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Sabbito, the Desert's Plight (1.0)

Pikmints·9/6/2014, 2:39:27 AM·1 votes·679 views

With the release of the champion known in development as Seth, I feel as though we still haven't got a champ that fulfills that sand-mage fantasy. While I haven't given too many specifics on numbers with his kit, bear in mind he is planned to be a squishy mage that deals mixed damage. Feedback would be appreciated.

Sabbito – The Desert’s Plight Ranged, mage.

Lore: Long ago, Shurima was a land with not a grain of sand resting on it’s surface. Rather, it’s fields were lush and beautiful, it’s citizens living simple lives in small communities on the bountiful valleys and hillsides. Sabbito was a loner in this land, one who never shared pleasantries with his fellow citizens nor offered a helping hand to those in need. Sabbito was not pleased with the land he saw before him and wanted nothing more than for it to exist no longer. Sabbito often left the land of Shurima to seek knowledge of how the people in other lands lived their lives. Sabbito, never satisfied with what he saw, quickly grew an interest in dark magic. In his journeys he came across a salesman that was selling dusty tomes of ancient knowledge, words of magic in a language long forgotten. Upon quick examination he knew that these books held the power he was seeking, the power to bring suffering without purpose. He spent the next months locked inside his home attempting to decode the lost language and understand the magic that was lost to the world. As he studied, he came across a spell that could inflict the blight he desired, a spell to turn a fertile land to a barren domain. As he cast it, darkness shot up from the land and riddled his body with bindings. These bandages forced him to endure the spell he cast as he was now a being that had no age. Being the only living creature left in all of Shurima, Sabbito decided to retreat into the sands of his creation to continue decoding the lost spells. Civilizations rose, Sabbito plaguing each of them with magic he continued to discover. He became a legend, a wandering soul that did nothing but torment those inhabiting the desert. Learning that he could ascend and further increase his power, he would seek the knowledge each empire held as he ravaged their lands and destroyed their cities. In time he heard of a man named Xerath who was able to ascend in the very lands that he created. Sabbito, knowing his tomes lacked the knowledge to ascend, now seeks Xerath looking to further his own ability to torment the people of Runeterra.

TIP FOR READING HIS ABILITIES: With his E being an important part of his kit, it may be worth reading that ability first.

Passive – Saturated Sands – Damage over time effects/abilities deal 5% reduced damage to Sabbito.

Q – Searing Gust – Sabbito fires a skillshot of hot sand that deals magic damage and bounces to 1 nearby target after the first target is hit. Bouncing the spell off a Famine Pillar refreshes the bounce and duplicates the projectile. If Searing Gust kills a unit, it’s cooldown is reduced by 1 second.

Note: Famine Pillars have equal priority for the bounce as champions (closest target receives the bounce), then pets, neutral monsters, and finally minions. When bouncing from a pillar, the two projectiles are not able to target the same target, thus if only 1 viable target is in range after the Pillar is hit, the projectile will not duplicate. The projectile cannot have an allied target be the target for its final hit, but will use its first hit (damageless of course) if the first target hit is an ally (Famine Pillar does not count as an allied target). This spell as well as any of its duplicates are not able to bounce off a Pillar that was already hit by the same cast. The cooldown section is made to let him cs with it if he gets behind and zoned.

W – Skittering Force – Sabbito channels a cone-esque of insects that push away and deal physical damage to all enemies hit over 2 seconds.

Note: This spell deals damage every .5 seconds to enemies caught in the cone-esque. Sabbito can cancel the channel early by moving or casting a spell (including reactivating this one). What is meant by cone-esque is basically a “seagull-graph” in front of him. It is possible for enemies to get pushed but not hit by a tick of damage. The push won’t stop movement like Scatter the Weak, but would cause champs running toward him to slowly walk backwards from him, champs running away to run much faster, and champs not running directly toward or away to travel their direction while being pushed away from Sabbito’s current position.

E – Famine Pillar – Passive: Every few seconds Sabbito gains a charge (max 3). Active: Sabbito consumes a charge to summon an invincible pillar at a chosen location that lasts for 15 seconds. This pillar deals magic damage to any enemy unit within 200 units and grants vision of that same area. For each pillar within Sabbito’s cast range, the range of this spell is increased by 250.

Note: Famine Pillar interacts with champions akin to Anivia’s Crystallize, solid yet won’t interact with instances such as Nautilus’ Dredge Line. The visual for the damage area around the pillar will be a tiny sandstorm around it.

R – Dark Fate – Active: Sabbito blesses all allies and Famine Pillars that come within 900 units of him (including himself) for 10 seconds. When any blessed unit first damages an enemy, that enemy is slowed and receives additional physical damage over 4 seconds.

Note: An enemy is not able to be afflicted more than once by the same target. Damage is dealt each .5 seconds to the target. Multiple applications don’t stack, but rather refresh the timer. Damage over time is inflicted every half-second. The source of Dark Fate will always be considered Sabbito no matter who the person was that dealt the damage that applied Dark Fate.

On Selection - The search continues. Joke – Pocket sand… (Tosses sand in the air above himself) Laugh – (short pause) hm… hm… hm… (decreasing in tone)

Tips/Tricks; Playing as Sabbito

  1. With proper usage of Famine Pillar, a single target is able to be hit numerous times from a single cast of Searing Gust.
  2. Sabbito is able to flash into his Searing Gust when chasing an enemy to effectively turn the skillshot into a targeted cast (if he’s close enough to his target to let it bounce).
  3. Because Sabbito can quickly deal physical damage with his W and R, a Black Cleaver could apply stacks of it’s passive quickly.
  4. With Sabbito’s sources of magic damage having fairly low base values but high reliability, a Liandry’s Torment can be used to make his poke more potent.

Playing against Sabbito

  1. Keep in mind Sabbito’s ability to disengage by placing a Famine Pillar between himself and his pursuer, as well as push a target away with his W and slow with his ultimate.
  2. Having a wide stance in lane could force Sabbito to stagger his Pillar placement, making it more difficult for multiple bounces of Searing Gust to hit you in a single cast.
  3. Trying to bait out his pillars is a smart way of limiting his potential, but one must be cautious of how low mobility champs could be poked by a quick E-Q combo.
  4. With Sabbito’s passive and ability to disengage, characters that are able to burst him down or deal damage quickly could have the upper hand laning against him.
  5. When Sabbito uses his ultimate, be wary of your ability to chase as well as how all nearby allies of his can peel for everyone on his team (minions included).
  6. Keep an eye on your positioning when Sabbito casts his Searing Gust as it prioritizes nearby champions on the second hit.

1 Comments

Pikmints9/7/2014, 4:37:34 AM1 votes

So in terms of design quality, there are a few specific areas I'd like to get feedback on.

I'd first like a little feedback on the lore. I knew I wanted him to be a character with a deep-seated desire for the world around him to crumble, like a less smiley version of Jinx. I wanted him to cause evil simply for his desire to see the world crumble, yet I felt this also makes his backstory a little flimsy as most characters have a motivation for what they do, and this goes directly against that as it puts him in a good environment with no traumatic past events to emphasize his evil for evil's sake.

I also feel that I made him a very safe mage, something that actively required me to remove some additional defensive aspects such as a slow on his pillars and armor + mr on his ult per damaged opponent. I still feel like I made him a champ that's designed to avoid confrontation and disengage, the same reason Nidalee got reworked (more or less).

I am also dissatisfied with his ultimate. I wanted to avoid doing something like "creates a sand terrain around him that does X to him and allies as well as Y to enemies" as it feels like that has been done enough with spells like J4's R, Galio's R, Hec's W, Trundle's W, Zyra's R, Sona's kit, and so on (some examples may be more of a stretch than others). I definitely wanted to keep it in theme with his other abilities with the plagues of Egypt references (originally having it tied to insects/locusts but decided to move that to his W), but ults with darkness seem to have been played through, boils being one that would seem to be either utility heavy or DoT heavy (and thus hard to appreciate as much [thus why I 50/50'd it with a name that's easier to work with, the other plague]), water to blood seems like it would simply be a recolored version of a Nami spell with bonus damage, radius, or utility (and thus not feel unique), and death of firstborn can't really work in this context. Whatever the final version is, I feel that it either must interact with his Famine Pillars in some way or rewrite his W to interact with them as they are designed to be a key part of his power budget and give him/his opponents windows of power to work with.

With passives like Yasuo's being so unique, Braum's being universally useful, and Azir's introducing a unique mechanic, I feel like his passive is a little "Season 1". I made it towards the end of his design and I knew I didn't want to offer him much more in terms of a movement bonus as he's already had defensive aspects removed from his kit, but above all else it should be thematically appropriate. I felt like an offensive boost to his poke/AoE spells that also make it hard for enemies to retaliate would be irritating. I felt making a sand trail that slows is too obvious + he's defensive enough (especially vs melee), and the only other one I thought could be thematically appropriate for him would be halved death timers, but went with this one as it provides a decision making opportunity vs champs like Teemo, Cass, Darius, Ignite, and so on. Another idea that I was never able to develop into anything interesting was the notion of his sand being used as an armor shred, but the only thing I could think of really was another "Season 1" passive of having be a flat bonus penetration or a mirror of black cleaver's passive.

I do also feel slightly meh about his W, but I feel that the current version does fill in a bit of a gap in his kit. I feel he needed an AoE ability as a mage shouldn't have a slow wave clear, especially late game (unless you EEEQ). I feel having some form of hard cc to cancel channels is nice on an immobile mage, granted having it be a non-ultimate channel is a little odd itself (and in retrospect summoning an E on someone would force movement). With his E being able to cut off enemy pursuit and a generally safe rest of his kit, I wanted to avoid making this ability a dash, blink, or ms boost (a heal or shield also seem strange on him).

The only thing I can say more is that I am fairly set in wanting him to be a immobile mage.