Oaza, The Shield Dervish

Oaza, The Shield Dervish

Background Deep in the deserts lies a tribe of nomads, little more than camel herders moving from one oasis to the next. These simple people hide a great secret, for they are the descendants of the royal guard of Shurima, sworn to protect their sacred lands for all time. Members of the royal guard were experts of all weapons, though the most legendary of their fighting styles was that of the Dervish. Secrets of the Dervish fighting style were passed down from father to son for millennia, until Oaza was born. Her father was not blessed with any sons, so to prevent his knowledge from dying with him he broke tradition and taught his daughter the ways of the Dervish in secret.

At the age of 16, Noxian forces descended upon Oaza’s tribe. Oaza was tasked with getting the women and children to safety while the men battled the Noxian horde. The tribesmen battled furiously, cutting down the Noxians by the dozens. Victory seemed within grasp until Darius entered the battle, cleaving men in half as if they were made of paper. Darius and his minions descended upon the women and children, shackling them and taking them as slaves. Trying to protect her tribe Oaza took up her weapons, slicing down all within her path with the precise spinning strikes of the dervish.

Suddenly she found herself before Darius. Knowing the Noxian forces would break if their leader was slain she engaged him in battle, her rage building with every strike. Darius countered with sweeping attacks from his greataxe but Oaza was too quick, spinning out of the way before the axe could strike home. The battle raged on for what seemed like hours, neither opponent able to get the upper hand. In a cunning maneuver Oaza slipped behind Darius and raised her blades to deliver the killing blow, only to be stabbed in the back by one of Darius’ watching soldiers. Darius instantly slayed the man for interfering with his duel but Oaza had already slipped from consciousness due to loss of blood.

Oaza woke to the roar of the crowd. She was in a dingy cell, surrounded by muscle bound men with countless scars. A lone figure watched over her, tending her wound surprising care for this harsh place.
“Where am I? Who are you?” Oaza asked. “You are safe, but not for long. This is the Arena and once you are fit enough to stand you will be forced to fight. As for me, I am known a Viscero, but you may call me Xin.”

Oaza’s first fight was meant to be a slaughter. Her and a few other slaves, armed only with shields and simple weapons, were pitted against a larger group of seasoned gladiators. Despite all odds Oaza rallied her compatriots and formed a shield wall, slaying all the gladiators without suffering a single loss of one of her men. She instantly became a hero to the slaves, though Oaza knew that she was only delaying the inevitable fate of her allies. Week after week passed and countless more warriors fell to Oaza, no matter how much the odds were stacked against her. Her only comfort was Xin, who taught her to find serenity in the chaos of battle. Then came the news she was to fight a man known as The Butcher. Legends said he was as wide as two men and over a foot taller, wading into battle with a massive axe in each hand. Recalling her battle with Darius and her first battle in the arena, Oaza devised a cunning plan to slay the giant.

On the day of the battle Oaza entered the arena not with her trusty blades at her sides but a large round shield strapped to each arm. Before her stood The Butcher, just as big and muscled as the legends claimed. He charged her with reckless abandon, thinking that he had nothing to fear from a women armed only with two shields. Oaza blocked his advances, spinning and turning to deflect his blows of the shields rather than take the full force of the impact. The Butcher grew even more furious that his opponent had not dies from his attack, roaring and slashing with no regard for his own defenses. It was then Oaza struck, slashing out with the edged blades of the shields, spinning and slicing at The Butchers legs and midsection. By the time The Butcher hit the ground he was in pieces. The Butcher had been butchered.

That night Oaza awoke to the sounds of fighting outside her cell. Demacian warriors had raided the living quarters of the gladiators, freeing the prisoners. Xin freed Oaza from her cell, King Jarvan at his side.
“Come with us,” Xin pleaded with her. “The King has offered to let us join Demacia, to fight against Noxus.” “My duty is to my people,” replied Oaza. “When they are freed then I will join you and we will unleash vengeance on those who imprisoned us.”

For the next decade Oaza hunted down and freed each of her tribe that was forced into slavery, killing countless Noxians in her path. Her family once again found peace in the desert, though none could forget the scars of all those they had lost. There remains only one thing left: vengeance.

Appearance Oaza is small but toned, wearing loose fitting robes of vibrant colors that flow as she moves. Strapped to each arm is a large, round shield that seems too big for her to carry, its sharp edges glistening of the light. When Oaza makes basic attacks she spins with each attack, looping her shields in wide arcs. She is in her late twenties with short black hair and tanned skin.

Passive – Shield Serenity Oaza gains 3 focus whenever she attacks up to a maximum of 100 focus. Focus depletes at a rate of 1 per second if she does not attack for 5 seconds. Focus gives the following benefits based on level: Level 1: 0.5 Armor per point of Focus Level 4: 0.5 Armor and 0.5 Magic Resist per point of Focus Level 8: 1 Armor and 0.5 Magic Resist per point of Focus Level 12: 1 Armor and 1 Magic Resist per point of Focus

Q – Shield Throw Cost: 20 Focus Range: 1000 Cooldown: 8/7/6/5/4 Oaza throws her shield, dealing 80/120/160/200/240 (+100% Bonus Attack Damage) to all enemies in a line. If her shield hits an enemy champion it bounces back half the distance it traveled. Shields remain on the ground for 5 seconds. Picking up a shield gives Oaza 10 focus.

W – Power Slam Cost: 10 Focus Range: 600 (radius 300) Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6 Oaza does a summersault, leaps to a target area and slams both her shields into the ground, dealing 50/75/100/125/150 (+50% Bonus Attack Damage) to all enemies in the area and knocking them up. For each champion hit she gains 5 focus.

E – Dervish Strike Cost: 30 Focus Range: 300 Cooldown: 9/8/7/6/5 Oaza dodges the next basic attack or ability that hits her within 1 second. If she dodges a basic attack or ability she unleashes a spinning strike, dealing 70/120/170/220/270 (+100% Bonus Attack Damage) to all enemies within reach. Oaza gains 10 focus for each enemy struck by the attack.

R – Shield Wall Cost: All Focus Range: 400 Duration: 6/7/8 seconds Oaza inspires her allies, consuming all her focus to grant all allies 0.5 Armor and 0.5 Magic Resist per point of focus consumed.

Playstyle Oaza is designed to be an AD fighter for top lane or jungle. How players use their Focus would separate a good Oaza from a great one. Stacking focus makes Oaza incredibly tanky but limits her damage input to just basic attacks and while most of her abilities are on low cooldowns she is unable to build focus fast enough to spam them like other manaless champs. Oaza would be quite strong against melee assassins and bruisers but would struggle against champs with poke who could deny her ability to build focus.

Reasoning for Numbers Shield Serenity: 1 Armor and 1 Magic Resist effectively raises the character’s maximum health by 1% (since it takes 1% more damage to kill them.) Assuming Oaza invests in some attack speed items she could gain up to 6 Armor and Magic Resist per second late game. This means that for every second Oaza survives in combat her remaining health is effectively raised by 6%. This doesn’t take into account that she also spends focus to use her abilities. Furthermore, this is nowhere near enough to counteract being focused down but it is significant enough that it can allow her to cause some significant damage before needing to retreat.

Shield Throw: The basis for this ability was Olaf’s Undertow. I gave it the same range as Olaf with slightly elevated damage at the expense of his slow.

Power Slam: There’s no ability that is really the same as Power Slam so I went conservative and gave it pretty low damage and AD scaling. Its purpose is more as an initiation tool or an escape so it doesn’t need to deal much damage.

Dervish Strike: Reketon’s Cull the Meek gave me the template for this ability. While it is more powerful than Reketon’s ability, I feel the damage increase is justified because it is her primary source of damage and it removes a major chunk of her focus. Because of its power I wanted to give it some added utility so that it just wasn’t spammed as soon as the cooldown was up. The damage mitigation gives Oaza increased survivability in team fights and allows her to seamlessly transition from tanky to damage dealer if the fight goes in her team’s favor.

Shield Wall: A character’s ult can often define their kit. While Oaza is quite strong 1v1 or with ganks, she really lacks a tide turning ability for team fights. The goal of her ult is to give her a valuable contribution to team fights that has some serious tradeoffs. While her ult grants a serious buff to the rest of her team, it really mitigates her own damage output and survivability until she can build up her focus again. Activating this ult at the right moment can completely turn the tide of the fight and using it at the beginning of the teamfight is not always the best option (unlike many other ults.)

Closing Thanks for reading about Oaza, The Shield Tempest. Please give me your feedback and upvote if you like the concept.