Custom Mercenary - Anub'arak

Submitted 2 years, 11 months ago by

I recently discovered there's a Mercenary tab in Hearthcards, and, since I've been playing Mercs recently, I wanted to create a custom character. It's mainly based on the Crypt Lord from Warcraft 3.

Skins

Stats at levels 1, 15 and 30.

The first skin is the default one.

Abilities

Infest
Improvements of every Infest level:
  • Infest 2: The Nerubian is a 6/6.
  • Infest 3: The Nerubian is a 8/8.
  • Infest 4: The Nerubian is a 10/10.
  • Infest 5: The Nerubian is a 12/12

Locust Swarm
Improvements of every Locus Swarm level:
  • Locust Swarm 2: Deals 4 damage.
  • Locust Swarm 3: Deals 6 damage.
  • Locust Swarm 4: Deals 7 damage.
  • Locust Swarm 5: Deals 8 damage.

Spiked Carapace
Improvements of every Spiked Carapace level:
  • Spiked Carapace 2: Bleed (2).
  • Spiked Carapace 3: Bleed (3).
  • Spiked Carapace 4: Bleed (4).
  • Spiked Carapace 5: Bleed (5).

Equipment


Spider Ring
Improvements of every Spider Ring level:
  • Spider Ring 2: Gives +4 Attack and Rush.
  • Spider Ring 3: Gives +6 Attack and Rush.
  • Spider Ring 4: Gives +8 Attack and Rush.

Cocoon
Improvements of every Cocoon level:
  • Cocoon 2: Reduce Speed by (2).
  • Cocoon 3: Reduce Speed by (3).
  • Cocoon 4: Reduce Speed by (4).

Carrion Talisman
Carrion Talisman cannot be upgraded, since it starts at level 4.

  • Wailor's Avatar
    Design Champion 640 708 Posts Joined 05/28/2019
    Posted 2 years, 11 months ago

    I recently discovered there's a Mercenary tab in Hearthcards, and, since I've been playing Mercs recently, I wanted to create a custom character. It's mainly based on the Crypt Lord from Warcraft 3.

    Skins

    Stats at levels 1, 15 and 30.

    The first skin is the default one.

    Abilities

    Infest
    Improvements of every Infest level:
    • Infest 2: The Nerubian is a 6/6.
    • Infest 3: The Nerubian is a 8/8.
    • Infest 4: The Nerubian is a 10/10.
    • Infest 5: The Nerubian is a 12/12

    Locust Swarm
    Improvements of every Locus Swarm level:
    • Locust Swarm 2: Deals 4 damage.
    • Locust Swarm 3: Deals 6 damage.
    • Locust Swarm 4: Deals 7 damage.
    • Locust Swarm 5: Deals 8 damage.

    Spiked Carapace
    Improvements of every Spiked Carapace level:
    • Spiked Carapace 2: Bleed (2).
    • Spiked Carapace 3: Bleed (3).
    • Spiked Carapace 4: Bleed (4).
    • Spiked Carapace 5: Bleed (5).

    Equipment


    Spider Ring
    Improvements of every Spider Ring level:
    • Spider Ring 2: Gives +4 Attack and Rush.
    • Spider Ring 3: Gives +6 Attack and Rush.
    • Spider Ring 4: Gives +8 Attack and Rush.

    Cocoon
    Improvements of every Cocoon level:
    • Cocoon 2: Reduce Speed by (2).
    • Cocoon 3: Reduce Speed by (3).
    • Cocoon 4: Reduce Speed by (4).

    Carrion Talisman
    Carrion Talisman cannot be upgraded, since it starts at level 4.

    1
  • dapperdog's Avatar
    Dragon Scholar 1890 5610 Posts Joined 07/29/2019
    Posted 2 years, 11 months ago

    Should have presented it at level 30, so we'd know what its full stats are like maxed out.

    But its moveset is pretty standard, except for the infest, which if done right is absolutely game breaking in pve, but probably impossible in pvp without a lot of support. The other abilities are simply weaker compared to other mercs. Impale especially, because its practically grom's shattering slam except much worse.

    Looking at how broken bleed is, crypt lord claws is good, but it all depends on the maxed out attack value.

    1
  • StormKnightSera's Avatar
    Senior Writer Serra Angel 1720 2916 Posts Joined 02/09/2019
    Posted 2 years, 11 months ago

    At Rank 1 Impale appears to be worse than Diablo's Doom Charge, before eventually reaching the same state. It's fine as Diablo's regular/no-cooldown ability, but I wouldn't replicate it here as Anub'arak's third ability.

    If you're looking for additional references or whatnot, I would look at his Heroes of the Storm abilities. Maybe Burrow Charge or Cocoon?

    I think he lacks a way to improve himself in his main kit, like boosting his Attack, or gaining Taunt. He can heal, which is nice, but most of the time I expect your opponent to ignore him because his overall impact seems low...unless you have Crypt Lord Claws, like dapperdog mentioned.

    A solid start, though, all things considered :) I've always liked Anub'arak for whatever reason.

    1
  • Wailor's Avatar
    Design Champion 640 708 Posts Joined 05/28/2019
    Posted 2 years, 11 months ago
    Quote From dapperdog

    [...]

    Thanks for your feedback.

    I'll probably update stats of levels 15 and 30 tomorrow and rework Impale a little.

    About Locust Swarm, I probably made it worse than it should've been because I feared AoE + healing was too much. Maybe 2-5-8-9-10 (like Samuro's AoE) would be more balanced?

    0
  • dapperdog's Avatar
    Dragon Scholar 1890 5610 Posts Joined 07/29/2019
    Posted 2 years, 11 months ago
    Quote From Wailor
    Quote From dapperdog

    [...]

    Thanks for your feedback.

    I'll probably update stats of levels 15 and 30 tomorrow and rework Impale a little.

    About Locust Swarm, I probably made it worse than it should've been because I feared AoE + healing was too much. Maybe 2-5-8-9-10 (like Samuro's AoE) would be more balanced?

    Locust swarm is fine. The healing naturally weakens as there's less board, so there's no insurmountable advantage. Even in pve, its fairly similar to holy nova, and since Anubarak doesn't have taunt he can't just sit and spam against bosses too.

    0
  • Wailor's Avatar
    Design Champion 640 708 Posts Joined 05/28/2019
    Posted 2 years, 11 months ago

    I took feedback from both of you in consideration and reworked Anub'arak to be a sort of self-healing Taunt similar to Cariel Roame, with the twist that it it can deal some damage, both passive and AoE. To compensate this, he cannot protect the same turn he heals, unlike Cariel. His final stats are a bit similar to hers, with a statline of 9/76.

    I also wanted to incorporate a reference to HotS as linkblade suggested, so I replaced Crypt Lord Claws (which was redundant with the new Spiked Carapace) with Cocoon. This way, he can still slow down enemies in a more original and useful way.

    Main issue now is that Infest doesn't feel inline with the rest of his playstyle, but he needs a way to Attack anyways, so I guess it's not a big deal. 

    0
  • StormKnightSera's Avatar
    Senior Writer Serra Angel 1720 2916 Posts Joined 02/09/2019
    Posted 2 years, 11 months ago

    Spiked Carapace is really cool; that was a great change imo :)

    1
  • dapperdog's Avatar
    Dragon Scholar 1890 5610 Posts Joined 07/29/2019
    Posted 2 years, 11 months ago

    Spiked carapace is indeed very good. Overall, Anubarak is now a decent merc in pve, but in pvp its likely to be on the lower tiers. But that's unavoidable, because of how the game is designed.

    Infest works fine. Ironically having low speed is a blessing because then this will nearly always be the last to attack. So Anubarak can either be offensive or defensive depending on treasures.

    1
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