[Champion Concept] Cedrick, Thief in Law
- IMPORTANT NOTE * After coming up with the basic abilities I showed the concept to my two friends who I play with, and they thought that they needed some changes. Some I agreed with and some not so much. As such there are two sets of abilities, my original ones in the middle and their suggestions at the very bottom. Interested to hear what people think and if they prefer one over the other.
Name: Cedrick, Thief in Law. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_in_law - for the meaning behind the title.) His title is more so related to him being looked up to by many criminals, not for his sterling code of ethics or adherence to a Code.
Roles: Jungle, Assassin.
General Concept: A sneaky melee Jungle assassin that is vulnerable if left in the jungle too long or counter jungled due to their lack of AoE, healing without items (in my original concept), and channeled stealth - but one that if successful in ganking with set himself and his team very far ahead.
Appearance: An 'average' looking man if one were to see him in street clothes. But he hasn't worn anything like that in the public for many years now. Instead he often wears decently tight fitting clothing with armor wherever it can fit without making too much noise. Over his chest and arms would be the tools of his trade; lockpicks, small crowbars, glass cutters, and more than one blade. His favorite however is kept in his hand or up his sleeve at all times. A long and slightly curved dagger that he took from an old college as payment for an 'incident'.
Similar tight fitting clothes and 'petite' shoes are around the lower half of his body and over his head he often wears a hood and a mask - despite the fact that everyone knows who he is its what is used to wearing now. The bags of fake coins would be attached to his belt and thighs.
His visible features would be deep tan skin, brown eyes, and a few strands of black hair. His voice would be slightly deep, perhaps a bit scratchy due to injury because of his dangerous job. He would move carefully but with confidence, and when stealthed would hunker down and hold his dagger ready for the strike.
Brief History: A long time career thief and killer Cedrick has forged a grand legacy of larceny and bodies that have all added into considerable wealth for himself.
Once a simple pickpocket he soon found himself rotting in the Noxus dungeons, destined for the arena to die for the citizens of the city. But when his big day was fast approaching the citizens of the city were instead flocking to watch the League. And with dwindling admissions to the arena some of the prisoners were instead just booted out of the city and told not to come back. When out in the world Cedrick found that most of the cast out 'meat' were younger criminals. Perhaps the arena wanted more exciting battles and not slaughters to draw the crowd back? Whatever the reason the young pick pocket was now out in the world with only one set of skills.
Making the best use of what he could do Cedrick soon found himself in a roving band of forest bandits - and the middle of his life past that was mostly a blur of different groups and additional less than legal skills being taught to him; Bandits, Pirates, murderers, deserters from the armies, and some fire crazed Yordles.
His name started to be known eventually in Bligewater as a good thief and cut throat, a promotion from his cut purse start, and as time continued his legend grew and grew. But Cedrick knew that if he wanted to live to old age with the gold and loot he had now he would need allies. And to this end for nearly a year he put aside his thieving and murdering to set up an organization for the shelter and tutorage of young thieves. Promoting himself to leader of this small group he has since then started to look for ways to spread his name further and get more employees as it were.
The League would be a good place for some advertisement and payment - and he could do all the killing and stealing on the field and have the public love him for it.
Stats: Generally around the same health, speed, and defenses level of Kha'Zix
Passive: Trickle Down. When Cedrick kills an enemy that is on a spree his entire team, even if they were not involved in the kill, will get a percentage extra gold for the kill taken from Cedricks bounty reward. A good Thief looks after their own so as to avoid a knife in the back. Cedrick has to be the one that makes the killing blow for this to take effect.
Q: Double Down. Upon activation Cedrick's next auto attack will strike twice at max attack speed, this also resets his auto attack timer. Both attacks can crit as normal.
CD: 12/11/10/9/8 seconds.
W: Fools' Gold. Always prepared for if a crowd is needed Cedrick throws out a pile of fake coins onto the ground in a 150 radius circle. Enemies inside this range will be slowed while on the coins. Minions and Neutral monsters will not attack Cedrick while on the field, unless attacked - but if a champion is attacked in their vision range the field will immediately stop effecting them. Field lasts for five seconds.
CD: 20/18/16/14/12 Seconds. Slow: 15/25/35/45/55%
E: Imperfect Stealth. After a one second channel time, any damage will interrupt it, Cedrick will become invisible. As long as he remains still he will have no tells of where he is. But once moving every few steps two black foot prints will appear on the ground. These prints remain for two seconds. This will not make him appear on the minimap but enemies who are looking out for them will see where he is at that precise second and shortly afterwards
Using W will not break stealth and when attacking from stealth Cedrick's next auto attack will gain 20% additional damage, increased to 40% if attacking a slowed or stunned target.
With faster movement speed the prints will be further apart as more distance will be covered per stride.
CD: 20 seconds at all ranks. Stealth Duration: 6/7/8/9/10 Seconds Steps until a print is left: 4/5/6/7/8 steps.
R: Mug A low damage but briefly stunning attack used as a dangerous execute. If a killing blow is made with Mug Cedrick will steal a percentage of the enemies gold. The stun is half a second at each rank.
CD: 80/60/40 Seconds Damage: 50/100/150 Physical damage (+1 per 2 bonus AD) Stolen Gold: 30/40/50% of enemies current Gold.
Synergies: Nasus: Wither sets Cedrick up with bonus damage and gives him lots of time to get in range and to work with his autos and carefully watch the enemies health so as to execute them with Ult for sweet money.
Braum: With plenty of slows and a stun that gains stacks with Autos, something Cedrick can very easily stack fast; Braum, their ADC, and Cedrick can very quickly stack up a lot of damage against any enemy unfortunate enough to get caught.
Struggles against: Master Yi: Unless Cedrick has many more items than Yi he will simply not be able to fight him. Yi's attack speed, own double strike, and true damage would completely overwhelm Cedricks damage. And if Yi had the reaction time to meditate his double Q attack then all Cedric would be able to do is auto attack, as his W wouldn't slow down Yi.
- Most aggressive counter junglers would be hard for Cedrick to fight 1 on 1, Yi is just the worst I could think of for him to try and fight. Shyvana would also be very hard to fight.
My own questions/comments:
It's probably pretty clear that he can't be built like for example Kha'Zix due to his lack of low cooldown damaging moves. Instead the general idea would be that a good damage build for him would be similar to an ADC, with probably a bit more tankiness. For example he would need some attack speed to be able to kill when his Q is on cooldown. As such he would probably need an item to help him stick to people as the stabbing commences. In a way he could be thought of as a stealthy melee carry. Once they have items they will be a force to be reckoned with but before that point, especially in the jungle, they will be very vulnerable to counter jungleing
Passive: The passive is designed to work with his ult to give him the money he would loose if his passive activates. In this way if played perfectly he will keep himself and his team far ahead in gold. Getting him closer to the items he needs and giving his team an easier time with their items.
Q: While a very strong move in itself keep in mind that it is his only real damage move, as such he kind of needs a strong ability to make up for the damage deficit. But it is stronger than Shyvana's 'double attack' move at ranks 1-4, hence why its cooldown is much longer. Bit worried it may be too long but interested to hear other opinions or if the second attack shouldn't be able to crit.
W: It is this that allows Jungle to be something viable for him, a place for him to move and watch out for opportunities to go in for a gank. But I hope that the caveat I put in for attacking Champions makes its use firmly in the jungle and not an easy harass tool in lane.
E: A long stealth but one that can be seen without pink wards and one that he must remain still to activate. Hopefully balancing itself out. But interested to hear if people perhaps think the channel should be longer.
R: I know that Riot and players are very hesitant to having a gold theft ability in the game, and I share that trepidation. But it is currently a interaction that isn't in the game and I think that if balanced properly can be a good addition to the game.
There is another version of the ult that I was kicking around before deciding on Mug as it is now, but perhaps the old version may be better. In the original version the ability did more damage, with better scaling - but to steal gold the killing blow would still need to be made. But, and this is a big but, Cedrick needed to have an empty item slot to hold the money bag he stole. And couldn't cash it in until back at base after a recall. If killed while carrying the loot bag the gold would go back to the enemy team. Perhaps with an option to give it all back to the victim or distributed evenly to the enemy team for the killer or the one that was robbed.
Thanks for reading :)
Alternate Abilities, suggested by VerdantHandshake and PhyrexianQueen. Math for the damage of his original and alternate set of abilities in the comments.
Passive; Blade from the Dark. Instead of dealing additional damage with critical attacks, Cedrick becomes invisible when a critical hit is scored. Stealth time is based off level. When stealthed he will leave behind footprints every few steps. When attacking from stealth Cedrick is briefly revealed before restealthing if another crit is scored.
When attacking from stealth, all of Cedricks moves and autos gain 25% additional damage. Infinity edge will boost this damage to 37.5% but only for Auto attacks.
However, if attacking a Champion when not stealthed, Cedrick will suffer a 20% damage penalty to them on auto attacks and abilities.
Perhaps if restealthing Cedricks dark chuckle laugh will play.
Stealth time: .5/.75/1/1.5/2/2.5/3 seconds Levels: 1/4/7/10/13/16/18
Q; On a Roll Cedrick's next auto attack will be swung at max attack speed, this resets his auto-attack timer. If a last hit is gained under this sped up attack the next attack will also be boosted, and will continue at max attack speed as long as last hits are scored. Cooldown begins after the first auto attack is swung, and the buff lasts for five seconds.
CS: 8 Seconds at all ranks.
W; Shiest the foolish The slowing circle will no longer stop monsters from attacking Cedrick, and will slow slightly less. But to make up for this it will do damage (additional to Monsters) and if striking Monsters will heal Cedrick. This is to give him at least somewhat competitive clear times without a Tiamat and allow him some sustain. Casting this while invisible will not break stealth.
CD: 20/18/16/14/12 Slow: 10/15/20/25/30% Damage: 40/80/120/160/200 (+.30% of AD) Physical Additional to Monsters: 50/75/100/120/150 Magic damage. Heal (only when striking Monsters): 30/35/40/45/50 Health per monster hit.
E: Percise strikes. Passive: When Cedrick kills an enemy on a spree, some of his bounty gold is given to his allies on his team.
Active: Cedrick gains additional critical strike chance for five seconds
Crit chance: 10/15/20/25/30%
R; Mug Changed to the alternate version I suggested above; with more base damage and better scaling. Same with how it must kill to steal but Cedrick must have an open inventory slot to carry the gold. This way at 'full build' it will not steal anything - just do damage. Cedrick will become invisible after he strikes (for his level duration) with his ult, regardless of if he has enough crits to do so.
CD: 120/90/60 Seconds Damage: 100/150/200 (+1 per Bonus AD) Gold stolen: Either flat or a %, unsure as to what would be best. Or if it should be either flat or a %, whatever number would be larger/smaller as both could be argued for.
