Aidan (complete) by beargeist

TALENT DIRECTION

Role
Anti Bruiser
Double Warrior
Team fight/brawler

The emphasis on double warrior is strong and because of how fixed his mechanics are, there is a lot of counter pick potential. Double warrior originally came into the meta to deal with triple assassin; but with low CC, low mobility, no attack slow/ blind, or damage reduction %, this character finds a lot of his counters in kite comps that can transition to blow up. Solo tank is difficult not just because of his soft peels, he also starts with a lower health pool and the one instance he has to recover it, pits it against his CC defense.

But this character is difficult to pressure and deadly to escape once you've exhausted the tool kit. His kit is unique in its ability to transition from defense to offense. His Shield Charge can close the door on melee and set up great body blocks; his Axe charge can provide Assassins with the edge and transition they need. and once he's ontop of someone he does have the capacity to stay ontop.

There is a lot of semblance between him and Artanis; however Aidan is able to choose his own moments, and dictate pace with less consequences and more reward.

Kit consistencies
Ability ranges and timings should not change at all.
Damage opportunities from (D) to (W) should be slightly more fixed; weapon related Dmg-talent chains should stack flat not multiply.
Backlash is already meant to be high DMG. likewise the |shield(Q) hp dmg| is meant to push the balance of the character.
need to maintain enough intensive for players to attack into aidan's shield, and for aidan to want to break the shield.

Axe vs Shield pacing
With both Axe Defiance and Mastery, the player heavily benefits from commitment and continuing the next axe cycle.
"(Q)next 3 basic attacks restore 100%","(Q)vulnerability for 2s", "(D)can Increase DPS a second time", "(D)basic attacks increase the effect by 5%"

The shield's pacing and rewards are flexible and immediate, capitalizing on diminishing positional advantages; like (Q)push and (2) counter AoE. Also allowing the player to carry rewards into Axe stance and stay in its more vulnerable state for longer periods.

Status concepts
Because Aidan is late pick orientated and there's no short of tanks who happily assume that mantle, there is extra intensive to deal with nontraditional applications of status effects. His (W) "Barrier ability & Break" being the first reason that classic status application is difficult to utilize on local ability procs. Things like; DMG reduction, Imposing (hit mechanics), attack slows, CD reduction... are not necessarily wasted on or a detriment to him when used right. Imposing on someone else is more reason to attack him. That usage has be timed/applied in a way that offsets his abilities rather compliments them.



TALENTS

T1 - Tier Mechanic "Item drop"
Enemy heroes will drop an "item" on death (murky - even deaths). The drop disappears after 10s if Aidan doesn't pick it up (so it can be dropped again). Item is lost on death. Does not drop if Aidan already has, does not drop if it is already on the ground.

Godly Plate of the Whale (passive) - Increases max health by 50(+4%) every level, up to 800. The health bonus works in reverse against life % based dmg.

Griswold's edge (passive) - after using an ability your next basic attack splashes 40 additional ability dmg (fire). Attack speed slows have their percentage effect reduced by half.

Veil of Steel (passive) - Reduces the duration of stuns, blinds and silences by 100%. But for every 0.5s of stun and 1s of blind/silence saved, your vision is reduced by 15% for 4s, stacks up to 40%.


T2

Potion of rejuvenation (active) - restores 12% health and 8% mana over 5s, up to 3 charges. turns regen globes into potion pick up. allies cannot pick them up for you.

Ring of Radiance (active) - AoE that reduced enemy vision by 40% and reveals a small area for 4s, cooldown 40s.

Scroll of town portal (passive) - Within 6s of your team suffering a double kill, Aidan's hearthstone instantly leaves a portal to the nexus. Allies can channel the portal, dmg does not interrupt channel.


T3

Infernal proposition (E) - can reactivate the elemental man for delayed AoE (man falls to ground explodes after 1.5 seconds doing high damage). auto triggers at end of run.

Fire Within (E) - Deals 26 (+4%) dmg to nearby enemies at 100% charge. Deactivates when Elemental is used and builds back up based on cooldown. deals 100% additional damage to enemy heroes.

Wildfire (E) - Increases Damage by 30% and extends range by 15% for every hero hit.


T4
Aidan's agony
Stone Curse

T5

Dark presence (Active) - Slows nearby enemies by 15% and deals 3% current hp as dps, for 6s (aura). Must be below 40% life to use, 60cd.

Strong Arm (W/D) - Backlash Counter attack slows enemy movespeed 75% for 1.5 seconds. Axe mastery slows enemy movespeed 15% for 4s, your basic attacks increase the effect by 5% for the remainder of its duration, stacks up to 3 times.

front-line experience (W/D) - you take 30% less dmg from basic attacks While your Axe is out. While your shield is out, up to 2 nearby allies take 20% less dmg from basic attacks.


T6

Gore (Q) - Axe Defiance's Stun applies a 25% vulnerability for 2s. Shield Defiance puncture applies a 10% vulnerability for 5s.

Superiority (Q) - Axe Defiance causes your next 3 basic attacks within 3s to restore 100% dmg as life, while Shield Defiance's puncture reduces target's healing and regeneration effects by 40% for 5s.

Embrace Bloodshed (Q) - Axe Defiance causes your next 3 basic attacks within 3s to splash for 100% dmg. Shield Defiance's puncture attack is slightly slower but deals 250(+4%) dmg. (puncture uses Way of 100 fists mechanic)

T7 - Does not have Lv 20 ults

Defiant(Q) - Defiance can be used against a second/different target for free, within 4s. adds 2s to cooldown. weapon can be switched between charges.

Escapism (E) - Reduces the cost and cooldown of Elemental by 50%.

Call to arms (W/D) - Shield command is 50% stronger, lasts an additional 1s and triggers backlash 33% sooner. Axe mastery can Increase DPS a second time.



MECHANICAL NOTES

Shield Command: Barrier's damage absorption takes first priority over shields and dmg reduction, but does not negate them. the damage it does not absorb would be diverted to active shield pts/ reduction filter. A portion of Aidan's lifebar graphic is reserved for his Barrier; one that would not graphically scale with an increase in life. barriers also precedes amplified effects.

Godly plate of the whale: giant killer reduction. 2300 - 800 x 1% = 15 dmg instead of 23. Untalented Drain hope would do 375 instead of 575.

Veil of Steel: could use a decay effect 4s to make the visual component smoother

Superiority: 3 attacks in 3s? axe defiance gives a refresh, axe mastery gives a refresh.. that should leave you 2s to get 1 attack in.
Superiority + Griswold's edge: because Griswold's edge procs ability damage, it does not return as healing or splash (Embrace).. showing no talent bias at lv 1.

Grizwold's edge + Defiant(Q): free charge still counts as one cast. 1 proc total

Dark presence: works like a burning rage/ frozen tempest(E)arthas). Current health like Sumaro clones.. not max hp like giant killer.

props to Doneplay on deviant art for the amazing drawing (hope he doesn't mind)
close to the D1 warrior endgame look, with some element of the Soulstone already in place and brown cloth covering; face wrap, short cloak and hood, half wrap, half tabard, coat tail.. kinda thing.

Standard - Master