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Sala - The Maelstrom (Champion Concept)

Of Mace and Men·5/18/2017, 6:36:15 PM·2 votes·432 views

Hey guys, first time kit designer and longtime lurker on the boards. Would really appreciate your insight/critique of this.

My original idea to bring this concept to life was a drowned woman, with a trident. She was made to walk the plank by our favourite pirate Gangplank during one of this raids as she attempted to kill him in his sleep. She had a barrel tied to her waist by a rope and was dropped off the side of the ship. During her time drowning in the depths she was overtaken by a black ooze that brought new life into her, and an unshakable need for vengeance.

Sala - The Maelstrom

  • Concept - Vengeful Undead Tar Creature - (Nautilus Ooze)
  • Class/Subclass - Fighter/Diver
  • Mechanical Concept - Attack Speed and AP with AA resets and mobility.

> HP; 578 - 2050 Health Regen; 6.7 - 20.1 Mana; 331 - 1038 Mana Regen; 6.3 - 21.6 Attack Range; 175 Attack Damage; 56 - 109 Attack Speed; 0.631 (+0 - 52.3%) Armour; 27 - 86.4 Magic Resist; 32.1 - 68.4 Movespeed; 350

  • Passive - Dark Water Debuff "Dark Water" is applied on 3rd Q, E and R stacking up to 3 times. Shreds enemy MR by 2/4/6/8 per stack at levels 1/6/11/16. When Dark Water triggers an ability's additional effect the stacks are consumed.

  • Q - Depth's Due - Cooldown; 16/14/12/10/8 - Cost; 100/110/120/130/140 Mana AA Reset which empowers next 3 AA with a stacking slow (10% for each) and applying magic damage (60/90/120/150/180 +60%AP) in a line which passes through the target on the 3rd proc. If an enemy is hit by the 3rd AA and is already affected by 3 stacks of Dark Water the target is stunned for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2s.

  • W - Black Bubble - Cooldown; 12 at all ranks - Cost; 60/65/70/75/80 Mana Passive - Basic attacks deal bonus magic damage onhit (10/20/30/40/50+10%AP). Active - Grants a shield (50/75/100/125/150+20%AP) for 4 seconds, if not destroyed can be reactivated to explode dealing magic damage (22/33/44/55/66+30%AP) to all enemies in a 350 unit range.

  • E - Heavy Rain - Cooldown; 30/27/24/21/18 - Cost; 75 Mana at all ranks Targeted dash that goes through units dealing magic damage (75/100/125/150/175+40%AP) to all units it passes through. Resets cooldown on champion kills and refunds 60% CD on minion kills. If target is affected by 3 stacks of Dark Water ability can be reactivated on any target for no mana cost.

  • R - Maelstrom - Cooldown; 120/100/80 - Cost 200/220/240 Mana Whirlpool forms around Sala dealing periodic (2 tick per second) magic damage (20/40/60+15%AP per tick) and slowly drawing in enemies. Enemies running away from champ are slowed by 40%. If an enemy is affected by 3 stacks of Dark Water they are also rooted for 1.5s. During this she is rooted in place when channeling.

5 Comments

ModThe Djinn5/18/2017, 7:33:41 PM2 votes

{quoted}Hey guys, first time kit designer and longtime lurker on the boards. Would really appreciate your insight/critique of this.

First off, welcome! Secondly, gladly!

My original idea to bring this concept to life was a drowned woman, with a trident. She was made to walk the plank by our favourite pirate Gangplank during one of this raids as she attempted to kill him in his sleep. She had a barrel tied to her waist by a rope and was dropped off the side of the ship. During her time drowning in the depths she was overtaken by a black ooze that brought new life into her, and an unshakable need for vengeance.

Cool. Sounds a little like Nautilus, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Note, however, that barrels float -- might want to make that a rock or something. :P

  • Passive - Dark Water Debuff "Dark Water" is applied on 3rd Q, E and R stacking up to 3 times. Shreds enemy MR by 2/4/6/8 per stack at levels 1/6/11/16. When Dark Water triggers an ability's additional effect the stacks are consumed.

Alright. A little odd this isn't an auto-attack ability as well, given the auto-attack nature you specified earlier, but we'll see how it develops. Also, you have to hit nine times with abilities to get any effect (3rd hit, 3 stacks?). That's a bit intense.

  • Q - Depth's Due - Cooldown; 16/14/12/10/8 - Cost; 100/110/120/130/140 Mana AA Reset which empowers next 3 AA with a stacking slow (10% for each) and applying magic damage (60/90/120/150/180 +60%AP) in a line which passes through the target on the 3rd proc. If an enemy is hit by the 3rd AA and is already affected by 3 stacks of Dark Water the target is stunned for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2s.

So...AA reset that makes the next three AA's simply slow the target, and the last one becomes a line that can stun the target and damage other targets? The impact of this is HUGELY backloaded, which concerns me, and the stun is pretty hefty.

  • W - Black Bubble - Cooldown; 12 at all ranks - Cost; 60/65/70/75/80 Mana Passive - Basic attacks deal bonus magic damage onhit (10/20/30/40/50+10%AP). Active - Grants a shield (50/75/100/125/150+20%AP) for 4 seconds, if not destroyed can be reactivated to explode dealing magic damage (22/33/44/55/66+30%AP) to all enemies in a 350 unit range.

This REALLY feels like Nautilus. Not a bad thing -- just a comment. The shield seems pretty small for a 4-second shield with an explosion duration -- I don't expect to see this blow up often, which might merit a reconsideration of the effect. Maybe a resist bonus that automatically blows up instead of a shield? Might also help her tank up a bit with things like RoA and Liandry's, since she'll have extra resists to go with her hit points.

  • E - Heavy Rain - Cooldown; 30/27/24/21/18 - Cost; 75 Mana at all ranks Targeted dash that goes through units dealing magic damage (75/100/125/150/175+40%AP) to all units it passes through. Resets cooldown on champion kills and refunds 60% CD on minion kills. If target is affected by 3 stacks of Dark Water ability can be reactivated on any target for no mana cost.

So it's basically a Fizz dash that damages in a line and resets on kills or upon hitting a three-stack target, yes? That's functional, definitely, but it REALLY makes the character feel like Nautilus/Fizz with less frequent mobility and just right-clicking. There's not a lot of room for skill expression yet, nor a really unique mechanical identity.

  • R - Maelstrom - Cooldown; 120/100/80 - Cost 200/220/240 Mana Whirlpool forms around Sala dealing periodic (2 tick per second) magic damage (20/40/60+15%AP per tick) and slowly drawing in enemies. Enemies running away from champ are slowed by 40%. If an enemy is affected by 3 stacks of Dark Water they are also rooted for 1.5s. During this she is rooted in place when channeling.

THIS is interesting, although she's actually channeling, meaning those people brought close to her can easily CC her out, which is...awkward. You also don't specify the duration of the effect, which is concerning. Drawing someone in is cool, but you'll need to specify how that works -- is it a constant forced movement unless they're trying to walk out? With the slow, is it POSSIBLE to leave? The ability breaks some existing rules for forced movement (all of it is fast, currently), which makes this a little odd.

Also note that this is actually her only ability that applies her passive in anything CLOSE to a fast enough manner for the stacks to actually trigger, and that's really awkward for her kit, as a lot of her interesting features are tied up in that ability working.

In general, the mechanical implementation here is a little bland, I think. She reuses a lot of existing mechanics in a way that doesn't really give them much new life, and her kit narrows down to a fairly vanilla dash and an auto-attack reset that deals a bit of delayed AoE damage. She doesn't really feel like a mobile, auto-attacking AP diver, especially since she has poor target isolation and an extended channel that immobilizes her.

I'd recommend thinking a bit about the feel this character should bring to the battlefield, and then seeing if you can capture that in mechanics that offer room for skilled gameplay and personal expression. After all -- she's an aquatic, vengeance-infused dark ooze-monster. SHOW me that in her gameplay rather than just telling me. If you ever need someone to bounce thoughts off of I'm always happy to toss out ideas and other thoughts if desired, but I'll leave that up to you!

Not a bad start though, all things considered! Glad to have you on the forums. :)

HalcyonDweller5/18/2017, 6:48:50 PM1 votes

Cool kit, I especially like the ultimate. I also like how you've gated the dashing on E a lot better than Yasuo's dash is gated.

However there are some slight overlaps both with the W and with the character theme:

  • Sion has a shield just like the Black Bubble you suggest here.

  • Kalista is already the maiden of vengeance for Bilgewater/Shadow Isles. You might want to pick a different trope for her personality / theme.

  • Ooze is hard to do differently a second time. She probably would need to not be too close to Zac's design space in that regard.