Shin'en, The Dominating Gloom [Champion Concept] [Abilities/Stats/Strategy]
**Lore: ** One of the two Darkin previously unknown to history. Where Aatrox takes his place on the battlefield in order to change the course of history, Shin’en exerts his control from the shadows. Every civilization has had its Dark Age, periods of downward spiraling, bloodshed, and gloom. By promoting a lustful ambition for power, Shin’en has sired the rise of many great leaders and the prosperity of countries otherwise doomed to collapse. On occasion, such leaders have attributed their success to a steeling of will or sudden epiphany, but it was the hand of Shin’en, one with the darkness, that made it so. Shin’en’s wings are hidden beneath a tattered, rippling cloak for a ghost of the abyss has no need to fly in the light of prosperity. Some might think that Shin’en feeds on gloom the same as Aatrox feeds on blood. Some might be right. (WIP: I'm a big fan of the Darkin concept, and I imagine them as a very individualistic race with not much interaction. I reference Aatrox only for comparison. Entirely, and somewhat likely, possible that I'll change this completely)
Stats: [Disclaimer: I'm not the guy to go to for number balancing] Health: 800 (+30 per level) = 1340 @ Lv18 (2680 with 100 Gloom) Mana: 0 (+0 per level) Health Regeneration: 9 (+0.45 per level) = 17.1 @ Lv18 (34.2 with 100 Gloom) Mana Regeneration: 0 (+0 per level)
Attack Damage: 52 (+3 per level) = 106 @ Lv18 (212 with 100 Gloom) Ability Power: 20 (+2 per level) = 56 @ Lv18 (112 with 100 Gloom) Attack Range (Melee): 175 (250 with 100 Gloom) Attack Speed: 0.6 (0.03 per level) = 1.04 @ Lv18 (2.08 with 100 Gloom) Movement Speed: 350
Armour: 30 (+2.5 per level) = 75 @ Lv18 (150 with 100 Gloom) Magic Resistance: 32.1 (+1 per level) = 50.1 @Lv18 (100.2 with 100 Gloom) [WIP: In general, I wanted to go for slightly higher base stats and slightly lower growth, but I was generally balancing around the notion that he would have 100 Gloom on his initiation to a fight and didn't want it to get out of hand. Stats were made with reference to Talon and Shaco, primarily]
Q: Jormungandr (Bonus Cost: 20 Gloom) Cooldown: 7/6.5/5/5.5/4 seconds Shin’en unleashes a cleaving reverse-conal AoE strike, dealing (70/110/150/190/230) physical damage (+0.7% Bonus AD). Minions and monsters killed by this ability generate 2 Gloom stacks, while champions generate 10. *Gloom Bonus: *Attack leaves a DoT that deals (level x 17) magic damage (+0.3% Bonus AP) over 3 seconds on every minion, monster, and champion struck.
W: Vanargand (Bonus Cost: 30 Gloom) Cooldown: 11/10/9/8/7 Shin’en executes a targeted dash, stealing movespeed of the target for the duration of the dash, and dealing (50/80/110/140/170) magic damage (+0.5% Bonus AP) upon making contact with any minion, monster, or champion in his way (not including his target). Shin’en lands next to his target on the side closest to his original position. Shin’en can be intercepted by CC. *Gloom Bonus: *Shin’en disappears into the shadows, reappearing behind his target 0.5 seconds later instead of dashing towards them, reducing target vision to 175, slowing by 30% for 1 second and dealing (60/95/120/155/190) magic damage (+0.65% Bonus AP) (this means that if his target is alone, Shin’en will appear out of their vision and be granted Gloom generation as well as Darkness Symbiotic).
E: Zero Shift (Bonus Cost: 30 Gloom) Cooldown: 5/4.5/4/3.5/3 Shin’en fades out of sight while gliding in the direction of the cursor. Shin’en remains invisible for 0.5 seconds before revealing himself once more. Shin’en has no unit collision and pass over walls until he begins to reappear. If Shin’en’s disappearance and reappearance takes him out of enemy vision, he begins generating Gloom stacks immediately. While untargetable, Shin’en still takes damage from skill shots and intercepts abilities like Ace in the Hole as normal, but at 50% reduced damage. *Gloom Bonus: *Shin’en is completely invulnerable to incoming damage. Ticks of pre-existing DoTs still inflict damage but at 50% reduction.
R: Black Sun Cooldown: 100/90/80 Shin’en sends the entire battlefield into a state of twilight for 10 seconds, granting him continual regeneration of Gloom stacks (5 stacks/sec) regardless of if he is in enemy vision or not, and Bonus Gloom costs are reduced by half. Enemies struck by Jormungandr or Vanargand are inflicted with a debuff, Despair, for 2 seconds that grants Shin’en and his allies true sight of them. Every time Despair is inflicted, the CD of Zero Shift is reduced by 1 second. Despair is removed when Black Sun expires, if it has not already. [The effect would look similar to Nocturne's, without loss of vision for the enemy]
Passive I: Looming Threat While Shin’en is not in any source of enemy vision (sound-based detection such as Rek’Sai’s W passive does not apply), he soaks in the power of darkness, passively gaining stacks of “Gloom” up to a 100 stack cap at a rate of 5 stacks/1 second. Shin’en gains a bonus to each of his stats equal to (base stat x stacks%). Auto attack range increases to 250 at max Gloom (7.5 per stack) and move speed does not increase. Abilities cast while in enemy vision deplete stacks based on Gloom Bonus costs and 2 seconds after the first seen ability is cast, Gloom stacks decay at a rate of 5 stacks/1 second. There is a 0.5 second delay on stack regeneration upon leaving enemy vision.
Passive II: Darkness Symbiotic Abilities used on enemy champions while out of their vision grants Gloom Bonus without consuming Gloom stacks or causing Gloom decay, at the cost of a (ability’s Gloom Bonus cost/10) second increase to the ability's CD. Revealing by auto-attacking prevents activation of this passive.
About Shin'en (Strategy): Shin'en is a melee fighter who can deal good damage at the start of fights after lying in wait for the perfect moment thanks to the stat buffs from Gloom, but eventually has to rely on constant disengages and reengages to keep from becoming too weak and being overcome. Because Shin'en gains stats from keeping out of sight, he does his best work in the jungle, where he can clear early without too much trouble thanks to his higher low level stats. In a laning position, Shin'en needs bushes, so he has troubles in mid lane.
In a fight, Shin'en generally wants to open up from out of vision with Zero Shift to catch his opponent off-guard without consuming Gloom. Once in range, auto attack to save Gloom and keep up the chase with Vanargand. Use Jormungandr and Zero Shift to keep up the damage and it's not too dangerous. Otherwise, when Shin'en decides it's time to back off and regenerate Gloom, deliver a decisive Jormungandr to leave a DoT and use Zero Shift to cloak in the shadows. Use Black Sun at your discretion, either at the start of a fight if Shin'en isn't quite at max Gloom, or if you need the vision, or cost and CD reductions to finish a battle off. Players will have to be constantly aware of how strong they are at all points during the fight as their stats wear down.
Against Shin'en, teams will want to place wards in bushes he is likely to gank from (jungler) to prevent Darkness Symbiotic and force his only CC/gap-closer into becoming his only initiation, or to control lane bushes and prevent Shin'en from gaining stacks at all (laner). In a fight, wait for Shin'en to start decaying his Gloom and then keep him CC'd long enough to kill him or force him to back off due to lower stats.
Itemization on Shin'en can either prioritize critical strikes and penetration (ex: Statikk Shiv, Infinity Edge, Youmuu's Ghostblade) or hybrid damage (ex: Guinsoo's Rageblade, Hextech Gunblade). In general, Shin'en gets mileage out of items that let him deal damage while affording survivability such as Maw of Malmortius, Bloodthirster, or Blade of the Ruined King. Because his ratios are Bonus AD/AP and the nature of his decaying stats, building bulk doesn't work well.
Attached is a colored sketch I did with my average-at-best art skills. I'm bad with color, I'm sorry. Shin'en is not my first stab at a champion concept, but it the one that I feel is the most cohesive, and probably the one I gave the most thought. I wrote the strategy section after copy-pasting the kit I had developed a few days earlier and the words wrote themselves, they seemed to flow so well; I take that as a sign of success. What do you readers think? Does the kit hold water? Is it too strong, too weak, or otherwise lacking in some way? I wouldn't mind the lore too much, I'm more and more sure that I'll alter it, while keeping the theme intact.
