Varian sadly just doesn’t work at the moment, his only true viable ability is Taunt and Varian is way too single target focused, the aim for Varian was to make him like a WoW warrior and I feel hots was so closed to making him like one but made him too easy to play for newcomers like the parry and charge abilities.
I am a level 115 Varian and I main a warrior in WoW so I have a couple ideas for a rework that I really think should happen and can make Varian very fun to play and more viable in competitive.
I’m going to start off with his reworked basic abilities
NEW Q-Shockwave
Stuns anyone in a medium sized cone shape in front of varian for 0.5 seconds and does 100-200 damage
(Varian’s original ability was Lion’s Fang and I feel like it was just lacking in cc and damage and didn’t really give the warrior type feel, I feel putting in the WoW warrior ability shockwave will make him have much better cc and team fights not only single target.)
NEW W-Mortal Strike
Deal 350 damage to an enemy (single target and has to be close), reducing the enemy’s healing by 50% and healing for 100% of the damage Mortal Strike does. Mortal strike’s cooldown resets when a enemy hero is killed.
(Varian’s original ability was Parry and I feel like it was also lacking although I will talk about Parry as a passive later. Varian having Mortal Strike gives him the WoW Warrior’s Arms/Fury spec vibe kind of working as the Arms ability Mortal Strike and the Fury’s Bloodthirst. This will also help Varian in solo lane early game. I was also thinking a new talent can be making Mortal Strike cleave to heroes in close range for same or less damage but same 50% reduced healing.)
E-Charge
Charge to the target enemy, dealing 50 damage and Slowing them by 75% for 1 second.
(My only complaint with Charge is that I feel the range you can charge is too small and should be a little bigger, besides that it is good.)
NEW- Passive: Critical Strike/Parry
Critical Strike has a 15%-20% chance to activate each basic attack dealing 20% extra spell damage. Parry dodges a enemy basic attack every 10 seconds.
(I feel the Heroic Strike passive can still work but I feel the Critical Strike passive is better and feels more like a Warrior. Critical Strike can also make Taunt deal decent damage now that the level 1 Parry talent with Taunt combo is gone.)
Now I’m going to get into all of Varian’s lvl 4 abilities/ults
NEW R-Taunt
Silence a target Hero and force them to attack Varian for 1.25 seconds. Passive: Maximum Health and Health Regeneration increased by 40%. Passive: Shockwave’s stun is increased to 1 second.
(Making Taunt also passively increase Shockwave’s stun will make him feel more like a Tank.)
NEW R-Colossus Smash
Smash a target enemy, dealing 160 damage and lowering their Armor by 35 for 4 seconds, causing them to take 35% increased damage. Passive: Base Attack Damage increased by 100%. Passive: Maximum Health and Health Regeneration reduced by 10%.
(Only change was the armor reduce from 20 to 35 to make his Colossus Smash feel more powerful like a burst assassin.)
NEW R-Rampage
Deal 400-600 damage to a single target and become Enraged, increasing all damage by 20% and cooldown reduction by 20% for 5 seconds. Passive: Attack Speed increased by 100%. Passive: Base Attack Damage reduced by 25%. Passive: Basic Attacks increase Varian’s Movement Speed by 15-20% for 2 seconds.
(This right here makes me hype and will fix Twin Blades of Fury. That’s all I have to say.)
I feel these new level 4 abilities/ults make each one really matter, Taunt is the tank, Smash is the assassin, and Rampage is the bruiser. But I know people can make Rampage work as an assassin and Taunt as a bruiser,etc and that’s the good. Each ability really bring utility in team fights and solo lanes.
One quick note is how I barely discussed any new talents, I feel the Hots team does a good job making talents and I trust them to make some new good ones with this new rework.
All I ask though is to keep the talents High King’s Quest and Second Wind and I feel those are important to him and his talent builds.
Wow, that was long lol. I really hope the Hots dev team sees this and does it, Varian is a pretty popular character and I feel this will make him even more fun and very viable in competitive. I also just want to say that I hope everyone is happy and healthy during these times as I know it is hard for a lot of people. Thank you for reading!
- Tony