As a tribute to you old school dogs out there, this will be a small tribute to the Old Invoker and his 27 spells.
For those who don’t know, pre 6.18 patch Invoke would take into account the order in which you put Quas/Wex/Exort, resulting a large amount of possible skills.
A couple of notes before we start with the combinations:
-You could only have 1 spell Invoked at a time.
-Quas instances provided damage, Exort provided HP regen. The attribute bonuses in Str and Int were also swapped.
He had 8 levels in each QWE, and 1 level in Invoke. Invoke’s cooldown was always above 12 seconds, meaning he’d usually use 2 spells, maybe 3 in a fight.
The numbers aren’t always 100% accurate, because they were obviously changed a few times before he was removed.
QQQ: Icy Path. Despite Jakiro stealing the name, that spell worked pretty much like today’s Ice Wall, with the difference that you could click cast it and choose the direction it’d be cast on, rather than Invoker simply cast it in front of him.
QQW: Portal. It’d deal damage to a single unit and practically teleport it to Invoker’s cast position after a brief time. Note that the damage was minimal, starting at 40 and reaching 320 at maxed Wex.
QQE: Frost Nova. Same as Lich’s Frost Blast. That same Lich’s spell was also called Frost Nova, and Crystal Maiden used to have the exact same spell instead of Crystal Nova.
QWQ: Betrayal. Used on an enemy, it would actually change their faction, making him seen as hostile by their allies. Now, don’t go thinking Winter’s Curse, his allies COULD attack them but didn’t have too. Of course, they would still be hit by their creeps, towers, fountains and even AoE ally spells.
QWW: Tornado Blast. Like his current Tornado, but without the lift effect, only damage. Yes, pretty underwhelming.
QWE: Levitation. This would work the same as casting a Eul’s Scepter on yourself, making Invoker invulnerable for the duration. It could last up to 9.1 seconds at max level.
QEQ: Power Word. Could be cast on an ally (not self) and grant +8 armour, or an enemy for -8 armour, for the 25 second duration.
QEW: Invisibility Aura. Not a spell, but a passive aura that would make all allied units within a small area around Invoker invisible, but not himself. Attacking would obviously break the invisibility, but as long as Invoker stayed around, the buff would be re-applied.
QEE: Shroud of Flames. This one’s scary. It would apply a buff on self or an ally, that would block an amount of spell damage, and cause a Fire Breath spell (like Dragon Knight’s) to be cast every time that unit was attacked by anyone within 400 AoE. EVERY time. Imagine 4 creeps attacking Invoker, and each time an attack gets initiated (and not when it hits), a Fire Breath coming out of Invoker, damaging all units it hits, and not just the attacker. Duration? 40. Cooldown? 30. I think the appropriate word is woaw.
WQQ: Mana Burn. The good old. Like Nyx’s, but with a direct amount of mana burnt and not relevant to the target’s Int.
WQW: EMP. Casting the spell would cause a ball to form in front of Invoker (like Ice Wall), then it would travel a certain distance, explode and burn mana in an area, with no damage dealt. The ball would provide flying vision, and the mana burn would go through spell immune and invulnerable units.
WQE: Soul Blast. A single target nuke that would deal damage based on Exort, while also healing Invoker for an amount based on Quas. Damage and heal were applied at the same time but also were completely independent from each other.
WWQ: Telelightning. Same as Portal, but it would travel Invoker to the target’s position instead.
WWW: Shock. In an area around Invoker, it would deal damage, slow and apply a dispel effect (removed buffs). An extra 400 damage to summoned units was also dealt, as usual with dispelling skills.
WWE: Arcane Arts. A passive skill that would increase Invoker’s own spell resistance, reaching up to (get ready) 80%. Applied with his own innate Hero spell resistance, it reached up to 85%.
WEQ: Owl. If this sounds weak, you’re in for a shock. Imagine a Beastmaster’s Hawk, with 900 AoE true sight and invulnerable. When maxing Wex, it’d also get permanent invisibility, much like Riki. A new summoning would not dismiss any already existing Owls.
WEW: Energy Ball. This would work like the current EMP, but dealing only damage. Note that it was cast on top of Invoker, and not on a target spot.
WEE: Lightning Shield. A buff placed on an ally unit, even a tower, that would deal damage per second in an area around the unit. Would damage enemies and allies alike, but not the unit it was cast on. A single unit could be damaged by multiple shields.
EQQ: Chaos Meteor. The same one we all hate.
EQW: Confuse. You don’t say, I say. This one would create two Invoker illusions on a target spot. Two illusions on top of each other, one selectable and damagable, the other unselectable and invulnerable. The illusions could not be moved, or do anything for that matter. They’d just stand there for the duration, obviously with the intent of creating, well, confusion.
EQE: Disarm. Single targeted, like Heaven’s Halberd, but could also be cast on buildings, and the duration could reach up to 8 seconds. I’d say ‘poor carries’, but I’m not even sure the term carry existed back then.
EWQ: Soul Reaver. Another single target spell, dealing damage on the first impact, then another instance of damage after 8 seconds, while boosting Invoker movement speed for those 8 seconds.
EWW: Firestorm. Channeling spell on a target area. This would rain fireballs from the sky, dealing damage per second and applying a ministun. These balls would linger for 7.5 seconds, and then explode, dealing one final instance of damage.
EWE: Incinerate. A channeling spell, dealing damage per second in its AoE. It had some weird mechanics, practically spawning waves of fire one after the other in the area. Levels in Exort would increase the number of waves and not their damage, which was a standard 75.
EEQ: Deafening Blast. Unlike the dreadful blast of modern age, this was merely a single target damage plus silence spell.
EEW: Inferno. Random explosions dealing damage around Invoker. This wasn’t a channeling spell so he could still move freely. Two explosions overlapping would both apply their damage.
EEE: Firebolt. Single target damage and ministun. I know you were expecting something big for the triple Exort disaster, but that’s about it.
Some of them seem really overpowered, while others seem useless. With the 12+ seconds Invoke cooldown, you’d wonder even if after all that he was really broken.
The answer is, we really can’t say. The game was completely different, the players’ mindset was also different, and this guy just seemed like too much effort for a casual custom map.
Great concept though!