Make Blade Dash re-activatable, much like Falstad’s Boomerang. This could be baseline, or a talent choice (e.g., at level 7 alongside Solarite Reaper, perhaps in place of Follow Through). Re-activating Blade Dash cancels it. Not sure what else might be reasonable to attach to this, or how Blade Dash itself might need to be nerfed (e.g., longer cooldown), but that alone would be super as an escape/juke tool.
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Honestly, that would be completely broken on him. I have said this before when this suggestion has come up in the past, but do you really want a tanky bruiser who can blink? While he won’t be able to do it as often as Zeratul (unless he is playing against Vikings with a full Q build), he will have no problem blinking into your fort, killing you, and blinking out again. He is designed to take a lot of punishment, because he doesn’t have an escape, so giving him one would mean he not only can take a lot of punishment, he can do it on purpose just to kill you.
Think of a Genji with tank levels of HP and sustain.
Yeah.
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Obviously, they are never going to do this. If they wanted to they would have already, it has been suggested before, and they’re not going to give this much mobility to a hero with shields.
Would you give Zarya a Dash?
They could buff his shield but yea giving him a blink would just be bonkers.
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“That’s a mighty nice Moonwell you have there. It would be a shame if Amateur Opponent happened to it.”
Blinks out again, laughing in Protoss.
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Tyrande shakes her fist furiously after you.
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I’d rather they add a talent that increases the length of the little pause at the end of Blade Dash and allows you to recast your Q during that time to redirect your return stroke by up to 60 degrees to the sides.
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I like this, but I would combine our two ideas: re-activating Blade Dash at any time – not just at the end – confers the ability to re-direct.
I mean, you could reactivate it an any time, but I think it should always be vectored from the end of Blade Dash’s initial dash.
Otherwise you could cast it in the opposite direction you want to go and then just instantly recast it, and then voila, you have a slightly more complicated version of what Hoku described.
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I think we are on the same page, i.e., the critical difference is to require a re-direct – rather than stopping dead – and constrain it to some maximum (e.g., 60 degrees).
Yes. This would give players more control over Blade Dash without making it just a dash ability like ETC’s Powerslide. It would be useful for both minor repositioning and readjusting your Q’s AoE to make sure you hit a target just off to the side.
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Lets make it an activatable on the 1 button with a 60s cooldown. I dont think you can survive a fort that long.
And yes, it allows your E to still drag you in that way (if you hit an enemy). But i think that its a fair way because of that 60s cooldown. Its not like its constantly going to happen.
In which case I will walk in, kill you, and blink out. If you give Artanis a reliable escape, he will be too strong for his own good.
There are a lot of bruisers that can dish out a lot of damage and get a safe escape. I dont think thats the real issue. Restricting its power is at least required though.
But i actualy think there is a diffirent issue: If its a talent, it becomes mandatory to pick. Barely any talent would be able to compete here. It would need similar survivability talents with it.
For balancing it further we could add more restrictions (for ease i just call the talent ‘talent’):
- Upon using Twin blades, talent always goes to a 5 second cooldown
- Upon using talent, Artanis loses 25% of his current HP and sets Shield Overload to 24 seconds.
Basicly add conditions that make it not usable for offense by causing downsides in those specific situations. The twin blade part for example means that you still need 5 seconds afterward to be able to dash out. Sure, it can sometimes still be done, but that is acceptable.
And the health loss makes it also less effective for going in as it kills a lot of sustain and health. When trying to escape and using this as a gap closer, the missing health can be covered by simply being at a distance the enemy no longer can attack you.
It is tweakable!
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Maybe make Blade dash unstopable? Would that be OP?
Yeah, surely less OP but still you would need to think about how swap would fit with unstoppable. Because then, Artanis could potentially swap someone into his team while still going back into his team. Maybe there are some other stuffs out there that you can you can do with an unstoppable dash.
Absolutely. Remember, Unstoppable clears blinds, too, so now you have no way to counter him.
For Artanis, he really doesn’t need mobility, as it works against his core design. By giving him an escape, you have to further nerf his damage and/or survivability, which actually leaves him even worse off than before as a viable hero.
Personally, I would like to see more attention paid to his trait, as I feel that would give him that extra bit of defense he needs. For example, give him a talent such that when he is stunned, rooted, or blinded, his trait instantly resets, with maybe an internal CD of 5 seconds so he is still vulnerable to CC chains. This would work well with a number of his talents and builds, without adding to the mobility creep already affecting the game.
Another buff I could see for him would be a talent that lets his W do splash damage. He is currently a single target monster, but suffers in lane because of it.
I think, if any, Amateur Opponent should be made partially baseline and the upgrade itself is made to increase the damage bonus and/or allow it to proc on buildings
Or allow his trait to be activated manually (this could be baseline, quest, or unlocked at a certain level). I think that’d would make him scarier though lol
I like your ideas, though I would say that AO should be made baseline as-is, and they could add a more interesting choice in its place. Manual activation of trait sounds a lot like Muradin’s 16 - Stoneform so there is precedent there.
Any buff would make any character scarier, but Artanis needs something to be viable. If additional mobility is so completely out of the question – I disagree, mainly because of Leoric’s base kit, and I really like Maximus’ idea further up the thread – then becoming even tankier or dealing more damage baseline may help.
The biggest problem with this is that he could then take Protector of Aiur on top of it, meaning he will having scaling damage that applies to everything, including structures, which would be too much.
The issue with suggesting changes to a hero like Artanis is that the things that keep him in check are somewhat necessary, as if he isn’t countered, he really is a monster. Removing his weaknesses would create yet another overtuned hero, and I would rather see small tweaks that play to his strengths.
1 Like