Champion reworks for all champions A-Z

arcticturtle·8/6/2014, 5:03:48 PM·3 votes·3,206 views

Nothing in this thread will ever come to fruition. I realize that. Don't mind me, I'm just having some fun.

I have no idea what Riot were thinking when they designed their champions. But in a lot of cases, I find myself thinking "this is not what I would have done". So I set a challenge for myself to sit down and go through champions A-Z and write down how I would do it, and how my reasoning would be.

I'm not actively discouraging anyone from posting here. But my reason for this post is not to hear the opinions of others, nor to give my opinion "to the people" or "to Riot". I just think the thread format is nice and I am using it to collect my own thoughts, for my own pleasure. But if you want to comment or put down your own ideas, go ahead. The internet is free.

All my champion reworks will be conceptualized in their own reply below.

**Note: **Numbers are made up. I don't claim to know anything about balance. The point here for me is conceptualization, and part of the concept is showing in what way numbers would increase. It's not meant to be a fixed number, it is meant to communicate the concept I have in mind.

29 Comments

arcticturtle8/6/2014, 11:33:32 PM3 votes

Alistar Alistar

Alistar is in a tricky place, because he is support but maybe he's a jungler or possibly a mid mage? I think the problem is that his kit is a bit too strong in a bit too different ways. So I would like to rework him into being focused on support. In doing so, I would remove most of his damage and channel his kit into being tanky and having good CC. His defining characteristic should be this huge powerful bull / minotaur that just walks in, wreaks havoc, and then walks out again.

Trample (passive)

Alistar ignores unit collision and deals 0.1 % of max health in damage to nearby enemy units when he is moving. Units that take damage in this way are also slowed by 5%.

The point of him dealing a bit of damage with his passive is mostly to ensure that he gets assists when he dives in as a tank. Since his abilities focus around the power of his massive body, I will make them scale off of health or armor.

Pulverize (Q)

Range: 350
Cooldown: 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 / 11
Active: Alistar smashes the ground beneath him, dealing magic damage (1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5% of max health) and knocking them up for 1 second. Upon landing they are stunned for 0.1 (+ 0.1% of bonus armor) seconds.

If Alistar has 200 bonus armor, the stun would last for 0.3 seconds. So not a lot, but these parts of a second can be really valuable on an AoE ability. Since the damage is not significant, I think the cooldown can be reduced a bit.

Headbutt (W)

Range: 450
Active: Alistar dashes to an enemy, stunning it for 1 second while knocking it back 200 range (+ 1 range for every 10 health).

The idea here is that when Alistar grows bigger he is also able to headbutt enemies with more power. Not sure how the range works out, but I think it should start out short and then grow towards end-game. This is because I think the headbutt-pulverize combo is most important in lane and then you don't want to miss that. The headbutted enemy should move the distance over their 1-sec stun, so the combo is easier to pull off early levels. Later in the game, headbutt can be better used to single out enemies in team fights or peel off threats.

Triumphant Roar (E)

Range: 600
Cooldown: 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12
Active: Alistar heals himself and nearby allies for 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 + 1% max health. Triumphant Roar's cooldown is reduced by 1 second every time Alistar takes damage.

When you see this big bull rush into combat and shake off the blows he takes, you get motivated to rush in after him. So it makes sense that the cooldown on Triumphant Roar should be reduced when Alistar takes damage instead of when enemies die off. To prevent him acting like a healing machine in early levels, the cooldown is extended. This will motivate Alistar players to buy health and armor, leaving Alistar vulnerable to magic damage. So if he becomes a problem for your team, you just let your mage deal with him. For example, Ryze who has a lot of sustained magic damage.

Unbreakable Will (R)

Alistar roars, removing all CC effects from himself. For 10 seconds duration he takes 70 % reduced damage.

It might seem boring to some people to have a champion that doesn't kill anything. Well, with this rework, I also had the idea to rework Atma's Impaler so that the damage scales off of max health and that it gives armor penetration instead of crit. That would enable a late-game Alistar to provide some pretty heavy auto-attack damage to his team as well as being an immovable object in team fights.

arcticturtle8/6/2014, 6:52:14 PM2 votes

Ahri Ahri

The elusive 9-tailed fox, that might as well have a kit like LeBlanc. I would have wanted Ahri to have a kit where I could easily comment in all-chat that "you have been out-foxed". Some way of outsmarting people, and luring them into positions where they should just have known better than to step in there. As she is designed currently, she seems to have a heavier focus around high damage and assassination, which I am not very fond of. Still, she already has a kit that is established, and making radical changes doesn't feel like a good option. So I would try to just refocus her role a bit.

Essence Theft (passive)

Ahri gains a charge of Essence Theft with each enemy unit she damages. If Ahri is out of combat, Essence Theft charges will diminish by 1 per second.

With her passive, I just removed some superfluous text. My intention with this passive is to let it empower her spells, as she darts around the battle field. The intention I have is that Ahri should be able to do small amounts of damage to minions and champions, building her up towards a crescendo where she will unleash her true self. By using her abilities in a fitting order, she can either maximize her damage or maximize her utility to the rest of the team. To make it manageable, I added a diminishing over time effect out-of-combat.

Orb of Deception (Q)

Range: 900
Cost: X mana
Cooldown: 7 seconds
Active: Ahri sends out an orb in a line in front of her and then pulls it back, dealing magic damage (20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 + 20% AP).

I didn't change Q much, except reduce its damage. Remember, this is the orb of deception, and the amount of damage it deals is deceptively low. If you get poked by this you will think "pff, she is no threat to me", which is precisely the point. Remember that every minion and champion and monster hit will give her more charges of Essence Theft.

Fox-Fire (W)

Range: 800
Cost: X mana and 100% Essence Theft charges
Cooldown: 10 / 9 / 8 / 6 / 7 seconds
Active: Ahri receives 1 fox-fire for each Essence Theft charge, up to a maximum of 12. The fox-fires will encircle her for up to 5 seconds. If an enemy is in range or comes into range, each fox-fire will target the closest visible enemy unit to itself (range calculated from fox-fire position, not Ahri center), prioritizing champions, and deal magic damage to the target (5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 + 40% AP). No added ET-charges.

See how this works? That Ahri that seemed to be so weak, who struggled to do any damage to you or even to minions, actually she kept herself in combat constantly by hitting Wraiths between minion waves and now has a lot of Essence Theft charges and when you come close to her she will burst you down with a torrent of fox-fires. Sneaky.

Charm (E)

Range: 1000
Cost: 90 mana
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Active: Ahri blows a kiss that travels in a line in front of her. The first enemy it hits is charmed, forcing them to walk harmlessly towards Ahri while being slowed for 70 / 60 / 50 / 40 / 30 % for the duration.
Duration: 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 seconds. When the duration ends, the duration will be extended by consuming a charge of Essence Theft every 0.2 seconds until no charges remain.

So you've been sneaking around and you have gained a lot of charges on your passive. Will you get the longest CC in the game? Or will you consume 12 of your precisous charges to deal a lot of damage? Will the opponent think it is worth to use their Cleanse spell, or should they save it? Either way, you can find a way to out-fox them.

Spirit Rush (R)

Range: 300
Cost: 100 mana
Active: Ahri dashes towards the cursor. This can be repeated 5 times after the initial cast without cost for the duration of the spell.
Duration: 12 seconds. For the duration of the spell, Ahri recieves 1 fox-fire per second for each nearby enemy champion.

More dashes, but similar total length. Sustained damage in team-fights. Should keep Ahri in her current role, but more foxyness.

arcticturtle8/6/2014, 10:51:11 PM2 votes

Akali Akali

Akali is the fist of shadow, and at the core of her is the ability to jump out from the shadow and strike you down. This is something of a problem, because it doesn't offer a lot of counter-play. All the champions that can go invisible have been problematic throughout the history of LoL. Before, you could place a pink ward in lane, but now pink wards are just instantly killed. So we need to work a bit with Akali I think.

Current passive is she gains stats from both AD and AP. Pretty boring. I think her passive should deal with her two masteries: 1) hiding in shadow and 2) striking down hard from the shadow.

Twin Disciplines (passive)

Shadow: Akali becomes invisible if she enters brush or smoke. Attacking will make her visible again. If she is visible in brush or smoke, she has to enter a different smoke or brush area to re-activate her invisibility.
Fist: The first attack that Akali does from invisibility does 25% increased damage.

This passive will allow Akali to either set up an attack, or hide when she is in danger. But she cannot jump in-and-out of stealth the way she currently does (except in top lane where three bushes are really close together, but there is still a lot more counter-play by moving away from bushes). With this passive, she should also have interactions with for example Graves's smoke bomb.

Mark of the Assassin (Q)

Range: 900
Cooldown: 5 seconds
Active: Akali marks a target, damaging them and giving vision of them for 6 seconds. Abilities used on marked targets have their cooldown reduced by 2 seconds and refunds energy.

Deathfire Grasp is a problematic item, and I don't like champion abilities that amplify damage either. If you just amplify damage, you can get 100-0 in health too fast to react, but if you get a mark on you it is possible to see that "hey, I should move back 'cause she is going to damage me a lot soon". With a 5 second cooldown and 6 second duration, Akali can mark a target that is already marked, and then the next mark will be only 3 seconds away, and the next one only 1 second away after that, so that she can spam Q if someone doesn't run away from her.

Twilight Shroud (W)

Range: 700
Akali throws a smoke bomb that creates a smoke cloud with 300 radius and doing a small amount of damage. Enemies caught in the smoke are slowed. (Same as Graves, but larger area).

When we don't have a mark to consume, her E must change. I want to look at Akali as kind of a melee assassin version of Graves. So maybe her E should become her Q instead, but I will leave it like this. The point is that she should get in your face to deal tons of damage, and she gets close with stealth and tactics.

** Crescent Slash (E)**

Range: 300
Akali slashes her kamas, dealing a great deal of damage in an arc in front of her to multiple targets (50 / 80 / 120 / 180 / 270 + 75% AD).

What really defines Akali for me is her ultimate. With her ability to jump in and then jump out, fast players can gain a lot. But with her invisibility and burst assassin damage, this is just annoying for everyone else than Akali. So I want to change her ultimate into an emphasis on the shadow dancing.

Shadow Dance (R)

Range: 800
Cooldown: 5 / 4 / 3 seconds
Active: Akali can jump to anyone within a shrouded area (brush or smoke). On impact she deals physical damage (100 / 175 / 200 + 100 % AD).

Note that a marked target will give her the same cooldowns as before, but it is more difficult for her to switch targets. Also, you can escape by moving out from smoke and/or brush. The point here is that with a level 6 or higher Akali, you should really fear the brush, and you should react fast if she throws her smoke bomb on you, or if she has Graves or other smoke-champ on her team.

CLG Doublerift8/6/2014, 11:07:32 PM2 votes

Cool ideas! I know you said this isn't necessarily a thread for everyone to throw in their own ideas, but I've had one idea floating around for awhile and I just wanted to put it out there.

I think it'd be cool to see more "resource-diversity" in champions, and I think it'd be pretty cool thematically if Twisted Fate used a deck of cards (52) as his resource. Autoattacks cost 1 card each, his Q costs 3, his W combines 3 cards for a special effect (the blue card restoring X number or percent of his total cards), his E would be free, and his ult would cost ~8-10 (the number of cards that float around him when he channels the teleport). Each time he kills a minion or monster with an autoattack the card would remain on the ground for him to pick up. His resource bar would show all 52 cards in a row. It's important to note that this change wouldn't (and shouldn't) be meant as a balance change, but rather as a cool/unique thematic change for the sake of diversity.

arcticturtle8/6/2014, 5:44:45 PM2 votes

Aatrox Aatrox

When I was a kid, I read this book about a man who somehow got a hold of a sword. The only thing I remember about the sword itself was that the grip or the hilt was tightly wound silver threads. The sword started talking with a voice inside the head of the man who found it. By listening to the sword, he was able to win battles and gain glory. But the sword was extremely blood thirsty, and it continually demanded more kills and more blood. It's an old book. I have no idea if Riot were inspired by it when they designed Aatrox, but it is the first thing that comes to my mind. I have no idea what the book was called though.

Aatrox (the first champion in alphabetical order) is an inanimate object come to life in human form, just like Zyra (the last champion in alphabetical order). As such, he is deeply defined by the characteristics of the item he has sprung forward from. He says that Tryndamere was his greatest achievement, and if my idea from the book is correct, then the human form of Aatrox is actually the body of Tryndamere that has been captured and remodeled. It doesn't really matter, but there are some deeply defined similarities between these champions and their connection with the sword.

The most important part about Aatrox is his unsaturated lust for blood. He should be constantly on the offensive, and if he retreats it is only to find an opening for a better attack. More blood and more death means more Aatrox. I actually think that this is a champion that Riot did really well with, in that regard. What I don't approve of is the "coming back from the dead" part of his passive. Instead, I would have made his passive something like this:

Blood Well (passive)

Whenever Aatrox does damage, 5 % of that damage is pooled into a Blood Well. The size of the Blood Well is equal to Aatrox's attack damage. When Aatrox is out of combat, his accumulated Blood Well decreases at a rate of 20% per second.
Aatrox passively increases his attack speed by 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6% for every 5% in the Blood Well.
Aatrox passively increases his attack damage by 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 for every 10% in the Blood Well
Aatrox passively increases his life steal by 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6% for every 20% in the Blood Well.

The point of this passive is to make the counter-play against Aatrox as "don't get hit", just like you would play versus a real sword. You're fine as long as you don't get hit. But if you stand there and let him hit you, it's going to hurt a lot. That said, we also need to allow Aatrox some ability to play versus opponents who try to "kite" him. Just like a real sword flies and swerves around in the air to find an opening, Aatrox needs to fly and swerve around to find openings. His original Q does this in a decent way, but I think the knockup is OP. So I would change it slightly:

Dark Flight (Q)

Range: 600
Cost: 40 % of accumulated blood in Blood Well. If Blood Well is empty, the cost is 10 % of Aatrox's max health, but not bringing Aatrox below 1 health.
Cooldown: 5 seconds
Active: Aatrox takes flight and moves to targeted area, dealing damage to opponents along his path. Physical damage: 0/0/0/0/0 + 100% AD.

Inanimate objects don't have minds. Therefore, a lot of crowd control doesn't really make sense. So I would change his W to being a way to counter CC-heavy opponents. The counter-play towards a sword is not to "silence" it, but to disable it. So the way to deal with Aatrox should be to kill him before he kills you, not to keep him at a distance with crowd control measures. Still, Aatrox does have some human form, so it makes sense to think that he may need to make an effort to get full control of the humanity and focus his power into his own "sword self". This is reflected in this ability:

Blood Thirst (W)

Passive: Aatrox is immune to silence and taunt.
Active: Aatrox reduces the duration of any crowd control by 10 / 20 / 40 / 80 / 100% that hits him during the next 3 seconds.
Active cooldown: 15 seconds.

arcticturtle8/7/2014, 12:35:35 PM2 votes

Anivia Anivia

The cryophoenix is an interesting concept. Most people know that the phoenix will rise from its own ashes and be reborn if it is killed. The other part of cryophoenix: "cryos" describes something that is icy cold. So we have the area of cryobiology that studies how living organisms survive in sub-zero body temperatures, and we have cryopreservation where things are frozen to preserve them. So a cryophoenix is a creature that will rise from its own remains after it is killed, and it is also supposed to be icy cold. What is the remains of ice? I'll give you a hint, it's not an egg. I'd say the remains of ice is a puddle of water.

Rebirth (passive)

Upon taking lethal damage, Anivia will melt into a puddle of water. During 6 seconds, she will then start to re-crystallize from the puddle. This rebirth can only occur once every 240 seconds.

In terms of Anivia's abilities, I think they should reflect that water and ice are the opposite of fire, which is traditionally associated with the phoenix. So while a phoenix might breathe fire, Anivia should be sucking in warmth so that the greatest effect is closest to herself.

Flash Frost (Q)

Range: 1000
Active: Anivia unleashes a cold front travelling in a line away from her, dealing damage to anyone it passes through. Enemies caught in the frost will be frozen solid and stunned for 2 to 0 seconds, decreasing with distance, and slowed for 4 to 2 seconds, decreasing with distance.

Crystallize (W)

Unchanged

I don't think her W needs changing. If I would do a change, I would make it more like an arc or semi-circle around herself, and not so much a straight line. It could also be interesting to add a slow on the side of the wall that is closer to Anivia, due to opponents being frozen. Not a big slow but maybe 5% or 10%. But if a slow is added then the wall needs to be made shorter so that it isn't over the top overpowered.

One wall change that could be fun to play around with would be to make its size depend on the distance to the river. This would make Anivia very powerful when fighting baron and dragon, but she would be much worse at defending the base or sieging the opponent base.

Something that bothers me a bit is that the current Anivia is throwing out ice left and right. Where does all the water come from? That is why I changed the Q to be more like a weather front moving forward like a wave. And similarly, I think her E should be changed too. But I also prefer to look at Anivia as something of a black hole of cold temperature, sucking out the warmth from her surroundings. So I think her E should be entirely changed into something like Lissandra's W.

Frostbite (E)

Range: 400
Active: Anivia sucks the warmth out of the air, dealing damage to enemies in a radius and slowing them.

For her ultimate, I imagine it like being in a real snow storm, which means you can't see a thing. So I think this should have the same vision-limitation as Graves' smoke bomb, and also enable someone like for example Akali to take advantage of the "smoke screen" (snow screen?).

Glacial Storm (R)

Range: 600
Active: Anivia creates a blizzard in target 400-radius area, that deals magic damage every second to enemies inside. Enemies in the storm have reduced vision, are slowed, and become susceptible to shadow attacks.

With some additions of CC on her abilities, the damage should probably be reduced a bit. But I don't really care how, so I didn't put any numbers there.

arcticturtle8/9/2014, 3:56:42 PM2 votes

Annie Annie

Children shouldn't be playing with fire. Yet, Annie makes playing with fire look like childsplay. She seems to be looking for Tibbers a lot, yet she can throw him out at will it seems. So there's a lot of conflicts within this little girl. Maybe that is why Goth Annie is my favourite skin. But if we think about Annie as a kid with conflicting emotions running amok and then letting that fire out on the world, her kit doesn't really make sense. Why does she have a stun? And how would "pyromania" cause people to get stunned? Also, I don't think her shield makes sense. In fact, the only way to make sense of her shield is as a mechanic to help her work up her stun, and that is something I percieve as a design flaw. So those are the two abilities I would change about her the most.

Pyromania (passive)

Any time Annie casts a spell, her ability power will increase by 1% per second over 5 seconds.

What is the signature sign of a pyromaniac? That they rejoice when things are burning, right? So it would make sense to make Annie see burning things and want to light them even more on fire. Making it stronger after a few seconds means that instantly killing someone isn't the path for Annie. She wants to watch them burn, and add one fire on top of the other. It might even be preferable to make the increase less and the time longer, but I don't think it's a good idea to create AP monsters like late game Veigar so the time should be kept so it isn't stackable to infinity. Maybe make the passive time affected by CDR.

Disintegrate (Q)

Unchanged

Incinerate (W)

Unchanged

Anivia's wall is arguably one of the most powerful spells in the game, because it forces opponents to make a specific choice. I want to change Annie's E, and I am attracted by the idea of naming it Firewall. But for a champion with such high damage as Annie, it wouldn't be good to have such a powerful spell that forces opponents to make a choice. Instead, it should be a choice that they only make if they are desperate.

Firewall (new E)

Similar to Anivia's wall in size etc
Cannot be placed on top of champions or structures.
Any champions passing through the wall will get equivalent of ignite, with AP-scaling.

Summon: Tibbers (R)

Unchanged, possibly reduce damage somewhat

So this is my ideas about Annie. Focus her damage to more sustained, and remove her CC and defensive abilities. If she turns out to be too vulnerable without her molten shield and CC, then I think her range could be increased a bit. The main point I have about her is that her kit should reflect that she enjoys watching things burn (as opposed to watching things instantly die).

arcticturtle8/9/2014, 4:40:57 PM2 votes

Ashe Ashe

It seems like Ashe should be like a sniper, but with a bow. Kind of like Merida, in the Disney movie "Brave", but a bit more grown up. But I don't think her kit reflects this. Her passive is more about luck than anything else. Q and R are more about ice and cold. W is a bit like "spray and pray". I guess hawkshot could make sense, but why does it make her earn more money?

To begin with, I would like to emphasize Ashe's role as a queen. Maybe she has taxes to collect. Maybe she has an expert corpse-looter by her side who is better at salvaging valuables from defeated enemies. In any case, I think her income boost should be moved from her E to her passive. This will make Ashe stronger in lower leagues, but I see that as a good thing. After all, she is the first champ people encounter, and should be kept as a strong alternative for beginners who haven't learned to CS properly yet.

Royal Crown (passive)

Ashe earns a bonus 2 gold when an enemy unit dies in her vicinity.

I do realize that this also makes support Ashe viable. Design bonus! If it turns out support Ashe is OP because of this, just reduce the range within which she earns gold. :-)

Frost Shot (Q)

Unchanged

I don't mind a bit of magically enchanted arrows. I mean, every champion have magically enhanced projectiles that never ever miss their target, so if Ashe is a sniper, how would she define herself if it doesn't mean being better at hitting her target? Here is also my reasoning for changing her W. Instead of making it a wide spray of arrows, I want to change it to a single arrow that is difficult to hit but deals tons of damage. What I'm thinking is making it similar to the Varus skill where he loads his bow and fires a piercing arrow. But in Ashe's case, she's a beginner champion, so making the range depending on how long you load your bow isn't a good choice. Just keep it at a fixed range, and make the arrow fly in a bow through the air, kind of like the Ziggs ultimate. But it's only one single arrow, so the area of impact should be really small.

Volley (W)

Range: 800?
Area of Effect on Impact: 25 radius? Something small.
Active: Ashe shoots an arrow in a high volley through the air that deals high damage on impact (100 / 120 / 140 / 160 / 180 + 300% AD).

Since the area of impact is so small, and the travel time through the air allows some opportunity for opponents to react, we can allow a ridiculous amount of damage. This ability should be difficult to hit anything that isn't standing absolutely still, so that the player also gets a feeling of being a sniper. Could also encourage hiding in bushes to set up kills.

Hawkshot (E)

Gold gain removed, otherwise unchanged.

Enchanted Crystal Arrow (R)

Changed to scale off of AD, possibly with a smaller ratio.
Changed to do physical damage
Stun duration changed to a constant 1 second (down from 3.5 seconds)
Radius of impact changed to scale with level (100 / 200 / 300).

I don't think it's fair to give a super long stun to a markswoman. And it doesn't really fit her kit that well, except for the icy theme. But it could make sense that she is able to make the arrow explode over a wider area, and affect more opponents with shrapnel. So I think that the secondary benefits should be the focus of increasing the ultimate, and of course the base damage of the spell.

arcticturtle8/9/2014, 8:00:56 PM2 votes

Blitzcrank

Three hooks are in League; Blitz, Nautilus, and Thresh (I don't count Darius as having a hook because short distance makes it more of a displacement). These three all have shields. They all also have another disable (knockup or root). Then there is the third ultimate CC (silence, knockup-stun, slow). There is surprisingly little variation here. The one that stands out a little is Thresh, who can also "hook" friendlies, by consent. The difference in the hooks is also a bit confusing to me. Blitz can hook people to him, OK. Nautilus, who is massive but also has a massive hook (an anchor that weighs a ton) actually can't stand still when hooking a small Teemo, but is forced to pull himself in half the distance. Thresh on the other hand, can pull both himself as well as Nautilus (or anyone else) to a small Teemo while only moving the Teemo slightly. Someone at Riot knows nothing about physics.

I want to change the way hooks work entirely. First of all, because they are totally overpowered. Second of all, because they don't belong to the right champions (which is OK in a way since Nautilus and Thresh are new additions, but it's about time to fix it). Third of all, because they break the laws of physics and are unintuitive in that way. So let's lay down some basic ground rules:

Basic premise: Great mass should move less when a force is applied.
Mountains/walls on the map have greater mass than champions.
Balancing should be done on the range of a hook, not on secondary properties.

Since I am doing this in alphabetical order, I will have to return to Nautilus and Thresh at a later time. But I will say now that I intend for Nautilus, Thresh and Blitzcrank to exchange hook behaviors. I also intend for all hooks to attach to walls on the map.

Energy Barrier (passive)

Works with energy, otherwise unchanged.

Seriously, there is an energy resource in the game, but the robot works with mana?! Nope, from now on, Blitzcrank uses energy as a resource. This is a huge nerf to his shield, but see if I care. No, I don't, I don't care. Let him build health and armor if he wants to be tanky.

Rocket Grab (Q)

Range: Balanced
Cost: 50% of max energy?
Active: Blitz extends his right hand in a line. If it hits terrain, Blitz can activate the ability again (within 1 second) to pull himself forward to the terrain. If it hits an enemy than that enemy is rooted up to 1 second, the second activation moves Blitz half the distance and the enemy moves half the distance. (i.e. Nautilus hook with Thresh activation)

Having reactivation after a successful grab makes sense on a robot who can just open his fist to let go, but it makes less sense when you have an anchor or a hook because how does that come loose all of a sudden? Now that Blitz has this massive gap-closer as well as escape, he could potentially pair that with Overdrive to get away from anyone and catch up to anyone. Movement is already OP in League, and I don't want to contribute too much to the mobility creep. So the cost of both needs to be really high, so that he at least doesn't have any shield to use if he uses his mobility this way. Remember also that energy regen is much faster than mana regen usually.

Overdrive (W)

Unchanged, except working with energy
Cost: 40 % of max energy?

A big point about my changes with Blitz is that he has to make a few choices. Use all of his abilities? Or skip an ability in favor of getting the most out of his shield? If it turns out that these changes are a total nerf to him, I don't mind adding some more damage to his skills. After all, getting hit by a huge metal robot probably hurts quite a bit. This could mean that Blitz turns into a jungler or top-laner, like the current Nautilus, and I'm perfectly OK with this.

Power Fist (E)

Unchanged, except energy
Cost: 40 % of max energy?

arcticturtle8/10/2014, 11:24:36 AM2 votes

Brand

I was thinking of Annie as a child with conflicting emotions. Reading the lore on Brand, it seems I am the one who has conflicting emotions. A creature of fire, living in an ice cave with the sea as floor? This is the last type of champion I would connect with Freljord. I think it would have been more reasonable to make him a prisoner in Ionia, that was freed after the destruction. Whatever, some people just want to watch the world burn, and apparently Brand is one of them. I don't know how Riot chose the name, but Brand means "fire" in Swedish. Specifically, it is the kind of fire that occurs in buildings or forests, a consuming fire that over a long time eats up everything unless you get there early to put it out. So for me, having damage over time seems obvious for Brand's kit, and preferably damage over time that will kill you unless you work against it.

It's curious how Brand puts enemies on blaze, while Annie doesn't. Thing is, Brand doesn't seem to consume the body of his host, but his fire is still damaging based on body size / health. Just like Annie, he has a stun, which doesn't make sense to me in a fire based kit. What do you do when you catch fire? Drop and roll? Run around waving your arms? A lot of possibilities, but just standing there doesn't seem to be an option, does it? I think it is obvious that we need to make a few drastic changes with this kit.

Blaze (passive)

Mostly unchanged, except: Every application of Blaze will renew the duration of previous applications and stack a new Blaze on top of them.

Just like the new Annie passive, I want Brand to have a fire that consumes and it should be a fire that you really don't want to be around for any extended period of time. As a player, you should really want to make an effort to not have multiple Brand spells hit you.

Sear (Q)

Brand hurls a ball of fire in a line away from him, applying a 5 second damage over time effect to any enemies it passes by.

So the stun is removed from Q, but instead it is converted to an AoE ability. And instead of doing a lot of up front damage, I want to change it to a DoT effect. To me, searing is not being in the actual fire but rather a bit too close. Burn wounds are also the most difficult to heal, so I was pondering to put a reduced healing effect on here, but I'm not sure if it's too strong.

Pillar of Flame (W)

Unchanged

I think the pillar is fine the way it is. It helps to define his kit as being a bit different from others (e.g. Annie), and it puts emphasis on his desire to just cause everything and everyone to be engulfed in flames.

Conflagration (E)

Unchanged, except addition: Units affected by conflagration run away in fear for 2 seconds.
Also, damage converted to 5 second DoT.

So I removed a stun from Q, but I added a fear on E that can potentially be an AoE CC. So while fear is a weaker form of CC than a stun, this is actually a buff. But it is also easy to counter; just don't stand so close together. I think a fear makes a lot more sense than a stun, and I also think it fits better on conflagration because if people all around you start bursting into flames, you'll probably start running.

Pyroclasm (R)

Changed to always prioritize champions.
Changed to have 25 % of damage applied as a 5 second DoT.

If you haven't noticed, I really want most of Brand's damage to be applied over time. First the 5 second DoT's on abilities, and then the stacking passive as well. Since Brand has so low mobility, this may mean that he ends up dead a lot. But he should also be able to kill a few opponents a few seconds after he himself dies. And people who aren't calculating the DoT's properly will just slowly burn down from poke. With all his abilities as AoE, this also emphasizes his desire to watch the entire world burn.

Honestly, if I would have done Brand from scratch, I probably would have done him quite different from this. Using things like Shyvana's trail of fire, for example. But identity matters a lot.

arcticturtle8/10/2014, 11:43:34 AM2 votes

Braum Braum

Only a few months old, and already a rework. Oh well.

Braum is big and strong, and he hits hard. So his passive makes sense for himself, but why are his team mates suddenly so strong that they too can stun opponents by hitting them? This doesn't make sense, and I also think it makes Braum a bit difficult to balance well. So...

Concussive Blows (passive)

Removed allied champions stack generation.

Winter's Bite (Q)

Unchanged

Stand Behind Me (W)

Removed: Bonus armor and magic resist.
Reduced: Mana cost and cooldown.

Unbreakable (E)

Added: Armor and magic resist from W.
Increased: Mana cost. Like... doubled. Or tripled.

So, I want to give Braum a bit more movement, without getting lots of tankyness while jumping around. It makes more sense to make him vulnerable when running around, so there's a cost-benefit trade-off in it. But I don't want to go too far. We still want Braum to be a tank, so the stats aren't entirely removed, I've just put them on Unbreakable instead, where it makes more sense. As a result, Unbreakable needs to be more expensive, and it should also be obvious that you can't just randomly spam this spell.

Shield Bash (R)

Active: Braum rushes forward with his shield raised, dealing magic damage to enemies hit. Enemies in his path are knocked aside and slowed. At the end of his charge, Braum jumps up and slams his shield down. Opponents caught by the shield are stunned for 1.5 seconds.

Thing is, I don't understand why Braum needs to summon a magical glacial fissure. He has his shield, it is his defining characteristic, so let him use it. There is also a big decision to make here, is it worth rushing into the enemy team? But this also enables him to make use of his passive and smack people around a bit. Then he can jump out of the heat of fire with Stand Behind Me. So I really prefer this way of doing it, both for the flavor of the character but also for the increased opportunities of making big plays. I think of this ultimate sort of like a reversed Malphite ult.

ArcticTurtIe8/10/2014, 5:02:03 PM2 votes

Caitlyn Caitlyn

Here's another conundrum; the sheriff of Piltover is a sniper. A sniper is an unseen assassin that kills from a distance, while a sheriff upholds the law which generally means making sure people do not get killed. Maybe she is actually a part of the Piltover SWAT-team... Maybe the city of Piltover is run by fundamentalists of some religion, where it is OK to give out death sentences without a trial. If we make that assumption, we can keep her mostly the way she is.

Headshot (passive)

Unchanged

Make no mistake, Caitlyn shoots to kill, and she aims for the head. Of course, if she would hit the head she would one-shot anyone, so it seems even with guaranteed hits on every shot, she is quite lousy at aiming.

Piltover Peacemaker (Q)

Unchanged

Peace in Piltover means killing as many people as possible. When no one is left alive, then no one can commit any crimes either. Genius.

Yordle Snap Trap (W)

Channel time: 3 seconds.
Caitlyn places a trap where she is standing. Each trap lasts up to 1/2/3/4/5 minutes, or until Caitlyn places her trap in a new location (maximum 1 trap).
Traps are always visible to both allies and enemies.
Stepping on a trap will root enemy champions for 30 seconds. This root can be broken at any time by moving away from the trap. If an enemy chooses to break the root early, their boots will get stuck in the trap and disappear. If the trapped enemy doesn't have boots, they are slowed 5/10/15/20/25 % for 10 seconds.

Police methods are usually pretty obvious. Only stupid criminals get caught, with the occasional exception. If you can't pay the price, don't do the crime. Also, Yordle's are pretty cunning little bastards, if anyone can think of a thing that steals items from your inventory it's them.

90 caliber net (E)

Unchanged

It's funny how Caitlyn doesn't use this ability to catch criminals; she uses it to run away from them. But it's actually a pretty good idea to have this in a sniper kit.

Death Sentence (R)

Unchanged, except name change.

I don't get the name "Ace in the hole". The only Acehole is the guy stepping in front of the shot and preventing a perfectly good kill. No, as a sheriff with a license to kill, it's better to emphasize that and call it a death sentence, even if it rarely results in death.

This remake may have been slightly less serious. I guess I just find it hard to take Caitlyn seriously as a concept. There are too many contradictions. But it's also way too late to remake her entire lore and identity. So it is what it is. Although, even when accepting the concept as much as I can, I still can't accept the current functionality of her traps. They don't seem to belong. So I thought the best approach was to magnify how ridiculous they are. It would probably make more sense to just replace this ability with a different thing. Something to give vision, similar to the Quinn/Valor functions. But I can't take Caitlyn seriously, so I'll pass on that effort.

arcticturtle9/3/2014, 6:31:44 AM2 votes

Corki Corki

I think Corki has a kit that is a bit too versatile. He has short-range armor-reducing gatling gun to duel melees, and he has extremely long ultimate rockets to poke down ranged. His valkyrie both does damage and serves as an escape. He gets lots of bonus damage from AD, but he can also add a bit of AP to deal with anyone who stacks armor for defense (plus true damage passive!). It's just too many good things together that puts him a bit too OP. I want to focus his role on long-range poke, since he is in an airplane and it makes sense in that way to have long range.

First off, I don't like the idea of true damage. Where is the counter-play to that? So instead, I will give Corki splash damage on all of his basic attacks. But I think this splash damage should come at a cost, there needs to be a tradeoff so that the passive doesn't make him instantly OP, so I think it's reasonable to make the primary target of auto-attacks take less damage. This makes Corki into a lane pusher, and after he has pushed a lane to a tower he can use his abilities to poke.

Hextech Shrapnel Shells (passive)

All of Corki's basic attacks deal 2 % damage to any surrounding units, but 4 % less damage to the primary target.

All of Corki's abilities are changed to deal physical damage. Also, all AP-scaling removed.

Phosphorous Bomb (Q)

Changed to only give vision after the bomb has hit, not before.
Should de-stealth units if they are hit (not sure if it does this currently).

I'm changing Valkyrie into a re-activated skill, so that you have to choose if you want to leave a damage-dealing trail of fire or if you want to escape from enemies. This means, if you want to jump over a wall you have to re-activate very early but if you want to play "don't chase Singed" then that works too at the expense of not being able to jump walls.

Valkyrie (W)

Active: Corki activates rockets that burn the ground below him. The ground remains burning for X seconds (like Shyvana).
Re-activation: Corki can activate this skill a second time to empty his rocket tanks and get a massive propulsion that sends him flying in target direction. The range he flies depends on how much fuel was already used to burn the ground, but starts at a maximum 800 range. It takes a lot of energy to fly, so the range he can jump should decrease logarithmically with time as he moves around to burn the ground.
Burning ground does magic damage, as an exception to the rule. It makes sense, after all. On the other hand, burning ground damage should not have scaling damage with AP/AD, although the radius that is burning could possibly scale with AD.

Gatling Gun should be kept as a long-range weapon to prepare for Corki's ultimate rockets. I don't like him having such an effective way of dealing with tanks that jump him. As a trade-off for the increased range, it should not be an AoE ability, but rather a skill-shot that fires continuously.

Gatling Gun (E)

Active: Unchanged, except that bullets don't cover a big cone, they go out in a narrow line for 800 range. Also, instead of continuous spray, the bullets go out in short bursts every 1 seconds and will only hit one enemy.

Missile Barrage (R)

Unchanged (except for removing AP-scaling etc)

arcticturtle8/7/2014, 11:47:24 AM2 votes

Amumu Amumu

A mummy missing his mommy. He walks around in constant grief and sorrow (W), and he is desperate for some attention, so much so that he will grab a hold of you and force you to listen a second (Q). Of course, when you don't listen and just walk away, his sorrow will manifest as rage and he will throw a tantrum (E). Finally, when the weight of his loneliness becomes too much, he will just curse the world (R).

I know I said this would be reworks from A-Z... But honestly, I think Amumu is kind of like a perfect design. I can't think of anything I would want to be different in this case. I would probably want to give him a visual update and some new things to say, to emphasize his loneliness and his desperate struggle to get attention and nurturing, but that is the only thing I would like to do.

Baldurs Gate had a great NPC that comes to mind when I think about Amumu. It was this guy who walks up to you and says "Hey". Then he follows you around and says "Hey" like a thousand times (probably less) before he stops. I think a lot of players probably killed this guy just because he was so annoying. But if you didn't kill him, you got something of a reward for your patience if I remember correctly. This is kind of how I percieve Amumu - a real pest that people just want to kill, but in actuality he just wants to say "Hey" and get a friend or someone to take care of him.

Now that I realize this is a champion that is just perfect, it kind of makes me sad that I never played him. But then... maybe I should make more of an effort.

I do have an idea for a rework, actually. All of his abilities could get extra damage if you are walking away from him, to emphasize that he really doesn't want you to leave him. Also, his passive could be changed so that if he becomes charmed (e.g. Ahri charm, but not Rammus taunt), all his abilities reset and 5 seconds are added to the cooldown. There, reworked.

ModWulf Helhammer8/6/2014, 8:27:45 PM1 votes

This is a great idea, keep up the work and stick with it! However, I do have one thing to say about Aatrox. He isn't an inanimate thing come to life, or Tryndamere's body in some way he is what you could call in effect a god of battle and war. Taken from his lore: "Aatrox is a legendary warrior, one of only five that remain of an ancient race known as the Darkin." Not sure if this would in any way alter the changes you made to his kit, but it just kinda bothered me and I thought it might be a good idea to tell you!

Anyway, awesome job, I'll keep checking this thread :)

arcticturtle9/4/2014, 10:23:03 AM1 votes

DrMundo Dr Mundo

I like to play Mundo. But there are parts of his current kit that I find to be completely irrelevant. To me, the madman is spamming cleavers and then runs away with full health from his ultimate if the odds turn against him. That's fine, he is a bit simplistic but he still has a part to play in some team comps. And having a simplistic play style works way with the display of his own simplistic mind.

First of all, with an ultimate that completely refills his health, it makes no sense to have a passive that also regenerates health. Also, adrenaline is said to make you stronger, isn't it? So I would change it to boost his attack damage. This also works well with my rework of Atma's Impaler that I mentioned earlier.

Adrenaline Rush (passive)

Dr Mundo gains 0.2 % of his maximum health as attack damage

** Infected Cleaver (Q)**

Unchanged

** Burning Agony (W)**

Unchanged

If you look at the names of E and R, it seems obvious to me that the names are switched around the wrong way. Sadism means you enjoy when others are inflicted with pain, while masochism means you enjoy experiencing pain. So first change is to switch the names around.

Now, with his new passive, I don't really think his current E is needed at all. But let's take a look at Dr Mundo's lore. He is not only a madman; he is a mass murdering psychopath. If you have a big monster running around and you know he is a mass murderer, it makes sense if it would fill you with fear, right? Especially if he catches you in his clutches. So I will add this to his kit.

** Sadism (E) **

Active: For the next 5 seconds, anyone who takes damage by Dr Mundo is struck by fear for X/X/X/X/X seconds.

** Masochism (R)**

Unchanged (except name change)

arcticturtle8/13/2014, 2:55:36 PM1 votes

Cassiopeia

Snakes are probably the most misunderstood creatures on this planet. Most of the time, they are scared shitless, and they always hiss to warn people that "I'm really scared of you please stay away" and people still go and step on them so they have to bite in self-defense. They are also really lazy creatures, and they don't like to slither too far, so when they hunt little mice who run fast they use poison. Women on the other hand, are devious bastards, and you never know when they are going to turn on you. If they don't like you, they will do anything to make you suffer. Well, some of them anyway. So what do you get from a snake-woman? Of course, the woman is going to take the defensive and lazy parts of the snake and use it to hurt people. Alas, Cassiopeia.

Cassio was actually my favourite champion for a short while. Then I realized that I suck at positioning, and I lost interest. But this is actually the most interesting part of this champ; that she has to have really good positioning but if she has that she can crush anyone. And I think the most boring part of Cassio is the limits of Riot's graphics engine. So first of all, I want a VU where the tail is at least twice as long and that it actually slithers and follows the path that she takes. Also, her tail should grow every time you level up her ultimate. And her ultimate should be based on positioning that tail in a good way.

Perfect Skin (passive)

Cassio has thick skin and a beautiful face. You can't hurt her as much, and you don't want to hurt her. She takes X % reduced damage from any source, increasing with level.

I don't think her current passive fits her concept very well. It's not difficult to get more mana from items. And since I envision the core of her to revolve around positioning, with no escapes and limited CC, she needs a bit of defense. As a tradeoff, I also want to make her melee range, so that she really has to use positioning really well. This again emphasizes that she needs more defenses.

Noxious Blast (Q)

Unchanged, except shorter range.

Miasma (W)

Unchanged

Twin Fang (E)

Unchanged, except melee range.

While Cassio's abilities could be changed, they don't have to be. Just make her focus more on close range, a bit like Ryze. So Ryze is a high DPS mage working off of his mana pool, while Cassio with this rework is a short range mage that scales a lot with ability power. With short range and no gap closers, her DPS can still be the highest in the game, even with her defensive passive.

Serpent's Embrace (R)

Range: within reach of tail. Tail length scaling with R upgrade.
Active: Cassio uses her tail to sweep in up to 1 / 2 / 3 enemy champions close to her body where they are rooted for 3 seconds. During the time they are rooted, these champions also deal 50 % reduced damage, while Cassio squeezes them for 100 / 200 / 300 + lots of AP damage.

As long as you stay away from the tail, you're fine. But if you venture too close to Cassio, she will strangle you and pour poison into your body. The tricky part here is positioning the tail well, where it should follow her movement. I'm not sure how this would work with flash or teleport or champion hooks etc. I'm sure it can be handled in some way. The point is that there should be a high risk in pulling off a maneuver with her ultimate, but it should be rewarded by dealing tons of damage.

arcticturtle8/18/2014, 12:12:07 AM1 votes

Chogath Cho'Gath

Riot says they don't want to make "monster champions" because they don't sell very well. So let's look at Cho'Gath and why I personally don't like playing him; he's utterly boring. His Q and W makes him sort of an anti-mage tank, and his R is also designed to chomp up squishies. So maybe he's Akali's worst nightmare or something. But nothing in his kit says anything about him being a gigantic monster. So I'd like to see if I can bring out his monstrosity, because I think even monsters can be made to giggle.

Giant Monster (passive)

Cho'Gath is humongous. In fact, he is so large that no spells can be vowen to include the entirety of his massive body.
Cho'Gath treats stuns and roots as slows, and is immune to regular slows and knockups.

Now, here's an anti-mage tank monstrosity for you. What are you going to do, when he not only has disables for your most powerful abilities, but also can't be stopped? Run away, of course, which should be the natural reaction when a gigantuous monster comes towards you. Cho'Gath's movement speed should of course be adjusted so that this is possible.

Rapture (Q)

Cho'Gath stomps the ground, sending out a chockwave that knocks nearby enemies up in the air.

Best thing about Cho'Gath's Q should be that it interrupts channeling and such things, I don't care if the damage is reduced a bit to balance him. I also renamed it Rapture instead of Rupture, because he sends everyone flying into the sky.

Feral Scream (W)

Unchanged

Vorpal Spikes (E)

Deals true damage
Goes snicker-snack.

** Feast (R) **

Unchanged, except:
Cannot be used unless it kills the target
Lifts target up towards his mouth for 0.5 seconds and consumes it/them.
If target escapes, the cooldown of Feast is significantly reduced.

See, Feast should have some counter-play. And to feast on Baron or Dragon, you need to time it well with an early smite, which opens for some interesting things around those. Although, I can see Baron and Dragon being immune to Feast due to their size. The big counter-play opportunity is to break out of Feast during the lifting up part, e.g. using Zhonya's or Cleanse. That leaves Cho'Gath feeling hungry, so the cooldown should be reduced, but at least the player then gets a chance to run away. Running away should really be the thing you think about if you're up against a Cho'Gath.

ModWulf Helhammer9/2/2014, 9:40:40 PM1 votes

I hope you didn't stop this! :( These reworks were very interesting and I couldn't wait till you got to Quinn(My fave champ!)

arcticturtle9/5/2014, 9:02:09 AM1 votes

Draven Draven

For some reason, I just can't stand this champion. Maybe it is because he is sort of the embodiment of "look at me!"-attitude; narcissism at its worst. I wouldn't mind deleting him entirely from the League. But my aim with these rework concepts is to maintain the character that Riot has created, but with some tweaks for gameplay and consistency. So I can't delete him, and I can't change him too much because he is supposed to be a narcissist.

One of the problems with Draven in terms of game-play has always been that he's had a bit too much damage up-front. I think the idea with him is that you juggle your axes or blades around and gain bonuses if you do it well. But it seems like Draven has so much damage that it is scary to go up and try to interrupt his juggling, so he always gets all those bonuses.

So what I would change with Draven is to make his damage a bit lower to begin with, and then scaling up significantly when he starts to juggle his axe-blades well. This means, you really don't want to keep him free-farming in lane; you want to get there fast and interrupt him because if you don't he becomes an unstoppable force. It also means he would be the kind of ADC that excels at extended teamfights, but is lackluster in short exchanges.

Other than that, I think his kit can probably remain unchanged.

arcticturtle9/4/2014, 9:37:16 AM1 votes

Darius Darius

The axe-man is basically an improved version of Garen. No fault in that. But it's a shame for Garen, who doesn't see much play for people who have left the "noob" stage. It would be better if Garen could be viable for higher levels of play, and Darius too.

When you play Darius, you exploit his high early-game damage, then you build tanky and go into team-fights with the aim of putting bleeds on as many people as possible, and dunk them all with your ult. Honestly, I don't see a problem with this. Darius fills a specific spot in specific team comps. The problem with Darius is that he is so easy to counter by picking a ranged top who just kites him around.

The one change I would do for Darius is to revert his E range so it more closely matches the range of most ranged champions. I believe this was nerfed a while back, because people thought it made him too annoying to play against. But it is equally annoying to pick Darius and not be able to do anything at all because you were counterpicked. It would be better to increase the cooldown on E, rather than reduce the range of it.

arcticturtle9/4/2014, 10:05:36 AM1 votes

Diana Diana

Diana was designed to pair off against Leona. So while Leona is defined by her tankiness and crowd control, Diana is sort of the counter to that with high damage and movement. Or is she? It seems she is lacking a bit in the movement part at least, and that is what I would try to remedy.

I actually think both Leona and Diana are best played as junglers, where Leona would rely on her lanes to do damage, while Diana is more of a carry jungler. This is of little relevance, except to point out that Diana's passive, just like Nocturne's, and her scaling on attack speed makes perfect sense to me.

Moonsilver Blade (passive)

Unchanged

Diana's Q is also a perfect counterpart to the straight lock-down of Leona's Q. Giving vision of enemies is great during ganks so they can't juke into bushes. The one change I would add is to grant vision of stealthed units too, because stealth is generally too OP and it needs more counterplay.

Crescent Strike (Q)

Gives sight of stealthed enemies as well.

Having a shield can be important during the first levels of jungling, so you have enough health to gank lanes. So it makes sense to have this for both Diana and Leona, and it also makes sense that Diana's deals damage while Leona's provides more tankiness.

Pale Cascade (W)

Unchanged

Now for a bit of a change. While Leona slams opponents with her shield to stun them, Diana should have a dash that achieves the same effect. Leona locks opponents down so her team-mates can kill them, but Diana hunts them down so she can kill them herself. By moving this skill away from the ultimate slot, it can be given shorter cooldown so she can dash around more often.

Lunar Rush (E)

Unchanged, but reduced damage since it is no longer an ultimate skill.

Diana's ultimate should also be a reflection of Leona's kit, but where Leona's solar rays lock people in place so her team can get the kill, Diana should deal that damage herself and get all the kills. Thus, the slow and CC is removed and lots of damage is added. But since this kit makes Diana great at diving into the enemy team and assassinate targets, she also needs some help to get out (like Akali has her shroud). Therefore, I am adding a bit of a heal on her ultimate.

Moonfall (R)

Active: Diana calls down a beam of lunar energy on herself. It deals magic damage to all enemies within 250 range, with increased damage within 100 range. Diana is then healed for 15 % of the damage dealt this way.