Guide to making a well balanced Hero Idea

Guide to making a well balanced Hero Idea

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 5:31 pm

Index

1. What is a Hero Idea?
2. Thinking of an Hero Idea
3. Stats and their balancing
4. Skills
5. Balancing Skills
6. Synergies
7. Discussion




1. What is a Hero Idea?

If you are a newbie to DS, you may ask "What is a Hero Idea?"
Breifly, a hero idea is a hero which is submitted by the user who wants this hero to be in DotA.

An Hero Idea dosnt mean that you can make a totally IMBA hero and own in game, it wont even get approved if its IMBA.
It dosnt even mean that your hero idea will be in DotA.
Hero Ideas are just for fun, many people have fun making and balancing them and thats why they make it.
IceFrog dosnt even look at the Hero Ideas given my users of his own site, then why on another site? He has his own crew of employees working for him.




2. Thinking of a Hero Idea

Your Hero Idea needs to be original, dont make a Kardel Sharpeye with a different name.
Think of these things about your hero:
Primary Attribute: Str/Agi/Int
Type: Hero Killer/Tank/Support etc.
Theme: Fire Spellcaster/Ice Warrior/Knight of Darkness etc.

Every hero has a role to play in game. Purist is a support hero, whereas Clinkz is a killer.
Theme of your hero is important, it should be matching with your storyline.
Faceless Void's theme is Time Magic, Bloodseeker's theme is blood etc.

Make an inventive name:

Name is like any orginal name, like Robert.
Alias is considered as a hero's job or rank in battle.
Such as Yurnero is a Juggernaught because he cannot be stopped. Bloodseeker is because he seeks for blood etc.

The World of Warcraft is like the Earth. In earth, a chinese person will have a different name than a american person. eg: Ling Hou, Mike.
Same way in Warcraft, an orc has different name than a human.

A helpful list of naming:

A Holy human type hero: Mostly a normal american name with a 2 word combined word as a surname.
eg: Arcanite Holyhand, Arcan HolyHammer etc.

A Blood Elf: Blood Elves have aprostrophies in their name.
eg: Quel'Thalas, Que'Lous

Dwarven: Same like a paladin, normal name + word combined as surname.
eg: Mordin Bronzebeard, Thor Ironhammer.

Orcs: Mostly a short one go name.
eg: Throm, Thrall, Grom, Grall

Night Elf agi hero: Same as paladin or dwarven.
eg: Syron Bladedancer, Annelia Windwalker

Undead Knight: Baron/Duke/King/Lord + 2 word name which relates to death/undead.
eg: Baron Bloodbane, Duke Darkdemon, Lord Hellface

Nerubian Guy: Egytian type names.
eg: Tuten'arak, Anub'stein

Undead Spellcaster: Like paladin, dwarven.
eg: Marcal Frostfear, Fark Flamefinger

Thats all i know about, you can keep another type of name also.

An Inventive storyline:
Make the storyline long, mostly exatarating and explaining the skills.

Bad Storyline:
The Markal is a grim reaper. All people fear him, even the Lich King is said to tremble in his power. He sought for greed and he got power, now when he will seek more power he gets riches.

Very Short.......





3. Stats and their Balancing

If you are ready to make a hero, then go to the My Strategies page and click on Make a Hero idea on the upper right corner.

Mostly the primary attribute of the hero has relatively higher stats than other attributes.
Dont make your stat/stat gain imba.
eg: Str: 45 + 5.75

Dont even make them uneven
eg:
Str: 5 + 0.2
Int: 40 + 4.5

Str is too low and Int is too high, better option would be to increase str and decrease int.

Balancing stats are easiest to balance. Mostly the range is 14-25.

Different hero types have different stats:
Melee Damage Hero: High Str, Low Agi, Low Int.
Tank: Extreme High Str, Low Agi, Extreme Low Int.
Ranged Agi Hero: High Agi, Low-Med Str, Low-Med Int.
DPS: High Agi, Low-Med Str, Low-Med Int.
Massive Spellcaster/Nuker: Extreme High Int, Low Agi, Extreme Low Str.


But i suggest to make a unique hero that dosnt follow any of these stat rules. But make him balanced.

You must enter these things in your hero while making a hero idea.

Primary Attribute: Agi/Str/Int
Damage: Base Damage of your hero
Int: (Starting int) + (int added per level)
Str: (Starting str) + (str added per level)
Agi: (Starting agi) + (agi added per level)
Movement Speed: How fast will your hero move. Range: 270-335
Attack Speed: How fast will your hero attack.
Armour: Base Armour of your hero
HP: (Str x 19) + 150(read only)
Mana: int x 11(read only)
Mana Regen: How fast will your hero regenerate mana, dpeneds on int(read only)
HP Regen: How fast will your hero regenerate life, dpeneds on str(read only)






4. Skills

Ill say to make your skills unique. I know that skills like Blink, Wind Walk are shared by multiple heroes. But if you want an escape mechanism for your hero, dont copy the blink skill make another skill that does the same thing in a different way.
DONT EVER make the ulti unoriginal. Max number of skills that are unoriginal should be 1. Making all skills unoriginal will make a boring hero, it will just show how a bad hero maker you are. And try not to make a normal warcraft skill into a DotA hero even if it hasnt been put into dota yet.

eg: i make a hero with Phantom Lance, Storm Bolt, Magic Missile and Thundergod's Wrath, not only will it be a boring hero to use but also a hard one to kill.

Remember, a hero without skills is like a pizza without cheese. Even a hero with all passive skills is like a pizza without cheese. A simple normal attack killing hero uses spells to own, there is no hero that can own without no skills.(thats why naix was changed even his ulti was almost like passive)
Remember that skill SHOULD have mana cost or health cost, or any cost for that matter unless its an passive skill. Remember that all heroes need to have atleast 1 spell which has mana cost, then why u need mana?

Dont ever add a high duration effect to a damage skill.
eg: Throws a spear at an opponent that deals 300 dmg and stuns for 5 secs.

And always specify if your skill is active/passive or auto-cast. Also specify if its a orb effect.

You must enter these things to your skill when making your hero idea.

Skill Name: Name of the skilll
Hotkey: shortcut key of the skill, this is compulsary.
Discription: Main discription, specify what your skill does.
Level 1: Specify the amount of damage/heal or any other effects at level 1.
Level 2: Specify the amount of damage/heal or any other effects at level 2.
Level 3: Specify the amount of damage/heal or any other effects at level 3.
Level 4: Specify the amount of damage/heal or any other effects at level 4.
Notes: Special notes for the skill.
Framework: Special Effects.
Mana Cost: Mana cost for your skill.
Cooldown: Cooldown for the skill.

Note: If your hero's ulti is affected by Aghamin's Scepter, then dont make a lvl 4 add the effects near brackets.
Eg:
Level 1 ulti: Deals 250 dmg to enemies(300 with aghamin) and heals by 75(150 with aghamin) to allies in an 400 AOE.






5. Balancing Skills

DONT MAKE ANY SKILL IMBA. No skill should do 500 dmg and slow by 95%. Even permanent invulnerability is imba. Self-Sacrifice to kill another hero is also counted as imba. Techies skill deals 1550 dmg not sure to kill so it isnt that imba.
Remember that your hero shoudnt be perfect, it should be flawed. All heroes have a counter, even permabashers have one.

Dont make a skill to wavy, by wavy i mean this:
Deals 10 dmg in an 5000 AOE.
For that skill i suggest to decrease AOE and increase dmg.

Deals 7500 dmg in 300 AOE and has a 95% chance to fail dealing damage to yourself.
I dont know where but i saw a skill like this long back. 95% chance to fail to deal dmg to urself is self sacrifice.
i would suggest to decrease damage drastically and decrease chance to fail also.

A good way of balancing is to gives points to a skill and compare it to another skill of another hero.

eg:
I have a spell:
Throws a magical axe at the target dealing 270 dmg and stunning for 2.3 seconds.(I give it 270 points for damage and 230 points for stun = 500 points at total)
Now compare it to storm bolt:
Throws a magical hammer at a target deals 300 damage and stunning the target for 2 secs.(300 + 200 = 500, both points are same so it is considered as balanced)

Well that skill was unoriginal but it was just for example :P





6. Synergies

Even though they are many heroes in dota that dont have synergy, a good hero always has atleast 1 synergy. Try alot to make your hero's skills synergised. A best hero would have all skills synergised with each other.

A chance to crit or chance to unleash lightning goes good with a skill which gives you attack speed. A nuke that deals damage equal to a % of your base damage goes good with a command aura type skill. A summon skill will be good with a disable since summoned units can attack the enemy hero while disabled.
I could go on for hours but i gutta proceed.

Even if your hero dosnt have skill synergies, it can have item synergies. Item synergies are when a skill has synergy with an item.
Razor's attack speed increase skill will go good with basher or maelstorm. Phantom Lancer can have alot of illusions with manta style.
Vladmir's Offering can increase the lifesteal of brood's ulti.





7. Discussion

Discussion is one of the most important parts in hero making. Its nothing related to going in the DotA game, but without this your hero idea cant be approved.
Well, you can always post ur hero in the forum if ur too lazy to make a discussion.

You must have atleast 3-4 of these sections in ur discussion, well its best to have all.
1. About the Hero
2. About the Skills
3. Skill Synergies
4. Item Synergies
5. Skill Build
7. Item Build
8. Worst Enemies
9. Good Allies
10. Piece of Cake Enemies
11. Useful Gameplay tips forthe hero
12. Thanks to:


About the Hero:
Why did you make this hero? What gave you this idea? What will be this hero's model?

About the Skills:
Explain your complicated spells here, if you think none of them are complicated, no need to add this.

Skill Synergies:
Mention useful synergies and how to own with your skills here.

Item Synergies:
Mention useful item synergies and how to own with items here.

Skill Build:
Put in one or multiple skill builds in which you think your hero will shine.

Worst Enemies:
The most hardest enemies to defeat in the DotA, counters to your hero, and propably how to counter them again.
Note: If all heroes are in this section, that means your hero is underpowered.

Good Allies:
Heroes that will do good with you as allies.

Piece of Cake enemies:
Easy enemies to defeat.
Note: If all heroes are in this section, that means your hero is overpowered.

Useful Tips:
Useful gameplay tips and how to play properly with this hero.

(Thanks to:):
Whom do you want to say thanks to? Most people thank drew and the site etc. but thats mainly for impressing the mods to make them approve it. This dosnt even work, the mods dont get flattered so easily.




Thats all for now, have fun making your hero!
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Also known as HellCraft in Garena

Last edited by bloodcraft on Thu Jul 17, 2008 4:21 am; edited 7 times in total

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Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 2:07 am

noes.
you explanation makes people go for cookie cutter and boring heroes.

don't finish until you remake to encourage radically different and weird spells.
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Users shot down : 6
Whats the hype about?

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Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 8:38 am

EDIT: Added some into stats and their balancing, made some of skills.

SUGGEST: Newbie map makers plz dont read the strikethroughed text.
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Also known as HellCraft in Garena

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Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:07 am

like the guide...there are 2 many unoriginal ideas...gj
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Thanks to King u5 for finally having a nice signature

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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:45 am

glad u liked it
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Also known as HellCraft in Garena

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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 8:32 am

other tips:
- dont hav skills that make u or another hero INVULNERABLE 2 damage, this is imba.
- don't have skills that create buildings, or repair towers, this is imba.
- don't have high dmg skills coupled with high duration powerful effects
e.g. deals 300 dmg, 4 second stun.

-ALWAYS add a manacost or cooldown, if its passive SPECIFY IT, also specify if sumfin is an orb effect.

- having too many damaging AOE spells is imba. try not 2 have more than 2, a gud way 2 look at nerfing is with lina, her 2 aoe skills are nowhere near as gud as other, but due to her having 2, they r only are able to deal 280 dmg each. one with no effect.

blah cud go on 4eva, but i gtg haha. nice guide.
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Harass,deny,farm,kill,destroy,spend,support,own.
Dota, it's simple.

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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 7:54 am

EDIT: added mangoman's sugestion and completed synergies.
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Also known as HellCraft in Garena

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Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 11:29 am

EDIT: Added Discussion
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