Nina; Chimera

Frontline, Melee

Unaware of her mutation, Nina continues to express her fascination and love for all living things – with plague and venom.

For territorial players who enjoy surprise initiation and ruling their domain.

Innate: Giga Drain

Nina's next attack within the next 8 seconds will deal 20%/30%/40%/50% bonus damage and has 100% life leech. If she doesn't need the heal, it will be contributed to further raising the bonus damage. Short-ish cooldown.

Toxic Twist:

Spins all units near the target unit around the target by 180 degrees, poisoning enemies. Deals knockback damage. Enemies are always twisted clockwise from the right of Chimera's facing direction on cast, and counterclockwise if to her left. The initial target is always unaffected.

Bloom:

Channel for a short time to grow a field of thorns, which damage and inflict a stacking slow on the first enemy that each thorn touches (clearing that thorn). The thorns last for 30 seconds. Thorns can be cleared using AoE abilities or by attacking them. Hero attacks against thorns will always be ranged.

Defile:

Deals damage around Nina and the closest tree to the centre of the target area. If the tree is alive, it dies and Nina gains a damage shield; if it is already dead, she teleports to its location.

Ultimate: Cage of Eden

Forms a cage around Nina which follows her movement. Any damage dealt by enemy units inside the cage to units outside the cage will be reduced to zero.

Notes:

• Nina's original premise was to be a hero who is dangerous around dead trees. She does achieve this, but is threatening in general too.
• Nina is tanky and sustainable, and her abilities pack enough punch that boots aren't a priority for her for most of the game.
• Toxic Twist is one of the most versatile spells in the game, being useful for initiation, as an interrupt, to dodge, having very high knockback damage potential, clearing trees, and applying poison for chases.
• Bloom + Toxic Twist is a dangerous area-control combination, since she can target individual thorns to twist enemy heroes, which will rack up a heavy slow as they're dragged through more thorns.
• Bloom is one of the few abilities that can delay an enemy troop wave safely, as the elf troops will stop to attack every thorn. This can buy time for hitting towers unimpeded, which is not so useful to her as she's one of the weakest pushers in the game.
• Bloom is great for finding invisible heroes, as they'll create a gap in the thorns.
• Defile's shield is permanent, so she has the luxury of starting almost any engagement with a shield up.
• Her ultimate was an empty slot for a long time, as her four primary skills offer so much utility that giving her any more tools would tip her over the edge. Cage of Eden is a filler skill, and didn't prove to be very useful to her.