Hello, everyone, this is EdAWACSdenyY and welcome to the Vainglory hero spotlight, today we will be looking at Irene, a Nephalorax manipulator that spawns parasites to influence her enemy’s actions and dominate their minds.
A broker of information, Irene preys on the psyche and manipulates people with her Neuroxite gestates. For her its all about control. It is due to her Nephaorax biology and general disposition that makes her an excellent interrogator. No matter how strong-willed a person or being, she can crack through the shell and slurp up the juicy insides. but working behind the scenes just wouldn’t cut it anymore so it was time to step out of the shadows.
On the Rise, Irene fulfills the role of a mid-range control mage who births parasitic offspring to manipulate and control her enemies to do the dirty work for her.
PASSIVE: The Nerve of You
Whenever Irene kills a minion or monster, they will spawn a Neuroxite creature at random. Enemy heroes that Irene kills ALWAYS spawn a Neuroxite.
Neuroxites don’t do anything on their own, but they do interact with Irene’s abilities, stealth when in brush and grant vision in a small area around them.
Each Neuroxite lingers on the field for 14 seconds before dying. Neuroxites can be killed by hitting them with an ability or basic attack 4 times.
Irene’s auto attacks are globules of mucus which deal crystal damage that scales with her overall crystal power.
A: Infection Vector
Irene picks up a Neuroxite with her tentacles and places it in stasis. She then hurls the Neuroxite to a target location. If it doesn’t land on an enemy hero the Neuroxite does nothing. However, if the Neuroxite lands onto an enemy hero it will latch onto them infecting them. An infected hero is slowed and takes crystal damage.
Neuroxites latched onto enemy heroes expire 1 second faster.
B: Remote Apoptosis
Irene targets an area around a Neuroxite-infected hero forcing them to move to that area and basic attack an enemy hero, minion or monster within that area (if there is an enemy within range). Irene cannot force an infected hero to use abilities or abilities that count as basic attacks.
Irene can reactivate this ability to issue a telepathic command to all Neuroxite-infected enemy heroes near her, causing the Neuroxites attached to them to rupture violently dealing crystal damage in an area around the infected hero.
Overdriving Remote Apoptosis causes rupturing Neuroxites to release corrosive digestive juices dealing continuous light crystal damage to all enemies caught in the rupture’s splash radius.
ULTIMATE: Mass Hypnosis
Irene unleashes her tentacles latching onto every Neuroxite-infected enemy hero near her TETHERING them to her dealing continuous crystal damage. If enemies do not break out of Irene’s TETHER in 4 seconds, she will CHARM every tethered Neuroxite infected hero for 1.5 seconds dealing crystal damage each second.
Enemies who are CHARMED will slowly move towards Irene, unable to perform any other actions.
Irene can only activate her ultimate when there are at least 2 Neuroxite-infected heroes near her field of vision.
All Neuroxites attached to heroes Irene latched onto are put in stasis for 2 seconds.
Each rank in Irene’s ultimate passively increases the number of Neuroxites spawned from Irene’s heroic Perk.
Okay. Interesting. Very interesting. This is a cool Idea, and would allow for some very complicated gameplay. She’d fit in well as a Mage, and potentially also as Captain.
Here’s a few questions I have:
Firstly; the Neuroxites. They are obviously vital for her kit, but how long exactly are they meant to last? You said “a few seconds”, and then faster if they’re latched onto enemy heroes. But considering her B and Ult there should be enough time to infect at least two, preferably more, enemies and still have time to use these abilities.
Secondly; her A. Making it re-activateable for an additional effect would increase the time required to infect a second enemy, which for the reasons I mentioned above isn’t exactly Ideal. Also, how far can you actually send an enemy? two commands could send them anywhere, you could literally tap them back to their base and away from the teamfight (or worse, into your base hehehe), although assuming Irene herself isn’t able to move during this time it may make for interesting gameplay; how far to send an enemy before you need to get back to fighting yourself)
I may have a suggestion on that, actually. Reduce the commands Irene can issue to one, and make it in a specific area around the hero when activated. However, the enemy is forced to basic attack that target/ move to that point (and remain there) for a certain amount of time (somewhere around 2 seconds, can be adjusted of course)
Lol sounds original actually like the ideas but think they need a little work. Her minions would need a longer shelf life, lingering for a few seconds isn’t long enough IMO especially since your relying on basic attacks to kill them (all your abilites centre around them). Her A sound massively OP, I’m also confused as to how you would control the enemy without screwing your self over since you’ll be unable to move etc. You’d also need a low cooldown on the ability since your next two abilites rely on the minions to effect the enemies.
I’d make her A summon one of these pesky critters, her B provide the same utility as her A but have it land x auto attacks to the nearest target prioritising hero’s (ones with lowest health), objectives then minions, two moves is vague some first move could be walk to your base etc.
I like the idea of the ult but not entirely sure how it would work, maybe change it to she summons multiple minions which burst out of her and seek the nearest enemy. If they don’t kill them in (mmm x basic attacks) they latch onto them dealing… ermmm DMG over time of parties paralyses / a stun or two basic attacks to nearest etc.
Nice idea man, like the principles just not sure about the mechanics.
The Neuroxites last about 10 seconds on the field (I edited my post to make that a bit more clear) and when latched onto enemy heroes they expire 1 second faster.
I changed the brainwashing part of her A to be the primary effect of her B ability now so the kit feels a bit more streamlined and workable. Now she can choose to control her enemies movement or actions before reactivating the ability to cause the parasite still latched on to self-destruct.
Following your advice, I changed the brainwashing mechanic so that she can only issue one command to one hero she targets with her B.
Also lastly, there is one part of your critique that I feel was not worded very well that I had trouble understanding.
It’s this one.
But I’m glad you enjoyed the hero and thanks for your in depth critique. Have a look at it again up top and see if this makes her kit a bit more reasonable.
First off, thanks for interest in my hero concept and thanks for taking the time to leave critique.
So to answer some of your questions and to look at your critique.
Yeah I decided to have them linger for 10 seconds which I put in on my original post. I dunno what would be the ideal time for them to linger around. But currently it’s 10 seconds. Also they not only die quicker when auto attacked they also take die after taking a certain amount of hits from abilities.
Her A does have some controversial effects and can either be extremely game breaking (I mean she brainwashes an enemy for 2 commands) or just really clunky as that wastes time she would otherwise have used to spread her parasites around.
So in the interests of balancing her kit (I hope) I moved her brainwashing ability being the first effect of her B ability which makes more sense.
This way her A can stay as way to move her Neuroxites around and infect people with them. while her B can now allow her manipulate enemy heroes in order to either set up a team engagement or drive a infected hero into the enemy before reactivating her B to detonate the Neuroxite dealing AOE damage.
Well these a nice ideas (which I will definitely consider). Her perk already allows for the spawning of parasites. The changes you propose for the B however confuse me as I don’t quite understand what you are getting at with auto attacks. Maybe explain it again?
Her ultimate is very simple, if there are 2 or more Neuroxite-infected heroes near her field of vision, she activates her ultimate which fires out 1 tentacle for each infected hero latching onto them and tethering those heroes to her (much like a churnwalker hook and chain). If they don’t break leave the max range of her tether within 5 seconds they will be afflicted with a “charm” status effect for 2 seconds. A charm is basically the opposite of a fear where it draws enemies towards the caster instead of away.
The idea of having Neuroxites explode out of her body was considered however, I decided to recycle that feature for another hero I’m thinking of.
My point was that you need to have a way of limiting the ability so you can’t send an enemy into your base, but without making the enemy able to cancel the command immediately after you’ve cast it. So when you tap the ability, a ring appeares around the enemy, like with Skye’s suri strike or Churnwalkers Tresspass. You can tap anywhere in that area to make the enemy move there, or tap any targetable ally/enemy to make the enemy basic attack it. So that the player playing that enemy can’t immediately cancel your action, force the action to last for a duration of time (e.g. 2 seconds).
I realise that may not be the best explanation, but I hope you understand anyway… ask again if you want, I’ll try to makr it clearer.