Zelos, Ionia's Revered
I think Irelia's brother should be finally introduced as a champion in the game. According to the lore, he was the son of the late Grandmaster Lito. During the Noxian invasion of Ionia, Zelos left for Demacia to seek assistance in fighting off the Noxians, while Irelia stayed behind to defend the homeland. However, the lore does not go any further than that. There is currently no information that tells us whether he returned from Demacia. However, there are speculations that he may have been killed on his way there (hopefully not), but there is nothing that supports that. I think it would be interesting for him to actually become a champion in the League, considering how many sibling pairs we have (Kat/Cass, Kayle/Morg, etc).
Side note: From what I see, Irelia is a character that was inspired by Kenshin Himura from the OVA, Samurai X. Her W skill, "Hiten Style" is a likely reference to "Hiten Mitsurugi" which means "Heart of Sword." If you read the lore on Irelia, you'll know that her blade actually contains part of her soul; her heart is really in her sword. That's f*cking bad ass. What would be more bad ass is if we get to play as Zelos.
This is my proposition for his character design.
Zelos is a dual wielding blademaster, and a martial artist. Though his sister possesses the power of telekinesis, he does not (it would be nice if he had some sort of teleporting power though). Nonetheless, he is still an agile and strong combatant who is swift with the blade and is able to gracefully execute martial art moves in between. He will be an energy champion with a kit similar to that of Shyv/Nidalee/Jayce/Lee Sin, but is relatively straightforward. From my inspiration of the Monster Hunter series Dual Blade weapons, I will be designing his kit based off of that.
Role: Melee AD Assassin/Fighter
Innate skill: Dual Blade Specialist - Every basic attack is composed of two hits.
Q: Forward Lunge / Warp Dash -
(Forward Lunge) - Zelos lunges forward, striking with his swords. Enemies struck will be damaged four (4) times--twice by the initial hit and twice again as he pulls his blade downward. If he manages to land this ability, he regains energy.
(Warp Dash) - Zelos hurls his blades toward the targeted direction, landing in the first enemy hit, dealing damage. He may reactivate the skill again to warp dash to his blades, dealing additional damage. If he manages to land this ability, he regains energy. If the blades do not hit anything, he may warp to it regardless to escape an unfavorable situation. Zelos' blades will stop at any wall, similar to Olaf's axes.
W: Roundslash / & Roundhouse kick
(Roundslash) - Zelos executes a swift spinning slash similar to that of Katarina's "Sinister Steel" and Akali's "Crescent Slash," dealing damage to all enemies struck within its range.
(Roundslash + Roundhouse kick) - Zelos performs his roundslash and also roundhouse kicks a targeted enemy champion. The enemy champion struck is pushed back a short distance and stunned for a short amount of time.
E: Hurricane Slash / Demon Dance -
(Hurricane Slash) - Zelos attacks with a flurry of blade strikes, hitting his target a total of eight (8) times. Additionally, the target is slowed. During this time he is stationary, so the target may be able to escape a few hits if they move out of its range. How fast he performs this depends on his attack speed.
(Demon Dance) - Similar to Hurricane Slash, but hits his target a total of sixteen (16) times. Attack speed determines how fast he is able to perform this ability.
R: Demon mode - Zelos activates demon mode, granting all his basic attacks and abilities additional aspects and true damage. During this time, his energy bar is slowly drained, but all of his abilities cost half energy.
Strategy: Zelos is designed to be a primarily single-target AD Assassin/Fighter/Duelist who benefits mainly from building Attack Speed, much like Irelia. In his kit is the standard fighter/assassin gap closer; a close range AoE ability for dealing a little extra damage and pushing waves; and a single target ability which serves to cut his opponents down fast. Additionally, his ultimate allows him to round up his damage and adds something more to his kit at the cost of his energy constantly draining.
After level 6 he gains a little more control over choosing fights with his Roundslash/kick combo, as he can either push them away and escape or commit with his gap closer.
Counterplay: Zelos' kit at first glance may seem to be overtuned at first glance. But he doesn't have much in his kit to stick to his target except for his Q abilities. As such, champions with displacement abilities (knock up/knock back), such as Alistar/Blitz can interrupt the flow of his attacks/combos dramatically. Attack speed reduction items (Warden's Mail/Frozen Heart) also serve to counter his kit well.
Balance Provisions: As far as balance issues go, I think this kit is fair. If this champion concept passes for Riot, I'll leave it up to them to input the damage numbers and tweak the skills to their liking. The only problem I see would be balancing his base AD. Since Zelos will be barraging his enemies with blade strikes, it's best his base AD stat and scaling is kept relatively low. Somewhere around the range of 38-49 at level 1, and scaling up to a max of 81-90 at level 18 (since his basic attacks will always be hitting twice).
Nice art by Aphanopanop on DeviantArt, who has also provided a champion design for Zelos:
