Blood mage have very nish and very toxic kit, basically with all nerfs next patch he will have one jobe - suck and astral demon hunter (because piercing nerf next patch so palarifles will go down more).
He is absurdly BAD as second carry hero with flame strike, and literally THE worst and THE least popular first pick hero in the game because devs was forced to nerf everything because how overpowering his giving mana to actually strong and mana dependent heroes he was (and partially is). So i think about light rework of this hero, so he will be more carry-like and less toxic to the game.
- Siphon mana - make it 3 seconds duration, 10 mana cost, 25\40\55 per second\rank, 9 seconds cd BUT he CANT share mana with this ability, only drain, thats will fix his toxic relations with mk and pala but he will still can be mana-disabling hero like demon hunter.
- Astral - its inredibly strong AND weak ability in both scenarios, and thats why its so toxic, my suggestion is making it 8 second cd 4 seconds on heroes, cant be dispelled and silence the enemy target - make it real disable, with real cd and interesting strategic uses, not just saving rifles.
- Flame strike… This ability costs 125 mana, dont hit air, hit your units, not instant both in cast (almost second) and while on already on the ground (so if u even hit something - its like for 40 damage 1 ghoul and everybody run out of it even if enemy have 50 apm). So my suggestion is to make it 115 mana, 0.4 sec cast, burn effect on units instead of ground effect from it, but deal only 50% damage to the buildings.
This change will stop blood mage of being mana battery from pala and mk, or just disable tool to shut demon hunter from being in the game, instead he will be ok-ish first and second carry hero, make “breaking the law breaking the law lest burn something” what he is supposed to do in the first place. Yes am or mk will be better first heroes for hu, and mk as second, but blood mage will be viable carry hero who actually can use his nuke in fight b4 80 limits or sorcs. I know that many orc, elf and undead players hate this little crazy twink, but its not his fault, his kit is just toxic mostly because all his powerbudget is about giving mana to pala or mk, or disabling demon hunter till next game, but we can fix it instead of just killing that hero.