[Champion Concept] Nezalon, the Archmage of Demacia

Greetings NA summoners!

I'd like to share the second idea regarding a champion. I hope you will like it and I'm waiting for your feedback!

:)

Champion Description

Nezalon is a mid/top lane AP carry whose damage is based on reactivating abilities. Most of his abilities are DoT, so his style is poking. His abilities deal moderate damage. That's why he can reactivate some abilities to maximize his damage. Reactivating abilities maybe sounds unfair but he only does it when he has a set amount of "Forgotten Sorcery" stacks and also consume a lot of Mana. More informations in the Abilities section.

Credits to Strumfojeth for all of his efforts and time spent improving the Lore :)

Lore

Many would be surprized to learn that Demacia's most prominent archmage, Nezalon, was in fact born in Noxus, in a family of loyal minor Noxian nobility. In that capacity the young Nezalon enjoyed a far better education than most of the kids his age recieved, but the more things he learned the less he appreciated his own position and the Noxian ruling class. Whenever he dwelved into matters of statecraft he found only oppresion and warmonging underneath the glorious words and vague promises of the Noxian rulers, so, year after year, he came to loath his own nation and wanted to find a way to either reform it or flee from it. 

Upon reaching adulthood, he had forsaken his dream of changing his countrymen for the best. In his opinion they were so set to their ways that any help from him would have been seen as the utmost treason, so he set in motion his plans of fleeing Noxus. His first step was to choose a quiet calling where he wouldn't be needed - or missed - by the Noxian warmonging machine, but at the same time it would provide him the excuse to further his knowledge and travel through the Noxian lands, so he enlisted to be a librarian.

A few years passed of slow endless hours and meticulous study in the sweet silence and isolation of the library and Nezalon was still bidding his time and slowly putting his escape plan to work when, one day, as he was cataloguing books, he heard a voice in his mind, coming from a bookself, saying : 

"Open the book of never-ending secrets"

Needless to say, Nezalon was stunned and afraid, but the voice echoed again in his mind, smooth and soothing, so curiocity overcame his fear and he stepped closer to the bookself. The voice was coming from a brown dusty tome titled "Endless toil, tales of insufficient power" which, according to his catalogues was just an obscure collection of mediocre adventures. He reached for the book and in his hands the illusion dissolved for his eyes alone, and the simple book transformed to a steel-bound tome with no title. Nezalon had heard of such artifacts, but had never believed them to be more than a myth. Magic tomes of power that chose who would read them ? Even in a land filled with magic, it was a bit too much to believe, yet here he had one in his hands. He was so eager to unravel the mystery that he immediately checked out the book and went home to study it. 

The wonders within proved to be beyond his imagination. The first thing the book did was to bestow him the ability to read the language of magic and for hours on end Nezalon read compelled by the magic to read through all the book at once. When he finished it, many hours later the book reverted to its original form and Nezalon, unable to sleep started reading the illusory novel and its tales. All of them were similar. Peasants and simple people that found powerful items and went on a rampage, or became tyrants or abused the magic and in they end they died realizing that all the magic power in the world was useless and insufficient to replace conventional wisdom and simple human feelings. The book was clearly giving him a warning, but why ? He had read through it all and while indeed the contents were wondrous, he now knew that they were just an elaborate introduction to magic. "Powerful artifacts could be vain" thought Nezalon and he went to sleep.

After the sun had dawned and a new day had started, Nezalon found that the book was back into its steel-bound form and while he had the weird feeling that he could remember all of the book's contents perfectly, he felt compelled to open the book again. Lo and behold his amazement was beyond words. New secrets were written in the book and everyday he was forced by the magic to read them all, for with the dawn the book in both its forms renewed its content ... 

New tales and secrets never-ending every day, power beyond imagination and sorrow beyond reason, combined ... and within all that, danger. Nezalon was engrossed with reading the book. Nothing else mattered even though he knew that such artifacts imposed a heavy price on their chosen users and soon he came to find out exactly what that price was. The book somehow knew which secrets survived in the world and which survived only in its pages and Nezalon could only use and speak of the former and leave the latter untouched. His frustration was immense. Such a deep lake of knowledge and he alone could drink from it while the dry and parched world around him couldn't ever touch one drop of it. So powerful was that despair that he almost went mad from it. What good was knowledge only for himself ? Why hoard knowledge and not share it or even use it ? Who created such a mad book in the first place and why ?

In the end, the answer was not in the steel-bound tome of magic secrets, but in the plain tales of simple men. He found out that even though he couldn't speak of the secrets, he could direct other people to gain knowledge of them. Set the course, but not give directions. Point the result, but never say the way. Change and create, but never say how. Knowledge, according to the book, was not an item to be shared freely, but a hill to climb for those that persevere. So, Nezalon had to become a magic overseer, but Noxus was the worst place for that kind of thing. Lucky for him, now he had both the power and the means to pursue his old dream of fleeing this land and maybe by helping others he could one day change his bleak homeland. So Nezalon set out for Demacia, the only land that he thought that would tolerate tinkering with the unknown magical forces that only he knew of. And in that belief he was not disappointed. Soon he was hailed as an archmage by his peers and he was given his own magical fortress filled with staff doing research. 

The book's purpose was being fulfilled and Nezalon was happy both with his new home and his profession, but one day he woke up to find that suddenly the book was empty of anything new. No more secrets would come forth from it and on the first page it read "With this you are the book and the book is you. Offer a new secret to the pages and you shall be free". The message was clear. He had to find a new secret to add to the book and, with trepidation, he finally understood that what he had been reading all this time was the life-work of countless others like him that spent their lives learning the book and then adding to it. Whoever thought of that book was cunning indeed and Nezalon wouldn't age nor die after reaching the final page. Only a new secret would give him freedom. But where to find one ? He alone knew more than any one alive could ever learn, or even dream, in several hundreds of lifespans. The only fountain of innovation and people mad enough to uncover new dangerous secrets equivalent to the book's that he could think of was "The League of Legends". So, just like the tales in the book, he joined the endless toil of the League in hope of unravelling some new powerful secret magic behind the other participants' powers ...

"No matter how much wise and powerful you are, achieving unlimited knowledge will always be an eternal quest for everyone..." -Nezalon

P.S.: Yes, I know RIOT is trying to avoid references to the League regarding Champion Lores, but this one is kinda old. However, I will change it in the future.

Friends

Enemies

Attributes

Primary role: Mage

Stats

• Damage: 46 (+2.7 / level) = 94.6 at level 18
• Health: 428 (+76 / level) = 1796 at level 18
• Mana: 315 (+45 / level) = 1125 at level 18
• Armor: 11 (+3.5 / level) = 74 at level 18
• Magic Resist: 30 (+0.0 / level) = 30 at level 18
• Health regen./5 sec: 4.8 (+0.6 / level) = 15.6 at level 18
• Mana regen./5 sec: 6.65 (+0.65 / level) = 18.35 at level 18
• Range: 550 (Ranged)
• Attack Speed: 0.625 (+1.8% / level) = 0.827 at level 18
• Movement Speed: 330

(The stats refer to level 0 champion)

Abilities

Passive: Rise of the Forgotten Sorcery

• Nezalon gains "Forgotten Sorcery" stacks from spells casted by him or by enemy champions

• Nezalon can consume these stacks in order to reactivate one of his abilities which is on cooldown (ultimate excluded), limited to a maximum of 2 reactivations per ability.
• Reactivations have 1 second delay after the normal one has been casted and 1 second cooldown after the first reactivation
• The first reactivation costs 50% additional Mana and the second costs 100% additional Mana. Max number of stacks: 10

2 stacks: Increases Reactivated Ability's (RA) damage by 5% and Nezalon gains 10% Spell Vamp for 4 seconds.

4 stacks: Increases RA's damage by 10% and restores 10% of Nezalon's missing Mana over 5 seconds.

7 stacks: Increases RA's damage by 15% and stuns enemies hit for 0.75 seconds.

10 stacks: Increases RA's damage by 20% and stuns enemies hit for 1 second.

Q: Curse of Weakness

Nezalon marks an area with magic. After a 0.5 second delay, enemies in the area are dealt 60/85/110/135/160 (+40% AP) magic damage over 4 seconds. If an enemy champion is hit by Curse of Weakness, they have their Attack Damage and Ability Power decreased by 18% for the duration.

Skill type: Targeted area Range: 850 AoE damage range: A circle with 250 diameter Cost: 40/50/60/70/80 Mana Cooldown: 4/4/4/4/4 seconds

W: Wrath of Earth

Nezalon opens Earth Chasms on the target area, dealing 40/50/60/70/80 (+20% AP) magic damage to all enemies inside the area. After a 2 second delay, flames come out from the chasms, dealing an additional 60/75/90/105/120 (+30% AP) magic damage to all enemies inside the area and slowing them by 20% for 1 second.

For the next 4 seconds, enemies in the area are dealt an additional 11/17/23/29/35 (+10% AP) magic damage each second.

Skill type: Targeted area Range: 725 AoE damage Range: A circle with 300 range Cost: 70/80/90/100/110 Mana Cooldown: 23/21/19/17/15 seconds

E: Fury of the Spirits

Nezalon summons 2 Spirits that move to the selected target. Each time a Spirit collides with an enemy unit, it deals 45/70/95/120/145 (+40% AP) magic damage to it, fearing it for 1 second and then, it vanishes. Enemies hit by both Spirits, take 60% damage from the second Spirit.

Enemy cast: If at least one of the Spirits reaches the target within 3 seconds, the target is dealt 50% more damage [67.5/105/142.5/180/217.5 > (+60% AP) magic damage] and becomes feared for 1.5 seconds.

Ally cast (but not Nezalon): If at least one of the Spirits reach the targeted ally, a protective shield is formed for 1.5 seconds it, that blocks the next enemy ability. The shield refreshes when the second Spirit manages to reach the targeted ally.

Skill type: Target select Range: 650 Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 Mana Cooldown: 17/16/15/14/13 seconds

R: Grace of the Ancient Ascendants

Upon activating, Nezalon gains max number (10) of "Forgotten Sorcery" stacks. Also he gains 50/75/100 additional AP for 6/8/10 seconds and can reactivate the next ability at no cost. Within the next 3/4/5 seconds, Nezalon can activate this ability one more time, losing the additional 50/75/100 AP and gaining 10/15/20% [(+10% AP)%] movement speed for 3 seconds.

Nezalon can't activate again this ability if he reactivated one of his primary abilities at no cost. This ability cannot be reactivated consuming stacks and additional Mana like Nezalon's primary abilities.

Skill type: Self-Cast/Buff Range: Self Cost: 100/100/100 Mana Cooldown: 100/90/80 seconds

Facts you need to know about Nezalon's abilities

In this section, I explain some things you should know about the abilities and also, the stacks' and Mana consumption to reactivate abilities.

Passive

• Stacks are granted from 1)Nezalon's spells and 2)enemy spells that occur within 750 range from Nezalon's position.
• Nezalon can reactivate each of his abilities up to 2 times, before the ability is ready for use again.
• He can reactivate each ability, after 1 second delay since the normal cast and 1 second cooldown after the first reactivation.
• You need 250% of the Mana cost that the normal ability has in order to do one reactivation and 450% of the Mana in order to do two reactivations. E.g.: Your level 5 Q's cost is 80 Mana. The first reactivation cost is 120 more Mana (150% of 80 is 120). The cost for a second reactivation is 160 more Mana (200% of 80 is 160). So, 1 reactivation requires (80 + 120 =)200 Mana (250%) and 2 reactivations require (80 + 120 + 160 =)360 Mana (450%).

Q

• Reactivating the ability by consuming 7 or 10 stacks, the enemies are only stunned once (when they are dealt damage for the first time)
• If the ability is reactivated, Attack Damage and Ability Power reductions don't stack with the reductions caused from the normal casted ability. Only the duration is refreshed.
• The damage from the reactivated ability stacks with, and not refresh the damage dealt by the normally casted ability.
• The target is getting debuff icons: A light brown icon for the normal casted ability, a dark red icon for the first reactivated ability and a dark purple for the second reactivated ability.

W

• Reactivating the ability by consuming 7 or 10 stacks, the enemies are only stunned once (taking damage from the delayed explosion) and cannot be stunned again by receiving damage from this ability.

E

• If the reactivation consumes 7 or 10 stacks, the enemies being passed through by the Spirits wont be feared but stunned. The target won't be feared but stunned as well.
• The selected enemy target is only dealt damage from this ability if at least one of the Spirits reach them.
• The Spirits disappear 3 seconds after the ability is activated or by colliding with enemy units.
• The Spirits are untargetable and have 400 (+ Nezalon's bonus movement speed) movement speed.

R

• If Nezalon reactivates one of his primary abilities, he can't reactivate R in order to gain the bonus movement speed
• This ability cannot be reactivated consuming stacks and additional Mana like Nezalon's primary abilities

Recommended Items

Starting

Essential

Offensive

Defensive

Consumables

Tips

• Mana is valuable for Nezalon. Reactivate abilities only when you are pretty sure they'll hit enemies.

• Buying Mana increase and Mana regeneration items such as Rod of Ages, Archangel's staff and Athene's Unholy Grail, really helps you with the reactivated abilities' increased Mana cost.

• When having 6 or 9 stacks, casting a normal ability and then reactivating it twice (with your R) can damage a lot an enemy.

• Use your E to protect one of your allies who is about to be hit by multiple spells.

Counter Tips

• Use your spells wisely in order not to give Nezalon the opportunity to make his reactivations more powerful.

• Don't stick with your team in one spot. A triple cast from Nezalon W can severely damage all of you.

• When the Spirits are after you, try not passing through your team, because the Spirits may not fear you, but they will fear your allies.

• Prepare for Nezalon to play offensively when he has activated his ultimate.

• Try to avoid all-ins while affected by Nezalon's curse (Q).

• Avoid standing inside Wrath of Earth's area in order not to receive more damage.

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