Rage Winterchill, Lich
Backline, Ranged
Magically locked in a state of fury, Rage will not rest until the Night Elves are extinct and Archimonde is avenged.
For players who enjoy effortless power.
Innate: Dark Ritual
Sacrifices a target allied unit anywhere on the map, converting their body into a mana crystal. Any nearby heroes can pick up this crystal to restore mana, with the amount based on the current life of the unit sacrificed.
Triumvirate
Cycles between three 2-pronged AoE damaging abilities, each using a different damage type and inflicting a different status effect.
Cryptic Shield
Applies a shield to allied units in the target area. The shield has a modest amount of life, but gains more each time the protected unit uses an ability.
The Black Rot
Target a small area at long range. After a short delay, deals damage to any enemies in that area who have a debuff, with damage increasing based on the number of unique debuffs they have.
Ultimate: Enshrine
Summon a temporary, unmoving orb to which allied heroes may teleport, as though it were a friendly tower. It dies to a single attack.
Notes:
- He is based on the War3 character of the same name, who at the time was disappointingly under-represented among fan media. Rage has since been featured as a WoW raid boss, elevating his presence slightly.
- He is the main character in RoW's lore, and the game was named after him. Rage was a relatively common pick in public games in the early days: people weren't used to being able to pick the titular character in an AoS.
- He was the first RoW-original hero (many others have roots in DotA Outland), and has seen a lot of iteration over the years. He's never strayed from being an offence-oriented nuker though.
- At one point, his shield blocked any incoming damage that might have ended Femur of Gul'dan's active. This let him maintain max movement speed almost permanently.
- Also in the map's early days, his innate would grant attack rate while forcing a unit to attack the closest thing to them. This created a fun rivalry with Geomancer, whose Ancientpower attack could easily be diffused... if Rage wasn't the closest unit!