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Champion Concept: Auralee - Phantasm of the Isles

ChaosReyn··4 votes·2,095 views

TL;DR -

A ghost among ghosts, Auralee is a survivor of the blight of the Shadow Isles. Once known as the best of an elite squad of Rangers that helped protect the Blessed Isles, Auralee's existence remains linked to her land and her mission - protect the land from those who would misshape it.

#Lore - During the height of the Blessed Isles, there was rarely need for a military presence. The Enchanted Mists were more than enough to deter all but the most persistent of visitors. Instead, most of those trained in weaponry were hunters or peacekeepers. In many cases, these people were one and the same - true rangers who upheld the complete circle of life. And for all the rangers in the Blessed Isles, there was no one more versed than one.

A master archer, tracker, hunter and the deputy commander of the peacekeepers, she thrived upon the bridge between the land and its life. Until the day of darkness took her.

From within the vault, a furious torrent of malevolence polluted the very ground. The air. The sea. The beloved Mists. Though she did not know the cause of this malevolence, she knew it was caused by her people, and it polluted the land she loved. The corruption twisted people and creatures alike, turning them feral and volatile. It took awhile before The lass was able to determine that the reason it didn't turn her like the rest was due to the heartwater she kept locked inside her amulet. Its power, like the Mists, enveloping and protecting her. Still, the torture of the land ravaged her mind.

The heartwaters...that has to be the way...

Most of the research of her people on the heartwaters was all but lost, the downfall of their civilization and the catastrophe that took them burying that knowledge far underground in the vaults. But with her deep connection to the land, and her fury towards her people for what she perceived as something akin to mankind's betrayal of nature itself, she carries on, to this day, with her mission to reclaim the land from its curse, and leave peacefully among it...unaware of how timeless her quest has truly been.

The heartwaters...I need to reclaim...the waters...

Unbeknownst to her, as time stopped having meaning to her long ago, it's been those very waters sustaining her existence for quite some time. Not immortal, but not quite undead, her consumption of the ancient wellsprings gave her centuries of longevity. The lass's amulet - possessing some of the last pure heartwater, along with her willpower is what kept her mind intact. Mostly intact. There was still one thing she simply couldn't stand anymore.

WRETCHED TRESPASSER! LEAVE THIS PLACE!

The few mortal beings who've dared to venture to the Shadow Isles, the first carriers of these tales, mentioned living trees that brought forth death. Twisted creatures neither human nor beast. Maddened spirits determined to claim their very soul... I never heard such a tale as I have seen. A pale lady. With hair the color of a dense morning fog. Her armor made of scale and hide. Her aura, of one who wears a thousand lives around her. When I returned to the mainland and told my tale, the people laughed. "There's no way!" they all said. "No one can live in that desolate place!"

But I saw her. With my own eyes, I saw the pale lady. And her arrow saw my knee. Her words echoed through that darkness clearly. "Wretched Trespasser! Leave this place!"

She stalked me as I dragged myself back to my boat. her presence that of a savage beast. I still think I was meant to die upon that soil. I set full sail, half my crew still missing. There were two score of us when our exploration began...only three of us made it to Bilgewater. And one died upon the docks from his wounds.

It wasn't until long after my return to Noxus that the Grand General himself descended upon my home. He humbled me with his audience. And when I spoke of our journey, he said only three words to my entire tale.

"The lineage lives."

He's told me more since, as you can see. He tasked me with keeping the records of the Isles and I've learned much. I've yet to know what he sees there, but this lady is the key. So I hope that you'll reconsider your offer. I cannot offer more there. When this reaches you...

blood splatters occupy the rest of the parchment too much to make out more. Even the writings underneath the lines were partially illegible. In fact, it seemed like the dried, embedded blood had somehow grown darker as the ship approached its destination. The man reading them paused for a moment, before setting the traitor's notes upon his desk and making for the deck.

#Stats -

HP: 485 (+76) HP5: 6.9 (+1.5) MP: 320 (+64) MP5: 5.1 (+.8) AD: 56 (+5.3) AS: .506 (+.042) AR: 29 (+1.7) MR: 33 (+0.8) MS: 345 RN: 595

#Kit -

Passive: Shadow Shot - Each time Auralee enters stealth/camouflage (including brush), she gains 20% movement speed for 1.5s and her next attack within 2s deals (30% bonus AD) more damage. This cannot trigger from the same source of stealth twice within 10s. (so you can't use the same bush over and over to Rengar your damage output)

Q: Night Arrow - Auralee fires an arrow to a target location. After a 0.75s delay, it explodes into shrapnel that deals (45/55/65/75/85[+50%AD]) damage to enemies within a 200 unit radius and smoke that covers the area for 3s. The smoke functions as a bush - hiding units inside of it from outside view - and grants Auralee improved stealth upon first entering it for 1s (meaning, until she fires, those inside can't see her either, and she can leave the smokescreen and stay stealthed for the 1s duration). 60 mana all ranks - 16/15/14/13/12s cd

W: Mist Arrows - passive: Auralee's basic attacks apply a Mist Curse debuff. the Mist Curse deals (5/10/15/20/25[+5/7/9/12/15%bonusAD]) damage on hit, and reveals afflicted enemies. Last 1.5s, and refreshes on each basic attack. Afflicted enemies hit by Auralee's Night Arrow, or those who enter the persisting smokescreen, lose 10% of their armor for as long as they're afflicted.

E: Chain Arrow - Auralee Shoots an arrow with an attached chain in a target direction. If the arrow hits a wall, Auralee will pull herself to it. By reactivating the ability before the pull ends, she will vault over the wall as well. If the arrow hits an enemy, They'll take 35/45/55/65/75(+35%AD) damage and be slowed by 20% for 1.5s. Auralee can reactivate the ability within 1.5s to instead fire another arrow through her end of the chain, preventing the enemy from moving farther than the current distance between her and them for 1.5s. 70/65/60/55/50 mana - 22/21/20/19/18s cd

R: Shadow Fall - Auralee gains 15/20/25%(+1%/100AD) bonus attack speed for the next 7s, and for the duration, her Night Arrow has a flat 1s cooldown. This will instantly set the cooldown of her Q to 1s if she used it just before her ult (just like with Kindred). (can make about 7-8 stealth zones for her passive, and with the added bonuses, this means you've got plenty of room to outplay things.) 100 mana - 120/100/80s cd

UPDATES:

1.2

  • Took out sedative arrows, so players will need to rely more on proper usage of the stealth zones they create. Mist Arrows are the new name for the Cursed Arrows, but function in the same manner.
  • Chain Arrow no longer makes a wall - Auralee can choose to vault the wall she pulls to instead. Tethering an enemy still works as normal.

1.3

  • QoL wording changes to Explosive Arrow - Auralee will gain a 1s stealth upon entering the smokescreen that will persist for the duration even if she leaves it. This allows her to make some flashy outplays. :P
  • E now must be reactivated to chain an enemy. Without a reactivation, it will simply briefly slow the target.
  • E now has a damage ratio of 35/45/55/65/75(+35%AD) - changed from simply 70%AD. This nerfs its overall damage output...but since I added a brief slow, and I'm quite worried about the potency of W+R already, I think making it have its own numbers is fair.
  • added mana cost and cooldowns to abilities.
  • changed Mist Arrows. Instead of a toggle effect, Mist Arrows now slowly power creeps the longer you can focus your target passively for no cost.

1.4

  • Renamed Q to "Night Arrow" from "Explosive Arrow" (felt bland to me...)
  • Buffed slow duration and recast duration of E to 1.5s from 0.5s. (gives time to gapclose a bit more before chaining them down.)
  • Buffed Attack Speed stat and growth to .506 (+.042) from .456 (+.04)
  • Nerfed Attack Damage stat and growth to 56 (+5.3) from 58 (+5.5)

1.5

  • Big W changes!
  • No longer a stacking effect. Just a single debuff refreshed by repetitive basic attacks.
  • Enemies Afflicted with the Mist Curse are revealed in bushes (but not other forms of stealth) so that Auralee isn't punished when her original target just waits in her smokescreens.
  • The Mist Curse now lowers the armor of the afflicted enemy whenever they are hit by Night Arrow, or walk through one of its smokescreens, until the debuff is dropped. Auralee can continually refresh the debuff to keep this loss of armor, though the duration of the debuff itself is still very short (at 1.5s). This also further deters her target from sitting in her smokescreens.
  • Removed Herobrine. :P
  • Lowered duration of empowered basic attack on passive from 3s to 2s. (Shoot fast!)

1.6

  • added lore, finally. (The lore is a letter, that never made it to its intended recipient. Just in case it confuses you)

13 Comments

Gilgayu2 votes

Hi Reyn~

This concept seems really good: an adc playing around camouflage/invisibility like an assassin (and let's keep teemo out of the conversation xP)

I think one of the core things to an adc is their consistant damage output, and also the fact that it "ignores" many hard cc's (meaning they can still aa if snared and silenced, while for mages...) For Auralee, I think her damage's consistency/ play style is, and should be, a bit different from both traditional adc and assassins, and in a good way.

I personally noticed that most champions with invisibility (again, ignore teemo) actually remain invisibly to wait for their cd (think kha waiting for q and vayne waiting for q if she is 1v1'ing). So what is Auralee waiting for? And if she is waiting for something, where should she be waiting?

Before going into numbers, I think a potential problem with Auralee is her smoke bomb is a very controversial way of hiding herself. If it is too small, there is little room to outplay due to the fact that she is an adc (the old akali can be styling on everyone in her smoke because she is melee, and she can get to enemies whom she couldn't get to before because they don't know she is already there). Auralee however, can probably cover the entire smoke if she stands in the center because she's ranged (Idk the range of the smoke, but I suppose it isn't all that big?) Another problem with the smoke is that it is very obvious that Auralee is in it. I know it sounds dumb, but what I mean is that teamfights might turn into turf wars if Auralee is super strong in her smokes, or both teams will just ignore the smoke because it is so insignificant.

So back to the damage consistancy/ waiting-for-something topic. I think something like empowered w when Auralee is in smoke might boost her dmg output, and like Seoshi said, "award her for superior positioning" as well as smoke placement during her ult's duration.

It's been months since I'm like active active, so if I'm talking about random stuff, sryyy

As for numbers... Overall I think it's pretty good, but perhaps raise her base ad and ad growth? After all her AS is... far from impressive. I suppose you did this so she won't waste much dps by trying to hide in bushes? Considering her passive can be on pretty much the whole time during her ult if played right, the ms is a bit on the high side. (Personal suggestion, how about lowering the numbers but make them stackable if she enters multiple sources of invisbility, like smoke --> bush --> nocturne ult or something like that).

but that's about it for the numbers.

Really nice concept. I can imagine this as a strong pick when you have ivern (rengar things? ;) or even just any tank that can keep enemies back (ali, sion, naut, etc.)

Edit: that ms nerf to her passive is suggested from my person dislike toward mobile adcs (jinx, kai'sa, vayne, lucian... I don't wanna talk about it). Adcs are supposed to be protected, and the fact that no one can be fast enough to actually reach them.... just.... no.

ChaosReyn1 votes

To note, when it comes to her smoke area, the actual smoke (and shrapnel range) as you say, isn't noted yet, but I wasn't really intending on making it all that huge. I'd say probably about a 400 unit diameter zone, but my number isn't final. Not big, but also not the main point of it. While stealth on many other champions is pretty much to set up an ambush or wait for a cooldown, I want Auralee's interactions with stealth to feel more unique in comparison. Instead of just stealthing up and waiting for her shot at something, I want her to simply feel that the darkness is her friend. I want her to feel empowered and supported by it, more than protected by it, and I want it to sort of give off to her enemies a somewhat haunting vibe, as if she's a ghost that flickers all over the lane. Not a jump scare - you know she's there, and you know she's coming - but you're not quite able to tell exactly where from, or exactly how fast she's closing the gap, until she's essentially everywhere, and you're unable to really manage to fight her or run away.

That's why I also incorporated that she gains actual stealth upon first entering these smokescreens. I don't want that stealth to last long (probably just a 1s stealth like Vayne, but she has MS to go with it), but I wanted to be sure that if she went into the smokescreen that she didn't have to necessarily stay there to still be stealthed. It's sort of like an empowered Vayne Q, but instead of it requiring her ult, then stealthing her just for using the ability, she has to physically make contact with the cloud (which introduces some counterplay to her positioning and the MS she gets without compromising her choices to either stay in the smoke or hit the stealth and quickly leave it.) I left out this mechanic from actual bushes...because naturally, everyone expects a Garen there anyway.

The other thing to note is that in addition to it being a stealth option for her, it's simply a way of triggering her passive, and also doubles as some poke damage as well if she doesn't want to commit. She can proc her passive on bush, Q the enemy, and walk away if she just wants some quick damage. Or if she wants to begin a committed attack, she can poke from bush, Q herself or near herself to enter the smokescreen while she's still got the first movespeed bonus from the bush to reset the passive (and give her stealth) then carry on from there.

Remember, as you also said, that combo potential really isn't where her power comes from - her main ability is in her toggled Mist Arrows. Her AS isn't all that impressive because these little buggers stack up the more she can consistently hit you and people are going to want AS items, specifically Runaan's for triple the effect per shot. You just triggered two procs of your passive in that short passive abusing combo I just mentioned. If you were committing with her W active, that's two curse stacks as well. If you run into the other bush you didn't use, you can get a 3rd proc and stack, and the movespeed to pretty much guarantee that you can keep stacking if you desired, or pull away if you didn't think it's safe. All of that without even considering her E, which is another unique way of keeping people where you want them to stack up freely.

Her E is a pretty strange tool that she can use to quickly escape a situation, or make it really hard for an enemy to do much. The tether length is variable - if Auralee uses it while near the enemy, and hits the enemy, the tether range is much shorter than if she hit the enemy at its max range. Meaning they can move far less than they want to. Another part to note is that they are always going to start at the max length of the tether (furthest away from you) so their options at that point are to essentially wait for it to time out, or turn back at you. Obviously, since they're tethered down, they can't dash or blink away from the chain until the effect ends, since this is literally chaining them to the floor. This is another good use of your smokescreens, particularly while your ult is running. She can use the stealth to gapclose, tether her target at a very small range and use another screen to quickly back away, leaving them with very little room to move in a zone she's spamming with smoke.

I may change the smokescreens still...I introduced that they functioned exactly like bushes to give the counterplay of standing in them so she can't attack you from within them without getting punished, but I'm still not exactly getting the feeling they're doing what I want in full. So you have hit my biggest fear in that, at least. :P

I'm definitely still playing with numbers (I'm still considering when she ults to allow that 10s timer on her passive to drop to a much lower number, to double down on that haunting vibe I mentioned) and with the stats. But I do feel like I'm starting to get close to what I'm looking for.

Zahtar2 votes

Hey :)

I like the fact she's from the Shadow Isles, but is she alive ? She looks undead from what you said. I think making her a human surviving among ghosts could also be a good idea (every champion from the Shadow Isles is undead atm).

Concerning the kit, I think you have really good ideas. Overall the gameplay of the champion seems interesting and new. The passive is nice and totally fits the discrete ranger theme. The interaction with the Q is cool and somewhat new (we already have Ivern's brushes and Akali's shroud but that's kind of in-between).

For the W, I don't really see the point of making it a toggle. It costs mana, sure, but you would probably always turn it on when fighting. Then it would probably be hard to balance the ability between useless/forgettable and overpowered. Plus it means you have to hit an enemy five times to reach your full potential, which I feel does not necessary feel in line with the rest of the kit (I might be wrong on that). What I would do is reduce it to 3 stacks, adding a flat amount of damage and a cooldown that can somehow be refreshed by the kit. You keep the curse on ennemies, but you have to earn the fact of damaging cursed enemies with new Mist Arrows. I don't know if it's clear and it might be completely undoable, just a random idea !

I like the R a lot. It feels like the champion is tracking a prey in the night. Having several stealth zones opens up a lot of possibilities. The only problem that I have is that you wouldn't need to create a new stealth zone every 1 sec, right ? The time for you to attack an enemy from it, then replace / chase them.... So the idea I'm having is that the R could reduce all of her cooldowns when she attacks enemy champions. Maybe, then, in order for it not to be overpowered, you should take away from the E that it can hit a champion (though I really liked that interaction so idk). With that iteration of the R, she would create a shroud, hit a few times an enemy - cursing them, reposition with the E, create a new stealth zone and do that again until they die.

Nice job !! I'm so happy to see that other people feel inspired by that archetype.

ChaosReyn1 votes

Just the guy I was waiting on. >:D

I'm trying to flesh out the rest of the kit before finishing the lore, but the way I have it set up, it's still technically possible for me to make her that sort of "lone survivor" in a land of undead creatures. At the moment however, I fear it may be a bit difficult to justify someone actually managing to live that long - the Blessed Isles fell and became the Shadow Isles quite some time ago lore wise. Plus, I think it almost fits her kit better to be sort of like an apparition. As I said in a different comment, I kind of want her stealth mechanics to be less about the stealth, and more about the aesthetic of her appearing and disappearing from the battlefield often. In short, the stealth is more about empowering her and giving her that haunting vibe than it is allowing her to truly and completely hide away like, say, Eve or Twitch. All of that in mind...I'm still considering multiple possibilities concerning her backstory. Though I'm always open to ideas. :P

The reason W is more a toggle is so that I can make it more powerful, to be frank. I could make it a passive effect (like Teemo's poison darts) but then I'd have to sacrifice some overall power since it's then free. I could use a different mechanic than toggle and lower the stacks like you said...but what prerequisite would I want to use, and with all her movement speed and empowered attacks from her passive, what's the critical mass where dealing a bunch of extra on-hit damage charges up too fast? I went with 5 stacks of 10% each because it seemed pretty fair to her kit's workings. In my comment to Gil from earlier - You can quite easily get two or three stacks for free just by making good use of your passive, and the tether mechanic can easily net you more without them ever having a chance to get away. Your all-in if you stack up is really potent - you're dealing less overall damage than Draven's spinning axes, but doing it far more consistently - however you have to actually charge up to reach its full power first. This ironically enough fits with that sort of "apparition" theme. It's like the enemy is in a horror movie being haunted - you know you're being haunted, you know it's there, and you know it's not good. It always feels like it's progressively getting worse, and you feel like you can do less and less about it the more that feeling sinks in. If you can brush it away quickly, you don't feel that same sense of growing dread. But if it continues for too long, it gets to the point of being crippling and oppressive, until it overtakes you. Though I definitely want her to fit into a sort of stealthy ranger archetype, this concept of sort of haunting the land and attacking trespassers definitely feels like a good way to take her both lore-wise and gameplay wise. I suppose she'd still fit the archetype of ranger...but more of a "true neutral" ranger that simply wants you to leave.

Honestly, I think in its current form, dealing 150% of your total AD on every attack may end up a bit too op...but I'd need to do more research into my numbers. And I definitely feel like this is a bit bland, fair to your point. I may experiment with other ideas to incorporate this sense of haunting dread. But for the moment, it's a decent placeholder for my purposes, if nothing else.

Finally, on her ult. keep in mind that there are a few tricks with her stealth interactions that make this ult function worth noting.

  • Every time she enters stealth or a bush, she gains another empowered passive bonus.
  • Since she can't proc her passive bonus in the same zone for than once every few seconds, you would benefit a lot from making a load of stealth zones, even if you don't really need them.
  • Your AS is empowered during this time as well, and combined with your W, this steroid can be pretty oppressive. Your enemies will want to wait out your ult...but you don't want to let them.
  • Since they're more than likely going to not want to openly contest you, keep in mind that her Q is also a damage source, and you can get multiple functionality in hitting them for damage, then pushing them further back to claim that same area for your stealth.
  • Lastly, it's more than possible in this scenario of hitting them with a zone to simply stealth from one smokescreen directly into another, refreshing the stealth duration and setting up a point blank tether (which may as well be a root at that point) so that when the cloud fades, you can simply unload on them while they can't do anything to reach you. This bamboozle is especially useful against people who are trying to wait in your smokescreen and use it against you.

I will need to make a note for clarity, since Gil was similarly confused - she is going to keep a 1s stealth after entering the smoke, regardless of if she stays in it or not. This won't apply to bushes, this is uniquely tied to her Q, but it's a good way of making sure that in the several small zones she makes during her ult, she will have many different ways of capitalizing on her kit.

Ideas and feedback are always welcome. This is just me trying to explain my decision making. :P

In particular, if you can think of a mechanic to use for her W that you think fits the kit better, I'm all ears. I don't hate how it currently is now, but I definitely feel like it's rather generic.

ChaosReyn1 votes

Tried making a couple changes - instead of the stacks costing mana now, they're now a passive effect that slowly power creeps and gives your attacks a small percentage of your bonus AD as bonus magic damage. It now stacks infinitely - the longer you can keep hunting your prey, the stronger your attacks hit them, and the weaker their resistances are against you. Sorry to make you read such a long-winded explanation, then suddenly have a change of heart. Creations are strange things. :P

J Eevo2 votes

I'm a fan of the E, but the rest of the kit seems like a more varied spin on Vayne, with the playstyle not being much different, so i'd be curious if you wouldn't run into the problem of people just picking one or the other depending on which one's stronger.

The smoke functions as a bush

Does this apply to more than just her? This could end up being very messy and clunky if applied to more targets.

You have a weird choice in the Q of lobbing it towards your opponent for the damage component while simultaneously wanting to target as closely to yourself as possible for the cover it provides - this actually could work quite well if she's chasing the target down, you'd naturally walk over the shroud and would end up with a buff to the dps from the passive, but in vanilla fights you run into a problem, Have you considered having her E work on the shrouds as well as walls? This could give you the option of using the Q offensively as well as closing the distance to the shroud AND the target, while still not being the definitive best choice since that also ends up placing you in de facto melee range exposing you to a risk if not used correctly.

I could run the math on W but I'm pretty sure you end up overkilling your target long before you really get to stack the passive up, so the biggest deal here is really just the ease of doing objectives at any point of the game. The scaling on it is also fairly weird, the difference between level ups is ridiculous (you have the passive stacking additively with no cap, the difference between different ranks of W in dps is ridiculous, 3 stacks of rank1W deal 3% but 3 stacks of rank 5W deal 15%, and so on.

I like the tether on E(though there doesn't seem to be much reason NOT to fire off the second E if the first already hit? You could just place the tether arrow onto the W with the passive still intact I guess, but it's fine)

The R I don't like though that's personal opinion, I'm not a fan of statbuff ults in general(I hate the arbitrary AD gain of vayne R and the I WIN BUTTON nature of it though I know many people like it) though the part of it I can I think comment on is - you have a really big disparity between her Q cd off R and with R. This could prove unhealthy if her Q is a big enough part of her kit to warrant it though less than a similar champ would because Auralee retains the option of Eing out, being safer than normal champs with this mechanic.

Honestly remembering back to when Riot first announced rune changes I'm reminded of the keystone they first proposed that had the infinite stacking mechanic, and it ultimately ended up not being put in the game, likely because of the reason you're now struggling with - it's hard nail down the breakpoint of 'useless' and 'op' to make it still satisfying while being powerful. They did however have to balance it as a rune choice instead of a champion kit part, so it may still be possible if narrowed down more.

ChaosReyn1 votes

I figured there'd be a time I had to speak on the similarities of Vayne. xD Personally, I almost think of her Q as closer to a Draven mechanic when she's using it for passive though - if she's gonna use it to set off her passive, you know where she's going, and can attempt to set something up to punish going for it. If she uses it to poke you, it's actually not in her best interest to commit unless she's comfortable with the all-in. The kit is supposed to better reward you for making use of the passive over the damage...enter the clunkiness built into the cloud functioning as a very temporary bush. if she's using it to poke at the enemy without utilizing her passive, I want it to be more dangerous and therefore more difficult to allow her to get both halves of the effect.

I'm still very much leaning towards reworking the W (again...) because it's pretty difficult to find a decent spread of scaling without making it busted during on point of the game or another, and otherwise irrelevant beyond that. To reduce the clunkiness towards her original target, true to your point with the Q, I may have these reveal her allies in bushes while the stacks persist. No reason her target should be able to turn and burn her from her own kit if she's playing correctly and attempting to make use of both halves of it.

I don't want the hookshot to work on the shrouds specifically because I want Auralee to rely on her passive's movespeed to chase down her enemies. The wall tether is more of a panic button when used for mobility instead of denying mobility to her target, and I'd rather keep it that way, since she already is going to be a menace to peel off with all her bonus movespeed zones. As for why I left a window to reactivate the ability on enemies, I essentially figured it best to give a window for Auralee to gapclose to shorten the tether range. For example, landing the Chain Arrow just before you enter stealth allows you a small window to take off a substantial distance from the maximum range of movement your opponent has, which can make a very key difference in their ability to dodge follow up from your teammates. Since the tether essentially functions like a shorter-duration Camille ult and not say a root or a snare, if you leave a large amount of rope for the opponent, you and your team are still able to get outplayed.

I used to hate stat buff ultimates too. The only one I've had an issue with in quite some time however has been Vayne's. Mainly because they decided to overload the damn thing with triple her passive bonuses for the entire duration for free, pretty much allow her to maintain permanent stealth while dealing 15% of your hp as true damage off her W every time she appeared on your screen. The ult I'm running is intended mainly to allow Auralee to generate a bunch of slow fields at once (enter the "target the Draven Axe LZ" kind of minigame) and give her a more minor buff in attack speed instead of attack damage, unlike Vayne's just giving her flat damage that she gets to choose to use at her leisure. Sure, attack speed is pretty decently strong with her W...but it's not bonus AD - the more she attacks, the less she utilizes her stealth. The more she utilizes her stealth, the less she's able to make use of the AS buff, since she can't be stealthed AND attacking you. The counterintuitiveness of these two pieces is my way of making it more fair and balanced than Vayne's bonus AD variant...plus, Auralee doesn't deal %hp true damage on every 3rd attack. >.>

lCantPauseltMom2 votes

I like the kit! It's very imaginative, and the abilities individually are very creative. If you don't mind, this was my little piece about your kit:

Passive: I like it and how it potentially interacts with the Q and R. It gives a very interesting hit-and-run aspect to the champion that can be maximised upon.

Q: I know this has been mentioned before, but it does feel hard to get the most out of this ability as possible. I like how it makes a smoke cloud for Auralee, and that she can use it to combo with her passive. However, there would be this decision between "Do I fire this at the enemy for damage?" and "Do I fire this to where I can maximise my passive?". This can be achieved on both marks by firing at the enemy then running into the smoke cloud, but that would be dangerous for an ADC.

W: I would be careful around infinitely stacking passives like this. If you build enough attack speed, and (for example) took Lethal Tempo, that damage would very quickly stack out of control, even against tanks.

E: An awesome ability all around! I like the semi-Hookshot of it while having the option alive for running someone down. Makes her feel like a huntress!

R: Theoretically I like how it enables you and your Q, but it comes down to how the Q plays out. It also allows for permanent invisibility for the duration if you kept firing your Q, which does seem very unbalanced. Again, once you've taken a bit of time to look into how it plays out and with a little work, this will clear up easily!

If you want, I do have some suggestions for Auralee's kit. If you have a discord, I could DM them to you and you could do with them what you'd like! Otherwise I understand if you don't, I know you've got this! Auralee is looking good, keep it up!

PS: I just noticed you still have "Explosive Arrow" on your ultimate, although I'm pretty sure you mean Night Arrow? Just a heads up :)

ChaosReyn1 votes

Thanks for the error spotting. :P

I kind of want it to be difficult to make the most out of the Night Arrow. the priority of the adc is to of course basic attack, so for the most part, I want her Q to be more of a choice for the player to make - do I want to use this for a poke and keep my distance, do I wanna use it for the quick speed boost/stealth to try and set up my chain and start a combo, or am I confident enough in the all-in to attempt to do both?

W is hands down the thing I'm most worried about...I'll likely end up reworking it again, but the general theme behind what role I want it to fill is that I want to reward anyone who'd play her for being able to stick to one target instead of mindlessly switching targets all over the place.

In regards to the permanent stealth from the ult - keep in mind there's a 0.75s delay before the Night Arrow creates its zone, and she'll be breaking stealth to fire it. In addition, she cannot reuse the same smokescreen for multiple stealths - if she can't chain them properly and make good use of it, then that limited window between stealths will be far more open than just the delay as well. And just like Draven's axes, once she starts chasing you down through these clouds, you know where she's going to refresh her stealth. I don't think they're going to be completely lacking in counterplay...as long as I get the W right and she has to actually rely on constant refreshing of her passive and the stealth from the smokescreens in the fights, I think she'll actually need some decent level of skill to pull off. When taking into account that enemies can still manage to use them against her by just occupying them and waiting for her to gapclose, it can actually be quite damgerous, even with multiple mini-stealths.

I have a discord, and I'm in the C&C discord as well. I am always up for suggestions and feedback. Though my work schedule's been a bit on the crazy side, which is why it took so long to get back here.

Seoshi1 votes

I like the abilities, but I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how her kit comes together as a whole. Can you explain how you see her playing in a lane phase, and how you see her playing in a team-fight phase? I just don't really see much Synergy with her W and E as compared to her Passive, Q, and Ultimate.

ChaosReyn1 votes

Yeah...this is still in "pre-alpha" if you will.

The goal is essentially to make a ranger who uses brief windows of stealth and masterful positioning to professionally whittle and defeat opponents.

The general idea is to keep her largely auto-attack based in terms of her damage, and to have her abilities be more supplemental ways of keeping strong zone control while she does. Honestly, in this iteration, I feel like I've overloaded her E's utility a bit...but it can be used to block people from reaching her, reposition her quickly, or tether someone for a moment as she goes about making her move.

With this kit's current iteration, I suppose the thought is to use per passive and Q to try and obtain favorable trades and poke, before setting up with sedative arrows into tether and cursed arrows when you're ready to go for the kill.

I will likely be making a lot of changes to this as I go along.

Seoshi2 votes

Very good! So suggestions;

I would lower her passive from 10s to 5s... very unlikely that you would be using the same bush, or smoke-screen, within the same fight just because as an ADC, you are constantly moving anyway. However, this would allow her to 1) capitalize on enemy misplays if they DO allow her to almost "sit still" or 2) award her for superior positioning that allows her to use the same bush multiple times.

Q: I like, i'm not very good when it comes to Physical damage numbers as I really only play magic based champions, but it synergies well with her Passive and current Ultimate... Idea: Consider making it a skill shot (that doesn't impede movement)

W: Possibly go along the lines of TF cards instead of a free rotation system; would allow you to ramp them all of to 3 hit passives instead of 5 hit passives, and have slightly higher numbers, and have a 3rd arrow type instead of traditional. 3-hit sleep + mini Zoe Q. 3-hit life-steal?. 3-hit deal reduce damage? something along those lines... i dont know, just throwing out an idea

E: Perhaps a grappling arrow she can use to 1) pull herself into the bushes/over walls and 2) pull herself to enemy champions (similar to Camille but I'm thinking as a small AoE instead of a skillshot)

R: Shadowfall: gains attackspeed, resets her cooldowns, puts Q on a 2/1.5/1 second CD. (thought here is she can E to a champion, W, use W, ultimate, repeat process (with a new arrow type)

ChaosReyn1 votes

Reason it's at 10 instead of 5 is mainly from bushes. It'd get pretty annoying to just eat extra damage every 5 seconds just from a marksman doing basically rengar things. Not too much counterplay as it is to "rush out of bush and poke enemy with empowered auto", so I don't want to put it to a point it can be abused too much. Since there's really no way for me to test the effects of 10s vs 5s at the moment, I'll leave the passive reading as 10s, simply because it's impossible to really note at this point if it'd be too annoying in lane without actually playing it in lane.

Q is less a skillshot and more of a ground-target AoE just to keep it versatile. Do you want to hit the enemy with it for the damage? Activate your stealth and cloak yourself? Shoot it at your ally to give them a quick case of bush hax? (imagine that with an assassin...giving them an additional "hidden" factor could get pretty good) Throw it in between the two lane bushes to take advantage of that brief true stealth and juke your opponent? This ability is supposed to be essentially the cornerstone of her kit's function - quick stealth on demand that she can use in several versatile ways. On the other hand...it does have some counterplay - since it functions as a quick bush, if you shoot the enemy with it, you're actually hiding them for a moment, and I can imagine a lot of people misjudging the Q's kill potential and inadvertently allowing their target to reverse the fight from their own blindness. Imagine also shooting this at an enemy Rengar...actually...don't. Just don't Q an enemy Rengar. :P

I may just make it a toggle between cursed arrows and regular. The sleep arrows are sort of just annoying, especially when she can gain bonus movespeed from her stealth patches and bonus AS from her ult to be pretty hard to escape from anyway. This is supposed to be her primary damage source, so I need it to be reliable. I could look into a TF "what arrow works best" sort of effect later, if it seems too bland, but again, the focus for me is on using the stealth zones to help steer the fight, then moving in for the kill when the time is right.

Was very much leaning towards her E launching her over the wall she pulled to, until I thought of "why not just tether an enemy to keep them in the zone?" That being said...taking the wall-making out for a pull and vault is more roguish, so I'll probably change that much. I don't want this pulling her to the enemy, because it's super counterproductive to pull a marksman into a frontline.

Reason I want her R to not work with her E is simply a case of too much mobility - keep in mind that every time she enters stealth, she gains a burst of movespeed and an empowered attack - that could make her pretty overbearing with that AS bonus. The entire point of her ult is to give her a strong steroid and enable her to capitalize on her creation of these stealth patches to quickly maneuver around.

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