LogFAQs > #963486233

88 - Riki (melee Heropon)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/4/0/AAAACbAADCJo.jpg
Basic Abilities: F-f-f-freezing, Riki Sneaky, Leave it to Heropon, Tank Up!!
Shard ability: Upgrades Tank Up!! to increase Riki's maximum HP and healing amplification by 40%, performing a basic taunt to interrupt channeling in a wide area.
Scepter ability: Upgrades Riki Sneaky to grant permanent invisibili - ...

...Okay, I'll stop. The REAL next one is -

88 - Clinkz (ranged Agility)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/4/1/AAAACbAADCJp.jpg
Basic Abilities: Burning Barrage, Searing Arrows, Skeleton Walk, Death Pact
Shard Ability: Upgrades Skeleton Walk to spawn two skeleton archers to the left and right of Clinkz as if casting Burning Army when the Skeleton Walk buff is removed.
Scepter Ability: New ability "Burning Army," a vector targeted ability that spawns, over two seconds, a row of 5 skeletons in a line which deal 30% of Clinkz's attack damage to heroes, using his current level of Searing Arrows. Each archer dies in two hits from a hero, and can benefit from talents that benefit Searing Arrows.
7.31 changes: General buffs. Burning Barrage cast finishes 0.3 seconds faster at all levels. Big talent mixups:
10's mana regen/magic resistance challenges replaced with lessened versions of the old 15 talents (more Searing Arrows damage/lower Skeleton Walk cooldown.
15's Searing arrow damage/skeleton walk cooldown reduction replaced with lessened version of old 25 - +30% max health conversion to Death Pact, or Death Pact's buff allows Clinkz to acquire creep abilities/auras.
25's Death Pact health/damage increase talent changed to +25% damage modifier on Burning Barrage (so each shot will deal 90% of Clinkz's attack damage and apply modifiers.)

Whew, that's an awfully big block of changes for the little skeleton man. So, Clinkz: he's changed from years past because of some defensive nonsense his older abilities could cause - specifically, he used to have an activateable attack speed buff called Strafe, which, at one point, also automatically disjointed projectiles in flight at Clinkz. (I'm also remembering another incarnation of Clinkz when he first received Burning Barrage where he still had an attack speed buff tied to Skeleton Walk, but that could be a fever dream.)

Clinkz is a pubstomper, plain and simple, but compared to a smattering of others with the moniker, he has a really rough go of last hitting to begin with, relying on a huge attack windup and the bonus damage from Searing Arrows to really accomplish much, while being extremely... brittle to start and not getting much better about that until after he picks up Death Pact. If his enemy lacks stuns, however, he will have a relatively easy time staying alive - Skeleton Walk gives him an impressive movespeed buff as well as phasing, and he can achieve a bit of burst damage if an enemy is distracted through Burning Barrage. Mind, however, that his mana is going to run out in a hurry.

Clinkz is tailor made for a few certain items. Apart from the obvious Falcon Blade, he also makes great use of armor strip, dealing oodles of physical damage throughout most of the game, and he's one of a few heroes tailor-made for Orchid Malevolence and Bloodthorn - all the more so now that its new recipe doesn't give him any unnecessary intelligence.

Unfortunately, as will be a common theme for a lot of the next few heroes, a hero that excels at pickoffs and nothing else can't really do much in terms of a teamfight, short of pretending he's an inferior Hoodwink and building Maelstrom to fish for lightning procs, and both that and his boots don't do a whole lot towards keeping himself healthy if anyone so much as breathes in his general direction. Enter his shard and scepter: the skeleton rangers both are capable of spawning lets him be a hit and run hero.

Does it fix the problems with the current meta? Hell no. Those rangers can only hit other heroes, and are fragile as glass, no matter how beefy Clinkz's own attacks get. They're decent only if you build for attack range, which cuts into your damage, and oh dear that's four different heavy items a Clinkz needs when teamfights begin around minute 8. Clinkz is at his best when he can roam around and pick off a support warding somewhere, but with how strong supports can be right now, if he skeleton walks into a sentry ward he's very likely to get stunned and die by his intended victim. As it stands, his teamfight consists of "appear from sharded Skeleton Walk with a minor death pact buff, cast Burning Barrage in an area, and either die immediately or have the rest of the team clean up."

In a world where Clinkz can act like an off-core, picking up a medallion or Solar Crest and actually find lone victims every so often to delete, he works very well, but that just doesn't happen nowadays, and even if it did, a Ghost Scepter neuters almost everything he can do unless he is extremely fat, which he has a very hard time getting - even moreso now that Death Pact's 25 damage boost went the way of the dodo. Oh well. At least he can do funky stuff with creep consumption after 15 if you cancel out of his horrific cast backswing!

Next hero hint: Jungle Camps, Cast Points, Attack Animations, and you.