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Magnus, the Observer

RiotRiot Lutzburg·3/10/2015, 6:46:58 AM·8 votes·1,216 views

Role: AP Support, AP Mage

Inspiration: I wanted to create a character that uses famous psychological experiments and tactics to mind game his opponents.

General Design Philosophy: Magnus’ entire kit revolves around mindgames and psychological warfare. His abilities are designed to trick, deceive and outsmart enemies. This creates amazing counterplay opportunities, but could also prove incredibly frustrating.

Risk Analysis: Very high. Magnus was of great personal interest to me, due to the incredibly novel and unique theming his kit relies on. Using real psychological experiments as a basis and then applying them to abilities in a multiplayer game is incredibly fun and inventive, though it may ultimately prove too complicated, self-indulgent and over the heads of most players. I consider Magnus to be HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL in nature.

Appearance: A tall, slender, enigmatic man who seems to have no interest in the humanity of those around him. He wears glasses and carries a clipboard in one hand.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/carl_jung_by_hanyuse-d3ljliz_zpswgchmwye.png

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/the_smug_smuggler_by_tekka_croe-d5bymcs_zpsvykzohym.jpg

Lore: The League has become concerned with the mental health of its champions, who have all willfully agreed to engage in endless rounds of combat in order to represent their homes, beliefs or ideals. While this kind of dedication is admirable, it's not necessarily healthy. As such, the League has opted to hire Magnus, the leading mind in his field of psychological research and study.

His task? Enter the fields of justice and observe his fellow champions, collecting data and researching their behavior. Only when he has finished his research and presented his findings to the League's Council will his task be complete.

Strengths: Suite of utility, stat modification and crowd control, incredibly adept at mind games and psychological tactics, consistent slow

Weaknesses: Reliant on teammates and to a greater extent the analytical minds of his opponents, mind games can always backfire, primarily utility based and deals low damage as a result

Plays Most Like...: Lulu Zilean TwistedFate Bard

Auto Attack: Magnus sends a piece of paper from his clipboard slicing through the air from range.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_16136_pas_zpshftwcil4.jpg Passive- Data Points: Magnus observes his enemies to discover their weaknesses, gaining ability power the longer he is in combat with enemy champions. This ability power scales with level and caps at 100 after 15 seconds in combat at level 18. Design Philosophy: Magnus has an incredibly complex kit, so providing him with a simple, passive way of achieving greater damage and healing capabilities seemed like a natural fit.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_8461_pas_zpspnlaoth4.jpg Q- Inkblot (7 sec): Magnus flings a glob of sticky ink at target location, which deals magic damage and slows enemies caught within it by 70% while within the affected area. This slow gradually degrades over 2 seconds after exiting the area. Upon landing, the blot assumes a seemingly random form and remains at the target location for 2.5 seconds, applying the slow to any other targets that walk over it. Design Philosophy: This is Magnus’ primary damage tool and also provides great supporting utility in lane when kiting or sticking to enemy targets.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_14817_btn_zpskak1xc7k.jpg W- Enigmatic Chest (15 sec): Magnus summons a magical chest at a target location with a minimum cast range of 350 units. Prior to placing the chest, it cycles through three options, similarly to Twisted Fate's "Pick A Card." While cycling and once placed, the box appears the same to enemies regardless of its properties. The chest is activated by either allies or enemies based on which contents were chosen. The Chest cannot be placed in an area where units (monsters, minions and champions) are currently standing. The Chest can last up to 60 seconds before disappearing, but summoning a new Chest causes the existing one to disappear.

Chest of Healing- Allies who step on this chest are healed. Enemies who step on this chest destroy it. Chest of Magic- Allies cannot step on this chest and will simply walk over it. Enemies who step on this chest cause it to explode, dealing AoE magic damage. Chest of Burning- Stepping on this chest grants a champion a 3 second "red buff" effect, causing their auto attacks to deal bonus true damage and slow their targets. Both allied and enemy champions can step on this chest. Rank-ups increase damage/healing done, as well as lower cooldown. Design Philosophy: This ability is the ultimate mind game tool and has a huge affect on both enemies and allies alike, as their behavior is altered drastically every time it’s cast. To reiterate, this ability can be used to great psychological effect by placing damaging chests near allies, healing chests near enemies, or placing different chests in odd and unpredictable patterns over the course of the laning phase. The amount of counterplay and interactivity with this ability is staggering. The minimum cast distance ensures that the chest is placed in a place of contention to really force Magnus players and their enemies to think carefully about its contents.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_11006_pas_zps4rgpa80t.jpg E- Anxiety (12 sec): Magnus casts a short ranged targeted spell that deals magic damage over time every .5 seconds for 2 seconds, with a clear indication that the spell is active. Following this, the spell morphs into a fear that lasts longer the more champions are near the victim. The fear lasts .5 seconds for each nearby champion, up to a cap of 3 seconds. Design Philosophy: This is yet another ability with huge counterplay opportunities. This spell feeds off of the paranoia and fear of people, penalizing the target for being too close in proximity to other players. If the affected target manages to isolate themselves from other champions, the effects are negligible. However, if cast among a 10 player team fight and decide to stay and fight, the target will find themselves feared for a very long time.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_17819_pas_zpsri1at8xo.jpg R- The Experiment (120 sec): Magnus casts a spell at a target location (roughly the size of Anivia's Ultimate) that imbues affected allies with 15/25/35 bonus armor and magic resist for the next 8 seconds. These bonus resistances increase for each individual by 5/7.5/10 each time they are struck, up to five times. If struck the fifth time, that ally also receives a 200/350/500 damage-absorbing shield (+30% AP) for the remainder of the spell. A visual buff indicator appears on each affected champion to inform other players how close they are to triggering the shield effect. Design Philosophy: This ability is designed to deter enemy players from engaging or continuing to fight the Magnus’ allies, as doing so would only make them stronger. If an enemy team lacks coordination and they end up attacking a target five or more times, they are effectively granting that player a massive shield (further augmented by their bonus resistances). By the same token, affected allies may try to do everything in their power to get hit enough times to activate the shield component of this ability.

If you liked this Champion, you can find over 70 more of my original concepts HERE!

15 Comments

Jellycake Demon4/9/2015, 2:26:21 AM2 votes

the ult seems really powerful especially if used in the middle of a team fight or prior to 1, as the fight goes on your team will just get supper tanky with the increase Armor & Magic Resist & will eventually get a shield if hit enough time. with this in mind i like it but it seems to powerful especially for an Ultimate Ability with an 90 second Cool Down.

the Passive & Q Ability seem solid & very neat, as for the Q's ink spot remain on the Map i assume its meant to cause the Abilities effect anything that walks into it even after its activation right?

as for your E its a liner skill-shot that has 4 pulses that deal damage to the 1st enemy each pulse makes contact with & will eventually apply an A.O.E Fear? am I reading that right?

now your W Ability is SUPER GENIUS my man, being able to create a either 1 of 2 Buffs or a trap that your enemies will have to guess & risk taking the chance is just....well i already its genius. this is a new type of Ability i would like to see, it could be like a mini-game within a game.

RiotRiot Lutzburg4/9/2015, 5:58:34 PM2 votes

If Magnus stays in a box, you can neither confirm nor deny his existence. He does both at the same time until one is proven wrong. @_@

Earthlord Jazz3/11/2015, 5:11:35 AM1 votes

So after reading a while ago and mulling over his abilities, I'd like to take special time to focus on his W (Enigmatic Chest).

Magnus is a really cool character which has a cool tone of psychological warfare. This ability underlies that tone perfectly. I would say that this ability is the reason why I would play him, much like how people play Shaco for his trickery and deception.

This being said, I feel like this ability needs some tuning. I'll have a hard time expressing my thoughts into words, but bear with me. Right now, this ability feels incomplete. This is because there is nothing to be gained by the enemy, even though it appears to be. Let's say I, as Magnus, put a box close to either of the players. If I were the enemy, I would always assume that the box was a 'bad' one. This is because is does the opponent no good to place a healing box in between enemy lines. Why put it there when you could put it somewhere safer, behind your minion line. But I here counterargument "But then if I put a healing box in the middle of the minion wave, open to both players, they'll think it's a 'bad' one and leave it be". Then what's the point of putting it there in the first place?

Let me explain it another way. ROCK, PAPER, SCISSOR IS THE DEFINING GAME OF PSYCHOLOGICAL STRATEGY. Here's a couple of the 1000 strategies to 'simple at the surface' game http://rpsgame.com/strategy.html

Right now, you have a Rock and a Paper in your box. If I were the enemy, I would always choose paper (to not attempt to break the box and deny the possible chance of a heal). Why? Because that way I would never lose. The enemy is getting a heal that they deserved anyway if they put the box in safer territory in the first place. I as the laning opponent would lose nothing, and Magnus would only gain what he rightfully owned in the first place.

Now, you either need to do two things. The first is to give bonus rewards to the heal if it's is within a certain range of an enemy. This would actually give both Magnus and the opponent motivation to actually start a game of Rock versus Paper instead of the opponent just refusing to play.

The second (and this one is my favorite option) is to throw scissors in! Make a third option for the chest, just like Twisted Fate's Pick a Card. Just like with most card games, there are certain cards/starategies that have advantages. I'll take Yu-Gi-Oh as an example. There are defensive cards, offensive ones, and trap cards (more or less, there's a bunch more but you get the picture). Right now you have your defensive and trap. Throw in an offensive card! Put in scissors to counter the enemies paper! Not to mention, what if you and your ADC is at full health? There's no point in using this ability as you can only have one box at a time.

So here's an example of what you can do for scissors (the offense). Make it so that if an ally picks up the offensive box, all enemies within a certain radius (say 1000 radius or something I dunno) get a debuff on them. They take extra burning true damage from each autoattack they suffer for a certain amount of seconds (from the guy that claimed the box) (think a lesser version of the 5th dragon buff). Now you actually have motivation to place a box in enemy territory! Now you can actually play Rock Paper Scissors with your enemy! Now there's complete, delicious psychological warfare present in the lane. They can either be sissies and back off from the chest, or be manly and take their chances and stomp the box.........I mean, there's a 2/3 chance they'll benefit from it hehehehe.

Finally, instead of goomba stomping the box, it should have the thresh lanturn mechanic and right click on it from a close range. I mean, who opens boxes with their feet right? XD

Hope this helped. Man, I really got into the analogy there.

RiotRiot Lutzburg3/12/2015, 1:25:10 AM1 votes

Crazy detailed feedback as always, Jazz! I will respond to this when I get home tonight.

Insane Pyromanic3/10/2015, 7:09:52 AM1 votes

nocturne's ult is paranoia

Earthlord Jazz3/18/2015, 7:00:04 AM1 votes

Great idea to have it apply a red buff, which is already a balanced buff (some may disagree but you know...)

And Rioter replies?! Congradulations! You honestly really deserve it!

Earthlord Jazz3/18/2015, 7:05:24 AM1 votes

Haha, definitely. I'm gonna read them right now!

RiotRiot Lutzburg3/18/2015, 6:57:45 AM1 votes

Alright, I've re-read it four times now and I'm convinced that you helped me make this move one of the single most awesome ones ever conceived. The counterplay and interactivity with this ability are insane!!

RiotRiot Lutzburg3/10/2015, 8:35:37 PM1 votes

I know Magnus is bizarre, you guys. Hopefully you can take him for what he is and see the merit in the kinds of counterplay his mechanics bring to the table.