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Maz, the Visionary

Lord Chiroptera·3/6/2019, 8:14:45 PM·3 votes·2,095 views

I have no idea if this has already been thought of. It probably has. I was just bored and thought of it and was like "Huh." so here I am. Also, I'm VERY open to critiques 'cause I'm kinda garbage at this game, so for all I know I made Maz broken or super weak or maybe both. So I'm open to critiques and advice, I suppose, if anybody wants to provide them. Also I have no art whatsoever of her 'cause I wouldn't be able to draw a proper stick figure even if my mother's life depended on it, so. =/ But I'll provide a sort of description of her at the end. Anywho, onto Maz.

Maz, the Visionary

Health: 535 – 2,065 Health Regeneration: 5.45 – 15.1 Mana: 380 – 1,285 Mana Regeneration: 8 – 21.6 Range: 525 Attack Damage: 55 - 110 Attack Speed: 0.65 – 0.88 Armor: 25 - 88 Magic Resistance: 30 – 38.5 Movement Speed: 340

Passive: "Ingenuity of a Visionary"

Every time Maz destroys an enemy ward, places a ward, or repairs a destroyed allied ward, she gains a stack of "Visionary." This can stack infinitely and will not expire.

Q: “Vision Blast” Mana Cost: 60 / 75 / 90 / 105 / 120 Cooldown: 10s / 9.5s / 9s / 8.5s / 8s Range: 800

Maz launches a blast of magic from her Hextech disk that explodes upon enemy contact or at max range, dealing 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 / 155 (+35% AP) magic damage to the main target and another 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 / 80 (+15% AP) bonus magic damage in a 250 unit radius, granting true sight of all enemies hit for 1 second.

Maz can recast Vision Blast within 2 seconds of its initial cast, but it will cost twice as much mana and consume 5 stacks of "Visionary." If Maz does not have 5 or more stacks of "Visionary," she cannot recast Vision Blast. Maz cannot recast Vision Blast more than once.

W: “Tools of a Visionary” Range: 100 Mana Cost for repairing a ward: 125 at all levels Mana Cost for altering a ward: 50 / 65 / 80 / 95 / 110 Cooldown: 3s at all levels

Passive Effect: When an allied ward expires or is destroyed, it is replaced with a marker that grants no vision and lasts for a certain amount of time. Stealth Wards and Warding Totems get 30 second markers while Control Wards and Farsight Wards get 15 second markers. If the wards are not repaired within the marker's duration, the marker disappears and the ward is irreparable. However, if Maz repairs the target ward before the marker expires, it is instantaneously restored with full health and a reset duration and it also gains a “Fragile” debuff. If a Fragile ward is destroyed or expires, it is unable to be repaired. (To repair a ward, get within range and click the marker.) Maz is unable to repair Zombie Wards.

Active Effect: Maz consumes a stack of "Visionary" to upgrade the “trap tier” of a nearby ward by 1 tier up to a cap of Trap Tier 5. Using Tools of a Visionary on Fragile wards doubles the mana cost of each cast. Maz can only upgrade wards up to a trap tier equivalent to Tools of a Visionary’s ability rank. (Note: In other words, if she puts three points into her W, she can upgrade a ward to Trap Tier 3, but no higher. This is mostly to stop people from abusing the ability by putting one point into it to conserve mana costs and still get a ward to Trap Tier 5.)

Trap Tier 1: The ward detonates upon expiration or destruction, dealing 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 (+10% AP) magic damage to all enemies in a 200 unit radius.

Trap Tier 2: The ward detonates upon expiration or destruction, dealing 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 (+10% AP) magic damage to all enemies in a 200 unit radius and slowing them by 15% for 2 seconds.

Trap Tier 3: The ward detonates upon expiration or destruction, dealing 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 / 65 (+45% AP) magic damage to all enemies in a 200 unit radius and slowing them by 15% for 2 seconds.

Trap Tier 4: The ward detonates upon expiration or destruction, dealing 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 / 65 (+45% AP) magic damage to all enemies in a 200 unit radius and slowing them by 45% for 2 seconds.

Trap Tier 5: The ward detonates upon expiration or destruction, dealing 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 (+70% AP) magic damage to all enemies in a 200 unit radius and slowing them by 45% for 2 seconds.

E: “Vision Dash” Mana Cost: 50 / 65 / 80 / 95 / 110 Cooldown: 16s / 14.75s / 13.5s / 12.25s / 11s Range: 400 – 1,050

Maz dashes 400 units in a target direction. This does not cross terrain. However, if she targets a ward with Vision Dash, the range doubles and it can cross terrain. If the ward has a Trap Tier, the range of Vision Dash increases by 50 per Trap Tier. Maz cannot dash to ward markers. Using Vision Dash toward Fragile wards doubles the mana cost.

R: “The Visionary's Boon” Mana Cost: 150 / 175 / 200 Cooldown: 20s / 15s / 10s Range: 450

Active Effect: Maz grants a target allied Champion one of her “Visionary” stacks, up to a cap of 10. Allies can use “Visionary” stacks to repair wards, consuming 2 stacks per ward. They can also use 5 stacks to upgrade the trap tier of a nearby ward. Lastly, they can use all 10 stacks to instantly grant them another ward charge. In doing so, however, they reset the cooldown on the next charge.

Passive Effect: With at least one stack, the next time that ally’s health drops below 15%, they place a Trap Tier 1 ward at their feet and consume all “Visionary” stacks, healing for 135 / 175 / 215 (+(10 x number of stacks consumed)% AP) health. With at least five stacks, the next time that ally’s health drops below 15%, they place a Trap Tier 3 ward at their feet and consume all “Visionary” stacks, healing for 135 / 175 / 215 (+(15 x number of stacks consumed)% AP) health. With all ten stacks, the next time that ally’s health drops below 15%, they place a Trap Tier 5 ward at their feet and consume all “Visionary” stacks, healing for 135 / 175 / 215 (+(20 x number of stacks consumed)% AP) health and extending the heal to all allies in a 250 unit radius for 35 / 75 / 115 (+(5 x number of stacks consumed)% AP) health.

As for her appearance, Maz is some level of short or tall. I don't know enough about the average female height to say if she's tall or short, but I imagined her being about 5'4" or 5'5" with frizzy black hair as though she was just electrocuted. She has glasses, but the right lens is cracked, and she has steampunk-ish goggles strapped on top of her head. She has a small hammer (like the tool) in her right hand and a disk in her left that looks like a gear, but with an electric blue glow to it. She has light tan skin and freckles, bright green eyes, and a small scar on her right cheek near the cheekbone. She wears brown boots, but the left bootleg is squished down near her ankle and she wears shin-high socks. She also has brown, leather, fingerless gloves on both hands and a simple brown shirt with long white sleeves and a white trim, except her right sleeve is rolled up to her elbow.

EDITS

So I basically reworked her. XD I still like the idea of a vision-based support, but Ðeath XIII and Gilgayu gave me some good pointers. First, I feel like Ðeath XIII made a very good point that Maz in her previous state was too much of a "ward slave." Hopefully the new kit helps that. And Gilgayu's mention of ward interactions gave me a fantastic idea. So now her kit's completely different. Overall, many good things were pointed out. I made her R way too similar to Twisted Fate's, her W was a bit wonky, and in realizing this, I noticed her passive was too, well, passive. It made her ward-centered instead of ward-based. I don't want Maz to be a glorified warding item that can be controlled. I much rather her be able to interact with wards in some fashion, and I think I achieved that in this edit. Although, I will say now her abilities are even more wacky and, to be completely honest, I think her entire kit is now absolutely broken, but I'm posting this anyways and leaving that decision for people more experienced than myself. Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback so far. Much appreciated. <3

NOTE: I just wanted to make mention as well that I kept the first iteration of Maz just in case this one is even worse, which is honestly a possibility at this point. XD

17 Comments

Novae Idyllica3/7/2019, 6:49:26 PM1 votes

Are the Maz wards and traps visible? Like blue trinket? Also what would the range be? A short range placement would keep it from being particularly overpowered, but is the intent to be somewhat OP? Maz sounds like an interesting support, is that the position you picture her in?

rareform3/7/2019, 7:50:26 PM1 votes

Right away I thought, I can see Maz being useful if I wanted to go explore the shadow isles. Oh shit, Maz and Ezreal exploring the shadow isles! I bet there's a story that can come out of that.

I like the vision theme. Shes obviously a support champion, but not a weak one by any means. That Q can nuke and the ultimate can really turn a game around. I imagine 40+ second death timers, teams are trying their hardest to move as a group, suddenly Maz ult and 5 team members show up behind the enemy team member that thought he/she was safe roaming alone. NOT

You didn't specify that the traps well, trap lol. But I assume that they do, and hopefully not too long considering a 3 second cooldown with 45 CRD is like 1.75 seconds you could perma CC someone with that. Or is it not a trap and more of a fake ward that is meant to trick the enemy into killing to take damage? I think this ability is the only one that could be tweaked to potentially give Maz that well rounded support kit. Something that doesn't mean shes automatically dead if say a riven walks up to her and she doesn't have flash. Cause as of right now shes less safe than soraka 0: But I guess actually, she does have that awesome mobility, which you may have intended to be the backbone of her kit. Did you? It's definitely gonna be a short dash timer late game, and having a crap tone of wards to move around and with that Q damage you could definitely be a threat all the while providing your team with endless vision. In that case shes a fantastic later game support but I'm not so sure shed match up well into a blitzcrank/thresh/leona in lane. I think in some way she needs some CC added to her traps. What do you think?

Mad Writer3/7/2019, 8:34:12 PM1 votes

An interesting idea for a support, being based on vision. One question, however, is about that ult. Does it lift fog of war globally, or is it within a range? Is there a visual affect to it? Would this affect let enemies know they're visible?

Gilgayu3/8/2019, 12:37:07 AM1 votes

I liked the concept a lot.

It is true that, just like you said, the idea of a champion centered around vision is often explored upon, but I daresay yours is one of the best concepts portraying that idea.

Balance wise, there are only a few necessary tweaks.

Q seems alright at first glance, but the fact that it also grants true sight of enemy hit... perhaps lower the initial damage and increase the explosion radius? Would be a interesting counter to invisible champions. The cooldown is also a bit low due to its utility, perhaps 6.5 seconds cd at max rank?

As for her ultimate... it is a cool concept, but I find it a bit strong. Granting her entire team mobility is just beyond what should be allowed for an ultimate (sivir's ult doesn't grant true vision). It should be fine if her teammate's dash has a limited range though (say 400). This is a get-out-of-jail card at too low a cost for using it, but I suppose its mana cost kind of compensated for it?

Cool concept though, and here comes some suggestions that are straight personal preference _____________- Everyone loves vision, but to be honest, Maz just has too much potential for her to be just focused on vision. How about give her Maz wards special interactions with regular wards? There is no point in having 2 wards in the same bush, so how about let her Maz wards strengthen regular wards (in whatever way you prefer)? To be honest, support items give an excessive amount of wards if you back frequently, so having that many Maz wards really isn't as impactful as it should be (but rather wasteful, because storing up all that wards means they won't be used up...)

Just my two cents, I hope you can dig some useful information out of this. Good job, it really was a cool concept. (Make more ;)

Ðeath XIII3/8/2019, 12:52:37 AM1 votes

Doesn’t work.

W is too niche, and E/Q doesn’t have enough to compensate. R is basically a worse TF ult.

You need to work on the vision mechanics so it isn’t just Ward Slave 2.0

Rewards for her getting vision, rewards for maintaining vision. In Dota 2 Treant Protector can create wards from trees that also cast his ult when he does. You need more mechanics like that instead of a highly situational Ward dash

Gilgayu3/10/2019, 12:50:29 PM1 votes

First of all, I respect your speed in reworking a concept. I'm still trying to rework my last concept, and it's been 2 weeks...... (reworked only passive and q, it's a work in progress...) I'm also working on two other concepts (on google docs) now, so time is a bit limited.

but enough about me, let's talk about the reworked Maz.

Now he is much more useful in terms of ultility. No matter how picky I am, each ability is truly amazing on their own. On their own.

Let me summarize Maz in the simpliest way possible:

  • passive: gains usable stacks upon interacting with wards
  • q: directional skill shot that applies true sight of enemy hit in a radius
  • w: upgrade/repair wards at great mana cost
  • e: powerful mobility when near her wards
  • r: active: grant w to allies passive: when ally get to low hp, heal them and drop a ward.

In even simplier terms, I'll say that her kit does:

  1. little to none direct (aka burst) damage
  2. mana-reliant
  3. teemo's friend vision hoarder
  4. plays her stacking mini-game

My words might sound a bit rude, but it is kind of hard to state what I want to say in other words because this is some pretty technical stuff (ironically stuff isn't a technical word xP).

What I'm trying to say is that when you were trying to "rebuilt her in a fashion I find much more akin to what I intended for her playstyle", you probably got a little... distracted, since you were trying to put that image in your brain into reality. This leads to inconsistancy in practicality of the concept, which can be fixed by re-reworking one or few of its abilities. I used to do that too, but I got into the habit of asking myself questions like "How to play as/against/with him/her?" Sometimes people like to "god-mod" their concepts, as a fellow concept maker, ChaosReyn puts it. I'm not saying yours is, but that certainly can happen if you eventually focus on concept-making (meaning making concepts weekly or something like that).

Well, Maz has too little to occur her teams. She has little to no damage (people will learn soon enough not to hit her wards), and some inconsistant utility. Her entire playstyle can be denied if the enemy simply puts a control ward in a bush and guard it at all times, making it pointless to destroy her wards.

Before going into suggestions, let's break up support in general. They offer:

  • CC, sometimes little and sometimes excessive (looking at you cow)
  • heal/shield, enchanters
  • sometimes different steroids (aa, ms, whatever), think nami
  • high burst, mage supports (brand/lux)
  • ability to peel (in all sorts of ways), best examples are tahm and braum

I'm not saying you need to follow this "guideline", but it can only be ignored to a certain degree. Most supports have at least 2 of the traits, and Maz need to have at least one. Like I mentioned above, her cc is inconsistant due to the fact that her wards can just be ignored... .... So, here comes my suggestion.

W: “Tools of a Visionary” Range: * 300 (100 means you have to be literally on top of the ward...) Mana Cost for repairing a ward: * 100 at all levels Mana Cost for altering a ward: * 40 / 50 / 70 / 95 / 125 Cooldown: 1.5 s at all levels

Passive Effect: When an allied ward expires or is destroyed, it is replaced with a marker that grants no vision and lasts for a certain amount of time. Stealth Wards and Warding Totems get 30 second markers while Control Wards and Farsight Wards get 15 second markers. If the wards are not repaired within the marker's duration, the marker disappears and the ward is irreparable. However, if Maz repairs the target ward before the marker expires, it is instantaneously restored with full health and a reset duration and it also gains a “Fragile” debuff. If a Fragile ward is destroyed or expires, it is unable to be repaired. (To repair a ward, get within range and click the marker.) Maz is unable to repair Zombie Wards.

Active Effect: Maz consumes a stack of "Visionary" to upgrade the “trap tier” of a nearby ward by 1 tier up to a cap of Trap Tier 5. Using Tools of a Visionary on Fragile wards doubles the mana cost of each cast. Maz can only upgrade wards up to a trap tier equivalent to Tools of a Visionary’s ability rank. (Note: In other words, if she puts three points into her W, she can upgrade a ward to Trap Tier 3, but no higher. This is mostly to stop people from abusing the ability by putting one point into it to conserve mana costs and still get a ward to Trap Tier 5.)

Now comes the major difference

Upgraded control wards and Farsight Wards will not deal continuous damage, but their detonation will deal 1.25/1.4/1.55/1.7/1.85 times more damage.

Trap Tier 1: The ward deals 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10 (+4% AP) magical damage every 0.5 second in a 225 unit radius until it expires. It also detonates upon expiration or destruction, dealing 6 / 12 / 18 / 24 / 30 (+15% AP) magic damage to all enemies in a 300 unit radius.

Trap Tier 2: The ward deals 2 / 4.5 / 7 / 9.5 / 12 (+4% AP) magical damage every 0.5 second in a 225 unit radius until it expires. It also detonates upon expiration or destruction, dealing 6 / 12 / 18 / 24 / 30 (+15% AP) magic damage to all enemies in a 300 unit radius and slowing them by 20% for 2 seconds.

Trap Tier 3: The ward deals 3 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 15 (+5% AP) magical damage every 0.5 second in a 250 unit radius until it expires. It also detonates upon expiration or destruction, dealing 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 (+20% AP) magic damage to all enemies in a 350 unit radius and slowing them by 20% for 2 seconds.

Trap Tier 4: The ward deals 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 (+8% AP) magical damage every 0.5 second in a 250 unit radius until it expires. It also detonates upon expiration or destruction, dealing 13 / 26 / 39 / 52 / 65 (+35% AP) magic damage to all enemies in a 350 unit radius and slowing them by 40% for 2 seconds.

Trap Tier 5: The ward deals 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 (+15% AP) magical damage every 0.4 second in a 300 unit radius until it expires. It also detonates upon expiration or destruction, dealing 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 (+60% AP) magic damage to all enemies in a 400 unit radius and stunning them by for 2 seconds.

So, now the wards deal damage just by being there. If you look at the cost, the cost almost grows exponentially (not as dramatic, for obvious reasons). This is meant for Maz to perhaps upgrade most wards to tier 2, but in some important places to have control over (like the bushes in top land and bot lane, the ones in the lanes), she will upgrade them further. The constant damage will also lead to her opponent support (if she herself is support) start the game with item 3364 , which leads her team further ahead in terms of vision.

This version gives her much more kill pressure in lane phase (dropping wards in a team fight xD), and also an more-than-average objective control.

Please tell me what you think

and 2 last things

  1. I suggest giving Maz no limit to wards she can have in a game
  2. I suggest making her ultimate's passive's ward have only 2-5 health when respawned, so it can explode right away for more purpose (and possible outplay)

Well, that's it. I hope this is helpful (certainly long, but quality over quantity, eh?)

Edit: oh and I forgot to mention now that her wards deal continuous damage, it will be pretty obvious which one is hers, but the decision (for the opponent) between leaving it there since it's a weak aoe (if low tier) or destroy it to deny zoning will be interesting to see.