Design a healthy melee carry, starting from the basics
Before I start, I'm going to warn you guys that I will most likely mention DotA multiple times, and if you aren't open to incorporating ideas from other games (e.g. DOTA SUCKS GTFO, WTF Y U POST DOTA ON LOL FORUMS), please don't read this and it will benefit us both. :P I don't claim to understand everything in LoL, so this post is an OPINION and you can take it with a grain of salt. I also talk a lot about game mechanics and stuff, so if you want to skip to my champion concept scroll down until you see a page break. (---------page break-------)
LoL has historically had a bad history with it's melee (ad) dps champions. Fiora, Yi, Tryn, and Poppy see almost no competitive play due to unreliability or a terrible laning phase. When Aatrox was released, I thought he'd make running a carry top laner viable, except he is now often built full tank or bruiser. Yasuo has show Riot can indeed create a melee carry, but he has recently fallen from favour after nerfs. He was picked 1 time in the 16 games of NA LCS week 11, and he basically need a team to be built around him due to the nature of his ult (more specifically, Vi jungle is almost essential for the reliable knockup when Yasuo goes mid).
For a melee carry to work in LoL, they have to fulfill 3 main goals through their kit: mobility, survivability, and damage. This is notably different from DotA where a carry can often only fulfill 2 goals (usually mobility and damage), but can obtain the 3rd goal through DotA's different itemization (e.g. buying an item such as BKB that nullifies abilities for survivability, essentially a Morgana black shield with infinite shield hp that can be penetrated by a select few spells). Of course, utility carries do exist (Sort of like Ashe, gets damage from items and offer game-changing utility ultimates), but are considered tier 2.
Since it would be a stupid idea to rework all of LoL's items to benefit melee carries, Riot has decided to incorporate those 3 core elements into the champion kits:
- mobility: Yi (Q/R), Tryn (E), Fiora (Q/R), Poppy (W/E), Yasuo (E/R)
- survivavility: Yi (Q/W/R), Tryn (Q/R), Fiora (W/R), Poppy (Passive/R), Yasuo (Passive/W)
- damage: Yi (Passive/Q/E/R), Tryn (Passive/Q), Fiora (E/R), Poppy (Q), Yasuo (Q/R)
The problem with LoL's melee carries is not that they can't reach targets nor is it they can't dps them; they just can't survive while dpsing them. All of the above champions, with the exception of Poppy, can be chainstunned by a hard cc and quickly bursted down, rendering them unreliable and by extension perpetually competitively unviable. Poppy's laning phase is bad enough she usually gets crushed by the enemy so bad the games becomes 4v5 and ends before Poppy can scale. I'm not saying they don't work: any champion can work if played well enough, as evidenced by Diamond 1 players that main them (Ryan Choi Master Yi anyone?). The fact remains they will see little to no play in the well coordinated competitive scene, as well as be extremely unpopular at most levels of play.
The Solution: The best solution would be better itemization, but that's not very realistic.
Ex: Rework GA to cost 3.2k, reduce the Armor/MR it grants and give it another unique passive like: grants immunity from most abilities for 5 seconds: enemy champion kills and assists will increases the duration by 1.5 seconds. Note that the numbers are tentative, and this is a very general idea.
However, since this is the skin/champion concepts discussion board, here is my suggestion for a melee carry:
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Kamisama, The Reborn God
Base stats: undecided, but something similar to Tryn should suffice.
ALL NUMBERs CAN AND WILL PROBABLY BE TWEAKED, this is a pretty rough concept.
Passive: Ghostly Presence (AKA I really wanted to throw in dodge chance, but since that's a no-no with Riot, it was revised)
Kamisama uses no mana. As a secondary resource, she absorbs spiritual energy to enter a spiritual form. Autoattacks grant 1 stack of Ghostly Presence, but each enemy hit by Kamisama can only grant 1 stack of Ghostly Presence every 3 seconds. Kamisama automatically consumes 15(lvl1)/10(lvl9)/5(lvl18) stacks of Ghostly Presence to dodge the next projectile incoming projectile. Kamisama can store up to a maximum of 20 stacks of Ghostly Presenece at a time, and the stacks are always decaying at a rate of 1 stack per second. Skillshots pass through Kamisama while targeted attacks are redirected to the nearest allied champion.
A defensive passive that is weak early game but makes Kamisama a lategame monster. Can also be a liability in certain situations (e.g. Veigar ults you when you are at full hp, but you redirect it to the low health ally beside you)
Q: Divine Dagger
Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6 seconds
Targeted, Range is ~600
Kamisama throws a dagger infused with divine power, striking down the weak and crippling the strong.
When cast on a minion or neutral monster: automatically executes minions below 100/150/200/250/300 HP, otherwise does no damage. When cast on an enemy champion, deals 100/150/200/250/300 (+0.5AP) magic damage to an opponent over 3 seconds while also slowing them by 20/30/40/50/60% (+0.1AP) (decays over the duration to 20% regardless of skill level).
A spell targeted towards farming early game so that Kamisama is not completely zoned while transitioning into a strong chasing tool later on. A small AP ratio is included so that Baron Buff and Blue Pot do something, can be removed at request.
W: The Strong Shall Fall
Kamisama is enraged by enemies that do not fall quickly, and infuses her attacks with increasing amounts of magic as her target refuses to die.
Passive: basic attacks against a target grant a stack of Continuous Rage. Each stack allows Kamisama to deal 6/12/18/24/30 additional magic damage to a target while also dealing 1/2/3/4/5 additional true damage to Kamisama herself due to being reckless, capped at 10 stacks. Each target has its own set of stacks (i.e. reaching 10 stacks on Baron will not allow Kamisama to switch targets and instantly do 10 stacks worth of bonus damage to her new target). Effect is reduced to 33% effectiveness vs neutral monsters.
Toggle: Kamisama drains the life force of her foes, torturing them instead of killing them: grants 5/7/9/11/13% lifesteal. The lifesteal's effectiveness is halved if Kamisama buys a lifesteal item, as Kamisama is unable to drain as much life force when there is an item competing with her.
A HUGE damage steroid that encourages decision making: do I keep wailing on one guy to kill him faster, or do i switch enemies to gain more passive stacks? Also allows Kamisama to output a decent chunk of magic damage, reducing the effectiveness of stacking armor. Also grants some decent sustain during lane, while allowing for Kamisama to make the decision between damage and survivability/sustain in teamfights/duels.
E: Instant Death
Cooldown: 30/27/24/21/18, partly resets on champion kill or assist
Targeted, Range ~600
Kamisama is able to break through the boundaries of this world, allowing instantaneous travel through the spirit world. Upon encountering a target, Kamisama is overcome with blind rage at inferior beings, greatly increasing her attack speed at the cost of the precision of her attacks. Can be cast on allies and wards, but not turrets.
Kamisama instantly blinks to a nearby target. Grants 20/40/60/80/100% attack speed for 3 seconds upon cast, but Kamisama's AD is reduced by 30/25/20/15/10% during this time. If Kamisama gets a kill or assist while this ability is active, the blink is taken off cooldown while the attack speed steroid continues with the previous cooldown. (i.e. blink resets, steroid does not)
A spell that grants mobility and a strong steroid lategame, also allows Kamisama to clean up fights relatively effectively
R: God Reborn
Cooldown: 180/140/100 seconds
Kamisama channels for a short duration to unleash her full power, damaging and scaring enemies.
Kamisama channels for 1 second to store divine power. 3 seconds after finishing the channel, Kamisama unleashes her power in the form of a transformation, dealing 150/300/450(+0.5 Total AD) to enemies within 300 range and fearing them for 0.5 seconds. In her transformed state, she gains 10% bonus AD and 20/40/60% bonus armor pen that ONLY APPLIES TO BONUS ARMOR and her abilities all gain additional effects.
Passive: Autoattacks now grant 2 stacks of Ghostly Presence Q: Stuns the target for 0.5 seconds when they are hit W: The health cost is removed E: Grants 30% bonus crit chance for 3 seconds upon cast along with the attack speed steroid
My thoughts on possible roles: Solo lane/Jungle
This guy really needs items to scale, most notably lots of attack speed. That means lots of farm is required which mean a solo lane.
Jungle, tentative suggestion due to weak cc and lower gold income, but provides a safer way to obtain said gold/farm by avoiding the laning phase (same reason Yi/Nasus/Tryn/Poppy are sometimes jungled)
Sample Build:
Mercs/Tabi/Zerkers+Shiv/PD/+IE+LW+QSS/Banshees/GA+BT/BotrK/Maw/Zephyr/Shiv(Situational) {------------------------- page break -----------------------------)
Criticism is welcome, and I have a strong feeling that people will find ways to exploit this champion to be OP that I have not considered. I tried to balance her strengths (built in sustain, insane steroids, arguably the most broken passive in the game)with weaknesses (long CD's early game, somewhat limited mobility, relatively weak cc, hp drain in exchange for damage, ult is not instant burst and requires timing).
Hate it, love it, I want to hear the community's feedback on this.
