[Champion Concept] Arc - The Envoy of the Storm

Fire/Water/Earth/Wind/Ice all have good representation somewhere within the games champion pool, but I've never really liked the representation of lightning/electricity in League of Legends. Lightning/Electricity has always been my favorite element, but the only champions League of Legends has to showcase it are Kennen and Volibear. Volibear basically feels like a champion who randomly has electricity on his ult for no reason and Kennen is alright with his passive and W, but his Q/E/R feel like damaging abilities that just happen to have electrical particle effects. I felt there was plenty of room to show more unique, dynamic, and fun applications of the element in the game, so I created:

Arc - The Envoy of the Storm Alternate Title - The Envoy of Thunder

Roll : Mage (teamfight, zone-control, seige) Stats - Attack Range: 500, Movespeed: 330, Others: N/A

[Passive] - Static Charge: Basic attacks against enemies Charge them for the next 5 seconds. Arc gains an additional 2/4/6/8% Attack Speed (at levels 1/6/11/16) for each Charged target within 1000 units. Additional basic attacks on Charged targets create an additional spark, dealing 3 + (3 * Arc's level) (+15% AP) bonus magic damage.

[Q] - Chain Lightning - Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6 Arc shoots a surge of electricity damaging the first enemy struck dealing 80/120/160/200/240 (+70% AP) magic damage and slowing them by 30/35/40/45/50% for 1 second. After striking an enemy or Lightning Rod, Chain Lightning then bounces to the nearest unaffected Lightning Rod or Charged enemy champion within 750 units dealing half the original damage (40/60/80/100/120 (+35% AP)) to all enemies passed through.

(Chain Lightning is a projectile with moderately fast projectile speed and moderate range. Although lightning would be expected to be nearly instantaneous, it needs to function like a regular projectile for gameplay and balance purposes. Enemies may take damage from Chain Lightning multiple times, but only once per bounce.)

[W] - Lightning Rod - Cooldown: 2/1.75/1.5/1.25/1 - Recharge Time: 15 - Maximum Charges: 2/3/4/5/6 Passive: Arc gains 2/4/6/8/10% Movement Speed for each placed Lightning Rod within 1000 units. Each placed Lightning Rod counts as a Charged target for Static Charge's Attack Speed.

Active: Arc throws a Lightning Rod to target location dealing 25/40/55/70/85 (+100% Bonus AD) physical damage to all enemies passed through. The Lighting Rod remains at target location for 10 seconds granting sight of a small area around it.

(Lightning Rods can be destroyed in 3 or 5 basic attacks)

[E] - Magnetic Dash - Cooldown: 16/14/12/10/8 Arc dashes 300 units in target direction, then quickly dashes to the nearest Lightning Rod or Charged enemy champion within 400 units. All enemies passed through take 50/75/100/125/150 (+50% AP) magic damage and are slowed by 60% for 1/1.2/1.4/1.6/1.8 seconds. Dashing to a Charged enemy champion overloads the Charge, consuming it and stunning them for the duration instead.

[R] - Storm Call - Cooldown: 90/75/60 After a 0.75/0.625/0.5 second channel, Arc calls down a large bolt of lightning to all Lightning Rods, dealing 100/200/300 (+50% AP) magic damage to all nearby enemies within 200 units. Charged enemy champions within 1000 units of Arc are hit with an additional direct bolt of lightning for 50/100/150 (+25% AP) magic damage. Enemies hit by bolts from multiple Lightning Rods take half damage from each additional bolt.

Preferred Items: , , , , , Potential Items: , , , , , ,

Some thoughts on design choices:

• If all of his power was put into his abilities, he has the potential to win fights solely by sitting far away shooting Q's at max range at nearby Lightning Rods without putting himself in any danger. By diverting a portion of his damage into his auto attacks, he is encouraged to stay near enemies to put down his full damage, exposing him to danger.

• Arc can attack the minions in a minion wave to gain a respectable amount of attack speed during laning phase, but by doing this he would be consistently pushing the wave which would open him up to jungle ganks. Either way, it still takes ample time to gain the attack speed, giving his lane opponent time to prepare.

• Unfortunately, League has become extremely mobility heavy/centric, and only 2 real champion designs seem viable: those with high mobility, or those with low/no mobility but with extreme power/tankiness/utility. I feel the latter is much more frustrating to play against when they are ahead or in their ideal set-up (like Kat in range of 5 enemy champs below 15% HP) due to general lack of counterplay when a champ gets to be in that perfect situation, so adding moderate mobility gives freedom to take away raw power to maintain balance. Since Arc is a champion that thrives in dealing extreme damage across entire team fights, toning that damage down in favor of mobility (hopefully) won't make him feel oppressive. The mobility given to him is in two very basic forms: movespeed and a dash. The movespeed requires lots of time and resources to truly kick-in, and even after it does it only lasts while near his established zone of control; forcing him out of this zone eliminates the mobility making it situational and not a constant problem. The dash is a very short-range dash and nothing special on its own, but the 2nd half of the dash can give good mobility if resources are expended for it. On top of that, Arc only has limited control over the 2nd half of the dash; smart enemies can stay on top of him to control where he dashes to, potentially keeping allies safe from his stun or preventing his escape. With these factors in mind, I don't feel like his mobility would feel excessive or un-managable by his enemies.

• His E consuming the Charge when stunning slows down his burst combo, requiring him to auto attack them again after setting up at least one Lightning Rod to get both halves of R's damage on an enemy. Arc is intended to be a team-fight oriented mage, but he does do strong damage; slowing down his full burst combo on someone tones down his ability to assassinate someone without counterplay or a chance to retaliate without removing all assassination potential completely.

• His E is a pretty guaranteed stun in most 1v1 fights, and this might feel strong considering most other mages that have stuns need to land skillshots or such while his E means he does not. Theoretically, in the situation of a mage with a stun ambushing an enemy who has no vision of them, the mage's stun is virtually guaranteed to land, so there is no effective difference between Arc and other mages there. In straight-up 1v1 scenarios, there is still some outplay chance for the enemy if they can predict which way he will dash initially and then dash/flash behind a Lightning Rod he likely threw out at the very start of the fight, or just get out of range entirely. Additionally, his stun brings him into melee range of his opponent. In team fights, this is an extremely dangerous and risky choice for the player to make. In 1v1s, no mage wants to be near fighters or tanks, so if he is unable to burst an opponent down after the stun (and he is not a champion focused on burst damage), he is very likely to lose the fight, so he may not want to use his E as a stun in a fight unless he is sure to win it anyway.

• Lightning/Electricity has a well-recognized thematic of 'speed,' so that's why his movespeed and attack speed are "charged" up by drawing power from the electrically charged Lightning Rods he places. Does it make entirely logical sense? Not really, but screw it, it's a game. Mechanically, it helps define that his full power is only realized in his zone of control and gives him meaningful weaknesses in that he needs to remain in this zone to be at full power while also requiring ample time to set up this zone. Without the ability to do either of these things, his power is reduced and his enemies have a large window to fight back against him.

• His constant damage, especially from his Q, might sound a bit overbearing, and that might be true in some instances, but I don't feel like it would be a problem in your average case. Remember, his Q might bounce around a lot, but it deals half damage while bouncing around and his opponents know EXACTLY where its going to bounce to, and can even control it to some extent by moving themselves. His R has to potential to do massive damage, but only if he has time to build up multiple Lightning Rods in a small area and his opponents know EXACTLY what standing next to a Lightning Rod means. Another zone control champion, Illaoi, can walk up into an enemy team or flash into the team from over a wall and press R for massive damage across the whole team without the enemy necessarily knowing that they were at risk of being attacked by her ult. With Arc the enemy knows EXACTLY where his damage is going to come from and have ample opportunities to make preparations to protect themselves or avoid it, but if they don't do so, either by poor decision or Arc's teammates enabling him/disabling the enemy, they definitely pay the price.

Ways to increase power if too weak: Increase attack speed from passive, increase base/scaling damage on Q/R, reduce cooldown of Q/E, increase AD/AS growth

Ways to decrease power if too string: Decrease attack speed from passive, Charged minions give reduced/no attack speed, increase cooldown on Q, decrease movement speed bonus from W, decrease damage/duration/health of W, increase cooldown of E, decrease range of E, decrease stun duration of E, increase mana costs, lower range of "within XXX range" across the board on abilities.