Ranged jungler champion concept; Ethan, the Piltover Vigilante

Disclaimer: this is going to be a very lengthy post, and I'm not sure there’s really a way to tl;dr it. Thank you for reading.

EDITED to better fit concept

With over 120 champions, one would think that at least a few of them would be ranged junglers, but there really aren’t. The only ranged champions you see in the jungle even occasionally are Fiddlesticks, who is a caster, and Sa...Teemo, who is Teemo. You could argue that Nidalee is ranged, but she mainly uses cat form to jungle. So, I took some time and brainstormed up a ranged jungler. Most numbers are not included, since they would require live testing to iron out optimal values, and whatever numbers are included are just to give an impression of the ability.

In no way would I expect Riot to actually adopt this in full, but there may be some good conceptual inspiration and interplay that can be incorporated into champions that are getting their kits built at the moment.

Along with a basic description of each ability, I will break down its intent, some potential uses, and counterplay, as well as any pertinent issues regarding the ability. The biggest challenge was making a ranged champion suitable for the jungle without making him overpowered in other roles. Because of this, I centered his kit around vision, making it very difficult to use in lane, but a good fit in the jungle. He may also be suitable for a support role, but his hard CC is somewhat limited and provides no healing or shields, so an aggressive support, if at all. Here goes:

Ethan: The Piltover Vigilante For (dark and secret) lore purposes, we will say that he’s a citizen of piltover who is tired of Jinx wrecking the place, and is sick of Vi and Cait not getting results. I promise I wasn't even thinking of Batman when I put this together, but when I looked at the finished product, yeah, he’s Piltover Batman.

Concept: Throws daggers, mobile, primarily jungle, kit revolves around vision and vision control.

Resource: mana (Considered energy in order to incentivize giving blue buff to mid earlier and more consistently, but the kit doesn't seem to lend itself to energy)

Passive: AA’s cause bleeding, low damage, scales from 1-5 per second per stack +~.2AD, granting vision for the duration. At 4 stacks of bleeding, Applies grievous wounds and doubles bleed damage for 2 seconds. Duration scales with level..

Pretty straight forward, it’s intended to make him hard to shake if he’s chasing you, no brush jukes and less chance of death brush baits. Encourages building attack speed to take advantage of passive procs.

Q: Throws a handful of explosive daggers (4) along total 90 deg arc, evenly spaced. Will interact with the first enemy encountered, as Ashe volley. However, dagger path is curved and will converge at ~800 units (max range), similar to Diana Q without variable range. Small aoe damage on re-activate or after 3 sec timer, overlaps (reduced damage on overlap). Damage scales with AP. Shreds armor/mr for 4 sec, 5% if detonated early, 10% for full timer per explosion. Explosion damage up/recast down per level. Recast no less than 8 sec with 40% CDR.

This is going to be more or less his signature ability, providing the bulk of his camp clearing ability, along with his W. While the potential of a 40% shred seems exceedingly powerful at first, it must be noted that it takes a full 3 seconds to get the full shred, and that to land all 4 daggers requires you to be in melee range or at exactly max range; plus, it can be blocked by minions. This means a 10-20% shred is much more likely, and there may be benefits to the instant damage and shred vice waiting for the whole thing. The full timer shred is much more likely to apply in siege situations or impending teamfights, where poke gets traded before the brawl actually starts.

W: Acts as basic sweeper trinket centered on caster’s location when cast, if no ward spotted AND caster not in enemy vision, Places the champion in stealth for 3 seconds. If in enemy vision, moderately raises attack speed and resistances.

This is a very dynamic ability, and is geared toward setting up for what comes next, whether it's a gank or a teamfight. Essentially, it should keep you from going in on a bad gank, and gives a huge setup for a good gank. If used just before a fight, it can help you make it to the end of the fight in one piece.

E: Throw grappling dagger skillshot. Dagger damage calc as AA dagger with on-hit effects, acts as Amumu bandage toss without stun, will carry Ethan to max AA range, can grapple to terrain as Nautilus. Will fear for 1.5 sec on dagger impact if performed from FoW/brush or within 1 sec of exiting same. Recast down per level.

A decent gap closer is a key part of a jungler’s kit, and this rewards good ganks while potentially punishing bad ones. Landing a Q right after arriving at the target should yield some impressive damage, and prepare for follow-up from yourself and your laner. A fear in the wrong direction, or even worse, no fear at all, could put you in a rather compromising position and get you killed for your trouble. Works well in tandem with W for getting into or out of a fight, but I wouldn't expect the cooldown to be so low as to allow both without time passing for a decent skirmish.

R: Long range (3000?) 1 second channel, upon completion, teleport to target area, limiting vision in the same manner as Graves W, and amplifying damage taken for 4 seconds and fearing for 1.5 seconds all enemies in the area that were visible at the completion of channeling. W can be used while channelling. Damage amp and effect area up per level. 5/7.5/10%; 500/650/800 units

The requirement for vision to get the full effect means you're not going to magically show up and surprise the other team while they’re sneaking baron and murder them. Rather, this is going to either initiate a teamfight or be used early on in order to gain an opportunity to pop an opposing carry, or to disengage by obscuring your team. Having your carries just hang out in unwarded brush when it looks like a teamfight might break out would nullify the worst of the ult, and put him in an awkward spot when he appears in the center of the enemy team without fearing everyone present. Proper execution should give a few seconds of advantage, but do it wrong and your team will be down a member in short order.

If you've read this far, you are a hero, and you have my thanks. Feedback is always appreciated, and I'll clean up the concept accordingly. Cheers!