Vertigo, the Faceless Stalker (MEGA/MAIN THREAD)
Table of contents: (Just in case you don't want to read all it, you probably don't)
- Opener
- Overview
- Stats (unfinished)
- Abilities
- Math and scenarios
- Lore
- Change Notes
1. O P E N E R Heads up: I want this to be a somewhat long term project, I want my character to feel a true presence in Valoran. So whether this gets a thousand views, or none, I want to keep this concept alive. That being said, everything below is heavily WIP, and extremely detailed. I'll include a link to a TL;DR version, once I finish it. (Riot deleted all the mini posts I made :( )
So, let's just jump right in.
Vertigo, the Faceless Stalker (Name and title tentative, especially the name)
2. O V E R V I E W General overview: Vertigo is a manifestation of cruel justice. Stalking people who have done gruesome acts of crime, specifically murder, so he can cast upon them his own gruesome version of justice, through dark magic and cold steel. Therefor he has his sights on some of Valoran's most vicious killers. Jhin, and Zed being obvious ones, and maybe Jinx or Ahri, and a few others. (I'd like to write him a short, and long lore, for this reason I'd love some suggestions)
In game, Vertigo is a highly mobile and stealthy melee AD assassin that can go either mid or jungle, and relies on Stalking his prey for outstanding single target damage, in compensation lacking reliable AoE outside of wave clearing.
In middle lane, he can be found abusing his lane with bonus damage from his passive, bonus range from his q, and a consistent DoT if the Vertigo player can manage his W properly. He also excels at roaming with his passive, e and ult being all very good tools for roaming.
In the jungle, he can be found clearing camps like a beast via his w and q working in tandem for a very quick and efficient clears. Same as him mid, ganks are very effective due to the nature of his kit.
Those playing against Vertigo should feel very vulnerable and paranoid when they're the stalked target, his playstyle should force both the Vertigo player and his opponents to play each move carefully
Recommend stats: AD CDR Armor Pen
3. S T A T S
Base Stats rundown:(Before I complete this part, I wanna take a close look at other AD assassin's stats, so Vertigo can have realistic stats.)
W I P
4. A B I L I T I E S Abilities rundown: (Remember these are all tentative and subject to change)
[P]Stalking Dread: While Vertigo is within [800] range, and facing an enemy champion, they gain a stacking debuff of Stalking Dread per second up to 6 stacks. Each stack of Stalking Dread increases the damage Vertigo's next basic attack or Shaded Edge vs that target by 5/10/15/20% (Increasing at levels 1/6/11/16) per stack, up to 30/60/90/120% bonus damage.
Vertigo gains a flat 60 movement speed towards targets with 6 stacks of Stalking Dread.
If Vertigo changes direction all stacks will fall off after 2 seconds.
If an enemy champion walks in front of a target with stacks, the previous target will drop stacks one by one and the new target will start gaining stacks.
Notes: These stacks create a indicator above the targets health bar that gets bigger[scarier] till it hits 6 stacks, visible to the enemy team even if they do not have vision on Vertigo. The damage is so piddly early game to prevent overwhelming lane trading, he already has enough abuse with his q and w.
[Q]Shaded Edge: (Mana cost: 40 at all ranks)(Cooldown: 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 seconds)(Range: Self Cast) Increases Vertigo's attack range by 225(350 total), and his next attack deals 20/40/60/80/100 (65% bonus AD) bonus physical damage.
Using Shaded Edge on a target effected with Shadow Sickness triggers additional effects:
- Slows the target by 60-80% (Based on both Shadow Sickness', and Shaded Edge's rank) that decays over 1 second.
- Grants 10-40% bonus attack speed (Based on both Shadow Sickness', and Shaded Edge's rank) only vs the target affected by soul sickness for 3 seconds.
Notes: This is meant to be Vertigo's bread and butter ability. Relative to the rest of his kit, I'm not entirely sure how strong this ability should be. Triggering an attack command on any target not hit with shaded edge/shadow sickness combo will cancel his attack speed
[W]Shadow Sickness: (Mana cost: 90/95/100/105/110)(Cooldown: 25 seconds at all ranks)(Range: 600, single target) Vertigo plagues his targets soul with deadly toxin. Dealing 75/100/125/150/175 (120% of total AD)(60% AP) physical damage over 10 seconds. If an effected target is struck by Shaded Edge while being effected by Shadow Sickness, Shadow Sickness is reapplied.
Shadow Sickness does double damage to minions and monsters, if it kills a minion or monster the effect will be split to all nearby (350 circumference range) minions and monsters(not champions) and have its damage increased by 50%.
Every time a minion or monster dies to Shadow sickness, he gains 10 mana.
Shadow Sickness can be used while under the effects of Moralities Eclipse, and may only be applied to one enemy champion.
Notes: This ability should feel useless if not used on minions/monsters or in combo with Shaded Edge. The bonus damage/spreading is meant to be used for wave clearing and jungling.
[E]Black Shift: (Was dark fog, can't really think of a good name) (Mana cost: 85 at all ranks)(Cooldown: 22/20/18/16/14)(Range: 450, in a line) Vertigo becomes untargetable and dashes for a set distance in a line, dealing 20/40/60/80/100 (25% of bonus AD)(20% AP) magic damage to all enemies he passes through. Enemies hit by Black Shift deal 10% less damage to Vertigo. If only one champion was hit the damage is doubled, and the damage reduction is increased to 25%.
Notes: This is meant to be his escape and engage tool, I put a heavy cooldown on early levels to give breathing room to players against Vertigo and make Vertigo feel his mistakes if he uses Black Shift incorrectly.
[R]Moralities Eclipse (Tentative name, I want it to sound very poetic and deadly) (Mana cost: 150/125/100)(Cooldown: 130/110/90)(Range: Single target 900 range) After a 1.25 second channel, Vertigo blinks to an enemy champion and stealth's for up to 8 seconds.
When Vertigo would come out of this stealth for any reason (issuing an attack or attempting to use Black Shift, stealth timer runs out) Vertigo is untargetable and may not use any commands other than moving for 1 second.
After Vertigo comes out of stealth, and 1 second mini-stasis, he fears every target around him(500 range) not effected by Stalking Dread for 1 second.
Notes: Due to the sheer power of this ability, the mana cost and cooldown have been attuned to compensate. This abilities main use is to safely apply 6 stacks of his passive during teamfights, or ganks, or just lane phase. The untargetability and attack restriction for 1 second is to give his target a chance to react to him before taking massive damage from Shaded Edge and 6 stacks of Stalking Dread. The fear is to ensure he has a moment of safety, since everyone pretty much knows where he's going to be. A reminder that a target WILL know if hes stalking them due to the indicator, and allies can try to intercept it. If he tries using his ult as an escape, then hes vulnerable to true sight effects.
Now, that his abilities are out of the way - Let's see how they'd work in tandem with League of Legends. Which takes me to my next segment of this little project -
5. M A T H / S C E N A R I O S Some math:
So, we're gonna go all out here. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. So, in this scenario we'll look at a Vertigo trying to assassinate your average Lucian. These numbers are all theoretical and I'm only listing the numbers important in an assassination scenario. Take this with a grain of salt,
Lucian stats: Items: Lucidity boots, Essence reaver, Statikk Shiv, Infinity Edge, vamp scepter Level: 16 HP: 1500 Armor: 80 (about 40% physical damage reduction, I'm probably wrong but w/e) Armor after reduction via armor pen: 45 (23% reduction-ish) MR: 30 (15% magic damage reduction) for thunderlords and e
Vertigo stats: (Keep in mind this is all pre-mitigation numbers, and his passive and Shadow Sickness can be qss'd) Items: Youmuus, lucidity boots, duskblade, Caulfields Warhammer, longsword, ruby crystal Level: 16 300 AD (100 Base + 200 bonus) Armor pen: 35ish Lvl 5 Q damage 100+120= 220 + auto attack damage(300) 520 physical damage Lvl 5 Q damage with 5 stacks of Stalking dread 1144 physical damage Lvl 5 W damage 175+360= 535 physical damage over 10 seconds, 53.5 physical damage a second. Level 3 E damage 60+50= 110 magic damage Thunderlords damage 160+60= 220 magic damage Minimal damage: 520 + 53.5 + 110 + 220 = 903.5 Potential damage: 1144 + 535 + 110 + 220 = 1979 None of this is including additional auto attacks or damage from duskblade
So lets jump into the scenario.
Lucian is roaming to his red, little does he know Vertigo sees him with a ward. When Vertigo is in range he ults Lucian, becoming invisible and casting Shadow Sickness, since it doesn't cancel stealth. While stealthed, Vertigo makes sure he keeps facing Lucian and lets Stalking Dread stacks build up. Lucian sees hes taking damage from Shadow Sickness, and sees the passive indicator above his head. He begins running to his tower.
By the time 6 stacks have built up, we'll assume Shadow sickness has proced 6 times.
53.5 x 6 = 321 - 23% from Lucians armor is a total of 250 rounded. Lucian is at 1250 health. Vertigo comes out of his stealth and the mini stasis begins. He can't attack Lucian yet, so Lucian e dashes and flashes. Once Vertigo is out of his stealth he flashes, and e's too. His e hits Lucian and 2 more procs of W have passed.
107 physical damage from w - 23% from armor = 83.
110 magic damage from e - 15% from MR = 93
83 + 93 = 176
Lucian is at 1074 health.
With 6 stacks of Stalking Dread, Shaded Blade primed Vertigo auto attacks Lucian dealing 1144 physical damage - 22% from Lucians armor = 892 physical damage, one more tick of Shadow Sickness + 42 (Post mitigation) = 934 damage.
Lucian is at 140 life. He attempts to heal (290 at level 16) and kite, but the slow from Shaded Blade and Shadow sickness combo ensures his death, thunderlords also to top it off.
A successful assassination. You're thinking, woah, too much damage there bud. But not only was he caught out alone, he also didn't have QSS. He could have cut the Q damage down by about 60% by QSS'ing Stalking Dread, and it also would have stopped the remaining ticks of Shadow Sickness. So lets look at the same scenario, only now Lucian has QSS (I'm adding MR to Lucian as well)
Lucian MR is now 50, which is about 25% magic damage reduction. It'll help with Black Shift and Thunderlords damage.
Lucian is roaming to his red, little does he know Vertigo sees him with a ward. When Vertigo is in range he ults Lucian, becoming invisible and casting Shadow Sickness, since it doesn't cancel stealth. While stealthed, Vertigo makes sure he keeps facing Lucian and lets Stalking Dread stacks build up. Lucian sees hes taking damage from Shadow Sickness, and sees the passive indicator above his head. He begins running to his tower.
By the time 6 stacks have built up, we'll assume Shadow sickness has proced 6 times.
53.5 x 6 = 321 - 23% from Lucians armor is a total of 250 rounded. Lucian is at 1250 health. Vertigo comes out of his stealth and the mini stasis begins. He can't attack Lucian yet, so Lucian e dashes and flashes. Once Vertigo is out of his stealth he flashes, and e's too. His e hits Lucian and 2 more procs of W have passed.
107 physical damage from w - 23% from armor = 83.
110 magic damage from e - 25% from MR = 82
83 + 82 = 165
Lucian is at 1085 health.
Lucian QSS', removing 6 stacks of Stalking Dread and the remaining time left on Shadow Sickness. Shaded Blade primed, Vertigo auto attacks Lucian dealing 520 physical damage - 22% from Lucians armor = 406 physical damage, and since Shadow Sickness was removed he takes no more damage from that, nor does he get slowed.
1085 - 406 = 679, Lucian is at 679 health. If he heals he'd have 969 health. With that health, he has a kiting chance, and from there it's up to Lucian to kite and get away.
BAM COUNTERPLAY.
I'd say this is going pretty well. Anyhoo, moving onto lore.
(Edit, totally forgot e damage gets doubled when theyre alone. Not too much should change though, qss should still save Lucian just fine)
6. L O R E Short lore: All across Valoran, innocents are murdered to fill the sick satisfaction that thrives the killers to commit such gruesome acts. With those murders comes grief, anger, anguish, and a mountain of other emotions. From those emotions was bred the manifestation known as Vertigo. Vertigo stalks all his pray, inbuing his targets head with paranoia, till he finds his perfect opportunity to strike with his cold steeled blade. His exact appearance is difficult to draw out, seeing as those who witness him is either for a brief instance or right before they die. Statements so far say that his face consists of distorted burn marks, no eyes, no nose, no mouth. Just distorted scars and burns alike. He wears a cloak, but underneath is just darkness and shadowy figure of what could resemble a human body, and carrying around a curved and viciously sharp blade. Vertigo was not believed to be human once, or a ghost now. But all of the pain and suffering murders have caused around Valoran manifested Vertigo. He is now a vagabond of cruel justice, displaying his gift to those he deems worthy.
Long lore: W I P
This is gonna be pretty huge, so I need some time to write it out.
7. C H A N G E N O T E S Change notes: V.1.1 - Took out immunity to true sight on ult under certain conditions -Renamed "Dark Fog" to "Black Shift -Added table of contents
