Wondering How to Make Champions More Interesting
With some of the recent gameplay updates to old kits (Sona, Tristana, Zilean, Veigar) I felt the need to look back at the rest of the champs and wonder what might be more interesting, thematically coherent, or skillful. You might not agree; that's okay. Below are some of my thought-experiments and the reasoning behind them. (Though, I'm not the soberest right now though to be honest)
Vi's passive (a shield when she uses an ability) has potential for some awesome shield juggling. As Vi's W is a passive ability, it is not available for said juggling. This is fine however; if her denting blows did activate her shield, she'd become a cool punching champ that juggles different punching combos for efficient shielding; spell-weaving her E inbetween her third AA's.
Alistar's trample should be based on his weight; and by this I mean the damage scaling based on his maximum health. In fact, maybe even the rest of his abilities could be scaling this way (kind of like Ryze's mana). The damage could also be increased by abilities/elixers that increase his size. Why does AP increase the strength with which a giant bull tramples people underfoot?
Ahri's new movement speed on her Q made her more interesting. However, that her charm no longer increases damage; and also now has higher AP ratios sounds strange. Why does charming hurt someone? Instead of this; I believe shortening the charm's range would have been an adequate nerf without taking away the increased damage debuff. This way, with proper utilization of her Q-mspd as well as well-placed ults, would allow Ahri to dance through and around the enemy team and risk getting close enough for her shorter-ranged charm.
Diana's pickrate might increase with a little lovetap to her combo. What if using her ult immediately brought her to her passive's cleave? This way, Diana is better rewarded for charging her passive and getting in close enough to cleave, then ulting, and having the cleave reset for spellweaved damage (and even further rewards Diana for properly resetting her ult with a Q, with another cleave). The opponents would try not to fight Diana when her third strike is up. The damage would probably need to be nerfed a bit though to compensate.
Graves' passive is all about toughness. His Q is made to be more efficient the closer he is to an enemy. With this in mind, I always thought of him as sort of a gritty veteran. Imagine Graves setting up his battlefield with the smokescreen; and emerging from it right in the enemy's face; with grit in his eyes he buckshots to the face and then unleashes collateral damage. How can Graves seem a little more the type to set up the battlefield? Well, his smokescreen could have a wider radius and longer range. But in order to affect his jumps into battle; what if his quickdraw dash distance was increased when moving through his smokescreen? In compensation; as Graves is a bit too strong right now imo; in return he can lose some range/damage/mspd/or attack speed.
Shen's not in a great place right now. His identity as a ninja is hard to see since he's so focused on sustain and tanking. How can he become a little more agile (mobile) like a ninja? What if the range was significantly shorter; but it was allowed one recast within 3 seconds of the first dash (along with a decrease in damage reduction for the subsequent dash or something). Shen would quickly go from not being anything like a ninja, to completely like a ninja.
Quinn's pretty rare to see in league imo, whether in solo, team, or when watching pro games. But what can be changed? What's something small that might just be a great addition to her outplay potential? Remember the second-half of her ult? Where she jumps back in and replaces Valor? Consider that jump; that AoE skillshot that you select; what if it actually landed her on that spot? What if it allowed her to jump over walls? Such a slight change, but might be all she needs.
Ashe's passive has always disappointed me. What if, during Focus, she gained movement speed while moving away from an enemy? I always thought she was the first, premier kiting champ due to her slow. Maybe a little lovetap might increase her pickrate. On a less serious thought, what if toggling her frost arrows off actually took away some of the mana cost of her Volley and ult (while taking away all of their CCs and lowering their ranges). This way, the balance of mana for Ashe might be her main strategic decision.
Akali's E is incredibly boring. If the cooldown and energy cost of the E was increased, the slow from her shroud could be moved to her E. This way, the tactical decision to slow an opponent would be more strategic; and also allow her shroud to have a lower cooldown and energy cost as recompense. Though, it would take away the utility of throwing down a shroud somewhere simply to slow an opponent.
Corki's dash could use a little love. He's already trying to spell-cycle for his third ults; what if using his dash immediately sets up his third ult big shot? Of course, the damage would need to be decreased from his ult; but it would create more play potential.
Karthus is like a master of death. Why doesn't it feel like it? Why doesn't he seem to get stronger if there is death around him? What if his ult did more damage for simultaneous kills? An ult that's doing say 500 damage kills one person, but it leaves another person 50 from death. In this scenario, the second person near death would die as well.
Aatrox's Q (the jump) looks extremely awkward (so does his walking animation actually). In order to make Aatrox's jump more interesting (and less awkward) I imagined that it could look more like gliding if his model moved past the AoE-knock-up-zone; such that he glides past his target. This way, he may be able to coordinate better ults with the range; or move to a better position to soak damage to activate his passive. (And also make sure his jump no longer looks like a mentally unstable chicken jumping off a roof)
Nunu's made in an odd way. Instead of his old passive, it might be prudent to give him a stacking mini-Frozen Hammer effect in his Auto-attacks instead (light slow). With such a change, he'd be a slowing jungler; he throws a snowball to be able to get close, to then AA him to try and slow him down, all the while bloodboiling for movement speed (and aspd for more AAs), in order to get in a good position to ult. Actually, his ult could make more sense too. Imagine a big yeti raises his arms (channeling) as the range of the AoE is increased; not the damage. This way; his duty of trying to get in the best position is all the more important.
Shyvana's passive is pretty boring too, without any play potential. What if instead, she gains magic resist and defense for every skill that is not on cooldown? Shyvana is too much of a face-roll champion. This way, a player might be more strategic in spell-weaving; leaving some abilities up in favor of defense. In addition to this, it would double when she's a dragon.
Kog'Maw's passive always seemed extremely odd from a sniper champion. I wondered what might increase the in-game identity of Kog'Maw (adorable acid-spitting mutant) and I wondered if maybe it could be incorporated into his odd passive. What if the slime animation from his E and his ult stayed on the field for a few seconds longer. The after-ooze wouldn't affect enemies in any way, but it would allow Kog'Maw slight increased mspd while slipping in his own slime. He'd be setting up escape routes for himself or entrances into the fight. And what if, while dead; his moving body has even further movement speed when running through slime? His passive would finally seem cohesive to his kit.
