Heroes of the Storm Concept: Kil’jaeden

So for this week I thought I’d take a break for the typical analysis and instead write about a paperkit I’ve been toying around with. With all the hype from the guild Method killing Mythic Kil’jaeden in the Tomb of Sargeras, Kil’jaeden easily stuck out as a possibility for a future character in Heroes of the Storm. As you check it out, obviously remember that any values in terms of damage or cooldown are rough estimates and would definitely require thorough testing and tuning. Be sure to check out the end for a better look into his identity and a brief analysis of his strengths/weaknesses!

Passive

Deceiver’s Cunning: Kil’jaeden’s basic ability cooldowns are reduced by 1 second every time he hits an enemy hero with a basic attack OR hits 3 targets with his Felclaws ability.

Q

Felclaws: Kil’jaeden temporarily empowers his melee attacks to instead be a cone attack that does more damage per target hit, up to maximum damage at 3 targets hit. ~4 second duration, ~12 second cooldown.

W

Nether Tear: Kil’jaeden opens a linear rift to the Twisting Nether. Upon opening, the rift deals 25% of its total damage and creates a slowing field. After ~2 seconds, the rift then detonates to deal the remaining 75% of its total damage. Potentially uses a 2-charge system, based off testing and tuning. ~8 second cooldown.

E

Flight of the Eredar: Kil’jaeden flies up briefly before crashing down at nearby target location, dealing AoE damage and slowing nearby enemies. ~15 second cooldown.

Ultimate 1

Darkness of a Thousand Souls: After a ~2 second cast in which he is immune to CC, Kil’jaeden does massive damage in an area around himself. At level 20, Kil’jaeden can upgrade this ability to have a whirlwind of dark bolts to swirl around the area Kil’jaeden casted in, dealing moderate ticking damage before dissipating after ~4 seconds.

Ultimate 2

Summon Sentinax: Kil’jaeden commands the Legion portal ship, The Sentinax to fly to a target global location. Upon arrival, The Sentinax summons multiple portals that spawn many weak demons that “shove” the nearest lane, but prioritize attacking heroes. At level 20, this ability can be upgraded to have some of the portals be “Greater Portals” instead, summoning stronger and more durable demons, but in slightly less numbers.

Identity and Ideal Playstyle

At his core, Kil’jaeden is meant to be a moderately tanky, spell-based brawler that excels in teamfights, but only if he can find the right engage. When picking an ultimate ability, Kil’jaeden can choose to either augment his teamfighting power, or his macro utility.

In the early game, Kil’jaeden has both waveclear and brawling potential via his Felclaws and Nether Tear. Through his passive, he can use his Felclaws ability fairly frequently to quickly shove waves, though this requires him to be in melee range of the minions often and could be further balanced by tweaking his Felclaws’ mana cost.

In the mid-to-late game, if Kil’jaeden specs into Darkness of a Thousand Souls, his teamfight potential skyrockets. Should he engage in the middle of the enemy team with his E, he can follow-up with Darkness of a Thousand Souls, made even more devastating when combo’d with an allied AoE CC (i.e. Malfurion’s E). Upgrading “DoaTS” to include the swirling bolts serves to give Kil’jaeden control of a portion of the battlefield, forcing the enemy team to either try to reposition or face significant team-wide damage.

Should Kil’jaeden choose instead to talent into using the Sentinax, he can use it to shove a distant wave while his team distracts the enemy with a teamfight. Alternatively, he can use the Sentinax to force an opponent to defend a lane while his team can engage in an advantageous 4v5 teamfight.

However, Kil’jaeden is not without his weaknesses. Due to the long cooldown on Flight of the Eredar, if Kil’jaeden dives into the enemy team and is focused, he has no way to quickly escape. In such a situation, Kil’jaeden with be forced to fight to try to lower his E cooldown via his passive. In addition, the long cast time of DoatS leaves Kil’jaeden particularly vulnerable while giving enemies time to run away to avoid the damage unless they’re CC’d.

Final Thoughts

On the whole, this paperkit has been very eye-opening for me in terms of one of the brilliant aspects of Heroes of the Storm. Using characters from several franchises with their own iconic abilities makes creating new heroes a straightforward, but still interesting task. For instance, nearly all of Kil’jaeden’s abilities in this paperkit are pulled from his raid encounter in the Tomb of Sargeras. The big challenge in designing these characters seems to be adding identity to them in regards to a MOBA, particularly in making their kits synergistic. To this end, I’m not fully satisfied with my idea for his W and am definitely going to be thinking up new possibilities for it to better solidify his identity as a spell-based brawler.