Boards›Concepts & Creations

[CCOS Concept] Nathaniel, the Maverick Guardian

ModEchoing·1/25/2016, 8:09:09 PM·4 votes·1,462 views

This idea's been in my head for awhile. I was saving it for a good contest.

Appearance: Nathaniel, standing 5'9'', is clad in the gold-and-blue Demacian plate you'd expect any self-respecting Demacian champion to wear. He eschews a helmet, showing his somewhat-messy black hair and brown eyes. His full beard is in defiance of Demacian military protocol. On his back is a gratuitous supply of missiles for his weapon - a four-barreled missile launcher about twice the length of his arm, with a small barrel underneath the main four for launching homing beacons and a targeting laser on the right side. His armor looks well-worn, losing a bit of its shine.

Stats: Health: 570 (+88) Health Regen: 6 (+0.7) Mana: 230 (+40) Mana Regen: 5 (+0.5) Attack Damage: 56 (+3.6) Attack Speed: 0.625 (+3%) Armor: 29 (+3.8) Magic Resistance: 30 Movement Speed: 325 Lock-on Range: 550

Abilities:

Passive: Shrapnel Warheads - Nathaniel's attacks splash and do 25% damage to enemies in a 200 radius around the target.

Nathaniel's autoattacks do no damage, but lock on to the target. Target lock breaks at 750 range. Nathaniel can have a maximum of four target locks, either on one target or spread out amongst other targets. Applying a new lock after the maximum removes the oldest lock.

Yes, they lock on to turrets and other buildings.

Q: Seeker Barrage - Automatically gets Nathaniel's first level up point. When activated, fires missiles at all of Nathaniel's target locks, dealing full autoattack damage and effects and consuming the target locks. Consecutive missiles after the first on a target deal reduced damage and apply no on-hit effects. Missiles past the first missile fired cost mana. If there's not enough mana, only the missiles that can be afforded are fired, regardless of the amount of target locks.

Yes, they damage turrets and other buildings.

Consecutive Missile Damage: 15%/20%/25%/30%/35% Mana Cost per Extra Missile: 10/12/14/16/18 Cooldown: 1 second

W: Target Beacon - Fires a beacon that attaches to the first target it hits, damaging and revealing them for 4 seconds. Nathaniel acquires target lock twice as fast against that target. (In effect, this is a 100% attack speed boost against the target.)

Physical Damage: 50/95/130/175/210 (+0.8 bonus AD) Projectile Speed: 1000 Range: 800 Mana Cost: 50 Cooldown: 11/10.5/10/9.5/9 seconds

E: Flak Cloud - Fires a missile at target location. On impact, deals damage around it and creates a slow-moving flak cloud moving away from Nathaniel for 2 seconds, destroying any enemy projectiles that pass through it and damaging units within it.

Impact Magic Damage: 50/90/130/170/210 (+0.5 AP) Cloud Magic Damage: 30/45/60/75/90 (+0.3 AP) per second Cloud Size: 200 Cloud Speed: 200 Range: 800 Mana Cost: 80/85/90/95/100 Cooldown: 17/16/15/14/13 seconds

R: Effective Deterrent - Launches a missile straight into the sky, aimed at a target enemy champion. After 3 seconds, the missile comes down on the champion, dealing damage to everyone in the blast, knocking up the target, and knocking away everyone else in range of the explosion. Against Revealed enemies, the cast range is global. (Revealed being the status effect applied by Nathaniel's W, Caitlyn traps, Corki Q, Lee Sin Q, etc.)

While in the air, a fancy hi-tech heads-up-display-ish targeting cursor particle is applied to the target, counting down the exact time of impact and the range of the explosion.

Physical Damage: 200/325/450 (+0.85 bonus AD) Area Damage: 75% Knock-up Time: 1 second Explosion Radius: 250 Normal Range: 600 Mana Cost: 100 Cooldown: 100/90/80 seconds

Lore:

Nathaniel always wanted to be in the Demacian military. Even in his youth, he was diligently training with whatever sword-like object he could get a hold of, taking on any and all challenge possible just to get stronger. His drive was obsessive, nearly incomprehensible to others, but it made no difference to him. His family's military legacy went back to the reign of Jarvan I, with his great-grandfather serving as one of the king's most decorated generals. He would hear stories of his ancestors' amazing feats of bravery to keep the innocent safe. Nathaniel could scarcely stop his training.

His dedication proved its worth when he was immediately inducted as soon as he was eligible. Even as he endured the harsh lessons of boot camp, his spirit never wavered. Nathaniel excelled at every task assigned to him, quickly putting him on the fast track to leadership. The day of his promotion to company leader was the second happiest day of his life. With his own company of soldiers, Nathaniel was prepared to do his duty and keep Demacia safe.

At least, that was what he thought he would do. Nathaniel's ability was such that the nobles of Demacia insisted on having him as a personal guard. For a time, it was good - protecting the nobles that protected Demacia was the same thing as protecting Demacia's citizens. It went horribly wrong when his entrusted noble insisted on closing down a shelter for wounded veterans, having brought along Nathaniel and his men as security as the noble personally met with the owner of the shelter. It was no longer economically viable, the noble explained, to have support for men and women who were of no use to Demacia as a whole.

It never got that far. Nathaniel challenged the noble to a duel in the middle of the streets. While he was an excellent soldier, the noble was a superb swordsman in his own right. After a great effort, Nathaniel struck him down, only to be wanted by the rest of the aristocracy for his flagrant defiance. Nathaniel left Demacia the following night, never intending to return. All of his dreams and hard work collapsed around him, as he could not return to Demacia without being hunted by the nobles. He could never achieve the legacy of his ancestors now.

Several days of travel later, Nathaniel found himself in Piltover. Hungry, tired, and broken of spirit, Nathaniel was ready to collapse when a woman took him in. Introducing herself as Miltia, she allowed Nathaniel to stay with her on the condition that he help out with her day-to-day work in the workshop. For a time, it was good - Nathaniel was able to find joy in helping another, and Miltia was able to reach new levels of productivity with her inventions. The peace was soon broken after a band of enterprising Zaunite bandits broke into Miltia's workshop and took her latest device - a pack with a pair of mechanical arms for extra precision while working. Enraged both at the act and Miltia's grief, Nathaniel prepared to set out to get the device back, only to be stopped by Miltia. His mere sword would not be enough to deal with the bandits and their own hextech weaponry. Quickly, Miltia assembled a new weapon for Nathaniel - a multi-barreled missile launcher. Uncomfortable at first, Nathaniel quickly adapted to his new weaponry and set off to take back Miltia's valued device, renewed purpose in his heart.

Looking back, the day he met Miltia was the best day of his life.

Pre-emptive Q&A:

Q: What? A: Nathaniel is a slightly-bulkier, more support-y marksman with an emphasis on area-of-effect damage. His damage is delayed, but potent, creating a clear field that keeps out enemy champions and safeguards allies.

Q: Why pick him over another marksman? A: Nathaniel possesses the capability to attack multiple targets at once, both through his passive and his ability to lock on to up to four different enemies. This wide range of attack is unmatched by any other marksman. Nathaniel can also throw down flak clouds to defend allies and present a potent engage/counterengage tool with his ultimate, which adds utility most other marksmen shy of Ashe and Kindred can bring to the team.

Q: Why lock the first point to Q? A: Given the choice between a bunch of passives and making his Q the "fire" key, I went with the latter. It makes everything simpler for everyone involved, and keeps my kit from looking super cluttered.

Q: Why have a mana cost for multiple missiles? A: Because each one after the first is technically on par with most other marksmen's Q abilities. If he could freely fire them, it'd make him way too potent a lane bully, as he could just lock on to both laners and poke away with impunity.

Q: How the hell does Hurricane work on this guy? A: It locks on to two other targets within range and shoots the little Hurricane bolts when he hits Q. They still count toward max target locks. Since that causes him to lock on to stuff he might not want to hit, Hurricane might not be a good idea anyways.

Q: What's up with the flak cloud? Isn't that Yasuo's turf? A: Why keep a mechanic unique to only one champion? It's there because it's a defensive form of utility that matches with Nathaniel's overall personality without sacrificing his effectiveness as a marksman.

Q: AP scaling? A: Because do you really want a defensive move to have an AD ratio and let him burst you down? Kinda silly. Nathaniel's not meant to be a bursty marksman in that way - you'd want Varus, Graves, Draven, or Quinn.

Q: Isn't your ult just a crappy Fizz ult? A: The targeted range and delay actually work together - it's a reliable way to either finish off an enemy or break up enemy formations. The particle isn't just for counterplay purposes - it helps disrupt enemy formations to avoid the impending missile of doom. Either you stay next to Mr. About-To-Get-Nuked-From-The-Sky and get blown away, or you back off and expose him or yourself.

Q: Global range? A: Why should he be limited to defending only nearby allies? Revealed is inflicted by a fair deal of champions as well as items, besides Nathaniel's own W. The extra range makes sense, thematically speaking - it's a missile that goes really high up before falling down, it'd work a lot better if there was already a pre-existing target lock. Also, it is a cool play.

Q: Isn't that broken? A: You have three seconds to hit Zhonya's, get healed by Soraka, use Rappel/Sanguine Pool/Playful/Death Mark, pop Barrier, finish recalling, chug potions, drop ultimates...If you're just firing the ult for the hell of it because a guy's revealed, it's not really going to do anything useful by itself.

Q: Can you QSS out of his ult? A: No, since you can't QSS out of knock-ups.

Q: I meant the impending-missile part? A: Well, Fizz's ult operates on a similar principle. Using Cleanse or Remove Scurvy fixes the slow, but not the shark attack. QSSing drops the fish to the ground. That works out alright since the fish still threatens an area by itself. Sure, let's go with that - QSSing the ult causes it to hit the ground when the timer runs out instead of the intended target.

Q: How do I beat this guy? A: Rush him. He's got no escapes and no way to deal with melee. Silence also stops him from actually firing on locked targets, so that helps too. Bait out his Flak Cloud before trying to land conclusive projectile CC.

Q: Who likes being with this guy? A: Tanky supports that can lock down targets long enough for him to achieve maximum lock. He likes tanky teammates in general. He also likes allies that can reposition enemies closer so he can lock on to everyone.

Q: You didn't answer my question pre-emptively? A: Post it, then. I'm waiting to hear what you guys think.

Good Neighbor Bonus: I'm just going to go give feedback on all the participants.

Your comments are welcome.

17 Comments

LSmaster161/25/2016, 11:29:01 PM1 votes

This is pretty cool looking. Passive: so his attacks do no damage and instead apply target lock. And also do splash damage. How does this work? Q: basically replaces auto attacks, I love the whole way that these work. How do you choose how many are fired? Do they apply your passive? If so its a cool idea having him do more damage if targets clump up. Can these crit? Are they effected by attack speed? Do target lock and these work on buildings? W: this is basically a corki q that makes you acquire target lock faster when you already acquire it instantly... Is it supposed to take time to get target lock? E: This would be pretty broken, base damage at max rank is 400 with one tick of dot. Also, giving an ADC the ability to ignore projectiles even for only 2 seconds would be broken in bot lane especially since he can hide in the cloud. Maybe change it so instead of a cloud it fires missiles that lock onto projectiles in an area lasting like .5-1 seconds scaling with level and destroy them, then give him a temporary buff if he destroys at least one. This rewards using it to shoot projectiles out of the air while not letting you hide in it to win a trade easily or useing it to nuke someone. R: this is awesome, both in effect and thematically. Why does a missle landing on you knock you up though? Maybe make it stun instead and possibly apply target lock. Overall really cool idea.

shadowsaotome1/26/2016, 1:23:31 AM1 votes

First, thanks for critiquing my champion, it gave me some good ideas on where to take him. Second, I'm digging the concept of this guy from Demacia, a land of swords, packing a huge rocket launcher. Let's go through this kit:

Passive/Q: If I'm understanding this correctly, whenever you right-click for an autoattack, you instead Lock-On to your target. You can Lock-On to multiple targets or have multiple Lock-Ons on the same target. Then when you use your Q, you fire missles at locked-on targets; now do you have to press Q for each rocket, or do they fly out at a set rate?

W: The lock-on speed increase doesn't make sense to me; how long does it normally take to lock-on? I can't imagine its very long, otherwise his Q's effectiveness takes a huge hit.

E: What direction does the cloud move in once you've cast it? It's pretty slow, but given the amount of damage it does and that it blocks projectiles, the slow movement is a good thing. The idea of a cloud doesn't seem to mesh with the theme of the character though; maybe some kind of point defense system instead? Nathaniel could launch a drone that uses small missiles to intercept projectiles, and then after a set time divert its attacks to the target. Just spitballing here. Also, would the cloud work the same way as Yasuo's Windwall insofar as what it can deflect?

R: Nuclear Launch detected. ^_^ Love this ability. My only thing is that it's range without vision on an enemy is less than his AA range. Was that intentional?

Baransu1/26/2016, 4:14:25 PM1 votes

Nice lore sir! Im glad you brought him to Piltover, I was wondering how a Demacian Warrior would have a missile launcher, but it all falls into place and is intriguing.

His Passive is interesting. Definitely the most mana hungry champion in the game since his autos do no damage, it would be interesting to see where his build goes. What if he builds lich bane? Or nashors tooth? Would those do damage with his autos?

His Q would be fun to see. The way you wrote the consecutive missile damage scaling makes it look like the damage actually goes up per missile, but your text description says the opposite. Could use some clarity there. Also I dont see anywhere that says how many missiles are fired upon casting. It seems unbalanced if you can lock onto someone, press Q and spend 100% of your mana while you stand there and missiles rain from the sky. Do the missiles eventually do no damage if you fire enough of them? I will assume the max amount of missiles is the same as the amount of reduce scaling damage numbers you gave, which eases my mind. I think with the amount of damage that would do to multiple targets (potentially) you might want to raise the cooldown from its current 1 second.

His W says it reduces the time it takes for a target lock, but I dont see anywhere that says that target lock takes time. It says his auto attacks do no damage, but apply target lock. Could use come clarity.

His E is a great idea. I like the relatively small radius of the cloud, and that it is a skillshot - blocking all projectiles like a circular yasuo wall might be OP at that cast range though. There is a reason they made braum, poppy, and yasuos block abilities only directly on themselves - doing it from a distance just has too much potential to break teamfights, and laning phase. Especially if it is a directed AOE skillshot that DOES damage on top of it. Imaging trying to last hit minions, and him saying, nope - take damage per second and miss all this CS. If you made it block either auto attacks, or abilities it would be a little better - but blocking both is too strong I think.

His ultimate is simply too strong. A global ziggs ult that locks on like a caitlin ult and is counterable literally only by buying specific items or using specific champions. If the ult had the knockup removed, it would me semi-manageable. Think of any damaging global ult in the game. It is ALWAYS either a skillshot, does no CC, or is single target. Something you can just point and click from across the map is just too strong. It would dominate teamfights, ganks, or lane and not put him at risk at all in any situation. The ult would be more manageable and fun to use (and to play against) if it was directed AOE instead of point and click targeted.

Very unique concept all in all (especially his Passive/Q) I would like to see his Passive/Q in game just to see if they could make it balanced. Good job sir.

ShatteredSkys1/27/2016, 7:36:46 AM1 votes

Hey! ^_^ Here are my thoughts on Nathaniel, The Maverick Guardian!

Passive/Q/W (They kind of all work around the same mechanic): A pretty cool idea! But it does raise some questions... Like how do you cs properly? You kind of mention there's a delay between you lock on to a target do you think this will negatively impact his ability to cs properly?

Another issue is what about taking turrets? Can he lock on to turrets? If he can wouldn't sieging a turret from 750 range be a bit much? If he can't than sieging is nearly impossible depending on the comp.

One last thought but wasn't Urgot deemed incredibly toxic becasue of a similar lock on mechanic? I heard that he would just E and blitz the ADC down no matter where they went and in the end Riot had to break Urgot's kneecaps by gutting the range of that mechanic. Nathaniel has a range a lockon range of 750 and has this mechanic as an AA, i know he has mana issues to stop him from spamming but so does Urgot and didn't stop him from being toxic. Do you think that your mechanic is healthy? I'm not trying to

Also the damage reduction greatly hinder his long term team fighting as the fight goes on his damage gets weaker and weaker.

E: I guess it works by giving him a place o hide from enemy ADCs and mages, and considering how weak he's to being dived on I guess it works.

R: I think it's a pretty interesting spell, but I'm not so sure about the point and click:/ It seems incredibly strong for something guaranteed and lets him win skirmishes from across the map. i think that it would be better as a skillshot like Zigg's ult.

Anyway here were my thoughts on Nathaniel, The maverick Guardian! I'm sorry but could you do me a favor and do a quick review for my concept sometime soon? I'm planning on some major changes and want some feedback on what direction i should go. Thanks! ^_^

boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/WMKdygiV-wip-skoll-the-wolf-of-the-blood-red-moon?show=flat&page=1

Vanic9981/27/2016, 10:37:22 PM1 votes

I'm impressed +1! Seems like a great champion for those who are not savvy with skillshots. His ult is like the opposite of Orianna's ult. Almost completely unique. Reminds me of Urgot too. If you feel likeit, check out my champion: Zolt, The Anti Mana

maxaroni1181/28/2016, 1:07:41 AM1 votes

i took another look and the ult stood out to me

you could use it on allied champions but they take no damage

splash damage to save a baron kill or something idk i see potential plays with this

Hairzo2/11/2016, 5:20:07 PM1 votes

Lore - The lore isn't the best lore in the world, but it works. You learn his personality and dedication to whatever he sets his mind to. You know that if something gets in his way, he will stop at nothing to break down the wall. I'm not a big fan of the lore, as it just seemed muddled to me. He starts as the trope of hardworking soldier who defies his leader because what he thinks they are doing is wrong. Yes, that's the entirety for him getting out of Demacia, but then he just suddenly gets a rocket launcher??? If it was me, I'd make some changes to the fluidity of the lore, and not make it so Garen esque.

Passive - Im guessing by attacks you mean Q, and if so, why not just put that passive on the ability? Also, the lock on mechanic to me this seems like you are trying to make a re worked Urgot, who's intention was to make a spell more prominent than the auto attacks, and there's nothing wrong with that. I like the idea of not being able to use any auto attacks, and relying completely on abilities.

Q - You really need to explain more about the abilities. do the consecutive Q's fall off after the lock on falls off? Can you keep a lock on onto one target forever if they are always in range? But beside that, I like it.

W - This is also like Urgot's E, but im confused how its supposed to work. Because you get bonus attack speed when attacking them, what will happen if you are locked onto 4 enemeis. Will the cooldown be reduced, but every other cast only shoots at the beacon?

E - Now you say that what's the point of keeping mechanics for one person, you are not wrong, but they change the ability a lot. Braum does have a yasuo win wall, but he can move it around, and takes the on hit effects, just making it deal damage isn't really enough to make it a change.

R - I like that it can only be used globally when you have vision on an enemy, and requires certain allies to make it effective. Overall, I like this spell.

In conclusion, he seems like a well balanced champion, with deeper mechanics for the lock on.

  • Hair
King Maruilla8/6/2016, 8:22:32 PM1 votes

It's a rather good kit, and the Auto-Q sounds good. However, I got two questions.

First: While the working sounds good, how would it (Effective Deterrent) work with things like Blitzcrank and Illaoi?

Second: Wouldn't a mix of item 3115 and item 3151 make Nathaniel broken?