Item Wars: Revenge of the INT

[MOTHER]

In the previous episode of Item Wars, Attack of the DPS Clones, we saw DPS heroes dominate with their armament of superior albeit tediously repetitive DPS items. But now the supports and casters are striking back in this thread. Submit changes to existing items or new items (with price component and purpose please) altogether to bring back the reign of casters and supports in this game! Will edit the OP to compile any suggestions or modifications.

 

 

Duran's Pendant

 

Change unique to 3-5%% spell leech.

Remove energy regen (we have spell leech), replace with 7% cool down reduction.

Adjust price to 750.

 

Reason: As an early game starting item for casters, this item's unique is ineffective and unreliable. Switching to spell leech would work better for casters. Removing the negligible energy regen (because INT and spell leech both give energy sustain indirectly) in favor of 7% CDR mirrors the weapon speed bonus of Machete.

 

 

 

Ihan Crystal

 

Add 10-15% INT scaling to the active.

 

Reason: The active doesn't scale well into the mid-late game, and even though the item is intended to be sold, no other caster/support item grants instacast self healing and regeneration late game. Adding the scaling will help fill this gap.

 

 

 

Ancient Rune

 

Change unique decay spell damage bonus to true damage. Alternatively, add active [Corruption] that amplifies spell damage by 30%, non-stacking.

 

Reason: The item is intended to be the INT equivalent of pyre but fails miserably at this task because the decay damage is prone to spell resistance and scales with Current instead of Max health. Switching it to true damage pierces through a tanks spell resistance and the addition of an active adds another dynamic to the item and synergizes with the unique. This change will also make Ancient Rune a viable alternative to Gravity.

 

 

 

Kassia Crystal

 

New component Soul Engine, Kassia now gains the following unique and active ability in addition to its existing unique:

 

[unique 2] Gains a charge every time a non-heroic unit dies in a 10u radius. Up to 15 charges.

 

[Active] Consumes all charges to restore 20 health per charge to allies in a 5u radius around you.

 

Reason: The addition of the suggested active combined with the existing unique will help make this item an excellent team item, viable on more heroes, as well as make the item scale better into the game.

 

 

 

Warp Shard

 

Add 10-15% CDR and health (Miner's Goggles becomes component).

 

-OR-

 

Cut price by half, reduce or remove INT stats and regen. Keep active.

 

Reason: The item is too expensive to warrant its purchase, the INT stats can be found elsewhere and better for a similar price, the regen doesn't scale well into the late game. The only reason to get this is the Warp active. So either spice up the stats to make it more appealing to Casters or reduce/remove them and make the item what it really is, a warp shard.

 

 

 

Eternal Drive

 

Add scaling to active health and energy regen (10-15% INT) or make it scale with max health (e.g. restores health and energy equal to 20% of target's max health and energy). Also add +2 energy regen to Conquest unique.

 

Reason: Eternal Drive is the most underused team aura item and with good reason. On paper it has great stats but everything it offers can be found in other superior items. It offers nothing that is genuinely unique to it. Changing the scaling of its active to max health/energy is a step in the right direction and adding more energy regen will improve its reputation as an eternal source of energy.

 

 

 

Vibranium Shield/Spell Buffer

 

The active Guardian now grants shields to nearby allied structures for same duration.

 

Reason: This small change will help increase the arsenal of counter pushing items available in AoS and can prove very valuable.

 

 

 

Lion's Bane

 

Change unique to following:

 

[unique] Every time you take damage you gain 3% movement speed for 6 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.*

 

*This unique overlaps with Phantom Menace's unique. Only one of the two uniques takes precedence.

 

Reason: The unique movement speed on Lion is perhaps the most ridiculously situational unique in AoS and in no way makes Lion a good movement speed item for STR heroes, the way Phantom is for AGI heroes. This change I feel is better suited for the intended role of this item.

 

 

 

Radar Kit (New Item)

 

 

Price: 3100

Components: Lost Treasure, Miner's Goggles.

 

300 Health

15% Cooldown reduction

5 HP regen

3 MP regen

 

[unique 1] Parry 1: +25% Evasion

 

[unique 2] Foresight: You and allied heroic units in 8u gain +1 sight range.

 

[Active] Creates a stationary sentry ward with 10u sight range that lasts 240 seconds. 30 second cool down. Up to 3 sentry wards at a time.

 

Reason: This support item is meant to fill the gap for a late game item for warding when all 6 slots are filled.

 

 

 

Time Machine (New Item)

 

 

Price: 4700

Components: Twin Paradox Isolator, Travelling Trinket.

 

40 INT

5% Timescale

0.1 Movement

15% Spell Resistance

15% Cooldown reduction

 

[unique] Casting an ability grants +4% Movement speed for 8 seconds. Stacks up to 4 times and refreshes. All stacks are dispelled 0.5 seconds after taking damage.*

 

[Active] Fast Forward: Upon activation, reduces all your cool downs by 30 seconds. 180 second cool down.

 

*This unique overlaps with Phantom Menace's unique. Only one of the two uniques takes precedence.

 

Reason: This item is meant to fill a gap in the INT item shop for a movement speed item for casters, as well as an INT item that also grants spell resistance. AGI heroes have Phantom, this is the Caster's answer to that.

 

 

 

Sith's Garb (New Item)

 

 

Price: 4800

Components: Lightning Rod, Impact Dial, Neosteel Vestament

 

60 INT

8 Armor

20% Weapon Speed

 

[unique] Chain Lightning 3: Your first and every 4th attack bounce up to 4 targets dealing 125 + (50% INT) spell damage. Internal cool down 12 seconds. Refreshes on ability use.

 

[Active] Force Repulse: Pushes all enemies in a 5u radius around you 7u away, dealing 100 + (30% INT) spell damage to them and applying Burn for 3 seconds. 60 second cool down. (Target Self)

 

Reason: This item is meant to fill a gap in the INT item shop for a physical resistance/INT item and doubles as a potent Caster counter pushing item in the same fashion as Explosive Retrofit.

 

 

 

Aegis Reflector (New Item)

 

 

Price: 4150

Components: Barbed Plating, Vibranium Shield

 

30 Weapon Damage

10 Armor

20% Spell Resistance

 

[unique] Return 35% of all incoming physical damage (before mitigation) as spell damage. (Does not stack with Barbed)

 

[Active] Reflection: Upon activation, returns 45% of all incoming physical damage (before mitigation) as true damage. Lasts 2.5 seconds. 60 second cool down.*

 

*When Reflection is activated, the passive unique will not return damage, only the active damage return will take effect.

 

Reason: This item is meant to fill a gap in the item shop for a tier 4/5 defensive item against AA DPS as well as grant some added spell/physical resistance. The weapon damage is a carry over from Vibranium shield.

 

 

 

Khaydarin Prism (New Item)

 

 

Price: 3300

Components: Barbed Plating, Khala Stone

 

15 STR

15 INT

10 Armor

 

[unique] Subsist 3: For every 10% of energy missing you gain +1 health regeneration and 0.5 energy regeneration.

 

[unique] 40% of all incoming physical damage (before mitigation) is divided evenly among enemies in 6u radius as spell damage. (Does not stack with Barbed)

 

Reason: Another potential late game upgrade for barbed plating, this item is better suited for wave clearing and team fights. The less enemies present in the unique's AoE, the more reflected damage each receives.

 

 

 

Tesla Guardian (New Item)

 

 

Price: 3300

Components: Psionic Lasher, Neosteel Vestament, Pulse Regenerator

 

30 AGI

20 INT

5 Armor

2.25 Energy Regeneration

 

[unique] Recovers energy equal to 20% of all incoming damage.

 

Reason: One of my favorite items from the pre-item patch was Guardian Steel for its unique. Tesla Guardian makes use of that unique while helping fill an armor gap for hybrid int/resistance builds.

 

 

Transponder (New Item)

 

 

Price: 3450

Components: Stabilizer. Nullifier.

 

15 STR

15 AGI

15 INT

10% Spell Resistance

4% Movement Speed

 

[unique] +10 Primary Attribute

 

[Active] Aerial Support: Summons a Banshee (damage, health scale, is detector) and a Medivac (health scales, has automated active heal ability) that last 30 seconds. 60 second cool down.

 

Reason: This item is meant to fill the gap for a push/counter push friendly item. The utility provided by the Banshee and Medivac (detection, heal, aerial vision of 12u) is what makes this item extremely valuable.

Edited May 20, 2014 by Jessika

[atomheartman]

1st new one looks good for rancor and 2nd one looks good for Jackson - it will be fun combo to watch.

But if all team will go Dial and Sith's Garb it will be pretty OP and probably can cause lag if all ForceRepulse's activated at a time - 500 aoe damage too good. And SGarb makes Cerebro pretty useless. No point to target yourself with active - shrapnel coat just required to push da button (heck i miss shrapnel)

 

Eye of narud - this is great item for dps hero coz they will gain crits and hp and what more important they can ward map all over the time not spending money on it to snowball asap. maybe giving support version of this item is good idea but i would save current item too.

[gabrielmcg]

Active target self> just make it insta cast. and ihan is bugged.. you lose stacks when you use it. that should be fixed before its buffed

[atomheartman]

Active target self> just make it insta cast. and ihan is bugged.. you lose stacks when you use it. that should be fixed before its buffed

 

Man your lord requires moar posts about ihan. spawn additional posts.

[MOTHER]

@Atom

 

I rarely see Eye of Narud to be honest, DPS heroes can get their crits and hp from other items just the same. The game is also lacking an item that grants wards late game, supports with their less farm are most suitable to carry an item like this.

 

The difference between Cerebro and Sith's Garb is that the latter is inclined towards counter pushing and fills an item gap for INT heroes with an item that gives both physical resistance and INT. The energy component of Cerebro is also not to be underestimated, it pretty much guarantees infinite energy.

 

I'm not sure about your example, that's like saying we all get atomsmashers and perma slow a target or we all get sun flare gun and fire at the same time. In a real game, heroes will get what works best for their team and their hero type - troll builds will exist either way. The importance of the active on Sith's Garb is not the AoE damage, it is the push back effect that can save your team in a critical time or counter push a creep wave or even escape - the AoE damage can be removed or reduced really.

 

Plus consider that this item is really expensive, a team that rushes it will fall really behind.

 

Also I don't think this item (Sith) would work well on Jackson who wants enemies to be pulled towards him. I would use it on pushers/counter pushers, especially heroes like Null, Jakk, Maar, and Immo. You're right about the first item though, it would be great on Rancor.

 

@Gabriel

 

Target Self is insta-cast (like Ihan's active). Target Unit means you have to select a unit (includes yourself) and cast it on them. I suggest you report that bug in the bug reports forum though.

Edited April 3, 2014 by Jessika

[atomheartman]

Well if you build Nova/bora/darpa/shady via hatchet and blades you probably want to buy narud (like i am) coz its very cheap now and gives good stuff. you can easily push side towers not worrying about ganks with little observers so this is my choice)

If 2 players decided to buy Narud they will cover almost everything in the map with observers what grants insane map control.

 

About Sith and Jackson - its just funny combo R>E>Sith. you pull enemies to yourself with R and then push them back with Sith after that they will be hardly stunned by E while fleeing at the speed of light our from Jackson)

But you 100% correct about role of this item - i just found fun aspect of it.

Edited April 3, 2014 by atomheartman

[TaxHaven]

Unless the team is braindead jackson wont get off more than 2 or 3 man ulti.

 

What would be fun is for other heroes to use sith to clump up the enemy then jackson 5 man ult.

[MrGrim]

Lower the cost of warp shard please imo is the most fun item of the game but 4k is really tough to accrue on the heroes you'd typically want it on.

[Yaldi]

I hate when people make lists of item changes then give absolutely no reasoning why they should be changed

[MOTHER]

I hate when people make lists of item changes then give absolutely no reasoning why they should be changed

 

Fair enough. I edited the main post. The intention of the thread is to improve the bland and limited items available for INT casters and supports in general. When I say bland I mean bare bones types of items that are available to casters. Compare the stats on Shinobi for example with the stats on Ancient Rune or Warp Shard or the stats on Arcbound with Gravity. Casters definitely got the short end of the stick after the item patch.

 

@MrGrim

 

Added.

 

@Atomheart

 

Lol! That combo would be hilarious.

[Doom]

New item, specifically to combo with Ancient Rune, or Superheated Mantle:

 

Gamma Resonator

 

+70 int

+350 health

 

Active: target enemy is poisoned for 1 second each time it takes spell damage in the next 20 seconds. 60 sec cooldown.

[SmittyGFunk]

Siths garb... Playing swtor lately? Lol, i like it.

[Indo]

I didn't read all of it but there are alot of good suggestions, however pendant is actually rather op then uslss, on some casters.

 

The 16 energy leech per attack? Well hf with a tank against this, just no.

Also refreshing your enemie via hydralisks/stalkers is nice 64 energy per hidralisk when you play raynor :-)

 

Overall its rather to cheap than not fitting its spot well

[MOTHER]

@Indo

 

Yeah currently aa leech is good on certain heroes, Jakk comes to mind and so does Raynor. Maybe if more creeps and jungle creeps gave energy the unique wouldn't be as situational perhaps? Still though, most casters don't have very good AAs and tend to keep their distance.

 

I've seen AGI heroes purchase Pendant and abuse it against casters actually. Machete already caters to the needs of AA heroes, I would prefer honestly that Pendant's unique be different - spell leech seems appropriate.

 

@Doom

 

What would the price and components be? Higgs and Miners?

[taznkid]

I would actually love it if Ancient Rune was changed to true damage. It would allow support casters to still deal decent damage with a single item (Greelus and Geneva come to mind primarily for me). Of course, this could be abused by other casters to deal even more insane damage...

[atomheartman]

I think that with these 2 new items and changed kassia Ere will be pretty strong.

[herman]

As if Summers wasn't strong enough already. You give him Sith's he will be unkillable. I see where you are going with the idea but you need to think about how powerful that item is for int/aa's like Jakk/Null.

[gabrielmcg]

OK IHAN is fixed now. Two or three weeks ago it wasn't working properly. It works now. I mentioned this in my other post.

 

I am beginning a new post about introducing crit chance reduction items. Look for it.

 

EDIT: I wasn't derailing. My item suggestion in another post, and it is basically for INT heroes. And the IHAN item is referenced in this topic; therefore, it becomes a relevant topic.

 

http://www.aeonofsto...ance-reduction/

Edited April 7, 2014 by gabrielmcg

[SmittyGFunk]

So you asked for your thread about ihan to be closed, and it was, then you come here to confirm what the other 99.99999999999% of the community already knew? Seems like a desperate attempt to solicit attention and/or approval. Not to mention its off topic and potentially going to derail the whole thread.

[TaxHaven]

Bloody hell. ^this smitty gypsy said it perfect first time, skwar why can't you be a good gypsy like him?

[MOTHER]

@Tax & Gabriel

 

Plz stop derailing the thread.

 

@Herman

 

The item doesn't specifically provide something for AA heroes that a star's fury and a cerebro don't already. Having said that, I see no reason why a tier 4 or tier 5 item for battle mages shouldn't exist. The numbers can always be tweaked if it's too much, the items main purpose is counter pushing and the combination of armor and INT. Plus I think there is a problem with both heroes more so than there is with any item, especially Jakk's weapon speed bonus from Q.

 

@Taznkid

 

Indeed, but glass cannon builds will always deal insane damage but at a price. I think in a proper game, a caster will have to make a choice between Rune and Gravity because of time and economic constraints. Rune would work better on some than others and like wise so does Gravity.

 

Added new item concept, Aegis Reflector.

[MOTHER]

Added Eternal Drive as well as 4 new items; Time Machine, Khaydarin Prism, Tesla Guardian and Transponder.

 

 

So a bump for Aiur!

Edited April 28, 2014 by Jessika

[jamescossey]

most of these I like

[thomulf]

wow I love all of these suggestions- except transponder might be a bit weird to control, and in terms of visuals I'd suggest using the ol' infernal/whatevernamed marines as the token units.

 

Only issue I kind of have with this is that IMO casters are not as UP as you say. But these item ideas are so tasty I'm just gonna pretend they are for now :3

[Mystiq]

Um, my question is, would the time machine work on dustin's ulti? Because he could use all his spells, refresh them with ulti, use them again, use time machine, use them again, use ulti, use them again?

That would be a little imba in a 1v1 scenario, or even in a teamfight...

EDIT: Well this would only be ideal on lvl 16, but still. That is more then 10 skills in 5~ seconds.

Edited May 10, 2014 by Mystiq