Kayle VGU
First of all, when I first started playing LoL (quite a many years ago now), Kayle was one of the first champions I played. She has always been a staple to me, the only reason I stopped playing her was due to the lack of interesting or flashy options for her, she has a rather linear kit, and her current ultimate eats up too much power. Due to the 'ease' of playing her (to the basic level), lack of skill-shots, and overbearing ultimate, a lot of her available 'power' has been locked away by it, she's not able to have an interesting kit to match her theme with her current ultimate. More on this in a minute.
To start off with, Kayle's thematic identity needs a slight work around, due to lore changes she should probably be more of a counter-agent of the Darkkin (working against them as an existing force for 'good'). Her base theme (and skin), would be centered more around the Arclight series, comparable to Arclight Varus and Yorick in base-skin. The helmet would need to go, and be changed a little bit (perhaps more an open-ended helm, where one may see her face; current helm looks very outdated). The 'unmasked kayle' could do something a bit more different, perhaps changing the model a little bit, adding in a crown (or something similar), slight changes to make the champ look a bit more modern and in line with what we expect visually.
Now for the most important part, ability changes:
Passive: Stoking Fire Kayle's abilities cause a current of righteous fire to flow through her sword, temporarily giving her access to ranged attacks. This is in place of her E, any ability she uses would automatically trigger this effect, including her ultimate. It would stack up to say 12 seconds (4 seconds added an ability). This would add in some AP scaling for her main attack as well as some splash on top of it.
Kayle does not use mana, she instead utilizes a resource called Righteous Fire (in place of red make it fiery-warping around while looking at it). After her Righteous Fire bar is 100% filled, her next ability gains additional effects, and consumes all of the Righteous Fire. This is generated by attacks and abilities that do damage to enemy units.
Q: Sword of the Righteous - 8 second cd Kayle conjures a sword made of pure fire (0.25 second channel time; enables better chance for enemy dodging, as well as reducing the 'cost' this has on the rest of her kit, giving her more points to put elsewhere), and then flings it in a line (shaped like a triangle), the tip of the sword deals double damage, and passes through all units stopping at the first champion hit. Generates some-moderate fire (more for hitting sword-point). Low-base damage, requires good accuracy or resource-expenditure in order to be good. Brief (0.25 second) 50% slow after enemy champion is hit.
When used at 100% Righteous Fire, Kayle instead flings four swords, each dealing 50% damage of the regular, all converging at the same point. The tip of each sword deals an additional 50% damage (75% of regular sword damage per sword tip that hits; up to 300% increased damage ONLY if all four swords hit the target in the center of their line; heavy skillshot oriented; damage for 'missing' the sword-point will be significantly lessened by comparison). Usually the Sword goes straight from you, but in this case they materialize in an arc around you, all four going down the path all the same.
W: Divine Shield - 12 second cd Kayle raises a hand, and summons a shield of pure light that lasts for 1.5 seconds, the first enemy champion attack or ability that attempts to pass through the shield will instead be absorbed, granting Kayle a sizable chunk of Righteous Fire. 'Skillshot' kinda like Braum's shield, goes a little bit further out, and does move with her.
If instead used at 100% Righteous Fire, Kayle's shield is 50% larger, and will not only absorb the first attack or ability, but also explodes in a circle, damaging and slowing all nearby enemies (size of Lux E), and applying a light DoT effect.
E: Righteous Fury - 20 second cd Kayle's next five attacks will light the enemy on fire with a dot, reducing their movement speed. If Kayle is able to land all five attacks within four seconds, Four Swords of the Righteous appear and strike out at the target as if having been casting with 100% Righteous Fire, without consuming any resources or cooldowns.
If used at 100% Righteous Fire, Kayle summons a second sword made of pure fire, gaining increased attack speed, splash damage, and movement speed. Base effect of casting a free Sword of the Righteous (empowered) is still kept.
R: Reckoning - 300 seconds (150 if used at 100% Righteous Fury; read below as it changes ability) Kayle draws forth her sword, pulling her sword up high, before slashing down faster than the eye can see, causing a massive wall of flames to erupt for 5 seconds in a line, from her to the end point (comparable in length to Vel'Koz R). All enemies caught within the initial inferno take sizable damage, and are marred by the fires, taking increasingly high damage the longer they stay within them. All enemies are slowed while within the fires, and for 1.5 seconds after exiting them, the mark lasts 6 seconds (to prevent someone from standing within the fire after having been hit by it initially). Enemies not hit by the initial strike take significantly less damage from the fires, but are still burned over time and slowed.
If used at 100% Righteous Fire (yes even the ult has this option), it instead is used as a (skillshot) 'sweep' (cone), dealing 50% more initial damage, and leaving a burning patch for 2.5 seconds (again dealing increased damage and slowing to anyone who remains within it). Additionally, the ultimate's cooldown is reduced by half if used this way.
What would this look like in lane? Kayle walks up to Darius, begins with a Q that hits, slowing him, begins using her E in an attempt to get a free Righteous Sword - empowered on him, however he counters by using his E, readily counter acting it with a W, Kayle is forced to retreat as the time to get the final attacks to trigger her free ability-use is over. Darius is now free to farm for a few seconds due to Kayle's cooldowns, and if she is to try anything, would be without an ability to escape or survive.
What about against a ranged match-up? The enemy Veigar tosses out a Q, Kayle responds by blocking it with a W, before retaliating with a Q, and having to back off before being able to go all in due to Veigar W being tossed out to block her response.
What is the Goal of this, why does she need it? Goal here is to give some clear and present counterplay, and allow for more-interesting dynamics to be created without sacrificing the core 'theme' of the kit. She is still 'all about' auto attacking, but at the same time will reward and require consistently good aim, knowing when to and not to engage, as well as the ability to react and block what abilities you need to.
And what would counter her? She has low mobility, and reasonably lengthy cooldowns, meaning it is possible to exploit her poor positioning with coordinated ganks, as well as following up and engaging on her after she has used her primary (and powerful) abilities. She no longer has an invulnerability shield, meaning she would be far more wary than now about Assassins, so Midlane in particular would be dangerous, as despite needing to remain in a shorter lane (cost of low-no mobility), it would put her at the mercy of being outplayed by a Zed or Yasuo. By taking away her speed up and heal, replacing them with a far more powerful ability-absorbing basic-ability (can absorb ANY projectile-like a Yasuo wall could), you increase the potential of the champion to be used at all elos, making them far more interesting to be main'ed.
Yasuo for example, Kayle manages to get off several of her E-empowered autos, triggering the four Swords of the Righteous to appear, and simultaneously (as it immediately refreshes cooldown), summons another four after those (using up her 100% Righteous Fire as well), meaning Yasuo is in trouble, he runs the risk of taking some heavy AP Burst if he isn't careful, at the last second as they all converge, he blocks them with a well-timed wind wall, forcing Kayle to expend a lot of resources (and use up a lot of her allocated power balance), for little of his own.
What kind of builds does this open? The current-attackspeed build would still work fine for those who prefer it, however AP builds would be possible too now. She scales with AP on all of her abilities, Passive, Q, W, E (empowered), and R, she will likely want to take a Nashor's took at the least (to make triggering her E passive easier), but full or mostly-full AP Kayle would be a solid option.
Please discuss below your thoughts on it, and any suggestions.