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[Character Concept] Zane, the Void Tamer

Of Mirrors Dark··1 votes·861 views

This is a character CONCEPT, not a fully operational character. As I am not a game developer, I will not attempt to create the statistics, as any I did create would likely end up unbalanced.

Name & Title: Zane, the Void Tamer. Role: Support.

Passive & Abilities: Passive - Indirect Combatant: Zane cannot target enemies with auto attacks but can instead target allies with them, Zane's basic attacks heal his targeted ally rather than doing damage. Q - Lending Power: Infuses an allied champion with dark power, granting them bonus true damage on their next two basic attacks, the bonus on second attack is greater if used against the same target as the first. Cannot be self-cast. W - Spawn Hellion: Spawns flying, fast moving, player-controlled attack minions called Hellions that are directed using Alt+W. They have an infinite range on how far from Zane they can be. They remain until killed. Any minions killed by a Hellion give minion kill gold to the nearest allied Champion within range. E - Eyes of the Void: Reveals and disables nearby invisible traps and invisible wards in target area, grants detection of nearby invisible units. R - Dark Swarm: Passively increases the stats of all Hellions spawned. Activate to release a swarm of specialized Hellions that seek out and attach to nearby champions, friend or foe. For the duration of the ability, all allies attached with one gain bonus life steal + spell vamp and all enemies attached with one get reduced armor and magic resist. Hellion minion kills grant minion kill gold to any and all allied Champions affected by Dark Swarm's buff.

Meh, not too satisfied with this, very lacking in details, lore, or anything along those lines and definitely missing numbers, but it was a random idea I had and I felt like typing it up. So, might as well see what others think, though I highly doubt it will ever become a real champion nor do I think it should. It was just a concept I thought of.

5 Comments

DrugsForRobots2 votes

So, there are some problems with this.

One, as cool as having a champion who, rather that traditional damage dealing AAs, heals his comrades might be, I think it poses serious problems balance-wise. Your E is also rather uninspired as it's just a red trinket...

Thematically, you have some good ideas in there, but I don't think League needs another 'human with Void powers'-type champion. What is cool, that you touch on that I've seen others touch on elsewhere, is the theme of a swarm / hive-mind / mass of writhing insectile tenticle things who is also a Support. Such a concept, as of now, has yet to be seen in the League, and I think has enough flavor and resonance to warrant exploring.

As for your design, I'm not terribly excited or impressed, though I would like to be. Keep thinking on it.

Of Mirrors Dark1 votes

Yeah... Honestly didn't have many ideas so I just thought maximum vision with Sightstone, Greater Vision Totem and the E lol that could easily be replaced with something else if I get any ideas, the important parts were:

  • It being a Support.
  • Passive makes it so you heal allies instead of damage enemies with auto attacks.
  • Q is a buff, I settled on true damage for the buff as pretty much anyone can use true damage, where-as had I gone with my other ideas for the buff only certain types of champions would have really had use for the buff.
  • W as a player-controlled fast attack "minions" that could be sent to assist allies anywhere on the map without leaving your partner's side.
  • And R was either going to be making Q buff apply globally, spawning a bunch of the minions or giving buffs and debuffs to several nearby champions which is the one I settled on. This one instead of the swarm minions because the swarm minions would be more towards you being a Mage who deals damage through lots of minions and buffing those minions, rather than a Support, and it is supposed to be a Support not a Mage. And the global buff idea was dropped because it would be similar to Soraka's ult only a buff instead of heal.

I am also aware that being able to heal without a mana cost or cooldown with the AAs might be a bit unbalanced, seeing as how it would essentially make the ADC that Zane is supporting immune to poke.

Still, I feel like if this ever became a thing someone could, and probably would, just build massive CDR and mana and just spam the W and have complete map control because of their army.

Another useful idea would be to get all 5 members of your team together, buff them with ult and then have the W minions kill a bunch of enemy minions to get gold for your entire team ahahaha.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback. If I ever think of better ways to update this maybe I will, though honestly it was just a random idea that I typed up because I can. In addition, the title is also kind of placeholder just like the E, I was having trouble thinking of one of those so the whole Void part may actually be changed as well.

Of Mirrors Dark1 votes

Update: I have a new idea for the E.

E - Black Conduit: Places a Black Conduit on target location. As long as the Black Conduit remains, it allows you to cast your basic abilities inside the area around the Black Conduit for a slightly increased mana cost. Black Conduits can be destroyed.

Essentially, if you left one of these in top lane and then your top laner desperately needed backup ASAP, but your Hellions aren't actually near top and thus would have to travel all the way there, or if you have none, have to spawn them and then send them there, you could instead, for a slightly higher mana cost, summon them already up top as to get reinforcements there faster.

How is that idea for the E?

Still thinking of changes to the passive to make it less overpowered... Maybe put it on a short cooldown after each use (Like Vi's passive gives her a shield when she uses abilities but also has a cooldown so she can't keep a shield up by just keeping abilities rolling), during which you just can't auto attack until it recharges? That might make it a bit too weak...

DrugsForRobots1 votes

Having a placeable object that lets you use your abilities within its AoE as though you were in range would be cool. I'm not sure of the name. I feel like better word choices would enhance the flavor of the character.

Speaking of, are you dead set on having him be a 'void tamer'? It doesn't resonate with me, personally, for a number of reasons.

  1. With the exception of Kassadin and Malzahar, all the Void champions are monsters. Hence why I said, "I don't think League needs another 'human with void powers'-type champion". Another void-human would make the other two less unique (they're currently the only two known survivors who encountered the Void).
  2. When I think of a 'tamer' I think of an animal tamer, a beast master, a druid of sorts. Do we have such a champion? No. Does League have a place for such a champion? Probably, but Riot would have to put their own spin on it, and them doing so would make for a much cooler, unique character. Would I want to see such a champion? Kinda indifferent.
  3. We don't have a description of your character, but as a general rule, humans have a rather boring silhouette. Unless they have an exaggerated body type (like hulking alpha males like Garen or Darius) or a particularly unique color scheme or some outrageous fashion, they just tend to look unremarkable. How different would he look from Kass or Malz? How does he move or carry himself? What about his attacks?

You still have some good ideas here. My point is that you could create a more compelling, cohesive character if you mixed and matched what thematically resonates with you and other people. My personal design philosophy (which is molded from several sources and what little Riot has said about how they approach champion design) is to start from a top-down approach meaning we start with a neat concept and flavor. Do I think your concept is neat? Ehhh... Do I think it has potential? Yes. The flavor is there but it doesn't quite come together for me.

Maybe I'm biased. Maybe I can't see beyond the hive-mind / swarm / 'insectile mass' idea. But that's the impression your abilities give me. I think it's the 'broodmother / hive-queen' archetype. Elise kinda touches on it, but she more fulfills the fantasy of 'being a spider'. Such a champion I'd like to see would be one whose minions / pets / abilities are her children while also being her. I'm tempted to mock-up such a champion right now. It's something we don't have in League, and of all the different ways Riot could pull it off, I think the Void aspect would be most befitting.

Of Mirrors Dark1 votes

Not at all dead set on it being "Void Tamer," as I said that was a placeholder title. But yes, this idea here is far from complete in its level of detail. But it IS a concept, which literally means "an abstract idea; a general notion." I did consider making it "Beast Master," but I feel like that title would better fit a Jungler with the ability to "Capture" jungle monsters when they defeat them and have the jungle monsters fight alongside them lol. Hmm... I should think on that idea and flesh it out. Also flesh this one out, find a better title, etc. So much to do and so little time... Actually scratch that, I have plenty of time. Just depends on how much of that time is spent with me not getting distracted by other things. The feedback is appreciated, honestly expected nobody to give any when I put this up, I just had some spare time on my hands and nothing to do, so I typed it up ahahaha.

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