Harth Stonebrew is a melee healer that focuses on sustained healing, and can also support lanes by empowering minions. His lack of mobility makes him susceptible to burst damage, but if Harth manages to survive any encounter, he can be back in the fight quite quickly.
Combat Trait
1
Harth's Brew
Harth has a high passive health regeneration up to 60% of his max HP when out of combat for 3 seconds (similar to Fenix’s shields).
Primary Abilities
1
Card Packs for You!
Harth throws a pack of cards consisting of 5 projectiles in a tight arc, the center card is a legendary, which will root the target and deal high damage, then further out are 1 epic and 1 rare which will just do high and medium damage respectively, and the outer 2 cards are commons which will deal very little damage. An enemy hero can be hit by multiple projectiles at once.
2
First Drink’s on Me
This ability has 3 charges, with each charge, Harth throws a drink to an allied hero, letting them heal over time at the same rate of Harth’s Brew for a small portion of their HP. Using the ability on a target that is already benefiting from this effect will instantly complete the healing over time of the previous effect.
3
Heroes of the Tavern
Harth targets a friendly minion, transforming them into a more powerful version. The cooldown is dependent on the type of minion the ability is cast on.
For a short cooldown, an empowered melee minion is fully healed and has increased max HP.
For a medium cooldown, an empowered ranged minion has increased attack speed and damage.
For a long cooldown, an empowered caster minion has increased attack damage and deals splash damage.
Heroic Abilities
1
Empowered Hearthstone
Harth targets an allied hero, for the next 5 seconds, if that hero sustains lethal damage, the damage is prevented and that ally is instantly transported to the fountain as if they had finished channeling hearthstone.
2
Tavern Brawl
Harth becomes unstoppable and channels in place for 5 seconds, enemy heroes within a radius of Harth will be forced to auto attack their own teammates that are also within the radius, (priority goes Heroes -> Minions -> Structures -> Harth) while Harth is channeling. Harth cannot cancel the ability himself.
Level 1 Talents
Wah, Golden Legendary (Q, Quest)
After hitting 25 heroes with the legendary card, Card Packs for You
Level 4 Talents
Battlegrounds (Trait)
Harth
Level 7 Talents
Buy One Get One Free (Q)
Card Packs for You can now hold up to 2 charges that refresh at once.
A Round for Everyone (W)
If Harth uses First Drink
Level 13 Talents
Cards Up Your Sleeves (Q)
Adds 2 extra common cards on the outermost sides of Card Packs for You.
The Coin (W)
When Harth casts First Drink
Level 16 Talents
Inspire (E)
Whenever Harth or an upgraded minion kills another minion within a certain range of Harth, Heroes of the Tavern
Custom Hero Content Review:
This Harth Stonebrew is a bit of an oddball. It has places where it shines, but it also features some dud areas.
Trait
This trait is basically Muradin's, just with a cap. Healers do need some form of self-healing, and this one seems more-or-less fair, though it has some mild issues. Unlike Muradin, whose trait encourages players to make critical decisions of when to leap in and out, this particular kit doesn't really have that. It's a workable and possible to balance, but wouldn't necessarily make the hero more fun to play as or against.
It's overall fine, I just don't think it fits particularly well in terms of the overall playstyle.
Q
A Diablo-style spread of skillshots, with a root in the middle. There isn't too much wrong with this one on the face of it. The immediate access to a Root is potentially problematic, since roots can be hard to balance. Since healers need a form of self-protection, this one works to fill that role.
I'll note that I've always wanted a Genji talent that specifically impacts the middle star, so I'm fond of the general idea of the Legendary Card surrounded by a little bit of extra damage, but I also think the epic and rare cards being asymmetrical is a bit iffy. I'd personally suggest only having the Legendary baseline, and have talents that can augment the other cards into the other rarities.
In short, this concept works, it just needs some trimming. It's also a bit unusual for a healer to have an offensive tool like this, as the offesnive tools of healers tend to be more 'deliberate'. If I had to suggest a rework, it would be to fire all five cards in a single file stream, with the final hit being a legendary that stuns, mostly because, his kit is one that doesn't want to get too close, as he largely doesn't fit the 'melee attacker' role he's been given here.
W
This one here is my favourite part of the whole kit. A problem lots of healer designs have is that the healing lacks any sort of player expression. Here, though, players will often need to make critical decisions on how to use their brew charges. Just placing a single heal on a hero is the most bang for your buck, but there will be times when the instant top-up will be necessary to save lives. Harth must be strategic, and choose whether he wants to be efficient or effective. From there, it has a lot of potential for talents that reward different use cases of the brew, as well as means for Harth to refill charges quicker.
The only real issue I have is that it would kind of suck to use the move on a hero in the last split second before the heal ends. I think heroes who are receiving heals would need to have a mark on them, similar to Malfurion's Q showing how long Regrowth has to go.
All-in-all, this a great concept for an ability.
E
While there's definitely some flavor for a Hearthstone hero to augment minions or heroes or the like, heroes shouldn't have abilities that only work while in lane. Having Harth lose 33% of his base kit while at objective isn't a good design. Even with that aside, there's just not very much skill expression here. The three different options don't provide much more than a knowledge test of "which one is the best at siege, and which one is the best to defend against siege?"
R1
This one is Khara's ult, only instead of putting the hero right back into the fight, it just denies the enemy team a kill. The core issue here is that, in a teamfight, properly landing this ability will still temporarily leave you a man down. So you still don't accomplish much, aside from denying the satisfaction of a kill, meaning both teams have less fun. I do think, however, that a variant of this ability would work just fine as a level 20 talent, where death prevention becomes more of a premium, even with a cost.
R2
This ability is Mosh Pit, but with range, damage, and Unstoppable. Lowering the duration by half would help bring it in line, but it would still be very strong, it also takes a massive part of ETC's identity away.
I'm overlooking the fact that this game has thus far avoided letting heroes damage their own team, though I think there's a reason why this has been avoided thus far, and it probably goes beyond an engine limitation.
Overall, I really love the W ability on this kit. It's a solid concept with lots of potential. The Q is probably my second favourite, but it's in need of adjustments. E is unfortunately just not an appropriate ability in this particular MOBA.
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This Harth Stonebrew is a bit of an oddball. It has places where it shines, but it also features some dud areas.
Trait
This trait is basically Muradin's, just with a cap. Healers do need some form of self-healing, and this one seems more-or-less fair, though it has some mild issues. Unlike Muradin, whose trait encourages players to make critical decisions of when to leap in and out, this particular kit doesn't really have that. It's a workable and possible to balance, but wouldn't necessarily make the hero more fun to play as or against.
It's overall fine, I just don't think it fits particularly well in terms of the overall playstyle.
Q
A Diablo-style spread of skillshots, with a root in the middle. There isn't too much wrong with this one on the face of it. The immediate access to a Root is potentially problematic, since roots can be hard to balance. Since healers need a form of self-protection, this one works to fill that role.
I'll note that I've always wanted a Genji talent that specifically impacts the middle star, so I'm fond of the general idea of the Legendary Card surrounded by a little bit of extra damage, but I also think the epic and rare cards being asymmetrical is a bit iffy. I'd personally suggest only having the Legendary baseline, and have talents that can augment the other cards into the other rarities.
In short, this concept works, it just needs some trimming. It's also a bit unusual for a healer to have an offensive tool like this, as the offesnive tools of healers tend to be more 'deliberate'. If I had to suggest a rework, it would be to fire all five cards in a single file stream, with the final hit being a legendary that stuns, mostly because, his kit is one that doesn't want to get too close, as he largely doesn't fit the 'melee attacker' role he's been given here.
W
This one here is my favourite part of the whole kit. A problem lots of healer designs have is that the healing lacks any sort of player expression. Here, though, players will often need to make critical decisions on how to use their brew charges. Just placing a single heal on a hero is the most bang for your buck, but there will be times when the instant top-up will be necessary to save lives. Harth must be strategic, and choose whether he wants to be efficient or effective. From there, it has a lot of potential for talents that reward different use cases of the brew, as well as means for Harth to refill charges quicker.
The only real issue I have is that it would kind of suck to use the move on a hero in the last split second before the heal ends. I think heroes who are receiving heals would need to have a mark on them, similar to Malfurion's Q showing how long Regrowth has to go.
All-in-all, this a great concept for an ability.
E
While there's definitely some flavor for a Hearthstone hero to augment minions or heroes or the like, heroes shouldn't have abilities that only work while in lane. Having Harth lose 33% of his base kit while at objective isn't a good design. Even with that aside, there's just not very much skill expression here. The three different options don't provide much more than a knowledge test of "which one is the best at siege, and which one is the best to defend against siege?"
R1
This one is Khara's ult, only instead of putting the hero right back into the fight, it just denies the enemy team a kill. The core issue here is that, in a teamfight, properly landing this ability will still temporarily leave you a man down. So you still don't accomplish much, aside from denying the satisfaction of a kill, meaning both teams have less fun. I do think, however, that a variant of this ability would work just fine as a level 20 talent, where death prevention becomes more of a premium, even with a cost.
R2
This ability is Mosh Pit, but with range, damage, and Unstoppable. Lowering the duration by half would help bring it in line, but it would still be very strong, it also takes a massive part of ETC's identity away.
I'm overlooking the fact that this game has thus far avoided letting heroes damage their own team, though I think there's a reason why this has been avoided thus far, and it probably goes beyond an engine limitation.
Overall, I really love the W ability on this kit. It's a solid concept with lots of potential. The Q is probably my second favourite, but it's in need of adjustments. E is unfortunately just not an appropriate ability in this particular MOBA.