Cho'gath update idea
tl;dr make cho a living wall, causing misclicks and blocking skills. Q squiggles, W screams, R makes you get stacks from eating stuff, and passive makes you squiggle and scream better based on ult stacks. Passive also makes you really big. Random ideas for E skill.
Somewhere long ago in some red post, riot said they wanted to update cho so he better represented the concept of a monster that grew in size and strength as he ate enemies. I thought in order to do this, his ult stacks would have to have an effect on his gameplay and his abilities, here is a quick idea for rework. His model would have to be longer/more streamline as well since his current model just looks strange when he has max stacks. Numbers are quickly thought up so just look at the general concept.
Instead of being a CC tank or a DoT tank, I made him more of a physical tank, literally in the way of your skills and will make you misclick him because he's huge.
Passive: Based on the number of ultimate stacks cho has, he grows in size. His abilities change as he gains stacks, and he gains special attributes at certain stacks. His ult stacks now max out at 10/20/30 (based on ult level) stacks and provide +1% maximum health. If cho's ult kills the target, he gains 1 stack for minions, 2 stacks for large monsters/cannon minions, and 3 stacks for champion/ dragon/ baron/ herald. Dying loses 5 stacks.
At 10 stacks, his model size increases.
At 20 stacks, his model size increases, making his body 2 segments (head half and body half) and making him have a slight turn radius (sion's ultimate but far less restricted, basically prevents 180 turns). Both of his body segments can be hit by the same aoe ability, but he receives reduced damage towards aoe damage. Targetted abilities will always hit his head (full damage), while skillshots will deal 100/90% damage when it hits his head/body.
At 30 stacks, his model size increases, making his body 3 segments (head, body, tail), further restricting his turn radius while increasing his resistance to aoe damage. Targetted abilities always deal full damage, while skillshots that hit Cho will deal 100/85/70% damage when it hits his head/body/tail. At this point, he is pretty much a walking wall.
Abilities-----------------------------------------------------------------------
(Q)Thrash – 200/250/300/350 (based on stacks 0/10/20/30) range, charge system, 12 second cooldown per charge Cho charges forward a short distance in a small arc (think diana q), dealing damage to all enemies hit. The arc will alternate sides when Thrash is used. 0 stacks: holds up to 2 charges, deals damage to all enemies within 50 range of cho during the charge 10 stacks: holds up to 2 charges, deals damage to all enemies within 100 range of cho during the charge 20 stacks: holds up to 3 charges, deals damage to all enemies within 150 range of each body segment. Body half will swing further out, dealing 50% damage. 30 stacks: holds up to 4 charges, deals damage to all enemies within 200 range of head, body half will swing out like at 20 stacks and his tail will swing even further out, also dealing 50% damage. *When spammed, you travel in an S-shape. No jumping over walls because walls cannot jump walls. ** you cannot Thrash in angles less than 30 degrees of the direction cho was walking in (numbers are temps), making this skill still a better option than manually turning around at 20 and 30 stacks ***meant to help position for blocking skillshots better
(W)Feral Scream - 800 range, 18 second cooldown After a brief channel, Cho screams in a cone in front of him, CCing enemies hit and dealing damage. 0 stacks: 60 degree cone, silences enemies hit for 1 seconds 10 stacks: 120 degree cone, silences and slows enemies hit for 1 seconds 20 stacks: 180 degree cone, slightly knocks back enemies hit(0.25 second), silencing and slowing them for 1 second afterwards 30 stacks: slightly knocks back all enemies within range, silencing and slowing them for 1 second afterwards *silence stays for old time's sake, but honestly disliked the instant nature of this skill #counterplay **long cooldown because I don't want him to be a CC-bot like maokai
(R)Feast - same range, lower cooldown and damage, maybe does magic/physical damage now.
(E)??? I absolutely overloaded his skillset so I don't know how to add a skill without turning him into an instruction manual (the abilities can be simplfied, but im a wordy stream of thought typer). I thought about how vorpal spikes would translate , but it didn't make sense anymore in its current state. Maybe something voidy? What would a giant monster do besides run round, smash stuff, scream, and eat stuff...(sunfire?for the duration, abilities leave an aoe field that slows or deals damage? I mean if you smash through stuff, it is harder to move through said stuff)
Maybe if I figured out what Cho would actually look like, I would be able to think of an E-skill... If he is like a dinosaur (long bodied), he could coil up, reducing damage taken for a brief moment, then quickly uncoil, hitting all enemies around(would make it possible to tuck in his tail quickly in case its about to be hit by lethal damage). Deadman's plate skill where you speed up and tackle first champ you come in contact with. Maybe give him a beautiful 3 hit passive/active...
Post any abilities that could fit in or any feedback.