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Constantine, the Spectral Rider

RiotRiot Lutzburg·1/3/2015, 10:46:10 PM·8 votes·4,364 views

Role: AD Jungler, Bruiser

Inspiration: This one was all about fantasy fulfillment for me. I wanted to create a skeletal cavalryman wielding a lance who could summon spectral steeds in combat.

General Design Philosophy: Constantine is an AD Jungler similar to Amumu and Skarner. Constantine uses mild but constant sustain, powerful positioning tools and gap closers to set up initiations and ganks from incredible distances.

Risk Analysis: Moderate. Constantine has an incredibly cool theme and inspired kit, though the mechanical clunkiness of his E could prove too difficult to overcome from a usability perspective. In addition, his Ultimate may need some tweaks, most notably its multi-target component.

Appearance: Similar in appearance to a Stalfos from Legend of Zelda, specifically the mentor from Twilight Princess. Constantine should represent a mix of undead tropes as well as certain "magical" elements inspired by The Void. The rifts he opens summons a spectral horse, which should be reminiscent of both a ghost and a cosmic-like energy source.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/phantom_ganondorf_by_whitefoxcub-d5bqc0x_zps159286b8.png

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http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/UndeadCavalry_zps27849a13.jpg

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/phantomganon_zpsc8e8a293.jpg

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/Space_Horse_by_PhantomPirateX_zps2bdd5686.jpg

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http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/spectral_horse_by_syntyni-d6707mm_zpse173d729.jpg

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Lore: Constantine was a cavalryman who accompanied Kassadin to the Void. Whatever happened while he was trapped there has... changed him. Though he has managed to return to Runeterra, Constantine will never be the same. The corrosive, toxic energies of the Void infected Constantine and his trusty steed, Nightmare (thanks to Okido for the name suggestion!). She is neither alive nor dead, trapped between the two realms. While Constantine himself relegates himself to Runeterra, Nightmare spends most of her life still trapped in the Void. Luckily, Constantine has gained the ability to open tears to the Void, where he is able to summon Nightmare for brief periods of time.

Strengths: A series of positioning tools and several forms of crowd control, powerful zone denial, lane/jungle sustain.

Weaknesses: unreliable gap closer, no defensive steroids for a bruiser/diver, whiffable ultimate, long cooldowns on most abilities

Plays Most Like...: Skarner Amumu Hecarim Malzahar

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_7445_btn_zpse6f4d760.jpg Auto Attack: Constantine prods his enemy with a long range (175) melee jab from his lance.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_13692_btn_zps2717705b.jpg Passive- Endless Decay: Constantine regenerates 15% of the damage he suffers over 5 seconds. This effect takes the form of a renewable Heal over Time spell. Design Philosophy: This acts as a novel, delayed form of sustain which ultimately ends up acting as a long-term HoT. With no defensive steroids as a jungler, Constantine needs some form of survivability in combat and the jungle, and it comes to him in the form of Endless Decay. While powerful in small skirmishes, the long-term nature of this heal makes Constantine susceptible to burst damage and Grievous Wounds.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_6731_btn_zps5d574875.jpg Q- Decrepit Lunge (4 sec): Constantine lunges forward with his lance slightly (275 units), dealing physical damage to all enemies in its path. This ability is cast as a skillshot. Rank-ups increase damage and lower cooldown. Design Philosophy: The range of the lunge is small enough that the primary purpose of the ability is not to act as a gap closer; rather it is to be used to strategically enter or exit the travel path of the spectral horse at the last second (see Temporal Rift for details). It can also be used as a repositioning tool to better aim Impaling Strike.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_10789_pas_zpse6b971be.jpg W- Siphoning Void (12 sec): Constantine creates a life-sapping zone at his current location with a 500 unit diameter, slowing all enemies who stand on it by 70% and dealing magic damage equal to 1/1.5/2/2.5/3% of enemies’ max health each second. The healing effects of Endless Decay are increased by 50% while Constantine is standing on a Siphoning Void. The void lasts 5 seconds and remains wherever it was cast. Rank-ups increase damage and lower cooldown. Design Philosophy: Once Constantine dives into the fray with his Temporal Rift, Siphoning Void can be used to lock down the enemy team long enough for help to arrive. This ability is also extremely helpful in the jungle.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_14102_pas_zps8ec427ea.jpg http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_15353_pas_zpsead96291.jpg E- Temporal Rift (18 sec): Upon first cast, Constantine creates a temporal rift at target location, with the opportunity to place a second (within 1,100 units of the first) for the next 6 seconds. Once the second is positioned, a link is formed between the two and a spectral horse charges out of the first in a line towards the second. Enemies in the horse's path take magic damage and are knocked aside. If Constantine is in the horse's path, he automatically mounts it upon contact, causing the ability to deal additional physical damage. Constantine dismounts the horse as it reaches the second rift. The width of the horse’s charge is roughly the same as Hecarim’s Ultimate. Rank-ups increase damage and lower cooldown. Design Philosophy: This is Constantine’s most iconic ability. While somewhat mechanically clunky, it allows an extreme amount of customizability and positioning power from the player’s perspective. Temporal Rift is Constantine’s engagement tool, and can be followed up with any one or more of his abilities to devastating effect. Players can place both portals immediately for a quick engage or escape, or plant one behind their opponent and proceed to bait them into poor positioning before deciding to pull the trigger on the move from an unexpected angle. The strategies and counterplay that result from this ability are staggering. Get it? Horse puns.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_12518_pas_zpsac45f0f9.jpg R- Impaling Strike (80 sec): Constantine extends his lance in a line (cast as a skillshot with a range of 250 units), impaling any enemy champion(s) in its path for massive physical damage, dealing more damage the closer the target is to Constantine. After a short moment of suppression, Constantine retracts his polearm, pulling any victims to his location before releasing them. Constantine is immune to crowd control effects during this time. Design Philosophy: This ability is a multi-target suppression which also suppresses Constantine while being cast. Constantine cannot be CC’d during this animation to preserve both its functionality and its incredibly strong visual impact. This ability can be combo’d into with Q or E, and can be compared to Malzahar’s own Ultimate in the sense that Siphoning Void can be cast first, causing impaled enemies to take bonus damage while stuck in the damaging zone.

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

33 Comments

Dr Patton1/4/2015, 8:52:43 PM4 votes

I like this one a lot lutz and i think that his E is fine as not an ultimate, it is a positioning tool. I think you need to manage the damage on it so that is not abused tho. I feel his portal would be taken to lane and then he portals, drops his drain zone and hits with his Q, takes minimal counter damage cuz it happens so fast and then heals a good portion of what happened to him via passive. The problem with creating strong junglers right now is they are taken top lane and dominate due to good poke but more importantly the sustain they have. If you can buy flask and pots and stay in lane by warding till 3K gold cuz you never have to back, its broken.

I love the potential he has from the jungle and i think he would be a great gank champion riding in and impaling over aggressive sons of B's. An interest effect you might have is when he is riding his stead if he hits somebody it knocks them down. This would be a form of soft CC, possibly pushing them to the ground. I thinking Knight's Tale and the lancing of an opponent off his horse. To make it work you should have it push them back as well but the visual move would knock them to the ground, a displace but not one that Yasuo could use as a ult knock-up cuz its a knock down. We dont need more knock ups.... Yasuo....

Like this one a lot over all :)

RiotRiot Lutzburg1/3/2015, 11:11:25 PM3 votes

Oh and regarding the aura, I specifically a-void-ed that because I wanted the strategic element of planting it and giving opponents the opportunity to work around it. I think it adds a lot of counterplay for an otherwise guaranteed sum of damage (like Amumu's tears). It also combos well with his R, as mentioned, when skillfully employed. The mechanic and thematic similarities to Malz is quite true, but I personally don't feel that's a strong enough reason to adjust the kit.

RiotRiot Lutzburg1/4/2015, 10:42:34 AM3 votes

Haha I was honestly expecting downvotes for my terrible void pun earlier.

RiotRiot Lutzburg1/4/2015, 10:57:11 PM2 votes

Great review, thanks Dr Patton. Definitely a fair point about good junglers also being great top laners (Rek'Sai). The best way to combat that, I think, is in scaling. What separates a jungler from a top laner in many cases is their ability to use gold to a greater effect. If I keep Constantine's AD and AP ratios low, and don't put too much power in having a level advantage, then I think his power levels will be suppressed enough in the top lane that it isn't seen as a mega OP pick.

I thought about having him carry his opponent or knock them to the ground outside of the displacement that already happens (like Draven's Stand Aside) but I was finding it difficult to justify that much added utility when he's already getting a super long gap closer out of the deal. What do you think? Too much or nah?

GreenLore1/3/2015, 11:04:53 PM2 votes

Overall I think he sounds very interesting,I really like his passive,it sounds quite op at first,but in the end you are right about the bursting down thing.

However there are some things that could need some change in my opinion:

  • First of all I'd say that his E should be his ultimate.I mean seriously,the horse is the most unique aspect,as well as the most unique and impressive skill in his entire kit,yet his R,a fancy stab with a lance,is his ultimate.In fact I'd say if you put more emphasis on his horse it would be better,sinceit would set him more apart from other lance users like XinZhao or JarvanIV.

  • His W also sounds quite similar to Malzahars W(both being aoe abilities that deal %health-damage).I would avoid similarities like these at all costs,since they are both void-related.Maybe it could be more of an aura?But then again,that would make it similar to Hecarims W,who is an undead-horse-related champ too....

RiotRiot Lutzburg1/12/2015, 10:56:35 AM1 votes

Time to ride off into the sunset for the evening... Good night!

RiotRiot Lutzburg3/9/2015, 8:53:26 PM1 votes

I'm bringing Constantine back from the dead, as he is one of my top 10 favorite concepts and is way too cool to stay dead!

Zarxis3/9/2015, 9:01:04 PM1 votes

skeletal cavalryman

Riot's too busy making cash and ignoring pressing balance issues to remember that their no-skeletons policy is blatant favoritism towards the Chinese playerbase and/or simple oversensitivity. We're lucky to still have Gragas drinking beer instead of strawberry juice, at this point. Never forget the loss of Graves' cigar and the censorship of Grim Reaper Karthus (Karthus in general, really).

RiotRiot Lutzburg3/11/2015, 11:05:14 PM1 votes

I'm not about to let Constantine ride off into the sunset on me.

RiotRiot Lutzburg3/15/2015, 4:46:35 AM1 votes

I expectral'd more from you, Constantine.

RiotRiot Lutzburg3/19/2015, 5:30:33 AM1 votes

What's that, Midnight? Constantine needs to ride you through Summoner's Rift with his lance in-hand? I agree!

Hardstuck G43/19/2015, 6:42:06 PM1 votes

This sounds really fun to play. Please, stop making me want these champions :'{

SpectralWraithX3/24/2015, 2:42:08 PM1 votes

I do like it, although the ult seems to have combined Malzahars ult with darius pull. Rather than doing that, I would rather it be similar to Ahri's q. Going in, doing ad damage, then coming out and dealing true damage. A aoe suppression and pull seems kinda a bit overpowered. All suppressions that I know of are single target. I.E. Malzahar and skarner. And the true damage would actually make more sense if you actually consider the real life effect of pulling a spear out of an impaled victim. Just my two cents on the ult. Everything else seems fairly well balanced.

RiotRiot Lutzburg4/8/2015, 6:14:30 PM1 votes

Blazing a trail back to Constantine to get him some more love.

Nameless Hero4/10/2015, 9:21:44 AM1 votes

Hi Lutz,

I'm here from your Frolov Commander of the Skies Concept. First time I've seen Constantine. I really love the spectral rider concept.

See? This is what I want in a cavalry unit. Charges giving big bursts of power followed by temporary weaknesses. It's sad that Hecarim is already hogging the whole spectral horseman thing but he's a failed design in my opinion because he's mostly used as a deadly helicopter.

LIke Green Lore said, his most iconic identity is that he is on a warcharger and uses a lance. If he's a pedestrian 90% of the time, he is too close to Jarvan IV, Xin Zhao and Azir's soldier. Jumping on a moving horse IS a cool mechanic and vector targeting effects are cool but I don't really need these. The very concept of a horseman is that man and beast fuse together to form the perfect killing machine.

What I would want as a player is a slash from the side as an AA. A movement speed boost/ dmg steroid that increases with momentum (scales with armor and movement speed perhaps?) a dash that allows him to jump over obstacles such as minions, but not over walls, a horse kick that stuns his enemies and a freaking charge that makes human shishkebabs.

Anyway, if you launched a petition to replace Hecarim's gamplay, I would be the first to vote for yours.

FlameHalbrdOkido2/7/2018, 9:28:24 AM1 votes

still inspiration, be sure to check out my gondola champ coming out soon, i'll have to give u credit, couldn't come up with a good 3rd ability

Quindarian1/5/2015, 12:59:41 AM1 votes

Hecarim Am I not good enough for you? item 3070

RiotRiot Lutzburg1/5/2015, 10:29:43 PM1 votes

I hope people can see that there are still a lot of major thematic and mechanical differences between Hecarim and Constantine. League of Legends has more than one monster champ, more than one human champ, so why not have more than one horse-ish champ?

FlameHalbrdOkido1/7/2015, 8:12:10 PM1 votes

Ive gotta lot of stuff to say about this really great concept. He's is really cool and original, his inter-kit play is novel and unbelievable. He is so great, i think one of your best ones!

dude you should call the horse, (if its a female) a Nightmare! I actually dont see him coming from the void, he seems more like an undead charatcer from the shadow isles, well both origins can fit him, but shadow isles seem where his kit, and horse are leaning. Did he go to the void with Kassadin, die and end up at the shadow isles? Or did you decide not to go the shadow isles route because you didn't want people to think that he was once one of the spectral riders in Hecarim's ult. People really shouldn't compare him to Hecarim anyways they are not alike at all, and he only rides his horse for a short while, not all the time. I really like this guy. I like how his E is a gap closer and damage dealer and connects to W which connects to Q, and R for a great combo.

I have a solution to the clunkiness of his E. You can use the same targeting system as Rumble's R or Viktor's E; Activate the ability, click and hold down the left mouse button on the origin point, then move your mouse to where you want the ability to be aimed and release. You can deactivate the targeting by right clicking without losing the ability to use the attack. This allows the chose a start point and direction, while still allowing him to trick enemies with feinted ability placements, (I think your the first to do something like that which is totally awesome, i really like it).

Here is a suggestion to the way that the ability description can worded with this new (for you) targeting system. Upon initial cast, Constantine creates a temporal rift at target location, and selects the direction and range (up to 1,100 units) that he wishes the ability to go. Once the ability is positioned a second rift appears at the second targeted location, and a link is formed between the two. A spectral horse (nightmare!) charges out of the first in a line towards the second. Enemies in the horse's path take magic damage and are knocked aside. If Constantine is in the horse's path, he automatically mounts it upon contact, causing the ability to deal additional physical damage. Constantine dismounts the horse as it reaches the second rift.

So while Rumble's and Viktor's abilites are just a damage and done attack, where nothing is seen by the enemy until you release that left button; on yours the portal would appear when the left mouse is clicked and stays until the right mouse is clicked or you release the mouse and the second gate appears. This way you still get all the things you want, but it will be so much more easy to cast! This ability could really use an animation to clear things up. I'd do it but im currently wrapped up with one for Embertime.

To address the "problem" that GreenLore brought up , and didnt suggest any solutions for (i dont think W is similar to it, and if it is, a lot of League abilities are copied within league it self), i would suggest making a direct connection between the W and another ability. Such as, if another ability is used within W, it would gain a minor buff, or it would apply a minor debuff to enemies inside W.

How fast does the horse move relatively speaking? Can Q be cast while he is on the horse? Would it make him get off in the direction that Q is cast, or could it be used to hit people out of the horse's width, who've dodged out of the horse's line? That way even if he missed he could still hit them as he passed by? If the horse ran through a W would it be sped up? Or if any enemies took damage from a horse while in W would the horse stomp on them stunning them? Can R be used while on the horse? this is my fave concept of yours. I love this guy so much =D so much. so. much.

FlameHalbrdOkido1/12/2015, 6:19:39 AM1 votes

Yes! Nightmare rules as a name! Ok i get the void theme you were going for. I get why vector targeting wouldn't work now, ok. And i always thought the W was original, and i like how it connects to his passive. Thanks for answering all my questions and suggestions, I am glad to help some one out who has a great concept.