[Champion Concept] Valerius, The Commander of Targon
http://i.imgur.com/uyOARg2.jpg
Not my picture, found it while google searching "Roman Legionnaire."
Concept This is my first champion, I have always been interested in commanders and generals in fiction, and while technically both Nasus and Swain are generals in their lore, in their actual gameplay they don't really behave like commanders to me. A commander steps on the battlefield and has everyone else listens to them, and follows their lead. Which admittedly, is difficult to make exciting as a lot of times that is portrayed in games by giving people passive auras, which is kind of boring and is usually lost on those who are receiving the benefit (or punishment) from these auras unless there is some huge visual representation of what the aura is doing. So this is an attempt at a commander without auras, mostly.
The other design goal is to see if a Support could make a melee class viable in the Bot lane. Now Riot tried that before with Mordekaiser, but it was kind of gimmicky (with the always reaching level 6 first thing) and oppressive. My hope is this support champion will allow for more champions to see play bot lane other than ADCs. So, I drew up what a champion would need to make melee viable in bot lane and I came up with: Damage Mitigation: since it will be attacked far more than it can attack Gap Closers Late Game Damage: ADCs are there primarily so that once late game occurs, they have far more ability to kill than most other roles A means of keeping an ADC in melee range
All while, hopefully, still allowing some form of counter-play.
And I tried to make a champion that allows for this, and still feels like a commander. So take a look and tell me all that's wrong with him.
Role: Support
Statistics (Level: 1 - 18): Health: 575 - 2173 Health regen: 8.2 - 25.2 Mana: 341 - 1092 Mana regen: 7.5 - 20 Attack Damage: 50 - 140 Attack Speed: 0.6 - 0.725 Armor: 24-87 Magic Res: 32.1 - 53.4 Movement speed: 330 Melee Range: 125
Passive: Coordinate Attacks
If Valerius deals damage to an enemy champion they become marked for 2 seconds. The enemy will then be effected by one of the following status effects based on the number of allied champions that damage it within those 2 seconds:
1 ally: Grounded for 1 second 2 allies: Rooted for 1 second 3 allies: Stunned for 1 second. 4 allies: Stunned for 2 seconds.
While multiple opponents can be marked, once the first is dealt damage by an ally all others lose their mark. In addition, if a marked opponent is damaged by an ally, no enemies can be marked again for 10 seconds. If multiple marked opponents are damaged instantaneously the closest opponent to the ally that damaged them remains marked.
Q: Command Volley
Valerius orders nearby allies to fire upon a target area, creating a barrage of projectiles that land in .5 seconds, damaging all enemies hit and slowing them by 30% for 2 seconds. The more allies within a 300 radius of Valerius the larger the target area. Each allied minion close to Valerius increases the area by 10. Each allied champion close to Valerius increases the area by 50 and deals additional damage.
Range: 800 Radius: 125+X Maximum Radius: 250/300/350/400/450 Damage: 40/75/110/145/180 + (50% bonus AD) + 10/20/30/40 damage for each allied champion close to Valerius (damage per allied champion is increased at levels 6, 11, and 16) Cooldown: 4 seconds Mana cost: 40/45/50/55/60
W: Shield Formation / Shields Up
Shield Formation
Valerius rushes to his allies side, forming one hit-box. While in Shield Formation, Valerius cannot move on his own, and trying to move will end Shield Formation as will using Flash, Teleport, Ghost, or Mark/Dash. He cannot be targeted by spells, but if the ally Valerius used Shield Formation on is targeted by spells they effect Valerius as well.
The target of Shield Formation gains a shield equal to 1/3 of Valerius's current health. A percentage of the damage that is dealt to the shield is subtracted from Valerius's health as though he was damaged. If the shield is destroyed or Valerius runs out of health Shield Formation ends. If Valerius is still alive he will appear behind the ally.
If Valerius's ally is making a melee attack, Valerius also attacks that same target, but only deals 50% damage. If the enemy is killed from these simultaneous attacks the ally is considered the killer.
Range: 300 Percentage of damage to the shield inflicted on Valerius: 98/96/94/92/90% Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11 seconds after Shield Formation ends. Mana Cost: 75
/
Shields Up
While in Shield Formation Valerius can raise his shield to provide further protection for his ally. This restores some of the shield provided by using Shield Formation and increases the allies Armor and Magic Resistance for 1 second.
Every cast of Shields Up grants 1 stack of Cooperation. At 2 stacks the next cast of Shields Up will have Unbreakable Formation.
Unbreakable Formation: Shields Up will provide the the ally immunity to CC for .5 seconds.
Shield Bonus: 30/50/70/90/110 +5% of Valerius's remaining health, up to a maximum of 1/3 Valerius's total health or Valerius's remaining health, whichever is lower. Armor bonus: 10/20/30/40/50 + .1 of Valerius's bonus Armor Magic Resistance bonus: 10/20/30/40/50 + .1 of Valerius's bonus Magic Resistance Cooldown: 4 seconds Mana cost: 40
E: Command Advance
Valerius throws his standard to target location, where it remains for 6 seconds. All allies moving toward the standard gain bonus movement speed. Once per cast, if Valerius or the ally that Valerius is in Shield Formation move within 600 radius of the standard and right-click on it, they will dash forward to the standard, stopping at the first enemy champion or wall they meet. At the end of the movement Valerius or his ally will auto-attack the closest enemy champion, or unit if there are no enemy champions within range.
If Valerius hits an enemy champion when he throws his standard it will stay with that enemy champion, allowing Valerius or his ally to move directly to that enemy.
Range: 800 Standard Clickable Radius: 600 Movement Speed Bonus: 20/25/30/35/40 Auto-Attack Bonus Damage: 20/27.5/35/42.5/50% Cooldown: 15/13/11/9/7 Mana Cost: 80
R: Choose the Battleground
Valerius designates a wide radius where his armies will be more effective for 5 seconds. All allies within the radius deal additional damage, which increases with the number of total allied champions in the area. For every enemy champion killed within the chosen battleground the radius increases by 200 and the duration restarts.
When he is fighting in the chosen battleground, Valerius's passive Coordinate Attacks is taken off cooldown, in addition, multiple enemies can be effected by Coordinate Attacks at once.
Range: 1000 Radius: 600 Increased Damage Percentage: 3/4/5% damage + 1/1.25/1.5% for each allied champion within the area (including Valerius). Cooldown: 150/135/120 Mana Cost: 100
Thoughts and Reasons So that's my take on a commander. It's not perfect, but I think it can give a melee character a fighting chance in bot lane.
The Q: As I said if the Valerius and his ally are going to have any success they will need some way to consistently harass their opponent. Now, how does a commander attack at range? Well he gets everyone else to do it for him. I like this ability for a few reasons, though I'm sure the numbers could use some tweaking. The enemy champion is given a few different methods of dealing with the Q, the first is of course dodging it. The second is last hitting minions consistently. Despite the relatively low cooldown of the ability (it's going to be one of the few things that Valerius can consistently do while his W is up, I think it needs to be a bit low on the cooldown) the radius is crap if there are no minions nearby. So, while the first Q to go off with a fresh wave of minions may be big, a decent ADC can keep whittling down on the minion wave which will keep reducing the power of Valerius until the next wave. Giving some obvious times of strength and weakness.
The W: Alright, probably the key ability of Valerius. When I designed him, I had in mind this soldier who commanded from the front lines shouting orders. But a part of that is the idea of a shield wall that moves toward the enemy. I thought of doing something like that for his ult, where he can string a bunch of allied champions together to engage together, but I thought giving a bunch of people the equivalent of a Malphite ult was ridiculous. So, the W. It reinforces his need for a melee ally, since the ally needs to be among the minions for Valerius's Q to be effective, in addition Valerius gives a decent amount of AD to his ally. I think this was necessary since, essentially, the bottom would now be a 2v1 lane this would have to be pretty strong. But just giving the ally a bunch of stats seemed cheap in the other direction which is what led me to the two part W. Once Valerius creates his small shield wall with an ally he can consistently reinforce it. But, if the shield wall breaks, Valerius is out, and he is much less effective by himself. So Valerius has a means of restoring his lost shields, but the enemy also has a way to break Valerius out of the formation.
The E: The melee adc needs some way to get to the enemy, and here it is. Once more by himself gets kind of a weak gap closer/escape. But with his ally they can go forward and wreck an enemy. Now this ability has had a few variations. At first I thought I could maybe have Valerius just force the ally to move, but that seems like it would be hell to the ally. Another was that he lays a pathway down on the ground and the ally can move to it and zoom from one end to the other. I eventually decided on basically the opposite of a Thresh E, with a much wider radius to draw to it. I hope this ability is fair. Because of the necessary coordination needed for two champions to work together I think it will give the enemy adc a chance to see it coming and maybe do something about it. It also seems to be a pretty good part of the combo with Valerius's passive. Basically, since the passive takes 2 seconds to take effect no matter what, Valerius and his ally need to be working together very well to set off a Q to start the mark, and then follow up with the E and the ally to attack at just the right time for the mark to take effect and the ally to deal damage at the moment the 2 seconds is up.
The R: Late game ranged ADCs are the high damage masters of the game. If Valerius is going to be viable he needs some method of getting his team to deal equivalent damage. On the whole, the initial spell is initially far weaker than a Vladimir ult, but covers more ground (maybe too much ground), and woo boy does it pay dividends if you get your team organized enough to use it right. That's what I think the commander champion should feel like. You're trying to set up situations for your team to win, and I hope this spell feels gets that feeling right.
Short Lore
"You followed me from the Serpent's Pass, and fought beside me to the very foot of our home. Follow me one last time, and this war will be over. One more battle and our glory will be eternal." -Valerius
The unbeaten commander of Targon, Valerius was born the illegitimate son of a Rakkor king and a Messali peasant. At first distrusted among the Messali and ridiculed among the Rakkor he toiled on the training grounds and with any book on war he could find to prove that he was worthy of being called his father's son. Though the king helped him, and used him as a page and later an advisor, it wasn't until after his father's death that Valerius gained command of the Rakkor armies and guided a defense of the mountain from an army of raiders.
Despite numerous challenges Valerius beat back any foe, all while using his prominence to solve the problems he saw among the various tribes of Targon. For decades he commanded united armies and advised numerous kings, until he saw his children killed upon the battlefield. Retreating to a life of study, Valerius let the people of Targon live in relative peace under the tentative balance of power he had created. Only now he has been called back to the field once more. The Elders of the Solari have been killed by a moon worshiping heretic, and the gods have returned to the mountain along with dragons from the stars. The world is in chaos, and many are looking to their old commander to once more bring order to Targon.
Quotes and Interactions: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/kTaJFAbZ-champion-concept-valerius-the-commander-of-targon?comment=0005
Long Lore and Color Lore starts here: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/kTaJFAbZ-champion-concept-valerius-the-commander-of-targon?comment=00050000
A bit of a warning, the Quotes and Lore I've taken an inspiration from the newer released or reworked champions, so it's a lot. The Long Lore is just shy of Azir's Long Lore in length, and the short story is long compared to everyone except Aurelion Sol's and Taliyah's shorts. Both of which blow his out of the water, but still, it's a long read. So please, tell me how this looks. Any advice and criticism is welcome.
CCOS Neighbor Stuff 1 http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/BXgZH8i8-rai-glimmer-of-the-calvary-champion-concept?comment=000a
Q&E combo pretty much. Huh. That's interesting.
