Natalia Revamp Suggestion

vin.exe

Hi everyone!

As an MLBB player who's maining Natalia since Season 5, I would say our favorite "invisible", bush-sniffing, scratch lady feels very unbalanced as of now. To be honest, I miss her old kit prior to her 'revamp' and frankly her kit now, along with the recent nerfs, is ridiculously unfair.


I wanted to put this suggestion out there to bring Natalia back to her roots, as well as make her a competent force in our current roster of heroes.
Here are my suggestions:


Role Change: From Assassin to Assassin/Fighter (This change is unnecessary, but I'm just throwing it out there)




PASSIVE: Assassin Instinct

Natalia will deal critical strikes only when attacking enemies at the back (This will always trigger when attacking Jungle Creeps). Otherwise, she no longer deals critical strikes. Additionally, Natalia no longer gains critical rate and critical damage directly from items and emblems, but instead Natalia gains critical damage only from each 0.5 point of attack speed equipped from items and emblems.


Additionally, Current Natalia's base Crit Damage is 140%. This will be reverted back to 200%.


1ST SKILL: Claw Dash

Natalia dashes forward, dealing Physical Damage to enemies along the way.
Can no longer be casted again upon hitting enemies.
Instead, reduce cooldown from 10-8 seconds, to 8-5.5 seconds. Also range is increased.




2ND SKILL: Smoke Bomb

Natalia casts a smoke bomb on the spot that lasts for 4 seconds. Natalia will remain invisible in the area if she doesn't attack/use skills, leave the area, or gets revealed by enemies with reveal effect on their skills (e.g. Rafaela's 1st Skill, Vexana's 1st and 2nd Skill, etc.). Additionally, Natalia's basic attacks within the area silence enemies for 0.25 seconds.


Note that normal AoE enemy skills won't affect Natalia's invisibility if she's in the area. It has to have a reveal effect. Although, she can still be damaged.


Smoke bomb no longer slows enemies within range, give Natalia added attack speed, and also give Natalia basic attack immunity within the area. Also range is slightly decreased.
Instead, gain 70% damage reduction when she's inside the area, and gain 50% dodge against ALL enemy attacks casted outside of the smoke bomb (asides turret attacks).




ULT: The Hunt


Passive effect: Natalia gains stealth and 20% movement speed when out of combat for 2 seconds. Additionally, Natalia recovers 2% of her lost HP per second, up to 50%, when she is on stealth. Her next basic attack while stealthed will reduce the target's Movement Speed by 40% for 0.75 second. Enemies will be warned of Natalia's presence when stepping inside her range but Natalia will not be revealed. Natalia will only break stealth if she attacks or receives damage. Detection range is the same as her pre-revamp version.


Active effect: Natalia marks an enemy within range to be assassinated. This mark will charge for 3 seconds. Attacking an enemy while the mark is not fully charged will slow the target for 20% for 0.75 seconds (stacks with ult passive)
If the mark is fully charged, Natalia's basic attack range will expand (slightly smaller to her current range) and she will be revealed only to her marked target. Upon attacking, Natalia will blink behind the target, reduce their Movement Speed by an additional 30% (stacks with ult passive) for 0.75 seconds and disarms them for 1 second.
Can be casted while Natalia is stealthed and moving.




I believe with this change, Natalia will be brought back to her former glory as a hit-and-run assassin that scales the best at late game. These changes will ultimately make her more flexible in terms of where she can be played. I think this would also make her viable as an EXP laner.
I also wanted to remove Natalia's over reliance on the bush and stealth while making each of her skills equally strong.
I hope this change can be made. Her stealth should only be a perk and not her entire kit. Let me know your thoughts! :)


Happy bush hiding!

Charles

Ironically, weren't there posts regarding players saying that she's basically useless now in this meta? or did I read it wrong?

I liked the general idea of this suggestion and its really giving a good POV from an actual Nathalia user. However, for me, I like 1st skill as it is, it opens more avenue/opportunity to come up with combo and you can also use it for kiting.

I agree with Cloud, her only edge from marksmen is how she's immune from basic attacks but lately, skill casters/bursts are op af. So a damage reduction sounds nice.

vin.exe

Charles replied at 2022-10-2 05:42 PM
Ironically, weren't there posts regarding players saying that she's basically useless now in this me ...

Thanks for the insight. Yes. I saw many complaints regarding her nerfs. I honestly can still play her decently, but that's maybe because I've been playing her so frequently since I started playing (heck I got 1,100+ matches with her)

I actually had the idea of her ult not having a blink mechanic, but instead have her 1st skill not break her stealth when casting it. Also I appreciate you noticing my tweak with her smoke. That is actually exactly my point, she has very little counter play against mages or skill casting heroes that manages to survive her attacks. The only option when that happens is to run away (unless you get CCd).

C4lam1tyG0D

I've been maining Natalia and reached supreme with her many times, but I feel like the nerfing her 1st skill to 1 dash is unnecessary and removing the slowness effect on her second skill is unnecessary as well.  

vin.exe

C4lam1tyG0D replied at 2022-10-7 11:09 PM
I've been maining Natalia and reached supreme with her many times, but I feel like the nerfing her 1 ...

In my perspective, in relation to everything I've suggested, it kinda is necessary.
The main objective of these changes is to bring Natalia back to her old self, pre-patch 1.4 revamp. I would say her kit back then is more of a very squishy, late game fighter or a melee marksman. Knowing this context, I downgraded some of the mobility in her kit and upgraded her survivability (hence the suggestion of Assassin to Assassin/Fighter). This would also make her a viable exp laner, and open doors for Natalia players to be more flexible in picking lanes.

I suggested a nerf on her 1st skill mainly because I initially intended this skill to not break Natalia's invisibility when not hitting an enemy unit but eventually scrapped it since her ult has a blink mechanic anyway. I also think her 1st skill shouldn't be the highlight of her kit that's why I made the nerf. Also with her no longer relying on the bush to go invisible, I think the double dash isn't necessary anymore, otherwise that would be overkill.

In terms of the slow, it's actually still there, just not ln her 2nd skill. Her 2nd skill already allows her to silence enemies every time she attacks and with the area providing slow, I think it's a bit too much. With Natalia's new ult tho, if she managed to tick all the requirements, she can slow enemies up to 90% + disarm them. So I think that's a good trade-off.

aznager

Charles replied at 2022-10-2 05:42 PM
Ironically, weren't there posts regarding players saying that she's basically useless now in this me ...

I said this even before the nerf. She was not even insanely op. Right now, I think shes more useless than layla. Yes, nat aganist certain comps is pretty good. But aganist a lot of comps kinda bad.

Charles

aznager replied at 2022-10-13 04:19 AM
I said this even before the nerf. She was not even insanely op. Right now, I think shes more usele ...

However, wasn't Nathalia one of the most picked heroes recently as well or banned hreo?

aznager

Charles replied at 2022-10-13 09:38 AM
However, wasn't Nathalia one of the most picked heroes recently as well or banned hreo?

She was banned a lot before they nerfed her passive to 3 attacks to silence. She was a lot weaker since then they destroyed her early game. Nat when she was op was a really good early game hero and a duelist. She was played as a support because her lv.1 plays were strong.

vin.exe

Charles replied at 2022-10-13 09:38 AM
However, wasn't Nathalia one of the most picked heroes recently as well or banned hreo?

Her pick rate went up but it never got to a point where she was most picked.