So I've had a lot of time to use Legolas due to the amount of times I've tried to help record a certain map for a certain YouTube channel, and I think I can say that Legolas seems to be a little underpowered right now. And I'm not just talking about Hawk Strike. He seems to have trouble fulfilling both his Mass Slayer Role, and his minor Hero Killing Role. It is hard to say exactly what is wrong with Legolas without comparing him to someone else, and unfortunately, he is very unique, so there really isn't a perfect hero to compare him to. But for the sake of this post, I will compare him to someone similar in price and role, and just happens to be a friend of his.....
Legolas vs Gimli
And no, I don't mean actually who would win in a fight. I just am comparing their roles for the factions they are on, and how well they fulfil those roles.
Comparing their Standard attack, they are pretty well balanced. Gimli does more damage, but Legolas has a ranged attack with a higher attack speed. I don't see a problem there. The best thing about Legolas right now is his Incredible Range and Attack Speed.
But Unfortunately, this is where the balance comes to an end in my opinion. Their abilities really heavily favor Gimli. Let's go through them, shall we?
Knife Fighter is really supposed to Highlight Legolas's Mass Slayer Role, as well as his Hero Killing role somewhat.. He deals higher damage and hits multiple enemies at once, at the cost of having to go to melee combat. The problem is Legolas doesn't have a lot of health, and the 20% armor increase doesn't make help this. Not only that, but Legolas really sticks out while using it, really highlighting that he takes too much damage while using it. As a result, this ability become a huge risk in an Army vs Army situation. The Armor bonus needs to be higher if this Ability is going to be worth using.
Hawk Strike deals low damage, and hits a small amount of people. Am I missing something here? Because this seems to be blatantly obvious how underpowered it is in my opinion if it did a lot more damage, then I wouldn't mind it not hitting not many enemies, but it doesn't. It really is a waste of an ability right now, not helping either of his roles. Meanwhile, Gimli is getting a Leap that does more damage, hits more enemies, and sends launches everyone it hits. Even 1 basic attack from Galadirel does about the same, if not more then this ability.
Now the rest of Legolas's abilities are good right now, the only debatable one being Train Archers due to it not fitting his role, but if Knife Fighter and Hawk Strike are improved, then this won't be a big problem. But the problem is he gets them so late, and due to his first 2 abilities underperforming, it making Legolas not worth the buy.
Gimli greatly outperforms Legolas right now. Both Leap and Stubbornness are great Mass Slaying abilities, and Axe Throw, Slayer, and his high health making him a lot better then Legolas at hero killing. And I wouldn't say that Gimli is too good right now, because he does cost a lot of money, and is very much able to die.
So I would love to see both Knife Fighter and Hawk Strike improved.