from what i've seen the mana drain can be extremly helpful early game. It forces the enemy out of the area or suffer the consequences which not only takes mana but gives it to the psion.
l2 is great for group attacks/defends.
l3 is pretty bad when used all alone but is a great escape and can be good for trapping opponents. Any time an ally is near lategame to help this almost certainly causes death.
l4 is great for instant heal beyond that it isn't much help unless your facing an opponent who cant possibly kill it.
the double l1 is very decent for micro even against smaller units early game because you can just dance arround it.
imo its a helper hero and does the job pretty well.
Yea, l1 is good early game, but late game when heroes have 300+ mana, drain is hardly anything, especially when it only takes them 2 seconds to kill you with a powerful spell— so maybe they lose 20 mana and you gain 20, that's not that helpful. I also found out that it only gives a max of 2 mana, even if you are draining more than 1 player.
I agree than l2 can save himself and allies, but this is just a defensive spell, as almost all his spells are.
l3 is one decent pker (still a bit more defensive), but if we are drawing comparisions, Sin's l2 costs less than half as much and works better as Sin does more dmg and is completely cloaked at night.
l4 is great for healing, but again, defensive. I find it more of a less-efficient version of Sin's l1 (more delay)
double l1 is okay early game, but isn't offensive enough late game, all meleers could get you 'dancing' (snare, lurks, warrior l3&l2, any volt's spells, cept bat).
imo, he's almost strictly defensive, with the majority of offensive either a pk assist or minor cannon killing (which cannons still take a long time to kill)
I think he should have more assist/defensive capabilities if not more offensive ones. l2 should also make buildings invincible, like cannons, pylons, sims— that way he isn't stuck in his base casting only self-defensive spells, while the mutant/warrior destroys his base.
Psion doesn't need an arb as much as he needs a new spell. However he could still have another l4 after he makes an arb. Maybe the Void shifter should always have void under it when in range of the Psion, that way you don't need to cast voids for your spells (however, it could still die to heroes) or perhaps for an l4b, all spawns under the shifter are killed, and for each spawn killed, you get a mineral, or all spawns in the void (friend or foe) are made invincible and given to you for a few seconds, then die. Or perhaps one that raises the AoE of your void spells.
None.