Kayle - Flames of Justice {Champion Rework Concept}

So after making a little idea-gathering thread I finally had some ideas to how make Kayle the awesome champion she is supposed to be – as one of the original champions it's no big surprise that her kit is quite clunky, boring to use and not really delivering her character and personality.

Ok, but first of all lore first so we can get a grasp on the character:

In a world far away where an ancient war still rages, Kayle was a great hero - the strongest of an immortal race committed to destroying evil wherever it could be found. For ten thousand years, Kayle fought tirelessly for her people, wielding her flaming sword forged before time itself. She shielded her delicate features beneath her enchanted armor, the sole remaining masterpiece of an extinct race of craftsmen. Though a beautiful, striking creature, Kayle, now as then, avoids showing her face; war has taken a terrible toll upon her spirit. In her quest for victory, she sometimes would try to lift the wicked up from their morass of evil, but more than often she instead purged those she herself deemed beyond redemption. To Kayle, justice can so often be an ugly thing.

Ten years ago, Kayle's war against evil was nearly won... until her rebellious sister Morgana, a pariah amongst their people, suddenly gained powerful new allies: magicians of a hitherto unknown world called Runeterra. Morgana traded servitude to a number of the summoners in Runeterra's League of Legends for powerful new abilities that, if mastered, threatened to bring Kayle and her people to their knees. To save her world, Kayle had no choice but to make a pact with the League herself. She approached the leader of the League, High Counselor Reginald Ashram, with a deal of her own. In exchange for a thousand years of Kayle's service, Ashram halted all League interference on Kayle's world. With Ashram's disappearance five years ago, Kayle has new causes on Valoran: find out who or what caused Ashram to disappear, defeat her sister Morgana upon the Fields of Justice, and bring her own brand of justice to the League of Legends.

''In the League of Legends, Justice comes on swift wings.''

((Please ignore all IoW references because they are no longer important)) I think her theme has been discussed more than enough to roll it all up again. We all know that a “pure” or “ideal, perfect justice” can't exist – there isn't much that differs her from a mass murderer apart from her legitimation by doing it for “good” and “justice”.

She even knows that herself, that's why she wears the mask. Have you ever wondered why executioners in the middle ages worse these silly black masks? It wasn't to make them unknown. Being an executioner was a job, everyone knew the man – no, it was to protect their own sanity, somehow making the things they did unpersonal and distant. On another note this leaves some very interesting questions about Draven's mental state (behind that facade of nacissm of course)...

Ok, but back to topic. So from lore side we have two parts:

First: the defender of the weak and helpless, paladin, blah blah you know the drill. With her magical abilites this would scream for support mage.

Second: the psychotic mass murderer swinging a burning sword purging everything “evil”. I wonder who defined that “evil” in the first place... In gameplay this would be a bruiser or fighter I guess.

And now we just gotta combine that.

But before we get to that, let's take a look on what's so bad with the current kit – and why it fails to deliver (I copy this over from the other thread):

Let's face it: Kayle is a higher being, coming from another dimension, and yet her playstyle is so goddam primitive it's almost unbelievable. I've come to call it "caveman-style". Throws a rock (Q) -> hurr durr beat you with ma fire stick! (E+ Rightclick-spam). And... that's kinda it. Of course that's not the only thing she can do. Her W is making her faster so she can smack you even more with her fire-stick. The only really awesome part is her ultimate and as it currently is it has caused some rather problematic scenarios for game-balance, combined with the fact that this whole Q-E thing isn't really counter-play friendly. But why isn't she played so much then? First of all, she either facerolls everything or is completly ignored. And experiencing the second case is rather... well, let's say not a really fun experience. Also, in everything she's doing she's outclassed by other champs. She's kinda like Lee Sin but less broken, a jack-off-all-trades somehow. You want damage? Other champs have more and are more reliable with that. Support your team? Most mage-supports do the job better. Also (warning, subjective perception) she's incredible boring to play. No surpise if there is a) no area your champion excels in and b) you go "full caveman" all game. “But... but... she's good at kiting melees without a gapclosers” you will say now. Yes, that might be right. But, how many of these melee champs are actually played nowadays? The probably only thing she can do a bit better than most things and it's actually worthless. Kinda sad if you ask me.

Her some thoughts I made about this:

• The firesword is pretty much iconic (mostly because she uses it all the time and it fits her angel-theme) so we should keep it. But what about giving it a bit more importance? From a simple range buff I could also see this as some kind of "YOU PISSED ME OFF I WILL FUCK YOU UP NOW! BURN!"-Skill. Also it doesn't have to be limited to a simple range or AoE buff - there should be more combative options for this.
• The wings. Kayle is one of the very few champions who could be theoretically capable of constant flight. I mean, she has those pretty white wings, why can't she use them somehow? How about a skill that makes her dive into the fight like fierce warrior she is?
• We need to decide what role she's supposed to fill instead of being a generic jack-of-all-trades. Should she be more of a support? Some kind of AP Bruiser? A mage with mechanics for enchanting basic attacks? (more complex ones than just pressing E for range pls)
• The passive will have to go. It's barely noticeable anyways (hello there, hidden power) and a stat-shred isn't really the best thing that would fit her theme I guess.

So that's it from the other thread, let's get to how to fix that.

First of all we need to combine the supportive mage and the murderous flame-sword-warrior into one champion – just as stated at the start some lines above. The most logical approach for this would be a stance-system like Jayce uses – not exactly like that of course. Think of it as a weird mix of Nidalee, Swain and Jayce – and maybe some bit of unique parts. In her “normal” form she is immobile and lacks fighting power, but brings awesome utility and supportive abilities. In “fired up” she ignites her sword and becomes a melee AP-Bruiser, diving in and totally murdering everybody by shoving her fire-sword up their asses.

“Support/Mage Kayle possible abilities” Passive: Protector of the Weak: Moving towards allies increases Kayle's movement speed. If Holy Wrath is active this speed is granted when approaching enemy champions instead.

Q: Judgement: Fires a blast of magical energy in a line, slowing the first unit hit

W: Blessed Grounds: After a short delay a pillar of light erupts from an small AoE (think of something like Soraka E) healing allies on it and reducing the damage allied units take on this area for X seconds.

E: Protective Light: Shields a target ally for X over X seconds, enemies close to the shielded unit are blinded for 1,5 seconds.

R: Holy Wrath: Kayle ignites her sword and summons her full destructive powers, replacing her abilities with new ones temporarily. Basic attacks deal X bonus magical damage now. Activating Holy Wrath will cause Kayle to break free from disables and knock nearby champions away.

“Holy Wrath Abilities”

Q: Into the Fray! : Kayle dives into combat, slicing through every unit on her path and dealing damage. (For some reason I want this to be a curved skillshot, like the diana-Q, don't ask why it looks cool in my head)

W: Purgatory: Kayle rams her sword into the ground, causing a sea of holy fire to appear around her. Enemies hit by the initial blast are slowed. Entering the AoE after the blast will deal damage, but won't apply any kind of crowd control.

E: Wrathful Flames: Empowers her basic attacks even further, allowing her to set enemies ablaze. The burning debuff starts low, but stacks the more basic attacks she gets on her target while E is active. Also hitting enemies while this skill is active will reduce the cooldown of Q.

R: Serenity: Changes back into “normal mode” while granting a small heal and ms boost.

Note to her ultimate: it will be impossible to change back-and-forst within the modes. Once you decide to change your "mode" you're kinda locked with that for some (maybe 20/30?) seconds. Not sure if her ultimate is supposed to be aviable for level 1... I think they would have to run some test if this would be balanceable.

Ok guys so... what do you think about this? I think in terms of item building she would remain the same... AP, Attack Speed and CDR. I'll be glad to improve this version of her kit depending on your feedback.