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Champion Concept: Wren, The Thousand Blades

Void Kaiju·3/2/2018, 3:11:21 AM·7 votes·754 views

Link to my Not-Yet-Updated Archives Post Link to February 2018 CCOS Outreach

EDITED 03/02: Background revised

Before we begin, any feedback is always greatly appreciated!

Wren is a swift skirmisher who finds their home skewering foes with daggers in the top or middle lanes. Disguising their brutal strikes with the guise of flashy tricks and entertainment, Wren wants to engage explosively and move swiftly, rewarding players who are able to consistently land spells and combos with more opportunities to do so. Enemies who can evade or block Wren's barrage of daggers can turn the tables on this nimble showperson, but enemies should beware, lest they discover too late that Wren is simply upping the stakes for their next trick.

A widely known and feared killer of Noxian authorities, tales of Wren's exploits abound in the capital. What few witnesses exist can only attest to the blinding glint of light on steel, and then silence. Beyond their more violent exploits, Wren exists on the fringes of the Noxian-conquered Shuriman desert, making coin as a performance artist specializing in the use of blades as props. Be it knife throwing, juggling, or other death-defying tricks, Wren astonishes and amuses onlookers, gaining as much satisfaction from the shocked gasps of the audience as the deathrattles of Noxian conquerors. Authorities have no idea of Wren's appearance or location, only knowing their calling card: A single blade left in the body of a victim, edge impossibly sharp, but so delicate that the act of removing it causes the blade to shatter, injuring the hands of the one attempting to take it.

#Personality

Wren is all about being flashy. Dazzling moves in and out of combat are intended to entertain not only their enemy, but Wren as well. A lover of life, of excitement, and of mystery. Wren sees that life is full of experiences to be lived and shared, especially in the case of the desert locals who have so often been through great hardships.
This doesn't mean that Wren is happy go lucky all the time. Wren fancies themself the retribution of one of the smaller groups smothered and absorbed by Noxus. Travelling throughout Noxus and slaying those generals, captains, and other decision makers who contributed to the military domination and eventual extinction of their Tribe. Wren's personal identity is largely kept hidden, as they currently have chosen to exist as a representation of their now-lost culture, reflecting a combination of their arts and martial techniques. Wren wishes to make the suffering happy, and those who grow fat on others' suffering dead. In a way, Wren is a lot like the blades they throw. Glimmering and dancing in the light, free as they fly through the air, but also cold and sharp, able to carve through vulnerabilities with more ease than the sharpest razor.

#Appearance Wren's identity is difficult to place. Face obscured by a hood and beautifully carved black mask, their lithe form is wreathed in white cloth lined with shimmering green, with many strips hanging freely to whip through the air as Wren moves. Beneath that one catches glimpses of black armor lined with gold, adorned with many straps and sheathes for some of the countless daggers Wren seems able to procure.

NOTE: I'm currently still working on a visual representation. if I find one I like I'll drop it here!

#Kit Knives, Knives, and more knives. Lots of dynamic movement and many blades soaring through the air and into your foes!

##Passive: Silkshear Generate a Silkshear Dagger every 5/4/3/2 basic attacks. You can hold up to 3 daggers. Your damaging abilities consume a Silkshear Dagger to apply Embedded Blade (for 4 seconds) to the target. Basic attacks against a target afflicted with embedded blade consume it to convert 40/60/80/100% of their damage to true damage, gain 100 bonus range, and dash to your target (untargetable for the duration of the dash.).

##Q: Impalement Arts Throw two blades forward in a line, one after the other, stopping at the first enemy struck. Each blade deals 30/55/80/105/130 (+45% Bonus AD) physical damage. If both blades strike the same target, the second blade heals you for 20/40/60/80/100 (+50% bonus AD). Holds up to 2 charges. Cooldown: 7/6/5/4/3 seconds Charge: 10.0/9.5/9.0/8.5/8.0/7.5 seconds Range: 800 units

##W: Finesse Throw 3 daggers into the air. These blades fall back down into your hands after 2 seconds, causing you to slash in front of you 3 times. The first two daggers slash in a cone in front of you for 30/40/50/60/70 (+45% bonus AD) physical damage. The third is thrown in front of you in a line, dealing 60/80/100/120/140 (+75% bonus AD) physical damage, and applying a heavy (99%) slow that decays over two seconds. If the third dagger strikes an enemy champion, gain a charge of Impalement Arts. Cooldown: 13/12/11/10/9/8 seconds Range (cone): 450 units, 180 degrees. Range (line): 800 units

##E: Tricks of the Light (Requires a Silkshear Dagger to cast). Shatter a dagger and use the shards to bend the light around you, gaining an additional 40/50/60/70/80% movement speed for 2 seconds, becoming briefly invisible after one second. Casting a spell ends this effect early. Passive: Reduce this spell’s cooldown by 5 seconds upon proccing Embedded Blade. Cooldown: 17/16/15/14/13 ##R: Thousand Blades Unleash a burst of daggers around you for 100/200/300 (+90% bonus AD) physical damage, instantly applying Embedded Blade to all targets hit. For the next 4/6/8 seconds, the bonus range granted by Silkshear is doubled, and it deals an additional 10/20/30% of enemy’s missing hp as bonus magic damage. Cooldown: 100/75/50/ seconds.

Playing as Wren

Wren is relatively flexible in terms of build path. Depending on the situation, lethality may be the required purchase, but if you find yourself being pummeled in lane then the more standard, slightly bulkier skirmisher build works wonders. In order to get the most out of your abilities, it's important to find windows in which to weave Impalement Arts in between basic attacks. The standard all-in combo would be: W, Q, Passive, Q, W2, R. With the use of E as either a method to get close or to be held as an escape in case things get hairy. Wren is very vulnerable when it comes to taking down multiple targets, needing to make judicious use of their spells in order to kite away from enemies and use superior range to fight on the fly.

In the lategame, Wren is a capable cleanup crew with R as well as an excellent pick maker if they manage to land the third hit of their E. Their reliance on skillshots, unlike most skirmishing champions, means Wren's combat pattern involves equal parts kiting and aggression. Being snagged by crowd control could spell death for this poor entertainer, so champions like morgana, braum, malphite, and annie have the power to near-instantly shut down Wren's engages; player beware!

#Lore Short story coming if I get it written in time!

7 Comments

The Volcano3/2/2018, 5:52:22 AM1 votes

It sounds like a mixture of TwistedFate and Katarina could be cool though.

Chembaron Yamada3/2/2018, 3:09:23 PM1 votes

Another knife throwing assassin from Noxus would be too much in my opinion. We already have Katarina and Talon.

I see potential in the concept but lorewise I would move him to another faction, Bilgewater for example.

Arakadia3/12/2018, 7:37:14 AM1 votes

Hey Grau. I'm a little late to help your entry in on the contest but I figured I should still give your concept a look anyways.

I really love the idea of the passive, I've tinkered with blinking to an enemy and ripping out a knife before, and I think its super cool! Anyways, lets get to it.

Passive: Silkshear Generate a Silkshear Dagger every 5/4/3/2 basic attacks. You can hold up to 3 daggers. Your damaging abilities consume a Silkshear Dagger to apply Embedded Blade (for 4 seconds) to the target. Basic attacks against a target afflicted with embedded blade consume it to convert 40/60/80/100% of their damage to true damage, gain 100 bonus range, and dash to your target (untargetable for the duration of the dash.).

Super satisfying and thematic passive right off the bat. I love this ability and I think its super fitting. It gates his mobility and damage too. Enemies can zone him from minions or kite him to prevent him from gaining additional daggers. As well, the ability is generally telegraphed and requires him to actively prepare (which seems also fitting for his character).

The only issue I see with it is that for as fast paced a character as Wren is, I don't think he is going to have time to basic attack so many times. Besides, basic attacking minions isn't really an interesting way to build up power. Even at max rank of the passive, he has to basic attack 6 times to get his maximum daggers. Unless Wren is intended to be a split pusher, this level of preparation seems to go too far. Even if he prepares with one dagger before the fight, for most of the game he is going to have a hard time generating enough daggers during the fight.

This issue didn't seem so bad to me at first when I thought the daggers were only gating the empowered basic attack. However Wren's most reliable mobility spell is also reliant on these daggers as a resource. I expected him to have an alternate way to generate this daggers, not expend them.

At the same time, I do think it was very smart design to tie his engage and disengage to the same gating resource. There are too many champions who get easy engage and disengage and don't ever have to commit (Ekko for on instance).

Q: Impalement Arts Throw two blades forward in a line, one after the other, stopping at the first enemy struck. Each blade deals 30/55/80/105/130 (+45% Bonus AD) physical damage. If both blades strike the same target, the second blade heals you for 20/40/60/80/100 (+50% bonus AD). Holds up to 2 charges. Cooldown: 7/6/5/4/3 seconds Charge: 10.0/9.5/9.0/8.5/8.0/7.5 seconds Range: 800 units

Simple and it synergizes with the passive in a cool way both gameplay wise and visually. Gives him variance (he could hit 0, 1, or 2 daggers) so the potential is higher. Also abilities on a charge system are fun.

I think this is fine.

W: Finesse Throw 3 daggers into the air. These blades fall back down into your hands after 2 seconds, causing you to slash in front of you 3 times. The first two daggers slash in a cone in front of you for 30/40/50/60/70 (+45% bonus AD) physical damage. The third is thrown in front of you in a line, dealing 60/80/100/120/140 (+75% bonus AD) physical damage, and applying a heavy (99%) slow that decays over two seconds. If the third dagger strikes an enemy champion, gain a charge of Impalement Arts. Cooldown: 13/12/11/10/9/8 seconds Range (cone): 450 units, 180 degrees. Range (line): 800 units

I think this is a neat ability, but its kind of lackluster for what Wren could be. It feels like another cone swipe>line attack which we've been getting more and more of. And it certainly steps near the thematic for Katarina's W. I don't think Wren wants to get any more like Katarina as he is similar enough.

E: Tricks of the Light (Requires a Silkshear Dagger to cast). Shatter a dagger and use the shards to bend the light around you, gaining an additional 40/50/60/70/80% movement speed for 2 seconds, becoming briefly invisible after one second. Casting a spell ends this effect early. Passive: Reduce this spell’s cooldown by 5 seconds upon proccing Embedded Blade. Cooldown: 17/16/15/14/13

As I mentioned earlier, I think this is a well designed ability. I think his passive dagger system is too gated but this mobility spell was done in a clever way.

R: Thousand Blades Unleash a burst of daggers around you for 100/200/300 (+90% bonus AD) physical damage, instantly applying Embedded Blade to all targets hit. For the next 4/6/8 seconds, the bonus range granted by Silkshear is doubled, and it deals an additional 10/20/30% of enemy’s missing hp as bonus magic damage. Cooldown: 100/75/50/ seconds.

UHHHHHHH

I love this ult. Oh this sounds chaotically fun. Blink, blink, blink, blink.

Every blink sounds like it would be super satisfying for a super strong clean up ultimate. For an ability called Thousand Blades, it totally lives up to it's name. Awesome job here.

Lastly I think the cooldown gets too low later on. I think with the new runes you could get a 25-30 second cooldown on the ability.

Anyways Wren was a cool read. I wasn't super intrigued by his story, it was a little too mysterious, but I think a short story or extra paragraph would fix that. Good luck on the results and keep up the good work!