Dual-stance Priest by Drygin_7

Hi guys!

This is my preliminary concept for a Priest support based on a dual-stance mechanic. For those who don't know, a dual-stance character is a hero who changes dynamically between two sets of abilities, ussually trough an specific ability(much like Greymane) or a trait button. In other mobas, it's not rare to find a typical dual stance range-meele character (We have Greymane in HotS), or a shield-sword one, but it's rare to see a mage-healer with a dual stance design, and we also have that, compared to HotS supports/healers in other games work differently. There's a referent of a dual stance mage-healer in Smite though, the goddess Hel. It's important to remark that this hero concept is designed with the idea of being constantly switching through stances to minimize cooldown downtime, annd also because abilities from different stances are designed to synergize, so being able to play statically in one stance shoulndn't be specially viable and balance-wise, it should be discouraged, specially by the length of cds.

This concept is a bit more radical than Smite's Hel, though. It focuses on creating a hero with 2 independent kits on each instance (not same ability with different effect, like Smite's Hel). Abilities are all based on common WoW Priest spells, with some modifications to fit a sharper gameplay. Each stance is based mostly in an specific WoW spec (holy and Shadow). Although Wow fans might identify this concept as non truly canonic, the idea the of dual stance is there to offer a very active, interesting gameplay. This concept also leaves some room for a different Discipline Priest, since that spec ins't really represented here. Some might be thinking about a potential "multiclass", but devs specifically said in the last Q&A that creating a true multiclass support-assassin could be fairly problematic (and it's true, and potentially harder to balance with another "XML of death"). Instead, this concept focuses on creating a mage-healer type of support, with some particular design: without a true healing ultimate, relatively strong damage and some debuff stregth, much like Lili, but with only aggro ults. He should have various talent routes, with various passive talents, some actives, and some talents that focus on comboing abilities in either defensive or aggressive way(see below); with this, we can make a support that can build into defensive talents without plainly upgrading his heals, focusing the hero more on making an effective use of his abilities, or offering an aggressive talenting route, like Tyrande.

The idea behind this concept is to create an aggressive, combat-friendly and high-skill support, who is also fun to play and very impactful over the battle, constantly in action either switching stance or spamming abilities using them in rapid succession (W abilities are concieved to be spammy, both Es and Qs are designed to combo with themselves, which tells us that we are going to spam the D button). What's more, following some design patterns used with Auriel, a part of his healing will be tied to the combat performance of allies (Vampiric Touch) so he can be balanced as a more aggressive support by default. As you can see, his damage is and utility is meant to be relatively high if we also consider ultimates, since all 4 ults are fairly aggro-oriented with an AoE damage component(instead of sustained healing or burst super heals) and he can have 2 active ultimates!!!. This aspect should be balanced around cast or effect delays making them a bit harder to land and also not being bursty.

As I already mentioned, you can observe below that abilities share some design patterns and both Q and E of each stance are designed to combo with their counterpart of the other stance. At the same time, the W is kinda oriented at taking advantage of any of E mechancs. I'm going to explain this in a small scheme:

• Q abilities in both stances are the "healer/defensive" abilities. Single target ally hero. Purify can be used to remove any DoT and most CC effects (a clear counter to Kael or Lunara for example), but has also an innate combo with the other Q by purging the reduced healing aspect from Shadow Mend. So a Q>D>Q is a good combo if you see a target potentially being initiated or trapped by a kael combo. Q talents should either buff the ability (longer unstoppale period, movement speed), reinforce some aspect of this combo or other synergies (For example a talent allows to invert the order, granting retroactive shadow mend purge, or increased heal from other abilities, etc) or even have aggressive uses (removing unstoppable from enemies with Purify).
  
  
• W abilities in both stances are abilities are "aggrosupport" abilities. They can be used on allies to heal or empower them, or over enemies to deal damage to them. The nature of this abilities make them spammy, with relatively low CD and mana cost. They should be able to be talented in either way too. At the same time, both this abilities combo relatively well with either the slow or lifesteal effect from E abilities, healing yourself as you deal damage, or keeping enemies closer reducing the range limitations of W. Some talents should empower the combo aspect between W and E abilities. For example: Penance dealing bonus damage to enemies affected by Vampiric touch, Mind Sear healing additional numbers from enemies affected by either E, etc,.
  
  
• E abilities in both stances are combat oriented abilities. Both are single target abilities with damamge + debuff used over enemies. They are designed to grant an advantage to allies but also yourself. Comboing them in rapid succession might be a good idea to isolate targets from teamfights and can be comboed in any order. E>D>E will effectively slow an enemy hero and will also grant general lifesteal (not only form basic attacks) to allies attackikng him (maybe with some range limitation) and also adding damage. This ability is also a good way to increase the focus over a peculiar target in the fight. Talents for it should be mostly aggressive, and grant combo advantages when used with both Ws.