[CDC #9] Luthor the Harkon Reaper

Hero and Skin Suggestions
1

This is my entry to the CDC #9 - Interstellar - #11 by MrCLFN-1399 thing going on and I decided to use a name I had on a list for a long time but never bothered to create, decided instead of using Crooked Sam or another book named Reaper that I’d make my own since I loved this units implementation back in the first SC2 game so felt fitting to try it here, decided to call him the Harkon Reaper in response to creating a planet called Harkon as a volatile landscape with dangerous wildlife and even with that Luthor was considered a volatile menace in his own way when he became a Reaper.

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Roll: Ranged Assasin
Strengths:

  • Wave Clear
  • No Resource
  • High Burst

Weaknesses

  • Fragile
  • Low Consistent Damage
  • CC
    Stats:
    Health: 1,560 (+4% per level)
    Regen: 3.25 (+4% per level)
    Atk Speed: 1.3 per second
    Damage: 54 x2 (+4% per level), has a double shot attack.

Trait: Jump Jets (Passive, 15 second CD): Luthor is equipped with early prototype Reaper Jet Packs also known as Jump Packs, this allows him him to jump over any terrain, walls or gates and for 1.25 second afterwards before cooldown starts, passively increases his movement speed by 10% as he isn’t on foot.

Q: Deuterium Demo-Charges (2 Charges, 7 second CD): Toss a D8 Demolition Charge at the targeted location in a medium radius, when the demolition charge lands it’ll stay there for 1.5 seconds before exploding in a small to medium aoe around it dealing 289 (+4% per level) damage, demolition charges cannot be throw near another one already on the ground and incur a 0.5 mini cooldown between charge uses, it can land on enemy minions, mercs and heroes who can carry it around with them causing the same damage to itself and those around it. (similar concept to Hanzos reveal)

W: Nitro Boost (13 second CD): After charging his Jump Jets for 0.25 seconds Luthor will gain 20% increased movement speed for 3.5 seconds and cleanse himself of any slows while making him immune to them for 1 second afterwards, passively causes movement slowing effects to be reduced by 25%.

E: G-4 Cluster Bombs (10 second CD): Activating Cluster Bombs replaces Luthors basic attacks with throwing up to 4 Cluster Bombs or until 3 seconds has passed, Cluster Bombs cause his basic attacks (both pistols damage combined) to aoe around closely around the target, Structures take 40% more damage while the aoe burst deals 25% more damage to those around the target.

R1: KD8 Charges (65 second CD): Target a skillshot line for Luthor to arm and throw a KD8 Charge while yelling ‘fire in the hole!’ as it travels down the line quickly until it either reaches the end without touching anything as Luthor says ‘It was a bloody dud?!’ or when it impacts an enemy hero it’ll explode for 397 (+4% per level) damage and knocks them back further while stunning them for 1.25 seconds if the knockback launches them into a wall, structure or the terrain.

R2: Backburner (70 second CD): Upon activation Luthor will set his Jet Pack into overdrive causing him to lift more as flames burst from his boosters due to the amount of heat generated as he deals 154 (+4% per level) damage per second for 4.5-5 seconds in a medium to large aoe radius with damage being increased up to 50% more depending on how close enemies are to him, after Backburner ends his Jump Jets won’t work for 10 seconds and the passive movement speed is removed for that time.

Talents:

Level 1:

  • Combat Drugs (QUEST): collecting Regeneration Globes increases Luthors health regeneration by 0.5, after collecting 30 he’ll gain the ability to heal back 15% of his maximum health over 6 seconds when he’s dealt 8% of his maximum health within 0.5 seconds, has an internal 11 second cooldown

  • Pre-lit Fuse: After using Jump Jets Luthors next Deuterium Demo-Charge will deal 35% increased damage when used with the next 7 seconds.

  • I love it when a Plan comes Together: When travelling over terrain with Jump Jets the cast time for Mounting is reduced by 75%.

Level 4:

  • ITC-E Triggers: Each time Luthor successfully basic attacks an enemy hero he gains 1.5% attack speed stacking up to 50% which drop off after 1.25 seconds of not basic attacking, this applies individually to each pistol, Cluster Bombs count as a 5% per hit.

  • U-238 Rounds (QUEST): Every time an enemy minion is killed near Luthor he’ll gain 0.2 basic attack damage per pistol (so 0.4 technically) stacking indefinitely while heroes killed near Luthor grant 0.5 per pistol, every 10 damage he’ll gain 0.5 range to his basic attacks stacking 3 times.

  • P-55 "Scythe" Gauss: While Nitro Boost is active Luthors basic attacks will work while he is moving, also passive reduces the cooldown of Nitro Boost by 0.75 seconds every time Luthor hits with basic attacks.

Level 7:

  • Jet Pack Overdrive: When Nitro Boost is activated Luthor will jump in the air for 1 second first avoid damaging effects for the duration, he can use his basic attack while in the air and the speed boost applies after he lands.

  • Moebius Restraint Matrix: If a Deuterium Demo-Charge hits a single enemy they’ll be stunned for 0.75 seconds, but if more then one is hit the stun is reduced to 0.25 seconds.

  • No Escape: Nitro Boost becomes a skillshot target before activating to allow Luthor to dash quickly in the targeted direction before the speed boost applies, can be used to hop over walls quickly without incurring Jump Jets cooldown.

Level 13:

  • Hit & Run: When jumping over terrain and walls within 1 second of the last jump the duration he can jump is reset stacking 4 times and increases his basic attack damage by 50% each time.

  • Recycled Fumes: Increases the duration of Nitro Boost by 2.5 seconds and passively increases his movement speed by 10%.

  • Kaboom time!: The aoe radius of G-4 Cluster Bombs is increased by 100% when targeting a structure.

Level 16:

  • Incendiary Rounds: Luthors basic attacks cause a stacking dot per pistol shot on the target or structure dealing 5 damage per second on them stacking 10 times, G-4 Cluster Bombs only apply it to buildings.

  • Supply Depot: Increases Deuterium Demo-Charges charges by 1 and G-4 Cluster Bombs now has 3 charges with a 0.5 second intervals.

  • Stimpack (Active, 40 second CD): Activate to heal Luthor for 200 (+4% per level) of his health back over 5 seconds.

Level 20:

  • R1T LD9 Clusters: When the KD8 Charges hits an enemy hero and explodes them it’ll also drop 5 cluster drops around them before they’re launched backwards dealing 109 (+4% per level) damage per cluster drop, cooldown is reduced by 15 seconds.

  • R2T Burning Sensation: After Backburner finishes Luthor automatically uses Nitro Boost and G-4 Cluster Bombs with 50% increased effectiveness in duration and effect.

  • Procyon Shade Suit (Passive 6 second CD): Every 6 seconds Luthor can dodge 2 heroic basic attacks, passively reduces damage taken from AoE effects by 20%.

  • Always Prepared: Permanently reduces all Luthors basic ability (and trait) cooldowns by 4 seconds.

Skins:

  • Normal Skin: Resembles the normal Reaper unit from Starcraft 2 but maybe more inline with the concept art as well, base colouration is the Dominion Reaper while alternate colourations are Blue, Silver/White and a Umojan special with alternate patterns.

  • Special Forces: The SC2 version of the skin (though nexus version can work too) where he resembles a skin of the same name with better jetpacks and pistol arms, minor lore quote can be the version of him that isn’t crazy and got promoted instead.

  • Infested Terran: Pretty much the same as his normal skin except Umojan colour is replaced with a Black one instead while they’re all more faded due to the Zerg biomass growing from the infection, his abilities are slightly more Zerg themed like Tychus.

  • Luthor of G.E.A.R: A crossover and race change skin of Luthor Harkon as a member of the Gnomish Elite Aerial Rangers (or Reapers xP) sporting his unique Aerial Combat Suit with unstable Jetpacks and all, unlike Goblin Junkrat the Gnome Luthor does not require leg extensions via machinery so the model can have them shortened to match gnome height, his helmet would also be very different to show off his gnomish face with abnormally large facial hair, he would have unique voiceslines with Goblin Junkrat mostly relating to ‘leg extensions’, colourations would be baseline green and steel for Gnomeragen, blue and silvery grey for Stormwind and a orange colouration for Ironforge.

Synergies:
Good:

  • Zarya: When Luthor does a wall rush into the enemy base with Zaryas shield he is protected while picking off enemy heroes like Abathur while also buffing Zaryas energy up.
  • ETC: Luthor combos well with burst crowd control team mates like ETC who can Mosh Pit the enemy team while Luthor uses G-4 Cluster Bombs and Backburner to greater effect.

Bad:

  • Genji: While Luthor is a chaser he is countered by other Chasers who do the job better such as Genji who can chase harder and reflect damage back at him.
  • Nova: She can pick off Luthors health pool very quickly with Snipe and follow ups as well as Triple Tap since hes fragile and usually on his own.

Voice Lines:

Line 1: The life of a Reaper man is always intense.
Line 2: The Grim Reaper has arrived.
Line 3: These Jets are Burning my Asss!.
Line 4: I was signing to be a Reapo man, imagine my surprise.
Line 5: Oh that’s all?.

Change Log

Log 1:

  • Updated Jump Jets, Nitro Boost and Cluster Bombs text and some alterations of the skills.
  • Added the whole Talent tree.
  • Prepped for future weeks of work.

Log 2

  • Added Synergies, Voicelines and skins.
  • Moved the Recycled Fumes and I love it when a Plan comes Together around with eachother.
  • Tweaked alot of talents as per feedback balance wise.
  • Burning Sensation, Procyon Shade Suit, Recycled Fumes and Moebius Restraint Matrix got changed in how they work.

Log 3

  • Burning Sensations talent reworked entirely a second time, finally figured how to implement some survival into it .
  • Cluster Bombs and Nitro Boost baseline got touched up and Nitro got a new baseline effect.
3 Likes
2

I like the concept I think it fits the reaper perfectly
However I think the H1 might be a bit weak for an 80 second cooldown, perhaps shift that down to 60 or 70
and the second one… makes no sense to me I’m sorry

3

Total Score - 15/20

Creativity - 2/5
This concept really feels like a reaper. Like, maybe too much. Jump Jets, Deuterium Demo-Charges, and G-4 Cluster Bombs (and to some extent, KD8 Charges too) feel very closely copy-pasted from what a reaper unit actually does without much creative interpretation or extra nuance. I feel like G-4 Cluster Bombs is the best example of how this can be detrimental to the kit identity. The small AoE won’t do much in most circumstances and it offers no bonus damage on anything but structures (and the kit doesn’t seem like it’s built to be a lane pusher, either…); otherwise, it functions as a bland basic attack replacement and doesn’t look fun to use. While Nitro Boost doesn’t directly come from a reaper’s kit, it doesn’t feel very inspired either. Backburner, on the other hand, is a really creative ability that fits a reaper thematically while being entirely new. I think a good direction to take the kit would be to rework the iconic reaper abilities you can’t do without (Jump Jets, G-4 Cluster Bombs, KD8 Charges) to have more nuance - basically, they should invoke what the abilties do in Starcraft 2 and lore but should have a more unique spin to make them interesting for a MOBA kit as opposed to a regular unit in a big RTS. Second, I think some more creative abilities that fit thematically, similar to Backburner, would have a good place in the kit.

Cohesiveness - 4/5
The kit mostly fits into what I think you defined as Luthor’s playstyle, but I have a couple of concerns. First, I don’t feel that the kit makes very good use of its mobility. After landing a couple of skillshots (which can be done from a safe distance instead of recklessly charging the enemy), Luthor doesn’t have much incentive to chase and finish off enemies. His kit lacks motivation to keep on a target basic attacking them the whole time, and he’s kind of fragile, so you wouldn’t often want to chase that hard. Second, the duration on Backburner is way too long; 7 seconds is a huge time for a fragile, mobile, ranged assassin to just be sitting there, probably in the middle of combat if he wants to get any value out of it. A duration tune down would solve this and also handle my concern with damage (under Interaction).

Thematic - 4/5
On one hand, the fact that every ability in the kit is so closely linked to what reapers do in-game feels like it warrants a perfect theme score. On the other hand, the playstyle identity you created for the reaper feels kind of… off to me. The way he is built feels like a kind-of-mobile wave clearer who can gank sometimes, but lacks a clear place in a teamfight. When I think of how a reaper would be implemented (in a MOBA, not the harasser unit it is in SC2) I think of a high-octane assassin who opens and finishes fights with explosives, and uses a combination of combat drugs and their jetpack to run circles around enemies shredding them with a pistol barrage. Luthor’s kit barely provides burst (heroics and Q), it seems like you’re pushing him away from sustained damage with basic attacks, and the mobility feels limited to higher cooldown effects. Combat drugs don’t make an appearance in the kit, either. Also, while G-4 Cluster Bombs matches how they work in Starcraft 2, it just feels thematically lacking and is a bland ability overall.

Interaction - 5/5
No glaring interaction problems in the kit. Strong abilities are skillshot focused and mobility is nowhere near overdone. Backburner’s total potential damage definitely feels too high, but one small number concern doesn’t warrant a penalty in my opinion.

4

Concepts updated with the Week 2 talent tiers as well as prep for the weeks after, hopefully this lives up to the hype of effecting nitro and cluster some xP.

5

guess its my turn huh, well here I go. Im gonna rank each tier individually in a vacuum and then give some real overall scores at the end
also sorry for a lack of capital letters, my shift button broke.

level 1
3/5
everything exaggerates your reapers hit and run play style in some way, which I like

Combat Drugs (QUEST): its hard to ignore that this is almost literately anduin’s blessed recovery it works with your reapers hit and run play style so well that im gonna give it an ok anyway. I recommend having the healing take place over 6 or so seconds to encourage more of a little bit of hiding after taking damage instead of staying in the fight with your effectively 15% more hp

pre lit fuse: I like the idea behind this talent but i see no reason to use the empowered auto attack over a Q

I dont quite understand what Recycled Fumes does but going 20% faster all the time might be a bit much for a level 1 talent

level 4
4/5
yay thematic pistol augmenting

ITC-E Triggers: Im assuming this is either a quest or the stacks fall off after some time so ill give my opinion on both.
if its a quest then it stacks way to fast, you can get the 50% bonus only after 20 basic attacks
if the stacks fall off then this talent is fine. I dont wanna rework all your stuff for you but i think it would be totally cool for the hit and run thing if reaper’s attack speed starts really high but slows down to less then his normal attack speed, resetting when out of combat

U-238 Rounds (QUEST) and P-55 “Scythe” Gauss are good talents

level 7
4/5

Jet Pack Overdrive is a good talent, really suits a reaper and the added dodge would really help out his low health pool

Moebius Restraint Matrix dont hate me but ive got 2 problems with this talent. first I dont like that such a fast hero has a stun. second, a 1.5 (2.3 with good timing) second stun is very long. most non ultimate stuns in hots are less then 1 second and all stuns almost never go above 2 seconds

No Escape: I really like this one. I would add some minor down side to it or make it a 13 talent

level 13
4/5

Hit & Run this talent is pretty much perfect, exactly what you do with reapers in starcraft :D. the jump jet animation must be pretty quick for this to result in a dps gain but I think thats totally fine

I love it when a Plan comes Together: i think this would make a better level 1 talent then a 13 one

Kaboom time! also a fantastic talent, brings me back to those terrifying wings of liberty days when reapers were basically siege units

level 16
4/5

Incendiary Rounds is a way overpowered, 140 damage after only 4 hits and 350 at full stacks is way to much damage thats ‭1,050‬ damage after 3 seconds of burning at full stacks.

Supply Depot and Stimpack are both good 16 talents the extra charges is nice for hit and run and the the healing is a good option for staying in a fight

level 20
2/5
the power level of these talents are all over the place, ranging from almost useless to game braking. try to have them so if almost any level 19 hero were to fight your level 20 reaper they would either get completely rekt or wouldn’t be able to kill you

LD9 Clusters: I would add a 15 second lower cooldown to the ult with this talent. other then that, good talent, glad to see the classic reaper cluster scatter thing somewhere :smiley:

Burning Sensation this feels about as strong as a level 4 talent. I think i get the idea behind it where you get up close to get the big burn damage and then use the speed boost to quick back out but at level 20 im not sure thats necessary as back burner is more of a wombo combo ultimate, if you’ve done it right you win the fight and shouldn’t need to run anywhere. I would completely rework this in to either some kind of defensive thing while your flaming or give it a completely different effect entirely.

Procyon Shade Suit this is the one i think breaks the game, kind of a weird, almost unthematic talent. being immune to damage for 4.5 seconds make would him impossible to deal with in a time fight and the downside of allies cant target you dosent even matter if you’ve only taken 1 auto attacks worth of damage. the counter play of “just dont auto attack him” is pretty unreasonable for many heroes to deal with.

Always Prepared Is a good talent. Its simple, but is still powerful while still being manageable to fight against. this is the kind of power level the others should match.

I hate to give to much criticism with out any suggestions so heres what you could do. the ideas of Burning Sensation and a lesser form of Procyon Shade Suit could be combined in to a single talent sense it almost seems like they were made to be picked together anyway. I wouldn’t go as far as being damage immune but something that would let you dive in to the middle of a team fight and be able to tank the damage of at least 1 other hero but dont let it be unbeatable in a 1v1 battle. something like healing for damage delt or maybe armor for nearby enemies would do this. and then have a little bit of move speed during the ultimate so you can keep on top of enemies or quickly respond to someone elses crowd control.

quick note, before the ratings, dont forget to put duration on all your over time stuff ; )

final scores
Creativity: 4/5
not bad! I know I gave out a lot of low scores but for the most part that was because of the execution of the ideas, there are a lot of diamonds in the rough here and a lot of the things I did rag on still has potential.

Cohesiveness: 3/5
for me, everything awesome about this hero revolves around his trait, jump jets, and using them to jump in and out of fights doe some hit and run tactics even during team fights. I feel that this is your designs biggest strength and most of it should revolve around this great idea. there are a some talents that really play in to this style but there are just as many that encourage you to stay in and keep fighting. some examples being: Incendiary Rounds and ITC-E Triggers (if it does what I think it does) encourage you to stay in and keep shooting and punish you for dipping out of a fight by losing stacks. some suggestions; anything with charges or if you want something more complicated; “after dealing X amount of damage, gain something or something happens when you next leave combat”.

Thematic: 5/5
I used to play a TON of starcraft and everything I wanted to see in a reaper hero, you just about nailed, speed, harassing, and a touch of siege damage. overall I think this is an earned 5 rating here

Interaction: 2/5
now the score is only that low because of a few game breaking talents and high numbers but that shouldn’t be to hard to fix. other then that it seems like the standard squishy fast hero dies to crowd control which is fine.

some thoughts on your base kit. (none of this affected my talent review)
personally I think the base kit is fine its a little basic but so is like 80% of the actual hots cast, besides, thats what talents are for :slight_smile: . I mentioned it before but I really like jump jets, it could have been just a “go over wall” ability but being to go back and forth is pretty cool and defiantly the way to go (rather then giving it charges or something). some way to extend the time you have before you gotta jump back as a talent would be neat. earlier I said I didn’t like stuns on fast heroes but im actually ok with KD8 Charges its not hard to play around and wouldn’t easily be used to set up kills for someone else which Is the biggest problems I have with those kind of skills.

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

6

Updated for week 3s judging as well as updated alot of the talents as per Waterlongs Feedback.

I also learnt that despite this is an actual quote that the forums won’t allow the use of A.S…S so i had to add an S to it as a spelling mistake just to get it through so no bad judging that.

7

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

Total - 18/20

A slight break in professionalism, but I will say that your talent trees have improved drastically over these CDC’s, and I think this is one of your best ones yet.

Creativity - 4/5
The character choice was a fun one, and I think many people would be delighted to see a reaper join the heroes cast. For the most part, the base kiit is creative, though I do have a couple of minor issues. First and foremost, I think Cluster Bombs is incredibly unimpressive, as it is more or less Fenix’s W with half the complexity and uptime. The minor boost of damage to structures is core to the reaper, but it doesn’t really do much for the design. The W is also a bit simplistic, and I really do think there could be something more baseline here. Cleansing slows on cast would fit the power fantasy and make the ability more interesting to use. As for talents, most of them are engaging and alter how the character functions. There are a small few talents I have issues with for being a bit too plain or unimpactful, namely Kaboom Time! and Stimpack. The skins are pretty cool, and the legendary G.E.A.R. skin is really good.

Cohesiveness - 5/5
The kit fits the idea of a hypermobile hit and run assassin, and seems to flow together quite well. I do find the E a little weird, though I guess it works with its limited duration, to further accentuate the idea of hit and run. The heroics offer options to the character to patch their weaknesses. Altogether, solid base kit. The talent tree seems to work together pretty well, though there are a couple of talents that seem a bit out of place within the design, either with their previous ability or the playstyle of the character. First of all, and most importantly, I really don’t think this squishy, hit and run poke character will be spending much time in land pushing hardcore, adn taking structures. The character seems perfectly slotted into the gank role with its large mobility and hit and run aspect, and so all of the structure damaging talents feels out of place. I would recommend all of them being cut or repurposed. The other big note is that I still think Backburner’s tier 7 upgrade doesn’t really capture what the ability wants to do. As waterlong said last time, the heroic doesn’t want the Reaper to be lingering about after a wombo combo. Still, these fixes are minor.

Thematic - 5/5
Everything in the character fits the direction you presented, which in turn fits the reaper nicely. I have no notes or suggestions.

Interaction - 4/5
While the character does present plenty of outplay potential with avoiding his damage, the character’s incredibly mobility and several healing talents could make him quite a pain to deal with, which is just further fulfilled when you look at how he can basic attack while moving and becomes even harder to pin down when he goes a heavy W focused build. For these reasons, I cut down Interaction a little. Overall, however, the design is very solid.

8

Final update is up even if not much, don’t like the 20 talent for Backburner as it is now but least it adds some survival to him without breaking him.

9

Damian - 84/100

Creativity: 9/10
Cohesiveness: 8/10
Thematic: 9/10
Interaction: 8/10
(+2 Thoughtfulness, +1 Game Fluidity)