The Hive Queen -- Champion Concept [V2.0]
This is a revisit to a concept I posted about 2 years ago (doesn't seem that long ago). If you'd like to see V1.0 click here
Notable changes - I made the previous post before the Warwick rework, and to my knowledge there was no other ability in the game at the time that utilized the mechanic of holding an ability to alter it's function. I felt like the previous iteration of this concept lacked interaction, so I wanted to try and incorporate this in some way.
I'm also trying to include some actual numbers in this concept since I intentionally avoided doing so last time. Please keep in mind that any numbers I am giving are done so without any balancing or play testing. I fully suspect that I am going to make a poor estimation of balance, and at least some of these numbers would change. This shouldn't need to be said, .. but I always get comments like this when I make these posts, so here it is.
Base Statistics Health: 500-2000 Attack Range: 500 Attack Damage: 50 - 95 Movement speed: 335 (I'm not going to give all base statistics right now, but these are the ones that I have considered. I want to keep the Queen's offensive and defensive stats fairly low overall, making her vulnerable without her children, and making her itemization determine her overall strengths)
PASSIVE: Incubate - When an enemy or the Queen is nearby (300 units), or when a nearby egg has taken damage, an egg will hatch after a delay respective to the unit's incubation time.
- Neutral units that are not aggressive will not trigger incubation
- Enemy units who do not have vision of the egg will not trigger incubation
- Dormant eggs will remain indefinitely, until their unit cap is exceeded (based on order placed) or until destroyed.
PASSIVE: Mother's Fury - The Queen gains 15 movement speed toward an enemy that has dealt damage to one of her children (eggs or hatched) within 2000 units and her basic attacks deals 5 - 80 (based on level) + (20% Attack Damage) magic damage for 3 seconds.
Q: BITERS / BITER EGG Design - Unfortunately, it is difficult to picture these as anything but Malzahar's Voidlings or Elise's spiders. .. I would obviously want them to have a unique look that matches the general design of the Queen and the other 'pets' but these would be much smaller, faster, and more aggressive.
Target Range: 800 units Active cooldown: 4 seconds
Active: Commands all hatched Biters within 1000 units of the Queen to change their target a single enemy. Can target structures. Biters gain 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100% movement speed toward the target. When Biters do not have a target, they will advance toward the nearest enemy in sight and continue down the nearest lane.
Holding Q will change this ability to consume a charge and place a Biter Egg in an unoccupied space. Charges accumulate every 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 and can be stored up to a maximum of 5 charges. There can be a maximum of 15 Biter Eggs placed on the map at any time.
Placing more than the maximum eggs will destroy the oldest egg placed without spawning a Biter or triggering incubation for any surrounding eggs. This is universal for all egg types so I will not repeat it going forward
Defense: Single target attacks and abilities from champions and towers will destroy a single unit. All other damage sources will deal one health damage per instance. Hatched Biters have 3 health. Biter Eggs have 2 health. Incubation time: 2 / 1.75 / 1.5 / 1.25 / 1 second(s)
Offense: Biters basic attacks deal 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (+ 20% Bonus AD) physical damage. Biters do not apply on-hit or spell effects. Attack Speed: 0.5 / 0.6 / 0.7 / 0.8 / 0.9 (+ 60% bonus attack speed) Attack range: 110 Movement speed: 300 Neither Biters, nor their eggs grant vision as individual units.
W: GUARDIAN / GUARDIAN EGG Design - Guardians look a lot like Krugs. They are large bulky beasts that aren't particularly fast, but they can take and give a punch.
Target Range: 500 units Active Cooldown: 20 seconds
Active: Command your bonded Guardian, and any other hatched Guardians within 800 units, to charge to the target location, dealing 50 / 65 / 80 / 95 / 120 + 8% of the target's maximum health magic damage to all units it passes through, and blocking all projectiles it collides with. Blocking a projectile applies damage to the Guardian's health, up to half of its maximum health. Bound Guardians will remain in this area and attack the highest priority target for up to 2 seconds. Unbound Guardians will guard this new post.
Holding W will change this ability to consume a charge and place a Guardian Egg in an unoccupied space. Charges accumulate every 20 seconds and can be stored up to a maximum of 1 charge. There can be a maximum of 2 Guardian Eggs placed on the map at any time.
Bonding - Upon hatching, a Guardian will attempt to bond with the Queen or the Chrysalis, in that order of priority. The Queen and the Chrysalis can only have one bonded Guardian at a time. A bound guardian will move to and attempt to remain within 450 units of of it's host, then will attempt to position itself between the host and the nearest threat in vision based on priority.
If a Guardian is unable to establish a bond, it will guard it's current location, attacking any threats within 500 units. It will not chase enemies outside of this range and will instead return to it's post. An unbonded Guardian will lose health over time until it dies. They should have a maximum lifespan of about 12 seconds without taking any additional damage.
When a Bonded Guardian's Host dies, it also dies. This includes when Rebirth is used.
Defense: Hatched Guardians receive damage to their health normally (not like Eggs, Biters, or Stingers). Hatched Guardians have 250 / 350 / 450 / 550 / 650 (+ 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25% Maximum Health) maximum health. Guardian Eggs receive damage like other eggs, and have 10 health. They will hatch with the same percentage of health their egg had when they hatch. Bonded Guardians have health regeneration which significantly increases when out of combat for 8 seconds Guardians have 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 bonus armor and magic resistance
Offensive: Guardians basic attacks deal 30 - 100 (based on champion level) physical damage, and also apply on-hit effects. Bonded Guardians deal by 1.5% increased damage per 1% of their bond's missing health. Attack Speed: 0.6
- Guardians will not attack targets other than the highest priority threat within 1000 units of it's host, but will attack targets within 500 units if it is the highest threat. Neither Guardians, nor their eggs grant vision as individual units.
Threat Priority
- Enemy champions (closest first)
- Enemy Pets
- Aggro'd Monsters (Epic, Large, Small)
- Minions
- Enemy Structures
E: STINGERS / STINGER EGG
Design - I picture these to look a lot like dragonflies or wasps. These are intended to be sentry units, sort of like a cross between wards and Heimgerdinger Turrets and Shaco boxes.
Target Range: 550 units Active Cooldown: 16 seconds
Active: Toggles Hatched Stingers in and out of flight.
Holding E will change this ability to consume a charge and place a Stinger Egg in an unoccupied space. Charges accumulate every 15 seconds and can be stored up to a maximum of 2 charge. There can be a maximum of 4 Stinger Eggs placed on the map at any time.
Flight - While a Stinger is in flight it can see over walls by granting vision of 900 units, but it can also be seen over walls by enemies who's vision range (unobstructed by walls) would have vision of that area. Stingers in flight do not grant vision into bushes unless they are in the bush, however Stingers in flight in a bush can be seen by enemies outside of the bush if their vision would extend to that area unobscured by the bush.
Stingers do not hatch in flight. When not in flight, a Stinger can not see, or be seen, over walls and is obscured by bushes. While in this form they grant vision in a 350 unit radius. If they spot an enemy within this range, they will immediately take flight. They will not take flight if they are in a bush until the enemy enters the bush or until they are attacked. Stingers do not attack while not in flight.
Defense: Stingers can only be targeted by turrets and basic attacks. Hatched Stingers have 4 health. Stinger Eggs have 3 health. Incubation time: 3 / 2.5 / 2 / 1.5 / 1 second(s) Hatched Stingers will automatically die after 180 seconds.
Offense: Stingers basic attacks deal 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 (+ 60% Ability Power) magic damage and apply spell effects. The first basic attack after taking flight will apply a 60% slow that will decay over .75 seconds. Attack Range: 500 units Attack Speed: 0.6 - 1.0 (based on champion level) Stinger Eggs do not grant vision as individual units.
R: REBIRTH / CHRYSALIS
Design - With all of the complicated stuff out of the way, I wanted to keep the ultimate respectively simple. The Chrysalis is a larger egg, it is contains a new Queen. Someone in my previous post described it as a "Get out of jail free card" .. which is fairly accurate, and I do want it to seem that way to an extent, but I also want it to be balance. I made a few adjustments accordingly.
Target Range (Chrysalis): 500 units Rebirth Range: Global Active Cooldown: 200 seconds. Minimum of 20 seconds after casting Rebirth.
Active: Places Chrysalis in an unoccupied space.
The Chrysalis has a 10 second incubation time that is automatic (does not need to be triggered by the Incubate passive). The Chrysalis does not hatch at the end of the incubation time however. Instead, the ability changes to Rebirth.
A new Chrysalis can be placed after 200 seconds if Rebirth has not been used within the previous 20 seconds by holding R but only one Chrysalis can be on the map at a time. Placing a new Chrysalis will destroy the previous Chrysalis.
Using Rebirth will grant the Queen a shield equal to 1% of her missing health per 1% of her missing health while she channels for 2 seconds. Upon completing the channel, The Queen sheds her current form and emerges from the Chrysalis with her current health + The Chrysalis's remaining health (+40% Ability Power).
Defense: The Chrysalis has a normal health bar. It has 200 / 275 / 350 health but it has 100 armor and 100 magic resistance. When the Chrysalis receives damage, the queen's HUD shows as if she is receiving damage.
Offensive: The Chrysalis does not have any offensive characteristics. The Chrysalis can be seen through Fog of War by allies and grants vision of enemies that have attacked it.
Complicated? Somewhat, yeah, but I think that it is mostly just wordy.
I'm trying to explain a lot of what I want the game to do on it's own. I believe the champion is mechanically pretty simple, maybe even too simple.
I think that is the main issue with this concept, and probably why it most likely wont actually get made. I am asking the Wizards at Riot to put their AI programming through the ringer.
If anyone has even read to this point, I will honestly be surprised.
Even if the full concept doesn't make it anywhere, I think there are some really interesting ideas wrapped up in here and I would like to see some of them work their way into the game in some form.
If anyone out there wants to rip this concept to pieces and fit them into your own champion, be my guest. I hope I get to see it.