Baine by Wersus

okay, answer me this. What the hell were you thinking with this whole thing? The trait's alright, sure (if poorly worded), but it all goes downhill right from there.

His Q is a strictly better version of Sonya's W, what with the massive AoE slow it provides, considering its total uptime and what I can only assume is a total lack of a mana cost. There are no repercussions to spamming any ability in his kit on cooldown, making him ultimately more imbalanced than release Maiev, release Ragnaros, or even the travesty of release Li-Ming. Quite frankly I'm disgusted at how little consideration went into the numbers here, but that's beside the point.

What is related to the point, however, is his W. How did you even think this ability was remotely okay? I'll give you an example in the form of Cleanse, a level 7 talent that is highly contested at most levels of play due to how powerful its effect is. It has a 60 second cooldown and grants one hero Unstoppable for 1 second. Compare that to Spirit Cleanse, an 8 second cooldown that can heal two heroes for 300 over 1.5 seconds (you'll notice this is only slightly less healing over the entire duration than Malfurion's Regrowth, and significantly more healing per second) and grant both heroes Unstoppable for 1 second. While there are minor limits to the healing in the form of one target already being chosen (though it has yet another advantage over Cleanse in that it affects Baine himself, as if everything listed above wasn't enough), I just have to step back for a moment and be amazed at how utterly ridiculous this skill is. It makes Cleanse look like chump change and that alone would be reason enough to pick this hero and have him carry pro matches, due to negating just about every form of CC the enemy team could muster while putting out healing to rival several actual healers. It's a disgustingly powerful ability on an already obscenely powerful hero.

And now we have the E. Oh dear lord. Now, I have to ask, is this guy a support or a warrior, "official" tag nonwithstanding? Because he's better at being a support than any other support in the game already, by virtue of his W, and then you add this on top of it. For reference, Greymane's W is just a similarly sized attack speed bonus for himself alone, with a shorter base duration than Baine's E (though the condition to extend it is easy to perform) and a similar cooldown. The only problem is, Baine's E affects the whole team, and he has a stronger AA (going off base numbers) than Greymane, and Baine's E doesn't decay on himself or his bond target. This, of course, is neglecting the movement speed buff that is almost twice as strong as mounted speed for himself and his Bond target, and effectively the same as mounted speed (given the decay) on everyone else. This ability is utterly ridiculous and, once again, the numbers clearly had nothing more than five seconds of thought put into them.

And oh my god his ults. The first one's bad enough, being, essentially, a better version of Thrall's Earthquake. As you don't list a speed for the shockwaves, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and say that it only produces three shockwaves during its duration, similar to Thrall's ult. Even so, Ancient Totem is completely broken. Its cooldown is a whole 40 seconds lower than Earthquake, letting it be used in just about every post-10 fight, it has a moderate knockback in place of the large slow, and it also provides a similar (if slightly toned down) version of the level 20 upgrade for Earthquake, all baseline. While it does have the mild drawback of being killable, does that even come close to covering for the utility and added damage it has over Earthquake? (This isn't even counting Ancient Totem's level 20 upgrade, which breaks it even further)

His second ult is... yeesh. So it's basically level 20 Taz'dingo minus the Unkillable, but with the added benefit of everyone being Linked together, allowing Baine to ALSO do a teamwide heal/Cleanse? Again, how does this sound remotely balanced to anyone? Not much else to say about this one, but holy hell is it overpowered.

I'm reluctant to go into the talent section, but, to be fair to the concept, I will. His level 1 talents are, relatively speaking, less game-breaking than his base kit. The two quests make Ana's Piercing Darts look like a pittance of a quest, but the Block is fine and somewhat unique. I don't think I need to elaborate more on what makes his two level 1 quests so insanely overpowered.

The level 4 talents, on the other hand, ARE just as game-breaking as his base kit. The first one continues to make his Q even more of a strictly better version of Sonya's W, the second one gives him AoE healing to rival Stukov at his best (on top of the Unstoppable), and oh look, the third one makes pre-nerf level 7 Sharpened Arrowheads look tame.

And... there it is, the level 7. We've got a better version of Hardened Focus, what amounts to a better version of Ana's W, and an attack/movespeed steroid to make Thrall's E greener than he himself is with envy. I'll skip over his ults since I already covered them, and instead jump right to his level 13 talents. As with Spirit's Guard, Astral Connection is a nice, fresh take on an old generic talent, giving it some nice flavor. Those two talents are pretty much the only thing aside from his trait itself I'd keep so far. Aaaaand then we've got Tectonic Shield (which eclipses Muradin's similar level 13 talent, Healing Static) by nature of overhealing not being wasted and the shield being shared. And as if the W wasn't enough of a kick to Cleanse's nuts, we've got Evil Spirit, which is Cleanse on *slightly* fewer steroid than Spirit Cleanse is, but still some strong steroids. Things still aren't looking too hot here.

And just as I thought things couldn't get crazier, we get the level 16 talents. Natural Balance stands out as being particularly ridiculous, bringing the uber-Cleanse down to a 4 second cooldown. Then we've got Earthmother's Strength as an essentially guaranteed kill every 4 seconds. And of course, Rally Horn, because the level 4 talent for his E wasn't crazy enough.

Now, by comparison, his level 20 is *slightly* more tame, though still gamebreaking in its own right. Totemic Might is like I mentioned above,while Ancestral Protection makes Ancestral Healing look weak by comparison when added to the base ability. As for Spirit Shield, it's surprisingly okay. Keep that and the other two I mentioned (assuming it has a 60 second cooldown), since those are relatively solid, decently fresh talents. Aaaaaand then we're back to "talents/abilities that are far better versions of the best version that already exist" with Rumble Force. It's Nexus Blades, but AoE, and with more slowing and over twice the bonus damage. Need I say more?

In conclusion, I suggest rebuilding the whole thing, paying far more attention to the numbers, but keeping his trait and the three talents I mentioned. Then you're golden

One of the best and most original concepts for Baine. The only thing which you should change is damage from Seismic Strike. For a tank, its too high, so I would recommand to reduce it by a half.

This, this is what a great warrior of Thunder Bluff should be. He seems like a great double tank hero and a protector of his team. This is probably the best concept I've seen in ages, and the only real thing i would say is to lessen how many regen globes it takes to reach max, 25 maybe. Other than that this is quite amazing. Blizzard designers get this guy on your staff.