Anansa, the Criminal Mastermind (Champion Concept)
Anansa, the Criminal Mastermind Primary: Marksman Secondary: Support
Health: 363 (+85) Health Regen: 5 (+0.55) Mana: 230 (+50) Mana Regen: 7 (+0.7) Range: 525 (Ranged)
Attack Damage: 48 (+3.6) Attack Speed: 0.613 (+2.55%) Armor: 16 (+3.4) Magic Resist: 30 Movement Speed: 330
Passive: Living on the Edge
*The exhilarating feeling of nearly being captured... It's the best feeling a Yordle mastermind could have. *
Anansa's Basic Attacks apply stacks of her Passive on enemy Champions. Each stack will steal 2% of their Movement Speed for 3 seconds. There is no limit to the amount of times it can stack, but it may only affect one target at a time and will reset if she targets another Champion.
Q – Sticky Bomb/Detonate
Do you hear that ticking? I wouldn't look down if I were you.
Anansa fires a sticking bomb at a targeted location where it will remain for 5 seconds. If it collides with an enemy, it will attach to that enemy for the same duration.
Immediately after the bomb lands, the Ability becomes Detonate. Reactivating it will cause the bomb to explode, dealing 75/110/145/180/215 (+120% AD) Physical Damage to the direct target and 80% damage to surrounding targets.
Range: 950 Units Radius: 250 Units Costs: 72/74/76/78/80 Mana Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8 Seconds
W – Evasive Action
Where in the world is she?
Anansa dashes quickly in a targeted direction.
If she passes through an enemy, Anansa will also gain 10/20/30/40/50 bonus Movement Speed and enter Stealth for 2 seconds.
Costs: 50/45/40/35/30 Mana Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 Seconds Range: 400 Units
E – Grappling Hook
She leaves every one dangling by a single thread. She just has that much control over you.
Anansa fires a grappling hook in a targeted direction. It latches on to the first Champion it connects to, deals 35/55/75/95/115 (+50% AD) Physical Damage to them and slows them by 20% for 1 second.
It will remain on the enemy for 5 seconds as long as Anansa stays within the Range, applying her Passive every second for the next 5 seconds. If she attacks another target that isn't hooked, it will reset her passive but remain attached for the entire duration.
Costs: 55/60/65/70/75 Mana Cooldown: 17/15/13/11/9 Seconds Range: 600 Units
R – Blinding Flare
She's done the dirty work. Now's the time to make her flashy getaway.
Passive: Anansa deals 40/50/60 (+25% Bonus AD) bonus Magic Damage on her Basic Attacks.
Active: Anansa channels for 2 seconds and fires a flare of light into the sky, revealing the entire map and all things invisible (Wards, traps, and enemy Champions in stealth) for 8/10/12 seconds. Enemies within her own range of vision are blinded upon initial activation for 2 seconds.
Allies are granted 3/6/9% bonus Movement Speed while Blinding Flare is active.
Mana Cost: 100 Mana Range: Global (1200 Units for Blind) Cooldown: 120 seconds
Lore:
A bead of sweat crossed her brow and she licked her upper-lip in concentration. She aimed her grappling hook towards a nearby edge and fired, allowing it to take her higher. A hail of bullets followed from beneath her as she flew off elsewhere from the Piltover facility. She took the time to turn her body towards the attacking turrets and sticking her tongue out at them before laughing, the sound echoing into the night sky after making her escape. Her bag was filled with all kinds of different goods that she had nicked from the laboratory.
That old man
really needed to keep a better eye on his equipment... Else, she could keep nicking whatever she wanted there.
Anansa was never considered one of the lovable Yordles by a Human's standards. The ones that they would love to coddle and hug and love and all other things that would make her vomit at the thought. Born in Bandle City but displeased with the place at a young age, she was more interested in the world around her. Namely, making a name for herself.
Unfortunately, that wound up labeling her as one the most cunning Yordles that ever existed. Anansa was born into the highly prestigious family of Megling, the founder of one of Bandle City's most famed military units: The Megling Commandos. She too was once a proud member of the Commandos. She was a courageous and ruthless gunslinger, and a woman of action and intelligence. She was considered by many to be one of the best there ever was. Many young Yordles used to look up to her. She was a hero to be admired, a legend in the making. So then why?
Why was it that she turned her back on everything that Bandle City stood for? It's a heartbreaking question that not many know the answer to. She was ambitious, always seeking greater challenges and trying to prove herself. Could it be that she might have grown bored of her peers? She never cared too much for Bandle City even though her family was deeply invested in its history. Her family status and position in the Megling Commandos were heavy burdens to carry. Names chalked up as her marks in the world, but not thanks to her own hand. Maybe she was tired of being something she wasn't?
She wanted the world to recognize her name, her talents... Not those of a dying legend from long ago.
Without a word, Anansa abandoned her home with little to no hesitation. Armed with only her gun and her wits, she set off into the world to seek greater challenges and to test her resolve. This world outside of Bandle City fascinated every fiber of her being... But the test she sought for herself did not appear to her as she thought it would.
She instead found great joy in testing those around her. Seeing how others could overcome the different hurdles and challenges in their lives. She would present the world with difficulties and see how they would fare against them. Could they catch her? Would they find her? How long would be before someone would be able to match her?
She's done her fare share of 'challenges' across Valoran; Robbing banks in Demacia, stealing several experiments from Heimerdinger's lab, and even tested her might against Piltover's Finest. There's not a soul in Valoran that doesn't know her name... Granted, most of those souls curse that name. But she had grown bored of the world, as no one was able to match her wits the way she wanted them to. She had never been caught before...
He must have thought that the turrets guarding some of his experiments were absolutely perfect... But she knew her way around them. There was nothing in this world that could be kept from her hands. She laughed to herself at the mere thought of it before reattaching the hook cable and flipping onto the ground. She was preparing to walk away until...
“Don't move a single muscle. Turn around slowly, or I'll blow you to smithereens.”
Well... Maybe her boredom will be satiated now. With her hands in the air, she slowly turned in the direction of the voice, her smirk widening when she noticed the Yordle trio standing in front her. In front of her stood a young Yordle
with a large rocket gun. Behind her, the Yordle scientist and the Swift Scout
stood by with their weapons aimed directly at her. Her smiled widened.
“Are you going to shoot me with that thing, little girl? If you are, I'd do it quickly...instead of mouthing off for no reason. You'll not get any closer to killing me that way.”
The girl growled, but Anansa was still not afraid. But she was a little more intrigued than before. This girl, a member of the Megling Commandos by the look of her uniform, looked like someone eager to prove herself. A trait that reminded her of herself. Those eager to prove themselves always sought out the best challenges... That sounded like fun. She couldn't help but laugh giddily to herself as she her hand moved towards her gun and she fired it towards the sky, blinding the other Yordles in the area as she escaped in an explosive flash.
As she was now, she wouldn't present much a challenge. She's brainless, and she can only think about shooting and blowing things up. She even hesitated, too afraid to truly fire on one of Bandle City's worst criminals. Too afraid to shoot at someone she once respected. Right now she wasn't interesting enough, but the potential was there... How long would it take before she could make her into someone worthy of her attention? How long would it take before she finally opened her mind?
How long would it take for her to join in on her little game...?
Quotes:
Selection: "Is there anyone out there who can give me a challenge?"
Attacking: "Better check your pockets." "Keep your eyes on the prize." “Can you keep up with me?” “Can you provide me with the challenge I seek?” “Would you like to play a game?” “Looks like someone seeks a challenge.” “Seems I have some clever competition.” “That's right. Rise up to my challenge.” “Don't back down now!” “Ah, would you like to dance? Then let's dance.” “It's not easy being this popular.” “Hasty, aren't you? Too early to be throwing your life away.” “Exit stage right.” “At least you thought to bring entertainment.” “I like it better this way.” “Well, I hope you'll make this fun for me.” “I'd be scared if I wasn't so good.”
Movement: "Think out your plan like a woman of action... Then act out your plan like a woman of thought.” “Cat's don't have nine lives, the way people say... But I do.” “They may find me, but they'll always miss me by a whisker.” “Great minds always need great challenges.” “When you've got the world as a hiding place, it's difficult to find people like me.” “You can catch up to me, but you'll never catch me.” “If you don't shoot for the moon, you'll never know what can be yours.” “You can't always get what you want... But tell that to someone other than me.” “The best reason to wake in the morning is to solve more problems than yesterday.” “Never let others know your secrets... It takes the fun out of everything.” “Just sit back and have fun... We have all the time in the world.” “When you work with me, you do things my way.” “I've got this... Don't you know that I'm the leading woman here?” “Getting there should be only half the fun.” “I'm the best at what I do... Everyone else pales in comparison.” “I love this game that people call 'life'.” “In the gaze of uncertainty, you will face your true self.”
Taunts: “It's not whether you win or lose, but how much fun you can make it for me while we play.” “You never know what you can do until you try... Isn't that why you chase me when you can never catch me?” “And here I was, thinking this was going to be difficult! What a bore!”
"You're such a distraction. You should go back to the junk yard and stay there." "Don't ruin my fun, Rumble. I'll send you and that junk back to the scrapyard."
“They say that those 'who dares, wins'. Are you more daring than I am?” “Well, let's not just go crashing into each other, bombardier.”
“Ah, are those cupcakes!? Wanna bet that I can snatch one without getting caught!?” “Oooh... I smell cupcakes...Yumm- Ah, keep a hold of yourself, girl! She almost caught you!”
“...Well... I guess we do have choices... Some pick brains, and...uh...others brawn...” “Something tells me... that if I get caught, it will be painful... Good thing that will never happen!”
“...How can someone who's never been caught...be so brainless? What is this!?” “I'm confused by this lack of intelligence! Another mystery to be solved, perhaps?”
“How much is the bounty on my head, I wonder?”
Jokes: “Well...the other day, someone caught me... You're not laughing? Why not!? That is funny because it will *never *happen! You just aren't clever enough to understand my sense of humor! Hmph!” “For the first time in my life, I'm absolutely stomped... That was the joke, get it? Because I'm clever...? And I'm never stomped...? Oh, you shut up, you ignoramus! No one asked you for your opinion!”
Death: "It seems... I've met my match...” “Never thought I'd die...to someone like you...” “...You won't find...a better replacement... for me.”
Using Abilities
Sticky Bomb: “Here, catch!” “Don't drop it now!” “I think it likes you!
Detonate: “Kaboom!” “Here comes the boom!” “And boom goes the dynamite!”
Grappling Hook: “Too close for comfort, big boy.” “Stay outta my bubble!” “Where do you think you're going?”
Blinding Flare: “A girl needs information before she's starts planning!” “You can't hide anything from me!” “I can see it all! There's nothing you can hide from me!” “Don't stare at it for too long! You might hurt yourself!”
Obtaining Items
“A girl just can't have enough, can she?” “My pockets aren't getting any emptier!”
“Let's bring the shock factor!” “Time to shock the audience!”
“Through the shadows like a ghost...” “They won't ever find me... It's like catching a ghost.”
Others
To Dragon and Baron: “Girls like me always seek greater challenges!” “Never back down from a challenge!”
Development and Playstyle:
They have a history that spans centuries, and they remain the oldest yordle military unit still in service. They are renowned for their courage, deadliness, and ruthlessness, making them the most respected and feared of all warriors in Bandle City. Legends of Megling, the valiant founder of the commandos, are still heard throughout Valoran taverns. It was these legends that most fascinated a young Tristana. Since she was a wee child, Tristana wanted nothing more than to become the crack shot that her idol had been all those years ago. -Tristana's Lore
The last of the family line of Megling, the founder of the Commandos, Anansa wasn't too happy with her prestigious name and family and had grown bored of Bandle City. So she abandoned her position as one of the greatest of the Megling Commandos and ventured out into the world to satiate her curiosity and ease her boredom...
Unfortunately, the thing that excited her the most was the thrill of crimes. It was the only way she could challenge herself, and challenge the others around her. To see who she could outsmart, and who could outsmart her. But after doing it for so long, she had grown bored of them as well. That was when she decided that she would build someone into the worthy challenger that she sought...and it seems like Tristana is going to be her first experiment.
Look at her. Doesn't she make you angry? Just...fill you with rage? Like when you see Teemo? You want to kill her so badly, you really do, but she's just so evasive? It's just too damn hard to catch her!? If you've read over her abilities and thought, “I don't like this Champion... I don't like her at all,” and started screaming “Damn the Mobility-Creep!”, then I guess my job is done.
Just as tricky as her namesake, Anansa is highly-mobile Marksman designed to be highly-annoying to many who target her. The name and function of her Passive, “Living on the Edge”, is exactly the core concept of her style; Close enough to keep hitting you, but far enough where you can't catch her. Almost as if she's controlling you on some sort of leash. Can you catch her where so many others have failed?
Because of her Passive and the various movement effects she has, enemy teams will have to coordinate and put in a lot of effort into catching her... As annoying as she may sound, she's not without faults. Here are several of them:
-Try to send more than one Champion after her. Her Passive stacks on one target, so she'll slow the target and speed herself up. However, her stacks reset when she starts attacking another target, meaning that hers and the previous target's Movement Speed will go back to its current value and leave her vulnerable. Her Grappling Hook can also only latch on to one target.
-While higher-leveled players may be able to kite effectively with her, not everyone will be the best with her. Players who use Attack Move (Shift +Right-Click) will often lose her Passive debuff Stacks.
-Her Attack Range is relatively short, so champions with gap-closers can latch on to her quite quickly. The Range on her Abilities are also rather short, so she's rather punishable at that Range. The key is that the Anansa player has to be absolutely on point when kiting her enemies. One mistake is probably death for her.
-Her Attack Speed and Attack Speed per Level is low, and she also doesn't have an Attack Speed Steroid. Her weakest point is her early game where she can't make use of her Passive until she builds her Attack Speed items. While she does still have Evasive Action and Grappling Hook, the effects of her dash will only happen if she passes an enemy and Grappling hook is easily broken.
With that being said, her disengage potential is quite high and she will be quite difficult to catch the later the game goes on, particularly if the Anansa player prioritizes Attack Speed in their builds. While she's good at disengaging, she can also aid those who are good at engaging thanks to her slows. Supports that can protect her and keep her from harm also add on to her massive disengage potential.
Living on the Edge Her Passive might seem overwhelming, but it's effect its actually not the best until she builds Attack Speed, as her base Attack Speed is quite low. After that point, catching or running from her will be relatively difficult. When utilizing this, try to pick the most dangerous target that will catch you. Attacking multiple targets will do more harm than good.
When combined with Blade of the Ruined King's active, catching her is hard. A good way to use Blade of the Ruined King is to attack one target and use its active on another. That will increase your Movement Speed and slow down multiple targets without removing the effects of your Passive.
This ability doesn't work with Runaan's Hurricane. It only stacks on her main target.
Sticky Bomb/Detonate This Ability has high scaling to make up for her lack of real damage because Blade of the Ruined King is the preferred build. This also allows those who build Bloodthirster to make use of it and deal significant damage to many targets at once.
Another good thing is that you can detonate it while it is in the air, and use it to deal a surprising amount of damage to a close up target.
Evasive Action This Ability is really useful for taking down fleeing enemies in Duo Lanes, but is more suited for escapes. If she has latched on to an enemy with Gappling Hook, this can be used to keep them in Range.
The second part of the ability is useful when she's pushed too far and she gets ganked. Of course, that means to not allow her to pass through you with her dash.
Grappling Hook The damage of this Ability isn't the key thing, but the slow is. Fitting the theme of her kit, which is to maintain control over the enemies attacking her, she literally leashes the first target hit by her Grappling Hook and maintains a hold over them as long as they stay within its Range. It applies her Passive on the leashed enemy, draining their Movement Speed every second while increasing her own.
As this is single-target focused, it would be best to use it on the most dangerous target at that moment. As this Ability uses her Passive, she will lose her stacks from the first target if she attacks another target, but it will reset if she still has time on Grappling Hook as it remains attached.
Example: Anansa has 5 stacks on latched target. She attacks another, and the stacks reset to 1. After another second has passed for Grappling Hook, her stacks will reset on the original target from 1.
For that reason, it's best to use Blade of the Ruined King on another target instead of attacking them.
Blinding Flare The Passive is another compensation for her lack of significant damage (Other than her Q).
The ability is essentially a free Pink Ward or Red Trinket for a few seconds, allowing her allies to know and see exactly what the enemy sees. In order to also make the Ultimate combat effective, it can be used for disengage or engage. The Blind and Movement speed can allow her team to run or to catch enemies off guard, and it can also be used to make team-wide rotations across the map.
Building The damage from Sticky Bomb/Detonate is high with lots of Attack Damage, but to make better use of her passive, focusing on Attack Speed is ideal. For her, she deals more damage if she stays alive longer, so its better to emphasize survival over damage. Blade of the Ruined King is a good first item thanks to the Attack Speed and Active to add to her Passive. Her Critical Strike item is also up to you:
-Phantom Dancer and Statikk Shiv's high Attack Speed and Critical Strike are pretty standard and are far from bad items. Phantom Dancer's passive is useful when trying to escape or kite, and Statikk Shiv gives more Movement Speed and damage with its Passive. -Trinity Force is more of a niche. The Spellblade can proc on both Sticky Bomb and Detonate. The main thing is the bonus Movement Speed from Phage and Trinity Force's Movement Speed as a whole, allowing her more escape ability. Of course, she will lack damage. -Youmuu's Ghostblade will add more damage to her kit, and its active is really powerful with her Passive.
And obviously, your last items will be Last Whisper and Infinity Edge. If you really value damage, you can build Infinity Edge into your Critical Strike item first instead of Blade of the Ruined King.
Things Subjected to Change:
Stats -Lowering her Range to 500 from 525. -Lowering her Movement Speed to 325 from 330. -Increasing her Movement Speed to 335 from 330. (If Range is reduced to 500)
Living on the Edge -Increasing Movement Speed drain to 3% from 2%. (If Range is reduced to 500)
Grappling Hook -Disabling Abilities for the duration except for Evasive Action. -Remove the Passive Stacks. Change it to a constant slow over 5 seconds.
Blinding Flare -Removing the Magic Damage on the Passive. -Removing the Allied bonus Movement Speed. -Removing the Ward revealing, or limiting it to Pink Wards.
Skins:
Secret Agent Anansa
Based on Carmen Sandeigo, Anansa dresses in a red fedora and trench coat.
Black Cat Anansa
Based on Catwoman and Black Cat from DC and Marvel comics respectively, and relative to Kitty Katarina, Anansa dresses in a cat costume.
Gunslinger Anansa
Anansa dresses in a cowgirl outfit.
Commando Anansa
Anansa wears military fatigues. The skin is a reference to her original days as a part of the Megling Gunners.
Trivia:
-Her name is the feminized version of “Anansi”, a West African trickster God who takes the shape of a spider. -Her lore, ideals, and goals are all based on Carmen Sandiego, a criminal from her titular video game series. She (Carmen Sandiego) isn't a criminal for the sake of being one, but because she often enjoys challenging the players for the thrill rather than any malicious intent. -Her quotes are references to various other criminal and theif characters, including Carmen Sandiego, Balthier from Final Fantasy XII, and Shogo Makishima from Psycho Pass. -While she and Jinx both enjoy toying with their rivals and are quite similar, what separates the two are their intentions and methods. -Anansa has no enemies because she isn't a malicious character, but she is rivals with Tristana because she reminds her of herself. She likes trying to outsmart Heimerdinger and Veigar. She dislikes Teemo and Rumble because she feels like they are distractions to her plan to mold Tristana into a suitable rival worthy of her challenge. -She's also good friends with Lulu because of their similar personalities. -Her inspirational themes are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB8xsFy0Xd4
and