Split Fortitude into two items.

[derpey kong]

It's obvious a lot of people are buying Fortitude, not for the extra health, or the weapon damage buff, but for the on-map recovery, which recent patches have been nerfing. I think it's better to split Fortitude into two items, and buffing one of them. This is my proposal:

Fortitude
Tier 2 Item (1600 Souls)
+ 375 Bonus Health
Passive: At 70% Health or above, gain 20% weapon damage and 1.5m/s move speed.
Uses Extra Health as a component.

Superior Regeneration
Tier 3 Item (3200 Souls)
+ 6 Health Regen
+ 4 Out of Combat Regen
Passive: After not taking damage for 15 seconds, gain 3% Max Health Out of Combat Regen
Uses Extra Regen as a component

I decided to buff the HP requirement for the passive on Fortitude and lower its tier because the stats gained from the passive are largely negligible, and hardly noticed. The weapon damage buff can be nerfed for the tier.
I also decided to make the Regeneration passive Out of Combat Regen instead of its own regen type so that the passive cannot be abused while farming or getting a surprise gank kill while also taking no damage (after observing Out of Combat Regen works differently when damaging a player vs. an NPC)

 

[Mokuzzai]

I don't think fortitude should give weapon damage at all, since if you want weapon damage while close to full health, we already have hollow point.

Also the new proposed Fortitude favors gun/melee heroes and there is no spirit health alternative, so the weapon damage should be removed, and replaced with something else. You could even make fortitude T2 item.

Superior Regeneration looks fine, but 15 seconds feels too long, maybe make it 10s 2.5% heal?

 

[Rosgath]

I don't think fortitude should give weapon damage at all, since if you want weapon damage while close to full health, we already have hollow point.

Also the new proposed Fortitude favors gun/melee heroes and there is no spirit health alternative, so the weapon damage should be removed, and replaced with something else. You could even make fortitude T2 item.

Superior Regeneration looks fine, but 15 seconds feels too long, maybe make it 10s 2.5% heal?

You do NOT want Superior Regeneration as a T2 item. It would get 100% picked every match because it would make it impossible to harass people out of lane.

That said, I do agree that something needs to be done about Fortitude. It feels like the heal effect is too strong since it allows players to completely recover after any given fight.

If we're going to nerf Fortitude in some way, I think it just needs a cap on the % health regen, but reduce it's wind up. So you could limit it to only healing up to 75% max health, but the wind up is only 10s. That or you limit the duration of the effect and give the effect a CD. For example, it maybe only takes 6s to wind up, but it only lasts for 10s and heals 3.5% max HP per second with a 40s CD. That makes it so that it still IS a strong heal on a regular basis and will keep you topped off a lot, but it's not just automatically going to bring you back from the brink of death after every team fight.

 

[gibnewitems]

I think Fortitude is at the point where nerfing or reworking it could have severe unintended effects upon core gameplay. It is overpowered, but getting rid of it would slow the game down to a crawl and reduce the amount of post-lane skirmishing because people won't be able to stay on the map for too long. Teamfighting overall would suffer too much with the removal of fortitude. I don't think that would be very fun for a lot of people.

There actually was an item that faced a similar(ish) dilemma once upon a time. It was called Ammo Scavenger. It's eventual fate was getting removed, but it's ammo back effect was turned into a global ability available from the start of the game.

Call me crazy, but I think core gameplay would benefit if Fortitude's passive regen (obviously toned down a little) was implemented as a global mechanic. Most likely as a reward for a new or even an existing objective (I think this would've fit pretty well as a reward for taking down three walkers if we ever revert the 6/17 extra slot change).

 

[paulby]

Seems to me that the purpose of many recent changes has been to make it so people can't stay on the map too long, but fortitude hasn't kept up with those changes.

 

[Rosgath]

I think Fortitude is at the point where nerfing or reworking it could have severe unintended effects upon core gameplay. It is overpowered, but getting rid of it would slow the game down to a crawl and reduce the amount of post-lane skirmishing because people won't be able to stay on the map for too long. Teamfighting overall would suffer too much with the removal of fortitude. I don't think that would be very fun for a lot of people.

There actually was an item that faced a similar(ish) dilemma once upon a time. It was called Ammo Scavenger. It's eventual fate was getting removed, but it's ammo back effect was turned into a global ability available from the start of the game.

Call me crazy, but I think core gameplay would benefit if Fortitude's passive regen (obviously toned down a little) was implemented as a global mechanic. Most likely as a reward for a new or even an existing objective (I think this would've fit pretty well as a reward for taking down three walkers if we ever revert the 6/17 extra slot change).

I could see having a ramping Our of Combat Health regen as time goes on startling at something like 12 minutes. After that, laning is practically guaranteed to be over even in low tier games, so it wouldn't be unreasonable.

You could even give boosted Our of Combat Regen for like, a minute, after taking an objective.

 

[toafloast]

Seems to me that the purpose of many recent changes has been to make it so people can't stay on the map too long, but fortitude hasn't kept up with those changes.

I think Fortitude is OK right now, as they recently increased the amount of time it takes before regen kicks in. And its important to note that any and all damage resets fortitude regen, even from troopers/farm, so you're still in 'downtime', especially if you need the health regen

 

[gibnewitems]

Seems to me that the purpose of many recent changes has been to make it so people can't stay on the map too long, but fortitude hasn't kept up with those changes.

Most of the recent heal nerfs were towards actives, specifically ones that allowed you to turtle up and stall the laning phase. Fortitude promotes a proactive playstyle of staying on the map and fighting, basically the polar opposite. We will always have ways to recover within the item shop, therefore I hope that more of those recovery options are proactive like fortitude, rather than reactive like rescue beam.