Sword+Shield fighter (formswapper, but a balanced one)
PREFACE: I'm doing this for fun, because I like theorycrafting from time to time. It's a concept with just the basic mechanics and a defined weapon type. No lore or pictures to see here. Picking up the general idea from someone else that I saw in a different forum, who really wanted a champ like that. Since I hate utility creep and ultless overloaded champs too, so I'll try my best to work around those issues when creating a form swapper. Which btw is the actual goal here: Trying to see if a balanced formswapper can exist.
General idea: A champ that has a sword and a shield, and can use his abilities and attacks in either a defensive or offensive form, changing what they do depending on it. A fighter type.
Innate design flaws/dangers when creating a formswapper:
- Champs where the ult is a formswap ability at level 1 usually have their power wired into the basic kit, essentially always providing their full potential early in the game.
- Heavily opinionated disclaimer: I genuinly despise champs who get all their power in their basic kit, and then have (usually) a utility ult on top of it. Traditional high-impact ults are still the best, and proplay can... look somewhere else for champs to abuse. (Taliyah, Ryze, former Rek'Sai...)
- A champ with 7 abilities is prone to being overloaded, simply due to the number of abilities. I have an idea to throw in a limiter.
The kit (explanation will follow):
Normal skillpoint distribution, with R starting with 1/4
- Passive: Using multiple attacks/abilities of the same type in succession will decrease their effectiveness. The debuff resets by using abilities/effects of the other type. Debuff: -10% on all effect values for 3 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times. Changing forms resets the debuff.
- Q Cooldown: 8 Sword: Swipe with the sword. Conic direction targeted. Range 300. Damage physical 80-200 (+100% bAD). Half damage to minions. Shield: Raises shield and reduces damage from that direction. Direction targeted. Self. Damage reduction 10-30% (+3% /100 bAr)(+3% /100 bMr). Duration 2 seconds
- W Cooldown: 6 Sword: Empowers next 2 basic attacks. Autoattack reset. Self. First attack: Has +40-90% attackspeed. Second attack: Spins once and damages in AoE for 60-90% AD. Target takes 200% damage. Shield: Empowers next 2 basic attacks. Autoattack reset. Self. First attack: Reduces damage received from target by 5-25 for 1.25 seconds. Second attack: Reduces resistances of target by 5% (+2,5% /100 Ar)(+2,5% /100 Mr) for 2 seconds.
- E Cooldown: 14 Sword: Dash after short windup that includes stab. Linear direction targeted. Dash range 350. Dash speed 500. Stabs along dash path +200 beyond dash. Damage physical 30-70 (+100% AD). If an enemy is dashing towards you, or the colliding movement speed difference is higher than 950, he takes 200% damage. Shield: Dash after short windup that includes shield bash. Linear direction targeted. Dash range 350. Dash speed 500. Dash stops when hitting an enemy champion. Damage magical 10-50 (+50% AP). Slows enemy hit by 30-90% for 1 second. If an enemy is dashing towards you, or the colliding movement speed difference is higher than 950, he takes 200% damage and is stunned for 2 seconds instead.
- R Tap: Switch between Sword and Shield. Consumes 1 charge. Can hold a maximum of 3 charges. Recharge time: 10/8/6 seconds. Cooldown: 0.5 seconds Hold: (After level 6) 3-hit effect + buff For 10 seconds, the champion does not receive the passive debuff. The next 3 basic attacks gain 50-75-100 bonus range and 10/20/30 bonus damage, and on the third hit the target receives 100/200/300 (+80%bAD) physical damage, with an Aoe striking around them for 50% of the damage. Once the damage is discharged, the debuff negation runs out. Cooldown 120/90/60
The cooldowns of the basic abilities are shared, which is why they are so low.
Alright. That was a tough one. When judging this kit, please know that I didn't put too much thought into the cooldowns, and just gave them a rough timewindow in which I'd expect them. I didn't come up with Manacosts either. Expect them to be in Jayce's playfield (40-55, maybe up to 70 for the strong abilities). Please pay a lot of attention to the passive and how it balances the kit. The idea is, that the player is given the choice to spam offense/defense abilities, but the effects regress as he does. The second important element is the limiter on the form switch. If the player decides to abuse a double form switch to get away with unrestricted abilities, the charge system puts him in his place by making prolonged and timed combat more effective.
I actually had an alternative idea for a balancing passive: The champion starts out with underpowered effects, and the passive instead encourages him to stay in a form or to sacrified his boost for utility.