a bkb.
There are differences, however. You can't build refresher, or if you do its for a very different reason (elementals won't refresh their abilities, only Time! and summoning abilities will refresh). His primary damage-dealing method is his spells and never becomes his attacks later in the game, and you can't escape a fight with Ghost Walk. Positioning is arguably more important, as you have to position yourself and up to three elementals. In a fight, you want to stay back as you don't have direct disables. And I would see the Summoner viable (maybe, MAYBE even usually) as a support while Invoker is really not.

Animations

The elementals all reflect what they come from, and all three are transparent. They are not humanoid in shape, however; they are formless, spherical-ish blobs. When casting a spell they deform for a moment as if a meteor had smashed into them before returning to their normal shape. The Summoner has a sense of authority around him, though he is grey with years. When he creates an elemental, he waves an arm and it appears from many tiny orbs of light. His attacks emanate come from a long wooden staff.

Now, this is where I'll have a problem. I like the concept of a summoner whereupon the summons have skills like a hero, this is an upgrade and a unique way to distance Razul to other summons base heroes however, this is the problem he will be played as a lazy hero and he is basically a big creep early game, he is useless without his summons (who I'm going to say doesn't have any duration which makes him a lazy hero) and he is not going to have burst capability both in fighting and farming, he will never spike unlike a hero like Invoker. For me, make it so he has at least 1 damaging ability that is not from his summons and maybe have 2 abilities that amplify his summons and himself or maybe a syngergizer like ability, maybe an ability where if they are linked together the summon's attacks and abilities will have special properties and the summons should be his R and his current R be an Aghs Upgrade.

The Concept is not bad it's actually one of the best I've looked at so far but the way it was made is just meh, a tweaking or rework will do it.

What do you really mean, "lazy hero"?

I mean, I guess you could micro the spirits away from him, if that's what you are talking about. But then you cant create any new elementals to start combos, which you really can't do with one elemental's spells. I tried to make it so you could mostly chain their spells without time; but before level 25 the most damage he will be able to do with one elemental is around 500 which is very underwhelming.
I would have actually thought I would get criticism about him being too hard and complex to play. Funny.

The elementals have no duration, but you can only have one at a time (without Time!) and they are summoned at his location which makes it basically impossible to not be in the midst of a fight or at least near it to be very useful. The most you might be able to do globally is a drown, hurricane and then a solid light if you're really fast; but that seems unlikely at best and it would be more likely that you would only get off the drown before they were swept away by the tide.

I do agree with you in that he could work with 3 spells per elemental or something and a power-treads like switching mechanism for them, along with his own q, w, and e. But I feel that both detracts from the theme I'm trying to go for and the vision I had for him, which is what the contest is all about

Also, I disagree with you about power spikes. When he hits level 4 in two abilities, for example; in a sun/sea build that I would go for, you end up with 50% more disable and 50% more hurricane damage, along with better area denial from hurricane. Getting max level time and the level 15 talent could mean you could use it in every fight, vastly increasing his power. While it likely wouldn't be the most common build, with just level 2 silvery armor you can protect an ally from any sort of disable until they take 550 magic damage, including black hole (just realized how big 550 is, nerf incoming. Even so).

While you could argue that those aren't real power spikes, but just a steady accumulation of power, I would disagree. Invoker's spells never get suddenly better. He just crawls slightly ahead and the many small gradual changes become significant. With the summoner, I think you end up with the same thing, just in a different way. Because leveling up a second elemental to level 4 also augments your already-powerful elementals, you end up with the same thing invoker does; many spells getting upgraded slowly with each level he gains.

As for your concerns about a big creep early game, I might share them. Even so, at level 3 he has either a 90-damage dealing spirit which dies quickly or a 60-damage dealing spirit with a 100 damage spell and blind. By level 7 he has access to an ultimate; by level 8 he could have 2 if he built himself the right way.
I do agree, the hero itself serves as a placeholder for the elementals. But, as I previously addressed, the need to summon new elementals dispels the trouble that you might end up with because of this; and his very low health and no means of regenerating it easily means he needs to rely on good positioning of himself as well as his spirits.

A lazy hero in my book is a hero who is passive himself and he/she has an ability that do all the stuff for him. (Examples include pre-patch Arc Warden(remember those times when Tempest double can copy Rapier?) and Lone Druid)

It's hard for me to say much about this hero because I'm terrible at micro based heroes and because there's a lot of number which are difficult to determine to be good, bad, or ridiculous.

I have only two pieces of advice. First be sure to double and triple check the numbers to be sure they feel fair. For example, is Shaft of Light supposed to be a 5 min ward on a 30 second cooldown? I realize it's only possible at level 25 but still that's pretty intense.

Second, please try to clarify details. I make this mistake quite often; in my mind I fully understand what the skills do and how the hero should be but other people can only read what you wrote and assume the rest. For example, can Shaft of Light have multiple instances at one time or does casting it again remove the others? Can it be cast in Roshan's pit? The skill says, "anywhere on the map" but clarifying unusual spots is good (i.e. Roshan and enemy fountain). Also, is there any indication to the enemy team that the spell is cast? Like particle effects in the area of vision? Beastmaster gets a 60 second movable ward pretty early but it's obvious he can see you and pretty killable, giving gold reward.

Other notes:
- Be wary of skills that move enemy players, they can easily be too strong.
- Watch out for buffs/heals on allies and make sure they align in strength with other similar, pre-existing skills.

I took note of your criticism and went and applied some heavy nerfs to gale and constelation.

Shaft of light's extreme duration at level 4 is intended. Eyes in the Forest was the spell I took for comparison, and Shaft of light doesn't even look that strong against a spell that can literally have the entire map revealed against the right team.
I added a visual to it so a vigilant/lucky enemy team with good wards can figure out where the light is, though. Kind of ruined the ironic invoker/summoner synergy with sunstrike, but i'll live.

Also tried to give more details for the spells that aren't easily understandable (hurricane, shaft of light, I think one more).

Thanks for the feedback! You say you aren't very good at judging a micro hero; yet any feedback is better than none.
I do agree that trying to balance this guy is a nightmare.