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Alcarus, Shard of the Void

RiotRiot Lutzburg·1/2/2015, 2:15:26 AM·5 votes·2,972 views

Role: Marksman

Inspiration: I wanted to create a marksman that is more ability-based, who uses skillshots to deal damage from incredibly long range. I also wanted to incorporate a new type of mechanic that allows a Champion to attack an in-game entity that they themselves instantiate into the world.

General Design Philosophy: Alcarus is designed to be a very long range, relatively safe marksman. He has no real escapes or crowd control (other than zone denial), so getting caught out of position is disastrous for him. His kit is relatively straight forward and simple save for one hallmark spell, which grants him the ability to fire auto attacks into a void tear that he summons onto the battlefield. These auto attacks charge the tear, which he can then fire in any direction as a powerful long range nuke. His entire kit is designed to syenrgize around this mechanic very heavily.

Risk Analysis: Low. Alcarus takes a new combination of existing mechanics and melds them together into a new kind of AD ranged caster/carry. His biggest challenge is actually in overcoming his similarities in appearance to Blight Crystal Varus.

Appearance: A male humanoid similar to the Cultist unit from Command and Conquer 3. Clearly infected from the Void, with crystallized/mineral-like formations growing all over his body. He fires shards/bolts of these crystals from small slits in the palms of his hands, Scorpion style.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/crystal-rourke-e1385600723923_zps280b8c00.jpg

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/KWCultist2_zps9b634975.jpg

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/12a95b48a40e2665x_zps708d496d.jpg

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/gem_monster_by_mooreartcn-d6qk58w_zps18e79428.jpg This "Gem Monster" is obviously more beastly and feral than Alcarus is intended to be, but the crystalized rock formations and general theme share strong ties to my vision for the Shard of the Void.

Lore: Alcarus was once a bright young student at Piltover’s finest school of physics and advanced sciences. During a foolish experiment gone awry in one of the school’s laboratories, Alcarus became exposed to a highly invasive strain of disease native to the Void itself. The foreign pathogens of this strange toxin corrupted Alcarus, transforming him into a crystal-encrusted form of humanoid rock and swirling Void Dust.

Expelled from school and exiled from Piltover for his innocent, if not a tad foolhardy experiment, Alcarus sought out the aid of Kassadin, who pitied the outcast and took him under his wing. As a brilliant student, it didn’t take Alcarus long to learn all that Kassadin had to teach him. Having mastered dominion over his strange new powers, and with no other allies or friends to pull him from the cynical and jaded impressions of Kassadin, Alcarus now fights for himself, using his Void powers for selfish and devious intentions, just as Kassadin taught him.

Joke: (When purchasing a Tear of the Goddess): “Ah, I finally got my Tear of the Goddess. … What? That’s what it’s called, right?”

Strengths: Can safely deal damage from long range, mix of AD and AP, passive sustain, high burst potential, scales well with attack speed

Weaknesses: No escapes, ability and skillshot dependent, no crowd control, mana reliant

Plays Most Like...: Varus Draven

Auto Attack: Alcarus fires a ranged shard/bolt of crystal fired from a slit in his palms. Subsequent auto attacks emerge from alternating hands.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_13959_pas_zps25696a53.jpg Passive - Void Link: Every 5th auto attack fired by Alcarus deals 35/50/65/80% bonus magic damage. This attack counts as six stacks of energy when fired into a Void Tear, instead of the usual three. Design Philosophy: This ability allows Alcarus to scale into late game with powerful mixed damage attacks. It also synergizes with the rest of his kit and creates interesting decision points- attack a target directly for bonus damage, or fill a Void Tear up faster to gain its effects?

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_14013_pas_zps8a79f973.jpg Q - Void Tear (6 sec): Alcarus creates a dimensional tear at a target location, dealing minor magic damage after a short delay. The Tear lasts 12 seconds. If Void Tear is cast again while another tear is active, the new one replaces it. This tear can be targeted by Alcarus’ auto attacks, which charge it. The tear can also be charged less so from Alcarus’ nearby auto attacks against other targets. Tears can hold up to 15 stacks of of energy. Attacking the Tear directly grants 3 stacks, while nearby attacks generate 1. Rank-ups lower the ability's cooldown and increase its magic damage. Design Philosophy: Void Tears are what Alcarus’ entire kit revolves around. They allow him to actively target something other than minions during a lull in lane harassment or aggression. This ability does very little in its own right, but is instead used as the first of a 1-2 punch when followed by Void Burst.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_12354_pas_zps607f33ce.jpg W - Void Burst (9 sec): Alcarus fires an energized beam from an active Void Tear (as a skillshot line nuke) which fires through targets, dealing physical damage based on how much energy the tear has stored and dealing less damage to each subsequent unit struck. Upon expelling this beam, the tear bursts, dealing minor magic damage to enemies around it. If no energy is stored, the tear explodes instantly. The skillshot component of the ability acts as an auto attack for the purposes of lifesteal and on-hit effects. This ability cannot be cast without an active Void Tear on the battlefield. Rank-ups increase damage done and lower cooldown. Design Philosophy: This ability synergizes with Alcarus’ Q. It creates a skillshot line similar to Morgana or Corki, only the skillshot’s point of origin is the active Void Tear. This creates a new type of skillshot similar to Lulu’s Glitterlance. The ability uses a ratio of Attack Damage instead of using a full set of auto attacks for obvious reasons; a skillshot that deals 8 auto attacks’s worth of damage at once is absurd. Applying on-hit effects promotes the building of items like Trinity Force and life steal, continuing the safe, poke-based harass of Alcarus. In addition, when on the run or when unable to charge tears, Alcarus can quickly use a Q/W combo to deal a decent amount of magic damage in a pinch.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_11229_pas_zps131a4a7d.jpg E - Power Surge (14 sec): Alcarus gains drastically increased movement and attack speed for the next 3 seconds. Additionally, Power Surge lowers Dimensional Overload’s Cooldown by 3 seconds on use. Rank-ups increase bonus movement and attack speed provided. Design Philosophy: This is the closest thing Alcarus has to an escape tool. The attack speed component synergizes with his Q, as it is likely that an Alcarus player wants to fill a Void Tear with auto attacks as quickly as possible. As the ability is otherwise lackluster, adding a passive cooldown reduction to his Ultimate helps boost the power of the spell without overpowering its primary function.

http://i1298.photobucket.com/albums/ag47/Lutzburg/icons_13987_btn_zps4248a2d8.jpg R - Dimensional Overload (24 sec): Alcarus instantly infuses an active Void Tear with full energy (15 stacks), which can immediately be expelled using Void Burst (that is to say, Void Burst's cooldown is reset to 0 when casting this ability). This ability cannot be cast without an active Void Tear on the battlefield. Casting this ability refreshes the duration of the active Void Tear. Rank-ups lower the ability’s cooldown. Design Philosophy: This is an incredibly simple but effective Ultimate, which either provides Alcarus with drastically increased burst potential during a stagnant team fight, or allows him to retain effectiveness during a very mobile one. Its cooldown is short as its sole functionality is to allow Alcarus to be effective at what he’s designed to do. This short cooldown is reduced further with the passive component of Power Surge.

If you liked this Champion, you can find over 70 more of my original concepts HERE!

12 Comments

Lysdexic11/2/2015, 10:29:14 PM1 votes

I like the void tear idea, though i think his kit plays out more like an auto attack reliant mage than an adc. Also, has very little counterplay. Could we introduce a mechanic where enemy champions can destroy the rift if they want? It would take maybe three hits from an enemy say? That might be a little bit extreme, but it gives the enemies a way to reduce some of his damage and there are ways around it, like say it grants vision of itself in bushes and you keep autoing it there where they cant see it and harass them if they try. Positioning with it would be a lot more key, giving it its well needed counterplay.

RiotRiot Lutzburg1/8/2015, 6:51:14 PM1 votes

Despite being the first champion on my concept list, Alcarus is pretty much the least viewed or discussed concept I have. Are names really that important?

FlameHalbrdOkido1/10/2015, 4:14:24 AM1 votes

really nice, i like him for obvious reasons (the Q), how close does he have to be to the Tear to activate W? Can The angle of the Tear's nuke be directed? I feel like his Ult is underpowered, i like its functionality, but it feels like a steroid ult that only augments 1 ability. I guess that it comes from his kit being entirely built around his Q. Still like him though.

Hardstuck G43/17/2015, 6:58:29 PM1 votes

This champion looks so good Lutz, really makes me think of a sort of Varus+Malzahar thing, where he drops his Q, then unleashes the combo that he needs. This really is insanely good. I really should've taken more time to look him over at first.

RiotRiot Lutzburg4/2/2015, 12:12:20 AM1 votes

The Void has been sharded into hundreds of different champion concepts... how can Alcarus stand out?

Earthlord Jazz4/28/2016, 8:07:45 PM1 votes

From what I read (and correct me if I’m wrong), you’re imagining Alcarus as a caster ADC that scales on attack speed rather than raw damage. This distinguishes him from other poke/artillery-centric champions such as Xerath and Varus . OK let’s dive in!

Passive (Void Link): Seems fair enough, a passive that emphasizes his rapid attack nature. I like how you allow it to interact with the void tear. I wanted to spice it up a little bit by giving the void tear instead some added effect, but since Alcarus is a rather complicated champion, there’s really no need fluff him up. Seems fair

Q (Void Tear): The bread of the kit (whereas the W is the butter). This is what makes Alcarus super unique and I like it. If you REALLY want to add some counterplay (which isn’t absolutely necessary cause the W is a slightly delayed skillshot a la Xerath), then you could make it so enemy auto-attacks cause disturbance within the Void tear (as most autoattacks are not composed of void material). Each auto attack could reduce the duration of the portal by 2 seconds, limiting its zoning potential. Everything else seems fine to me.

People could give the argument that Illaoi's tentacles can be interacted with and destroyed. Notice however that she spawns them without mana, they have infinite duration (if left alone), she can have multiple out at once, and tentacles that are crucial to her kit (her ultimate) are left invulneable and not available for interaction. Also, where's the counterplay in Azir's soldiers then?

As a side note, visuals would need to be implemented for when he’s only providing one stack for the portal. Wisps of energy from his auto attacks could be siphoned into the tear if he’s attacking a target near a tear

W (Void Burst): I was actually thinking for this ability that each stack could scale with his autoattacks (instead of giving this ability a normal base damage and scaling).

I know you don’t like numbers, but this is the only way I can describe it. At level 1, each stack would only convert 10% of the damage it would’ve inflicted to the target (30% per direct autoattack, 150% at 15 charges). Per rank in W, this would scale as so (per direct autoattack): 30%/35%/40%/45%/50%. This means that at max rank, a fully charged void tear would do 250% of a normal autoattack. Thus, there could be multiple ways to build Alcarus, either a rapidfire-esque build that allows one to stack a void tear quickly OR having a massive void burst that chunks for huge damage if you build straight up raw damage.

I dunno, just spitballing ideas...seems like he’d be tougher to balance if we did that though…

E (Power Surge): Giving attack speed and movement speed seems fine to me, synergizes with his playstyle and gives him a little breathing room. Honestly, reducing the cooldown of the ultimate by 3 seconds really isn’t that much (I’m still annoyed at how Riot gave Skarner that silly little shindig with crystallizing a unit reduces ultimate by an insignificant amount of seconds). Since power surge has a 14 second cooldown (not reduced per rank), it’s not really helping out Dimensional Overload as it already has a fairly short cooldown. I think it’d make more sense for, during the duration, allow all Void Bursts to give either bonus armor penetration, additional range, or having it deal magic or physical damage depending on whether the target has more armor or magic resist (this guy is supposed to be a hybrid adc)

R (Dimensional Overload): Looks perfect to me.

Item Interaction: item 3070: Hmm, not the right type of tear but I guess it'll do

Earthlord Jazz5/4/2016, 2:59:20 AM1 votes

With the name "Power surge", I would expect the ability to enhance some aspect of his kit. Perhaps when you use E, your next W would release a cone-like wave instead of a linear skillshot. (Think of the new champion Taliyah} E) For every champion that Alcarus hits, you gain additional attack speed and movement speed?

I dunno, will think more on it