Boards›Concepts & Creations

Celes, the Dark Crusader

darkdill·9/28/2015, 10:23:38 PM·36 votes·6,636 views

#Celes, the Dark Crusader

http://imgur.com/ilayzHF
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=29301404
http://imgur.com/6fqE1Hi
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=37784365
http://imgur.com/8ZEyEQH
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=46694200
(Artworks are for reference; credit goes to the original artists)

#General Concept

Once one of Demacia's greatest knights, Celes' life took a dark turn when she was sent to hunt a powerful necromancer and was defeated. In order to defeat him and prevent the necromancer from slaughtering a village of innocents, Celes accepted a cursed but very powerful sword from Aatrox, the Darkin Blade. The sword, Ebonmere, allowed Celes to defeat the necromancer, but its curse now afflicts Celes and threatens to corrupt her. Celes seeks to master the Ebonmere before it conquers her, and to use the dark weapon in the name of honor and justice.

In gameplay, Celes is a melee juggernaut who can rapidly drain her own health in exchange for great power, and becomes more lethal as she approaches death. With a suite of powerful effects that give her an edge in any duel, and enough durability to catch many opponents off guard, Celes is a force to be reckoned with, and those who underestimate her can quickly end up dead. However, her ultimate, Ebonmere, is both her greatest weapon and can be a deadly weakness; the amount of health it drains is extremely high, and overusing it can quickly result in Celes dying. Players must carefully balance how much to use Ebonmere.

When compared with other juggernauts, Celes has both better sticking power than others once she can actually reach a target, and is more difficult to peel without knockback effects due to her ability to cleanse and block CC's. Though she isn't as good at anti-armor as Darius or Garen, she can inflict Fear on enemies while using her ultimate, giving her some crowd control capability, though she can't Fear multiple enemies in quick succession. In some ways, she's the juggernaut version of Aatrox or Olaf, becoming more dangerous the closer she is to dying (though she's still perfectly capable of dishing out pain when she's healthy).

#Last Update: Nov. 24, 2016

Statistics (numbers are subject to change)

HP: 601 – 2131
HPR/5: 8.9 – 23.4
Damage: 59 – 131
Range: 175 (melee)
Armor: 27.5 – 90.5 Magic Resistance: 32.1 – 53.4
Attack Speed: 0.550 (+0% – 18%)
Movement Speed: 345

#Abilities

(anything found here is subject to change; don't freak out if something looks OP!)

#NOTES! - Celes uses her health for her costs. Additionally, Celes' basic abilities have 6 ranks instead of 5, and her ultimate does not require a skill point.

P - Crusader's Oath

When Celes is reduced below 30% of her maximum health, she takes 35% less damage from physical and magical attacks for 4/6/8 seconds. This effect has a 90-second static cooldown. (improves at levels 7 and 13 respectively)

Additionally, Celes innately starts with +20% bonus attack speed.

Q - Malefic Strike

Celes' next basic attack releases dark power from her blade, having increased range (350 total range), causing her to dash to her target, and dealing 40/60/80/100/120/140 (+1.0 total AD) to 60/90/120/150/180/210 (+1.5 total AD) physical damage, increasing based on Celes' missing health. Resets attack timer; applies on-hit effects.

While Ebonmere is active, half of Malefic Strike's damage is converted into true damage, but Celes does not dash or extend the range of the attack.

9/8/7/6/5/4 second cooldown. No cost. Cannot critically strike.

W - Dark Resolve

Upon activation, Celes immediately shields herself for up to 60/80/100/120/140/160 to 90/120/150/180/210/240 damage. After a 1 second delay, Celes releases a burst of darkness around her, dealing 50/80/110/140/170/200 (+0.5 bonus AD) physical damage to all nearby enemies (300 range). If an enemy Champion or large monster is damaged by Dark Resolve, the shield increases by 8-12% of her maximum health.

The strength of Dark Resolve's shields increases based on Celes' missing health. Shields from Dark Resolve last up to 4 seconds.

While Ebonmere is active, Dark Resolve removes any crowd controls affecting Celes on activation and makes her immune to crowd controls for 2 seconds, but does not shield her.

19/18/17/16/15/14 second cooldown. Costs 8% of Celes' current health.

E - Shadow Wave

Celes releases a dark wave from her sword in a wide line (600 range, ~300 width) after a 0.75 second windup, dealing 60/90/120/150/180/210 (+0.4 AP) magic damage to enemies it hits. Enemy Champions and Large/Epic Monsters are marked for 4 seconds. If Celes lands a basic attack on a marked enemy, she consumes the mark, deals 30/35/40/45/50/55% of her total AD as bonus physical damage, and heals herself for 6/6.5/7/7.5/8% of her maximum health.

While Ebonmere is active, triggering a mark Fears the target for 1.1 - 1.55 seconds (scales with Celes' level, but does not heal her.

Triggering a mark consumes all marks regardless if they were the primary target.

12 second cooldown. Costs 6% of current health.

R - Ebonmere

Passive: Celes gains 6 + (0.5 X level)% bonus lifesteal.

Toggled On: Celes taps into the power of the Ebonmere, which removes the health cost on her basic abilities, modifies her basic abilities, gives her an extra (2+level)% lifesteal, and grants 20 + (10 X level) bonus attack damage. However, Celes' life regeneration is reduced to 0 and she loses health equal to 2% of her maximum health every second. This upkeep cost increases every second by (2+level) health (similar to Swain). Ebonmere automatically deactivates if Celes drops to 1 health; the life drain cannot kill her.

10 second cooldown after deactivation. Cannot be manually deactivated during the first 3 seconds after being toggled on.

Celes begins the game with one point into Ebonmere, but cannot rank it up. Instead, each of her basic abilities have 6 ranks.

#Tips

Playing as Celes

  • Don't overdo it with Ebonmere! While it gives you a lot of power, it also drains your health rapidly. Try to avoid taking too much damage while using Ebonmere.
  • Make sure of which effect you want before you commit to using Ebonmere. Ebonmere provides a lot of all-in offensive power, but at a cost of survivability and making you easier to kite.
  • Celes needs both health and attack damage to maximize her capabilities. Sterak's Gage, Titanic Hydra, and Warmog's Armor are all great choices on her.

Playing against Celes

  • Celes is a beast in a close-up fight, but is very vulnerable to being kited around. Keep forcing her to switch targets, especially when she has Ebonmere active, to make her burn out her own health. Once you have the upper hand, take advantage of her lack of retreat options.
  • Celes is more vulnerable to damage while Ebonmere is active, so try to burst her while she is using it.
  • Be careful when trying to finish Celes off - she gains bonus damage resist when low on health and her shield gets stronger too.

Champion Matchups

Champions who synergize with Celes

Zilean - Zilean has everything Celes could want. Time Bomb gives her more close-in bang for her buck, while Time Warp gives her a huge speed boost with which to catch people (or run away). And thanks to Chronoshift, you can feel free to get way too reckless with using Ebonmere; if you overdo it, you'll get a do-over!

Kindred - Kindred's ultimate is really what does it for you; being able to hover at 10% of your max HP thanks to Lamb's Respite can let you deal massive punishment to an enemy with Ebonmere and even the odds against yourself. Your health won't drain once you reach that threshold, and the inability to heal at that threshold is irrelevant to Celes until after it ends. Mounting Dread can also help you catch some enemies. Lastly, Kindred can mark your lane opponent to take pressure off you if you fall behind, even if Kindred doesn't plan to gank your lane.

Taliyah - One of Celes' biggest problems is that she can't actually stop an enemy from running away from her. Enter Taliyah, whose ultimate can create a wall behind your enemy's retreat path and leave them with little choice but to fight you. She can also easily catch up to those you don't finish off yourself.

Champions who Celes struggles against

Darius - The Hand of Noxus has no mercy for Demacians, and in Celes' case that's a bad thing. Darius' bleed can really add up damage in lane, and his sheer power bests hers even when she's using Ebonmere. Retreating isn't an option either, as Apprehend will negate any attempts. Most importantly, Noxian Guillotine completely ignores Crusader's Oath, killing Celes easily when she's supposed to be at her "strongest".

Quinn - Quinn's pragmatic approach to combat is a bad matchup for Celes, as she can poke the Dark Crusader all day long. Blinding Assault will prevent you from targeting Quinn with Malefic Strike's charge, and even if you somehow get on top of Quinn, she'll just Vault off you to safety. She's also less vulnerable to ganks than other top-laners thanks to Valor scouting around for her, and her roaming capabilities will leave you in the dust while she's busy killing your teammates.

Poppy - Poppy's kit is quite well-suited for keeping Celes out of a fight, and being a pest in lane. Iron Ambassador lets her harass and trade with you, and you aren't reliably fast enough to dodge Hammer Shock. Between Steadfast Presence, Heroic Charge, and Keeper's Verdict, she has tons of ways to keep you from reaching any squishier targets and send you flying out of a fight. It doesn't help that her knockbacks aren't affected by Dark Resolve's cleanse effect.

Lore (rough draft)

Pray that you die quickly. And do not beg for mercy; I doubt I'd be able to give it.

Clad in black armor and bearing a cursed blade forged from Darkin metal, Celes is a dark defender of Demacia who wields a terrible power that threatens to corrupt her very soul. Though her devotion is to Demacia and its people, she is feared by the very people she protects, who believe she will inevitably become as evil as those she hunts.

At the age of sixteen, Celes Caliburn was inducted into the Demacian Crusaders, an order of the king's knights dedicated to hunting down demons and dark wizards. She rose quickly through the ranks, becoming a celebrated and revered knight and protector of the common folk and downtrodden. For a time, she was even the subject of rumors centered on a romance with Demacia's prince, Jarvan IV.

But her life eventually took a dark turn. During one summer, Celes and her Crusaders were sent to hunt down a powerful Necromancer named Nagash. Nagash had burnt down a farm village on Demacia's border, using its dead to create a small undead army, one he intended to expand. Celes and her Crusaders found the dark wizard and fought his minions, but Nagash's minions proved the stronger, slaying Celes' entire force and mortally wounding Celes herself. Nagash left Celes to die on the battlefield, leaving her with the knowledge that he would soon destroy another helpless village to replenish his undead army.

On the brink of death, Celes watched through blood-soaked eyes as a winged being approached her. Yet it was not an ambassador of the Heavens who approached her, but a winged devil: Aatrox, the Darkin Blade. Having witnessed Celes' defeat, he saw in her an opportunity, and presented the wounded knight a black sword. Its name was Ebonmere, a blade forged by the Darkins and empowered to use one's own blood to enhance its power. But Celes knew there had to be a catch... Indeed, the blade held a terrible curse, one that would erode and corrupt the wielder's soul. Aatrox left her with the blade, and a terrible choice: accept the sword and its curse, dooming herself to become an agent of darkness, or die and allow Nagash to slaughter more innocent lives.

Knowingly damning herself, Celes grasped the blade and drew it from its scabbard, and immediately took on the demonic blade's curse. Power flowed through her and restored her broken body. But at the same time, she felt herself consumed by a need to harm, kill, and destroy, a thirst that directed her after Nagash and his undead force. She quickly reached the Necromancer as he was about to sack another town. Shocked to see Celes alive, Nagash sent his minions to destroy her, and watched in horror as the Crusader cut through them like a scythe to wheat. As she reached Nagash, overpowering his magic, Celes raised her blade to strike him down, when Nagash fell to his knees and pleaded for his life.

The townsfolk watched in terror as Celes brought her blade down upon Nagash, severing his limbs one by one in sadistic glee. But as the Necromancer whimpered pathetically before her, his arms and legs ripped from his body, Celes suddenly regained her senses, and looked in horror at her own handiwork. Unable to reverse what she had done, Celes ended Nagash's life quickly, ending the dark wizard's suffering, then fled from the town as the peasants watched her in apprehension.

Standing over a stream, Celes sought to cast away Ebonmere. But as she sent it into the river, her body doubled over in pain, as though her very soul was being ripped from her. She fell into the river after Ebonmere, and soon washed up unconscious on a nearby riverbank next to the blade. As she awoke, she was met again by Aatrox, who explained that her life was now bound to Ebonmere, and that she could never be rid of it. Unable to fathom the thought of becoming as wicked as her enemies, Celes raised the sword to end her own life, an act that Aatrox prevented with his own blade.

Aatrox then explained that Ebonmere's curse would corrupt her, but only if she failed to control it. If she could master its dark power, then she would be able to use it for whatever path she chose, whether good or evil. With that, the Darkin departed, claiming he would be watching her progress.

Forced to use Ebonmere, Celes now fights a battle both to protect Demacia, and to save her own soul from eternal damnation.

Friends Lux Garen JarvanIV Quinn

Rivals Fiora Aatrox Sion Vayne

Short Story: Demons Within http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/EpOhEX1h-short-story-demons-within

Quotes (needs more suggestions)

Selection Justice can be such a cruel thing. Start of Match The battle begins... Let's get this over with. Attacking (Ebonmere off) They should be running...! So be it. They had their chance. Let justice fall. Demacia, now and forever! Attacking (Ebonmere on) Leave no remains! Death comes for you! I w-will not... LET THEM LIVE! Ebonmere shall feed! The cravens will fall! Movement (Ebonmere off) I must maintain control. This blade is a heavy burden. Ebonmere, I will master you. I cannot submit to this curse. The darkness grows ever stronger in me. Movement (Ebonmere on) Where are they? Ebonmere hungers. I... I must kill! Justice is due! Justice through darkness. Activating Ebonmere By my blood! You leave me no choice! Craven curs! Death awaits! Taunt Do your worst. It won't be enough! There are easier ways to commit suicide than to face me. Joke Urgh... it's just a flesh wound... Ugh... Phew, repressed it again... **Taunting JarvanIV ** Don't show me mercy, my liege. For I'll show you none! **Taunting Shyvana ** Come on, Shyvana! Show me your so-called dragon's pride! **Taunting Quinn ** Nothing personal, Quinn. But I plan to live through this. **Taunting Lux ** Stay back, Lux. Don't make me hurt you. **Taunting Garen ** Let's see which of us is the better knight, Garen. **Taunting Fiora ** Time to learn a few lessons in humiliation, Fiora. **Taunting Vayne ** You think you do not fear the darkness, Vayne? You soon will! **Taunting Varus ** You chose your curse for revenge? You'll find no pity from me! **Taunting Aatrox ** Your kind made this blade. You will free me of it! **Taunting Taric ** Ugh, Taric. Again with the vanity fair? **Taunting Diana ** I care not for your reasons or cause, murderer. Taunting a Noxian Champion Another Noxian to put to Ebonmere's blade. Noxus must have hundreds of demons. You'll do for now. Taunting a Void Champion You monsters are like any demon to be put down. Responding to enemy Taunt Watch your tongue or I'll remove it. Choose your next words carefully, craven. Responding to enemy Joke Tch, are you serious? I've better things to do than endure your foolishness. Killing Spree When will they learn...? I shouldn't be enjoying this... Killing Spree (Ebonmere Active) Another lamb to the slaughter! That's it! Sate the Ebonmere! More death awaits you fools!

Trivia

  • Celes is a member of House Caliburn in Demacia, a moderately-respected noble family that has had long involvement with the Demacian Crusaders.
  • Celes has something of a friendly rivalry with Garen, but is a long-time friend of Lux as they both follow the same religious beliefs. She is also friendly with Quinn and Poppy, but dislikes Fiora and is wary of Shyvana. She also greatly dislikes Vayne for her vigilante activities and snide attitude.
  • Poppy once had Celes try to wield the Hammer of Orlan, but Celes was proven to not be its rightful wielder. Thankfully, Celes wasn't any worse for wear following the attempt.
  • It is rumored that Celes and Jarvan IV were once dating, but mutually broke it off after deciding to concentrate on their duties.
  • Celes isn't as zealously hateful of Noxians as her peers, but wouldn't hesitate to kill a Noxian enemy if needed. She's been in her fair share of battles with them.
  • Celes has a liking for raspberries, but dislikes alcohol.

Inspirational Sources

Cecil Harvey - Final Fantasy 4 Arthas Menethil - Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos Saber Alter - Fate/Stay Night Guts - Berserk

Login Theme (this is just a basis; I didn't make it) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENPdhg59l-o

Other Appropriate Music https://youtu.be/jcmAwhV5Ewo https://youtu.be/w7EHWtZPsCw

#Design Intents

(in case numbers are off, which they probably are)

  • Celes is designed to be extremely powerful in close-combat and can stick fairly well to single targets, but is vulnerable to being kited and harassed.
  • Celes has strong damage and durability, and is decently resistant to crowd controls, but lacks mobility, initiation, and retreat options.
  • Celes is meant to build health and attack damage, with lifesteal and resistances being optional, but not attack speed or crit chance.
  • Celes' power is at her strongest when she is near death, but she takes the greatest risks at this time. She is still quite capable when healthy, though.
  • Celes' ultimate is meant to have significant health costs over time to provide huge risk in exchange for its huge power boost. The health cost of her ultimate increases every second it remains active, similar to Swain's ultimate.
  • Celes' biggest weakness is that she cannot FORCE an enemy to fight her on her own. The enemy will always have the option of running away from her if she is alone.
  • Celes has more lifesteal-based sustain, shields, and has access to a Fear effect compared to other juggernauts, but cannot access everything at once and has to pay a serious price for access to her Fear effect, CC resistance and true damage.
  • Lore-wise, Celes is supposed to introduce a "dark side" to Demacia's knights, but she values honor and justice. However, she is far more callous than her peers, and would willingly harm (but not kill) innocents if necessary to accomplish a task assigned to her.

Tell me what you think about Celes. And please, don't freak out about any numbers; I'm sure I got some really off.

Oh, and downvoting just because of the artwork is for asshats.

122 Comments

regonas9/28/2015, 11:25:12 PM4 votes

Not bad. Whole idea of "being stronger while on low health" got me curious, but then everything went down. If you started to play with her health, then keep it going. It is good stuff. You can do it.

I have to warn you. People here will try to downvote you to oblivion if you use pictures/ artwork form other games or anime. I tried to use artwork from GW2 on cannon wielding juggernaut-like champion and i get like 4 downvotes in few hours. I tried to create champions using other games, but that got me even more downvotes. It seems you are using pictures from fate/stay nigh or what it is called anime, so you are taking a huge risks on downvotes.

Still, i wish you luck. And i have to ask you: do you mind if i create a concept based on your concept?

TheTarians9/29/2015, 1:44:11 AM3 votes

This is a very interesting concept, seeing as though we do not have any dark warrior type of people in the game. I would love to see this added and how to appropriate her builds. I would assume something along the lines of like six bloodthirsters so that she can sustain with her ult on. LoL. Keep up the good ideas and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the pictures added in, I go all fanboy for the Fate/ series.

OperationDEEZ110/18/2015, 7:48:30 PM2 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2ddgMrhfYM

Embertine10/3/2015, 12:24:12 AM2 votes

So Celes has gone dark? I remember the original concept and that one was pretty good. This one is also really good!

Rito Jericho11/25/2015, 9:04:25 PM2 votes

Still really liking this concept.

Danielw2589/30/2015, 4:05:41 PM2 votes

Okay. I just wanna say: I fuckin love the idea and it's a great concept to have a new juggernaut. I also think that Celes and Olaf should be connected somehow in the lore because of Olaf's passive. (they could be like childhood friends or something idk) But yeah overall I really love it. I rate it 8.5/10 and i'm definitely giving a thumbs up! :D

ZenoTheHero10/4/2015, 4:10:44 AM2 votes

I really like this idea! She sounds like a very fun champion with an interesting concept to boot! League needs more melee ladies and she sounds like just the solution. Though she sounds a little like Poppy with her passive, though her abilities change that up. Still, like the concept a lot!

darkdill7/9/2016, 11:29:50 PM1 votes

Giving Celes another tweak. I've been trying my hand at Overwatch Hero Concepts, but their forums are crap compared to what we have here. So many QQ topics swallow up anything meaningful...

Anyhow, I've reverted that whole Ebonmere-health-costs-on-basic-abilities thing because the feedback I got last time was from someone who misread her ultimate's upkeep cost part. It seems a tad unfair to make Celes pay so many different costs at the same time as when she's heavily draining her health for power.

Second is that I'm deciding to give her a Fear again on her E's Ebonmere effect, but there will be a limiter attached: Celes cannot inflict Fear more than once per 6 seconds. This isn't like Udyr's Bear Stance; think of it more like Leona stunning you every 6 seconds, but for Celes it's even trickier due to how her E works. This will let Celes still use her E's mark effect for other stuff without making her a CC monster that's able to hit several enemies at once for Fear. To ensure it's not overloaded, however, I've removed the Grievous Wounds effect and the slow it inflicts now only lasts 1 second, though it now slows by 60% and doesn't decay. Slows aren't as bad as Fears, and are a lot more fair on juggernauts since you can still fight back while slowed.

Friendly Ram7/10/2016, 12:04:39 AM1 votes

I absolutely love the concept but think the ramping on ulti is really counterintuitive growing weaker as you become higher leveled doesn't seem a good idea. Was DD out when she was designed? Might you waive/reduce health costs while ulti is active?

darkdill7/20/2016, 5:35:53 AM1 votes

Buffed up Celes' empowered effects on her Q and W (when Ebonmere is active), as I felt she needed a tad more reason to keep it on.

Her Q, when empowered, now ignores 25% of the target's bonus armor. That is, armor from items, runes, masteries, and buffs, not a Champion's natural armor, so it's of little benefit against squishies, but lets Celes hurt tanks. Note that it only applies to the one blow from her Q, not to subsequent attacks like Wukong's Crushing Blow.

Her W got a slight bonus to that CC cleansing effect; she now also gets 1 second of CC immunity. This might sound broken, but it's just so that you aren't always forced to use that CC cleanse reactively (when the shield would be moot point in most cases); you can now use it pro-actively when you see a Morgana Q coming at you, so you block both the CC and some of the damage.

darkdill8/22/2016, 2:24:18 AM1 votes

Another modification to Celes, one that is meant to address something I've been concerned about for a bit.

I've always worried that people are going to take advantage of the huge amount of bonus AD you get from Ebonmere and try going with an AS build. To prevent that, I've lowered Celes' base attack speed significantly, down to 0.550 from 0.625. To prevent this from impacting last-hitting, though, I've given her a starting 20% AS bonus, similar to what Diana gets. This means Celes won't have such slow attacks that she can't last-hit, but building a item 3153 on her is going to do quite badly because of a poor multiplier.

I probably got numbers wrong, though, so if anyone is willing to correct what I've written down so far, I'd appreciate it.

darkdill9/13/2016, 7:15:03 AM1 votes

Small buff. I removed the health cost from Malefic Strike entirely.

This is because I don't want to create scenarios of "Will I lifesteal enough back to make this last-hit worth it?", as it'd involve too much math depending on your stat setups (runes, masteries, etc). Now it's always going to heal you. Dunno if this makes Malefic Strike too powerful now, but I'll appreciate any feedback regarding its balance.

darkdill10/18/2016, 9:36:08 PM1 votes

Rengar's taking my Celes' CC removal for himself? T_T

But seriously, looking at these new Assassin reworks (specifically Talon and Rengar) tells me this might need tweaking. Could I get a second opinion?

darkdill10/26/2016, 7:14:12 PM1 votes

New Celes buff. I changed her Q so now she always has access to that dash component, not only while she's ulting. This is actually meant to reduce her dependency on her ult a bit, and given how it doesn't make Illaoi super-broken in lane I doubt it'll do the same for Celes.

darkdill11/13/2016, 9:12:37 AM1 votes

I'm in the middle of a small dilemma with Celes. I want her Ebonmere to be more of a "should I activate this now?" decision rather than something truly mandatory for fights. However, with the current design, I'm not getting that kind of gameplay.

I have one idea on how to alter it: make it so that while Ebonmere is active, certain effects from her basic abilities are exchanged for others, rather than just straight-up adding extra effects.

For the basic abilities, here are my thoughts on effects for while Ebonmere is active. They're not finalized, though.

Q - Part of the damage is converted to true damage, but no dash

W - CC purge and temporary CC immunity, but no shield

E - REWORK Without Ebonmere, striking a marked enemy Champion heals Celes for a portion of her max HP With Ebonmere, striking a marked enemy Champion inflicts Fear, but does not heal, and striking a marked target removes all other marks

If anybody comes by, care to leave an opinion?

darkdill11/24/2016, 6:07:10 AM1 votes

Finished up with the Celes changes a little bit ago, but forgot to mention it. In essence, it's the changes I highlighted in the last post, and now Celes players have to gauge whether the extra killing power is worth sacrificing some defensive and chasing utility.

As for stuff that wasn't mentioned in the previous post, I've changed Celes' Q so it cannot crit. Sorry, but if it's capable of dealing true damage, it can't crit or that becomes broken.

Rito Jericho10/26/2015, 9:15:16 PM1 votes

I'm still loving this champ. Sure she doesn't seem to fit into what I have started to consider as my personal play style (I seem to prefer champions who get into the fight and pretty much dash all hope of my target getting OUT of said fight), but that isn't going to stop me from trying her out. The only thing I think this thread is missing is her quotes just to make it... pop some more, since I couldn't think of any other way to put it. The quotes really aren't NEEDED right now, but I feel it would bring a little more life into Celes.

darkdill5/15/2016, 7:07:25 AM1 votes

New plans for Celes, but I'm hoping for opinions first.

I'm planning to change around Celes' ultimate so that it's available at level 1 and doesn't require you to put skill points into it at any time. It'd be kinda like Jayce's R in that regard, allowing Celes' basic abilities to all be ranked up to rank 6. (Yes, there's a 666 reference in there.)

For starters, this would let me have Celes' ultimate scale linearly, while also letting her have passive lifesteal akin to Nasus (albeit not as strong normally). Her current level 6 power spikes always felt a tad too... late, shall we say? Without her ult, she lacks her short-range dash (ala Illaoi), CC-purge, and her Curse effect (which I am removing in favor of letting her inflict short-lived fear; more on that below) in the early-game, leaving her with a high degree of vulnerability. With this change, she'll always have those available to her, as well as the sustain needed to duke it out in lane against even the most pesky opponents.

As I mentioned before, I'm also removing her Curse effect, as I've come to the conclusion that a Curse effect is probably better on a Mage or Support Champion, not a Juggernaut. To compensate, I plan to replace the Curse with a Fear effect; Juggernauts aren't really supposed to have much lockdown, but Fear is both appropriate to her theme and makes an opponent flee from you, so its lockdown is questionable. Also, it'd be tied to her long-cooldown E, so she won't be able to chain it on the same target. I mean, Garen and Skarner have hard-CC's, so Celes shouldn't be forbidden from it.

Last is that I am adding health costs to all of Celes' basic abilities since she will have passive lifesteal at all times. This offsets her laning a bit and requires her to be more cautious of when she makes her move. But while her ultimate is active, her basic abilities will have no health costs (since she'll be rapidly draining her health anyways; having to pay both would be absurd).

I would like opinions, though, as to whether or not this is a good set of changes to make. Any comments?

darkdill5/29/2016, 7:37:14 AM1 votes

Finished updating Celes. It's been since December since I last updated her, so this is a big one.

First and foremost, Celes' ultimate is now available at level 1 and doesn't require any skillpoints, much like Jayce's R. It now also has consistent growth over time, steadily increasing in power as she gains levels. This gives her a totally smooth power curve rather than a level 6 power spike, which I always felt was jarring. Celes' basic abilities now each go up to level 6 (yes, there's a 666 in there), and now all cost health when your ultimate is NOT active. This is because Celes now has permanent, passive lifesteal (though it isn't as strong as Nasus unless she's ulting).

This was done because I never liked how she was kinda weak prior to level 6, and reaching that level 6 point gave her an ungodly power spike. Now she has that power off the bat, but with more costs attached to her basic abilities to compensate. This should make laning with her a lot less binary in terms of her opponents; harassers like Quinn or Teemo could simply wreck her before now.

The next change was to her W. Now she gets a bit of shield right when she activates it, but gets more if she lands the PbAOE effect. I've probably screwed up the numbers, so second opinions will be appreciated. This was done so that Celes wouldn't be completely screwed if she misses with her W's damage component, especially since it now costs 8% of her current health when Ebonmere is off.

The last major change was to Celes' E, for which I've completely removed the Curse effect. Curse is a novel effect, but I think it'd be better on a Support than a Juggernaut. Instead, I've now made it so that when Celes hits a marked target while Ebonmere is active, she'll inflict a 1-second Fear. It isn't enough to be major lock-up due to the E's cooldown, and it fits her terrifying theme.

As always, I'm open to opinions.

Quepha5/29/2016, 8:25:40 AM1 votes

That's not a juggernaut, that's a Tank.

Fear is just about the 3rd best form of cc behind knockups and knockbacks and I see this champion having almost all of her power budget into the flash RWQE combo to get in and fear a bunch of targets out of position. Damage is an irrelevant stat next to how long you can survive in a fight to pull off the fear as many times as possible on as many targets as possible.

DesolationKaizer5/29/2016, 7:59:52 PM1 votes

Man, I really like this Concept (I might just be biased towards juggernauts.) I really like her lore, especially since I am a bit of a Berserk fan (damn it, need more chapters.)

Her Passive works well with the rest of her kit, which is what a passive should do in my opinion. I feel like people sometimes get too caught up in wanting to make a passive this super exciting thing with incredible mechanics when they forget that it's called a passive for a reason. Makes her even more difficult to deal with at low health, which is a strong part of her theme.

Her Q is pretty good, a good auto attack enhancer. I like that it deals more damage based on her missing health, again tying into her theme. The little dash with Ebonmare active is cool too, as while she is a juggernaut, even they need a bit of something to get close to targets.

At first, one might be tempted to say her shield is like Sion's, but it really isn't. Combining this with her passive can make her an extremely difficult target to take down at low health. Again, meshes well with the rest of the kit.

E is alright. Not too fussy about it, but it works and it gives her some soft crowd control.

R- I know there are a bunch of people on the boards that might see this is "underwhelming" for an ultimate. But this is something that you get at level and that scales accordingly. Management of this is in combination with her Q, W and passive is what makes or breaks a good Celes player. The overall AD you get from it might be a bit high. Maybe tone it down to 8 per level or something? I mean, it's up to you, I'm just nitpicking.

Overall though, great concept. I like the lore, I love the kit (not everything has to be a mechanically complex to be satisfying,) and I do like the art you chose to accompany it. Well done.

If you've got the time, mind checking out this concept of mine. I'm open to any suggestions. Eiron, Conviction's Arcane Edge

darkdill6/12/2016, 9:10:12 PM1 votes

Got some more feedback on Reddit. As such, I've done some balance tweaking.

Firstly, Celes' W got a damage nerf to make it more about the defense, and got its cooldown increased by 2 seconds at all ranks. This is to reduce the power of the CC cleanse if Celes goes for 40% CDR.

Second is that Celes' E got its slow reduced to 40% from 60%. Critiques I got were that the slow was too strong for a juggernaut, and I'll defer to them on that.

Last is that Ebonmere no longer removes the health costs on your basic abilities. This is to make it so life-vamping builds cannot keep up with the amount of health you'll be draining, and to make her Ebonmere-empowered abilities less nasty. Better health management will now be necessary when you're ulting.