Fixing Mephisto's level 20 talents
PscythicMephisto has 2 extremely powerful level 20 talents, [[Consumed by Hatred]] and [[Mimic]], and then 2 talents that are terrible and almost no one picks, [[Unpeakable Horror]] and [[Shade Lord]]. I think the latter 2 can be pretty easily buffed up to be competitive with their siblings.
- Unspeakable Horror: Durance of Hate Silences enemies while they are Rooted and for 3 seconds after its Root expires.
The main reason why Unspeakable Horror is so weak is because anything that could deal with the baseline Durance of Hate can still deal with the upgraded one. Johanna can still cleanse herself out of it, Chromie can still Ice Block out of it, Diablo can still tank through it with Soul Shield, Rehgar can still sustain through it with Ancestral Healing, and so on. So while Unspeakable Horror may sound good, in practice it actually barely upgrades Durance of Hate, because any defensive ability that countered it before still works. Additionally, Silencing targets only after the root expires is largely a waste since they are usually either be dead or already safe by that time.
The solution then, is to just make Unspeakable Horror also silence during its root. If that sounds scary, let me remind you that Mimic is f*cking insane, and this talent would still be worse than it most of the time. But I could see it being viable in concert with Spite and Hysteria. Any Cleanse will still counter Unspeakable Horror, and it will still be very difficult to get a huge wombo-combo off, so I don't see this change being too powerful, especially compared to Mimic. But it would be a great boost to the talent that would make it sometimes worth picking.
- Shade Lord: 40 seconds; Activate to swap locations with Shade of Mephisto and refresh its duration. Passive: Shade of Mephisto benefits from all of Mephisto's level 7 Talents and their bonuses are doubled.
"Their bonuses are doubled" mean that Ghastly Armor grants 40 armor instead of 20, Frost Storm makes Lightning Nova slow for 30% instead of 15%, and Trickery grants 40% move speed instead of 20%. Durations are kept the same.
Shade Lord's current state simply lacks "oomph," especially when compared to Mimic. Granting access to all 3 level 7 talents is very cool, but ultimately doesn't amount to a large power increase. So I think a great change would be to also make each level 7 talent dramatically more powerful. The net effect in this case would be an astounding amount of survivability for Mephisto, as well as powerful AoE slows. But he wouldn't get any direct damage increase, which is why I think this would still be balanced compared to Mimic. Do you want to be nigh unkillable, or have unfathomable raw power? I think the choice could actually be interesting and competitive.
FuenteI like the points you've made, and have made a note to think on it. Thanks for the post.