When I designed Parasite, I followed a few core principles.

Copy another game. Ignore all design rules.

As with all of my heroes, Parasite fit the bill quite nicely. First I had to look for inspiration. As any designer knows, the job is incredibly easy because all you have to do is sit around in your zebra robe and think of ideas. However, I could not find the robe that night, so I did the next best thing…

I fired up Garena DotA and was immediately plunged into an AR/BR/GG/NONIG game. I randomed Naix and was like… you know what HoN needs? HoN needs some Naix action. But then it hit me. Predator was already a Naix port. But I figured that because he was an incomplete port, I would port over the one skill that didn’t make it to HoN. You know, because it’s the gayest one. Excuse me, I meant flamboyant.

Anyways, I like to do something called “fluffing” when it comes to hero designs and big black cocks. This means, whenever I port a DotA hero, I have to make it better. Making it better can usually mean making it do more damage, making it go through magic immunity, or just adding a slow or stun on top of it. Basically the idea is “why stop”? I am a big fan of DotA. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have been a 3rd tier pro DotA player. I wouldn’t be working for Shit 2 Games. I wouldn’t be a senior designer getting shitblasted by talk show hosts. So I gotta make things better. And everyone knows more is better.

So basically I took Necrolic’s Grave Chill http://www.playdota.com/heroes/necrolic#skill432 . It was good in DotA but in HoN it would suck because it doesn’t do enough things. So I gave it damage. BAM, it is good now.

I heard Doom Bringer is like top tier in DotA right now so I was like… you know what, I can’t just port Naix’s ult and make it a normal skill. That’s not GOOD enough. No, I’m gonna port Naix’s ult, make it a normal skill, THEN I’M GONNA MAKE IT BETTER THAN DOOM’S DEVOUR: http://www.playdota.com/heroes/doom-bringer#skill121 . I mean that’s good design right? Now that this hero has better versions of skills than three DotA heroes he’s definitely top tier competitive DOGKaiser approved Asway’s #1 hero right?

But you see, that is not what I want. I don’t want to make a hero just good. That’s not good design, and I am a good designer. You see, if a hero is too good, that makes it imbalanced. Say it with me–im-balls-ass-ed. To fix this, a designer basically adds counterweights to all of the good parts of the hero. It was pretty easy for Parasite… I just made it intelligence. It makes sense right? You look at the skill set and it is a clear port of Naix. It is clearly a tank with some damage potential and mobility and survival. But O SHIT, you can’t get any good tank items on him without fucking yourself! See, that is brilliant, and that’s why I’m senior designer and you’re not.