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Easton, The Blind Shot

Elite4Runner·3/17/2016, 11:52:01 AM·3 votes·316 views

I literally made the name up on the spot, so if you think it sucks, please give me suggestions. Ultimately it really doesn't matter. Also, if I were smart I would be asleep right now, but this idea is keeping me up, so, here it goes.

This is a champion idea that I have been thinking about for a while now. The general idea for the passive is that the champion deals greater damage to targets that he (could be a she, .. or an it for all I care, but for the sake of this concept I am going to call it a male) lands a skill shot ability on within an area that he does not have vision of upon casting the ability. I want to note that the wording of this may be better stated as, 'He deals less damage to targets that he has vision of', depending on the way the champion ultimately becomes balanced. Now, there are several ideas as to how this could be accomplished.

Firstly I will need to point out that this could not work with auto attacks, or at least in the sense that most champions auto attack currently. This would not work because auto attacks require a visible target. One easy solution for this would be to simply allow the champion to have a standard auto attack with a standard range, and rely on their abilities to utilize the passive. I however have another idea. What if instead this champion does not have an auto attack? What, no auto attack!? I know, I know! Crazy, right? .. Hear me out. How about a low cooldown ability with little to no resource cost? It would be important to have no resource cost or one so little that this ability could be used at virtually any time, essentially just like an auto attack. ( Side note, I would even consider giving this ability some sort of exception to silences as auto attacks can not be silenced. ) This ability would of course need to be taken at level 1 as auto attacks are essential. The ability would begin with a cooldown equal to about the same amount of time as the typical auto attack, about .5 seconds (or more/less, determined for balance). My thought would be to simply have the cooldown scale with attack speed instead of by level or with CDR, sort of like Yasuo's Q, in order to maintain a similar rate as other auto attacks. This ability, and possibly one other ability would have a relatively longer range than most champions. I would say it should extend their range into the fog of war. My idea would be to make at least one of the 'pseudo-auto attacks' a ground targeted ability, much like Karthus's Q, or more accurately, Xerath's R. The other ability could possibly be a single target (non-pass-through) linear skillshot, like Nidalee's spear, but I am more open to suggestion with this one. This secondary ability would be more like a standard ability that has a larger resource cost and a longer cooldown.

It is important that I mentioned again that there is a damage differential when the champion has vision of enemies. Dealing lower damage when this champion has vision of the target area helps to make up for the extreme range. Meaning, damage dealt to a visible target will be less than that of a standard auto attack. Otherwise this champion could simply outrange enemies all day. Also my idea would be to show a target indicator for where the projectile will land when the player is targeting an area where vision is available. So if Easton can see the area he is targeting, anyone, more specifically enemies, who also have vision of that area can also see the area in which they would be damaged upon cast. Also, the projectile speed will need to be balanced in order to make the projectile capable of being dodged. In an instance where Easton does not have vision on the target area, a target indicator would not be visible to enemies with vision of that space. In my opinion this is only fair, because Easton doesn't know if he is even targeting someone, so why should they have an additional advantage to help them dodge?

As far as adding ranks to these abilities goes, I honestly don't know what the additional ranks would do. They could potentially just increase the damage, or increase the range, the speed, or the size of the target zone/hit box.

As for the other two abilities, my thought is to give them a trap/ward. They can place up to 3 on the map, possibly more based on rank. They remain indefinitely, or until the cap is exceeded, in which the first ward is destroyed, or if an enemy champion destroys the ward. These wards do not give vision. Instead, they will ping or indicate a zone when an enemy champion is within the area. I have not decided if it would be right for the ping to alert only you, or all members on your team. While an enemy champion is inside of this zone, Easton is able to also use his skill shots to target within these zones, regardless of his position on the map. This would ultimately give him a global attack range. The same rules for vision as above apply. I don't believe that these wards should alert the target that they have been pinged, but I believe they will likely catch on when they start getting bombarded. Instead they would act exactly like stealth wards and are only can only be targeted while being swept and with true vision. If a ward is destroyed a charge is returned to Easton's stock and he is no longer able to fire any more within that area until a new zone is placed. Now, the size of these zones are a bit of a puzzle for me. If the zone is too large, it will be impossible to guess where the enemy champion is. If the zone is too small, the champion will pass through it before you can even react. I also don't know if these zones would work based on a set radius or on vision like normal wards. This could be useful because strategic placement would help to limit where the enemy could be, however the reason I would prefer a circular zone has more to do with the ultimate. The ultimate ability would become available in the same order as most champions. It would have a standard cooldown, but can only be activated while a warded zone is triggered. When the ultimate is activated, all triggered zones becomes a trap, dealing damage to all targets within the area. There could be an argument for if the passive would apply to this damage because while the champion does not have vision of a target within this area, he does know that an enemy champion is in that space. Any triggered traps are destroyed and the charges are returned to Easton's stock. I believe this damage could stack if an enemy is standing in a space that has multiple zones overlapping.

This set up could actually work with either physical or magic damage and abilities could scale on AD or AP, .. or possibly even another stat. I definitely do not see this champion being geared toward being a tank. Instead, they would very likely be stronger as a mid lane mage/caster, or a bottom lane carry. The wards could be placed within the lane in order to hold a lane from a distance and also in common ganking paths, like a standard ward. An interesting idea as a support would be to keep a ward in each lane in order to supply support damage to all lanes simultaneously. Neither of these would be as strong as they sound, as utilizing these wards would alert the enemy that there is a ward in the area. They could then sweep the area and get some free gold. I really think this champion would work best in the Jungle. The wards can be used to alert you to invades in your own jungle, or they could be placed in the enemy jungle to tell you where the enemy jungler is. A properly placed ward, good timing, and a bit of luck, could even work to steal a camp/buff. Keep in mind that these wards do not trigger when minions or monsters are in them, so they would not help you to see when/if a camp is up, but the ultimate damage could potentially still kill minions, monsters, and/or champions in the area. Another benefit for jungling is that camps could be started from the fog of war, but it would be important to not be too far because monsters will only wander so far from their camp before resetting and without knowing where the monsters are while they are attempting to find you will make it difficult to secure the camp.

So yeah, .. that was a lot to type, and I am tired. I am probably forgetting something important that I was wanting to explain. If anyone has actually read all of this, and it makes any sense to you, please feel free to ask questions and make suggestions. If you see any specific problems, point them out. I want to believe that I have thought of everything, but I am sure I haven't.

9 Comments

Elite4Runner3/17/2016, 10:32:57 PM1 votes

Really people?! Why -1 and no comments. The only reason I can imagine is that two people simply saw that the post was too long and down voted it immediately. Look, if you don't like the idea that is fine, but I really wish people would at least say why they don't like it.

At this point it is extremely high concept so I don't even see why anyone could not like it as there are no actual figures attached to it. I really don't see any way that it could be broken because it provides a strength that requires either good perception, strategy, or simple luck. The ability to cast skill shots at an extreme range with a well telegraphed target area and reduced damage when targeting an area within vision by any means allow for an advantage in range and safety while giving a disadvantage on damage and reliability. With good coordination between the relative range between the fog of war and the extreme of his attack range he could make up for this. Also, an enemy will benefit completely from remaining in range of vision. I was also playing with an idea of landing an ability granting vision, thus decreasing the subsequent damage, however I felt like that would be more of a buff as it improves the chances of being able to land additional attacks. I do feel like there would need to be some indicator to let the player know that the attack made contact. By coordinating these non-vision wards with wards that provide vision, the area in which a target could be could be within the space could be more easily assumed. Perhaps the issue is the potential to be able to attack any alerted zone from anywhere on the map. I definitely see why that could seem to be over powered, but I really don't believe that it is. With a large enough area, the chances of simply being able to guess correctly on the first attempt is fairly low without any additional vision. I would really prefer not to try and put actual numbers on things at this point because I have no idea how to effectively balance this concept, but as for the size of these 'zones' I am thinking something about the size of Akali's Twilight Shroud (400 units). A more simple alternatively, the same space that a vision ward would provide based on placement. Neither of these spaces are all that large, and the location of the ward could fairly easily be figured out once bombs start dropping.

At this point I'll be surprised if this even gets any new views, so if anyone actually reads this, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give me something.

LSmaster163/18/2016, 12:21:43 AM1 votes

You might want to lay the whole kit out with the abilities separated and everything to make it easier to read. Also, if it doesn't give vision on the trap it would be pretty much impossibly to hit q. Maybe give traps something like reksai tremor sense or sweeper? Mainly just add numbers and formatting.

FloRaider423/19/2016, 1:04:26 PM1 votes

First of, the lack of formatting and the big amount of text don’t really make it easy to decide to check it out.

One thing I dislike about his passive is that he gets weakened when his team has good vision control, which feels very unfair, there is also the problem of the Burden of Knowledge as enemies won’t know they are at risk of being shot across the whole map (definetly needs indicators). Sounds a lot like Urgot’s Q and very prone to buttom mashing. What about a toggle that disables his normal AA and instead makes him fire shots at the cursor location ? Global attack range sounds ridiculous and I see some similarities with Jhin (Vision Traps, Long range marksmen), which puts this champion at risk of filling an already existing niche.

FloRaider423/20/2016, 10:24:03 AM1 votes

He doesn't really need to be good in TF, since his strength lies elsewhere, but he shouldn't feel bad if your support warded blue and he is dealing less damage, because of that. Yes Alt Control, Culling like mechanic or a Charge mechanic (like Varus or Xerath) could all work. Currently he is feeling both to strong and weak, as his range is limited to his wards, but he has insane range with them, and I personally would prefer a more consistent power. You could make the argument it is semi global like Shens Ult or Panths Ult, in that it is potentially global, but has restrictions, but that is still a very big range.

Overall I feel like he would benefit from some changes, but that is purely personal speculation: Passive: Won't know what hit em Your first attack or ability to enemies who don't have vision of you deals X additional damage Makes him more of a stealth champion, gives a marksmen a reason to use sweaper and allows for more counterplay and honestly feel better (you don't get a bonus for shooting blindly, but keeping your enemies guessing) R: Orbital Strike Targets an area on the map allowing you to shoot X times in that area. Targets hit get slowed and are made visible, but each succesive cast deals less damage and slows less.