Large Support Item Rework: Blood Lines
(Ugh, I can never post these things in the right board. T_T )
Hello everyone. I've been baking this concept for a while now and with the preseason approaching I wanted to share my ideas thus far. The main theme here is called Blood Lines and is heavily based on the Athene's rework. Seeing the potential in the item, I went ahead and took the liberty of creating/modifying a line of support items to embrace the theme of earning Blood Charges to grant specific effects. Each of these items have been developed as stand alone items that fulfill particular niches but also synergize with each other the same way defensive / offensive items scale with each other. I have modified some basic items to accompany my changes and I have put tentative stats/costs on each item to give an idea of what the final product might look like.
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So first up I have a new basic item that will build the foundation for all of the Blood Lines items.For this idea to work I figured it best to have an up front explanation of how the system works and to have everything build from the same minor component. This is probably the most gimmicky part because it introduces a very specific tie between particular items. Large Support Item Rework: Blood Line
Sanguine Effigy (500g) Builds from: Rejuvination Bead (150g) + Rejuvination Bead (150g) +100% base health regeneration UNIQUE: +5% bonus healing and shielding power. BLOOD LINES: Items upgraded from Sanguine Effigy store Blood Charges gained from various sources. Blood Charges may overflow from full Blood Lines items, evenly distributing overflow charges among unfilled Blood Lines items.
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With Effigy being the new shielding and healing item, I decided to put Forbidden Idol back into its place as a mana regen + cdr item, though it will be a part of several Blood Lines items.
Forbidden Idol (500g) Builds from: Faerie Charm (180g) + Faerie Charm (180g) +75% base mana regeneration UNIQUE: +5% cooldown reduction
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Next up, I tweaked Chalice of Harmony to give it a little less overlap with Idol and a bit more overlap with Effigy. This helped to smooth things out later on.
Chalice of Harmony (900g) Builds from: Faerie Charm (180g) + Null Magic Mantle (450) + Rejuvination Bead (150g) +25 magic resistance +25% base mana regeneration +50% base health regeneration Passive UNIQUE: Grants 100% base health regen per 5 seconds if your current health percentage is lower than your current mana percentage. Grants 100% base mana regen per 5 seconds if your current mana percentage is lower than your current health percentage.
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Perhaps the most difficult item to come up with something interesting for, I decided to make this one dependent on other Blood Lines items for charges, but also gave it the strongest effect from consuming them. I dumped the regeneration stats into the passive for a little bit more focus on regenerating the stats that are low, especially now that there is an even influx of Mana and Health regen stats coming from the intermediate items.
Mikael’s Crucible (2400) Builds from: Sanguine Effigy (500g) + Chalice of Harmony (900g) + Forbidden Idol (500g) +35 magic resistance +10% cooldown reduction UNIQUE PASSIVE: +15% bonus healing and shielding power. UNIQUE PASSIVE: Grants 250% base health regen per 5 seconds if your current health percentage is lower than your current mana percentage. Grants 250% base mana regen per 5 seconds if your current mana percentage is lower than your current health percentage. BLOOD LINES ACTIVE: Removes all stuns, roots, taunts, fears, silences and slows on an allied champion and heals for 150 + (10% of the target's maximum health). (180 second cooldown. 750 range.) This item may store up to 50 Blood Charges and consumes them when the active ability is put on cooldown. For each charge consumed this way, the cooldown is reduced by 1 second.
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Going back to where it all began, I looked at some of the problems that Athene's seemed to be having. Perhaps the largest contributor to Athene's low popularity (aside from granting minimal AP) was that the item felt less and less impactful as the game goes on. The CDR went wasted, the regen stats went unnoticed, and poking to charge the item becomes more dangerous and unrewarding. My changes looked to fix each of those problems by lowering the CDR, changing the passive regeneration into a more noticable contributor (especially at lower health and mana), and I made it so that this item can gain charges from other Blood Lines items if you can't poke safely and can distribute them if you do very well with your poking.
Athene’s Unholy Grail (2400g) Builds from: Fiendish Codex (900g) + Chalice of Harmony (900g) + Sanguine Effigy (500g) +40 ability power +10% cooldown reduction +25 magic resistance Passive UNIQUE: +15% bonus healing and shielding power. UNIQUE: Increases base health regeneration by 3% for every 1% of health missing, doubled if below 25% health. Increases base mana regeneration by 2% for every 1% of mana missing, doubled if below 25% mana. BLOOD LINES PASSIVE: Gain 20% of the premitigation damage dealt to champions as Blood Charges, up to 100 - 250 (based on level). Healing or shielding another ally consumes charges to heal them, up to the original effect amount. Excess Charges may be stored by other Blood Lines items.
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Stemming from some of my earlier iterations of the item, I have concluded that Ardent Censer could stand to lose its CDR in exchange for a very unique warding function. The catch is that this warding function is fully dependent on your teammates. I also added some scaling to the passive damage output to help the item retain some of its impact later on in the game, thus allowing you to charge this item, as well as other Blood Lines items more quickly. In fact, this can be used purely to bolster other Blood Lines items if you choose not to ward, something that may add a bit of decision making to the mix.
Ardent Censer (2400g) Builds from: Amplifying Tome (435g) +Aether Wisp (850g) + Sanguine Effigy (500g) +60 ability power +100% base health regeneration +8% movement speed UNIQUE PASSIVE: +15% bonus healing and shielding power. BLOOD LINES PASSIVE: Single target heals and shields on allied champions (excluding yourself) grant them +15% attack speed and cause their basic attacks to deal 15 (+20% of their Total AD)(+10% of their AP) as on-hit magic damage for 6 seconds. AOE heals and shields grant only the nearest allied champion this bonus. Gain 5% of the premitigation damage (increased to 20% against champions) dealt this way as Blood Charges, up to 50 - 100 (based on level). Excess Charges may be stored by other Blood Lines items. UNIQUE ACTIVE – ASH SENTRY: Consumes 50 Blood Charges to place a visible Ghost Ward that reveals the surrounding area for 150 seconds. If this ward is destroyed by an enemy champion, a spirit will linger for 4 seconds, chasing the closest enemy champion in range for a short duration (120 second cooldown).
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Here I may be trying to fix something that isn't broken. Don't get me wrong, I think that Zeke's is in a fine spot and that this may be overkill, but I thought I would throw it out there. Aside from changing up the build path and adding in some bonus healing and shielding (works with FOTM and Locket so tanks can still use it), I made it so that if you ever have full charges that go to waste, other Blood Lines items can pick them up.
Zeke’s Harbinger (2400g) Builds from: Forbidden Idol (500g) + Seeker’s Armguard (1200g) + Sanguine Effigy (500g) +50% base mana regeneration +10% cooldown reduction +45 armor +35 ability power Passive UNIQUE PASSIVE: +15% bonus healing and shielding power. BLOOD LINES PASSIVE: When within 1000-units of each other, you and your Conduit will generate 1 Blood Charge every second, up to 100, with a bonus 4 / 2 charges whenever you or your ally attack, and 8 / 4 on spell cast. At 50 charge, dealing damage grants you and your Conduit 20% increased AP and +50% flat critical strike chance for 8 seconds. All current charge is lost if you move further than 1000-units apart or hold onto 50 charge for longer than 5 seconds. Half of the charges lost this way may be stored by other Blood Lines items. Active
UNIQUE ACTIVE – CONDUIT: Bind to target ally. This will remove all other Conduits on your target (60 seconds cooldown).
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Likely the most difficult one to balance, I really tried to get the point across that this is a team oriented item. By taking into account all of the damage that your team is receiving, I tried to make it so that this item shines when you are grouped and taking harass from the enemy team.
Locket of the Iron Solari (2400) Builds from: Sanguine Effigy (500g) + Kindle Gem (800g) + Crystalline Bracer (650g) +400 health +150% base health regeneration +10% cooldown reduction BLOOD LINES PASSIVE: Store 1% of the premitigation damage taken by nearby allied champions as Blood Charges, up to 20 each second, up to a maximum of 90 - 345 (based on level). Excess Charges may be stored by other Blood Lines items. UNIQUE ACTIVE: Consume all charges to shield yourself and nearby allied champions for 2 seconds, absorbing up to 90 - 345 (based on charges consumed) damage (40 second cooldown) (600 range). At the end of the duration, 50% of any remaining shields are converted into health.
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That's all for now. Thanks for reading.
[slayer-pantheon-rainbows]