[HC] Zerg Morphling

Insipiration
This Hero is inspired by a SC2 Heart of the Swarm Map where Kerrigan puts a Larva into a Protoss Host who is then warped onto a Protoss vessel. The Larva instantly bursts out of her to morph, evolve, grow, adapt and eventually takes over the whole ship. That combined with some Natural Selection 2.

Synopsis
The basic gist is that you start off as a Larva and you can morph into different zerg creatures. You can take the form of a melee stealth character with burrow, or a flying ranged CC or a ranged DPS.
In order to morph into a new form Morphling must collect Nourishment with its trait. After morphing it can still morph into any of the other forms as long as it has enough Nourishment. Some of the ultimates also require Nourishment and you have access to different ults depending on what morph you have currently taken.
When Morphling dies he only gives the enemy team half a kill. And evertime he respawns he comes back as a larva, he can then choose to evolve into whatever he wants.

Trait D - Consume
Consume is a point&click melee range ability that deals some damage to an enemy. If that enemy is killed by consume or if the enemy dies within 0.25 seconds of consume being used it will give you stacks of Nourishment.
Everytime Consume is cast on an enemy hero it gives you Nourishment.
Minions grant you 5 Nourishment. Heroes grant you 25 Nourishment.
Consume can also be cast while burrowed.

Z - Creepsplosion
Morphling cannot mount but it moves faster on creep. Creepsplosion will instantly place creep around a decent radius around it which begins to dissipate after 3 seconds. The creep allows Morphling to move faster.
Additional effects may apply such as slowing enemies.

Tunneling Claws Q - After channeling for 1.5 seconds you become burrowed. Once burrowed you you are untargetable, and you can’t take damage and you can move around but moving requires burrowing-stamina which is quickly used up while moving, if you remain stationary while burrowed you use up much less energy. While you’re moving underground you are visible as a burrow trail on the ground, but these trails disipate after 1 second behind you and if you stop moving the trails will disappear leaving you invisible. You can also tunnel underneath terrain to escape or engage enemies.

Parasite W
Ability changes a bit depending on the Morph

Variable E Ability
Depending on your current Morph this ability will change.

Variable Ultimate R Ability
Depending on your current Morph this ability will change.

Morphs
At all times your morphs appear on your number keys. 1 for Roachling, 2 for Hydraling and 3 for Viperling. If pushed the required Nourishment will be subtracted and you will enter an unstoppable cocoon for 2 seconds and emerge as your new form with full hp.
The Cocoon itself has 3000 hp while active.

Larva
As a Larva you have about 700HP, and your AA is melee range. Your movement speed fluctuates between 60% and 100%, averaging out at 80% and you can briefly burrow and move underground.

Parasite W - as Larva if you are within melee range of an enemy you can latch on to them and enter their body. You are untargetable while you’re in this state and you grant vision of the enemy wherever they are. Even if they teleport back to spawn. You also continue to grab exp globes that are in range.
You can cast Consume at any time while in Parasite to deal 300 dmg to target. But it will also expose you back onto the battlefield. So you better get to saftey, Creepslosion and burrow under terrain out of there.

Morph into a Roachling - Cost 60 Nourishment
1800HP, stronger Melee AA, 100% movement speed.
Your Burrow Stamina and Burrow movement speed is doubled. So you actually move faster while burrowed than when you walk.

Your E is Tunneling Decoy you can send a Tunneling Decoy to fake your movement. The Decoy will continue to burrow straight to the target destination and will pop out of the ground spawning a little melee roach. If an enemy hero was targeted then the decoy will chase the hero instead.

Ultimate R Morph into a Brutaling can be cast while burrowed.
Requires Nourishment. - Cost 100 Nourishment
Brutaling HP 2840, melee attacks cleave a little. 100% movement speed.
As a Brutaling you are perpetually unstoppable and you can’t be healed anymore like deathwing, this is the result of your passive E ability called Frenzied. Your movement speed isn’t amazing but your Consume now literally consumes an enemy hero which stays alive inside of you and they slowly lose HP inside you while your HP regen increases considerably while a hero is inside of you. If your health drops below 50% you puke the hero out again. Your lifespan as a Brutaling is limited as you morph back into a Roachling after a time. If you die as a Brutaling you actually die.
If you transformed while burrowed you will emerge out of the ground knocking up and stunning enemies that were above you.

Morph in a Hydraling - - Cost 70 Nourishment
900HP, ranged attack, Ranged attack range 5.5, Movement speed fluctuates between 70% and 110% averaging out at 90%.

W Parasite, you fire a Parasite SC1 Queen style onto target which reveals them for 8 seconds. Range 7. Use the SC1 sound effect too ;D

E Corrosive Bile it’s similar to Chromie’s old Dragon Breath. Fire a delayed splash attack that deals some damage and reduces armor by 10 for all enemy targets that are hit. Enemies can see where Corrosive Bile will land.

Ultimate R Morph into a Lurkerling can be cast while burrowed.
Requires 60 Nourishment.
1800HP, attack range 14 within cone, movement speed 0%.
Once you hit R you instantly burrow and are prompted to aim a cone into a direction. In this cone a barrage of Seismic Spines will be launched in direction where the mouse is at. They are visible and dodgeable, so players can get out of the way quickly enough within the cone. After a duration you morph back into a Hydraling. As a Lurkerling you can’t move and you can only be damaged by splash damage as you are untargetable and unstoppable.
You can cancel the ult as well.

Morph into Viperling - - Cost 90 Nourishment
1100HP, Ranged AA, 100% movement speed, you can over terrain like Medivh’s Raven form, but you can attack and be attacked back.

W Parasite, same as Hydraling except it’s a skillshot that travels 9 range.

E Blinding Cloud which creates an area cloud that reduces all attack range of all Enemy Heroes to melee range.

Ultimate R Abduct
It’s a skillshot that behaves a lot like Stiches’s hook, though maybe a bit faster. If an enemy is hit they are pulled halfway between you and the target. And they cannot be pulled over walls, gates or terrain, they get stuck on all of these.
Range 12, drops off target at MAX 6 range.
(The distance pulled is always half of the whole distance)
Costs no Nourishment, 14 sec CoolDown.

Talent Ideas

  • more movement speed while burrowed
  • greater consume range while burrowed
  • more effects for Corrosive Bile and Blinding Cloud
  • Instant burrow from Parasite
  • extra debuff for Parasite, Armor reduction or slow after consume
  • more options to gain Nourishment from abilities.
  • Silence target when you cast Consume a target with Parasite
  • Consuming leap. Gives Consume range which makes you Jump at target to consume them. Kinda like how Murky jumps with his tentacle ult.
  • Creepsplosion slows enemies - could call it Ensnare like the SC1 Queen ability.
  • Creepsplosion allows you to Burrow twice as fast
  • Collect 25 Regen globes to increase HP regen considerably while burrowed.
  • Increase Attack speed after unburrowing (good for Hydraling)
  • Refresh Parasite CD if consume is used. Can’t be cast twice in a row on the same target though.
  • Microbial Shroud - Blinding Cloud supplies 15 armor to allies.
  • Plague - Blinding Cloud deals dot
  • Blinding Cloud makes turrets only attack in melee range.
  • Corrosive Bile onto Parasited target causes Parasite to explode and deal aoe dmg around target. Good for farming and Teamfight.

To Consider

While Morphling Parasites an enemy hero they still collect exp globes. So enemies with Parasite need to be careful to avoid their own minions when they die.

Morphling cannot activate its Ultimate abilities unless it collects enough Nourishment. So it must be careful and try to collect more Nourishment while using its ultimate abilities.

If you are about to die for whatever reason you have the option to morph into a new form. The cocoon has 3000hp and once you transform you are cleansed of all dots and effects.

Abduct drops off the target at half the distance that the target was initially grabbed from. So to get the maximum grab Viperling will have to make sure to grab from far away.
It can also be used to just CC a target into a wall for a second. If it’s used on point blank range it would literally just pick up the target and put it back down which could still give you an extra second to live. ;D

Morphling is very fragile in its Larva state but it must take risks to get its Nourishment. So kills on its Larva State are just worth half a kill. It’s possible that higher evolutions of it are worth more of a kill to the enemy for balance.

3 Likes

This is a really interesting Hero concept. A Hero that drastically evolves as the game goes on to better counter the enemy. May I ask what role this hero will be? Also, I think it would be neat if this hero is given a personality like Probius, but more sinister but in a naughty kind of way. Maybe his name could be Morpho or Morphe or Morf. Just an Idea.

Is Nourishment a depletable resource or is it like Diablo’s Souls where you won’t lose it unless you die? So will you keep your stacks of Nourishment even after “morphing”?

Is this going to be like Broodmother’s Web from DotA where she places a limited number of large webs that she can traverse around with increased movement speed?

I think that this mechanic is a bit counter-intuitive because it either renders you mostly immobile (as in not being able to move on your own accords), makes you a hostage, or just stop you from playing it risky to get early stacks of Nourishment because you feel safe just hanging on (in?) your Host waiting for the killing blow which might as well never happen. I propose Parasite be modeled after the Brood Queen from SC’s Ocular Parasite ability where you cast it on a hero and they will provide vision in a certain radius to your team.

Are the non-heroic talent morphs (Roachling, Hydraling, and Viper morphs) part of the talent tier talents? The one where you click on your Hero portrait to access? Or are they available separately from your talent tree and are accessed on their ability keys? I personally think that having him choose his abilities rather than being tied to talents would be better, of course maybe some talents won’t be accessible if you take a different Morph.

Or is it like a talent tier itself where you can choose what you’re going to be once you have enough Nourishment?

1 Like

I like the idea or constantly rebuilding your character after each death. However like mentioned above do you retain any of the nourishment upon death? Or do you have to start all over again recollecting. If so I foresee the problem of your character being too powerful early game depending on how quickly you evolve or not being powerful enough late game. I enjoy the parasite idea but I think making him/her/it evolve according to what class they infect should open up where the character goes. And maybe depending on the team’s talent level allows you to start with a certain number of nourishment at spawn. Either way this concept opens up to a lot of different possibilities which I like.

2 Likes

May I ask what role this hero will be? Also, I think it would be neat if this hero is given a personality like Probius, but more sinister but in a naughty kind of way. Maybe his name could be Morpho or Morphe or Morf

Yeah, a Personality would be cool on him. The name also isn’t set in stone. The SC2 level where he shows up on the Protoss ship actually has a cameo of Murky in a spacemarine suit in a containment ;D
His role would be… Spy!
Nah maybe melee Assassin or hmm I’m really not sure ;D

Is Nourishment a depletable resource or is it like Diablo’s Souls where you won’t lose it unless you die? So will you keep your stacks of Nourishment even after “morphing”?

uhh I would say you keep them unless you spend them on either morphs or ultimates. Because they are hard enough to get and they are pretty important.

I think that this mechanic is a bit counter-intuitive because it either renders you mostly immobile… makes you a hostage… I propose Parasite be modeled after the Brood Queen from SC’s Ocular Parasite ability where you cast it on a hero and they will provide vision in a certain radius to your team.

Yeah, I kinda got the idea from the SC1 Parasite. Maybe if you use the ability it could use that same classic sound effect ^^
Maybe we could buff the ability a little bit by allowing Morpho to instantly tunnel after a Parasite + Consume if it wants to. So it could wait for a good chance, then cast consume doing his damage and minor CC and then tunnel out of there to safety. He can tunnel through terrain so there should be plenty of chances to make a getaway.
During Teamfights he would prbly camp at an objective until an enemy comes to latch onto, and then he constantly provides scouting for your team while making heroes think twice about getting too low in health.
Maybe there could even be a talent that he could jump from one host to another. Like there’s a talent that allows him to reduce healing received of his host and so he always tries to get into the target to get the most effect out of his parasite talent.

Talent Morphs

So, I was thinking at like level 4 or level 7 maybe Morpho would get the 3 Morphs into his talents which he could then select and Morph into.
But your idea is pretty neat too. Maybe as a Larva he just has the ability to morph at anytime once he has enough Nourishment by pushing 1,2,3. Then we have more room for neat talents. I like that better actually.
Tho… I guess if we do it that way we can’t really restrict talent choices dependent on morphs. All talents would have to be accessible at all times. Even your ult wouldn’t be a talent choice anymore since that is locked in once you selected your morph.
W8… I have a cool idea. What if you can morph between the 3 forms whenever you want as long as you have enough Nourishment?
And your R then always changes depending on your Morph. So your level 10 heroic talents can still be something really strong but they’ll be passives, like getting Nourishment easier, or dealing more CC. Things like that.
Maybe we can even scrap the whole having to reselect talents every life and just build the talents with multiple forms in mind. Kinda like how DeathWing also has talents that buff his different forms.
They take a while to read those things xD

yay thanks for the input. Morphy will only get more powerful ;D

HotHead3d

thanks man. Yeah, tru, that could be a problem. Maybe the talents will just have to enable it to be more useful late game as well. Talent level = start with more Nourishment mmmmm I would like to avoid that if possible. But that’s a good backup strat ^^

1 Like

Morpho and Probius could be one of those funny heroes where they look weak but are actually Assassins. Also we could always use more Melee Assassins in the game. lol.

So Nourishment stacks are consumed when you take a morph path? Sorry if my wording wasn’t clear. Also, like @HotHead3d said, this mechanic can really make or break him in the early and late game, so do you envision him being a late-game or early-game oriented hero?

This is the thing that I’m quite unsure about since this means Morpho won’t be able to aggressively farm for Nourishment stacks. Maybe if Consume provides significantly more Nourishment stacks when killing an enemy hero using Parasite, Morpho would be incentivized to build into his Parasite ability.

Also, I forgot to ask, so Parasite can be used to latch onto an Enemy hero right? I think you should be able to reactivate it to deal damage and jump off so you won’t be dependent on Consume that much.

Yeah exactly, so you won’t be forced to re-pick talent tree (which I think is a MASSIVE advantage in the late game) every time you die. I also like the idea of being to switch your morph anytime as long as you have enough nourishment to be consumed, but I think for balance reason, Morpho should have a considerable channel time when switching kinda like in Evolve where the Monster has to hide to morph because he will be very vulnerable during that time. So all in all, I like the idea of not having your morphs being tied to your talents, maybe you can even reshuffle the kit so that Nourishment will be a component of Parasite and the Trait can be “Morph” as long as you have enough stacks. As a trade-of the damage from Consume could be given to Parasite (encourage Morpho players to use Parasite more to gain Nourishment).

All in all, a really unique Melee Assassin concept!. P.S. Morphy does sound better tho lol

1 Like

Yeah you constantly need to find Nourishment to fuel his morphs. You use it up when you Morph. If you have an idea of how else that could work I’m all ears.

So during Teamfights it depends. If you’re in the Larva stage without Nourishment stacks then yeah you’ll hide either underground or in a bush waiting to Parasite someone.
Once someone is parasited you can then try to reach the tank to lower their armor or get to the mage to reduce their spell power. Everytime you leave a host you’re at risk of being attacked but you can burrow right away and make your way to the next enemy hero.
This could be the level 1 talent actually what your parasite effect is. When you’re underground you’re basically untouchable but you can only move so far and eventually you have to come back up I suppose.

If you have access to other forms then teamfights can look pretty different. Also the Parasite skill is only available in the Larva stage. Would be weird other wise I think.
I guess I envisioned him more of a late game hero or mid to late game. He’ll have morphed into a creature best suited against the enemy team comp and ready to help his team out basically. In the Larva stage he’s only a mild disruptor, a scouter but mostly he needs to get stacks quickly by parasiting them maybe.

Does require a lot of figuring out. But it’d be an awesome hero I think ;D

Ye Morphy, does sound neat ;D
Thanks for all the feedback ^^

1 Like

Really cool,it is a good SC concept and It will be a guide for me in these roles,It think it is proper for a [Support-damage dealer] hero.

Do I understand it true,The Zerg always is running and so Nourishment will stop this moving and path.?
And abilities are done while moving?

I actually love this Idea,it is creative,while he death,he can change his role depended on the current situation and make a new strategy.
:+1:

Servants support him to being faster it is very good,inverse of it that most times we see,the main Hero,boss will support his Servants. :smiling_imp:

I have a suggest:while you are in enemy’s body,he/she become silenced for 2.5 seconds and during this time you use one of his ability against himself on another enemies.

Good,but what is the effect on enemies,damage or CC?

This seems unusual to me. Do you want to replace that property? The property of blindness or reducing the amount of damage?

:+1: :+1:

Please explain this ultimate one more to me.thanks

1 Like