This suggestion stems from a discussion we had on Discord concerning Sauron's Ring Hero abilities. We felt that some of them could be change to fit more accurately with the lore and hopefully to make him a more interesting hero to use tactically. Our ideas and opinion differed on some of the abilities to change and what to change them into so I will leave my thoughts here and I hope does that also participated in the discussion on Discord will leave theirs so we get a maximum of suggestions.
Our first target during the discussion was, surprisingly,
Dark Will. The discussion revolved around the fact that Sauron was never really a great warrior considering he was a Maiar. Even when boosted by the One Ring, at the peak of his power, he was defeated by a Man and an Elf. Sure, they were not just any man and elf but two of the most important figures of their time and powerful warriors, however, Sauron was at the utmost peak of his power and possessed the One Ring. Plus, at no point does it say that they were defeated by Sauron's strength at arms. No, as far as we know, both were literally consumed alive by the Sauron's body heat:
maybe, the heat of Sauron’s hand, which was black and yet burned like fire, and so Gil-galad was destroyed
As for Elendil, if we are to believe the unfinished tales, his corpse (read ashes) could fit in a casket small enough to be carried by Isildur. And yet, this feature of Sauron is not present in-game, which is where this proposal's first part comes in.
A new passive to replace Dark Will:
Fiery Presence
Sauron emanates an intense heat, affecting all of those in direct combat with them. Enemies in a very small area around him take fire damage over time, those strong enough to survive the heat for longer than a few seconds also lose some armor and attack due to the heat.
Such a passive also has the goal of exploring the power of high level passives, something I don't think Edain does a lot. From memory, the only heroes with a high level passive are Beregond and Aragorn. High level passives has always be a concept that really interested me, and I wish to see more in Edain. Anyways, moving on.
Concerning another ability
Consuming Darkness, this one we had more disagreements over and since I will be giving my thoughts, which are not those of everyone that was involved in the discussion. My thoughts on this ability is that it is extremely oppressive as it currently is. I love this ability because unlike the rest of knockbacks it actually affects heroes, but I think making it castable is too much, my personal thoughts in that discussion was that this ability should, when activated, still create the consuming darkness but only around Sauron, either then following him as he moves or simply staying on the spot it was initially cast. The second suggestion is made to differentiate the ability more from Elrond's level 10 and differentiate the way players are using it.
Alright, next one. Congrats for making it this far, we're almost done. The next ability we discussed was the heal,
Foul Vitality (sick name btw). While I personally didn't see anything wrong with it, we believed it could be enhanced by being modified slightly into a more vampirism ability, a callback to his vampire form. This would still give him the self sustain he needs to endure in extended battles without making him completely unfun to fight against.
Finally, the last ability we thought could be changed was Rain of Fire, it's not really confirmed in lore. We didn't really have any ideas for this one but there is definitely a lot of potential.