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.

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.

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.

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.