(Dire AGI) Lord Ravenheart, the Flock's Herald

I know I've been churning out a little too many Heroes, but I suppose it's about time for one. I'll also cut down on the tooltips for easier reading..

Ravenheart is a heavy, heavy ganker with one interesting ability (or more accurately, subability): Flock. Summoning his Flock allows him to refresh another one of his spells for free, and amplify its power greatly, thereby increasing his DPS to absurd amounts. It is, thus, imperative to get this Hero to Level 6 as soon as humanly possible.
(For the LOL players out there, think of Karma. For the DOTA fans, don't kill me.)

As with most gankers, he is likely to fall off into the late-game, but can supplement his own survivability and transform into a lethal semi-carry; especially against lone targets. This allows him to 1v1 most heroes with ease.

---

---

Lord Ravenheart, the Flock's Herald

Dire AGI
Base STR: 18 + 1.75
Base AGI: 26 + 2.55
Base INT: 22 + 1.9

Base Armor: 1
Base Magic Resist: 25%
Base HP Regen: 1.5
Base Damage: 46 - 54
Move Speed: 300
Sight Range: 1800/800
Attack Type: Ranged
Range: 500
Missile Speed: 900
Base Attack Time: 1.65
Collision Size: 24

Role:
Nuker
Ganker
Escape

Pros:

+ Flock enables a secondary cast of any of his base spells, and amplifies them to boot.
+ Heavy DPS from Murder of Crows allows him to 1v1 most Heroes quickly.
+ Easily alternates from single target to multi-target ganker.
+ High mobility.


Cons:

- Heavily reliant on rushing Refresher Orb to have Flock on low cooldown.
- Avian Blitz can put him into a poor position during teamfights.
- Magic Immunity shuts off most of his spells.
- Murder of Crows is very ineffective against grouped up targets.
- Long CD on spells without Flock.
- Extremely mana hungry.

---

---

Lore

Coming Soon!

---

---

Abilities

---

Murder of Crows (Q)

Ability: Target Unit
Affects: Enemy Units
Damage: Magical

Ravenheart infests a target enemy with a flurry of crows, pecking at them for a lengthy duration. Enemies take heavy damage, and the initial target has sight range reduced as long as at least 1 Crow is pecking them.
Crows can reacquire targets in a nearby AOE of the original target, spreading to them.
Flock increases the number of Crows during Murder of Crows, and slows the main target by 14% for the whole duration.

Cast Range: 500
Acquisition AOE: 270
Number of Crows: 3/4/5/6 + 1/2/3
Damage per Crow: 10/15/20/25
Duration: 7

Cooldown: 32
MP Cost: 140/160/180/200

The Flock is not just a collection of creatures, but a hive mind of man-eating material. Sometimes, however, their appetite cannot be quenched simply by their orders.

Developer Notes:
Remember Nature's Attendants? Think of this as the offense-based version. While the damage is fairly underwhelming initially, with a maxed Flock this spell turns into Ravenheart's powerhouse at an absurd 1,575 magic damage on a single target.
Of course, one issue must be taken into consideration: that only one target is acquired throughout the 7s.

When the target goes magic immune, sight radius is restored to normal, and Crows do 0 damage. However, Crows will continue to peck and reacquire nearby targets, and the slow from Aghanim's Scepter cannot be dispelled.
Moreover, one target cannot have two casts of Murder of Crows on it, but Crows from a second target can be transferred to a first simultaneously.

A single target cannot have more than 10 Crows.

---

Avian Blitz (W)

Ability: Target Unit
Affects: Enemy Units
Damage: Magical

Ravenheart melds himself into his Flock, diving headfirst into enemies, similar to Sleight of Fist. He jumps from target to target, dealing damage to each; the damage increases with every jump. At the end of the spell, he appears behind the last target.
Flock causes the number of targets to increase, and after reaching the last target, he can jump back to targets already hit for reduced damage.

Cast Range: 500
Bounce Distance: 400
Initial Damage: 80/120/160/200
Damage Bonus per Target: 15/20/25/30
Max Targets: 6/7/8/9 + 2/4/6
Damage Reduction on Targets already hit: 40%

Cooldown: 26
MP Cost: 120

When Ravenheart joins his Flock, the resulting feeding frenzy can only be described as true horror, as they devour everything in their path.

Developer Notes:
Ravenheart's primary form of mobility closely resembles Sleight of Fist and Mystic Snake combined. What makes this unique is the ability to jump back to targets already hit, and the repositioning of Ravenheart himself.
With Flock, a single target can be hit for up to 240% of the jump damage, and while the jump itself starts with mediocre damage, it becomes significantly more potent due to its insane wave clearing potential, and the ability to turn back to other targets. This can also be used to juke enemies or escape a gank, as Ravenheart is invulnerable during the dive.

Each target can only be hit a maximum of 2 times per Avian Blitz.

---

Winged Shield (E)

Ability: No Target
Affects: Enemy Units
Damage: Magical

Ravenheart sacrifices some of his own blood to attract his own Flock, surrounding its master to deal damage to surrounding units. The damage increases over time of exposure to the shield, and scales until the duration ends.
Flock causes the shield to deal significantly more base damage, and enemies within the shield miss 30/45/60% of the time.

HP Cost: 12% current
Area of Effect: 380
Initial Damage per second: 15/30/45/60 + 15/21/27
Additional Damage per second: 5/10/15/20 + 5/7/9
Duration: 8

Cooldown: 36
MP Cost: 95/110/135/160

A droplet of their master's blood is all the Flock needs as a call for help - a sign that their own Flock is injured.

Developer Notes:
Deals a maximum of 1,040 spell damage without Flock, and 1,508 with Flock. Two shields cannot stack; thereby making this one of the few abilities that requires a wait time before Flock.

---

Flock (R)

Ability: No Target
Affects: Self

Ravenheart enchants his next spell, instantly refreshing its cooldown and giving amplified effects when cast. The spell also costs less mana to cast.
All spells except Flock can be amplified and re-cast.

MP Cost Reduction: 20/35/50

Cooldown: 140/110/80
MP Cost: 100/150/200

Over time, Ravenheart has regarded the Flock as a living entity, and the capability to harness full control over it is rare, but grants excessive amounts of power.

Developer Notes:
Well. It's a Refresher for a single spell, and a damage boost. What more do you want, really?

---

---

Responses

Spawning
- "Tonight, we dine in hell."
- "Tonight, the trees will be tainted a crimson red."
- "Herald of the Flock."
- "Herald of the Hungry."
- "Like locusts, we devour all that we see."
- "Who is this Swain guy you are referring to?"

Casting Murder of Crows
- "Feast, my brood!"
- "Dinnertime!"
- "A pecking order upon you!"
- "The small prey upon the large."
- "We outnumber you all."
- "Their sustenance, my strength."

Casting Avian Blitz
- "I fly!"
- "My hunger knows no physical boundaries."
- "Fear the Flock."
- "Chirp chirp, vermin."
- "You're next."

Casting Flock
- "Gather, my brothers and sisters!"
- "We converge."
- "Our strength amplifies."
- "Oh, now it's on."
- "You will fear us now."
- "You won't like us when we're... angry."
- "It's clawing time."
- "Azarath Metrio-oh who the hell am I kidding? Let's eat."

Killing a Rival
- Batrider: "A flying mammal. Outrageous."
- Batrider: "Unlike any creature I've seen before."
- Dragon Knight: "A word of advice. Stay grounded."
- Dragon Knight: "The skies are no place for a human. Even one with dragon blood."
- Gyrocopter: "Aircraft - the scourge of all avians."
- Gyrocopter: "Forgive me, my flock. Your sacrifice for the propeller was not in vain."
- Gyrocopter: "That was for killing two of my brothers on your last flight."
- Jakiro: "Abominations like you deserve not to fly."
- Lone Druid: "Stay grounded, and lose to aerial superiority."
- Lone Druid: "The Bear Clan knows nothing of the pecking order."
- Lone Druid: "Your lack of mobility, I find... entertaining."
- Night Stalker: "You merely adopted the Night. I was born in it."
- Phoenix: "Revive from that."
- Phoenix: "Your flames offend the Flock."
- Puck: "That was no dragon. That was barely even called flight."
- Shadow Fiend: "Said the demon, Nevermore."
- Skywrath Mage: "Begone with your obscure magics."
- Skywrath Mage: "I hate two things. The Skywrath, and people who judge me for killing the Skywrath."
- Skywrath Mage: "Skywrath. The worst avians of all."
- Skywrath Mage: "Your kind pollutes the skies. I merely cleansed it."
- Undying: "Barely a meal. But the Flock is grateful."
- Vengeful Spirit: "An insult of the highest order. A mercy killing of the greatest honor."
- Vengeful Spirit: "May you find your flight once again in the afterlife."
- Vengeful Spirit: "Tis a shame for any Skywrath to have their wings clipped."
- Viper: "A creature as vitriolic as you barely deserves flight."
- Viper: "Ah, Viper. Your virulence precedes you."

Purchasing Blink Dagger
- "Don't blink, or you're dead."
- "Mobility. Just what we need."

Purchasing Refresher Orb
- "It's over, vermin."
- "My congregation doubles in potency."
- "Refreshing."
- "The Flock returns anew, anew."

---

Could use some comments on how to improve on some spells. Thanks!

Ravenheart is overall nice, I'd give 8 for originality and spell combo. I have a hero who has similar skill with Flock as ultimate: Copies the previous skill used with 120/100/80% coooldown. Well, I'd say this version does more justice as an ulti, though I prefer interesting effects over power (such as blindness only works as an ulti).

Without Flock however, I'd rate this hero 7.

[Q]

How about giving the crows a continous sight over target, so it's not that similar to "offensive version of Nature's Attendant"

[W]

Instead of becoming a combined version other hero's spells, how about this: He transform into a black bullet that ricochet between crows, damaging enemies he passes.

[E]

This is good, so he may damage an enemy while chasing and escaping, and increases survivability on battle because of his increased magical resistance. Need to be clarified though, this skill is only activated while [Q] is active, or both could active at the same time?

Finally, you said his cons is heavy usage of Refresher Orb, I'd say that as a pros 0_0

Haha, thanks again! I found Ravenheart to be a very item-reliant ganker since his normal spell cooldowns are insanely long (not unlike Tinker), and the Refresher Orb gives him that much-needed MP regen and capability to spam his lethal assortment of spells (which can effectively break the game). He is a late-game spellcaster designed to take out supports and lone farming heroes rapidly.

As for the skills:

[Q] Murder of Crows
The ability to disperse to up to 9 targets at once makes it a very broken counter to invisibility, and lines up free Sun Strikes and the like. I don't plan on making Ravenheart a ganker based on visibility mechanics, but on pure mobility and spellpower.

[W] Avian Blitz
I don't plan to rely on the crows dispersing in the first place - while it does inevitably happen, Murder of Crows [Q] was designed specifically to wipe out lone targets. I could have a mechanic that bounces only to secondary targets attacked by his normal attacks or spells in the past 10s, so as to minimize the broken bounces.

[E] Winged Shield
E has no relation to Q whatsoever - both can be active simultaneously; but using your ultimate while E is active can refresh, but not stack, E.

Nice hero concept, I like the thought behind it.

{Q}: Assuming I take off 1 crow per seconds this is how the damage goes:

(6+5+4+3+2+1)*25=525. With sight reduction. It's ok... but with the ult it deals a whole lot of damage: (9+8+7+6+5+4+3)*25=1025 AND it slows. Maybe a slight nerf? I would prefer if you turned this into single-target and make this guy more gank-oriented, like Nightstalker

{W}: how is this an escape? You land behind an enemy...

{E}: Soooo... this is where I'm left wondering what you want this hero to be. it's almost like he's all over the place: is he a ganker? Tank? DPS hero?

Maybe change a couple of the mechanics of the spells to fit the role of this hero...

Oh dear. Apologies for being away for so long. I do see your point about the "how do you want this guy to be played" thing, and I do suppose a few reworks are called for.

Anyways, a few updates:

[Q] It really seems like a lot of damage, but in reality, it can be easily mitigated by standing away from a few targets, mixing in with a creep wave or jungle camp, or simply using BKB/Diffusal Blade.
I'll probably remove the slow, at least.

[W] It's meant to deliberately place Ravenheart in a bad position so as to use Winged Shield as a follow-up, then use W again on either a creep wave or enemy to jump between them. Winged Shield is also active while jumping, allowing some damage to be dealt to begin with.

[E] Truth be told, I have no idea how to add something in to synergize with the rest. Any suggestions? I'd rather not make him too disable heavy.