Rinav Land Serpent Champion Concept

Hi. This is an idea that's been floating around in my head for a while. Hope it's interesting. Also, I'm typing this all out at 7am without any sleep and there's quite a bit. College work is suffering.

Edit: I included a few explanations of how he skill set is intended to work, hopefully helping players visualize it better. I've also included reasons why you'd want to pick a character like Rinav in the first place.

Rinav (rin-ȯv) is a name I thought up in a few seconds. Vanir were a group of gods in Norse mythology associated with fertility, wisdom, nature, magic, and the ability to see the future. Rinav obviously is Vanir spelled backwards so I'll admit it's a lazy name. Wisdom, fertility, and nature are part of Rinav's personality however. She is a large tunneling land serpent from somewhere near the Kumungu Jungle area of Valoran; probably the Fyrone Flats. Her reasons for fighting can be explained through territorial instincts.

Inspirations: Rinav was inspired by multiple things, including but not limited to: MMO raid bosses, Worm from Monster Rancher, Tunnel Drilling Machines, the Large Hadron Collider, Tropicallo from Legend of Mana, Newton's First Law of Motion, cobras, fighting game combos, animals making themselves appear larger when threatened, animal nest protection instincts, and mythological serpents.

Target Fantasy: Raid Boss / Female Monster

• The purpose of Rinav is to allow players to experience the feel of being an MMO raid boss. I'd like to think everything I'm about to introduce lends itself to that idea. The Raid Boss fantasy is something I feel League has yet to fully embrace. An ulting Shyvana or a late game Nasus come close but I feel those are by products of other designs. As a female monster, the purpose of Rinav is to escape the "Woman in a costume" trope that League has with its other female monster champions, barring Aniva.

Desired Role: Tank / Initiator / Disruptor
Rinav's main purpose is to be a tanky melee front line fighter, initiating fights and causing as much chaos as she possible can while in the fight. Defensive, health, and tenacity items will be the main buys for her. As a disruptor, many of her skills have various effects if they're used in tandem of each other offering various levels of cc.

In combat, Rinav should move with a fluid motion transitioning through each skill in her set. Like a diesel truck (and newton's first law of motion), getting her started takes a bit of time. Once she does get going though, making her stop is difficult. That's an expression of course. Rinav's abilities are intended to flow into each other as seamlessly as possible. Interrupting her flow results in her next ability having a slightly longer casting time. In this case, mashing buttons actually feels like you're accomplishing something (though you really want to know what skill you're going into next for maximum results). With this concept to her comboing her abilities, I feel as if the core idea of disruption begins to shine through her.

Size: Adding to her profile, Rinav is big. She's so big, you only see part of her as she plows her way across the Rift. Particle effects of this can include stone upturning around her similar to Lissandra. Matching her size, she has a large hit box. Ideally, she'd be the largest champion on the Rift which lends to her greater strengths and weaknesses.

Edit: Also, to keep things fair, Rinav would have a unique animation when she's knocked into the air. While other champions physically leave the ground, Rinav is just lifted higher into it. She never "technically" leaves the ground, instead stretching upwards receiving the airborne status.

As a tank, Rinav will want to protect her team fighting behind her. Absorbing damage is one of her core concepts and her large hit box plays into this, allowing her to more effectively block skill shots (damage and cc) where needed. She's the champion that has the size needed to block and wants to block Morgana Q's and Cait ult's intended for more valuable targets. It's a double edged sword however, as she's now the one taking damage or cc, but her passive wants that to happen.

Attitude: Rinav is an angry, grouchy, and sharp tongued character. Most of what she says or comments on will be filled with spite and sarcasm related to her back story. Even though she's a land serpent, hissing and a monstrously deep voice should be avoided. Vocally, I imagine her sounding like in between Disney's Maleficent and Ursula.

Kit: I'm not going to pretend I can balance so everything is going to be done with variables. Down the list, you might see me refer to skills as Q1 and Q2 (for example). What this means is I came up with different ideas for each skill slot. She doesn't get five things tied to one button. Information in parentheses are optional things that can be included or completely disregarded. Also, I don't know if she'd be healthier with ad or ap ratios so from here on out, both will simply be referred to as damage.

**Passive: ** Once Rinav's HP falls below x%, her (bonus) damage, armor, and magic resist are increased by y%. Casting time of her abilities is also reduced. (After falling below another thresh hold, these bonuses are further increased by z%). This passive deactivates after healing back over x% (and z%). It can be activated multiple times during a fight if the situation arises.

Note: Rinav changes visually to let teammates and enemies know her passive is currently active, first by expanding her neck (and then by shimmering in color). This idea is included in the quick sketch I've included.

-This is why you want to take damage as Rinav. In MMO's, dungeon and raid bosses typically become more dangerous and harder to kill after losing so much health. Rinav's concept embraces that fact granting her free stats after falling below a certain health percentage, becoming more a threat the weaker she becomes in a fight.

**Q1 ** Rinav strikes forward in a range just larger than her AA radius, dealing X damage to a single target. (If the target has been recently struck with W, it is also slowed for a duration.) This animation is reduced by casting Q1 shortly after W or E.

Q2 Rinav launches a line projectile from her mouth, dealing damage and stopping on the first target hit (causing a brief slow).

Note: I liked the idea of a snake striking forward or a spitting cobra spraying it's venom at an attacker.

W Rinav rears upwards before slamming her self to the ground, dealing damage to all enemies struck in a line (if the target has been recently struck by Q2, they are briefly stunned in place). This animation can be partially canceled by casting W quickly after either Q spell allowing for a rapid combo).

Note: The animation cancelling is a similar idea to Caitlyn using her EQ combo to not only escape, but also deal significant damage. Rearing upward is the animation tell for the enemy team that this spell is about to happen, similar to Mega Gnar rearing up before slamming down with his W.

E Rinav swings around before sweeping her body 90 degrees in a target direction, dealing damage and pushing all enemies towards that direction. Enemies on the outside of the targeting path are pushed the furthest. (Enemies that are pushed into a wall are briefly stunned/slowed in place.) This animation can be greatly reduced by casting immediately after her W.

R1 Rinav plunges into the ground causing initial damage and becoming untargetable for a short duration. During this time, the player can still control her (increased in speed) movement, leaving (impassable/slowing) terrain in her wake. After the ultimate's duration, Rinav explodes out of the ground, shattering and dealing damage along the terrain she created.

Note: The idea behind this is it allows her to create more disruption for the enemy team. Using this skill, she can either halt or slow the opponent's advance or cut off their escape.

R2 On the first activation, Rinav lets out a roar before plunging into the ground. For the second activation, the player then selects a target area in a semi-global targeting ring. Once a location is selected, stones begin to rumble in a circle letting her team and the enemy team know where she's about to arrive. After a brief period, Rinav violently erupts from the stone circle, dealing damage and knocking all enemies in the area to the side. Enemies in a cone area at the front of the circle are flung backwards behind her. If no target area is chosen, Rinav emerges from the same location she started in, dealing no damage.

Note: The idea behind this is it functions as an initiation. It's somewhat similar to Twisted Fates ultimate except she lacks the ability to gold card her target. Instead and with quick targeting, she can separate a grouped up enemy team while flinging an important target out of position. It's different from Gragas's ult in that she's now in the middle of the enemy team while Gragas is still at range.

R3 Using vector based targeting, the player chooses two points in a large area around Rinav. After this is selected, Rinav dives into the earth before quickly shooting out of the ground from the first chosen point and leaping to the second chosen point, dealing damage along her path. For X amount of time, Rinav's body becomes impassable terrain for both enemies and allies. During this time, she is targettable and absorbs all damage (taking reduced damage) from the enemy team coming her way. After that time is up, Rinav reemerges at a location in the center of the two chosen points (dealing no additional damage). (After leaping/landing, this skill can be reactivated to cancel the ultimate although there is a slight delay as she wraps around). If Rinav happens to die during this ultimate, her body collapses and the wall effect ends. Because of this, she'd need to have 2 death animations.

Alternatively, after choosing the two target points, Rinav's tail is what bursts through the ground to create the wall. Rinav is still controllable by the player and is still able to fight along side her team. However, she now has two target-able hit boxes in this state. The first being her normal sprite and the second being the wall made of her tail. If she's dies during the ultimate, the tail quickly slips back into the ground while Rinav's normal death animation plays out from her sprite.

Note: This ultimate concept is a hybridization of R1 and R3, giving her initiation and disruptive power.

Interactions Rinav will have comments for several champions and items. She'll mockingly question how she'd wear boots of speed for example. She'd remark to Shuriman champs that sand makes her deaf and thus, she has no care for it (the sand is too shifty and thus she can't feel her way around). She'd insultingly question why Freljord and Targon champions feel the need to live on a giant rock or a field of ice. She'd be foul with Zyra commenting that her natural form is vastly superior to the mockery she's currently walking about in. Lastly, she'd remark that none of the yordles would even make a decent snack for her.

Edit: She'd also have a unique interaction around Baron Nashor, either flirting with it or commenting that it's not her type. She may also threaten to bite Kha'Zix's head off if he gets too close (preying mantis joke).

Why would you pick Rinav?

If you're wondering why you'd pick a character like Rinav, you'd have to compare what she offers to a team comp to what other tanks bring. In very simple general terms, Mundo is chosen because you need a hyper tank character that has amazing survivability. Amumu is chosen for his large aoe stun. Maokai is chosen for his aoe damage reduction and his ability to lock a single character down.

Rinav would be chosen because you and your team have decided you need a tanky front liner that has the tools to break an enemy death ball apart. If you've watched the LCS or played League recently, you know in the middle to late portion of the game, teams tend to group up. Fights usually break out once someone is caught out of position. Rinav makes that happen by literally slapping the enemy team apart. The trade off, like I mentioned above, is that she's now in the thick of things but that's ok if you've built like the tank you're supposed to be.

One of her greater weaknesses that I purposefully included is her lack of a gap closer or other form of hard engage. She's not Poppy or Alistar who suddenly slam into you and she's not Vi who can jump over a wall to get on top of you. Rinav's kit offers multiple stuns and slows to the player that can successfully combo her abilities properly that extend past her AA range giving her the opportunity to catch prey like a split pushing adc. That said, a clever player should be able to decently kite her. As for peel, each of her ults were conceived with the dual purpose of initiating and peeling for her carries. This dual purpose idea extends into the bonus cc effects of her combo'd abilities. Her massive size makes her more susceptible to damage and cc than other champions, but this is part of the risk vs reward in choosing her. By playing her successfully, the player would be able to control the pace of a battle utilizing the stat bonuses from her passive and the unique bonuses of her kit. Playing her poorly however results in a very dead serpent that no amount of free stats could save.

End Note

If you made it to the bottom of this, I'd like to thank you for your interest or your patience to plow through this. It ended up being quite a fair bit and I probably forgot a few things along the way. I've had this character idea in my head for a few months now and I want to believe I've done a fairly decent job in creating an exciting and fun-to-play concept without making it overpowered. The skin ideas to the right of my sketch are there to show there's a few potential ideas that could come from a character of her profile. The upper one is of a flower-like beast, replacing the cobra hood with petals and the body with vines. The lower idea was based on a tunnel drilling machine that lights up to show her passive has been activated. You could easily come up with other ideas such as a sea serpent, an actual cobra (that thing that bit Cassiopeia!), a slime monster, or something like the Zone Eater from Final Fantasy 6 for example. With the new update to Baron Nashor coming up soon, she could even sport a retro Baron skin resembling the one currently on live as well.