Gerome, The Zaunite Bombardier(And a discussion on melee adc)

Back during the Juggernaut update, riot had intended to diversify the bot lane by placing mordekaiser there, a immobile juggernaut who is easily kited and only worked when he was severely overpowered. Since then, he has more or less returned to where he was pre-update, albeit with a pet dragon. What went wrong? He was forced into the role, instead of being designed around it. Mordekaiser mains can explain it much better than I can, why he failed specifically, so I won't attempt to. Instead, I'm here to talk about my way of making this concept function. The fantasy of a melee bruiser or juggernaut who can tank damage and dish it out is an interesting one, but also a difficult proposition. Do you make them mobile, able to dodge skillshots easily, like yasuo? Do you make them slow and destructive, like mordekaiser? Perhaps, but there is another option that recently popped up, shown by ziggs. While he isn't melee, he showed that heavy poke and waveclear is enough to keep the bot lane carry role, which cements what this concept already had going for it. Enjoy!

General stats: Above average attack damage, even for juggernauts, and slightly tankier than other juggernauts naturally, attacks are melee, around 150 range or so.

> Passive: Chaining-When multiple shells are within 50 units, they will chain together, and slowly move forward down the nearest lane. If multiple chains collide, they will combine and continue moving forward. Upon collision with an enemy unit, the chain will collapse until the enemy unit dies, or until there are no more shells in the chain.

> Q: Shells Cooldown-2 seconds Mana Cost-(20/25/30/35/40 mana) -Gerome fires a shell from his cannon, which slowly progresses forward in the direction he was facing. Enemies who collide with a shell will take 10/30/50/70/90(+100% total AD) physical damage. Subsequent shells deal 25% reduced damage, down to 50% If Gerome auto attacks an enemy outside of his melee range, he will command all nearby shells to fire at the enemy's current location.

>W: Hydraulic Smash Cooldown-(18/16/14/12/10 seconds) Mana cost-(50/55/60/65/70 mana) Range-(550 units) -Gerome jumps beside, then behind an enemy, and knocks them backwards 400 units, and dealing 30/90/140/180/210(+30% Bonus AD) physical damage. Any shells the enemy collides with during the knockback deal an additional 20% bonus physical damage.

>E: ImpactCooldown-(30/27/24/21/18 seconds) Mana Cost-(80/80/90/90/100 mana) Range-(500-1000 units) -Gerome fires a shell at a target location outside of a minimum range, after a 1 second delay, it deals 80/120/160/200/240(+70% Bonus AD) physical damage, and knocks back all enemy units hit by 250 units.

>Ultimate: Restrain Cooldown-(140/120/100 seconds) Mana cost-(100 mana) Range-(850) Gerome sends out a flurry of 6/8/10 shells to encircle an enemy champion, these shells may be blocked by any enemy unit on their way out. After 2 seconds, the shells will slowly close in and shoot out at their target. Contact with these shells in any way will deal 60/100/150 physical damage, with no dropoff.

Some people may remember this concept being posted about a half a year ago, I had some nice feedback on it, and wanted to update it slightly, but the kit holds it's own very well, which pleases me greatly. I love hearing suggestions about my concepts, if you want to see some of my older ideas, the links to them are here: Aedirex, The Planet Tyrant Vera, The Mountain's Bane XV-328 Rozoe and Krexx(obsolete as of Kled) Kyanitseal(I'm still working on this one) Shade, The Fallen Pupil

Currently, Rozoe and Krexx, XV-328, and Kyanitseal are on the backburner(with Kyanitseal likely the only one to be fully fleshed out), and I'm working on updating Shade's kit next, with Aedirex requiring better wording and artwork, since I'm happy with his kit as it is.

I'd very much appreciate it if you would upvote this concept if you enjoy it, and please downvote it if you did not enjoy it. If the concept gets a good amount of positive feedback, I'll try my best at creating a good lore behind the character, and concept art to go with it.