[Champion Concept]- Ronin, the Blademaster
The content of this post has been CC0'd: To the extent possible under law, http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/4ZZKiRfP-champion-concept-ronin-the-blademaster has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.
This work is published from:
United States.
Ronin, the Blademaster
Role: Marksman/Assassin
Image available here
Image available here
Stats:
Health: 554 - 1914 (80) Health Regen: 6.0 - 15.4 (0.55) Mana: 232 - 827 (35) Mana Regen: 8.2 - 20.1 (0.7) Attack Range: 550 (Ranged) Attack Damage: 52 - 103 (3) Attack Speed: 0.658 (1.6%) Armor: 24 - 75 (3) Magic Resist: 30 (0) Movement Speed: 325
Kit:
Passive: Neurotoxin
Ronin's kunai from basic attacks and abilities each apply a stack of Neurotoxin to enemies. Stacks reset after 3 seconds if an enemy isn't struck with a kunai. Upon reaching 5 stacks of Neurotoxin, enemies are inflicted with Neurodegeneration. For 3 seconds, enemies with Neurodegeneration experience a 10% slow increasing gradually by 1% per 10 units traveled. Upon traveling 550 units, the enemy target is stunned for 1 second.
Enemies cannot receive stacks of Neurotoxin again for 12 seconds after the effects of Neurodegeneration end.
Q: Binding Darts
COOLDOWN: 20/18/16/14/12 Sec COST: 80 Mana RANGE: 800
Ronin simultaneously sends two kunai attached to a rope at enemy Champions within 650 units of each other. The kunai deal 20/60/100/140/180 (+100% AD) physical damage each, and the damaged targets are tethered together for 2/2.5/3/3.5/4 seconds. Tethered units may act and move normally, except that they may not move farther than 650 units from one another.
W: Fan of Knives
COOLDOWN: 18/16/14/12/10 Sec COST: 60 Mana RANGE: 550
Passive-
Every third basic attack from Ronin releases a Fan of Knives, 2 additional kunai that strike the nearest target(s) for 5/10/15/20/25 (+25% Total AD) physical damage each. The additional kunai may strike the same target if other targets are not in range, but always prioritize a new target otherwise. This passive is unavailable while Fan of Knives is on cooldown.
Active-
Causes Ronin's next 3 basic attacks used within 6 seconds to trigger the Fan of Knives passive.
E: Acrobatics
COST: 40 Mana + 1 Charge RANGE: 425
Passive-
Ronin stores a charge of Acrobatics every 20/18/16/14/12 seconds and can store up to 2 charges at a time. Ronin gains 45 Movement Speed while at 2 charges of Acrobatics.
Active-
Ronin performs a backflip moving away from the cursor and releases a Fan of Knives midflight. Upon landing (for a very brief window), he may use another charge of Acrobatics to flip again, this time in the direction of the cursor, releasing a Fan of Knives upon landing at the new location.
R: Bladestorm
COOLDOWN: 100/85/70 Sec COST: 100 Mana RANGE: 550
For the next 6/8/10 seconds, Fan of Knives releases 4 additional kunai instead of 2. Ronin's basic attacks mark their target, but only one target may be marked at a time (the newest target replaces the older). Each kunai of Fan of Knives always strikes the marked target if in range, but otherwise operates normally. Champion kills and assists during this time each extend the duration of Bladestorm by 4 seconds.
Lore:
Legends aren’t born, they are made… or so they say. In the case of Ronin, there may be an exception. He seemed to be destined for greatness the moment he was born. It wasn’t long after birth that his accelerated intellect and dexterity began to emerge in unusual ways. Most notably, he grew fond of throwing kunai, mastering their use with pinpoint accuracy by the young age of 5. This exceptional skill didn’t go unnoticed as the Kinkou Order was quick to follow his progress and invite him into their midst once he had become a young adult.
Ronin was happy to accept, knowing his skills and interests would best be fostered in this new environment. But things began to change rapidly for Ronin as he soon realized that his body was aging beyond what was normal, perhaps this was the balancing cost to his skill and wisdom well beyond his years?
In order to maintain his services to the Kinkou he requested assistance in concealing this secret, and so the council sought a way to keep his degeneration hidden. Because his skill rivaled even that of their grandmasters, they decided to enlist him as a teacher, a master to students. To reinforce this strategic illusion further, they falsified his status as the father of Shen (another recent pupil with promise and close friend to Ronin).
For a time, all was well. However, the progression continued more rapidly than was anticipated. Ronin sought desperately to find a successor in order that he might take leave and seek possible treatment from the Chronomaster, Zilean. In this process he took in a renegade student named Zed, twisted by the shadows. It wasn’t long before this promising pupil betrayed the Order and ended the life of Ronin and many others… or so it was thought.
Ronin was more clever than he was given credit for, faking his own death. How he managed to fool Zed may never be known, but in the end it isn’t all too surprising. Though it took him longer than he would have hoped, as evidenced by his gray crown of hair, he managed to halt the progression of aging and maintain peak physical conditioning after finding the master of time. With newfound vigor and hope, he seeks to restore order with the Kinkou and redeem what was lost in the heart of the Shadow Master.
Notes:
Passive:
- The intent of this passive was to offer a reward for landing consecutive attacks, primarily seen by correct positioning of Fan of Knives, hence the stack system we have seen on other champions. However, rather than adding damage or buffing Ronin, it feels natural (especially thematically from blades being poisoned as commonplace) to redirect the passive to a slow.
- The beauty in applying a slow in a fashion that increases based on enemy movement rests in the counterplay it offers. Very rarely when it comes to CC can the target have a say in what is going to happen. In this case, the enemy can stand their ground and avoid the stun altogether. This counterplay is important as well because, as a marksman with some other mobility already, Ronin doesn't need an additional guaranteed hard CC.
- Early game, this passive won't proc often in lane because of lower attack speed and minions soaking up most of the Fan of Knives kunai. The 3 seconds until reset and immunity for 12 seconds also help reduce early abuse of the ability.
- Stacks will have an indicator similar to Twitch's poison.
- This slow was carefully calculated such that continuous movement at lowest potential base speed + upgraded boots (MS = 370) would require 2.53 seconds (of 3 allotted) to travel 550 units with the graduating slow accounted for. Unless the target uses movement abilities to travel farther, continuous movement alone at this speed will not likely stun. The goal of this passive isn't to make all targets experience a stun, rather only that those highly speedy or mobile targets must move carefully. Side Note: It takes about 470 persistent movement speed to proc a stun at 2 seconds of total movement.
Q:
- This ability is an experiment with pseudo-CC. Movement isn't directly affected, nor abilities or attacks hindered in any way. At first it may seem like there is not CC at all to the ability, and there very well could be none. Offering counterplay again, this ability forces the enemy champions to move together as a unit or be unable to move at all. This synergizes well with Fan of Knives and ally AoE because it does encourage grouping together of the enemy champions.
- Mechanics behind casting the ability and how enemies may move isn't apparently clear, so I will clarify both here. Casting the ability can to an extent be viewed similarly to Viktor's Death Ray or Rumble's ultimate. Ronin clicks the first target of the ability and then drags the cursor over the second target. Upon releasing over the second target, the ability is cast. The difference in this click and drag mechanic is that the first target is an actual champion who's position is locked in, Ronin isn't selecting the ground. The ability is a targeted ability that will hit both champions unless they leave 650 units of one another before it lands. In this scenario, they will not take the damage or be tethered. As the enemy champions move away from one another, the rope will grow taut. At maximum range, enemies would continue running animation but would hit an invisible wall, unable to move farther from their ally. It's key for them to move together or both face potential consequences.
- Movement actions such as dashes would hit the invisible wall as well. However, certain circumstances require further elaboration. Vi, for instance, cannot dash to her target with her ultimate, but still locks onto them and dashes to the edge of the wall (awaiting release to dash to her target and complete the ultimate once the effect of Binding Darts ends). Leona's Zenith Blade will still land for root etc..., but she will move towards her target only as far as the range from Binding Darts allows (then she will come to rest).
- This ability will also apply 1 stack of Neurotoxin to the enemy champions.
W:
- Fan of Knives kunai do not apply on-hit effect(s) and cannot crit (the original basic attack still does, just not the additional kunai).
- When referenced by other abilities, Fan of Knives refers to the additional 2 kunai (4 with Bladestorm). Therefore, E releases 2 kunai (4 with R) on both instances.
- All kunai from Fan of Knives hit targets simultaneously (there is no delay between kunai hitting the same target).
- This is the key ability for Ronin, serving as the core to most of his kit. While the ability is off cooldown, every third basic attack is releasing 3 kunai. The first kunai is directed at the target for the basic attack, while the remaining 2 kunai are directed as the ability describes. This extends to the additional 2 kunai as a result of Bladestorm.
- Having the kunai fan out to different nearby targets forces Ronin to calculate positioning if he wants to maximize damage (assuming he isn't chasing down a target isolated from other targets). This also allows for interaction with his ultimate, Bladestorm.
- The active allows for either quicker spread of Neurotoxin or for some burst damage when used in the Bladestorm state. However, it is important to use this active wisely because the passive (every 3rd attack) disappears while the ability is on cooldown. This forces Ronin to play mindfully rather than simply offering moments of extra damage without any cost.
- Runaan's Hurricane does NOT proc Fan of Knives.
E:
- This ability serves a two-fold purpose as both a minor escape and an offensive finisher furthering burst potential. Escaping with this ability isn't incredibly easy as it casts similarly to Cait's 90-Calibur Net on the first cast. This means some tactical positioning is key because the flip is always a true backflip (you're always moved backwards from the direction the Champion is physically facing, not necessarily based on the cursor location). There is also a slight delay (up to about 1 second) after which he can no longer flip for the second time assuming he has the mana and charge stored to do so in the first place. Regarding the finisher aspect, the ability releases 2 Fan of Knives. This adds further burst potential especially after activating and finishing W.
- Flipping can only travel over thinner walls similar to Nidalee or Lucian.
- The first set of Fan of Knives is released midflight, but towards the beginning of the backflip.
- Lower base speed coupled with the passive adjusting movement speed based on charges of Acrobatics enforces proper management of the ability.
R:
- Damage-wise, Draven's Spinning Axes do 185% AD each and can almost be thrown for every basic attack. To have 200% AD + 100 every 3rd attack (during ultimate only) doesn't seem too unreasonable. It's really something that would have to be balanced in game.
- This ultimate is a pseudo-steroid that offers indirect damage through alteration of mechanics rather than simply boosting AD or AS or even causing direct damage. The pivotal interaction resides with W's mechanics. Now Fan of Knives can become targeted, offering added damage in an assassin-like style.
- Marking a target allows Fan of Knives from attacks and abilities to now focus damage on a target, offering more burst and Neurotoxin activation. This system also allows for counterplay by showing the enemy team Ronin's target. Letting Ronin change marked targets allows for more interaction by both teams.
- If W is activated while a target is marked, Ronin may attack and mark a new target, but the 4 additional kunai of the first attack would strike the previously marked target.
- Traded in the reset mechanic (see striked text below) as many recognized, rightly, that it could deter killing in situations which isn't fun for an ADC especially. Replaced with a Yi-clone extender because I think this would feel right (suggested by a judge).
> - The reset (when Ronin kills a Champion) is a reward for focusing down one target. It also allows for more frequent mechanical shift which should feel satisfying to players. However, Ronin players might decide to forgo the reset in order to offer more damage for longer or for survivability since killing a target ends the ultimate early. In the end, the ultimate allows for flexibility of choice once more.> - The reduced cooldown (to 50/40/30 seconds) serves as the new base cooldown to which CDR from items/runes/masteries... can be applied. This would reduce the cooldown further to 30/24/18 at 40% reduction.
But... But... I'm an actual ronin!
And I'm an actual bard.
Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaam
