Tassadar (how he should have been) by Zeratul67

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Tassadar (how he should have been)

By: Zeratul67
Last Updated: Sep 1, 2017
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Tassadar (how he should have been)

Twilight Messiah

Tassadar - How I think he should have been done.

I'm not sure how many people agree, but in my opinion Tassadar is the character whose representation in the game misses his fantasy by the longest shot. His rework, while it has a few good ideas, does not ultimately alleviate this issue, and prompted me to create this concept. Here I want to present what I'd have done to design Tassadar for HoTS if his design wasn't based on a glorified sentry / mobile shield battery from the alpha days, but on his actual character.

With that said, this is not a rework, but a redesign.

Tassadar's main themes:

- He's a High Templar, an ability based (mage) character that deals massive AOE damage
"Whatever leniency I extended to you and your comrades before, may have been in error. If you persist in halting our course, we will burn your pathetic fleet down to the last man."
- He has a story of going on his own path, acquiring great power and then sacrificing himself to save his people
"I have sacrificed all that our world might live. I have sullied my honor, I have discarded my rank and standing, and I have even broken our own most ancient traditions..."
"Such is the price for our race's salvation..."
- He has learned the ways of the Nerazim, preferring not to fight head on, but using diversion and subterfuge
"I learned many of their secrets from their Prelate, Zeratul..."
"So long as you continue to be so predictable, Oh, Queen, I need not face you at all. You are your own worst enemy."

To me this clearly translates into a character that is probably closest to Nazeebo in his role, a split pusher ability damage mage. To put his fantasy of gaining power and self-sacrifice into gameplay terms, I have given him a trait that is similar to the old Gathering Power, combined with something akin to Tyrael's trait (which fits Tassadar more than him, in my opinion). His kit is based on that of SC1 and SC2 High Templars. SC2's feedback ability is a secret genius move by Blizzard if you think about it, it is a Dark Archon void-based ability which may have been taught by Tassadar to the new generation of High Templars. A major part of his fantasy is his flagship, the Gantrithor. I believe it is fitting for a carrier to be on a SC1 hero, the idea belongs more to that game than the sequel.

Base Stats:
HP: 1350 (+4% per level) - High Templars are squishy, this is slightly less than his old HP.
Attack Damage: 65 (+4% per level) - attack is a blast of Psionic energy delivered .
Attacks per second: 1

Combat Trait

1
Khala and Void
Each nearby minion killed grants +0.25%, each takedown grants +1.5% Ability Power to the maximum of +40%.

When Tassadar dies, he launches himself out as a projectile, gaining more speed as time passes (guide it with right clicks, cannot stop moving, but can turn), detonates after 3.5 seconds, dealing 500 (+4% per level) ability damage. Khala and Void ability power stacks increase this damage and count as 1.5 times their value (meaning 60% maximum boost to 800 maximum damage), and are lost after the detonation.

Primary Abilities

1
Pisonic Storm (Q)
Mana: 50
Cooldown: 8 seconds

Deals 120 (+4% per level) damage per second in an area for 3 seconds.
2
Feedback (W)
Mana: 40
Cooldown: 12 seconds

Shoots a long-ranged (~Li Ming skills) projectile that deals 250 (+4% per level) damage to the first target hit.
If it hits a Hero, that Hero is silenced for 1.75 seconds.
If it hits a Tower/Fort, that fort loses 5 ammo and receives an additional 50 (+4% per level) damage for each ammo lost this way.
3
Hallucination (E)
Mana: 70
Cooldown: 15 seconds

Create an illusory copy of any hero (can self cast). This illusory copy will push down the nearest lane and appear to be attacking, but deals no damage. Hallucinations take double damage. Cast range is global. Lasts 30 seconds.

Notes:
Hallucinations do not use active abilities, but they do possess their originator's passive trait. Said trait will not do any damage or apply any effect to enemy heroes. It will also not summon units (sorry Anub and Aba). It can have an effect on the Hallucination itself (Valla stacks, Kharazim's trait).

Hallucination copies the hero AS-IS. Meaning it copies passives gained by traits. Abilities like burning rage will appear under the hero, but will only do damage if the talent is picked up. Jaina's frost armor for instance will not work at all, since it would add buffs to enemy heroes, it won't happen even with Deadly Delusion (the E dmg talent)
4
Psionic Shockwave (Q)
Mana: 0
Cooldown: 1.5 seconds
This is his only spell while in Archon form

Deals 120 (+4% per level) damage per second in an area for 2 seconds.

Secondary Abilities

1
Control Hallucinations
Target a point/enemy/friend to make all the hallucinations head towards that point or entity. Hallucinations move 100% faster when there are no nearby enemies.

Hallucinations can also be controlled individually with selection boxes like Samuro's clones after he learns Illusion Mastery.

Heroic Abilities

1
Archon
Mana: 80
Cooldown: 80 seconds

Reduce your maximum health to 10%, but gain a shield equal to 120% of your health.

While in this form, you can only cast Psionic Shockwave. Form lasts 15 seconds, after which you retain your previous health percentage and lose the gained shield.

L20 Upgrade: Twilight Archon
Increases the duration of Archon to 20 seconds, increases the range and damage of Psionic Shockwave by 25%. Psionic Shockwave leeches 40% of its damage against heroes back as shield up to the Archon's maximum.
2
Gantrithor
Mana: 100
Cooldown: 100 seconds

Calls down the Gantrithor from orbit to strike at the target. This massive carrier will follow Tassadar around (as a shadow, like Hyperion) at 50% movement speed.

The Gantrithor releases 8 interceptors. The target of the interceptor is selected by tagging someone with the ability (like Ultralisk). The range is long, about chromie default Q with slightly longer leash range.
Dead interceptors are replaced one by one every 2.5 seconds. Ability lasts 20 seconds.

Interceptor stats:
HP: 250 (+4% per level)
Damage: 30 (+4% per level)
Interceptors attack every 1.7 seconds and move erratically.

Keep in mind this damage is also buffed by his trait.
Some numbers:
L1, 0% trait: 240 damage, 141 DPS
L1, 40% trait: 336 damage, 197 DPS

L20 Upgrade: Final Flight
Duration increased to 30 seconds. If Tassadar dies while Gantrithor is active, he warps on-board and crashes the ship, making his trait projectile start from the Gantrithor's position, the projectile is 25% faster and the damage and area is also 25% larger.

Talents

Level 1

Theme: PvE and Laning

- (Q) Lesser Minds (!): Quest: hit 100 targets with Psionic Storm. Reward: Psionic Storm deals +30% damage to Minions, Monsters and Mercenaries. This also works on Psionic Shockwave
- (W) Backlash: Feedback passes through non-heroic units, dealing regular damage and stunning them for 6 seconds. Buildings still stop the projectile.
- (W) Energy Siphon: Feedback refunds mana if a Hero is hit and reduces its cooldown by 5 seconds.

Level 4

Theme: Defensive / Survival Utility

- (Q) Plasma Surge: Psionic Storm also adds 100 shields per second to allied heroes, minions and mercs that are hit. Shields last 3 seconds. Works on Psionic Shockwave
- (E) Misdirection: Hallucination gains another charge. 25% of the damage dealt to a Hero with active Hallucination is redirected to that Hallucination (or possibly Hallucinations, all of them receiving the same damage)
- (Active) Observer: summons an observer that sees over walls and reveals stealth similar to a Scouting Drone. Reactivating the ability slowly moves the observer at 40% Hero speed. Observer is cloaked, but dies to even 1 damage. Lasts 45 seconds, 60 sec cooldown.
- (Trait) Savior: only loses half of the Khala and Void stacks on death. Enemy structures hit by trait explosion reduces death timer by 5%, enemy heroes hit by 10%. Minimum death timer is 50% of original.

Level 7

Theme: Damage

- (Q) Psionic Shock: Psionic Storm's first tick deals 2.25 times damage (~20% total damage increase). Psionic Shockwave receives only 1.5 times damage on the first tick. Psionic Storm has 20% larger area.
- (Q) Eye of the Storm : Psionic Storm gains a small inner radius where it deals 35% more damage. Works on Psionic Shockwave too. Psionic Storm has 25% larger range.
- (W) Whiplash (!): Quest: increases Feedback's damage by 8 when hitting an enemy hero. Hit 20 heroes. Reward: increase Feedback's silence duration to 2.5 seconds.
- (E) Deadly Delusion: Hallucinations deal 25% of the copied Hero's damage when using their normal attacks.

Level 13

Theme: Sustain and Disengage

- (E) Deceptive Advantage: killed Hallucinations refund 50% of their mana cost and restore 15% of Tassadar's health.
- (W) Mental Breakdown: Feedback slows heroes for 40%, decaying over its duration.
- (Active) Shadow Walk: activate to gain unbreakable stealth and 25% increased movement speed for 3 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds.

Level 16

Theme: Specialization

- (Q) Psionic Echo: Psionic Storm can be cast again for free for 1.5 seconds after the initial cast. Does not work on Psionic Shockwave.
- (E) Puppet-master: Each basic attack a Hallucination makes reduces the cooldown of the ability by 0.5 seconds.
- (Trait) Ascension: Increase maximum trait stacks to 60%.

Level 20

- (R1) Twilight Archon: increases the duration of Archon to 20 seconds, increases the range and damage of Psionic Shockwave by 25%. Psionic Shockwave leeches 40% of its damage against heroes back as shield up to the Archon's maximum.
- (R2) Final Flight: duration increased to 30 seconds. If Tassadar dies while Gantrithor is active, he warps on-board and crashes the ship, making his trait projectile start from the Gantrithor's position, the projectile is 25% faster and the damage and area is also 25% larger.
- (Trait) Transcension: Ouros makes a spectral copy of Tassadar after his death, enabling him to move around on the battlefield at half speed and cast his abilities with doubled cooldown and half damage, but retaining all talents. Cannot gain Khala and Void stacks in this state. Lasts 15 seconds.
- (Active) Stasis: puts target enemy or friendly hero (including self) into stasis. Lasts 2 seconds. Can be released after 0.25 seconds with the same button. Cooldown: 60 seconds.

Theorycrafting

- He isn't a good solo laner with this kit. His trait, good burst damage and baseline silence makes him well-suited for a gank squad.
- Feedback makes him a very powerful tower harasser (li ming on steroids). He should not be left alone in a lane.
- Hallucination is meant to create fake pushes that evoke something similar to Kerrigan's reaction to his challenge in SC1. It is also a good ability in teamfights, with the right talents it can create some confusion.
- Hallucination is great at checking bushes safely, prematurely triggering the gank, if done well.
- Some talents, such as L4's Plasma Surge and Misdirection add some support-ish power to him.
- Gantrithor is excellent at sieging. Interceptors confuse towers and waste their ammo. Archon is raw teamfight damage.
- 7 and 16 are large power surges. Both level 7 Q talents synergize massively with the 16 double storm, either enabling him to lay waste to multiple stationary targets or deliver 2 instances of burst damage. E talents, such as Deadly Delusion and Puppet-master makes him something akin to Azmodan in regards to global pushing. Speccing into E talent requires specific team compositions to work well (AA attackers).
- A maxed out trait with L16 Ascension makes a huge boom, ~2000 damage at level 20. To add to it, Final Flight increases it to ~2400 damage and larger area and faster missile speed. Defense against this is pretty much the same as vs pyroblast + splitting the team.
- W spec can counter ability based heroes with the mini-stun and the extended silence that also comes quite often due to L1 Energy Siphon.
- L1 Backlash or L1 Lesser Minds + L7 Eye of the Storm + Hallucinations make him a very good jungler.
- Stasis on L20 is very powerful. You can become a mini-Auriel. In fact it is more versatile since you can disable an enemy hero briefly as well, but the stasis is relatively short.
- Never pick Archon vs Varian. Your 10% health is pretty much a one hit kill.

Changes

2017.01.19.
- Added range description to Gantrithor
- Significantly buffed interceptor damage
- Psionic Shockwave costs no mana
- Nerfed L13 Deceptive Advantage's health return
- Text cleanup
2017.09.01.
- Updated some talent descriptions and flavor texts
- L13 Mental Breakdown is a slow instead of a stun
- Misdirection adds damage mitigation instead of stealth
- L7 Psionic Shock damage nerfed, added area bonus, Eye of the Storm completely changed

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