Barnaby, the Hextech Driller

Role: AD Tank, Jungler

Inspiration: Three years ago when I first designed Barnaby, many players had been asking and/or proposing the concept of a champion that could ‘dig’ underground and create tunnels. After seeing such a demand for this style of champion, I decided to take a stab at the idea and created Barnaby. Flash forward and now we have Rek’sai, who finally made good on the dream of so many League players.

I love Rek’sai and Riot did a great job avoiding too many of the cliches and stereotypes of such a concept. That said, I think Barnaby is unique enough in his own right to warrant me publishing him, despite the fact that League no longer has room for another digging and tunneling champion.

General Design Philosophy: Barnaby is a jungler and tank designed to provide immense team utility and chasing potential. His damage output is quite low, relying on teammates to capitalize on the plays he makes. Barnaby can toggle between two forms, where he is either on land or submerged underground. Barnaby enjoys several powerful benefits when submerged, at the expense of his other abilities’ power.

Risk Analysis: High. A team-wide version of Thresh’ Lantern is an incredibly powerful tool, the core of which may prove to be too powerful regardless of its balance. The rest of Barnaby’s kit is both thematically and mechanically new and interesting, and it makes sense that this type of champion is so often requested by players and designers alike.

Appearance: A young male Yordle piloting a treaded drill tank with a capsule dome cockpit. A small pivoting cannon rests on the back of the tank and there are large boosters on the back of it. When submerged underground, the tank only reveals its roof, cannon and dome capsule.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/C3740P0048_zpsrjjyljon.jpg

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/midori_kgmogura_02_zpsh1nlzx5c.jpg

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/nutloosephoto01_zpst6uicdyr.jpg

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/tumblr_n9ndm7zEOG1qli7fjo1_500_zpsv02vqube.jpg Barnaby himself

Lore: Missing, possibly Rumble’s brother or rival?

Strengths: Ability to initiate from incredible distances and take his team along for the ride, powerful damage reduction and speed modifiers, ability to create impassible terrain

Weaknesses: Very low personal damage, reliant on teammates to capitalize on utility, bogged down by hard forms of crowd control

Plays Most Like...:

Auto Attack: Barnaby's drill coils outward, dealing physical damage at an impressively long melee range (200). When submerged, Barnaby cannot auto attack.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_12138_pas_zpswtqik4kt.jpg Passive- Super-heated Plating: Barnaby's drill tank gains heat energy when traveling underground, manifesting as an increasingly powerful shield the further he travels, up to a cap that scales with level. This shield only takes effect after emerging from the ground. Design Philosophy: Barnaby is most likely traveling underground to emerge directly underneath an enemy team. To encourage this type of behavior and to help Barnaby survive while performing his primary function, this ability grants him a shield that promotes long-distance initiations, even when his team hasn’t quite been able to catch up to him yet.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_17952_pas_zpsupsazcao.jpg Q- Cannon Barrage (5 seconds): Barnaby fires a cannonball at a target location (475 range), dealing AoE physical damage in a small area. In addition, these blasts leave small craters at their point of impact, creating impassible terrain for 1.5 seconds. This ability deals 50% damage when Barnaby is submerged. Design Philosophy: Barnaby’s abilities are all hindered when he is submerged, in order to compensate for the sheer power that the submergence grants him. In this case, his primary damage ability is cut in half. The tiny dots of impassible terrain help ensure that Barnaby can catch up to anyone he’s chasing, especially since the craters do not affect him while submerged.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_11147_pas_zpssgm6mtc5.jpg W- Hextech Boosters (11 seconds): Barnaby activates his drill tank's boosters, gaining a 15/20/25/30/35% burst of speed for 6 seconds. Targeting an enemy unit will cause Barnaby to steer towards them, and colliding with an enemy unit while the boosters are active causes them to take physical damage and shreds their armor by 12/16/20/24/28% for 4 seconds. Multiple units can be struck with this ability simultaneously in a small cone in front of the drill. The boost effect is lost upon impact with an enemy. When submerged, the speed boost is increased by 50% but there is no damage or armor shred component to the ability. Barnaby can dive/surface while the boosters are active. Rank-ups increase damage, speed and armor shred and lower cooldown. Design Philosophy: This ability is very similar to Rammus’ Powerball. Barnaby gains greatly enhanced speed while submerged at the expense of the damaging and armor shred component, allowing him to have answers both when caught off guard and standing his ground, or when needing to gain ground very rapidly.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_10481_btn_zpstozfwiq8.jpg E- Dive/Surface (4 seconds/1 second): A toggleable ability that causes Barnaby to either dive into the ground or emerge from it. Dive: Over .5 seconds, Barnaby dives underground, leaving only a small portion of his drill tank above the surface. He can continue moving normally once submerged, and takes 20/22.5/25/27.5/30% reduced damage from all sources. Barnaby ignores unit collision when underground. However, his other abilities are weakened. Surface: Barnaby bursts from the ground drill-first, dealing physical damage to all nearby enemies and displacing them away from the point of emergence. Enemies are then slowed by 30% for 2 seconds. Rank-ups increase damage done and increase damage reduction percentage. Design Philosophy: Diving allows Barnaby to travel quickly around the map and incur reduced damage on his way to his target. He cannot dive under trees, buildings, towers, etc., however. The surfacing portion of this ability functions similarly to Chogath’s Rupture, and allows Barnaby a chance to get a few auto attacks in upon his emergence.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_16807_pas_zpsd7eqpr7d.jpg R- Tunnel Vision (75 seconds): (available only when submerged) Barnaby creates a tunnel entrance at his current location. After 8 seconds or when Barnaby chooses to surface, he creates a second tunnel at his current location. Barnaby becomes immune to slowing effects for the duration. Allied champions who right click a tunnel within range of it will rapidly travel towards the other end, becoming briefly untargetable while traveling (similar to Thresh's lantern). Allies can only travel through a tunnel once. This tunnel lasts up to 12 seconds before collapsing. Enemy champions can also destroy the tunnel by attacking it 10 times. The tunnel collapses if either end is destroyed. Design Philosophy: This ability provides amazing utility and allows Barnaby the opportunity to essentially take his teammates with him during a wildly fast engagement over a long distance. The slowing immunity allows Barnaby the ability to travel to where he needs to go. This ability has an incredibly high cooldown due to its game-changing utility.

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