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Hest by FangzofFuzzy

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Hest

By: FangzofFuzzy
Last Updated: Oct 23, 2018
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Hest

The Living Shadow

Summary

Hest is a menacing hero who works alongside his allies to dismantle and dispose of all who cross them, a melee intelligence support who excels at ganks and counter ganks. He fills enemies with Dread, making his other spells far more dangerous. These include Horrify that possesses incredible disabling power as well as Night Shade that whittles away their ability to survive and fight back. Hiding In The Shadows, Hest can move around the map unseen to surprise and catch enemies off guard. Whether he's stalking his foes from the cover of darkness or lying in wait to turn around a fight, the Living Shadow's very presence in the game alone is simply terrifying.

Stats

Role: Ganker, Disabler, Initiator, Support, Escape, Nuker

Strength: 24 + 1.8
Agility: 12 + 1.2
Intelligence: 24 + 3.0
Base Damage: 32 – 46
Base Armor: 5
Attack Range: 150
BAT: 1.8
Movement Speed: 290

Lore

Centuries ago, Hest was an infamous Dread Lord feared throughout the lands. So great was his power that he practiced dark arts from his necromancers and even hell magic from his demonologists. He would use these to subjugate and control his kingdom, all its inhabitants absolutely terrified of him. No where was it safe to talk ill of the lord or plan a coup, as he appeared to be omnipresent, appearing from every shadow cast upon the bleak empire. The worst of his conspirators would be subjected to psychological torture, terrifying their wits out with harrowing visions until they are just an empty husk.

His grandest feat, and the start of his downfall, was when he contracted a demon from the Seven Hells to serve him. Shadow Demon was his name and he proved to be a useful asset in further spreading his dominance and control. But the Dread Lord was too focused on his growing conquest to notice the corruption take seed, his immense power making it hard for him to realize his powers slowly sapping. By the time he noticed, it was just a little too late. His identity had all but been corroded and now belonged to the one he had once considered his servant, Hest had unwillingly become part of Shadow Demon's sinister cult. Even though he could hold onto some pieces of his consciousness through sheer willpower, his mind and body were no longer his own. It was as if he was watching through the eyes of an outsider, forced to do the bidding of the Shadow Demon.

When Doom and Shadow Fiend destroyed the cult together, the once feared Dread Lord became humiliated yet again. His form was disintegrated until all that was left was his feeble consciousness trapped in an insignificant pile of demon shadow. With Shadow Demon's dominion over him weakened, Hest began to rebuild himself over the centuries. He ached and yearned to be the Dread Lord he once was, for the people to fear him once again. Yet he knew he would never fully regain his human body or powers, as the black substance that constituted his form continually fell apart while away from the darkness. He had literally been reduced to a shadow of his former self. So when he felt Shadow Demon call forth the specks of demon shadow, Hest desired nothing more than to meet his former servant and master. If not to find a way to regain his form, then at the very least to carry out sweet vengeance.

Primary Abilities

Horrify
Instill fear in an enemy to make them flee towards their base.

Ability: Target Unit
Mana Cost: 105, 120, 135, 150
Cooldown: 10
Range: 150
Duration: 2, 3, 4, 5

Even if it is just one person at a time, the people will scream in terror of the Dread Lord once again.

Notes
Night Shade
Curse surrounding enemies for 10 seconds.

Closer ones will deal reduced damage while further ones will take increased damage.

Ability: No Target
Mana Cost: 120, 140, 160, 180
Cooldown: 20
Radius: 600
Close Range: 300
Damage Reduction: 15, 20, 25, 30%
Damage Amplifcation: 15, 20, 25, 30%

Hest has learnt to harness Shadow Demon's corruption for his own dark purposes.

Notes
Dread
Envelop enemies in a haunting cone to slow them for 5 seconds.

Landing another spell on them removes the slow to deal damage.

Ability: Target Point
Mana Cost: 120, 130, 140, 150
Cooldown: 10
Range: 600
Damage: Magical
Move Slow: 50, 60, 70, 80%
Damage: 125, 200, 275, 350

Which is more frightening? The inevitable scare or the preceding anticipation?

Notes

Ultimate Abilities

In The Shadows
Gain undetectable invisibility after a delay while remaining close to another allied hero.

Breaking the invisibility with an attack doubles the delay but deals bonus damage over 5 seconds.

Ability: Passive
Radius: 600
Damage: Magical
Fade Delay: 2, 1.5, 1
Damage per Second: 40, 60, 80

Moving shadows within the darkness can turn the humblest of worries into the greatest of fears.

Notes

Hero Talents

Horrify Pierces Spell Immunity
25
+100 In The Shadows Damage per Second

2x Dread Distance and End Radius
20
+250 Dread Damage

40 Move Speed
15
+5s Night Shade Cooldown

40% XP Gain
10
90 Gold/Min

Discussion

  • Horrify is a simple spell, a melee range disable that can help to set up kills given its duration. As a fear though, it is more efficient at either peeling the target off or keeping them away from a fight. Night Shade is a point blank debuff that requires good positioning to make the most of. As it only reduces the damage of those in melee range and increases the damage taken by those out of his reach, so proper target selection is important. They can work well with each other, for example using Horrify on a stubborn melee target, creating space to land the damage amplification.

  • Dread is a great tool to start ganks with its massive slow and secure kills with its massive damage. Throw it from afar to catch as many targets due to its cone shape. Ideally as the slow ends as soon as the damage comes in, you want to wait near the end of the duration before doing so to make the most of the disable, but quickly dealing the damage can be just as useful in certain situations. This is a great spell to layer primarily before but also after his other abilities. Here are some of them:

      1. E then Q, using the slow to run up to them for the melee range cast
      2. Q then E, making the feared target run away slower
      3. E then W, using the slow to better hit targets and for the burst potential
      4. W then E, just to stack the debuffs to make the enemies feel like hell

  • Hest truly shines once he unlocks In The Shadows. It enables a playstyle similar to Infest, with the downside being that he cannot follow allies with long gapclosers but the upside being he is a support who does not need to farm, thus can lie in wait longer with less penalty. The invisibility is similar to Shadow Dance where he cannot be revealed by anything, making his tower dives potent and Sentry Wards obselete, with the upside being that his location is not revealed but the downside being that combat actions reveal him like Moonlight Shadow so there is room for enemies to respond. The invisibility provided allows him to move out of sight and gank incredibly well. In teamfights, the cover provided allows him to position well for his spells. Walk up with leisure to Horrify an unsuspecting target or line up the perfect Night Shade and Dread on key enemies. Even without spells, he can attack out of stealth to deal massive damage at the cost of safety, so weigh which strategy is more important. While he has trouble moving with mobile allies, he can pair well with other invisible heroes to perform lethal takedowns from the shadows together. Its true power lies in just existing. Without being able to track where Hest is on the map, every ally of his that is visible becomes much harder to gank and those that cannot be seen suddenly have much higher gank pressure.

  • In terms of build and playstyle, he is intended to primarily be a ganking support. So classic ganker items like Orb of Venom and Urn of Shadows fit well into his build. As In The Shadows requires his team to stay alive, supportive items such as Medallion of Courage and Glimmer Cape work too, the latter having good synergy to create sneaky ganks alongside the ally. Meteor Hammer works wonderfully against enemies afflicted with his disables and the fade time of his undetectable ultimate makes it good at sieging buildings. Aether Lens can help offset the low cast range of Horrify while Veil of Discord and the magic burst essentials can make him a real damage threat. Aura items are generally not prioritized so as to not give away his position while invisible. The left side of the talent tree offers more utility and outplay potential from the movement speed in order to keep up with allies easier to making Dread larger, slowing more enemies and making it harder to guess who he'll focus on. The right side of the tree offers more direct power in fights, primarily damage to secure kills on targets.

    Strengths
    • Great kit for ganks and counterganks
    • Potential to deal high damage
    • Great safety and maneuverability with ultimate
    • Good spell uptimes with rather good Intelligence
    • Alright teamfight power for a ganker
    		Weaknesses
    • No gapclosers and low end movement speed
    • Potential to deal no damage
    • Very much requires allies and coordination to work
    • Low Strength gain for a melee Intelligence hero
    • Falls prey to displacement and collateral area damage

Extras

Voicelines

When first entering an ally with In The Shadows

Shadow Demon : Never, ever, betray me again, bastard. Know your place. Know the true master here!

Doom Shadow Fiend : Serve me now, demon, and I will consider forgiving your past actions.

Bane : The ichor of nightmares flow deep in your darkness.

Bounty Hunter Clinkz Riki Slark : The lighter the shadow, the harder it is to find.

Centaur Warrunner Tidehunter Underlord : Big shadow, lots of leg room, I like it.

Dark Willow Lone Druid : Fear is a beautiful tool, isn't it?

Death Prophet : Why should one wish for death, when they could conquer eternally?

Medusa Vengeful Spirit : The shadow of another victim. I can taste the vengeance.

Necrophos : Oh how they dreaded you, Pope. I like your style.

Pudge : Pudgy shadow, not a lot of leg room, I hate it.

Treant Protector : Ah, a nice shade to cool down under.

Warlock : This stench... It reminds me times past, demonologist.

Changelog

22/10: The Summoning
  • Posted

23/10: Feedback thanks to lonelyfreak
  • Horrify mana cost increased by 15 at all levels
  • Night Shade mana cost increased by 10 at all levels
  • Night Shade values decreased to 15, 20, 25, 30% from 18, 24, 30, 36%
  • Night Shade notes fixed

24/10: Feedback thanks to hades4u
  • Intelligence gain increased by 0.2
  • Horrify mana cost increased by 15 at all levels, again
  • Night Shade mana cost increased by 20 at all levels
  • Dread mana cost increased by 30 at all levels

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lonelyfreak (7) | October 22, 2018 3:56pm
I consider reworking Horrify a bit. I think spells that have a melee cast range can be REALLY wonky. Unless the spell has 0+0 cast animation (cast point + back swing) you are almost never going to land that spell on a mobile enemy hero. I think giving it a 250-300 cast range would be good. On the other hand a 5 second disable is really strong. I realize it scales up to that but still, there aren't many heroes that can do that as a non-ultimate ability.

Night Shade is a bit confusing. I think there might be a typo in the notes? Did you mean to say that, enemies from 451-600 range will have the amplification applied"? Also that amplification seems pretty high. Chen gets those number on a single target and that's one of the better skills in the game. Shadow Demon gets higher damage amplification but on a random single enemy in an area. The AOE that Night Shade has is HUGE so it isn't unlikely that 3-5 heroes suddenly take 36% addition damage, which is a little ridiculous.

I really really like the other two skills. I don't really think they need any adjusting.
1
[-]
FangzofFuzzy (9) | October 22, 2018 9:12pm
Thanks for the comment. I'll be returning the favour on your submission soon.

I generally tend not to think about cast animations because I can't think of values when they're so short, so I'd suppose Horrify would have a cast animation and backswing similar to Dragon Tail, one of the few melee range abilities. And like you said, it's mainly inhibited in terms of range because of its massive duration. The only other disable with the same duration as a non-ult is Ensnare, with the tradeoff of having higher range but only stopping movement. But if it's too strong, I'll nerf the mana cost.

Ah yes I messed up on Night Shade's notes, thanks for catching that. It's meant to be 301-600 range for the amplification. After considering your suggestion, I'll nerf the numbers down. In my mind, it was allowed to be that high because they can only be affected by either debuff at a time, and the amplification specifically is a bit harder to land as a spell. But it's probably still a little high given its duration. I'll mess with the numbers to bring it in line.
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