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[Champion Concept] Xander, Rebel With a Vengance

ZGM Dazzling·9/2/2014, 1:55:46 AM·3 votes·1,322 views

Lore:

There are many stories about the summoners of the League of Legends and how they brought peace to Runeterra. Most would say they were a noble people that fought for peace and justice. Yet one person has experienced differently, and the Summoners have failed to shut out his voice of rebellion.

From the diary of Xander

    As history is told, the League of Legends has brought peace to Runeterra and continues to bring justice and perseverance to all who live there. But isn’t history always retold by the victors?

When I was just a young boy, I lived in a small peaceful village outside of Ionia called Esterlyn. My people were poor, but they were hard workers and always kept their spirits high. At the time, we were awestruck by summoners and great supporters of their cause. So much so, that when rumours reached our village that the summoners were taking powerless beings as slaves to build a great road that will be the main source of transport throughout Runeterra, most waved it aside as nonsensical propaganda. Yet, a few others who were wary about the rumours, fled their homes. At the time, we laughed and jeered at them, but now we envy them.

One day, I saw two cloaked figures making their way into our small village. Intrigued, I silently followed them as they walked into the village hall to meet with our leader. The three men walked into a small room and began to converse rather loudly. I peered through the room's only window and attempted to pick up as much of the conversation as possible. I heard little, but what I heard was shocking and sent laciniate shivers down my spine. “You see, this road…” I heard one cloaked figure say, “It will take a lot of…” he paused suspiciously, “ Workers… to complete. So you must understand why giving up your people as slaves is crucial.” So the rumours were true! “No, I can’t… I couldn't do this to them…” was the last thing I heard.

After waiting around for another 20 minutes for them to make their way out of the village hall, they finally emerged and made their way out of our village. I followed them until they reached the gate of our village when suddenly one of the Summoners spoke loudly to me without even looking in my direction. “It’s very rude to eavesdrop child,” he said menacingly. Stricken, I let out a small gasp that echoed in my ears. “Come here boy.” Obediently I walked up to the man. He stared at me from under his hood for a long second then suddenly without warning, he grabbed my arms and released power. Immense pain coursed through me but I did not scream, I could not scream. I just stood there for what felt like an eternity staring into his eyes allowing the overwhelming pain take control over my body and I could feel myself changing, I felt… powerful. The strange man looked frustrated as if he did not understand why I was not howling in pain. Looking back, I too still wonder why I had not been howling in pain. I warned the villagers of what I heard, though I did not speak of my interaction with the cloaked figures. Months passed since the meeting and there was no sign of the cloaked men. The villagers called me a fool, and sometimes completely ignored me. They would act like they couldn’t see me. (Little did I know they couldn’t!) The people of Esterlyn began to relax and so did I.

Sadly, this peace was not to be. A month later, half a year since the initial meeting, Summoners invaded our village, burning everything to the ground. They slaughtered anybody that fought against them and took the rest as slaves. One Summoner found me hiding behind a bale of hay. As he came forward, I drew a small kitchen knife. “You expect to kill me with that?” He laughed. The smile died on his face when, (to my surprise as much as his) the kitchen knife ignited in flames. Although the fire enveloped my hand I felt no pain, only a dull sensation of power being released from my body. I left his burnt body in the hay and ran off into the woods with a new purpose… to fight against the League of Legends. Now, I have set up many rebel camps around Runeterra, and with the help of my fellow rebels, we continue to grow in numbers and strength as the days pass. Each and every one of us rebels have experienced pain and torture at the hands of the Summoners and together we are all united for the same single cause. To bring the League of Legends to its knees.

Recently I have struck a deal with the Summoners. I will fight in the League of Legends representing the rebels, but if I win... I can destroy it…

“Controlling my thirst for revenge is like controlling my powers… impossible.” -- Xander

Kit:

Xander, Rebel with a Vengeance Attributes: Support, Assassin

Passive: Silent But Violent

Xander can cast abilities while stealthed without breaking it. If Xander casts an ability while stealthed, he instead blinks into view for 0.5 seconds then continues stealth for 1 second longer than the original duration. (This can stack)

Q: Shadows Embrace

Xander stealths himself or an allied champion for 3 seconds or until they attack or cast an ability. (The cooldown of Shadows Embrace is reduced to 4 seconds if cast on an allied champion other than Xander. This effect can only happen once every 20 seconds on the same target ally.)

Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 mana, Cooldown: 30/28/26/24/22, Range: 750

W: Childhood Scars

Xander’s childhood scars glow as he controls the powers that were accidentally given to him as a child. He deals 80/105/130/155/180 (+0.8 AP) magic damage and slows all enemies around him by 30/35/40/45/50% for 2 seconds. If Xander is stealthed while casting Childhood Scars he snares all enemies hit for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds, then applies the slow for the same duration. The cooldown of Childhood Scars is reduced by 1 second for every enemy champion hit and it deals 50% damage to minions and monsters.

Cost: 55/50/45/40/35 mana, Cooldown: 14/12/10/8/6, Range: 450

E: Offensive Flames/Protective Flames

Toggle: Offensive Flames: Active: While in combat, Xander can give an allied champion bonus AD equal to 21/27/33/39/46 (+0.1 AP) for 4 seconds. Toggle: Protective Flames: Active: While in combat, Xander can give and allied champion bonus magic resist equal to 17/19/21/23/25 (+0.1 AP) and bonus armor equal to 17/19/21/23/25 (+0.1 AD) for 4 seconds. (Toggle only available while out of combat)

Cost: 30/45/60/75/90 mana, Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11, Range: 600

R: Unsuspected Assailant

Active: Xander’s next basic attack suppresses an enemy champion for up to 2.5 seconds and deals 150/180/210 (+1.5 Bonus AD) physical damage and 17/22/27 (+1 per 15 AP) magic damage and 200% of all incoming damage he takes every 0.5 seconds over the duration. Reactivating Unsuspected Assailant prematurely will interrupt it and Xander cannot attack, move, or cast abilities during the duration. Xander turns half of himself into fire taking 50% reduced incoming damage while suppressing his target and is immune to all crowd control effects. (Xander can only cast this ability while stealthed) Passive: Xander gains 20/30/40% bonus movement speed and ignores unit collision for 3 seconds after casting an ability

Cost: 80/90/100 mana, Cooldown: 115/100/85, Range: Self

Stats

Health : 410 (+78) HP/5 : 5.5 (+0.55) Mana : 250 (+53) MP/5 : 7 (0.6) Attack Damage : 48 (+3.2) Attack Speed : 0.658 (+2.75%) Armor: 21 (+3.5) Magic Resist : 30 (+1.25) Range : 125 Mov. Speed : 350

Quotes and interactions

Upon Selection

"I obey you now Summoner, but soon you will obey me. "

Walking

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, my village for... the league."

"I help you now, you join my rebellion. Simple"

Taunt

[Ignites his knife on fire and menacingly tosses it back and forth] "You know, I used to think people ran away from me because I was ugly." [Laughs]

"A wise man once said, It is impossible to attack that which you cannot see... me!"

Joke

[Sets himself on fire] "What will it take for me to holler in pain!"

Interactions

Vayne

"Vayne, those who killed your family, perhaps they were summoners?"

Sivir

"I know you will help me Sivir, for a fair price."

TwistedFate

"Perhaps we are not so different Twisted Fate, join my rebellion!"

Recommended Items

Starting

item 3301 item 2003 item 2044 item 3341

Essential

item 3009 item 2045 item 3069

Offensive Items

item 3025 item 3100 item 3124

Defensive Items

item 3022 item 3023 item 3050

Champion Insights

Xander is a squishy but bursty melee support that excels at catching champions out of position and setting up easy kills for the team. In teamfights he can impede the entire frontline of a team and completely shut down a priority target, but with bad timing, he can end up on a suicide mission instead of a game changing play.

Bot Lane

In lane, Xander applies a lot of kill pressure, constantly on the lookout for opportunities to engage on the enemy duo. What he lacks in poke pressure and sustain, he makes up for in his powerful laning phase skirmishes were he can help his marksman burst down the opposition. While his marksman is farming, Xander is best staying out of combat and hiding in the fog of war or behind his marksman where he can toggle between Offensive Flames and Protective Flames freely. Xander alone cannot burst down targets because of his lack of follow up damage but with allies in the right positions he can set up picks in and out of lane. After initiated and snaring his enemies, Xander has to slip away quickly with his passive speed boost from Unsuspected Assailant so that he does not get bursted down quickly. Shadows Embrace has a very long cooldown and Xander is very vulnerable when it is not up. When Xander hits level six, he and his marksman have two choices. They can either push out their lane with even more kill pressure, or they can roam and look for easy picks. Either way, Xander's ultimate Unsuspected Assailant ramps up his already high kill pressure making him even more effective while near allies.

Teamfights

The more allies near Xander, the more effective he becomes. In small-scale skirmishes, he can suppress high damage dealing carries or snare mobile fighters and assassins. During larger scale teamfighs, Xander begins to rely heavily on decision making.

Before a teamfight brakes out, Xander has to position himself well and decide how he and his teammates are going to play it out. Xander must choose between Protective Flames or Defensive Flames before the fight emphasizing decision making as a key aspect of his kit. Will he focus on beefing up the frontline tanks or will he give his damage dealers more burst. Or even, will he use Protective Flames on himself to make sure he can get out safely after throwing himself into a team fight or will he give himself more attack damage to help burst down priority targets. When Xander jumps into a teamfight, he has two goals. 1. Impede the enemy frontline, and 2. Suppress a priority target in the enemy back line. There many things to consider while making this decision such as were the fight is taking place and were the back line is positioned.

Xander's kit revolves around decision making and wether he makes good or bad decisions separates the average Xanders from the master Xanders.

Synergy

Xander works well with:

Draven Draven

Although Draven has no stealthing abilities to combo with Xander's playmaking, Xander brings the only thing he lacks in a 2v2 skirmish which is hard Crowd Control. His burst with the bonus AD from Offensive Flames and the threat of Xander popping up behind them forces the opposing duo to either hide under turret or get killed.

Tristana Tristana

Xander's kit effectively compliments Tristana's bursty dueling potential with his playmaking stealth and pick potential. Also, Tristana's large gap closer allows her to farm casually as if nothing special is going on while Xander makes his way towards the enemy duo then engage on them quickly to burst them down.

Twitch Twitch

Very much like Xander, Twitch relies on getting picks with his stealth. The only thing Twitch really needs in these circumstances is crowd control. Usually when the opponents see other supports with crowd control begin to engage alone, they suspect that Twitch is waiting to appear from his stealth and back off. Xander can stealth with Twitch terrorizing their opponents all game.

Xander Struggles Against:

Alistar Alistar

Alistar's kit is a perfect counter towards Xander. He has a lot of hard crowd control and can use it to knock away Xander if he blinks into veiw or keep him trapped when he tries to hit his snare. Alistar has great disengage witch is a direct counter to Xander because Xander's biggest role is setting up kills.

Janna Janna

Janna, like Alistar, has a great disengage and a lot of crowd control. If Xander dives in on Janna and her support, she can quickly shut the opposing duo down with her hard crowd control and if needed can pop her ultimate for a more desperate disengage.

Quinn Quinn

A reoccurring theme between all of Xander's counters is disengage. Quinn has a solid disengage that she can use then burst Xander down. Also, with her W Heightened Senses, she can check the brush to see if Xander is on the move and making an attempt to engage on her.

My Thoughts:

While making Xander's kit, I was greatly influenced by the release notes of Braum's reveal. I was not necessarily influenced by the champion Braum or his mechanics, but by what RiotWrekz said about the role of Braum. He said that Braum filled a specific gap in the League of Legends champion pool because he is the only support who supports by being a tank. I really liked this phrase because instead of just adding on a heal to a champion's kit and giving it the secondary as support (like Nidalee), Braum was designed to really support his team by tanking for them. So I thought to myself, how could i make a champion that supports by being an assassin? Well the first thing I had to keep in mind is that no matter what, my champion has to support his team by assassinating the other team. Now, this sounds very complicated because your champion can't really be a support if its assassinating enemies! With regard to that statement, I designed Xander to effectively shut down enemies out of position without taking the kill. Xander applies the crowd control many assassins lack when picking of out of position targets while still having a sneaky engage so that he doesn't scare off the opponent which many supports lack. Unlike any other support, he can position himself very well in teamfights to land his crowd control on priority back line targets rather than only the frontline ones. Xander gives an entirely new take on supporting because you can support your team but still feel like you are making game changing plays and setting up picks. Xander is very fun to play, especially for people that do not enjoy supporting, and he can really be played in so many different ways. His distinct emphasis on decision making means that he will never be played the same way twice. Every player that uses Xander will make their own decisions and therefore have their own style of play. All of these things gives Xander a distinct role in the League of Legend's champion pool that no other champion can match.

Animations and Splash Art

General Appearance

The most distinct part about Xander's appearance is the scars on his arms. They look like handprints with zigzagging lines jutting out of them as if they were cracks in a wall. They have a dull red glow when he is out of combat but when he enters combat they grow brighter. (Also helps players know when they can toggle between Protective Flames and Defensive Flames) Xander wears a simple brown sleeveless top and baggy navy green pants. He has a few piercings on his left ear and a medium sized mohawk with red tips. (To emphasize his relationship with fire.) He carries a small knife in his left hand.

SplashArt

I'm sorry I have no actual splash art but I am seriously not an artist. I tried drawing him and he ended up looking like Sion. :P All jokes aside here is how I pictured his splash art.

It is dark outside but their is enough light shining from the moon. You see a frontal view of Xander as he's leaning against a tree. Half of his body you see normally while the other half is an outline of his body made of fire. He has a small knife in his teeth and his scars are glowing on his left arm.

Ability Animations

Q: Shadows Embrace A cylinder of fire whips around the target champion leaving nothing as it passes. (Imagine a revolving door)

W: Childhood Scars After a really short cast time of 0.4 seconds where Xander brings down fire from the sky, he send it outwards in all directions by waving his arms outwards. The snare would be a cylinder of fire blocking any escape.

E: Toggle: Protective Flames A dull transparent flaming shield floats directly in front of target ally.

E: Toggle: Offensive Flames Target champions weapons/hands ignite on fire.

R: Unsuspected Assailant Xander stabs target enemy then slowly sends fire down his attacking arm into the enemy leaving them in so much pain they can't move... or scream. (Remember thats how the summoner tortured him as a child.) Also, half of his body is made of fire.

Doom Mode

If Xander was a doom bot...

Shadows Embrace would Stealth him and all nearby minions for triple duration.

Childhood Scars would have triple the range.

Offensive Flames/Protective Flames would both be applied to all allies at once.

Unsuspected Assailant would duplicate Xander and suppress multiple enemies at once

Final Words

Before you hate on the lore, please read this comment I posted:

About the lore, I wanted to give a new perspective on the league of legends, but also, if you noticed at the top it said: "From the diary of Xander." This means that what is written down is not cold hard facts necessarily. Perhaps the cloaked figures were not summoners after all? Perhaps Xander made this story up for propaganda? Or maybe Xander is exaggerating the facts and it was only an accident. Or, hes telling the truth and there were at on point a few select "bad" summoners. (Trolls, afks, intentional feeders... haha jk) Its up to the reader to decide :) Truthfully I just wanted to give the story about the league of legends a twist.

Also, Xanders Ult might seam overpower but... (creds to Echoing)

In a teamfight, suppressing someone as a squishy support just gets you killed. Malzahar and Urgot suppress from afar to avoid getting wrecked, while Warwick is constantly healing while attached. You have no such safeguard to keep you from dying and turning the fight into a 4v5.

My goal at making Xander's ult was to allow him to shut down a priority target that would otherwise be hard to reach with other champions without actually killing it. This gives a supporty and assasiny feeling which is what I am targeting in Xander's kit.

I worked really hard on this so I hope you enjoyed reading it! I love champion concepting and I think it is great that this contest is taking place. Please leave a coment and tell me what you think. Criticism, Compliments, Concerns, or general thoughts are all welcome! :)

11 Comments

dialMARK4acti0n9/3/2014, 11:46:38 AM3 votes

I love the idea of a support assassin! And I think that's what you went for.

I love the way he villanizes summoners and wants to take over the League, but... wouldn't the summoners just kill him whenever he does one of those special interactions?

Also, I loved how well he's lore was written, but him being a support assassin and wanting to create a rebellion against the League doesn't make sense to me personally.

I love what you're going for and I really enjoyed reading is lore! Good job on the details ;)

Angry Monster9/2/2014, 9:22:06 PM2 votes

I can tell you tried very hard with this creation but i have some concerns about the lore and kit.

Lore- You made summoners the players villains. So you have completely changed the story of the game. The summoners are agents for other countries using champions to push for their cause. Everyone is supposed to know what happens on the rift.

Kit-

The kit is almost at war with itself. You list that this is supposed to be an assassin but half the abilities can not even be used on one self. The "E" is a toggle out side of combat which ruins the usefulness of a toggle and since it is a toggle you can not choose who you are buffing. You will never have the power to actually kill someone.

ModEchoing9/2/2014, 3:19:57 AM1 votes

Well, it's a lot of detail. I'll give you that.

The lore is an absolute mess. It demonizes summoners (psst, that's you as a player) unnecessarily and creates massive Fridge Logic in why Xander would even be around. Why don't you just shoot him?

The passive presents a lot of invisible power that isn't really appreciated. It's also scaling-for-the-sake-of-scaling, as ignoring 5% armor early on is not the same as ignoring 12% armor later on when armor values have grown larger. Its complete ridiculousness with Vayne and Twitch really does not help its case at all. If you were really committed to the passive for some reason, it would be best to fix it at one value, not make it scale with level, and ditch the +stealth bonus, but I'm of the opinion it's a Bad Idea.

The Q is a Very Bad Idea. For starters, your playmaking without extreme coordination is gimped heavily when using your Q on allies. 1.5 seconds of stealth with no heads-up is a perfect time for your ally to do something - anything - that breaks stealth right away. Success - your Q is now on cooldown. Your Q is also required to make full use of your W and to be able to use your R at all. Allied stealth is already a pain to balance, but in this form, it's almost completely useless. The best you can do is toss out your Q to make someone dodge a few attacks at the cost of making yourself irrelevant.

The W is either really bad or completely overpowered depending on whether you used Q on yourself. Without Q, getting within range without anything to help you avoid getting torn apart isn't happening. With Q, it's the single longest AoE CC, which is not terribly healthy, not fun, and contradictory to supporting.

The E is troublesome. Protective Flames is alright but forgettable, while Offensive Flames is horrible early on and completely out of hand at late game. Both of them are outdone by Janna's shield, which seems really bad for an ability that only does one at a time.

The R is bad. There's no other way to put it. A suppression doesn't really work when you have nothing to gain from it, as your kit is super-specialized at supporting but not at face-melting. Worse, as a prereq, you need to use your Q to use the ability, but you have to use your Q to get the best use out of your W. This creates a horrible feeling where no matter what you do, it is literally impossible to hit the best-case use scenario. In a teamfight, suppressing someone as a squishy support just gets you killed. Malzahar and Urgot suppress from afar to avoid getting wrecked, while Warwick is constantly healing while attached. You have no such safeguard to keep you from dying and turning the fight into a 4v5.

As a support, this champion cannot compete. Your kit is constantly at war with itself with too many decisions, all of which give up something way too important. Your dearth of crowd control is especially painful. As an assassin, this champion gets outdueled by nearly every other champion because of the contradictory kit. Pre-6, there's no realistic way to actually single out and kill someone. Post-6, you have to jump low-HP targets due to your lack of burst damage.

The champion as a whole just isn't viable. You'd need to change and rework so much that it wouldn't be the same champion in anything but name. The lore makes an unnecessary and uncharacteristic villain, the kit can't quite agree what's the best move in any situation, and competitors for the position just do what he's supposed to do better. I do hold out hope, though, that since you were willing to sink so much work into this, you'll keep on going the extra mile and create a masterpiece.

Destínum9/3/2014, 8:59:55 PM1 votes

It's pretty funny, because my concept is also a support/assassin and the two even have similar names. x)

Anyways, Echoing's post sums up my opinion pretty well. The concept has potential (a stealthy support is something I've always wanted to see :3) but isn't quite there yet. The ultimate in particular seems problematic. As it is right now, there is literally zero counterplay to it. It's a suppression, so it can't be cleansed. Xander is immune to cc while channeling it, so you can't interrupt it. He also takes a lot of reduced damage for it's duration, so you can't even kill him to stop it (attacking him even makes it more powerful).