Twitch the Plague Rat [Rework Concept]
The one thing bothering me about Twitch, the rat man thing, is how his kit works in regards to his champion concept. He's supposed to be sneaky, poisoning people with his passive, before hurting people taking extended fights with him.
The problem with this is that, in reality, his poison not only feels completely useless, the enemy doesn't really feel that bothered by it. While it does damage (we can all agree that, late game, he's able to punish people for taking extended fights with him), it doesn't feel like it does. Not only for the Twitch player, but also for the enemy. Moreover, his E feels like Kalista's E, yet holds less power and feels less impactful than Kalista's E as well.
My main question was as such: How do I make his passive feel more impactful, even though it keeps the same damage as before? How do I make Twitch's E not only feel more impactful, but also feel different in concept compared to Kalista's E?
I give permission for anybody to use the concepts contained within without giving credit; it isn't my business being credited with anything regarding the best boy.
#[Passive] Deadly Venom:
Twitch's basic attacks each poison his target with a Deadly Venom stack as an on-hit effect. Deadly Venom expunges after 6 seconds, and each deadly venom stack expunged deals [6/12/18/24/30] true damage after 6 seconds, stacking up to 6 times for a maximum of [36/72/108/144/180] true damage. Each application of Deadly Venom resets the timer on Deadly Venom, and each application of Deadly Venom after stacking 6 times deals [4.0/4.5/5.0/5.5/6.0%] of the target's maximum health as true damage, with a damage cap against minions and monsters.
Notes: Passive gets stronger at levels [1/5/9/13/17]. As you can note, it deals damage after a delay, instead of damage over time. However, because of the fact that it deals true damage, this deals exactly the same amount of damage as his current passive.
The fact that his passive has such a strong effect when he reaches 6 autoattacks is due to the fact that it incentivizes longer trades, yet takes a long time to reach. Moreover, Twitch will not rely on an on-hit build unless he wants to sacrifice damage to squishier targets, like assassins, which are still a great counter to him, as he is an immobile champion who is easy to rush down outside of team fights, and easy to flank within teamfights.
#[Q] Ambush: (Cooldown: [18])
Active: Twitch scurries up to 300 units towards the target destination. This dash cannot pass through terrain. Twitch becomes camouflaged for [10/11/12/13/14] seconds after the dash. Basic attacks and abilities besides Recall and Spray and Pray break the stealth. While stealthed he gains 10% bonus movement speed, increased to 30% when he moves near enemy champions within a 1000-range radius who cannot see him.
Passive: Twitch gains [30/35/40/45/50%] bonus attack speed for 3 seconds upon breaking stealth. Ambush's cooldown is reset if an enemy champion dies while affected by Deadly Venom or if an enemy champion expunges 6 stacks of Deadly Venom at the same time.
Notes: Twitch's Q, meanwhile, is buffed due to his nerfed W. It's still his bread and butter, but also has more of an opportunity to be reset.
Due to this, it made sense to buff the ability in some way. A small dash which the enemy can see allows them to infer where Twitch is going, and also allows for Twitch to play mind games with his opponents.
#[W] Venom Cask: (Cooldown: [12/11/10/9/8])
Twitch hurls a cask of venom, dealing [20/30/40/50/60 (+60% AP)] physical damage to any enemy or monster struck. If an enemy or monster is struck, a small area of effect deals [10/15/20/25/30 (+30% AP)] physical damage to enemies close around the main target. All enemies damaged by Venom Cask gain 2 stacks of Deadly Venom and are slowed by 25% for [0.6/0.8/1.0/1.2/1.4] seconds. Enemy minions or non-epic monsters damaged by this ability take 100% increased damage and are stunned for the duration.
Notes: His current W allows for Twitch to slow enemies down within an area. However, it doesn't interact with his passive as enemies don't stay within the area for very long, if at all. I changed the spell because of this.
It is relatively weaker than his current W, however. Because of this, it gave me room to buff his other abilities in small ways.
#[E] Contaminate: (Cooldown: [6/5/4/3/2])
Passive: Twitch's Deadly Venom can enter a Dormant state. All Deadly Venom stacks being applied to a target with Dormant Deadly Venom stacks are Dormant as well. Dormant Deadly Venom stacks behave just like Deadly Venom stacks and expunge after the Deadly Venom timer expires, but deal twice the amount of damage they would normally deal when expunging.
Active: Twitch deals [20/30/40/50/60] physical damage to any enemy affected by Deadly Venom within range. When dealt this physical damage, all Deadly Venom stacks the enemy has seep further into their body and enter a Dormant state, dealing [15/20/25/30/35 (+ 35% AD)(+ 35% AP)] physical damage per stack becoming Dormant. Deadly Venom stacks becoming Dormant are treated as though they were expunged.
Contaminate cannot be activated if there are no enemies in range with Deadly Venom stacks that can enter a Dormant state.
Notes: The main chunk of the change. Twitch's E empowers his passive, allowing for his passive stacks to deal more damage once they expunge. Not only is that concept incredibly different from Kalista's E, but it also feels more impactful as a damage tool. Instead of an execute, it's used to reset his Q and set up an execute instead.
Now, the most important part of this is that it allows for Twitch to use his passive in many creative ways, fitting for a maniacal rat who laughs like a crazy madman. He can use his passive on a selection of people, and use it later (due to its short cooldown) to reset his Q multiple times. However, with it being such a short cooldown, there has to be a downside to it as well. The main problem is that a champion needs to expunge their stacks in order for Twitch to use it again. Due to this, Twitch would need to wait a total of 10 seconds (at max rank) in order to use the same ability on the same champion. this, in turn, sets up a limitation with the ability that extends beyond cooldowns.
#[R] Spray and Pray : (Cooldown: [100/95/90])
Twitch activates his crossbow's venom gattle, gaining [20/30/40] bonus attack damage and giving his basic attacks 300 bonus range for 6 seconds. Additionally, Twitch's basic attacks travel across their full range and skewer every enemy they pass through for the duration, dealing 100% - 40% (based on enemy hit) damage. These attacks apply on-hit effects to all affected enemies and can critically strike each individual target.
Notes: Twitch's ultimate is very much an important distinguishing factor to his kit. Moreover, it fits with the reworked kit in many interesting ways. There wasn't a need to really change it.
Using only a small amount of changes, Twitch can certainly further differentiate his kit from other similar champions and feel more impactful at all stages of the game, yet hold the same kind of power as he previously did, logistically.
Thinking on this, feel free to tell me if the kit would be weaker, or stronger than his current one. And, as a reminder, having more options does not necessarily make a champion stronger. Looking at the numbers, it seems that it would be almost identical to his current strength (namely, his strength being a late-game hypercarry), yet still hold the same weaknesses as before, with better skill expression. Moreover, it appears that this kind of kit would incentivize creativity within combat, which fits the rat very well.
Feel free to comment! I want to hear your feedback. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]
