I’m just gonna say it: I think Aba is in a really bad spot and is highly due for a remake.
He is hard to balance due to his interaction with certain heroes, making supposed fragile damage dealers too survivable or making high mobility heroes able to deal too much constant damage. He also has basically no counterplay. Both his mines and his backdoor locusts shenanigans are just annoying as heck.
This is not an ensured fix as much as just: throwing anything at the wall and see if it sticks. I’m just here to advocate an Aba-rework.
D (Passive) - Spawn Locust
Damage against structures reduced by 50%
Every 3 allied minions that dies near a Locust will spawn another Locust
Locusts lose health over time, and regenerate health based on how close they are to Abathur.
This is mainly to deal with the backdoor issue. As well as making Abathur’s body placement more relevant.
W - Toxic Nest
Toxic nests have double the cooldown and require manual detonation, but their effect is applied to all enemies in a medium area. Still grant vision where they are. Can be turned into locusts instead of being detonated.
D (Active) - Detonate Toxic Nests
Activate to cause all Toxic Nests in an area to explode
1 - Transform Toxic Nests
Activate to turn nearby Toxic Nests into locusts
(Melee range)
I think it would at least add some skill to the mines, as well as a strategic option for pushing
Q - Symbiote
Once cast, has 1 charge of Spike Burst, 1 charge of Carapace, and 2 charges of Stab. The charges do not replenish until the ability is recast.
10 second individual cooldown per allied hero (Like High Five)
This would prevent Abathur from functioning as added stats to a hyper-carry, and being less effective as a ganking tool for hyper mobile assassins. Will shift him more to macro and teamfights.
E - Ultimate Evolution (basic ability)
Instantly spawn a clone of an ally hero that takes 50% increased damage and lasts 6 seconds.
If the clone dies the ability’s cooldown is set to 60 seconds.
20 seconds cooldown.
It’s already so integral to his kit, might be more fun to weave it in, using just one rotation of a hero’s abilities at a time
R1 - Perfect Symbiosis
Cast an improved symbiote on an ally for 8 seconds.
Affected ally will heal for 20% of all damage dealt by them and the symbiote, and will
have their basic ability cooldowns recharge 50% faster for the duration.
Grants the symbiote entirely new abilities:
Q - Tethered Harpoon: Launch a spine that deals 120 damage and attaches to enemy heroes and pulls them 2 distance towards you on impact.
W - Spike Explosion: After 1.5 seconds, deal 200 damage and stun nearby enemies for 0.75 seconds
E - Biotic Launch: Shove affected ally towards a target location. Ignores terrain. Slows enemy units in the path by 40% for 2 seconds.
Cooldown 90 seconds
Dealing damage to an enemy hero with Symbiote reduces the cooldown of Perfect Symbiosis by 1 second
A teamfight ability to replace clone