Noxian Champion Idea - Lars the Scarred Gladiator

Lars the Scarred Gladiator (pending) all ability names are also subject to change

Role: Support or Top (subject to change)

Appearance: Lars is a well built young man with a sinister grin and a wild hairstyle (I Imagine him to look similar to Bazz B from bleach). The most striking feature about Lars is the amount of scars on his body. Ideally as a bodyguard/right hand man to elite Noxian soldiers like Darius and Swain, Lars is adorned in pieces of plate armor in Noxian colours. Only his left shoulder has a pauldron however, and its important that at least his arms and face are exposed to show his scars. His weapon of choice is a spiked ball akin to the type you see on flails attached to a long linked chain. He's basically carrying around a spiked chain chomp minus the sentience of the weapon. (For all intents and purposes ill be referring to his weapon as a flail). I could also see him as the type to have tattoos,considering his lore as a gladiator.

Abilities

**Q (Impale the Weak):**This ability is a skill shot. Lars whips his flail in a direction, and it impales the first enemy struck for ___seconds, bleeding them for damage. They can break free by moving far enough away, but if Lars is able to reactivate this ability(like Kalista) before they do so (he has a few second window), then he rips the flail from their body, doing (% health I'd guess) damage and slowing them for a higher amount for a brief moment.

W(Rally the troops): This ability is fairly rough but I hope the idea of what I want it to function like gets across. Lars being in combat with enemies and hitting them with autos or abilities builds stacks. At max stacks, Lars gets a slight burst of speed for him and nearby allies as well as a slight damage increase. Lars can activate this ability early however, and he will receive bonuses in relation to the amount of stacks he had, but while the ability is on cool down he cannot build any stacks (and the cd should be significant enough to make him think about whether or not its beneficial to activate at any point). I want the activation to be used in an "oh shit" moment, otherwise this ability is timed for windows of aggression at max stacks.

E (Raging Slam): Lars slams his flail into the ground infront of him, sending debris flying outward in a cone or maybe to the front mostly and then a bit to the sides. Enemies hit take damage and are slowed for a few seconds.

R: (Rampage): This is either a channel or at least not an instant damage ability. Lars begins to swing his flail wildly in an area around him. All enemies caught in the radius take damage for the duration of the ability and are slowed while they are inside. This ability also kills minions that walk into it easily and PERHAPS can do damage to structures.

Passive: I've thought about what would be a good passive for Lars and originally I thought something along the lines of Rammus' passive, but for now this is what I have and I kind of like it:

Upgrade

(Heavy Ball): Lars upgrades his weapon with a heavier ball, decreasing his movespeed slightly and increasing the time between auto attacks; however, Lars auto attacks do noticeably more damage (similar to Nova's Anti-Armor Shells in HotS or Tiny in Dota).

**(Light Ball): **Lars upgrades his weapon with a lighter ball, increasing movespeed slightly and decreasing time between auto attacks while also decreasing the damage slightly. The point of this upgrade is to allow Lars to quickly build stacks of his W to allow him to stick onto targets and be a nuisance. If he coupled this upgrade with a frozen mallet he would be incredibly annoying.

(Long Chain): Lars upgrades his weapon, increasing the length of the chain. This upgrade gives Lars a greater auto attack and Q and E range.

I am not sure how Lars acquires these upgrades whether it is from a unique currency he collects like Gangplank, or that he purchases for gold like Viktor. I am also not sure whether I want to limit him to 1 choice or alternatively allow him to choose between Light and Heavy Ball and then upgrade his Long Chain.

Generally right now I envision it as a Kha'zix/ Viktor upgrade that he has to purchase.

Side note: A discussion I had with friends brought up the point that he doesn't feel support like because he is mostly offensive. I could see a remedy to this being tacking on some passive armor or some defensive stats somewhere in his kit but honestly I play support with my friends quite a bit and maybe its because I'm not a high tier player but sometimes I feel like supports either go two ways: CC tank or Pokey mage. I wanted to design Lars to be an offensive bully to add a different play style element to him and to the bot lane. I ultimately see Lars as someone who generally punishes the enemy for not making a calculated engage on his team and countering teams composed to champs like Eve and Garen who want to rush in and try and kill the squishy targets Lars is watching over.

Lore(I am covering this before gameplay because I think Lars' history and attitude should be considered when asking why he plays the way he does)

Lars comes from a line of well known Noxian officers/captains. When he was younger, his father was on such individual who found himself in the middle of a heated battle against Demacia. Lars' father was among those who chose to retreat in the face of defeat. This is during the same time in which Darius begins to rise up. His fathers actions leave Lars, a proud young warrior, greatly ashamed and embarrassed. When Darius begins to remove weakness from the ranks of the Noxian military, Lars loses his father and the reputation associated with is family is completely diminished. Left with nothing but a desire to prove himself to the new regime, Lars decides to take a risk and enter himself in the Fleshing. Looking to test the mettle of the young Noxian warrior, orders come in that Lars' first match is against a large group of Noxian soldiers on death row for cowardice, soldiers that fought alongside and served under his father. The battle is bloody, but ultimately Lars is the only one left standing. He continues to fight, acquiring victories but also many scars inflicted due to his refusal to ever back down from a fight. Darius catches wind of Lars' exploits and decides to grant him freedom on the condition that Lars serve him and Swain as a bodyguard, but also as a symbol; Lars is a reminder on the battlefield to all Noxian troops of the cruel reality that awaits those who flee or desert, and he inspires them to fight on through his bloodthirsty desire for combat whether the odds are in his favour or not.

Gameplay

I wanted to create a Noxian support who does his job in a way that is thematically suited to Noxus. For Lars, the best defense is a great offense and Lars strikes fear in both ally and enemy with his aggressive fighting style and refusal to retreat. This translates into his gameplay by making Lars a beefy brawler who looks to fight and to stay fighting. Lars is generally slow unless you choose to build him in a way that gives him movespeed and favours him building stacks quickly, because Lars is not someone who is going to run away at the sign of trouble. Lars is a bully in lane phase who harasses the enemy botlane and brawls with them, giving his carry windows of opportunity to attack while Lars takes the lead. Lars' kit is designed to punish those foolish enough to come to charge down his ad carry while he is around and punish those who get in his face. Ideally I see Lars as someone who gets in the face of juggernauts and tanks or initiators and his ult can punish hard engage. Lars' weakness however lies in the fact that well timed hard cc or well placed poke can whittle him down and render him unable to do anything meaningful. If Lars is having trouble catching enemies, he can upgrade with Light Ball to allow him to stick better to targets he does catch, but he sacrifices damage potential to do so. As a support his aggressive style suits the Noxian way and Lars' own history as someone who inspires (with his W) his allies with his fighting.

Champion Interactions

Lars would most likely have interactions with most Noxian champions, but he would especially be close with Darius and Swain to a lesser extent. As for Draven, the executioner is likely the one responsible for getting rid of his father, however Lars sees Draven as a like minded individual whose goal is to erase the weak and so they make an interesting duo bottom lane.

Lars generally finds his antithesis in champions like Braum and Leona who are shield bearing users who seek to protect the weak from harm and thus would mock their values openly. He also dislikes Twitch as he finds the plague rat's sneaky tactics to be unsavory.

As Lars despises those who run/cowards, encountering Riven would make him aggressive toward the exile because he feels that she should be punished for her actions, as weak wills in Noxus must be eradicated before they infect others.

Lars hates Demacians, especially Garen at whom he would most likely make some offhand remark about the Demacian hero's reputation as one who likes to hide in the brush.

As I previously mentioned, Lars was a gladiator in the Fleshing, which makes his two biggest rivals apparent: Alistar and Xin Zhao.

Xin Zhao: Depending on timelines, if Darius did not begin his reform until after Xin had escaped the Fleshing, then Lars would only have heard of him and would view him as a coward and even more despicable for defecting to Demacia. If Xin's identity was largely unknown however, then Lars would only look at him and see a familiarity in his fighting style that resembles a famous gladiator. Xin is another antithesis for Lars because he is a right hand man to Jarvan while Lars serves Darius and Swain.

Alistar: Alistar is Lars' main rival and another reason I want him in bot lane. They would have met multiple times at the Fleshing and Lars would complain that the only scar of his that aches is the one inflicted by the Alistar, since Lars was never able to defeat him. Lars feels an obligation to bring Alistar to justice for escaping the gladitorial arena as Lars had to earn his freedom and Alistar ran away. Skins I have two skin ideas for Lars presently:

Gladiator Lars: would most likely be his release skin and give him further association with Draven

Demolition Lars: he would either be dressed as a construction worker or something else and his weapon would be a wrecking ball

I really think this champion could work but I'm not a math wiz so I can't really do calculations for his abilities or whatever. My hope at the very least is that Riot or you guys recognize Lars as a cool take on a Noxian support and as someone who fits in decently to the lore. All of this can be tweaked and changed but I hope whoever does so (if they like it at all) keeps the core elements that makes Lars who he is. I also have no artistic ability so I'm not even going to try and depict him or anything sorry lol.