Blinding Pollen: Single-target spell that immobilizes, silences, and deals magic damage over time. Ministuns the target upon landing.
Chrysalis: Targets herself or an ally to shield all incoming damage by a percentage and apply a heal over time for 4 seconds. Target is immobilized and disarmed.
Noxious Cloud: Targets a location to place a 5-second expanding AoE that deals magic damage over time and reduces movement speed.
Cleansing Wind: Removes all debuffs and disables from herself and allies in a targeted line and grants a 6-second movement speed buff.
Chrysalis: Targets herself or an ally to shield all incoming damage by a percentage and apply a heal over time for 4 seconds. Target is immobilized and disarmed.
Noxious Cloud: Targets a location to place a 5-second expanding AoE that deals magic damage over time and reduces movement speed.
Cleansing Wind: Removes all debuffs and disables from herself and allies in a targeted line and grants a 6-second movement speed buff.
Adding to Heroes of Newerth's population of insectile heroes, Monarch is an S2 Games creation coming this Friday. Her skill set is split between offensive and defensive abilities, and compared to S2's other recent support heroes (Empath, Martyr, and Rhapsody), she has the capability to be quite aggressive.
Blinding Pollen's immobilization and damage make it a nice single-target ganking spell, but more importantly, this skill gives Monarch a ministun and silence on a moderately-low cooldown.
Chrysalis is her defensive immobilization skill, healing the target and reducing all damage taken. The fact that the target can't keep moving and get healed at the same time means that both positioning and the hero's own defensive attributes are key. Blinding Pollen and Chrysalis can almost be thought of as the two halves of Glacius' Ice Imprisonment after getting separated and improved.
Noxious Cloud is a basic AoE slow and DoT effect. Looking at just her two offensive abilities together (Pollen and Cloud), a player can either maximize the damage by stacking them or maximize the disable by chaining them.
Cleaning Wind can turn the tide of a battle and allow your team to instantly give chase with six seconds of extra movement speed. It's no Sol's Blessing, but there will always be some number of stuns and slows that you'll look to remove from your teammates. The fact that it cleanses you, too, is just icing on the cake.
I think it's fair to say that Monarch will play a lot like Glacius with a better ultimate. If that kind of comparison holds true, expect to see her picked up right away in competitive games. She seems like a great counter to heroes like Wretched Hag, Slither, and Keeper of the Forest, and good support heroes are always valued highly.
Of course, Monarch could end up having the lifespan of an actual butterfly if she gets squished with nerfs in a few weeks.
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