[February MCCC] Epsi, the Formless One

######This is an entry for the 2015 February MCCC. The main contest page is: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/Fy4V3Ydo-february-mccc-a-bastion-of-sin

#Epsi, the Formless One

Challenge: Envy Role: Tank Secondary: Fighter

Potential feel of champion: (credit to the creator) http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_pnC_HyNYypI/TOFhLuStGwI/AAAAAAAAAgk/p7JMFSszBxM/s1600/mercury%2Bmonster2%2Bcopy.jpg

#Lore

There was a time before they came - the arcane ones. It was a bountiful time, a time when even the shadow bear would have to retreat in the darkness, when the creatures of the plains were vulnerable and docile. There I made my hunting ground, pouncing from the shadows of the grasses, and in the glare of the setting sun.

But their magic, with its power, beauty, and destruction, wreaked havoc on the delicate balance of the homeland. The shadow bear could move by the dim torchlight, and the creatures were protected in walls of sharp. Their barriers prevented me, and the other hunters from taking our bounty. They stole from us our lives; we had to subsist on the few beasts that had escaped their sight. Magic leached into the land, poisoning the grasses as they withered away, flattening the shadows of days now long gone. Their spells transformed the land, turning plenty into starvation. In the name of "knowledge", "progress" and "freedom".

But their magic leaked into every being on the plains. And that was their downfall.

That night, their eyes only saw fire. Their "knowledge" rose into the sky on the crest of a flame; their "progress" came tumbling down around them; their "freedom" was released back into the plains.

[TBC]

#Gameplay Overview

Epsi is a disruptor tank that instead of breaking up an enemy team, ala Zac, draws them together, through mainly vacuum abilities. She is mobile through her ult and has mainly AOE CC-imbued damage, and is very teamfight oriented, relying on her team to deal damage.

#Stats

Values are at Level 1 (+per level)

HP: 590 (+91) HP/5: 7 (+0.6) AD: 59 (+3.0) Attack Speed: 0.66 (+2.7%) Range: 125 Mana: 290 (+45) Mana/5: 7 (+0.45) Armor: 25 (+3.5) MR: 32 (+1.25) Movement: 335

#Abilities

Innate: Stained Touch Epsi's abilities and basic attacks apply a stacking bonus damage based on current health, stacking up to 3 times.

Q: Osmosis Epsi drags enemy units in a target area towards her, dealing magic damage, and slowing briefly.

W: Emulsion Epsi empowers her autoattacks for 6 seconds, or until she has attacked 3 times. Her autoattacks gain 325 range, gain bonus magic damage and draw enemies near the target towards the target on hit.

E: Congeal Epsi collapses on a nearby area, dealing magic damage. Any units with 3 stacks of Stained Touch are dealt 50% bonus magic damage and snared for 1 second.

R: Diffusion Epsi dissolves, gaining additional movement speed. Additionally, she can cast Upsurge up to 3 times, until successful, or for 7 seconds.

• Upsurge Epsi leaps to a target area, dealing magic damage, decreasing from the point of impact outwards. Epsi will latch onto the closest enemy champion near the impact point, and snare them briefly before latching onto them for 5 seconds. Epsi receives a percentage of the damage dealt to the affected champion. Epsi will also steal the basic abilities of the affected champion, preventing them from casting until Epsi has done so, or Epsi dismounts. When Epsi casts such an ability, she will heal for a percentage of her missing health.

#Abilities' Detail

Stained Touch Stacks last 2 seconds. Stacks deal 0.5 / 0.75 / 1 % current health per stack as magic damage. Stacks are treated as on-attack.

Osmosis Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10 sec Range: 800 Radius: 170 (~Nami bubble) Drag Distance: 350 Damage: 90/115/140/165/190 (+0.45AP) Slow: 40/45/50/55/60% for 0.25 sec

Emulsion Cost: 55 mana + 5% current HP Cooldown: 14 sec Bonus Damage: 20/30/40/50/60 (+0.25AP) Radius: 250 Drag Distance: 175

Congeal Cost: 40/45/50/55/60 mana Cooldown: 7 sec Range: 200 Radius: 125 Damage: 40/55/70/85/100 (+0.6AP) Bonus Damage: 20/27.5/35/42.5/50 (+0.3AP)

Diffusion Cost: 40 mana per second Cooldown: 110/100/90 Movement Speed: 60/80/100

Upsurge Cost: 0/0/0 Range: 450 Radius: 250 Radius (Centre): 75 Damage: 100/150/200 (+0.6AP) Damage (Outer): 60/90/120 (+0.36AP) Received Damage: 30/20/10% Heal: 10/15/20% Upsurge can "lock on", and can be cast as a targeted spell. This means that the spell is more reliable, as the targeted champion will be leapt upon. *Enemies can CC Epsi off her target. Epsi will move with the targeted champion, with their movement speed, but the tether breaks if Epsi is more than 125 units from the target. *

• Each stolen ability has an independent silence.*

#Gameplay

Epsi functions off pulling together an enemy team, in preparation for allied AOE spells, like Katarina's Death Lotus. Therefore, she will be a frontline tank/bruiser, and will do best in a teamfight rather than a skirmish. Her role would be to clump targets near the beginning of a fight with her basic abilities, before disabling a high-damage caster. Then as her abilities come off cooldown as she untethers, she allows for her allies to pick off any stragglers.

Epsi is best built as a tank, as her abilities do not have particularly great scaling. A slowing item, such as a Frozen Mallet or Rylais, would be effective on her, as it would allow her to stick to her targets more easily. However, the typical AP-tank Liandrys would be less than optimal since her abilities simply disrupt as opposed to impair movement (she only has a very brief slow and a conditional snare on her basic abilities). Also, she cannot afford to build as a glass cannon as it would decrease her ultimate's effect drastically, as the ultimate relies on being in the middle of the team. Furthermore, her highest DPS ability, with 0.9AP scaling on a 7 second cooldown, has a miniscule range.

Epsi would most likely be a top-laner, due to her tankiness, but lack of scaling. Trading in laning phase would consist of applying stacks of Stained Touch to maximise damage, easily done through 2 Merucrial auto-attacks. Her considerable CC will also help in a gank as it can displace and stop an enemy champion easily. However, since many of her abilities inherently rely on her being able to outlast an opponent, a 2v1 enemy gank could go wrong as Epsi has no innate mobility outside of her ultimate. Epsi has no innate sustain so would be difficult to play in the jungle, but her AOE abilities may allow her to clear fast enough to not take fatal damage. Her ganks however, would be typical of a CC-heavy jungler.

A basic combo would be W>AA>AA>AA>E, which would close a 400 range gap, with a 1 second snare and up to 330(+3.0AD)(+1.65AP) damage.

#Challenges

Epsi is an entry for Envy. She fulfills this challenge by ...

#Dev Thoughts

Epsi is made to be the opposite of a typical gap-closer and disruptor, by forcing the enemy team together. Name is shortened from "epsilon", which is the symbol for an arbitrarily small positive number in mathematical analysis.

Innate is mainly for damage and to further the challenge feel. As a burn it would seem too close to a Liandrys or Brand innate, so changed to upfront damage.

Her Q is supposed to be a low scaling ability as its large range and utility could make it a horrible skill to play against if it had high late-game damage. However, she makes up for it with the insanely high damage E, which requires gaps to be closed, whether through Q/W or R.

W is supposed to be her firing off parts of her envious self, thus the health cost attached to it.

E is as said before the main damage component of Epsi's kit. it rewards her for actually landing her abilities and autoattacks correctly, as it can do massive AOE damage. That said, it is made very short range to discourage a full AP nuke combo with no counterplay (because forced movement is kind of hard to get out of, especially if chained).

R is the essence of Epsi's Envy in the kit. She steals power from the enemy at a rather large cost, as it places her in the middle of the enemy team, where she can be easily be nuked to the ground and rendered ineffective.