Esckir - The Chilling Admiral

Shmeeve·12/25/2019, 6:49:13 PM·2 votes·1,893 views

So for a long time now in this game, despite all the pengu stuff we have, we do NOT have a penguin champion whatsoever and no, anivia doesn't count at the slightest. Now it's time for the boss penguin.

Lore: A benevolent Knight of a northern region of Demacia. Esckir was not vastaya nor a yordle, he is something of another story, still unknown to runeterra. He was discovered in an iceberg along the frozen shores of western freljord. As he awoke, he found demacian armor, lying along the ground. He picked up two chestplates from the ground, as if they were shields. The moment he picked them up, a whirling storm occured, and the ursine marched forward. Following his instincts, he fought off the ursine, using defense as offense. Demacia heard of the unknown warrior's achievement by travelling merchants, which they tracked down and found Esckir. The demacians requests Esckir to join demacia's army, and to help defend demacia from invasions of the winter's claw in the mountains. He boldly accepted the request, and became equipped with heavy petricite weaponry, which were constantly covered in frost due to Esckir's strikes, but instead of magic, the attacks were so fast and powerful that not even heat could be catch up. Now, Esckir has his sights on a particular outlaw that fled to the winter's claw, which he is steeling himself for a dedicated fight of the ages.

Design: Esckir is a large penguin for starters, however he bears massive bladed gauntlets along his flippers, and a demacian helm. Other equipment he uses is two petricite swords, one in each hand, and a pendant used to protect himself against magic of many kinds. Voice-wise, just for the humor of it, his voice should be somewhat along the lines of skipper from madagascar because... come on, what else is a better voice for a boss penguin.

Kit: Role - Bruiser, Tank Damage - AD Lane - Jungle

Passive - Legion of One Esckir gains bonus stats when he has little to no allies nearby with bonus effects if there are none. 2 allies nearby: +10% armor, +10% magic resist, and +15% health regen. 1 ally nearby: +15% armor, +20% magic resist, and +25% health regen. no allies nearby: +20% armor, +30% magic resist, +35% health regen, and attacks and spells deal 3.5% of the target's current health.

Q - Guard Strike Esckir winds up for 1 second, for the 1 second duration he takes highly reduced damage from the target direction. Esckir has a trick with enemy dashes toward him for the duration, if an enemy champion dashes to him from the direction he is aiming with his ability, and if he is in the windup duration, he bounces back the dashing enemy champion, taking no damage and reflecting the damage back on them (except for ultimates). After the duration, Esckir unleashes a crossing blow from his swords, damaging and slowing enemies, which the damage increases depending on how much damage he blocked.

W - Typhoon Dive Esckir jumps up in the air for 0.5 seconds, then dives down at a target area, damaging and knocking up enemies caught in the range. If Esckir has an opponent grappled (I will explain this in his E), he takes them with them into this ability, making the enemy he has pounded into the ground, stunning them and making the radius of the knockup range 1.5x larger.

E - Chilling Icicle Punch Passive bonus: Esckir's auto attacks now apply a slow based on how low the target's health is, from 10% - 25%. Active: Esckir dashes forward a very short distance while his gauntlets and blades freeze, and unleashes a bladed punch in a target direction, knocking all enemies hit back while damaging them. The closest enemy hit with not be knocked back, instead they will be grappled for 3 seconds, being unable to attack or cast anything, but they also cannot be damaged while grappled (except for when the e hit them). The grappled enemy can be used for his w or the recast version of his e. Recast: Esckir throws the enemy in a target direction, dealing damage to the first enemy struck while knocking them back a short distance while stunning them for 1 second.

R - Cold Justice On cast, Esckir achieves the point of sub-zero temperature around his body, giving him 20% bonus health for 8 seconds. He can use 8/10/12 recasts, being point and click dashes with powerful, cold, bladed punches, dealing damage each strike while slowing targets that are struck. The last recast is still a dash, but instead of hitting one target enemy, it damages all enemies in a circle around him in a massive "blizzard strike" Each recast gives him 1 extra second for the duration, but the last recast expires the whole duration immediately.

Interactions: Alistar : The bigger they are the better I beat them. Anivia : Hey! I am the bigger ice-bird around here. Ashe : Can't you stop your sister already. Azir : I'm the emperor here. Braum : Mind if I use that door as a punching bag? Draven : I will put on a REAL show. Fiora : Two swords are better than one Fiora. Galio : Glad there is another demacian that shares one of my style of fighting. Garen : Up in this front Garen, I am in charge. Katarina : You would be way better at your job if you didn't fancy the captain. Kled : Did you insult me!? Kled : Say that to my face again Gerbil! Lissandra : You know where I came from, but you won't say... Mordekaiser : I will make you into a new suit for me. Olaf : Now THIS, is a challenger I like. Ornn : I would ask for you to build better equipment... but Demacia isn't a friend of magic so... my loss. Rengar : My trophy will be your only functioning eye. Sejuani : I will jump punch-kick you off that pig miss. Sejuani : Your not getting past the wall, I am the wall. Shyvana : I am clueless as to why Demacia doesn't complain about you breathing fire. Sona : Needs more loud drums. Swain : You think that "wee-hand" is going to shock me? Sylas : I have been looking for you for a very, long time. Sylas : This is what I was waiting for! Trundle : True ice or not, that thing is as clunky as you. Volibear : I took on hundreds of your followers before, don't make me fight you. XinZhao : I see we both have a thing for blocking. Zac : It always feels good to be the hero doesn't it? Zed : My armblades against yours, who will win?

2 Comments

Chubby Platypus12/25/2019, 11:59:53 PM1 votes

Hey there! Chubby here! If we've never met before then I want to introduce myself: I'm nobody with too much time on their hands and I really like creating/reviewing character creations lol. I just read all that you have to offer (including the lore, and interactions) and I must say that you've created a heck of a champion! He feels like he's fleshed out and can be easily put into League's current lore, which is great in and of itself, but I'm left with some questions and concerns when reviewing this champion and I want to bring them to your attention. You did a great job at writing out the lore and, although it could be a little bit lengthier and explain a bit more, we can work with what we have. Currently, Esckir is from North Damacian and I feel like we need a brief lesson on Runterra geography to better understand how Esckir fits into this world but before we talk about the geography let's talk about how exactly he's a king. You mention that he is a "benevolent king" yet exclude anything about his kingdom. You also mention that he was "discovered in an iceberg" and leave A LOT of details out lol. Was he discovered there before becoming king? Was he the king already and somehow wound up frozen? If so, then why? Where were the king's men? As it's written, you make it sound like he was frozen, he woke up, questioned nothing about his surroundings, he saw something shiny on the floor and picked it up, got hit by a blizzard and fought off some bears. Pretty bland if you ask me. I would like to see a bit more character development in the earlier portion of his lore to really solidify his stance as a king, or better yet, just a character that has a clear and polished back story. For now let's move on to the geography

Use this image as refferance or feel free to open up the official League of Legends map of Runterra. Map of Demacia (kinda lol) Now we can talk about geography!

As you stated, Esckir is from North Demacia (which would be the mountains) and mountains CAN get pretty cold but as you can see, the true section of Runterra where snow begins to appear is even further North, so that's something to keep in mind. Another thing you mentioned was where he was "discovered" (which I'm still confused about), which would be West Demacia BUT thematically the person who discovered him would have to have been at least from Frostheld or a region more towards the North since that's where the climate would allow for glaciers to form (lol biology student), so also take note of that small detail. The ursine are from the "north most parts of the Freljord", according to the official Riot description. So if Esckir really did fight them then that would suggest he is WAY in the Northern part of Freljord, past the Frostguard Citadel! I feel like you could explain how he came to rule a kingdom in the mountains if you were to elaborate more on his story, along with other minor discrepancies in his lore but I feel like I've spoken too much on this subject , and I don't want to take up too much of the reader's time so let's talk about his kit!

Quick question, thematically, how is he achieving all of his ice abilities if he's adorned with petricite? There needs to be a clear and defined reason as to why he is able to implement ice into his kit without the use of magic. We need to elaborate a bit more on that, as we know that petricite nullifies all forms of magic and right now it sounds like Esckir is using something to aid him in battle.

  • Passive (Legion of One): Somewhat of a conflict between this ability and his lore. I've never heard of a king who has little to no regard for his people and, in fact, gains advantage when his people are not around (take Azir for example who actually summons his followers). A bit of a conflict, but we can look past this for now. As you stated, his is a bruiser/tank that functions well in the jungle and this ability is very nice for small skirmishes against the enemy jungler since you'll be isolated while in the jungle (for the most part) and can help him clear the jungle quite fast due to the %health damage. I can't help but feel like this ability is somewhat underwhelming in terms of numbers. During team fights, or even while ganking, Esckir is punished for grouping which is a little counterproductive for someone whose role impacts the map in a dynamic way. However, if we try to buff the numbers in compensation for this, then we create a balance nightmare! We'll have players who will forego grouping in exchange for the powerful 1v1 split-push potential if we go this route, so we'll have to think of a way to make this passive meaningful even during team fights! Let me explain! So let's say that you're grouped up with your team (as 5) and have 100 armor and MR stacked. With Esckir's current passive, he only gains 10 bonus... 10. Team fights are when the team needs you the most, and right now Esckir can't function as a proper frontliner for his team. Just something to think about thought, please don't take this wholeheartedly!

  • Q (Guard Strike): This ability gives me a fusion vibe of Poppy's, Fiora's, and Irelia's W in that it cancels dashes yet is linear in fashion and reduced potential damage taken. Not a bad ability but Riot usually tries to keep a champion's first ability as their bread-and-butter ability. Think of it as the most simple ability that this champion could have. That's usually how Riot designs their champions, so it's something to bare in mind. Aside from that, I feel like this is a very tank-esque ability to have. Tanks always like abilities that let them ignore, decrease, or mitigate damage in some way so this ability is on par with what a tank would like. I would maybe swap this ability with his E, but we'll talk about this E when we get to it because I have a lot to review with that E.

  • W (Typhoon Drive): In conjunction with his E... this is basically a Zac ult, but since it is a two part function I'm willing to interpret the ability as being balanced. Alone though, it's a very basic dash/hop with some cc potential similar to the likes of Sejuani, Shen, Rakan, Galio, and Camille (to name a few). I see nothing wrong with tanks (especially junglers) having access to some sort of movement that will allow for them to position better for ganks and jungle invades. I give this ability a big fat, chubby, thumbs up! Thematically, I'm not too sure why a penguin is this agile lol, but we can roll with it for now.

  • E (Chilling Icicle Punch): The passive portion of this ability needs a balance check. Perhaps we can implement a static cooldown per unit? (ex. can't be applied again to the same target for X seconds). So this ability has a small dash, a knock-back, a stun, another knock-back... and another stun. Yikes! That's a little bit too much for a basic ability if you ask me. Not to mention that while they're grappled AND if you're able to move, you basically just rewrote Scarner's ultimate, which only lasts for 1.75 seconds while yours last 3! We need to fix some things about this ability before it can be considered balanced. For starters, I feel like the mobility provided by Esckir's W is enough to compensate proper positioning to get this ability off, and of course that doesn't allow for the cool Zac-like combo to be used, but that's a balanced and healthy decision players could make and decide based on the game state. Should I waste W to get into position and then stun? Or can I flash in, use my E and follow it up with my W to help my team engage on this isolated target? So, personally, I would remove the small dash in this ability to clean it up a bit, as it stands it's pretty overloaded and we haven't even address that 3 second stun. Why is this ability AoE? I'm not against AoE melee abilities (Vi serves as a prime example), but Vi does't have it tied with hard CC while Esckir does. I'd be more open to allowing an AoE knockback than a 3 second stun lol... so.. about that 3 second stun, why is it so long?! The longest forms of CC are skillshots (compare Ashe R and Morgana Q) so I can't help but think that this ability is a little too strong for a basic ability. Even if they can't be dealt damage (which confuses me a bit), this ability removes someone from the game state for 3 seconds! What we could do, and I'm a little iffy about it anyways, is lower the duration of this ability to maybe 1 second maximum, and then the ability could function as intended... maybe lol. I'd need to see it play tested before deciding if it's still to loaded. The second recast I have some concerns with as well. As stated earlier, I'm scared that this interacts in a similar way as Skarner, in which case this ability is broken, but if Esckir can't move then this will function similar to a Singed's E and Voli's Q in that they just displace the enemy. You might be able to get away with this design idea if you make it function to how Urgot's E functions, since he has a small dash followed by a displacement ability, but that would just be straight up copying Urgot and we wan't original lol. Some further thinking could be put into this ability but I'm sure we can find a nice healthy middle ground for it!

  • R (Cold Justice): Cool name lol! I love the added tankiness that this ability provides, given that Esckir is primarily a tank/bruiser. Thematically, it works to highlight his ties with ice (which I still need an origin for because his petricite armor would nullify this!) and makes him tankier which is a bonus! But... then we run into the second portion of this ability... which is to dash... up... to... 12... times... Ahri "Excuse me?" Why is this champion able to dash 12 times?!!? weird mouth sounds What is he on?! What is going on in the North?! We can fix this easily, no big problem, I just couldn't get he image of a fat penguin just dashing 12 times around the fields of justice XD. How's about we lower the casts to match something like Ahri, Akali, or if you insist on a large number of dashes then I suggest an increasing mana cost similar to Kassadin.

Stay tuned for the continuation on this review: I'm almost done I swear!