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.

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'.

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.