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[Champion Concept] Midas - the Looking Glass

Nightingale·3/13/2015, 5:03:21 PM·5 votes·660 views

Foreword / Disclaimer: Hello community, this is my first champion concept that I'll be posting to the boards. I'm constantly thinking while playing about various things that I feel like League is missing, or something that I'd really like to see, and as such, I created a backlog of concepts and spell mechanics that I figured I should organize. From this came various champions, so I hope to post more concepts on here, if people like my ideas? Also, I feel it's important to note that for the most part, I'll leave numbers out of my champion concept. This is because what I am presenting is not a full-fledged champion, it's simply a concept. In order to give numbers that I was truly confident in, I would have to do play-testing with this champion, and that is simply not possible. I will give approximations, however, based on how much I think something should cost / do.

In addition, this is definitely a more broad, kit / mechanic overview of a champion than an in-depth character building exercise. I definitely have some ideas as to the look and story behind this character, but I'm not a very eloquent writer, and I wouldn't be able to put these thoughts into something that I could explain in a way I would be proud of. I apologize for this, as I wish I had the artistic or poetic talent to express more about the character's lore or appearance.

Midas, the Looking Glass

Midas is a pensive knight clad in gray / white shining armor. He wields a reflective longsword in his left hand, and a rectangular tower-shield in his right hand which prominently features a large, rectangular mirror over the body of the shield. He is an aggressive fighter / tank with strong dive capabilities in team fights.

Passive - The Looking Glass: Midas' shield draws in the magical energy from spells, causing every spell that hits Midas to reduce his cooldowns by X [1?] second(s).

Notes: This is not meant to punish players who attack Midas, but rather as a tool to give Midas active mitigation throughout a fight. Getting hit by more spells means more Ws and Es, which is more shields and spellshields, which means less damage taken overall. Passive mitigation through tankiness is good and all, and is also necessary if you want this passive to truly pay off, but this promotes a more active and fun way of mitigating damage throughout a teamfight.

Q - Contemplative Jab: Medium Low CD (8-12?), Low Mana Cost Midas lunges forward towards target location, dealing damage to anything he passes through. If he hits a champion, he stops, dealing bonus damage.

Notes: This ability is a skillshot with no cast time and a semi-short max range [525?] (I say max range, because I imagine the range being variable, like Chum the Waters, or Undertow). For frame of reference, try combining Vault Breaker and Lunge. It's not meant to deal oppressive damage, it's simply a way for Midas to stick to his opponents.

W - Hungering Bulwark: Medium High CD (12-20), Medium High Mana Cost Midas swings his shield from left to right in a cone, damaging and slowing all enemies hit. Midas gains a shield for each enemy champion hit.

Notes: This ability is a skillshot cone with a short cast time and a medium range [600]. It has a relatively high mana cost and high cooldown at early ranks because I don't think it should be an ability that should be spammable during the laning phase. At that stage, it should mainly be used as a waveclear mechanic, or for sticking to an enemy you're attempting to all-in.

E - Deep Remorse: Medium High CD (14-22), Low Mana Cost Midas summons a magical barrier which shields him from the next spell to hit him within X [1.5?] seconds. If a spell is blocked this way, the caster of the spell is stunned.

Notes: This ability is a spell shield with a twist. Similar to a Riposte for spells, it allows you to retaliate directly against attackers. The stun I imagine increases with rank, and as such, it's more of a mechanic for working your way through teamfights, or the occasional opportunistic engage. In laning phase, it does allow you to deal with heavy poke champions, to some extent though. Also, I imagine that if a spell were blocked using this, your passive would still apply, since you were still technically hit by a spell.

R - Final Reflection: High CD (140-80), High Mana Cost [100?] Midas leaps towards a target and crushes them with his shield, dealing damage and slowing them immensely. For X seconds, Midas reflects X% of the damage dealt to him by the ulted target.

Notes: A long range initiation spell. In a way, it's a little similar to Assault and Battery, combined with Diplomatic Immunity. This spell is quite versatile, as it forces the enemy team to help peel you, or else. If you ult a carry and they try to run, they will likely fail, due to the heavy slow combined with the additional slow of your W and gap-closer of your Q. If they try to peel you themselves, that puts them at immense risk, as a good Midas player could spell shield their attempts, only putting them in deeper trouble, and as a tank, it's unwise for a carry to try and duel you while you're reflecting a portion of their damage back at them.

-- Strengths / Weaknesses: -- Midas is intended to be a great duelist and a strong teamfighter. He is tanky, fairly mobile, a great duelist, and has good lane presence. His base damage is (imaginably) fairly good, and his waveclear may not be top tier, but he has the tools to keep himself off of turret, if he so chooses.

He relies a lot on a successful follow-up to his initiation to make use of the second part of his ult. With good peels and some hard CC, he can't make use of the damage reflection, and then will be much less of a factor as the rest of the fight plays out. In addition, he is not a very good splitpusher, despite being a good duelist. Relying on his abilities for damage, and having a passive and an ultimate that both favor tankier builds, it would be inefficient to use him as a tower pushing machine. He can be fairly safe, as his Q can get him over small walls, however.

Other Notes: Whenever I read things about champion design at Riot, they tend to mention that they want each new champion to fulfill a specific niche or fantasy. The concept of a "Mirror Knight" is something that I always found to be really cool, a knight with a reflective bulwark and a sword that shines bright as a mirror. The niche that I wanted this champion to fill is that of a tank who is appealing to assassin-lovers. Being one myself, I can elaborate a bit more on this. I don't like assassins specifically because of their immense burst damage, or the feeling of euphoria when you delete their most fed teammate, but rather the feeling of executing a perfect combo, or acting with finesse and tricking or outplaying your opponents, that is what I love about assassins.

I wanted to translate that into a tank, because when I look at most tanks, I simply can't feel that way about them. Either thematically or otherwise, none of them feel very graceful. Many of them (Udyr, Singed, Skarner, Volibear) simply run at you for their engage, and while it may be effective, it lacks grace. The playstyle for this champion was indirectly influenced by Fiora, with a few pointers from Vi, with appropriate tradeoffs, of course.

Trivia / End Words:

  • I'll openly admit that this character is heavily influenced by the Looking Glass Knight from Dark Souls II. It's a really cool concept, albeit I did draw inspiration from other sources as well.
  • When I began designing this champion, they were originally a mage who would walk through up to three mirrors at will, and relied on using that positioning to set up skillshots. (Who remembers Haku, from Naruto? I'm sorry.) The idea has many flaws, but I'd like to refine it a bit.
  • I went through five different variations of his spell shield before settling on the current iteration. All previous versions allowed for direct interaction with the caster of the spell, however.
  • The champion, and title are both based off of the "Looking Glass Self", which is a social psychological concept. I also tried displaying this in the abilities, for example how the Q does bonus damage to champions, the E stuns you for attempting to harm someone else, and the R reflects a portion of the damage that you attempt to deal back at you.
  • The name Midas doesn't necessarily refer to anything in particular. Obviously the name itself is based on King Midas, although I didn't really think it through why he should be named such. It just fit for me. (There are some interesting implications there, though.)
  • Midas is left handed. This is a two-part decision, the first part being because he is a mirror knight, and when things are mirrored they get flipped, so I think it's fitting for him to be left handed in a game where (almost) every champion he mirrors is right handed. Second, I am left handed, so I thought it would be fun and different to make at one of my champion concepts left-handed. Midas was just a good fit for it.

End words: Well, that about wraps up anything I have to say about this champion. Please, let me know what you think. Does he look like fun? Do you think that his kit provides sufficient counterplay? Does he fulfill the "Mirror Knight" concept effectively with his abilities? I'm more than happy to receive any constructive criticism you might have. As an aspiring game developer, feedback only helps me to improve and realize what I can pay more attention to in future. Would you care to see more champion concepts from me, and if so, is there anything you would like to see me do differently in regards to my post layout?

All questions aside, thank you so much for taking the time to look into this champion concept, whether or not you comment or whether or not you like the idea, I seriously appreciate you taking the time to read through it! I am posting this right before I head off to work, so I'll be sure to take a look at the comments and reply once I return.

1 Comments

FlameHalbrdOkido8/27/2015, 10:14:00 AM1 votes

This is great its very well thought out, too bad it didnt catch on.

Sigh I just read your end words... You must have been very disappointed.

here

I do think that he has the potential to be fun. Its not my kinda champ but i think others would like it.

does "his kit provides sufficient counterplay? " hm lets see...

Passive: not bad at all its like spell vamp, which is worse in my Opinion, but since Riot thinks its ok, I think this is even better, as long as his CD are mediums high and the CD reduction is small enough

Q is ok too its a basic pass through dash which is fine enough. But always dealing bonus damage to champions is good too. BUT you called it "Contemplative" and you based his theme off of a knight and social psychology. Sticking to those two themes he should face all his enemies head on, thus I propose that the bonus damage only occurs if the champion target he hits is facing him. Knights don't fight fleeing enemies, cowards don't deserve it. This also allows for more counter play because a smart player will turn away to avoid the bonus damage. You gotta contemplate on how you make sure you land Q with the target facing you.

W is good for that shield as he is a knight. and it discourages enemy grouping which is good for counter play. I likes

for the E I gots something to saw about balance fo sure "Midas summons a magical barrier which shields him from the next spell to hit him within X [1.5?] seconds. If a spell is blocked this way, the caster of the spell is stunned" Im sure that by now you have seen Fiora's rework correct? So that means your have seen the new Riposte. Bear with me now... I hopw that you will agree that the old Riposte was broken, and it was changed for a god reason: Counterplay. its a toxic thing the Old Riposte and this ability. Its a 360 degree shield that blocks damage an instantly stuns the attacker. Now sure it doesn't deal damage but wheres the counter play. The attacker instantly got stunned for using skill to land an ability on you, thats not fair or fun. There should be 1.) a way for the attacker to either notice this ability is up and active, and I mean this VFX has gotta be loud and big and bright Solution type 1, there should either be a moderate cast time before the barrier is up, a channel, and in addtion to that definitley a flashy VFX signifying that this ability is about to start or has been activated 2.) a way for them to dodge or avoid the stun back (as it stands now its instant) Solution type 2, the ability can only stun the enemy within a certain range, if the enemy is outside of that range then they are not stunned Solution type 2.5: will be covered in solution 3, basically don't make it a barrier as I assume its a 360 degree barrier why would he have a barrier around him when he has a shield. And shield only block in the direction that the knight holds the shield, not all around him. 3.) It should take as much skill for you to land the stun as it did for them to land thier ability on you Solution 3: is my full suggested change - midas channels for 1.5 sec, retaining MS and raising his shield up in front of him in a blinding flash, and creating a barrier in a 90 degree cone directly in front of him (think like a narrower Braum E for himself).During the channel if he receives damage it reflects off the shield as a flash of light in the direction he is facing. An enemy champion hit by this reflected light will be stunned, the champion whose ability was blocked will be dealt bonus damage equal to 20% of thier ability power.

I think my suggestion on solution 3 vastly improves E while retaining its core essence while balancing it out. Now it is not toxic for reasons stated above, and now you can even hit another champion besides the one that hit you, but it still will prioritize the main aggressor because; the champ that hit you was likely and still is likely in the direction that you are facing, because u blocked their ability, and it deals bonus damage to them based of the Ability Power that they used to attack you. But its cooler now because you can angle off the way a Mirror can by turning a bit to hit another champion.

R: its ok I feel like you missed out on all that he could be with his R, there could be a more profound mirror theme here. you typed "Final Reflection" but the description sounded more like you made a Final Fantasy ult, because what was "final" became "Final Reflection 1,2,3,4, and 5" depending on how many times the ult's target hits you which is "Many Reflections" this is the description "For X seconds, Midas reflects X% of the damage dealt to him by the ulted target."

see wat ah mean?

If ya really want it to be final i have a question. What does final mean? Is it one single attack a finisher, or is it just one move folloed up by a few othere?

R - Final Reflection: CD 140/100/80 Mana 100/120/140 First Cast: For X seconds, Midas empowers his shield and enhances it reflective abilities gathering X% of the damage dealt to him by the ulted target (or any and all of the enemy team) in his mirror shield and boosting his resistances by a % of that %. Second Cast: Midas leaps towards a target and crushes them with his shield, dealing damage equal the % of damage received to all targets in all targets in a moderate AoE radius around the target and slowing the initial target immensely.

also besides this sticking to the name better and i think exploring what mirrors could do more holistically, it also separates this ult more from Vi's

How you caught the Mirror knight theme. I give you 9/10 for that. But we might be thinking about different mirror knights, i was looking for more glass or mirror themes, but the knight was defined very well and it was there.