How to: Balance Heroes

[3nvy]

Heyall,

After a few questions about this, and thinking about it for a little while, I wrote up this quick tutorial on ideas to try to keep your hero's balanced.

Heres a good idea I use when trying to make my own balanced hero stats. I set out a list of rules that I use when making all the stats for my heroes.

Stats:

All stats start at an initial value (For example, 14.) From there, each stat can be assigned points, with a limit on the amount of points (for example, 9). So, you could come out with Str: 16, Agi: 18, Int: 17.

For levelling up, you can set a number of points that can be distributed among them, just like the previous ones (ie; 4 points, 1.2 str per level, 2.4 agi per level and 0.4 int per level).

HP and Mana:

Set a default value, with which you have a certain amount of points (again ) with which to work. You can minus stats from this initial amount, to get more to spend. For example, 100 base, and 50 points, means you can get say, 160hp and 90 mana.

Damage and Defense:

Base damage could be based on the hero's BASE primary stat, ie; If the hero has 22 str, and is a str hero, the initial damage would be 22. Or, if you want it to be more varied (int hero's deal less than agi hero's who in turn deal less than str hero's), you could use a percentage of their primary stat. Ie; Str hero's deal 100% damage, Agi deals 75% of their primary stat as damage, and Int deals 50% of their primary stat as damage.

Since defense is somewhat related to the toughness of the hero, and the toughness is governed by the players strength, you could use something related to the hero's strength value, to determine base armor. For example, Str/5.

Other Stats:

Most other stats can be tweaked to your own liking, without causing too much imbalance. Just make sure you dont overset or underset your regeneration rates.

Movement speed is related to how agile a dextrous(Sp?) a hero is, you could relate it to the hero's agility speed. For example, have a default speed (say, 250) and then add onto that, the agility of the character. If you want a large variation on movement speeds, try using a lower base value, and using a multiple of the agility stat. For example, 200 base, and uses 2x or 3x the base agility.

Rules of Balancing:

TEST. I cannot stress this enough. The only way to test a hero, is to test it thoroughly. Sometimes this is the only way to balance skills etc of a hero, as on paper they may look roughly the same, but in gameplay come out with a huge difference.

Thanks, all feedback is appreciated

-3nvy

 

[JacksJohnson]

good work man...helped me, can you right something on balancing tutorials of ability's though?

 

[3nvy]

Balancing abilities is very hard to do. A few simple rules you could try following:

Abilities:

When you're making your ability, think about what sort of use you want it to have. Do you want it to be a nuking spell? Perhaps a harassing skill, or a skill with an ability. Perhaps even a buff/Aura.

Say you're making a nuking spell. Now, look at all the other nuking spells in your map, and look at their damage, their range, their AoE (If applicaple), cooldown and mana cost. To keep it fairly balanced, you'll want to make your new Nuke spell (For now we'll just name it Nuke) to be of similar buildup. Heres an example of two nuke spells, first one being a fake spell called 'Boom' and the second being our new spell, called 'Explode'.

BOOM.

Damage: 400
Range: 600
AoE: 0
Cooldown: 9
Mana Cost: 150

And our new one:

EXPLODE.

Damage: 400
Range: 500
AoE: 100
Cooldown: 9
Mana Cost: 170

If you compare the two, they have pretty similar stats.

The reason the mana cost has gone up over the two, is because our second skill is more effective, in the way that it damages multiple targets.

To create a harrassing skill, its much the same as a nuking spell, just compare your new one to the others in your map. Again an example:

POKE.

Damage: 125
Range: 200
AoE: 0
Cooldown: 4
Mana Cost: 70

And again our new one:

SLAP.

Damage: 100
Range: 250
AoE: 0
Cooldown: 4
Mana Cost: 65

Thats all there is to it.

For a skill with an ability, these are the ones that take the most testing. It's not really practical to base it off other ability skills, as most of the skills will have a unique ability. However, if you have two ranged slowing spells, or stunning spells etc, it'd be a good idea to compare them.

For those that you can not compare, extensive testing will be the only way to get them perfect.

Buffs and Aura's can also be compared. Just make sure that you take into mind the effect that these aura's and buff's will have IN GAME, rather than on paper. Sure, if someone gets a buff for an increased attack speed of 50%, you can slow their movement speed by 50%, but imagine what effect that will have in game? The unit will be completely unable to escape from combat, and even if they get to do some damage with that new nifty attack speed, they won't be able to chase the unit down and kill it. A much more balanced buff would be a 50% increased attack speed, and a slowed movement speed of 20%. That way, the person they're attacking still has a good chance to get away, but the person with the buff doesn't get left behind too rapidly.


Hope that's helped you,

-3nvy

 

[3nvy]

-Bump

Out of curiousity, has this helped anyone? Remotely useful?

-3nvy

 

[Rad]

Not useful to me, I obsess over balance (As you, 3nvy, should know I hate dota). I go into even further detail, as to never having critical strike, bash, evasion in combination with each other on any single hero (With some exceptions in a single-ability combination).

Some other things to always keep in mind:

1: NEVER have an ability with over 5 second stun (With exceptions of net, entangling roots etc which arent really stun)
2: NEVER have anything instant-kill, unless strict like Transmute. It is both your ultimate, and cannot work on heroes or units level 5+.
3: ALWAYS have mana cost on anything that applies, except for spells that have long cooldown etc.
4: ALWAYS keep in mind the ability to counter an ability, it adds an entirely new dimension to the game if you do it right!

 

[3nvy]

Huzzah, more tips for Rad.

If anyone else has some meaningful comment's they'd like to add, go ahead.

-3nvy

 

[uberfoop]

2: NEVER have anything instant-kill, unless strict like Transmute. It is both your ultimate, and cannot work on heroes or units level 5+.

agreed, the closest you shoudl ever get to instant kill is easily dodgeable stuff like the ToB pirate BOAT.

 

[Rad]

Which they totally nuked and is to easy to notice when you begin casting it with the pirates .75 cast backswing

 

[Duwenbasden]

1: NEVER have an ability with over 5 second stun

nah. My 100 speed bolt stuns for 6 seconds. If you run around you'll never get hit by it though.

 

[3nvy]

Does it disapear after a while?

Continually having to move would suck.

-3nvy

 

[uberfoop]

it probably disappears when you activate an AMS so that when it hits you...ROFL HAHA NUBCAEK.

either that or it dissapears in during your FIERY DEATH OF DOOM.

 

[Razthemapper]

All stats start at an initial value (For example, 14.) From there, each stat can be assigned points, with a limit on the amount of points (for example, 9). So, you could come out with Str: 16, Agi: 19, Int: 18.

Either I or 3nvy isn't that good at maths (or both) . 9 is the limit , 14 the base.
16 minus 14 = 2 (Str. added) 19 minus 14 = 5 (Agi. added) 18 minus 14 = 4 (Int. added). Now let's make a sum : 2+5+4 = 7+4 = 11 , but , wait a second , you wrote :

with a limit on the amount of points (for example, 9)

So one of us is wrong , but who?? But who???

 

[ThE-eNiGmA]

Wow, that was informative. Not so much as to the methods of balancing, they were interesting, but the fact that you could tweak some of the stuff that way, like percentage damage based on stat other than agility, changing the armor stat, etc.

 

[3nvy]

Either I or 3nvy isn't that good at maths (or both) . 9 is the limit , 14 the base.
16 minus 14 = 2 (Str. added) 19 minus 14 = 5 (Agi. added) 18 minus 14 = 4 (Int. added). Now let's make a sum : 2+5+4 = 7+4 = 11 , but , wait a second , you wrote :



So one of us is wrong , but who?? But who???

Wow. Thats embarressing. Will fix

-3nvy

 

[3nvy]

Bump again.

-3nvy

EDIT: Woohoo! It made it

 

[Oninuva]

Bumped.