Hikari, the Playful Luminary

Hikari, the Playful Luminary

Overview

Primary Role: Mage Secondary Role: Mage Primary Damage: Magic Damage (Ranged) Primary Resource: Mana Gameplay: A ranged control mage with powerful manipulation of her AoE spells.

Toughness: 1/3 Damage: 3/3 Crowd Control: 2/3 Mobility: 2/3 Utility:1/3

90% Tendency to use Abilities over Basic Attacks.

Difficulty: 3/3

Lore: A young girl was strolling around on the fields of the College of Magic, playing with the daffodils as she hummed to herself merrily. At such a young age, she was already applied as a student of the College of Magic, the famous institute where Luxanna once attended. Rumors were also spreading around Demacia that the famous Lady of Luminosity had taken a young child under her wing as an apprentice. And this child, Hikari, was currently playing hooky during what was supposed to be her first class. Hikari didn’t notice three other older boys heading towards her until they were within range too close for comfort. She turned around and looked up, grinning as she asked if they needed something. Without warning, the first boy took a knife out and pressed it against Hikari’s neck. “So you’re the new child prodigy of the century, eh? You don’t look like much,” the first boy snarled, “You’ve don’t even look like you know advanced particle magic, and you have the guts to ditch class?” Still grinning from ear to ear, Hikaru teased,”someone doesn’t seem so happy,” “I’m the top student at this academy, don’t you forget it,” the boy growled, “ and if you were to change something about it, let’s just say something will happen to that pretty face of --” Without warning the first boy was knocked aside by something invisible, knife clattering away as he slammed against the ground, with his other two companions rushing to his help. Glaring dangers at the smiling Hikaru, the boy got up and began to march towards Hikaru, only to get knocked aside again by yet another invisible projectile. “Wasn’t me,” HIkaru laughed,”it came from that direction, pointing to the boys left. As he looked in that direction, he saw a dazzling wave of light headed towards him, and just barely managed to dodge in time. His companions weren’t so lucky, and became knocked out by the light. Turning to face Hikaru, frightened, he asked, “just who are you?” Still wearing her trademark smirk, she replied,”I’m Hikari, your new classmate! I do hope we get along,” as a brilliant sparkle of light was the last image the boy saw before collapsing.

(Just a little story like how some other champions do, for a background, shes the younger sister of Ezreal and the apprentice to Lux)

Abilites

Passive: Flickering - Hikari gains bonus movement speed based on the total number of walls (Walls will refer to both Mirrors and Diffusors) she has up at a time.

Q: Light of Reza - Hikari fires a long range orb of light that deals magic to all enemies it encounters along its path. Can be affected by Mirrors and Diffusers. Maximum range projectile travels is extended by a flat amount whenever it hits a Mirror and slightly extended when hitting a Diffuser.

W: Refraction - Summons a wall made of light in a box shaped area (same as rank 1 Anivia wall) that deals magic damage and slows enemies hit. The wall does not block movement or have other effects, but becomes a Mirror, which can be interacted with Hikaris other abilities . Hikari’s Q will bounce directionally off of a Mirror, dealing increased magic damage as well as converting a percentage to true damage. Max 3 walls, are stackable.

Abstract: Hikari dashes to a target location, leaving behind a Diffuser perpendicular to the direction she dashed in. Diffusers cannot be interacted with anyone except Hikaru. If Q travels through a Diffuser, it becomes a conic wave, applying the same damage in an area and slowing enemies hit, width being increased by rank and range being dependent on the projectile. Max 1 Diffusor.

R: Sparkling Revelation

Passive: All Mirrors and Diffusers Hikari makes lasts slightly longer before disappearing.

Active: Fires an orb of light that travels globally, dealing magic damage to all enemies hit and silencing them for a short duration. If this orb passes through Mirrors or Diffusors, the orb will destroy them, and instead increasing its damage, size, speed, and silence duration, up to a bonus of 100%, with each wall applying 25% bonus stats.

Champion Insight

Hello, Victorapple again with my second champion design (and another mock champion insight) this time focusing on the Lux’s apprentice and Ezreak's younger sister: Hikari, the Playful Luminary.

With the most recent champion being Ornn, League would need another mage next up in the roster to round things out. I was also reading up on the patch 7.16 notes, and I noticed some comments about Syndra. People were complaining that the nerf changes were shifting Syndra away from her unique kit of being a manipulator of dark balls into a stereotypical burst mage. So I began to wonder, how would I design a champion that also manipulates the battlefield like Syndra does, but on a grander scale. How can a champion be able to toy with the positionings of both the champion and the target alike till everything lines up perfectly? And from my pondering, the basic idea for Hikari was born.

As a character in Runeterra, Hikari is the younger sister of Ezreal and a big fan of Lux. However like any other child, she’d much rather play than learn. As such, her magic isn’t as strong as her teacher Lux, but her creativity and ingenuity in her attacks more than make up for it. Therefore, Hikaris kit revolves around setting up a zone of mirrors and diffusers to orient her orbs of light in completely unorthodox pathings, matching her playful nature. Unlike her teacher, Hikari doesn’t burst someone from 100 to zero. She takes her time toying with her target, manipulating them into just the right spots for her crazy orbs of lights to hit them, playing with different trajectories to hit her enemies where they least expect. By manipulating placements of her mirrors, she could potentially create an Archimedes death ray. Finally, Hikari unloads her ultimate, a devastating global projectile to finish off terrified fleeing enemies.

I came up with the concept before I finalized names, lore, and the exact effects of abilites. I wanted a champion who would fire lasers that would bounce off of walls at interesting projectiles. However, due to unevenness of terrain, I decided to shift the bounce mechanic to just flat walls Hikari makes. The original concept was a sniper who specializes in calculating trajectory angles, but was scrapped due to being hard designing a central theme for a sniper. Jhin was already the go to calculating guy for perfection. As such, the childish light mage Hikari concept came about, who instead of being calculating, she just finds bouncing orbs of light fascinating and fun, much like a child finding the beauty in simple things in life.

Let me start with her Q, as this is her bread and butter and first ability to be thought of. Early versions of her Q had a ridiculous long range. Of course this was supposed to be implemented because a long range is needed to accommodate bouncing trajectory, so that Q still can reach a target even after being bounced. However, this would probably make her really annoying to lane against, as she could literally hit you from more than a screen away. This is when I changed the range to be scaling with the amount of walls hit, therefore eliminating the problem while keeping the range issue intact. Q also used to be a laser that would channel for a second. This was the basis for a while, but I scrapped it due to problems with interactions of her E. As a bonus, bouncing orbs fits her more for a “bubbly” personality.

The next part would be the ricochet mechanic. W used to be a solid wall that didn’t do damage but did interfere with movement, but this would be eerily similar to Anivia W. Therefore I decided to make it only interactive with Hikari herself, but then it would be just like a miniature Jayce gate without the speed boost. Therefore I gave the wall some damage when summoned and a slow, allowing her to land her Q easier and also providing a benefit for constantly repositioning walls. In addition, the added bonus of true damage for bouncing off a wall encourages usage of her unique ricochet mechanic. I decided to give a max of 3 for clarity reasons as well and so she can’t kill someone halfway across the map with a chain of mirrors.

It took a while coming up with an E ability that was creative enough but also fits with her kit. Therefore, I implemented a new type of gate that causes her Q to fluctuate, or spread. This is where I shifted her Q from a laser to an orb for technical clarity. Due to interactions, I limited it to one gate at a time, because what would happen if a wave of light travelled through another diffuser? Finally I needed to give it an effect as well, so I decided to make this her utility spell by implementing a short dash as her escape tool.

Her passive went through many different phases. At first it causes her 4th auto attacks to become a short ranged laser, but was scrapped because it would only be good in laning phase and also screws up the artillery image, as well as E interactions. Then it was something similar to a Velkoz passive, landing consecutive Q’s increases damage. Finally, her passive settled on a movement speed buff based on number of walls placed, to help with her positioning needs as well as encouraging maintaining walls on the battlefield.

Her ult also had two variations. At first her ult drastically causes her Q cooldown to be reduced and also travel faster, however, I felt this gave her more of a “out of control” feel like Jinx, which wasn’t the “playfully innovative” feel I Hikari has from playing Pong with light. Based off of Ezreal’s ult as related to her lore, Hikari’s ult has some slight variations. Her ult should still be correlated with walls,but because its global, it would be really overpowered if it interacted with mirrors and diffusers normally. Therefore, each time it passes through one it destroys the wall and gains more power. At its base it would be a weak water-downed version of Ezreal ult that briefly silences, similar to how Jinx ult is garbage at point blank range. As it travels through walls, it ramps up, eventually becoming a powerful AoE silence that travels through all enemies dealing noticeable damage. It is intended to be a fun and flashy way for Hikari to finish off enemies once she gets tired of playing with pinballs. Literally destroying her walls like she's tossing away her toys, she prepares to finish off the show and start a new one. I added a silence to give her some much needed CC for a semi immobile mage, as well as added onto the fact that her spectacle literally is “breathtaking”, a true spotlight taker.

I tried my best to implement Hikari’s carefree nature in her kit. Bubbly orbs of damage in both Q and R as well as her passive giving her an energetic and eager personality. Hikari’s walls also add to her character; the only limits to Hikaris walls are her imagination and yours. After all, her wall interactions are what makes her the battlefield manipulator mage she is. Fire your orbs backwards and watch them bounce back at your opponent! Or watch your orbs scatter into a cone of light, that then bounces off a mirror showering the enemy team with slows. Or line up two mirrors side by side and send a bouncing light of racking true damage in a death channel! Fun for the whole enemy team!

Of course, it is still extremely hard for a new Hikari player to line up light orbs at just the right angle to hit their opponents. One could fire light orbs directly, but it won’t have as much range or damage. Hikari also needs time to set up her death ray of mirrors. This set-up is ridiculously more complicated than a Velkoz Q, but that’s what makes Hikari Hikari. Over time you can predict enemy movement like Thresh mains can, and acquire kills at strange angles like, well, only Hikari can.

Hardships are not over yet for Hikari though. Besides mechanics, Hikari could run into heavy mana debt from excessive replacement of mirrors and constant firings of light orbs. She’s still an artillery style mage like Velkoz or Ziggs even with her unique manipulation kit, so assassins like Zed will still give her trouble. Finally, she does lack hard CC, only a slow and a silence, as well as all her damage being skill shot based. But as Hikari would say, “I don’t need to know geometry to play with the fireflies.”

Possible Implementations

If this champion did make light of day, pun not intended, there are some other bug fixes that could pop up. I think interactions of Hikari vs Hikari in the occasional blind should have Mirrors being able to interact with each other, just like how a Draven can catch an enemy Draven’s axes. However the Diffuser has to be kept separate, because it would be weird for a conic projectile to travel through a gate that makes things conic.

This problem could also crop up in One for All. The best way I can think of addressing this problem is just simply denying the ability for a conic Light of Reva to spread again. Other problems include a build up of a possible mega nuke with Ult.

Urf seems fine the way her kit is currently, it would make her stronger in being able to set up faster and position easier, in addition to higher damage output.

Core items for Hikari would most likely be standard mage items. Morellonomicon would provide good Cooldown Reduction and early mana sustain. Rod of Ages and Tear can also help build Hikari for her Q spamming in the late game. Banshees and Zhonyas are always open as situational defensive picks depending on the matchup. Crystal Scepter is also extremely helpful for more CC and Ludens Echo can help with positioning easier. Rabadons and Void Staff are both good in late game as well. Other AP items may or may not work as good.

Hikari would probably play best in the mid lane where she can farm safely for late game. Support can be viable probably with some CC, but mostly damage, would be harder to proc Spell Thief's like Brand can. Early game, Hikari does have semi decent AoE wave clear, her only issues would be dependent on positioning and mana sustain. She lacks the kill potential, but does have the tools to zone enemies.

After she unlocks her ult her kill potential spikes, and she can begin looking for plays in lane and out of lane with a good snipe. Mid game skirmishes would be the strong point for Hikari, using her tactical zoning and powerful AoE damage to gain control of priority objectives for her team.

Late game, Hikari becomes a top priority for locking down and killing, as her AoE poke quickly racks up. She can position herself safely and use her long range bouncing projectiles to trick enemies into thinking she’s somewhere she’s not. However if she gets caught out or flanked by a Zed or Mastery Yi, she’s going to get deleted without help from her team.