Koga, the Swampland Mercenary

Koga, The Swampland Mercenary

Radiant Agility
"You'll be surprised at what I can do even when I'm out of my element."

Base health

: 511

Base mana

: 208

Base damage

: 49

Base armor

: 5

Movement speed

: 290

Attacks per second

: 0.74

Base attack time

: 1.7

Range

: Melee

Vision range

: 1800/800

Strength

: 67 (19 +2)

Agility

: 99 (27 +3)

Intelligence

: 54.4 (16 +1.8)




Lore:
Deep in the Greymarsh, under layers of mud and aquatic plants, lies a predator, stalking its prey across the swampland. Nothing but his eyes and the warts on the top of his head are showing. The amphibian crept slowly beneath the murky waters, inching closer and closer, getting in range for the killing blow...
Preparing to strike, Koga raised his poison-tipped weapon over his enemy. The victim falls, but not by his spear. He backed off as the members of the Family came to drag the body away. Yet another kill stolen this week, he thought, as he went home without any money to feed himself yet again. As a mercenary, it was his livelihood to kill, to take lives. Sometimes when he assassinates villainous figures, he accepts no bounty, considering it "an act of public service." He never wanted a lavish life, but the Family, an underground organization governed by a ruthless monster, assassinates his targets and accepts the rewards instead, keeping him from receiving even the barest necessities. This had to stop, he thought. And so, brandishing his spear, he followed members of the organization and infiltrated the Family's hideout, sparing no member in his rampage.
Word quickly spread about the Family being vanquished by a single assassin. When rumor of the incident was brought to villages that were previously oppressed by the criminals, they sang praises of the mysterious hero that saved them from their calamity. But Koga wanted none of this. Soon after his daring endeavor, he packed up and left the Greymarsh, forever a wandering mercenary, still available for his services. For the right price.




Q: Mud Grenade
Type: Target-Point
Affects: Enemies
Damage: Composite
Throws a ball of mud that slows movement and attack speed and deals damage to enemies in a small area. In addition, the mud creates a patch of water in the area where it lands. Contains up to 3 charges. The charges replenish twice as fast when the Swampland Mercenary is in water.
- 700 range
- 200 radius
- 30/45/60/75 damage
- 10/15/20/25% movement speed slow
- 50 attack speed slow
- 3 second slow duration
- 350 water radius for a 5 second duration
- 40 mana cost
- 20/17/14/11 second charge replenishment time

Many are confused as to why Koga includes mud in his arsenal. "I'll put you on the list, then you'll see why."





W: Spear Barrage
Type: Target-Point
Affects: Enemies
Damage: Physical
The Swampland Mercenary somersaults a short distance and swings or thrusts his spear 3 times at the end of the jump in rapid succession. Each strike mini-stuns, dealing a percentage of his damage and applying all unique attack modifiers to enemies in front of him.
- 500 range
- 200 thrust range
- 0.3 second thrust interval
- 40/50/60/70% damage per thrust
- 0.2 second ministun
- 90 mana cost
- 10/9/8/7 second cooldown

The Swampland Mercenary is known for his amazing speed and dexterity.





E: Wetland Adaptation
Type: Passive
Affects: Self
The Swampland Mercenary is more effective in water. When in water, he gains additional movement speed, damage and health regeneration.
- +10/15/20/25% movement speed
- +10/15/20/25% damage
- +2/4/6/8 health regeneration

Amphiboids are more well adapted to war waged in water than they are on land.





R: Toxic Tip
Type: No Target
Affects: Self
Damage: Magical
The Swampland Mercenary coats the tip of his spear with powerful poisons from his own skin. Each subsequent attack inflicts a poison debuff on the enemy, which is refreshed on hit. When it has been refreshed 3 times, the enemy takes additional damage. This attack modifier wears off after the number of attacks is used up.
- 30/40/50 damage per second for 5 seconds
- 150/200/250 damage after 3 refreshes
- 5/7/9 attacks
- 60 mana cost
- 15 second cooldown


Equipped with poison glands on his skin, the Swampland Mercenary uses the deadly toxin to his advantage.





Special responses:











Another different take on a common hero concept. Instead of being useful only near the river, he can continue to be effective when on land by "creating" more water using Mud Grenade. To compensate for lack of early burst damage, his ultimate can potentially dish out a lot of damage in conjunction with Spear Barrage, which makes him an excellent mid-game semi-carry that can be played in the midlane for early levels (and also because it's really near a river). Please leave some feedback :)

This is a really great idea. Though some improvements can be made. Such as, for Wetland Adaptation you should also increase attack speed, and damage bonus should be percentages instead of solid add-ons because it wouldn't scale well in late game. Maybe some extra HP regeneration would be good...

I wouldn't increase his attack speed because he already has high agility and agility growth and his Spear Barrage, and I won't add HP regen because he can already cripple the enemy with Mud Grenade to make them deal less damage. But you're right about the fact that it doesn't scale well, so I will change the bonus damage to a percentage like Vengeful Aura.

Thanks for the input :)

New quote to Viper "who's more venomous now?"

The mud granades does not really work well with magic users, since they could easily wreak you. At middle lane, one could always expect tons of harassment from enemy such as Viper or Sniper. Hp regen does bode well if you are going for it.

Yes, but magic users always have some downtime during which they attack you, but Mud Grenades severely slows their attack speed when stacked and you will do more damage in the end thanks to his attacks. Besides, you can jump over certain spells using Spear Barrage and deal more damage to them as well. Still, Mud Grenade seems quite weak at the moment, so I'm buffing the attack speed slow of the ability.

EDIT:
Still, heavy nukers like Lion or Nyx Assassin can burst him down, but of course, every hero needs to have counters.

EDITEDIT:
Now that I think about it, he does need HP regen to be a hit-and-run sort of hero. But no attack speed buff :P




Haha, another snappy line to add to the collection :P

Or to the fish people(slarder)"the frog says hello to fishes and killed them, the end."
Or just add something brutal to every fish people, snakes and bugs, poisonous things.

Nice hero but to my mind you have to buff the water aoe in skill 1 for his passive to be useful because apart from roshan fights you almost never fight in game's water. The ultimate is nice but aghanim's effect is overrated if everytime u hit 3 times the same target he takes 300 dmg u just go berserk mask mjollnir and gg wp i would suggest to remove manacost on ultimate because you'll certainly need to spam it and maybe instead of duration in seconds make it a number of attacks buffed.

I have increased the water radius created by Mud Grenade to 350, for better non-river fights.

For the ultimate, I'm not going to remove the mana cost. For example, when he is fighting in a prolonged battle, he can't just continue fighting, he has to watch his mana since his ultimate costs 60. Even though his skills have a low mana cost, he has to run out some time or another. Though I agree with your statement about removing the attack modifier after a number of attacks.


Thanks for the feedback and suggestions :)



EDIT:
Changed ultimate and Aghanim's Scepter upgrade

i think the passive is VERY situational because only a small strech of the map is water so he will be slightly weak anywhere else which will lead to constant warding of the waters which will make this hero useless :( add something like balanar instead

He's not just useful at the river, because he can use Mud Grenade to create water for him to work in.