The Influence of Hero Units (As of TW3)
I was gonna post this in the Battles TW3 Megathread, but I had a lot more ideas directly related to heroes than I had anticipated. These are my initial impressions after about 5 games with bots.
Hero units don't feel extraordinary or very powerful in terms of the fights.
* For example, Vela seems pretty lackluster. Her Fair Warning is a nice idea, but it doesn't feel strong enough. It feels like a supportive ability, which is fine, but even then it has a long cooldown and the additional damage granted by the mark doesn't feel exciting, it moreso just feels like something I know I should do to influence the fight. Her Diplomatic measures doesn't feel too good either, though that might mostly be because the engagements haven't been interesting against the bots.
* I also played Celesta; her Hawk ability seems fine as utility and Cleansing Light makes me feels reasonably influential (although it's a bit uninspired), but the abilities have very long cooldowns, where I begin to forget that I have her as a unit.
* Hydros felt a bit uninspired, but his abilities felt like they had a strong presence. The heal felt pretty satisfying, especially fighting creeps, because you would abuse the AI and make your attack really efficient by healing one unit. This probably isn't new to anybody. The Turn the Tide is also really cool, having AOE invulerability. But, again, that's all there is to him. Outside of the repeated heal and the once-in-a-while invulnerability, he was just another unit.
This is all in really stark contrast to the way that the heroes feel in other MOBAs. Of course, I'm gonna result to make comparisons to DOTA 2, because I enjoyed it so much more than LOL. For the most part, those heroes felt very powerful and they had a lot to them, as they should. I understand the difference in this game, in that there's a lot more to manage and your other units have their own roles, but I don't think that the heroes should end up boiling down to one-of-a-kind soldiers.
I'm gonna look at Magnus because he was one of my favorites and his skillset pretty nicely fits into some of my points. If you're not familiar, his abilities include a linear damaging streak of lightning, a charge that brings along units, a passive AOE basic attack, and an ultimate that pulls units around him inwards. He has a very strong presence because of his abilities that provide heavy crowd control. When I charge into a team and pull people into me, I feel like a monster. Also, I always have something to do because I can keep poking in with my lighting thingy. I feel like I have a presence, and I'm constantly engaged.
Again, I understand that this game becomes a bit more finicky because there's a lot more going on. I don't necessarily suggest that every hero become their own invoker with a dozen unique abilities, but I do think that a larger presence and more active influence from the heroes would feel a lot more exciting. In general, maybe I'd suggest one more ability, some sort of passive ability, and definitely shorter cooldowns.
I don't mean to try to pretend I could design a game well, but I do want to point out some ways I think I could see the hero units have a lot more presence and identity. Let's say I were to add more content to Vela. What she has now is okay, but again, there's not much to her so i'd like to see some more complexity. Let's say i gave her a passive where she briefly stuns a target on her every 8th attack. Well now I have something that happens decently frequently that i can keep in mind, I can selectively choose targets to stun if I have the micro for it, and I have something to synergize with fair warning. I could also give her mines that I can place across the battlefield to slow damage and slow in an AOE. this synergizes with my Deadeyes who have easier targets, I get something more to do throughout the game even when I'm not battling, I can now have some depth on how I position my army, and kiting with my army becomes more doable. I just thought of these off the top of my head, but I think that these kind of additions would make the heroes a lot more interesting, but maybe not too overpowering in terms of a squad leader.
Thanks for reading!