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Hypothetical/theorycrafting question: A champion with no offensive abilities that scales off AD

Laurgon·1/17/2015, 10:02:26 PM·4 votes·1,335 views

I had a very nebulous idea for a champion awhile back — no flavor or character or anything yet, but something I thought was an interesting mechanical idea, though I'm not sure if it would work.

I was thinking, what if you had a champion — I assumed a support, though it could very well be some sort of utility marksman like Kalista — with a purely defensive kit? A shield, a heal (tentatively; see: nebulous), maybe a bit of CC and ally-buffing. No offensive abilities, BUT all their abilities scaled with AD instead of AP (I didn't consider things like bonus health or armor, but that could be interesting to play with).

It's entirely possible there's no way this would ever work. We've already seen how Riven's AD-scaling shield (among other things) has caused some balancing trouble. I know Leona's seen a bit of play here and there as a full tank with some AD mixed in, since her AP ratios are abysmal, but in this case I didn't have any real concept for if the character would be tanky, or an AD caster, or what.

Given how little detail I really have, people may not be able to have a solid discussion. But I'd love to hear any thoughts you might have, whether you think it's an interesting theory worth exploring further or that it's horribly broken and boring and that I'm a moron.

25 Comments

Zarxis3/4/2015, 9:09:10 PM2 votes

If said champion has CC/healing/etc. that scales off of AD, then that champion will build AD. If that champion builds AD, his/her autoattacks will also scale up in power, in addition to his/her abilities. He/she would require some fine tuning to keep her in line with our current roster of almost-entirely AP/tanky supports. I like the idea (would be nice to have conventional AD supports, instead of having to resort to AD support Ashe or support Jarvan), but, again, that champion would have a sort of innate advantage over our current supports.

CrazedPorcupine3/5/2015, 7:48:24 PM2 votes

I think in order for this to work, you'd need to have the passive end up being something along these lines:

For every 1 point of Bonus AD, AS decreases by 1% and for every 1% of AS, total AD goes down by 5%.

This would help limit them to building AD in order to enhance their abilities, without making them overbearing as an ADC.

I know riot doesn't like abilities/items/passives that actually gimp you, but in order for certain types of mechanics to work, that's what needs to happen.

coeurloyal1/19/2015, 10:23:34 AM1 votes

I don't think it would work because A) it sounds incredibly boring to play and B) aura skills are very toxic to league play according to Rito. It may be worth poking around the idea, but I would never want to play a champ without actives myself.

Hoffmisc1/19/2015, 8:56:37 PM1 votes

I don't really think it would work, every champion including supports have some form of damage in their abilities for a good reason. All champions should have a way to defend themselves, and while heals and shields are defensive they need to be able to get a kill, if a champion is mechanically incapable of killing an enemy (excluding auto attacks) then it would be incredibly unsatisfying to play.

Drukyul1/17/2015, 10:11:59 PM1 votes

Good luck coming up with a champ theme that justifies why the defensive abilities scale with AD as opposed to HP/Armor/MR/CDR/whatever while at the same time justifying the lack of offensive abilities.

DoFr1/28/2015, 11:31:03 PM1 votes

hmm...or something like damage reduction like urgot's passive? you know it could be a Tanky marksman, i would love such thing should be named "bla bla bla, the sentry guard"

JustMyBassCannon1/28/2015, 11:22:07 PM1 votes

Well, if none of the abilities are directly offensive, it would pretty much have to be either a tank or support. The problem, though, is that tanks would have to choose between their AD-scaling abilities or their defensive stats, and supports would have to choose between their AD-scaling abilities or utility items (most of which have AP or defensive stats).

Or, I suppose you could theoretically have the world's hardest-to-kill Marksman, or one of the only bruisers in the game that doesn't need to build defensive items.

acajub1/18/2015, 4:45:05 AM1 votes

An interesting idea. The champion would have some sustained damage from its basic attacks and likely some burst of healing or shielding in its abilities. Stat-wise I think it would be fine, if a bit hard to balance. It could probably be played as an adc, but more interestingly, it could be played as a support allowing for some interesting combinations in bot lane. I think the biggest problem would be making the champion fun. The abilities would have to be engaging at least. Of course, this is all assuming the champion is ranged. A melee attack damage champion without any burst damage would be hard pressed to find a roll as anything but a tank or off-tank.