[Champion Concept] Jack, the Demacian Artificer
#Jack, the Demacian Artificer
TL;DR: Jack makes creeps that she can command around. She makes wards she can auto attack with, cast spells through, and command minions near. She can strengthen minions and shield allies. Finally, she can make her minions explode for a small stun.
#Summary Jack is a control mage who uses minions to harass and siege enemies, provide map vision and control, and shield allies.
#Kit Sorry in advance for my bad drawing, but I figured it'd be a good reading supplement (or replacement).
::Passive:: Soullinked: Jack's soul is linked to her creations. When they die, Jack loses 1% of her health. If a creation has soullinked, she can see, cast spells, auto attack, and give commands in the region around them as long as they reside in a very large region around her (it is not global). Once her creations leave the large radius (4500 units?) they lose soullinked after 15 seconds. If Jack dies, all creations are considered outside this region; however, as long as they maintain soullinked, Jack can continue to cast spells etc normally (her mana quickly depletes over 5 seconds).
Demacian Magic: Jack's auto attacks scale with her AP. (5-10%?? very small)
Novice Artificer: Jack can only have 1 soullinked creation active per 3? levels.
::Q:: Summon Minor Minion: Jack creates a minion that she can control in her auto attack region (the region created by soullinked). They deal physical damage that scales with AP. The minion lasts for 60? seconds. +E: The minion gains duration, health, size, and damage (and soullink?). Duration is refreshed. +R: The minion gains more duration, more health, more damage, and soullink.
https://sites.google.com/site/imagesforalolpost/_/rsrc/1464565000069/home/Q.png?height=300&width=320
::W:: Summon Piton: Jack creates a ward-like piton at the target location. It has soullink and lasts 120? seconds. +E: The piton gains truesight, increased soullink area, and auto-attacks made via the piton are empowered for 10? seconds. The duration of the piton is refreshed. +R: The pitons remaining hit bars (ward hits, so 4-ish?) are consumed and turned into minor minions over several seconds.
https://sites.google.com/site/imagesforalolpost/_/rsrc/1464565025476/home/W.png?height=300&width=320
::E:: Minor Improvements: Improves Jacks other creations. When cast on allies, grants a shield and small (or damage?) speed boost. When cast on enemies, acts as a severe but short lived slow.
https://sites.google.com/site/imagesforalolpost/_/rsrc/1464565473001/home/E.png?height=200&width=320
::R:: Major Improvements: Significantly improves Jack’s creations. When cast on allies, grants a strong shield, armor, and magic resist. This shield counts as a creation with Soullink. When cast on Jack, increases her auto attack damage and the range of Soullink for all of her creations.
https://sites.google.com/site/imagesforalolpost/_/rsrc/1464565493425/home/R.png?height=300&width=320
(R+) Salvage: By holding down the "R" key on a creation for 2 seconds, Jack causes the creation to explode, damaging and stunning enemies in a region depending on the creations remaining health (or shield magnitude). Upon being successfully cast, Jack regains mana and all(or just R?) of her cool downs are reduced. Destroying creations with Soullink in this way does not damage Jack. This ability has a cool down independent of her primary ult.
https://sites.google.com/site/imagesforalolpost/home/R+.png
#Kit Alternatives and Adjustments Soullinked: As an alternative to a flat auto attack buff, having each Soullinked creation in range auto attacking could add mechanical complexity to the champion and fit with her kit really well. On the other hand, it would almost certainly make having attack speed items completely broken.
Demacian magic: Auto attacks also heal allies for 5% of total damage. Note: This feel like a really cool mechanic, especially since Jack is minion based, allowing her to sustain her minions, wave minions, and more effectively utilize her Soullinked space. Her kit is already very complicated, but much of that could be due to the 'Modification spells' and need to describe creation behavior. In practice, she could be a little underwhelming, and this adjustment could offset that, adding very little difficulty while still complimenting the rest of her kit.
Or…. beam-like constant damage auto attacks! Eh? Ehh? But srsly Rito, you’ve gotta figure out how to do a beam attack champion. That would be awesome!
Soullinked Creations: Her Soullinked creations do not have a duration limit, and simply count against her total number of Soullinked creations. A minor minion that has been given Soullink would have a duration.
#Character
Description: Jack has short, blond hair, wears a sleeveless leather/metal vest and bracers. She has a bandolier of glowing canisters strapped to her back and boots with glowing highlights. A floating set of magic rods is the source of her spells, giving her auto-attacks a cannon or beam like feel. Rods on Soullinked minions channel auto-attacks for her when she is attacking through (or with) them.
Backstory: The art of artifice is not native to Demacia - Piltover is far more accepting of the art. However, this did not stop Jack from expressing interest in the field. A born spellcaster, Jack thrived in the libraries of Demacia. Upon discovering tales of moving metal beings born from magic, her mind was set. Weaving the unique magic of Demacia with the hextech of Piltover produced the beings Jack had read tales about - however, they were bound to her soul, allowing her to see, touch, and think through them. Not her intention, she continued working long hours in her lab to produce truly independent beings of steel and magic, helped by her new creations. Hundreds of late research hours later, she was successful: she forged a prototype being. Independent of her soul, it began learning and thinking on its own. For almost a month the two enjoyed each others company; word of the metal man spread quickly, and curious onlookers visited to have a word with their new neighbor.
But, like all good things, this too came to an end. In Piltover, Victor began his "Glorious Revolution", calling for technomancers across runeterra to join him. Jack, a remote student of his, was skeptical. Her former teacher's tone had changed, twisted and magnified by his new hextech mind and greed for knowledge. News of his transformation reached other Demacian ears as well. The locals didn't take well to it, suddenly suspicious of Jack's creation. Would it suffer the same fate as Victor? Would it turn on its creator? The dialogue quickly darkened. Before Demacian Officials were able to contain it, a small mob swept in and destroyed Jacks lab. Linked by soul to her creations, Jack felt every wound the mob inflicted. Although spiteful, she refused to allow her creations to lash out at the murderous civilians, believing they attacked out of fear rather than hate.
A traumatic event, the worst came when the prototype, completely independent of her, was felled. Through her other creations, she watched as the mob bore down on it with death in their eyes. Her other creations now for the most part destroyed, she could do nothing to protect her friend. She fled her Demacian home, the metallic cries of the prototype still echoing in her kind. She had stood aside, and unintentionally allowed him to be slaughtered... Now forced and willing to fight for her cause, Jack is determined to show Demacia and the world that Artifice are not monsters to fear, but companions to work alongside.
Friends: Jayce, Blitzcrank, Lux Rivals: Victor, Ekko
#Author's notes: (If you have way too much time on your hands, like myself.)
Although a dim dream, I've wanted a more mechanically interesting minion based champion in lol for a long while. Of course there are numerous examples of champions that have a kit with minions built into them, but none that feel built 'around' those minions. Heimerdinger is probably the first thought that comes to mind but I'd contest that with "his kit is built around gadgets, not minions." He has a bouncing stun, which is unique and cool, a really cool rocket ability, and of course, turrets. Although the turrets and other abilities make a nice composition, the kit isn’t like Draven's, where a multitude of his abilities hinge exclusively on his throwing and catching axes, or Syndra, where every ability hinges on her spheres.
Yorik is very close, with three abilities spawning minions that attack his current target. Unfortunately, his kit is a little... old. Although its sure to be updated soon, I don’t expect it to become a completely different beast or something I fall in love with.
Malzahar is currently the closest character in the game to a kit that hinges on minion interactions. With the new update, it’s even closer. However, the interaction between his Q and minions is really the only one I can think of offhand. Of course, the spawning of new minions on enemy Champ damage is certainly interesting, but it doesn’t take much mechanical skill if any to execute. The rest of his kit is an aoe channel, a passive cc shield, and a skill-shot. Although these abilities, again, make an excellent composition with the rest of his kit, I'm left with the feeling that there’s a void (ha-ha) of mechanics at the farther end of the minion spectrum.
My original constructions involved a champion who was a group of minions; each ability would command a different type in the cluster, allowing different attacks. Their ultimate combined with another ability would spawn minions. This seemed problematic and off spirit from my goal, although well intended. There are other more obvious problems with such a champion, but the idea was rather novel. I'd also imagined the champion I wanted as a support, who’s ult would physically bind them to a target ally, acting as a shield. Although an interesting support ability, this had little traction and would make a weird character (would they be ethereal? a suit of armor, or artifact bits?) and so lost traction.
The support image stuck (full disclosure, supp was my first lane), with shields and maybe ward-like entities. Thus, Jack came about; minions that change, rely on other abilities, and are commandable, ward structures that expand Jack's region of control, and an ult that combines a shield and her minion mechanics. Unfortunately, although the best idea I've seen yet, this could still be problematic; pretty much what I'd wanted, but flawed inherently: no skill shots, and a range that complicates game play and counter play mechanics - she will be extremely vulnerable to assassins, but always far from her targets and team fights; although she always wants to put out minions, destroying Soullinked creations deals % damage to her. On the other hand, depending on how it’s balanced, this could make super interesting game play. I believe this could be achieved by adjusting cool downs, allowing her to auto attack from all Soullinked creations in range simultaneously, tweaking the Soulinked self damage, or adjusting the number of minions available at any time. This could, however, be completely broken - with an already empowered auto attack, Soullinked creations dealing equal damage should be plentiful in her kit, meaning she would always be able to cast them and stomp people out with harass.
Maybe I'm looking for something that can't exist? Fine, but it doesn't’ hurt to check and see how close I can get. Besides, it doesn't hurt to offer a little direction to the developers of one's favorite game. In any event, this is the best I think I should try to produce; Rito has people payed to do this, people who know how to balance, and people who know how to perform formal champion design. If they take any of these ideas into consideration (nudge nudge) it will most likely be these core ones. This is why I've refrained from including any cool downs, damage scalings, etc, except for the most critical stuff (like minions lasting for more than like, ten seconds (see Malzahar)). I put in the story because I couldn't help but include my own two cents on what such a character kit might end up looking like on an actual character.
Author’s… Second Note? Hindsight: Wow I have a lot of time on my hands. Regarding Jack, I feel like she’s a little too similar to Heimerdinger maybe? I think that maybe her emphasis on interaction - how her abilities adjust and alter based on their target - sets her apart, as well as her core game play - minion emphasis, rather than gadget emphasis. Which, now that I’ve brought it up, could be a total bore. Or completely amazing. There’s just no other champion kits quite like this to compare to, so I have no point of reference (thus my incentive to post it). This next one is really minor, but maybe the four floating rods are too much like Irelia? Again, there’s a distinction in that Jack is ranged rather than melee, and I honestly realized the relationship after thinking of it, but I’m just not good enough at character design to come up with anything better. ;-; Finally, I may or may not have named her Jack because that’s my name and I didn’t feel like thinking up anything better (cause let’s be serious, if Rito decides to use anything from this champion idea, the name will be at the bottom of the list… that said, I wouldn’t mind if if they kept it. It has a pleasant ring).
If you made it through all that, good for you! If you're just here to post about how it was too long... yeah. Yeah, it was pretty long. :/
In either event, if you happen upon a grammatical or other type of error, comment it and I'll come back here to fix it. Thanks for reading!
