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[Rework Concept] Zyra, the Arboreal Rose

SSmotzer·1/17/2018, 4:01:08 PM·12 votes·2,099 views

_ Dactylanthus Taylorii is a flower known as the Wood Rose, and Flower of the Underworld, and Flower of Hades, and Fingers of God, it is completely parasitic in nature and is does not have roots or conduct photosynthesis. Instead, it relies on it's host for survival, and when the host dies, so to does the flower. _

_ With the introduction of the Vastaya, the Kumungu Jungle has been relegated to an Easter Egg in Ivern's dialog. I believe Zyra's lore should be changed to be more directly linked with Ivern, the Vastaya, and the **God **Willow. And let's be honest, nearly every aspect of Zyra could use some TLC. _

_ Any criticism or suggestions would be welcome, just please have a reason for your hate. I don't want to hear insults or people whining about me messing with their main and how perfect and balanced they already are. Nothing is perfect, everything is subject to change, we can't live in the past, stop being delusional, and get over it ft. Bennett Foddy. _

https://orig00.deviantart.net/7b15/f/2014/353/e/1/zyra_by_telthona-d8age17.png Zyra by: Telthona

Passive - Planting Roots: Zyra spawns as a simple rose. She can either choose to target an allied champion, and use their body as her host, or she can use any one of her abilities to begin a channel. After the channel she will generate a body for herself. Whenever Zyra dies or recalls she will once again become a rose at the fountain. Zyra dies if her host allied champion or her body dies. If Zyra's allied champion host has more health than her, once their health drops below Zyra's max health, she will be knocked off of them, becoming a vulnerable rose, who's only option is to recall.

  • Vengeful Thorn: When Zyra is attached to an ally, she will retaliate against her host's attackers by attaching a Thorn Spitter or Vine Lasher to the back of her host, depending if they were damaged by a ranged or melee attack or ability. Once the plant decays this ability goes on cooldown for several seconds.

  • Garden of Thorns: Enemy minions Zyra or her plants kills while she is not bound to a host allied champion cause them to be reanimated as an allied minion, but instead of being able to attack, they instead have a Thorn Spitter or Vine Lasher attached to them instead. Once the plant dies, the minion dies.

Q - Deadly Spines: Zyra sprouts thorny spines at the target location that appear after a brief delay, dealing magic damage to all enemies they hit. If Deadly Spines hits a Seed, it sprouts into a Thorn Spitter, which remains on the battlefield 8 seconds

  • Goddess Willow: The thorny spines creates a pillar of thorns, which lasts for a few seconds and acts as terrain. Enemies can attack the pillars of thorns to destroy them.

W - Rampant Growth - Passive: Zyra's stores a Seed periodically, up to a maximum of 2 stored at once.

  • Active: Zyra plants a Seed at the target location, which lasts for 60 seconds and briefly grants sight of the spot Zyra planted it in.

  • Goddess Willow: Any unit that dies from Zyra's damage refreshes Rampant Growth's cooldown.

E - Grasping Roots: Zyra sends a surge of vines in the target direction, dealing magic damage to all enemies hit and Root icon rooting them for a short duration. If Grasping Roots hits a seed, it sprouts into a Vine Lasher, which remains on the battlefield for 8 seconds.

  • Goddess Willow: Zyra's vines will instead pull all enemies hit to her.

R - Goddess Willow: Zyra launches from her host at a target location, and if not on a host, she will cast this at her current location, Zyra will burrow into the ground for 2 seconds, becoming untargetable. After, she bursts from the ground, dealing magic damage and knocking up all enemies around her. She becomes rooted and gains bonus size for several seconds as she reanimates the corpse of the God Willow in her image. All seeds and plants around her become enraged. Zyra's attacks and abilities gain bonus range and deal bonus magic damage. For the duration she is treated as terrain.

  • Once this ability ends, Zyra becomes a rose. She will require an allied champion to walk over her to become her host, or she must survive the channel, uninterrupted, to regain her body.

22 Comments

Hupsis1/17/2018, 4:43:07 PM5 votes

I like the idea of a champion being part of another champion in a symbiosis kinda state. However I'm not sure if any of the existing champions should have this mechanic since it's quite unique and would change the playstyle of a champion dramatically. Maybe on a new champion?

I do like the ult and how she becomes the center piece of her deadly garden.

Arakadia1/18/2018, 2:18:14 AM1 votes

Back with another rework Ssmotzer! Well one way or another you've made a name for yourself. I admire your persistence even if I disagree with some of your approaches. [leblanc-funny]

I don't think the parasitic attachment mechanic is fitting for Zyra, sorry. Her lore isn't about her hopping form host to host. She's got her human host and the whole point of her lore is now that she can die and is vulnerable. She has been humanized. She no longer has roots to retreat to.

I understand why you chose this path, but her lore specifically states that with the power she gained by using a human body, she also became vulnerable and truly mortal.

The passive also just changes her gameplay a crap ton without improving it. I do like attaching to another character as an idea, but on a new champion. This feels like a gimick tacked on when it doesn't actually add anything to the kit. Her kit doesn't have anything that synergizes with her position or host, so why bother?

Plus not having control of your movements would fucking suck in solo que.

The minion power on turning enemy minions into her own plants needs to go. Minion power is either horrendously overpowered or goes unnoticed, and either way feels bad because you can't control what the minions do they just march. Compare this to Yorick who controls when the minions spawn, how many, how, who they attack, and can get them to follow him out of lane.

Also seiging isn't an important aspect for Zyra, and could potentially break a support/mage if it was strong at all. Supports and mages aren't supposed to be good at seiging.

Now the ult is hella cool. I'm not sure how it would feel to play in game, it feels like more of a combat mage's ability, but the idea of reanimating a God Willow is fucking epic. When they update Zyra lore, I would love to have her be an enemy of Ivern who wants to become/gain the power of/reanimate or has some connections to the God Willow. Showing the extreme sides of the spectrum in nature is super cool and I wish they put Shaco in the fae so they could do this with Lulu and him. Anyways having Zyra be Nature's Wrath so to speak and Ivern Nature's Gift is pretty cool.

Oh also the 2 second delay on her ult is a little worrying just because it would leave the enemy a lot of time to cast some CC, retreat, prepare, etc. and even after words her zone of control would have to be massive if she wants the enemy to stay within her ranges. I'd make the delay shorter unless you expected to give her really big cast ranges and let her control a massive area so the enemy can't always escape in time the second she takes herself out of battle for 2+ seconds just to unleash her combo.

I do think Zyra could use another update. Her passive is pretty boring and fails to truly bring to life the Garden of Thorns she is supposed to promise. Her ultimate is pretty god damn hard to avoid and its mostly just a big AoE damage knockup, which again could live up to the fantasy better. It seems like Zyra also fluctuates in strength levels and sometimes proves hard to balance, especially while keeping both her mid lane and support lane strengths in check.

Anyways this rework has potential. I would have done the kit differently but I like the thematic direction with the God Willow so much that its honestly inspiring.

LuaDotExe1/20/2018, 3:24:30 PM1 votes

I was milling through Gameplay when I saw this, and thought I should point out that generally, skin and champion concepts go in the Concepts & Creations section, not Gameplay. You'll find a lot more feedback there, and we even have an official Discord server.