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Ze'ki, the Sly

RiotRiot Lutzburg·1/2/2015, 12:57:54 AM·9 votes·3,503 views

Role: AD Fighter

Inspiration: I wanted to create a non-humanoid melee auto attack champion with a very specific mobility Ultimate in mind.

General Design Philosophy: Ze’ki (pronounced Zeh-key) is a slick and sly predator that uses incredible speeds and agility to constantly stick to enemy targets, slowly slashing away at their health bars until nothing remains. Ze’ki’s entire kit is built around catching up to and then sticking with a target, stopping at nothing to take them down. This is accomplished by speed boosts, a skillshot ranged slow, the ability to auto attack and move at the same time, and a means of removing slowing effects.

Risk Analysis: Moderate. Ze’ki is designed to do one thing and be incredibly good at it, similarly to Leona or Janna. His motivation and play style should be immediately clear and apparent to enemies and allies alike. However, this strong emphasis on a single attribute may end up being overkill, and creating a ‘monster’ Champion is always a very difficult obstacle to climb.

Appearance: A reptilian wolf-like creature from the Void. Copious amounts of sci-fi alien vibes. Runs on all fours and bites to auto attack. There is a living tear to the void on the creature's back, where it can summon tendrils from. Visually, this creature is reminiscent of the Pokemon Bulbasaur, with shadowy influence from the Heartless enemies from Kingdom Hearts.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/Shadow_Wolf_by_Lucky978_zpsf611b9d6.jpg

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/Shadow_wolf_zps37ba0a8e.png

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/onissarle-bulbasaur-full-sculpt-145826_zps794ab50b.jpg

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/Colmillos--RE4--resident-evil-722465_400_300_zps01844680.jpg

Lore: Missing

Strengths: insane sticking power, ability to snare, massive mobility during teamfights, ability to cleanse slowing effects, ability to kite as a melee fighter

Weaknesses: inconsistent snare, high skill cap, must sacrifice offensive capability for debuff cleanse, low base stats, no defensive steroid or sustain

Plays Most Like...: Skarner MasterYi XinZhao

Auto Attack: Ze’ki bites his targets in a notably short melee range of 125 units. While Ravenous Lashes is active, Ze’ki uses a pair of tendrils to attack from longer range (275 units).

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_10986_btn_zps4e5b7cb2.jpg Passive- Fight or Flight: Ze’ki’s movement speed increases by .25% for every 1% health he is missing. Design Philosophy: As an auto attacking fighter, Ze’ki needs a way to either finish the job or get out of there by the skin of his teeth. This Passive accomplishes both of those things and is aptly named.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_14931_pas_zps0d43722b.jpg Q- Sinister Reach (8 sec): Ze’ki summons a tentacle from the tear on his back, firing it as a 350 range skillshot (similar to Rumble's Harpoon). This tendril slams into the ground, dealing physical damage to all enemies struck along its travel path and slowing them by 15/18/22/26/30% for 1.5 seconds. Ze'ki can store up to two charges of this ability, which can be used within 1.5 seconds of each other. A charge of Sinister Reach is stored every 12 seconds. Auto attacks against enemy Champions reduce this cooldown by 1 second. Rank-ups increase damage and slow amount, as well as lower cooldown. Design Philosophy: Ze’ki must successfully land multiple skillshots to hamstring his prey optimally. This provides a bit of mechanical skill to a champion that otherwise relies heavily on auto attacks. Ze'ki can also choose to strike separate targets with his tendrils, slowing both evenly while his team capitalizes on their impaired movement.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_13692_btn_zps7aea7d54.jpg W- Shed Skin (24 sec): Passive: Ze’ki gains 1/1.5/2/2.5/3% bonus AD every time he auto attacks, up to 30% AD (10 auto attacks). These stacks slowly decay when out of combat. Active: Ze’ki sheds his skin, removing all current slow, stun and snare effects from him and increasing his movement speed by 20/22.5/25/27.5/30% for 1 second, but reducing his AD stacks to 0. Ze’ki cannot use this ability while silenced, suppressed or knocked up. Visually, Ze’ki's skin tone intensifies with each stack, and reverts when Shed Skin is cast. Rank-ups increase bonus AD and movement speed. Design Philosophy: Ze’ki is designed to stick to targets and auto attack over extended exchanges. By granting him stacking AD, he is able to continually increase his damage output over such an engagement. These stacks decay over time to promote the ‘sticking’ pattern and prevent players from arriving on the scene already steroid’ed up. The active component allows Ze’ki to survive and continue to stick against softer forms of crowd control, while still allowing harder forms to lock him down appropriately. Such a powerful form of self-serving utility is balanced around a heavy DPS loss to compensate.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_10374_pas_zpsc0b323ff.jpg E- Ravenous Lashes (14 sec): Ze’ki becomes ravenous for 5 seconds, extending a pair of tentacles from the tear on his back that increases his melee range by 150 (giving him a total range of 275). This causes his basic attacks to deal bonus physical damage, and allows Ze’ki to move and auto attack at the same time. Rank-ups increase damage and lower cooldown. Design Philosophy: This is Ze’ki’s auto attack steroid, allowing him to synergize well with attack speed and continue to deal damage even when just-out-of-reach of an enemy target. Yet again, his entire kit is based around sticking to a target no matter what, just like a ravenous creature would do in the wild.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_14102_pas_zps8c9b412b.jpg R- Void Arena (80 sec): Ze’ki summons four evenly spread void tears around him (forming a square), which last for 8/10/12 seconds and exist roughly 1,000 units apart (Ze’ki’s current location acts as the epicenter for these four portals to spawn around). Right clicking on a tear from within 1,500 range of it causes Ze'ki to instantly teleport to it. Each tear can only be teleported to once, and becomes dulled and grey as a result of its use. This gives Ze'ki a maximum of four teleports per activation of Void Arena. The tears are untargetable by all other champions. Rank-ups lower cooldown and increase activation time. Design Philosophy: This ability is designed to give Ze’ki a limited window of insanely high and unpredictable mobility. With four void portals to choose from, Ze’ki can teleport past the enemy team’s tanky frontline and immediately start dealing damage to high priority targets in the backline. In addition, there is a great opportunity for jukes/mind games with this ability, as the enemy team won’t know which of the remaining void portals Ze’ki will emerge from next. For example, an entire team could be chasing Ze'ki down mid lane, who is trying to flee. He could cast Void Arena, placing a portal both in front of and behind him. As they continue to chase, the back portal conveniently overlaps with the enemy back line. Ze'ki could then appear on top of the enemy squishies, before using Fight of Flight to make a hasty retreat.

If you liked this Champion, you can find over 70 more of my original concepts HERE!

18 Comments

Lanatir1/2/2015, 5:23:50 AM1 votes

For further looks and visual inspiration, check out the dog from John Carpenter's The Thing.

RiotRiot Lutzburg1/7/2015, 1:50:15 AM1 votes

I feel like Lanatir's Thing reference grossed out this entire thread. :p

inlium1/10/2015, 1:40:43 AM1 votes

With Ravenous Lashes, I understand the concept of attacking and moving but I don't see a practical use for doing such a thing and may seem "overpowered" for lack of a better term. Couple with with a frozen mallet, trinity force, and furor boots. There is nothing you can do to get away whilst Ravenous lashes is active

RiotRiot Lutzburg3/10/2015, 5:38:34 AM1 votes

I will sneakily and slyly bring Ze'ki back to the front page. I'm sure no one will notice.

ShadeMagnus3/11/2015, 10:05:22 PM1 votes

I really enjoy this concept but a few things tugged at me

Q- Sinister Reach I kinda feel like the should be a reward for landing 2 q's on the same enemy champ like being able to pick it up for 1 stack or even better a execute ex. Landing 2 q's give you free charge that deals magic dmg (scaling with ap? maybe not) based on % missing hp so that way he can cc a tank and then save the excute to snipe the adc to counter this thou if the shot isnt used or dont kill someone it goes on double cd getting a assist gives half cd and with one stack

W- Shed Skin I orginally kept thinking that this was perfect but i felt that the slow and snare removal wasnt just good enough so eventually it came upon me Why not make the stacks give a different form of resitence Ex. (In keeping with the name i feel he shouldnt be able to use the ability while knocked-up or after suffering .25 secs of silences of stuns but thats just me ) Theres 4 forms of cc that i think he should be able to escape from and 10 stacks so 2 stacks removes slows 4 stacks silences 6 stacks snares 8 stuns or move the stack cost up 2 (4 stacks removes slows 6 stacks sliencs etc.) I think this in the end will will help with chain cc and let you get that sneaky ashe just before her support fucks you up

E- Ravenous Lashes Seems fine maybe make them hmmm maybe poison/bleed overtime on the first auto against champ or monster or an excute that kills anything around him under 100 hp (this will need to be nerfed for that early game ) maybe it could be toggle like jinx q i feel like it could be recasted again for extra dmg or smething

R- Void Arena Seems very wonky to me but i think in the long run you will cause people to shoot themsleves if Ze'ki kept 5v1 and living . I feel like 3 differnet changes could bring about a better concept for this ult Beta-Creates invisible portals (seen by turrets and pinks) behind all enemy champs and one behind Zek'ki (or his wards) when he clicks on the portal or champ he jumps thru the one behind him leaving it and then savages attckts the target .75 suppression as the regular ult comes into place Alpha-He can manual place the portals as if aniva walls (doesnt hinder movement unless 2 walls are touching 10-45% slow) and if it forms a shape all enemy champs are forced to attck Ze'ki doing 80% reduce dmg or causing enemy champs to be unable to leave the arena always being telported back in while passing thru the portals or even cooler cause the portals to contain the enemy and clicking on the portal cause a semi fiora ult that deals dmg in line portal to portal based on how many enemy champs in the arena or causes the extra charges to cause the arena to expolde Omega-Tentacles sprout from the portals pulling in and dmg champs for max hps slowing after grabbing. Or After using a portal be able to recast another portal that dmgs champs walking toward it Foes that have passed thru it are dealt a small amount of true dmg (to punish them) those running away from the wall are given a small movement speed boost BUT takes bonus dmg from the Ravenous lashes based on distance

Actually the only change i would like to see would be in his ult departmenti have was the ult everything else could be the same

RiotRiot Lutzburg3/26/2015, 1:02:59 AM1 votes

Ze'ki the Sly... Zeh-key. Zee-k-eye... Zah-kay... You know, whatevz.

Kamiroo Wolf3/26/2015, 1:33:54 AM1 votes

I like this concept. Keep up the good work, Lutz.

Kamiroo Wolf3/26/2015, 1:46:47 AM1 votes

If you could check out Zum'Beh, The Unliving or Saraphan, The Pyroserphant(Anivias...counterpart, so to speak), that'd be great!

They are older concepts from the beta forums that I Reworked. Oh and don't worry about their lores. They'll be getting some changes soon when I'm finished with Loba, Rezko, and Minoss.

RiotRiot Lutzburg4/9/2015, 12:28:04 AM1 votes

Shedding some of this old skin for a new look at Ze'ki!

RiotRiot Lutzburg4/10/2015, 10:38:49 PM1 votes

I saw a bunch of Dire Wolf skulls at the La Brea Tar Pits last weekend... made me think of my furry little buddy here.

AyRe CoNteMpT4/29/2015, 4:21:07 PM1 votes

very nice champion and i enjoy the idea of being able to auto attack while moving. the ultimate is horrible tho, for two reasons.

  1. as a melee champion, he doesnt really benefit from the jumping around since it isnt really targeted and by being 1000 range apart, it easily happens (or is almost bound to happen) that one or multiple of the portals are across walls. sure this MIGHT be sweet as an escape tool, but for chasing and "surprising" the enemy, its almost only possible in the enemy jungle. also, he cant kite enemies with it since hes melee.

  2. the orbs spawn around him so to even USE any of those portals, he has to walk about 650 distance which takes aproximately 1.5 seconds if not under any form of cc. and even then, he can only jump BACKWARDS (in a straight line or diagonally), thus, making escaping not much easier. the way you described it, it will never work against teams.

also, to be entirely honest, we dont really need any more mobility in league of legends that revolves around instant teleports or even long range dashes.

also when i look at his kit, he has weak movementspeed buffs to stick to enemies or run away, he has small bonus ad buffs so he is rewarded to build ad but since he is melee without burst, he cant build full ad but has to build tanky damage with attackspeed which would probably look like botrk, black cleaver, randuins, which also helps him to stick to his target. (does the bonus attack damage buff his TOTAL attack damage by 30% or just his BONUS attack damage (I.E with my build, he has about 100 bonus attack damage, so at level 5, this gives him +30 ad?)

so, let me drop a suggestion here. this is still a bit of mobility creep, but its less random and also not entirely instant.

R - Howling Void: zeki becomes stationary for 3 seconds, allowing him to fire a void tear in a target direction every 0.4 seconds by reactivating this ability, the first tear being shot instantly upon activating howling void. if he does not reactivate it, it will fire a void tear automatically every second. void tears have 1000 range and land where the cursor is pointed or at maximum range if the cursor is outside of the range. they deal zekis total AD as damage in an area resembling xerath ultimate impact zone and slowing hit targets for 10% of his ad for 1 second. he cannot cancel this ultimate!

immediately after firing the fourth void tear, he gains three charges of "Void Rush" that he can expend by reactivating his ultimate onto an existing void tear, dashing to it very similar to leblancs distortion dash. the dash can be interrupted by all displacements but every dash removes all slows and can only be used when he isnt under any form of cc that makes him unable to move. void rush expires after 5/7/9 seconds together with all void tears and the ability goes on cooldown.

rank ups decrease the cooldown and increase the duration in which he can teleport around.

like this, zeki can not only deal minor damage with his ultimate, but it also enables him to freely move between his tears without having to be in range of any of them. he can simply dash to them. the dash animation will warn enemies to which location he will dash and enable them to counteract his movements, but the 3 seconds setup time (1.6 seconds if he fires manually) allow his enemies to plan ahead aswell as allowing him to out-plan them. in addition, this gives him the choice between firing all tears into a single target. making his void rush charges essentially useless, or firing them into different directions to maximize his mobility.

fullman135/2/2015, 8:26:42 AM1 votes

nOT BAD but read mine to Thecla the guard of piltover!Azir

RiotRiot Lutzburg5/12/2015, 8:02:30 AM1 votes

KUNSTFEHLA, I know a lot of time has passed since I last looked at this thread, but I wanted you to know that I made some changes based on your feedback:

1- E's auto attack range has been increased from 75 to 150, giving him a total AA range of 275 while E is active.

2- W's slow/snare cleanse effect has been expanded to include stuns. Knock-ups, suppression and silences still apply.

I think these changes, coupled with his passive, will allow Ze'ki to effectively kite enemies while zigging and zagging just out of the reach of tanks and other forms of lockdown.