HoN Hero: Venomtongue (VT)
Ranged, INT, Support, Ganker
VT is a hero that takes advantage of creep AI, sheer numbers, and displacement. He fits into more push-oriented lineups and helps to fill in the role of a highly offensive, pushing, ganking support.
Q: Treachery
Type: Physical, Target unit
Cooldown: 15s
State "Traitor" is applied to target enemy unit for 1.25/2.5/3.75/5s.
Whenever a non-neutral creep comes within 300 of a unit with Traitor, state "Deceived" is applied for the remaining duration of Traitor. Units with Traitor lose 5/25/50/80 movement speed.
Units with Deceived are forced to attack the unit affected by Traitor that originally came within range of them. These units attack 15/30/45/60% faster.
W: Martyrdom
Type: Magical
Cooldown: 10s
Target creep explodes, dealing 15/30/45/60% of its max HP as magic damage to enemies in an area of 300. Any units that die from the initial explosion will cause an additional explosion dealing 25/50/50/75 magic damage in an area of 300, up to a max of 1/1/2/2 additional units.
E: Paranoia
Type: Magical
Cooldown: 25s
"Paranoid" is applied to target enemy for 1.5/2/2.5/3s.
Units affected by Paranoid will be afflicted by fear for 0.1s whenever they take damage.
R: Coercion
Type: Magical, Target unit and vector
Cooldown: 30s
"Coerced" is applied to target enemy for 1/2/3s.
Coerced units are stunned. They are pulled with a force of 200 in the target vector.
VT is powerful because of his pushing ability and his presence is heavy in all phases of the game.
Treachery scales with creep strength (esp. super creeps). Early game, even a few seconds worth of creeps wailing on you is a considerable amount of damage.
The slowing factor is not %-based, as otherwise it would be too powerful. However, its static numbers are augmented by increasing growth. This is to allow creeps the chance to catch up the Heroes by nullifying bonus movement speed provided by boots, but at the same time, keeping its slow from having an impact in early game, where creeps already outrun many Heroes without boots by 20.
The increase in AS is %-based to provide some form of scaling with creeps.
An interesting feature to note is that as the number of creeps around an enemy increase, the more micro they will require to avoid being creepblocked. In mid to late game, a Hero without Phase Boots getting ganked by VT is in serious risk of being either heavily creepblocked or forced to take alternative paths to avoid being creepblocked.
This ability has synergy with Heroes with summoning abilities. Consider this: you are ganked by Balphagore and VT. Balph uses his minions and VT uses Treachery. Unless you have an escape mechanism, there is an incredibly high chance of gettin mauled by the faster-moving minions that hit faster and apply slows more frequently. This is on top of Balph's minions natural strengths, which is already fairly great.
Martyrdom is an obvious pushing ability and also a powerful nuke, synergizing with Treachery. At levels 3 and 4, a single exploded creep around half HP will guarantee a cleared creep wave. This is about as strong as Demented Shaman's creep-clearing abilities.
It syngerzies with Treachey by first attracting a mob of creeps to an enemy. Afterwards, simply explode a creep around half HP, and if any other weak creeps are nearby (assuming you at least attracted 3 or 4 creeps), watch the damage quickly stack up on your enemy.
If you want to be really pro, you could use the explosion ability to deny several of your own creeps before the first waves even clash, like Plague Rider's Extinguish or Tempest's Elementals.
Paranoia can perhaps be the most powerful ability in VT's arsenal. It is similar to Empath's ultimate in that it scales with the strength of an allied carry. In this case, the faster your team hits an enemy, the more effective Paranoia is. It is comparable to giving your team a collective version of Flint's ministun. It will stop channeling abilities hard, and if you hae enough units hitting a Hero with a long cast time, they might never get the chance to get their precious spells off.
This ability synergizes amazingly with Treachery. Not only might you have your allies wailing on the enemy carry, but perhaps also 2-4 creeps with boosted AS. With just 3 creeps, you're assuring at least 0.3s worth of fear time. Meanwhile, the enemy Hero is running around attracting even more creeps.
This ability also augments certain allies like Blood Hunter. With you and your BH attacking a Paranoid target, if your VH has used his ultimate, your target is forced to move around, taking immense damage.
Coercion is what seals the deal for VT. It is an incredibly potent displacement tool. It's a Tablet of Command except you choose where to displace your target. It is VERY powerful. Its few seconds of stun is only icing on the cake.
It also syngergizes with Treachery. If you had to solo gank, you could use Coercion to force your opponent into the middle of a creep wave and then use Treachery on them, getting them creep blocked. You could then follow up with Paranoia to take advantage of the creeps and finally use Martyrdom to dish out some heavy DPS.
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In the works.