Cooldown: Varies
You gain a powerful advantage with the objective on any map.
Cain calls on his considerable knowledge of the map and his enemies to turn the tide of battle in his favor. Cain affects a map objective within moderate range. This effect changes depending on the map.
Dragon Shire. Cooldown: 150 seconds. Cain instantly captures a shrine or the Dragon Knight (if both shrines are under allied control).
Cursed Hollow. Cooldown: 150 seconds. Cain empowers a tribute. If his team captures it, it is worth 2 tributes.
Sky Temple. Cooldown: 90 seconds. Cain instantly captures a Temple, and it fires for him for a minimum of 5 seconds.
Haunted Mines. Cooldown: 45 seconds. Cain instantly siphons half of the skulls in a given cluster of skeletons or the skull boss itself.
Garden of Terror. Cooldown: 45 seconds. Cain instantly siphons half of the seeds in a given cluster of terrors or one of the boss terrors.
Blackheart's Bay. Cooldown: 90 seconds. Cain instantly steals all of the coins from target player.
Tomb of the Spider Queen. Cooldown: 90 seconds. Cain instantly steals (and converts) all the gems from target player.
Heroes of the Storm Build Guides
I do think that it's worth looking at it once ;P
1) Cain's Objective Control - Too Strong?
Most of Silcore's worries seem to be centered on Last of the Horadrim, but I want to touch on Stay Awhile And Listen for a moment. The ultimate effect of this ability is simply to make objectives take roughly twice as long for enemies when Cain is nearby. Since Cain is somewhat difficult to position and reliant on party support, I felt that a strong effect would be appropriate. On the other hand, with the long range, it might be affecting play too much on maps like Tomb of the Spider Queen, if Cain is positioned Mid, as he should be. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Should I nerf Stay Awhile And Listen? If so, by how much, and in what way?
Last of the Horadrim, I agree is a bit too powerful, but not in terms of effect - at least, in my opinion. The drawbacks of this ult are pretty hefty. It can't contribute to a team fight, most of the effects are fairly conditional, and it often puts Cain in danger. For example, capturing the Dragon Knight means that Cain will be inside the DK and in a fairly vulnerable position when it ends - not to mention, the other two shrines have to be captured previously. The tribute on Cursed Hollow is probably the biggest risk/reward example, since Cain must make the decision to use this ability while the objective is still available to the enemy team. While enemies can't gain the double tributes, they can utterly waste Cain's Heroic Ability.
On the other hand, the cooldown for this ability makes it pretty overpowered, since it can effectively buff EVERY tribute and steal coins/gems WAY too often. I think that making the cooldown vary by battleground (and increasing the cooldown substantially) will be essential to making this work. I hope this will make LotH into a more strategic decision that can make or break a team during the late game.
2) Cain's Role - Warrior or Specialist?
2a. Does Specialist Work?
Both matrix123mko and ChaosOS had some issues with Cain being a Warrior - and who can blame them? Cain does NOT fit the mold of the classic Warrior, and I did realize that while making him. I actually didn't plan on making him a warrior at the start, and I went back and forth between Warrior and Support for some time - so it was a bit strange to see ChaosOS suggest the Specialist role for Cain. I think this may be because Specialists are so difficult to define, so we usually assume that, if they do something weird, they're a Specialist. Map control, however, is a pretty broad strength, and comprises Assassins (Falstad, Nova, and Zeratul come to mind for their mobility and stealth paranoia), Supports (Brightwing with her mobility), and Specialists (such as Zagara for her vision and Nydus Worm).
I considered making Cain a Specialist for a bit after seeing your remarks, but I kept coming back to the three things we see Specialists do in HotS: 1) strongly push lanes, 2) provide XP advantage (aka split push), and 3) affect battles at long distance. Needless to say, other than with The Book of Cain at level 10, Cain has none of these abilities. Generally, Cain needs to be near his party, protecting them and locking up objectives.
2b. Do Cain's Abilities Make Him A Warrior?
Now, I will admit, other than Identify, Cain's ability set does not seem very Warrior-ish, and that may actually be a problem. My reasoning was that Identify is already walking a razor's edge near overpowered territory by giving Warrior-like HP to Kael'thas or Illidan. Thus, giving Cain stuns or ways to additionally protect allies might be a bit much. (Also, I didn't really want to give Cain "magical" abilities. He's plenty awesome as a brilliant scholar without additional trinkets.)
Thus, my question is: If I drop Identify on Illidan and he's healing himself and using Evasion among other abilities, should Cain really have additional ways to make him a powerhouse other than giving a crazy amount of hit points?
2c. Still ... Why A Warrior?
In the end, the decision to make Cain a Warrior revolves around the purpose of roles in HotS. They really do just one thing: help people understand party composition. Well, that, and helping the Match Maker do the same thing. So what other roles does Cain play well with? The answer to that is simple - Assassins and Supports. Cain's main ability is wasted on Warriors, making him most happy when that role is already filled. This means that, if you build a party around Cain, you want strong, mobile Assassins and a Support, and maybe a Specialist as well.
To me, that made the decision clear.
Still what does everyone else think? I love the comments, and I'm going to start reworking the cooldown on LotH right away. Thanks for looking at my hero through new eyes and forcing me to think through my decisions a bit more thoroughly. Let me know if you agree or disagree and why.
Thanks!
Lord Dreadman