Now, before you turn away, this is not yet another vague, half-baked Vampire idea. And no, it is not a hero.
Vampire Lord
Bio:
The Vampire Lord lurks in the shadows, stalking his prey. He seeks not only destruction and loot, but his next meal.
Availability:
This unit would be first made available at TH9:
TH9: Level 1 and 2
TH10: Level 3 and 4
Uniqueness:
The Vampire Lord has a preference for Heroes and Clan Castle Troops for a very specific reason; a sort of passive ability of the unit is that any time they deal damage to a living creature (Thus, a hero or deployed troop), they regain health equal to 10% of the damage they dealt.
In addition to this, the Vampire Lord (kind of like an aerial Witch) will summon small swarms of bats that have about half the health and deal half the damage of a Minion of similar level.
Statistics (I know, the new suggestions say don't get too specific, but I know a lot of forum-goers like their stats):
Specific numbers will be given first, followed by the Sticky-suggested descriptions in [Brackets]
Research Costs: [Greater than Witch, but not too much]
Level 2: 80000 DE
Level 3: 100000 DE
Level 4: 120000 DE
Vampire Lord (Level 1)
Air Unit, Targets Air and Ground
HP: 1000 (+100 per level) [fairly durable, don't want them to get wiped out right away when they face off with theQueen or an Air Defense]DPS: 40 (+8 per level) [Low-Mid against buildings because that's not what they're used for]
Training Time: 20 minutes [Same as Witch]
Cost to Train: 400 DE (+75 with each level) [In between witch (for ability) and Golem (for HP)]
Housing Space: 18 [Again, between Witch and Golem; Also 18 so you can't fit two in a CC (probably too OP)]
Preferred Target: None [If the Vampire goes chasing the Heroes right to the center of the base, it'll get crushed]
Abilities: x2 Damage against Heroes, can summon bats*, Seeking Air Mine only deals 30% damage, Life Drain**
*Bats (Level 1)
Max Number Summoned: 8 (+4/Level) [Summoned all at once for their Swarm potential since they're relatively weak]
HP: 35
DPS: 20
Can be targeted by Air Bomb, but not the Seeking Air Mine
**Life Drain
When attacking a Hero or other Troop, 10% of the damage dealt per hit is absorbed as health by the vampire as it feeds on its enemy's life force.
(Poster's Notes: Okay, I'll address anything I feel could raise concerns in order from top to bottom:
- Yes, they have a lot of HP, but when they run into an air defense or Seeking Air Mines, they're going to need to survive a few hits. It's offset by relatively low DPS, so they're not quite tanks, and they're not quite Meat Shields.
- The x2 Damage against heroes. Well, mathematically, at Level 4 at a hypothetical 64 DPS, multiply that by 2 you get 128 DPS on a hero. Against a Level 10 Barb King, that's 17 seconds worth of constant hitting for a full knock out. In comparison, it would be about 7 seconds against an Archer Queen of similar Rank, but we are inferring that she would be firing back, and her 199 DPS at that rank would be an equal amount of time. [On this note, I was thinking about scaling the strength against Heroes relative to the level of the Hero, especially seeing how quickly a level 20+ Queen could skeet shoot even a highest Level Vampire. Thoughts?]
- The Bats. Now, I think the main purpose of the bats would realistically be to distract assorted Air-Targeting defenses and Higher Level Archer Queens. This would allow the Vampire Lord to get in a few more hits or move into a more strategic positioning or get in a few more big hits on the Queen. Also, the fact that they could not be targeted by the Seeking Air Mine would mean that would not eliminate that threat from the Vampire, thus leading to:
- The Seeking Air Mine Stat. So, the reason I don't want a SAM to do full damage is because for being a big, space consuming unit, it would be an easy solution to just drop all of your SAMs around your heroes, rendering the Vampire Lord entirely useless. 30% of the SAM's damage at Level 1-3, in order, would be 500, 600, and 700 damage, respectively. This means that it would take at least two to knock out the Vampire, and it would open up a realm of both strategic positioning and strategic attacking. At the same time, I didn't want to get rid of the effects of the SAM altogether, because then the Vampire would be too OP. Again, let me know what your thoughts are on this one.
- And finally, and most likely, most controversially, Life Drain - Before we dig too deep into this, let's look at some math. Say you're attacking a hero with a Level 4 Vampire. 10% of that 2x damage would still only be a health increase of ~13 HP/second. I was thinking about raising it, but I figured I'd lowball it to maintain validity, and then edit accordingly. This is quite reasonable. 10 seconds worth of attacking would only raise the Vampire's health by 10% of its total. I don't think that's out of the picture. And then when the Vampire is attacking regular troops, it will only be picking up a maximum of ~6 Health per second, which, again, isn't too much.)
Attack Strategies:
So, first and foremost, how can we use the Vampire Lord to attack?
Clan Wars:
- Hero hunting - this Troop is a great option for taking out that wily Barb King blocking your path or an Archer Queen that's camped out. However, you need to be careful. The Vampire Lord's Bat Swarm can temporarily protect him from taking the heat of point defenses, but a few splash damage hits could wipe out those protectors. A good army build around the Vampire at TH9 would probably be structured around getting rid of air defenses, so incorporating more Hogs or a couple of dragons could buffer the Vampire.
Also, the Vampire could be used as a cleanup troop to send in after the main wave, steering them towards the Barbarian King who might get in the way.
- CC Clearing - Once the CC is lured, the deployment of a Vampire Lord would be prime in order to knock out the Clan Castle troops (along with some wizards) allowing the attack to proceed quicker and giving you at least a few more spare wizards once your attack got going.
Raids
Now, I'm a maxed TH8, so I don't know of the mechanics of high League/high TH raiding, so if anyone has any suggestions as to how the Vampire's makeup could be used at those higher levels, please let me know! I was hoping that the Vampire could help to maybe regulate the dominance of Defensive Level 40 heroes that I've heard complaints about. Again, please help me write this section!
Overall though, I think the Wizard would fit in nicely alongside a Lava Hound. The Hound soaks up the damage, the Vampire lays down some fire. Plus imagine the attack build names that could be made (The first that comes to mind is, "LaLooWiWiVaVa." While it would be totally impractical, it sounds absolutely adorable)
Defensive Strategy
To defend against the Vampire, you could:
- Move your heroes towards the center/a protected compartment of your base
- Strategically position your Seeking Air Mines in order to best deal damage to attacking Vampires
- Have strong anti-air defenses near your Heroes
On the other end of the spectrum, the Vampire would make a great Clan Castle troop! Dump one in there and he'll be off to give the attacker some trouble. This would be especially strategic in wars. Give your lower level THs a Vampire, and you might see a decrease in those TH7 - TH8 3-stars. All of the special abilities of the Vampire Lord make it as good of a defensive unit as an attacker.
So! That's that. Let me know what you think (constructive criticism with fair reasoning is much preferred and much more helpful than sass and bashing), and I'll take any and all input into consideration! It was fun writing this idea, so if you made it this far, congratulations! And thanks for taking the time!
By the way, if this gets some positive feedback, there is artwork to come! Thanks again!
Originally Posted by UndeadZombie
