[Contest Champion] Subject One

Hoi Im Temmo··6 votes·1,691 views

For those of you who don't know about the Contest Champion yet, here.

My entry is Subject One - an attempt to fill the distinct lack of a true Zombie Champion in League. Though we have Yorick, he is more of a necrmancer than a Zombie.

Edit:

more in depth look at Yorick and Sion, and how they compare with Subject One (at least in my own opinion) -

Yorick: Yes, Yorick is undead, and yes he has minions. Yorick, however, summons these minions, who are present for a time, before disappearing. As far as minions go, Elise has much more in common with Subject One. Yoick is a necromancer, summoning ghosts with his abilities. While that IS an undead horde champ, it is NOT a zombie - as stated, the purpose of this champion was to fill the role of a Zombie - a mindless undead who gains followers by infecting and killing the living.

Sion: mentioned twice in the comments, so he is up here now :D - Sion is undead...but this was done by the technology of Zaun - he is a corpse that has been reanimated, nothing more. Sion and Urgot are more akin to Frankenstein than to Zombies, so they still fail to meet the goal I set for this champion.

In closure, no, this champion is not "a completely new and untouched genre" - but, at least in my opinion, he fills a much needed spot in the League, specifically, one where the two apparent closest champions to his concept are both scheduled for reworks anyway. NOTE: this does not mean closure on the subject of these to and their relation to Subject One - if you wish to discuss it further, I am more than happy to! This is here mostly as a primer, or perhaps pre-response, to the subject, to give a place to start the conversation off. Thanks!

The driving concept of this champion is character who fills the idea of a Zombie - undead that make more undead by infecting them and killing them.

Subject One Stat - Level 1 / per Level / Level 18

Health - 460 / +90 / 2080 Regen. - 1.04 / +.22 / 5 Armor - 17 / +3.5 / 80 M. Resist - 32 / +1 / 50

Damage - 62 / 3 / 116 A. Speed - .52 / 3% / .80

Mana - 170 / 35 / 800 Regen. - .8 / .1 / 2.6

Movement - 320 / 0 / 320 Range - 125 / 0 / 125

The Taken

Stats: Same asabove with two exceptions. 1/2 natural Attack Damage, and 1/4 natural Health. Only movement scales with Subject One and his minions.

Passive: Basic made by Subject One apply a stack of Infection. One stack is removed every four seconds. If a unit with a stack of infection dies, Subject One gains one Taken minion. Subject One can have only up to four minions at a time. The number is low to keep from becoming overly dominant in lane. Considering lowering it still. Also: all Taken follow Subject One. Attack the same targets, move to the same locations. The Horde moves as one.

Q - Gruesome Display - Sends the Taken with the lowest health to target location; after three seconds, or if the minion is killed, the Taken explodes, applying a stack of Infection and dealing 20/50/80/110/140(+75%AP) magic damage and slowing those in the area. Cooldown: 15/13/11/9/7 seconds / Cost: the minion used and 60/75/90/105/120 Mana / Slow: 15/20/25/30/35% lasts 1 second. Modeled similarly to "Volatile Spiderling" (Elise) - considering removing "or if the minion is killed" from the ability to allow greater counter play.

W - Devour - Subject One eats one of the Taken, regenerating (80/185/290/395/500 minus 1% per missing 1% health of the Taken devoured) health, and 80/160/240/320/400 the amount as mana. Cooldown: 12 seconds Cost: The Taken devourded Low Mana and Mana Regeneration insure dependency upon this ability, which in turn should help to maintain the need to infect new hosts :D

E - Blood Lust - Passive - While moving toward a damaged enemy champion, Subject One (and the Taken) gain +1% Movement Speed per 1% Health missing from the champion. If moving toward more than one damaged enemy champion, the lowest health is used to decide the movement buff. Range: Sight -----Blood Lust - Active - Subject One (and the Taken) gain 10/15/20/25/30% Attack Speed and 5/10/15/20/25% lifesteal for 10 seconds. After, there is a 12 second cooldown. Cost: 100/110/120/130/140 Mana Because of low movement and mobility, Subject One can be prone to kiting. The passive should help to prevent this.

R - Out Break - Passive - Subject One may have 1/2/3 additional Taken -----Out Break - Active - All nearby enemies take a stack of Infection each second for three seconds, and damage per stack per second. Range - 750 Damage per stack per second: 10/20/30(+.45 AD)(+.15 AP) / Mana: 120/160/200 / Cooldown: 180/135/90

** For those who wanted a more in depth Lore; here you go! Tell me what you think! ** Within the lore are links to more information about the subject, in case I sparked your interest! Also, map of Valoran here! Lore:

Subject One is theorized by the League to have first come to Valoran from the North-Westernmost shore - though there is little to go on, it was from here that the reports first came. From a small village between the Bubbling Bog and the Freljord, rumor poured down to the Institue of War of a lone figure - gaunt and withered, carrying a long sword and wearing armor not seen on Valoran in living memory.

As the rumors went, the figure walked and shambled along, stumbling about as he went, until he came to a town. Upon entering, he became violent, attacking all who came near, killing a small number - quickly, a group was dispatched to Demacia for help. Upon return, the village was in ruin - though much blood and and destruction remained, no bodies could be found. Being nearly dark, the Demacian general ordered camp be pitched a short way from the town. A guard was set, and at all times, the village would be under surveillance. All might have gone well for the party, but the march from Demacia had been hard; the soldiers on watch, though vigilant and strong, could not last the night. Soon, all were asleep at their posts, and none saw the small horde come walking through the night. It was the screams of those furthest into the forest that alerted the men of the attack; yet a hastened defense against an unknown foe did little to stop the onslaught. Wave upon wave came scores of Undead, writhing to be the first to reach their prey. Any so much as grabbed by ghouls were dead before they could defend themselves, pulled apart by the grasping hands of so many. Of over fifty men, plus those sent by the town for help, only a handful escaped into the night.

Even as they reached Demacia, already cries for help were flooding in, the normally hardy and militant civilians clamoring for aid. The trail of destruction, as can best be traced, followed along the Serpentine River until it reached the Marshes of Kaladoun: here, it is believed the Horde grew too massive - and split apart into two groups. As one went Westward to Demacia, the other continued East to the Institute of War.

The Siege of Demacia: A mere two days later, Demacia found itself, behind its walls, an island amid a see of roiling bodies - hundreds of monsters pounded upon the walls, while packs of others searched out and hunted down many other civilians. During this time, most of the population found it's way within the walls of the city state, or found defendable positions to hold out for aid. Many champions of the league proved indispensable during this time, fighting back the hordes with the help of their citizenry. (The demacian military system truly displayed its worth in these dark hours). Yet as this continued for days on end, Eastward faired no better.

The Institute: Even as Demacia fought for survival, the other half of this massive horde, led by Subject One, fought its way through the Howling Marsh to the next point of life on which to feed - the Institute. In this tide of destruction, the Institute called in all champions it could muster from the unaffected parts of the continent to defend against the invasion. Aided by the magic of the Summoners, the champions were able to do so to a degree of safety, and much of the battle was quickly victorious - though the champions of the Shadow Isles were decidedly absent from the conflict. But even as they began to prepare to march to Demacia, a mere two days later, already a second attack was begun against the Institute. It was quickly decided that drastic measures were needed - and so the Summoners banded together to create a delicately balanced blast of energy - the likes of which had not been seen since the last rune wars.

With so many Summoners working together, sever damage to Valoran and Runterra was avoided - and whats more, the shambling hordes were destroyed. Even as the the after shock of the magic hit Demacia, the undead dropped were they stood, their bodies blown away as ash on the wind. In the coming days, the whole of north western regions were diligently searched for any that might remain, to insure that they could never come again. Deep within the marshes, at the end of the Serpentine River, was found a lone ghoul walking about with a sword clutched in its hand. Immediately it was blasted apart - but even as those present watched, its body recombined, again taking shape, and having sustained no damage from the fell magics used upon it. Immediately it was incapacitated and captured, and returned to the Institute of War. Yet, no matter how many times or ways it was attempted, the body of Subject One always returned together. It was then decided that its body would separated, scattered across Valoran, each part sealed apart from the others. But before the decision was carried out, an unknown entity put forth a request - that this frothing monstrosity be the latest addition to the League of Legends. Assured that it would never be granted entrance, the summoners chose to allow, for political process' sake, it to be given a chance to gain entrance. Within less than an hour, the request was, to much astonishment and scandal, granted. It was cited upon the record that "influential parties from within the League of Legends" wished to meet this being once more in battle. Given no choice but to comply, the summoners deeply bound its power, and now keep it under watch at all times deep within the institutes walls - to this day, none are quiet sure who may have aided such a thing, or even who it is summoned in representation of - all that exists in the conjecture that once more, the Shadow Isles may be active in their quest to expand both their name and reputation.

Lines:

Mostly consists of murmurings and gurgles. What, its a zombie.

Taunt:

"Brains? Guess not...."

Jokes:

Alone: Eye/arm/leg falls off. Eye rolls around while Subject One attempts to reclaim it. Arm attempts to crawl away. Leg trips him.

With 1 Taken: They play Rock/Paper/ Scissors. With 2 Taken: They play a game of tag. Rather pathetically, they can only shamble about slowly. With 3 Taken: They play a game of soccer, using Subject One's Head as a ball. With 4 Taken: The taken pull Subject One apart and watch as he reassembles himself on the ground.

Dance:

Thriller. Yes, Warwick does this already but....anything else would just feel wrong.

Possible Skins:

When I first made this skin, a friend suggested things such as walking dead references. I prefer skins of a more serious nature and one humor of an ironic nature

Toxic One - A Subject One looking more radioactive than undead.

Sargent Subject, First Class - Military Uniform. The "Taken" are now "Privates" - when a taken Spawns, They imminently get into uniform and salute before falling in and marching with Sargent Subject.

Roles

Best roles are Top and Jungle, focusing on tank and either damage or abilities. In the top lane, Subject One can focus on tanking damage, allowing his minions to insure he has the melee damage needed to fight it out. Building AP later on allows better area effect damage, becoming more useful in team fights. From the jungle, Subject One can be more damage orientated, using his minions to tank, allowing him to stay healthy, as well as running down and killing wounded enemies. For the late game, he can build AP for the team fights, or focus on pushing down minion waves and towers from split pushing.

possible builds: With the intent of the champion in mind, the goal is to be able to siege very well. With so many minions following you around, you can tank tower shots (though you will be target if you damage a champion) and push very quickly in the late game.

I would suggest a tank build, focusing on stats and some AP and mana. core items could include: item 3027 item 3116 item 3143

To compensate for low moment, boots are important. While swiftness keep you up to speed, however, that tenacity maybe important if you are the tank. item 3009 item 3111

Final items could be any assortment of the following, and many more depending on the game: item 3068 item 3083 item 3110 item 3026 item 3065 item 3075

Another route is to focus more on ability damage in the late game. To pull this off, you will want some Cool down reduction as well. item 3174 item 3165 item 3089

Finally: Split pushing can really put the enemy in a tough spot, especially when you don't have to go alone. Allow your minions to take some hits, and refill on the waves coming at you, and you can solo push through lanes. Items for this are: Core: item 3508 item 3074 item 3065

Situational: item 3083 item 3143 item 3110 item 3022 item 3091

Boots stay close to the same however.

36 Comments

Dragon Fang Shot2 votes

More lore. I know that you said you weren't sure about how much you should post, but post more. I'd rather read a long wall of text and completely understand the champion than read a paragraph or two and just get a general idea. Kit is well built, and I'm assuming that his name is a play-on-words of the term "Patient Zero" so I'm going to pretend it is and give you a high-five for that high-fives

Edit: I also forgot to mention this, but I feel the mana costs could be a bit too high.

Flintfall1 votes

I second this, I need more lorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre

Hoi Im Temmo2 votes

LORE UPDATED :D Please comment your thoughts and feelings.

Flintfall1 votes

OH wow, niice

Hoi Im Temmo2 votes

One thing that was very important me, was insuring that at no time did he over shadow other champions - but at the same time, an event like this? They aren't sitting around having tea. So I worked to make the both relevant, but not very in-depth or specific in regard to them.

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

Will do. And you are correct on name origin, though it was one of a number of founding concepts.

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

Just noticed the edit: They are a bit high...also the man regen. for him is abyssmal. The goal here is to insure a need to constantly devour Taken to maintain his mana...

Looking at it again though, I think i will lower the cooldown on on Devour as well as the health gained.

Flying Buntcake1 votes

I like the interaction with the minions / eating them to heal

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

It seemed like the undead thing to do. :D

Czar Matt Damon1 votes

you forgot about sion, dude

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

No i didnt? (Sion is one of my most played champs, actually....)

Sion is undead....but not a "Zombie" in the standard sense of the word. He is a corpse that was reanimated by technology.

While you could say SIon is similar, my champ is much closer to Yorick.

however - I would be able to respond better if you specified what it is about the kit that caused you to point out Sion.

Flintfall1 votes

I was going to comment on the amount of Taken, but then I saw the ultimate and decided against suggesting more taken per lvl on the passive.

Overall, the kit is interesting and I can't say I dislike the concept, though devour healing Subject Zero for 500 health base might be a wee bit extreme, I would prob cap it at 300 health with a lower cooldown but hey, I'm just crazy @_@

And oh yes, I need more lore!

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

Dont forget: the amount is reduced by 1% for each percent health missing from the devoured minion!

Flintfall1 votes

Ah, I thought it increased based on missing health, my bad

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

At one point in the design, it was....but the number needed to be really small - so decided to define the maximum instead and add in a negative modifier.

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

So did you ever look at the updated lore?

Flintfall1 votes

Yes I did a while back ago, and it's great!

I thought I commented somewhere about it, but that may have slipped, my bad.

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

All good! I was going back through, and noticed I had never responded to your request about it, so I wanted to go ahead and do so.

Goldenelk5981 votes

What about Zombie Brand and Zombie Ryze?!?!?!?!? lol they are skins but still zombies. I do like the concept of a zombie themed champ though that displays more of the general zombie idea that we know from most lore about zombies aka eats stuff, wants to feed more, spreads disease and plague and infects others etc. The Q is pretty similar to elises volatile spider which you pointed out, but id consider changing it to make it a little more unique. His ultimate is interesting and could potentially be a heavy damage dealer. Interesting concept overall.

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

I created the Q with a boomer from Left 4 Dead in mind...and realised later the similarity....but I really liked the q at that point.

Willahelm Fulber1 votes

So I have a couple questions.

  1. Sion. You seem to have forgotten the actual zombie champion in favor of Yorick.

  2. We already have a hordes-of-minions champion, Yorick. However, with Riot trying to rethink Yorick's kit I think this might be an alternative if they try to make Yorick more of a "ghouls do more damage instead of there being a ton of them" idea.

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

With you being the second to point that out, I should probably add it to the OP :P

Long as I'm posting though.....

Well, to be honest, SIon is one of my top 3 most played champions :D - it wasn't that I forgot him, I left him out in favor of Yorick for reasons similar to what you pointed out.

In lore, what the Champion is, etc., Subject One is, of course, Undead. To use that as a similarity point, however, puts him with Mordekaiser, Yorick, Sion, Urgot, Karthus....

So let's move on to kit. Based on summoning minions, we have...Yorick and Elise (kinda a few others, but generally just one minion) - Yorick appears in BOTH sections, thats why I specified him. However, I felt that despite this, it would be fun to have a champion who truly exemplified a horde of Zombies - and Yorick is more an undead necromancer than a zombie (yes, those ARE different D:<)

Sion is a technologically reanimated person. Same personality, same body - just reanimated. To call that a zombie...no, not really.

Anyway - that was my thought process on it. I will still go back and include a comment about Sion.

Willahelm Fulber1 votes

Honestly the only champion you really feel the "zombie" thing on is Sion, which is why I mention him over Yorick. And again, the reason I feel this champion shouldn't exactly exist is BECAUSE yorick exists. 2 champions who play really similar (spawn a ton of little guys, use them to sustain yourself / poke them / basically everything) shouldn't exist in the same league.

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

Its a fair point, but their are plenty of existing champions more similar to other existing champions than yorick is to mine. The main problem is the lore. But I would definitely call SIon 'Frankenstein's Monster' before I would call him a Zombie.

The bottom line is, looking at Zombie lore vs Sion's lore, the only real similarity is the undead part (though Sion's "flavor" is very Zombie-ish; thats part of why hes getting reworked).

Yorick, I do feel has a lot in common with Subject One though. He doesn't fit the part well however, and sees little to no play, at ANY elo. Finally, to say "spawn a ton of little guys, use them to sustain yourself / poke them / basically everything" - what about Elise?

Willahelm Fulber1 votes

Except Sion's rework is looking a lot more zombie-flavored than before. I'm sure there's going to be at least room for more zombie champions (maybe) after they lore rework Sion (so he fits in more) but Sion's going to be more of the "I'm gonna eat your flesh / heal off everything." And Yorick / Subject One are more of the horde mentality champions right now.

As for Elise, she honestly doesn't use her spiderlings that much, as I don't see volatile spiderlings as her spiderlings. You could play an entire game as human-form Elise and never use your spiderlings, albeit that setting you at a disadvantage for lack of an ultimate. Subject 1 just generates minions randomly and Yorick's source of everything (utility, sustain, and yes, even damage due to his passive) is wrapped into his ghouls.

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

Good point on Elise, hadn't considered that.

You metioned what Sion's rework looks like.....i haven't seen any of it yet, what have they revealed? I just know he is supposed to be fully ad, and a lifesteal tank.

But yes - Yorick definitely was intended to fill the niche that Subject One sits in - I simply feel he doesn't do it well, at least not right now. It's not that I have a particular love for Zombies - but that its a common theme right now, and nothing in League truly feels right with it. Perceiving a lack of a genre, helped to begin an interest in creating this champion.

Willahelm Fulber1 votes

The reason Yorick isn't more prevalently played isn't because he doesn't fit the role of a hoard-mongering minion spawner, in fact it's just the opposite. Because he's a minion spammer, he needs to be delicately balanced. When I play Yorick, I try to match a playstyle that involves being passive-agressive because I know if I get 2v1'd I'm screwed.

As for Sion's rework, I believe it was posted somewhere on the old forums but basically he was designed around swiping chunks of flesh whenever he autoattacked and using those to heal himself, but I felt he seemed more like a Flayed One from Warhammer 40,000 than the zombie I feel he is.

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

True enough. But regardless, he still is not a good fit for the genre of Zombie - though as I said before, he a is perfect as a necromancer. Also, I definitely agree that, played properly, Yorick can be a very strong champion.

Well, Sion does have the potential to be a Zombie champion....but, at the risk of being a broken record here, he remains in my eyes, more similar to Frankenstein's Monster. I think that particular roll is supposed to be Urgot actually, but any corpse reanimated by Science with its mind intact, at least to an extent, just doesn't feel very Zombie-ish.

Willahelm Fulber1 votes

In my mind, right now, sion honestly feels like how Morello described him - a ball of stats. Not some sort of monster at all, just "500 bonus hp from farming and a whole ton of damage."

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

XD THAT DESCRIPTION IS PERFECT. Yeah, basic sion strat = build hydra and split push for the farm more than the towers

YouLostMe1 votes

How do you control the zombies? How does tower/minion aggro apply to the damage? How much gold is a dead Taken worth (e.g. Yorick's ghouls are 5g apiece)? What happens if an infected minion dies and you have wounded zombies? What's the slow duration?

I can think of abuse cases you might want to consider:

  • Hjgh attack speed and move speed builds (zerks, shiv, PD) combined with his slow and MS boost make assassination a viable life choice. You run in, attack a dude 10 times for 10 stacks while slowing them regenerating HP, then pop ult and they melt. The long CD doesn't really help because the damage is so high. I recommend capping Infection stacks to prevent this.
  • A micro-intensive movement pattern could lead to using creeps to block skill shots if they have large enough hitboxes. This is avoided on Elise because her spiders are small, but it's encouraged on Annie because she controls Tibbers with her R. I recommend making control of Taken a clickable button or making their hitboxes minion-sized.
  • Actually, standard autos with maxed taken at level 1 is 5*AD every 2 seconds or ~150 dps. Between his damage, slow, AS buff, and lifesteal, you're probably looking at one of the fastest clear times and strongest ganks in the game.
Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

hmm...some good questions i didnt cover well in the OP.... Well, I will try to answer in order.

The Taken will ALWAYS do what Subject One does. Attack, move, etc. Towers attack minions first. I had not considered the gold worth O.o - probably 30 gold or so. If you have max Taken, none appear, even if your current ones are wounded. It would be to difficult to lane vs otherwise. oh crap, thank you for catching the slow O.O (its 1 second at all ranks)

Remember: The Taken maintain the equivalent of the BASE stats of Subject One. If level 18 and 2.5 attack speed, Taken still have an attack speed of .8 - also, their damage is 1/2 the base damage of Subject One (and their health is 1/4 base health)

The Minion block problem is something I had not considered...it could probably be fixed, but not with working on it in game.

The clear time should be amazing, but the ganks are not intended to be that great, by design, to prevent such dominance. While the slow is very strong, it is intended that it prevent complete kiting and to provide a way to engage. Also, a way to off low health minions, as they cannot just be lost. Finally, I did worry about the Bloodlust active at first - but its effectively on a 22 second cooldown (being active during the first 10 seconds) at all ranks. Do you feel that is not enough to keep it in check?

Edit: Thank you so much for all the points! Nice to have something to look over.

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

Changed some numbers on Devour- Changes: increased Mana Regenerated. Lowered Cooldown.

Changed Blood Lust Active - Changes - lowered attack speed bonus

Phoneixflare1 votes

I enjoy this. I like the zombie horde idea. thanks for looking at Legion as well! :3

Hoi Im Temmo1 votes

No problem! Didn't score well on this one, but I hope to do better next time around - you should join in!

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