This is my entry for the CDC #13. More info on the contest here:
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/heroes/t/cdc-13-cultclassic/
Archbishop Lazarus – Bane of Tristram
Background
A high ranking member of the Zakarum church, he was corrupted by Mephisto and sent to Khanduras in search for Diablo.
Once there, he deceived king Leoric into making Tristram his new capital, so he could search the Horadrim monastery, where he found the red Soulstone and shattered it, freeing Diablo, who was trapped within, and unleashing his terror upon the village.
When Leoric managed to resist Diablo’s possession at the cost of his sanity, Lazarus kidnapped prince Albrecht to use as his master’s vessel in the king’s place, and then rallied the townspeople, supposedly forming a party to find and rescue the prince, but leading them into a death trap instead, leaving them to be slaughtered by the Butcher while he disappeared into the depths of the catacombs under the cathedral.
Overview
Class: ranged assassin
Resource: Sacrifice (more details in his trait description below)
Auto attack: fireballs with mediocre range and damage, can be enhanced with Sacrifice.
Lazarus is a cruel mage, willing to sacrifice anyone in order to increase his power and further the plans of his demonic masters.
He controls two Servants: Red Vex and Blackjade, who he uses to increase his damage output and / or to gain Sacrifice faster.
Servant details
The Servants are permanent summons with limited life, which regenerate quickly while out of combat. If a Servant is slain, Lazarus’ corresponding W or E ability is placed on cooldown for the duration of a Hero respawn at the moment. Servants don’t give XP when slain.
If Lazarus is slain, both Servants also die. When Lazarus respawns in the Hall of storms, both Servants revive with him.
The Servants are able to cast Bloodstar: a slow moving, long range (~7 range) projectile that deals a high amount of damage, but costs a portion of the user’s health to cast (~20% of Red Vex’s HP, or ~18% of Blackjade’s since she has more life).
The Servants have two movement patterns depending on their target:
If the target is an enemy hero, they will try to stay at maximum range of the target and cast Bloodstar while they have enough health. When they no longer have enough health for Bloodstar, they will simply move toward the target to attack at melee.
If the target is not an enemy hero, they will move toward their target position or unit, attacking enemy units and structures at melee, and casting Bloodstar at any enemy hero in their sight range as long as they have enough health.
The Servants’ default behavior is to target Lazarus. They revert to this behavior whenever they revive.
Kit
D - Unholy Sacrifice:
Passive: Lazarus gains 1 Sacrifice whenever an enemy minion or Hero dies near him, up to a limit of ~13.
Depravity: When Sacrifice is collected while at max stacks, Depravity is activated for ~2 sec. Depravity bonuses don’t stack, instead, gaining further Sacrifice while at max stacks refreshes Depravity’s duration.
Originally, Depravity only benefits the Servants (see W and E below), but further bonuses can be gained through talents (including bonuses for Lazarus, and even other allies)
Active (toggle, ~2 sec. cooldown before it can be toggled again): While the trait is active, Lazarus’ auto attacks have slightly increased range, and deal additional damage that splashes to nearby targets (this counts as spell damage), but spend 1 Sacrifice with each use.
Lazarus’ Q Also gains benefits from the active trait.
Q - Unholy Ritual:
Passive: Slain enemy heroes leave a temporary ghost behind (similar to Auriel), ghosts can be targeted by this ability’s active component, but only once each
Active (~8 sec. cooldown): Target an enemy hero or minion, an enemy ghost, or one of your Servants.
Channel for ~1sec., then make a melee attack against the target, dealing medium damage, and gaining 1 Sacrifice.
If the attack slays a minion, you gain 1 additional Sacrifice
If the attack targets an enemy ghost, you gain 2 additional Sacrifice instead of dealing damage.
If the target is one of your Servants, you get 1 additional Sacrifice.
If your trait is toggled on, the attack costs 2 Sacrifice, dashes up to ~2 range towards the target (similar to Artanis’ Zealot Charge), and deals bonus damage in a small area around the target.
If the target is a ghost or one of your Servants, the effect of activating your trait is not applied.
W - Red Vex, E - Blackjade:
If the corresponding Servant is alive, command her to target the selected unit or point (as described above in “Servant details”).
When a Servant is slain, the corresponding ability is placed on cooldown for the duration of a hero death timer at the moment. When the cooldown finishes, you can use the ability to revive the servant near you after a short channel.
Originally, Red Vex has deals 25% more damage compared to Blackjade; and Blackjade has 25% more HP compared to Red Vex. They may differentiate further during the game, depending on Talent choices.
These bonuses (including the ones from talents), as well as the Servants’ out of combat regeneration, are improved by 50% while Depravity is active.
R1 - Flash:
Cost: 2 Sacrifice per channel level (cooldown: ~40 sec)
Channel for anywhere from 0.5 to 3.5 sec., then release a series of attacks that deal moderate damage in an area around you every ~0.2 sec.
Every 0.5 sec. spent channeling increases a channel level, up to 5 (you can hold onto the fully channeled ability for up to 1 sec. before releasing).
For every channel level, you make one more attack and the area covered by each attack increases by ~0.2 (starting at ~1 at the first charge)
If fully charged, the attacks blind enemies for ~2 sec.
R2 - Unholy Link:
(~90 sec. cooldown) Create a beam of unholy energy connecting you to each of you (living) Servants within range, and one connecting both of your Servants (if they are both alive and connected to you).
The beams deal continuous damage to all enemies they cross.
Each beam persists for a few moments or until one of its anchor points (you or your Servants) is destroyed.
This ability costs no resources, but it has a long cooldown.
At least one of your Servants must be alive in order to use this ability.
Talents
Tier 1
War on Westmarch [active]
Cost: 5 Sacrifice (~40 sec cooldown)
Mark an allied Hero as the Champion of Khanduras for ~60 sec.
While marked, every 7th minion they kill and every takedown they partake in generate 1 Sacrifice, and they benefit from any applicable bonus of Depravity that affects Lazarus.
Sacrificial Daggers [Q]
Increases Sacrifice generated by your Q by 1
Quest: Generate Sacrifice with your Q
Progress reward: Every Sacrifice generated improves the damage of your Q and your Servants’ melee attacks by 0.5%, up to a maximum of 25%. This bonus is doubled while Depravity is active.
Completion reward: When obtaining the maximum attack bonus, your Q’s cooldown is also reduced by 1 sec.
False Blood [W/E]
Halves the frequency at which Servants can cast Bloodstar and decreases Bloodstar’s range by 2, but it costs 50% less life to use.
Damage dealt to Servants by your Q is also reduced by 50%.
While Depravity is active, Red Vex can cast at normal speed, and Blackjade can cast at normal range. The life cost reduction is also improved by Depravity (to 75%).
Tier2
Sacrificial Pyre [D]
While Depravity is active, Lazarus and his Servants deal periodic damage to adjacent enemies.
Autoattacks made while your trait is active set their main target on fire for a few moments, making them deal periodic damage to adjacent enemies (including themselves). If an enemy dies while under this effect, they generate 1 additional Sacrifice.
False Life [D]
Reduce Lazarus’ max HP by ~10%.
Basic attacks made while your trait is active heal Lazarus and his Servants for ~2% of their HP, and when these attacks hit an enemy Hero, the cooldowns of your W and E refresh 50% faster for ~2 sec.
Healing Globes generate 1 sacrifice.
Ritual Trance [D/Q]
Each time you generate or spend Sacrifice, increase Lazarus’ and his Servants’ attack and movement speed by 1% for ~3sec., up to a maximum of 15%.
Gaining or spending Sacrifice refreshes this effect’s duration.
While this effect is active, Depravity removes your Q’s cast time
Tier 3
Wretchedness [D/Q]
Doubles the duration of Depravity, and activates Depravity whenever you slay a minion or attack a ghost with your Q (even if you are not at max Sacrifice)
Phasing [Q]
After the cast time, teleport up to ~3 range towards your target before striking them.
While your trait is active, the teleport range is increased to ~5, and you can reactivate your Q within ~1 sec. to spend 1 Sacrifice and teleport back to your previous position.
Swarm Tactics [W/E]
When one of your Servants attacks an enemy Hero who was damaged by or dealt damage to the other Servant in the last ~2 sec., she gains a bonus:
Red Vex deals additional damage equal to 2% of the target’s HP.
Blackjade heals for 50% of the damage dealt, and heals Red Vex and Lazarus for half as much.
These bonuses are improved by Depravity.
Tier 4 (Heroic)
See R1 and R2 above.
Tier 5
Inferno [D]
While your trait is active, your autoattacks chain to up to 3 nearby targets, and leave a very small (~1 range in radius) patch of fire in the ground for ~3 sec, which deal constant damage to enemies standing in it.
While Depravity is active, your autoattacks chain to one additional target (regardless of whether your trait is active)
Blood Mana[W/E]
Bloodstar inflicts silence for ~1sec., each target can only be silenced by this effect once every ~3sec.
Blood Curse[W/E]
Enemies damaged by your Servants are cursed for ~2 sec., each target can only be cursed once every ~5 sec.
Red Vex’s curse lowers the target’s Armor by ~10%.
Blackjade’s curse lowers damage deal by the target by ~10%.
Tier 6
Reserve Power [active]
Cost: all your Sacrifice (~10 sec. cooldown, starting when de effect ends)
Activate to empower Lazarus for ~1 sec. per Sacrifice spent.
While active, Depravity also remains active, and your Autoattacks and your Q gain the benefits from activating your trait, but cost no Sacrifice.
This ability’s cooldown only decreases while Depravity is active.
Unholy Zeal [D]
While Depravity is active, all your cooldowns (including basic abilities, active talents, and Heroics) refresh 20% faster.
Unholy Vengeance [W/E]
Servants no longer die immediately when Lazarus dies. Instead, they live on for up to ~10 sec., and target whatever slew Lazarus (or the nearest enemy, if their preferred target is not available).
While one Servant or Lazarus is dead, any remaining Servants gain 20% attack and movement speed and 20% Spell Power.
While Both Servants are dead, Lazarus gains half of this benefit.
Tier 7 (Storm)
Blinding Flash [R1]
Decreases the channel time required to gain a channel level by 20%Allows you to move while channeling (at reduced speed)
Instead of a ~2 sec. blind at full charge, the attacks always blind for ~0.5 sec per charge level
Unholy Network [R2]
Beams last longer, and now connect Lazarus, up to two nearby allied Heroes, and any living Servants within range to each other.
All characters connected gain applicable benefits from Depravity, regardless of the amount of Sacrifice you have.
No longer requires Servants to be alive in order to activate.
Nexus Flames [D]
Basic attacks slow enemies’ movement speed by ~10% for ~2 sec.
While your trait is active, this effect increases to ~20% and they also slow attack speed by ~10% for the same duration.
Elite Servants [W/E]
Both Servants gain 10 Armor.
Red Vex gains all benefits previously exclusive to Blackjade.
Blackjade gains all benefits previously exclusive to Red Vex.
Cosmetics
Voicelines
Taunt
“you are too late!”
Ping - eliminate a hero
“this one must be sacrificed!”
Ping - an enemy is dangerous
“this one conspires against us!”
Ping - destroy enemy core
“Destroy their core and all our plights will end!”
King, master, and co-conspirators
Lazarus has several lines directed to “the king”, to his “true master”, and to other servants of his true master. Who exactly is considered to fill each role varies depending on the equipped skin, as explained in the skin descriptions below.
King
Pre match banter (initiate)
“My lord, the enemy plots our destruction! We must strike first!”
Pre match banter (response)
“I will see to it that your will is done my lord, trust me…”
When slaying the king
“You shouldn’t have defied us”
When being slain by the king
“impossible! No one can defy the master!”
Master
Pre match banter (initiate)
“Your enemies will be destroyed, master!”
Pre match banter (response)
“It will be as you say”
When slaying the master
“No! you will control me no longer!”
When being slain by the master
“Was I just another pawn for the master to sacrifice…?”
Co-conspirators
Pre match banter (initiate)
“I see the master sent you to assist in our plans”
Pre match banter (response)
“The master’s ambitions will be realized!”
When slaying the co-conspirator
“You were not fit to serve the master”
When being slain by the co-conspirator
“What…? Has the master forsaken me?”
Skins
Normal
King: Leoric
Master: Diablo, Mephisto
Co-conspirators: Butcher, any Diablo demon that isn’t explicitly in a different faction of hell (i.e. not Azmodan)
Appearance: classic Mage looks, with long robes, an ornate decoration in his back (similar to Kael’s), and a long staff with a large gem at the top. This version also has a dagger in one hand.
Servants’ appearance: Similar to Kerrigan’s Succubus skins, but smaller and with different positioning to help tell them apart. They might hold weapons (like daggers or flogs) to help differentiate them further from Kerrigan.
Stygian
King, Master, Co-conspirators: Same as hi basic skin
Appearance: Sort of a “master skin” for Lazarus, with a bishop/pope headpiece, more armored looking chest and shoulders, fancier weapons, and the like.
Servants’ appearance: Diablo 2 Succubus, with feathered wings, spear pointed tail, and sharp angled plates of armor.
Alliance
King: Varian, Anduin, Graymane
Lord: Mal’Ganis, any high ranking member of the Burning Legion
Co-conspirators: Gul’Dan, any lower ranking member of the Burning Legion
Appearance: High tier cloth set from WoW (can be Mage, Priest, or Warlock)
Servants’ appearance: WoW Succubus, with hooves, curved horns, etc. (similar to Kerrigan’s other succubus skins)
Horde:
King: Thrall, Garrosh
Lord, Co-conspirators: same as Alliance
Appearance: Same as Alliance, but with green skin and small tusks to like a bit like an orc (similar to Sgt. Hammer’s Doomhammer skin)
Servants’ appearance: same as Alliance.
Twilight
King: Gul’Dan?
Lord: Deathwing? Any Old God
Co-conspirators: Cho’Gall, Ragnaros, any servant of the Old Gods
Appearance: Similar to Alliance and Horde, but adapted to look more like a Twilight’s Hammer warlock.
Servants’ appearance: Old God corrupted humans (like the ones appearing in Hearthstone’s Old Gods expansion), with their wings and tails being made from tentacles and general Old God ickyness
Ascendant
King: Alarak
Lord: Amon, Narud
Co-conspirators: any Hybrid, any servant of Amon
Appearance: Layered robes with more armor looking bits (simmilar to Alarak’s), weird Protoss legs and hands, glowing red eyes, dagger and staff head replaced with psi-blade looking effects.
Servants’ appearance: dark metal armor, weird Protoss legs and hands, wings and tails look artificial / robotic with sharp angled gem like decorations.
Friends and enemies
Works well with:
AA Heroes like Tracer and Raynor: He might not be as strong an enables as old Tassadar, but taking War on Westmarch and Inferno allows the marked ally’s AAs to link to an additional target as long as Depravity is active.
Heroes with roots like Malfurion and Deckard: Rooting enemies can allow the Servants’ Bloodstar to hit much more reliably, allowing Lazarus to deal much more damage.
Poor synergy with:
Heroes with sleeps, like Mal’Ganis and Ana: Due to lack of direct control, Servants can tend to attack and wake a sleeping enemy before the team has a chance to position themselves to take full advantage of the sleep, wasting opportunities and team efforts.
Works well against:
Stationary or slow moving Heroes, like Sgt.Hammer and… Lazarus: Staying in one place for too long can be dangerous when both of the Servants are alive, since they can easily flank the enemy and fire from multiple directions, making it hard to dodge with few mobility tools.
Struggles against:
Life draining Heroes like Gul’dan or Leoric: Draining the life of the Servants can help the enemy stay alive while at the same time reducing the number of shots the Servants can get out before needing to retreat or resort to melee strikes.
High Mobility Heroes like Tracer and Lucio: They can easily dodge around Bloodstar, and make distance if Lazarus channels his Q, leaving him with AAs as his only option for damage. He also has little chance to escape them if they decide to chase him.
Notes
Intended playstyle
Base Kit
The Idea is to maximize the benefit from your Servants, by having them deal as much damage as possible with Bloodstar, then sending them out of combat to recover, and so on.
However, Bloodstar is rather easy to avoid, so you can deal a lot more damage if you also keep Lazarus himself in the fight, using the Sacrifice you’ve accumulated to deal area damage (which can’t be avoided so easily, because it comes mainly from auto attacks).
The reason for Q being a melee strike when everything else in his kit is ranged is to further promote and reward taking risks, instead of staying in the base with Abathur and having the Servants do all the fighting.
I also decided to let you target your Q on the Servants, in case you are in a situation where you can’t approach enemy units without dying, but also can’t rely on Bloodstar (for example, if trying to stop a Punisher that has been lured behind your gates, since the Servants only use Bloodstar on heroes)
The Depravity buff to Servants is meant to increase the interaction between the two parts of the kit, as well as enabling an alternative, slightly different playstyle where you try to keep Sacrifice topped off instead of spending it constantly.
The first Heroic is meant as a way to deal with divers (since Lazarus has little in the way of mobility), and to provide a tool that doesn´t depend on the Servants.
In contrast, the second Heroic is meant to promote strategic use of the Servants, rewarding good positioning, and granting more damage potential if both Servants are alive.
Talents
Tier 1
This tier is meant to help you generate Sacrifice, so further talents that benefit from your trait or from Depravity are more useful.
There’s also a Bloodstar talent, in case you prefer a Servant build over a Sacrifice one.
Depending on talents chosen later, the Active option can also allow a pseudo-support build, where Lazarus focuses on improving an ally through Depravity bonuses.
Tier 2
This tier is meant to provide you more benefits from the Sacrifice you obtain, by granting bonuses to Depravity and/or from spending Sacrifice.
I tried to make the tier versatile in order to enable as many builds/playstyles as possible, so there are options for AoE, Q build, and sustain.
Tier 3
This tier is meant to help solidify your build, with choices to improve any of the major aspects of your kit (except Sacrifice gain, which should be covered by the two previous tiers).
There are options for Depravity, Q build, and Servants.
Tier 5
This tier is about disruption, with silences or attack / defense reductions (which had to go in the same tier, so you couldn’t pick both, because that might be a bit much). There’s also an AoE option, so it’s not all Servant centric.
Tier 6
These are just the stronger talents that I could come up with that weren’t quite Storm Talent material.
Options for bursts of power, reducing downtimes, or making you a greater threat when without a full team.
Tier 7
Blinding Flash is still about dealing with divers, but now it’s more specifically about Autoattack based divers, with a blind that can be applied almost up to 75% of the time as long as you keep up both your Sacrifice and Flash charges.
Unholy Network is a way to reward teamplay, as well as good use and positioning of the Servants.
Elite Servants is a more permanent powerspike (in the line of Nexus Blades), which can be rather significant depending on previously selected talents.
Inspiration and References
Base Kit
In the original Diablo, Lazarus is a unique Advocate (a type of Mage that uses the Fireball spell).
His movement patterns are pretty basic, shooting exploding fireballs at the Player(s) and teleporting around the room (using the Phasing spell, which might be included in some form as a talent), and casting Flash if a Player gets too close.
This provides a workable kit, but a basic and boring one.
However, what stand out the most (to me) about the fight against Lazarus in the game, is the fact that the area is crawling with Succubi (including two elite ones, named Red Vex and Blackjade), a type of enemy that keeps their distance and casts the Bloodstar spell at the Player(s) (a spell that costs life as well as mana to cast).
Hence the Servants and their behavior and abilities (though in the original game, unlike a player casting Bloodstar, Succubi don’t lose life when using the spell).
I’m not sure of the difference between the stats of Red Vex and Blackjade in the original game (or if there even is a difference), so I arbitrarily decided the red one would be the more aggressive one that hits harder.
I decided to spend two ability slots in commanding the Servants in order to give you more precise control, so they would feel like more than just normal summons.
Finally, another thing that stand out about Lazarus, is that when you first encounter him, he is making a human sacrifice in an altar, so I decided to give him some kind of a “ritual sacrifice” skill with a “crazy cultist” vive to it, where he would slay enemies in order to gain demonic power.
However, I had a couple problems:
Firstly, due to the way I set up the control of the Servants, using the remaining ability on this skill meant there was no ability left for Fireball; and secondly, there would be no way to use the demonic power gained from the ability.
I also didn’t want to just make demonic power improve Lazarus permanently, because that would make it too similar to Kel’Thuzzad’s trait, and could risk making him a slow and boring character that has to hunt around for stacks before being able to face the enemy.
So I decided to make the demonic power be Sacrifice stacks, which would get spent to empower your attacks. The relatively small stack cap was also in order to prevent Lazarus from spending too much time farming stacks instead of helping his team.
Since the Servants where already spending their life to attack, I decided to let you use it to increase your Sacrifice instead, in order to increase the Servant’s versatility and improve interaction between different parts of your kit.
Talents
Tier 1
War on Westmarch is a reference to the pointless war Lazarus manipulated Leoric into entering, so he could send Lachdanan and Aidan away and further his agenda unimpeded.
In this case it is reimagined as a way for Lazarus to gain unholy power from the ensuing chaos of the war.
Sacrificial Daggers is just a way to enhance the “psycho cultist” fantasy
False Blood is a reference to the fact Succubi don’t spend life when casting Bloodstar in the original game.
Tier 2
Not much here.
Sacrificial Pyre is about all those burning corpses one found all over the place in Diablo.
Ritual Trance is an excuse to situationally remove the delay on your Q without removing too much of its ritualistic flavor.
False Life is based on the idea that unholy powers gained from evil Demons through human sacrifice rarely come with no string attached
Tier 3
Wretchedness is all about how terribly evil Lazarus is, so it encourages and focuses your worst available behaviors: sacrificing the weak (minions), striking the fallen (ghosts), and slaughtering people past the point where it was useful (Depravity).
Phasing is the spell I was missing from the enemy Mages in Diablo (though, like I mentioned before, the teleport was random in the original)
Swarm Tactics is a reference to how Succubi would swarm the player and attack from every direction in the first Diablo game, especially in Lazarus’ room.
Tier 5
Inferno is another reference to the burning corpses scattered around in Diablo, as well as to the spell of the same name.
Blood Mana is a reference to the spell Succubi use in Diablo 2, which would curse you so you’d take damage if you cast any spells. But I don’t like manaburn like mechanics, so I decided to outright disable ability usage, instead of discouraging it.
Blood Curse is a reference to another ability of the D2 Succubi, which would reduce your defences with a curse.
In D2, Succubi would cast Blood Mana if you had more MP than HP, and the armor curse otherwise, but I decided to let you choose which to use instead.
Tier 6
Not much here, either.
Reserve Power is just a way to (just for a while) have your cake and eat it
Unholy Zeal is about showing devotion to your demonic masters and eagerly acting to further their goals.
Unholy Vengeance is a “what if Lazarus and his minions were an actual team and cared about each other?”
Tier 7
Blinding Flash is just about the name of the Flash spell.
Unholy Network is about the fantasy of expanding the cult by recruiting acolytes with promises of unholy power. Bonus style points if you and your allies form a five pointed star
Elite Servants is in case you want a Servant build but like one Servant’s bonuses much more than the other’s
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