Mama Berg, The Mother of the Hills

I like skillshots. A lot. So I made an adc based on skillshots. Like Ezreal, but taken one step further. Hope you enjoy.

Part of the August CCOS (Champion Concept Open Stage). Check out this link to see other cool concepts assembled by the one and only Sir ArmaMalum. http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/InEQogeK-ccos-august-entries-here-july-concepts-also-taken

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Mama Berg, the Mother of the Hills

Brief Background: Mama Berg is the chieftain and “mother” of a minor tribe of barbarians known as “the Berg Family”, controlling large stretches of Freljord’s mountain range. She serves Sejuani directly, protecting her extended family’s traditional values and territory from Ashe’s new ideals. Her legacy is built on tales of fearsome conquest and raiding, always beginning with an unforeseen hail of meteor-like iron spheres. While she doesn’t shy away from a fight, her main motive for combat is to provide for her tribe and teach her many sons.

Mama Berg is a jolly, rotund woman a la Alvida. Her arms are hefty and muscular, her legs disproportionately small but still solid. Her hair is a mass of red curls. Her belly and breasts are kept in line by iron plate and green hide armor, cobbled together to contain her massive girth. A ram’s head is pictured on her belt buckle, and her helmet has one upturned ram’s horn on the side (the other broke off at some point in time).

http://www.co-optimus.com/images/upload/image/2010/BarbarianD3.jpg + http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20141225170950/onepiece/fr/images/e/ed/Alvida_Grosse.png

Mama Berg’s weapon of choice is the shotput. She carries a large number of them in a large wicker basket on her back. Her basic attack thrusts the shotput one-handed, and every other basic attack uses the opposite hand.

Base Stats

Health: 570 (+82) Health Regen: 6.19 (+0.65) Mana: NA Mana Regen: NA Range: 500 Attack Damage: 50 (+3) Attack Speed: 0.625 (+2.9%) Armor: 24.376 (+3) Magic Res.: 30 Mov. Speed: 330

Movespeed and range are very low to compensate for her high safety, while other stats are pretty much in line with ADCs like Graves. Keep in mind that I’m not much of a numbers guy :/

Abilities:

Passive: Reach of the Mountain Mama Berg gains 5 Rage for every unit she damages with basic attacks and basic abilities, up to a cap of 100. Mama Berg gains 0.2% increased range on her abilities for every 1 point of Rage she has. Rage decays quickly outside of combat. Mama Berg’s basic attacks deal 90% of her Attack Damage.

Aw yeah, a rage based ADC! The passive feels a bit lackluster, but it definitely buffs her range and thus her threat potential late game. Rage as a mechanic also gates her spammability late game and limits her power early game (see below). Just to be clear, Mama Berg gains Rage from all her damage sources except her ultimate.

Q: Blind Fury Toggle On: Mama Berg loses the ability to basic attack, and begins throwing shotput (600/700/800/900/1000 range medium-low width skillshot) at her Attack Speed rate in the direction of the cursor. Throwing a shotput does not stop her movement, and the shotput deal 100/115/130/145/160% of her Attack Damage as physical damage. Shotput can critically strike, lifesteal and apply on-hit effects. Throwing a shotput costs 10 Rage per shotput, while landing a shotput refunds the cost in addition to her passive Rage gain.

This is her defining ability, trading accuracy for range and damage. How long she can maintain this toggle is based on whether she can consistently land Qs and keep her rage up, gating her power significantly. As for how difficult it is to time these shots while moving, the skillshot fires in the direction of the cursor’s location when the windup animation completed. It’s not much more difficult than Draven.

Exceptional interactions: Runaan’s Hurricane still produces two bolts every time a shotput is thrown, and these bolts prioritize the direction she is firing in, regardless of whether or not she hit her target. Whether or not a shotput is a critical strike is predetermined before she fires, and is visible in her windup animation. Items that grant her bonuses as she basic attacks (Furor enchantment, Guinsoo’s Rageblade, lifesteal) still apply but only if she lands her shotput. Her shotput trigger Braum passive, thornmail damage, etc.

For reference, Ezreal’s W is 1000 units long and Ashe has 600 attack range (2nd only to Caitlyn and some special exceptions).

W: Tough Love Cooldown: 24/22/20/18/16 seconds Mama Berg forces back all enemies within 300 range in a wide cone in front of her, dealing 120/150/180/210/240 + (10% AD) physical damage and knocking them away 300 units. Slowed enemies are pushed back an additional 100 units.

A simple skill for self peel and aiding allies. Usable about once per teamfight, so be careful.

E: Heavy Strike Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6 seconds Mama Berg’s next basic attack within 2 seconds deals 100/120/140/160/180 + (20% AD) physical damage to and slows all units within 75 units of her target by 20/30/40/50/60% for 2.5 seconds. Deals double damage to turrets. Landing a Blind Fury shotput will also stun her target for 0.5/0.75/0.75/1/1 seconds. Heavy Strike’s cooldown is reduced by 1 second for every unit Mama Berg kills.

Simple attack steroid and peel ability, as well as a Rage stacker. If used right, can turn around a fight and secure escaping kills. Can also aid her waveclear and turret taking somewhat, though it sacrifices some safety in return. When using Heavy Strike her windup animation is slightly longer and more pronounced, but the projectile moves faster (basic attack and Q).

R: Meteor Toss Recharge: 80/60/40 seconds Passive: Mama Berg’s shotput deal 5% of her bonus health as physical damage in a 50/100/150 range cone once they stop moving regardless of if they hit a target. Mama Berg pulls out a giant shotput and heaves it towards a 300 unit radius area within 4000 range. After a 1 second delay the shotput lands, dealing 150/200/250 + (30% AD) physical damage to and rooting all enemies struck for 1 second. All enemies struck are interrupted (stops dashes and channels). Mama Berg can store up to two charges of Meteor Toss.

Seriously predictive ability, incredibly powerful when used right but difficult to land. Can be used in anticipation of a teamfight and for aiding allies from a distance (i.e. interrupt Malz’s ult, delay Corki’s escape, steal Teemo’s kill). Also a bit of an incentive to encourage building less straight damage and more utility.

Gameplay:

Mama Berg’s laning phase is relatively safe thanks to her W and E, but trading in bottom lane is not as easy as it sounds for the Mother of the Hills. While most of her damage comes from consistently landing Qs and Es (difficult to do through a minion wave), many ADCs can outtrade her with other damage tools and bully her out of lane. Due to a lack of mobility and early damage, Mama Berg is pretty limited to farming from range and playing carefully until help arrives.

When the jungler comes in for a gank, Mama Berg’s playstyle shifts entirely. She has the tools to chase down the enemy laner and lock them down for the kill, and she can easily secure a kill with the extra dps. Once lane dominance is established, Mama Berg can then push what remains of the enemy botlaners under their turret with her incessant long range poke.

Mama Berg also has impeccable splitpushing capabilities. She is capable of pumping out enough aoe damage to chew through minion waves quickly. If the enemy team turns on her, she has several means of escape available to her. Her only concern is the classic adc squishiness, meaning if she gets caught off guard she won’t survive long enough to make her exit.

In teamfights, Mama Berg is a powerful backline nukestress. Not only does she dish out decent damage from a distance, she keeps her fellow squishies safe with a slew of cc. Whether retreating or advancing, Meteor Toss is a powerful tool for nailing enemies in place. The jungle also becomes the perfect battlefield for her, as she doesn’t need vision to hit her enemies so much as good predictive ability. While it takes some practice, consistent skillshot landing makes Mama Berg an extremely powerful ally during the mid-late game.

Pros: High Safety Long Range Lots of Crowd Control High Damage Very Long Range Utility Rage Based

Cons: Skillshot Dependent ←Important! Lack of Innate Tankiness Low Mobility Short Range and Low Damage Without Q Takes Time to Master

Goes Well With:

: Really, who doesn’t go well with the mummy? The lockdown from their combined ultimates is enough to make any team cry tears of salt, and his sticking potential greatly synergizes with her own.

: Mama Berg and Skarner are both highly adept at chasing and locking down any fleeing jungler with a slew of cc from both long and short range. Once they pick out an isolated target, her cc allows him to catch up for the clean up.

: Due to Mama’s weak early game, Sona is the perfect support for establishing early lane dominance and abusing the range advantage. She can save Mama Berg from any situation she can’t save herself from, and her Hymn of Valor only makes the Mother of the Hills’ snipes stronger.

Does Poorly Against:

: Mama Berg’s CC is less effective from range, while Ashe excels at just that. After the initial burst following the Frost Archer’s ultimate, Mama Berg will be left low and slowed, unable to run.

: Mama Berg can’t deter an unstoppable charge, and even when Tough Love creates some distance Vi still has a second gap closer left to batter Mama Berg down to 0.

: Due to a lack of dashes, Mama Berg is forced to flash or fight inside the Cataclysm. The multiple gapclosers and cc means that Mama Berg will have one hell of a time keeping Jarvan off her back even if she does land her Heavy Strike.

Quotes:

Mama Berg speaks in a loud, scratchy voice a la Alvida. She takes a rather amiable approach to everything and believes very strongly in discipline and family.

When Moving: Laughs Watch out! Coming through! Let’s go! Move it, kiddo! I’ve trekked through worse! Better than knee high snow! Old age can’t catch me! Light as a feather! Keep up, chicklings!

When Attacking or Landing a Shotput: Laughs Here you go! Your daily dose of iron! Make it hail! Come on, take it! Suck your gut in! Catch! Dented! Learn to dodge, pipsqueak! Sorry, not sorry!

When Missing a Shotput: Another! Another! Just grazed ‘em… I hit that! You saw it! We’ll get ‘em next throw! Next one’s going straight through!

When Using Tough Love: Back off! Who do you think you are? I ain’t your mama! Get out of my house! I’ll beat some sense into you!

When Using Meteor Toss: Bring down the house! Avalanche! Master of disaster! Watch how it’s done, kids! Bury 'em!

When purchasing… Runaan’s Hurricane: There’s about to be a hail storm! Frozen Gauntlet: Now that’s just cold! Frozen Mallet: Slow down, son! Infinity Edge: From shotput to meteor! Warmog’s Armor: Getting paid by the pound! Boots of Speed: Why don’t you sell boots to accommodate… larger… women? Berserker Greaves: Berserking is second nature to me! Mercurial Treads: Don’t stop me now, hun! Phage: I’m on a roll! Black Cleaver: Tear through ‘em like paper! Bloodthirster: This sword’s speaking my language! Statikk Shiv: Bring the thunder! Sunfire Cape: Ah… a mother’s warmth…

Emotes:

Joke (Takes off helmet and inspects it, jumps in surprise upon noticing the missing horn): What do you mean I lost m- whoa! When’d this happen? A precious heirloom this one, passed down from my- wait, what? Alright, who’s the joker? (Near ) Hey Alistar, can I borrow your horn for a second? (Near ) Did your boar do this? (Near ) Can you fix this?

Taunt (takes out a shotput, twirls on finger then crunches between hands): Hope you’re ready to get facerolled! You can’t stop an avalanche! I hope you can handle a little pressure! Got a family back home who needs some fresh meat! (Near enemy ) Hey Orianna, pass me your beachball! (Near enemy ) Let’s see if I can bust your balls, Syndra! (Near enemy ) Metal is harder than what again? (Near enemy ) There goes your perfection! (Near enemy ) You break ice? I break cannonballs! (Near enemy ) Hey Tryndamere, let’s have a rematch! Let’s fight again, Tryndamere! I’m sure you won’t regret it… Tryndamere! Still the same angry fool I see! (Near enemy ) Hey Ashe, let me show you some tough love! Let me show you how we fight in our “misguided” communities! Missing your mama? There, there, I’ll help you meet her… (Near enemy ) True ice still shatters… I’ll bash you to shards, witch! When I’m done with you, you’ll be only a children’s tale! (Near enemy ) Hey Braum, let’s test how “unbreakable” you really are!

Dance: Whitney Thore’s dance routine to “Wiggle” by Jason Derulo

Laugh: Pulls her belt out and lets the buckle snap back, laughing heartily.

Lore (Long Form):

A tribe of pastoral nomads were camped on a mountainside, their tents spanning the entire western face of the cliff. They numbered several hundred strong, prosperous families bearing the crest of Avarosa on their equipment.

One might think their fancy lookouts would have seen the oncoming hail.

It began at dawn, but with a bang. A firepit erupted into a column of debris and cinders. A tent on the other side of the campsite caved in to greet its sleeping occupants, crushing their ribs and nailing them into the earth. Iron rained down from above and hammered the encampment into nothingness.

The Avarosans were sent into a panic, running for whatever shelter they thought could withstand the barrage, but to no avail. The metal meteors smashes through everything, from trees to stone overhangs to people. The chief ran out of his tent, frantically searching for the source of the attack.

Above. From above them on the mountain, amidst treacherous spires and jagged cliffs that they had not been able to ascend, shadowy silhouettes heaved iron cannonballs over the side. Even with their enormous muscles, it took two men to toss each shell over. The thuds and screams below were their well earned rewards.

Content with the carnage they had caused, the marauders descended quickly, their heavy figures traversing the steep terrain with relative ease. The largest of the group landed feet first before the Avarosan chief and cackled in a horribly hoarse voice. He looked up at the flaming red hair, powdered with the snow and debris drifting around them and making her one with the flames of campsites ablaze. She lifted a shotput, the same cannonball objects her men had been dropping from above, with one hand over her head as she cradled a small bundle in the other.

"Don't scream. You'll wake the baby."

His pleading face slammed into the dirt with the assistance of a metal sphere's weight. Within an hour the Berg Family had reclaimed their hunting grounds and buried the remains of their prey in iron and snow. Ferrous smoke and blood lingered in the air, tainting the pure white of Freljord with a cruel black glaze.

"Breathe it in, Junior," the woman whispered to her fur-lined bundle. "That's the smell of victory."

Allies:

Enemies:

Skin Ideas:

Pirate Mama Berg: Her helmet is replaced by a pirate hat with a bull’s horn coming out the side. Her wicker basket is now a very wide cannon, full of cannon balls. Attire is more piratey and uses black and blue.

Noxian Mama Berg: Her helmet is more medieval than viking, with a curled ram’s horn on the side. Her wicker basket is now a chest full of iron spiked balls, which she throws. Attire is more heavily armored and uses black and red.

Pitcher Mama Berg: Her helmet is replaced by a baseball cap with a ram’s horn coming out the side. Her wicker basket is replaced by a ball caddy. Attire is a baseball uniform, and she throws enormous baseballs.

Crazed DJ Mama Berg (Legendary skin): Her helmet is replaced by a pair of headphones with a downturned ram’s horn coming out the side. Her wicker basket is replaced by a duffel bag. Her attack animation is now a discus throw rather than shotput and throws records, which shatter appropriately. Her ultimate throws an enormous disco ball. New VO (“Bass… drop!”). Dressed in a track suit and neon hoodie + light up sketchers for swag points.

Aaaaaand that’s the champ. I like the idea of a “Big Mama” archetype, and thought that the Freljord would be one of the few places where her harem of men could still be a close knit family due to the survival necessity of interdependence. Yeah, it might not be the most innovative of ideas, but when Riot started talking about diversifying female designs I immediately knew that I wanted a fat-and-proud-of-it lady character, with the potential to be huggable and kind. Sure, she’s kind of like Lady Gragas, but I really love her for it.

A new type of ADC is also another design challenge I wanted to tackle, especially since I like skillshots and not so much targeted abilities. It’s just so much more satisfying to land a skillshot, so I made sure that her kit really felt the weight of nailing a shotput, especially with her R passive and E. Other unique traits include being Rage-based and focusing a little more on utility than your average adc to make up for her limited accuracy.

If I had to pick out one place I messed up, it would probably be giving her too much crowd control. I mean, 3 hard cc on an ADC is kind of ridiculous, but I think her low mobility and high skill floor balances it out. Throughout her conceptualization she went through some pretty major nerfs. Stun reduction on E, 90% AD on her basic attacks, range reductions on her W. Trying to balance her to a state of non-lane crushing while still maintaining that impactful feel was pretty difficult. In the end, her ADCness isn’t as pronounced as most, but I feel like she’s in a good spot.

CCOS: BONUS ADDITION

This will probably seem a little biased, as I joined recently and haven't exactly looked through all the concepts so far, but the CCOS runner-up that made me the most excited was Vakin, the Livewire Whip. This is the concept that introduced me to the CCOS and draws from the personality I love so much, wields a whip (we need this in League) and was basically a Marvel villain. His lore was also excellently crafted if I do say so myself.