Some skill ideas

I've had a few champion skill ideas I've lingered on for a year or so. While I initially intended to try to create them inside my Unreal 4 project (which isn't even a moba), I figured I may as well post them in case they tickle some riot employee's rudder.

In particular, I was thinking of Ao Shin and wind dragon abilities.

I'm big on ways to explore mechanical fidelity, so I was thinking of ways for Ao Shin to create wind columns that are then the focus of his abilities. Then Azir appeared, which sort of behaves a bit similarly, I guess. Under normal cases such similarities would prompt me to do a total rewrite, but Riot isn't above having a large number of champions that have very similar playstyles it seems, so this may yet be interesting.

Prepare for theory craft vomit.

The idea was that one of his W ability created the Wind Columns (similar to Azir create soldiers). However, the Wind Columns are immobile. They function more like Heimer turrets, but don't attack. Instead, his primary nuke, which we'll just call his Q, functioned as a projectile that was manipulated by wind columns.

The functionality of Q would be where much of his kit derives from. As a wind dragon, I envision him as a flighty creature that enjoys wearing down his foes at a range. Voracious and flirtatious with the elements, his viciousness is only matched by his diversity. Opponents much first reach him to challenge him. This must be reflected first in the Q, which should be a savage and commanding ability with a reasonably cooldown to reflect its ultimate end-game power as a long-distance poking staple. Also, we want to separate it from Nidalee's Q, Velkoz, et all immediately. As a skillshot, it moves relatively slowly at first, encouraging you to use your initial columns to provide the speed necessary to line up targets at an exceptional range. Perhaps indicators similar to Yasuo's ult for the Columns may be necessary, but I feel like safety padding the manner of aimining Ao Shin's projectiles would greatly diminish his mechanical ceiling. Perhaps an alternate means of judging where your projectiles would go would be necessary, because the Columns and Ao Shin's Q and their synergy would make or break this concept as a whole.

An idea to conveying the radii in which the Columns will interact with projectiles is to build it into their actual particle and model. This way both players can judge how the projectile is going to interact with the column. Color grading the wind to match the strength of locales seems simple enough. But this may also make his abilities too easily telegraphed. This would be a subject of intense playtesting.

The wind columns would have several different properties that altered how they interacted with projectiles. If a projectile directly passed through a column it gained both speed and damage (something like Jayce, but the column center collision is far smaller than his E). Alternatively, a direct collision may have a different effect entirely. If it passed nearby, the wind column affected the trajectory of the projectile, and may accelerate it depending on the angle. This is where a lot of potential garbage comes into play where, depending on the accuracy of the physics you wanted to portray, you ended up with something somewhat reliable and relatively strong or something unreliable and very strong with extreme dependence on player accuracy. I think a crossroads could be met with three different levels of interaction accuracy, represented by three radius falloffs from the column. The closer the projectile to the column the more it "warps" with the column and assumes the column's movement properties. The maximum strength would be the ability to alter a projectile by 45 degrees. I personally hate the number 3, though, so I'd try to avoid this myself.

This would also be something you would need to test thoroughly, because the 45 degree limit is envisioned with long-ranged poke compositions in mind. In the end, Ao Shin's projectile, bouncing off of multiple columns, would have range comparable to Xerath or Kog ults, or maybe more. If it's too easy to redirect projectiles it becomes too reliable for being a base attack, especially considering we still have to design an E and R. I just think of the tears streaming from the faces of my silver and gold compatriots when the word "nidalee" is mentioned. While deeply pleasing their misery is, one would have to be very careful about number tuning something like this ability synergy, and balance mishaps could come from any of the numbers, not just damage, collision, or range itself.

I am not 100% sure about the E (I'd rather not give him the ability to jump to tornados like Azir can soldiers), but some sort of other damage ability, potentially one that still functions with Columns, would be an idea. I momentarily envisioned a splitting projectile to create some DDP2 projectile patterns, but then I recalled how badly the game can stutter when Syndra hits enough balls with her E. I doubt LoL's engine could handle a projectile splitting across 3 columns.

Another concept I had thought of was a wind wall-esque ability that inversed projectiles. Except it was a nova that had motion to it. So, not an instantly-moving ability that could immediately save an ally, but one that required a bit of foresight. Unfortunately, this ability sounds like it would be far too powerful, even if it turned all projectiles into arbitrary skillshots, or had a limit on how many projectiles it could turn. Wind wall is one of the most powerful abilities in the game, so if we were to diverge from a similar design, we'd probably have to strip down its reliability significantly. Especially on a long-ranged caster. Nonetheless, if we wanted Ao Shin to be competitive with League's extremely burst-heavy meta, we'd need some form of medium-close engagement utility at least as reliable as Xerath's. This is, unfortunately, where I stopped my design process and asked myself "well who the hell is going to give a shit about this, anyways?" So, I stuck mostly to my theories around wind columns.

Speaking of columns, I think the limit of 3 is done to death and, honestly, I hate the number 3 because it sounds like a number some indie developer conjured on gamedev.net so now everyone has to use it. So, I'd make them unlimited. Ao Shin could simply be CDR and mana dependent to open some unique build paths for him. Either that, or possibly with that, Column lifespan could be a dynamic element tied to CDR. Therefore you could build him with the function of quickly dropping wind columns to boost projectiles for teamfights or maintaining longer chains of projectile-redirecting intern closets for longer-distance poking. It's generally quite safe to go 1 of 2 build orders on almost every caster, with one build always being the optimal damage build. For Ao Shin, I'd hope to open some more flexibility by diversifying how his abilities actually interact with certain stats, like Azir and AS/CDR. But this would be something that would be to be planned and tunned carefully and risks sucking in a lot of time.

Wind Columns may have some interaction with units, like Rek`Sai tunnels, but I am unsure what would be just a simple cop-out at this point. I think it's enough to be able to move around wind columns and throw off aiming as an opponent. I don't want them to buff allies, because that would make them way too powerful. Slowing down or interacting with enemy projectiles in a defensive manner seems too strong. Maybe something that affects allied projectiles? A Leona buff kind of deal? This would be another realm to soak up dev time.

For the Ult, I figured something that gives columns a damage effect might be reasonable, but it has the potential to make his teamfight a simple cooldown-bound rotational button mash, which is already seen far too much in most of the mages at that stage in the game. I still think a buff of some kind is better than a raw damage ability, unless you wanted to make an ability that also attunes to columns. I momentarily considered some chain lightning-esque bouncing beam that powered up between conduits, but that seems too fire and forget for me. Maybe something that changes how the columns alter existing projectiles. I figure something lower cooldown than those abilities traditionally relegated to R for nuking. Indeed, it could be make analogous to transforms on Jayce and Nid with how it changes how the columns interact. Perhaps it could be as simple as inversing or amplifiying their ability to redirect projectiles. If you wanted to make Ao Shin a mechanical black hole, you could actually make it a transform, which totally changes how he interacts with the columns. Columns could instead turn from projectile-altering units into objects that manipulate you. However, this has the risk of greatly contributing to the already severe utility creep seen in the game, where Ao Shin would suddenly have the best of both worlds in terms of independence and poking. Then he gets into a spot as sticky as Yasuo and many interns are whipped.

I think about Passives once I have a base kit down. Passives should complement the kit. It seems likely that the passive should interact with Wind Columns in some way, and possibly scale up to how many are active. I'm a kind of guy that prefers late-game comps and champions, so I often think about the endgame situation with very high skill ceilings. Passives that add some degree of flare to build paths also seem attractive. Perhaps this is where stats could contribute to Wind Columns, or how his ult works.

Really, the flexibility offered between the passive and the ult by the groundwork set by Q and W is immense. It is here you could decide how survivable he is, how much you want his builds to determine his ability to rotate cooldowns for nukes, and ultimately what kind of impact you want Wind Columns to have. I think I am set on making his ult a very short cooldown transform-related utility spell, however. The skill of this champion should be determined by the ability of its summoner to sling lard at interns through blowholes. The other abilities should merely allow him to express a mechanical understanding of the game in alterior ways rather than just lumping more numbers into an already exceptionally dynamic offense loadout. I think of Karma, where anyone can land Q, but not everyone can use the other abilities in an objectively effective manner.

The big concern I have is the champion being extremely strong in support and therefore being balanced around this role, similar to what happened to Zyra. I think making his abilities heavily reliant on mana and AP scaling should hinder any reliability he might have from column camping bottom lane bushes in too toxic a manner, but I think he might reach VelKoz levels of support play regardless just because of the range. Therefore, I feel it is important Q has no innate ability to slow or CC, and that wind columns are also free of CC utility. This will also separate him from VelKoz in the midlane, who is another Champion with some geometric features in his kit and is based on kiting. The matchup actually seems like it would be rather skillbased to me, with Vel`Koz being forced into closer ranges to land his major skills, and Ao Shin trying to zone him out of regions with Columns.

To this extent, I don't think Wind Columns should reveal brush. However, Q going through them probably should.

When all of these ideas are sort of melded together, you create a confusing mess that looks a bit like this.

Ao Shin The Windswept Curator

Voice Example -

Voice Concept - https://soundcloud.com/iskatumesk/aoshintest

One might be more inclined to go with a more bestial route for a dragon, but I remember seeing a somewhat Asian concept for Ao Shin and I picture him, and his voice, to be more noble. Somewhat representative of a Shogun or a wise emperor. Perhaps he has been distant from the mortal lands for a time and returns to find abusers of wind "magic" (riven et all) amongst other things and becomes cross that mortals have had the gall to attempt to control the elements he (or his kind) have held master over for so long. Still, he derives a form of amusement from their struggles.

For the voice there's a few directions you could take. I would aim for sort of a middle aged, controlled voice with a hint of aggravation (often seen in anime characters of similar style). Unfortunately I'm only 27, so I can't manage a middle-aged voice very well. Making a more effect-heavy voice is trivial, though, but I opt for "less is more" to avoid auditory noise.

Base Attack - A modestly ranged breath weapon with a fair cooldown that inflicts higher than average base damage.

Q - Tempered Light/Unbound Light

A breath weapon skillshot projectile with a reasonable collision. A short initial range and relatively slow movespeed is offset by significant AP scaling. This attack has a very short windup between impact and dealing damage, about 0.20 seconds. The attributes of this ability are modified by interactions with Stormfronts. Impacts the first enemy unit hit or explodes at the end of its lifetime. Explodes when hitting barriers (Windwall, Braum).

Unbound Light has a greater radius of effect than Tempered Light, but deals its damage over time in its effect radius instead of as a nuke, and passes through its first enemy hit, doing a single tick of damage, while exploding on the second enemy hit.

_Theorcrafty _- Completely change Unbound Light as it totally determines how his ult functions in the gameflow.

Gameplay

Early -

Early on, Ao Shin will probably be relatively passive, using his Q to resist wave pushing and to scout bushes. His mana costs prohibit early roaming, but if a lane is seeing an early dive he can pool his resources for assistance from over walls. Alternatively, he can try to assist an allied dive from afar, but must be very careful of being flanked in the process.

Mid -

As Ao Shin gains access to his ult and mana regeneration items he is able to use Q more liberally. His lane opponent will see columns forming around the lane hoping to predict his movement so Ao Shin can poke him down. During this period, Ao Shin becomes extremely dangerous when coupled with a jungler who has a form of CC, and becomes exceptional at chasing down weakened opponents with lines of columns amplifying projectiles down the lane.

He may use his transform to make his Q more useful for waveclearing and zoning the dragon fights. At this stage he needs to be much more concerned about his positioning, as assassins will find him easy prey.

Late -

During Late game, Ao Shin is most concerned about placing columns for future use, and using Q to scout bushes and objective locations. He should be moving behind his team, keeping safe from engagements, and using ulted projectiles to help manage waves. Ao Shin makes an exceptional auxiliary counter split pusher, as he can destroy creeping waves from relative safety of the assassins who are with them. Here, the ability for Ao Shin to read his enemy's movements and place his columns in favorable locations will greatly lend to his endgame impact, where enough columns can grant him the ability to hit targets across vast distances if his build suits it. Else, he's looking more for team fights, where he can use columns to redirect projectiles to the back line, zone weakened targets, and abuse terrain to kite enemies.

W - Stormfront

Conjures a whirling column of wind at a target location. This column remains in existence for X seconds (modified by CDR or Current Mana). Projectiles entering the column react with the swirling winds inside. Direct intersections accelerate the projectile directly. Orbital interactions modulate its trajectory in addition to accelerating it. Interactions extend the lifetime, range, and damage of projectiles. A Column can only be interacted with X times before it dissipates. A column can interact with the same projectile multiple times.

Stormfronts cannot be summoned close to one another.

Theorcrafty - Enemy projectiles consume Stormfront charges or damage them directly. Theorcrafty - During Apex, will zap targets nearby with ticks of Unbound Light damage when a projectile passes through them.

Gameplay

Early - Early on, Stormfronts are most useful for denying an opponent the ability to zone Ao Shin from creeps. I expect most AD assassins and other champions who are troublesome for poke casters and AoE mages to be equally troublesome for this Ao Shin concept. Stormfronts give a costly means to prevent lane freezes and keep farm coming your way.

Mid - Stormfronts become more accessible as your mana pool grows. Using them as insinuated pressure in your lane may discourage greedy plays from your opponent, but you must be careful not to stray from the safety of this net. Precise Stormfront placement can help you control the lane and eventually start roaming.

Late - Stormfronts last longer and are more numerous, but you need to track their positions relative to each other. This will be a practice thing. It will be super easy to whiff snipes and I expect this ability would have an extremely steep learning curve. However, I predict masterful players with a lot of practice will be able to find choice Stormfront locations that allow for exceptional map control.

E - ???

Gameplay

E should be something that provides a bit of utility outside of the copy-paste dash that most other champions get. I was thinking some kind of mist form or something centralized around using Columns defensively, but it would need some mechanic to it to prevent cheesiness. I think of how Xerath can just stop someone in melee in their tracks and burst them down and how I would like to avoid that here.

R - Serenity/Apex

On use - Transforms between Serenity and Apex. This may be learnable at level 1. Not sure. Ultimately, how Q behaves with this would determine if it's learned at 6 or not.

During Serenity, Ao Shin takes on the aspect of Serene Winds. His abilities function normally. Ranks of R need to do something here. Perhaps mana regen-related, or changes how CDR behaves with his columns.

During Apex, Ao Shin takes on the aspect of Storm's Apex. The mana costs for his affected abilities are increased, his base attack hits multiple targets in range as a fork of lightning, and some of his abilities transform in function. Ranks of R may effect how his base attack functions. This is seem as an aggressive stance.

Gameplay

Early - Early use of R is mostly for your ability to control the lane. Unbound Light would be more effective than Tempered Light due to its damage being spread across a larger area and over time, allowing broader waveclear. This can also help your zoning game and could be deadly in counter ganks. I expect most early play to be switching between forms to abuse AoE base attack for farming.

Mid - When dragon becomes the in thing, your ability to determine how your damage is dealt offers many different metrics. The AoE dot of Unbound Light means zone control, while the nuke potential of Tempered Light can help you put damage into the back line.

Late - The high damage of Unbound Light across multiple Stormfronts combined with items like Luden's Echo makes your long-distance waveclearing an extremely powerful tool in split push antics. However, managing your mana is all the more important here. Switching forms between team fights to weave and flow between enemy defensive cooldowns will be important to maximizing the damage you put out, even if you are limited on Stormfronts.

Summary -

Ao Shin is a long-ranged mage with emphasis on mechanics and precision. He rewards map awareness and psychological play. His lack of CC and on-demand mobility is a major weakness to be compensated by what benefits his strengths - vision control and communication. His reliability directly scales with the user's ability to manipulate his Q and W, with his other abilities and passive contributing mechanical depth that will likely take weeks to months of play to fully see the potential impacts of. An absolute balancing nightmare most interns are not likely to attempt.

Another thing I toyed around with is the idea of an ability adding a stacking debuff that increase cooldown times. For the aforementioned Ao Shin concept this seems unlikely, because we are gearing him to be artillery. I figured it might be more of a bruiser ability. Again, this verges heavily into a world where the mechanics render it an insanely overpowered skill, and would probably never survive my first playlist.

Anyways, I have a lot of other concepts I could translate into league-world numbers. In Apex F there is a steel dragon who has a sweeping melee ability that sends out a cone of motion. This wave, when it hits elements left behind by his other abilities, triggers those effects and consumes them for other effects. I find abilities that deal damage indirectly to be the most interesting, and a huge amount of my gameplay design is around building utility into base function that is explored through player creativity (locomotion built into attacks in an ARPG for example, cancelling, how dashes and rolls behave). Unfortunately a lot of that doesn't translate into league which needs to be casual friendly. But it doesn't hurt to share the ideas, I guess. I don't mind sharing them because it is unlikely I will live to create them myself. Here is a summary of a few of them.

Syrius - A demon hero who functions as an assassin. Her resource is energy and is mostly attained through auto attacks. She has a passive that stacks up based on her attacks and some abilities. The stacks affect how strong her abilities are. She has a stealth ability that allows her to place "marks" for various effects. The marks are integral to her kit. They can function as traps, silences, bonuses to damage dealt (zed's death mark but without the related casting elements), etc. Marks persist until she dies or are evoked by a separate ability. For League, you'd probably want to cap them. For every mark evoked she gains a stack of her passive (Herald's Cry).

Kolad`Heem - A boss who creates huge orbs of blood that can be condensed into a spirit bomb. Has many abilities related to countering or reacting to enemy magic, including a bonus base attack that triggers on heroes and burns mana. Seems too OP for league. He has a three-stage whirlwind ability that first creates a hurricane, then sets the hurricane on fire, then creates airmines within it. Multi-stage abilities seem too vulnerable in league like that, but creating force effects that resist movement in certain directions (reverse galio) seems potentially interesting.

Forgotten Beastblood - A legendary hero/boss that appears in Apex F. She has several unique abilities that may be of note. She has a phantom blinkstrike-esque ability that teleports her back to her starting location if it does not kill the target. Has a consecrated ground ability that debuffs enemy armor and prevents enemy mana regen when they stand in it.

Fallen Hero - Abilities -

Light Well - A rippling shockwave of dancing blue lights. Afflicts enemies with Ageless Echo and deals 10-30 (random) armor-ignoring damage. 10 radius.

Lifestrand - Creates a connection between the caster and a target enemy hero. That hero takes 25% of the damage the Fallen Hero is afflicted with during the connection's duration. Lasts 5 seconds. 8 range. The tactical AI prioritizes weakened heroes.

Aura of Lost Souls - (Passive) All allies and enemies that die within 30 range of the Fallen Hero release white speckles into the air that linger for 5-120 seconds (random) before seeking out the Fallen Hero. When a Lost Soul reaches her, it recharges her shield by 20.

Mirror Eye - When a targeted spell is cast on the Fallen Hero, she copies that spell and targets the caster with it.

Alright. That's all for now. Maybe, if I feel like it, I'll post more concepts (or voice samples?) later.

Also, this forum has the weirdest bbcode of any forum I've used.