[CDC #11] Ilumina - Protector of Ashenvale

Ilumina

Protector of Ashenvale

This concept is part of CDC #11 and as such is WIP. Any feedback is welcomed.

Ilumina was once skilled member of Sentinels, Night Elf primary military organization. After being slain by the Orcish invaders, she returned once more to protect the nature as a Wisp.
She combines regular Wisp abilities like transforming to Ancients with other tools intended to help her team.

Ilumina is ranged tank that can change between Wisp form and Ancient Protector form.
Wisp form gives her better movement speed and healing.
Ancient Protector gives her additional health and more powerful abilities.

Don’t let Ilumina’s look fool you for she is staunch and powerful guardian of nature.

Statistic Wisp Ancient Protector
Health 2000 3000
Health Regeneration 15/s 6/s
Attack Damage 80 80
Attack Speed 0.95 0.95
Attack Range 4.5 1.5
Mana Maximum 500 500
Mana Regeneration 3 3

Blessing of nature (Trait)
Passive:
Quest: Every regeneration globe gathered increases Wisp form health regeneration by 1 to a maximum of 30.

Wisp form has 110% movement speed and regenerates 15 health per second.
Ancient protector form has 90% movement speed, empowered abilities and cannot mount.

Faerie fire (Q)
Cooldown: 6 seconds
Mana: 50
Conic AoE
Wisp: Deals 170 damage over 2 seconds (4 ticks of dmg) to all enemies in a cone area and reduce their damage dealt by 25% for the duration.

Ancient protector: Add medium distance knockback, if the knocked enemies collide with terrain they are stunned for for 0.75 second and take additional 50 damage.

Thornwood (W)
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Mana: 70
Vector targeted summon
Wisp:
Summon 4 Thornwoods in a line. Each Thornwood has 400 health, lasts 3 seconds, deal 60 dps (in a small area around them) and block movement.

Ancient protector: Thornwoods gain 100 additional health and after the timer ends (or when canceled) transform to Tree Ents with all their remaing health. Tree Ents last 3 seconds and have an attack that deals 30 dmg every second.

Wrath of Nature (E)
Cooldown: 8 seconds
Mana: 85
Teleport
Wisp: Teleport to a targeted area and transform to an Ancient Protector. Ancient Protector has 50% more maximum health and the AP has the same percentage of max health Wisp had before transforming.

Ancient protector: Teleport to a targeted area and transform back to Wisp. Wisp retains all health that AP had before transforming (cannot go over Wisp maximum health.

(This ability doubles both as an engage/escape tool and primary sustain tool. Ilumina needs to change her forms to keep up her health and all flat amount healing done to her is more effective in Wisp form because of the conversion)

Ancient of War (R1)
Cooldown: 40 seconds
Mana: 70
AoE
Create a wave of vegetation spreading away from Ilumina, enemies hit by the wave take 205 dmg and are rooted for 1.5 seconds.
Passive: Ancient Protector has 75% more maximum health than Wisp.

Ancient of Lore (R2)
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Mana: 65
Skillshot
Fire a projectile in the targeted direction marking the first enemy hero hit. Smaller wisps will then spawn around Ilumina and launch themselfs at the marked hero dealing 344 dmg and stunning them for 2 seconds.
Passive: Ancient Protector has 15 spell power and doubled mana regeneration.

TALENT TREE

Level 1:
Champion of the forest: Quest: Damage enemies with Faerie Fire (Q).
Reward: Every 30 hits increase the health of individual Thornwoods by 5 and the duration of Tree ents by 0.1 second.
Quest: Deal damage with Tree ents/Thorwoods.
Reward: Every 200 damage dealt increases the tick damage of Faerie Fire (Q) by 1.


Faerie mark: Faerie fire (Q) reduces enemy armor by 10 for the duration and reveals enemies for 10 seconds.

Bark skin: Gain 2 charges of Block when changing forms reducing the damage of next hero basic attack by 60%. If Bark skin has no charges, Ilumina will gain 1 charge after 6 seconds.

Level 4:
Nature’s persistence: Ilumina heals for 25% of damage dealt with Faerie fire (Q), doubled against heroes.

Deep roots: AP form gains Anchored status (immunity to reposition effects) and 20 armor when under CC and for 1 second afterwards.

Moonwell: (Active ability) Cooldown: 200 seconds
Spawn a Moonwell at the target location with 500 health. Moonwell acts like normal Healing Fountain but it has separate cooldown. Only one Moonwell can be active at any given time.

Blessing of moon:
Wisp form gains shield equal to 20% of its maximum health. Shield regenerates after not taking damage for 3 seconds (At speed equal to health regen).

Level 7:
Life springs anew: Each Thornwood that lasted the full duration decreases the ability cooldown by 0.5 second.

Earthwarden: Using Wrath of Nature (E) from Wisp form causes it to deal 180 damage in a small area and slow enemies hit by 10% for 3 seconds.

Ysera’s gift: Wisp form attacks deal additional 2% of targets maximum health as damage over 4 seconds.

Level 10:
Ancient of War (R1): Ultimate ability

Ancient of Lore (R2): Ultimate ability

Level 13:
Burning star: Transforming to Wisp form applies Faerie Fire to all nearby enemies.

Pulverize: AP attacks cleave and reduce the enemy movement speed by 20% for 1.5 second.

Living seed: Hitting enemy hero with an ability leaves behind a Living seed. Living seed can be picked up to heal Ilumina for 50 health.

Level 16:
Faerie flames: Hitting enemies with AAs while Faerie Fire (Q) is active on them increases its duration by 0.5 second (1 tick) to a maximum of 2 seconds.

Suffocating roots: Enemis that stay in melee range of Thornwoods/Tree ents for more than 2 seconds are rooted for 1 second.

Early spring: Reduce the cooldown of Wrath of Nature (E) by 1 second.

Starfire: Transforming to Wisp grants one charge of Faerie Fire (Q).

Level 20:
Forest nightmare: Transforming to AP fears all enemies in small area for 1 second.

Cycle of life: Upon taking fatal dmg in AP form, Ilumina trasnforms to Wisp form with 50% maximum health. 120 cooldown.

Overgrowth: Thornwood (W) spawns 1 additional Thornwood and gains a second charge.

Soul of the Forest: Ilumina can use empowered AP abilities for 4 seconds after changing to Wisp form.


Personality

Ilumina speaks slow and with faint echo. Her attitude is generaly calm but becomes eraged when trasnforming to AP.
She is possitive and tries to offer an advice.

Ilumina reacts negatively to: Orcs, Demons and fire users (Rag, KT, Blaze…)
She reacts possitively to other Night Elves and druidic characters (has a special voice lines for BW and Lunara)

Sample lines: Attack commands:
Wisp: "Nature abhors you." "Return to earth."
Ancient Protector: "THE FOREST HAS AWAKENED!"

Retreat commands: Wisp: “Fall back to the trees.”

Receiving healing: “My bark regrows”

Skins:

Base skin: Pretty much Wisp and Ancients from WC3/WoW

Protector of the Swarm: Zerg themed skin - colors changed to the gray and purple typical for Zerg, voice sounds more animalistic. Has changed ability animations.

Protector of the Royal Gardens: Garden Terror themed skin, Wisp looks more like a regular ghost, AP looks like a smaller Garden Terror. Animations remain the same.



How to fight Ilumina: Bring is sustained damage to wear her down. Force her to change forms constantly to drain her mana. Don't fight AP in melee range, she will have hard time chasing. Destroy Thornwoods to clear a path.

Week 1 Judgement

Catagory Rating
Creativity 5/5
Cohesiveness 4/5
Thematic 5/5
Interaction 2/5
Overall 16/20

Creativity
5/5

This pulls from the expected universe, but in a super surprising way. It was a bold choice, and one that is highly appreciated.

Cohesiveness
4/5

I was wondering about the Wisp’s base health, if it’s high enough it would for sure give her ancient enough to survive in fights. Otherwise, most of her abilites create good setups which a tank needs. There were a few abilities I had questions about. Thornwood specifically was not explained very well in my opinion. Is it a wall that turns into treants? How wide is the wall? Tassadar’s wall comes to mind reading this ability with added functionality which might make it a little strong?

Thematic
5/5

Thank you so much for making this feel so much like an ancient from WC3. My inner teenager was bouncing up and down after reading this.

Interaction
2/5

Her base kit seems to be a little too strong. For example, a teleport every 8 seconds is insane. Bolt of the storm for example has a CD of 70 seconds. Simply having her transform where she’s at is still great, perhaps having the option to transform back into a wisp regardless of CC would be a good alternative. Another thing to note is she has an obscene amount of CC. Depending on her ult, she has 2 stuns, a knockback, a root, a wall, and high damage reduction.

Additional Feedback

A bit of balancing and this would be great :slight_smile: My favorite submission so far!
(edit for bad math lol)

1 Like

I was thinking around 2000 hp for Wisp (comparable to some bruisers) thus giving AP circa 3000 hp (comparable to Stitches)

More like Nazeebo Zombie wall but in a line, the main weakpoint of the wall is that it can be destroyed. The lenght of the wall I would say around 1.5 Azmodan.

It is probably the her most important ability (sustain, engage, escape all in one) so I went for lower cd but higher mana cost. I will probably rise one or the other.
Also AP has reduced movement speed to compensate.

This would cut Ilumina’s ability to engage the enemy while also making it hard for her to escape.
I could theoreticaly move the form changing to Trait and give her a new E but even then it would probably be movement ability.

Well yes but the Q stun requires terrain hits, Wall can be destroyed and also blocks allies while one ult is a skillshot and the other roots “only”.
So I dare say that every part of her CC (maybe not the dmg reduction) has counterplay.
Plus lot of that CC is defensive in nature compared to something like Haymaker.

TY very much for the feedback :heart_eyes:

Update: Nerfed the dmg reduction of Faerie fire (Q)
Increased the cd and mana cost of Wrath of Nature (E)
(Based on Week 1 feedback)

Added some of the talents

Creativity 4/5

Love the idea of the character! Being able to go back and forth from tank for as the situation demands is a cool idea for a character. The only issue is that everything seems centered around the Ancient Protector form, and the Wisp form is just there to move between fights. Even if it’s not the primary form you’ll be using, I feel it should have some added flavor. Think of D’Va’s pilot form, and how there are a few talents specifically to enhance it.

Thematic 5/5

Ilumina Fits theme well, while still being able to turn into a giant threat. No issues here.

Cohesiveness 3/5

Ancient Protector is very obviously the primary form while Wisp gets little attention. I’d like to see more cohesion between the two, either through form interactions or just a reason one might want to stay in Wisp form.

Interaction 4/5

No real issues here, but also no real counterplay offered.

Overall 16/20

Thematically, I love the character. Excellent choice. I think Wrath of Nature is pretty powerful though, at only 8 seconds. Even with no additional healing offered, Ilumina gains an escape and a huge burst of healing just by backing off for a bit. At the very least, if you hop into tank form you should be dedicated to it for a while. Also your level 4 talents are pretty powerful. While I love the addition of a new status, being immune to forced movement is pretty powerful. As is being able to spawn a moonwell on command. With the sheer sustain a moonwell gives, having it available that early is a pretty big deal.

1 Like

Alright, better late then never :sweat_smile:
So thank you for the feedback I appreciate it :green_heart:
Now to the problems themself.

I agree to some extent but I do think the problem is smaller then you think because: AP has no (unless talented) sustain and reduced movement speed. So staying too long in AP form will hurt you (you can get poked and outmanuverd easily).
Also there are some talents that either empower Wisp or encourage switching forms.

Regardless, I will try to adress the issue further.

Assuming she can cast it at decent percentage of health yes. Otherwise she will need a healer or wait for regen to do its job. (This is intened as a character weakness.)

Not sure, what are you talking about :sweat_smile:
You meant Ilumina in general or some specific part of her kit?

I think all of her abilities have counterplay and she can be punished for choosing forms unwisely.

I can’t deny that but they are IMO compensated by weaker talent tiers.

Update: Added baseline quest to increase the power of Wisp form.
Reworked/added talents to more evenly distribute power between Ilumina’s two forms.
Increased the cd of Moonwell.

Added Ilumina’s stats.
Added some tips on how to fight her.

Overall Score

Creativity - 3/5

Cohesiveness - 4/5

Thematic - 5/5

Interaction - 5/5

Total - 17/20

Random question: Can Illumina use her heroics in wisp form? I assume as much, but it is a bit unclear.

Creativity - 3/5

There is a fair bit of unique stuff going on in this concept, but at the same time, some effects could use a bit more to them, to make them more unique. For example, the W, while unique at first glance, is actually just Nazeebo’s W but in a line rather than a circle, which has the uproot talent baseline. The first heroic is unique, though a bit simple; it just works. The second heroic is also very simple, but is more simple. I think you could spruce up the R2 a little if you want the two to stay together (them being together makes them both look more simple). Some of your talents also suffer from a bit too much simplicity, such as with Early Spring, Overgrowth, and Misguiding Light. Also, taking Alarak’s gimmick seems a bit underwhelming in tier 7. As for fluff, most of what was provided seemed pretty superficial and didn’t dig down deep into what you were working with. The skins were either minor changes or had no commentary on how they would really change the character. I wish I could have seen more here.

Cohesiveness - 4/5

The character flows together more or less well, with the form changing finally feeling like something you want to do as something more than a 2000 health heal. I do have some minor concerns about the fact the wisp is relegated to out of combat use mostly, and I’m conflicted on the idea that health regen is Illumina’s only self defense tool. I think it’s probably alright because of the conversion limit every 16 seconds, though. As for talents, I do really like some talents like Champion of the Forest, and would like to see more inter-ability talents. I see you opted for a Greymane-like talent tree where you primarily focus on one side or the other. I’m not saying it’s inherently a bad thing, I just feel like the wisp lacks any real combat identity, as so her talents feel a bit deflated in this regard. I would much prefer you take a longer look at what role each of Illumina’s forms plays, and develop unique playstyles and identities around each. As is, you want to be in AP form if you are in combat 99% of the time. Wisp is frailer and has less powerful abilities. I do see some vague builds in the talent tree, though it they could be more defined. Overall, it’s passable.

Thematic - 5/5

This really captures the wisp and the ancient protector identity in a fresh, unique way. I would have ever considered making the wisp a form changer. The reliance on druidic abilities fits the character, as well; I have no complaints. The skins don’t really offer me anything to go off of, besides vague descriptions, but I already penalized in Creativity. I recommend fleshing them out more before week 4.

Interaction - 5/5

I don’t have too many issues with the interaction here, since you removed the 2000 health heal from the 16 second double blink. I caution the use of needless summons, though they seem to fill the role as body blockers, so I suppose I can let it slide. Some minor notes here and there about some questionable talents: Misguiding Light can quickly go out of hand with the talent that increases its length. A 3 second blind is already overwhelming, but when it starts getting to 5 seconds on a 6 second cooldown, there is a serious issue. I would set this to a flat duration like 2 seconds, or remove it outright. Forest Nightmare seems a bit too strong as well, since it is instantaneous (as opposed to Gul’dan’s very similar Horrify), and has a much shorter cooldown. Besides those three things, it all seems alright. I was on the fence about what score to give, but I’ll be amiable this time.

1 Like

Yes, she can.

Technically yes, W isn’t unique but it I believe it’s the only baseline terrain ability on a tank so that should make it an intersting twist.

I generaly feel that ult upgrades are very often either must-pick or worthless so I wanted to avoid that. I will probably remove the second ult at level 20.

Talent tree overall was hard for this concept as I wanted to avoid set-in-stone talent build while also maintaining balance between the two forms.

I think ppls underestimate the pros of Wisp form. Yes, she has less health and less powerful abilities but she is faster with smaller hitbox while maintaining decent health pool and distruption capabilities.

I also would rather avoid situation where the two forms become too independent.

I put in Tree Ents both because of the fantasy and because they punish enemies for ignoring Thornwoods.

I will take a look at it.

Being on a Level 20 I thought it wouldn’t be a problem.

I wil focus on improving the talent tree and expanding on the fluff side of the concept.

TY for the feedback :green_heart:

Marrossi - 83/100

Creativity: 8/10
Cohesiveness: 6/10
Thematic: 9/10
Interaction: 9/10

(+1 Thoughtfulness, +1 Game Fluidity)