[Champion Concept] Sylvia, the possessive spirit
NOTE: This concept is primarily to practice and explore my gameplay and analysis skills. Thus, there is no lore or anything similar involved.
Roles: Jungle/Support, with a possibility of solo lane
The fantasy: The original fantasy behind this concept is that of a champion who can take over jungle monsters and minions and move and attack as though they were that unit. Imagine the Gromp waddling around and fighting against the blue buff, for example, or a super minion taking dragon. Such a champion could have a number of advantages such as being able to position creeps to block enemy skillshots and have a near infinite health pool when around a large number of allied minions, and will need significant drawbacks and weaknesses to compensate.
Possession details: *Due to the unique nature of the kit, some details about the actual possession and info on drawbacks. *
Sylvia has extremely low base movement speed, say 200 ms perhaps. She is also unable to autoattack on her own, and has extremely low base armor, mr, and health. These are compensated for due to her primarily using her possessed units stats instead of her own.
Sylvia is able to possess all allied and neutral units, except for dragon and baron. While possessing a unit, move and attack commands command the possessed unit to take action, and her movespeed, attack range, and all other relevant stats become that of her possessed unit. The exception is when possessing an allied champion, the player behind that champion is still in full control of their own champion, with Sylvia simply being carried by that player, so to speak.
The summoner spells Flash and Ghost do not work while possessing a unit, and if Sylvia attempts to teleport or recall she will be kicked out of her possessed unit before beginning the channel. Hp potions do not work on possessed units either. The possessed unit will be treated as a champion for purposes of minion and tower aggro.
To avoid gold flow issues, two clauses:
- If an allied unit Sylvia is possessing dies to a neutral unit, the unit will spawn as an addition to the next minion wave from which it was stolen. Ex. if Sylvia's possessed cannon minion taken from bot lane dies to Gromp, the next bot lane wave will include an additional cannon minion.
- If a neutral unit Sylvia is possessing dies to another neutral unit, the kill gold will be awarded to Sylvia.
For all cases involving enemy champions or minions, the gold will go to the killer.
Passive: Spectral infusion
Possessed units gain 100% of Syliva's bonus AD, 50% of her armor and magic resistance, 20% of her max health, and 100% of her crit chance. Bonus stats are halved if Sylvia is possessing an allied champion. Possessed units will apply onhit effects.
Q: Uncanny Fear
Sylvia's next autoattack deals bonus magic damage and fears the target for a short duration (0.5/0.75/1/1.25/1.5 seconds). Scales with AP and AD. Acts as an onhit effect.
W: Creeping Fog
Sylvia summons a thick fog to cover an area for a few seconds. Sylvia's possessed unit gains bonus movespeed while in the fog. Fog is basically a summonable bush. Width, duration, and movespeed scale with levels into this ability.
E: Possession!
Dash to target allied or neutral unit, dealing magic damage along Sylvia's path, and possessing the unit on arrival. Scales with AP. Does not make Sylvia untargetable during the dash, but the dash is unable to be interrupted. High base CD, but low maxed CD. (Something like 10 seconds rank 1, 4 seconds maxed)
R: Soul Harness
Dash to target allied champion, and conjure a ghost of them, which Syliva immediately possesses. The ghost lasts for 8/14/20 seconds, and during this time all of the ghost's stats and abilities are made available to Syliva.
Basically create a second copy of an allied champ, and then their passive/q/w/e/r replace yours for the duration of the ghost, or until the ghost dies. Any stats are calculated using the base stats of the allied champion at that level with their ranks in the abilities, and adding Syliva's items onto that. Syliva is unable to exit the copy without death of the copy or it expiring. Syliva's passive does not function with the ghost, but her q and w do if cast prior.
Jungling as Sylvia:
Sylvia makes for an extremely safe jungler due to her not taking any real damage at all. She is also able to steal camps with ease against any opponent simply by running up and possessing an enemy monster before running back to her own side. With good team coordination she can also help setup freezes or pushes by temporarily stealing a minion from a lane. Ganks: Her ganks are mediocre pre-6 with a short, targeted fear which requires her to get within short range of the enemy champion, depending on which camp she is currently possessing. Post-6 her ganks can become extremely powerful or extremely lackluster, depending on which champion her allied laner is playing. Weaknesses: She is vulnerable to smart wards in her own jungle, as she will often need to kill her own currently possessed unit due to lack of any health regen in the jungle, so an invade at the right time can be fatal due to her lack of escapes and vulnerability without nearby possessable units. She also will not be clearing particularly quickly, so she is vulnerable to having her camps taken as well.
Solo lane as Sylvia:
Sylvia makes for an interesting solo lane choice. She is able to mess around with her allied minions health and poke with autos safely, which can make it hard to CS against her and she is able to bully her enemy to a certain extent. She should never lose any sustain matchup, but is unlikely to get fed in one. Strengths: She is extremely strong against anyone with burst damage due to her ability to e in the middle of the burst to gain a large HP boost and survive through the burst. If she manages to force an enemy into her minion wave with her fear/positioning, she is likely to be able to get a kill or force a back with her rapid E damage if she has some CDR. Weaknesses: Low base minion damage along with her lack of escapes can result in her being caught out when playing against someone with high AOE waveclear, and it is hard for her to get kills in lane. She is also not a particularly fast pusher and has issues under tower, allowing her opponent to roam. Overall solo Sylvia is less viable due to her ult requiring an allied champion, but still doable.
Support Sylvia:
Sylvia is a unique support who is primarily good against skillshot reliant enemy supports and all-in supports. Strengths: She is able to manipulate the minion waves to a degree, which can give her ADC an advantage. She can also use each of her abilities to try and make the enemy ADC miss CS, which is something few other supports can do. She is able to possess a minion and position herself in a way to block enemy skillshots such as blitzcrank or thresh hooks, and once landed can dash back to another minion or her allied ADC to make an escape. Weaknesses: She isn't as good against utility supports or healing supports such as Janna or Nami, as they can mostly negate her harass/annoyances and may be more useful come late game. She also doesn't have much to actually defend her carry with, so if the enemy team manages to catch her carry she can't do much.
Sylvia's role in a team comp:
Sylvia brings the unique aspect of having two of a champion in your comp, and can fit into most comps. She can also be built in a number of ways, fulfilling multiple roles. When possessing a tanky jungle creep such as one of the buffs, Sylvia can act as a tanky frontliner for her team. She can also be built with AP and deal large amounts of damage dashing from unit to unit with her e, or be built AD and deal large amounts of damage using a bannered caster minion. She is particularly strong if her team manages to snag baron, as she can then possess a baron buffed cannon minion and deal massive damage to towers and enemy champions from afar. Which role she plays and how she is built depends entirely on her teamcomp and the overall game, but she would rarely be a bad pickup, and can always be useful.
Overall I believe this champion would be extremely unique and enjoyable to both play and play against, while not being particularly overloaded or complicated. However, I doubt anything similar would be created anytime soon thanks to Riot's spaghetti code which would likely provide massive issues.