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[CHAMPION CONCEPT] Nephry, the Dark Crusader

Yousonerfed·1/11/2014, 7:42:04 AM·3 votes·2,037 views

This one's been worked on for a while, so hopefully a red will take notice.

Nephry, the Dark Crusader
http://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/1230541
(picture is a reference to her appearance)

Statistics (subject to change)

HP: 420 (+85)
HPR/5: 5.5 (+0.5)
MP: 240 (+33)
MPR/5: 5.5 (+0.5)
Damage: 55 (+3)
Range: 125 (melee)
Armor: 19 (+3.5)
Magic Resistance: 30 (+1.25)
Attack Speed: 0.625 (+2.02%)
Movement Speed: 340

Abilities (balance suggestions are appreciated)

Last Update: Jan. 15, 2014

P - Curse of Retribution

Every fourth hit Nephry takes from basic attacks, she will perform a counterattack, dealing 10+(5 X level) physical damage to all nearby enemies (200 range). The damage also scales off 40% of Nephry's armor and magic resistance. This effect cannot occur more than once per second. If Nephry does not take damage for 6 seconds, the hit counter resets to 0.

Q - Guilty Blade

Nephry's next basic attack releases dark power from her blade all around her, dealing 25/50/75/100/125 (+0.2 AR) (+0.2 MR) physical damage to surrounding enemies (225 range) and slowing them by 20/25/30/35/40% for 1 second. Each autoattack that hits Nephry reduces the cooldown of Guilty Blade by 0.5 seconds (minions and monsters reduce by half this much).
10/9/8/7/6 second cooldown. Costs 35/40/45/50/55 mana.

W - Aphotic Soul

Nephry shields herself for 7 seconds, absorbing up to 100/145/190/235/280 (+10% bonus health) damage. While the shield holds, Nephry's basic attacks will cripple her targets, reducing all physical and magical damage her target deals by 20% for 2.5 seconds.
18/17/16/15/14 second cooldown. Costs 70/75/80/85/90 mana.

E - Malefic Strike

Nephry releases a blast of darkness in target direction (skillshot, max. 700 range). If it connects with an enemy, Nephry immediately dashes to the target, dealing 60/100/140/180/220 (+0.4 AP) physical damage and taunting it for 1.25 seconds.
13/12/11/10/9 second cooldown. Costs 70 mana at all ranks.

R - Heart of Darkness

Passive: When Nephry is taunting an enemy Champion, she ignores 15/20/25% of their bonus armor. (Bonus armor refers specifically to armor granted through: runes, masteries, items, auras/buffs and champion abilities.)

Active: Nephry tethers herself to all nearby enemy Champions, slowing them by 20% while tethered. If the target(s) do not break the tether within 2 seconds, they are dealt 150/250/350 (+0.8AP) magic damage and are taunted into attacking Nephry for 2 seconds. While taunted this way, enemies deal half damage with their basic attacks to Nephry.

140/120/100 second cooldown. Costs 125 mana.

Background

"One must be wary of their own sins, lest they become as vile as the ones they fight." - Nephry

Few Demacian heroes have as tragic a history as Nephry. Cursed to bear an ancient black sword, and feared by the people who once called her a hero, the knight holds an uneasy vigil over the people of Demacia, fighting as best she can for justice with the dark power she is condemned to wield, whilst simultaneously fighting the very power that threatens to corrupt her.

Nephry's endeavors began when she was sent to reinforce an ancient temple in Demacia under siege by Noxian forces. The Noxians sought an ancient Darkin blade sealed away within the temple named Ebonmere, a cursed weapon of great and terrible power. Her forces were hopelessly outmatched against the Noxians and, in desperation, Nephry took hold of the very weapon she was charged to protect, hoping to use its dark power to save her comrades. Upon breaking the seal, Nephry cried out as the sword's curse took hold of her, turning her white armor ebony and her blue eyes a deep crimson. Seconds later, she found herself in the middle of a horde of dead Noxians, covered in their blood. She had singlehandedly won the battle, but could not remember a moment of it.

Despite warnings from her comrades of the sword's curse, she could not compel herself to abandon the blade, and opted to keep the Ebonmere and use it to further Demacia's cause. In battle after battle, Nephry led her forces to numerous victories against Noxians and bandits, each battle ending with her regaining consciousness amid a pile of fallen foes. Yet with each victory, her men grew more and more fearful of her, her bloodlust unnerving even the most experienced soldiers. Though she claimed to be hunting down the enemies of justice, many feared that she was becoming as vile as the ones she hunted, sparing no foe regardless of the weight of their crimes.

On one day, Nephry was met by Prince Jarvan IV, who wished to congratulate her on her successes. As the prince approached her, Nephry lashed out at the prince, the Ebonmere drawn as she claimed he was to be judged and punished for his crimes. The prince, accompanied by Garen Crownguard, squared off against Nephry in battle, the fight eventually dragging to a standstill. But just as Nephry was about to renew her assault, she suddenly stopped her rampage, regaining her senses. Believing that the Ebonmere's curse had corrupted her, Jarvan sought to destroy the blade. Yet Nephry protested, claiming she could control the weapon, and herself, if the prince would give her the chance. Jarvan accepted, but demanded that Nephry seek the aid of the Summoners, and warned that she would not be spared if the curse took a full hold of her. Nephry departed for the Institute of War that day, seeking to conquer her demons before they conquered her.

Trivia

  • Nephry "taunts" her opponents by directing her own darkness into her foe (via the Ebonmere). This darkness briefly overtakes her foe, sending them into a frenzy.
  • Nephry and Jarvan IV were rumored to be romantically involved in the past. Neither will comment on this, but it's pretty obvious. ;)
  • Nephry and Quinn are good friends, even though Nephry is a noble.

You guys like? Comments and suggestions are appreciated.

20 Comments

Nitrogen1231/12/2014, 6:26:22 AM2 votes

DrMundo theres gotta be mundo in her lore. Cant have alore wthout mundo.

Rhyto1/11/2014, 5:49:55 PM1 votes

Not bad, I'm sure her ultimate would require an all stat boost for the "Bloodlust" part of it. Any unique skills to bring up instead of copying the old ones?

Ketsuekishu1/11/2014, 7:38:04 PM1 votes

A few things:

  1. Your link is stated to be unsafe to view; if you wish for players to view it move it to a safe website (may be due to the fact that the community site is still in beta).
  2. As Rhyto has stated; most of this is abilities that are already on champions in the League. (Nephry's Ult is Morgana's and Galio's ult combined; taunts are already difficult to balance in-game and you decided your champion needs 2 taunts?)
  3. The lore is quite long; I have the same issue when I am writing lore for a character. If you read up on the background of all the characters most of their introductory is under 300 words (I would say averaging at about 250 words); while yours is nearly double the average. I do not blame you for this as I believe in order to have a deeper and more compelling story for each character; it needs to be about this length. I am not sure if Riot keeps them short for some specific reason; but if I was able to change their standard of having at least double the word count for their lore - I would make it so.
  4. I am seeing this champion to have Garen Syndrome but version 2.0; as your champion stands now, she can build full tank and have his damage along with more CC than Shen. Your tank would devastate the current top-lane meta.

These are just some of my thoughts; I hope you do not think I was too hard on your champion. I myself have been working on a custom champion that I still feel is not up for community view; don't give up, make some tweaks and try to study all the champions so your abilities do not resemble other champions'.

DMC750011/12/2014, 5:13:03 AM1 votes

Another great champion by an awesome author! This is interesting! But, the passives seems kinda damaging. Now, champions will be probably using abilities to do damage without harming themselves. However, does it also affect other abilities that count as basic attacks such as Yasuo's Steel Tempest or Vi's Denting Blows?

Other than that, nice work! Upvoted, and don't forget to take a look at my other champion, Khamsin! :)

TheBonkvich1/12/2014, 10:49:37 PM1 votes

I like her lore, but I don't see it represented well enough in her kit. her kit shows a warrior who has mastered a dark power, and uses it for good. Where's the struggle? Where is the waking up after the battle to carnage with no memory? Additionally, a tank doesn't need a taunt to make people attack her. Her shield alone makes her a target, and her carry killing potential makes peeling her a priority. instead of giving her a teamfight ult ala morgana/galio, why not press her carry killing side. I would suggest an odd sort of ult.

Heart of Darkness

Passive: Nephry ignores 10/15/20% of enemy bonus armor. (Bonus armor refers specifically to armor granted through: runes, masteries, items, auras/buffs and champion abilities.)

Active: Nephry begins to focus on a single enemy, automatically moving toward and attacking target champion. all of Nephry's abilities will automatically target this champion. Any other enemy champion who approaches Nephry will take damage and be feared for a short time (this effect cannot affect the same champion twice in a short period). Additionally, Heart of Darkness' passive will ignore the targeted enemies total armor instead of bonus armor.

Having taunts Doesn't really match her flavor Imo. A fallen knight wielding a demonic blade would inspire fear (as shown in her lore). This Ult is much more flavorful, though im unsure how well it would play in game. self CC hasn't really been explored in champions.

Fifth Scheme1/14/2014, 2:23:59 AM1 votes

There are two issues, potential problems, that I see in your design.

  1. Lore. There isn't much that differentiates Nephry from Aatrox and your story contradicts her kit. For one, your story revolves around a possessed blade, an offensive symbol, while her kit revolves around taunting, shielding, and counterattacking, a defensive symbol. While Aatrox's lore suffers from the expectation of a support character and the realization of a melee carry, your lore suffers from the expectation of a melee carry and the realization of a tank.

  2. Gameplay pattern. Nephry's gameplay pattern is inherently frustrating to play against because not only are you punished for attacking Nephry (her passive and Q reward taking damage, but if that's not bad enough, the damage you deal to Nephry is reduced by 20% AND you have to break her shield, while she be builds purely tank items because her abilities scale from health and resistances, which further increases the strength of her shield), you are forced to attack her because she has two taunts. I'm not saying that two taunts are inherently bad, but that if you have two taunts, it might be a bad idea to punish people who attack her when they're not taunted.

What I'm worried about is that Nephry would gain too much free damage by only building tank items, making her Shyvanna 2.0, hell even 3.0, because free stats are hard to appreciate and understand when you are fighting against that character.

That said, I appreciate the detail and consideration into creating a cohesive kit where each ability is carefully thought out and synergizes with the other. I don't think you have a problem there.

The design goal and gameplay pattern might be something you want to iterate on and decide what exactly you are looking for from Nephry, and how to communicate that in a way that makes sense to players who will be fighting against her without making it unfair for people who are trying to attack her. There should be some risk involved in deciding you want to taunt their ADC or Mage, and creating inherent damage reduction and counterattacks invalidates that risk for Nephry and merely frustrates the opponent.

My suggestion is to play with damage amplification on Nephry when she taunts to free up her power allowance into other areas of her kit. Right now her taunts are foolproof and force you to butcher her ratios so she doesn't get out of hand.

JediBear1/11/2014, 9:46:57 AM1 votes

I like the idea, might need some balancing, but I can very much say she would be a tank I would play.

Yousonerfed1/15/2014, 8:51:37 PM1 votes

Made a change to the passive portion of Nephry's ultimate. It now ignores more bonus armor, but now only gives her that bonus penetration against targets she has taunted. This takes away free power from her, necessitating that if she wants to deal full damage to her target she has to CC it.

Also, since the passive only ignores bonus armor, it is far less effective against opponents who stack high health or who haven't gotten any armor to speak of. So she's not going to do that much more damage against an unarmored mage or a ranged carry.