Verrix, Master of Glass
Role: AP Mage, AP Fighter
Inspiration: I wanted to create a champion that could teleport to a location but only if "part of him" was already at that location. At first I thought of a Champion like Zac, who put globs of his own goopy matter on enemies and then "reformed" on top of them. This was cool, but for whatever reason this original inspiration faded away and I fell in love with a kit that revolved around soaking enemies in sand. Eventually mechanics won out over the teleports and Verrix was born.
General Design Philosophy: Verrix is a single target assassin who deals damage with powerful auto attacks, which he can apply in rapid succession thanks to his immense sticking power. He enters a new form when casting his Ultimate, which can be activated more often by consuming stacks of buffs (generated by auto attacking). While in his Ultimate form, Verrix essentially becomes a superhero briefly, allowing him to run rampant with little to no consequences before returning to normal. At his core, Verrix relies on the frequent application and management of a stacking debuff called “Sand-Soaked,” which is applied to targets in a variety of ways.
Risk Analysis: High. Verrix has a very high skill cap and a lot of moving parts. His basic abilities are intentionally weak (especially his Q), allowing for a lot of power to be put into his incredibly novel Ultimate. While I’m confident that his kit can be made mechanically balanced, the greatest concern I have is that I may have created a Champion that is too mechanically complex for the general public. It’s important to note that every ability in Verrix’s kit is deeply linked together, so his overall play patterns may not be apparent until a reader has completely reviewed his entire kit.
Appearance: a middle aged glass maker with spectacles and an Arabian style cutlass attached to a chain, which leads to a massive hourglass strapped to his back. He carries a mechanical torch strapped to his palm. He is mildly hextech in appearance and uses the tools of his trade for combat purposes.
Note on reference materials: It was a big struggle to find art that matched more than one or two components of Verrix's visuals at a time, which is why the assortment below seems so eclectic. I also realize that one of the images are fan art of Zilean, and I want to stress that the two aren't meant to be brothers or look all that similar to each other; instead focus on the relative size of the hourglass on his back.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/sandman-game_zpsa50ea62c.jpg
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/1390709427763_zps3c89e242.jpg
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/Flamerthrowers_zps1ce74194.jpg
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/Jeu-BattleRealms-02_zpsb39e15d4.jpg
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/Crystal_Golem_zps43def3ac.jpg
Hidden Passive: Verrix has custom visuals and audio when activating Zhonya’s Hourglass.
Lore: Something inspired by Bruce Banner/Hulk, Dr. Jackal/Mr. Hyde, or Doc Oc. A man of science whose experiment alters his physical appearance and personality, and who eventually becomes unstable and loses control over his other entity. Not only does Verrix share similar themes and visuals with Zilean, but I’d like to create some sort of relationship between the two of them. Perhaps Zilean warned Verrix that his experiments would go ary, but Verrix didn’t heed his advice and now resents Zilean and his powers. The two are definitely ripe for an old man rivalry, pitting Zilean’s sarcastic and light humored nature against Verrix’s much more sinister and grumpy personality.
Strengths: amazing sticking power and powerful auto attacks, ‘man mode’ Ultimate that allows him to ignore consequences, powerful item synergy with Rylai's Crystal Scepter
Weaknesses: Very high skill cap, must be in melee range to be effective, reliant on Ultimate for brief windows of power
Plays Most Like...: 
Auto Attack: a melee strike with an Arabian-style cutlass.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_10895_pas_zps45f03b43.jpg Passive- Unstable Hourglass: Every 24 seconds, Verrix receives a buff called "Destabilized." The first enemy champion that attacks Verrix while he has this buff will cause Verrix to briefly phase into a form of sand for 1.5 seconds. This phasing effect causes Verrix to "burst" into sand briefly, causing nearby enemies to receive a stack of the Sand-soaked debuff and causing Verrix to take 30% reduced damage for the duration of the phase. This ability cannot take effect while in Glass Form. Casting spells reduces the cooldown of Unstable Hourglass by 2 seconds. Design Philosophy: As a melee mage, Verrix needs a way to survive trades and counter damage. In addition, this ability synergizes well with Shifting Sands and Tempering Blast, which indirectly synergizes with his Ultimate.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_10151_btn_zps206b54fb.jpg Q- Tempering Blast (6 sec): Verrix fires a beam of fire in a line, dealing minor magic damage (40/60/80/100/120 +.3AP) to all targets caught in its path. This ability consumes any Sand-soaked debuffs it encounters on enemy targets, dealing 5/10/15/20/25 (50% AP ratio) bonus magic damage for each one and reducing the cooldown of Glass Form by 1 second for each stack consumed. Rank-ups increase damage and lower cooldown. Design Philosophy: This is a standard damage ability, supplemented by the ability to lower the cooldown of Verrix’ Ultimate. As his Ultimate essentially lets him turn into a ‘super hero’ mode momentarily, most of the fun of Verrix’ kit is allocated to the Ultimate, which players will undoubtedly want to activate as often as possible. Landing Tempering blast on targets affected by the Sand-Soaked debuff is crucial to Verrix’s play pattern. Thematically, Verrix is superheating sand and transforming it into glass, which allows him to activate his “true” form.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_12749_pas_zpsf8ce9887.jpg W- Sand Swarm (9 sec): Verrix morphs into a form of sand and "pours" himself towards a target location at up to 500 range, spawning a cloud of sand upon his arrival and applying a Sand-Soaked stack to all targets within a 150 unit radius around him. In addition, this deals minor magic damage (65/80/115/150/180 +.3AP) to all affected targets and slows them by 32/36/40/45/50% for 1.5 seconds. Rank-ups increase damage and slow amount, as well as lower cooldown. Design Philosophy: This ability allows Verrix to stick to a priority target so that he can continue auto attacking them; his primary source of damage. While in a semi-liquid form during this blink, Verrix is still targetable and can be interrupted by crowd control. This ability also allows Verrix to quickly apply multiple stacks of his “Sand-Soaked” debuff, described below. Finally, this ability synergizes with Tempering Blast, as it allows Verrix to efficiently clear minion waves when combining the two skills together.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_9444_pas_zps503468f0.jpg E- Sand-Soaked Blade (7 sec): Passive: Verrix’s basic attacks deal 10/15/20/25/30 +.3AP bonus magic damage and apply the "Sand-Soaked" debuff to targets for 4 seconds. This debuff stacks and refreshes its duration with each auto attack. A single target cannot have more than five Sand-Soaked stacks on them at a time. Active: Verrix empowers his cutlass and strikes a target with it, dealing 65/90/115/140/180 +.4AP bonus magic damage and applying three stacks of the Sand-Soaked debuff instantly. Rank-ups increase both passive and active damage dealt. Design Philosophy: The bulk of this ability’s power comes from its passive component, powering up his auto attacks. By applying a trio of Sand-Soaked debuffs at once, players can enjoy extensive cooldown reduction on Glass Form. A typical combo for Verrix is to W to an enemy, strike them in melee range with E, auto attack once and then use Q to immediately convert the max stacks of Sand-Soaked into bonus damage and cooldown reduction on the Ultimate. From there, Verrix players should do their best to stick to the target and continue auto attacking, applying a new series of Sand-Soaked stacks.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_13699_pas_zps8cdbfe93.jpg R- Glass Form (120 sec): Verrix superheats his hourglass and assumes a form of glass, instantly granting him a shield equal to his max health and augmenting his abilities until the shield breaks. This shield takes the place of his resource bar for the duration and all of Verrix's cooldowns are refreshed upon activation of the ability. In this form, Verrix loses 5% max shield per second, takes true damage from all sources, has no resource cost on his abilities and cannot trigger the Sand-soaked effect. He is also unable to receive healing or regeneration effects from any source, including spell vamp. When the shield is depleted or upon recasting the ability, Verrix shatters, crumpling to the ground and reforming in his original state. Verrix’s health and mana values are identical to their values upon first activating the ability. This means Verrix does not receive passive regeneration effects for his human form while in Glass Form. The reformation effect functions similarly to Guardian Angel’s revive mechanic. Rank-ups increase the effects of augmented abilities and damage done, as well as lower cooldown.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_7127_pas_zps156c8f47.jpg Q- Refraction (Glass Form only) (4 sec): Verrix fires a beam of light in a line, dealing heavy magic damage (175/250/325 +.6AP) to all enemies in its path.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_7929_btn_zps94b91329.jpg W- Gleaming Spire (Glass Form only) (can use once per cast of Glass Form): Verrix targets an enemy (up to 450 range) and releases a glass spire from the ground to impale them, stunning them for 1.75 seconds and dealing 125/175/250 +.5AP magic damage. Recasting this ability while the spire persists causes Verrix to teleport to it. Double casting the ability in rapid succession causes Verrix to both stun and teleport to the target simultaneously. Verrix can only use Gleaming Spire once per use of his Ultimate.
http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_16288_pas_zps4a3caed8.jpg E- Shard Storm (Glass Form only) (7 sec): Passive: Verrix's basic attacks deal (spell rank of Sand-Soaked Blade + 20/35/50) bonus magic damage but cannot apply the Sand-Soaked debuff. Active: Verrix shatters himself, firing shards of glass in an area around him and dealing 150/225/300 +.2AP magic damage to all affected enemies. This causes Verrix to become untargetable very briefly (.5 seconds) before reforming at his current location. This ability costs 15% of Verrix's max shield strength to cast.
Design Philosophy: Verrix’ Ultimate is essentially a massive berserker rage or superhero mode with a dynamic cooldown, which is reduced with efficient and proper use of his other abilities during the laning phase. This ability essentially allows him to ‘man mode’ for a few seconds, or longer depending on his ability to dodge enemy attacks. This is designed to be a huge player high for the user and a total ‘oh @#$%’ moment for the enemy team. However, with proper crowd control timing and focus fire, this Ultimate can be overcome. This ability is analogous to Tryndamere, Poppy and Kayle’s Ultimates. Thematically, Verrix cannot control the unstable nature of this glass form, which causes him to lose health and crack over its duration. The glass is also quite structurally weak, which is what causes him to suffer true damage from all sources.
If you liked this Champion, you can find over 80 more of my original concepts HERE!
