M.A.W. - The Experimental Soldier

Lore

During the war between Ionia and Noxus, a male warrior, a female archer, and a male mage were captured and sent to Zaun with the goal of combining them into a singular master of all three combat types - an idea code-named M.A.W. After many painful experiments, the bodies, minds and souls were one; or so it was thought.

When tested in swordsmanship, M.A.W. decimated its opponent with overwhelming strength, but it could not shoot straight with a bow and had no skill in magic.

The test was labeled a failure and it was to be executed by Draven himself.

On the day of the execution, M.A.W. was untied and given the chance to run for its life and give the audience something to watch, but it stood still and waited for its death. The audience watched in disappointment and Draven took aim with his axes.

Just as the axe was thrown, M.A.W. suddenly changed into a form resembling the mage and stopped the axe mid-flight. Enraged, Draven threw his other axe. This then triggered the mage to switch back to the warrior form to catch the axe that had be stopped and use it to block the incoming attack.

With its new weapon, the warrior turned to a nearby Noxian soldier. It stabbed the axe through the guard and took his sword for itself before running off.

Archers soon pursued M.A.W. and took aim from the rooftops. The soldier once again changed to the mage and reflected all incoming arrows back to their owners. It then took form of the female archer and climbed the buildings to take a bow and some arrows for herself. Neither form of the soldier was to be found for months after its escape from Noxus. The next encounter of M.A.W. was in Feliord, but it was only for a second before an arrow was shot and it felled the bear that sought to harm an already injured soldier.

Passive - Unstable Characteristics

M.A.W. can shift forms throughout the game, gaining different abilities based on form. Cooldowns for abilities are shared between forms.

In warrior form, basic attacks are melee. This is M.A.W.'s default form.

In mage form, basic attacks are ranged.

In archer form, basic attacks are ranged.

Ability 1 - Swift Strike/Arcane Assault

In warrior form, this ability is Swift Strike. When cast, M.A.W. preforms a sudden slash instead of a basic attack, resetting its attack timer and disarming its target for 0.2/0.25/0.3/0.35/0.5 seconds and dealing Physical Damage.

In mage form, this ability is Arcane Assault. When cast on a target, a fast moving projectile shoots towards them, dealing Magic Damage and stunning them for 0.5/0.5/1/1/2 seconds.

Either ability can be reactivated to switch between warrior and mage form, instantly casting the other form's version of the ability and extending the cooldown. This also gives passive 10/20/30/40/50% attack speed to archer form.

Ability 2 - Fade Slash/Rolling Shot

In warrior form, this ability is Fade Slash. When cast, M.A.W. performs a slash in the direction it is facing, dealing physical damage and causing it to jump back, becoming immune to damage during the jump.

In archer form, this ability is Rolling Shot. When cast, M.A.W. rolls toward target location, immune to damage during the roll and fires an empowered arrow in the direction of your mouse that pierces through enemies, dealing physical damage and ignoring 5/10/15/20/25% of armor.

Either ability can be reactivated to switch between warrior and archer form, instantly casting the other form's ability and extending the cooldown. This also gives passive 20/35/50/65/80 ability power to mage form.

Ability 3 - Rain of Arrows/Nullifying Zone

In archer form, this abilty is Rain of Arrows. When cast, M.A.W. shoots a volley of arrows into the air which land in target location after a short moment, slowing and dealing physical damage to enemies in the area. The slow lasts for 0.5/0.6/0.7/0.8/1 second and the area of effect increases for each level dedicated to this ability.

In mage form, this ability is Nullifying Zone. When cast, M.A.W. creates a circular zone on the ground that silences enemies in the area. This area lasts for 1/1.5/2/2.5/3 seconds, increases in size for each level dedicated to this ability, and explodes to deal magic damage to all enemies in the area once the zone expires.

Either ability can be reactivated to switch between archer and mage form, instantly casting the other form's ability in the same area as the first and extending the cooldown. This also gives passive 10/15/20/25/30% critical strike chance to melee form.

Ultimate - Team Combo

Once activated, M.A.W. with start its combo with its current form's part and do the others based on which part of the cycle is next. The cycle follows the order of warrior to mage to archer. It is not required to do all three parts of the combo and the cooldown is lower based on if you only used 1, 2, or 3 parts.

The warrior's part of the combo is a roundhouse slash while moving forward, dealing physical damage to all enemies in a radius around M.A.W. and shredding 15/20/25% of their armor for 5 seconds.

The mage's part of the combo is an area of effect in front of M.A.W. that deals magical damage to enemies in the area and disarms them for 1/1.5/2 seconds.

The archer's part of the combo is a backflip, being immune while airborn plus a single arrow shot to M.A.W.'s previous location. The arrow explodes into smoke and small shards of metal, blinding enemies and dealing physical damage every 0.5 seconds for 3/4/5 seconds.

These updated abilities were intending to make the transformation aspect of the character more fluent and takes some inspiration from Lee Sin's combo system. The main reason for me making this change was to do as user "DucksAreMagical" suggested and make each form have a different ult and have an active on every ability. As I honestly think 9 basic abilies would be a little overpowered, I instead went with the idea of each form having two abilities, one passive, and an ult shared between forms. I even removed the bonuses M.A.W. initially got from his in each form from its original passive because I thought it would make it seem like three separate champions instead of a form shifting one. There's still a few things that would probably need to be tweaked if this character were to become a reality, but I think I have M.A.W. at least at a better place than it was initially.