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[Champion Concept] Malus: The Scourge of Demacia

Your Starchild·2/11/2015, 11:59:59 PM·7 votes·1,463 views

Malus: The Scourge of Demacia Lore: Once a talented alchemist, succumbing to the art of necromancy was this man’s undoing. Wronged by Demacia and blamed for a plague outbreak that was not his doing, he now prepares to exact revenge on those he once loved, spreading the very plague that he once strove to cure, augmented by his scourge of undeath.

Resource: Mana Malus uses mana to give his enemies a variety of illnesses, not limited to plague, dysentery, and AIDS.

Passive: Cull the Living (Can be toggled) (Undead HP: +10 % Malus’ Maximum Health) (Heroic Undead HP: +25 % Malus’ Maximum Health) Lifetime: 10 seconds at all levels. Malus passively raises all dead around him. Which share fifty percent of the base health of what they once were. Champions will be risen as heroic undead, who are strong, and share one hundred percent of the base health of what they once were. Cannon and siege minions will spawn twice the amount of undead. All undead will die when Malus is slain. All undead risen are considered enemies to the enemy team, meaning enemy heroes and minions risen will fight for Malus’ side. When In Hallowed Grounds: Malus will have a chance to rise two times the number of dead per corpse. Heroic undead are not included into this agument.

The dead never truly die in the Malus’s wake.

Q: Stir the Dead (Mana Cost: 10/12/14/16/20 Increased by 25 every successful cycle) (Success Cooldown: 3 at all levels, 1.5 seconds being the ‘beat’ interval) (Unsuccess Cooldown: 30 at all levels) (Tier 1 Undead HP: +5 % Malus’ Maximum Health) (Tier 2 Undead HP: 15 % Malus’ Maximum Health) (Tier 3 Undead: 25 % Malus’ Maximum Health) (Tier 4 Undead HP: 35 % Malus’ Maximum HP) Malus channels rhythmically as he taps the ground with his staff, raising undead on every second successful ‘beat’ of this ability. With every successful summon/cycle, the mana cost will increase, but the strength of Malus’s risen undead will increase exponentially to devastating levels in both strength and number. Failing to use this ability at the correct time however, will cause this ability to reset. (Tier is increased per every 2 successful cycles.) (This ability resets when the Demon is successfully summoned.) When In Hallowed Grounds: An increased number of undead will be risen per every successful cycle of this ability. At five successful cycles however within hallowed ground, something terrible will awaken… an undead demon, sharing seventy five percent of Malus’s maximum health. Demon Stats: The demon can be controlled with an alt click, simply because it’s worth commanding. The demon will share seventy five percent of Malus’s stats, and will deal physical damage in an aoe around itself equal to five percent of Malus’s maximum health.

Sometimes, some things really should remain buried beneath the ground.

W: Afflict/Seizure (Mana Cost: 60/100/140/200/320) (Cooldown: 20/18/16/14/10) (Slow Duration: 1/1.5/2/2.5/3.5) (Slow Amount: 10%/20%/30%/40%/75%) (Root Duration: 0.5/1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds) (Curse Duration: 15/30/45/60/75 seconds) Malus afflicts an enemy champion with his deadly plague. Slowing and dealing damage over time while applying an armor and magic resist debuff. When In Hallowed Grounds: This ability can be activated twice within hallowed grounds, the targeted champion effectively becoming cursed and rooted as the undead reach upwards to grasp the enemy champion, giving Malus true sight of the enemy champion whenever it trespasses onto hallowed grounds. Note: allies are not given true sight. Champions that die while cursed, will no longer be cursed when spawned.

On the fields of justice, no one escapes the plague master’s grasp.

E: Thread of Life (Mana Cost Per Second: 5/10/15/20/25) (Cooldown: 2 at all levels) (Health Cost Per Second: 0.5%/1%/2%/3%/5%) (Heal Per Second: 1%/2%/3%/4%/6%) Malus tethers himself to an allied champion, sacrificing a percentage of his health each second to give his ally a large heal per second. When In Hallowed Grounds: Thread of life will be casted in a radius around him, tethering all those in his wake. The HP cost per second will be doubled in consequence.

The plague master never truly abandoned his alchemic-medicinal art.

R: Hallowed Grounds (Mana Cost: 100/200/300) (Cooldown: 45/35/25) (Armor Debuff: 5%/10%/20%) (Magic Resist Debuff: 5%/10%/20%) (Base Health Regen Increase: 100%/250%/500%) Malus blights a targeted area, applying an armor and magic resist debuff to all enemies within it. Additionally, all of Malus’s abilities will be augmented when inside the blighted area. Malus gains a huge base hp regen increase while inside hallowed grounds. As a note, Malus will lose half of his hallowed ground radiuses when he dies.

Malus sows and reaps the benefits of his glorious work.

Fun Stuff

Quotes

Spawning Why do I need to be here? I much wanted to… sleep in today. The plague master walks! I’ll give them space aids! (rare) I treat the dead and living alike.

Talking to Shopkeek and purchasing item Keep healthy by buying health little ones. (hp item) Sorcery to spread aids. (mana items) If you hear me, how about you cry some more so I can stack this faster? (tear of the goddess) (Note: Will give ap ratios to make this more viable) I’ll smite them with it, (archangels staff) If it doesn’t work, I’m calling your manager. (archangels staff) I’ve already got one anyway! (frozen heart) Overcompensating is what I do best. (warmogs) Ill omens. (randuins)

Moving Moving. Yes. I spread my blight! I feel them, all of them. They reach out to me!

Attacking Smite them! Plague them! I, will, hurt, you. Die. I send you back to the Earth! To the dust with you!

Casting Q Stir em up good! Wakey wakey, no egg and bakey! Get up already! Wake… up. it’s time to dine on living flesh! Ring ring! It’s one of those alarm clichés again. (rare) A good beat to tap into their souls.

Failing Q No! I was distracted! Well it’s your fault summoner, all you need to do is press Q! (extremely rare) I’m so stupid! I done goofed it up! Lets try that again later…

Successful Q cycle Get up! Wake up! What are you waiting for? Attack! I didn’t bring you here to do nothing! I don’t even know what you’re supposed to be! But I don’t care! Attack!

Summoning Demon Oh, hello there. Want to be friends? I’ve been looking for you all over the place! Wait till I tell annie what I’ve found! Found her! (play on annie ultimate) (rare) Ohhhh yes!!! Demonfire!!! From the abyss it comes! Tibbers has nothing on you! (Extremely rare) What a handsome devil.

Casting W Slow down for a minute. Aids please. (rare) Plague upon you! Dysentary! (rare) Herpes! (rare) Cancer! (rare) The common cold! (rare) Die! To the earth with you!

Casting W Second Time In Hallowed Ground Reach out! Lend him a hand! Lend her a hand! Stay still. Make some friends! Stop. Stop moving. Just stop. They told me to reach out, they said it would help… So I did! Aha!

Casting E My life to yours. Heals on wheels! Have my life! You will live. I’m only good when im dead, but, you, not so much.

Casting E in Hallowed Grounds Gather around! Aids all round! (rare) Dysentary! Herpes! Plague! Get it while it lasts! (extremely rare) Gather round the plague master. Get it while it’s hot.

Casting E SPECIAL is it… is it working? (On Karthus) *I think you… grew a blemish… ehe… (On Karthus) Skin! It’s skin! (On Karthus) How many corpses are you comprised of? (On Sion) I don’t think it’s working. (On sion) You’re a lost cause (On sion) It’s space aids. I can’t cure it! Don’t you understand? (On Sion)

Casting R A kiss upon the Earth It’s potato season. Sickening… who would do such a thing?

Dying No! Nooooooo! I’ll… get you… eugh… My children! Aid me! Aid.. ai… aids... eaugh… I’ll be back in a… in a jiffy… yeaugh… A trip back home… always a good for the… soul…. Yagh…. I’ll… be back…

Respawning A minor inconvencien. I was never dead! I didn’t die. How could I die? Eaguh! (spits out dirt) I hate being dead! Wait a minute…

Taunts Live? No… DIE (Soraka) How many people are you supposed to be? (Sion) I’ll make you my lich. (Karthus) Cheater! (Zilean) I’ll kill you again… and again… and again, all for what you did! (Garen) You’ll be a martyr, and all the dead will know the truth! (Jarvan IV) I had the cure! What did you hope to gain? (Jarvan IV) Enough of your frivolity! (Lux) Stop… laughing… (Lux) I’ll shrivel up your lungs… and then we’ll see who’s laughing! You arrogance blinds you! (Vayne) Evil? No, I am but purity! (Vayne) You couldn’t hold a pint. (Vladimir)

Right, so basically, he can effectively become out of control if given the opportunity to spread his aids around, so is there another way to manage him? Yes, there is actually, with a little item that all of the enemy team can get (for free) to make Malus’s aids outbreak a bit more manageable.

Purifying Stave: This is a special item, it can only be bought by one champion, so best give it to support. What does it do? Well, it cures aids, cancer, and basically, it channels for five seconds to remove an area of Malus’s blight from the map. Just note, you cannot spam it – need to be fair to Malus as well. (As a note, this takes up a trinket slot)

Counterplay

In Lane Basically, this guy is going to push, push, and push some more while he’s not babysitting the adc. And when he is babysitting the adc, guess what? He’s going to curse you, root you, push you and laugh at you as his zombie horde pursues you all the way to tower. So what do you do? You harass him right back. This guy really does not hurt that much, and is very passive. Aggressive lanes can easily destroy him, and early on his armor and magic resist debuff is very much negligible. His tether, is also very punishing if you make him use it, so in the end, all Malus does is hurt himself.

Mid Game So you’re out of lane, you find that your jungle is full of blight. Baron isn’t feeling good either since his drinking water is probably poisoned, dragon as well. So what do we do about a Malus that is trying to establish a presence all over the map? You must have map vision, first of all. Malus will no doubt spam his ultimate down lanes whenever it Is on cd, and a good malus will no doubt cover his side of the map in so much blight that the rift will become unrecognizable. When one skirmishes, make sure to have the support with you in order to get rid of Malus’s blight. Better to kill him too, as a lot of his blight will simply, well, go away if he dies.

Late Game Malus is tapping Q like a boss, he has righteous glory and he’s sieging your base like into eternity. What to do? Lots of wave clear will be needed. Luckily, Malus has no initiating abilities within his kit. If the game did get this far, Malus will no doubt be an absolute monster if he has managed to build some mana, health, health regen, and armor. Killing him is a must, or at least killing his team before his exponential undead become too much to manage.

I’ll add some more details later, like a ‘how to play,’ some scaling maybe. I’m thinking some hp scaling for his zombie horde would not be too bad. And all tips appreciated. Thanks in advance.

note: I feel as though this champion would not be friendly to toasters...

8 Comments

Joskonathon2/12/2015, 8:55:49 AM2 votes

It's a really cool and unique concept, and while 'raising the undead' is kinda Yorick's thing Malus really does take it to the next level. I'll give some of my thoughts (you don't have to take them into account).

Passive: So. Freakin'. Cool. Thing is, raising all dead is a bit of a problem. Unless these things barely scratch you, you can get a bunch of them really easily and pretty much just shove a lane. Do they only apply to allied minions, or all minions? Do they have durations based on their classes, like champions last the longest and normal minions the shortest? It's a really cool idea, but without proper balancing it's also a really broken idea.

Q: I see how it works. It would be hard to control but if you somehow managed to do it, it'd be really strong. I like this ability, and in my mind I get an idea of average to really strong as the beat goes on. The 'something terrible will awaken' really has me annoyed, because I want to know what. Patience isn't my thing.

W: Silences are a fickle thing. Single target silences are practically non-existent now due to their ability to completely shut someone down. Remember Kassasin and Leblanc when they had a silence? I sure as hell don't want to. Even Talon's silence, which was neither long nor felt particularly strong, was removed because of the general lack of counter play. That's the problem I see with this ability: lack of counter play. You cast this on an AP mage, and despite being a support you have effectively negated everything she (I'm thinking of Leblanc here) can do. I don't like the idea of a silence in his kit, but otherwise it fits in thematically and is a well-thought out ability.

E: It better be a big percentage of his health, or else I see a more frustrating version of Soraka. I feel like perhaps the health cost on this ability should be increased with each successive heal, Ala Swain ultimate (but with health), so that he can only get off a certain number of frustrating heals before he's forced out. To be fair, the health regeneration in his 'hallowed grounds' should make up for the successive health lost.

R: I love it. It's unique, it's cool, and due to the item that allows it to be removed it's fairly balanced. If his team gets ahead, the enemy team will have to fight on the Hallowed Grounds which isn't particularly convenient. Smart usage, particularly like Rek'Sai's tunnels, can really make or break a fight. The ability to remove it was a great idea, as it keeps his kit balanced. I still want to find out what 'something terrible will awaken means though'.

Overall, I love the concept and I do like the way you've presented his kit. While he is strong, he's also forced to play fairly passive, meaning that against aggressive teams he'll be more susceptible. I honestly think he's great, and that with a little changing here and there (and a little look at his ratios) he'd be a pretty damn good champion.

Flintfall2/12/2015, 6:09:40 PM2 votes

I love different takes on shamistic champions :P

My only problem is that ou have a lot of targeted abilities, namely Afflict/Seizure. considering its potency. I would find a way to delive the spell other than targeted means.

DrCuddlesPhD2/12/2015, 8:21:52 AM1 votes

Doesn't his passive seem a bit strong? Or do the raised dead remain on the team they were on originally?

Your Starchild2/13/2015, 1:17:10 AM1 votes

Some updates peeps.

Silence doesnt exist anymore, rather to make him more lore friendly, the dead will reach up to root a target at Malus' command. Also, some ballpark stats that may or may not work. :-] New classification/scaling for the 'q tap' undead, and also, a mighty demon under the plague master's command.