The time has come!
Double Dorans has moved to doubledorans.weebly.com and shifted back to game analysis!
Be sure to check it out, thanks to the new site I've been able to do a lot more with Double Dorans and hope to continue to improve upon my game analysis and breakdowns.
You can also follow me on Twitter now @DDMourgus
Thank you for the support.
As this was the first blog I had ever tried to maintain, it showed me that managing a blog is a lot easier and more interesting than I had originally anticipated.
Again, thank you for checking out Double Dorans and I hope you continue to do so in the future.
Tuesday 13 May 2014
Wednesday 26 March 2014
Regi, the Crimson Queen
I am playing way too many favourites with this character. Going for another redesign, hoping to make the theme feel a lot tighter this time 'round.
Regi, the Crimson Queen
In Noxus there is only one true law. Survive or die. Noxus has no room for weaklings and no room for those that are not strong. Leaders come and leaders go, men will rise and heads will roll.
Such is the story of the Angst family.
Gregory Angst quickly rose among the ranks of the Noxian military, achieving the rank of General within four years of the beginning of his campaign. He quickly became a man of great influence and vast connections, spreading his influence not just through Noxus but through the entirety of Valoran. As a Noxian military leader, he was respected by both his peers and his enemies.
Despite his greatness, he is not the focus of this tale.
The true beginning to this tale started with the birth of the General's heiress, Regina Brunhilde Angst, a baby born in a silent night.
As she grew, she immediately took a liking to her father's armoury, swinging practice weapons before she could count and sparring before she could write. Her skills with diplomacy and strategy soon proved to match her growing fighting skills. She was matching her father's footsteps and seemed to be outpacing them at points. As she grew so did the contempt that the lesser families felt towards her and the Angst family.
It wasn't long before she would call herself General Regi Angst, making her the youngest Noxian general in the city's history. Much like her father, she became respected and feared for her efficiency and ruthlessness on the battlefield as well as developing a camaraderie with the soldiers she commanded. With the backing of her men and the respect of her peers, she found herself as an adviser to General Du Couteau before his disappearance, a formidable ally for one such as herself. Unfortunately, that made a large portion of Noxus her enemy.
In Noxus, power rules politics and coin rules power. The lesser families came together in a plot to destroy both the Du Couteau and Angst families at once in support of the man they believed was Noxus' true ruler, Jericho Swain.
As Regi sat in the war room with her father, discussing future battle plans for Noxus, one of their guards triggered a silent magical alarm. They were being attacked from the shadows. Through the many years of experience Regina and her father shared, the two immediately formulated a plan to deal with the attackers. With the little time they had, Regina was unable to fully armour herself, opting for less plate and instead favouring a large red coat she had earned from her expeditions in the north. As her and her father drew their swords, the windows burst inwards as lightly armoured men smashed through them, blades drawn.
Some generals in Noxus were feared by their men for their ruthlessness, some feared for their cunning.
Regi and Gregory Angst were respected as warriors.
For what seemed like hours, wave after wave of cutthroats and bandits raided their home and for hours they fended them off. As they neared the dawn, they discovered that survival was not to be.
A single arrow whistled through the shattered windows and into the heart of the mighty Gregory Angst.
Regina watched as her father fell to his knees before keeling over for his slumber. She felt only despair and sorrow but as her heart was wrenched from her chest, she knew this couldn't be the end for her as well. She quickly grabbed her father's blade, Krieg, the Rebellious and fled.
She arrived at the barracks long enough to tell her men and her friends that she was leaving. Their response was singular and immediate as they gathered their things and set out with their ally.
The loss of her father would not weigh her down. From this day forward she decided that it would only empower her to one day return to Noxus and when she returned, the ones that did this would tremble and they would pay.
Passive - Krieg, the Rebellious
Krieg is the icon of the Angst families virtue. Regi's spirited nature allows her to reduce crowd control effects by 10% for every 3 seconds she remains in combat. Caps at 40%.
Q - Furious Cleave
Regi brings Krieg around in full force, dealing 70/90/110/130/150(.4 Bonus AD) to all enemies hit and causing them to take 6% increased damage from Regi's attacks.
W - Take 'em Down
Regi sweeps low, gashing the legs of all enemies hit dealing 25/40/55/70/85(.25 Bonus AD) and slowing them for 15/17.5/20/22.5/25%.
E - Rebellion
While sharing their values, Regi has never followed Noxus' methods or anyone else's. Regi gains one stack of Rebellion for each second she is in combat. Each stack increases Regi's attack damage by 2/3.5/5/6.5/8. Caps at 10 stacks.
R - Blitz Attack
Regi blitz's with Krieg, instantly dealing a 100/200/300(.5 AD) as she dashes forwards. If an enemy champion is hit by this ability, Regi may use it again for 75% damage.
Basically, I wasn't too sure what I thought of with Regi using an axe and I'm still not 100% sold on the sword. I'll also be tweaking the story quite a bit as this is little more than a rough draft. Should expect to see more updates on Friday.
Regi, the Crimson Queen
In Noxus there is only one true law. Survive or die. Noxus has no room for weaklings and no room for those that are not strong. Leaders come and leaders go, men will rise and heads will roll.
Such is the story of the Angst family.
Gregory Angst quickly rose among the ranks of the Noxian military, achieving the rank of General within four years of the beginning of his campaign. He quickly became a man of great influence and vast connections, spreading his influence not just through Noxus but through the entirety of Valoran. As a Noxian military leader, he was respected by both his peers and his enemies.
Despite his greatness, he is not the focus of this tale.
The true beginning to this tale started with the birth of the General's heiress, Regina Brunhilde Angst, a baby born in a silent night.
As she grew, she immediately took a liking to her father's armoury, swinging practice weapons before she could count and sparring before she could write. Her skills with diplomacy and strategy soon proved to match her growing fighting skills. She was matching her father's footsteps and seemed to be outpacing them at points. As she grew so did the contempt that the lesser families felt towards her and the Angst family.
It wasn't long before she would call herself General Regi Angst, making her the youngest Noxian general in the city's history. Much like her father, she became respected and feared for her efficiency and ruthlessness on the battlefield as well as developing a camaraderie with the soldiers she commanded. With the backing of her men and the respect of her peers, she found herself as an adviser to General Du Couteau before his disappearance, a formidable ally for one such as herself. Unfortunately, that made a large portion of Noxus her enemy.
In Noxus, power rules politics and coin rules power. The lesser families came together in a plot to destroy both the Du Couteau and Angst families at once in support of the man they believed was Noxus' true ruler, Jericho Swain.
As Regi sat in the war room with her father, discussing future battle plans for Noxus, one of their guards triggered a silent magical alarm. They were being attacked from the shadows. Through the many years of experience Regina and her father shared, the two immediately formulated a plan to deal with the attackers. With the little time they had, Regina was unable to fully armour herself, opting for less plate and instead favouring a large red coat she had earned from her expeditions in the north. As her and her father drew their swords, the windows burst inwards as lightly armoured men smashed through them, blades drawn.
Some generals in Noxus were feared by their men for their ruthlessness, some feared for their cunning.
Regi and Gregory Angst were respected as warriors.
For what seemed like hours, wave after wave of cutthroats and bandits raided their home and for hours they fended them off. As they neared the dawn, they discovered that survival was not to be.
A single arrow whistled through the shattered windows and into the heart of the mighty Gregory Angst.
Regina watched as her father fell to his knees before keeling over for his slumber. She felt only despair and sorrow but as her heart was wrenched from her chest, she knew this couldn't be the end for her as well. She quickly grabbed her father's blade, Krieg, the Rebellious and fled.
She arrived at the barracks long enough to tell her men and her friends that she was leaving. Their response was singular and immediate as they gathered their things and set out with their ally.
The loss of her father would not weigh her down. From this day forward she decided that it would only empower her to one day return to Noxus and when she returned, the ones that did this would tremble and they would pay.
Passive - Krieg, the Rebellious
Krieg is the icon of the Angst families virtue. Regi's spirited nature allows her to reduce crowd control effects by 10% for every 3 seconds she remains in combat. Caps at 40%.
Q - Furious Cleave
Regi brings Krieg around in full force, dealing 70/90/110/130/150(.4 Bonus AD) to all enemies hit and causing them to take 6% increased damage from Regi's attacks.
W - Take 'em Down
Regi sweeps low, gashing the legs of all enemies hit dealing 25/40/55/70/85(.25 Bonus AD) and slowing them for 15/17.5/20/22.5/25%.
E - Rebellion
While sharing their values, Regi has never followed Noxus' methods or anyone else's. Regi gains one stack of Rebellion for each second she is in combat. Each stack increases Regi's attack damage by 2/3.5/5/6.5/8. Caps at 10 stacks.
R - Blitz Attack
Regi blitz's with Krieg, instantly dealing a 100/200/300(.5 AD) as she dashes forwards. If an enemy champion is hit by this ability, Regi may use it again for 75% damage.
Basically, I wasn't too sure what I thought of with Regi using an axe and I'm still not 100% sold on the sword. I'll also be tweaking the story quite a bit as this is little more than a rough draft. Should expect to see more updates on Friday.
Wednesday 19 March 2014
Void Invasion Part Two
Void Invasion is horde mode at it's core with a few different missions to break things up with different goals. Survival of the fittest, the Champions of the Institute of War must once again prove themselves worthy of the title of Legends.
A few general notes.
I will be adding some champion-specific alterations in a later post.
The missions will be a chain of events with two difficulties, Normal mode and Legends mode.
In Normal mode, most fight mechanics will not cause a mission loss unless repeatedly failed. In Legends mode, everything deals increased damage and has increased health. Failing mechanics usually leads to failing the mission.
Here are the missions.
Destruction of the Assault
Mission Guidelines
Early waves will have extremely large numbers of weak enemies that slowly increase in strength and durability. The boss waves will consist of 3-6 larger enemies that are much stronger with very powerful attacks that must be dodged or avoided in order to survive.
Retaliation
The closer you get to the end, the denser the enemies will be as you close the rifts. Wall can't be crossed except by breaking through it to avoid cheesing it with Fizz, Tryndamere, etc.
Fill the Void
The big bad boss fight. The story will lead up to Kassadin fighting Malzahar one versus one to prevent him from interfering. Completely random which enemy is fought. If any remaining players die to Kog'maw's Icathian Surprise, the mission is failed.
Naturally, it would require a lot of tweaking and toying with but that's my idea for a story mission for League of Legends. I think it could prove to be interesting for some monsters to have unique combat mechanics to help players improve their skills with positioning and timing rather than the mode be designed purely for the narrative.
A few general notes.
- All Champions are level 18.
- All Champions receive 20,000 Gold to start.
- Runaan's Hurricane is disabled.
- Tiamat and Ravenous Hydra are disabled on some champions(namely Riven and others with large amounts of AoE damage already).
- Lifesteal caps off at 20% from all sources.
- Guardian Angel may be purchased but if no allies are standing at any point in the game(or are currently being revived by Zilean's ultimate or Guardian Angel) the mission is failed.
I will be adding some champion-specific alterations in a later post.
The missions will be a chain of events with two difficulties, Normal mode and Legends mode.
In Normal mode, most fight mechanics will not cause a mission loss unless repeatedly failed. In Legends mode, everything deals increased damage and has increased health. Failing mechanics usually leads to failing the mission.
Here are the missions.
Destruction of the Assault
Mission Guidelines
- Each wave varies with minions. Normal mode has a boss every 5 waves. Legends mode has a boss every 4 waves.
- Champions must survive 15 waves in Normal mode or 20 waves in Legends mode.
- After dying, Champions must wait 15 + 3 seconds per wave to respawn unless an allied champion channels to revive them.
- If the Nexus is destroyed, the mission is failed.
Early waves will have extremely large numbers of weak enemies that slowly increase in strength and durability. The boss waves will consist of 3-6 larger enemies that are much stronger with very powerful attacks that must be dodged or avoided in order to survive.
Retaliation
- Enemies regularly spawn and must be slain to move forward.
- A large number of rifts consistently spawn enemies. The more open rifts, the more enemies flow.
- Closing rifts reduces the entry points for enemies. Fewer open rifts, higher concentration of enemies from remaining rifts.
- After the rifts, a wall is put between the Champions and the exit. The wall can be destroyed through direct damage and basic attacks and may not be crossed by any other means.
- At least one champion has to reach the exit to succeed.
- A wave of empowered enemies spawns every 60 seconds on normal, 30 seconds on Legends mode.
The closer you get to the end, the denser the enemies will be as you close the rifts. Wall can't be crossed except by breaking through it to avoid cheesing it with Fizz, Tryndamere, etc.
Fill the Void
- Single enemy. Empowered Void champion.
- Vel'koz may cast all abilities on the move and his passive also increases damage the enemies take. Plasma Fission fires multiple secondary bolts instead of only two, Void Rift deals damage per second and lasts longer, and Tectonic Disruption becomes a barrage, hitting multiple locations.
- Cho'gath's Void Spikes knocks targets back, Rupture hits an increased area, and Feral Scream becomes a skillshot and moves the same way Nami's ultimate does. Cho'gath will focus on a single enemy and begin moving towards them before using Feast. If kited for 15 seconds, he will give up the chase.
- All of Kha'zix's abilities are evolved. Leap cooldown is always at 5 seconds, Taste Their Fear is unchanged, Void Spikes are unchanged, Kha'zix stealths every 8 seconds on Normal or every 4 seconds on Legends mode.
- The entire battlefield is covered by Kog'maw's Void Ooze, all his attacks reduce armour and magic resistance, Bio-Arcane Barrage remains the same, and Living Artillery hits multiple locations per cast. Passive deals increased damage in a larger radius.
- At least one player must survive the encounter to close the rift.
The big bad boss fight. The story will lead up to Kassadin fighting Malzahar one versus one to prevent him from interfering. Completely random which enemy is fought. If any remaining players die to Kog'maw's Icathian Surprise, the mission is failed.
Naturally, it would require a lot of tweaking and toying with but that's my idea for a story mission for League of Legends. I think it could prove to be interesting for some monsters to have unique combat mechanics to help players improve their skills with positioning and timing rather than the mode be designed purely for the narrative.
Tuesday 18 March 2014
Void Invasion Part One
I've put a lot of thought into League of Legends game modes over the years and the one that has always appealed to me the most was a horde mode.
I play a little bit of Dota2 here and there and I thought the Wraith Night game mode was amazingly fun, even if there wasn't much variety in it. In addition to this, I've always been a fan of hack and slash action RPGs so I figured it was only natural to want a horde mode.
Now, I would like to present the story behind this mode.
Void Invasion
The Institute of War was a great step forward for peacekeeping across Valoran and was a major driving force behind unnecessary magic usage across the continent. Unfortunately, the damage caused by the Rune Wars ran deeper than anyone imagined, into the very fabric of existence. The residual magic energies left by the wars caused a large number of anomalies across the land which lead so some very strange oddities and discoveries. Ancient beings were awakened, newer beings were brought into existence, and others became altered or mutated. These were the least of the Institute's concerns.
The Institute of War had to prepare for the approaching chaos. They needed to prepare for the Void's horrors as it crept onto the physical world's doorstep. It came as no surprise when the monstrous creatures of the Void began to enter the physical world. Cho'gath, Kog'maw, and Kha'zix made the Institute uneasy but at the same time made them feel somewhat relieved. Of the three, Cho'gath appeared to be the only creature that valued intelligence over primal instinct. When a rift to the Void was opened for Vel'koz, the Institute became uneasy. Why would the Void need to observe them? A creature such as him appeared to behave similarly to the many alchemists and engineers of Zaun and Piltover so what was his purpose? Who was he to report to if anyone at all?
The Eye of the Void had already begun to reveal their world to the Void. As the weeks passed and the months progressed, the Void prepared for their finest hour. The day when they would rip open the pathway to the physical world came and as dusk settled across Valoran, the Institute of War prepared. The signs of Void Rifts were obvious as the Void Walker had revealed to them. As the Champions of the League of Legends stood guard over their beloved homes, the Rifts began to open and the armies of the Void flooded upon the world.
As the hordes descended upon the cities, the landscapes, and the homes of the bravest defenders, the creatures of the Void had only a single command. Rain destruction upon the land and reclaim the land that rightfully belong to their master.
Daddy was coming home.
Wednesday 12 March 2014
Qin'jar, the Slayer of the Void
Void champions have almost always been my favourites. Kha'zix and Kassadin are two of my absolute favourite assassins in terms of both playstyle and character. Naturally, I've tried to create a few void characters but I figured I'd try again with...
Qin'jar, the Slayer of the Void
Destiny is an odd thing.
Some are granted their destiny on the day of their birth, others are granted the ability to choose their own, and yet others see their destinies changed before them.
Qin'jar grew up in the beautiful city of Icathia, a city of scholars, of learners, and teachers. Icathia, the City of Knowledge. Qin'jar was thought of as an odd young boy as he never had any interest in playing with his friends, preferring to relax and read the scrolls of various scholars. It wasn't long before he had discovered his path in life. To become a student of Icathia and to learn from it's deepest, darkest secrets. Destiny, however, had something else in store for the young child.
As he progressed in his studies, it came time for him to become a man. With the blessings of his parents and teachers, he struck out to learn from what the world had to offer.
In a few short years, he had accrued his own personal based purely off of his own adventures. Becoming known as one of the greatest explorers of his generation, he often uncovered ancient ruins from a time long, long ago. Unfortunately, his exploits also gathered the watchful eye of creatures that were not of this world.
While dusting off some large tomes, a book that was bound in chains and seals fell from the shelf before him. Despite being a very logical being, he could not help buy open the bound tome.
Thus, his destiny would change forever.
Seconds, minutes, centuries, they're all the same in the Void. Time passes so slowly... or quickly, Qin'jar couldn't decide which. He had hibernated for some time in the void as far as he could tell. As his mind was now indoctrinated and his body designed to fit the needs of the Void, their newest assassin set foot on Valoran for the first time in a millennium with target in mind.
To reach his target, he must first become member of the League of Legends to be given a chance to face the greatest enemy of the void.
Kassadin.
"Be sure to keep an open mind... or I'll open it for you."
P - Psionic Void Blade
Qin'jar's blade is fused with the power of Void powers and his personal knowledge and experience. Qin'jar's next basic attack will deal bonus damage based off of the distance traveled since the last attack.
Q - Mind Spike
Qin'jar uses his psionic abilities to attack his target's mind, causing them to take damage and reduces their magic resistance.
W - Psiblast
Qin'jar unleashes a blast of raw psionic energy, disrupting the minds of nearby enemies. Enemies hit are slowed and take damage.
E - Psicharge
Qin'jar empowers himself with a blend of Void and psionic energy before blinking at his target, dealing damage plus bonus damage equal to a percentage of the target's maximum health(or a flat damage increase versus manaless targets).
R - Onslaught of the Void
Fusing void energies directly into his psionic powers, Qin'jar erupts in a flurry of attacks, rapidly striking his target while remaining untargetable. As that target's health decreases, the damage from the attacks increases and the target receives reduced healing effects.
Pros: Good assassination potential, encourages roaming, good single target damage.
Cons: Poor team fighting, very little waveclear and area damage, no hard crowd control.
Qin'jar, the Slayer of the Void
Destiny is an odd thing.
Some are granted their destiny on the day of their birth, others are granted the ability to choose their own, and yet others see their destinies changed before them.
Qin'jar grew up in the beautiful city of Icathia, a city of scholars, of learners, and teachers. Icathia, the City of Knowledge. Qin'jar was thought of as an odd young boy as he never had any interest in playing with his friends, preferring to relax and read the scrolls of various scholars. It wasn't long before he had discovered his path in life. To become a student of Icathia and to learn from it's deepest, darkest secrets. Destiny, however, had something else in store for the young child.
As he progressed in his studies, it came time for him to become a man. With the blessings of his parents and teachers, he struck out to learn from what the world had to offer.
In a few short years, he had accrued his own personal based purely off of his own adventures. Becoming known as one of the greatest explorers of his generation, he often uncovered ancient ruins from a time long, long ago. Unfortunately, his exploits also gathered the watchful eye of creatures that were not of this world.
While dusting off some large tomes, a book that was bound in chains and seals fell from the shelf before him. Despite being a very logical being, he could not help buy open the bound tome.
Thus, his destiny would change forever.
Seconds, minutes, centuries, they're all the same in the Void. Time passes so slowly... or quickly, Qin'jar couldn't decide which. He had hibernated for some time in the void as far as he could tell. As his mind was now indoctrinated and his body designed to fit the needs of the Void, their newest assassin set foot on Valoran for the first time in a millennium with target in mind.
To reach his target, he must first become member of the League of Legends to be given a chance to face the greatest enemy of the void.
Kassadin.
"Be sure to keep an open mind... or I'll open it for you."
P - Psionic Void Blade
Qin'jar's blade is fused with the power of Void powers and his personal knowledge and experience. Qin'jar's next basic attack will deal bonus damage based off of the distance traveled since the last attack.
Q - Mind Spike
Qin'jar uses his psionic abilities to attack his target's mind, causing them to take damage and reduces their magic resistance.
W - Psiblast
Qin'jar unleashes a blast of raw psionic energy, disrupting the minds of nearby enemies. Enemies hit are slowed and take damage.
E - Psicharge
Qin'jar empowers himself with a blend of Void and psionic energy before blinking at his target, dealing damage plus bonus damage equal to a percentage of the target's maximum health(or a flat damage increase versus manaless targets).
R - Onslaught of the Void
Fusing void energies directly into his psionic powers, Qin'jar erupts in a flurry of attacks, rapidly striking his target while remaining untargetable. As that target's health decreases, the damage from the attacks increases and the target receives reduced healing effects.
Pros: Good assassination potential, encourages roaming, good single target damage.
Cons: Poor team fighting, very little waveclear and area damage, no hard crowd control.
Tuesday 11 March 2014
Teech, the Bilgewater Mogul
I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out a unique support that can feel badass and act like he doesn't care about his allies while still having a reason to support them.
After more struggling than I care to admit, I think I got something I'm really comfortable with and feel as though it works really well.
Teech, the Bilgewater Mogul
It takes a special kind of person to survive in the scum infested waters of Bilgewater. It takes a lunatic to be prosperous.
Few can lay claim to the work that Teech has completed in Bilgewater and ever fewer would want to. Having once been a mere grunt worker for a well known pirate, Teech slaved over menial jobs day in and day out until one day he was given the opportunity to change all that.
A wealthy business man had decided that the pirate captain was becoming too much of a hassle to ignore so he would pay Teech the ship's worth and a little extra to sneak in to the captain's cabin and slit his throat as he slept. The young lad that was Teech was a man of his word and a man that fancied his gold. The pirate captain never saw the rising sun.
As his new found friend came to board Teech's ship to claim it as their own in exchange for the gold they had brought, Teech used the wonderful connections he had made over the short time he had spent on the ship and rallied the crew to take the merchant ship, along with the gold. After their newly claimed ship displayed their colours, Teech had something he needed to do.
As the ships docked in Bilgewater, he approached a fellow captain and offered him riches for his services. Who was the captain to say no to gold? He accepted and after the two had fully restocked their ships, they set sail as Teech's personal fleet.
Within a year, Teech had collected over twenty ships and their crews. He was now the most richest man in Bilgewater but he had one final item he needed to collect. The Dead Pool. The only man that Teech could consider a rival was none other than the League Champion Gangplank. Unfortunately, due to the Institute of War, it was going to be difficult to claim his prize. In order to do so, he will have to fight in the League of Legends and defeat Gangplank there in order to claim the title of Pirate King.
"I'll make you an offer you can't refuse." - Teech to a deceased pirate captain. He tried to refuse.
P - Extensive Networks
One does not reach Teech's position without making some enemies along the way. Fortunately, Teech has just as many friends that support his cause. Teech has increased passive gold generation and gains a small bonus to assist gold.
Q - Bribery
Teech throws a bag of gold at the target, bribing them and forcing them to walk towards him. The damage scales with the amount of gold Teech has earned with his Extensive Networks.
(think Ahri Charm without the damage increase)
W - "Incentive"
Teech offers his ally some "Incentive" from the barrel of his pistol. While active, target ally gains a percentage increase to AD and AP that diminishes over time.
E - Double Time
Increases the movement speed of all nearby allies and gives them a small bonus to tenacity. The duration scales with the gold earned from Extensive Networks.
R - No Strings Attached
Teech lobs a large bag of gold at his enemies, tying them to it and slowing them. If all enemies tied to the bag move in the same direction, they can pull the bag with them.
Once Teech has received X gold from Extensive Networks, the bag will slow enemies even if they're pulling it.
The main goal with designing Teech was to create a champion that didn't scale with attack damage because he doesn't want to reduce himself to a level where he feels the need to fight, he has others to do that for him. At the same time, I didn't want him to have any kind of magical abilities so scaling with ability power didn't seem to fit. Once again, he's not a fighter so he can't really scale similarly to Taric and Leona.
Pros: Reliable support income, consistent scaling, strong teamfight presence.
Cons: Only one form of hard CC, relies heavily on allies, poor skirmishing abilities.
After more struggling than I care to admit, I think I got something I'm really comfortable with and feel as though it works really well.
Teech, the Bilgewater Mogul
It takes a special kind of person to survive in the scum infested waters of Bilgewater. It takes a lunatic to be prosperous.
Few can lay claim to the work that Teech has completed in Bilgewater and ever fewer would want to. Having once been a mere grunt worker for a well known pirate, Teech slaved over menial jobs day in and day out until one day he was given the opportunity to change all that.
A wealthy business man had decided that the pirate captain was becoming too much of a hassle to ignore so he would pay Teech the ship's worth and a little extra to sneak in to the captain's cabin and slit his throat as he slept. The young lad that was Teech was a man of his word and a man that fancied his gold. The pirate captain never saw the rising sun.
As his new found friend came to board Teech's ship to claim it as their own in exchange for the gold they had brought, Teech used the wonderful connections he had made over the short time he had spent on the ship and rallied the crew to take the merchant ship, along with the gold. After their newly claimed ship displayed their colours, Teech had something he needed to do.
As the ships docked in Bilgewater, he approached a fellow captain and offered him riches for his services. Who was the captain to say no to gold? He accepted and after the two had fully restocked their ships, they set sail as Teech's personal fleet.
Within a year, Teech had collected over twenty ships and their crews. He was now the most richest man in Bilgewater but he had one final item he needed to collect. The Dead Pool. The only man that Teech could consider a rival was none other than the League Champion Gangplank. Unfortunately, due to the Institute of War, it was going to be difficult to claim his prize. In order to do so, he will have to fight in the League of Legends and defeat Gangplank there in order to claim the title of Pirate King.
"I'll make you an offer you can't refuse." - Teech to a deceased pirate captain. He tried to refuse.
P - Extensive Networks
One does not reach Teech's position without making some enemies along the way. Fortunately, Teech has just as many friends that support his cause. Teech has increased passive gold generation and gains a small bonus to assist gold.
Q - Bribery
Teech throws a bag of gold at the target, bribing them and forcing them to walk towards him. The damage scales with the amount of gold Teech has earned with his Extensive Networks.
(think Ahri Charm without the damage increase)
W - "Incentive"
Teech offers his ally some "Incentive" from the barrel of his pistol. While active, target ally gains a percentage increase to AD and AP that diminishes over time.
E - Double Time
Increases the movement speed of all nearby allies and gives them a small bonus to tenacity. The duration scales with the gold earned from Extensive Networks.
R - No Strings Attached
Teech lobs a large bag of gold at his enemies, tying them to it and slowing them. If all enemies tied to the bag move in the same direction, they can pull the bag with them.
Once Teech has received X gold from Extensive Networks, the bag will slow enemies even if they're pulling it.
The main goal with designing Teech was to create a champion that didn't scale with attack damage because he doesn't want to reduce himself to a level where he feels the need to fight, he has others to do that for him. At the same time, I didn't want him to have any kind of magical abilities so scaling with ability power didn't seem to fit. Once again, he's not a fighter so he can't really scale similarly to Taric and Leona.
Pros: Reliable support income, consistent scaling, strong teamfight presence.
Cons: Only one form of hard CC, relies heavily on allies, poor skirmishing abilities.
Monday 10 March 2014
Morello, Master of Minions
While I am fully aware that the name belongs to a Riot employee, the idea for this character is based purely off of the Morellonomicon not the person it's named for.
That being said, the goal of this champion design is based on the role of minion/pet based champion that many others fit but don't fill.
Morello, Master of Minions
There are few men that live as deep in the Voodoo Lands as Morello does. Known as an older hermit that once traveled Valoran in search of knowledge, adventure, and power, he now sits in his hut growing older and older.
Some say his magic was learned from the ancient tomes of old while others believe he was the pioneer of the dark arts seen today. Regardless, he is a force to be reckoned with.
Nearing his 247th birthday, Morello had begun to grow weary with the world and decided to leave his study in Noxus to travel across the Great Barrier to witness the beautiful atrocities and horrors the wild lands held.
Never having to search far, he learned much from the wilderness and savagery around him. Seeing tribes of witch doctors that could force a man to do things against his will that were constantly warring with tribes known for calling upon their ancestral spirits to help them in battle, Morello became inspired by the tribes and did not believe that the two great magical heritages deserved to have to fight one another.
Thus his evil tome was bound. A book of dark inspiration, research, and experiments. It began with his ideas for using ancients spirits to become the driving force of his personal soldiers, completely devoid of choice.
While the experiments began as something as simple as animating a sword, they soon became quite complex. A full suit of armour, a simple cadaver, and more. As he continued his research, his knowledge increased and the pages of his book were beginning to fill.
While Noxian refugees were not an uncommon sight, seeing so many mages and magic users in one place made Morello uneasy as the refugees of the Grey Order were on his doorstep one day asking for a single night of shelter. Did they know who he was? He was Morello, the harbinger of evil, the most evil mage of them all! As the greatest dark mage to walk Valoran he was not a poor host and agreed to allow the order to make camp on his land. The novelty of the situation didn't last near as long as the wretched living did. They spoke to each other, they practiced magic outside of his home, and they attempted to interact with him. They had to go. Day after day, Morello tried to persuade their leader to leave his land and search for something better suited for their needs but they never seemed to prepare for travel.
One morning, Morello awoke to silence. Grim, dark, and beautiful silence. As he walked around his home, he was pleased to see the Grey Order had left him on his own to continue their expedition. As he walked around his home, he was not pleased to see that they had stolen his research and in a single explosion of fury, the ancient spirits that stalked the voodoo lands were ripped from limbo. The dead began to roll in their graves and the sky darkened.
He was the greatest host across all of Valoran and as Valoran's greatest host, he would not let them go free for their crimes against him. He would leave his title of 'Almighty Host' upon his door mat and he would dawn the title for 'Lord of Darkness' once again to ensure that he had his revenge...
and his book.
"Aha, it has been returned to me!
Wait, what do you mean this is only a replica?" - potentially upon the purchase of Morellonomicon.
P - Help You Help Me
All of his minion's stats scale with his own ability power. Minion health scales with Morello's health.
Q - Necroblast/Ghostly Charge
Necroblast sends out a small skillshot that explodes on impact, slow all enemies hit. Ghostly Charge sends Morello's minion charging into battle to fight for him.
W - Dread Curse/Unwilling Intervention
Morello curses his target, increasing all damage he deals to them. Unwilling Intervention forces his minion to protect his mighty name. Morello must have been attacked by an enemy within x second for this to be usable.
E - Bone Shield/Enrage
Morello's mastery of the dark arts allows him to shield himself with the bones of the deceased, increasing his defense. Enrage greatly increases the attack speed and damage of his minion for the duration.
R - Arise Minion
Available at level 1. Morello summons a minion to fight for him until it's killed. The strength of the minion and it's power vary with rank. Summoning is channeled.
Rank 1 - Living Weapon. Mediocre stats, average movement speed. Medium cooldown
Rank 2 - Wraith. Average stats, slightly increase movement speed. Medium cooldown.
Rank 3 - Knightly Cadaver. Exceptional stats, slightly increased movement speed, increased damage. Lower cooldown.
Rank 4 - Zombie Champion. Exceptional stats, improved movement speed, increased damage, reduces the damage Morello takes if within a short range. Low cooldown.
I figured that this time I would include pros and cons to the champion to better describe how I imagine them playing so here we go.
Pros:
Decent utility, safe to play, possibly a good champion through all stages of the game.
Cons:
Unsafe without minion, potentially easy to shut down, fairly simple kit with a large emphasis on the minion living or dying to be useful.
That being said, the goal of this champion design is based on the role of minion/pet based champion that many others fit but don't fill.
Morello, Master of Minions
There are few men that live as deep in the Voodoo Lands as Morello does. Known as an older hermit that once traveled Valoran in search of knowledge, adventure, and power, he now sits in his hut growing older and older.
Some say his magic was learned from the ancient tomes of old while others believe he was the pioneer of the dark arts seen today. Regardless, he is a force to be reckoned with.
Nearing his 247th birthday, Morello had begun to grow weary with the world and decided to leave his study in Noxus to travel across the Great Barrier to witness the beautiful atrocities and horrors the wild lands held.
Never having to search far, he learned much from the wilderness and savagery around him. Seeing tribes of witch doctors that could force a man to do things against his will that were constantly warring with tribes known for calling upon their ancestral spirits to help them in battle, Morello became inspired by the tribes and did not believe that the two great magical heritages deserved to have to fight one another.
Thus his evil tome was bound. A book of dark inspiration, research, and experiments. It began with his ideas for using ancients spirits to become the driving force of his personal soldiers, completely devoid of choice.
While the experiments began as something as simple as animating a sword, they soon became quite complex. A full suit of armour, a simple cadaver, and more. As he continued his research, his knowledge increased and the pages of his book were beginning to fill.
While Noxian refugees were not an uncommon sight, seeing so many mages and magic users in one place made Morello uneasy as the refugees of the Grey Order were on his doorstep one day asking for a single night of shelter. Did they know who he was? He was Morello, the harbinger of evil, the most evil mage of them all! As the greatest dark mage to walk Valoran he was not a poor host and agreed to allow the order to make camp on his land. The novelty of the situation didn't last near as long as the wretched living did. They spoke to each other, they practiced magic outside of his home, and they attempted to interact with him. They had to go. Day after day, Morello tried to persuade their leader to leave his land and search for something better suited for their needs but they never seemed to prepare for travel.
One morning, Morello awoke to silence. Grim, dark, and beautiful silence. As he walked around his home, he was pleased to see the Grey Order had left him on his own to continue their expedition. As he walked around his home, he was not pleased to see that they had stolen his research and in a single explosion of fury, the ancient spirits that stalked the voodoo lands were ripped from limbo. The dead began to roll in their graves and the sky darkened.
He was the greatest host across all of Valoran and as Valoran's greatest host, he would not let them go free for their crimes against him. He would leave his title of 'Almighty Host' upon his door mat and he would dawn the title for 'Lord of Darkness' once again to ensure that he had his revenge...
and his book.
"Aha, it has been returned to me!
Wait, what do you mean this is only a replica?" - potentially upon the purchase of Morellonomicon.
P - Help You Help Me
All of his minion's stats scale with his own ability power. Minion health scales with Morello's health.
Q - Necroblast/Ghostly Charge
Necroblast sends out a small skillshot that explodes on impact, slow all enemies hit. Ghostly Charge sends Morello's minion charging into battle to fight for him.
W - Dread Curse/Unwilling Intervention
Morello curses his target, increasing all damage he deals to them. Unwilling Intervention forces his minion to protect his mighty name. Morello must have been attacked by an enemy within x second for this to be usable.
E - Bone Shield/Enrage
Morello's mastery of the dark arts allows him to shield himself with the bones of the deceased, increasing his defense. Enrage greatly increases the attack speed and damage of his minion for the duration.
R - Arise Minion
Available at level 1. Morello summons a minion to fight for him until it's killed. The strength of the minion and it's power vary with rank. Summoning is channeled.
Rank 1 - Living Weapon. Mediocre stats, average movement speed. Medium cooldown
Rank 2 - Wraith. Average stats, slightly increase movement speed. Medium cooldown.
Rank 3 - Knightly Cadaver. Exceptional stats, slightly increased movement speed, increased damage. Lower cooldown.
Rank 4 - Zombie Champion. Exceptional stats, improved movement speed, increased damage, reduces the damage Morello takes if within a short range. Low cooldown.
I figured that this time I would include pros and cons to the champion to better describe how I imagine them playing so here we go.
Pros:
Decent utility, safe to play, possibly a good champion through all stages of the game.
Cons:
Unsafe without minion, potentially easy to shut down, fairly simple kit with a large emphasis on the minion living or dying to be useful.
Saturday 8 March 2014
Ignatia, the Red Lady
I've always loved the rivalries and friendships in the League of Legends lore and how they affect the grand scheme of things.
I decided I'd give a partner in crime to Regi.
This character is designed to be very fiery and energetic while still being intelligent.
Also, I wanted to actually create a mage instead of a handful of warriors and a psychopath.
Ignatia, the Red Lady
Ignatia spent her early years among the nobles of Noxus as her parents had expected her. They were very close allies with the Du Couteau family thus believed that their children should learn to be together. Ignatia never took a liking to Katarina or Cassiopeia, they schemed too much.
In her teenage years, she was able to meet the adopted daughter of the legendary Gregory Du Couteau, Regi Du Couteau. She was polite when she had to be and seemed to be someone with at least some virtues as rare as that was in Noxus.
Unfortunately, between Ignatia's studies of the arcane and Regi's training, they rarely spent time together. When Ignatia started learning scrying techniques, she would often employ them so that her and Regi may stay in contact. They would rant at each other about how rough their lessons were or talk about the other noble children. For once, Ignatia felt like she had an ally or even a friend.
On the day of Regi's birthday, Gregory Du Couteau was executed for conspiring against the General Du Couteau and his adopted daughter was missing. Ignatia didn't take long to decide a course of action. She left immediately in search of her friend.
After a week of searching, she found Regi in a tavern on the outskirts of the Noxus. After being reunited and Regi explaining the events that had taken place, the two of them decided that they would have to be the ones to change Noxus but they wouldn't be able to do it alone.
From city to city, tavern to tavern they traveled in search of those with a hatred of Noxus and the family that ruled it. It was by no means difficult to find people but there were few that were cut out for their plans.
As their alliance grew and their names were known, they began their work. Raiding Noxian caravans, attacking high profile bureaucratic events, and taking nobles as prisoners for ransom(although few ever payed for their release). It wasn't long before they were Noxus' greatest outlaws.
The axe-wielding Crimson Queen was known throughout Noxus for her skill and brutality on the battlefield while the fiery Red Lady became known as a military genius through her use of pyromancy and tactics. Despite a change of leadership in Noxus, their plans remained unaltered. They would rebuild Noxus and they would fix their nation...
but first they had to destroy it.
"Noxus will burn for it's crimes and I will be the one to set it ablaze."
P - Fiery Spirit
Each time Ignatia deals damage she gains a stacking buff that increases her total damage output. Only lasts for a short period of time without dealing damage.
Q - Fireball
Replaces Ignatia's basic attacks. Ignatia's attacks now launch powerful fireballs at her foes to set them ablaze.[basically makes her attacks scale with AP at the cost of a large amount of mana per attack]
W - Magma Shock
Ignatia shatters the earth at her target's location causing flames to erupt around the area. Enemies passing through the area take damage over time. The damage increases if the target's remain in the area.
E - Meteor Shot
Fusing fire and earth, Ignatia launches a ball of concentrated magma at her foe, causing them to take damage over time and become stunned.
R - Dragon's Roar
Ignatia lets out a powerful, magical roar that creates a wave of flame in front of her. Enemies adjacent to Ignatia upon activation are feared.
I very much want Ignatia to maintain her noble stature to better contrast Regi's rebellious nature. As far as visuals go, I imagine wearing something that would be common in a house of nobles. Probably something along the lines of a red tailcoat that's classy, feminine, and still badass. Probably wearing some pieces of metal armour such as gauntlets and greaves for defensive use in close combat.
Friday 7 March 2014
Regi, the Crimson Queen
Alright, here we go. Regi, the Crimson Queen is my first attempt at a badass female champion. I've never really been a fan of those dainty little girls sitting out of a fight, trying to throw damage at enemies. Get badass and punch something already. I mean, look at Vi. I think she's doing alright for herself as Caitlyn just sits in the back trying to get potshots and pretend she's doing something.
The design goal for Regi was to get work done. In my mind's eye, I was envisioning her as something akin to a strong, armoured Cruella de Vil. Heavy plate armour underneath a large cloak with large fur trim around the shoulders. Her axe, Krieg, is closer to a halberd than an axe. About two meters in height including the head of the axe. Krieg is would be black in colour with an intricate red design across the blades. Basically make it look as over the top and sinister as possible.
Anyway, without further ado, I present...
Regi, the Crimson Queen
Not every queen lives a life of glamour and elegance. Some much prefer living their lives on the battlefield, deep in the bloodshed of war.
That is the life that the young Regi grew up in.
Her father was a swordsman in the Rune Wars and fought valiantly despite the occupation almost always being a death sentence at the time. It proved to hold true as her father died a year before the war ended, the same day she was born.
While she was still young, living in the streets of Noxus, her mother died of disease. The newly orphaned girl, despite her circumstance, never cried. Oddly enough, the lack of cries is what interested well known warrior that had once been an orphan himself, Gregory du Couteau, adopted brother of the mighty General du Couteau. Gregory took the small orphan under his wing to train her in the ways of the world.
As she grew, it was apparent that she shared her instructor's warrior's spirit as she took a liking to his great armoury, often playing around with the training weapons he had lying about. When she was old enough to properly hold a weapon, he had decided it was time to begin her training. Naturally, she began with the sword and shield but it did not fit her aggression. He tried teaching her the ways of the sword but to an avail. The greatsword began to see improvement but her nature wasn't disciplined enough to perfect it.
He had often hoped that he could find a student that shared his same interest. Despite having trained an exceptional lad by the name of Darius, he had never found a student to carry on his legacy. Perhaps this child would be his heir.
As she grew, she became stronger, more intelligent and cunning, and became a beautiful woman which made the main Du Couteau family quite jealous. What kind of street scum could ever be the level of warrior they were? Gregory paid them no heed and continued to train young Regi.
On the day she came of age, she was brought with Gregory to the Du Couteau house for a meeting that was required of all adult members of the family. The General had an announcement.
As they arrived and took her place, Regi felt uneasy and tried to convince Gregory to leave, she didn't like this. He gave her a pat on the head and held her hand. As he moved his hand away, a key remained in Regi's hand. The key to Gregory's weapon chest that held the only weapons she was never trained with.
The meeting started with talks of the war between Ionia and Noxus as the Institute of War had decided to step in to decide the war once and for all, the family needed to choose the champions that would represent them.
Suddenly, a group of the Noxian Elite burst into the room and grabbed Gregory, listing a large number of crimes he had committed against the name Du Couteau and was to be executed. The only response Gregory had was for Regi. 'Run.'
Regi fled from the house, fled from her adopted father, and fled from her former allies. She knew what she had to do. She went back to Gregory's house to retrieve whatever it was that he believed she should have. As she opened the locked chest, she saw a great red cloak with beautiful fur shoulders underneath beautifully crafted Noxian armour.
Dawning her new regalia, there was one last gift her mentor had left for her. Underneath the armour and cloak lay a sinister weapon that called out to her. As long as she was tall with steel as black as night. The sinister axe of rebellion, Krieg.
Armed with her gifts and with her resolve, she left Noxus and the name Du Couteau. Thanks to her mentor's training, she knew what she had to do. She would establish herself as the mightiest warrior Valoran had ever seen and she would avenge her friend's death. She would destroy the Du Couteaus.
"Strike once with precision, with ferocity and power, with cunning, and with everything in your being. Strike once and make sure you never have to strike again." - Gregory Du Couteau
P - Krieg, the Rebellious
The power of this mighty axe grows as it rejoices in the heat of battle, fueling it's wielder with a mighty ferocity. As long as Regi has been in combat for 5 seconds or more, she reduces the duration of crowd control effects by 30%..
Q - Where it Hurts
Regi bashes her foe with the butt of her axe, briefly stunning them for 1 second and dealing 35/50/65/70/85(0.4AD) damage.
W - Unruly Cleave
Regi brings Krieg around in a low swing at the legs of her foes, dealing 20/40/60/80/100(0.4 AD) and slowing them by 10/15/20/25/30%.
E - Anarchist
Regi gains one stack of Anarchy for each second spent in combat. Each stack increases Regi's attack damage by 2/3.5/5/6.5/8. At 6 stacks, the casting time of Krieg's Devastation is reduced to .5 seconds. Anarchy caps at 10 stacks.
R - Krieg's Devastation
As the ground beneath her feet begins to crumble and quake from sheer power, Regi readies a grand cleave that will grant death to all in her wake. Krieg's Devastation deals 100/200/300(1.0 AD). Deals additional damage based off of 30% of the enemy's missing health.
Base casting time is 2 seconds, reduced to .5 seconds by Anarchist.
I wanted her to have that same feel of executioner that Darius brings but with a different style to it in addition to feeling like a ticking time bomb.
Regi was very heavily inspired by both Cruella de Vil and Xena.
Krieg is a German word meaning "War" and Regi is based from the name Regina which means queen!
The design goal for Regi was to get work done. In my mind's eye, I was envisioning her as something akin to a strong, armoured Cruella de Vil. Heavy plate armour underneath a large cloak with large fur trim around the shoulders. Her axe, Krieg, is closer to a halberd than an axe. About two meters in height including the head of the axe. Krieg is would be black in colour with an intricate red design across the blades. Basically make it look as over the top and sinister as possible.
Anyway, without further ado, I present...
Regi, the Crimson Queen
Not every queen lives a life of glamour and elegance. Some much prefer living their lives on the battlefield, deep in the bloodshed of war.
That is the life that the young Regi grew up in.
Her father was a swordsman in the Rune Wars and fought valiantly despite the occupation almost always being a death sentence at the time. It proved to hold true as her father died a year before the war ended, the same day she was born.
While she was still young, living in the streets of Noxus, her mother died of disease. The newly orphaned girl, despite her circumstance, never cried. Oddly enough, the lack of cries is what interested well known warrior that had once been an orphan himself, Gregory du Couteau, adopted brother of the mighty General du Couteau. Gregory took the small orphan under his wing to train her in the ways of the world.
As she grew, it was apparent that she shared her instructor's warrior's spirit as she took a liking to his great armoury, often playing around with the training weapons he had lying about. When she was old enough to properly hold a weapon, he had decided it was time to begin her training. Naturally, she began with the sword and shield but it did not fit her aggression. He tried teaching her the ways of the sword but to an avail. The greatsword began to see improvement but her nature wasn't disciplined enough to perfect it.
He had often hoped that he could find a student that shared his same interest. Despite having trained an exceptional lad by the name of Darius, he had never found a student to carry on his legacy. Perhaps this child would be his heir.
As she grew, she became stronger, more intelligent and cunning, and became a beautiful woman which made the main Du Couteau family quite jealous. What kind of street scum could ever be the level of warrior they were? Gregory paid them no heed and continued to train young Regi.
On the day she came of age, she was brought with Gregory to the Du Couteau house for a meeting that was required of all adult members of the family. The General had an announcement.
As they arrived and took her place, Regi felt uneasy and tried to convince Gregory to leave, she didn't like this. He gave her a pat on the head and held her hand. As he moved his hand away, a key remained in Regi's hand. The key to Gregory's weapon chest that held the only weapons she was never trained with.
The meeting started with talks of the war between Ionia and Noxus as the Institute of War had decided to step in to decide the war once and for all, the family needed to choose the champions that would represent them.
Suddenly, a group of the Noxian Elite burst into the room and grabbed Gregory, listing a large number of crimes he had committed against the name Du Couteau and was to be executed. The only response Gregory had was for Regi. 'Run.'
Regi fled from the house, fled from her adopted father, and fled from her former allies. She knew what she had to do. She went back to Gregory's house to retrieve whatever it was that he believed she should have. As she opened the locked chest, she saw a great red cloak with beautiful fur shoulders underneath beautifully crafted Noxian armour.
Dawning her new regalia, there was one last gift her mentor had left for her. Underneath the armour and cloak lay a sinister weapon that called out to her. As long as she was tall with steel as black as night. The sinister axe of rebellion, Krieg.
Armed with her gifts and with her resolve, she left Noxus and the name Du Couteau. Thanks to her mentor's training, she knew what she had to do. She would establish herself as the mightiest warrior Valoran had ever seen and she would avenge her friend's death. She would destroy the Du Couteaus.
"Strike once with precision, with ferocity and power, with cunning, and with everything in your being. Strike once and make sure you never have to strike again." - Gregory Du Couteau
P - Krieg, the Rebellious
The power of this mighty axe grows as it rejoices in the heat of battle, fueling it's wielder with a mighty ferocity. As long as Regi has been in combat for 5 seconds or more, she reduces the duration of crowd control effects by 30%..
Q - Where it Hurts
Regi bashes her foe with the butt of her axe, briefly stunning them for 1 second and dealing 35/50/65/70/85(0.4AD) damage.
W - Unruly Cleave
Regi brings Krieg around in a low swing at the legs of her foes, dealing 20/40/60/80/100(0.4 AD) and slowing them by 10/15/20/25/30%.
E - Anarchist
Regi gains one stack of Anarchy for each second spent in combat. Each stack increases Regi's attack damage by 2/3.5/5/6.5/8. At 6 stacks, the casting time of Krieg's Devastation is reduced to .5 seconds. Anarchy caps at 10 stacks.
R - Krieg's Devastation
As the ground beneath her feet begins to crumble and quake from sheer power, Regi readies a grand cleave that will grant death to all in her wake. Krieg's Devastation deals 100/200/300(1.0 AD). Deals additional damage based off of 30% of the enemy's missing health.
Base casting time is 2 seconds, reduced to .5 seconds by Anarchist.
I wanted her to have that same feel of executioner that Darius brings but with a different style to it in addition to feeling like a ticking time bomb.
Regi was very heavily inspired by both Cruella de Vil and Xena.
Krieg is a German word meaning "War" and Regi is based from the name Regina which means queen!
Thursday 6 March 2014
Raligier, the Noble Crusader
You know how every now and then you get an idea stuck in your head and it gets you really, really excited? That was Raligier for me.
The goal was to make him feel like a saint of retribution or justice. The idea spawned from my love of paladins in high fantasy. Dungeons & Dragons, World of Warcraft, you name it. Paladins have almost always been my main class.
Naturally, I gave him the same name that I've given most of my paladins.
Raligier, the Noble Crusader
The Prodigal Explorer. Ezreal has always been known for finding some of the deepest and darkest secrets in Runeterra. How he does it, few will ever know.
Ezreal had heard professors talking of a new discovery in Demacia that could be a major upset in their historical records. New discovery and something to upset the professors? He was in.
After weeks of research, he found that the location in question was along the Great Barrier, a large structure was discovered that apparently has ties to Demacian structural design. Thus the journey began.
As he arrived at the location, he began to feel excited as he saw the beautiful arches and columns of Demacian design. The smooth curves, the elegant etchings, the large, flawless, white marble statue emanating light. That was new. That wasn't something Ezreal had seen in Demacia.
As he approached the statue, he saw a plaque at the base of the statue that read "Under Raligier's protection, we will be just." Seemed kinda silly. Almost as silly as a statue that glows and gets really bright. Like the statue in front of him that began to crack.
'Now would be a good time to leave.' Was Ezreal's only thought as he shifted out of the grand cathedral.
The statue continued to crack and the ground began to shake as the pillars started to crumble. In a cacophony of light and crushing stone, the statue exploded as the cathedral became completely illuminated, as if there were light coming from every crack and cranny of the great structure.
A being made of raw light strode forward as the walls around it began to break. With each step, the rumbling increased. With each step, a pillar fell. With each step, a shadow disappeared.
As the great being reached the mighty gates, beautiful silver armour began to form around him and a beam from the sun itself focused it's light on the ground in front of the mighty being and in it's rays, a sword was formed. The knight of light drew the sword and for a moment, there was no darkness across Runeterra. There was only light.
Happenings such as this do not go unnoticed by the Institute of War. Within minutes, a team of specially trained mages had surrounded this great knight. As the leader stepped forward to confront the mysterious figure, the armoured one knelt before him and in a voice that was both pleasant and horrible, beautiful yet terrible, the knight declared:
"I am Raligier, defender of the light, destroyer of darkness, keeper of the divine, and bane of the wretched. By my sword I pledge my allegiance to those before me so that I may fight for the sake of all that is good and just in this world. With your acceptance of me, I will fight on behalf of the Institute of War so that I may abolish evil for the sake of Runeterra."
As he rose from his knee to greet the shocked mages, so rose a new champion of justice.
"Darkness only exists if the light allows it."
Passive - Inner Light
Raligier's pure mind grants him increased focus, allowing him to take reduced damage from magical attacks. Raligier gains increased magic resistance and grants nearby allies half of the bonus.
Q - Divine Fire
Raligier becomes wreathed in flames, granting him a damaging aura. The ability can be activated again to concentrate the aura into his sword to increase the damage of his next attack.
W - Wretched and Divine
Raligier as a paragon of justice can choose to smite the wretched before him or to heal his allies. If self-targeted, the ability only has half of it's normal effectiveness.
E - Holy Strength
Raligier gains increased damage on his next x attacks by a percentage increase. This ability may also be used on allies to increase the damage of one attack.
R - By Fire Be Purged
With his divine powers, Raligier shrouds himself and all nearby allies in flame, granting them unique damaging auras and granting them a small bonus to crowd control reduction.
I was tossing around ideas on how a champion could give his entire team an increase to damage without being too powerful and I settled on this. The idea is that with his ultimate, it would work the same way two Sunfire Capes interact with each other. All five(or three) teammates can't just stack on a target to obliterate their health, instead it's focused more on covering as much ground as possible.
Wednesday 5 March 2014
Seymo, the Renegade Sniper
So, originally I had created a single Spec. Ops yordle that used a combination of long range attacks with some close range defensive abilities but it didn't really work out.
Instead, I split this original yordle into two different characters. Krunch and now Seymo.
Seymo was created with the goal of creating a poke oriented AD versus the more bursty Caitlyn and the more sustained damage Kog'maw and Tristana.
Seymo, the Renegade Sniper
Growing up, Seymo was always quite the adventurer, as is typical for young yordles. What made Seymo different was that while his friends would go exploring in forbidden places, Seymo would be the one standing watch.
It didn't surprise anyone when he and his friends joined the Bandle City Special Forces. They always knew that the constant roughhousing and getting their noses in places they shouldn't would eventually lead to this.
They were unstoppable. They complete mission after mission with ease. Whether it was protecting a VIP or taking out high priority targets, they were unmatched in their efficiency.
Much like when they were growing up, his friends would always be on the front lines. While this would bother some, in never affected them. They always knew that Seymo had them covered.
One day they were given a mission to set up defense around a research lab just outside of Bandle City as there were rumours of an impending Noxian assault.
As the team lay in rest outside of the lab, the attack never came. For days, they waited but nothing happened. The team received orders to return home after a week.
As the team prepared to leave, Seymo kept watch as something made him uneasy about the day. There were no critters wandering about, no birds chirping in the air. As he turned his scope to the valley ahead, a focused beam of energy shattered his scope, blinding his right eye and knocking him back. When managed to scurry back up to his nest, all he saw before him were ruins. In an instant the lab and his team was gone.
There was no time to waste, he rushed back to headquarters immediately to report the situation. When he arrived, he was denied access on the premise of crossing Bandle City and was immediately exiled. A fate worse than death for many yordles.
Seymo fell into despair as in an instant he had lost everything. In an instant he had everything taken from him. In an instant he settled on revenge.
Seymo knew there were many other yordles that were wronged by the Special Forces and many that got what they deserved. He also knew that there were many that wouldn't care if their next target had been their old commanders.
From then on, Seymo set out to find a team of champions to help him right the injustice he had witnessed. He knew what he must do and he knew how he would do it. With the help of the Institute of War, he would fix his eye and then he would fix Bandle City.
Passive- Called Shot
Seymo fires a called shot that reaches double his normal range every x seconds. This attack cannot benefit from critical strikes.
Q- Special Munitions
Seymo is able to choose between two types of special ammunition.
Armour Piercing: Seymo's bullets ignore a large portion of the target's armour.
Tracers: Seymo's attacks reveal enemies in fog of war but does not grant vision around them.
W- Tranquilizer
Seymo's next basic attack fires a tranquilizing dart that slows the target for a short period of time.
E- Pick 'Em Off
Passive
Seymo deals increased damage to enemies that are not near their allied champions, minions, or towers.
R- Confirmed Kill
Seymo's next basic attack gains a drastic increase in range.(At max rank, think of a basic attack hitting the mid lane from the bot lane. Very low cooldown.)
For the most part, I'm happy with how this turned out. I wanted him to almost be a support carry if that makes any sense whatsoever. Offers a good amount of utility with drastically increased range with a heavy emphasis on poke.
It would also be an absolute requirement for him to have an Arctic Warfare skin to go along with his name trying to reference White Death.
Instead, I split this original yordle into two different characters. Krunch and now Seymo.
Seymo was created with the goal of creating a poke oriented AD versus the more bursty Caitlyn and the more sustained damage Kog'maw and Tristana.
Seymo, the Renegade Sniper
Growing up, Seymo was always quite the adventurer, as is typical for young yordles. What made Seymo different was that while his friends would go exploring in forbidden places, Seymo would be the one standing watch.
It didn't surprise anyone when he and his friends joined the Bandle City Special Forces. They always knew that the constant roughhousing and getting their noses in places they shouldn't would eventually lead to this.
They were unstoppable. They complete mission after mission with ease. Whether it was protecting a VIP or taking out high priority targets, they were unmatched in their efficiency.
Much like when they were growing up, his friends would always be on the front lines. While this would bother some, in never affected them. They always knew that Seymo had them covered.
One day they were given a mission to set up defense around a research lab just outside of Bandle City as there were rumours of an impending Noxian assault.
As the team lay in rest outside of the lab, the attack never came. For days, they waited but nothing happened. The team received orders to return home after a week.
As the team prepared to leave, Seymo kept watch as something made him uneasy about the day. There were no critters wandering about, no birds chirping in the air. As he turned his scope to the valley ahead, a focused beam of energy shattered his scope, blinding his right eye and knocking him back. When managed to scurry back up to his nest, all he saw before him were ruins. In an instant the lab and his team was gone.
There was no time to waste, he rushed back to headquarters immediately to report the situation. When he arrived, he was denied access on the premise of crossing Bandle City and was immediately exiled. A fate worse than death for many yordles.
Seymo fell into despair as in an instant he had lost everything. In an instant he had everything taken from him. In an instant he settled on revenge.
Seymo knew there were many other yordles that were wronged by the Special Forces and many that got what they deserved. He also knew that there were many that wouldn't care if their next target had been their old commanders.
From then on, Seymo set out to find a team of champions to help him right the injustice he had witnessed. He knew what he must do and he knew how he would do it. With the help of the Institute of War, he would fix his eye and then he would fix Bandle City.
Passive- Called Shot
Seymo fires a called shot that reaches double his normal range every x seconds. This attack cannot benefit from critical strikes.
Q- Special Munitions
Seymo is able to choose between two types of special ammunition.
Armour Piercing: Seymo's bullets ignore a large portion of the target's armour.
Tracers: Seymo's attacks reveal enemies in fog of war but does not grant vision around them.
W- Tranquilizer
Seymo's next basic attack fires a tranquilizing dart that slows the target for a short period of time.
E- Pick 'Em Off
Passive
Seymo deals increased damage to enemies that are not near their allied champions, minions, or towers.
R- Confirmed Kill
Seymo's next basic attack gains a drastic increase in range.(At max rank, think of a basic attack hitting the mid lane from the bot lane. Very low cooldown.)
For the most part, I'm happy with how this turned out. I wanted him to almost be a support carry if that makes any sense whatsoever. Offers a good amount of utility with drastically increased range with a heavy emphasis on poke.
It would also be an absolute requirement for him to have an Arctic Warfare skin to go along with his name trying to reference White Death.
Krunch, the Jungle Commando
I decided that I wanted to go for something a little different with my next creation. The goal was to go with an older idea that popped up a long time ago in League of Legends but was never really expanded on, the Yordle Commandos.
As far as playstyle goes, I was really trying to get the feel of a covert ops guerilla warfare specialist. I feel like I could do a lot more work on his ability concepts but the ones I have currently given him are fairly decent. Definitely want to do something more with his W and E though.
Krunch, the Jungle Commando
There are some yordles that get recognition and fame for their work in the Bandle City Special Forces. Some, however, prefer to be a little more discreet.
Krunch was always very violent growing up. When in school, he would often start fights with the other children and then with the teachers that tried to break the fight up.
He ended up becoming what so few yordles can cope with. Krunch became a loner. Yet, somehow, Krunch liked it. He wasn't being yelled at for fighting, he wasn't having to put up with the other students.
Naturally when Krunch came of age, he enlisted for the Bandle City Special Forces. The commanding officers couldn't believe how not just one of their soldiers but now two of them have a preference for solo missions? Absurd. Nonetheless, Krunch got his solo missions.
When a mission came up that required only a single yordle to travel deep into the Plague Jungles to gather intelligence, the Special forces were put into a bit of a bind. Their top solo agent was already out on a lengthy scouting mission and they didn't think this savage agent would be capable of getting what they needed. Unfortunately, there was little in the way of proper discussion, Krunch was sent on his first important mission.
For months, the combat ready yordle traversed the great Plague Jungles while following an organization known only as Grey Order. For nigh on a year, the commando stalked his prey, never once being detected by his quarry. On occasion, an animal would be foolish enough to attack him but that battle wouldn't last long. Due to the nature of the land, the Grey Order never questioned the sounds of savage animals fighting one another nor the sound of a knife cutting flesh. There were many more gruesome sounds they had adjusted to.
One day, while Krunch was skirting around the edge of a recent encampment, he was detected. Unfortunately for the poor soul, Krunch had detected him long before. Despite hiding the evidence of the victim, he was unable to hide their absence and his quarry made for the escape, destroying everything behind them.
While surveying the wreckage, Krunch was able to find one piece of information that would be useful. A time, a place, and the worlds "Black Lotus will perish". While Krunch was no expert on politics or secret orders, he knew this would be a fight that he could not pass up. His mission was complete.
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Passive- Necro-toxic Blade
Krunch's basic attacks gain a percentage increase in damage based off of the missing health of his target.
Q- Ambush
Krunch leaps at the target, dealing a large amount of damage that is affected by Necro-toxin Blade.
W- Jungle Fiend
Krunch passive gains bonus attack damage. This bonus increases if Krunch was recently in brushes.
Actively, Krunch's next attack briefly silence the target.
E- Track Them Down
Krunch throws his knife at the target, slowing them and revealing the target for a short duration.
R- Jungle Commando
While active, Krunch cannot be directly targeted by abilities as long as he is in the brush or for a short time after leaving it. He can still be hit by skillshots and basic attacks. Greatly reduces the cooldown of Ambush for the duration.
That's pretty much it for Krunch. I like this character quite a bit so I'll probably be returning to him in the near future.
As far as playstyle goes, I was really trying to get the feel of a covert ops guerilla warfare specialist. I feel like I could do a lot more work on his ability concepts but the ones I have currently given him are fairly decent. Definitely want to do something more with his W and E though.
Krunch, the Jungle Commando
There are some yordles that get recognition and fame for their work in the Bandle City Special Forces. Some, however, prefer to be a little more discreet.
Krunch was always very violent growing up. When in school, he would often start fights with the other children and then with the teachers that tried to break the fight up.
He ended up becoming what so few yordles can cope with. Krunch became a loner. Yet, somehow, Krunch liked it. He wasn't being yelled at for fighting, he wasn't having to put up with the other students.
Naturally when Krunch came of age, he enlisted for the Bandle City Special Forces. The commanding officers couldn't believe how not just one of their soldiers but now two of them have a preference for solo missions? Absurd. Nonetheless, Krunch got his solo missions.
When a mission came up that required only a single yordle to travel deep into the Plague Jungles to gather intelligence, the Special forces were put into a bit of a bind. Their top solo agent was already out on a lengthy scouting mission and they didn't think this savage agent would be capable of getting what they needed. Unfortunately, there was little in the way of proper discussion, Krunch was sent on his first important mission.
For months, the combat ready yordle traversed the great Plague Jungles while following an organization known only as Grey Order. For nigh on a year, the commando stalked his prey, never once being detected by his quarry. On occasion, an animal would be foolish enough to attack him but that battle wouldn't last long. Due to the nature of the land, the Grey Order never questioned the sounds of savage animals fighting one another nor the sound of a knife cutting flesh. There were many more gruesome sounds they had adjusted to.
One day, while Krunch was skirting around the edge of a recent encampment, he was detected. Unfortunately for the poor soul, Krunch had detected him long before. Despite hiding the evidence of the victim, he was unable to hide their absence and his quarry made for the escape, destroying everything behind them.
While surveying the wreckage, Krunch was able to find one piece of information that would be useful. A time, a place, and the worlds "Black Lotus will perish". While Krunch was no expert on politics or secret orders, he knew this would be a fight that he could not pass up. His mission was complete.
------------------
Passive- Necro-toxic Blade
Krunch's basic attacks gain a percentage increase in damage based off of the missing health of his target.
Q- Ambush
Krunch leaps at the target, dealing a large amount of damage that is affected by Necro-toxin Blade.
W- Jungle Fiend
Krunch passive gains bonus attack damage. This bonus increases if Krunch was recently in brushes.
Actively, Krunch's next attack briefly silence the target.
E- Track Them Down
Krunch throws his knife at the target, slowing them and revealing the target for a short duration.
R- Jungle Commando
While active, Krunch cannot be directly targeted by abilities as long as he is in the brush or for a short time after leaving it. He can still be hit by skillshots and basic attacks. Greatly reduces the cooldown of Ambush for the duration.
That's pretty much it for Krunch. I like this character quite a bit so I'll probably be returning to him in the near future.
Wednesday 26 February 2014
Jack, the Noxian Artist
I'm just gonna start things off by saying my all-time favourite villains and antagonists have always been the intelligent, calculated killers. Number one being Hannibal Lecter.
With that in mind, I wanted to create a character that can stand beside a character like Shaco and they can manage to creep each other out.
I present to you...
Jack, the Noxian Artist
"What a lovely shade of red!"
In the city of Noxus, there are many untold horrors and nightmares walking down the streets. Monsters, experiments, and humans, among many other dark beings. Despite the grim nature of the city, not all of it's denizens are creatures of doom and gloom.
Jack Kunstler was known as one of the greatest painters in all of Valoran. He saw the world in a way none could. Even in the tainted alleys of Noxus, he found the beauty. In the darkest corners of Bilgewater's taverns, he finds the honesty.
He did something that few in Noxus have achieved. He lived a happy life.
The love of his life was a magnificent alchemist and their son followed in her footsteps. Even from a young age, the boy loved alchemy.
Once a month, the merchant caravans would arrive in Noxus to begin their trading. It was from these merchants that Jack bought his supplies as the options in Noxus were rather limited and dreary.
After purchasing his supplies, he made his way home.
The sight that was before him as he opened the door destroyed him in an instant.
The bodies of his beloved and son lay cold in the middle of the room. The tables were overturned, the chairs destroyed, and the walls were painted red.
The door to his wife's study was in splinters. She had always worked on high profile projects but he never imagined they would come for her work.
Then Jack did something that changed him forever. He laughed.
The colours were beautiful. The scene in front of him was a masterpiece. He felt the artistic drive he had felt many, many times before but this time it was directed to a different canvas.
As he picked up up his palette knife, he knew he would create very beautiful pieces. The colours around him, now ingrained in his mind, would be displayed for all.
The people of Valoran would become his next masterpiece.
Passive - Watch Them Bleed Jack's basic attacks and damaging abilities cause enemies to bleed dealing damage over time based off of his attack damage(the scaling may be able to increase with levels). In addition to this, Jack maintains vision on all bleeding targets.
Q - Bloody Mess Jack turns his target into a beautiful canvas, coating them in a delightful shade of red. The target takes increased damage from bleeding.
W - Invigorating! Jack giggles with joy at the beauty of the red seen before him! Jack gains increased lifesteal against bleeding targets passively. When activated, Jack heals himself each time he causes a new target to bleed.
E - Stop And Smell the Roses Jack has always liked the beautiful red roses but no one stops to admire them. Jack will make them stop. Jack gashes at the target's legs, slowing them and causing them to bleed.
R - Bleed Them Dry Jack needs to restock his reds as he has gone and used them all up. The bleeding stacks on target enemy are immediately depleted, causing them to apply all of their remaining damage instantly. The damage is multiplied for each stack of bleeding on the target. (1 stack, 1x damage. 2 stacks, 2x damage, etc.)
The goal of Jack is to create a character that is completely and utterly insane.
Much line many of the other nightmares that make Valoran their home, Jack is imprisoned by the Institute of War. While there was more than enough evidence brought up against him after nearly a hundred deaths across the continent to warrant an execution, the Institute felt the need to experiment on his mind to see what it was that caused him to snap like he did.
With that in mind, I wanted to create a character that can stand beside a character like Shaco and they can manage to creep each other out.
I present to you...
Jack, the Noxian Artist
"What a lovely shade of red!"
In the city of Noxus, there are many untold horrors and nightmares walking down the streets. Monsters, experiments, and humans, among many other dark beings. Despite the grim nature of the city, not all of it's denizens are creatures of doom and gloom.
Jack Kunstler was known as one of the greatest painters in all of Valoran. He saw the world in a way none could. Even in the tainted alleys of Noxus, he found the beauty. In the darkest corners of Bilgewater's taverns, he finds the honesty.
He did something that few in Noxus have achieved. He lived a happy life.
The love of his life was a magnificent alchemist and their son followed in her footsteps. Even from a young age, the boy loved alchemy.
Once a month, the merchant caravans would arrive in Noxus to begin their trading. It was from these merchants that Jack bought his supplies as the options in Noxus were rather limited and dreary.
After purchasing his supplies, he made his way home.
The sight that was before him as he opened the door destroyed him in an instant.
The bodies of his beloved and son lay cold in the middle of the room. The tables were overturned, the chairs destroyed, and the walls were painted red.
The door to his wife's study was in splinters. She had always worked on high profile projects but he never imagined they would come for her work.
Then Jack did something that changed him forever. He laughed.
The colours were beautiful. The scene in front of him was a masterpiece. He felt the artistic drive he had felt many, many times before but this time it was directed to a different canvas.
As he picked up up his palette knife, he knew he would create very beautiful pieces. The colours around him, now ingrained in his mind, would be displayed for all.
The people of Valoran would become his next masterpiece.
Passive - Watch Them Bleed Jack's basic attacks and damaging abilities cause enemies to bleed dealing damage over time based off of his attack damage(the scaling may be able to increase with levels). In addition to this, Jack maintains vision on all bleeding targets.
Q - Bloody Mess Jack turns his target into a beautiful canvas, coating them in a delightful shade of red. The target takes increased damage from bleeding.
W - Invigorating! Jack giggles with joy at the beauty of the red seen before him! Jack gains increased lifesteal against bleeding targets passively. When activated, Jack heals himself each time he causes a new target to bleed.
E - Stop And Smell the Roses Jack has always liked the beautiful red roses but no one stops to admire them. Jack will make them stop. Jack gashes at the target's legs, slowing them and causing them to bleed.
R - Bleed Them Dry Jack needs to restock his reds as he has gone and used them all up. The bleeding stacks on target enemy are immediately depleted, causing them to apply all of their remaining damage instantly. The damage is multiplied for each stack of bleeding on the target. (1 stack, 1x damage. 2 stacks, 2x damage, etc.)
The goal of Jack is to create a character that is completely and utterly insane.
Much line many of the other nightmares that make Valoran their home, Jack is imprisoned by the Institute of War. While there was more than enough evidence brought up against him after nearly a hundred deaths across the continent to warrant an execution, the Institute felt the need to experiment on his mind to see what it was that caused him to snap like he did.
Tuesday 25 February 2014
Gabriel, The Defender of Justice
A six winged angel in heavy silver armour wielding shield and lance. Gabriel is the front line. This mighty defender will always be the first to a fight and the last to leave.
"I am the Bastion of Honour, Protector of all that is fair, and Guardian of the Judicator! Face me, my foes, for I am the Defender of Justice."
Gabriel was known as the greatest and most loyal follower of the Judicator, Kayle. Fighting alongside the great Judicator against Morgana and her wretched forces, Gabriel made a name for himself as the greatest of Kayle's knights. Upon her disappearance after a decisive attack upon Morgana and her evil armies, the Defender spent many years searching for Kayle. Unfortunately, the forces of evil would not rest and thus Gabriel had to carry on the battles without his trusted ally.
Now, after many years, the Institute of War has returned to his world, searching for a new champion to take up arms in the League of Legends and a new champion they will have.
The main goal with Gabriel is to create a tank that, while not damage oriented, is greatly rewarded for being at the front of a charge and the first to the fight.
Passive - Defender's Might Upon taking damage, Gabriel gains a buff that stacks up to 12 times and grants bonus armour or magic resistance based on the type of damage received. Stacks last for 5 seconds and are not interchangeable. If Gabriel receives 7 applications of bonus armour, he may only receive up to 5 applications of magic resistance.
Q - Lance Charge Gabriel charges forward, dealing 20/40/60/80/100(0.8AD) and increasing the damage the target takes by 5/7.5/10/12.5/15%. Effects apply to first enemy champion hit, can pass through minions and walls.
W - Shield Wall Gabriel raises his shield, gaining 20 armour and magic resistance for each ally behind him for 4/5/6/7/8 seconds.
E - Energizing Resolve Gabriel grants his ally increased health regeneration based on their missing health. Heals the target for 10/17.5/25/32.5/40 health per second for 5 seconds. Healing increases by 1% for every 1% of missing health the target has.
Lead the Charge Gabriel and his allies receive a rush of energy, increasing their movement speed by 75% for the next 3 seconds. Each ally gains 50/100/150 bonus damage on their next attack or spell if made within 5 seconds.
Gabriel was designed with supporting in mind although I imagine he may be able to work as a very durable top-laner.
Dóiteán, the Fire Revenant
After doing a bunch of writing for various character ideas, I've decided to post them to see what everyone thinks!
Dóiteán is fire given shape. He is encased in ash coated armour and wields a great claymore, shrouded in flame. Dóiteán is the embodiment of fire, burning all enemies in his path and spreading flame like a wildfire.
"Is it hot in here or is it just me?"
Lokfar, a land of warriors and brutality. Land of pillaging and raiding, murder and battle. For Dóiteán Teine, it is a comfortable home. Long ago, he was known as the Flame Warden, the keeper of a mystical fire spirit that blessed his warrior clan with great power. When the Clan Wars started, it was discovered that a rival clan had gained the blessing of their own fire spirit and sought to destroy the Teine clan and claim their spirit for themselves. As the Flame Warden, Dóiteán knew that it was forbidden to speak with the fire spirit but also as the Flame Warden, he knew that it was his job to protect his people. The night before the clan was attacked, Dóiteán made his way to the fire spirit's altar and begged the spirit for it's blessing so that he may have the power to defend his clan. To see a member of such a proud clan on his knees brought enjoyment to the spirit and thus gave Dóiteán the power he sought. At a terrible price. The spirit consumed Dóiteán and possessed his body and took his name. It had been many centuries since the spirit had known the rush of glorious combat and was feeling merciful, thus he slaughtered the attacking clan to the last man.
The blood only fueled the menacing fires that filled Dóiteán's body. The Teine clan never saw the sunrise.
After the massacre, the spirit discovered that it was his old nemesis, Brand, that had driven the attacking clan forward. Upon discovery, the two became locked in combat for many days and many nights. It was only when a clan of shamanistic nomads discovered the site of the slaughter that they found the spirits in their fight. Using the power of all that is natural, the shamans locked away the two fire spirits in the hopes that they would never again find a way to cause so much destruction. It would not last.
Years later, a foolish man found his way to the imprisoned spirits and set them free. Brand knew he would need a body in order to combat Dóiteán should he also awake, thus he took his victim and set sail to new land where Dóiteán would soon follow.
The goal of Dóiteán is to have a very aggressive, very mobile damage dealer that doesn't have much utility or crowd control, just a heavy focus on speed and damage.
Passive - Feel The Burn! All of Dóiteán's attacks and abilities apply a DoT equal to a small percentage of his attack damage. The effect stacks but new stacks don't refresh the duration of the previous applications.
Q - Incinerate Dóiteán launches a fireball that explodes on impact, dealing minor damage to all nearby enemies.
W - Wildfire Passively increases Dóiteán's movement speed based on the number of burning enemies. Activates to apply Feel the Burn! on all enemies in a large area.
E - Disperse Dóiteán explodes before reforming nearby.(Short range blink)
R - Grand Corona Dóiteán unleashes his immense power in a massive cleaving attack dealing large amounts of damage to all enemies hit. The goal of Corona is to bring the feeling of an action RPG boss battle. Enemies will see the range indicator before he attacks and it has a channel time of 1-1.5 seconds.
Fun fact, Dóiteán is an Irish word that means 'blaze' or 'conflagration'.
Tuesday 4 February 2014
Breaking the Meta Day 2
Ever since my days in Guild Wars as part of the Imperial Guard of Cantha, I rarely followed the meta.
To me, it's honestly no fun to just use the same set strategies every single game, it gets so boring. Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, this carried on with me to League of Legends.
It always makes me jump with joy whenever I hear about a team pulling some new strategy out of the bag regardless of whether or not it wins. The game has changed so much since Season 1 where we would often see a mage in the top lane, marksman in middle, a jungler, and a tank and support in the bottom lane.
In Season 2, we began to more closely follow what was called the "European meta" with a bruiser or tank top-lane, a mage in the middle lane, jungler, and marksman/support in the bottom lane. The game was pretty slow and passive at this point. Soraka was a top-tier support because of her reliable sustain and was considered a very good competitive pick. Then we began to see more roaming supports that would rush boots of mobility and gank mid-lane multiple times with the jungler. Since bot-lane was so passive, the carry was mostly free to farm at the tower.
I was so ecstatic when another team joined the fray and became known for their game-changing aggression. Team Rock Solid was all about the early level plays, not waiting a few hours to farm up, it was go time at level 2.
During this time, we saw a variety of mid-lane champions that varied from the farm-all-day Mordekaiser and Karthus(which scarra was very well known for) or even Anivia with her excellent zoning power(that became Froggen's signature champion as CLG EU rose in power in Europe). After that, we began to see more utility based mid-laners like Orianna appear that focused more on control in fights rather than just crowd control and damage.
Season 3 brought about big changes that pushed burst mages and assassins to the front of champion selection. Zed, Fizz, and Kha'Zix(which has become Alex Ich's signature champion) and more.
Now, in Season 4, the only "meta" currently appears to be "supersoakers" in the top lane. Champions that just jump into a fight and soak massive amounts of damage and dish out some of their own.
Almost everything else in the game feels like a blank slate.
What better time to try to break the molds of seasons past?
My idea for you regards our duo in the bot-lane.
Does it always have to be a marksman? What if it were a combo like Galio and Cassiopeia? Galio flashes in and uses Idol of Durand and Cassiopeia follows up with her own ultimate to guarantee a stun. Because of the large amounts of crowd control between the two of them, it becomes very difficult for a jungler to gank their lane.
You could run with something like Pantheon and Lee Sin, even. Pantheon jumps in with his Aegis and Lee Sin can Safeguard to him to slow the enemy they're focusing. With the combination of their single-target burst, it's very easy for them to pick of single targets and Pantheon can gank mid-lane with the jungler incredibly easily with his Grand Skyfall.
Maybe you like supporting but want to mix it up with your team composition. Sending Sivir or Lucian mid offers some pushing strategies for Sivir or safe(ish) farming for Lucian because of his mobility. This also lets you run a bot-lane like Leona/Katarina, Soraka/Ziggs, or maybe Sona/Karma with their high poke and area of effect power.
This article is really to talk about something specific like Support Malzahar or anything, I just want to remind everyone that the meta is what you make it, especially now.
Everything has a counter even if it's not immediately obvious what it is.
A prime example is Yasuo's Wind Wall, it's great for blocking big and important projectiles but it has a very long cooldown. Late-game there's not much that Yasuo can do versus a hardcore poke team unless he has a Malphite or other form of long-range knockup on his team to combo with.
When it comes to Malphite on the enemy team and your team has a poke composition, make sure your Janna has quick reflexes as her ultimate can completely cancel Malphite's ultimate.
You can also consider taking Karma and, if she can get a lot of ability power, she can sit off to the side of her team and give them a massive area of effect shield to block a large portion of Yasuo's damage. Combo that with a Locket of the Iron Solari and your team's effective health just took a massive jump upwards.
The next time you're playing a game of Summoner's Rift with your team or even if you're just casually playing with friends remember to experiment. There's too many opportunities in this game to follow the same strategy every time and don't be discouraged if it doesn't work in the first game.
Saturday 25 January 2014
Breaking the Meta Day 1
Alright, it's been a while since I made any new posts so I think I'm gonna start a little series to keep consistent and that's going to be on Breaking the Meta.
Here's the game plan.
Each day I'm going do a nice in-depth explanation on why x champion can work for y role. To start things off, we gonna go with something that many people will scoff at the mentioning of.
Support Malzahar.
Why does this work? The thing with support Malzahar is that he can offer his team a lot of damage without needing a lot of gold. Sure, he has mana issues early on unless he can maintain his Visions on creeps but I don't think that's going to be enough to stop the Prophet of the Void from being a great support.
Now, Malzahar is pretty unreliable as a mid-laner due to lacking mobility and essentially rooting himself when he uses his ultimate.
That being said, his Null Zone has always been an AMAZING ability. Large area covered, great percentage damage, and it has really nice base damage and pretty decent scaling.
My theory for support Malzahar is that your job is the final line of defence for the carry. With how many people have high mobility and great gapclosers, it can be pretty difficult for a carry to kite effectively. With support Malzahar, you can suppress whatever is going for your carry with your ultimate while still providing pretty decent AoE support damage for your team.
With the rising popularity of incredibly beefy frontliners, Malzahar's percent damage would make a great addition to a team especially if you have teammates that can assist you in locking down targets.
If that Shyvana diving your carry doesn't have a lot of magic resistance, she's going to be losing upwards towards 36%(40% base damage assuming no resistance) of her maximum health if you can get her to stick around in your Null Zone for a full 5 seconds.
Now, you've already got her there for half the time thanks to your ultimate but what if you were supporting a Vayne? Even more percentage damage and she can also kite exceptionally well to begin with so it's even easier to keep her safe.
It would also be good to add that while it's rarely the best support item, the Spellthief's Edge for a starting item is perfect for Malzahar, especially once you get it fully upgraded as the slow effect from Frost Queen's Claim can keep people in your Null Zone for a long period of time.
There's one more thing to consider about support Malzahar that I haven't touched on yet.
The damage from his Voidlings. These little guys are not to be underestimated. As long as you can get some form of mana regeneration, you can dish out some serious damage with the Voidlings. Hell, I'd even consider getting a Zeke's Herald since Voidlings get 100% of Malzahar's bonus damage.
There's plenty of ways you can maximize Malzahar's damage when he's not farming so I think that maybe, just maybe, support Malzahar might be just crazy enough to work.
Here's the game plan.
Each day I'm going do a nice in-depth explanation on why x champion can work for y role. To start things off, we gonna go with something that many people will scoff at the mentioning of.
Support Malzahar.
Why does this work? The thing with support Malzahar is that he can offer his team a lot of damage without needing a lot of gold. Sure, he has mana issues early on unless he can maintain his Visions on creeps but I don't think that's going to be enough to stop the Prophet of the Void from being a great support.
Now, Malzahar is pretty unreliable as a mid-laner due to lacking mobility and essentially rooting himself when he uses his ultimate.
That being said, his Null Zone has always been an AMAZING ability. Large area covered, great percentage damage, and it has really nice base damage and pretty decent scaling.
My theory for support Malzahar is that your job is the final line of defence for the carry. With how many people have high mobility and great gapclosers, it can be pretty difficult for a carry to kite effectively. With support Malzahar, you can suppress whatever is going for your carry with your ultimate while still providing pretty decent AoE support damage for your team.
With the rising popularity of incredibly beefy frontliners, Malzahar's percent damage would make a great addition to a team especially if you have teammates that can assist you in locking down targets.
If that Shyvana diving your carry doesn't have a lot of magic resistance, she's going to be losing upwards towards 36%(40% base damage assuming no resistance) of her maximum health if you can get her to stick around in your Null Zone for a full 5 seconds.
Now, you've already got her there for half the time thanks to your ultimate but what if you were supporting a Vayne? Even more percentage damage and she can also kite exceptionally well to begin with so it's even easier to keep her safe.
It would also be good to add that while it's rarely the best support item, the Spellthief's Edge for a starting item is perfect for Malzahar, especially once you get it fully upgraded as the slow effect from Frost Queen's Claim can keep people in your Null Zone for a long period of time.
There's one more thing to consider about support Malzahar that I haven't touched on yet.
The damage from his Voidlings. These little guys are not to be underestimated. As long as you can get some form of mana regeneration, you can dish out some serious damage with the Voidlings. Hell, I'd even consider getting a Zeke's Herald since Voidlings get 100% of Malzahar's bonus damage.
There's plenty of ways you can maximize Malzahar's damage when he's not farming so I think that maybe, just maybe, support Malzahar might be just crazy enough to work.
Wednesday 15 January 2014
Champion Analysis: Yasuo
Okay, now that it's been a full patch since Yasuo was released, I thought I'd go in-depth with him and talk about what works well and what doesn't.
This isn't about playstyle or anything relating to how effectively he is used in-game, this is straight by the numbers.
Alright, here's the thing. Yasuo is a melee carry which generally means no-go. Melee carries are rarely viable and if they are, they're generally overpowered. I would say that in his current state, Yasuo is one of the most broken champions in the game for a couple of reasons.
Actually, there's only one reason.
Way of the Wanderer is completely and utterly broken. Double the crit chance at the loss of 10% of the damage he would deal with crits. In other words, with Infinity Edge and Statikk Shiv, you have 90% crit chance. Without IE bonus damage, if you would normally crit for 400 damage you instead deal 360. Versus what would've been 200 damage without a crit. Honestly, if his passive was just this, I'd be okay. Most melee carries have some ridiculously high damage so it's not uncommon to see something like this, especially when Master Yi just straight increases his raw damage by a large percentage and can deal bonus true damage.
My problem is not with the critical strike chance or the damage it deals.
My primary issue with Yasuo is the other half of his passive, Flow.
His flow bar starts at 60 and scales up to 690 at level 18. When this bar is full and Yasuo takes damage from a champion or jungle creep, he gains the 60-690 Flow as a shield for a few seconds. With patch 4.1 Yasuo's ultimate, Last Breath, will now fill his flow bar on activation.
Do you know what else we have for melee carry defensive buffs? Master Yi's Meditate(has to stand still), Fiora's Riposte(only affects basic attacks and modified basic attacks) and her ultimate makes her temporary untargetable, and then we have Tryndamere's heals and ultimate. Most of these have a hard counter. You cast spells on Fiora and group loosely when she ults. Master Yi, use any form of disruption or hard CC/silence and he's screwed. Healing reduction on Tryndamere and his ultimate is more or less the only thing on this list without a really hard counter.
Yasuo gets his shield just by moving around. Flashing, dashing, grabbing Thresh's lantern, anything. The only champion passive that can match Yasuo's shield is Mordekaiser and he has no crowd control and no mobility. Yasuo has both. Malphite would need 6,900 health to match Yasuo's shield and Malphite's shield can't be charged in combat in any way.
Now, already in the EU LCS we've seen Yasuo receive a large number of bans. This wasn't on patch 4.1 where Yasuo gets *buffed*.
If you burn through your shield in a fight and *then* ult someone, you'll receive a boost to your effective health roughly equal to 1,380.
This is genuinely absurd for a champion that can easily his 800+ DPS with only 2 items and boots.
Am I really supposed to believe that it's balanced by it's low duration and medium-high recharge speed outside of his ultimate?
Sad thing is, Yasuo would probably be considered underpowered without his shield.
The primary issue with melee carries is that they have to sacrifice most forms of defence to go for pure damage. On top of having an incredibly good defensive bonus, it's also not always a visible defensive buff.
This passive not only gives Yasuo a large amount of effective health, it also makes it incredibly difficult to burst him down(ignoring the wall that blocks more damaging abilities than anything else minus Poppy or Kayle's ultimate).
Honestly, his wall is the only defensive ability he should be given. It rewards intelligent play and reaction time very, very well while still offers counterplay via melee attacks and non-projectile abilities.
The only counterplay to his passive was to just poke him before starting a fight but with the changes to his ultimate, the only reliable way to counter it is to straight up attack him once and then kite like hell(if you can).
If they can do something to fix the strength of his passive I think he'll be in a great place but until that time I'm pretty sure I'll be banning him more often than not.
This isn't about playstyle or anything relating to how effectively he is used in-game, this is straight by the numbers.
Alright, here's the thing. Yasuo is a melee carry which generally means no-go. Melee carries are rarely viable and if they are, they're generally overpowered. I would say that in his current state, Yasuo is one of the most broken champions in the game for a couple of reasons.
Actually, there's only one reason.
Way of the Wanderer is completely and utterly broken. Double the crit chance at the loss of 10% of the damage he would deal with crits. In other words, with Infinity Edge and Statikk Shiv, you have 90% crit chance. Without IE bonus damage, if you would normally crit for 400 damage you instead deal 360. Versus what would've been 200 damage without a crit. Honestly, if his passive was just this, I'd be okay. Most melee carries have some ridiculously high damage so it's not uncommon to see something like this, especially when Master Yi just straight increases his raw damage by a large percentage and can deal bonus true damage.
My problem is not with the critical strike chance or the damage it deals.
My primary issue with Yasuo is the other half of his passive, Flow.
His flow bar starts at 60 and scales up to 690 at level 18. When this bar is full and Yasuo takes damage from a champion or jungle creep, he gains the 60-690 Flow as a shield for a few seconds. With patch 4.1 Yasuo's ultimate, Last Breath, will now fill his flow bar on activation.
Do you know what else we have for melee carry defensive buffs? Master Yi's Meditate(has to stand still), Fiora's Riposte(only affects basic attacks and modified basic attacks) and her ultimate makes her temporary untargetable, and then we have Tryndamere's heals and ultimate. Most of these have a hard counter. You cast spells on Fiora and group loosely when she ults. Master Yi, use any form of disruption or hard CC/silence and he's screwed. Healing reduction on Tryndamere and his ultimate is more or less the only thing on this list without a really hard counter.
Yasuo gets his shield just by moving around. Flashing, dashing, grabbing Thresh's lantern, anything. The only champion passive that can match Yasuo's shield is Mordekaiser and he has no crowd control and no mobility. Yasuo has both. Malphite would need 6,900 health to match Yasuo's shield and Malphite's shield can't be charged in combat in any way.
Now, already in the EU LCS we've seen Yasuo receive a large number of bans. This wasn't on patch 4.1 where Yasuo gets *buffed*.
If you burn through your shield in a fight and *then* ult someone, you'll receive a boost to your effective health roughly equal to 1,380.
This is genuinely absurd for a champion that can easily his 800+ DPS with only 2 items and boots.
Am I really supposed to believe that it's balanced by it's low duration and medium-high recharge speed outside of his ultimate?
Sad thing is, Yasuo would probably be considered underpowered without his shield.
The primary issue with melee carries is that they have to sacrifice most forms of defence to go for pure damage. On top of having an incredibly good defensive bonus, it's also not always a visible defensive buff.
This passive not only gives Yasuo a large amount of effective health, it also makes it incredibly difficult to burst him down(ignoring the wall that blocks more damaging abilities than anything else minus Poppy or Kayle's ultimate).
Honestly, his wall is the only defensive ability he should be given. It rewards intelligent play and reaction time very, very well while still offers counterplay via melee attacks and non-projectile abilities.
The only counterplay to his passive was to just poke him before starting a fight but with the changes to his ultimate, the only reliable way to counter it is to straight up attack him once and then kite like hell(if you can).
If they can do something to fix the strength of his passive I think he'll be in a great place but until that time I'm pretty sure I'll be banning him more often than not.
Monday 13 January 2014
League of Draven
Alright, while I generally try to avoid calling a champion "overpowered" or thinking of them as too strong, I am calling it right now that within the next few months, Draven is going to be receiving some serious nerfs.
Why do I believe that? It's quite simple, really. It's been fairly consistent for Riot to nerf champions instead of buffing the champions that counter the flavour of the month. This has been very obvious as far as marksmen go. If one gets out of line, it gets put to the back. The next marksman to get to the front of the line will generally be sent back as well.
Honestly, it feels like it defeats the purpose of having them on the team when a lot of current assassins perform their job just as well and in a shorter span of time.
The only time I would consider a marksman to be better than an assassin or any other damage dealer is when they're dealing with bruisers.
To defeat bruisers, you need sustained damage, you can't so easily burst them down. What does this have to do with Draven?
Draven has what is potentially the strongest movement speed based active ability in the game due to the fact that he can maintain it by catching axes. Movement speed is very, very important when dealing with bruisers so you can kite them. These bruisers also typically buy a Randuin's Omen is it drastically decreases the damage of marksmen that deal consistent damage via attack speed. Fortunately for Draven, he doesn't generally benefit too much from attack speed, he's much better off with making each axe hit for as much as possible versus getting enough attack speed to attack between axes(which shouldn't be happening anyway if you have 2 axes spinning).
Normally, this wouldn't be an issue. Unfortunately, it is due to Draven's passive. With Pre-Season 4 matches taking longer to end, this means that people generally get more gold and look to scaling to end games. Draven has *amazing* scaling. When he gets a Bloodthirster(which is only matched by Infinity Edge for how important it is for him) he will receive a total of 185 attack damage from it as long as he has a Spinning Axe available.
If Draven gets full build(read as 'when Draven gets full build), it won't be uncommon for each axe to hit for 1,500 damage.
The only "downside" to this is that you have to delay the game long enough for him to peak. Mind you, if you pair him with a Leona, Annie, or Thresh, it's not difficult to get early kills.
While I would like to see Draven's counters get some minor buffs. Champions like Nami for instance that can punish Draven pretty hard for catching axes out of position, or Caitlyn who can easily put a trap where his axe will land or fire off a Piltover Peacemaker to punish him for it.
That being said, if anything of Draven's gets nerfed, the nerfs should be directed at one of two things.
Either his Blood Rush or League of Draven, his passive.
For his Blood Rush, I would give it the same effect that Cassiopeia's Twin Fangs has. If he catches an axe, the cooldown is reduced to x amount(2 seconds would be good as it gives him 1.5 seconds without his movement speed buff and you can't activate it right before catching an axe to double up on the boost).
For his passive, either reduce the base gold he gets or reduce the value of each stack to 1.5 or 1. The reasoning for that is because Draven essentially gets 2 stacks(minimum) per last hit which is an additional 4 gold per last hit which doesn't really sound like much but early on, it's very easy for Draven to push a wave and get multiple stacks from a single creep.
All in all, Draven is an incredibly fun champion that is also incredibly rewarding to play. Everything about him is completely over the top, including his power and scaling.
It's entirely possible that the biggest ego in town may finally get what's coming to him.
Why do I believe that? It's quite simple, really. It's been fairly consistent for Riot to nerf champions instead of buffing the champions that counter the flavour of the month. This has been very obvious as far as marksmen go. If one gets out of line, it gets put to the back. The next marksman to get to the front of the line will generally be sent back as well.
Honestly, it feels like it defeats the purpose of having them on the team when a lot of current assassins perform their job just as well and in a shorter span of time.
The only time I would consider a marksman to be better than an assassin or any other damage dealer is when they're dealing with bruisers.
To defeat bruisers, you need sustained damage, you can't so easily burst them down. What does this have to do with Draven?
Draven has what is potentially the strongest movement speed based active ability in the game due to the fact that he can maintain it by catching axes. Movement speed is very, very important when dealing with bruisers so you can kite them. These bruisers also typically buy a Randuin's Omen is it drastically decreases the damage of marksmen that deal consistent damage via attack speed. Fortunately for Draven, he doesn't generally benefit too much from attack speed, he's much better off with making each axe hit for as much as possible versus getting enough attack speed to attack between axes(which shouldn't be happening anyway if you have 2 axes spinning).
Normally, this wouldn't be an issue. Unfortunately, it is due to Draven's passive. With Pre-Season 4 matches taking longer to end, this means that people generally get more gold and look to scaling to end games. Draven has *amazing* scaling. When he gets a Bloodthirster(which is only matched by Infinity Edge for how important it is for him) he will receive a total of 185 attack damage from it as long as he has a Spinning Axe available.
If Draven gets full build(read as 'when Draven gets full build), it won't be uncommon for each axe to hit for 1,500 damage.
The only "downside" to this is that you have to delay the game long enough for him to peak. Mind you, if you pair him with a Leona, Annie, or Thresh, it's not difficult to get early kills.
While I would like to see Draven's counters get some minor buffs. Champions like Nami for instance that can punish Draven pretty hard for catching axes out of position, or Caitlyn who can easily put a trap where his axe will land or fire off a Piltover Peacemaker to punish him for it.
That being said, if anything of Draven's gets nerfed, the nerfs should be directed at one of two things.
Either his Blood Rush or League of Draven, his passive.
For his Blood Rush, I would give it the same effect that Cassiopeia's Twin Fangs has. If he catches an axe, the cooldown is reduced to x amount(2 seconds would be good as it gives him 1.5 seconds without his movement speed buff and you can't activate it right before catching an axe to double up on the boost).
For his passive, either reduce the base gold he gets or reduce the value of each stack to 1.5 or 1. The reasoning for that is because Draven essentially gets 2 stacks(minimum) per last hit which is an additional 4 gold per last hit which doesn't really sound like much but early on, it's very easy for Draven to push a wave and get multiple stacks from a single creep.
All in all, Draven is an incredibly fun champion that is also incredibly rewarding to play. Everything about him is completely over the top, including his power and scaling.
It's entirely possible that the biggest ego in town may finally get what's coming to him.
Sunday 12 January 2014
Champion walks into a bar...
Today I wanted to discuss one of the greatest sports, competition, and strategy.
Counters.
There are very few strategies in competitive sports and games that don't have a counter. Usually these things become popular for a short period of time as people exploit their strengths but then lose popularity after things change or people find a way to counter it.
Naturally, counterpicks and counterplays are some of the biggest aspects in League of Legends and with the recent changes that have brought sustained damage bruisers back into popularity, that also means that we're going to be seeing some of their counters becoming popular again.
Let's assume for just a moment that you're playing Dr. Mundo. Would you rather play against an Elise or Jayce top-lane. Most people would prefer Jayce because in his current state, he isn't considered to be exceptionally powerful. That's not to say he isn't strong, he's just not perceived that way.
Now what if the Elise had Liandy's Torment? Jayce for sure, right? Well, Jayce just bought Blade of the Ruined King which, when combined with his cannon form's W, allows for a large number of applications of it which leads to more overall damage versus Dr. Mundo.
Basically, if things keep going the way they are, we're going to be seeing a lot more percent based damage dealers popping up. Kog'maw, Vayne, Elise, Brand, etc. Especially champions that have ways of hindering enemy movement because despite their durability and damage potential, they can still be hindered fairly easily(depending on the champion). For example, it doesn't matter how much Dr. Mundo's Burning Agony reduces crowd control, he's still going to be slowed by Kog'maw's ooze for a good long time.
With the potential for percent damage dealers to show up in competitive play again that means one other champion has the potential to appear and this one champion genuinely scares me.
Poppy has an incredible kit that makes her extremely durable and capable of dishing out some serious damage. Even early on in the game, she is incredibly durable thanks to her passive. Even later in the game, Poppy shrugs off critical hits like a Cho'gath shrugs off creeps.
While in her currently state, she's not exceptionally competitive, there's still the possibility of her becoming a force to be reckoned with.
Now, that being said, Poppy has the same issue that any other bruiser has. Sustained damage is annoying to deal with. As long as we have champions like Mundo and Shyvana that are capable of idly walking to the backline to start wailing at them, we're going to need safer carry picks. Lucian is a prime example of this. Tristana may see competitive play again due to her synergy with attack speed, and while there's still some issues with his current state, Varus could be seeing more competitive play again very soon.
Rumble may be seen more again due to the nature of his kit and it's synergy with Liandry's Torment and there's incredible potential for Trundle to get to trolling.
What I suggest to anyone who is reading this is when you load up into the champion selection screen, take a look at the current roster of 111 champions that are available(after bans) and just consider the possibilities.
If the enemy picks x, can I counter them with y? Will I be able to contribute after the laning phase with y or would I be better off with z?
When you're picking and there's still enemies yet to pick, consider what their potential selections could do to affect you.
Just because you countered your opponent in the laning phase doesn't mean you can counter their team. This isn't a 1v1 tournament, that left with the Snowdown. League of Legends is a team sport whether you want it to be or don't want it to be, that's what it is.
Every team, player, strategy, champion, ability, etc. can decide the outcome of a game.
While I may have been discussing bruisers, that's because top-lane has almost always been home to bruisers. The only thing that has changed is it's picks.
If you do pick Kog'maw to deal with that late-game Dr. Mundo how are you going to deal with their bot-lane? If their bot-lane is Draven and Annie, Kog'maw isn't exactly the best pick for that. If you're taking Brand mid because their jungler and top-laner are extremely durable, how are you dealing with that Yasuo? He can easily dodge half your combo since they're skillshots but that doesn't mean you can't beat him either.
In the end, countering opponents isn't just about picks and bans, it's about every move, every ability, every click.
Counters.
There are very few strategies in competitive sports and games that don't have a counter. Usually these things become popular for a short period of time as people exploit their strengths but then lose popularity after things change or people find a way to counter it.
Naturally, counterpicks and counterplays are some of the biggest aspects in League of Legends and with the recent changes that have brought sustained damage bruisers back into popularity, that also means that we're going to be seeing some of their counters becoming popular again.
Let's assume for just a moment that you're playing Dr. Mundo. Would you rather play against an Elise or Jayce top-lane. Most people would prefer Jayce because in his current state, he isn't considered to be exceptionally powerful. That's not to say he isn't strong, he's just not perceived that way.
Now what if the Elise had Liandy's Torment? Jayce for sure, right? Well, Jayce just bought Blade of the Ruined King which, when combined with his cannon form's W, allows for a large number of applications of it which leads to more overall damage versus Dr. Mundo.
Basically, if things keep going the way they are, we're going to be seeing a lot more percent based damage dealers popping up. Kog'maw, Vayne, Elise, Brand, etc. Especially champions that have ways of hindering enemy movement because despite their durability and damage potential, they can still be hindered fairly easily(depending on the champion). For example, it doesn't matter how much Dr. Mundo's Burning Agony reduces crowd control, he's still going to be slowed by Kog'maw's ooze for a good long time.
With the potential for percent damage dealers to show up in competitive play again that means one other champion has the potential to appear and this one champion genuinely scares me.
Poppy has an incredible kit that makes her extremely durable and capable of dishing out some serious damage. Even early on in the game, she is incredibly durable thanks to her passive. Even later in the game, Poppy shrugs off critical hits like a Cho'gath shrugs off creeps.
While in her currently state, she's not exceptionally competitive, there's still the possibility of her becoming a force to be reckoned with.
Now, that being said, Poppy has the same issue that any other bruiser has. Sustained damage is annoying to deal with. As long as we have champions like Mundo and Shyvana that are capable of idly walking to the backline to start wailing at them, we're going to need safer carry picks. Lucian is a prime example of this. Tristana may see competitive play again due to her synergy with attack speed, and while there's still some issues with his current state, Varus could be seeing more competitive play again very soon.
Rumble may be seen more again due to the nature of his kit and it's synergy with Liandry's Torment and there's incredible potential for Trundle to get to trolling.
What I suggest to anyone who is reading this is when you load up into the champion selection screen, take a look at the current roster of 111 champions that are available(after bans) and just consider the possibilities.
If the enemy picks x, can I counter them with y? Will I be able to contribute after the laning phase with y or would I be better off with z?
When you're picking and there's still enemies yet to pick, consider what their potential selections could do to affect you.
Just because you countered your opponent in the laning phase doesn't mean you can counter their team. This isn't a 1v1 tournament, that left with the Snowdown. League of Legends is a team sport whether you want it to be or don't want it to be, that's what it is.
Every team, player, strategy, champion, ability, etc. can decide the outcome of a game.
While I may have been discussing bruisers, that's because top-lane has almost always been home to bruisers. The only thing that has changed is it's picks.
If you do pick Kog'maw to deal with that late-game Dr. Mundo how are you going to deal with their bot-lane? If their bot-lane is Draven and Annie, Kog'maw isn't exactly the best pick for that. If you're taking Brand mid because their jungler and top-laner are extremely durable, how are you dealing with that Yasuo? He can easily dodge half your combo since they're skillshots but that doesn't mean you can't beat him either.
In the end, countering opponents isn't just about picks and bans, it's about every move, every ability, every click.
Thursday 9 January 2014
[BONUS] Liandry's Torment
I didn't really want to just have another rant today after two yesterday so I'm going to talk a bit about Liandry's Torment and why it's the worst possible upgrade that could have been used for Haunting Guise.
First of all, Haunting Guise is one of my favourite items. It's the best item you can get as an early-game aggressive mage. The problem with the item was that it fell off pretty damn hard once people started getting a good amount of magic resistance.
So, now when you upgrade Haunting Guise to Liandry's Torment you get a nice bonus to stats and a shiny new passive. Unfortunately, there's no increase to the magic penetration, only ability power and health.
When you damage a target with magic damage, the passive deals 2% of the target's current health as magic damage over 3 seconds and doubles the damage if the enemy is slowed or snared.
Not bad, right? Overall pretty nice.
It's extremely powerful in the right situations and I'm going to give you the tools to maximize it.
Quite often I will see people build Liandry's Torment on bursty champions that would be better off with some raw ability power, rather than this passive.
I feel like I die a little on the inside when I see a Nidalee or Lux buy this item.
If you want to maximize this item's usage, you need to have it up on the enemy as much as humanly possible and Nidalee, Lux, etc. who are more about raw poke damage don't really need it.
Instead of giving you bad examples of the item's usage, I'll give you a few good ones.
The best possible champion to have this item is a Season 2 favourite that is still recognized as the signature champion of Alliance's Froggen.
Anivia.
Massive AoE magic damage that slows enemies so you get the full 4%/3sec applied to as many people as possible for as long as possible.
Next best champion?
Viktor.
Drop that ultimate and hit them with an upgraded Death Laser and watch them burn. If your Gravity Field isn't enough to slow them for the full effect, get a Rylai's Crystal Scepter.
I see so many people run Liandry's on Brand that he gets an honourable mention due to it's synergy with his passive. You'll need a Rylai's Crystal Scepter to get it's full potential but, hey, that's not an issue.
In the end, Liandry's is a great item but it's not because of it being an upgrade for Haunting Guise.
So, if you're looking to harass enemies a little easier as Nidalee or Lux, get a Void Staff long before you get Liandry's Torment. If you want the Haunting Guise, go right ahead, I would just recommend selling it later in the game rather than upgrading it.
However, if you're playing a champion that can consistently slow enemies and keep applying Liandry's Torment, go nuts.
Liandry's is surprisingly good on Dr. Mundo and Amumu(especially if you can get a Rylai's Crystal Scepter or get Blessing of the Lizard Elder).
TL;DR when buying Liandry's Torment.
Area of effect damage per second is good.
Long range poke/line nukes bad.
AoE DPS good
Poke/nukes bad.
First of all, Haunting Guise is one of my favourite items. It's the best item you can get as an early-game aggressive mage. The problem with the item was that it fell off pretty damn hard once people started getting a good amount of magic resistance.
So, now when you upgrade Haunting Guise to Liandry's Torment you get a nice bonus to stats and a shiny new passive. Unfortunately, there's no increase to the magic penetration, only ability power and health.
When you damage a target with magic damage, the passive deals 2% of the target's current health as magic damage over 3 seconds and doubles the damage if the enemy is slowed or snared.
Not bad, right? Overall pretty nice.
It's extremely powerful in the right situations and I'm going to give you the tools to maximize it.
Quite often I will see people build Liandry's Torment on bursty champions that would be better off with some raw ability power, rather than this passive.
I feel like I die a little on the inside when I see a Nidalee or Lux buy this item.
If you want to maximize this item's usage, you need to have it up on the enemy as much as humanly possible and Nidalee, Lux, etc. who are more about raw poke damage don't really need it.
Instead of giving you bad examples of the item's usage, I'll give you a few good ones.
The best possible champion to have this item is a Season 2 favourite that is still recognized as the signature champion of Alliance's Froggen.
Anivia.
Massive AoE magic damage that slows enemies so you get the full 4%/3sec applied to as many people as possible for as long as possible.
Next best champion?
Viktor.
Drop that ultimate and hit them with an upgraded Death Laser and watch them burn. If your Gravity Field isn't enough to slow them for the full effect, get a Rylai's Crystal Scepter.
I see so many people run Liandry's on Brand that he gets an honourable mention due to it's synergy with his passive. You'll need a Rylai's Crystal Scepter to get it's full potential but, hey, that's not an issue.
In the end, Liandry's is a great item but it's not because of it being an upgrade for Haunting Guise.
So, if you're looking to harass enemies a little easier as Nidalee or Lux, get a Void Staff long before you get Liandry's Torment. If you want the Haunting Guise, go right ahead, I would just recommend selling it later in the game rather than upgrading it.
However, if you're playing a champion that can consistently slow enemies and keep applying Liandry's Torment, go nuts.
Liandry's is surprisingly good on Dr. Mundo and Amumu(especially if you can get a Rylai's Crystal Scepter or get Blessing of the Lizard Elder).
TL;DR when buying Liandry's Torment.
Area of effect damage per second is good.
Long range poke/line nukes bad.
AoE DPS good
Poke/nukes bad.
[RANT] Communication
Rant hat trick! Yay!
So, my biggest issue with solo queue always has been and always will be communication.
Let's assume that's you're going for a League qualifier to get yourself up to the next shiny badge. You're current score is 2 wins, 2 losses. You're team is mostly decided except for you and one other guy. Both of you want the same role but the only other role open is one you're comfortable with just not *amazing* with and, although you don't know it, the only other role is open is one that the other guy doesn't play at all because they're nowhere near comfortable enough with the mechanics of that role.
What do you do?
We'll assume you have pick order over them for this.
If nothing was said in chat and you lock in the role you wanted and the other guy gets stuck playing his absolute worst role which we'll assume is top-lane for this. He picks Nasus or something that's good at being passive and defensive early on. Well, Riven who is now 2 levels above him just dove him with her ultimate and he died a third time. Everyone else does meh but no one really comes out ahead except Riven for either team.
What could've been done to prevent that? Sure, Nasus could've played further back early on but we'll say the second death was to a jungle gank so he had more to worry about. He isn't comfortable enough with the mechanics of top-lane to know when to farm and when to sit at tower or how easily it can snowball so are you just gonna flame and blame him all game? What good does that do? They already know they didn't do well, you telling them that isn't going to help.
What could've been done to prevent that is communicating with them. Ask them if they're comfortable with the other role that you know you can play at least okay.
Now, some people will think that they're just gonna say they're bad at the only open role because they want their first pick for role. That'll happen, yes, but most of the time you would be surprised how cooperative people can be when given the chance to be.
Now let's try that again. You're in-game as Mundo against Riven. Not your greatest matchup early on but you can sit back and chuck cleavers at the creeps for a little while. The other guy is doing okay in his role, you may have been able to do better, maybe not. Everything in the game is nice and even for about 50 minutes until the enemy team manage to pull off a really good fight and win the game.
Is it anyone's fault? Yea, someone probably made a mistake but it's also entirely possible that losing would've happened either way.
Not everything has a happy ending, some times you just have to take what's dealt to you and do your best. This doesn't mean you could've done better if you were replacing them or you could've done better than them doing whatever. You're not trying to be better than them, you're trying be better than yourself.
For the longest time, I never tried exceptionally hard in ranked. I just kinda played whatever champion I felt like at the time and didn't really care if I won or lost. I ended up mid silver because of that and clamped my League Points harder than you'd think a Silver player possibly could.
At the end of Season 3, I decided to try winning. I played my best champions or whoever I could get my hands on that was ridiculously strong at the time if I knew how to play them and I carried myself out of Silver II, into Silver I, and then got myself to Gold V after one failed promotion series before grinding up to promos again and winning them. This was all with a huge LP clamp until the lost promo when my LP gains went from 5-8 to 15-19.
It's now Pre-Season 4 and I've managed to pull two divisions in two days, getting from Gold V to Gold III with minimal effort by playing champions I'm comfortable with and communicating with my team. Not everyone is cooperative, it's true, but not everyone refuses to cooperate. Some people want to win just as badly as you do and they're going to give it their all the same way you should.
Just be open with your team. My personal preference is to let them know what my top two choices are for role and let them know which role I play the worst(prefer mid/adc, can't jungle too well).
If you end up getting the role you're not great with, tough luck, maybe next time. That shouldn't stop you from giving it your all.
I swear I'm not Canadian.
So, my biggest issue with solo queue always has been and always will be communication.
Let's assume that's you're going for a League qualifier to get yourself up to the next shiny badge. You're current score is 2 wins, 2 losses. You're team is mostly decided except for you and one other guy. Both of you want the same role but the only other role open is one you're comfortable with just not *amazing* with and, although you don't know it, the only other role is open is one that the other guy doesn't play at all because they're nowhere near comfortable enough with the mechanics of that role.
What do you do?
We'll assume you have pick order over them for this.
If nothing was said in chat and you lock in the role you wanted and the other guy gets stuck playing his absolute worst role which we'll assume is top-lane for this. He picks Nasus or something that's good at being passive and defensive early on. Well, Riven who is now 2 levels above him just dove him with her ultimate and he died a third time. Everyone else does meh but no one really comes out ahead except Riven for either team.
What could've been done to prevent that? Sure, Nasus could've played further back early on but we'll say the second death was to a jungle gank so he had more to worry about. He isn't comfortable enough with the mechanics of top-lane to know when to farm and when to sit at tower or how easily it can snowball so are you just gonna flame and blame him all game? What good does that do? They already know they didn't do well, you telling them that isn't going to help.
What could've been done to prevent that is communicating with them. Ask them if they're comfortable with the other role that you know you can play at least okay.
Now, some people will think that they're just gonna say they're bad at the only open role because they want their first pick for role. That'll happen, yes, but most of the time you would be surprised how cooperative people can be when given the chance to be.
Now let's try that again. You're in-game as Mundo against Riven. Not your greatest matchup early on but you can sit back and chuck cleavers at the creeps for a little while. The other guy is doing okay in his role, you may have been able to do better, maybe not. Everything in the game is nice and even for about 50 minutes until the enemy team manage to pull off a really good fight and win the game.
Is it anyone's fault? Yea, someone probably made a mistake but it's also entirely possible that losing would've happened either way.
Not everything has a happy ending, some times you just have to take what's dealt to you and do your best. This doesn't mean you could've done better if you were replacing them or you could've done better than them doing whatever. You're not trying to be better than them, you're trying be better than yourself.
For the longest time, I never tried exceptionally hard in ranked. I just kinda played whatever champion I felt like at the time and didn't really care if I won or lost. I ended up mid silver because of that and clamped my League Points harder than you'd think a Silver player possibly could.
At the end of Season 3, I decided to try winning. I played my best champions or whoever I could get my hands on that was ridiculously strong at the time if I knew how to play them and I carried myself out of Silver II, into Silver I, and then got myself to Gold V after one failed promotion series before grinding up to promos again and winning them. This was all with a huge LP clamp until the lost promo when my LP gains went from 5-8 to 15-19.
It's now Pre-Season 4 and I've managed to pull two divisions in two days, getting from Gold V to Gold III with minimal effort by playing champions I'm comfortable with and communicating with my team. Not everyone is cooperative, it's true, but not everyone refuses to cooperate. Some people want to win just as badly as you do and they're going to give it their all the same way you should.
Just be open with your team. My personal preference is to let them know what my top two choices are for role and let them know which role I play the worst(prefer mid/adc, can't jungle too well).
If you end up getting the role you're not great with, tough luck, maybe next time. That shouldn't stop you from giving it your all.
I swear I'm not Canadian.
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