Hero Suggestion
Diablo classic: Moreina the Rogue
Hailing form the Sister Hood of the Sightless Eye, Moreina is the playable rogue from Diablo who would eventually be corrupted and become Blood Raven in Diablo 2. With the skin for Blood Raven donned by Sylvanas, having Moreina proper (before corruption) would be a bit more distinct for the Nexus.
Yet another female archer!? What could make Moreina different?
Silhouettes, animations and playstyles are factors that should distinguish one hero from another â Tyrande holds her bow in one hand, Sylvanas uses the other, and Valla uses two hand-held crossbows. Each has different posture and movement so, even as thematic skins, the characters are readily different from each other.
Moreina could be unique by using a Longbow (instead of recurved) and then having her attack and cast animations aim above her targets:
Longbow archers would fire volleys upwards and use the fall of the arrow to give it the power to pierce armor. This sort of firing technique could be used for Moreinaâs attacks and abilities as a way to set her apart from other archers.
While D3 lore did give Blood Raven a bow, the Ravenâs Wing bow looks too similar to what Tyrande uses, and could instead be replaced with the Raven Claw Longbow
â which back in the D2 days, I assumed was meant to be her bow anyway <.< >,>
Basic Kit
[Q] Enflamed arrow: Shoots an arrow high into the sky that enemies cannot tell where its going to land. This is a delayed-action skill shot that deals stacking damage over time to heroes hit by the enflamed arrows. If an arrow misses an enemy hero, the arrow lingers.
(this ability doesnât indicate where its going to land)
[W] Unkindness: Skillshot debuff on enemy heroes. When marked units take enough damage, a raven pecks at the enemy to deals additional damage.
(note: apparently a group of ravens is called an unkindness)
[E] Detect Trap: Sisterâs of the Sightless Eye have a sort of sixth-sense for the unseen and trapped. This sense sends out a pulse that reveals hidden objects or units.
(this would reveal objects like abathur mines or zagara creep)
[R1] Flightless Bird: a rapid movement ability that can be recast to change directions. If this passes over arrows on the ground, it will recover ammo.
(the reference for this ability is a combination of the rapid hopping that some birds do instead of running and a nod to Blood Ravenâs boss behavior having her do a lot of running)
[R2] Shift + Click : a channeling ammo dump, Moreina rapidly fires arrows, each dealing damage to the first enemy hit.
(use of shift-clicking is a nod to Diablo 1 to fire at specific targets and not risk running up to units to attack them at melee range)
[D] Trait: Quiver & arrows: Moreinaâs abilities do not use mana . Basic abilities hold charges, but have long cooldowns. Using her trait, Moreina will expended some of her ammo to refresh the cooldowns on her abilities.
(ammo was a factor in Diablo 2, and an actual issues for ârealâ archer is a limitation on arrows. However, since ravens are adaptive scavengers, I figured an ammo-theme would suit a âRavenâ type character like Moreina )
Talent Tree
Lvl 1
Rogue Hands (trait): Basic attacks at melee range have a chance to recover ammo.
Worthwhile Loot: (trait) Quest! collect regen orbs. Reward: collecting a regen orb will recover 1 ammo.
Focus (E) Quest! Hit burning enemies with Basic attacks. Reward: Detect Trap no longer consumes ammo
Nesting (trait) Increase spell power while at full ammo
lvl 4:
Block Trap (active) Summons a temporary unit that can block hits. Shares cooldown with Detect trap
(this is a reference to the Guardian spell of Diablo 1 to summon a unit. In this context, the summon could be used to disarm junkratâs steeltrap)
Mindmace (E): Using Detect Trap will stun and deal bonus damage to summoned units in the area.
Flash (E) Detect Trap can interrupt cast animations on enemy heroes in the area. (an interrupted spell doesnât go on full cooldown, but it does need to be re-cast to be used )
Awareness (E): Next basic attack against a unit revealed by Detect Trap deals bonus damage.
lvl 7:
Split-shot (Q): Fire a pair of Enflamed arrows. If both arrows a stuck on the ground (missed hitting units) and Unkindness (W) is used to hit both arrows, create a wall of fire between the arrows.
(its not a wall that stops units from crossing, it just damages all units in the wall)
Explosive arrows (Q): Fire a trio of arrows. Shots that miss a hero will explode after a short delay.
Volley (Q): Fire 5 arrows over time. Decrease max charges of Q
(the aiming icon would change to a box where the middle and four corners could align with the 5 shots.)
Immolating arrows (Q): Enflamed arrows on the ground last longer and deal periodic aoe damage.
lvl 10
Heroics
[R1] Shift + Click: Channeled ability that rapidly consumes ammo, but fires countless arrows forward, each damaging the first unit hit.
[R2] Flightless Bird: a rapid movement ability that can be recast to change the direct Moreina is moving. If she passed over any arrows on the ground, sheâll recover ammo.
lvl 13:
Kleptoparasite (E) Damage from Unkindness heals Moreina
Dungeon Barrel (Basic attack): 3 consecutive melee attacks will push an enemy away from Moreina.
Infravision (active): ammo can be consumed to grant Unstoppable. Detect Trap reveals heroes even through obstructed vision
(if moreina is affected by impairments Dehakaâs Isolation, then Detect Trap would still reveal vision of enemy heroes in the area)
Neophobic (trait) Grant spell armor after using [D]
lvl 16:
Pester (E) Unkindness will deal additional damage on its own. Units are revealed by this damage.
Recollection (E) Healing on units affected by Unkindness counts toward the damage procs.
Opportunist (E) Unkindness will chain to another hero unit if that hero has less %hp than the target hit by Unkindness.
Most Unkind If more than one enemy hero is affected by Unkindness, Basic attacks will trigger Unkindness on all affected heroes. This damage is boosted if basic attacks are done at melee range.
lvl 20:
Join my army (trait): Takedowns recover 1 ammo.
Amplify Damage (Q) Melee attacks deal bonus aoe damage to units affected by Enflamed arrows.
Ravenâs Cache (trait): Increase max ammo.
Deaththrows (trait) Deal aoe damage around on death. Ammo can be spent to lower respawn timer.
(this is a reference to Blood Ravenâs death animation in Diablo 2)
Build Theory
The talent design of this concept has a lot of themed talent tiers and doesnât lend itself to the usual q,w,e -type builds. Since this concept involves an ammo-based gimmick as the resource management for the hero, I thought it better to have builds that donât emphasize a single ability as a way to bolster wanting to have a time for using other abilities, esp with a baseline effect like Detect Trap . Having builds to emphasize Q, or E, or the like take away from the tactical consideration of using other abilities in favor of just using, and then refreshing, the one basic ability with her trait.
While that effect could still be used (should this design see Live) having talents âforceâ improvements to all her other abilities increase the capacity for those abilities to be useful and not untalented deadweight.
To note: there is a lot of talents that modify basic attacks, but more specifically attacks at melee range. While not explicitly stated, I had wondered at the idea of the hero either not having a ranged basic attack, or using it would cost ammo as well. To note: I did not give specifics on actual cooldowns or ammo limitations and Iâm not quite sure how to visual the balance of this sort of hero. So I left that up to the imagination of others if they read through this.
So since Iâm not specific on ammo, Iâm not sure if I wanted to follow-through on basic attacks consuming ammo, so I went the more concrete route and focused on melee attacks as the Rogue in D1 has a kick animation and having this weird talent option to empower her melee attacks is very different compared to other archer heroes.
On another unusual note: I did not make lvl 20 upgrades her her heroic abilities. Certain talents will influence her resource control, and resource management will be a big part of which heroic, and lvl 20 upgrade, would influence her builds the most. Flightless Bird can be used as an escape, chase, or way to recover ammo, so that would emphasize more Q or E talents. However, Shift + Click burns through ammo (inefficiently) for burst damage instead of the damage-over-time effects that comprise Moreinaâs proposed kit. So having talents emphasizing resource control, would be a way to improve that heroic.
Lastly, to clarify, the design focus of this hero is Damage over Time. Q is an ability that doesnât reveal is landing position, so rather than be surprised burst, it deals its damage over time, and a skilled player could continue to kit targets and stack up that damage.
W is a debuff/trigger that deals periodic damage to a target when theyâve taken a certain threshold of damage. So thatâs just another type of damage-over-time. However, E isnât based on just Moreinaâs damage, but would be influenced by any damage dealt, so its more of an opportunistic effect to bolster ally focus fire.
E, as is, can seem like a wash, esp compared to existing heroes that already have better vision-granting spells for their utility. Detect Trap is a bit more focused in effect and would, ideally imo, be more suitable when more âtrapâ effects or units come to the Nexus. So in that regard, Moreinaâs main appeal would be as a counter/comfort pick for dealing with stuff, like Junkratâs traps, in a way other heroes donât do as directly. Even then, sheâs not intended to be a âhard counterâ but the ability for trap-control is one of the few âuniqueâ qualities of the Diablo Rogue, so I thought it would be worth trying to make a useful, though conditional, skill out of it to (hopefully) be an upgrade from its usage in Diablo classic.
