Medivh was originally a support hero but, the was so powerful, developers had to relabel him as a specialist. I played him at an exclusive Heroes event and here are my thoughts.
One of the most notable reactions to Medihv's reveal came at the hand of two of my favorite Heroes personalities:
SolidJake: "This hero is my new main!"
Grubby: "No, he won't be. He will be banned every game"
As his hero abilities were shown, it seemed like every one grew increasingly more powerful. Just when we thought we had seen the best of Medivh, we saw something else that blew our minds. Dreadnaught in particular had one of the finest "What were they thinking?" rants about Medivh's almost oppressive power level and it is my eternal sadness that no one was around to record it.
After playing as Medivh and against him for hours, I've never been more tilted in my life. Seeing this bird fly around your base and team fills you with a sense of morbid dread. Questions start popping into your head: 'What is he doing? Why is he scouting us? Are we about to get Portal team wiped?" Playing gives you an incredible sense of control, as he is strengths lie in his raw utility and damage prevention.
Game Designer Kent-Erik Hagman said it best when I asked him to explain Medivh's incredible impact on the game.
"Medivh cheats."
Abilities
(Z) Raven Form - Trait
You turn into a flying Raven that is invulnerable and untargettable. In this form, Medivh has slightly reduced vision and moves at mount speed and can fly over any terrain.
- Raven Form is what Medivh is built around. Stalking around the map as a Raven gives incredible vision for your team and also allows you to drop down instantly to secure a gank or save an ally.
- It's extremely tilting to play against Medivh flying around your base and team all the time. It's hard to explain, but it feels like the enemy constantly knows what you are up to.
- In Raven Form you can get XP from minion waves. The enemy can do nothing to avoid this soak, as Medivh is invulnerable.
(Q) Arcane Rift
Fire a bold of energy in a line , damaging enemies in it's path. Hitting a Hero greatly reduces it's cooldown and refunds all mana.
- This is Medivh's only damaging ability and it can be spammed in lane to great affect. It is also a powerful chasing tool because of it's 1 second cooldown (once you hit an enemy) but if you miss the cooldown is 8 seconds.
- This ability can be talented but it's usually better to improve other abilities
- This ability is particularly powerful with Abathur's Ultimate Evolution. The increased move speed and ability damage it provides allows the Medivh clone to do some really crazy kiting with this spell.
(W) Force of Will
Project your will onto an allied Hero, making them Protected for 1.5 seconds, preventing all damage done to the target. 5 second cooldown
- This is as powerful as it sounds. Uther is extremely jealous of 5 second cooldown ability to negate all damage done to a target.
- I can't rave about this ability enough. It allows a skilled Medivh to completely break the rules and negate absurd ammounts of damage.
- Heroes like Artanis and Sonya were just... unstoppable when paired with Medivh. Artanis especially seemingly impervious to anything thrown at him, as the Force of WIll kept stalling his death, giving time for more shields to proc.
- Any bruiser becomes legendary with Force of Will backup.
(E) Portal
Create a portal at Medivh’s feet and at the target point that lasts for 6 seconds. Clicking on one portal instantly teleports you to the other side.
- When properly talented, Portal's range is very long and even gives buffs to allies who take the portal.
- Pictured above, Portal is extremely powerful when paired with heroes that want to get in the middle of a team fight. Imagine Arthas, The Butcher, or E.T.C instantly appearing next to your team from a portal that was created instantly. It happens. It's good.
- The uses for this spell were simply overwhelming. We quickly realizes portal can be used in literally every possible situation. You can use it to chase heroes, to escape from heroes, to get to objectives quickly, to steal bosses and other mercs, to repeatedly port back and forth making it difficult for enemies to even target you.
- With talents, the Portal gets even more effective. Especially the talent that allows you to play both entrance and exist at locations of your choice.
(R) Poly Bomb
Polymorph a target Hero. After 1.5 seconds, any nearby Heroes are also polymorphed.
- As crazy as Chain Bomb ever was, Poly Bomb can last forever as long as heroes continue to stand in it's radius.
- Heroes with relentless actually cause the Poly Bomb to spread faster because it ends in nearly half the time.
- Very powerful tool to counter dive compositions and cause chaos in the ranks.
- Best used when multiple enemies are trying to escape.
(R2) Ley Line Seal)
Fire off a blast of energy down the ley lines, putting any enemy Heroes in its path in Stasis for 3 seconds.
- Ley Line Seal is the first heroic to actually compete with the likes of Void Prison and Sundering in terms of power level. Imagine if multiple heroes trapped by Void Prison were released one after the other, allowing your team to kill them individually? That's what happens when you hit a multi target Ley Line Seal.
- Think about how you counter Void Prison once half of your team get's caught in it. Most of the time the correct strategy is to jump in the Void Prison your self, as the invulnerability keeps you safe and all of you break free at the same time. This is impossible to do against Ley Line.
- The level 20 storm talent upgrading Ley Line is incredibly powerful. It allows Medivh to arc the Leyline, potentially doubling the time it spends flying through the air and chasing enemies with it.
The first play verdict
Every time you look at Medivh's abilities, I keep thinking most of them should be heroics. Portal feels like a Heroic, Force of Will feels like a Heroic, even Crow Form feels like a Heroic. Thematically, I think it is clever design to make Medivh feel so powerful- he is after all the most powerful mage in Warcraft history.
Because of this, his abilities are extremely unique and break the rules. Force of Will in particular makes you completely reevaluate how to approach a hero gank or team fight. It is an extremely powerful defensive spell, but there are ways we learned to play around it.
For instance, Force of WIll might make one hero impervious to damage, but it can only be cast on a single hero. Heroes like Lunara, Tychus and Zagara do a good job of negating the 1.5 (often more because of talents) damage prevention period because of their sustained DPS.
I'm glad they decided to not label Medivh as a support. While his abilities help his team and provide insane ammounts of utility, he can't actually solo support. Instead, it's safe to view Medivh like a classic Tassadar. The old version of Tassadar that could safely fit into any team composistion with a Warrior, a Support, and some Assassins. Medivh makes any team better and most pro's agree his high ban rate is inevitable.
Talents
Currently, you can find the full talents for Medivh here thanks to Heroes content creator KendrickSwish. On his channel you can also find a Chromie video highlighting all of the talents there.
Medivh will be released the week of June 14th.
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