(Champion Concept) Xug, the Enraged Beast
I had the idea for this champion concept randomly while eating dinner . I had just finished playing a bit of Legend of Zelda and I was inspired by the concept of a big, dumb beast rampaging about, charging into walls and all that, and I realized that there wasn't anything like that in League-- sure, there's Gnar, but there isn't anything that quite fits this archetype. So I figured hey, why not write it up.
#Xug, the Enraged Beast ###Class: Juggernaut ###Lane: Top
Concept: Xug is a beast that lives in the Shuriman desert. He is a hulking bipedal brute, scaly and rippling with muscles, large horns on his head and spikes and armor plating on his shoulders and body. Xug is the classic "enraged berserker" type-- yes, Olaf is already the Berserker, but Xug brings some new concepts to the table, drawing on elements of several other "savage beast" type champions (Rek'Sai, Renekton) alongside new mechanics to make him feel like a rampaging, out-of-control boss creature. The idea is to emulate the aforementioned rampaging beast archetype, like a boss from a Legend of Zelda, Dark Souls, or Diablo game-- slow, powerful, and out-of-control. Xug as a character should be dumb, and his spells reflect this, requiring almost no mechanical ability to execute successfully. However, his unique passive mechanic / resource bar give a very high skill ceiling to his "dumb" abilities-- specifically, the way the player times them and manages his rapid resource drain to get the most out of this rampaging juggernaut.
Let's get into the abilities; I'll do my best to make the formatting as readable as possible. Not the greatest with Markdown but I'll do my best.
Note: Xug's individual abilities are extremely impactful, featuring high-octane damage and crowd control-- but only at their peak, by themselves. (If the large rampaging brute boss in Diablo manages to body you with his super-slow charge, you should take a ton of damage.) However, using Xug's abilities to their full potential requires severely limiting his (already-limited) mobility and also discharging the majority of his resource bar, leaving him unable to use his other abilities very well, if at all. Combining his Q and E can net a 1.5 second stun into a 1.25 second stun-- but requires a charge time and a channel, and then leaves Xug with a completely empty resource bar that he has to build up again.
P: Primal Beast. This has two parts:
- Primal Rage: Xug's resource bar is Rage, starting at 0 and filling up to 100. Each of Xug's abilities cost Rage. Rage does not decay out of combat. Each auto attack grants Xug 5 rage, and he also gains 1 rage per 1% of health lost.
- Primal Strength: Xug's auto-attacks are slow and weighty. He cannot gain bonus attack speed from any source (only growth through level, like Jhin), but his auto-attacks deal 10 / 25 / 50% bonus damage and apply a brief but powerful slow on-hit (70% for 0.25-0.5 seconds, similar to Duskblade). Bonus attack speed from items instead increases Xug's maximum Rage at a rate of 1 Rage per 2% bonus attack speed.
Notes: Xug plays like a Rage / Fury champion, except the idea is that his Fury drains are very, very fast. Just like a "boss" character, he expends his battle rage on impactful abilities but he runs out of gas somewhat quickly and has to build it up again.
Q: Head Smash. ~8-10 second cooldown
- First Cast: Xug gathers his strength, expending his Rage to charge up a dash. Costs 20 Rage + 10 per second of charge. Xug is slowed by 30% while charging, but becomes conditionally Unstoppable, with each immobilizing crowd control blocked draining 15 Rage. Automatically releases at 0 Rage.
- Second Cast: Xug charges forth to headbutt his enemies, stopping at the first enemy champion. Deals damage and slows by 50% for 1.5 seconds in an area centered around the target. Distance and damage scale with charge length / Rage expended. If Xug expends at least 50 Rage (3 second charge), Head Smash stuns instead.
Notes: An engage ability similar to Vi's Q or Galio's E. Xug is a juggernaut, and juggernauts typically don't have dashes or crowd control-- except this is a charged ability with the CC requiring a very long charge. Gives the big boi a way to get onto his targets to deliver his damage. The payoff for the long charge time punishes opponents who don't respect his power and also rewards good positioning and timing in teamfights.
W: Terrifying Presence. This is a toggle:
- Toggle Off: Xug builds his battle rage with every stride, dealing a small amount of damage in an area around him every 1 second and gaining 5 Rage for every target hit (2 vs minions). 100% damage to structures, 50% damage to minions.
- Toggle On: Xug revels in his enemies' fear, draining 5 Fury per second, increasing Terrifying Presence's damage by 300% (4x damage), and healing him for each enemy hit (max 3 enemies), with the healing increased by 10% each tick. 25% healing vs minions, damage to structures and minions unchanged.
- Terrifying Presence is special-cased to apply Conqueror but not other runes like Electrocute or Phase Rush.
Notes: A lumbering beast like Xug should have impactful strides that make the ground tremble and instill fear in his enemies just by their sound. Also, his low attack speed means that he does not have reliable waveclear. This ability remedies both of these and also gives him some reliable DPS and healing in fights. The longer he's able to stay in a fight, the more frequently he will be able to toggle this back and forth between healing and Rage upkeep-- however, on the flip side, the AOE is relatively small and Xug's only form of mobility is Head Smash (Q), meaning if opponents can kite him out he cannot keep his Rage up or generate healing. Additionally, ticks of Terrifying Presence would apply Conqueror and Black Cleaver. Overall, Terrifying Presence fills the need for somewhat reliable, albeit a bit lackluster, sustained damage and also allows Xug to take advantage of Cleaver, Conqueror, and other similar effects (red buff, Elder Drake, etc) that rely on consistent damage output so as to avoid being outclassed by other juggernauts.
E: Bonecrusher. ~12-14 second cooldown
- Xug swipes in a small area in front of him, dealing damage. If the swipe contacts any champions, they are dragged to the center of the AOE. Xug then begins to crush them with his bare hands, channeling to stun and deal high damage every 0.5 seconds. The stun can be channeled as long as Xug desires, but drains 40 Rage per second (20 per tick of damage). Can be cancelled by CC.
**Notes:**Bonecrusher offers reliable melee-range damage and utility at a high Rage cost. Yes, it can stun and damage however many champions are caught in the swipe (although given how small the AOE is, it's unlikely you could even fit more than two). Xug is a champion that needs to be kited, just like any other big, lumbering beast. The swipe is barely larger than his auto-attack range, meaning that kiting keeps the opponent out of range of Bonecrusher, and the high Rage cost means that charging Head Smash and then using Bonecrusher will drain Xug's entire Rage bar.
R: Rampage. 2 second cooldown
- Xug begins to rampage uncontrollably, moving slowly in the target direction (think Ornn W but a bit slower) while lashing out every 0.5 seconds. Deals damage and expends 20 Rage with every strike, slowing enemies hit by 30%. Enemies take 10% increased damage per strike and are slowed by 20% more each time they are hit, becoming stunned if they are hit by 3 strikes. Heals for 50% of damage dealt. This ability cannot be cancelled by any means, either by crowd control or by Xug himself. (Also, the stacks of increased damage and stun are per-cast, so Xug can't just toggle off Terrifying Presnece and spam R over and over again).
- Terrifying Presence is disabled entirely while Rampage is being cast to avoid increased duration or healing.
Notes: Partially inspired by Leoric's March of the Black King from Heroes of the Storm. Rampage is like a super-move in a fighting game-- Xug drains his entire resource bar to go all-in on a big impactful ability. Rampage essentially just makes Xug do more Xug, both in the good and the bad. His damage, crowd control, and self-healing are here in force, but conversely, so are his lack of mobility, and some kind of charge / channel period where he cannot act. Rampage is a powerful teamfight and zoning ability that has the potential for an AOE stun and a ton of damage, but the extremely reduced movement speed means enemies can simply move out of the way-- and then because Xug cannot cancel his blind rampage (and won't have any Rage to use Head Smash), he cannot catch up to them. As for why it has a two-second cooldown-- well, it unavoidably drains the entire Rage bar and locks Xug almost in place, so using it constantly is never ideal anyways.
##Playstyle and Build
Xug's intended playstyle is similar to other juggernauts -- being a beefy but damage-dealing frontliner -- but has a unique niche in that his damage and CC are amplified, but so is his immobility. Xug players will want to be getting into the thick of the fight to proc their Terrifying Presence, either to gain Rage or to deal consistent damage and heal themselves. Xug can just walk around in a fight if he wants, but he won't deal very much damage and doesn't offer any utility from being there. It will be far more effective to use his abilities-- but his abilities in turn require intelligent timing. Xug's abilities use very large amounts of his resource in exchange for having a high impact, so he may only be able to use one or two fully-charged abilities over the course of a skirmish.
At its core, Xug's playstyle is about a few key things: Punishing mistakes, ability timing, and knowledge of his role in a given fight. Xug will rarely be in the driver's seat for very long-- he's not like a Darius who can constantly and unavoidably run you down, forcing the enemy on the defensive in the majority of cases. Instead, he has brief but powerful windows of offense that need to be timed well-- except if you misposition, you can save him a large amount of Rage and you will be punished. Finally, Xug's kit is such that he can either set up or maintain or end fights, but not all three-- he can Head Smash in and follow up with Bonecrusher, but is then reduced to very slow auto-attacks and a bit of AOE damage from Terrifying Presence's off toggle. OR, he can just Head Smash in and follow up with some Terrifying Presence toggle-on for an engage and a bit more damage, but little to no follow-up CC or burst. OR, he can have a large amount of mid-fight power with Rampage but no engage or chase power due to Rampage unavoidably expending his whole Rage bar.
As far as items, Xug would most likely be built full tank or Black Cleaver into tank. Terrifying Presence allows him to stack Black Cleaver fairly effectively in fights, although his utility could also lend itself well to a full-tank build. He could use either Grasp of the Undying or Conqueror. He has the ability to push lanes via Terrifying Presence but is a poor duelist due to being easily kited by basically anybody.
Anyways, that's just what I came up with and thought I'd post. I doubt this will get seen by anybody particularly influential but you never know. Let me know what you guys think!