I have been inspired to create this thread by one of the recent ones for very slow heroes and how they should have been made slow instead to make them viable.
There’s a lot of unloved heroes, not just among the 5*, who are barely used by anyone just because they have some flaws in their design - terrible stat distribution, weird special skill, not fitting element etc.
This thread is just for these heroes - and community ideas what change would be needed to maintain general hero idea, but actually make him/her useful. All within realistic expectations and keeping game balance in mind (you could fix any hero by raising their attack stat to 1200, but it’s not what I plan to read here )
I’ll open with Guardian Owl
Hero generally believed to be one of the worst 5* in the game, mostly blaming his very slow mana speed. As owner of 3 Owls, I would disagree with that. Very slow mana goes well with the heroes concept. We don’t need him to fire too early when everyone is alive. He needs to fire as late as possible.
I believe the biggest problem with this hero is his stat distribution. 601 - 795 - 1483 makes him one of the most tankiest heroes in the game. A perfect tank candidate. But guess what… tanks are first ones to die! In almost every match. Even his bulky secondary effect won’t help with that, because Owl tank asks for a purple stack and in most cases he will fall before everyone else. Even if he fires, it’s going to be the lowest dmg possible.
For a hero with Owl’s design, best possible spot on defense is wing. So attacker will face a dilemma - should I focus on taking the tank down, or should I focus on the wingman to avoid it firing a devastating special to turn the tables by the end of match. That’s basically what Mother North/Alby do. Guardian Owl would be a neat, aggressive alternative to that. You take down entire team and left him for last? Great, but he charged up his aoe nuke so BOOOOOM! you’re gone.
Except you are not.
Because his attack stat is so low now that even at his maximum potential, with all allies dead (that’s 475% AOE dmg!) he barely tickles. And he does not need all that bulkiness when on wing since there is a flank protecting him, and tank protecting flank. His AOE dmg when fully charged and all allies dead should be 800-1000 per hero, not 300-500 as currently.
So what fixed Owl would need to look like in my opinion?
Stats: 770 - 646 - 1349
Resists attack ailments
Mana: Very Slow
Skill: (unchanged)
While it may seem a bit OP, you wouldn’t be able to run him on tank (he doesn’t fit there anyway) so very slow mana would still be very much a burden. But you could hide him behind other heroes to use them as meat shields while he slowly charges up. Still could be countered by few snipers with lower durability, but possibly as a trade off for keeping another hero on defense alive. I’d actually love running him as a right wing when MN is a left wing, and an aggresive tank like Ursena in the middle, flanked by two fasts… Magni and GM… That would be something!
What do you think about that idea? And what are your ideas for all these quintuses, kongs, sumitomos and gobblers?