Ji'nara by CriticKitten

This hero concept is complete! I am open to suggestions as far as refining the balance of this hero.

Ji'nara was the former Fifth Ascendant under Alarak, and her meteoric rise in the ranks can be most directly attributed to his actions. She has served Alarak loyally but begrudgingly, fearful of his cruelty and power. Instead, she has remained one step beneath him as he climbed the ranks. When Alarak's superior, Nuroka, attempted to challenge Highlord Ma'lash to Rak'Shir, Ji'nara was instructed by Alarak to remain out of the fight in order to keep the rest of the Tal'darim ascendancy out of the fight, and was rewarded for her loyalty in doing so by rapidly ascending the ranks beneath him to Second Ascendant. Later, when Alarak rose up to face Ma'lash himself and was victorious, Ji'nara ascended again, becoming the new First Ascendant under Alarak. Ji'nara has found herself struggling in this newfound role, having recently met defeat at the hands of Nova while trying to exact revenge against the Defenders of Man. Because of this, there are many who would claim that Ji'nara's position is undeserved. Despite this, however, her ambitions remain unknown and even Alarak has admired her cunning, which makes it clear that she is not one to be trifled with.

Ji'nara is formatted similar to the Ascendant in Starcraft 2. The Ascendant is, in essence, a type of High Templar unit originating from the Tal'darim, which means they are a spellcaster with low health of their own, but tons of psionic potential that lets them attack groups of enemies at range. They can also use Sacrifice to drain the health of allied units to give themselves more energy, and amplify their damage potential even more. These features have been retained in this concept. Implementing Sacrifice was a challenge, because the Ascendant is often supported by tons of units in SC2 that she can draw from, but heroes in HotS are not necessarily always sitting with minions. To that end, I've designed Ji'nara in such a way that she can summon minions of her own, which allows her to continue refueling herself with energy that can be spammed on her Psionic Orbs. Her heroic abilities draw upon some of the most powerful displays of the ascendancy in Starcraft 2: the ability Mind Blast, which deals considerable damage, and the rite of Rak'Shir, which is the means by which ascendants battle for superiority to ascend the chain of command. While these have been altered to give them unique flavor for Heroes, they are both recognizable and should keep the flavor of Ji'nara similar to that of an ascendant unit, while still giving her a way to stand out in her own unique niche. Thus, at first glance, Ji'nara appears to be a pretty poor assassin, but she's designed to play the long game: biding her time, building her strength through the sacrifice of others, and eventually pumping out some incredible AoE damage that makes enemy heroes run in fear.

Hero Type: Ranged Assassin
Difficulty: Medium

Pros:

• Ji'nara can use her Psionic Orbs to deal damage to multiple enemies at once over a large area, and they can effectively be spammed so long as she has the energy to spare.
• Ji'nara can use Sacrifice to regenerate her lost energy quickly. This ability is a toggle, which means the player does not need to self-activate it, making Ji'nara's energy management a little easier.
• Ji'nara can summon Supplicants to help her quickly replenish energy if there are no minions nearby or if she does not wish to sacrifice them.
• Ji'nara's primary form of single-target damage is Mind Blast, which allows her to damage a particular target. It also provides clear benefits if the target lives or dies, which makes it valuable in either scenario.
• Ji'nara's other heroic, Rak'Shir, is similar to Mighty Gust in that it provides no damage, but keeps enemy heroes from reaching a specific location. While very costly and having a large cooldown, this can allow the team to secure objectives or disengage from a costly fight.

Cons:

• Ji'nara's single-target damage is quite low until she reaches Mind Blast at Lvl 10. She cannot defeat most heroes in a 1v1 fight as a result of this.
• Ji'nara runs out of energy quickly (due to the fact that her energy pool does not grow as she levels), and she can only Sacrifice when there are minions nearby. Killing off her Supplicants while she is out of lane should be a priority for enemy players looking to cut down on her impact in a fight. Ji'nara's Supplicants are not particularly strong units unless Ji'nara invests into their talents, so this is usually pretty easy to accomplish.
• Ji'nara's Mind Blast deals some reasonably good single-target damage, but she lacks the ability to follow up on it herself. She will depend on her team mates to make effective use of its Vulnerability, or otherwise save it for a finishing blow in order to make use of its Death Timer effects.
• Ji'nara's use of Rak'Shir requires that she channel the ability in place to hold enemy heroes back. As a result, its major difference from Mighty Gust is that it only works as a disengage for the rest of her team, and not necessarily as well for Ji'nara herself.

Note: All figures shown on this hero concept page are listed at their baseline figures (Lvl 0).

Health: 1385 HP (+4%)
Health Regen: 2.85 HP per second (+4%)
Resource: Energy
Energy: 200 (+0)
Energy Regen: 1.5 per second (+0)
Attack Damage: 67 (+4%)
Attack Speed: 1.11
Attack Range: 5.5