View Hero Idea > Kath'ranis - The Diabolic

Kath'ranis - The Diabolic

Created by Dotar on 2007-10-28
Viewed 11870 times
Commented 69 times

Once a proud decent of the Blood Elves, Kath'ranis was eventually drawn to the darker side with the hope of learning new magic to protect his people. With the promise of eternal power and wealth from the Lich King, Kath'ranis is now one of the greatest illusionists under the Scourge - trapping foes in a pyschological world of pain and deception. His ambition for powerful demonic magic has allowed him to perfect assassination in it's greatest form, possessing the unique ability to injure others without seemingly doing anything.

Anaesthesia (t)
Lulls a unit into a false sense of security, causing it to temporarily feel a reduction in pain from all attacks. All damage delt to a unit while under the effect of this spell is instead spread over the duration of the spell. Slows movement by 20% if cast on enemy unit.
Level 1 - Lasts 5 seconds
Level 2 - Lasts 6 seconds
Level 3 - Lasts 7 seconds
Level 4 - Lasts 8 seconds
Mana Cost: 80/90/100/110
Cooldown: 30

Framework: Animation similar to death-coil appears over the targetted unit.

Recurring Nightmare (r)
Kath'ranis launches into a demonic frenzy insighting the terrifying fear into each and every foe, causing them to be take additional damage. Lasts 12 seconds.
Level 1 - Deals additional 15 damage, increases attack speed by 20%. Receives 15% additional damage.
Level 2 - Deals additional 30 damage, increases attack speed by 35%. Receives 30% additional damage.
Level 3 - Deals additional 45 damage, increases attack speed by 50%. Receives 45% additional damage.
Level 4 - Deals additional 60 damage, increases attack speed by 65%. Receives 60% additional damage.
Damage type during this duration becomes "chaos damage".
Mana Cost: 75/90/105/120
Cooldown: 40

Framework: Causes balls of energy to spiral around the bloodmages head. Like for the bloodmage hero.

Possession (e)
Kath'ranis temporarily displaces the soul of a target unit, gaining complete control over it. 500 casting range.
Level 1 - Lasts 15 seconds
Level 2 - Lasts 20 seconds
Level 3 - Lasts 25 seconds
Level 4 - Lasts 30 seconds
Cannot be used on heroes, ancients or roshan. Can target both enemy and allied units. Can target images.
Mana Cost: 90
Cooldown: 60/50/40/30

Framework: Works similar to a banshee's possession, except without any casting time and longer range. Kath'ranis remains exactly the same (hp, mana, items, exp, armour value etc) after possession except for appearance and attack range. i.e. you can possess ranged creeps inorder to gain a ranged attack. You do not gain/lose any abilities.

Notes: Can be used like a mini-blink.

Reverse Damage (v)
Blurring the line between illusion and reality, Kath'ranis forms a powerful spiritual link onto a target unit. While under the duration of the spell, all damage delt to Kath'ranis is instead delt to target unit, while all damage dealt to target unit is instead dealt to Kath'ranis.
Level 1 - Lasts 4 seconds. 300 casting range.
Level 2 - Lasts 5 seconds. 400 casting range.
Level 3 - Lasts 6 seconds. 500 casting range.
Level 4 - N/A

Can target either friendly or enemy units.
Mana Cost: 150/175/200
Cooldown: 60/50/40

Framework: Thick blue lightning appears, b/w the target and Kath'ranis. Like a Laguna Blade.

Notes: For the duration. Whenever Kath'ranis takes damage the target unit gets hurt instead, whenever the target hero takes damage, Kath'ranis takes it. It's like a damage swap.

Discussion:

Kath'ranis is a very versatile hero. He can be played effectively as a hero killer, pusher, support and/or almost any combination of the above.

Pros:

Extremely versatile hero
Good agility and intel stats and gain
High movement speed
Lots of fun to play with

Cons:

Not newbie friendly
Very fragile early
Abilities have high mana cost and cooldown

Skills & Syngeries:

Firstly I'll run through his skills and point out its strength weaknesses and some skill synergies.

Anaesthesia

This is your slow and only "disable", if you can even call it one. All builds should definitely get this skill, a 8 second slow can always be handy. The 2nd and more interesting aspect of this skill is it's "anaesthic" effect, causing a gradual onset of damage, instead of it being all delt at the same time. For example, a certain nuke does 160 damage to you and lets assume you have level 4 anaesthesia (so 8 second duration). If you activated this spell on yourself the same time the nuke was cast on you, then you will recieve 160/8 = 20 damage/sec for 8 seconds. If the nuke was cast on you 4 seconds into the spell, then you will receive 160/4 = 40 damage/second for 4 seconds, 6 seconds then 160/2 = 80 damage/second for 2 seconds etc. Hence, the earlier you are damaged with this buff on, the less damaging it SEEMS to be - because the damage goes up expotentially. But the end result in terms of damage is still the same. This can be very deceptive and has many uses. Let me just give you a few scenarios where it could be applied:

Lull your opponent into a sense of security (as described). They will be thinking that they aren't taking much damage (because it's still "early") until it gets to about 6/7th second where the damage starts to massively pile up. It's too late for them to run.
Mess up your opponent's timing. Good players will understand that this skill will make them misjudge when to run. Hence, this forces them to estimate, which can cause them to run prematurely (they could've beaten you) or run too late and be killed.
Cushion the amount of damage you or an ally takes to buy time. Lets say your on 300 HP running back to base, Sniper is after you and is about to assasinate you for 500 damage, this would normally indefinitely end up as a kill for sniper. But you cast anaesthesia on you. So 500/8 = roughly 60 damage/second, if you take into account armor and hp regen then you probably have buyed yourself 6-7 seconds to make it back to base - ample time. As you can see this increases your chances of survival greatly.

As the damage goes up expotentially and is "slowed" as I explain before, it makes a great syngery with his ultimate - Reverse damage which I will explain later.

Unholy Rage

Reminiscent of Lightning Revenant's Frenzy. Although arguably not as good - if you only look at it on face value. It has lower duration, not as great attack speed increase, makes you take INSANE amounts of damage - why even learn a skill like this? There many reasons for this. It potentially makes you a great pusher and hero killer, the extra damage is very significant early-mid game - its like a free relic, except not really free (at the expense of taking 80% additional damage). The other and more important thing about this skill is that it also has a great syngery with anaesthesia and his ultimate... just think about it - I will explain later if you still don't get it. Incase your wondering, it also STACKS with Mask of Madness.

Possession

Very interesting and fun skill to use. Surprisingly versatile too. For people who think this is imba, well... all it lets you do is take the appearance of a unit and alter range. Your HP, mana, items, move spd, attack spd, abilities, cooldown etc etc are all EXACTLY as they were. Uses? Too many.

A glorified blink. In the heat of a big chaotic battle, blink in the middle of everything and you probably won't even be noticied until the battle is nearly over or until you kill someone.
Escape mechanism. Not only a blink, but a confusing blink. Your apparence changes so it takes them 1 sec to realise where you've gone.
Gain a ranged attack by possessing a ranged creep.
Great way to start a battle or run from one.
Possess an ally's image. "Hey look it's only just naga siren/terrorblade and her two images which only deal 45% damage right? WRONG!"

Reverse Damage (Ultimate)

Ok I'm going to guess that most people are gonna think this skill is either WAY too good or not even worth learning. Imba? I shall explain. Not worth learning? Just keep reading. This skill is like a double edged sword. Whatever happens to you, it can possibly happen to your target also. Think about it. Just because you cast this, it doesn't just mean you have a 6 second "immunity", your target enemy technically gets it too. It's all about good timing and teamwork, if your team didn't know that you were gonna cast it and they continue attacking the target, then you will die. Since you have low base HP, most heroes will outlast you. So you need to play smarter than that. This skill is easily countered too if they stun or disable you since it has a very low duration. So how a good player will use it, some scenarios:

You are 1v1 someone, the battle is pretty even before his buddy (spectre lets say) haunts in. A good player will immediately activate Unholy rage and then cast reverse damage on the full hp Spectre and continue attacking the other hero. If Spectre keeps attacking then good, you just got yourself a double kill. If they're smart they BOTH will definitely stop and probably run. With your increase dam and attack spd you can finish him off with ease. You also have a 8 second slow at your disposal.
Viper uses his ulti on you, reverse damage. He ends up taking the damage (although you are still the one slowed).
Your friend is on 100 hp and has doom on him. Reverse damage, and you will take the doom damage for him and he will live.
Your defending your base, they are pushing really hard. Reverse damage on your team's tank or main hero and immediately run to the fountain. You've just given him a 6 second damage immunity.

Anaesthesia + Reverse damage

Damage goes up expotentially over time. So lets say lina laguna blades you on lets say 4th second. So 1000/4 = 250 dam/second over next 4 seconds. Reverse damage it back onto her and she'll end up taking that damage.

Unholy Rage + Reverse damage
Unholy Rage

That "insane" extra damage you take is a good thing if you have reverse damage on an enemy.

Recommended Items:

As I said, this is a very flexible hero so many item builds are viable. I'll just put up some good item synergies, you won't nessecarily be using them though.

Mask of Madness

Imagine Mask of Madness + Unholy Rage + Reverse damage.

Linkin's Sphere
Linken`s Sphere

Provides decent stats and mana (which you need). Also spell block can be useful.

Black King Bar

Avatar is useful to prevent them from stunning/disabling you while you have your ulti on.

Helm of the dominator

Dominate centuar then run into battle and reverse damage centuar. Gives you extra 1k HP for that battle.

Skill Build:

Possession
Anaesthesia
Stats
Anaesthesia
Stats
Reverse damage
Anaesthesia
Unholy rage
Unholy rage
Anaesthesia
Reverse damage
Unholy rage
Unholy rage
Stats
Possession
Reverse damage
Possession
Possession
Stats (Until level 25)

Good/Worst friends/enemies:

Apart from the usual, here are some special ones to watch out for.

Huskar - Sacred Warrior

You can support him when he's at his best (Low Hp).

Nortrom - The Silencer

Good and bad. Good if he's on your team (6 second silence), bad if he's not (Last word).

Terrorblade - The Soul Keeper Pugna - The Oblivion Lucifer - The Doom Bringer

These guys are all bad. Doombringer can just doom you - not good. Both terrorblade and oblivion drain life from you, thats not the same as dealing damage so Reverse damage doesn't protect you at all.

Changelog:

No changes recorded yet.

Comments

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1 By samio 2007-10-28

Ultimate seems a bit good. But it would be hilarious to see your hero die to you own ally's nukes. So i guess its okay. I like it

2 By dARk_StAr_27 2007-10-28

nice hero dude . really like the ulti .. very unique

3 By MrZombie 2007-10-28

Funny ult, could use it to deny yourself.

4 By tiberiumlord 2007-10-28

Let me see... attack range is a tad short but the stat gain is fine.

Anaesthesia is good if you use it when nuked due to the stuff you could be doing to heal while it lasts, but what happens to DoT spells?

I like the idea for recurring nightmare as well, but use it on a rapid attacker who's used to the side effects of frenzy and its not a good move. I also thought it'd be better if you kept the damage type of the unit's normal type of damage the same.

Possession is good as a mini blink spell, but it'd suck if you controlled a dying creep or a mirror image near someone who can easily eliminate them. (Harbinger, for example)

Reverse damage is the best idea of all, but like the other people have said, wouldn't it be bad if the allies nuked the person your linked to?

Overall, this guy is good, but maybe if you fixed a few of the skills I'd full score this guy. 9/10

5 By MarceloM 2007-10-28

Ultimate would be cool if you allies can attack you ( like a deny when your teammate is getting killed by a negative buff ) and your enemies attack your linked one.

6 By Shimrra_3 2007-10-29

Ultimate is good.

7 By duro†ar™ 2007-10-29

hehehe,cool!!!!

8 By chukdy 2007-10-29

Wow! Nasty ultimate, if used wisely though, if your allies are dumb, you'd get killed by them. But really, I like the ulti! Possession is also cool! Great hero idea man!

9 By Bard Man 2007-10-29

Bard Man is here.

You've already listed the ways that eavh of your skills can be awesome. Nice work. Also, Bard Man must commend you for making such an inventive hero.

Heh. Bard Man is imagining the Ultimate being used in a fight with Axe and Lucifer.

10 By drew 2007-10-29

One of the best HI's I've seen in a while. Very creative.

11 By Faust the Dark Knight 2007-10-29

It's nice. Only thing is that the Agi gain is higher than the Int gain, and Int is your primary attribute. Other than that very nice.
9/10

12 By -random 2007-10-29

lol i thought of a great way to use the ult: if your team is pushing hard and there is a really strong hero on the other team doing all the work, ult him and run into the enemy fountain as fast as you can. Hahaha, he'll take all that damage. Also good if its the same senario and its like a 4v1. your enemy is stacked cus of leavers items and leavers gold. He's godlike and impossible to kill but there the Anchient structure is down to 1k life. You just cant beat the hero though: use ult and run into fountain: PWNED!!! Hehehe

13 By Shimrra_3 2007-10-30

I don't think Berserk would stack with Recurring Nightmare (Unholy Rage? Fix this so it is one of them not both). But I agree with drew that this is quite creative and original. 10/10

14 By War_Wrecker 2007-10-30

heres a combo, reverse damage and FOUNTAIN RUSH!!!!

15 By mikorkeza 2007-10-30

Hate 2nd skill....

It's even stronger than desolate....

Plus if you use it as combo for your 1st skill..... there'll be no escape....

Sweet escape gone....

16 By 100pct_skillz 2007-10-30

Oh my god ! I love your hero ! So much nice, unique, skills ! Very original. I give you a 10/10 and I hope that he'll be implemented in the next dota version !

17 By samio 2007-10-30

Can enemies die under anaethsia? If so.. who gets the kill in a scenario where your allies attack the hero under the spell. Will it randomly decide who gets the kill or does diabolic get it?

18 By AXCELACCEL 2007-10-30

Good end game hero its primary should be moe of an agi but still great hero

19 By AXCELACCEL 2007-10-30

Good end game hero its primary should be moe of an agi but still great hero

20 By yisu 2007-10-30

ultimate should have a range limit otherwise its imba

21 By huntercw 2007-10-31

Lemme take a look at this.

This is what I understand about Anasthesia.
For example a dude does 800 damage to you. It will be spread over 8 seconds, making it 100 damage per second? Well if 8 seconds is enough to get me from where I am to the fountain in time, then its fine with me. However, skills like Doom will render this skill useless.

From what I see, Recurring Nightmare will turn him into a complete glass cannon. If he activates that and Sven comes by and does his combo, then he'll be in trouble.

Possession is pretty good. You can escape from your enemy and confuse them at the same time. But one question, if you use possession on a creep, and the guy kills the creep, will Kath'ranis die too?

Ah yes, Reverse Damage. Overall the best skill for this guy. With this skill there are an endless amount of possibilities. Cast it on Ulfsaar when he's kicking your ass, cast it on a teammate to save his life, cast it on a beefy tank who stays at the fountain, etc. This skill indeed is very simple that anyone could have thought about it, but it turns out to be a very good skill.

The only thing this guy really lacks is a nuke. But I guess a good hero doesn't really need a nuke. Besides, you can give this guy a Dagon, and he'll be all set.

Overall I give him a 10. Good job.

22 By dohyun99 2007-10-31

You keep saying Unholy Rage when the actual skill is called Recurring Nightmare...fix that! either way, good job 10/10

23 By Transfat 2007-10-31

The ult is a killer for high DPS heroes.

24 By Bard Man 2007-11-01

True dat.

25 By evoblade 2007-11-01

very good an idea it's ok

26 By wugui 2007-11-04

nice hero, i like the idea for the ultimate, but for anaesthesia.. does the enemy take a low amount of damage every sec in the beginning and then starts to take massive all of a sudden or something? i dun get it

27 By kornfleykz 2007-11-04

LOL.. i like the last skill!.. nice 10/10

28 By xiaomage2 2007-11-04

got 1 question for you
might screw your ulti up

what if you ulti somene, and that target dies
who takes the damage then?
will the skill stop?
if it doesnt then its 6 seconds invulnerable, kinda IMBA if that happens

29 By salamii 2007-11-05

i gotta question... if you are really low hp lets say 50hp and you put your ulti on the enemy and someone hits the targeted unit is it a teamkill? or you could hit the enemy and kill yourself so its a deny?

30 By bloodcraft 2007-11-05

cool!! i like it a lot. very innovative and seems fuin to ply wiht. when i sicefrog gonna coem on a tour of ds?

31 By svefn_thorn 2007-11-05

this is good but the first move should instead at max give the other hero 70% reduction in damage while it is take he 30% the other 70% will pile up and add another 30% to it and instantly after 5 seconds do it all

32 By svefn_thorn 2007-11-05

33 By darth_balls 2007-11-06

So about his ulti:
When he takes damage the target hero takes it instead. Well, wouldnt that just be a never ending cycle? Because when he takes damage you take damage and it seems like it would just go back and forth. For emaxple, you cast ur ulti on Lina. Lina then Laguna Blades you. She takes the damage instead of you, BUT, when she takes damage you then take damage. So then you would take damage then that means that she takes it instead. See, never ending cycle.

34 By zachtonz 2007-11-08

Hmmm. That ulti can really turn the table around if you're fighting with a huge nuker. Still, the item build is quite tricky to suit this hero. Firstly, for the ulti, it is important not to attack the enemy hero. And its also important not to add any HP Regen stuff cos it will make ur ulti more unefficient. So i suggest buy some butterflies for evasion and armour. Wat u need is lots of armour instead of hp regen. You might wanna get a Satanic for lifestealing for farming and hp since you're not gonna add hp regen items. That ulti makes this hero IMBA. NO ONE will dare to challenge this hero straight in da face. To be quite truthfull actually, this hero is a GOD. It wudn't be fair for other heroes.

35 By Dotar 2007-11-09

Ok, just to clarify a few simple things.

@ darth_balls:
The Ulti is not a never ending cycle. It only happens once, it doesn't keep going.

@ zachtonz:
The ulti works like this. Damage that WOULD'VE been dealt to you (takes into account YOUR ARMOR, damage reduction etc) is conserved and instead dealt to the target immediately - this ignores armor and any type of evasion whatsoever. Vice versa.

I agree that items are tricky, but IMO the best thing to do is to get 0 armor - as you WANT to be taking as much damage as possible. Hp regen is pretty irelevant to this skill. Also, evasion is bad as you want to be getting hit.

Ulti definitely is strong, I dont think its imba though. Whatever, happens to you also happens to the target. If someone challenges you straight on and you reverse damage onto him, then you can't hit him back either otherwise you are effectively killing yourself, and since most heroes will have most hp than you, you will be the one to die. It's also very easily countered by spells such as purge, stuns and disables due to its short duration.

36 By Dotar 2007-11-09

@xiaomage2 & salamii:

When the spell is cast onto a target, BOTH targets will get a little "reverse damage" buff icon. If the buff is removed on either target (purge), or if one of the targets dies, then the buff is removed on the other target. So, it's impossible for it to last longer than 6 seconds, while it can last shorter by killing one of the targets or using spells such as purge.

Kath'rani will ALWAYS get the kill. I.e. if someone dies due to reverse damage, then Kath'ranis gets the kill. If Kath'ranis dies as a result of reverse damage then it counts as a suicide, i.e. "Kath'ranis has killed himself". SO yes, you can effecitvely deny yourself

37 By darksun 2007-11-09

i just thought of something... when you are pushing the enemy base just rush into their fountain when thier hero is in it or just revived, cast ulti on the hero then let the fountain hit you... INTANST KILL!

38 By darksun 2007-11-09

39 By Ghost 2007-11-10

small problem. their hero dies and you die almost immediately after.
great synergies and balance
10/10

40 By <killer_bakekang> 2007-11-11

at anasthesia for the heroes make it as for the enemy 20% damage increase than that

41 By Isolated 2007-11-12

42 By grillz16 2007-11-12

i don't like the 1st and 3rd skill. but i like your ulti. it's just it's nor imba

43 By cheese muncher 2007-11-13

ive got an idea lets say your pushing a tower with a heroe/s defending it the you push them back a little couldnt you just use ulti on em then stand in pile of creeps and tower so that mean uber damage given to enemy heroe or even better quickly find roshan after hehehehe 9/10 from very good flexible hero

44 By seurimas 2007-11-13

I really like it. Except, who would get the kill? Team kills galour? lol

45 By Sai Warrior 2007-11-14

I think this char is awsome i give it a 9.

46 By Millennium 2007-11-15

Brilliant hero I loved it.

Reverse yourself with Bradwarden and attack the enemy team like hell

47 By AXCELACCEL 2007-11-21

nice idea

48 By mangix02 2007-11-26

boooooorrrriiiinnnngggggg!!!!!!

49 By shingkuorugit123 2007-11-27

I wanna use this hero. now.

50 By cheloo_thechaos 2007-11-29

very good hero, and good ulti

51 By batupyl 2007-11-29

Nice story.

52 By TheWrathofGod 2007-11-30

Ight good hero origanal and has alot of potential. Very good idea for spell 1, but it seems to complicated. Alot of questions needed to be answered to make it work. Wat happens with damage already takin in over time, like poisin strike, or Battle hungar. and what about if multiple allys attack the target who gets the kill? Spell 2 looks good, keep it normal damage not chaos. and spell 3 1 question if the creep dies do u die also? if not that be a great way to shield urself, a lil too good make it so if the unit dies u loose 100 life if creep dies. Ulti is just creative and ownage i love it, tho u should make it so ur allys can attack u wile ulti is going up. LOL i think frog should add deny ally hero mode for shits. start game put -Deny!! 1 more thing intel hero that gains more agi per lvl???

53 By smokeace 2007-12-03

lool oh well (ANAESTHESIA) just make mask of madness and you can just call the hero :Kath'ranis the diabolic madness

54 By lionwings 2007-12-09

imba ult imo

55 By Saiyuki_Hakusho 2007-12-11

"..."iMbA!! JoKe!! nICe uLt!! 8/10"..."

56 By olph_69 2007-12-14

gud comments..Fuck you all!!1

57 By thedeadly 2007-12-30

cool!!! good idea

58 By Waazzaa 2008-01-24

very nice ideas great hero.
the unti is a lot of fun

59 By Avoodibaba 2008-01-27

Lol sorry i have to say this. Ulti an enemy then run into their fountain. Insta kill (sirta imba, do it on towers early game)

60 By ChunkStyle 2008-01-28

The thing that strikes me about the ult is targeting friendlies might be an issue...

61 By unnamed234 2008-01-30

use ulti on fleeing hero and let yourself get hit by the enemy tower. tada!

62 By KawaiiDesuNeh 2008-02-03

Use Ulti At Enemies Well!

63 By sincross14 2008-02-03

ahh..little bit confusing..hehehe..
and why he has no phoenix?? bad..tsk.. i want it lyk rasta..hehehe..have apet..

64 By bandai 2008-02-14

creative

65 By berto1286 2008-02-14

66 By d000d000 2008-02-23

looks good but a little stuped

67 By balderdash001 2008-02-29

looks like his a bit stupid...
who do you think will win?
sntinel or scourge?

68 By Muspellian Bard 2008-06-28

nice ulti but i have a question. If axe uses culling blade on you at an hp that will get him an instant kill but you use ur ulti at that moment will you still get instantly killed or would he have killed himself?
Similarly, if the techies kill themselves while under the effects of your ulti do you die instead of them?

O, and about the tower rush after the ulti, I think your enemy has the same privilege of running into your towers and killing you!

Nice hero

69 By chaos_crusader 2008-08-19

BAD ULTI LAA IF U KENE DMG HE ASO KENE MAKES ULTI USSELESS because when u kene dmg make he kene dmg so u kene more dmg lol