try to add all heroes of dota into this game, it makes the game more interesting and allows people to have a very wide choice of characters to pick

[Q] - Riftwalk:

• semi-long teleport or charge/dash (goes through enemies);
  
• after this a debuff is placed on all enemies in a radius around AM for some seconds. If an enemy uses an ability while debuffed they are dealt damage (maybe also slowed briefly) and the cooldown of riftwalk is reset.
  
• Alternative idea: instead of placing a debuff make a circular AoE fixed around AM for some seconds, everytime an enemy uses an ability inside the AoE they are affected as above (this way AM has to chase a little bit)
  
• anyway the debuff can only trigger once per use of this ability per enemy

[W] - Whirling Strike:

• simple short range attack ability dealing damage around AM, any other idea than this, maybe a little bit more unique is also fine :)

[E] - Anti-Magic Barrier

• creates a shield around AM for some seconds that blocks the next ability effect hitting AM
  
• if the the shield blocked something successfully, AM can use use the ability a second time (secondary ability) to shoot a projectile in a straight line. If it hits an enemy it deals damage and stuns/silences.
  
• the cooldown is ticking while the shield is active/you are able to use the secondary ability
  
• there is a fixed time window to cast the secondary ability and also:
  (duration shield) + (secondary ability cast window) < (cooldown of [E])

[R] - "insert name" (Ultimate):

• well I'm not quite sure about this, I guess this hero could use some movementspeed buff to dodge abilities, or maybe something to force enemies to cast abilities so you can block them with barrier or trigger the debuff, maybe also change around the other abilities and add something else I really don't know^^
  
• another idea would be something like LeBlanc's ultimate from LoL, where it copies your last ability used, the reason is that AM already has 4 abilities (if you also count the secondary ability of 'Anti-Magic Barrier'). The copied ability would have a fixed cooldown so you could copy your own ability only once in a while. Also it would only be possible to copy 'Anti-Magic Barrier' itself not the secondary ability on its own. Additionally the copied shield would overwrite the original so you can't generate 2 uses of the secondary ability from only being hit once. On the other hand, if you time it right you could block two different abilities with two different barriers, being able to cast the secondary ability twice.

I think a good idea for an am ultimate should be:

[R] - Mana Combustion:

• Anti-Mage targets a large area around him which when a hero uses an ability, they get stunned and silences them for a brief moment (Stun should be about a second long while the silence should be have a much longer duration than the stun).
  
• Another buff that can be considered for this is that when he succesfully hits someone with his Whirling Strike (while the target is still silenced with the debuff) the silence duration on the target is increased a little.
  
  
  

yes, this was my go-to-idea in the first place. But in my opinion this is just a slightly changed version of venge's ultimate to be honest. Very nice to see some feedback

This is my hero idea which i think would be very interesting (although a bit op):


[Q] - Knight's Slash:

• dragon knight attacks an area infront of him which deals damage.
  
• Turns into Dragon Slash when in dragon form, which allows dk to do a short charge forward while slashing.

[W] - Steady Shield:

• gets a buff for a duration in which two events can happen:
  
• he gets hit by a projectile or attack, which fully blocks the effects of the attack or,
  
• he uses his Knights Slash which allows him to stun a target infront of him.
  
• This turns into Wing Shield when in dragon form, which blocks 2 instances of damage, and if he uses his dragon slash it allows him to charge forward while pushing enemies away.

[E] - Charge Ahead

• A really simple charge with a medium-sized range (not too long and not too short) which ends at the point of target (Allowing dk to fall into holes if he charges into one)
  
• Turns into Fly when in dragon form, which allows dk to travel to the location completely avoiding holes on the ground

[R] - Dragon's Fury (Ultimate):

• Transforms into a dragon while doing a short glide forward and burning the ground below
  
• When casted during dragon form, dk breathes a wave of fire in a short range in front of him (His dragon form's Dragon Fury has a separate cooldown than his knight form's Dragon Fury)
  
• Lasts for a small duration

I feel like my brain is really crazy and filled with creativity right now, here's a second one:


[Q] - Acid Vomit:

• Pudge throws up a vile of acid (projectile can be like venomancer's first skill) which slows enemies that get hit.
  
• Deals damage after the slow finishes its duration
  
• When Pudge has someone devoured while activating this, the devoured target will be spit out twice the range as a normal devour spit, they also take damage and get affected by Acid Vomit's effects.

[W] - Disease Cloud:

• Releases a wave of rotting smell which deal damage
  
• Deals damage to pudge and enemies in an area around him after a channeling time (which means pudge needs to channel before he can activate this skill)

[E] - Flesh Cover

• allows pudge to completely nullify the effects of abilities which hit him within a short duration
  
• this does not mean that pudge would not take damage from them

[R] - Devour (Ultimate):

• Eats an enemy infront of pudge, storing them in his stomach and dealing damage to them for a short time but slows pudge for half of his movement speed until they get spit out.
  
• Spits out the devoured enemy infront of pudge after the duration and heals pudge.
  
• Allows pudge to heal much more hp than his total hp, extra hp lasts for a duration.
  
• If enemies cast abilities while inside pudge, they can escape from pudge and deal damage to pudge. (although mobility spells do not work while inside pudge)

Ok this one's the last one for today:


Note: Brewmaster transforms into one of his three bears when he casts a spell which reduces the cooldown of a spell if he uses it continuously.

[Q] - Tera Slam:

• Brewmaster temporarily transforms into his Earth Form (Primal Split: Earth Bear) and then slams an area around him, dealing damage and slowing enemies
  
• Brewmaster stays in earth form for a brief duration after the skill, but he can't cast any other spells other than Earth Slam (Meaning if he uses his tera slam skill again, it increases the duration that he stays in Earth Form).

[W] - Lightning Sprint:

• Temporarily transforms into his Storm Form (Primal Split: Storm Bear) and then goes into invisibility but deals damage to enemies in contact (similar to weaver's 2nd skill).
  
• a visual lightning effect can be added for enemies to see while he's invisible.
  
• Same as above, brewmaster will stay in storm form longer if he casts this spell again.

[E] - Scorching Flames

• Temporarily transforms into his Fire Form (Primal Split: Fire Bear) and then shoots out a long-ranged and quick moving fire ball at a target.
  
• Same as above, brewmaster will stay in Fire form longer if he casts this spell again.

[R] - Storm, Earth and Fire (Ultimate):

• Summons all three of his bears to attack the nearest enemy hero.
  
• The bears does each of brewmaster's skills once (meaning, Earth Bear will move near an enemy and then cast Tera Slam, Storm Bear will cast Lightning Sprint and move into a nearby enemy, Fire Bear casts Scorching flames at the nearest enemy)
  
• This does not mean that brewmaster cannot cast his spells

Hey, I dont have an idea, but i enjoy the anti-mage hero and the dragon knight hero. The other two dont appeal to me personally. I love the game mode

Another one:


Note: Bane only does damage to asleep heroes same as how CM only does damage to frozen enemies and also only bane can deal damage without breaking the enemy's sleep

[Q] - Sleep:

• Targets a small area which after a delay, every hero inside of it (including bane) becomes asleep.
  
• Asleep heroes become invulnerable for a second after getting asleep and then wake up if they get damaged but the hero which damages them will recieve the sleep instead (same as normal bane's sleep)
  
• Bane does not recieve sleep if he damages another hero which is affected with it
  
• An asleep enemy which gets hit by this skill recieves damage and wakes up.

[W] - Dream Wave:

• Shoots out a wave of dream bats which leeches the life of enemies. (Heals Bane if this succesfully hits an enemy)
  
• Only deals damage to asleep enemies.
  
• If it hits someone which is not asleep, it slows the enemy's movement speed but does not turn them asleep.

[E] - Coma Blast

• Channels for a brief duration then releases a sleeping explosion (similar to elder titan's echo stomp)
  
• Asleep enemies which get hit are dealt damage but their sleep duration is increased. (Which means sleeping enemies which are damaged with this will not wake up)

[R] - True Nightmare (Ultimate):

• Nightmares starts to materialize, turning day into night for a duration.
  
• Every hero except bane becomes asleep and their souls are taken out of their body. (Like they are briefly turned into wk's aghanim wraiths and an illusion of them becomes asleep as the body in the last position they were before bane activates this)
  
• other heroes or even bane cannot hurt the sleeping bodies. All of bane's skills can deal damage to the souls even if they are not asleep.
  
• after a while, they are teleported to their body and recieve control of it again (night turns into day and the ultimate ends)
  
• heroes which are turned into spirits can still cast their abilities

@BAD TIME BRO: had no time to check your suggestions yet :/


This hero has two bodies, they share health, only one can be active at a time while the other is 'ethereal', which means it is completely ignored by any missile or other ability and also stays floating in the air, even if the ground crumbles below it. Only the active ET can move normally, the etheral can only move with 'Ethereal Charge'.In this description I will refer to them as ET1 and ET2.

[Q] - Ethereal Charge:

• usable by both ET1 and ET2, shares cooldown
  
• the currently ethereal ET charges to the targeted location
  
• the targeting area is a quite wide straight line which has a flexible length (you can vary how far the ET is charging), the maximum range is quite long
  
• if the currently active ET (or an ally) is hit by the charging ethereal ET it gains increases movement speed for some seconds
  
• if the charging ethereal ET hits an enemy with the 'Echo Stomp' debuff it deals damage and stuns them

[W] - Echo Stomp:

• usable only by ET1
  
• targets a round AoE with medium radius
  
• has medium range
  
• after a brief delay slows all enemies in the AoE ('Echo Stomp' debuff), after a second delay deals damage to every enemie in the AoE and refreshes the 'Echo Stomp' debuff on enemies still inside the AoE
  
• the currently ethereal ET copies this abilities first effect (AoE slow + debuff) centered around itself

[E] - Titan's Strike:

• only usable by ET2
  
• a short range attack that deals damage and pushes enemies away

[R] - Etherblast (Ultimate):

• usable by both ET1 and ET2, shares cooldown
  
• after a short delay (not channeling) fires off a missile from the position of the etereal ET (at the time of activation) to the position of the other ET (missile is homming towards the other ET, but not like the boomerang)
  
• if the missile hits an enemy on its way, it deals damage and pulls it towards the ET it is moving to
  
• if it reaches the the active (non-ethereal ET) without hitting an enemy ET is healed

[D] - Phase Shift:

• usable by both ET1 and ET2, shares cooldown, has rather long cooldown, but two charges to use, cooldowns tick seperately (CHANGED: v1.01 - 5th May 2016)
  
• makes the currently ethereal ET become the active ET and vice versa
  
• this may result in ET falling down, if the ethereal ET had no ground below it when this ability was used.
  
• instantly cancels '[Q] - Ethereal Charge'
  
• '[W] - Echo Stomp' checks which ET is ethereal, when the ability is initially cast not when the delay is over
  
• '[R] - Etherblast' checks which ET is ethereal, when the ability is initially cast not when the delay is over, this means, when casting [R] and then [D] before the delay is over, ET can't be healed as even if it reaches the targeted ET it will be the ethereal ET

Originally posted by Ragnos:

Hero Idea: The Balance (Elder Titan(s))

This hero would be fun to use, although would be confusing at first. I really sense alot of potential .. This hero might not die so easily just because of his phase shift and ether blast abilities. But other than that it would be interesting to see in-game

Changed ET's [D] - Phase Shift to have longer cooldown, but two charges

@BAD TIME BRO:

WARNING!!! Wall of text ahead ;)

• i like your DK idea
  
• Pudge's ultimate seems a bit op for me as enemies can't do anything when they are swallowed, also this makes it very easy to throw them from the island. My ideal for Pudge yould have been to make something centered around a "Meat Hook" ability as atm we do not have any displacement effects other than knockbacks. with this you could make a hero that profits from enemies being close to him or something like that (e.g. meat hook + shield dealing AoE dmg on break + knockback attack + AoE cloud around him dealing dmg and silence or something like that), you could even make him passively regenerate the last lost health he hasn't taken dmg for a while...
  
• Brewmaster is a nice idea, if I had made this i would have gone with, "you have to cast a different ability before casting this again" instead of being forced to wait before you can cast something differen --> makes comboing nearly impossible, also if the ultimate is active do you control all spirits at the same time or seperately, are the different abilities cast by different spirits? Also to be honest I would have gone more with a beer/brewmaster theme here rather an elemental one (I guess I will do this :P), still nice idea
  
• Bane seems to be a nice base, but I have some questions: does Sleep break itself?, As you first state that enemies become invunerable and asleep as long as recieving no dmg, but then Sleep deals dmg itself (breaking the sleep?). Coma Blast nice idea, but depending on the channeling time quite hard to pull off, if the enemy isn't asleep already. I would make it have a delay but no channeling time and center the AoE around Bane, so he can try to chase, but enemies can still dodge the ability. Can the souls created by True Nightmare still cast abilities? if so, this ability makes no sense to me tbh as bane can't damage the sleeping enemies (what in this case is even againts your main idea of the hero)

• This hero uses the mechanic 'Brew' which is a buff/debuff that stacks up two five times.
• Stacks have separate duration, gaining a stack does not refresh the duration. The duration is quite long so it is likely but still not easy to get five stacks on an enemy with only the [Q] ability. Still missing a hit makes it hard.
  
• Stacks of 'Brew' on enemies slow movement Speed for 5% each stack. When an enemy reaches five stacks all stacks are removed and the enemy is 'drunk' for 5 seconds.
  
• a 'drunk' enemy is slowed for 50% and has it's vision radius decreased drastically (also stops shared vision from allies). Both the slow and the vision decrease fade over the duration
  
• while 'drunk' enemies can't gain stacks of 'Brew'
  
• allies and Brewmaster himself gain a 3% movementspeed increase for every stack of 'Brew' on them

[Q] - One for me, one for you!

• Brewmaster takes a sip out of his Keg and then throws a bottle to the targeted AoE
  
• targets hit and Brewmasters himself gain one stack of 'Brew'
  
• does not put two stacks of 'Brew' on Brewmaster if he hits himself

[W] - Breath of Fire

• Brewmaster ignites his breath with a fiery potion dealing damage to enemies in a cone
  
• the cone AoE gets wider and loger for every stack of 'Brew' on the Brewmaster
  
• deals an additional point of damage to every enemy who is under the effect of 'drunk'
  
• removes all stacks of 'Brew' from Brewmaster

[E] - Potion of Vitality

• can be used while being stunned or silenced
  
• Brewmaster drinks a vitalising potion that removes all current debuffs on him
  
• removes all stacks of 'Brew' from Brewmaster
  
• makes Brewmaster immune to being affected by debuffs (stun, slow, silence etc.) for
  (number of stacks of 'Brew' removed when cast) seconds and increases his movement speed by 3% * (number of stacks of 'Brew' removed when cast) for the same duration
  
• heals one health when Brewmaster had five stacks of 'Brew'

[R] - The Giant's Keg (Ultimate)

• Brewmaster throws his Keg to the targeted AoE adding two stacks of 'Brew' to every hero in the AoE (enemies, himself, allies)
  
• deals damage to enemies and pushes them away from the center
  
• has a quite big AoE, the cast range is equal to the AoE's radius (so Brewmaster is always inside the AoE getting two stacks of 'Brew')

WARNING, TOO MUCH TEXT

Originally posted by Ragnos:

• Pudge's ultimate seems a bit op for me as enemies can't do anything when they are swallowed, also this makes it very easy to throw them from the island. My ideal for Pudge yould have been to make something centered around a "Meat Hook" ability as atm we do not have any displacement effects other than knockbacks.

I wanted to make pudge ressemble a warcraft abomination. I changed his ultimate a bit to allow enemies to escape if they used an ability. But there is a disadvantage if pudge uses this, most people would try to face away to throw the devoured enemy off the island, this gives other enemies a big advantage to throw pudge and his devoured enemy off the island too as pudge would need to turn just to avoid the spells and fail to throw the enemy instead..

Originally posted by Ragnos:

• Brewmaster is a nice idea, if I had made this i would have gone with, "you have to cast a different ability before casting this again" instead of being forced to wait before you can cast something differen --> makes comboing nearly impossible, also if the ultimate is active do you control all spirits at the same time or seperately, are the different abilities cast by different spirits?

I tried to make brewmaster have more of a spammer-style gameplay rather than a combo-to-kill one. Also his ultimate is more like lycan's wolf ability in crumbling island arena but automatically targets the nearest enemy like a homing missle.

Originally posted by Ragnos:

• Bane seems to be a nice base, but I have some questions: does Sleep break itself?, As you first state that enemies become invunerable and asleep as long as recieving no dmg, but then Sleep deals dmg itself (breaking the sleep?). Coma Blast nice idea, but depending on the channeling time quite hard to pull off, if the enemy isn't asleep already. I would make it have a delay but no channeling time and center the AoE around Bane, so he can try to chase, but enemies can still dodge the ability. Can the souls created by True Nightmare still cast abilities? if so, this ability makes no sense to me tbh as bane can't damage the sleeping enemies (what in this case is even againts your main idea of the hero)

All these questions T-T
But to make it clear, only bane can deal damage to enemies which are asleep and NOT break sleep. Coma blast IS centered on bane himself and has quite a large AoE (had to change my bane idea to inform much better). And lastly about True Nightmare I meant it as like the heroes are removed from their body and control a different hero (meaning there are two copies of the same hero, one is asleep but invulnerable and one is active but can TAKE damage from bane's abilities even if they are not asleep.)

Hey guys, thank you for all your ideas
Some of them are a real inspiration, the brewmaster one for example is mostly legit and pretty close to the guidelines I follow when designing a new hero.

I'm gonna provide some general criticism here, don't take it too closely, designing heroes is hard, took me a couple of years to learn the best things, and I still consider myself a mediocre designer at best.

1. You have to consider map dynamics and game modes. Long disables and setup spells (sleep is worse than a stun because it can be interrupted, so it has to be longer) are a big no-no. A disabled person is immediately exploited by other players if he is in a bad position.

2. You don't have to over-complicate spells to make a character design unique. If you know hearthstone there are a ton of good examples. Malygos, Soggoth the Slitherer, Grommash Hellscream are all very simple designs, which don't use any unique mechanics, it's the sheer power of values which make them unique. There are good examples in DOTA too. Look up broodmother, anti-mage, ember spirit, nature's prophet. Their designs lack any complexity, but they have a very distinct feeling when you play them. Crumbling island arena has Sniper/The Hermit and TA/The Empress - all very simple concepts, but fairly unique. And I'm mostly looking for concepts like these. If I put an over-complicated hero in the game (Pugna/Phoenix) that means that I'm just in love with the general concept idea (the whole switching heals/damage thing or phoenix idea being based on an existing character from another universe, you'll never guess which tho :P), but their overall design value is pretty low.

3. Since there is different idea of counterplay in CIA, abilities have to be interactive, that's why there are no point and click abilities, surely you can make any ability a skillshot, but that doesn't mean it can be a very hard to hit spell while providing tremendous value, being oneshot is frustrating. Look up Drow Ranger/The Hierophant ultimate. It's a very simple spell in terms of idea, but there is a big amount of thought I put into it. It's really hard to hit, not impossible surely, but hard. Since it's an ultimate it's available in the later stages in the game, where an island is relatively small. Since it's a knockback, it often just kills you by pushing over the edge. It can be played around, by simply not staying near the edge when it hits you. This comes from player experience/knowledge. There is also a lot of setup for this ability in Drow's kit to be able to hit it. Her ultimate is not directly related to any of her abilities, but it synergizes well with all of them. Being able to setup it and hit it all comes from player knowledge and skill.

4. There are abilities I'm not going to include purely because heroes lack animations which fit them and we can't create animations yet. This is annoying, but I have to deal with it. There is also a list of heroes who won't make it purely because I don't like their models, mostly floating heroes or mounted heroes. I believe that hero walking animations impacts their ingame feeling a lot. I can provide a list a heroes if you would like to.