Isendra by guber

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Isendra

By: guber
Last Updated: Dec 2, 2022
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Isendra

D2 Sorceress

Rather than being as true to the D2 sorc as possible, I have chosen to focus on iconic abilities of the D2 sorceress that are missing from Heroes of The Storm. Because they are found on other characters and already balanced you will not find the following abilities on this character concept: Blizzard, Chain Lightning, Teleport. Abilities that are iconic but missing from Heroes are being focused on such as: Charged Bolt, Fire Wall, Hydra and Telekinesis (as differentiated from Alarak telekinesis).

Combat Trait

1
Telekinesis
Push back enemies. Telekinesis deals zero damage or stun unless the target collides with terrain (Very similar to Diablo or Auriel). We are not giving the Sorc Teleport so this is her only disengage and is a very useful interrupt just like Alarak's TK but without the directional control. It is also good for pushing enemies back into firewall/meteor combos etc. It can be used to interact with objects at a distance including Medivh portals and channel objectives (for example from cover) without initiating a full cool down. Perhaps if an enemy is also channeling the objective this effect is interrupted. Telekinsis can be used to attack revealed mines and tumors, it kills them and does not trigger a full cooldown. For this purpose they are considered objects colliding with the terrain they are attached to. They must be revealed (targetable). For a summoned creature like Zagaras Hydra it is considered an object and is pushed back without damaging it, but also does not trigger a full cool down.

Primary Abilities

1
Charged Bolt
(Up-gradable with quest to 4 or 5 bolts) 3 bolts of lightning crawl in a semi random manner but vaguely in a single direction. The damage is somewhat cone like and the closer an enemy is the more likely they will get hit with multiple charged bolts. This is very similar to Nazeebo toads but a little more chaotic. Stores up to 3 charges to be spammed to punish aggressive mele pokes. (up to 9 bolts in short order). You can also use Telekinesis to push enemies into the bolts if they easily dodge them.
2
Hydra
Summons a hydra at the target location. The hydra can't be targeted by enemies except for with a timestop. It auto attacks with fire bolts behaves just like a turret. Good for interrupting objectives and needs a long cool down to balance that from being broken. You could add a Warmth skill where hitting an enemy with firewall increases the active up time of a hydra or reduces the cooldown (only one may be active at a time). Its purpose is just extra firepower where needed. Very useful while chasing a nearly dead character capable of staying just out of your range like Tracer, Illidan or Lucio.
3
Fire Wall
Fire Wall: Just what it sounds like. In Diablo 1 and 2 there is not a lot of control over the directional length, that could be corrected with some of the casting types that already exist (see Oil Spill on the hero Blaze) or you could keep it classic and the length of the wall depends on your positioning and is always perpendicular to casting direction. Damage and area similar to Jaina's Blizzard if the target spends the entire duration in the flames. Fire Wall would be even better in a MOBA than it ever was in Diablo because the downfall of Fire Wall was always PVE AI and a lack of crowd control not to mention structure damage.

Heroic Abilities

1
Static field.
Reduce remaining HP of all enemies in range by 1/4 (does not damage structures). Most effective by numbers on full health tanks, but still good when trying to close kills with that persistent sliver of health (Garrosh) or clearing large packs of trash mobs. Asymptotic damage, never lands a killing blow itself, does damage creep units, camps and bosses. Its like Greymanes Silver bullet tank buster or Kharazims SSS, but single cast, mid range, AOE, centered on you the caster. Helps stacking heroes like Nazeebo or Azmodan or Murky because it won't land the killing blow on creeps if used for wave clearing.
2
Meteor
You could base it off of Sulfuras Smash but with an even longer wind up and some after burn damage. When taking this ult you should endeavor to pair it with significant crowd control, or terrain stun with Telekinesis to combo meteor with firewall. Although Static Field does affect minions, this skill is more useful for pushing forts and keeps. You should consider it vs a fort healing Abathur or on a pushing map such as Towers of Doom.

Spray and Pray

I didn't want to make this character too complex. The sorceress has always been of a straightforward blaster especially absent teleport and I see some of her damage getting messy or Nazeebo like in a team fight with more exactness reserved for battling a camp or creeps in a lane. A few mechanics in her kit that are so iconic and yet are missing from HoTS: charged bolt, fire wall, hydra and telekinesis, Alarak notwithstanding because its different. Some of these skills have very close analogues though and would be easy to implement or balance.

Other fun Sorc abilities can be based on existing passives like:
    Energy Shield: passive shielding -Zeratul talent no one takes. Add a synergy for Telekinesis.
    Frozen Armor: AA block -- (or more) interesting Chilling Armor: Fires a defensive volley of frost bolts vs ranged AA.
    Warmth: for mana problems -add a firewall synergy.
    Thunder Storm: More random dmg -(1) activate a random enemy Hero in range is struck by lightning. (Situational cast)
    Blaze: Hitting an enemy Hero with the initial cast of Fire Wall causes the ground under your feet to burn for 3 seconds (lasts 3 seconds).

Disclaimer: Because of an obvious lack of Cold damage spells on this list, I would consider removing Meteor and moving Hydra to an Ultimate. Then you could put in Glacial Spike or Frost Nova as an ability. Alternatively you could remove Meteor as an ult and add Frozen Orb. Unfortunately we can't have it all and I went for a Fire/Lightning build because it felt more different at a glance from Kael Thas than a Cold build would from Jaina. I realize I made a lot of comparisons but yeah, I imagine this character playing like a near mix between Nazeebo damage spray but with Auriel positioning.

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Alexzo | March 13, 2023 2:30pm
I was hoping to see iconic skills from each original Diablo II skill tree as basic abilities. I would love to see Frozen Orb. I have a hard time seeing her potential with both Hydras, Fire Wall and Charged Bolts seem like spells that do not syncronice that well.
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