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shadowmastermk47

Ya spit yer words 2me, I smash mah fist 2you!
Mega Kill Posts: 857 Joined: 15 May 2006 gold

Hero Creation Guide for newbs + pros

Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 3:51 am

Introduction
This HCG was originally from Deathlust of forums.dota-allstars.com
Here's a link for those who are members there: http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?showtopic=38982

This is just a short guide on things to consider when you are making your hero!

Index
I. Brainstorming [#001]
II. Hero Lay-out [#002]
III. Making your hero [#003]
IV. Choosing your abilities [#004]
V. Game Balance [#005]
VI. Hero Completion [#006]
VII. Examples & Stats (Incomplete) [#007]
VIII. Tips from the native peeps [#008]

I. Hero Brainstorming [#001]

You may think, why brainstorm through a hero whenever you can simply post a hero and get feedback from people on the forums?

Well, the answer is this:

Most people, except for a few devotees to this forum, will view your suggestion once, and maybe twice if you are lucky. People don't have the time (or most people) to sift through thousands of hero ideas and read them with care and actually take the hero into thought like you, its maker might.

When you brainstorm a hero, you generally think about how the hero might affect the gameplay, what strategies it might have, what synergies it will have, and so forth. Generally, a well-brainstormed hero will separate itself from the ideas that were basically jotted down without a lot of thought put into them.

Plan your hero out. To make your hero seem like you gave thought to it, you must plan it out. Instead, you may get some abilities (which I see this way too often) which have no synergy, don't fit the hero theme, or the hero role. (I must specify this real quick, the hero role is what it does to affect gameplay, EG - healer, nuker, tank, so forth. The hero theme is what the hero is based off, EG - fire, moon, earth, war, blood, and so forth. It is very vital that your hero has both a theme and a role!)

I realize that this can be quite a nuisance to go through a careful planning, but usually it will be worth it, and if you manage to make it through the rest of this guide, you will have a good hero.

II. Hero Lay-out [#002]
Ironically, your hero's lay-out on the forum does matter. This cannot be emphasized nearly enough. This is another factor which you must worry about to separate your hero from good to great. As I mentioned above, people won't want to view a million heroes. if you have an attractive lay-out, with a different array of colors, they will be attracted from your use and will be more focused on it rather than they would a monotonous tone of a post.

You can get too much lay-out on your hero though!! Be careful, when making your hero and implementing it on the forum, I highly suggest you do not use too large or small of font sizes and do not use excessively bright colors, especially yellow. These things will really make your hero idea look messy. You want your hero to look composed and very well thought-out and made! Give them the correct impression your hero idea deserves!

When making a lay-out, it is good to have icons. As many of us know, an excellent source of finding icons is at WC3Search, a massive download center. (ESP since wc3c's crash really crated its resources, which I would've reccommended hate most of them not been lost)

It is understood that because of the large amount of resources that WC3S has, it will be hard to locate what icons or anything else you might need. (They do have decent models here and there) Use the search bars in the sections of the downloads to help you make your search easier.

It also helps on your lay-out to have an Index, which should preferably contain the following:
Hero Statistics (Name/Model/Attributes/Attack Stats/So Forth)
Abilities (The hero's abilities)
Synergies (Synergy between hero abilities, items, and other heroes)
Strategical Views (Strategy on how the hero could be used in the game)
*****
Closing/Credits (This one i'll let you figure out)
The asterisks stand in a place where you may put anything else you wish to in this place, it also helps increase people to see your hero your way if you have a test-map!

Please note, it is a rule that you must have the following in your hero suggestion :
-Binary poll (Only two options of a thumbs up/down)
-One hero per thread
-(This one I'm making mandatory)A good hero!

III. Making your hero [#003]

This is the fun part of hero creation! This is where you get to let your creative juices go!

First when making abilities and getting your hero together please consider the following:
-The hero's stats [#013]
-The hero's role [#023]
-The hero's theme [#033]
-The hero's balance [#043]
-The hero's synergy [#053]
-The hero's originality [#063]

Let's take this one step at a time...

[#013]-SubChapter #0 - Hero's Stats (Added by shadowmastermk47 )

All heroes will have the same base HP and Mana.
Base HP: 150 + (Strength x 19)
Base MP: 0 + (Intelligence x 13)

[#023]-SubChapter #1 - Hero's Role

The hero's role is very vital to a balanced gameplay and enviroment! It is what keeps heroes in their place, so to speak. Although it may not seem that important it is.

Consider the following -
-Would KotL make a good hero killer?
Technically, he isn't meant to be. He is meant to be a support/pusher with his powerful abilities. He is built in a manner that makes him different from every Clinkz and AM. He does not have any direct hero killing capabilities (Just because you don't have direct hero killing capabilities does not mean you do not have damage!)
What I mean by this is that the KotL has a harder time killing heroes, because his nukes and damaging abilities are harder to pull off (mainly solo) and be successful with them as compared to how easily someone like Zeus will have chain nuking one target to death.

Ironically, most people do not consider a role for most heroes! Think about your hero's role and how it would fit into DotA. I do warn you that too complicated of a role is not good for a hero! It causes complaints and imbalances!

[#033]-SubChapter #2 - Hero's Theme

The hero's theme is also another important factor to a good hero. Although it isn't as important as something like balance or role, it still makes a hero somewhat unique and creative. Whenever you are making abilities for your hero, always consider his/her theme! It would be really weird if Icefrog went and gave Zeus a fire-based ability since he is a greek god based around lightning!

The theme is ultimate what ties the hero abilities together (with the role) and creates a sense of harmony and balance between the hero and its abilities. This means you must be careful whenever you choose a theme for a hero you are suggestion for DotA, because redundant themes, such as having 2 moon themed heroes, will kill off the harmony and creativity of both heroes, giving them a lesser feeling of importance and originality to DotA.

[#043]-SubChapter #3 - Hero's Balance

The hero's balance, although one should not worry about this too much in suggestion forums anyways, is also impertinent. Because most people don't continually view your hero, you want to make a good first impression. Balancing out your hero before you post it is usually a good idea.

Normally, a melee hero will have more stuns, slows, and damage than a ranged hero in nuking and offensive power. A ranged hero usually has mediocre mana costs, while heavy duty tanks have slightly higher, to hinder them from constantly spamming spells like a caster should be able to do easier.

Most heroes posted that I see are overpowered, and usually get flamed to death because of so. Underpowered posts usually get a few thumbs-down before the creator can get it fixed on a balanced level, this is why it is so important to try and balance your hero before you post to save you a few thumbs-down!

[#053]-SubChapter #4 - Hero's Synergy

This topic alone is more vital than the other 4 ones in my opinion. A hero's synergy is what makes the hero complete, so to speak. A hero would be worthless if he had abilities that did not fit together really well, making him a very bad hero, no matter how original or balanced or good he/she is. Generally, it helps to think over the hero's synergy before you create it.

It helps to think about each ability and think first about how they would synergize with the hero's own skills first. Do they go together well? If so, great. If not, try to make some little extra additions here and there to make it have a decent synergy. (Just a little tip- it helps to post synergy, so some of the unintelligent can figure it out easier, if they bother to read that is)

After you think you have your hero has decent synergy within himself, think of his synergy with other characters in the game. Which characters will he be good with? Which characters will he not? Which characters will he simply own with? Your more obvious choices might be someone with a stun, slow, or disable of some sort, as would be expected. Try to go beyond and get synergy with as many heroes as possible, not just mostly disablers or heavy damagers that could do it all on their own (or most of it)!

Now, you get to have a fun part. Comparing your hero to items for synergy. Yes, enjoy going through a long list and seeing what skills might synergize with what. (This also helps you with your strategizing! So keep what synergies you can find in the back of your mind for strategical views later on!)

[#063]-SubChapter #5 - Hero's Originality

A hero's originality may seem all too important in these forums. Nothing is original these days. You must try your best, to come up with an original combination of abilities though. If you put a hero with a modified entangle, a modified bloodlust, a modified unholy aura and a modified metamorphosis, he's probably going to be rejected.

The trick is to disguise your abilities so they don't look like anything, but they go along with the following:
-They aren't used really in DotA
-They aren't obnoxiously unoriginal
-They synergize well with the hero's other abilities, role, and theme
-They make a good "original" hero as in a hero with a unique combination, not unique abilities!

There is no way anything is original to WC3 these days without an advanced engine and aspiring triggerers like there are here and there, which even they can't come up with things that haven't already been thought up! The trick to making your hero seem original to others is its composition, not its abilities themselves!

Now that that section has been covered briefly, let's move on.

IV. Choosing your abilities [#004]

This is a very fun, but serious part of hero making. The abilities of a hero are what combine all the things mentioned in the past section to make it whole with them. REMEMBER THIS: YOUR HERO'S ROLE AND THEME SHOULD HELP INFLUENCE WHAT TYPE OF BUILD IT HAS! (Meaning, if you have an undead warlord, he's probably not going to have too many defensive abilities, but a lot of offensive, while a holy character will have more defensive abilities) A hero should generally have a build like one of the following (I will mention typical builds of heroes for starters):

Tank Builds: Tank heroes usually consist of two types of the following: Heavy Duty or Support

-Heavy Duty Tanks usually are tanks more like Doombringer or Centaur, where they can be decent with allies, but they can rock on their own if built right. Generally, these guys have defensive passives and hefty offensive abilities that come with a hefty mana cost or sacrifice of some kind.

-Support Tanks, such as Omniknight or (I'm gonna get flamed for this) Pudge, usually have abilities that hinder movement, defensive buffs, and occasionally heals. Pudge, for example, has a position draw, slow, and complete disable! These tanky characters usually have a harder time getting to an owning stage (some harder than others), but can be created on a sense of balance between their support and tank roots.

Agility Builds: These little suckers usually fall into one of the following categories (some fitting into multiple): Nimble, Stealth, or Disabler

-Nimble agility heroes usually are the ones that can own the hardest. A good example of them are the AM & PA. AM, as you guessed, can easily rip his opponents to pieces, depending on who they are (usually it doesn't matter if he gets enough items). PA usually has a harder time earlier, which makes her more interesting to play. These heroes generally do best with a good mobility ability and high damage.

-Stealth agility heroes are the little saps that make you wanna buy a gem. These guys should be annoying to your opponents. Good examples are SA & clinkz. These heroes usually have a long-mode duration stealth ability with quick little attacks that are good for harassing so they can go back and forth between stealth and harassment.

-Disabler agility heroes are the ones that can become the most annoying to you if you let them. Drow and Medusa are a decent example. Usually, these heroes are ranged agility, but melee ones do make it rather interesting. These heroes usually should have decent beginning abilities with a decent-good ending capabilities.

Caster Builds: Casters are usually the ones that descend down the ladder of dominance in late game. There are a few that are decent late game. The main caster builds are Nuker, Support, and Disabler.

Nuker - The best examples of this hands-down are Zeus and Lina. Both have 3+ offensive abilities! These heroes can become a battle mage (like lina) or stay a pure-bred caster (like zeus). Generally, you want to give them some capability to grow their spells or attack damage through their spells, to give them a late game to where they won't die when touched.

Support - These heroes are what make the game interesting. No one likes them too much sadly though. Silencer and KotL are excellent examples, from silencing to giving mana. These heroes may seem dull to the player, but help your team win the game easier! It is suggested that you try to make these heroes attractive whenever you make them. It is hard to win over your audience with them.

Disabler intelligence heroes are generally the ones that do the best late game, mostly because of their disabling power. Heroes such as Enigma or (Yay!) Witchdoctor seem to make it off as support almost, but end up as the fortunate disablers. If you have ever seen a good disabler intelligence, you will know that it is through their stuns and disabling that they kill. Give these heroes something or some way to destroy while they disable!

Now, we go onto actual ability types! I highly suggest that you use a balance of the following types

There are only a few types of abilities:
Nukes - These abilities are what makes a hero have an early/middle game! These types of abilities usually end up becoming pathetic late game, but they can make a decent hero have a good early game, which can be all it needs!
Buffs - These are great abilities, especially on tanks! Use these sparingly though, since buffs usually get quite boring in a hero.

Debuffs - These are what are so fun to cast! Watch your opponent writhe in agony! Do not over-use these though!
Summons - These are what bore me to death. Try to have only 1-2 summon/illusion/extra unit abilities on your hero. These abilities make your hero dependant upon them usually, which isn't too good!

Life/Mana Drain/Transfer - These are rather interesting abilities, use them sparingly. Can create quite a good balance with nukes or buffs in them.
Other (Sight/Position Disruption/Etc) - Ahh, so much fun. These abilities make your hero sparkle (not the sight part usually) Make your opponents fear your hero with these types of abilities, but try to have only one per hero, if you have any!

Ultimates - The ultimate spells! Make your ultimates to where your opponents will fear or want to get rid of it immediately!
Good ulti examples -
Omnislash
Laguna Blade
Dismember
Freezing Field
Black Hole
God's Hand

You want your ultimates to have an effect to where they feel like an ultimate, not just some other skill thrown in!

While we are on the topic of abilities, please note that it is not good to overcomplicate your hero's abilities and add 50 million effects! Usually, the maximum you will want on a hero ability is 3 effects (EG ~ Stun/DMG/DPS)

V. Game Balance [#005]
The balance of the game is very important, that is why there are rules implemented to the Hero Suggestions that help keep DotA under a decent balance. A few good examples of what not to include in your hero for Game Balance are...
-Structure builders/repairers
-Invulnerability
-Instant kill abilities

If you are having trouble keeping up with the rules, it is highly suggested that you look at them posted by Mantis in the Announcement section for the Hero Suggestions forum. Please be sure to read them before you post a hero! Reading this will give you a general idea on balancing and how to compile your hero idea post!

Link - Hero Suggestions Rules

If you have not read these rules, I highly suggest you do so, or else you risk your hero post being shut down for one of the reasons listed in there.

VI. Hero Completion [#006]

With all the tips that I have given you, hopefully you will have created and finished your hero. Go over all the topics that are listed in here. If you need something, like an ability, DO NOT PLACE A FILLER! Look in the ability forum or ask another inspirational hero creator! Use the community and help each other out!

Post your hero once it is complete, and wait for feedback. Hopefully, you will be a success!

VII. Examples & Stats [#007]
This section is made purely for examples and statistical values of heroes currently in DotA & your hero suggestions!

First off a few examples of synergy...

Let us take a look at a few DotA characters first.

Sorry if this takes a lame tone... but oh well!

Our first hero we will be reviewing for synergy is Chen. Chen is an excellent intelligence hero, with a very versatile build. His skills allow him to choose between a support build, caster build, and battle-caster build.

Chen has very good skill-to-skill synergy!

His skill synergy goes as follows:

Test of Faith aids the other abilities by...
(Penitence) - Deals extra damage!
(Persuasion) - Can send your creeps home to heal or help deal damage while you keep them stunned or useful whenever you Mana Burn in conjunction with it dealing heavy damage.
(Hand of God) - Useful to heal an ally and Test of Faith just in case they won't make it home before the 6/5/4/3 seconds to teleport back home!

Penitence aids the other abilities by...
(Persuasion) - Helps your creeps focus more on your target, allowing them to focus their physical damage or their stuns and nukes.
(Hand of God) - Slow down your enemy who chases and heal you ally to save them if needed.

Hand of God aids Persuasion by...
-Healing your creeps to help them endure damage

Chen also has ally synergy!

Chen's abilities aid his allies by doing so in the following manner
Test of Faith - Send your ally home if hurt or help him deal extra damage to kill an enemy hero!
Penitence - Slow down your opponent to save your ally if needed or help your ally and you deal more damage to it and help chase it as well!
Persuasion - Help your allies push and tank for them. Also can help mana burn casters or stun people. Great for giving out armor if you get Ogre and helps repel melee heroes.
Hand of God - Heals your allies! All of 'em!

Chen also has item synergy!

Chen's abilities aid his items in battle by the following...
Test of Faith - Great for usage with something like Dagon to deal extreme damage. Can use something like Vyse or Eul's to help you catch them to Test of Faith your opponent. Also can teleport your necronomicon back to base for reasons (Might be decent late game if your pushing and your enemies are as well!)

Penitence - Use in conjunction with Vyse to keep your opponent in reach or away from you. Good when combined with any damaging items, physical or magical.
Persuasion - These work great with a Vyse! Use Vyse to stop them, and beat them to death with your summons! Also use your summons with Necronomicon to push. A stygian desolator helps your summons do more damage!
Hand of God - Any mana increasing items easily aid this ability as expected! Heal your weak necronomicons! Makes great healing when combined with a refresher!

VIII. Tips from the Natives [#008]
This part if from "Where Is Dr. Seuss?" and his Hero Design Notes
Here's da link, foos! http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?showtopic=70199

1. Forget About Synergy

Don't worry about synergy in your hero designs. The concept is not well understood by most, regardless. Synergy is not, for example, when two skills work together well (though synergistic skills usually do work together well, that's not what synergy is), or when two skills can be cast in a combination.
(I slashed it for da pros!)

2. Don't Reuse Unique Skills

Some skills and effects in DotA are both unique and integral to a single hero. Do not reuse these skills in your design.
(True!!)

3. Don't Have Two Skills That Do Same Thing

Do not include two skills in your design that essentially do the same thing. One thing to keep in mind is that just because 1+3 and 2+2 look different doesn't mean they both don't equal 4.

4. Don't Have One Skill That Does Two Things

Do not tack on extra and/or arbitrary effects to your skills. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck but is really a duck wearing a mask and a bandana, it's still a duck. It's not particularly creative to jam a bunch of effects into one skill. If your hero has a fatal weakness and you don't have a skill slot left in which to address it, start over.

5. Don't Have One Skill That Completely Depends On Another

If one skill completely depends on another, then they should really just be one combined skill. If this combined skill has more than one effect, refer to point 4.

6. Learn To Type In Complete, Coherent Sentences

Not only does this make your design easier to understand, it gets everyone started off on the right foot. One thing that helps out on this point is to avoid really obvious spelling errors. If you are a poor speller, type out your posts in Word and spellcheck them before you post.
(Only in the official site, I dunno about here)

7. Look At The Basic Numbers

You need to know how many starting stats heroes normally get, and how many stats per level heroes normally get. You need to know how HP, MP, and armor are calculated. You need to know how much damage heroes of your type and range usually start with. For each skill your hero has, you need to find the closest existing skill and compare mana costs and cooldowns to make sure they are in line. Everyone always says don't vote on numbers, but if you have a 400 damage nuke with an 8 second cooldown for 100 mana, it's hard to take you seriously.
(You guys can refer to some stickies here ^^)

8. Do Something New

Make sure your hero does something new. This is not the same thing as making your hero do something old in a new way.
(AT LEAST ONE!!)

9. Marry The Skills To The Theme And The Role

Whatever role you have in mind for your hero, the skills should be appropriate. Whatever theme you base your hero around, the skills should naturally fit into it. If your skill descriptions become nonsensical and contrived in order to fit either the theme or the role, you should start over. You should know the difference between a theme and a role. "Nuker" is a role. "Ice" is a theme.
(What Deathlust said earlier in da guide)

10. Don't Make A Design That Depends On An Overly Specific Gimmick

If all of your hero's skills depend on one particular situation or contingency in the game, or being in one particular place on the map, etc., scrap it.
(Nobody wants you hiding in water all the time, you only get to cover a portion of the game, so it's useless)

11. Be Explicit And Succinct

Describe the essential functionality of any skill in one or two clear and concise sentences. If your skill is so complex you can't do that, scrap it and start over.

---
Updates:
9/3/07 - Obviously, I have exams right now, XD. Well, added something thanks to my friend pointing me out here. You can look the difference, right?
_________________

Last edited by shadowmastermk47 on Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:07 am; edited 2 times in total

Hero Creation Guide for newbs + pros

Hero Creation Guide for newbs + pros

NO MORE ICONS?