Players would receive not one but two talent points at the appropriate levels. Instead of a single list of talents (except at the Heroic levels of 10 and 20), they would be presented with two laid out side by side, one for Cho and one for Gall, and get to pick one from each. But not two from one side. Each side would contribute one half of the icon that showed up in the score tab and elsewhere.
For example, Cho can opt for Boiling Rage which grants him increased movement and attack speed while in the field created by his E skill, Bonebreaker. At that same tier, Gall can pick up Unnatural Chill which gives him increased ability power while in the field from his E, Soulcrusher. Or Gall can instead select an active skill that's a single target Bloodlust effect which I'm just going to call Bloodrage for now. Cho would have that same option, the psuedo-Bloodlust, in which case instead of two copies of it, Cho'Gall players would instead have one copy with charges letting them cast it multiple times and that's the way all active skills would work. There'd only be one choice on the Heroic tiers, levels 10 and 20, so there'd be no switching heads to use a different ultimate skill.
The point of all this is that Cho and Gall can each be built in their own way. Separately or together, whichever players prefer. They could select talents that compliment each other, so that switching from one head to another is seemless. Or go in entirely different directions so that each head develops its own style of play, Cho operating differently than Gall. Gall might be the set-up man, using buffed snares and disables to set up kills from Cho's amplified damage. Or Cho could go for hard shut down that enables Gall to drain his targets down. Cho could be bursty. Gall could go for auto-attacks. One could tank so the other could fight. Or they could each go for as much damage as they could. Letting Cho and Gall have their own separate identities would create a lot of build diversity while making it matter that players can switch between them.
Heroes of the Storm Build Guides
Secondly because it's quite clear in the lore that they work together with good synergy. Yeah, sure they may argue a little once in a while but not even once have I seen the two heads straight up disagreeing what to do. Actually I haven't seen them ever doing their own spells separately either. I have read WoW: The Comic where Cho'gall is the last main villain at the end and they worked together perfectly. And it only makes sense. If they were unable to work together then they would not be able to lead the Twilight's Hammer cult in the first place. They may have two separate minds but they work together as one perfectly. No reason to make it work or look otherwise.
I also see it pointless to give this hero two separate health bars just because he got two heads. And... What happens to Cho'gall when both heads die? Does he get teleported back to the base or how does it work?
And I don't mind at all. I don't agree with your suggestions, but it's helpful to have to explain my ideas because it helps to clarify them.
In all honesty I'm new on page and I was specificaly looking for Cho'Gall so I really missed your other character ideas and their traits
but like I said I just LOVE cho'Gall as character so I would learn him same way as I've learned Brightwing who is also very specific
My initial thought was much like yours and in my first drafts, each head has its own passive and entirely separate skills and changing between them was really switching between two different characters. But I've already done that with other characters like Egon and the Viking pilot so I wanted to go another way. And, more importantly, I was concerned about what happens when a character gets to use too many skills in a short time frame. Skills are important, they're what turn fights around because they have a lot more impact than auto-attacking. A character that can chain one nuke into another by switching kits to extend their skill bar is a character that can dish out a lot of hurt and has the potential to be unbalanced. That could be undercut by making those rapidly cast skills relatively weak but that would mean a character who's not a powerful mage like Cho'Gall should be.
The one mana bar design means he's not casting more often than similar characters, like Jaina or Kael, so his power level can remain high. At the same time, it means that it doesn't take crazy micro to flip between different skill bars in order to output decent damage. This keeps him from being a high skill cap character, like a TLV or Abathur, useful only to those with great reflexes and puts him more towards a middle tier where switching well is just a good skill to have rather than a requirement for high level play.
Wasted heals are an issue but no more than trying to heal a Jaina who pops Ice Block or a Tassadar that vanishes with Dimensional Shift. Or the Butcher who gets trapped by his allied Nazebo's Zombie Wall. Or the Abathur who hats Illidan only to have him run away from the fight. Annoying but more about players getting familiar with a character and how they play. There's a learning curve and, you know, healers would have to realize they probably shouldn't waste their heals on Cho when Gall's health is nearly full.
But, I agree this would be frustrating for support. One way to reduce that frustration would be to have a lengthier cooldown on switching. At, say, 12 seconds, players really have to commit to one head or the other. But that cuts against the sort of free-wheeling switching that I want, preventing the crazy Cho to Gall back to Cho combos that I want to see players come up with.
Yes, if you're getting focused down that heavy, an extra head isn't going to save you. When one head dies, you get a brief moment of Unstoppable to keep out of situations like being stun locked, but you're not invulnerable. But that's no different from getting saved by Kharazim's Divine Palm or Rehgar's Ancestral Healing and then getting burst down right afterwards. It happens, it sucks, but that's the game.
I'm definitely for Cho'Gall, and if it gets trough I'm sure he will have as hilarious quotes as he had in wow...
skillset and idea is really interesting tough I'm not sure if it will be usable in practics because supports may be avoiding to use ultimate heals and coolldowns on this character because of switches
situation in HotS chnges itself very quickly and for example imagine that Rhaegar tries to save you with Ancestral healing while you switch head to full health one. Not to mention that if you could "die" every so often it would may cause reclessness
imagine that you got pyroblasted into face, and when it melts down, your second head still sits in blizzard or got cracked by a triple tap
When I thought about him, I actually thought about different skill for each head, but rather different skills or important effects of those skills and even that mana pool but not separate health pools
if I would add my ideas, the I would make it one healthpool, and two manapools, because he IS actually two minds in one body than a final boss from Final Fantasy
switching head would switch manapool,skills and clear disable effects affecting mind (those affecting body would remain (for example envenom would remain active on switch but for example leoric's drain hope or his ghost-form slow effect would be broken)
skills would be same in principle but different in traits (like destro/affliction warlock)for example chains on dps head would be fire dmgto anyone getting in contact with those, but on affli head it will be slow or lifesteal. Talents would not be chosen separately but both heads would benefit from them in opposite way, leaning to one side or the other depending on head (here I mean that if I choose addition that would improve draining power of the spell on dps head, it would also bolster brute power of appropriate spell on affliction head and vice versa) for example dps fire chains would also slow opponent by little less than affli chains, but affli chains with same talent would also add shadow dmg to slow
both ultimates would make heads cooperate but one in "arcane power" way and other in "don't think at all and smash" way but those would NOT change with heads and will be chosen for the rest of the game depending on player choice. spell ultimate would be heavy aoe and for example bolster of magic dmg or lifesteal, while dps ultimate would be charge/knockback/heavy hit in a line