Heroes of the Storm Build Concept: Reaper

Primary Abilities

Shadow Step

After a 1 second delay, teleport to target location. Damage interrupts the channel.

Range: 9.5
Mana: 80
Cooldown: 15 seconds

Wraith Form

Become Unstoppable, ignore unit collision and take 50% reduced damage for 2.5 seconds. You cannot attack or use abilities during this time.

Mana: 65
Cooldown: 14 seconds

Death Blossom

Dealing 741 (+4% per level) damage allows you to activate Death Blossom. The damage count decays after 2 seconds.

Empty both hellfire shotguns at breakneck speeds, dealing 360 (+4% per level) damage over 1.5 seconds. You can move while channeling.

Radius: 6.0
Mana: 30
Cooldown: 2 seconds

Heroic Abilities

Grave Farewell

Unleash a hellfire explosion in a cone that does 200 (+4% per level) damage and knocks enemies back. The damage dealt is increased the closer the enemies are, up to 500 (+4% per level) damage.

Range: 10.0
Angle: 60°
Mana: 90
Cooldown: 50 seconds

Death Walks Among You

For 10 seconds your Basic Attacks and Abilities are improved. You gain 30% bonus Attack Speed, Shadow Step can't be interrupted, you can attack during Wraith Form and Death Blossom's duration is increased by 1.5 seconds.

Mana: 100
Cooldown: 70 seconds

Talents

Level 1:
Death Is Eternal: Collecting Regeneration Globes permanently increases Health Regeneration by 1 per second. Collecting Souls permanently increases Health Regeneration by 3 per second.
Thrive In Battle: Damaging a Hero with a basic attack increases your health regen by 10 (+4% per level) for 3 seconds. The health regen can stack but stacks fall off independantly.
Living Shadow: Lowers the cooldown of Wraith Form by 4 seconds.
Bloom: Increases the range of Death Blossom by 20%.

Level 4:
Hellfire Shotguns: Increases the maximum bonus damage of Reap by 30%.
Overkill: Damage dealt past Death Blossom's threshold increases the damage of your next Death Blossom by up to 40%.
Guns Blazing: Gain 30 (+4% per level) Attack Damage for 5 seconds after Death Blossom ends.

Level 7:
Double Barreled: After using Shadow Step, your next Basic Attack within 2 seconds immediately strikes a second time for 75% damage.
Wraith Walk: Increases the duration of Wraith Form by 1 second.
Invigoration: Damaging an enemy with a Basic Attack increases your movement speed by 15% for 1 second.

Level 10:
Grim Tidings: Unleash a hellfire explosion that does 200 (+4% per level) damage and knocks enemies back. The damage dealt is increased the closer the enemies are, up to 500 (+4% per level) damage.
Death Walks Among You: For 10 seconds your Basic Attacks and Abilities are improved. You gain 30% bonus Attack Speed, Shadow Step can't be interrupted, you can attack during Wraith Form and Death Blossom's duration is increased by 1.5 seconds.

Level 13:
Shared Fate: Basic Attacks deal 25% damage to other nearby targets.
Weightless: Increases your movement speed during Wraith Form by 30%.
Swift Death: Reduces the threshold of Death Blossom by 30%.

Level 16:
No Escape From Death: Lowers Shadow Step's channel time by 0.5 seconds, mana cost by 30 and cooldown by 7 seconds if you have dealt damage within the last 4 seconds.
Cold Embrace: Wraith Form deals 120 (+4% per level) damage per second to nearby enemies.
Decay: Death Blossom deals an additional 50 (+4% per level) damage over 1 second.
Regeneration: Death Blossom heals you for 20% of the damage dealt.

Level 20:
Last Call: Grave Farewell deals max damage to all enemies.
Time To Reap: Increases the duration of Death Walks Among You by 2 seconds and reduces the cooldown of abilities used during Death Walks Among You by 6 seconds.
Intense Ire: Increases the minimum bonus damage of Reap to 20% and Basic Attacks deal an additional 15 (+4% per level) damage.

Idea Behind the Concept and Final Notes

The inspiration behind the concept was a joke with friends about how Reaper would probably be a Valla skin. With such a different playstyle and the main parallel being Strafe to Death Blossom, it seemed like a fun challenge to capture what makes Reaper him and make him stand out as a Hero.

Death Blossom is the crux of his kit in Overwatch and felt too iconic to only be available half the time, besides the parallels to Strafe if it were to be a standalone ult, so it became the crux of his kit in a different way in Heroes of the Storm as a big payoff ability that also resembles the way you charge an ult. Everything, the numbers, the ults, were designed around how they'd interact with this ability, how quickly they would switch it online.

That isn't the only style available to Reaper, though. He can be played as an assassin or a basic attack focused hero too, but the core is the same. He wants to find the right moment to jump into the enemy team and reap.

The numbers are a rough attempt at making Reaper balanced but have a good payoff for the hoops he has to jump through. All comments are appreciated.

Thanks for reading!

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This is my favorite Reaper concept so far. I like the idea of quick-charging his "ult".

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(29) |

As I mentioned on your comment to my concept, I really love what you went with here. I'm personally a huge fan of any design that is high-impact and/or play-making, and this concept definitely gives that vibe with a healthy amount of self-peel, mobility, and if timed well, great DPS. Also why as great as Grave Farewell sounds, Death Walks Among You unlocks a Pandora's Box of potential for skirmishes and teamfights.

Would love to have played this Hero.

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That really means a lot, this concept just clicked with me and it's great that my confidence was well placed. Death Walks Among You is my favourite ult too :P

Hopefully the Pharah concept comes out positive too, just brainstormed it earlier and I'm really happy with the talents she has, which is causing a lack of sleep. Might save that one for the Tracer release or Overwatch Open Beta for more Overwatch hype.

Feels great when you can actually imagine the character in HotS and it clicks.

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I'd play him.

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(1) |

Daaaaang son, I was of the opinion that Reaper was unlikely to account for much, but you pulled off a BA design here. I really like your choice to make Death Blossom a standard ability, 5/7 perfect score.

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Thanks! It's funny that it's not expecting much from Reaper that ended up inspiring a Reaper concept. I've got the bare bones of a Pharah concept too because I told myself to focus on the Reaper concept only but still had Overwatch on the mind and did exactly the opposite. Probably still a good while off but hopefully it'll turn out as good.

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Reaper by Garland

Reaper