User blog:Emptylord/Custom Champion - Two Player Champion feat. Cho'Gall (Heroes of the Storm)

' ' is... the best champion ever.

Development

 * Core Differences
 * HOTS' Blind Pick requires you to build your team before you queue up (and doesn't permit you to queue without both parts of Cho'Gall selected). In Draft Pick, Cho'Gall can only be selected be players who are part of a party and their Draft Pick system has two players select their champions at a time (and guarantees party members share the same pick phase - e.g. 2nd and 3rd picks). If one of them locks in as another hero, Cho and Gall are both disabled; and Cho and Gall cannot lock-in unless both heads are selected (and locking in will lock in both players).
 * HOTS has no Summoner Spells - there's no issue of what would happen if the Second Head uses Flash or Teleport. That says, Heroes features Mount and Recall spells on all heroes, both of which are disabled on Gall (although he has a unique replacement for Mount).
 * HOTS has global experience - there's no issue of whether both players should level at the same time. Furthermore, they use a Talent system instead of a Rank-Up/Runes/Masteries system for all Heroes. They each have access to 3 abilities at level 1 and can choose a talent every few levels (other levels only improve stats). At level 10 they can choose an ultimate ability from a selection of two. Some Talents grant them additional actives (such as wards and what League would call Summoner Spells, which occupy 1-9 hotkeys). A Talent system could perhaps make the second player's experience more enjoyable - making sure both players enjoy themselves is something to take into serious consideration.
 * HOTS replaces disconnected players with AI, including either head of Cho'Gall. HOTS has fairly competent AI that is supplemented with streamlined gameplay/objectives, making this not an end-of-the-world issue. While this champion should by no means be balanced around disconnects - some consideration should probably be made.


 * Core Requirements
 * At least one of the duo is manaless or they have separate resources. I'm not going to entertain the prospect of having two players share a secondary resource. As far as power budgets go, this decision is suitably off-set by the fact that killing one unit puts the allied team down two champions as well as the fact the Second Head has no control of movement.
 * Player One should probably be melee. Whether or not Player Two is design to "support" Player One or whether they are an independent damage dealer, I believe the gameplay is richer if positioning is a core gameplay aspect of Player One. Ideally, it should be possible for both heads to be either the carry or the support (Fighter+Mage or Duelist+Support, respectively).
 * Player Two needs a spammable spell that substitutes as a basic attack, similar to.
 * Player One has an ability that can be directly interacted with by the Player Two (e.g. Cho'Gall's Magma Bomb and Runic Blast).


 * Problem Solving
 * Each player benefits from different stats and gains no benefit from other stats.
 * Health, Health Regeneration, Armor, Magic Resistance, Attack Damage, Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Damage, Armor Penetration, Life Steal and Boots.
 * Ability Power, Cooldown Reduction, Magic Penetration and Spell Vamp.
 * Alternatively, this could be "simplified" to sections of the store (e.g. the Player One has access to Offence, Defense and Boots; while the Player Two has access only to Magic).
 * Player Two utilizes a Talent system instead of a Rank-Up system, giving them a more interactive experience than simply growing linearly to the Player One.
 * Alternatively, the Talent system is instead used as a unique shopping experience - either disguised as items, or runes, or "training", with each tier costing an increasing amount of gold (or experience) (with the values serving as a balance lever for the champion's power curve). The champion could either gain skill points whenever Player One does, or instead have static abilities.
 * For example: Player Two does not earn gold or experience. Instead, he earns a unique bounty, Runic Affinity, equal to the combined gold and experience for the kill. Whenever Player Two has sufficient Affinity, he is prompted to open the "Store" and may select a Talent. This can be done from anywhere on the field and at any time. This particular example means that Support and Carry Player-Two earn Affinity at a slightly different pace, making their experiences different.
 * The Player Two has access to unique Summoner Spells.
 * In the event Player One disconnects, Player Two gains the ability to control the Duo's movement but is . Neither gains the ability to cast the other's abilities.
 * Perhaps this champion's experience could be simplified by having Player One viable as a standalone champion, with Player Two being an optional addition. This major downside to this experience is that I don't want Player One players to queue with the intention of going solo and being "trolled" (since there's only a limited time to build a comp, this would affect the whole team) - ideally, this champion should only ever be selected with the intention of duoing and all players should have an expectation that this champion will be a duo (either sacrificing a jungler for a duo in tope or mid; that the champion is going bot lane; or that bot lane will be a solo lane).


 * Themes
 * Two-Headed creature - perhaps Frost Troll mages have two heads?
 * Two creatures in one - such as DhaMa the Force of Balance,, Dirk the Noxian Beastmaster, Finn and Ebb the Tidehunters or the original concept for.
 * One possessed creature - with the possessive half perhaps hailing from the Shadow Isles or The Void.

Trivia

 * Ska'Lord's name derives from the combined player names of the first game I played on Cho'Gall, Skadush and Emptylord, a feature the Heroes of the Storm employs to name the combined players.