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[Champion Concept] Maria - The Restless Dancer

Dayvigilante·11/15/2015, 8:45:22 PM·10 votes·2,075 views

http://orig06.deviantart.net/a610/f/2014/072/0/4/undead_dancer_by_dracornasus-d7a0j6d.jpg Maria is a nimble AP bruiser that uses her unpredictable movements to throw her opponents off guard. She dashes on the outskirts of fights, laying down sustained damage while leaping out of the way of harmful CC effects that would stop her performance. If you have good timing and can follow the beat, Maria can deal some serious damage.

Role: Bruiser, DPS Mage

Auto-attack: Kicks and punches by means of ballet poses (Piroutte, Arabesque) Range: 175

Abilities Passive: Eternal Waltz - http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/resource_images/4/icons_3073_btn.jpg Periodically, arrows will appear around Maria, randomly pointing in one of the four cardinal directions (Up, Right, Down, Left). If Maria issues a movement command in a 45 degree cone in that direction, she will do a short (325 unit) dash in that direction. In addition, when the arrows appear, Maria will be charged with Undying Rhythm for .5 seconds, which will empower her abilities. The arrows will disappear after 1 second has passed.

http://imgur.com/lrnigUV Visual aid

To help her keep the beat, Maria receives special music that plays only for her. It would be a somber Waltz tune, something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmCnQDUSO4I

The arrows start manifesting slowly to the beat of the music (Every 2 seconds), but Maria can speed up the music through the use of her abilities.

Q: Pirouette - https://38.media.tumblr.com/avatar_65859ed6a175_128.png Self Targeted - Area of Effect - Damage Ability

Cooldown: 8 seconds Mana Cost: 20/25/30/35/40 Range: 400

Maria spins in a circle, dealing 20/60/100/140/180(+50%AP) magic damage to any enemies in the area. This ability can be used mid-dash with Eternal Waltz. If this ability is used with Undying Rhythm, its cooldown is reduced by 80%.

W: Perfect Poise - http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/resource_images/9/icons_8742_btn.jpg Self Targeted - Defensive Buff

Cooldown: 26/24/22/20/18 seconds Mana Cost: 80

Passive: If Maria basic attacks while charged with Undying Rhythm, that basic attack will deal 40/60/80/100/120(+75%AP) bonus magic damage. This modifier applies to all basic attacks that have started their animation while charged with Undying Rhythm, even if the .5 seconds have passed on the attack's completion. Active: For 6 seconds, Maria gains 20% of her AP as Armor and Magic Resist, and when she issues a dash command with Undying Rhythm, it will cleanse all slows affecting Maria and make her immune to Crowd Control effects for 0.5 seconds.

E: Dancer's Determination - http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/resource_images/7/icons_6941_btn.jpg Unit Targeted - Damage Debuff

Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 seconds Mana Cost: 60/55/50/45/40 Range: 400

Passive: 30/40/50/60/70% of the damage Maria takes will be converted into Grey Health. When Maria dashes with Eternal Waltz, she will recover 10% (+5% Bonus Health) of her Grey Health. Active: Maria will mark a target unit as her dancing partner for 6 seconds. The arrows generated by Eternal Waltz will always point towards Maria's dancing partner, and her dancing partner will take 4/5/6/7/8% of their Maximum health as bonus magic damage from Pirouette and Perfect Poise empowered basic attacks.

R: Final Step - http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/resource_images/6/icons_5585_btn.jpg Ground Targeted - Damage Ability - Crowd Control Debuff

Cooldown: 100/90/80 seconds Mana Cost: 100 Range: 800/1000/1200

Passive: Maria's music speeds up, the arrows come in 1.5/1.25/1 second intervals. Active: Maria gracefully leaps to target location within 800/1000/1200 Range. Any enemies in a 400 unit area are dealt 150/200/250 (+60%AP) magic damage, and if the leap was executed while Maria had Undying Rhythm, enemies hit are stunned for 0.75/1/1.25 seconds. While this ability is on cooldown, the passive is disabled and the music's pace returns to normal. When this ability is off-cooldown, the music will slowly speed up over 4 seconds.

Lore: Karthus Well hello there, not surprised to see me here, are you?
The guardsmen scrambled to their feet, hastily drawing their weapons and pointing them at the Death-singer. "Stay back!" one of the guardsmen barked, stepping forward and brandishing his spear. "Relax. I am not here to harm you today, I am here to tell you a story." Karthus replied, drifting closer. Two of the guards recoiled, a feeling of terror slowly growing in their eyes, although one of them remained strong, continuing to meet Karthus' piercing gaze. "The Shadow Isles has so much unread knowledge still stowed in its many halls and archives, don't you think that someone should share a piece of that wisdom?" without waiting for a reply, Karthus began his tale.

Once a very long time ago, there lived a girl named Maria. Ever since she was very young, her parents always told her that she was destined for greatness: that she could be anything she wanted. There was good reason for this though, she was very talented at most anything she tried. The books described her as 'the most perfect child you could lie your eyes on'. Over the years, words became fact: she had the potential to be... perfect.

"Enough of this nonsense!" the guard shouted as he lunged at Karthus. His spear struck straight and true, but flew straight through Karthus' ghostly body. "Please try not to interrupt." Karthus said calmly, with a hint of annoyance in his voice. The guard shuddered, and backed off, sinking back next to his fellow guardsmen, who were also stricken with terror.

Now where was I? Ah yes, as she grew into adulthood, Maria realized her passion was dancing. The precise movements, the gracefulness, the emotion, she loved all of it, and she knew she would be the best in the whole kingdom. She practiced day and night with a fervor never seen before, and pretty soon, she did become the greatest dancer in the whole kingdom, but it wasn't enough for her. She wanted perfection. Her practiced consumed her, and soon petty tasks such as eating and sleeping became annoyances to her. The mortals feared for her, told her she was working too hard, but this did not deter Maria. Her determination was a thing of beauty, if the books are to be believed. On one of the days of her most important performances, tragedy struck.

Karthus said tragedy with a jeering and dismissive tone, a smile growing on his face as he continued.

The King had made a "terrible mistake", and unleashed the powers of undeath upon his kingdom, and he did so during her star performance. A wave of green energy washed over the crowd, killing all of them... However, Maria continued her performance, as even the powers of death would not keep her from perfection. That is all the books wrote, and I can only assume that she is still out there somewhere, seeking perfection in her art.

"W-why did you tell us this?" one of the terrified guardsmen stammered. "So you could understand the majesty of death" Karthus replied. "Once she had died, there was nothing stopping her from practicing night and day, until she could finally achieve her goal. Don't you wish for such power?" As he said those words, a pale figure emerged from an alleyway, leaping with practiced steps, wordlessly turning and pivoting around the guardsman. With each careful step, the guards felt their life slowly begin to fade, and when the final bound was landed, the guards souls escaped their bodies, and they fell lifeless to the floor.

"Excellent performance, my dear." Karthus said. "It left them... breathless."

Quotes

Champion Select "Today, I will performance Waltz of the Poros, in E major."

Moving "One two three.. one two three..." "...Plie and turn." (mumbles) "I missed a step!" wordlessly hums "...Back to first position."

Attacking "One two hold..." "Back straight, arms outstretched." hums a sustained note

Taunt - Begins spinning, and continues to spin. "You cannot hope to achieve my perfection."

Taunt (Near enemy Kindred) "You can't stop me! You won't stop me!"

Joke (Near allied Orianna) "Do you ever feel... lonely?"

Joke - Falls backwards, waiting for someone to catch her, but falls flat on her back. "You can't trust anyone." "...but that was the big finale!"

Example Builds: item 1054 item 2003 > item 3027 item 3116 item 3068 item 3111 item 3065 item 3157 item 2033 > item 3001 item 3116 item 3157 item 3100 item 3020 item 3003 item 1039 item 2031 > item 1410 item 3116 item 3111 item 3068 item 3065 item 3190

Thanks for reading! As always, comment correct and criticize.

12 Comments

Count Zubat11/15/2015, 10:42:42 PM3 votes

I'll be honest, the idea is just awesome, great concept. Design is interesting and solid, the same can be said about the lore. The passive is very creative, yeah, she would be mobile, but her mobility would be predictable (I'm assuming enemies would also see the arrows). I like the Q and E active effect designs, they all fit wel tol her thematics and ultimate can be solid initiation tool.

But, not everything in your design is perfect, I have some criticism:

  1. The W active. This thing is broken. Untagetability is already very hated effect, but this skill actually takes it into new level of OP-ness. At level 16, this skill gives you potientally up to 3 seconds of untargetability, splitted into 6 times for 0.5 seconds (so basically you have chance to dodge anything 6 times, trust me, it is 1000 times better than Fizz untargetability, which makes him invulnerable for 1,5 seconds, but only ONCE) + 6 potential cleanses. This sounds more like ultimate than just basic ability. A very skilled player could be getting pentakills with it while avoiding any major damaging abilities and CC's. It is completely broken. Personally, I wouldn't give her complete cleanse, maybe slows cleanse +tenacity. Also, I'm very sceptical about that invulnerability, if you really want for it to stay, it should be toned down. Otherwise, in the form you proposed, this skill would be broken and would probably make playing against Maria very frustrating.
  2. Implementing grey health - while it might be just my personal preference, I don't like grey health mechanic. When I'm playing against Tahm Kench, so far the only champion using this mechanic, I am completely confused about how much health he has left. I never know: should I jump on him? How much HP does he have right now? 200? 500? This thing just lacks clarity and completely confuses player when it comes to how much health the enemy has. Also, why grey health? So far all of Maria's abilities fitted her lore and design, but this is, imo, completely out of place. I don't have anything against giving some sustain to champion, but I just don't like grey health mechanic. Maybe I'm just too much biased about it.

Other than that, it's a great design, I can see you've put a lot of thought into this champion. I think champion like this would be very fun to play, but, imo, W needs changes. It is broken. About grey health, well, it's only my personal preference, I just don't like this mechanic myself, but only because of clarity issues. Still, good job man, Maria would be a fantastic addition to the game [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

ShatteredSkys11/15/2015, 10:27:06 PM1 votes

Hey! Here are my quick thoughts on your concept! ^_^

Passive: My biggest issue with this is that it seems that this is such a core part of your kit yet you don't have much control over it. You can't control where you're going. For an example if I want to do a trade with my enemy who's to my left but my Eternal Waltz keeps pointing up and to the right than I'm kind of screwed. That's part a huge part of my kit that I cannot use and I can't really control. Though you do have your E that patches up your problem temporarily. it does also create an issue with your opponents just staying diagonal of you.

Lore: Pretty nice, like how it explains her origins and what keeps her going but it would be nice to also get a look at her personality and her views of being an undead. You know just expand the lore.

Overall: Honestly, I think you did a pretty good job with this concept but I had a pretty hard time with the critique:/ There are a few things that I think are a tab awkward but I can't explain why they're awkward so i decided not to put it down. So overall great concept so far! ^_^ Sorry I can't give you a detailed review like I normally do but I just had a hard time with this concept:/ I'll think on it and make some more comments if something comes to mind.

Dayvigilante11/17/2015, 1:38:44 AM1 votes

Updated her W to give her flat Armor/MR based on her AP, and instead of untargetability, she has CC immunity for 0.5 seconds per dash.

Also, her arrows will point in one of eight directions (Up, Upper left diagonal, Left, Lower left diagonal, Down, Lower right diagonal, Right, Upper right diagonal.)

WarchfGinger11/27/2015, 7:59:33 PM1 votes

I have no problems with it, but still could use smoothing on the passive. It seems choppy. Otherwise, your champion is great!

Dis The Chris11/28/2015, 6:23:42 AM1 votes

Well executed and overall awesome concept - but like ShatterSky said, her Passive is a bit random - to the point it could cost you a game if you would rather move forward to get a kill then the arrow points on the opposite direction. May I suggest instead that the passive would instead allow you to dash every now and then but the arrows would remain and would appear at random - instead, dashing towards the arrow will grant you the buff but you still have the option of not getting it by dashing towards another direction?

Dayvigilante12/5/2015, 4:30:39 AM1 votes

Updated her passive to offer more control: you are now able to dash in any direction, provided it is within a 45 degree cone of the direction the arrow is pointing. Added a visual aid as well.

http://i.imgur.com/lrnigUV.png

SwipeZ11/15/2015, 10:15:39 PM1 votes

Impressive, quick question, did you create all the artwork yourself? Artwork has always been the thing I can never get; and your's is rather impressive.

About the abilities, I feel like Undying Rhythm could last a little longer than .5 seconds (unless I read wrong). Maybe have it last for like 2 seconds? Its still quite short and it allows Maria to choose what ability to empower. Other than that, numbers for damage don't seem too overwhelming. Definitely feels like an AP Bruiser. Good job on that part. I also think she has an interesting gameplay style although only 4 cardinal directions for her passive seems ineffective. Perhaps make it switch off between the standard 4 directions and the 4 directions in between?

These are just my thoughts. Overall nice champion

XerKB10112/6/2015, 9:02:15 PM1 votes

Pretty cool concept, keep up the good work :D Your local noob