EdAWACS Hero Rework: Maleus

Fan Creations Fan Heroes
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Welcome to the Vainglory Hero Spotlight, Today we will look at Maleus, the Herald of Uncertain Judgement

A former heroic spirit corrupted by the powers of the Nether, Maleus now scours the land to brand enemies with his own twisted version of justice.

On the Rise, Maleus is a horrifying warrior who excels at debilitating enemies who rely on high sustain and protection. When properly used, he can decimate an enemies defenses

HEROIC PERK: Desecrated Judgement

Maleus’s abilities apply Desecration to enemies for 2 seconds. The mark can only be refreshed with every 4th basic attack from Maleus.

Enemy heroes marked with Desecration cannot gain lifesteal or healing from attacking Maleus.

At level 6, enemy heroes marked with Desecration who receive healing and/or barriers will also grant the 60% of the healing and barrier to Maleus as well if he is within 7 meters.

Additionally, at level 6, every 4th basic attack from Maleus will deal bonus crystal damage based on 5% (+5% Crystal Power) of the targets missing health.

BASE STATS (LEVELS 1-12)

Health: 745-2496
Energy: 440-1200

Weapon: 75-145
ATK Speed: 100%-125%

Armor: 35-75
Shield: 20-60

Range: 2.4
Movespeed: 3.8

FIRST ABILITY: Malediction

Maleus throws his sickle in the targeted direction dealing damage to all enemies and latching onto the first enemy hero hit, tethering them to Maleus for 2 seconds.

If the enemy hero does not break the tether within 2 seconds, Maleus will lunge at the target with his next basic attack dealing bonus damage based on the targets CURRENT HEALTH.

If the enemy hero attempts to break the tether with movement-based abilities they will be yanked back to Maleus taking 140% of the initial ability damage

Cooldown: 14s/13s/12s/11s/9s

Energy Cost: 70/85/100/115/130

Damage: 80/120/160/200/240 CP Ratio: 90% | WP Ratio: 40%

Current Health % Damage: 8%/10%/12%/14%/20%

Hook Range: 7/7/7/7/9

SECOND ABILITY: Repulse

Maleus charges for 2 seconds becoming IMMUNE to CROWD CONTROL while generating fortified health, but LOSING the ability to basic attack. This is canceled upon reactivating the ability.

Maleus can REACTIVATE this ability within 1.5 seconds of charging to send out a spectral shockwave, dealing damage in a 6-meter wide cone, SLOWING all targets hit for 0.9s.

  • If Maleus was hit by crowd control while charging, the shockwave will HEAL Maleus for 40% of the damage he dealt every enemy with this ability.

OVERDRIVE: The cooldown of Repulse is reduced by 12% for every enemy hero hit by this ability

Cooldown: 23s/22s/21s/20s/18s

Energy Cost: 250/300/350/400/550

Fortified Health: 50/150/250/350/450 CP Ratio: 50%

Damage: 80/170/220/330/410 Crystal Ratio: 180% | WP Ratio: 80%

Slow Strength: 20%/30%/40%/50%/60%

ULTIMATE: Malestrom of Screams

Maleus surrounds himself with a 7-meter radius field of restless souls that slowly DRAGS all enemies towards the center, applying continuous crystal damage. Maleus generates fortified health each second and moves 30% slower.

  • Fortified health generated is increased by 10% for each enemy hero inside the field.

  • Enemies who try to leave the field are FEARED away from the edge for 0.1s

Cooldown: 90s/75s/60s

Energy Cost: 100/125/150

Damage / Sec: 110/150/250 CP Ratio: 60%

Duration: 4s/5s/6s

Fortified Health / Sec: 100/150/200 CP Ratio: 60% | Weapon Ratio: 20%

THANK YOU FOR WATCHING THE MALEUS HERO SPOTLIGHT. PLEASE COMMENT DOWN BELOW ON WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THIS HERO TO SUPPORT THE AUTHOR. SEE YOU ON THE FOLD.

3 Likes
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So to start off, it was nice seening a new concept from you :spring_happy_2:. But as normal, Ill start talking about the problems I see.

His Perk

Its nice and unique but a little too strong. Plus it really does stack to much with other parts of his kit, making him a Malene 2.0.

I would say to remove the level 6 restriction for his desecration. I feel like it would be detrimental for him in the earlier stages of the game since Vg already has so much early game heros.

Also having the ability to remove healing from a enemy is quite strong and completely removes a class from the roster and we only have three healers too.

Maybe give it a effectiveness reduction instead. Like healing and barriers are reduced in effectiveness (example being healing and barriers are 30% effective on a foe with desecration.) Same for lvl 9 perk upgrade.

Until his his lvl 9 restriction which allows him to syphon or lifesteal from foes that have Desecration stacks on them while being healing by a enemy ally.

His A is nice. The current health missing ratio prevents him from being a assassin (which I like) and keeps him in a warrior class. Since its less effective at lower health.

Though I would lower the 35% percent because that would hit hard for higher health targets such as captains.

B seems cool to me. Kinda reminds me of Galio from LoL.
No problem in his B for me.

I dont think this is necessary. It seems out of place for this type of hero.

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Could you explain this part of your review to me again? I reread it several times but have a hard time understanding what that means

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Whoops, I wrote and posted to fast without revising what I said. Its a little late where Im at :sweat_smile:

I mean that his perk shouldn’t completely remove the ability to heal a desecrated foe and it should at most heavily hamper it with a efficiency reduction.

His perk at 6 and 9 completely removes it and I feel like thats a little much.

Replace the strike though text with what I proposed above and see if you like it, dont like it, or simply have another way of doing what you want!

As I stated above, I feel like its a little much for him as of rn.

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There’s always a danger of FULL WP abuse when using a hero with such a high movespeed.

at 4, he is the fastest in the game, even faster than flicker. I understand why you made it this way, to compensate for his ULT - which lowers his MS by 30%.

but imagine he just builds crit and movespeed boost items, like Tornado Trigger. He would never need to even use his ULT - ever - and will be SO FAST that not even boots can catch him.

Using just his A to attack and his B to escape, because his B renders all CC useless and with his insane MoveSpeed, flee outta trouble to fight another day.

Besides his MOVESPEED problem, i really like this hero, reminds me of a evil Lance.

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Okey, my opinion.

The perk is simply op, it leaves useless all the healers and sustain based heroes. If the enemy picks Lyra, pick this hero and you’ve basically won no matter what. I do think his perk needs to be changed.

Here I will only complain about numbers. 35% current health is broken, it’s a ridiculous amount.
The second part, you need to break the tether but if you do it you receive bonus damage and get pulled? Then…, how are you supposed to do against that ability? I’m probably missing something.

This is, once again, a toning down, I don’t think anything else needs to be changed. Basically every single stat needs to be tone down.
90% slow, with massive damage in a 3s cooldown is op. The idea is good though, but this needs to be nerfed. Imagine a SF’s B with 90% slow and 1/3 of its cooldown, it’s ridiculous.

Wouldn’t change anything honestly, if anything the duration as it may last too long, but other than that I think it’s fine.

@Ve3nNo0wM 4 movement speed isn’t the fastest though. Catherine and grace have 4.1 then you have plenty of heroes with 4 like Idris, Ozo, alpha, krul, Rona, anka, kensei, taka, inara and Miho. None of them have the problem of stacking crits and with TT being impossible to scape from or catch.

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Like this hero overall. As usual there are lots of fun ideas, but there is too much going on, and some things just do not work.

HEROIC PERK: Desecrated Judgement

Lets talk about his perk first. I understand a hero countering barriers and healing. That’s a really cool idea that wold bring interesting to the game. The issue is for much of his kit, that is all this hero does. It’s good for heroes to have counterplay, but they also need play. If you look at SEMC’s heroes, they are much more subtle about what they are meant to do. Reim counters Alpha not because any text in his kit says “deals bonus damage against immobile enemies” but because his playstyle does well against hers. This hero does not have that much of a playstyle beyond being good against certain things (healing, barriers, and crowd control, high mobility?). The best example of this is the fact that his perk does nothing against heroes without them. You don’t have to build the entire hero to counter a couple things, one or two small elements geared towards that is enough to add depth and interest to draft. Look at Miho, she’s an assassin, but has unique utility on her ult. It adds interest and counterplay to her, but she still works perfectly fine against heroes without projectiles because it is only one small element of her kit.

FIRST ABILITY: Malediction

This ability is really unique and cool. LOVE every part of it.

SECOND ABILITY: Repulse

Fun idea, but had quite a few hang ups.

This needs to be explained more. Within 1.5 seconds of using the ability, or of charging being complete?

This part feels very strange to me. You have tied a counter to barriers, to a crowd control trigger… why? This is just way too specific and unclear to players. A lyra using her B, but clear an Ardan barrier for her teammate. Remember you need your heroes to make sense, even to players who maybe have not read through the entire hero list and are just fighting someone they don’t own. They won’t know why this effect happen, and even if you are fully aware of this hero, it’s way too random and match up dependent.

This is just silly. If enemies using abilities nearby was a major part of his kit or perk, maybe, but right now this is just another confusing element tacked on for players to keep track of. What about against enemies who rarely use abilities, or are really long ranged? What timeframe does it keep track of. Do they need to be used within 3s. over any timeframe? how near is “nearby”. There really is no good reason for this to exist.

ULTIMATE: Malestrom of Screams

Solid and unique ult. VG may not have the tech for slowly pulling enemies right now though. Right now, being pushed interrupts a bunch of abilities. I assume you don’t want this to prevent all dashes, but that’s the only kind of knock back that exists. That said, if the tech works smoothly this is pretty fun.

Finale Thoughts

There are just way too many specific counters. From only effecting enemies who dash

To barrier/healing

to having crowd control

You have lost what this hero does himself. That’s what should inform his counters in an organic way, not a forced way where the game just tells you who he counters. Let’s pretend for example you are fighting Ringo. What part of his kit will be relevant. His perk is useless, his A has some effects but won’t pull, his B can’t be used right? like am I understanding that you need 3 abilities to be used nearby in a short period… which Ringo never does.

Idk if you played back then, but there was a tournament way back when fortress was very bad, where a team used him as a counter to Lyra. It was so exciting because no one had really utilized him that way before. The combination of engage, and mortal wounds allowed them to close the gap and neutralize the kiting style comp. I don’t see something like this happening with this hero. It’s not an interesting interaction to pick this hero into Ardan, or Phinn, it’s literally spelled out for you.

2 Likes
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Thank YOU for submitting another creative idea!

PERK: I prefer level 9’s perk as his entire game perk as opposed to his level 6 perk. To clarify, it is canelling the enemy’s ability to life-steal from Maleus, correct? I find that unique and fun. They should still be able to apply a flask to themselves, or receive barriers from RB, Crucible, and heal from Fountain. However, PS, SM, and EVE being rendered useless against him if he stays engaged - I think that’s a cool idea.

A Ability: I’d recommend the follwing current health & dmg: 5/7.5/10/12.5/17.5 - it’s still a sginificant burst to heroes that may be at 1/2 or toward full hp. You’re talking nearly 1/5 in BONUS damage on top of what he’d already do with a basic attack. Obviously, through a :vgitem_tensionbow: bow on this guy or an :vgitem_aftershock: and you’re going to give well over 20% max hp damage to a full health target. Is it as strong vs a weak/fleeing enemy? No, but what an initiator he’d be and super hard to out-duel.

B Ability: Let’s nerf the slow percentage, to say, 10/20/30/40/60? Again, I think you’re underestimating the significance of that slow. While I love the idea of enemies casting abilities to enabling him to use the ability, I can see that being messy to ever code/develop. If it’snot, I think that’s a cool idea. It’s really going to cause enemeies to have a thoughtful approach to him. As an alternative: similar to Skye’s B where she needs a target, perhaps make it so he has to mark an enemy to use this ability?

C Ability: I really like this concept. It could be OP, but it’s not because you’ve alsow slowed his movespeed. I could see :vgitem_shiversteel: being a fun item on this hero. He needs to engage, and into a heavy cc meta, you’ve equipped him with some tools to comabt it. I could see him being a :vgroles_jungle: and assassin. Perhaps add a 40% WP ratio, and le’s drop the dmg/sec to 110/150/250? For the fortified health per second, perhaps a 100/150/200?

Overall, I like this hero. Well done!

1 Like
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I will see what I can do. Initially, I had it as he would cause enemy heals to deal damage instead to the targeted enemy hero. People seemed okay with it being a perk that simply translated heals into damage.

I could just turn this perk into one where he will be healed and granted barriers based on if the marked enemy was healed or granted barriers how would that sound?

The idea is that if you tried to blink teleport or dash away in an attempt to break the tether he will yank you back to him. If you just used movement speed and boots you can move away from him without worry about being yanked back.

It also required a special condition in order to be utilized and a very high energy cost so I felt that balanced out the short cooldown.

But I will readjust the ratios

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Not exactly, at level 6 marked enemies cannot heal from any means aside from basic health regen. At level 9 not only are they unable to heal but they forfeit all healing to Maleus instead

I will tweak the current health damage a bit more. Its meant to be a powerful initiation tool not so much as an execution move.

I most likely will get rid of the restriction to this ability. It was a fun thing to play around with for me as a designer but from the feedback, it seems a bit frivolous.

I would politely disagree about him being an assassin. I feel that he’s more of a bruiser with high damage.

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Based on the feedback I have received from all my friends here I have introduced these tweaks and changes to the hero. Please take a look above on the original hero page for the full scope of the changes as the ones highlighted here are only the biggest changes.

HEROIC PERK: Desecrated Judgement

Enemy heroes marked with Desecration cannot gain lifesteal or healing from attacking Maleus.

At level 6, enemy heroes marked with Desecration who receive healing and/or barriers will also grant the 60% of the healing and barrier to Maleus as well if he is within 7 meters.

Additionally, at level 6, every 4th basic attack from Maleus will deal bonus crystal damage based on 5% (+5% Crystal Power) of the targets missing health.

SECOND ABILITY: Repulse

Maleus charges for 2 seconds becoming IMMUNE to CROWD CONTROL while generating fortified health, but LOSING the ability to basic attack. This is canceled upon reactivating the ability.

Maleus can REACTIVATE this ability within 1.5 seconds of charging to send out a spectral shockwave, dealing damage in a 6-meter wide cone, SLOWING all targets hit for 0.9s.

If Maleus was hit by crowd control while charging, the shockwave will HEAL Maleus for 40% of the damage he inflicted upon every enemy with this ability.

OVERDRIVE: The cooldown of Repulse is reduced by 12% for every enemy hero hit by this ability

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Now he’s balanced imo. Doesn’t erase a class and allows some counter play :spring_happy_2:

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What do you think of the rest of Maleus’s Kit now?

@coltonJW

@Guest_78

@Lebatron

1 Like