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[YOUSOCONCEPT] Terminus, the War Machine

darkdill··2 votes·1,692 views

Also available on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/LoLChampConcepts/comments/2aknd6/terminus_the_war_machine/

A lot of this needs tweaking, so feedback is appreciated.

Terminus, the War Machine
http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101217055226/vanquish/images/8/8c/2132419481_view.jpg
(This picture is for reference only; credit goes to Platinum Games, the creators of Vanquish)

General Concept

Terminus is a ranged AD caster Champion who uses a new resource called Ammo. Ammo is used when Terminus attacks and uses his abilities, and does not replenish normally on its own. Ammo is replenished either by returning to the fountain, staying out of combat for an extended time, or by using his E ability, War Protocol. If he runs out of Ammo, Terminus cannot use his offensive abilities and his attacks become significantly weaker, making him an easy target.

Terminus excels at AOE damage and delivering punishing suppression fire, but also has some close-range utility if the enemy tries to get into a knife fight with him. He doesn't qualify as a ranged carry, however, since he has no attack steroid, and his base AD is low due to his passive.

Statistics (subject to changes)

HP: 437 (+89)
HPR/5: 2.5 (+0.5)
Damage: 46 (+3)
Range: 500
Armor: 19 (+3.2)
Magic Resistance: 30 (+0)
Attack Speed: 0.625 (+3.5%)
Movement Speed: 335

Abilities (Changes should be expected; feedback is appreciated)

Last Update: August 26, 2014

Please help with adjusting numbers. They are definitely off the mark. Don't freak out about them.

Ammo Resource

Terminus uses a new resource called Ammo, which is used with his basic attacks and abilities. Terminus can hold a maximum of 40 Ammo, which does not regenerate on its own. When Terminus' ammo goes to 0, he cannot use his basic abilities (besides his E) and his attacks become weaker. Terminus can recover Ammo by using his War Protocol ability, returning to the fountain, or by remaining out of combat for 10 seconds (deals no damage, takes no damage, and does not use any abilities).

P - Solid-Core Rounds

Whenever Terminus attacks, he deals bonus physical damage equal to 20% of his total attack damage, provided he has at least 1 Ammo. Terminus consumes 1 Ammo each time he performs a basic attack. When Terminus has 0 Ammo, the bonus damage is not dealt.

Q - Ion Orb/Ion Bolt

First Cast - Ion Orb: Terminus launches an Ion Orb in target direction (700 range), which deals 20/40/60/80/100 (+0.4/0.45/0.5/0.55/0.6 total AD) physical damage to enemies it passes through. After using Ion Orb, Terminus can activate Ion Bolt within the next three seconds.

Second Cast - Ion Bolt: Terminus fires an Ion Bolt in target direction (700 range), dealing 60/70/80/90/100 (+0.4 total AD) physical damage to the first enemy it hits. If Ion Bolt hits an Ion Orb, the Ion Orb explodes, dealing 100/150/200/250/300 (+1.2 total AD) physical damage to enemies in a large area around it (400 radius).

Costs 5 Ammo on both activations. 8/7.5/7/6.5/6 second cooldown (starts after Ion Bolt is used or times out).

W - Pneumatic Punisher

Terminus blasts a shockwave in target direction (500 range), dealing 60/90/120/150/180 (+0.75 bonus AD) physical damage to all enemies struck and briefly knocking them back in the same direction as the shockwave. Enemies within 150 range of Terminus are also stunned for 0.75 seconds.

Costs 8 Ammo. 14/13/12/11/10 second cooldown.

E - War Protocol

Terminus instantly recovers 40 Ammo and generates a shield around himself, absorbing up to 100/150/200/250/300 (+0.5 AP) incoming damage for up to 4 seconds.
No cost. 24/23/22/21/20 second cooldown.

R - Delta Strike

Toggle On: Terminus unleashes immense firepower with each basic attack or offensive spell-cast, firing missiles in a cone. Enemies hit take 60/120/180 (+0.5 bonus AD) physical damage (deals half damage to minions). While toggled on, Terminus uses 3 extra Ammo with each basic attack (4 total) and his damaging spells spend 2 additional Ammo.

8 second static cooldown upon toggling off (not reduced by CDR). No initial cost.

Background (rough notes for now)

  • Terminus was created by a Zaunite science team led by Professor Stanwick (the guy who stole credit from Viktor for making Blitzcrank) out of fears that Viktor might take revenge on Stanwick.
  • Terminus was designed to be the ultimate weapon of war, using data obtained while observing Blitzcrank and Viktor in League matches.
  • Unfortunately, when Terminus came online, a bug was found in his programming. Terminus' programming leads him to believe he is superior to all others, and he will not follow the commands of "inferior beings".
  • Terminus is uncontrolled by the Zaunites, but is still following his original directive: to kill Viktor.

Feel free to give suggestions on how to improve the design. But as always, be civil.

15 Comments

Pyrobob45 votes

Is there a reason there isn't an ammo salvage mechanic? Seems like a wasted opportunity to not be able to regain ammo from a slain unit. Maybe 1 from a minion or monster, and 10 from a champion. Personally, I would remove the out of combat regen, and add the salvage mechanic as a passive to his E.

If automatically gaining ammo on kill isn't viable, maybe there could be a drop/pick-up mechanic similar to Thresh's Damnation. If anything, that actually makes more sense. It also serves as a way to gate his ability to get tons of kills and never run out of ammo as a result.

I also feel like that ult would be kind of awkward. It's like layering a spell on top of his auto attacks and other abilities. I don't know how to describe it, but something about it just doesn't feel right. It's not an attack modifier, it an attack addition.

What if his ult were to massively increases his attack speed (at least 100%), but also - and here's the fun part - give him the Runaans Hurricane passive. Not exactly the same, necessarily, but something similar, where attacking fires multiple projectiles that attack other enemies. Each additional projectile would consume ammo, similar to your version of his ult. With such a large attack speed buff it probably shouldn't be a toggle ability, though. Maybe give it no initial cost, but give it a duration (maybe 5-10 seconds) and longer cooldown (around 30 seconds).

Overall I really like the idea of an ammo mechanic, and feel it has quite a bit of interesting potential.

darkdill1 votes

I used to have Terminus refund Ammo on-minion-kill, but it took away from the reloading mechanic and gave him too much available Ammo. I want his mechanic to have a clear window of vulnerability (which is when he runs out of Ammo) that an enemy could exploit. Makes it more fun.

Running out of Ammo is something that is SUPPOSED to happen from time to time, just like in a first-person shooter (which is what I based the mechanic off of). Proper management of your Ammo will let you avoid being empty most of the time, but inevitably you will be caught with an empty clip while your E is on CD. In exchange, however, Terminus' damage capabilities are meant to be very strong.

As for the ultimate, I'm thinking to do something completely new, though this will also involve me having to come up with a new W skill. Here is the current prototype of the new ultimate.

Omega Burst
Terminus releases a massive energy burst from his core that damages and knocks back all nearby enemies (500 range). Enemies who were within 200 range of Terminus are also stunned for 1-1.25 seconds (undecided). Costs 10 Ammo.

Similar in design to Xin Zhao's ultimate, this ultimate is sort of a "get out of jail" card for Terminus in that it blasts back enemies who jump on him. Due to his lack of mobility and the requirement to get into melee range to utilize the stun, it shouldn't cause Terminus players to try and play initiator with him.

This is subject to change, however.

Lastly, I'm thinking to increase Terminus' Ammo capacity to 50 from 40 so he has more leeway, but I need to think about it.

CaptainWednesday2 votes

I used to have Terminus refund Ammo on-minion-kill, but it took away from the reloading mechanic and gave him too much available Ammo.

Yet you give him an ability that refunds his entire Ammo capacity? Chances are he will never run out of Ammo as long as he has some CDR.

darkdill1 votes

But said reload is also his only source of defense (it's his shield skill). Sometimes you gotta make a hard decision on whether or not to use it to block a lot of damage or to reload your weapons. Enemies can capitalize on this and force the "bad decision" onto you with burst or harass.

For instance, in lane, Terminus' bad health regeneration means if you're getting poked, you may have to use that shield to block a hit, but at the cost of your Ammo reload. Your enemy then has forced you to play less aggressively because you can't reload for a considerable amount of time.

Also, even with 40% CDR, that's 12 seconds you have to wait for a level 5 War Protocol. In a team fight, that is an eternity.

CaptainWednesday2 votes

All he had to do is build Life Steal and CDR, and he will be able to make up for any lack of defense with huge amounts of damage.

In a team fight, all he has to do is walk into the fight with 40 and Reload when he needs it. You're looking at around 80 bullets to use in the fight. That's more than enough.

darkdill1 votes

Using his abilities costs more than 1 Ammo per usage. They're meant to tax his Ammo considerably to put out nasty burst. I just haven't gotten the costs right; hard to get them right when you can't test in PBE.

Anyhow, lifesteal only works if he gets to attack. However, with 500 attack range and no attacking steroid, lifesteal can only do so much for him.

As an aside, if you could provide some ideas as to balance changes or skill tweaks, that'd help.

Pyrobob41 votes

The captain makes some good points, but you do as well.

To the point about building lifesteal, if he is out of ammo, and thus dealing far less AA damage, life steal wont be worth much.

I do feel like the costs for his abilities could be a bit higher, to better gate his damage, and improve decision making opportunities. There is plenty of room for tweaking his costs and cooldowns, but theres not much point talking about that here since we cant actually test how it feels.

Sometimes you gotta make a hard decision on whether or not to use it to block a lot of damage or to reload your weapons.

I really like this. Although I feel like most of the time people will just end up using it defensively, and be annoyed/frustrated that they run out of ammo all the time. This isn't a criticism of the ability so much as one of player skill. I can already see all the forums posts crying about always being ooa (out of ammo) because they have to use the shield defensively. But if the skill is properly tuned, thats their problem for not playing right, and not a flaw with the champion.

People should also keep in mind that his primary damage dealing ability (Q - Ion Orb/Ion Bolt) is highly skill/luck dependent. It's kind of like Jayce's shock blast into acceleration gate, only much harder to hit and less reliable. There is also some counter-play to it, as enemies could body block ion bolt part to prevent it from detonating ion orb.

I still feel like a salvage mechanic should replace the out of combat regen, though. I really hate out of combat stuff, since it encourages (or even forces) you to play super passively. It's especially toxic on ADCs who need to constantly be attacking. Ashe's current passive is an example of this. It could be balanced so that the ammo gained is very small, or very infrequent; maybe giving an average of 10 ammo returned for every 40 cs. It should only proc off minions, to prevent excessive reloading off champion kills in teamfights. I really like the potential for this to provide a clutch bit of ammo, enough to get a desperation W off, saving you life, or Q to secure a kill.

CaptainWednesday1 votes

Alright, just like PyroBob mentioned, have him refund Ammo on certain kills. Maybe like Thresh where the spawn of ammo (in Thresh's case, souls) is random, or have it spawn from certain minions, monsters, and structures.

For example: Whenever Terminus kills an enemy unit there is a chance that they will spawn 2/4/6 (scaling up at LVL 1, 6, and 11) Ammo.

OR

Whenever Terminus kills a melee minion, large minion or monster they will spawn 1/2/3 Ammo. This bonus Ammo is doubled against enemy champions and enemy structures.

The only thing I would do different is have a Clip and Ammo Capacity system. You can have up to 40 Ammo in your Clip, and 40 Ammo in your Capacity. I would rework his E to read this:

Terminus remains stationary for one second as he reloads up to 40 Ammo from his capacity into his clip. Upon finishing the reload, Terminus gains 40/50/60/70/80% Attack Speed for five seconds and half as much as Movement Speed for the duration. Cooldown: 28/26/24/22/20 seconds

This would help Terminus more than just receiving free 40 Ammo. He will have to make use of farming being close to the action to recover Ammo. When he has enough in his capacity, he can reload to go crazy with his attacks.

YouLostMe1 votes

He's a ridiculous top lane bully with unintuitive gating. Very binary playstyle, where he stomps on an enemy or gets stomped on as soon as he is caught out / out of ammo. For example: At level 1, catching an enemy out lets you double-Q for 180 + 200% AD or something like 350 damage with runes/masteries and a D-blade. It's ~50 damage less than Riven's Broken Wings combo, but at 700 range and effectively instantaneous. But that costs 25% of your resource, and you're not getting it back unless you rush a level 2 E or sit around for 10 seconds without farming.

Terminus would play in lane by blowing Q whenever it's off CD to harass his enemy out of lane, then rushing level 2 so he can get E and do it again. Get CDR blue runes or the CDR mastery for maximum spam. You will get ganked because you're always pushed up, so rush Ionian boots and never use your W unless you need to escape. Freeze the wave and zone your enemy far far away by standing to the side and threatening to use your Q. At level 6 (you will hit 6 before your opponent) you can almost ensure any kill with E -> R -> flash -> W -> Q -> Q -> Auto for something like 400 dmg + 500% AD. Best of all, this insta-kill combo costs about 30 ammo so you can take down their tower right afterwards.

darkdill1 votes

Everything in the kit is subject to change, but here you are freaking out about it.

YouLostMe1 votes

So when you said

A lot of this needs tweaking, so feedback is appreciated.

What you actually meant was

I might change any part of this kit in the future in a ways that I don't know about right now, so feedback is only appreciated if you're going to say nice things or make light suggestions.

If you don't want your resource mechanic critiqued, don't ask people to critique. If you don't want numbers critiqued, don't ask people to critique.

Willahelm Fulber1 votes

The Q - Ion Orb and Q - Ion Bolt remind me of the plasma rifle from the Unreal series of games (Unreal was released in 1998, I believe, followed a year later by Unreal Tournament). I think it -would- be cool if his W - Pneumatic Punisher interacted with projectiles, however that may be too much for his kit. Honestly, I kind of feel like his E - War Protocol might need a little bit longer cooldown, similar to the effect that Ashe's E - Hawkshot has a long cooldown, but it almost seems central to his kit when you think that he'd have to recall every 40 cs at the very least, not counting harass.

Perhaps, it might be a better idea to swap his Passive - Solid Core Rounds and his E - War Protocol, so that if Terminus runs out of ammo, after 3 seconds he will generate (20/30/40) ammo, which cannot happen again until (15/12/9) seconds have passed. The 3 seconds is to enable the opponents some counterplay, forcing him to be careful when he runs out of ammo and disabling him from spamming skills a little more.

And then his E - (now) Solid Core Rounds would be a toggle, enabling him to control when he runs out of ammo a bit more.

darkdill1 votes

UT's where I got the Q ability from. Morello actually wants to put something like it in League, but hasn't been able to yet. XD

Willahelm Fulber1 votes

I bet xD, it seems like it'd be easy... just code it like a minion! #justriotthings

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