[Champion Concept] Khurdan, the Tomb Desecrator
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##Abilities I have done the ability explanations in the same style as on the League of Legends wikia so it's easier to understand and nicer to look at.
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##Lore I haven’t written a proper lore as any interactions I suggest may not fit with Riot's vision for Runeterra and I don't want it to impede on a current champion's lore. For example, I may suggest Khurdan has fought with Rek'Sai and made it out alive with one of her fangs, but this wouldn't fit in with the "no man has escaped Rek'Sai" idea. Especially if it turns out Rek'Sai still has all her fangs intact.
So instead here is an abridged version of his lore where his interactions within the world don't have as much as an impact:
Khurdan is a tomb raider who operates around the Shuriman Wastes. He makes ends by selling knick-knacks he acquires to merchants in the nearby villages. He is a man of muscular build who has grown to endure the harsh environment of Shurima, feeling little exhaustion from the ire of the sun; an ideal trait for someone in his line of work.
When he began raiding he found his current weapon in a tomb; a wooden staff with two ejectable blades on either end. Over the years he has honed his skills with the weapon but is by no means a master. When travelling, Khurdan removes the blades and uses the staff as a walking stick to help cross the desert.
Khurdan has had some close encounters with Xer’Sai in the Sai Kahleek which has left some permanent scars on his body, but he has never encountered Rek’Sai herself.
##Lore in Contrast to Abilities With a lot of the recent lore for champions their abilities often tie in thematically with the character, this is usually shown through promotional videos or short stories. For example, the short story written for Rek’Sai details her as being a giant void creature that lurks around the Sai Kahleek desert, hunting any who trespass. The desert is dotted with tunnels belonging to her species; this is just like her in-game ability to burrow underground and create tunnels. In the story she snaps someone’s spine with her fangs, similar to her Furious Bite ability. She also unborrows at one point, knocking a boy into the air, just like she can in game.
As mentioned before, Khurdan is a tomb raider. So here is what I envision a reveal video to look like for him:
A man in a tattered cloak presumed to be Khurdan is looking down at a scroll which has the etchings of a map denoting his current location. Using the scroll he navigates through an almost buried, cyclopean ruin deep within the Shuriman desert. The ruin is revealed to be a tomb which has been abandoned for a very long time.
Once inside, the man removes his mask, confirming that it is indeed Khurdan. Once he reaches the inner sanctum he notices a rival of his taking trinkets from a sarcophagus. Khurdan isn’t a stealthy character so the robber hears him lurking in the shadows. After exchanging words, Khurdan gives him a challenge: A first-blood duel using only staffs to settle who takes the loot, to which the robber accepts.
The two engage in combat. At first the fight is dead even but soon Khurdan begins losing; similar to how in game he is weak whilst using only his staff. Khurdan is winded and takes refuge behind a pillar, using this time to attach the blades to his staff. With the blades now in place he starts winning, but it reveals a dishonest side to his character. Once his rival is weak, Khurdan sunders through him, slashing the robber with his hidden elbow blade. With the robber bleeding profusely from his abdomen, Khurdan identifies this as a weakpoint. He makes use of this by lacerating the small gash; knocking the robber to his knees.
By now the man is too hurt to continue fighting so uses a smoke bomb to give him time to flee Khurdan and the maze-like tomb. Just as it looks like the robber has made it to an exit and his awaiting camel, Khurdan dashes down from an overhead ledge and ejects the blades from his staff. The robber falls dead. With no witnesses Khurdan loots what the robber took, which Goes to show there is no such thing as friendly Competition. He mounts the man's camel and makes off into the horizon.
##Using the Abilities I designed Khurdan to be a mix between fighter and assassin. He is primarily intended to be a solo laner usually top, but can also be played as a jungler. Khurdan is very vulnerable early game as he is a melee champion with no form of defence. He is also not particularly good at trading as Sunder requires the enemy champion to be below a certain health threshold to use and without it he can't get the bonus damage on Barbarous Laceration. With this in mind he takes some items and levels to become useful.
https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/wow.gamepedia.com/c/c4/Inv_misc_coin_02.png?version=fe35f469c1fc17fabfbbe31e9bd0bc36 Passive - Unfriendly Competition A very good snowball tool that rewards you for securing kills. The downside being that it requires your opponent to be carrying some gold for it to be useful. It may be worth not trying to kill support champions before your 4th kill as you don't want your 8% gold steal to be on a champion with little current gold. Once you are full build this passive offers very little aside stealing gold from your opponents.
https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/wow.gamepedia.com/d/d4/Ability_paladin_speedoflight.png?version=8a8e39727b181a1739bbc042f455f2f9 Q - Deadly Gyration This ability offers quite a bit of utility. You can use it to damage champions and minions. It can be used as an escape or form of engage. It can even be used to ignore hard CC. The problem being its high cooldown as well how weakened you are until your staff comes back to you.
https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/wow.gamepedia.com/0/01/Ability_warrior_bloodbath.png?version=470258921c3ef0cefba7f3a352f5ab1d W - Sunder In my opinion this is his signature ability as it has several interactions with the rest of the kit. I particularly like the whole recharge mechanic and how having fewer charges increases your lethiality when your ultimate is levelled. Bare in mind that the charges have a static cooldown so aren't reduced by cooldown reduction; this was done so it doesn't effect the lethiality duration you get from your ultimate.
The recharge time of Sunder is reduced for every current charge he has so I would try to wait until I gain my fourth charge before using the ability so the next charge has only a 4 second cooldown. Spamming the ability will leave you with no charges and a very long recharge time. You do not want to cast Sunder when you are about to gain a charge as the cooldown will refresh immediately, and as you’re a charge down the cooldown will be even longer. To help explain this:
4 current charges --- 0 second cooldown (can't have more than 4 charges) 3 current charges --- 4 second cooldown 2 current charges --- 8 second cooldown 1 current charges --- 12 second cooldown 0 current charges --- 16 second cooldown
If you have 2 current charges you have an 8 second cooldown on your third charge. Let's say you cast Sunder when you are 2 seconds off you third charge. You now have 1 charge of Sunder and the recharge cooldown has been refreshed to the recharge time for having 1 charge which is 12 seconds. As you can see it is a lot more efficient to wait for your third charge to come up, then casting Sunder. That will still have 2 charges and the cooldown for the next one is 8 seconds.
With this is mind it is usually best to always be on a high amount of charges early and try not to go below 2 unless it is absolutely necessary.
https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/wow.gamepedia.com/3/3f/Ability_gouge.png?version=e458c9d3a9cc78447b2e6a2763421348 E - Barbarous Laceration I like to think of this as a close-range execute. If you manage to use Sunder before using this you can do a tonne of damage. This ability would work really well with items such as Trinity Force due to the on-hit effect.
https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/wow.gamepedia.com/6/68/Ability_monk_blackoutstrike.png?version=06e2e5f3427822e98a7e366eb0c22da0 R - No Witnesses A way of finishing off weakened opponents, the downside being it is a skillshot and does reduced damage over long distances. Late game it makes Khurdan a lot weaker until it comes off cooldown. This ability has a very high potential of securing Baron due to its percent missing health damage up to a cap and the increased damage it can do if Baron is marked with Weakpoint. Coupled with smite, very few champions can steal Baron from Khurdan.
##Skill Maxing I would start with a point in Barbarous Laceration so I have some way of trading with my opponent and a way of last-hitting if need be. Sunder would be ideal level 2 as then you have the potential of going all in on your opponent. I would take Deadly Gyration level 3 so I have another form of damage and a potential engage too.
Maxing Sunder first would be standard as it has a short cooldown at 3 charges and it does a substantial amount of damage. Maxing it also allows for dashing through targets with a higher health threshold.
Deadly Gyration would need to be maxed last as its main benefit is its utility. Which leaves Barbarous Laceration which will usually be maxed by level 13.
##Example Full Build
Any tank or attack damage item is viable on him but the above items are my suggested build. I think Khurdan would fit a niche currently no champion has as very few champions itemise like this and no champion has the same kit as him.
Trinity Force is a core item as it gives the stats he needs and helps him stick onto champions with the Rage passive. The Spellblade passive synergises well with his empowered E as it applies with on-hit effects. Khurdan also has fairly high base AD so Spellblade will hit harder.
Sterak's Gage is also a core item. The reason for this is that his W and E scales with base AD and Sterak's gives increased base AD; not to mention this synergises really well with Spellblade.
The other suggested items are more flex items which will be situational depending on the composition of the teams.
[NOTE: This champion and the suggested build were created as of patch 7.14]
##Change Log
- Innate has been streamlined so it isn't an all or nothing effect that has the potential to set an opponent really far back and Khurdan really far ahead.
- Adjusted descriptions for all of the abilities.
- Scaling buffs to most of the basic abilities.
