I would love to see a hero that revolves around 'infesting' creeps, jungle monsters and potentially other heroes, guardians and walkers. The more Infestor attacks something, the more corrupted it becomes, leading to increasingly drastic effects.
The general playstyle of the hero would be to punish bunching up: the more enemies in an area, the stronger it gets.
Thematically, something akin to the Venom symbiote - or alternatively something more fungal in nature.
Instead of a gun, Infestor - being a blob/fungal ~thing~ lobs projectiles with a small AOE effect (like Yamato or Viscous alt-fire) as their default weapon. Slow fire rate but higher damage, with some splash. Maybe add an alt-fire that is a charge-up 'big' splatter (think Bio-gun from Unreal).
Infestor also has limited mobility - slower, less agile than the average - relying on their abilities and units to become far more aggressive and mobile.
Ability ideas:
1) Core Passive Ability - Infestation: Abilities and regular attacks by Infestor apply stacks of infestation to the target. There are various effects that this could have (e.g. damage output reduction, damage vulnerability, map visibility), but most crucially, the amount of infestation present determines how much the other abilities effect the target. Reaching certain amounts of stacks enables certain effects. Levels in the ability add debuffs, faster stacking, etc - much like Mirage passive.
There also needs to be some way for Infestor to affect friendlies - my thinking would be something like an AOE around Infestor and 'heavily' infested targets that spread the effect periodically, or just let his abilities/weapon also splash friendlies with the effect (but not the damage).
On friendly units, there could be various effects (beyond enabling Infestor's other abilities) like maybe a small heal over time, or stacking resistances.
2) Metamorphosis: Some way for Infestor to 'trigger' the infestation stacks on enemies. Something like Viscous projectile (rather than Mirage infinite range activation) or frontal cone - Enemies struck by this ability are damaged or slowed, etc - but more importantly, Infestation stacks are converted into other effects. E.g. stacks deal %health damage per stack when 'metamorphosed'. Infested enemies that are killed by the ability are 'resurrected' as zombies for a brief duration (based on stacks). Enemies that survive the ability suffer things like tentacle 'growths' that attack nearby enemies (and spread Infestation), being revealed on the map, etc - again, a lot of room here for creativity but in keeping with the theme.
Infestor must weigh the cost/benefit of sprouting infestation - or leaving them on enemies to enable their other abilities.
3) Infest: Infestor 'leaps' to the target and possesses it (unless friendly/enemy Hero) - the target must be infested!. More stacks of infestation enable longer range leaps, maybe heal Infestor (and friendly units) on arrival, and allow for longer 'control' of enemy targets. While Infested, the unit deals increased damage (scaling with Infestor's attack/spirit), it's attacks and abilities apply infestation, and it sprouts pseudopods that attack nearby enemies (like with Metamorphosis). Ideally this ability would be on a relatively low cooldown, enabling Infestor to move around quickly - but always necessitate infestation stacks on their target before they can move there. Enemy NPCs (maybe with Guardians/Walkers requiring more infestation stacks) that are infested fall under Infestor's control entirely for the duration, allowing him to pilot them as a 'disposable' body. While in this form, Infestor splits damage taken with the victim, with the piloted body acting as disposable health. If the NPC being ridden 'dies', Infestor falls out and back to regular mode.
If Infest is used on an ally, there could be several benefits tied to the consumed infestation stacks (armor/resist, etc). Infestor themselves can fire their other abilities and regular attack from the friendly hero's position. Infestor is untargetable - and half of all direct damage is split between Infestor and their host. Caveat: AOE abilities damage them both, though!
If Infest is used on an enemy Hero, Infestor can very briefly (scaling with infestation stacks) control the movement of the Hero. Insufficient infestation/ability level causes a brief disorient effect instead. After direct control ends, Infestor remains attached to the enemy - but gives half of all damage dealt to the victim. As before, Infestor can use their attacks and abilities - but cannot apply new infestation stacks to the current host, nor directly attack them. Movement control time would have to be carefully managed - something like 1-2 seconds AT MOST, especially for a regular ability, especially if Infestor can force a dash/jump into his own team.
Infest cooldown when used on Allies and Enemies Heroes could be increased to compensate for how strong this could potentially be. When infestation stacks drop off, Infestor is removed from the host. If Infestor uses Infest to move to another target, remaining infestation stacks deal damage and fall off immediately.
4) Consume: Ultimate ability: works in conjunction with Infest - Infestor attempts to fully devour the Host. Based on the amount of infestation stacks - this could work as an 'execute' style %maxhealth damage, scaling with infestation. Effects are different based on the host type:
NPC hosts are devoured entirely and grant Infestor some fashion of buffs - health, damage bonuses, movement, etc. and perhaps AOE damage to nearby enemies (scaling with the Host health - big hosts = big damage, so be careful around infested guardians!)
Hero hosts: Infestor kills the host (if damage from infestation stacks/execute is sufficient) - automatically denying their souls - and resurrects them under Infestor's direct control for a brief period. Abilities are refreshed, and granted infestation debuff effects. This would work on friendy and enemy heroes. There could maybe be a 'delayed' period after Consume is used where it can still trigger if the target dies to other sources of damage - damage to friendly heroes could be removed entirely in this case.
The intent here is a big payoff to all of that infesting: either killing an important target and then using their zombie-clone to cause some chaos, or denying a friendly that is about to die - and then using their zombiefied remains to cause some chaos.
I realize this is a lot of text and some convoluted seeming ideas all packed together. It could be simplified a great deal I'm sure - with very defined effects, buffs, debuffs - but I just want to nail down the overall theme: a hero that focuses on spreading their influence through an area/living things and then capitalizing on that opportunistically. The metamorpohis aspect especially could be tweaked a lot - or replaced with some form of long range nuke that applies more infest stacks, or creates a 'infested' zone for a period, for example - where enemies in that zone are resurrected.
The general playstyle of the hero would be to punish bunching up: the more enemies in an area, the stronger it gets.
Thematically, something akin to the Venom symbiote - or alternatively something more fungal in nature.
Instead of a gun, Infestor - being a blob/fungal ~thing~ lobs projectiles with a small AOE effect (like Yamato or Viscous alt-fire) as their default weapon. Slow fire rate but higher damage, with some splash. Maybe add an alt-fire that is a charge-up 'big' splatter (think Bio-gun from Unreal).
Infestor also has limited mobility - slower, less agile than the average - relying on their abilities and units to become far more aggressive and mobile.
Ability ideas:
1) Core Passive Ability - Infestation: Abilities and regular attacks by Infestor apply stacks of infestation to the target. There are various effects that this could have (e.g. damage output reduction, damage vulnerability, map visibility), but most crucially, the amount of infestation present determines how much the other abilities effect the target. Reaching certain amounts of stacks enables certain effects. Levels in the ability add debuffs, faster stacking, etc - much like Mirage passive.
There also needs to be some way for Infestor to affect friendlies - my thinking would be something like an AOE around Infestor and 'heavily' infested targets that spread the effect periodically, or just let his abilities/weapon also splash friendlies with the effect (but not the damage).
On friendly units, there could be various effects (beyond enabling Infestor's other abilities) like maybe a small heal over time, or stacking resistances.
2) Metamorphosis: Some way for Infestor to 'trigger' the infestation stacks on enemies. Something like Viscous projectile (rather than Mirage infinite range activation) or frontal cone - Enemies struck by this ability are damaged or slowed, etc - but more importantly, Infestation stacks are converted into other effects. E.g. stacks deal %health damage per stack when 'metamorphosed'. Infested enemies that are killed by the ability are 'resurrected' as zombies for a brief duration (based on stacks). Enemies that survive the ability suffer things like tentacle 'growths' that attack nearby enemies (and spread Infestation), being revealed on the map, etc - again, a lot of room here for creativity but in keeping with the theme.
Infestor must weigh the cost/benefit of sprouting infestation - or leaving them on enemies to enable their other abilities.
3) Infest: Infestor 'leaps' to the target and possesses it (unless friendly/enemy Hero) - the target must be infested!. More stacks of infestation enable longer range leaps, maybe heal Infestor (and friendly units) on arrival, and allow for longer 'control' of enemy targets. While Infested, the unit deals increased damage (scaling with Infestor's attack/spirit), it's attacks and abilities apply infestation, and it sprouts pseudopods that attack nearby enemies (like with Metamorphosis). Ideally this ability would be on a relatively low cooldown, enabling Infestor to move around quickly - but always necessitate infestation stacks on their target before they can move there. Enemy NPCs (maybe with Guardians/Walkers requiring more infestation stacks) that are infested fall under Infestor's control entirely for the duration, allowing him to pilot them as a 'disposable' body. While in this form, Infestor splits damage taken with the victim, with the piloted body acting as disposable health. If the NPC being ridden 'dies', Infestor falls out and back to regular mode.
If Infest is used on an ally, there could be several benefits tied to the consumed infestation stacks (armor/resist, etc). Infestor themselves can fire their other abilities and regular attack from the friendly hero's position. Infestor is untargetable - and half of all direct damage is split between Infestor and their host. Caveat: AOE abilities damage them both, though!
If Infest is used on an enemy Hero, Infestor can very briefly (scaling with infestation stacks) control the movement of the Hero. Insufficient infestation/ability level causes a brief disorient effect instead. After direct control ends, Infestor remains attached to the enemy - but gives half of all damage dealt to the victim. As before, Infestor can use their attacks and abilities - but cannot apply new infestation stacks to the current host, nor directly attack them. Movement control time would have to be carefully managed - something like 1-2 seconds AT MOST, especially for a regular ability, especially if Infestor can force a dash/jump into his own team.
Infest cooldown when used on Allies and Enemies Heroes could be increased to compensate for how strong this could potentially be. When infestation stacks drop off, Infestor is removed from the host. If Infestor uses Infest to move to another target, remaining infestation stacks deal damage and fall off immediately.
4) Consume: Ultimate ability: works in conjunction with Infest - Infestor attempts to fully devour the Host. Based on the amount of infestation stacks - this could work as an 'execute' style %maxhealth damage, scaling with infestation. Effects are different based on the host type:
NPC hosts are devoured entirely and grant Infestor some fashion of buffs - health, damage bonuses, movement, etc. and perhaps AOE damage to nearby enemies (scaling with the Host health - big hosts = big damage, so be careful around infested guardians!)
Hero hosts: Infestor kills the host (if damage from infestation stacks/execute is sufficient) - automatically denying their souls - and resurrects them under Infestor's direct control for a brief period. Abilities are refreshed, and granted infestation debuff effects. This would work on friendy and enemy heroes. There could maybe be a 'delayed' period after Consume is used where it can still trigger if the target dies to other sources of damage - damage to friendly heroes could be removed entirely in this case.
The intent here is a big payoff to all of that infesting: either killing an important target and then using their zombie-clone to cause some chaos, or denying a friendly that is about to die - and then using their zombiefied remains to cause some chaos.
I realize this is a lot of text and some convoluted seeming ideas all packed together. It could be simplified a great deal I'm sure - with very defined effects, buffs, debuffs - but I just want to nail down the overall theme: a hero that focuses on spreading their influence through an area/living things and then capitalizing on that opportunistically. The metamorpohis aspect especially could be tweaked a lot - or replaced with some form of long range nuke that applies more infest stacks, or creates a 'infested' zone for a period, for example - where enemies in that zone are resurrected.
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