[Champion Concept] Flicker, the Wandering Wisp

Idea by: DrakeXIV

Suggested Role: Support Secondary Role: Mage

Pronunciation: /flikər/

I’ve recently gotten back into playing DOTA 2 and was reminded of a post talking about there wasn’t a champion like Io in LoL. For reference, Io, or Wisp, is a ball of energy that is commonly played support that tethers himself to allies to buff, heal, or teleport them.

Flicker is my take on Io’s theme and trying to come up with a more LoL-friendly way to incorporate it. The simple thing to connect immediately was the support role. In order to work on that, I used the old Sona aura concepts, and still current Sona, to put a passive type ability on each active skill. But rather than offering utility in healing and movement speed like our silent songstress, I geared Flicker to focus more on mana regeneration and vision as a light-giving ball of magic.  Lore WIP

Description http://i.imgur.com/7Mosxtp.png

For more, just look up DotA 2's Io. That's a capital "i".

Considering that it'd be bad to just simple port DotA 2 heroes' visuals, I'll come up with an alternate concept that could still use the kit described below.  [S] Base Stats Health: 379 (+51) Health Regen: 4.6 (+0.45) Mana: 178 (+42) Mana Regen: 6 (+0.85)

Attack Damage: 49.8 (+2.2) Attack Speed: 0.6 (+2.5%) Armor: 18.8 (+1.2) Magic Resist: 25 (+0)

Range: 575 (Ranged) Movement Speed: 350

These stats were actually based on Soraka and Sona. Both of them have low base armor and base magic resist as well as low armor per level, which might as well be non-existent, and low magic resist per level, which is non-existent. This is to enunciate how squishy Flicker is to make up for the potential utility and disable Flicker has to offer.

To make up for the ranges of some of the passives, Flicker’s basic attack range was pushed to 575. putting it on par with Zyra and putting him ahead of all other squishy supports except for Zilean and Annie, which are found more middle nowadays. In addition to that, with a base speed of 350 to compensate for the lack of movement speed boosts, Flicker proves how much faster he is than his fellow land-bound legends.

[P] Essence: Soulbound “Flicker exudes power, granting allies 600 units from him (10% Armor) Armor and (10% Magic Resist) Magic Resist. These bonuses are doubled when Flicker is tethered, but are only applied to the tethered champion.

While Flicker is tethered to an ally, any healing is also done to his tethered ally.”

With low base health, you can choose to build defensive stats, creating an aura like Locket of the Iron Solari, but stronger. When you tether, you can change this from an aura to a stronger sustained buff. However, at 10% bonuses, this would require building a lot of defensive items which would hinder Flicker’s offensive potential. But that’s not completely wasted with the utility Flicker has to offer.

In addition to improving allies defenses, he can also heal an ally, adding his own passive health regen via tether or to share potions between champions. It should be noted that this is not limited to regained health, but also regained mana.  [Q] Essence: Tether Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10

“Passive: Flicker and a tethered ally deal an additional 5/10/15/20/25 (+10% AP) magic damage on hit. Each hit costs Flicker 10 Mana.

Active: Flicker stretches his soul, throwing a part of his essence 1000 units in a targeted direction, dealing 80/120/160/200/240 (+40% AP) magic damage and snaring all enemies that cross the tether for 1s.

If it comes into contact with an allied ward or champion, Flicker latches onto it and flies to it, reducing Soul:Tether’s current cooldown by 4s. Flicker remains tethered to this target until he tethers to something else.”

This will be a key component of Flicker’s kit, the ability to tie himself to an allied champion. While tied to an ally, Flicker can apply a variety of effects, including, but not limited to, additional damage and defenses.

Essence: Tether is a skillshot similar to Leona’s Zenith Blade that deals damage to enemies that it strikes and having the capability of flying through if it hits an applicable target. In this case, that is limited to wards and allied champions.

The passive is for the aggressive bot lanes, offering a little more power to both the support’s poke and helping ensure there’s that little extra damage to secure a last hit in lane. In order to balance it, it’s treated like a little Muramana, taking a little mana from Flicker for each auto attack.

Compared to: Leona’s Zenith Blade Range: 875 Cost: 60 Mana Cooldown: 13/12/11/10/9 Damage: 60/100/140/180/220 (+40% AP) Duration: 0.5s root

[W] Essence: Totem Cost: 40 Mana Cooldown: 20

“Passive: Increase the vision of Flicker and a tethered ally by 50/100/150/200/250 units.

Active: Flicker removes a part of himself, making a ward that grant vision in a 500 unit radius that lasts 10s and placing it up to 500 units away from him. The totem allows allied champions 200/400/600/800/1000 units from it to detect invisible units. Essence: Totem’s passive is not active while it is on cooldown.”

Essence: Totem creates a ward that Flicker can tether to with Essence: Tether to use as an initiate or escape. Aside from that, it helps with protecting against ganks and dealing with invisible threats with its awfully small aura. But that’s only at low levels, giving a reason to upgrade this skill early if jungler presence is an issue. Kind of simple.

While acting like a temporary ward, Essence: Totem would not count towards Flicker’s ward count. It’s more of an interactable obstacle like Caitlyn’s Yordle Trap or Shaco’s Jack in the Box. And barely counts as a ward, with 500 units of vision as opposed to the 1000 given by actual wards.

Compared to: Item: Stealth Ward Range: 600 Cost: Free Cooldown: 0 Radius:1000 Duration: 180s vision

Ashe’s Hawkshot Range: 2500/3250/4000/4750/5500 Cost: Free Cooldown: 60/55/50/45/40 Radius: 1000 Duration 5s vision

Quinn’s Heightened Senses Range: 0 Cost: Free Cooldown: 50/45/40/35/30 Radius: 2100 Duration: 2s vision

[E] Essence: Concentrate Cost: 80/85/90/95/100 Cooldown: 16 “Passive: Flicker and a tethered ally draw in essence from the battlefield, restoring 10 (+1/2/3/4/5% Maximum Mana) Mana each time a skill is used 500 units from Flicker.

Active: Flicker throws a volatile cluster of essence, rooting himself and an enemy up to 500 units away for 1/1.15/1.3/1.45/1.6s. The rooted enemy is drained of 5/10/15/20/25 (+1% Maximum Mana)% of their current mana.”

Something I haven’t seen on LoL is the interaction with the enemy mana. Between the lack of similar mechanics and Flicker’s high mana costs, this seems like a promising situation in which to test a mana-stealing ability.

Aside from being mana sustain, which can be carried over to a paired carry if tethered, this is also the control Flicker brings to the table. A scaling root that cripples an enemy carry at the cost of sacrificing Flicker’s utility, potentially turning the tides of a fight.

Compared to: Ryze’s Rune Prison Range: 625 Cost: 60 Mana Cooldown: 60/85/110/135/160 Duration: 0.75/1/1.25/1.5/1.75s root

[R] Essence: Summon Cost: 100/120/140 Mana Cooldown: 180

“Passive: Flicker bursts with newfound power, capable of tethering to an additional ally.

Active: Flicker concentrates his energy for 3/2.5/2s, teleporting target allied champion in front of him and tethering to him. After 6/8/10s, Flicker sends him and his tethered allies back to the fountain.”

The passive here is to help promote more use of the tether, increasing its potency by not only buffing one ally, but two.

The active is a different story.

This is a somewhat risky skill. It has the potential to turn a fight, bringing in an allied champion to your front line to hopefully change the odds by turning a 4v4 to a 5v4. But if the fight isn’t one before the end of the skill, Flicker’s team is the one at a disadvantage, dropping a member of the team from a skirmish. Or worse, Essence: Summon pulling 3 people out of the fight as the last seconds tick on the clock.

Compared to: Summoner Spell: Teleport Range: 0 Cost: Free Cooldown: 300 Channel: 3.5s

Shen’s Stand United Range: 0 Cost: Free Cooldown:200/180/160 Channel: 3s