Verica, Revenant from the Stars

Role: AP Mage

Inspiration: I wanted to design a champion that possesses a summonable minion that can enter stealth. Verica’s name comes from the root word “Vera”, which means ‘faith’ or ‘truth’. It is also a reference to Vera Rubin, an accomplished American astronomer.

General Design Philosophy: Verica is a long range mage with very high damage abilities, most of which require precise aiming and micromanagement. She possesses the first stealthed minion in League, a large-radius AoE Ultimate and auto attack augmentations.

Risk Analysis: Low. Verica is, in my opinion, one of the ‘perfect storm’ type of champion concepts that gets a lot of things right. She has a very appealing mash-up of themes (space/cosmos + dinosaurs), a strong visual identity and a novel and mechanically inspired kit.

Appearance: A female acolyte/sage who looks similar to Nidalee: tribal and almost Native American but with very otherworldly shards, gems, etc.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/Nakuset_zpsddee7226.jpg

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/6df61f9ad765ab0fff563db1a8436bff_zpsa967075c.jpg

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/B-navajo_astronomy_zps1f1ead78.jpg Old cave drawings of Verica from her time on Runaterra eons ago.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/KT_meteorite_strikes_zpse19ee9cb.jpg Verica having a "bad day."

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/Dinosaur_Zodiac_by_IsisMasshiro_zps9d2a7344.jpg Verica aligning the stars to form constellations in the image of the creatures she was sworn to protect.

HERE is an awesome fan sketch of Verica from RomneyHitMyBaby. I adore the salamander perched on her arm! Please go check out their work on Deviant Art!

Lore: Verica was an ancient protector of Runaterra eons ago, until one day she mysteriously vanished. In her absence, the world changed drastically and, without her guidance, the creatures she once watched over died out. Now, millennia later, she has somehow returned to a completely altered world where nothing she knows of remains. While her past and new purpose are unclear, she knows she can still channel the spirits of those old creatures, and she possesses some form of dominion over the cosmos.

Verica and Soraka were once fellow acolytes of the stars. Perhaps Verica, too, gave up her celestial body either as a sacrifice or out of punishment. However, unlike Soraka, Verica followed a much more chaotic and unstable discipline of the star’s magic, channeling its aggressive power much more so than its soothing and healing properties.

Strengths: Powerful zone control and lane bully, max health damaging ability, amazing AoE damage, personal shield.

Weaknesses: Basic abilities require micromanagement, majority of damage requires set-up time, long cooldowns on abilities, practically zero crowd control.

Plays Most Like...:

Auto Attack: Verica fires a long range bolt that resembles a comet at enemies. These attacks apply the Stardust debuff.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_3615_pas_zpsb85fa5b2.jpg Passive- Stardust: Verica's basic attacks mark her target with Stardust for 6 seconds. This lowers the target's magic resistance by 10. Stardust can also be consumed by Verica's summoned creatures, causing them to deal 5% of the target's max health in bonus magic damage in addition to their normal damage. Design Philosophy: In some respects, Stardust functions like a reverse version of Lux’ passive. By auto attacking a target, they become marked, which can be consumed by successfully aiming the rest of Verica’s abilities.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_15420_pas_zps18fb533e.jpg http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_11583_btn_zps1b99ca46.jpg Q- Galactic Horror (9 seconds): Verica summons a volatile egg at target location, dealing minor initial magic damage. One second later, the egg hatches into a salamander-like creature with scales that look like a starry night sky. This creature immediately stealths itself and the egg vanishes. Verica may then command the creature to move for the next 3 seconds by reactivating Q and right clicking (the creature's move speed scales with rank). After 3 seconds, the creature unstealths and performs a viscous AoE slash attack (akin to Wukong's clone), dealing magic damage and consuming any nearby Star Dust debuffs before evaporating into the air. The Horror will leave stealth prematurely and automatically attack an enemy Champion in its range if they are afflicted with the Stardust debuff. This creature grants vision and its health scales with Verica's level, as it can be killed if seen through sight wards or other stealth detection. The creature becomes increasingly volatile-looking as a visual cue that it is about to attack (similar to Elise’s Volatile Spider). This ability goes on cooldown after the Horror attacks and evaporates. Rank-ups increase damage done as well as the Horror’s movement speed to 340/370/400/430/460 Design Philosophy: This is a complicated ability with a number of clever uses. The creature does an AoE slash largely in order to ensure the Stardust passive can be triggered by any targets in range, as well as ensure a decent hit due to its complex set-up time. The Horror is designed to create zone denial and lane pressuring opportunities, especially when coupled with Black Hole.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_12977_pas_zps2f372b04.jpg http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_5541_btn_zps41ee9f68.jpg W- Cosmic Shroud (14 seconds): Verica instantly creates a cosmic shroud around herself, absorbing damage for the next 4 seconds. During these 4 seconds or upon the depletion of the shield, the ability can then be recast as a skillshot line nuke (max of 4 seconds after activation). This transforms the shroud into the avatar of a tyrannosaur-esque head with a comet tail, traveling through all enemy targets and dealing minor magic damage to everything it touches. This ability also consumes any Stardust it comes into contact with. Activating Cosmic Shroud early in order to cast its skillshot component will prematurely end the shield effect. This ability goes on cooldown the moment it is cast. Rank-ups increase shield value and damage done, and lower ability cooldown. Design Philosophy: As a mage with no escapes, this acts as Verica’s only real means of defense. When on the offensive, the shield can immediately be dismissed in order to gain faster access to its damaging component. This ability is primarily used for trading, by soaking up damage and then dishing it back out from very long range. Cosmic Shroud’s offensive component works similarly to Varus’ Q when coupled with the passive component of his W.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_11607_pas_zps6ce192bd.jpg E- Black Hole (6 seconds): Verica immediately spawns a black hole at target location, slowing all nearby enemies by 50% and dealing minor magic damage over time for 2 seconds before detonating, dealing additional magic damage. This functions similarly to Lux's Lucent Singularity but cannot be manually detonated. Rank-ups increase damage and lower cooldown. Design Philosophy: This is Verica’s second means of zone denial and position bullying. When used in conjunction with Galactic Horror, she can force players into very small areas of safety while she controls the lane from a position of her choice. The slow acts as a small bit of utility for kiting and chasing, especially for her Galactic Horror.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_16094_pas_zpsfd72d9c2.jpg R- Meteor Shower (90 seconds): Verica summons a massive meteor shower at target location (around the size and range of Trundle's Frozen Domain), dealing minor but consistent magic damage every .25 seconds for 6 seconds, and marking all affected targets with Stardust. This ability has a 900 range from the shower’s center and has a 1000 radius area of effect. Rank-ups increase damage and lower cooldown. Design Philosophy: Verica’s final zone denial ability, it functions similarly to Anivia's Ultimate, although it can only be cast once. A large component of power for this ability comes from the automatic and multiple applications of the Stardust debuff, which can be detonated by Verica’s other abilities from long range to deal bonus damage. The other core strength of this ability is in its extended duration and massive size, synergizing perfectly with items like Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment.

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