Ariem, the Shadow's Spirit

Role: AP Jungle, Tank

Inspiration: The inspiration for Ariem was simple- A friend of mine wanted me to create a spooky champion based around the oft-overplayed concept of shadows. As somewhat of a commissioned concept, this was the result!

General Design Philosophy: All of Ariem’s abilities are built around the strong, overarching theme of shadows. From stealing them from others, to using his own to torment enemies, to hiding among them in order to heal, shade is at the root of it all. His role and kit were essentially all built around these themes, rather than creating the mechanics first. Only his E, the Spectral Shackle, came about due to a mechanical need over a thematic one.

As a result, Ariem features a series of seemingly odd kit quirks, such as an incentive to stack both mana AND mana regeneration, and several abilities best suited for that of an initiating tank or support champion. Since Ariem is so malleable and can meld into the shadows to fit so many roles, he ends up not overly excelling at any one task.

Risk Analysis: High. Ariem struggles to find an easily recognizable identity within the League’s roster, possessing a rather mixed bag of abilities. This is, of course, what happens when you let a concept’s theme drive its design while simultaneously ignoring its mechanical needs. That said, he possesses a thematically inspired kit with a lot of opportunity for epic visual effects.

Appearance: Ariem appears to be made out of pure shadow, taking on an enigmatic form of silhouettes that change slightly over time.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/38725_fantasy_shadow_monster_zpsf9f99325.jpg

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/3052921_135113810238978res_449_382_zpsfc8bd38f.jpg

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/70647333_zps4a03692d.jpg

Lore: Missing

Strengths: Mild passive sustain, amazing gap closer, synergizes well with mana, several forms of crowd control

Weaknesses: low personal damage except for Ultimate, very long cooldowns, strange build paths, eclectic mix of abilities

Plays Most Like...:

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_11198_pas_zpsa8815df5.jpg Auto Attack: Ariem uses a strange, sickle-like armguard to deal damage in melee range.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_10563_pas_zps2c627119.jpg Passive- Shadow Veil: Ariem regenerates 1.5% of his max health per second whenever he is concealed within brush. If enemy champions have vision of Ariem, the passive does not activate. Design Philosophy: This grants Ariem powerful sustain and regeneration while jungling, as well as while waiting for ganks in a lane, or in his own brush at top lane. In addition, it makes for a clever way to tell whether a bush is warded or not. Finally, Shadow Veil acts as a constant thematic reminder that Ariem is at home in the darkness.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_659_btn_zps3575984c.jpg Q- Shadow Cast (7 sec): Passive: Ariem permanently gains 5 mana every time he uses Shadow Cast (up to 1000 mana) Active: Ariem targets an enemy and releases his own shadow to torment them, dealing magic damage over 3 seconds and silencing the target for the first second of its duration. This ability costs Ariem 50% of his current mana pool to cast. Following this, the shadow returns to Ariem, imbuing him with mana equal to the spell’s cost plus a small amount based on spell rank (25/50/75/100). In addition to its standard AP scaling, Shadow Cast also has a unique mechanic wherein it deals more damage the more mana used to cast it, adding 1 magic damage for every 5 mana used. Design Philosophy: This is a thematically inspired ability, as Ariem loses his own shadow or essence momentarily to allow it to torment another’s. This creates a mechanical side effect, as Ariem loses a significant portion of his mana for the duration of the ability. The upside to this is that he receives a delayed mana gain for using this ability, plus a permanent mana gain, technically making this a free ability.

It’s important to note that Ariem’s current mana pool is very important to his ability to deal damage with Shadow Cast, in the same way that Blizcrank’s Mana Barrier is larger when his mana bar is full when procced. This therefore incentivizes Ariem to go down a rather strange itemization path, including items such as Athene’s, Essence Reaver and Manamune.

It is also worth mentioning that Shadow Cast has a beneficial side effect of revealing the general location of the affected enemy based on the trajectory the shadow takes upon returning to Ariem after its 3 second activation.

Finally, as a reference to number balancing, let’s assume Ariem has 5,000 mana in an incredibly ideal scenario, and his mana bar is full at the time of cast. This would cause Shadow Cast to deal 500 bonus damage from its mana scaling. Again, this is given a set of incredibly ideal scenarios, including a full 6 item mana build.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_641_btn_zps216b74cb.jpg W- Looming Death (18 sec): Ariem creates a looming shadow from himself that travels in a line slowly but to an incredible range (1000). Ariem can reactivate the ability at any time during its travel, causing him to teleport his physical form to the tip of his shadow. Enemies directly intercepted by his arrival are feared for 1.5 seconds. This ability deals no damage. This ability functions similarly to Hecarim's Ultimate and Lissandra's E. Rank-ups decrease cooldown and increase damage. Design Philosophy: Yet another powerful spell within the thematic realm of a creeping, stretched out shadow. This acts as Ariem’s gap closer into melee range, with a very small area of impact at the end of its path. If Ariem manages to directly overlap with an enemy upon his reemergence, he fears them. This is a very technically challenging feat to pull off and not the primary function of the ability.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_8515_pas_zps753cf1ce.jpg E- Spectral Shackles (9 sec): Ariem applies shackles to his target from melee range and simultaneously plants a stake in the ground at their current location. This tethers the target to the stake for 2.5 seconds (with a tether range of 400 units) and deals magic damage over the duration. If the target breaks the tether range of the shackle, they are stunned for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds and suffer additional magic damage. While shackled the target can still move and act freely. Rank-ups lower cooldown, increase damage and stun duration. Design Philosophy: This ability flows perfectly following Looming Death, as it is Ariem’s only crowd control and means of sticking to targets. This spell creates interesting decision-making for the enemy player, as they can choose to reach the end of the tether before using an escape tool to maximize their distance from Ariem and his team, or they can try to juke and fight within the range of the shackles before escaping to safety unhindered.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_10422_pas_zpsbb1d0197.jpg R- Shadow Siphon (75 sec): Ariem siphons the shadows of all enemy units around him (500 range) over the next 2-6 seconds, creating a shadowy barrier around himself that increases his armor and magic resistance by 30/60/85 while the ability is active. Each unit (neutral monsters, enemy minions/monsters and champions) contributes a certain amount of power to the siphon (in the form of flat magic damage), though a unit can only contribute to the siphon once. Units affected also have their magic resistances lowered by 20/35/50 until the ability is recast, and visually their shadows no longer appear. After 2-6 seconds, Ariem can recast this ability to let loose the siphoned shadows, dealing increasing amounts of magic damage in a circle around him based on the siphoned magic damage “borrowed” from all external sources around him. This explosion triggers automatically after 6 seconds. This ability functions similarly to Sion’s W. Design Philosophy: This is an amazing follow-up to a hard engage by way of Looming Death into Spectral Shackles, as Ariem is likely in the center of the enemy team and taking heavy damage. It’s also excellent during chaotic team fights or even in a lane, where the enemy team is likely to have a series of minions to siphon power from.

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