Boards›Concepts & Creations

Malx, The Betrayer. Hateful melee AP, dot, denies enemy champ kills on his allies

yellowdogdingo·2/16/2019, 5:43:22 PM·2 votes·4,226 views

https://imgur.com/a/gZFqvki

Hey, thanks for taking a look. It's about time we had a solid curse/debuff champ and I think his E would be a very interesting and fun mechanic. With Riot's current trend of adding new mechanics, I think this guy could have a chance. I've put a decent amount of time and thought into this and really appreciate all the suggestions and support that have been given. As such, I consider this a group effort with everyone interested so if you have an idea...tell me.

#Malx, The Betrayer

Untold eons ago, a celestial being robed itself in material form and stepped forth to guide the mortal inhabitants of Runeterra back into the orderly weave of the celestial tapestry. When this happened, an imbalance was created. Laws older than the universe itself had been violated and Creation reeled. A counterbalance was needed; something perfectly equal and opposite to the holy entity that had manifested itself in the material world. Creation called out for a champion and from the silent dark beyond the Void came an answer. An abyssal thing, shrouded and dripping with cold, black hatred came forth and grinningly accepted its task. And so, Malx was set loose upon the world. As it stepped forth upon Runeterra, cloaked now in the trappings of life and carrying the blessings of Creation itself, it became “he” and marveled at the skittering, chattering, ephemeral things that seemed to be birthed, grow, rot and be birthed again in the blink of an eye. Had the celestial truly sacrificed itself for these? There must be some hidden importance to them, something unseen. It mattered little: he would have killed them regardless. For he hated them as he hated all things that were not him. Yes, he would find the celestial now calling itself “Soraka”. He would find it and silence it as he would silence all things. When that was done, however, his true task would begin. He was the first of his kind to enter Runeterra, just as he had been the first of his kind before and he would not stop until all was dark. And cold. And silent. And he was again alone.

##Role

Malx is primarily designed to fill a support role, but his passive, Q and W will allow some versatility to venture out into the jungle. Lore-wise, he is perfectly opposite and equal to Soraka, so since she does not bring her full power to bear to directly alter the course of events, neither can he. His kit is all about forcing opponents to make choices: do I attack and take damage or wait and take myself out of the fight?
In lane, he will be able to poke and help waveclear with his W while punishing overextended, mana-based champs with his Q. His ideal place in team fights will be in the backline where he can debuff enemy champs while buffing himself by laying down multiple curses from afar, then diving in with his E to deny kills and quickly finish off the killer with the subsequent buff to his attack speed. His ult will sow fright and confusion among the enemy team while giving him a short-lived boost to his damage output and chase. With his passive, he will be at his best when he has as many curses active on as many targets as possible and his ult has the potential to max this out immediately with a well-placed cast.

##Stats

Region: Runeterra (not Void) Health: 594 (+95 per level) Attack Damage: 55 (+3.4 per level) Attack Speed: 0.625 (+2.25% per level) Movement Speed: 350 Health Regen: 7.5 (+0.85 per level) Armor: 31 (+3.6 per level) Magic Resist: 33 (+1.25 per level)

#Abilities

**Disparaging Strikes **(Passive) Malx channels his hatred through his sacred weapons, demoralizing his victims as they are carved to pieces.

  • Each of Malx's curses present on enemy champions or large monsters increases his melee damage by 3% AP, stacking up to 4 times. Malx is also granted a 6% (+5% AP/curse) damage reduction originating from all sources within an 800 radius of himself.
    **Damage reduction comes into effect upon cursing a target and persists for 6s. There is no cooldown, so a target may be immediately cursed at any time to renew the effect.

Abyssal Litany (Q) Cost: 40/55/75/80/100 mana Range: 800 Malx curses his opponent, stripping them of the ability to speak their native tongue and forcing them to speak the language of the Outer Dark. This language is so unnaturally evil, that its use causes the speaker's soul to reject the body uttering such profanity. The words inflict bodily harm on the victim and all those who overhear them as their souls fight to tear free of their confines.

  • If an enemy champion casts a spell while under the effects of this curse, they take 20/40/60/80/100% (+35% AP) of that spell's mana cost in true damage. Items that consume mana also trigger this effect. Large monsters take 20/30/40/50/60% of the damage they inflict in true damage once every 4s. Allies of the victim, including minions and smaller monsters, within a 450 radius take 5/10/15/20/25% of that spell/attack's mana cost/damage in true damage. The curse drops from enemy champions after damage has been dealt.

Wrack (W) Cost: 55 mana Cast Time: 1s Range: 900 Drawing on the seething energies within him, Malx emits a gout of dark energy that suffuses the bodies of his enemies with wracking pain. While their muscles knot and coil, damaging internal organs and restricting airways and blood flow, his victims find that physical exertion only leads to further injury and suffering.

  • Targets in a line take 6% of max Health (+33% AP) in magic damage over 6s regardless of any action taken, but their melee/physical attacks cause extra physical damage equal to 10/15/20/25/30% damage inflicted per attack each time such an attack is made while the curse is in effect. Includes minions and monsters.

The Balance (E) Cost: 80/85/90/95/100 mana Range: 600 radius Malx hates all things.

  • If one of his curses is active, Malx may dash in a straight line to an allied champion at 20% Health or lower. For 0.5/1/1.5/2/2.5s after reaching the target, if the target is killed within a 300 radius of himself by an enemy champion, Malx blinks to the target, finishing them off. The enemy champion responsible gains no XP, 300 gold is taken away from the reward and it counts as a kill for Malx for scoring purposes. Malx laughs and gains 10/15/20/25/30% attack speed for 4s, but no gold or XP. This may not be cast on the same allied champion more than once every 8/7.6/7.2/6.8/6.4/6 minutes.

Sightless, Soundless (R) Cost: 100 mana Range: 810 Malx calls to the Outer Dark, manifesting a small portion of it briefly in the mortal world. This preternatural darkness cannot be pierced by the mortal eye and swallows all sound.

  • Calls down a dark sphere to the target location. Enemy champions caught in the initial explosion are cursed with reduced sight radius, lose ally vision and move/attack speed are reduced by 20/25/30% for 4s. Affected champions are also deafened, hearing only their own effects for the duration of the curse. Enemies caught in a small area in the center of the explosion are silenced.

  • If Malx himself is within the initial explosion, he regains a semblance of his original form, growing in size and becoming ethereal. While in this form, Malx's move speed is increased, he may move through units and his melee strikes gain cleave. Curses cast while in this form prolong its duration up to a max of 8s.

#Appearance

Artwork below. Dark, hairless, satyr-like creature vaguely similar in appearance to Soraka, but obviously not friendly. I'm thinking greyish-green skin becoming darker and more reptilian as you progress down to the completely reptilian/avian legs. Charcoal grey scales on the legs, forearms and lower back with dull red details. Completely black eyes in sunken orbits giving a skull-like appearance to the head with horns similar in color to his skin tapering to dull red or charcoal. Maybe a small, reptilian tail. Dual-wielded sickle-like weapons, elegantly decorated, but not ornate, etc. etc.

His form when affected by his ult will change to a tall, amorphous, horned humanoid shape of charcoal/greys with exaggerated pure black shadowing and no eyes. Arms and horns will be elongated and he will attack with claws instead of scythes. Legs will fade away as you progress distally.

Spell effects are pure black with dark blue/purple details. On hit, curses appear as dark signs above the head of the target that persist for 2s before disappearing leaving behind a black flame for the remainder of the curse. Each curse has its own, unique sign. When Disparaging Strikes is active, Malx's weapons slowly drip thick, black liquid and a dark orb appears above him for every active curse up to 4.

Something like this color scheme for spells https://imgur.com/a/NWU56lH

Something like this for his ult form (not my art, unfortunately) https://imgur.com/ZDW6Foh

I don't really want the loin cloth....big scales/scutes hiding the crotch would be better https://imgur.com/a/CgQJACU

Abyssal Litany https://imgur.com/a/cjBeEJU

Wrack https://imgur.com/a/rPd8jFw

Sightless, Soundless https://imgur.com/imEw46l

Rough sketch, but the general idea for the weapons https://imgur.com/JsDHeGk

Edit log: 2/16/19 - sketches uploaded 2/17/19 - new art - Disparaging strikes now adds damage reduction instead of dodge chance - In order to be cast, The Balance now requires a curse to be active and is now a skill shot.
- The Balance may not be cast on a specific champion more than once every 4 minutes - Teleporting and Blinking now trigger Withering Edict - Dialogues between Soraka and Malx at the beginning of a match and upon killing each other 2/18/19 - The Balance: 300g taken from enemy kill reward rather than entire reward, CD changed to 8 min/champion 2/19/19 - Abyssal Litany: scaling dropped from 55% AP to 35% 2/23/19 - "Role" and "Appearance" sections added - Disparaging Strikes: bonuses now applied when curses are applied to large monsters - Abyssal Litany: now does a percentage of large monsters' damage/attack in true damage. This effect can trigger only once every 4s. - The Balance: CD per allied champion now reduced by 0.4min/ability lvl - Withering Edict: distance traveled to trigger the stun increased from 600 to 800 - Curse signs added 3/2/19 - new artwork 3/14/19 - Abyssal Litany now drops when dmg is dealt - Withering Edict exchanged for Sightless, Soundless - Curse sign updated

#Thanks again for looking and PLEASE all constructive criticism is very welcome and will be taken into consideration.

**Special dialogues will trigger if Malx and Soraka kill each other and at the beginning of a match. _ Ideas on what could be said are welcome...post below._

21 Comments

Shmeeve2/16/2019, 5:47:53 PM1 votes

Honestly the E is very neat. It can also be used to keep an enemy champ from getting fed or a bounty.

davidesfed2/17/2019, 11:59:06 AM1 votes

Hey! I really like the idea of a curse-champ, but I have a few questions for you.

  1. How do you see him built? I would say he could be a tank, since most of his damage is not based on his stats but on enemies'.
  2. I think Riot had decided to remove dodge chance (only Jax has it, but it's 100% on for a limited time), so giving him that passive is a little overtuned, considering the above question. He's already a tank, why would he need a passive dodge chance?
  3. If I am not wrong, blinks and teleports are actually the same thing, but are called in different ways just because of the range difference. Hence, it doesn't make sense that the ult won't trigger on teleports, but will trigger on blinks.
  4. The E idea is really cool, but is also really broken. Kinda like Pyke's ult, who gives gold to his ally, but this is even more broken, expecially on a non-ultimate ability. In fact, this means that he is able to deny gold to enemies (gold they got because they played well in most cases) from level 1. It should be really, REALLY annoying to play against, and even if the idea is good I don't think it should be in League. The problem I see is this:
  • the duration of the ability cannot be too long, otherwise it would be unfair to play against. It can't even be too short, though, because it would be useless. Also, it should have a per-champ cooldown of something like 5 or more minutes, leaving him with only two actual base abilities. Finally, all other abilities are heavily focused on curses, and this E doesn't really fit in with the rest of the kit. Lore-wise it's cool, because Malx wants to kill everything, but the rest of the kit really doesn't show this will. All things considered, I am a main assassin, so keep in mind that my most hated champs to play against are something like Tham Kench, Zilean, Lulu, etc., that are champs with the ability to deny me kills I would otherwise get, hence my point of view is influenced by this.

For what is concerned with his other abilities, I must admit I love them. They're all so cool and unique, and they are not even unfair to play against, because Malx won't do damage outside the damage he made them do to themselves. Kinda like Rammus's W, but more focused on having them regret to do anything at all. All in all, I feel like to say good job man![slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

cocothecocobo2/18/2019, 5:00:32 AM1 votes

Wow! A lot of work must have gone into this, and as such, it was a really impressive piece to read! but a few things:

  1. doesn't it seem a bit op for him to be able to negate 1k worth of shutdown gold on a champion every four minutes? I feel like it should be more like once every 8 minutes to any given champion on your team, and it only reduces the kill gold by 300 (can't go below zero)
  2. would he be a support or a jungler? or maybe even a top laner?
  3. I'll be straight, the mana killing ability seems a bit op: R.I.P Kassadin, and Karthus, and like everyone else.
  4. the scaling seems a bit over the top: he's already definitively a late game support because his cc, but he has 0 early game and 100 late game I LOVED the idea, but with these few things in mind, I believe it could be improved upon. Have a good day man![slayer-jinx-wink]
yellowdogdingo2/19/2019, 12:39:37 PM1 votes

@Cocothecocobo

After some number crunching, you're right: the 55% AP scaling is a bit much. At 700 AP that would do 485 true dmg to a champ casting an ability that cost 100 mana....changed to 35% we're looking at 345 dmg for the same spell. Seems more reasonable. I had based this on Diana's crescent, but didn't take into account that hers is magic dmg....

What else can I fix? I'm getting a lot of views (which is a nice surprise), but no upvotes which means I'm still missing something. I'll hopefully be getting a buddy to add some more finished artwork for me (my pen and ink sketches may not appeal to people lol) over the next week or so. I've decided to proceed with him as a top laner with jg potential so future editing will reflect that. Thanks.

davidesfed2/19/2019, 1:47:39 PM1 votes

Hey! I thought about it for a while now, and came up with the idea that he should be a support. In fact he has 2 abilities that he can only cast on champion (Q and E), and his pushing power in a solo lane is not that great with only his W. Same applied to the jungle, in which he is not even able to cast his Q. To fix this I would consider making the Q castable on big monsters, but instead of dealing damage on spell cast it could be some sort of DoT or a chunch of true damage like Nunu's Q. As a toplaner, though, I think his E would be wasted since it can only be used on the ally jungler, which is supposed not to die on a gank lol Let me know what you think about this!

Have a great day :D

Budget Yami2/22/2019, 4:22:09 PM1 votes

His e is great! Since everybody is saying that I will say something else lol. I feel like his ulti is a little broken, I don't know how to change is or anything like that. Just i feel that is really broken as 600 units isnt a crap load and is a basically an guaranteed CC against a carry and anybody that can't 1v5 without help (fed adc cant 1v5) like all in all its basically a free pick and his jungling will be very strong after 6. EVEN as a support it is very strong in a 2v2 as the adc will be stunned and all skillshots will hit and etc.

yellowdogdingo3/2/2019, 5:53:46 PM1 votes

Hey, I've slowed down a bit on this guy due to work-related obligations....but that doesn't mean I'm not always thinking of ways to improve!

I've been wanting to change the ult, but I want to get people's opinion before I make the actual change. I also want to increase the synergy of his passive with the rest of his kit. What I'm thinking is a ranged AOE curse. It would be mechanically similar to Sora's old Starcall in that champs caught in the exact middle are affected more. Since all champs in the AOE would be cursed, there would be more potential for getting the Disparaging Strikes count up to max. It would also make the ult more fun/skill-based(same thing as far as I'm concerned) and balance Malx out better. I'm providing both ults below for easier comparison. Let me know what you think.

Original Withering Edict (R) Cost: 100 mana Range: 550 Malx knows the secret words that govern the balance between health and infirmity and annuls them. Previously vigorous opponents find that they lack the will to continue the fight while fleeing victims exhaust what little reserves they retain, eventually slipping into unconsciousness and Malx's crooked hands.

  • The target is cursed for 6s. Total hp/mana/focus capacities are reduced by 20/25/30% and move/attack speed are reduced by 30% +10% for every 100 traveled from the spot at which they were originally cursed. After traveling 800, the target is stunned for 3s. Effects by which the victim is passively moved by an outward force (Thresh’s hook, Blitzcrank’s grab, Tristana’s ult, etc.) do not count towards movement traveled. Teleporting/Blinking can trigger each of the effects if the distance covered is sufficient to do so and the effect chain will pick up at whichever phase with which the distance covered corresponds. ie. blinking to a position a distance equal to or greater than the distance required for the stun to take effect will cause the target to be stunned at the site to which they blinked.).

New Sightless, Soundless Cost: 100 mana Range: 810 Malx calls to the Outer Dark, manifesting a small portion of it briefly in the mortal world. This preternatural darkness cannot be pierced by the mortal eye and swallows all sound.

  • Calls down a dark sphere to the target location. Enemy champions caught in the explosion are cursed and have reduced sight radius, lose ally vision and move/attack speed are reduced by 20/25/30% for 4s. Enemy champions caught in a small area in the center are also silenced.

new curse sign https://imgur.com/imEw46l