Zoltun Kulle (Full Talents Added) by Arghund

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Zoltun Kulle (Full Talents Added)

By: Arghund
Last Updated: Feb 26, 2018
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Zoltun Kulle (Full Talents Added)

Darkened Horadric Specter

*FULL TALENTS ADDED* Due to this concept's popularity, I posted his talents on HF as well
(Ranged Specialist) A ghostly mage with a global presence that can reform his body to reach full power.

Due to my apparent bias for Warcraft and desire to fix that, I decided to work on one of my wishlist heroes from the Diablo universe, and who better than Alarak's verbal rival? His Q and W were simple, being drawn directly from his boss fight (with Fireball being relegated to a talent), and the wizard's Magic Weapon spell was retooled and renamed to Transmute to hint at Kulle's alchemical background. Being a specialist from the start, I gave him Archive Terminus as a unique form of global that both heralds his status as a (former) Horadric mage and brings Diablo's famous waypoint system into HotS. His trait took the most thought, but I knew I wanted to represent both his living and ghostly appearances, so, with some inspiration from Leoric's trait, I incorporated his immortality into being an altered death state, with no hard timer. Bind Soulstone offers a variation on resurrection mechanics, referencing how he looked over the soulstones. Kanai's Cube I'm still not entirely satisfied with, but condensing it faithfully into one ability would more than likely overcomplicate and even bloat it more than it already is.

STRENGTHS:
-Global pressure and waveclear
-Defies the normal death timer
-Strong utility and crowd control
-Remains useful in his specter state
-Decent damage once living
-Good at zoning both ranged and melee heroes
-Punishes lack of waveclear from the enemy team

WEAKNESSES:
-Must spend a significant amount of time gathering globes after death
-Lack of mobility
-Lack of self-sustain
-Map presence limited if your team is pushed back
-Riskier to play on two-laned battlegrounds
-Starts the match unable to damage heroes
-Can be denied globes for his trait

STATISTICS:
Hard Difficulty
1520 health (while living)
85 basic attack damage
1.2 attack speed
5.5 attack range
600 mana
4% scaling

Combat Trait

1
True Immortality
You initially start the match in a spectral form, invulnerable to enemy attacks while being unable to damage enemy heroes yourself. Minions can still be damaged, health globes can still be picked up, and you can use Energy Twister's slow, Slow Time, and Transmute to inhibit all enemies. Upon collecting 5 health globes, activate your trait to assume your living form, allowing you to damage enemy heroes, increasing damage by 15%, and becoming killable. Health Globes do not add to your counter in this form, and dying reverts you back to your specter form.

Primary Abilities

1
Energy Twister
Mana Cost: 45
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Unleash a twister of pure energy that gravitates towards the closest enemy, slowly drawing all other enemies to it and dealing 110 damage a second. Enemy heroes are slowed by 20% for 1 second while caught in it. Lasts for 4 seconds.
2
Slow Time
Mana Cost: 60
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Invoke a bubble of warped time and space at the target location, slowing the movement and attack speed of enemies trapped within by 45%, and slowing enemy projectiles and ranged basic attacks that pass through by 80%. Lasts for 5.5 seconds.
3
Transmute
Mana Cost: 55
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Transmutes the target's armor, degrading it on enemies and improving it on allies by 25 for 4 seconds. Using Transmute on yourself also increases basic attack damage by 55%.

Heroic Abilities

1
Kanai's Cube
Mana Cost: 35
Cooldown: 50 seconds
2 charges
Activate to toggle Kanai's Cube, empowering your next basic ability or Archive Terminus.

Energy Twister: Unleashes two twisters, and their pulling force is stronger.
Slow Time: Enemies are silenced within.
Transmute: Cast in an area.
Archive Terminus: Conjures a portal at the target location that acts like a waypoint for 10 seconds.

Usable in both forms.
2
Bind Soulstone
Mana Cost: 80
Cooldown: 50 seconds
Bind a soulstone to the target for 10 seconds. If the target dies while they are bound to it, their respawn timer increases for enemies and decreases for allies by 25 seconds. If used on yourself, True Immortality fully stacks after 25 seconds upon death. Only usable in living form.

Special Mount

1
Archive Terminus
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Instead of mounting, Kulle has a network of waypoints at all allied forts and keeps that he can use to teleport between. Destroying enemy forts and keeps opens up new waypoints in the rubble, and you do not lose waypoints upon the destruction of allied structures.
Passive: Move 10% faster than normal, increased by 15% for 5 seconds after exiting a waypoint.

Level 1 TALENTS

Wicked Wind: Energy Twister moves faster and its slowing effect is increased by 10%.

Time Warp: Allied spell projectiles that pass through Slow Time have a 15% increased effect.

Spectral Blades: Self-casting Transmute causes your basic attacks to deal splash damage to targets within 3.5 range of your primary one.

level 4 talents

Raging Storm: Energy Twister now prefers heroes.

!Quest: damage heroes with Energy Twister 80 times.
Reward: Energy Twister gains a second charge. Overlapping twisters deal individual damage, reduced to 75% of normal.

Force Weapon: Transmute increases or decreases spell power by 12% for its duration.

Horadric Inscription: Activate Archive Terminus to inscribe a waypoint at the target location, visible to enemies. 35 second cooldown, and only one can be active at a time. Passive: Gain 100% increased health and mana regeneration for 5 seconds after exiting a waypoint.

level 7 talents

Familiar: Transmute surrounds friendly targets with an arcane familiar, increasing mana regeneration by 75% and attacking nearby enemies for 40 spell damage. Deals no damage to heroes as a specter.

Mirror Image: Cooldown: 30 seconds
Activate to summon a mirror image of yourself that attacks nearby enemies, replicating non-talented versions of Energy Twister and gaining Transmute's basic attack bonus regardless of the target. Deals 65% of your normal damage and lasts for 9 seconds.

Stretch Time: Slow Time increases the attack speed of allies that stand within by 25%.

level 13 talents

Energy Armor: Cooldown: 10 seconds
Activate to reserve 20% of your mana to increase armor by 15. Can be toggled on or off.

Temporal Flux: Allies that pass through Slow Time gain 30% increased movement speed for 2.5 seconds.

Galvanizing Ward: After 5 seconds of not taking damage, emit an absorption shield around you and allies within 5.5 range for 10% of your maximum health. Internal cooldown of 12 seconds for each hero except Kulle.

level 16 talents

Ritual of Immortality: True Immortality can be stacked while living but now requires 10 health globes to activate. Passively gain 50 maximum health and 1% movement speed for each stack you have.

Fireball: Mana Cost: 40, Cooldown: 15 seconds
Activate to lob a ball of fire in the target direction, dealing 170 spell damage in an area upon impact and burning targets for 20 spell damage a second for 2 seconds.

Point of No Return: Enemies that enter or leave Slow Time are stunned for 0.5 seconds. Does not instantly stun enemies upon casting, and it has an internal cooldown of 4 seconds per enemy hero.

level 20 talents

Wirt's Leg: Kanai's Cube gains a third charge, and opening a portal with Archive Terminus causes an Infernal Bovine to spawn from it every 3 seconds, attacking nearby enemies, favoring heroes, for 35 physical damage.

Creator of the Black Soulstone: Reduces the duration of Bind Soulstone by 5 seconds, but enemies that die with a soulstone bound to them are imprisoned for up to 15 seconds and must be broken out to start their respawn timer. Kulle's allies that die with a soulstone respawn after 5 seconds.

Gale Force: Increases the area of Energy Twister by 50%, and while its cooldown is incurred, it can be reactivated to manually issue movement commands.

I Can Stop Death: Cooldown: 55 seconds, 2 charges
You are able to switch to and from living and specter form with a cooldown. Does not use stacks if used this way, and this effect is disabled if you are killed in your living form until you reform normally.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

-His specter form cannot contest objectives and mercenary camps
-You do soak experience in specter form, his basic abilities still affect allies when applicable, and activateables are usable.
-Energy Twister's pull is very slight on heroes; no Ess of Johan nonsense here. Think of it more as a much slower Volskaya conveyor belt.
-Abilities enhanced by Kanai's Cube are talented
-Galvanizing Ward would function like a mobile Tyrael shield
-To further clarify, Point of No Return does not stun if you cast it directly on top of an enemy; they have to exit it first for the stun
-If running Raging Storm and Gale Force together, both charges must be used up for the manual control
-Kanai's Cube uses mana upon using an enhanced spell; if you have mana for Kanai's Cube but not the spell with it, your basic abilities will simply be shaded like normal after toggling
-Slow Time is slightly smaller than Void Prison
-Mercenaries can be damaged as a specter, but structures cannot
-*Made some general talent tuning
-*Mirror Image reworked into something less gimmicky
-Your mana stays the same between living and specter form; specter form still uses mana when casting abilities
-Creator of the Black Soulstone does apply to self-used casts

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