CDC #14 Khadgar that random mage dude

Hero and Skin Suggestions
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Mandatory Link

Khadgar

Health: 2316 (+4% per level) hitpoints, 4.825 (+4% per level) HP Regen per second.
Mana: 500 (standard)
Attack Range: Melee (1.2)

Attack speed: 0.9 per second

Attack Damage: 50 (+4% per level)

Strengths: Burst Damage

Weaknesses: Mobility, Poking

Trait: Evocation

Cooldown: 60 seconds

Channel over 3 seconds to gain back 50% of Khadgar’s mana.

This cooldown refreshes 175% faster if Khadgar hasn’t spent any mana over the last 5 seconds

Spells:

Q: Arcane Blast
(Mana: 15 - Cooldown: 1.5 seconds)

After channeling for [0.8 seconds], Khadgar blasts a targeted enemy with Arcane magic, dealing 115 (+4% per level) damage to them, 65 (+4% per level) damage to all enemies in a small radius, and slowing targets affected for 20% for 1 second.

Whenever Khadgar successfully casts Arcane Blast, Khadgar generates an Arcane Charge. Each accumulated Arcane Charge increases the damage of Arcane Blast by 25%, the slow by an additional 7%, and the Mana Cost by 50% per Arcane Charge accumulated (up to a maximum of +10% damage, +20% slow, and +200% Mana.).

W: Prismatic Barrier

(Mana: 60 - 18 second cooldown)

Gain a shield that absorbs 550 (+4% per level) damage for the next 5 seconds. When Prismatic Barrier expires, deal damage equal to 20% of the amount of damage absorbed split among all nearby enemies.

Each accumulated Arcane Charge increases the amount absorbed by +10%, the amount dealt to enemies by +20%, and the mana cost of Prismatic Barrier by +25%.

E: Arcane Missiles
(Mana: 10 - 7 second cooldown)

Channel for 1.5 seconds, releasing a barrage of four arcane missiles. The first will hit the targeted hero, while all proceeding will hit the highest-health enemy within a medium radius around the original target. Each missile deals 45 (+4% per level) damage to whomever it hits.

Casting Arcane Missiles consumes all Arcane Charges, each releasing an additional missile during the 1.5 second channel, up to 8 in total.

Heroics:

Arcanic Barrier:
(Mana: 50 - 40 second Cooldown)

Khadgar and all allies in a small radius around him gain immunity to spell damage for 1.5 seconds, Khadgar gains 2% of his mana for every 5% of his health blocked

After 1.5 seconds, Khadgar fires forward a wave of energy foward, dealing damage equal to 25% of the damage absorbed to all enemies in the wave’s path, and knocks back foes hit.

R2: Arcane Orb

(Mana: 70 - 45 second cooldown)

Launch a ball of Arcane energy in a targeted direction. This orb bounces off of terrain, and when it passes through enemies it deals 220 damage and stuns them for 1 second. Passing through the ball a second time after being stunned will deal 100 damage and not stun.

The ball travels for a total of 4 seconds.

Whenever Arcane Orb deals damage, gain an Arcane Charge

3 Likes
2

TALENTS

Level 1
(Mana)

Arcane Clarity (E):
Whenever Khadgar’s Arcane Missiles hit an enemy Hero, restore 2% of Khadgar’s maximum Mana, and reduce the cooldown of Arcane Missiles by 0.25 seconds.

Clearcasting (Q):
Whenever Khadgar gains Khadgar’s third Arcane Charge, remove the Mana Cost of Khadgar’s next Arcane Blast.

Force Armor (W):
Every ten seconds, gain a stack of Force Armor, up to a maximum of 3 Stacks. Getting attacked consumes a stack, giving Khadgar 40 Physical Armor and increasing Khadgar’s Mana Regeneration by 100% for 1.5 seconds.

Prismatic Barrier instantly gives Khadgar three stacks of Force Armor.

Level 4
(Offense):

Mental Preparation (Trait):
Evocation builds 4 Arcane Charges over it’s duration.

Passive: Each Arcane Charge increases Khadgar’s Spell Power by 5%.

Reverberate (Q):
If Arcane Blast is cast on a different target from its last, Khadgar also casts an untalented version of Arcane Blast on the prior target at 40% effectiveness.

Focused Energy (E)
If four Arcane missiles from the same cast hit the same target that target takes an additional 90 (4%+ per level) damage instantly.

Level 7 (Defense)

Tempest Barrier (Q/W):
Arcane Blast reduces the cooldown of Prismatic Barrier by 0.5 seconds. When Prismatic Barrier is active, Arcane Blast increases the duration of Prismatic Barrier by 0.5 seconds, and increases the shield’s health by 20% of the damage Arcane Blast deals.

Guardian’s Spellward (Trait):
You are unstoppable while channeling Evocation, and gain 50 Armor while channeling Evocation.

Passive: Arcane Charges each grant 8 Spell Armor, up to a total of 32 Spell Armor

Abjurative Missiles (E):
When Khadgar finishes channeling Arcane Missiles, Khadgar gains 8% of his health as shields for each Arcane Charge consumed. These shields that last for 7 seconds.

Level 10 (Heroics)

Arcanic Barrier (R1)

Arcane Orb (R2)

Level 13 (Utility)

Slipstream (E):
Khadgar can channel Arcane Missiles while moving, and move 30% faster while doing so.

Prismatic Absorption (Active):
Channel for up to 1.5 seconds to absorb all enemy abilities casted on Khadgar, nullifying their damage and effects, and gain an Arcane Charge for each one absorbed. (60 second cooldown).

Conjure Refreshment Table (Active):
Conjure a table of Arcane Refreshments. Allies can tap it to receive the benefits of drinking from Healing Fountains. (120 second cooldown)

Passive: Lower Khadgar’s personal Healing Fountain cooldown to 60 seconds.

Rigorous Discouragement (Active)
Khadgar’s basic attack can stun for 0.25 seconds, and heavily knockback once every five seconds.

This can be toggled on and off at will.

Level 16
(Offense)

Arcanic Barrage (Q):
Each Arcane Charge reduces the casting time and cooldown of Arcane Blast by 0.125 seconds, up to a maximum of 0.5 seconds.

Magical Amplification (E):
Magic Missiles deals bonus damage equal to 1% of the Hero’s maximum Health. If casted when at four Arcane Charges, each missile explodes in a small radius, dealing 25 (+4% per level) damage plus 0.5% of the enemies’ maximum Health.

Supernova (W):
While Prismatic Barrier is active, Khadgar radiates with energy, dealing 33 (+4% per level) damage to all enemies near Khadgar.

Additionally, when Prismatic Barrier explodes, it violently knocks back targets it hits and deals 150 (+4% per level) damage to foes who hit terrain.

Mana Overload (Trait):
Ability damage dealt while above 50% mana is increased by 15%, Mana Regen while below 50% mana is increased by 50%.

Level 20 (Storm)

Arcanum of Reversal (R1)
Increase the amount of damage to 100%, and the duration of Barrier is increased by 1.5 seconds.

Nether Tempest (R2)
Arcane Orb leaves a wake of nether energy, which lasts for 5 seconds and deals 55 (+4% per level) damage per second to enemies in the trail.

Every time someone is being damaged by Nether Tempest, Khadgar restores 2% of his maximum mana.

Mass Abjuration (Active)
All allied units within a large radius of Khadgar gain a barrier that absorbs damage equal to 25% of their health that lasts up to 5 seconds.

This ability can be reactivated during the 5 second window to consume 4 stacks of Arcane Charge and place all enemies within a large radius of Khadgar into stasis for 2 seconds. (90 Second Cooldown)

Triune Mastery (Q)
Arcane Blast now burns foes who are damaged for 45 (+4% per level) damage over 3 seconds.

When cast at four Arcane Charges, Arcane Blast also slows the primary target for 55% for 2 seconds.

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Overall Score

Creativity - 3/5
Cohesiveness - 2/5
Thematic - 4/5
Interaction - 4/5

Total - 13/20

Creativity - 3/5

There is some good here, some bad. Overall, the character is extremely basic in gameplay loop and execution, which is quite tragic considering Arcane Mage was one of my favorite specs to play in WoW during my time playing it. The Arcane Charge system should be interesting, but it was just implemented less interesting and less cohesive (in the Cohesive section) than in the original source. The Q and W abilities are each pretty simple and the exact way it is set up means that you don’t even have a fun playstyle loop to rely on to make the simple abilities work together. The E is easily the most interesting and fun part of the kit, but it is severely hampered by everything surrounding it, when it should be the star of the show. The W is a Medivh bubble but with a new coat of paint, the Q is a basic resource generator with some damage on it (it doesn’t even have a name). The Rune of Power adaption (Focused Rune) is more interesting of a take than the base ability, but it is still a rather simple team damage boost. The second heroic is fine. There is just not much here that screams innovation or interest at all. The unique resource system is gutted by mismanagement of the ability loop. The best thing here is the E, probably, when it actually goes off. It just feels like a misfire to try to cram an ability caster-based mechanic that relies on having multiple abilities to cast into a bruiser that clearly doesn’t have the space for it.

Cohesiveness - 2/5

While there should be cohesiveness in this kit due to everything being tied to Arcane Charge, there just isn’t, and I’ll explain why. The reliance on one ability with a 6 second cooldown as your spam ability to generate Arcane Charge clips the concept. The only other way is to try to bait enemies constantly with your Medivh shield, which is both an ineffective use of such a powerful ability, and unrealistic considering it has an 18 second cooldown. This basically boils down your gameplay loop to using one ability over an over for 30 seconds or more to reach any semblance of power out of your E, or just use your E and never expect to have Arcane Charge. There are also a ton of questions that spring up that just make the kit look scrapped together and basic. The trait giving you 1% Arcane Charge when you cast abilities feels like a leftover from an earlier design, considering nothing else has percentages and the abilities give Arcane Charge regardless. The basic attack toggle feels like it had an idea at some point, but really doesn’t execute on it? Everything just feels clunky and stitched together into some kind of abomination, and I think efforts need to be made to make it into an actual character concept. This concept is also supposed to represent a Bruiser, and yet they don’t feel like they have any independence at all. They rely heavily on teamfights and big engagements to generate Arcane Charge, but their Arcane Missiles actively fight against the idea of big engagements? The idea that they excel in 1 on 1 engagements with the Arcane Missile is a really interesting way to make them work in a solo lane, and still function in the late game, but the other parts of the kit work too contrary to this effort. The role is also pretty ambiguous. The idea of bruiser is loosely suggested, but he has support elements, ranged assassin elements, tank elements, and even has basic attack synergy, and everything just feels scattered. Overall, the concept lacks focus and direction, a huge issue that needs to be fixed.

Thematic - 4/5

I’m going to omit the questions of making Khadgar a bruiser character. Perhaps that could work. The reason I omitted a point (even though I considered docking two), is that this design doesn’t capture anything Khadgar is known for. The character is the Guardian’s Apprentice. He has shown multiple times that he has a mastery of all types of magic, a thematic that is represented in many of his locations (such as the tower in Warlords of Draenor), and in his actions (the WoD intro scenario, book appearances, Legion appearances). Limiting him to just an arcane mage severely cuts down on the character’s thematic in an unhealthy way. Another huge cut to the character is the lack of anything to represent his conjuration specialization. From summoning arcane servants to tour people through Shattrath to summon arcane elementals to tank for him in story missions throughout Warlords of Draenor, he is no stranger to summoning. Even in Hearthstone, he is based on the idea of summoning. While I am not advocating for throwing in uninteractive summons, not bringing in his conjuration specialization is a huge loss to character identity.

Interaction - 4/5

I don’t actually have that much of an issue with most of his abilities in terms of interaction. Most are simple enough that they offer basic interactiveness, and would be fine to play against. My main issue is that Focused Rune has the potential to instantly win fights or instantly lose fights. When you compare this heroic to Ana Nano Boost, it becomes a potentially frightening ability. Abilities that add a flat multiplier on ally damage is always sketchy, and should be used with extreme caution. Making that into a teamwide one is even more risky. Another major issue with the heroic is that it relies on his Arcane Charge, which reduces his ability to do anything as well, which offsets its potential and the fun the player will have when using it.

2 Likes
4

Reserved for Flair. /20

5

Overall Score

Creativity - 4/5
Cohesiveness - 3/5
Thematic - 5/5
Interaction - 4/5

Total - 16/20

Creativity - 4/5
Talents were pretty simple overall for better or worse while there was really neat ones like Conjure Refreshment Table being quite good and fits how this would’ve worked if it was in the game, some others just seem pretty simple in a way compared to how they could’ve been like Focused Energy, overall decent from what i’ve seen happen to the concept since week 1, some of the talents i will admit are quite creative variants to the skills from in WoW themselves such as Nether Tempest.

Cohesiveness - 3/5
His talents seem to improve in some ways to how he plays specially since the base kit change though still heavily relies on Arcane Charges with base skills, like could’ve thrown them doing other things instead of just increase the effect and mana cost of base abilities on the kit to doing other stuff within talents, overall at least the talents do actually fit what the character concept is going for i gotta admit there.

Thematic - 5/5
The talents do thematically fit an Arcane Mage even if Khadgar was more than just that, nothing i can fault in the talents themselves since it fits as i said.

Interaction - 4/5
So from the base kit itself he does seem overall decent to play if you know what your doing with Arcane Charges, his Arcane Barrier might cause problems dealing with similar to Anduin causes but has half the CD and does damage, least its different to his XD, his talents just add onto that with Arcanum of Reversal, though his other talents dont cause massive issues for or against both sides and this basically hits a good mark here.