Sample Hero: Pathfinder

I just did Pathfinder this morning so we can work out the kinks in analysis and commenting.

Pathfinder:

Stats:
Strength: 20 + 1.8
Agility: 17 + 1.6
Intelligence: 24 + 2.5

Skills:
Innate: Jump jets

Range: 700/800/850/1000/1000?
Cooldown: 10/10/8/8/6/4
Costs 50 mana

Pulse Carbine:

Active AoE and Slow
Targets: Ground and Enemy Units
Range: 500, AoE: 300
Cooldown: 12 seconds

Fires 5/7/9/11 shots over the target area, each doing 60 damage and slowing by 30% for 4 seconds.

Markerlight:

Passive Damage Boost
Targets: Ground and Enemy Units

Every time the Shasui does damage, the target will take pure damage equal to 1% of the distance between the Shasui and the target times 4/5/6/9% of the Shasui’s intelligence.

Spotter Drone

Passive Range and Vision Increas
Targets: Self

Increases the range of the pathfinder by 70/140/210/280 and gives (700 +300n) day and (300 + 300n night) flying vision.

Railgun:

Active Nuke
Targets: Ground and Enemy Units
Cooldown: 60/50/45? I think, not sure.

After taking a moment to set up, the Pathfinder does 350/400/500 damage from 1500/2000/2500 range.

Advantages:

Pathfinder is the predominant ranged attacker, with a maximum range of 780.
His pure damage passive is very effective in hero combat from afar.
Pulse Carbine is very good against mobs and also does very good damage against heroes.
Railgun at maximum damage, can do close to 800 damage, which is more than enough to catch a weakened hero running back.
Jump Jets gives him lots of mobility.
The availability of Mana Shield Armor mid-game makes him a very good character.

Disadvantages:

Effectiveness decreases sharply if ambushed at close range or against invisible heroes.
Does not have the DPS or an option of lifesteal to take other hard-hitting heroes on in direct combat, like Kharn or Karandras.
Has relatively low health & armor.
Railgun damage does not scale end-game, especially against Strength heroes with 3-4k health.

Comments and Changes:
(This is where you all join in, because I already did the rest xD)

well, technically his ult does scale cause of the +int damage bonus

but other than that, spot on... i dont really think he needs a lot of chaning he was op for a while, but a few nerfs to his skills later, i think hes good

I actually tested his ult out today, Grass.

Stacked myself with every single Intel item I could build and the max it ever got to was 500 base + 290 pure damage. The intel does help it scale, but not to a point where the ult would be truly even late-game.

Let's see. I think I had 90 base int + 143 added int, which translates to doing about 330 per normal attack. That's so good that the railgun turns out to be a little useless end-game besides getting the runner.

eh, point taken yeah, its more for catching those fleeing heroes, and better damage early game

Yeah... Railgun's a bitch for fleeing heroes... or even when you think "Hey, I can take this hero 1v1" and all of a sudden an ulti from a hero out of your LoS knocks you out.

However, I don't think his skills should be nerfed seeing as how a good Path will generally never die after the first 10-15 minutes.
If anything, I think he should get a slight nerf in that his Pulse Carabine shouldn't affect buildings, because mixed with the pure int damage, he just rapes outposts more than that type of hero should.

the pure int damage doesnt affect buildings

Really? It shows up when he uses the move on them though, and that move in and of itself does a lot of damage to outposts.

it shouldnt, cause buildings are excluded from the damage trigger, unless their preplaced... so it affects base buildings, but not towers, outposts, or the main building...

anywho, this is all off topic XD

pulse carbine is a good use for buildings, but its effectiveness... 60 damage? reduced by armor? itll end up doing maby ~200 damage to buildings, but with its cd, and pathfinders fragile nature, and also his preference to keeping at the back (out of pulse carbine's range) i think it balances out, not to mention that he cant do a whole lot to outposts other than auto attack

Ok, now that we have our comments, we should discuss Synergy and Common Builds.

The build I see most of Pathfinder is where he goes straight for Mana Shield Armor and then a Witchblade followed by any item after.

yeah, thats what i see most, and thats prolly the best build for him... rush manashield, for more survivability and more int, then witchblade, which once downa ctually gives more survivablilty, and gives a huge boost in damage

Agreed, though would the Choppas be good on him? I mean, it gives damage and armor reduc, but TBH, I suck with Path, so I don't know.

i like to stack int the only non int item that i can see being good on him, is the khornate chain axe... cause it adds ias, and str, which solves his rather slow attack speed, and his squishy nature

I think I have come up with a half decent tactic for Pathfinder, even though he's not a hard hero to use.
Items to have:
Swooping Hawk Wings.
Singing Spear/force weapon and lightning claws.
The armour w/ mana shield.
Mark of Khorne
Mark of Tcheeez- I think thats how its said.

Pick out a hero thats solo'ing a lane.
Wait for him/her to push your outpost.
Sneak up behind the pushing hero, and hammer him with your pulse rifle.
As soon as you see hes about to cast a spell activate manashield, and continue to hammer him.
Continue attacking him until he starts to run.
Either run with him and shoot, if he's getting away use your innate skill.
If he still survives this, and is still getting away, use your railgun, this should usually finish off most heroes.
Still getting away? Deepstrike with your Swoopers and finish him off.
Keep in mind, Disablers can still be nasty to pathfinder, or a really fed str hero like grandmaster or ork warboss, so keep your distance from heroes like these untill you feel confident that you can take them.
NOTE: BE VERY WARY OF OTHER ENEMY HEROES! Even the most fed hero gets bitch-slapped sometimes.