As no surprise from my name, I’m someone who plays a lot of Deckard Cain. He’s one of my favorite characters, however I do find his style… more tedious than it probably need be.
I was planning on posting this balance change before the recent patch, but I didn’t make it; in the latest patch he was given some health boost and cd reduction on Lorenado and some minor quest reduction… cool, sure.
HOWEVER, that’s not at all what Cain really needs IMO.
There’s 2 main issues with Cain:
1) He’s way too spammy, and low damage
2) He’s really narrow in build order, as all the Activated gem builds are complete trash
As far as addressing claim (1), it’s a fact that Cain can drain through his mana faster than I can slam a can of Mountain Dew… and that’s pretty damn fast. The problem is is Horadric Scroll & Seal take up quite a lot of energy and they deal practically no damage, I mean 80 damage and 150 damage is abysmal, especially when they’re skill shots (especially Scroll of Sealing, not easy to hit smart opponents unless big fights). Now obviously your goal is more focused on the slow and stun, but the duration is so quick that most of the time its a minor inconvenience and wears off in 1 sec and then you have to sit and wait to cast again. This is partly why I think it’s pretty much impossible to get good results and not pick Field Study and Cube mastery talents and lvl 1 and lvl 7.
How to fix this?
Deckard needs his Seals and Cube abilities to do like double the damage, so they make much more of an impact, and increase the stun/slow durations by like 0.5 seconds. In return, increase the mana cost and cooldown cost of it. Right now its just too spammy and doesn’t have a dramatic enough effect, so increase the cd of them by like 6-7 seconds but boost their effects.
As far as Claim (2), to put it bluntly the Activated “Gem Traits” are just absolute garbage, please never pick them. They’re “conditional” upon casting Cube AND hitting a hero, AND for example with Ruby you have no control of the placement of these “lesser healing pots”, and on top of that they disappear. Stupid. The Emerald and Saphire are just garbage too… woopty doo, slightly more slow (for the sacrifice of 20% spell power btw! from lvl1) and the Emeralds healing reduction and damage is super fringe, and passing on either Cube traits would be insane since they’re 100 times better!
How to fix them?
I DO like the idea of having Actives though… I do, it’s just that these ones are garbage and do so little, off the top I can think of MANY more creative and useful ideas than simply amplifying the SAME stuff he already has.
For example here’s a few “Actives” you could try out as Traits:
Active Idea 1: “Telekinesis” (30 sec cooldown)
Skillshot: ‘Cain can activate this ability to cast an instant telekinetic wave of force that pushes enemy 3 yards in ANY direction (directed similar to “molten boulder” maybe?)’
I like this 'cause it seems to fit the lore with the “scroll of identify”, and for the oldschool Diablo players, the “scroll of telekinesis” back in day.
Active Idea 2: “Burning Staff” (cooldown 45 sec)
‘Cain enchants his staff with a burning fire for 8 seconds, any enemies hit take 100 damage, then explode for 200 damage. Enemies hit by explosion spread.’
(Idea was like a slightly weaker melee “Living Bomb” from Kael… just one idea, but I’d be open to others)
Active Idea 3: “Mana Potion” (cooldown 60 sec)
Cain can not use mana potion. Using mana pot causes Q to go on cooldown, too.
‘Cain drops mana potion to replenish 150 mana for allies.’
I like this idea for one because… why are there no mana potions? It seems such an obvious gap, and much needed benefit to team.
Active Idea 4: “Town Portal” (cooldown 120 seconds)
‘Cain opens a portal that after 0.5 second channel, allows allies back to base. Duration 4 seconds.’
I like this 'cause it just feels perfect for Lore of Cain, with scroll of TP. I was thinking this could be like a lvl 20 or lvl 16 trait maybe. It’s kind of a similar twist to a Medivac drop for Morales…
I think any of those ideas, all or any combination of something like that is FAR BETTER than the Gem Activations he has now, and they’d be FAR more fun too! He should have all these fun actives with creative abilities like this that people could enjoy using… but he doesn’t, at least yet. If Blizzard is listening and cares, I implore you to at least browse over this and take some inspiration. Cain’s one of my all time fav Blizzard characters, and I’m 35 and been playing this crap since Diablo 1, Hellfire, D2, and D3, it saddens me how one-dimensional and spammy Cain is, we can do so much better with this old geezer!
Thanks for staying a while and Listening,
Prophet
