Baldur, the Soul Thief

Lore Pending: Still thinking it through

Classification: Juggernaut, Tank

Animation/Design: Baldur has been corrupted by the void. His body has become host to a pack of void creatures that consume souls. All of the animations for his abilities features these void creatures. His Q is them latching onto targets, his w is the creatures eating a portion of the targets souls (their heads replace his fists when he attacks). When using his E he transforms into a host of these creatures during travel, and his ult is a host of these creatures attacking on their own. Throughout all of this, you can see a physical connection between these creatures and Baldur.

Abilities:

Unique Resource - Soul Energy - Upon killing a unit, Baldur gains soul energy, more for canon minons, Epic Monsters, Jungle camps, and Champions. Over time this resource decays.

Passive -

Baldur gains increasing armor, magic resist and health regen, based on how much soul energy he currently has. These amounts are substantial.

All armor and magic resist from items is halved. In addition, if he has no soul energy, then he has no passive health regen.

Q - Soul Shackle

Baldur shoots out a small aoe, dealing minor damage. All units hit by this become shackled for the next 4 seconds. While shackled, units can move freely, but they cannot move outside of the shackle range. If Baldur moves beyond maximum shackle range, all enemies at maximum range are dragged with him. At the end of Soul Shackle, all units inflicted are given a debuff, Soul Bond for the next 6 seconds.

W - Soul Devourer - Toggled ability

Stance A : Baldur ignores 75% of bonus armor, in addition, all abilities and auto attacks deal physical damage and steal a small amount of health from the target.

Stance B : Baldur ignores 75% of bonus magic resist. In addition, all abilites and auto attacks deal magic damage and generate a small amount of Soul Energy.

E - Soul Shatter

Baldur blinks to a target with Soul Bond, no maximum range. Upon Arriving, Baldur displaces everyone in an aoe around the target for .25 seconds, after which all targets effected are slowed for 2 seconds. Baldur Gains 20% of maximum soul energy for each target hit within this aoe.

R - Host of the Void

Baldur sends out all of the void creatures he contains within him, stunning the first champion struck for 1.5 seconds. After this, the host returns to Baldur, stealing all bonus armor and magic resist from the target struck for the next 10 seconds. Throughout those 10 seconds, the armor and magic resist returns gradually to the owner. (at 1 second, 10% returned, 5 seconds 50%, etc.) In addition, Baldur gains maximum soul energy.

This ability is a point click ability, like Caitlyn's ultimate. This also means that a quick flash or movement from an enemy champion can intentionally take the ultimate for his teammate, protecting them from losing their resists and making them far more vulnerable.

Reasoning/Tactics

Passive - This passive makes him a beast in protracted fights. You either kill him quick or you suffer the consequences. However, it also opens him up to meaningful counter play. If you can force him off of the minons when laning, all of your damage sticks, assuming no potions. If he has no soul energy, he's going to be substantially weaker than someone with the same items. However, with soul energy, he more than makes up for this missing armor and magic resist, due to the bonus that he gets from his passive, not to mention the large amount of health regen.

Q

This ability is his bread and butter and what defines his role, a juggernaut that protects the back line. For example, say a malphite, lee sin, and yasuo dive your backline, you can then soul shackle them, and drag them away from it. Alternatively, you can soul shackle them at the start of the fight, and keep them off of your backline by positioning yourself far enough away from it that they can't reach it due to soul shackles range. The Soul Bond Debuff then enables Baldur's only gap closer, his E. This means that if you can avoid his q, a lot of his engage potential is limited, opening him up to counter play. However, if you can land your q successfully and consistently, you are substantially stronger for it. Also, soul shackle becomes a great way to make abilities fizzle. Say in the earlier example, you've soul shackled malphite, and then he tries to ult past you, he hits the end of the shackle range and then gets pulled out of his ult, fizzling the ability.

W

His w is what makes him thematically unique. By being able at a moments notice to not only choose what damage type he does, and whether or not he gets tanker or gets more sustain, he can control his position within the team fights. He can choose what type of damage he wants to counter, one being greater ability to survive burst, the other being greater ability to sustain through prolonged damage. Towards the end of the fight, this passive effectively allows him to do both, making him a juggernaut towards the end of the fight. This is because of his soul energy. If he used his abilities to build his soul energy correctly, he would then have substantial tank, and could switch over to health return, gaining a large amount of health back behind that tank. This ability is very strong, but he has to be within attack range to use it. Displaces then greatly minimize his damage, but if he can get in range, he can do considerable damage quite quickly.

E

This is his only gap closer, and its highly situational. If used incorrectly (namely hitting one target only) it doesn't substantially help him. However, if he can successfully get 4 or 5 enemies with it, then suddenly he becomes super tanky, and is in a great position to apply damage. Because of the nature of its interaction with his q, a good team can outplay most of his engage potential by simply dodging his q. If you can avoid his q, you can avoid nearly all of his disrupt and engage potential.

R

This ability has the potential to be extremely overpowered, so it needs counter play. Imagine your only tank suddenly losing all of their resist, or your adc. The ability to body block this ult means that if a skilled Baldur uses it, it becomes a strong skill. If a not so skilled Baldur uses it, it becomes a lot less effective. Also, if a the enemy team is skilled, it becomes a lot less effective. There is inherent counter play within this ultimate, even for all of its strength.