[RANGED TANK] Malan, the Fortress

SO. Basically, I decided to challenge myself. Currently, League does not have a single tank who tanks from a distance. Galio does most of his damage dealing from a distance, but ultimately he is still melee.

The first thing I did was decide the champ. I wanted to evoke themes of Artillery with this character, so appearancewise, she is a large and imposing woman who wears power armor and wields a massive flak cannon. Like a steampunk Samus Aran.

The next thing I did was figure out exactly what makes a Tank. The main thing is they Lead the Charge, Peel, and Absorb Damage. Initiating as a ranged champion is easy, so that requires no effort. Peeling is also an easy thing to do, but it's too overpowered if she can Peel without risk.

Ultimately, I decided she'd be a very close quarters ranged champ, the kind that throw themselves in the very middle of the fray, and by being in the center of it all, they become able to hit everyone, but are still an easy target. To balance her, I decided that when she is a target, the only way for her to effectively escape is to tank out the damage as she moves. To make sure she remains in the fray, she needs to be punished for hanging back and simply poking enemies. However, she need to be great at tanking damage while IN the fray. Her base HP and armor, plus the buffs she gets from abilities will both be really good, when I write stats up for her.

So, to recap:

• Ranged Autoattacks and Abilities (as per my self-imposed challenge)
• Best location is in the very middle of the fray
• Bad at escapes
• Abilities scale off of AP
• Not useful when fighting from a distance

Without any further ado, here's my general idea for her moveset:

Passive: Bastion Malan gains bonus range on all of her abilities and autoattacks depending on how many enemy champions are within a radius around her.

This passive would really affect her gameplay. If all of her abilities have mediocre range, it'd mean she'd still need to get fairly close to harass single champions, like Lissandra. However, put her in a teamfight and she's able to outcome things everywhere.

Q: Covering Fire Malan fires three AoE bursts in a target area very rapidly. Each hit applies a (non-stacking) slow. The first time an ally is hit by the shot, they gain a small shield for 1 second.

*This is her main Peel ability. It gives her some poke, and will be her main source of damage, but the base range isn't that great so you still need to get close, or combo it with her W, if you want to harass a foe. If you fire this at an enemy ADC who is chasing a weaker foe, suddenly the enemy will find themselves slowed, and some of their damage is mitigated! *

W: Artillery Formation Malan dashes to a target location, and roots herself for up to 5 seconds (she begins her unrooting animation after 4.5 seconds). She gains bonus armor and magic resist scaling off of her AP. If she is commanded to move, she will unroot herself after a 0.5 second delay. If this ability is recast, however, she immediately dashes back to her original location.

This is an ability that's designed to let her get in and out of the center of the fray with ease, but without it also being a good escape due to the root. In the early game, she'd be able to combo it with W->E->Q, but the total result will cost a lot of mana for the early game.

E: Hextech Stomp Malan slams the ground, slightly knocking back and stunning enemy champions.

This ability requires her to be up close and personal to do. It gives her a bit of breathing room, but ultimately that breathing room only applies to melee champions. It still kinda works as an ability because A) she can use it to peel (albeit not as effectively or as easily as her Q), and B) just about anyone hit by it would still want to focus her. The AoE can become slightly llarger from her passive

R: Impenetrable Fortress Malan produces a medium-sized shield around her (225 unit radius?) that blocks projectiles, and pushes enemies out, but allies can travel through it. Malan gains a huge boost to temporary HP, Armor, and Magic Resist, but she takes 100% of the damage the shield absorbs. The shield can also be hit by melee autoattacks.

This ability is best cast in a teamfight, obviously. It gives ranged ADCs a way to also hang around safetly in the middle of the fight, and it allows Malan to tank damage, but without being absolutely protected.

Before I write up actual stats for her and her abilities, I want to hear what you think. If I'm wrong with any of my design philosophies, or if you can think of a replacement for her moves that would synergize better...