Khadgar by barium56

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Khadgar

By: barium56
Last Updated: Jun 22, 2020
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Khadgar

Archmage of the Kirin Tor

Table of Contents
 		As one of the most powerful and accomplished Magi in the history of Azeroth, the list of Khadgar’s world-changing deeds could fill several volumes. Yet still, in his inimitable heroism, he will never cease his efforts to protect Azeroth and its inhabitants.

A Ranged Assassin whose damage and mana consumption ramps up during fights.


BASIC ATTRIBUTES

Health: 1326 (+4% per level)
Health Regen: 2.76 (+4% per level)
Mana: 500 (+10 per level)
Mana Regen: 3 (+0.1 per level)

Attacks per Second: 1.1
Attack Range: 5.5
Attack Damage: 52 (+4% per level)

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TRAIT
Evocation
Channel to consume all stacks of Arcane Power and regenerate 50% of Khadgar’s max Mana over 3 seconds.

Passive: Khadgar’s Basic Abilities can grant stacks of Arcane Power. Each stack increases Khadgar’s Spell Power by 40% and increases the Mana cost of his Abilities by 80% for 6 seconds. Maximum 5 stacks.
Cooldown: 100 seconds Given that we have a WoW Frost Mage analogue with Jaina and a WoW Fire Mage analogue with Kael’Thas, I wanted to make something that plays somewhat like a WoW Arcane Mage (I like the concept of ramping up your damage and having to pay attention to your Mana). And the other thing I like about this is that it’s incredibly simple! Not every hero needs to have 3 forms and 12 abilities and all that razzle dazzle - sometimes it’s nice to play as someone who finds a dude to fight and just clicks Q a bunch. Or finds a bunch of dudes and clicks W a bunch. And for those that want to think a bit more, the Arcane Power stack management and Mana management gives those two abilities much more gameplay depth than initially meets the eye!

One thing to keep in mind with these numbers - I most certainly am prone to making things overpowered, especially when the true damage of an ability is somewhat “hidden” behind all of those buff stacks. So if a number seems off, just let me know (kindly, please!) - I’d be more than happy to look at it.

Another thing to keep in mind is that because his damage is balanced around the large amounts of Spell Power he grants himself, getting Spell Power from other sources can be relatively negligible, meaning he doesn’t benefit as much from allies that can do that for him.

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Q ABILITY
Arcane Blast
Casts for 0.5 seconds to deal 129 (+4% per level) damage to the target. Damaging a Hero grants 1 stack of Arcane Power.
Mana: 18
Cooldown: 2 seconds
Range: 7.8
 See one dude, click Q. Click Q a bunch.

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W ABILITY
Arcane Explosion
Deal 95 (+4% per level) damage to nearby enemies. Damaging at least 1 Hero grants 1 stack of Arcane Power.
Mana: 18
Cooldown: 2 seconds
Range: 4.5
 See many dudes, click W.

He has to get close and expose himself to more danger to use it (rather than staying safer with Arcane Blast). To balance that, it’s an instant-cast instead of a 0.5-second-cast, and its damage is still pretty comparable.

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E ABILITY
Mage Armor
Consume all stacks of Arcane Power to gain 10 Armor per stack consumed for 3 seconds.

Passive: Khadgar regenerates 1.5% of his max Mana per second. This bonus is doubled while Mage Armor’s cooldown is available.
Cooldown: 16 seconds Overwhelmed by dudes, click E and try to get the heck out of there. Probably throw in some Ws for good measure.

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FIRST HEROIC ABILITY
Arcane Barrage
Consume 2 stacks of Arcane Power to fire a barrage of arcane energy in a direction, dealing 171 (+4% per level) damage to the first enemy Hero hit.

Cooldown: 2 seconds
Range: 11		 This ability initially was an analogue to Slow (from Warcraft III / WoW), but I received a lot of feedback that a slow just couldn’t stack up against Khadgar’s other Heroic option (a silence), and also that a lack of a damaging Heroic seems underwhelming.

After a lot of thought I came up with this relatively simple solution. While it’s not super flashy, and the fact that it can be spammed may not solve the “seems underwhelming” problem, it does offer something that was completely absent from Khadgar’s kit before: a way to control stacks of Arcane Power that isn’t “build up a bunch of stacks” or “eat all stacks.”

Without this option, (read: if you decide to go for Counterspell as your Heroic), running out of mana gives you the options of: (a) wait for your stacks to drop so your mana costs are lower, (takes 6 seconds and means you need to build all your stacks again) (b) eat your stacks with Mage Armor or Counterspell (16 second cooldown and 26 second cooldown respectively, in addition to being Abilities you don’t want to use unless you need to), (c) pop Evocation (100 second cooldown), or (d) do something else to regenerate your mana. With Arcane Barrage, however, you can consistently drop 2 stacks, allowing you to keep your mana costs at a more sustainable level without using any cooldowns. It gives some additional depth to players who want a lot of control over their stacks, and I think that’s really cool.

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SECOND HEROIC ABILITY
Counterspell
Consume all stacks of Arcane Power to Silence the target enemy Hero for 0.6 seconds per stack consumed.
Cooldown: 26 seconds
Range: 7.8
 Counterspell is an absolutely classic mage ability (no pun intended), and fits quite well as Khadgar’s more utility-oriented Heroic option, and it gives another opportunity to players to eat their stacks, which rewards players who are skilled at keeping them up.

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Talent Tree
Level 1 Talents

 Font of Power
Quest: Spend 180 seconds at max stacks of Arcane Power.
Reward: Increase Arcane Power’s max stacks to 6.
Anyway, Start Blasting
Quest: Damaging a Hero with Arcane Blast increases its base damage by 0.25 per stack of Arcane Power. Damaging a Hero with Arcane Blast at max stacks increases its base damage by an additional 0.75.
Explosions, More Explosions!
Quest: Damaging a Hero with Arcane Explosion increases its base damage by 0.2 per stack of Arcane Power. Damaging a Hero with Arcane Explosion at max stacks increases its base damage by an additional 0.6.

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Level 4 Talents

 Evocative
Gaining a stack of Arcane Power reduces the cooldown of Evocation by 1 second.
Persistence
Casting Arcane Blast on the same target within 4 seconds refunds 20% of its Mana cost. If the target is a Minion, Mercenary, or Monster, refund an additional 40% of its Mana cost.
Reabsorption
Each non-Heroic enemy hit by Arcane Explosion refunds 6% of its Mana cost.
Fine, I’ll Wand
Basic Attacks restore 3% of Khadgar’s max Mana.

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Level 7 Talents

 Rule of Threes
3 seconds after consuming at least 3 stacks of Arcane Power, regain 1 stack per second for 3 seconds.
Lasting Blasts
Casting Arcane Blast always grants 1 stack of Arcane Power. Casting Arcane Blast on the same target 3 times within 8 seconds grants 2 additional stacks.
Arcane Eruption
Arcane Explosion grants 1 stack of Arcane Power as long as any enemy is damaged. Damaging at least 2 Heroes grants 1 additional stack.
Wondrous Wisdomballs
After gathering a Regeneration Globe, gain 1 stack of Arcane Power every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. Gaining a stack of Arcane Power from Arcane Blast or Arcane Explosion increases the duration of an active Regeneration Globe by 3 seconds.

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Level 13 Talents

 Not Our Final Hour
Heal for 1% of all Spell damage dealt per stack of Arcane Power. Healing tripled versus Heroes.
Unburdened Mind, Unburdened Body
Gain 20% Movement Speed, increased to 40% while Mage Armor is active. This bonus is reduced by 5% for each stack of Arcane Power, to a minimum of 5%.
Blink
Cooldown: 16 seconds
Range: 4
Consume all stacks of Arcane Power to teleport a short distance. While at 2 or more stacks of Arcane Power, Blink grants Unstoppable for 0.25 seconds. While at 4 or more stacks of Arcane Power, Blink grants Unstoppable for 0.25 seconds and can be cast while Stunned or Rooted.

Shares a cooldown with Mage Armor.

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Level 16 Talents

 4986 Crystals Later
Arcane Power now grants 50% Spell Power per stack.
Time Warp
Reduce Arcane Blast’s cast time by 40% and its cooldown by 25%.
Dimensional Convergence
Arcane Explosion leaves behind a field for 3 seconds. Enemies in the field are slowed by 20% and take 43 (+4% per level) bonus damage from subsequent Arcane Explosions.
Presence of Mind
Cooldown: 50 seconds
The next time Khadgar consumes stacks of Arcane Power, instantly regain all stacks consumed and reduce the Mana cost, cast time, and cooldown of his next 2 casts of Arcane Blast or Arcane Explosion by 75%.

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Storm Talents

 Always (be) Barraging Challengers
Arcane Barrage now consumes 1 stack of Arcane Power, and its cooldown is reduced by 25%.
Spellshocked
Counterspell also reduces Armor by 25 for its duration.
Glyph of Evocation
Evocation is no longer channeled and restores 5% of Khadgar’s max Health per stack of Arcane Power consumed over its duration.
Arcane Overflow
Gaining a stack of Arcane Power while at max stacks fires an Arcane Missile at a nearby enemy that deals 64 (+4% per level) damage, prioritizing Heroes.

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2
[-]
matrix123mko (8) | April 27, 2020 12:02pm
I love it, although Arcane Torpor is really underwhelming. A slow isn't anything particularly impressive if you can silence instead.
2
[-]
barium56 | April 28, 2020 6:35am
A lot of folks gave feedback on Arcane Torpor (which I really appreciate, by the way - thank you!). After a lot of thought, I figured out a replacement that I actually like a lot better because of the stack management gameplay depth it enables (take a look at the description of the ability for more details).
3
[-]
nimrod1111 | April 27, 2020 4:07am
I really like your idea, kinda reminds me of my own design for Khadgar with all the spellslinging and whatnot. I do like the design of this Khadgar very much as a ranged assassin, one thing that does bother me though are his heroics - they all seem underwhelming (slow or silence, nothing flashy), while I do understand the idea behind making his ult simple I do believe making flasher would be better (perhaps losing all mana costs and becoming unstoppable for a duration or firing an endless barrage of magic missiles forwards for a duration).

Plus, I really love the wisdomball talent.

Khadgar
2
[-]
barium56 | April 28, 2020 6:33am
Thanks for the feedback - I got a lot of it regarding his Heroics (Arcane Torpor specifically) and so, after a lot of thought, I figured out a replacement that I actually like a lot better because of the stack management gameplay depth it enables (take a look at the description of the ability for more details).
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