So, lets start with the fact that WC3 started it all with their custom map feature that evolved into the first ever MOBA titled DOTA (which was later purchased by a competing company). From there we had the first ever standalone MOBA Heroes of Newearth, which really just copied DOTA heroes for a while before making some originals. Then we got League of Legends, which gave us bushes and passive trait talents. DOTA2 came out as really just a prettier DOTA and renamed units to avoid being sued. Then came Heroes of the Storm, which I feel took the genre to a whole new level.
Some of our favorite heroes from other games, we loved so much because of the mechanics involved in playing them. My personal favorites, based on mechanics alone, are as follows. I encourage anyone interested to list which mechanically unique heroes they loved the most from some of the earlier MOBA’s (please explain the mechanics
Nidalee shapeshifting spell spammer
This was a hero with two sets of spells. She was essentially a ranged assassing with a super long range nuke (straightline skillshot that did more damage to further away targets). She eventually gained a melee assassin form. The most fun thing about her was that the cooldowns in each form were independent. So she really had 6 seperate spells that could be combo’d in different ways depending on the situation (or just spamming pounce in cat form to escape).
Not asking for a Nidalee clone but Greymane doesnt really fulfill these feels and Valeera only slightly does so with her stealth openers. A WoW druid (like Broll) or even a Diablo Druid (werebear/werewolf) could be a good way to have a shapeshifting/spell spammer.
Udyr no ult, all about the autoattacks
What I liked most about this hero was that he didn’t have an ult. His entire focus of play revolved around melee stances. I played God Wars MUD’s when I was younger and this guy is specifically why I started playing LoL. All his abilities just modified his autoattack and gave him a temporary buff based on the ability used. One of my earliest HOTS hero concepts aimed at turning the Diablo 3 Monk into something similar (there are 4 different spirit generators and the monks 1st/2nd/3rd attacks in a combo vary based off which spirit generator was used for each strike in a 3 hit combo). Instead we got Kharazim and not a DPS monk. Blizz has also kind of stuck to the (only 1 D3 hero for each class although theres a fire mage and an ice mage from WoW) likely because they are so behind on representing them all that more than one of anything seems like a waste. I would still like to see a hero, without a true ult, whose gamep[lay revovles entirely around the order in which you combo abilities. Perhaps they can do this with the D2 Assassin if they ever get around to making her, as she was very similar with one of her builds. Again, not looking for an Udyr clone but a purest autoattacker with abilities that alter those autoattacks and give a combo playstyle to the otherwise generic concept of autoattacking