Sydow - The Death Cheater [champion concept]

Hello everybody, this is the first time for me so any constructive criticism is very well accepted.

Once I read about riot not being interested in “suicide ultimates” but I decided to give it a try: in my opinion building an entire kit around “death” (including death timer and overall team death) may open a new way of playing.

Here comes Sydow, the death cheater: he is a squishy mage that gains power from his number of deaths and his own team’s deaths; of course giving power only based on the number deaths a team possesses would encourage “feeding” or in any case would not be balanced that’s why I thought of a different death timer for Sydow: the more he dies the longer it takes for him to respawn, moreover he will not respawn in the fountain but where he died (this means he will not have access to the shop during his death).

To sustain during laning phase and farm I thought about a mix of Karthus and Vladimir Q (I know it is not very original but i mo it can work), W and E are thought to have some kind of survivability in case an enemy comes too close and we need either to flee or to go ham on him. Then comes the ultimate: magic damage based nuke that scales with AP and Sydow’s number of deaths and missing health (to reinforce the idea that he is cheating death). It can be used to nuke squishies from the enemy team, to negate a kill to an opponent (you suicide not granting any gold to the enemy team) or to mindgame your enemies; it is very powerful, but opens a weak spot: can your team take over the teamfight 4v5 while you are into stasis because of your passive? Remember: the more you die the more powerful you become but at the same time you will have longer death timers that will force your team to fight without a carry. Sydow also offers another type of gameplay: if your team is ahead you can play bait/aggressive style, but if your team is behind and fed you can become their last baluard of hope: your W passive gives you AP based on your team’s death amount. With enough feed from your team you can become a powerful assassin able to take down very easily isolated targets (long range and heal from Q plus a slow on W and MS buff and untargettability of E makes you a pain in the a** for out of positions).

I have added base stats and abilities stats just to give a rough idea about the overall balance of sydow: squishier than the common squishies but able to scale very hard in late game.

Here’s Sydow’s kit, feel free to comment and suggest anything (you can also tell me it is a waste of time but in this case I will need a motivation :D )

Sydow - the death cheater Base stats: HP: 476 + 70 Mana: 380 HP regen: 5 + 0.75 Mana regen: 6 + 0.90 Range: 550 AD: 50 + 3 AtkSpeed: 0.65 + 3% Armor: 18 + 4 Magic Resist: 30 Movement Speed: 335

P, Cheating death: Death timer: (# of stacks x 3,5 + (level/2,5)) seconds. Sydow’s death timer does not scale with game time but upon his number of deaths and level: each time he dies he accumulates 1 stack of his passive. When Sydow dies he enters a stasis period proportional to the stacks of his passive and his level, after that time he will revive in the same place he died and will be granted a 20/40/60% bonus MS. Stasis cannot be cancelled or altered in any way.

Q: Essence sip Range: 700/150 Mana Cost: 25/35/45/55/65 Cooldown: 1.5 Magic Damage: 40/60/80/100/120 + 30% AP Healing amount (not dying unit): 20/30/40/50/60 + (passive's stacks x 15) Sydow lauches a surge of magical power in a nearby area dealing magic damage: if this ability hits only one enemy it also heals Sydow by a value proportional to his passive stacks, it this enemy also dies the healing is doubled.

W: Unbound Range: 550/60° Mana Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 Cooldown: 18/16/14/12/10 Passive: Sydow gains 5 AP for each of his team’s death counter (his own deaths do not count towards this passive) Magic Damage: 30/50/70/90/110 + 50% AP Slow Amount: 15/20/25/30/35% passive: Sydow gain bonus AP based on the total number of his team's deaths. Active : Sydow deals magic damage in a cone in front of him, enemies closer to him are slowed

E: Not yet a ghosts Movement Speed: 8/10/15/22/30% Duration: 1.5 seconds Sydow enters his ghost form becoming untargettable by single target spells and AA but still vulnerable to AoE abilities. Sydow gains movement speed while in ghost form

R: Death will not claim me! Range: 600 Mana Cost: 100 Cooldown 180/120/60 Magic damage: (200/350/600 + 40% AP + 10 AP x 1 Stack of Death Cheater) + 20% of sydow’s missing health Sydow channels briefly and then blasts the ground around him with Arcane Power dealing magic damage to enemies surrounding him and killing himself. this ability deals increased damage based on the number of stacks from "death cheater". Dying by this ability will not count towards Sydow death counter and will not grant gold to enemy team, Sydow will still enter stasis and gain a stack of "death cheater".

_Old tales long forgotten speak about a man able to cheat death by entering the deepest of meditations. Some said he once cheated Death in a chess match and learned the most powerful of all secrets. He then roamed throughout all Runeterra looking for more challenges to face, more "fools" to cheat. As years passed he grew older and cheated many times again Death, each time becoming better at it and each time Death posed a greater threat to him but up to no good. By staring so many times in the deepest of the abysses he reflected the abyss into himself: he discovered obscure magical powers and at the same time he realized that every time he was cheating Death, she was taking away a little part of him: half a man, half a ghost he joined the League of Legends to face new challenges and grow in power. But Death has not forgotten him: soon her harbingers and revenants will leash on Sydow her wrath to claim the very soul that is making fun of their Goddess.

"Death may be appealing to some, destiny for others, amusement for few, pain for many but to me, it is just another fool to trick" - Sydow, the Death cheater_