Original Champion, Seerou, The Rune Herald
Seerou (Seer-ooh), The Rune Herald
Seerou started off as a joke challenger, “what would be the most complicated champion to add to League?” As I thought about the question and how it could be approached I began to realize that there was a lot of potential for a unique and fun kit, while at the same time posing a challenge in design clarity, “how can you make a complicated champion easy to pick up and play?” The kit I came up with revolves around with empowering the champion into different forms, and using the power to cast different sub-spells that vary in effect based on the form he was in. To keep make this rapid form shifting mechanic easy to pick up and use despite having so many options was choosing to keep all of his sub-spells fundamentally identical. Even if players don’t know the full effects, they’ll see that their Q always is an on target smash, their W is always a consistent skill shot, and the E is always some form of dash. I spent a while a few weeks ago putting together illustrations and explanations on all of his skills as well as analysis on the decision making and goals that went on during his development with each skill to build towards an ideal, unified, champion feeling to play as or against. The following link is the more in-depth project I made for Seerou with all the artwork, I highly recommend reading through that project and treating the following description as a TLDR. http://imgur.com/a/Ylvpk Thank you, and I hope you enjoy Seerou.
Seerou is a foreign freedom fighter, wielding broken runic armor and his flagstaff to oppose the uprising of Azir. Seerou recovered the runic armor after attacking an enemy raid party that had dug it out of ancient ruins. Using the magic-filled armor, Seerou now boldly fights against all oppression spreading across Valoran. Seerou is designed to look like a satyr, with violet runic armor to match the look of the runic shards Ryze now carries post-rework. The champion design process on Seerou was rather fast and if I went back to redesign him I would change him to match the aesthetic of the Shuriman animals to give him a more solid place in valoran.
Seerou uses Energy instead of Mana. While this decision was criticised during his development because typically Energy champion were less magical focused and ninjas, the quick recovering low resource pool that Energy offered was exactly what I wanted in Seerou’s gameplay. Limiting players spell use during a fight and quickly recovering, rather than limiting their spell use over a very extended period of time with Mana.
Even though Seerou’s weapon is a long flagstaff that he modified into a halberd with a runic shard, for his basic attacks Seerou beats enemies in close range with the butt of his flagstaff. The full range of the weapon and runic blade are utilized in his skills.
Passively Seerou gains a larger max health pool (up to a point) from killing large jungle monsters. This passive incentivises Seerou players to keep his play in the jungle. From a gameplay perspective this scaling health gives a valid reason to give Seerou weaker base defenses and health early game so that he would be bullied out of lane if players did try to play him there as well.
Q - Burning Form Seerou’s Burning Form focuses on damage output, choosing the proper burning spell could make the difference in securing a kill. Burning Q smashes an enemy with the extended range of Seerou’s flagstaff, dealing bonus damage based on the target's missing health. Burning W fires out a powerful skillshot, bursting into an AOE on the first enemy unit it hits. Ideal for harassing or punishing grouped enemies. Burning E charges Seerou forward, damaging enemies he runs through lightly and giving him an attack speed buff for a few seconds after charging. The improved DPS could be crucial for winning drawn out fights or duels.
W - Spirit Form Seerou’s Spirit Form focuses on health sustain. Utilizing Spirit Form keeps Seerou healthy while clearing the jungle to gank frequently, and could also save his life in close encounters. Spirit Q smashes the enemy with the extended range of Seerou’s flagstaff, applying Grievous Wounds to the target for a few seconds. Spirit W fires out a lower damage skillshot that lays a damage over time zone in a small area where it impacts, healing Seerou based on the number of enemies effected. The more units being damaged by the zone per tick, the more health Seerou heals from it. Spirit E charges Seerou forward, damaging enemies he runs through lightly and giving him a lifesteal buff for a few seconds after charging.
E - Spark Form Seerou’s Spark Form focuses on utility and mobility. Quickly choosing the correct option in spark form can easily make or break ganks and fights. Spark Q smashes the enemy with the extended range of Seerou’s flagstaff, dealing less damage than the other forms, but rooting the target briefly. Spark W fires out a bolt of runic energy, upon connecting with a neutral or enemy unit Seerou surges through the bolt, dealing less damage than other forms, but repositions Seerou to the units location. This skill can also be used to surge through walls and connect with jungle camps on the other side. Spark E blinks Seerou to a target location, dealing less damage to enemies he lands on than other forms, but in return this is immediate repositioning and can be used to move through terrain as opposed to his other dashes.
R - Rune Storm After a brief period to indicate the affected area, Seerou creates a runic shockwave around himself, damaging and slowing enemies caught in the zone. After the shockwave ends Seerou gains a buff reducing his cooldowns and energy costs on spells. The strength of the buff scales with the number of allies inside the shockwave when it goes off. This ultimate forces Seerou players to wait on their teammates to set up a fight before going in and setting up a spell frenzy. For a champion with a kit full of options, being able to set up game winning teamfights on his own, was not something I wanted. To get full value out of this skill players need to gauge the perfect time to damage enemies and build a strong buff, alongside being mechanically capable of making use of the spell frenzy buff afterwards.
The cooldowns on Seerou’s spells tie in with the cooldown on the subspell he chooses to cast. For instance, if the player chooses to lead a fight with a Burning W skillshot, all W skillshots in all forms will be on cooldown until his Burning form comes off of cooldown. This prevents Seerou players from abusing the amount of dashes in his kit, using all dash forms immediately to cover tons of distance far too quickly. This cooldown system also forces Seerou players to begin planning combos and make more meaningful decisions when fighting. For instance, if a player leads a fight with their Spark Q smash to root the enemy, will their Q smash be off cooldown in time to finish the enemy off with a Burning execute? While the cooldowns on Seerou’s spell are low, keeping track of which spells are being used and which you want to use in the future is important to maximize damage and play smoothly.
Thank you for reading though my champion concept, Seerou, the Rune Herald. Once again please consider the text here as a TLDR for the full project, if you would like to see the in-depth analysis and concept work for Seerou please see the imgur link above. Thank you, all comments and critiques are appreciated!
