[Champion Concept] Betsalel, The Shadow Itself
Betsalel, the Shadow Itself
Lore “I still remember the scream, it was demoniac. But what I saw next was worse – Him, coming out of that door, and in his hand, Master’s head. Then, madness took over him and his followers, and they started killing every one of us who was against them. Shen managed to save some of us, but I wasn’t one of the lucky. To me, they offered an option – to join them and embrace their path, or to die. I was weak at that time and, when faced with the slaughter, I chose to follow Zed. It was the last time I have been a coward in my life. He took the temple for himself, to serve as where he and his followers trained in the ways of the shadows, and soon started teaching and training me too. It scared me how he was raising such an army. The more one follower became skilled in this art, the more it took over his mind and body, making them evil and corrupted, just like Zed. There was one exception to this – me. I learnt everything the fastest, being capable of doing things none of the others could; yet I never lost my wits. The more I trained and watched, the more I understood the shadows and how they worked, and the more I felt like what we were being taught was wrong in some way; it just didn’t feel whole, but I kept on learning a getting better. Zed soon noticed my power over the shadows, so he gained a greater interest in me. He began giving me private lessons and inviting me to private talks, where he would speak of himself, his past, and his plans. I became his right hand. We trained together, sometimes fighting as training, and the other ninjas in the temple liked to watch us fight. No matter how much I tried, I never won a match. I could do almost everything Zed did, but he still had all the experience and training that I didn’t – he was a master. Still, that feeling of unwholeness about his teachings and his way, it kept coming back to me… Zed taught us to harness and control the shadows around us – outside us – and shape them to serve our will. But I could feel the shadows inside me, growing, a great power waiting to be tapped. I began training in my own way, alone, controlling the shadow that was inside me, becoming the shadow. I didn’t need much time to learn and understand my powers, it had always been there, waiting only to be awaken. Everyone had a shadow in their essence, I could feel it, but only I could harness it, control it, and be it. Yes, I won the next fight with Zed. He was confronted with techniques he had never known of, nor could imagine. When it ended, I asked him what he had thought of the fight, but there was no answer. He just stood there, with a strange light in his eyes, a combination of hatred and fear. The hatred was usual on him; but the fear, the fear was a first. Sadly, I knew him well enough to understand what was going on his mind. Instead of seeing me as an ally with a great power who could aid him, he saw me as a threat to him and his plans, a foe whom he had to destroy. So I knew what would happen that night. He came to my room in the darkness of the night, to kill me in my sleep. But just as his blade was touching my neck, I vanished into the shadows, reappearing at the other side of the room. We looked at each other. — You will never become a Master of the Shadows – he said. — Nor would I – I told him. – I am no master of shadows, I am the Shadow Itself. And then I was gone. Never has he seen me since then, but he’s just about to.” – Betsalel
Abilities
Resource: Shadow Essence (SE) Shadow Essence is Betslalel’s unique resource, and corresponds to the Shadow Essence he currently has and controls, and can use in his abilities. It goes from 0 to 100, starting the game full. It doesn’t have a regeneration rate and doesn’t regenerate after death or recall. It can only be obtained via his abilities.
Passive: Feared Shadow As his enemies witness Betsalel’s true power, the fear of him attacking them grows in their minds. Betsalel gains 1 stack of Feared Shadow per kill, and when he is not visible to the enemy team for 16/14/12/10 seconds he gains the buff Unseen Shadow, which is lost upon becoming back visible. Becoming visible with the buff makes enemy champions within 400 range become feared for 0.5 seconds per stack of Feared Shadow. Can stack up to 7 stacks. Stacks reset on death.
Q: Shadow Stealer Passive: killing an enemy allows to fully take its Shadow Essence. Minions and small monsters don´t reward SE, big minions and big and epic monsters reward 10 SE, and enemy champions fully replenish SE. Active: Betsalel imbues his weapon with his Shadow Essence, so that he steals Shadow Essence from the enemies he attacks. While active, autoattacks deal extra magic damage equal to 30/50/70/90/110 (+ 15%AP) plus 3% (+ [(0.5/0.75/1/1.25/1.5)% AP]%) of enemy’s maximum health, and steal 1/2/3/4/5 SE. If the enemy is feared, deals an extra [(1/1.5/2/2.5/3)% AP]% of enemy’s maximum health as magic damage and steals double the SE. Lasts until death. Incapacitations* break the connection with the weapon, breaking the spell. Maximum damage to minions and monsters: 400/500/600/700/800 Cost: 60/55/50/45/40 SE Cooldown: 12/10/8/6/4 seconds after losing the ability.
W: Shadow Dash Active: Betsalel becomes his inner shadow after channeling into it and dashes through the shadows to a target location, reassuming there his form. Betsalel channels in place for 0.5 seconds, fading into a shadow, then dashes invisible to target location, channeling there for 0.5 seconds again, after which he becomes back visible. Interrupting any of the channelings in any way immediately causes Betsalel to become visible, without triggering Unseen Shadow, and lose half his current SE. Receiving any damage during the channelings also cancel Unseen Shadow. Maximum range: 600/700/800/900/1000 Cost: 40/35/30/25/20 SE Cooldown: 18/6/14/12/10 seconds
E: Essencel Invasion / Essence Evasion Essence Invasion Passive: When Betsalel engages with an opponent, he engages not only physically but also through the Shadow Essence, gaining control of his opponent’s Shadow Essence. Betsalel marks enemies he attacks (deals damage to) with Invaded Essence, gaining true sight of them and a small movement boost when moving toward them, as well as slowing them the closer they are (up to 80% when within 100 range, down to 0 when farther than 1100 range). Only one enemy may be marked at a time (the last attacked one). Invaded Essence lasts until Betsalel or the target die, or until the target regains full health. Interrupts also break Invaded Essence. This passive is inactive when the ability is on cooldown. Active: after having gained control over his opponent’s Shadow Essence, Betsalel can steal it, dealing an amount of magic damage and losing the passive until the ability comes back off cooldown. If the target is an enemy champion, big or epic monster, or big minion, Essence Invasion also deals a great amount of true damage, which decreases the farther away the target is, and gains some SE. If the target was an enemy champion, Betsalel gains the buff [champion’s name] Stolen Shadow (example: Zed’s Stolen Shadow) for 10 seconds and gains access to the ability Essence Evasion for the same duration. Magic damage: 30/60/90/120/150 (+25% AP) True damage: 20/40/60/80/100 [+150(-1.5 per 10 units of distance, after 100 range, down to 0)% AP] SE gained: big minions and big and epic monsters – 5; enemy champions – 20 Range: unlimited Cost: no cost Cooldown: 60/50/40/30/20 seconds (halved when used on minions or monsters) Essence Evasion Active: Betsalel uses the Shadow Essence stolen from his enemy to become his enemy’s shadow for a brief moment (1 second), during which he is immune to any interrupt from and only from that champion. If Betsalel attacks another target, the Stolen Shadow buff is consumed and the ability goes on cooldown. Cost: 20 SE
R: Become the Shadow Active: Betsalel channels (1 second) into his own and nearby (400 range) friendly champions inner shadow, allowing them to become camouflaged shadows for 6/9/12 seconds, while he himself becomes his shadow form. After the 6/9/12 seconds, Betsalel starts consuming his SE to keep in that form, at a rate of 5 SE per second, until it reaches 0. While a shadow, Betsalel is camouflaged, his abilities have no cost and work differently:
P: time required to gain Invisible Shadow reduced to 7/6/5 seconds. Q: the ability is permanently on and also grants 40/60/80% attack speed. W: as he is already a shadow, Betsalel no longer channels to use the ability – no channelings; also, cooldown reduced to 6/5/4 seconds E: Essence Invasion – passive: the movement speed boost is doubled; active: if the target is an enemy champion, Betsalel can click on himself or the ground, casting the ability normally, or click on the marked target to assume his shadow form at the location of the stolen Shadow Essence, teleporting to his target and dealing full ability damage; kills reset the cooldown. E: Essence Evasion – becomes a passive ability: Betsalel can stack Stolen Shadows, which, when hit by any interrupt, are consumed to protect him.
During the ability, Betsalel can still normally gain SE. Incapactitations* end the ability, taking Betsalel out of his shadow form and making him lose all SE. The ability can be reactivated to end it early, maintaining the current SE. Cost: 40/30/20 SE Cooldown: 160/120/80 seconds
*The incapacitations considered for both Shadow Stealer and Become the Shadow are Stun, Airborne, Suppress and Forced Action.
Discussion
Betsalel clearly fits the role of an assassin. However, and as we should expect from every (new) champion, it has something new to bring to the game; something that distinguishes him from other champions and, more specifically, other assassins; something that impacts the choice of whether or not to pick him to one particular game, one particular team composition, one particular goal; special strengths and weaknesses, and different strategies and ways of playing. Betsalel is a very particular assassin: he does not do damage and kill (only) physically, but instead engages with his opponents through the strength that he uniquely has: through the shadow essence. Any champion, even those that may appear very strong outside, may actually have a very weak shadow essence, very easy for this new champion to attack, control, and use it to assassinate his enemies and help him survive. You may build a lot of resistances outside, get very strong and unkillable, but if you leave your shadow essence for Betsalel to steal, you’re going to die like a baby Krug. Or you may not build a lot of resistances outside, not get very strong and unkillable, and still if you leave your shadow essence for Betsalel to steal, you’re going to die like a baby Krug. So one of the main things that make this champion special is the capacity of assassinating a tank almost as easily as a squishy, given the right conditions and through the right strategy and gameplay. Of course, who wouldn’t fear such an enemy? Well, that’s Betsalel’s enemies’ second error: by fearing him, they are making him more powerful, and making themselves more vulnerable. That’s also where one of Betsalel’s weaknesses comes: how do you stop being afraid, how do you lose the fear of something? One way, is to keep tabs on it, to control it and don’t let him jump on you by surprise. So, wariness and warding the jungle well are your biggest tools here. But what about actually ending the fear for once, how do one does it? In this case, you confront it. You stop being afraid and go kill the thing that is making you afraid, that will surely make you lose all the fear (please, in real life, don’t do this; try to understand the fear inside your mind first, and them confront it with love, instead of a desire to kill; much healthier). And that’s it – kill Betsalel once, and you will lose all the fear that you had been accumulating, making him much less powerful over you and your team. At last, another weak point of Betsalel, maybe the weakest. This assassin needs to be in constant touch with his inner shadow and the shadow essence world, so breaking this connection will completely break Betsalel’s power. That’s where crowd control assumes its role against assassins – this is the most vulnerable assassin to crowd control. He can play well and not let you hit him with cc via his shadowy tricks, but you can play weller and actually hit him with cc, making him as strong as he was back at the beginning of the story, some pages above. Just don’t let him eat your shadow essence! Another very unique thing in this champion among the ones in his class, is his ability to set up some spicy team plays for his team. Through his capacity to assess not only his own but also other’s shadow essence, he is not only able to make of himself a strong sneaky assassin, but also of others momentary sneaky assassins, even his whole team! Think of the plays, and of the fun! Now, where should Betsalel be more suitable to play? Well, he has lived in the jungle since he fled from the temple until now, so it’s natural that he will want to go to the jungle. Not only that, but his kit is also well adapted for an aggressive assassin jungler, with great tools for ganking, and great rewards for doing it successfully. He also has some nice damage to deal in the jungle, and is able of outsmiting most other junglers, provided he is close enough. He lacks the sustain of other junglers. To end, I hope you really enjoyed this work, and, if you are a rioter, so much that you actually want to bring it to the game so that it could be enjoyed by much more. I unfortunately don’t have the means of testing it in a real game setting, so by doing so there must be some small changes to values or mechanics, have fun in the process! And I’m open to any clarifying or help I can give. Just one last thing: if you see Betslalel attacking you, then going back and disappearing, maybe recalling, and having his ultimate and passive on, do yourself a favor and remove that Shadow Invaded out of you!
PS: I got quite angry at Zed’s last update: he doesn’t steal shadows, Betsalel does! Unless Zed has learned something with him…
