[CDC #9] Karax - Phasesmith of the Daelaam

Hero and Skin Suggestions
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Karax

Phasesmith of the Daelaam

Universe: Starcraft
Role: Healer

Karax was once simple engineer of Khalai, but after the catastrophic Fall of Aiur he became one of the Daelaam’s best weapons designer. Furthermore during the War against Amon he also assumed the role of military commander.

Karax is a strong teamwide healer with global presence. Unlike most healers he focuses almost completely on shielding his allies and preventing damage. He can also provide small amount of mana to help his allies in the long run.

Karax also has unique ability to obtain Solarite and use it to enhance his abilities (in addition to regular talent tree).

Trait (D) - Power field

Passive:

Karax projects power field around him that heals allies and recharges their mana
Power field heals 10 life and grants 1 mana per second.

Active:
Cooldown: 10 seconds

Activate to transfer Karax’s power field to a targeted area anywhere with vision. The power field lasts up to 15 seconds and can be cancelled early.
Karax doesn’t recharge any mana without his powerfield

Orbital smite - (Q)

Cooldown: 5 seconds
Mana: 25

Small AoE
After 0.5 second grants 200 shields for 3 seconds in small (Like Chromie’s W) area and deals 120 damage in 50% larger area.
If the ability is used within the power field, shield lasts 2 seconds longer and enemies are slowed by 20% for 2 seconds.
Stores up to 4 charges.
This ability has standart casting range.

Containment matrix - (W)

Cooldown: 8 seconds
Mana: 40

Skillshot
Fire a fast moving projectile that deals 90 damage to first enemy hero it hits and reduce their autoattack damage and spell power by 15% for 4 seconds.
If the enemy hit is within the power field, they take 25 damage per second and the duration is increased by 2 seconds.
This ability has standart casting range.

Power field overcharge - (E)

Cooldown: 15 seconds
Mana: 60

AoE
After 0.5 second all enemies within power field take 210 damage and allied heroes gain 300 shields for 3 seconds.

Solar lance - (R1)

Cooldown: 50 seconds
Mana: 70

Large AoE
After 1 second deals 250 damage to all enemies in the area and set it on fire for 5 seconds. Fire deals 30 damage per second and slow enemies by 25%.
Additional 6 Orbital smites are fired on random nearby allies over next 3 seconds.
This ability has standart casting range.

Chrono field - (R2)

Cooldown: 65 seconds
Mana: 70

Channelled AoE
All enemies in the power field are fully slowed (cooldowns, movement, attacks, regen…) by 15% and allies are fully boosted by 15%.
Lasts 6 seconds and Karax can move while channeling.

Stats
Statistic Value
Health 1550
Health Regeneration 3.2/s
Attack Damage 80
Attack Speed 1
Attack Range 5.5
Mana Maximum 500
Mana Regeneration 5 + 1
Karax has standart per level stacking.
The reason Karax has slightly higher mana regen, is because he doesn’t regen any without his Power field. This somewhat limits his ability to influence fights on the other side of map.

Solarite upgrades
Tier Power field - (D) Orbital smite - (Q) Containment matrix - (W) Power field overcharge - (E)
1 Power field's healing is increased by 2 Orbital smite's damage is increased by 10 Containment matrix's debuff is increased by 5% Power field overcharge's shield is increased by 15
2 Power field's healing is increased by 2 Orbital smite's damage is increased by 10 Containment matrix's debuff is increased by 5% Power field overcharge's shield is increased by 15
3 Power field's healing is increased by 2 Orbital smite's damage is increased by 10 Containment matrix's debuff is increased by 5% Power field overcharge's shield is increased by 15
4 Power field's healing is increased by 4 and mana recharge by 1 Orbital smite's shield is increased by 50 Containment matrix reduces armor by 10 Power field overcharge stuns enemies for 0.5 seconds

Karax gains 5 Solarite on every talent level.
Upgrades on tiers 1 - 3 cost 5 Solarite
Upgrades on tier 4 cost 10 Solarite
(Karax has option to gain Solarite through talents)
Karax can redistribute his Solarite at any point in the game.
Karax gains 5 Solarite for every level after level 20.

Solarite upgrades provide Karax with small but useful additional flexibility during the match and allow him to better fullfill his team’s needs. Solarite also allows Karax to stack well into the late game.

Talents
Level 1

Focused mind: While above 50% health Karax’s abilities recharge 10% faster and he gains 10% more mana.

Rare elements: Regen globe mana and health are increased by 30% and every regen globe grant Karax 1 Solarite.

Chrono burst: Hitting an enemy hero with ability grants Karax 20% movement and attack speed for 3 seconds.

Level 4

Shield generator: Allied heroes within the Power field that haven’t taken damage within the last 2 seconds gain 50 shield per second to a maximum of 250. Shield last indefinitely within Power field and for 2 seconds after leaving it.

Interference: Allied heroes within the Power field gain 1 charge of Interference every 5 seconds. Interference grants 40 spell armor against next instance of enemy spell damage and for 1 second afterwards. Stores 1 charge.

Deflective shield: Allied heroes within the Power field gain 1 charge of Deflective shield every 4 seconds. Deflective shield grants 60 physical armor aginst next enemy hero autoattack. Stores 2 charges.

Level 7

Targeting synchronization: Quest: Hit multiple heroes (both allies and enemies) with Orbital smite - (Q).
Reward: Every additional hero hit grants 1 shield.
Reward: Every 10 shields grants 5 bonus damage to a maximum of 50.

Shield wall: Power field overcharge - (E) grants 30 armor for 1.5 second.

Templar’s charge: Orbital smite - (Q) marks enemy heroes for 3 seconds. If Karax hits marked enemy with autoattack, he heals nearby lowest health ally for 25 health.

Solarite flare: Containment matrix - (W)'s duration is increased by 0.25 second for every 5 Solarite Karax has. Maximum 3 seconds increase.

Level 10

Solar lance - (R1): Heroic ability (Description in the abilities section)

Chrono field - (R2): Heroic ability (Description in the abilities section)

Level 13

No match for the Firstborn: Karax deals 30% more damage to enemy shields and the bonus damage is transfered to allies inside the Power field as shield for 3 seconds.

Templar’s stand: Karax gain 15 armor, when he has shield on himself and for 1 second afterwards.

Containment field: Containment matrix - (W)'s debuff is applied in a small area aroun the main target.

Power feedback: If at least 3 heroes were hit by Power field overcharge - (E), second 50% weaker burst is triggered after 2 seconds.

Level 16

Master Phasesmith: Karax gains 2 spell power for every hero hit by Power field overcharge - (E) for 3 seconds.

Reclamation: Karax can pick 1 talent of all previous non-ult talents.

Solarite power source: Karax gains 1% increased spell power for every 10 Solarite he has.

Focused projection: (Active) Activate to increase the effect of Power field overcharge - (E) and Trait (D) - Power field by 50% for 5 seconds but reduce their area to 75% for the duration. 30 seconds cooldown.

Level 20

Warp in: (Active) Activate to spawn warp rift next to each alive hero on the map. Within next 5 seconds allies can chanell on those rifts to teleport themself into Karax’s Power field. 60 seconds cooldown.

Backup projectors: 50% smaller Power field is projected around Karax, when
Power field projection is active.

Orbital superiority: Orbital smite - (Q) stuns enemy heroes for 0.75 second. Cannot trigger again for 3 seconds.

Emergency protocol: (Active) Karax use 5 Solarite to reset cooldown of his W and E and gain 2 charges of Q. 60 seconds cooldown.

Additional stuff

Skins

Base skin + Protoss faction recolors (Nerazim, Taldarim and Purifiers)

Doomlord Karax (Demonic theme with replaced ability animations-meteors, fire and the like, new evil interactions)

Archmage Karax (Arcane based abilities and animations, new interactions with WC heroes)

Personality:

Karax is supportive and curious. He offers suggestions instead of orders.

Sample interactions:
With Artanis: “It is a honor to serve by your side, Hierarch.”
With Gazlowe: “Such a crude and primitive technology and yet it is working. I would like to study it, once we have the opportunity.”
With evil allies: “Your cruelty and hunger for power will bring your own end.”

Retreat. “We should regroup.”
Attack: “I have discovered the enemy weakness here.”

This concept was created as part of CDC #9 - Interstellar

2 Likes
2

I really like this concept! I think its really inique, but it feel like he is more of a support as he doesnt have enough healing to be a healer. Also power field overcharge is better as a dot, dealing its damage (and even shield) over a certain duration, so when heroes get in they will also be affected. While his Q is for burst shield/damage.
His W effect can be increased to 25% reduction because 15 feels a bit low. (But those just numbers)

I love the ideas of solarin upgrades, but im not sure how it can be implyed to the game. maybe thats how his talents work? They cost solarin and you can choose multiple talents per level and not just one? (Exept heroics of course…)

1 Like
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His baseline healing is low but not that much lower then that of similar healers (Lucio has 15 health per second, BW heals 105 every 4 seconds = 26.25 per second) and he has hefty shields to compensate.

Not a bad idea but he already has ok HoT (heal over time) so his shields are designed for burst.

That is what Solarite is for.

I imagine it would work as part of his custom interface (similar to other heroes having specific things there)

Also the talents will be added sometime next week and I plan on giving Karax few more options there.

1 Like
5

Total Score - 17/20

Wasn’t sure where to put it, but a note on Orbital Smite: this ability is the strongest in Karax’s kit by a long way, but the other abilities do feel proportionally weaker to make up for it. That being said, it probably still needs tuning (see Interaction).

Creativity - 3/5
This concept is a balance of things to be expected from Karax, and some implementations that are interesting but feel like they fall short. First, Power Field, Orbital Smite, Solar Lance, Chrono Field, and Solarite upgrades are all very core to Karax’s identity; I can’t imagine the kit without them, but they’re not very inspired implementations. Going further into Solarite upgrades, a secondary talent tree is fairly creative, but the upgrades you chose for it are horribly bland. Slightly tuning some abilities over others isn’t very exciting, but I can see that going too ambitious with the Solarite upgrades could detract from talents; I would prefer more exciting upgrades, but the balanced between Solarite and talents is up to you to decide later. Containment Matrix and Power Field Overcharge are new ideas to Karax that fit well into the kit, even though Power Field Overcharge is a very basic ability (also, it just does what Orbital Smite does with mildly different targetting; it could use some more distinction I think).

Cohesiveness - 5/5
Karax’s kit fits together thematically very well. He provides a combination of global support and pressure, shielding allies and weakening enemies. The heal effect on his Power Field does seem a little out of place compared to the rest of the kit, but I understand why it’s there and it’s not a big deal.

Thematic - 5/5
Orbital strikes, power field support, Solarite upgrade tree. Pretty much everything fits Karax perfectly and I can’t think of anything else that would make this concept feel more Karax.

Interaction - 4/5
I think that interaction is somewhat of a problem in this kit. Karax’s team won’t be frustrated with him, but he has so many elements that will infuriate the enemy team. First, Karax’s shield amounts just look too high overall. The shields from Orbital Smite are the biggest problem; 800 shields on demand, with up to 5 second duration and some AoE, can make multiple allied heroes nearly unkillable against enemy burst. Second, the heroics are very imbalanced. Chrono Field is super underwhelming, with a small effect that Karax needs to channel on a big cooldown. This is compared to Solar Lance, a decent nuke that adds 6 free casts of Karax’s most overpowered ability on top of that, all with a lower cooldown than Chrono Field.

1 Like
6

First of all, thank you for your feedback.

Now on to the concept itself:
I think there is misunderstanding going on: The Q, W and R1 are not global! Only the D is, as a result of which E and R2 are too.
I feel that this alone solve big portion of the balancing issues.
Sorry for not stating that, my bad :sweat_smile:

Well there are two new thing Karax brings to table: shield based healer and secondary “talent tree”.
I generally agree with the Solarite issue, but if I want him to have both Solarite and regular talent tree, there is significant limitation on what Solarite can do.
Plus Solarite isn’t meant to be full talent tree, just something to help him adapt quickly because of fact, that Solarite can be reassigned.

The inability to properly say what I want strikes again. :rofl:

I’m going to clarify his global potential a bit more here.
Karax can theoreticaly have almost permanent presence on two places of the map.
There are however several drawbacks:

  1. His presence is divided between those two places, because he can use only some of his abilities globally and Q and W are weaker without Power Field.
    2 . He doesn’t regenerate mana without his Power Field.

I could also add restiction on his D, so that he requires vision of the area?

Globals aside, Orbital Smite can provide strong shield but at a significat mana cost of 20 per charge (80 total), this is made even more impactful, when he active part of trait (no mana regen).

Heroics time: The Chrono field is actually quite strong IMO, like teamfight winning strong.
Solar Lance on the other hand provides moderate damage and low CC plus somewhat conditional shields. But I agree that 6 Orbital Smites may be too much.

Ok, I will update his tooltips.
I would also appreciate, if you could look at the concept once more, with the improved descriptions. :yellow_heart::blue_heart:

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I didn’t think that the W was global because the description didn’t look like a global ability, but Orbital Smite and Solar Lance are based on global abilities that Karax has in SC2. Combining that, you describing Karax as a global support, and the lack of an explicit description, I just assumed that they were global here too. I think that definitely warrants a couple points back on Interaction, and I’m checking with Bliztron if I’m allowed to update my score to account for my misinterpretation… I’ll let you know how it turns out, sorry about that D:

Update: I will be able to go back over the Interaction part of the review and increase the score / edit the review to make up for my original mistake. Again, I’m sorry about that!

1 Like
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I’m glad it got sorted out :grin:
I’m also sorry for writing the concept with unclear description.

Thank you very much for checking the concept again :blue_heart:

9

oh cool, a healer. healers are my favorite role and hots really needs more of them, if I were doing week 1 Id probably give bonus creative points for that xp. Im gonna rank each tier individually in a vacuum and then give some overall scores at the end
also sorry for a lack of capital letters, my shift button broke.

Im gonna assume standard casting range means 6 (.5 more then basic attack range) and power field is as big as malfurion’s tranquility sense that feels about right to me. I would put an actual number for all these or compare the range and areas to some other ability like; ability is as big as chromie’s w

level 1
4/5
good talents. apart from focused mind, these talents do very little on their own but they have some neat synergies further down the talent tree, which is fine. I like that focused mind does something right away.

Chrono burst the movement speed buff might be a little to high, with how spammy karax’s abilities are i would lower the duration all the way down to 1 second. tyrnde has a similar talent where she gives 15% move speed for 3 seconds to anyone she heals and thats a level 13 talent. your talent is a little better then that at level 1. If the numbers were changed around, this would be a good talent.

level 4
1/5
dont hate me, but all of these are absolutely insane. I like that everything here is super defensive but they could sue a but of a rework.

Shield generator Interference: Ive got the same problem with both of these. zarya can give only 1 an ally 2 stacks of 75% block on a 12 second cooldown and it manages to have a higher win rate then the absolute insanity that is the speed barrier talent on the same tier (4). trynde also has a level 4 talent that gives 10 (20 is stacked)
to also just 1 ally and that talent is also very powerful.
the numbers on these talents could be balanced but would be so low that they would just be unappealing. in wow, when bfa class chages came around, one of discipline priests final talents was “lenience” which just reduced damage taken by your party by 6% and was mathematically the best talent on the tier but was just totally lame as a talent (im not salty at all I sware).
a suggestion, I think applying a smaller, single stack to all allies in powerfield when you use power field overcharge would be fine.

Deflective shield is just a better version of probius’s team shield in every way. I would lower all the numbers to match the power level of a 4 talent or just move this to another talent tier
(Shield Battery (level 13): Pylon’s Power Field grants allied Heroes 28 Shields per second, up to 112. Shields persist for 2 seconds after exiting a Pylon Power Field.)

level 7
4.5/5

Targeting synchronization and Templar’s charge are both fantastic, templars charge in particular is my favorite talent so far and has some neat synergy with the attack speed talent at 1. templar’s charge could use something just a little extra tho, jumping through an extra hoop for just a 25 heal is a bit to weak

Shield wall this talent is fine, just keep in mind that armor dosent stack anymore

level 13
5/5

No match for the Firstborn unpopular opinion of the day, im ok with hate talents. this gets a pass from me :slight_smile:

Containment field is a good talent

Power feedback tooltip is a little confusing bit confusing but this is a good talent

level 16
4.5/5

Photonic resonation should be a level 1 talent, mana regeneration just isnt as useful this late in to a game

Reclamation If level 4 talents get fixed this would be fine otherwise taking any 2 level 4 talents would make your entire team unkillable

Solarite power source only feels level 16 amounts of strong if you took Rare elements at level 1 but since there are 4 talents on this tier I can give it a pass

Focused projection is awesome, altho I think the cooldown could be lowered all the way down to 10 seconds since 75% reduced area is already a big downside

level 20
?/5
no ultimate upgrades is totally fine with me, especially since most of these are basically giving you a second ultimate anyway

Warp in is also an awesome talent. I feel the window to enter the warp rift should be just a bit longer

Backup projectors Im not sure what this does, Ill give my thoughts on this if you can fix the tooltip

Orbital superiority a stun on a 3 second cooldown might be a bit much, even for a 20 talent

solarite upgrades
4/5
eer do these count as talents? I think these count as talents. idk, im gonna review them anyway
balance wise everything here seems just about right. the only problem I have with the solarite stuff is that you can reallocate solarite points during combat which means the best way to play karax would be to switch around your solarite points in between every ability cast.

.
Creativity 5/5
lots of unique and varied talents. theres something on just about every tier that I really like. these are the kind of talents I would spend an hour or so messing around with in the try mode. :smiley:

Cohesiveness 5/5
not much to say here, makes sense for karax to do everything here. even his 2 auto attack talents makes sense given the role karax takes on in the later half of legacy of the void. the solarite stuff is nice and simple but still impactful which feels just about right.

Thematic 5/5
Im glad your karax has some amount of healing but the greater focus on shielding and generally protecting is a good direction for him. the global stuff is a nice bit of uniqueness as well.

Interaction 3/5
sorry to break your streak of 5s but your balance is all over the place. a lot of these talents are extremely powerful and thats top top of having 2 talent trees with the solarite stuff. I also would have liked to see his level 1 talents all be mana talents since his mana regeneration is already very low (standard mana regen is 3.9) and only getting 1 mana a second and only when in the power field is pretty low. (maybe im just reading it wrong and it is 3.9 + 1 while in the power field but either way your not getting as much mana as other heroes beacuse you cant really get mana while your mounted up and running around of when your power field is over an enemy).

some thoughts on your base kit. (none of this affected my review)
QWE and R2 are great and I like the supportive twist on orbital strike. only thing about R1 that might need tweaking is its randomness and power field has a few problems. needing to recast it every 15 second even if you dont want to move it is a little clunky. and there should be a bit of a wind up time when moving the power field so it cant be combined with E for quick easy damage anywhere on the map

anyway feel free to say something if you need any clarification c :
goodluck!

1 Like
10

I will probably include some mana regen in the Focused mind (also to clarify, Karax has regular + 1 mana regen with Power field on him).

I will take a look a the balancing of Chrono burst.

Considering that Karax is a healer, comparing him to Zarya (Support) and Probius (Ranged damage dealer) isn’t entirely fair IMO.
However I agree that Interference may be too strong right now. I will probably reduce the armor amount and remove 1 charge from it and Deflective shield too.

Shield wall is primary anti-burst tool rewarding precise timing. Maybe small armor increase, but otherwise I think it is in good place.

I will most likely replace Photonic resonation and move the mana regen to **Level 1 **.

Solarite power source has great potential after Level 20 even without Rare elements, but it is meant to be part of “Solarite build”.

Warp in - that one is easy to do and won’t change balance. Good suggestion.

Backup projectors - Well normaly when Karax use his trait, the Power field moves to different location and stays there for some time. This leaves Karax somewhat weakened and exposed (no mana income and one less basic ability).
Backup projectors simply gives Karax secondary smaller Power field even when the trait is active (Secondary Power field mimics all things affecting the normal one).

Orbital superiority cost 2 charges of Q. That already makes it costly, anyways small increase to the in between time should be fine.

If someone can manage that in the middle of a fight, they deserve to win IMO.

Overall, I like both your feedback on talents and the other stuff, very helpful. Hope I explained the messy parts well.
Thank you very much :yellow_heart::blue_heart:

11

The talent is fine, I ment the armor from this wont stack with the block from one of your 4 talents so if you were to use on someone who has a block stack or a spell armor stack from your 4 talents. I dont have any problems with that I was just pointing it out as that change in block stacking happened in a somewhat recent patch.

ah, thanks. I think this talent could use an extra something small as it feels like a 16 talent.

I have a lot to say on this topic but all Im gonna say here is winning through good decisions and out playing is very often more exciting then winning through sheer skill. At the highest level of play every game becomes a strategy game.

12

Overall Score
Creativity - 4/5
Cohesiveness - 5/5
Thematic - 5/5
Interaction - 4/5

Total - 18/20

Just as an extra note, I think the Solarite should be mentioned within the trait for clarity purposes. How he accesses the Solarite tree is left completely unspecified.

Creativity - 4/5
The base kit is fairly simple, but is more or less effective. I think the E is just a bit plain; while it is attached to his power field, which is slightly interesting, it does just seem a bit too plain for my liking. Looking through the talents, they don’t really offer too much more to the gameplay loop or make the ability all that exciting to use. The abilities are alright, but I’m not really excited by looking at any of them, including the heroics which should be abilities that excite and impress the players. Solarite is an interesting idea, but it feels abit slapped on, and I don’t think it’s utilized to its fullest potential, especially since the upgrades don’t feel too desperately impactful. Talents are more or less the same, with few that actually alter the gameplay loop of the character. Tier 3 is an exception to this, and I really like that tier. This isn’t to say there aren’t interesting talents within the tree, with notable shining examples being Rare Elements, No Match for the Firstborn, Reclamation, and Warp In. Also, is the new name for Block necessary? The two skin ideas are pretty cool, though I was hoping for something more.

Cohesiveness - 5/5
The kit has a central identity, and the abilities do have external and internal cohesion. I think the idea of a healer that utilizes primarily shields would be a perfect fit into the game when Tassadar is reworked out of that role. The decision aspect between the Solarite spending does add an extra layer to the character that brings the kit together. That being said, outside of Rare Elements, I’m not seeing any other talent that interacts with Solarite. I also feel that Rare Elements carrying this burden by itself, and pretty easily being able to unlock an entire row by its lonesome (with versatility), makes the talent outshine the other two on that tier. The talent tree has defining talent tiers and build paths that are reasonable, but not restrictive. Solid work.

Thematic - 5/5
The character has Solarite, his calldown abilities, and fits a supportive role. I really have no complaints with how the character is handled here. The skins are really cool, and somehow fit the character really well.

Interaction - 4/5
Overall, the character is the baseline when it comes to interactive abilities. Skillshots are abound in the concept, and area denial can be an effective way to limit Karax’s healing. I do have a pair of concerns, however, in the base kit. Primarily, I think that being able to move his Power Field around so often removes any meaningful counterplay and drawbacks that it has; a longer cooldown would mean more significance on where you place it, which would make the enemies feel much better if they managed to pressure the Karax’s team off the area. My other, much more important concern is with Power Field Overcharge. In effect, the E is a global poke tool with moderate damage that can turn fights whenever the Karax wants to with little to no ability for the enemy player to react to it. This global poke and shielding can quite quickly become gamebreaking and obnoxious. I think perhaps adding a delay to the overcharge will absolve this issue. All of the talents seem fine, and I don’t see any major concerns within the tree in terms of interaction.

1 Like
13

Thank you for the feedback :grin:

Separating basic talent tree and Solarite one have resulted in both being little less interesting, but I feel that the resulting options are worth it.

Well it grants different amount of armor,so I thought calling it Block would be confusing.

There are two more talents that use Solarite: Solarite power source and Emergency protocol. I didn’t include more Solarite talents because I didn’t want to force Karax to pick certain talents just because picking Rare elements at Level 1.

Biggest counter to Karax’s global presence is his mana. He will run out of mana very quickly, if he overuses his trait.

However increasing the cooldown shouldn’t be a problem.

14

While I’m not sure about the abilities but, Karax is my most wanted Hero to join HotS.

1 Like
15

So what abilities would you give Karax?
And also what role would he be?

I created him as a healer but even switching him to support would most likely require changing at least one of his basic abilities.

16

Marossi - 88/100

Creativity: 7/10
Cohesiveness: 8/10
Thematic: 10/10
Interaction: 7/10
(+2 Thoughtfulness, +1 Game Fluidity)