[Champion Concept] Achlyss, Darkness Incarnated
Hi, this is my first post. I was inspired to make a champion, so after a couple weeks of plotting, thinking, bugging others and wasting time, let me present my first champion concept:
#Achlyss ##Darkness Incarnated Assassin/Support
Achlyss is a mobile and squishy melee assassin, offering both team buffs, a shield and CC. Her passive increases damage done both by and to her. Her kit emphasizes a powerful burst engage, but is weak before she hits 6 and relies heavily on itemization for burst damage, as well as being very weak to armor. With items, however, she can with her ultimate quickly lock down and burst down up to 3 enemies at once.
Scaling off both AP, AD and attack speed, mixed-damage items such as Guinsoo’s Rageblade are especially powerful on her.
Health: 500 - 1800 Attack damage: 55 - 110 Health regen: 8 - 21 Attack speed: 0.65 (0% - 50%) Mana: 300 - 1200 Armor: 26 - 88 Mana regen: 6 - 19.6 Magic resist: 32 - 54 Range: 150 Movement speed: 350
http://i.imgur.com/UBdvSfy.png ##Passive: Dark Touch Description: Basic attacks both received and given by Achlyss leave burns. Effect: Received and given AAs give burns equal to 5(-1 for every active stack)% of AA damage done over 3 seconds. Purpose: A double-edged sword making her auto attacks stronger, but at the same time making her weaker to incoming auto-attacks. This enforces her melee combat but makes her vulnerable to ADCs especially.
http://i.imgur.com/aNklrWw.png ##Q: Master of Darkness Description: Achlyss stores dark orbs around her, recharging over time. The orbs can be consumed to buff herself, an ally or explode an enemy. Effect: Passive: Stores 1-5 orbs, recharging over time. Active: Consumes all orbs to give bonus AD to herself or an ally, or damage an enemy. Purpose: Her most central ability, giving her poke or a damage buff. This gives two primary choices: Firstly, how long to wait for the orbs to recharge. Secondly, whether to do a quick ranged attack, or a prolonged melee attack. The latter scales exceptionally well with her ultimate, but needs a gap-closer to get in range.
Targeting: Click on target Targets allowed: All champions Range: 500 for ranged, 150 for melee Channel time: .5s (melee), 1s (ranged) Cooldown: 20/17/14/11/8s per orb Cost: All stored orbs Additional Information: Basic attacks applies on-hit effects.
Tooltip (rank 1-5): Passive: Stores 1/2/3/4/5 orbs, recharging over time. Active: Consumes all her orbs, allowing her to buff an ally, giving them 10+(40% of bonus AD) bonus physical damage per orb consumed, OR burst a target, dealing 40+(80% of bonus AD) physical damage per orb consumed. <
http://i.imgur.com/1QTFb6g.png ##W: Night Cleave Description: Achlyss rapidly slashes the area around her, slowing enemies and instantly proccing enemy burns. Effect: Spins around, dealing physical damage and slowing enemies around her and proccing enemy burns, dealing the burn damage instantly. Purpose: It serves as both an AoE attack and a slow, but more interestingly, a proc for already applied burn damage as a way to circumvene the reduced damage of stacked burns or finishing off an enemy quickly in order to apply more burns.
Targeting: AoE Targets allowed: Enemies Area of Effect: 250 units Animation time: .7s Cooldown: 24/22/20/18/16s Cost: 60/70/80/90/100 Mana
Tooltip (rank 1-5): Slashes in a spin, dealing 60/80/100/120/140+ (50% of AP) physical damage (applies on-hit effects), slowing enemies by 30% for 2 seconds and proccing all burns on the enemies, instantly dealing total burn damage.
http://i.imgur.com/E0GV94O.png ##E: Leap of Darkness Description: Leaps to an enemy through an ally, shielding the ally and stunning the enemy. Effect: Dashes through an ally to an enemy, shielding the ally and stunning the enemy. If the ally is not a champion, Achlyss shields herself. Purpose: Your classic gap-closer, but with a twist. It deals no damage on its own, and can be used both for engage and disengage, as well as both solo or in teamfights. This is the second most central part of her kit, making her able to close large distances to get to melee range, as well as protecting her if she does it right.
Targeting: Click on target (either enemy alone, or ally+enemy) Targets allowed: All Range: 400 units per dash (800 in total) Travel Speed: .4s per dash Cooldown: 32/30/28/26/24s Cost: 80/90/100/110/120 Mana Additional Information: Clicking on an enemy makes her dash through the nearest ally, regardless of minion, champion or ward. Clicking on an ally and then an enemy requires both to be selected before she dashes to them, but allows her to choose if she wants to shield herself or an ally.
Tooltip (rank 1-5): Dashes to an enemy through an ally, shielding the ally for 100/150/200/250/300+(100% of AP) damage for 7 seconds, and stunning the enemy for 2 seconds. If the ally is not a champion, Achlyss shields herself.
http://i.imgur.com/koCwW3o.png #R: Nightfall Description: Achlyss brings upon night for a short duration, slowing enemies and buffing herself and her allies, empowering her abilities. Effect: Passive: Increases attack speed for every consecutive AA. This effect can be stacked indefinitely, but is capped at max attack speed. Active: Spreads darkness through all champions near her, slowing enemies and empowering allies. Transforms her AAs into AoE attacks. Halves Q orb recharge time. Her E’s leaps make her invulnerable while leaping. Killing enemies increases the duration. Purpose: The passive greatly increases her melee burst when she hits 6, while the active changes some of her abilities to make her be able to assassinate several targets quickly. This makes her potency as an assassin go from mediocre to high after reaching 6, but her active only lasts a short while and has a long cooldown.
Targeting: Self Targets allowed: Champions Range: 1000 upon activation, bouncing to enemies/allies within 500 units Area of Effect: 300 units (up to 3 targets) Travel Speed: .5s for bounce Cooldown: 100/80/60s Cost: 100 Mana Duration: 5/6/7s+1.5/2/2.5s per kill+.5/1/1.5s per assist (maximum 19.5s on 5 kills) Additional Information: Basic attacks applies on-hit effects to all targets. Counts as single target.
Tooltip (rank 1-3): Passive: Increases attack speed for each consecutive hit by 10+(100% of bonus Attack Speed)% for 1 second (stacks indefinitely). Active: Calls upon night, slowing nearby enemies by 10/14/18% and empowering allies with 20/30/40% attack speed. During Nightfall, Achlyss’ basic attacks become AoE with a 300 unit range (up to 3 targets), Master of Darkness’ recharge time is halved, and Leap of Darkness makes her invulnerable when dashing. Nightfall lasts for 5/6/7 seconds, being extended by 1.5/2/2.5 seconds for every kill and .5/1/1.5 seconds for every assist gained during this duration.
##Gameplay and itemization: Achlyss can fulfill several roles well. Mid: Her first role is as a mid-lane assassin. As her Q relies on AD, in order to be able to deal both burst and sustained damage, she needs AD items pretty quickly, where she has a few options: Her focus on AAs make lifesteal very viable on her, so a Bloodthirster for raw damage or a Blade of the Ruined King for increased attack speed would both be good items. The latter can also come in handy when she gets her ultimate, as it scales off AS. However, if the enemy team builds armor, she needs a Yomuu’s Ghostblade for armor penetration, as well as the CDR being a nice bonus. This also gives her attack speed when she needs it the most. Against magic damage she can go for a Maw of Mortalitus for offense, or a QuickSilver Sash (and later a Mercurial Scimitar) against CC. Finally, she might want a Zhonya’s Hourglass for after an engage, with the AP adding to her shield. This is reliant on her team backing her up, however, when she engages. It’s important to note her extreme squishiness especially early on makes her laning phase very difficult, with high cooldowns and few engage tools before level 6. After engaging, her stun and her shield allow her a few seconds of time to completely burst down the target, before she severely needs to retreat. In a teamfight allies can help keeping enemies locked down or prevent other enemies from bursting her down. Jungle: Her focus on basic attacks already make her kit ideal for jungling. A Devourer and a Guinsoo’s Rageblade will make her AAs extremely deadly when sustaining them, therefore the jungler with its abundance of monsters will make it easier to keep her Rageblade active, instead of relying on enemy engage. Her E, Leap of Darkness, is her ganking tool. Ideally she wants to gap close as much distance as possible, and preferably go through her laner to give them a shield. She can activate her Q to continue bursting down the enemy, or back off when the enemy is stunned, leaving the rest to the laner. Teamfights will play out similarly as a mid-lane assassin, with reliance on teammates to quickly burst down enemies. Support: As a support, she will have a greatly limited budget, and must thus choose items wisely. This is unfortunate because of her reliance on items. As a support, her main tools will be the Q for buffing her lane partner, and her E for engage and shield. As the buff scales with her AD, she needs at least one AD item, but doesn’t need lifesteal or attack speed for lane partner, allowing her to focus on raw AD and defensive items. Her shield scales well with AP, making an AP item with CDR a good choice, and/or a Zhonya’s for engage. Alternatively, she can use excess gold to buff herself, for example by buying a Frozen Mallet, although this will make her weaker in battle. For start items, she will need a coin, as she has very low harass, as well as the usual Sightstone. Certain items, such as Ardent Censer’s AS increase on shields, albeit niche, can synergize very well with her ult.
##Lore and background information: http://i.imgur.com/0OhhTrs.jpg (not the best image, but it should give the right impression)
Achlyss’ origins are unknown. Who is she? Where did she come from? Why is she here? These questions can only be speculated in. All that is known is that this mysterious girl one day applied to enter the League of Legends. Before this, there had been reports of mysterious behaviour all around Runeterra, with sightings of weird activity during night time. Several people had mysteriously disappeared without a trace, not even a body to be found. For months, this slowly went on, with more and more people disappearing on a regular pace, until for a few weeks everything suddenly went back to normal. After this short time, Achlyss stood at the League of Legends’ door, with an application written in baroque font. The reviewers asked several questions on her origins and motifs, in which none were answered. Yet, there was something about her… an urge and a desire to find out more about her, and an admiration of her sheer aura. When she was asked to demonstrate her powers, she silently and mysteriously had one of the judges vanish, never to be found again. If it was intimidation for her power, or if she successfully lured the other judges in, she was accepted into the League of Legends. One is not sure if she is mute, or if she deliberately chooses not to speak. However, when you are not looking at her, you can hear faint echoes of voices whispering to you. Is this her own voice, or is it perhaps the voices of souls she has slain? Was she responsible for the missing bodies? And why is she really here? These questions may never be answered, but until then, she is to prove a powerful ally to those who can tame her power, and a deadly foe to those who oppose her.
(I'm not good at storytelling...)
###Animations: Appearance: Holds her hands apart with black flames in them. Stands in a battle pose. Black flame orbs float around her (similar to Syndra) due to her Q, and black smoke/clouds emit on the ground, obscuring her feet. Her colour tone is mostly grey-ish, with dark red hints (in flames) and dark red shoulder banners. Attacking: Slashes in front of her, leaving black rifts (sort of like dust) in the air. Dying: Screams silently in agony and disperses slowly into black smoke. Recalling: Adjusts her pose to stand up, then vanishes into shadows. Materializes from shadows on the Summoner platform.
##Interactions: All her voice lines are echoes of varying whispering voices, and not her own. Upon selection: “Only the moonlight can hear you scream.” Moving: “Darkness follows you.” “We are all shadows.” “You cannot know what lurks in the shadows.” “Are you scared?” “Light is but a mere illusion.” “Who watches your shadows?” Attacking: “You will be swallowed by night!” “Darkness will consume everything!” “Your shadows turn on you!” “You cannot escape the night!” “Living only delays the inevitable!” Upon buying Bloodthirster: “The night craves blood.” Upon buying Guinsoo’s Rageblade: “Nothing can contain the rage of the night.” Upon buying Zhonya’s Hourglass: “Only delaying the inevitable.” Taunt: [Darkness surrounds her as a smoke cloud.] Taunting an enemy Syndra: “Your immense power… what are you compensating for?” Taunting an enemy Zed: “We are on the same side.” Taunting an enemy Nocturne: “I welcome your nightmares.” Joke: [Tauntingly points in front of her, but is interrupted by a sun glare. Silently curses at the sun before it disappears.] Dance: [Does a tectonic dance.] Laugh: [Silently laughs.]
#Final notes As already mentioned, this is my first champion concept. I've always loved playing with mechanics and trying unorthodox combinations and ways of playing, regardless of game. Originally, I got my inspiration from Black Desert Online (after playing Sorcress), and I was immediately curious as to whether something similar to those mechanics could work in League. So, I started plotting out various kits, and ended up with two different ones. One was rather bland (buff, spin, dash, AoE ult) but the other showed promise. The E was originally an ult, but I was advised it didn't do enough on its own, so I reworked all the abilities into something that synergized more. Instead of a normal dash, it's a double-dash that requires two targets to work. Her Q gives a choice between harass and engage, and encourages a melee playstyle. Her W was still very bland until I came up with the idea of having it proc burns, giving it purpose. Finally, the ult was tricky, but I wanted something that wasn't just a click and voila, you did something! But rather an engage tool that leaves the enemy in fear. Hence, I made it change some of her properties instead, so you still need to risk your life going all in, but give it a lot more reward.
Then, of course, I needed a character, so I ended up with the rather generic dark sorceress. I do think this is better than a very unpopular type of character though, and I thought her orbs should be able to differentiate her from other champs. Then of course there's her black smoke on the ground and her cape, which differentiates her silhouette from Syndra's.
Also, I realize it's probably way unbalanced, so if anyone is good with balancing, feel free to pitch in opinions.
So uh, yeah. Hope you like her and everything and that I can in the future contribute with more champion concepts.