[Champion Concept] Zelos, the Lost One
http://i.imgur.com/yKaaA3b.png[/img] (I know it's shitty, that's not the point - just so you have a rough idea of how he looks)
In the lore, Zelos is Irelia's brother who mysteriously disapeared during the Noxian invasion of Ionia. In my attempt of making him into a champion, his captors told him that Irelia was slain in battle. He escapes his captors on an ill-fated venture to the Shadow Isles in an attempt to revive her. There, he gains new abilities, but is horribly burned and scarred as a result of his transformation.
Zelos is supposed to feel like a mix of Lucian and Ekko, but plays more like Fiora. He is designed as a top/mid lane skirmisher, boasting impressive combat mobility and kiting options, but lacking upfront burst from skills, accessible steroids, or CC.
Passive: Warmaster Every 3rd auto attack causes Zelos to swap between melee and ranged auto attacks and generate a charge of Fade. Melee(125): Dash a short distance towards your target when autoattacking. Ranged(400): Increase your movement speed by 30% of your bonus attack speed for one second after auto attacking.
Unlike most melee/ranged transformation champs, Zelos is constantly weaving between having melee autoattacks and ranged autoattacks. 1-2-3, transform, 1-2-3, transform, etc. is what is overall combat pattern feels like. His basic abilities are unaltered by whatever mode he's currently in. The dash on his melee autoattacks is tiny - think Illaoi W. Fade is a resource required to use his E.
Q: Ionian Cadence Cost: 50 mana Cooldown: 6 seconds Active: Fire a linear single target skillshot, dealing 25-250 (+75% AP)(+50% bonus AD) magic damage and marking the enemy champion hit for 10 seconds. Autoattacking a marked champion heals Zelos for 4-40 (+10% AP) health.
Feels like Jhin W in terms of width, animation, and that it stops on first champion hit but goes through minions. Purpose of it is to give Zelos trading power against fellow toplane skirmishers.
W: Growth Cost: 100 mana Cooldown: 20 seconds Active: Zelos plants an invisible seed. If an enemy champion steps on the seed, Zelos' team is notified of their position by a minimap ping. Passive: Autoattacking enemy champions grants Zelos a stack of Growth. Every auto deals 1/2/3/4/5% AP bonus magic damage per Growth stack. After one second of not autoattacking an enemy champion, Zelos loses all stacks .
The active is interesting in that Zelos' team does not actually gain vision of the enemy champion who steps on the seed - they're just told where and when it happens with a ping. However, nothing notifies the enemy that they stepped on a seed. The passive is there so Zelos can be a damage threat. However, it takes time to scale up, and its upkeep time is incredibly demanding.
E: Spirit Step Cost: 1 Fade charge + 40/30/20/10/0 mana Cooldown: 1 second Range: 700 Active: Zelos targets an enemy minion, allied minion, or non-epic neutral monster, and instantly swaps places with them.
His mobility/outplay tool. If Zelos is in combat, he should be able to use this ability once every two or three seconds, helping him create space to kite in range form, or close gaps in melee form. Without a target to swap places with, Zelos has no immediate gap closer.
R: Dragon's Pulse No cost Cooldown: 180/150/120 seconds Range: Global Radius: 1400 First cast: Target an area and channel to reveal and slow any enemy champion inside until they leave the area. Continuing the channel will cause Zelos to attempt to reveal other enemy champions inside the area, requiring 3/2/1 additional seconds of channeling per champion. This ability cannot be cast in areas where Zelos' team has vision. Second cast: Starts a 10 second countdown. Blink directly in front of the first enemy champion revealed, removing the slow from every champion affected by the initial cast of Dragon's Pulse. Killing champions revealed by Dragon's Pulse allows Zelos to recast the ability to blink to the next champion revealed by Dragon's Pulse. Once the countdown ends, Dragon's Pulse is put on CD.
All players are notified of which target he potentially could jump to next by a number floating over the revealed champion. The condition that it can't be cast where Zelos' team has vision is so it could be, when used properly, far stronger than a Pantheon/TF ult, but also much riskier and less reliable. If Zelos only channels long enough to reveal one champion and goes for them, he could wind up in the middle on the enemy team. Channeling longer reduces this risk, but makes it more likely that enemies will leave the area, making it impossible to blink to them.
The fantasy he's supposed to fulfill is this behind-enemy-lines type intruder who can get kills inside the enemies base pre-10 minutes, and in general is a nightmare for the enemy jungler.
So what do you guys think? Personally, I'm not a fan of the W steroid - seems rather feast or famine. I think the passive and the W active have interesting mechanics that could work on a real champion if Riot balanced them properly. The ult seems too difficult to balance, but what do I know?