Letha, the Remorseful Conduit
Role: AP Mage
Inspiration: I wanted to create a kit that involved summoning some sort of ‘road’ and the ability to store charges from one move to augment another.
General Design Philosophy: Letha is a poor, tortured soul who has had great powers thrust upon her, despite never wanting them to begin with. She deals consistent and easily applied damage to targets and has great kit synergy and flow. She is best suited as a slightly tanky mage who isn’t afraid to dive into the middle of a battle in order to be effective. Letha also has strong lore connecting her to the Shadow Isles.
Risk Analysis: High. Some of Letha’s abilities are odd and potentially mechanically unsound (her passive and Ultimate, most notably), despite their thematic relevance. In addition, while created long before his release, Letha’s ‘soul collecting urn’ now undeniably overlaps with Thresh’s own lantern.
Appearance: Letha is a middle aged woman with various instruments of the paranormal adorning her, including an old jar that she keeps spirits in. She wields a divining rod like a wand.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/236544_v0_600x_zpsg7xk9ews.jpg
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/tumblr_inline_mrhcmjkUCS1qz4rgp_zpsyoktzz4g.png Letha summoning her 'Path of Dread' ability
Lore: Letha lived a relatively normal life in Zuan with her husband, until he died at the crest of their golden years together. After months of unconsolable grieving, Letha decided to visit the mysterious and deadly shadow Isles, seeking an artifact of legend there that allowed its wielder to communicate with the dead. She hoped to use the object, known as the Urn of Souls, to speak with her long-dead husband. She made her way to the Shadow Isles and stole the urn from its sacred place of rest.
After returning to Zuan, the jar did in fact give her the power to confer with the dead, as promised. What Letha didn’t know, however, was that the jar itself chose who it allowed her to converse with. Unfortunately for Letha, the company it kept was far more sinister than that of her husband. Driven mad now by the tortured souls of the past, Letha barely even remembers her husband, or the life she enjoyed before becoming this conduit of spirits. All she really knows is that she wants the cold embrace of death to take her, too. The spirits she so desperately wants to escape from, however, have other plans for her...
Strengths: Excellent chase potential as a front line mage, sustain when laning, strong wave clear and last hitting mechanics, CC immunity, movement speed modifiers
Weaknesses: Unreliable Ultimate, passive is useless unless under certain conditions, short auto attack range, no escapes
Plays Most Like...: 
Auto Attack: A relatively short ranged auto attack, sends a wisp of energy at foes from her divining rod at 400 range, which she uses like a wand.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_9895_btn_zpsrjnnapj8.jpg Passive- Spirit Bond: Allied champions who die near Letha empower her from the great beyond, granting her 30 AP for 20 seconds. Allied minions who die near Letha grant her 2 AP for 10 seconds. This ability stacks. Design Philosophy: This is an incredibly thematically powerful ability that grants her great offensive resilience in teamfights, similar to Karma’s old Passive. Adding the allied minion component grants it some use outside of late game, and deters opponents from rapidly clearing waves or AoEing them down during trades with Letha.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_7551_pas_zpsv23wszib.jpg http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_9609_pas_zpsyirgfov1.jpg Q- Soul Siphon (4 seconds): A targeted ability that deals magic damage and siphons spiritual energy from its target, storing it as a Spirit Charge in Letha’s Urn of Souls. If Soul Siphon kills its target, two Charges are stored. Up to 5 Charges can be stored at a time, and are kept indefinitely until expended. Rank-ups lower cooldown and increase damage done. Design Philosophy: Souls act as a secondary resource for Letha’s other abilities. As such, it is a targeted ability to ensure an even and consistent distribution of the resource. In addition, her other abilities require a high level of complexity and skill, which is offset by this targeted ability.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_10218_pas_zpsut1xdwz2.jpg http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_9609_pas_zpsyirgfov1.jpg W- Path of Dread (18 seconds): Letha creates a massive path of dread as a skillshot, which is roughly 600 units wide and 2,000 units long. Letha gains bonus movement speed when traveling on the path. In addition, ethereal spirits will randomly appear and travel quickly down the Path of Dread, not unlike a Guitar Hero track. Enemies who cross paths with these spirits cause them to burst into a wisp of energy, dealing AoE magic damage and healing Letha as long as she is also standing on the path. The number of spirits that appear on the path increases by 2 for every Soul currently stored in Letha's Urn, but are lost in the process. The Path of Dread lasts for 5 seconds. Rank-ups lower cooldown and increase damage and movement speed bonus to 20/40/60/80/100. Hidden Passive: Hecarim gains 10 bonus movement speed when traveling on the Path of Dread. Design Philosophy: This ability is ideal for chasing down opponents and surviving the counterattacks thrown her way while doing so. As Letha is a relatively short range mage, this ability is crucial for closing the distance and sticking to targets. It also disincentivizes enemies from kiting backwards away from Letha.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_641_btn_zpse2bd8a5u.jpg http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_9609_pas_zpsyirgfov1.jpg E- Death Grip (8 seconds): Letha opens her Urn of Souls, releasing a stream of spirit energy (taking the form of a decrepit hand) in a line, dealing magic damage and pulling the first target it contacts back a fixed distance (300 units). Any Spirit Charges Letha has stored in the urn are released along with the hand, circling around it like orbs of energy. Each Spirit Charge causes the ability to deal 20% bonus damage, up to 100% bonus damage. Rank-ups increase damage done to 60/100/140/180/220 +70% AP. Design Philosophy: This ability is a direct inspiration from the WoW ability of the same name. This ability is primarily used as a chasing tool, with the bulk of its damage coming from the soul-based amplification. As such, this ability can either be used to initiate a moderate amount of sustained damage, or can be the opening salvo of an incredibly high amount of burst. Visual cues are needed to inform players of the number of spirits Letha is currently carrying.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_568_btn_zps3teafin6.jpg R- Conduit of the Damned (85 seconds): For the next 2 seconds, Letha gains 20/30/40% movement speed and phases between the worlds of the living and the dead, moving freely and ignoring unit collision and all forms of crowd control. Letha cannot use any other abilities during this time. Following this, Letha reenters the material world, summoning a storm of spirits around herself in a large AoE blast, instantly dealing magic damage and fearing all enemies caught inside for 1.5 seconds. Rank-ups increase damage done, lower cooldown and increase bonus movement speed. Design Philosophy: Path of Dread, Ghost, Talisman of Ascension, Flash, Homeguard Boots and Zhonya’s Hourglass are all amazing tools that can make Letha’s Ultimate both surprising and devastating to an entire enemy team. However, with improper timing or against an enemy team with focus and burst, Letha can easily die before her Ultimate actually triggers. In practice, this ability is basically a short-lived combination of Sion and Fiddlesticks’ Ultimates.
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