Warhammer Champion Concept: Skarsnik

Recently me and a friend tasked each other with imagining the last video game character we've played as as League champions, and having been totally addicted to Total War: Warhammer in the past few months, Snarskik ended up being the character I had to translate. I think the idea would work best as a top laner focusing on attack damage with assassin-like build paths, but someone with memes on the brain could possibly make him work as an AD support. Enjoy!

Skarsnik, the King under the Mountain

-Base Stats- Health: 517 Health Regen: 5 Mana: 266 Mana Regen: 7 Range: 235 (Melee) Attack Damage: 57 Attack Speed: 0.65 Armor: 25 Magic Resist: 31 Move Speed: 350

Proper base stat distribution is probably the area where I'm least knowledgeable. The goal was to give him lower than average starting health and mana, but offsetting it with a long attack range for a melee champion (thanks to his magical trident, the Prodder).

Passive: Gobbla!

Skarsnik is always accompanied by his loyal pet Cave Squig, Gobbla. Skarsnik's auto attacks only deal 50% of his total AD as damage, but Gobbla will periodically bite at enemies within 150 units of Skarsnik, prioritizing Skarsnik's targets. Gobbla deals [50%-80%] of Skarsnik's total AD per attack and applies on-hit effects but is locked at 0.65 attack speed.

Although treated in-game as one entity, Skarsnik would always have his ferocious companion Gobbla at his side, acting as a sort of permanent Kindred W with a very tiny range. Although Skarsnik himself has a much higher than average attack range for a melee character, it's offset by lower damage per auto attack. Although he can comfortably poke the enemy full of holes, he won't do much until he gets in close to let Gobbla take a bite out of the enemy.

Q: Sic 'Em! 8-6 second cooldown Targetted Ability, 200 Range

Skarsnik commands Gobbla to take a large bite of a target enemy, dealing [35-150 +60% AD] damage and slowing the target by [30-60%] for 1.5 seconds. Sic 'Em!'s range is increased to 1000 against enemies affected by any hard crowd control.

A pretty simple point-and-click ability that'll be handy for trades, chasing fleeing enemies and escaping pursuers, but somewhat limited by its normally short range. Enemies trapped by either Skarsnik or his allies, however, can be targeted from extremely far away, allowing distance to easily be created or covered.

W: Skarsnik's Prodda 16-9 second cooldown Skillshot, 900 Range

Skarsnik fires a bolt of enemy from the tip of his pike, dealing magic damage to the first target struck, and causing them to take [20%-40%] increased damage from Gobbla, Nasty Skulkers, and allied champions for 4 seconds.

What I think is a real unique way to add burst damage to a champion's kit in a way that's still helpful if he falls behind, and rewards planning and leading enemies into traps and teammates over just jumping on a squishy and making their health bar go away. If you're wondering what on earth a Nasty Skulker is, don't worry! Just keep reading and it'll be clear. In the Warhammer tabletop game, Skarsnik gets a spell that grows in power the more allied Night Goblin units are near him. I thought that instead having the attack empower allies would be a fun way to pay homage to the iconic ability and reinforce his theme as a cunning leader.

E: Tricksy Traps 18-12 second cooldown Trap, 550 Range

Skarsnik places an invisible trap at the target location and gains a short burst of [25%-55%] bonus movement speed for 1 second. The trap arms after 2 seconds, and is invisible until detonated. The first enemy who walks over the trap will detonate it, stunning them for [1-1.5] seconds and reapplying the movement speed bonus. Traps last [8-16] seconds.

Unlike most traps, this one is not visible while being armed. Although enemies with vision of Skarsnik will see from his animation that he's placed a trap somewhere, its unique invisibility and the somewhat generous cast range will prevent them from knowing exactly where it is until it's too late. Combos with Skarsnik's Q, allowing him to hit the enemy from quite far away. Traps last very little time, however, and are not useful for covering jungle routes the way many other champions' are. Also makes you fast, wee!

R (Active): Ambush! 110-70 second cooldown Self-Target, 1000 Radius

Skarsnik designates his current location as the perfect place to set up an ambush, creating a zone after 6 seconds in which [3/4/5] Nasty Skulkers will lie in wait for the perfect moment to strike. Upon any enemy within the zone being affected by hard crowd control, they will leap to them and attack with a flurry of dagger swings. Nasty Skulkers have a portion of Skarsnik's Health and Attack Damage, 100% of his Attack Speed, and [40%+5% per 100 AD] Armor Penetration. Nasty Skulkers will continue targeting their initial target their death, will target other nearby champions if their target becomes unavailable, and will follow Skarsnik if there are no nearby enemy champions left. The zone lasts [30/40/50] seconds and the Nasty Skulkers will remain active for up to 20 seconds before retreating back to the shadows.

R (Passive): Drippin' Tips

Skarsnik and Nasty Skulker basic attacks deal 2/3/4% of the target's maximum health as magic damage over 2 seconds

A personal favourite unit of mine, Nasty Skulkers in Warhammer are a special group of stealthy goblins that excel in surprising unsuspecting enemies before dealing lethal armor piercing damage, and a bunch of them laying in ambush felt like the perfect ability to cap off Snarsnik's kit. The passive portion makes Skarsnik a little more threatening in duel situations and adds in one of my favourite unique abilities of his from Total War: Warhammer. Note that the passive would be refreshed by additional basic attacks but would not stack (that would be crazy!).

In the Warhammer lore, Skarsnik is arguably the most powerful Goblin warboss to ever live (zogg off, Grom), and an expert strategist who relies on cunning ambush strategies to lead his tribe of Orcs, Goblins, and other angry green things to victory. I felt that the best way to translate this into League was to make him a sneaky but squishy champion who is great at kiting and leading unsuspecting enemies into his allies. Although he alone might not have that much burst damage, he excels at teamfights where he can make the best use of Skarsnik's Prodda's bonus damage and allied CC can help him effectively cast Sic 'Em and Ambush!.Hopefully I've come up with something that'll be fun to look through both for big Warhammer vets and people who've never even heard of a goblin before.

Thank you to anybody who's taken the time to read through all of this <3