[Champion Concept] Darth Vader, The Chosen Sith

Darth Vader, The Chosen Sith Primary: Tank Secondary: Mage

Lore

A formerly forbidden area of space, deep within the Cowl Crucible has drawn the attention of smugglers and thieves who discovered trace deposits of rare and valuable cortosis within. A world full of such riches must lie somewhere inside the nebula, waiting to be exploited, but none seem to have the navigational skills required to penetrate the luminous veil. Only through the Force could such a hazard be braved…

Vader ordered his Star Destroyer deeper into the Cowl Crucible. The illegal cortosis miners sought to evade him, but no one could escape his grasp. He sensed a force user on their ship that the Emperor would be glad to have for his Imperial Guard. As the Destroyer crept further into the Nebula it began to list to the side. Vader demanded an explanation from his helmsman. The man uttered a pitiful response. As Vader closed to punish the incompetent imbecile a vision came to him from the Force. A magnificent blue goblet appeared in front of Vader. The goblet turned on its side and a swirling portal made of light formed in it. The light extended from the goblet and enveloped Vader.

Vader found himself in a dark room. A voice spoke, "Welcome to the League of Legends. We searched through the infinite multiverse for those with great power and found you. Our call went out and brought you here. Now you will serve in the battles of the League. Serve well and you will be released in time back to where you came from."

Vader's deep voice responded, "And when I am free I will return to destroy you."

Yes! Darth Vader as a champion in League of Legends! He's been suggested before by Dagartru back in February, but that was months ago. Plus, Dagarthu drew his inspiration primarily from the video games Force Unleashed and Soul Calibur. I modeled my version of Darth Vader off of his movie appearences.

The first thing you're probably thinking is, "Riot will never get the licensing to do this!" And you might be right. Namco successfully licensed Darth Vader for Soul Calibur IV, but that was back before Disney bought Lucasfilm. Would Disney allow Darth Vader to appear in a game in a similar way? I don't know, but I can dream!

You might also be thinking, "Darth Vader and League of Legends exist in separate universes, you StupidSeahorse!" Well, that's true, but the League contains tons of dimensional hoppers. Anivia was from a frost dimension in her old lore, Malphite is from the Monolith, Kayle and Morgana are from Heaven, and there's all those Void champions. If the summoners can trap Cho'Gath from the Void dimension, why can't they do the same for a champion from the Star Wars dimension?

Now on to the kit!

Passive (The Imperial March): When Vader attacks an enemy champion all allied minions whose attack ranges are within 100 of that champion will aggro that champion for the next 2 seconds. The minions will lose aggro if the target gets more than 200 outside of their attack range. This ability has a cooldown per champion targeted of 12 seconds (like Nautilus' passive).

Q (Force Choke): Range: 500 Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 MANA Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6 Seconds Vader lifts an enemy off the ground with the Force and chokes them. Vader will channel for 1 second while the opponent is knocked up and takes magic damage over the duration. The knockup can be interrupted if Vader's channel is broken. The target takes 10/20/30/40/50 (+1.5% target's missing health +0.5%/100AP) damage every quarter second over the channel. The last tic of damage as the target hits the ground is three times as much 30/60/90/120/150 (+4.5% target's missing health +1.5%/100AP). The last tic triggers even if Vader cancels Force Choke or is interrupted. The ability refunds half its mana if it kills the target. Total Magic Damage: 60/120/180/240/300 (+9% target's missing health +3%/100AP) Immediate Cancellation Magic Damage: 40/80/120/160/200 (6% target's missing health +2%/100AP)

W (Dark Side Fury): Cost: 35 MANA Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8 Seconds Vader draws additional power from the Dark Side of the Force and channels it into his weapon. His weapon crackles with purple lightning and Vader gains 5/10/15/20/25 AD and 35/40/45/50/55% attack speed for the next 6 seconds. His next auto attack is also empowered to deal 50/85/120/155/190(+40%AP) additional magic damage. The empowered auto attack will also expire in 6 seconds if not used.

E (Feel the Force): Range: 1500 Cost: 0 MANA Cooldown: 60/52/44/36/28 Seconds For the next 3 seconds Vader uses his lightsaber to deflect all incoming ranged auto attacks, effectively dodging them. During those three seconds Vader also reveals all enemy champions within 1,500 of Vader.

R (Force Gale): Range: 1100 Cost: 100 MANA Cooldown: 120/110/100 Seconds Vader stands still for 4 seconds and shoots a wind gale in front of him. All enemies in the gale are pushed back 150 and a zone is established while Vader continues to channel the ability. The zone slows enemies moving towards Vader by 30/35/40% and deals 160/240/320 (+35%AP) magic damage per second to all enemies within it. Total Magic Damage: 640/960/1280 (+140%AP)

So how do each of those abilities actually work in practice and why did I choose them? The Imperial March was put in because I felt the might of the Empire had to come through somehow. Vader is pretty much always backed up by Stromtroopers. Now I could’ve done that with an ability, but that felt like too much. Then I remembered that stromtroopers are woefully inept in combat, just like minions vs. champions! This ability doesn’t do much except force trades in lane. When Vader autos you, you have to respond or you will wildly lose that trade as his minions will auto along with him regardless of whether you hit Vader himself back or not. Or you could run away quickly enough with your tail between your legs.

You gotta have a Force Choke ability on Vader. You just have to! It made the most sense to me as a short range targeted CC even though Riot’s design philosophy is against that now. The execute was added because the ability is used to kill people after all. This is the ability that would probably need the most adjustment in a real play environment. Should the damage vs. champs be toned down to reduce harassment that the opponent can’t respond to? Should it deal double damage to minions to compensate? Are the standard methods of interrupting a channel ability enough to counter this low cooldown monstrosity or should it also be interrupted if Vader takes 25% of his health in damage? Hard for me to say without seeing how OP Vader is in actual play.

To be honest, Dark Side Fury is a bit of a space holder. I considered other things for this slot, but an auto attack booster ended up being the best option. Vader grips his saber in two hands and slams it down on something! And then rage flows through him and he attacks way faster. It draws a little bit more from the video games than the movies, but it’s still consistent with the character. It also opens up a fairly easy combo of Vader’s abilities. He goes in with Dark Side Fury and bops the opponent. Imperial March is activated and Vader’s minions join the assault. Vader prevents his opponent’s escape with Force Choke and when his channel is done he bops them again. If his opponent sticks around his autos are still slightly increased. If they don’t… He just forced them out of lane! Woo!

Feel the Force fit two things that Jedi and Sith do all the time. Sense other Force users in the area and deflect lazers with their lightsabers. Remember when Vader sense Obi-Wan’s presence in A New Hope? Or when he senses Luke’s presence in Return of the Jedi? And dodging ranged autos just made sense with the way the lightsaber is used.

And now the ultimate, Force Gale. The ability is functionally quite similar to Rumble’s Equalizer, a big line that slows and deals damage every second. Still different though. The slow is directional, there’s a knockback included, and the ultimate can’t be placed on the map willy-nilly like Rumble’s. One side is connected to Vader. This makes positioning much more important for Vader in teamfights. How does he set up the perfect Force Gale? Does he save it for disengage or does he use it offensively? Is it better to channel the ultimate or spend his time autoing and using Force Choke? It’s always good to give champs some strategic choices and I feel like Force Gale does that. And if you were wondering Vader totally uses this ability in his fight with Luke during Empire Strikes Back. I didn’t just make it up!

I imagined Vader as a top laner, but I can see how he could fit into other roles. He’s got CC to perform as a support, but his CC is interrupted by other CC which will be readily available in bot lane. He’s got AP ratios, so I guess he could work in mid? He’d probably get edged out in lane by the longer range champs that are more common in mid lane though. He could function in the jungle, although I’m unsure about his sustain in the new Season 5 jungle.

Here are the stats I thought would be appropriate. These were created prior to Season 5's restructuring of stats. I'm not sure how they'd translate to the new system, but this should still give an estimation for veteran champion creators to critique.

STAT LEVEL 1 (INCREASE PER LEVEL) HEALTH 431 (+89) ATTACK DAMAGE 52 (+3.5) HEALTH REGEN. 7.45 (+0.55) ATTACK SPEED 0.67 (+1.8%) MANA 210 (+50) ARMOR 22 (+3.5) MANA REGEN. 7.45 (+0.7) MAGIC RES. 30 (+1.25) RANGE 125 (Melee) MOV. SPEED 330

Other Considerations: I wanna give a big thank you to Dagarthu for pioneering this concept and to my friends who helped me hammer out the kit. If you wanna read more about the thought process you can look at my original blog post on Vader. And without further ado, please give me your comments, vote ups, complainants, critiques, and more!