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Arzo, Burning Blades [A Melee Bot Lane Carry Concept]

Mãge·10/7/2016, 7:02:44 PM·77 votes·9,326 views

Hello League! It’s been a very long time since I’ve posted a champion concept related to melee carries. In between the time of my last post on this subject and now, I’ve learned a lot of things about League of Legends that have influenced the way I think about the game overall. The game’s been evolving, and I’ve been evolving with it. That being said, I think this time I’ve hit the mark spot on with this concept. Arzo is a swordsman who wields two burning swords. He is designed to play in a duo lane as a melee attack damage carry. Yes, you heard that correctly. He will effectively function in a similar fashion to the way a marksman functions, and will actually work as a replacement to a marksman in the bot lane. As a melee carry, he will have the tools with which to succeed as a marksman substitute. Below is an image I borrowed from google images shamelessly (credits to the author/owner: http://joshcorpuz85.deviantart.com/ seriously, I am NOT an artist and I do NOT own this picture) that could give you an idea of what he'd look like in game. Absolutely hope you enjoy.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KAZSN17wIms/VOc8s0Kag5I/AAAAAAAAVpc/IyrQAr6zu30/w800-h800/Beacon%2B-%2BThe%2BFencer_Red%2BDuel%2BSwordsman%2Bby%2BJoshCorpuz85.jpg

Arzo, Burning Blades

Arzo is a melee attack damage carry who works best when paired with an ally. In order to compete with ranged carries who would otherwise win every trade against him simply because of their extra attack distance, Arzo has developed a swordsmanship technique that would make the Wuju bladesman supremely jealous.

Extinguisher (Passive): Damaging abilities apply Soul Flame to enemy champions for a short duration. Clicking to attack a target afflicted with Soul Flame causes Arzo to turn into an untargetable flame as he dashes behind the target. Upon arrival, he extinguishes the soul flame and reduces the target’s bonus armor for a duration.

Arzo’s passive is Extinguisher. It applies a debuff that lets him dash, untargetably, towards an enemy champion from afar whenever he damages them with one of his damaging skillshot abilities. Because there’s no cooldown on this passive, Arzo can potentially dash back and forth between enemy champions repeatedly as long as they have soul flame applied, dealing one basic attack’s worth of damage each time. In teamfights, this passive will be Arzo’s primary method of closing the gap, staying alive, and avoiding disables.

Ring of Fire (Q): Arzo slashes the air with his right hand sword, projecting a thin ring fire outwards in a line that deals damage to all enemies hit.

Arzo’s Q ability works like Zyra’s E – he aims in a target direction and sends out a skillshot that damages enemies in the flame’s path. It has a low cooldown, but also a thin width (think Nidalee Q), so he’ll have to aim carefully. In lane, this is how he’ll earn last hits from a safe distance, not so much unlike his ranged opponents.

Nova Strikes (W): Arzo boosts his attack and movement speeds. If he lands three consecutive attacks on a target during this time, the target becomes afflicted with Nova for 2 seconds. When Nova expires, the target explodes, sending out five fireballs in random directions. The fireballs deal damage, but the explosion itself does not.

Nova Strikes is Arzo’s steroid ability and secondary survival ability. If he pulls it off correctly, his target will explode and send fireballs flying outwards, which may hit other enemy champions. Once an enemy champion is hit by a fireball, it will be debuffed by Soul Flame, allowing Arzo to dash towards it (and potentially avoid being hit by an ability in the process).

Sweltering Cross (E): Arzo dashes while slashing in a target direction, dealing damage and heavily reducing the attack damage of enemies struck for 3 seconds.

Leveraging Sweltering Cross, Arzo can accomplishes a variety of different tasks. In lane trade situations, Arzo can use this damaging dash ability to lower his opponents’ ability to trade back effectively while keeping up. In disengage situations, Arzo can combine this with his W to create distance from his foes. Finally, in teamfight situations this ability is important both as a mobility spell and a means of survival – he needs it to survive encounters with attack-damage based assassins who would otherwise burst him down too quickly as he slashes them for a little bit of DPS.

Sacrificial Flame (R): Arzo turns into a flame, becoming untargetable and invulnerable for 2 seconds (he can't attack, move, use items, use abilities, or cast spells). During this time, Arzo can click on an ally within range to dash towards them. Enemies in the way of Arzo as he dashes are dealt damage based on their missing health. While dashing, Arzo remains untargetable and invulnerable.

Arzo’s trump card and finisher ability. It functions as a pseudo Zhonya’s Hourglass, keeping him alive in situations where a regular melee champion would instantly be burst down and destroyed. If he plays perfectly in sync with his ally, he can also use it as a finisher and escape – dive the enemy duo bot until they’re low enough to be killed by the ability and then dash towards his ally for a perfect double kill and simultaneous escape from the last turret shot that would otherwise shut him down.

Summary

  • Arzo relies heavily on his damaging abilities, all of which are dodgeable, to enable him to perform a flaming dance back and forth at his opponents in order to stay alive while dealing DPS with his melee basic attacks. He's a melee "marksman" in a sense - he lacks the burst damage of assassins and the sieging power of ranged marksmen, instead trading those for better DPS and survivability while being positioned directly in the middle of combat. Unlike assassins, he can stall for time by dancing back and forth admist his opponents as he waits for his allies to grant him an escape route with his ultimate, or for his allies to disable and single out a target for him to DPS down.

TL;DR

  • Please check it out if you have time. It's the best melee carry concept I've come up with to date.
  • Champion is a melee attack damage carry that can replace a marksman at bot.
  • Passive lets him dash to targets while being untargetable (deals the damage of a single basic attack).
  • Q is skillshot that applies passive.
  • W is steroid.
  • E is dash.
  • R is pseudo Zhonya's for survivability.
  • Champion deals DPS in tiny bursts, doesn't really deal burst damage like an assassin, but can survive hazardous situations.

Note to Arzo solo laners: If you build him tanky, he will deal as much damage as a marksman that's built tanky. He is balanced like a marksman - he functions as a substitute for a marksman, so feel free!

Yours very truly, Cardi

79 Comments

CrimsonXShadow10/7/2016, 8:28:22 PM11 votes

Like the comment above says,for something supposed to be a marksman replacement,he has quite too much mobility.Something like a Kayle e would work more ,he increases range and his atacks cleave the enemies around his target too (think about it like having his atacks deal dmg to all enemis in a cone but apply effects on hit only on the main target).That would allow him to have windows of power to atack from partial safety (he will still have a low range for a "marksman") and would work with his concept,but that's just my idea.Still waiting for riot to make a Genji like character (a hero from overwatch who can atack with ranged shurikens normally but his ult makes him melee and empowers his dmg and one of his abilities for those who don't know) which i consider to be quite a good character since his ult exposes him to dmg but still is viable to pick if learned as he can obliterate teams.

Scoroct10/7/2016, 9:05:35 PM6 votes

Hello I really like the idea of the champ and figured I'd offer my opinions on his kit. Particularly I like the concept of his passive and W.

Passive: the passive is really awesome idea. It takes setup and it is telegraphed that he can dash to you. However, why make him invulnerable during the dash? By doing so it effectively turns the dash into simply a delayed blink with a fancy animation. Also that is a lot of power and combined with his W could cause a lot of potential invulnerabilty in a teamfight especially when combined with his ult.

Q: Its simple but effective and I like it! Allows the unlocking of passive and the ability to CS at some range.

W: Any melee carry will need an attack steroid of some kind and the movement helps with this role a lot. The fact that it also has the 3hit explosion that has to be earned is really nice as it allows the ability to use his passive more in teamfights but takes time to pull off. Not sure I like that the fireballs are RNG based since losing or winning because of RNG can feel pretty bad but depending on how its handled it could maybe work

E: the concept of E is fine but it seems out of place on a melee carry intended for bot lane. A dash that does dmg and lowers the enemy AD sounds more like a top laner ability for dueling. You say its to help vs AD assasins but why focus on AD assasins? They already have to deal with all the armor super tanks and other things making life hell for them and if this stayed the enemy could easily just pick LB or Fizz and kill him. Not a bad ability but it seems odd for this champions kit and considering his already massive amount of mobility. If he also got a freely tageted dash his mobility will be among the highest in the enitire game if not the highest.

R: The R is both really really cool but its also a bit too much in one ability imo. The fact that he can enter a stasis to survive is cool and is the type of situational defense tool a melee carry will need. I also really like the idea of being able to dash to an ally and do execute dmg. It promotes the teamwork idea and the desire for a support. It also is a cool mechanic that rewards maybe a duo or premade from making good use of positioning. A dash and invulnerabilty in the same ability though is quite a lot to take in. Also, you don't mention it but I am going to assume he cannot move besides the dash during this cause otherwise the abilty is fairly bonkers. Also, as a question if he dashes does he remain invulnerable still if there is time left? This is very awkward for the player.

Effectiveness and Suggestions: The champion as is would definetely be able to be a melee carry assuming numbers are at least decent. He has a ton of dashes, invulnerability, and an attack steroid. His passive and the way it interacts and rewards good Qs and Ws is very cool and sounds very rewarding and offers a nice skill cap. Does he dash in? When does he dash in? Can he land his skillshots on the right people? All good things. However I do not think I would make it an invulnerable dash. For one that is sort of Master Yi's identity and it is a lot of potential moments of invlunerabilty that would be hard to balance and super frustrating to the enemy. A normal dash would be good, and then it also doesn't hurt the few anti dash abilities we have (poppy W, Taliyah W) allowing for interesting counterpicks. I already mention I am ambivalent about the W fireballs being random but otherwise I really like this ability and how it lets him get his passive off.

My largest suggestions come for the E and the R. For one, E is just an excessive amount of mobility on a champion that already has the ability to dash to enemies, allies, movespeed boosts, and invulnerability with R. Also R is a very very powerful and complicated abilty that gives a really awesome mechanic (dashing to allies and dealing execute dmg to those along the way). I would suggest making E be the ability that lets you dash to allies and deal execute dmg. I would probably only allow dashing to allied champions. This also makes him make more sense in the bot lane since he has reasons pre 6 to need a support/teammate. The R would then be a simple stasis sort of spell BUT it can be ended early by dashing to someone marked with his passive OR to an ally using his E. Also this dash could probably be invulnerable since that is the whole point of this ultimate.

Regardless of whether you like any of these want you to know I really like your idea and see a ton of potential in it! also I would give a website to see more of the original artist's work if I was you since its very nice for them and also nice for those who want to find more of it. Also almost forgot, great ability names!

TLDR: Passive is cool but lose invulnerability, Q and W are amazing especially combined with passive though W RNG is a bit odd. I suggest making E be dash to allies spell that does execute dmg, I suggest making R just a stasis that lets you end it early by using passive or E dash and said dash is also invulnerable.

Chad Te Employee10/7/2016, 9:03:15 PM5 votes

What's more annoying then a yasuo with .1 cd dashes and a minion wave? a guy with a minion wave who can dash quickly whilst being untargetable

DeathBot66610/7/2016, 8:46:05 PM3 votes

My problem is his Q with passive. He literally just has to shoot it at a wave and champion, passive to the champ, E for the reduced damage, AA, and then passive one of the melee minions his Q his for a virtually free trade. I feel like his passive would have to be more like diana's q-ult combo, where if you use it once it disappears from all affected enemies.

GerAvos10/7/2016, 7:50:22 PM3 votes

The E really shouldn't be a dash. He already has his great passive for mobility and ultimate for safety. The dash on E is overkill. Pls change to something new.

FaithfuI10/7/2016, 9:08:23 PM2 votes

Dayum, this sounds interesting, I would like to see this in play :) rito pls :)

Ripikou10/8/2016, 8:15:52 PM2 votes

Would a melee bot lane work in this meta? Or is he going to be so good he evolves it?

Kayge10/9/2016, 2:45:26 AM2 votes

Dont have much to critique on this concept. As an ADC main I think this champ would be frikin amazing to play as, and I love the concept :D

NodaYame12710/7/2016, 8:42:28 PM2 votes

Such edge

Blàdedancer10/7/2016, 9:44:41 PM2 votes

OMG this is so cool. I can totally imagine all the plays you can make with his passive and ult.

Statikin10/8/2016, 7:49:07 AM2 votes

Wow... This got a lot of visibility compared to many other concepts xD. Maybe the cool art and concept in general interested people.

Conncept10/7/2016, 11:47:43 PM2 votes

http://joshcorpuz85.deviantart.com/art/Beacon-The-Fencer-485506653

Credit your art source or don't use the art. It's super easy these days with a reverse image search, so there's no excuse.

Troll Slaiyer10/9/2016, 7:39:37 AM1 votes
  1. name is too similar to Azir
  2. we already have a hero with a sword(s). may I suggest to give him a shield? =-)
resumed10/9/2016, 4:04:55 PM1 votes

this is a hypermobile ad midlane assassin with urgot's passive that has literally four movement abilities

uh

Automated Riven10/7/2016, 7:23:38 PM1 votes

Take out untargetability on his passive and it could work. Your look at yi level cancer as well as it being relatively spammable and funtioning as a much more reliable escape. Honestly I wouldn't use this champ bot. I would abuse the he'll out of toplane cause his q provides decent harras and you can jump to the enemy champ and jump back to a minion that you harassed through. Someone who played this champ well would be worse then yas and riven combined.

YOU LOST LMAO10/9/2016, 5:54:57 PM1 votes

Alistar

GULAG 4 U10/7/2016, 11:11:07 PM1 votes

A melee carryvwithout team utility is trash. There's a reason why Yasuo and Fiora work and are good while trynd and yi are garbage outside bronze. Your idea is decent but if he doesn't bring cc or something like windwall he isn't going to be good unless he's dealing crazy amounts of damage

Isaacorion10/8/2016, 1:42:06 AM1 votes

So after looking at this guy, I have some thoughts. As a Support player, I like the idea of this guy, but after looking at his kit again, I see nothing that suggests he benefits from a Supports presence. It feels like a Yasou in the bot lane: perfectly capable of destroying the enemy on his own, the support is just there. That being said, I'm hard pressed to think of a Support that he wouldn't work well with. A thought to really drive home the "Melee carry in Bot lane" idea would be to add a Jhin-ish mark to his passive. Example: Allies (or a single chosen ally {similar to Kalista binding}) apply Soul Flame to enemy champs with basic attacks or abilities. That way he can still go mid or top and apply Soul Flame himself through abilities, or when he goes Bot he can have his support help out with the Soul Flame marking job. All in all, I think with some number tweaking and overall balancing, it's a pretty decent stab at bringing variety to the bot lane. My queen Morgana wouldn't mind fighting with him at all.

TeCoolMage10/8/2016, 5:58:44 AM1 votes

remove the untargetability on passive, just make it a blink.

More time to do damage, less time being invincible.

RNG in abilities is generally a bad idea unless they're small scale like TF or crit and have a predictable average increase of damage/resources. his W has a chance of doing 0 damage, or doing damage to 4 champions, which is a ridiculously high amount of variation. I think it should just outright target all champions within the radius of a nova, like brand ult.

E should decrease damage taken from enemies struck, not decrease damage of enemies outright. Otherwise it makes him more powerful than other marksmen with tank builds as it gives him a lot of team wide fighting utility with no scaling that usually only appears single target in hyper carries like Kog'Maw's Q, or out-of-combat utility like Ashe.

I like the idea in his ult, but it seems too much assassin to be healthy on an ADC, but who knows, I'd actually like to see an ADC balance with this ult.

arcDapineapple10/8/2016, 6:24:48 AM1 votes

almost like a Kalista cause he need a partner for his ult see him working well with tankie support like Leona Alistar

nekochan10/8/2016, 7:15:20 AM1 votes

so Yi on steroids with the most broken part (his Q) moved to a zero CD passive. NTY

Holynova10/8/2016, 8:03:23 AM1 votes

Melee adc never works , look at old fiora , master yi

Da Boss 310/8/2016, 8:46:25 AM1 votes

Perhaps instead of untargetability on the dash, you could have arzo take reduced damage? And possibly a bit of tenacity, if that isn't enough.

Leonerdo10/8/2016, 12:54:28 PM1 votes

If he's meant for the bot lane, why give him armor pen that helps most in the top lane?

GreenLore10/8/2016, 12:59:20 PM1 votes

Overall I think you have some really cool ideas for a botlane melee champ. the passive kinda makes up for his lack of range and the ult basically rewards you for playing together with your support.

However I feel the invulnerability on his ult is a bit much. I understand that it is a means to protect him in difficult situations(something that pretty much all melee carries have,yi and Fiora have their Ws while Trynda has his ult and Q),but 2 seconds invulnerability while being able to move(which really makes it a much better zhonyas already and zhonyas is considered one of the best active item effects in the game) on top of an execute ability AND a dash,is really a lot of power for a single ability,even for an ultimate,and it would likely mean that a lot of power would need to be taken off somewhere else.

Also I feel like the dash on his E is a bit redundant. I mean he has his passive and his ult already for lots of dashes,especially since the fireballs of his w will spread his passive all over the place giving him access to even more dashes,not to mention that the W also gives him movementspeed,so giving him another dash into his kit seems a bit overkill. I mean even without the E he'd likely be one of the most mobile champs in the whole game(if not THE most mobile).

S0LST0RMER10/8/2016, 4:16:24 PM1 votes

i think they should make Commanders from each race from warhammer 40k into champions, that would be so cool. like the Necron Lord or Tau Commander

AmazoX10/8/2016, 4:32:12 PM1 votes

The art looks cool.

P.S: Make him manaless