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Helena The Swamp Witch

Nameless Hero·5/1/2015, 1:37:34 PM·2 votes·2,669 views

Hey guys, this is another champion concept that I thought of. I love New Orleans culture and I got pissed off when someone on the forums said that League of Legends didn't need a black female champion. @ Riot: Here's my champion concept. Please tell me what you think of her

Helena the Swamp Witch Role: Support Range: 450, variable

Inspiration: Erzulie Gogol from Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett Marie Laveau the Voundoun lady of New Orleans Tia Dalma from Pirates of the Carribean

GENERAL DESIGN PHILOSOPHY I wanted to make a non-evil voodoo witch because I personally dislike the hollywood version of Voodoo doctors that we see with HOTS' witch doctor and also because I wanted my witch to be heroic instead of just being a generic creepy villain. Character wise, Helena is a champion that sits on the fence between Good and Eveil. She loves her family very very much and despite being widowed for the last 8 years, is still loyal to her dead husband but she will not hesitate to commit the worst atrocities if it means being one step closer to rescue her daughter. As such, she has to constantly choose between "Warm" magic - buffing, removing curses or "Cool" magic - stealing buffs, cursing, etc. Even Baron Saturday, her ultimate, is a doubled edged sword.

I chose the name Helena in order to make her more relatable to american audiences and to reflect her relationship with Baron Saturday. Check out the factoids at the bottom of the page. Right now she is closest to the gamestyle of Udyr BUT I am exploring the possibility to have her travel with a permanent pet zombie and have her play like a more seductive Yorick where she can revive all dead corpses for a short duration.

GAMEPLAY CORE CONCEPTS Helena is a versatile support that has 3 different "Dresses" that modify her abilites. Her kit is essentially binomial to reflect her ambiguous nature. I.e. the same ability can be used to either cc an enemy or buff an ally. But her most iconic ability is when she calls Baron Saturday to grant semi invulnerability to her whole team... before leaving everyone hangovered and vulnerable.

APPEARANCE Helena is a mixed ancestry middle aged Haitian woman. She wears a white raglan blouse, uplift corset, gitane dress, red sash and heavy gold earrings and bracelets. She is beautiful in a curvy kind of way and has one of the warmest and most enticing personality of the game... until she gets serious. In game, she is accompanied by Legba, a black cockerel that is her link to the spirit world. She wields a totem pole adorned with chicken feathers and ram skulls. Since her whole kit is based around her 3 dresses please refer to the following to have an idea of what she looks like.

Base Form http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/101/b/2/cinders___concept_art_by_vinegar-d3dqrty.jpg Cinders - Concept art by Vinegar-d3dqrty from Deviant art

When Chanelling Erzulie http://s1068.photobucket.com/user/Terry_Loo/media/chow275voodooLady_zpssg7asg8x.jpg.html http://www.aeronik.com/blog/764/activities/voodoo-lady/ Erzulie the Voodoo witch - Concept art by Adam Duncan

When Chanelling Dantor http://s1068.photobucket.com/user/Terry_Loo/media/tumblr_m28v59bZyl1rty7tao1_1280_zpsss2zcpb4.jpg.html http://womenfighters.tumblr.com/image/20824072421 Seelah the Paladin from Wayne Reynolds

When Chanelling Baron Saturday http://tracywong.deviantart.com/art/Voodoo-Queen-121394413 Voodoo Queen by Tracy Wong

PASSIVE: Old Legba Helena's black cockrel acts as a conduit between worlds. He stores charges that allow her to transform. Max 2, 8 second cd before next cast. Takes 20s to accumulate a charge.

AUTO ATTACK Helena lobs a black orb from her staff

Q : Rhum pimenté - Jalapeno Grog - Variable effects That will put some lead on your pencil "Saludos!" On Ally: Helena lobs a bottle of heavily spiced Rhum to an ally who gets bonus attack and movement speed for 3s before getting slowed. "AARGHH" On enemy: Helena throws the Rhum to the face of an enemy who gets blinded and silenced for 1.5s. 2x mana consumpion Passive: Q changes according to Helena's dress

**W: Erzulie ** Loa of love and feminity - 30s cooldown ♥ Thank you, you shouldn't have ♥ On cast: Helena channels the spirit of Erzulie, STEALS all the enemy buffs ONCE in a SHORT area around her and gains a slight movement speed boost. Buffs that she can steal: Nunu's blood boil, Janna's, Leona's, Morgana's, Vi's and Blitzcrank's shield, Zhonya's effect, Wukong's invisibility, etc. BUT She need to be in melee range for it to work. In Erzulie form, she has very low base armor and deals reduced damage. If she missed her steal she is completely exposed. Helena can cancel this ability early. Pressing Q on an ally grants bonus . Pressing Q on an enemy sends an air smooch that slows her target.

**E: Dantor ** Loa of family and protection - 20s cooldown I will protect you On cast, Helena stuns enemies around her for 0.5s and doubles her armor stats. She becomes a tanky melee warrior but her movement speed is halved. Helena can cancel this ability early. Pressing q lets her dash to an ally interposing herself between her ally and the nearest enemy.

R: Baron Saturday Loa of masculinity, death and rebirth - 90s cooldown. Let's dance Bitch! On cast, Helena channels the powerful Baron Saturday and starts to dance to distract the Loa of Death from doing his job. She becomes unable to use her W and E and auto attacks. In this form, all heroes in a medium area around her becomes pallid, zombie like and immune to death, slows,stuns and poison. Everyone is still vulnerable to dmg, snares, blind and true damage. Q becomes a mini nuke. Helena can still die. Killing her stops the effect.

That's all. I will post her lore in a sort while.

Please tell me in the comments what you think of her. Any criticism, good or bad is helpful.

If you like her, check out the other champion that I made: Su the Wandering Calligrapher -

10 Comments

Occams Raiser5/1/2015, 5:36:02 PM2 votes

If Runterra is a mythical place, why are black people still the voodoo doctor? I have noticed that there has never been a black tinker genius. I never see a black rocketeer.

stours695/1/2015, 3:33:51 PM1 votes

really nice like the idea but i would make her an old lady and reduce couldown on certain ability tho i dislike the E i would change it a bit for another god of this panteon

RiotRiot Lutzburg5/1/2015, 9:12:47 PM1 votes

Hey Hero,

I really appreciate the dedication to the unique culture that you've captured in Helena here. It's certainly interesting and very much unexplored, but I also worry that it's far too niche and self-serving to be appreciated or enjoyed by mass audiences. Describing Helena with one sentence, "a witch doctor who tosses tonics and concoctions at other champions to buff/debuff them," doesn't sound immediately exciting or interesting. The kit itself is also kind of, I dunno, uninspired? I'm not sure. I read the whole thing twice but to be honest, I can barely remember anything about her mechanics or kit. Helena's theme is very strong and interesting, if only for the novelty, but nothing about her kit seems memorable.

I'm not sure if there's a way to salvage that or if it's even a problem, since it's just the opinion of one person. If the kit could be as memorable and interesting as her visual identity and theme, you'd be onto something.