Rek'Sai micro-rework concept! (Plz help xD)

I'll try to keep this brief so I don't eat up too much of your time! (Any input you have is much appreciated btw!) So, a lot of the other Void champions evolve. Why doesn’t Rek’Sai?

TLDR: I love Rek'Sai, and would like to see her receive an evolution mechanic similar to Kai'Sa, but only one use on one ability. This evolution would change her kit slightly and modify her bonus stats, which would flesh out other playstyles and make her easier to balance as she would be split into 3 trees, each one favoring an ability. Q for Bruiser, W for Tank, and E for Assassin. A change like this could be just what she needs to kick her community back to life.

I’m a big Rek’Sai fan, but she has a very, very small (and loyal) playerbase due to her lack of (what I believe) any special mechanic. Most of the time I play her my friends ask me why I’m not just playing Kayn, at least he has a multi-target knockup. [:^)]. There is a reason, as she is a good champion and an incredible utility pick, but she lacks a real gimmick to lure people to try to get past her learning curve.

What if she had an evolve mechanic, based off of her stats, that you can do in base once you fulfill requirements, similar to Kai’Sa?

Rek’Sai has a big issue with her late game, so having this come in towards midgame would likely be the best option as it wouldn’t change her early game at all, which in my opinion would break her as her level 3 is notorious around those who play her. Back on topic. So, I picture three different evolution paths, of which you can only pick one once you meet stat requirements: Assassin Warrior & Tank
Each one puts emphasis on a different ability, playstyle, and build. For example, if you have like 3,000+ health & or some good amount of total resistances, maybe something like 200-300 total (100 magic resist + 100 armor = 200) (theory crafting numbers is hard...) you can evolve into the tank path with her W, giving her a multi-target knockup and some health at the cost of a somewhat large -%bonus AD modifier. Maybe with a reduction to her sonar if this particular path is too strong. This would encourage those who take this path to build Cinderhulk & tank items to boost their frontline, while removing value from AD items once this path is chosen so a tank can't just obliterate everyone. Perhaps replacing some of her ratios with %maxHP or enemy %maxHP damage?

If you went the Warrior path Rek'Sai would get a buff to her Q AoE range and burrowed Q damage along some AD and armor pen (on the ability / base) at the cost of a soft -%bonus HP & -%bonus AD modifier. This one looks to be the weakest so far in comparison. The trouble with this path is adding a boost while keeping her strength vanilla as bruiser Rek is quite effective. This build would likely be very similar to her vanilla (current) build, Warrior & Cleaver into Titanic. Though if instead her Q would lower cooldown on autos on marked targets (those hit with burrowed Q) it could encourage on-hit and utilize the mark mechanic for more than just vision, which would be really neat!

If you had enough AD you can go Assassin, she’d get a buff to her E, making her dig her tunnels deeper (granting unstoppable or untargerable) and resetting her bite cooldown on takedown, coming at the cost of a large -% on bonus health & resistances but (maybe) giving a +% to bonus AD. Something like this on regular Rek would be broken, but the subtraction of stats when building HP and resistances would encourage an assassin, aka squishy, build, something like Enchantment Warrior, Duskblade, and Yomuus. (HP items would lose their value due to that -% modifier, supporting more of an all-in style & build)

A concept a friend gave me which makes a lot of sense is you get to choose an evolution once you hit a set level, like level 10, no hoops to jump through item-wise, adding these modifiers along with the changes to abilities! Assassin: Bonus AD^ AD/Level ^ HP DOWN ARMOR DOWN HP/level UP, increase in R and Q scaling. Bruiser (Warrior): stats unchanged, HP/level up, increase in base E damage, increase in sonar level and tunnel range. Tank: ARMOR/MR UP, HP/Level increased, damage on Q and R decreased but range increased, CD decreased on Q and E. This looks to be an easier way to differentiate the classes, and making it easier to pick between them. The catch, it removes the forced itemization into a more focused Assassin / Tank which could completely break Rek'Sai as she is already a powerful Bruiser if these ratios aren't tuned properly.

For the animation of evolving, Rek could summon a portal to the Void (maybe a big tunnel) and leap into it, then come out changed, destroying it or having it collapse. This would fit into her champion design slightly as if you look at her tunnels, they're animated, almost like entryways into the Void itself. Maybe this could even play into Kai'Sa (and Void) lore as the portal those monsters came through in the comic was in the Shuriman Desert, which is Rek'Sai's hunting ground!

Visually, I imagine Tank Rek'Sai gaining size and maybe changing color to be darker and her build to appear bulkier.

Warrior Rek'Sai remains almost completely unchanged, maybe her claws / front arms would grow to be larger / bulkier while her size remains the same.(Perhaps more purple or blue to show a change over vanilla?)

Assassin would get smaller, and would change color to be more reddish, gaining spikes on her hands (maybe?) & a lot more teeth. Using color to differentiate between her choice would make it easier for other players, especially her enemies to see what she is going for so they can build / play around it effectively with proper game knowledge.

I know, this sounds crazy. It's crazy ambitious, and probably half the people reading this don’t even know who Rek’Sai is. If you don't watch her trailer, play her a game or two if you can, she's not bad! I love her to death, and have been nearly one tricking her for the last two seasons. I’m not of any high rank or mastery, (only around 140k at the time of writing this), I’m just a fan with a dream. And I’m hoping my dream gets the chance to be seen by the lovely folks up in Riot, because I’m sure they have their fair share of dreamers too.

I have no background in programming, so I'm not sure how difficult it would be / if it's even possible to add a -% ratio onto a bonus stat granted, so you could use a modified version of Pyke's passive on Assassin, leave Bruiser as is, and Tank could use Pyke passive but changing AD into HP! The evolution could be similar to Kayn with his choice, or put to an evolution like Kai or Kha'Zix built into the ability itself. This would leave this rework entirely up to mechanics that are already in the game! (And hopefully make this easier for you guys if you consider it)

The reason I play Rek’Sai is because of her ability to do almost anything well. She’s a utility pick for me, and she doesn’t have any major gimmicks other than her burrowed state & her tunnels (which makes her unique and powerful), but in an age of Kayn, Camille, and Vi, going through walls isn’t that impressive anymore. Most people don’t see the power in her sonar, and so, she remains untouched. I’ve always built her a multitude of ways, and it pains me to see her boxed up into one current build when she has so much sheer potential in her kit. Almost too much potential, as we’ve seen in professional play before her changes.

It’s hard to tweak her kit without possibly breaking her again without major change, change that could end what we know as Rek'Sai, so, what if we were guided down paths that encouraged a certain build / mechanic rather than strong-armed by buffs and nerfs? Each one putting emphasis on a new playstyle! Then they could be tweaked individually, if Tank Rek'Sai over-performs, you have a way to nerf that build directly without hurting the champion as a whole or changing items! Same for Assassin and Bruiser! All three styles would be separate, while being on the same champion. (Like how Rhaast was nerfed without Shadow Assassin becoming weaker on Kayn)

This micro-rework builds up on her utility, allowing her to be a good pick for almost any game without breaking up her entire kit, without boosting her already powerful early game. Depending on how the game is going as it enters her weak late-game, it'll allow the player to adapt their build and cover for what is lacking in their team, adding a whole new skill-cap while keeping her image, and the vision we've been given in tact! Spicing her up might get new players interested in her as well, and, in the end of the day, I just want to see more people on, in my opinion, League's best and most underrated queen. (Rek'Sai best girl, don't @ me xD)

Like all things, these are just concepts and they'll need tweaking to be balanced or even introduced, but we have to start somewhere.

So, what do you say? Want to help a dreamer out? If you have any input on this, I'd love to hear it! Thank you for your time, and if you like this, consider spreading it around, Rek got some attention recently, so now's the time to strike people! ~Opal