Hero Suggestion
The Diablo 3 Male Demon Hunter
Inspired by Lidra from The Hunger, the Male counterpart of the Deman Hunter class could be visually set apart from Valla by using knives, thrown weapons, and traps. This adaption is a Demon Hunter by trade, but is otherwise a renegade to the organization of Diablo 3 lore.
Basic Kit
[Q] Bola: Linear skillshot that tags the first unit hit. Units hit by Bola will take damage and then be rooted after a short delay. If a unit uses a movement ability while affected by Bola, then the root is negated.
(Effectively, this is similar to Xul’s root, but has longer range, is a skillshot, and can be blocked by units in the way)
[W] Barbed Snare: Set a trap in target area. Units that trigger Barbed Snare take bonus damage if they use a movement ability within 2 seconds of being snared. If a movement ability is not used with those 2 seconds, then movement abilities are disabled for 2 seconds.
(Barbed Snare is a destroyable object. It has a central core akin to Zagara’s creep, but otherwise has limited visual cues on where the trap is set. It is unlike Junkrat’s traps in that it can be killed, but also isn’t readily visible to the enemy team. The movement disabling effect isn’t a root, and affected units can move normally)
[E] Evasive Strike Hero lunges forward a short distance. If the lunge hits an enemy hero, target takes damage, and then the DH vaults backward some distance.
(This would be similar to Hanzo’s trait-move, only the effect is based on hitting an enemy hero and wouldn’t jump over terrain.)
Heroics
[R1] Preparation: On use, basic abilities use a charge of Preparation instead of using their own cool down.
[R2] Smoke Bomb: Creates scattered arrays of Bushs in target area.
(Separating out the bushes means vision isn’t granted to units from one bush to another)
[D] Trait: Throwing Knife. Next basic attack has increased attack range.
Talent Tree
Lvl 1
Freezing Strike (Q): Units hit by Bola are slowed if the root-effect doesn’t trigger. (ie, if unit uses a movement ability to avoid the root, they’re hit with a slow instead)
Spike Trap (W): Barbed Snare deals aoe damage if it is destroyed without triggering as a trap on an enemy unit.
Grievous Wounds (D): Basic attacks boosted by trait deal extra damage to enemies affected by CC, but then grants them Unstoppable for 0.5 seconds. (the enemy hit by this would be granted unstoppable. thnk of it as having a bound enemy, but cutting to deep in a way that also looses the bonds)
Impact (Basic attack): If Hero attacks a unit with armor, the next basic attack will deal increased damage if used against a different target without armor.
Lvl 4
Custom Trigger (W): Units damaged by Snare remain revealed for an extended duration.
The Hunt is On (W): Hero gains movement speed if an enemy is hit by Barbed Snare
Scatter (W): Increase of the area of effect of Barbed Snare
Lightning Rod (W): Enemies hit by Barbed Snare take bonus damage from the next basic attack to hit them
(from any ally unit, not just the DH)
lvl 7
Bola Cluster (Q): Throw several Bola in an arc. Units can only be affected by 1 bola at a time. (So no shotgun boost against a single hero)
Echoing Blast (W): Gain a second charge of Barbed Snare, but snares now have a limited duration before automatically being destroyed. (the time-lapse of this effect would work with the lvl 1 talent where destroyed traps deal aoe damage)
Ricochet (D): Using trait on an enemy affected by Bola bounces the attack to other enemies.
lvl 10 Heroics
[R1] Preparation: While active, basic abilities consume a charge of Preparation instead of using their own cool downs. Units already effected by Bola or Snare that are hit with a second ability take bonus damage, but do not refresh the duration of the cc.
(ie Q can’t be used to chain root an enemy, but will instead trigger extra damage)
[R2] Smoke Bomb: Scatter Bushes in target area. Each bush does not share vision for units inside other bushes.
Lvl 13
Hardened (E): Gain armor if Evasive Strike doesn’t hit an enemy hero.
Bitter Pill (Q): Units hit by Bola are blinded once all other cc caused by Bola ends. (this would refer to either the root or the slow from the lvl 1 talent were in effect)
Parting Give (E): Hitting an enemy with Evasive Strike creates a Barbed Snare where the DH lands.
Lvl 16
Volatile Explosives (Q): Bola deals additional damage to units near the target hit by Bola.
Focus (W): Basic attacks deal %X hp damage to enemies affected by Barbed Snare.
Rattling Roll (E): Hitting an enemy with Evasive Strike lowers the cooldown of Throw knife (D).
Lvl 20
Backup Plan (R1): Throw Knife (trait) gains a second charge. Using (D) lowers the cooldown of Preparation.
Miasma (R2): Enemies in the bushes made from Smoke Bomb take damage over time.
Demonic Scavenger: Recover hp and mana when units die (allied and enemy)
Overpenetration: Basic attacks can deal aoe damage every 10 seconds. Hitting an enemy with Evasive Strike resets this trigger.
The design aim of this suggestion is to function as a sort of counter-point to Junkrat’s power balance. This is a (mostly) melee ranged hero that has several forms of crowd control, but they’re delayed and conditional abilities. However, a key distinction to the delayed effect is that this hero has the chance to punish certain forms of mobility by presenting options to the affected enemies on which effect they’re willing to take: do they try to bail immediately and take more damage, or risk enduring a temporary lockdown, and then hope to escape afterward.
Build Theory
The first tier of talents are a sort of ‘punishment’ theme in that specific ways basic abilities can fail are offset with a particular talent. This sort of power opportunity is unusual for lvl 1 talents, but some of the goal is to put some of the DH’s power a little early in the game to offset him being a close-ranged character where the later talents taper off and lose out in comparative power to other heroes.
These ‘punishment’ effects do work with later talents (or at least I’d intend for them to do so) so the wording on later talent tiers is particular in taking these effects into consideration.
eg: talents phrased to have an effect based on being damaged (or hit) by Barbed Snare would trigger of the lvl 1 talent where damage could be dealt to a unit even if they didn’t walk into the trigger proximity of the trap.
The talent tree itself isn’t as fleshed-out as I would currently like in getting 4 options per non-heroic tier, but I think it is rounded enough to have a few build-themes. Q-build is the most apparent and would build around getting multiple Bola talents to get aoe hits and aoe damage and be akin to a Kaelthas bomb in punishing clumped enemies. W-build is a bit trickier as traps could be build around having a wider area covered in advance (such as protecting lane rotations or creating hurdles on the way for an enemy to the objective) but the potential use of Smoke Bomb can obscure the vision of an area and allow opportunities for traps to be set in-field during an active battle.
Since some heroes do benefit from bushes and have limited effect of those bushes to some objectives, bringing that directly to a battle would empower some subtle or flanking heroes to have a more direct pressence in a skirmish.
Lastly, there is as sort of aa/trat build. While the hero itself is melee, or at least super-shortranged, the trait does allow some forms of poke to help offset some of the weaknesses of melee heroes. The Evasive-strike ability could be used as a gap-closer (fall short of hitting an enemy) or be used from a reverse position to then be able to dive after back-line heroes rather than just being used as an escape mechanism. However, like greymane, this hero does lack for in-battle recovery, but poke trades and dive-commetment come with risk – which is hopefully offset by this hero having cc that greymane does not.