Karthus Rework/Update Concept
Hi guys! 
I'm kariomart, a student currently enrolled in NYUs Game Design BFA. I've been thinking small/medium champion updates and how to apply what I've learned on meaningful choice, positive/negative feedback, etc. to league characters currently lacking in play. The first one I tried to tackle was Karthus, and I couldn't have done it without the help of my buddy Tyler, you can add him on league and ask him questions @BitProdigy. Let's get into it.
Karthus has historically been one of league’s most polarizing champions. At one point, he dominated the competitive scene with his passive farming and his global pressure. However, as champs become more and more mobile, Karthus sees less and less play. I like the simple design space Karthus occupies-- he’s easy to pickup and play, but learning his true potential takes a while. However, I think he could have more interesting and interactive tools to encourage more compelling gameplay patterns.
If there’s one thing that’s definitely core to Karthus, it’s his ultimate. For obvious reasons, that has to stay. Along with Requiem, his Q: Lay Waste, and W: Wall of Pain are staying pretty close to him. Lay Waste now includes a soraka-like inner/outer ring, where enemies in the inner ring take more damage. The single target amplification that was there before is still there, but it also re-applies the slow from Wall of Pain. Speaking of Wall of Pain, it’s now been moved from his W to his E, in line with most of leagues longer cooldown, movement crippling abilities. Finally, he has a new W: Spiritual Awakening, which gives him the right tools at the right times. Lastly, his passive now augments each of his basic abilities, attempting to play into the transcendental-death-being he is.
Abilities Passive: Death Defied _There isn’t really any problems with his passive-- it’s already extremely unique. As a result, it’s staying mostly the same with some added augmentations to his other abilities while dead: _
Upon taking fatal damage, Karthus remains active for 7 seconds, rendering himself unable to move, to use basic attacks, or to use item actives/passives, but becoming untargetable and invulnerable for the duration as well as having refreshed basic abilities and them at no cost. His basic abilities are also slightly augmented while dead.
Q: Lay Waste _Karthus’ original Lay Waste felt bad for a number of reasons. For starters, the hitbox felt a little bit too small and was often frustrating to utilize until you log enough games on the champ. I wanted to take that skill ceiling, but move it to a less frustrating design space. The result is a slightly powerful but higher cooldown. Lay Waste now covers a wider area, with an outer/inner circle effect kind of like Soraka or Darius. However, Lay Waste still retains the double damage to single targets, as this creates interesting interactions and counterplay opportunity (walk near minions, jungle camps, group up, etc.) I’m hoping that the raised effectiveness but also cooldown of Lay Waste makes players put more thought into each Q instead of mindlessly spamming it. _
_Another small thing I’m giving to Lay Waste is the replenished Wall of Pain slow. Unless you’re a Q-landing God, Rylais is pretty much core to sticking on enemies and landing that good waste. To try and get rid of that crutch, inner circle (doesn’t have to be single target) lay wastes re-apply a slow recently given by Wall of Pain while the wall is still up. To balance this out I’m dropping the armor/MR shred it currently has. _
Karthus detonates target area in cursor’s location after a 0.5s delay, dealing magic damage to all units, increasing if they are inside the inner circle, and doubled when only hitting a single target. WHILE DEAD: Cooldown is halved.
W: Spiritual Awakening / Nefarious Mists
Karthus is extremely immobile and squishy. Rather than just make him more mobile and less squishy, it’s more interesting to solve these design challenges with other tools.
To help his squishiness, I’m giving him an AoE knockback in replace of his old E. Old Karthus’ Defile toggle goes against a good amount of Riots current design philosophy with meaningful choice (see: muramana) and is outclassed in most ways by a toggle Aurelion Sol’s Celestial Expansion. So, I think it’s either scrap the AoE or keep it on permanently, in which I went with the former. Now instead of just accepting death as the enemy Kha'zix jumps on you, you can bounce him back, allowing you to play an important role in the teamfight prior to dying, unlike Karthus currently.
While dead, you can pull enemies towards you, comboing with other AoE abilities and giving you more of a chance to amplify the damage of your ultimate. Part of what I think is frustrating about his passive is just watching enemies run away after they kill you, dodging your lay wastes. Sure, you get the occasional gimmick kill in a 1for1 trade, but it doesn’t feel satisfying.
Okay, Black Mist time. I wanted to keep at least a little of the old Defile with ties to Karthus’ theme. Right now, getting killed by Karthus ult is usually avoidable for various reasons, so there isn’t that big of punishment when you do die to it. Rather than, Oh god, Karthus just harvested my soul, you just see Janna smart-ping her shield “Eye of the Storm - Ready” followed by “oops”. That’s lame. Also, in this reworked iteration of Karthus, I’m imagining much less kill potential, less spamming, and higher cds with meaningful results, which means probably less kills. But when he does get kills, oh boy.
_Anyways, rant aside, there are a couple core reasons I think Black Mist is good for Karthus:
- Gives him footstep information (like rek’sai), which another way to give him a type of mobility.
- Plays into the shadow isles/death theme
- Is an interesting and somewhat unique effect, making players really think hard if they want to be greedy and try to kill squishy Karthus-- another way of making him “tankier”_
Keep in mind Black Mist would be expand relatively slow and vamp very low values, the idea is just to punish players for staying around with low health and make it meaningful when Karthus gets a kill anywhere. Could be totally not balanced and a terrible mechanic. I think it has serious potential though.
Karthus shrieks, dealing magic damage and knocking back enemies in close proximity to him. Whenever Karthus kills an enemy himself, a patch of Black Mist spawns on their corpse. Black mist slowly expands, revealing footsteps and vamping small amounts of health and mana from enemies affected back to Karthus. All currently active black mist is cleared when Karthus dies.
WHILE DEAD: Karthus sings, dealing magic damage to all enemies near, pulling them towards him.
E: Wall of Pain Not much to say here, moved it to his E and dropped the MR/armor reduction in favor of replenishing slows on q. I think the wall would be a bit thicker or the graphic changed it currently feels a little off and a little less p a i n f u l.
Karthus creates a wall at the target location for 5 seconds. During the duration, the wall grants sight around it, and enemy units that cross it are extremely slowed, decaying over time.
Hitting single target lay waste replenishes walls slow while it’s up with diminishing returns per Q’s landed. WHILE DEAD: The slow is doubled.
R: Requiem As mentioned Requiem is core to Karthus’ gameplay, but now with the added passive and black mist spawns it’ll do less damage overall, incentivizing more aggressive ults in dragon fights rather sitting at tower and ulting the marksman that lives with 10 hp botlane.
Karthus channels for 3 seconds and deals magic damage to all enemy champions upon its completion. Requiem does bonus damage to targets who have taken damage from Karthus recently.
Overall, I’m trying to strike a balance between the different options Karthus has in this new kit. For example, his passive augments all of his basic abilities, and you might just have to suicide to win a teamfight, but as a result, you lose your life and all of your black mist. For Karthus players, it’s this constant battle between life or death, playing into his thematic narrative. My hope is that at the least this gives his kit more interaction and meaningful choice and with fine tuned numbers I’m fairly confident this wouldn’t break the game... :D
I'd love feedback on formatting/how overpowered this probably is/Karthus/anything!
league: kariomart twitter: @martikle www.martikle.com
