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Thoughts on Control-style marksmen?

Seiji34·2/26/2017, 8:22:12 PM·7 votes·724 views

What would people think about a control-style marksman that sets up abilities with auto-attacks to specific locations instead of enemies? I'm not really sure other people would call this a marksman as opposed to a fighter or control mage, but I would intend this as an alternative to more common bot-lane marksmen playstyles. For convenience, I will call my conceptual champion "U".

U would, like Kalista , have a persistent auto-attack mechanic, but would attack locations instead of enemies, dealing partial damage to enemies the projectile passed through on the way. When their auto-attack landed at the targeted location, it would mark the area for a duration (presumably a few seconds) and allow U to use other abilities. One ability would cause the marks to resonate with each other (as well as U), dealing AOE damage between nearby marks and between U and nearby marks. A second ability would create a barrier between nearby marks, preventing champions from passing through (or possibly stunning them for a short duration on contact). The third basic ability I'm not sure about, but it could be something like causing marks to erupt, dealing damage around them and removing the marks. The ultimate I think would deploy a circle of marks around an area (in range of each other for ability one and ability two) which could then be used for the other abilities, and would prevent marks from expiring for a duration unless U detonated them. Since U would want to move around to hit enemies while setting up marks, it would be nice to have something like Kalista 's leap mechanic, but I think that might impinge too much on her identity. Alternatively, the third ability might let U blink or dash to a mark within range (and remove it), but I feel like that's getting too much like a lot of assassins.

The overall idea is to reward careful set up in a way that most other marksmen don't and to give players options in a skirmish or dive (other than death, of course). For instance, between waves U could spend time setting up defensive marks in case of dives or ganks since the marks don't require minions or enemy champions to create, and in a teamfight U could set down an ultimate to either peel away the engagers and assassins or trap the enemy back line while laying down more marks for sustained damage. Skilled players would (I imagine, not being one of them) be able to make amazing plays in teamfights with careful mark and ultimate positioning, but less skilled players would have a tool to mitigate the occasional mistake and could still do decent damage with a few marks. I would expect U to work best with attack speed and on-hit builds for maximum markage or pass-through damage, though I suppose damage builds could work, and I would be very sure not to make U's passive interact with item 3085 .

I'm honestly not entirely sure on how auto-attacks would work, given that moving and attacking generally use the same key, and I was actually considering having U throw itself to the location of every auto at one point (Briefly! Very, very briefly), but decided that would be both too confusing and too rage-inducing for everyone involved and too risky/mobile for a "marksman".

So, thoughts? Interesting? Good/bad/cancer? Too similar to another champion for your taste? Auto-attack not-quite-a-mechanic too strange? Not a marksman? Admittedly, I'm not too sure about the marksman designation either, I just used it because I started from Kalista . And even marksman auto-attack range might be too short to place marks effectively, so I might be hoping for even longer range in exchange for even less projectile damage.

5 Comments

Zerenza2/27/2017, 5:58:10 AM2 votes

I imagine that they would end up as a Mid-Lane marksmen, we have a couple such as Corki and Varus(they are both better mid but lethality made them good bot lane again recently) but i'm fine with that to be honest. AD Mages don't really exist in league of legends because of how our AD works and it would be kind of cool, but with all "Control" champions they would have to be completely balanced around it and would need to have a few bad parts.

Marksmen for example, the traditional ones, scale hard into late, Control champions can't. Control champions have a tendency to dominate lane because they can control lane better and that means their meant to win lane/win mid game and end the game there. If you had a Control Marksman that would break the game, but an AD Control Mage would not because they would scale like a mage not a marksman.

A psuedo control mage is actually Illaoi, she's an AD caster and is a control Juggernaut, she has very clear area's where she's strong along with area's that she's weak in so we'll use her as a good example of what an AD Caster/ Control Mage should and shouldn't have.

In addition, i'd imagine setting up marks to be her Q, and you'd have to press Q to cause your next basic attack to set a mark, it wouldn't have a high cooldown but this way it's balanced and allows her to still attack move relatively well. I'd imagine it to have no cost either so something like this.

Q: Mark

Cooldown: 4 Seconds at all ranks. Forcing her to build like an AD Caster not a Marksmen for CDR this will also prevent her from abusing Runaan's Hurricane and other marksmen items because it would make her broken.

Tinia's next basic attack will instead target an area around her cursor and cause her to throw a sword at the location(an AD Caster that actually uses the swords she buys), dealing physical damage in the circle and creating a mark.

Marks last indefinitely but are consumed by most of her abilities(this is to allow her to have more overall damage and utility in her kit like a mage, if they last forever and didn't have a way to die on their own then she'd have to be balanced like Illaoi)

This way there is a clear window of power for her, a clear area of control and a clear indicator for where you can go.

I don't know what her passive would be but it would probably rotate through marks, causing her to manage her marks properly in order to control properly as well and give her the ability to re position her marks and make area's where she is strong to bait enemies in. (Ganking her would, in similar fashion to Illaoi and Heimerdinger be a not good idea due to her set up.)

For her ultimate(also no hops, no no no) she would probably make a mark become extremely large then be allowed to move it with say her W or E, and it would last a certain amount of time and deal signifigantly more damage than her normal marks would when using them with Q/W/E.

FlameHalbrdOkido2/26/2017, 8:53:33 PM1 votes

Cool. Like artillery

Ryuyah2/27/2017, 1:28:33 AM1 votes

Danmaku!

SEKAI2/27/2017, 8:50:56 AM1 votes

Riot is so fixated on the idea that "Marksman" have to be end-game right click wonders, so much so they make this champ class an actual damning mandatory role for some sodding reason (imagine "mage" being a ROLE in this game, they can't be serious), ideas like this won't come out anytime soon.

Which is a shame, a big shame.