(OC) Rolvusk, the Pathmaker (Original artwork and Champ Concept inside post)
Hi there Boards. I was hoping to share something with you but I was unsure how to, this is gonna be a crosspost.
That said, here is a Kit Design I have worked on for a while now, complete with concept art of the champ. I hope you like him! For the record this sort of occupies a design space that league as of current hasnt really played with much. He's meant to be played primarily top, but could branch out midlane. His role is marksman, allowing for teams to pick different roles in botlane, like the increasingly popular ap carry botlanes like swain or morde support.
Constructive Criticism is very, very valued; and I hope that you give your genuine feelings about this!
Before I get into the Kit, here's how he looks like! He's a Vastaya character of the Ottrani tribe, based on that red Side Shopkeeper a little bit. And also based on Van Pelt, from yknow, Jumanji. Check his lore at the end for motivations!
https://i.imgur.com/WRRkZYa.png[/img]
His first skin, that is the Launch skin as is typical is part of my favourite aesthetic line in League; the Praetorian future.
His design exists somewhere in the same place as the SAINT machines from Short Circuit, but otherwise is totally my own design.
https://i.imgur.com/l3I0UsW.png[/img]
I design kits as a hobby in my downtime and am currently working on a (Its very early and the team wants me tight lipped, so sorry I can't tell you anything about it) controller based moba, and as a downtime thing decided to take a crack at a league of legends style kit.
I'll try to block this out as best as I can, the kit actually started as kind of an experiment built around a single concept in the realm of initially Kalista, but more heavily Graves; and I sat down and asked myself a couple questions about the design space that they exist in. Why is it that their autoattacks can miss, what is it about that design space of forcing the player to commit that makes them feel unique.
Graves in particular, has this really rewarding feeling when playing him with his unique style of attacking for what was ostensibly an ADC/"Marksman". Marksman as a whole concept doesn't really feel like you have to aim, you can just right click to win. So what makes Graves as a champion feel so much more rewarding for some people compared to normal click to shoot champions.
Maybe I got the wrong idea, but the kit blossomed out of this. So, lets get right into it. I'll first put the general spell concept and then in ^(superscript) I will add clarification in more... human speech instead of game design jargon. I'll also try to... TLDR them with explanations based off of champ spells that already exist in game.
Passive: The Pathmaker
Rolvusk does not gain attack speed through growth, nor can they gain attack speed from items, and his basic attack wind-up is only reduced by 0.6% per 1% bonus attack speed. ###### Currently this is how Senna and Jhin both work, Graves has a similar but different implementation to achieve this.
Critical damage is reduced by 90%. It increases by 10% for each 25% Critical Strike Chance he has. In addition each 25% Critical Strike he has allows his basic attack to pass through one additional target before stopping. ###### On hit effects are carried to each target.
Rolvusk gains attack speed 1% every time they score a takedown, and every time they land a basic attack against an enemy champion they gain a permanent 0.2 attack damage. ###### This does not count towards champions who were hit after a minion when crit is in effect. Much like Yasuo Q, they must be the first target struck to count.
They have a penalty to purchased attack speed, which converts into 5% total AD for each 60% of attack speed. ###### This is also how Jhin works for those who are unfamiliar with his Kit.
Basic attacks fly in a straight line after being fired and do not home or seek, stopping at the first enemy hit. ###### In essence they are skillshots that can miss, but you right click to fire like Graves.
TLDR; Rolvusk throws Nidalee Qs for his basic attack that do fixed damage.
Q: Swift Current Base Damage: 10/15/20/25/30 Per Hit Cooldown: 21 at all Ranks
Rolvusk leaps to a target location and slashes with a pair of trench knives, dealing on-hit effects twice to any enemy in front of him. When he lands, a shockwave of wind fires in the same direction as his slashes that deals 20/40/60/80/100% AD physical damage to all targets it hits, and dealing on-hit effects again.
TL;DR; In essence this is a Tristana W, that fires a projectile after it lands.
W: Gifts of the River Base Damage: 40/70/100/130/160 (+80% AP) Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10
Rolvusk lobs Bait to a target location.
The Bait stops at the first enemy hit and will stick to them. After a 2 second delay, a Mudpuppy will scuttle out of the nearest body of water and consume the bait, dealing 40/70/100/130/160 (+80% AP) magic damage to nearby enemies, and displacing and stunning them for 0.5/0.75/1/1.25/1.5 seconds.
If the Bait is thrown into the River, the Mudpuppy takes half as much time to emerge and will knock up the target for 0.5/0.75/1/1.25/1.5 seconds instead of stunning them.
TL;DR miniature Fizz ult with a meaningless scaling he cannot take advantage of. But fun for off meta memes I guess. Its mainly a catching tool.
E: Kindle Base Damage: 50/90/130/170/210 (+35% Bonus AD) Cooldown: 13/11/9/7/5
Tap - Rolvusk ignites the air around himself, dealing (50/90/130/170/210 +35% AD) magic damage to nearby enemies.
Hold - Rolvusk charges the ability instead, dealing 100~300% of its damage and increasing its cast range based on charge time. Fully charged (E) will Ignite the target for 3 seconds, revealing them and dealing (10/30/50/70/90 +10% AD) magic damage per second.
If (E) is cast in Brush, or if an Ignited enemy steps into Brush, the Brush will also Ignite and quickly spread (E) to the entire Brush, burning it for 6 seconds. All enemies inside burning Brush are revealed and will refresh (E) Ignite effect, taking (10/30/50/70/90 +10% AD) magic damage per second.
TLDR; Xerath Q that lights people and bushes on fire.
R: The Spirit of Nature Base Damage: None Cooldown: 120/100/80
Passive: For each rank of his ult, Rolvusk may enchant himself with a unique empowerment, choosing one of 5 effects. He starts the game able to select one. Each enchantment has three charges, and are consumed and exhausted. After the third charge is consumed, they will all refresh after (Q Cooldown) Seconds.
- Inferno: Basic attacks and each strike of (Q) ignite enemies for five seconds, dealing 14/28/32 damage per 1.25 seconds. ###### Captain Teemo on duty.
- Mountain: Basic attacks and each strike of (Q) grant Rolvusk a 20/50/80 damage shield lasting for 3/6/9 seconds. ###### Mountain drake soul but backwards, this might be overtuned but it also requires you to sacrifice damage permanently to take it, so I felt it was alright.
- River: Basic attacks and each strike of (Q) deal 2/4/6% of current mana as bonus physical damage. Striking three times within 10 seconds on the same target refunds all cooldowns by 1 second. ###### Muramana effect.
- Forest: Basic attacks and each strike of (Q) mark enemies hit for 3/6/9 seconds, reducing damage you recieve by 2/4/6% from that target and revealing them for the duration. ###### Skirmisher saber smite effect
- Cloud: Basic attacks and each strike of (Q) grant +20/30/40 movespeed for 2 seconds. ###### A bad Phage effect but it stacks with Phage for a "get excited" pump of speed.
TLDR; There's nothing in the game currently like this. But basically he gets on hit effects that he can rank up.
He can choose one point in each of the five, or put multiple points (up to 3) on a single one to maximize its effect. Heavy focus on player choice and what each game needs; to promote macro learning rather than just picking whats strong right now.
The reason for this is since his Q ONLY does on hit damage effects, this allows him to, start the game and play through the game with an effect on his Q; rather than needing items to deal any damage.
Active: Rolvusk lobs a brickleburr to a target area. It explodes after fizzing for 1 second, creating a toxic cloud that slows enemies inside by 30 (+25 AP)%. The cloud spreads out to cover 800 radius over 4 seconds, and persists for another 2/3/4 seconds afterward. Enemies inside the cloud Hallucinate, seeing illusionary enemy champions that attack them, deal damage to them, and kill them, and illusionary allies that fight the enemies.
If (R) hits an enemy or if an enemy walks over it, it will stick to that enemy, causing the cloud to follow them for the duration.
TLDR: Its an Akali doughnut cloud but instead of stealthing its caster it makes any champion inside it Hallucinate because medicine drug bad.
Numbers time!
His numbers are crafted based on Rengar, Xerath and Kalista, and due to his unique passive and a desire to have a certain risk reward playstyle, some of his numbers are a little bit out there. I'll do superscript to explain motivations.
HEALTH 540 – 2100 ###### Straightforward Health, and regen in line with Kalista who is not exactly the most buff of champs, Instead this lower stat and his overall lack of mobility means you need to learn your positioning well to play him, or youre gonna pay for it.
HEALTH REGEN. 4.5 – 12.3
ARMOR 23 – 82.5 ###### Also in line with most traditional champions
MAGIC RESIST. 30 – 58.5 ###### Normally Ranged champs are balanced around the fact that they cannot miss. This guy can miss a lot and to guarantee his AAs and with his Q and E he has to get in very close, so he has been given growths SIMILAR to a Melee champ but weaker.
MANA 650 – 1300 ###### Purely for the design space that I think he should live in, he starts off with a mana pool that's massive.
MANA REGEN. 1.3 – 5.1 ###### In return this guy's regen couldn't be helped if he tried. For context most champs START the game with 5.1. 1.3 is so pitiful its basically unnoticeable. This will promote a playstyle built around knowing when to spend and when to focus on your basic attacks and skillful micro/macro knowledge.
ATTACK DAMAGE 68 – 119 ###### He's gonna slap you. Its not that high but its not too low. Very middle of the road.
ATTACK SPEED 1.5 ###### Since the guy has a hard time gaining any attack speed. He starts the game off with a flat speed with no growth whatsoever. He needs to get takedowns to get any extra. As well, due to his windup, his overall speed is kind of slow. But thats a nidalee q twice every 3 seconds. His basic attacks do draw minion aggro if they hit, don't worry.
CRIT. DAMAGE 110% ###### Explained above in the passive.
RANGE 800 (COLLISION RADIUS: 72) ###### Tristana range, but it can miss, this is the range it dissipates the skillshot at. Width is of Xerath Q.
RANGE TYPE: RANGED
MOVE. SPEED 355 ###### This is, really average movespeed. Its not good. Its not bad.
And lastly, for those of you who care about Lore; its short, sweet and to the point. But this was the best I could come up with for him for now.
Rolvusk, an Ottrani from the deep woods of Ionia, found life peaceful, day after day he could laze about by the water and relax without a care in the world. He found love, a husband who he dearly cares for, an adopted daughter who's parents passed when she was very little. Life for him was perfect.
But nothing can ever stay, perfect, can it. Someone always has to ruin it. To stick their meddling hands in where they don't belong.
When the Ionian humans saw their homeland invaded, the Noxians
pushing their way in. Piltovan poachers
scouring the deep jungles for "treasures" to "retrieve for their museums" and wild hunters of the Kiilash
invading his home for no reason other than to chase their prey
in the chaos of all that was happening. Even those same humans who had made treaty with the Vastaya, those who had SWORE on blood that the balance of magic and of life would be maintained.
Rolvusk knew he'd had enough.
Forged from the wood of one of the elder trees the invading noxians had felled, with bones of the fallen and stone of the highest calibur... and at its core, a heart of glowing purple that a piltovan had dropped carelessly as they pushed through the Ottrani's home; he made his weapons. Knives of a black metal, that carried magic through veins within, and a rifle, "Pathmaker" that housed pure willpower as its ammunition.
Rolvusk had to do what was necessary, as a champion of his people. One who would do what was right, to protect his daughter, his husband. And his future. The deepwoods would be ravaged no longer. No piltovan treasure hunter on a safari, nor Noxian numbskull, would get past him anymore. This was his land and he was going to protect it.
Suggested builds:
Main Core/Meta Build: 
Flex pick, but probably tabi 
Self explanatory 
That slow will devastate anyone he hits 
He has terribad Regen. This lets him keep fighting. 
Self Explanatory, makes up for his crit reduction almost completely, 
Access to higher MS, better positioning, and a low hp save me shield.
Basically, since his passive scales off of crit, buying more than 100% is actually viable. Endgame you can sell your flexible boots pick for 
more damage, and since it grants movespeed, it wont hurt you too much with the Shiv and PD already there.
Lethality Meme Build: 
(The attack speed converts into more Raw AD) 
(To stop those pesky heal supports) 
Anti Ward and anti Spell 
CDR topoff.
The "Weird Flex but Ok" build: 
For the record and legal things: I do not work for Riot games, and work as a designer on contract. I reserve all rights and ownership of design of the character and kit. HOWEVER would be willing to allow Riot to use this design in their games provided that my Riot account was given the champ on launch and I get an acknowledgement of creator-ship. I seek no profit from this character as of current or for the foreseeable future.
He may appear in a game I work on in the future with a new lore and design scape if Riot chooses not to use this design.
Character concept art Graciously realised by Sony-Shock.