New Mechanic: Temporary Damage

Prime Strategist·7/20/2015, 7:49:24 PM·45 votes·3,188 views

What if you could inflict a sort of 'negative shield' onto your opponent? Temporary damage that would restore health back to your opponent after a certain time, but would still be completely lethal if your enemy ever drops below zero.

This would allow for some interesting spells, such as a balanced high damage finisher - that can really only be used as a finisher.

A couple edits:

It wouldn't have to be a skill with 100% 'grey damage', it could do part temporary and part real.
Another option (that I like a lot better) is a champion who after a basic combo could choose between: (a) A high damage finisher that does a bunch more 'grey damage' (b) A low damage trading option that 'procs' the temporary damage to make it stick.

I appreciate all the feedback!

54 Comments

Durzaka7/20/2015, 8:38:03 PM18 votes

That doesnt sound fun to use at all.

You are effectively creating an execute, that is all it is. A skill that has no use except when someone is already going to die, or is already in kill range. And outside of that you cant ever use it because it wouldnt do anything.

diamondlight7/21/2015, 3:04:51 AM4 votes

Grey Death.

Rueian7/20/2015, 7:50:15 PM3 votes

Reminds me of the illusion skill tree in City of Heroes

Szunray7/21/2015, 12:53:42 AM2 votes

Imagine; A champion who does insane amounts of temporary damage the closer the enemy is to full health. Hardly damages anyone on his own, but sets up easy kills for his team.

RedCyclone7/20/2015, 8:34:25 PM2 votes

I don't think Riot can swing it in a satisfying way

On one hand, the temp damage would be too little/drop off too fast and feel like crap to use Or on the other, it being a main part of a champions kit and doing too much damage probably stacked ontop of other damage sources

UPfreely7/20/2015, 8:36:08 PM2 votes

tahm basically does this with his e passive

The Loveless7/20/2015, 11:29:02 PM1 votes

Sounds like the white health bars from darkstalkers. It's a cool idea by it kinda of shives out low dps/sustained damage since most people would probably run away and heal.

SuperSourCat7/20/2015, 11:58:10 PM1 votes

So Tahm Kench…

SwainDaRokJensen7/21/2015, 2:10:46 AM1 votes

Kind of how Gray Health works on Tahm right now, I assume that is where you got the idea

ƒoes7/21/2015, 2:20:38 AM1 votes

It kind of sounds like the opposite of Tahm Kench's E.

High57/21/2015, 3:15:50 AM1 votes

I'm open minded, but this seems like an odd idea.

We do have armor pen and magic pen that kind of fill this role. There are also abilities like Lulu's polymorph and Morg's shield that augment and disable abilities too.

Like many of the other comments, I'm not quite sure how this would work in a fun sort of way.

ModCaptainMårvelous7/21/2015, 3:49:43 AM1 votes

I've actually tinkered with this idea on a concept or two. Generally....

Seems to work better as a support-skill than a part of a nuker/DoT kit.
It has to be true damage, otherwise it's next-to-useless.
It works best as a small amount of "extra" damage. A debuff/curse. (10/20/30/40/50 true damage per auto, for example)
The way it works with grievous wounds makes or breaks this ability. If it works, it's dangerous. If it doesn't, I'd guess balanced?

I imagine this would be most useful on a kit that prioritizes disengage rather than using it as an execute. A debuff that you have to get away from or risk dying while it's on. Alternatively, fighting through the pain and surviving as your HP comes back.

SoMNia7/21/2015, 4:12:01 AM1 votes

THIS is what Miss Fortune's Impure Shots should do. Same amount of damage, same stacking mechanism, but temporary damage rather than magic damage. Not reduced by armor/MR, but starts to heal if they take no damage for a while.

Another note: all healing goes to temporary damage first?

FatalHalo7/21/2015, 4:50:28 AM1 votes

Change Darius Passive to deal temporary damage. Makes more sense that enemies bleed, but heal after awhile unless they die from the passive. The temporary damage bar could turn crimson red giving Darius an execution indicator, which tells Darius that his Ult would finish his target off. Somewhat like Chogath execution indicator.

Also an Idea, give temporary damage a time, where the enemy who took temporary damage loses partial health return from the temporary damage if they stay in combat too long.

LlamaSpeed7/21/2015, 5:08:28 AM1 votes

I personally think this is a wonderful idea, people mostly focus on what you can't do rather than what you can, this mechanic would allow so many nice combos with champion spells and very interesting abilities, i like this idea a lot!

Blastumz7/21/2015, 8:12:31 AM1 votes

League of Legend's Necrotic Strike.

Ethri7/21/2015, 8:37:01 AM1 votes

I think it would be more interesting to have a skill that increased the duration of teammate skills on a specific target.

Think of all the possible interactions.

Verandure7/21/2015, 11:45:07 AM1 votes

To make it more useful, you could pair it with a self-heal.

The spell damages the enemy, temporarily, and slowly heals them for a portion of the damage taken while simultaneously healing the caster for that same amount.

YOU BEEN WARNED7/21/2015, 1:47:06 PM1 votes

Sooo Oracle from DotA?

Knight SoIaire 7/21/2015, 2:53:39 PM1 votes

but what if we go even further with your idea ?

conditional damage kalista's w could use that mechanic ... grey health shows what damage can it do

many skills that have a certain requirement to deal some bonus damage could use it ... zed's ultimate would be great ... since his current ult indicator sucks

LoLKurisu7/21/2015, 5:59:45 PM1 votes

Sounds like Necrophos Q+E (Dota 2)

Sire Hippington7/20/2015, 9:41:05 PM1 votes

i don't think a inverted shield would be that great, it would either feel horrible fir the user, as the skill potentially does nothing, or it feels horrible for the victim, as the potential damage of that skill would be rather high to blance out the fail-case.

However, going a 'Grey Health' approach, makeing a high damage skill that applys a % off it's damage as Grey Health which regens back if the target didn't recive damage for a while could work. It would not be only an execute, but an all-in tool, and if you don't get the kill atleast some off the damage sticks

Jungle Lux God7/20/2015, 10:49:53 PM1 votes

This is a cool idea with a lot of potential, although I doubt that we'd see more than one or two champions with this kind of ability.

It's almost like a reverse grey-health system where you deal damage, and some of the damage would be healed back after a certain amount of time on Tahm Kench, or the red-health system used in some fighting games, which is the system that inspired Tahm Kench's grey health system and works similarly, although it may have restrictions.

In particular I could see this being used on bruisers or assassins, where the champion could have fairly high base damages, but needs to commit to engages in order to make the damage stick, and need to constantly be using their damage tools in order to make their damage count.