Fandral Staghelm (Complete) by Cyous

Fandral is a "build around your team" hero.  Before his descent into madness, Fandral was a very powerful druid in Azeroth.  He held the title of Archdruid.  Among his peers, he literally stood taller than the rest.  Fandral is an imposing presence that commands respect.  His attitude is fierce and stern.  Impose Illidan's arrogance upon Fandral, and make said arrogance that of a truly passionate leader.  That is Fandral, before he became a Druid of the Flame.

Fandral was incredibly strong with both shapeshifting and spellcasting.  While he did not affiliate himself with other circles of druids, he was a mentor for many.  As such, he's a very complex character with incredibly in-depth skills.

In order to capture both his fierce spirit and versatility, I think it's best to promote a hybrid playstyle.  While you are locked into a single shapeshift form, you can build tanky, support, or damage-dealer.  You can also select particular combinations of talents to best suit your playstyle and your team's needs.

Ultimately, Fandral can be very strong, but I would like to capture the personality of each form.  As such, Fandral would be fairly weak early-game, but his mid-game and late-game make him very powerful through his counter-comp talents.  Not only does Fandral provide a useful toolkit, he can have synergy with every champion imaginable.

It's best to consider the following:
- How might I build Fandral to specialize in a single role?
- How might I build Fandral to work well with other heroes?
- How might Fandral's toolkit work against "counter" heroes?

Default Skin: Looks like Malfurion without antlers/horns using T6 Druid (Blue/Brown/Purple).  Non-armor cat and bear forms.

Master Skin:  Incarnation Forms for Cat and Bear forms.  Balance and Restoration similar to Tyrande's Master Skin's moon effect.

Druid of the Flame (Epic): Firelands ~ Firecat Form.  Scorpion Form (Bear).  Includes Flametalon of Alysrazor mount.

Starfire [Q]: Tuned to be similar to Nova's Snipe  (before talents).  Starfire is weaker, though the scaling is nearly identical.  Considering a cast time of 1.0 sec, it provides the player with time to react and escape.  However, this ability in team fights leads to very strong output, and makes Fandral a priority kill-target.

Insect Swarm [W]: Tuned to be similar to a stronger version of Sylvannas' Black Arrow (before talents).  Insect Swarm is meant to be a wave-clear ability with decent damage for clumped team fights.  Insect Swarm does not jump like Sylvannas' Black Arrow, but instead will persist for a short time (4 sec).  Any enemies that pass through it are afflicted with Insect Swarm.  The radius is similar to an enhanced Kael'thas Flamestrike.

Cyclone [E]: This is a skill-shot similar to Thrall's rooting-Wolf ability (W).  It will travel further, faster, but it will pass through non-Hero targets.  This ability is meant to allow long-range CC while continuously firing off Starfire attacks.

Starfall [R]: This is literally a rehash of Tyrande's Starfall, but made better for a ranged character.  Balance-spec is already powerful AOE damage, but it lacks "Area of Denial" mechanics.  Starfall will place a large circle around you, similar to Sgt. Hammer's Siege Mode.  While Starfall is active, you may mount.

Celestial Alignment [R]: Tuned to be a throughput spell, you signficantly increase the power of Starfire through cast time reduction.  Starfire, already spammable, becomes a mini-nuke in its own right.  The ability is a counter-push, which can destroy tanks.  Chain-casting Starfire is extremely potent (imagine getting hit by Nova's Snipe 2 times per 2 seconds).  If players are clumped together, then your damage skyrockets like Kael'thas' Flamestrike post-lvl16.  At level 20, you have the option to gain Starfire casting while moving.

Rake [Q]: Tuned to provide a steady stream of sustained damage, Rake scales fairly well.  It's not meant to provide huge damage over time, but instead acts to buff Ferocious Bite.  The damage translated from the 30% bonus to Ferocious Bite makes Rake more valuable than what you may originally think.

Wild Charge [W]: This is a gap-closer.  Usable while cloaked.  Pathing/Landing is similar to Illidan's Dive [Q].  It will launch you behind the target.  You may use this to hunt heroes behind walls, such as Abathur.  You may also use this to stop some Heroic Abilities, such as Strafe or Jug of 1000 Cups.

Ferocious bite [E]: Tuned to be a burst spell, Ferocious Bite is your DPS killer.  Similar to Nova's Snipe in strength, you can combine Rake, Wild Chage, and Ferocious Bite for major damage in the early game.  The risk is that you will almost always be punished for your attack.  If you can get out with Wild Charge instead of using it to land your abilities, the reward is very gratifying.  Please keep in mind, Ferocious Bite gets very strong late-game, but the early-game will be weak.

Tiger's Fury [R]: Your abilities cost less to use and reduced cooldowns.  Rake is the only ability you can spam, so it doesn't really build into the burst of your toolkit.  However, you can use this to quickly defeat Bruiser camps.  The cooldown reduction is great for Ferocious Bite, it basically gives you an extra usage in a 12 sec. window.  The increased movement speed gives you supreme chasing capabilities, plus Wild Charge is there to help close gaps.

Blood in the Water [R]: The design resembles Gather Power.  Ferocious Bite is your big damage ability; this is improved it further.  And maximum stacks, is helps with some of the self-healing in the toolkit, allowing the player to build more tanky in some cases.  A tanky cat with burst mimics some gameplay of Sonya.  However, the tankiness is gained early-game and mid-game.  Regardless, the ability to be cloaked, have decent tank talents, and have strong burst makes you an excellent initiator.

Wild Growth [Q]: Tuned to be similar to Brightwing's passive.  The difference is small, and the heal radiates from your target, rather than yourself.  This ability prioritizes Heroes, and will heal up to 3 targets.  It's a lot of throughput, though the cost is very high to match it. 

Typhoon [W]: This ability has many uses, including pushing enemies out of stealth.  You can push minions back to force cannons to use ammo, helping your early game push a little bit.  Likewise, you can push minions back to conserve cannon ammo on your own side.  You can force enemies against a wall and setup body-blocks.  There is a lot of different uses for an ability like this.  You can be very creative.

Living Seed [E]: This ability is meant to be a sustainable ability. The effective healing is quite low, and the mana cost is very low as well.  This is meant to be more of an early-game option.  Late-game it gets replaced by Wild Growth.  It's still a fair amount of healing, Wild Growth will just heal for so much more.

Lifebloom [R]: This ability is tuned as your filler for team-fights.  You may not stack Lifeblooms on players.  This healing is meant to provide just enough throughput to allow pushes in enemy territory.

Dreamwalking [R]: This is a complex idea, but fairly simple in practice.  You want to find a safe way to hide.  (Similar to Murky's Egg, or an aggressive Abathur.)  You will summon an avatar of yourself, and you will be able to mount, run, cast abilities, etc.  You gain increase mana regeneration, but you are not cloaked (brush will hide you, but nothing like Nova's cloak).  You forfeit 70% of your health, as in, your max health is lowered to 30% of normal.  This is temporary.  If your Dreamwalker-avatar dies, you are extremely vulnerable for a short time and Dremwalker incurs a long cooldown (70 sec.).  The range is not global.  If your "real" body dies, your Dreamwalker is instantly killed as well.  Dreamwalker will have a short cooldown, as baseline, to allow the player to push forward or reset more backwards.