[Champion Concept] Mikheil, the Lantern's Ambassador (WIP)

Ok explanation first: this champ was inspired by two things:

1. A character class idea I had for another RPG that focused on the dual nature of fire- not only its destructive and martial applications but also its more benevolent uses as a source of light, warmth, and energy as well as its uses in the likes of cooking and smithing- and how it serves as an analogy (in this class's philosophy) for the nature of humanity itself.

2. The introduction of Ivern, and with him the ability to create brush anywhere on the map, making me consider the implications of a champ that could contrariwise destroy brush, albeit temporarily, through the logical means of burning it down.

Unfortunately League already has two "Fire Mage" Champs in and (and technically ), so adding another one would be hard to make unique. So I tried taking a different approach and making him a utility fire mage instead. Here's what came out:

LORE: (Incomplete, going to be a long one)

Mikheil is a wandering mage who has traveled all over Runeterra in search of better understanding of the power he was born with, and now continues his journey in hopes of helping others like him learn from his experience.

Full "story" version is coming along too slowly for me, so here's the fast version: Born "Michael" in Demacian land where his latent fire powers made him and by extension his family pariahs, even though to the latter he was still their son and knew he didn't do anything wrong besides be born. Parents tried to teach him how to keep his powers under wraps like a good little Demacian, maybe use his flames for constructive things like cooking meals or lighting the lamps and fireplace when needed, but the whole ordeal left poor little Mikey conflicted. If his parents were right and there was nothing wrong with him, why did he have to keep his powers a secret? If everyone else was right and his powers were evil, why wasn't he evil? He certainly didn't feel evil and never wanted to hurt anyone except maybe the occasional town bully. If his parents were right and there was nothing wrong with him, why did he have to keep his powers a secret? All he wanted was to be himself; accepted for what he was, powers and all. And unfortunately he was about to get his wish.

One fateful day a Noxian warband attacked his town and raided the slums where he lived, rounding up and capturing anyone suspected to be a mage and killing everyone else. Unfortunately for Michael, this included himself and his family, respectively. Seeing his parents die made him reasonably lose his sh** and start attacking the Noxians with his fire magic, and while he did manage to scorch a few of them good he was still just a kid facing a bunch of adult warriors, and was eventually subdued and taken into custody. When he came to back in Noxus, he found himself face-to-face with the leader of the Noxians that sacked his village who, instead of killing him, basically told him "congratulations, you're a Noxian now." Turns out, in Noxus, mages aren't treated as subhuman abominations like they are in Demacia. In Noxus, strength is everything; doesn't matter who or what you are or where you came from: if you're strong, you're respected, and the Noxian captain liked what he saw when young Michael fought off his men. So basically he was offered a choice: join the rank-and-file Noxian society and fend for himself in that dog-eat-dog world, or join this man's warband and be given not only a head start in the Noxian social hierarchy but also something not even his late family could give him: freedom and acceptance. Hesitantly he chose the latter.

And so began a long career in the Noxian army, where he was finally free to use and practice his fire magic however he pleased, quickly growing in power and position until he eventually found himself in command of his old warband on his predecessor's death. He still never completely forgot the values of his old home in Demacia, though, and as he grew older he began to regret the things he did in the name of Noxus. Towns and villages burned to the ground, battlefields littered with corpses charred beyond recognition, the stench of burning flesh and ash filling the air and haunting his dreams; was all this really worth the "freedom" he was promised so long ago! He had become the very thing Demacia had always accused his kind of being, and in time he grew to hate himself for it. So when his band's travels took him to the borders of the Freljord, he decided he would take no more of it.

Under cover of night he abandoned his men and rode off alone toward the heart of the Freljord, abandoning his horse when it would take him no further and with it his equipment; intending never to stop until the cold or wild beasts claimed him. The fire inside him would be extinguished at last, but it was not to be. When Michael next awoke, he found himself wrapped in furs beside a fire within a humble domicile. An Avarosan hunting party had found him near death and brought his almost frozen body back home with them, and even now were doing their best to nurse him back to health. He was moved by their compassion; they didn't know who he was, where he came from, or what he was doing in the frozen wastes by himself, yet they were fully willing to help him regardless. And so that night, to the tribe's amazement, every hearth and torch in the camp burned brighter and longer than ever, without needing to be refueled.

For a time Michael, or 'Mikheil' as he presented himself to the Avarosans, lived peacefully with the tribe, in part to repay their kindness and in part as a self-imposed penance for his past crimes. He lived with them, hunted with them, kept their fires lit and kept all of them warm and safe amid the unrelenting cold of eternal winter. He began to see his powers in a new light- no longer would he be a force of destruction, but rather a source of light, life, and protection for those in need. Or so he had hoped; when rival tribes or wild beasts threatened his new home, he could not stand idly by and watch the tribe's warriors suffer needlessly in battle, and despite vowing to himself to only use his flames to cleanse and purify wounds and stave off the frost where he could, more than once he could not help but revert to old habits and fight back himself with a burning wrath no arctic wind could snuff out, striking fear into the hearts of foe and friend alike. And so Mikheil felt he would never know true peace, until the day monks from Ionia traveling on a pilgrimage offered him a chance to join their order and find the peace and balance he so desperately needed.

Many years later, Mikheil's time with the monks had ended, and his personal journey to all corners of Valoran began. Having learned all he could from the monks in order to master himself and his inner flame, he now seeks to spend his remaining years learning whatever else he can about the nature of magic and mankind himself through first-hand experience, and perhaps use his years of wisdom and mastery of his magic to leave ever land he visits and everyone he meets in a little better place when he leaves than it was when he arrived.

TL;DR: Born in Demacia with magic that everyone told him was bad. Abducted by bandits and raised in Noxus where he proceeded to do bad things with his magic. Felt bad and fled to the Freljord to die but instead was saved by Freljordians and in exchange did good things for them with his magic. Felt bad about having to do bad things with his magic from time to time still and went to Iona to learn how to make the best of himself and his magic. Now he's old and travels the world to share what he's learned before he dies.

APPEARANCE: An old man with grey hair and a long grey beard dressed in traveler's garb (most prominently including a worn red overoat on his shoulders, like a kimono used as a cloak) and carrying a round, metal lantern on a loose chain hooked to his waist in his right hand. The lantern serves as his weapon for his autoattacks, being swung on its chain like a meteor hammer as a medium range attack, or simply used as a bludgeon for melee range. The fire inside grows larger and brighter as he accumulates stacks for his passive, starting as a small but visible ember but growing to a full flame as his stacks reach maximum. When using his Ultimate, his eyes light up as if aflame and his lantern is engulfed completely in a star-like orb of fire.

Stats: Base Health(1 - 18): ~575 HP - ~2100 HP Health Regen(1 - 18): ~7 - ~18 HP Base Mana(1 - 18): ~375 - ~1050 MP Mana Regen(1 - 18): 6 - ~19 MP Attack Damage(1 - 18): ~53 - ~90 AD Base Armor(1 - 18): ~27 - ~90 Base Magic Resist(1 - 18): 32.1 - 53.4 Movement Speed: 330

KIT: (Numerical values incomplete/not finalized)

Passive: Fan the Flames

Gains stacks of Heat (not the Mana alternative) with each autoattack or ability cast, up to a maximum of 6 Stacks decay after 4/5/6 seconds.

Heat stacks grant an extending vision radius (100/150/200 units per stack) that bypasses terrain, allowing Mikheil and allies to see over walls and brush within the radius. Vision does not reveal stealthed targets, nor enemy Champions hiding within brush.

Q: Meteor Lantern Mikheil throws his lantern forward in a target direction, dealing 40/60/80/100/120 (+40% AP) damage to all enemies and slowing champions hit by 20/25/30/35/45% for 3 seconds on hit, then pulls it back, dealing damage again and knocking enemy champions toward Mikheil.

Recasting before the lantern reaches the end of its travel range recalls it early.

Lantern reveals its surroundings in a small radius as it travels. -Mana Cost: 40/45/50/55/60 -Range: 800 -cooldown: 9/8/7/6/5 seconds

Ult+Q: Meteor Slam

Becomes a targeted AOE knockup that increases radius and knockup duration with distance from Mikheil.

Recasting before impact instead creates an inverted cone at point of impact to knock enemies toward mikheil. Radius: 150-250 Knockup duration: .5 sec. min - 1.5 sec max.

W: Bonfire

Mikheil lights a bonfire trap at a target location that builds in power over 10 seconds and reveals its immediate surroundings, doubling its vision radius at max charge.

Allies that touch the bonfire are cleansed of all debuffs (except Silence and Grievous Wounds), and heal 15/30/45/50/60 (+15% AP) HP a second for 2-5 seconds based on charge. At full charge, the bonfire also grants 10%/20%/30%/40%/50% crowd control reduction for the duration of its heal.

Enemies that touch the bonfire are revealed, receive Grievous Wounds and take 10/20/30/40/50 (+10% AP) magic damage a second for 2-5 seconds based on charge. At full charge, Mikheil and allies are granted True Sight of the champion for the duration of the effect.

Can store up to 2/2/3/3/4 bonfires at a time.

Can have up to 3 bonfires set at a time, placing subsequent bonfires destroys the oldest one. Casting directly at an ally or enemy immediately triggers its minimum effect and does not count toward your set total. Duration: 30/35/40/50/60 Cost: 90 mana + 1 charge Cooldown: 1 second Recharge rate: 15/14/13/12/10

Ult+W: Flash Fire

Places a maximized Bonfire at the target area. Bonfires do not count toward normal limit, instead detonating in a small (100-unit) radius automatically after 1.5 seconds or when hit by Mikheil's attack or ability

ignites brush it comes in contact with, revealing allies and enemies hiding within for 7 seconds.

E: Sirocco

Blows a jet of hot air and embers through his lantern that deals 40/60/80/120/150 (+ 30% AP) magic damage to all enemies in a cone, stunning enemy champions for 0.5/0.8/1.1/1.4/1.8 seconds and knocking them back to the outside of the cone's area of effect. -Range: 675 (60-degree cone) -cooldown: 20/18/16/14/12

Ult+E: Fire Breath

Enemies hit are also revealed and take 1%/2%/3%/4%/5% current health bonus magic damage over 5 seconds.

Ignites brush, as described in Flash Fire.

Ult: Inferno Unleashed

Mikheil channels for 0.75 seconds and releases his full power for 8/10/12 seconds, unleashing a column of fire that deals 100/200/300 +60% AP magic damage to all enemies in Mikheil's bonus vision radius and revealing it on the minimap for .75 seconds to everyone on both sides on cast, followed by a persistent 20/40/60 (+30% AP) magic damage per second to all enemies in an area equal to 50% of his bonus vision range around Mikheil for the remainder of the ability's duration.

Mikheil does not gain or lose Heat stacks until this ability expires, at which point his stacks are set to 0 and will not increase for 2/1.5/1 second(s) afterward.

Mikheil and all allies within his vision radius are granted 1/2/3 points of flat armor/magic penetration per stack of Heat he has for the duration of this ability.

Mikheil's basic abilities are altered/empowered for the duration of this ultimate. -Cost: 100 mana -Cooldown: 90/80/60 seconds.

Notes: -The bonus vision granted by Mikheil's passive lets him see what's on the other side of walls, around corners, and behind (but not inside) brush within his range, which makes catching him off-guard after he's had time to build stacks difficult for non-stealth champs. If you want to maintain the element of surprise, your best bets would be to either lie in wait in brush before he can see you, gank him early while he hasn't had time to build stacks, or use a stealth or gap-closing ability to avoid detection entirely through jumping in from out of range before he has time to react or using invisibility to render his vision irrelevant anyway.

-His Q is a ranged poke that lets him peek into brush and over walls when his passive isn't stacked, and the slow and knockback can help rein a target in for your carry to finish off. When augmented by your ultimate, it becomes a potent area-of-effect hard CC, especially when used close to max range in support of another. At closer ranges it diminishes in radius and intensity, so you are encouraged to make the most of your vision abilities to avoid being caught out in melee by an enemy assassin.

-His W I confess is basically the bastard spawn of 's shrines and 's shrooms; while they are single-target and do not stealth, they may still prove a nasty surprise when left in brush or corral enemies in narrow Jungle pathways, particularly once they reach full charge. While they may serve as mini-wards wherever they are set, their lesser range and the time it takes to build that far prevents them from replacing conventional Ward trinkets outright, which have nearly twice the radius and arm immediately. Casting directly on enemies or allies provides negligible healing and damage when your ultimate isn't active, but the respective healing reduction and CC cleanse may still prove handy in a pinch.

-His E is basically that last-resort "get out of trouble free" card to get melee champs off his or an ally's back; its long cooldown and negligible non-ult damage doesn't make it a very good first-resort option in combat, and even while ulting the %current health damage is more useful for scaring off targets closer to max health than trying to finish off weak ones, but if you've got the skill you could theoretically use it to knock an enemy into an ally's attack range or even blow them into a fully-charged bonfire and let the maximized burn damage do the rest.

-His Ultimate is somewhere between Shyvana's and Karma's in that it lets him switch modes from a mainly supportive role to a more offensive one, though between the split-second global reveal and most of its passive effects scaling with accumulated Heat stacks, it may be more prudent to save it for turning a teamfight around rather than try using it aggressively as an engage.

QUOTES:

On selection: "The spark that ignites the forest warms the hearth. Which will it be for you?"

Movement: "I'm coming, don't you worry." "Need a light?" "On my way." "Legs aren't quite what they used to be..." "Let's see what's out here." "What can I do for you?" "I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, let's not make this another one." "Just when I was starting to enjoy the scenery." "Sounds like trouble over here..."

Attacking: "Here we go again." "You really want to do this?" "Beat it, kid." "You're playing with fire, my friend. Literally." "Scram, punk." "Don't do anything we'll both regret." "Start running." "Old? Yes. Harmless? Unfortunately, no." "Don't rile me kid, it'll only end in tragedy."

Attacking Tower: "Don't mind me, just helping." "Anyone mind giving me a hand?" "Looks like I have to do this myself, then." "Old man with a lamp vs. magic stone statue. This is going to take a while."

Destroy tower: "Huh. Didn't think that would work." "Well would you look at that." "Oops." "Finally." "Oh hey, I actually did it!" "Some shoddy workmanship that turned out to be." "And I wasn't even using magic! Not like it would have helped much..."

Using W: Bonfire directly on an ally: (out of combat) "Here, let me get that." "This oughta warm you up a bit." "I know it's not much, but every bit helps." "Gives 'friendly fire' a whole new meaning, doesn't it?"

(in combat/removing CC) "I'll cauterize that, keep fighting!" "I know what I'm doing, just trust me!" "No time for questions, just keep moving!" "I got you covered, go!"

Casting Bonfire directly on self: (out of combat): "Kinda chilly out here." "What? Can't an old man treat his own injuries?" "Ugh, my joints are killing me." "Much better."

(in combat/removing CC): "I can move again!" "Nice try." "Is that the best you can do?" "It'll take more than that to stop this old man." "That could have gone badly." "I haven't lived this long to die now."

And that's the long, short, and lopsided of it. As of this writing the article is incomplete and subject to a lot more detail-adding, balancing, and fine-tuning as time goes on, but I just had to get the bare-bones out while I had the core concept committed to text. For the time being, though, any suggestions for stats, tweaks, or balancing from what you see here is welcome if provided in a polite and constructive manner, and I will be sure to address your concerns as soon as my schedule permits.

So what do you all think?

EDIT 1: Revised stats on his Q. Added damage and mana cost stats, removed blind.

EDIT 2: Added full stats to remaining abilities, champion stats still TBD.