My issue as I said above is Sauron is too weak, he has low damage potential, and costs a fair amount to level. I think to get him to level 10, it costs between 10-20k resources which is in my opinion a bit crazy. Yes I realize a lot of the things that level him are beneficial in other ways but you do not get much for the levels either, level 3 is probably his most powerful ability to buff your army and improve your unit roster but after that? the extra thousands to level him are unnecessary and unless you are playing against an easy opponent and are just messing about keeping track of doing things and spending money just to level him has little incentive.
Change his powersFirst, I suggest adding some passives that buff your army. Sauron is the major force behind Mordor in middle earth, he is a deity to the orcs so why does he not boost them considerably from his presence? I say give him a scaling leadership trait that affects ALL minions on the map by a percentage. I am sure your better at balancing and number crunching than I am but heres the general idea;
Level 1, Slaves of his will; +5% to health and damage to all player units on the map. +5% per level up to a maximum of 50% boost.
Kind of like how the Nazgul benefit from their lord it makes sense to me that the Orcs become ever more ferocious, morale boosted and the like the stronger their master gets. Especially when he is leading them on the field of battle. Like I said number crunching is probably something the Edain team could change around, 50% may be too much or too little but enough of a reason to value Sauron and leveling him for so much cost.His level 1-3 powers should remain the same, since that is perfectly awesome. Being able to go up to and choose what buildings to enhance for a bonus is great as is the teleportation, because clearly he is a spirit being in the necromancer form
At level 4 and after however things go awry and leveling Sauron is both a pointless and expensive process. You can reach level 3/4 easily by building tons of orcs naturally, maybe building a Nazgal, a unit from Cirth ungol, getting an Orc to level 5 etc. This is all achievable by natural play but to get him higher than that and push towards level 10 you need to built a morgal/dol guldur fortress which is a whopping 2-3k cut out of your cash flow, takes a long time to build and on top of that elite units. Even worse, you need to spend thousands on all the Nazgal, the mouth of Sauron, another fortress to get the "all 9 Nazgal" one...
This all seems too much for me after level 4, so essentially I propose give him an upgrade at level 5 OR 6 which is worth getting.
Level 5, Unveil power; Sauron unveils his presence and power as the Dark Lord, his attack, health and defense increase dramatically.
The idea I had behind this is if level 1-4 Sauron is the Necromancer in hiding, building his power, calling his Nazgal etc, then level 5, when he unveils it is like when he shows himself clearly to Gandalf, Galadriel etc in battles of the five armies. This power turns him from a passive presence to a powerful force, and if you consider its likely to cost both time and resources, beyond the 1000 tag which is relatively high on Sauron to get to level 5 or 6 it would be a nice boost to have Sauron actually become a force on
the battlefield before getting the 15 point Palantir power or finding the one ring.
Sauron as unveiled Dark LordHis appearance is similar to the dark shadow only he gets a flowing red outline, kind of like when he shows himself to Gandalf in the Desolation of Smaug. His attack changes into two switchable versions, a long range power similar to his level 1-4 version, a stream of dark shadow but does significantly more damage, enough to quite quickly kill single unit hordes. His other attack would be a melee which you can switch to, this does AoE around Sauron with shockwaves of force or energy, a lot like Wizard blast. Saurons health and armour should be on par with some of the higher level heroes in the game, being able to last longer in battle than most.
Once Sauron is level 5/6 (whatever seems most fair) the player selects "unveil power" from Saurons ability ring and over a period of about one minute, Sauron ascends to his higher form. This makes it unwise to try and do this in the middle of the enemy.
Here is his list of abilities;
Powers he gained during levels 1-4 are the same, teleportation, slaves of will and his influence on structures
Level 5, switch attacks; switch between a long range dark blast good again single hordes at long range or damaging single elite targets like heroes or a AoE melee attack that blasts all nearby foes away like a wizard blast. Does less damage than the first attack and has only close range but is enough to deal with swarming from hordes of basic infantry
Level 6 Darkness Shroud- conceals Sauron and all units (not buildings) within a radius slightly greater than a Castle plot. Units cannot be seen unless an enemy unit is within several meters or methods of detection are used. Sauron himself cannot move or attack or use other powers during this power. Duration; until toggled off, Recharge; 1 minute after being toggled off
Level 7 Empower Servant- Targets Any Ring wraith or the mouth of Sauron, grants Ring wraiths the "ring seeker" trait that increases that vision radius and stealth detection considerably. The target is fully healed and gains a significant boost (100%) to damage, armour, health and experience gain for 60 seconds. Recharge 3 minutes
Level 9 Saurons Gaze- Sauron focuses his power on a single target Hero, deactivating their leadership and leaving them unable to use powers or abilities for 1 minute. The hero is stunned for 10 seconds. Recharge 4 minutes
Level 10 Mealstrom of Sorcery. This power is based on the dark cloud I have seen in some trailers or old versions of Edain that periodically dealt heavy damage to units passing through. Only the idea behind this ability is it creates a dark cloud of energy on the field of battle that has an area/radius equal to Gandalfs word of power. Units that enter the cloud take a lot of magical damage over time, quickly killing hordes and each unit killed becomes a wraith with limited time on it. Recharge 10 minutes
As you see, this Sauron is powerful and before you say some of his later abilities seem overpowered I have considered and anyone should consider it can cost upwards of tens of thousands to get Sauron to level 10 and a huge amount of time. I also thought it would be fun to use the concealing magic we see in the hobbit that he uses to hide his army which could create unique tactics.
Sauron as the Lord of the ringsI feel like Sauron is a bit weak when he gets the one ring, and of course, with the above change I have to buff his ring form as well otherwise there would be no point in using him. My idea of a Ring version of sauron would lose his ranged attack but I think his
current mace swings should be much faster, at least as fast as other hero attacks. With its high damage and AoE it would be worthy of a Ring hero, maybe boost its damage so it can at least kill regular unupgraded hordes and cavalry in single strikes.
Sauron has all powers previously with the exception of his teleportation and darkness shroud, if I have not mentioned the power below such as Dark will and terrifying gaze its because I think they should remain with the character unchanged
Level 7- Power of the Maiar same as currently in-game.
Level 8- The Shadow comes For 3 minutes the entire map goes dark and all the players units gain 50% increased speed both in movement and have fear immunity. This is map wide. Some awsome audio can play of Sauren speaking like when Pipin picks up the palantir Recharge 10 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3rczsUcaXU this sort of voice can be heard across the map by all players. Would be awsome and scary.
Level 9- subjucation of the master ring this spell replaces the previous Saurons gaze and is essentially more powerful version. Instead of the previous effects it takes control of an enemy hero. Allowing the player to use said hero and its abilities for 1 minute. Recharge 10 minutes
Level 10- Fire wave replaced with mealstrom of sorcery. Only different from previous version it may do more damage/have a wider range/wraiths last longer.
Level 10- Call the Balrog-[/size] This power is self explanatory, the Balrog is called forth and heeds the lieutenant of its former master as the heir to Arda. it appears in a huge fiery corona, exploding outwards and burning to death low level infantry while causing great damage to others. It retains its usual abilities, flight, whip, fire breath etc Duration 1-2 minutes, Recharge 10-15 minutes
I understand the Balrog is going to be a summon for the Goblins faction or Mistry mountains but I please beg to reconsider. Goblins and what not have no real affiliation with the beast, if anything their just as terrified of it as men, if not more so. Meanwhile Sauron is likely the only being in middle earth who may be able to call upon its power and influence it in some way, especially when he has the one ring. It was also a typical Mordor unit in the old games.
Conclusion;This would without a doubt take Sauron who at the moment is a relatively weak hero with a little side powers to becoming a main front line unit and true Dark lord. His power is spaced out still requiring leveling which equates to a lot of time and money invested by the player. This sauron in my idea is worth the tens of thousands he may cost to level up to 10. At the moment regardless of his level he is more or less useless beyond strengthening your wraiths and upgradeing your buildings with his influence which I think is not true to lore since he likes to get into the thick of things and should be the most powerful unit in mordors arsenal and at the very least extremely useful throughout.