I was designing a magical jazz singer hero and then I found out Cadence already existed. Anyway, here's Siren.

[Shoyu]

BIO

By night, Rosie captivates audiences as "Siren" at the opulent Velvet Moon Lounge in Harlem. Infused with magical prowess, Siren's performances transcend the stage, weaving spells that enchant and mesmerize. In the streets, her musical prowess transforms the battlefield into a bebop of chaos and harmony, as her notes and spells weave a captivating rhythm that leaves enemies spellbound and allies empowered.

ABILITIES

Stavestream
Siren sends a magical stream of musical staves that wraps around the target, rooting them in place. Nearby enemies within a small radius of the target are also rooted. All rooted enemies are marked with a musical note above their heads. If Siren shoots any of these notes, they explode, dealing AoE damage.

Note: Shooting the notes does not reset Do Re Mi's scale, but advances it. If the explosion is triggered by the 7th shot in the Do Re Mi scale, the note's explosion deals bonus spirit damage.

Tempo Up
Siren conjures a rhythmic aura that amplifies the movement speed, slide duration, and attack speed of herself and nearby allies. Allies must remain within the aura to sustain the buff, which gradually diminishes if they step outside its range.

Do Re Mi
Siren's shots follow a musical scale, with each consecutive shot on the same enemy increasing her attack speed. Upon reaching the 7th note, Siren delivers a powerful burst of spirit damage and releases a wave of healing energy to nearby allies. Missing a note or switching targets resets the scale, causing her attack speed to revert to normal.

Visual and Audio Feedback: The pitch of her shots ascends with each hit, corresponding to the scale of Do, Re, Mi, and so on. Missing or switching targets causes the pitch and speed to reset, signalling the restart of the scale.

Blue Note
Siren channels a wide area of soothing, melodic magic around her. Enemies who stay within this area for 2 seconds are put to sleep for 5 seconds.

___


Having discovered that a very similar magical musician is already in the works with Cadence, I'll stop short of designing ability upgrades. But just a note that I intended Do Re Mi's 5AP upgrade to shatter barriers on the final hit, making her a solid counter to barrier-based heroes.

What do you think? Any cool ideas here, or is Cadence's design strictly better?

 

[Aimee]

Do Re Mi should probably not reset upon missing a shot, as this both gives a negative feedback loop to players that are less good or learning, but also a negative audio cue. Instead rewarding the player after 7 hits on the same enemy is probably better and more rewarding.

Stavestream seems like an ultimate effect very similar to Warden, and wardens ability is already too strong. Probably best to only have 1 effect that roots/sleeps on a character for balance reasons.

I do like Blue Note having counterplay, for the player it gives incentive to move with the enemy players and choose priority targets to sleep, while for the enemy its important to move out of an aoe effect. Both give dynamic gameplay and i like that.

 

[Shoyu]

Do Re Mi should probably not reset upon missing a shot, as this both gives a negative feedback loop to players that are less good or learning, but also a negative audio cue. Instead rewarding the player after 7 hits on the same enemy is probably better and more rewarding.

Stavestream seems like an ultimate effect very similar to Warden, and wardens ability is already too strong. Probably best to only have 1 effect that roots/sleeps on a character for balance reasons.

I do like Blue Note having counterplay, for the player it gives incentive to move with the enemy players and choose priority targets to sleep, while for the enemy its important to move out of an aoe effect. Both give dynamic gameplay and i like that.

Thanks for the feedback!

Agreed on Do Re Mi. Really good points.

Stavestream I think could be balanced with values such as projectile travel speed and root duration. I think if it was both slow-moving, as well as a mini-root, it could be balanced and also differentiated from Warden's root. I was thinking of it as similar to Oracle's Q from Dota 2; enough to set up Blue Note (unless they have a mobility spell or Warp Stone) but not enough to solo kill, ala Warden. It's main strength is that it's AoE at the point of contact, setting up the spells of your allies, and creates opportunities to deal extra damage via the notes above their heads.

 

[arcsymus]

Stavestream is brilliant. I really love that ability. I like Do Re Mi quite a lot, too. Very creative kit.

 

[narcissyphus]

I like the visual design, how do you make it? But IMO shooting musical staves at people is a bit too literal and cartoonish.

And I would re-design her ult, considering Cadence has this. Although it is a strong ult.

side-note:

The most common issue with hero ideas on this forum, is taking 1 theme and making all of the abilities very literal expressions of that theme, in this case all of her abilities are her singing or playing music. It becomes 1-dimensional, a charicature, looking more like one of those meme skins from Smite.

Contrast this to a character like Wraith, who is involved in the illegal NYC gambling scene. If someone from the forum designed her, she'd have a literal slot machine ability, but her sublte abilities make her a more believable character.

The third ability is sublte though! Is she firing her gun or is it something else?