Champion Concept: Totem, Head of The Tribe
Hello everyone :)
So I was bored and I had this concept scribbled down somewhere and I've meant to share it with you guys for quite some time but i guess I was just lazy.. Anyway, off to it:
Inspiration & Initial Concept: I've thought of the concept back in 2014 I think, when I was starting playing league. I was playing Awesomenauts as well at the time (if anyone knows it, cool game, if you don't, dont bother it's dead). One of my favorite characters from that game was called "Admiral Swiggins". Basically a british seasoned sailor, only he's also an octopus (check out the heroes they're pretty neat). Anyway one of Swiggins' abilities was "drop anchor" which made him tether an enemy player to a thrown object and that player could either get stuck in the radius of the tether or destroy the anchor to get away. I thougt this was a really cool mechanic and I thought I want to implement it in league, so I created this champ in my head.
Another inspiration I had was thinking about wombo-combos. I could come up in my head with dozens of wombo teams (though most would usually consist of Orianna and MF), but they were all circular wombo-teams, and when I tried to think of a "linear" one, I felt there were too many options (T:Rumble, J:Lee, M:Vel'koz, B:Twitch, S:Braum). The jungle especially felt scarce and I wanted a champ with a powerful "linear" ability, preferably ultimate.
The next thing I wanted was for it to be a tank. Back in 2014 I was pretty bad at the game (a trait that got stuck in me LOL) so I usually leaned towards tanky champs in order to still be useful in case I fell behind, but I also wanted the champ to be able to deal damage, because there were enough tanks in the jungle as is (little did I know I would later turn into a juggernaut main :3 )
The artistic/visual concept popped in my mind just cause, and I just kinda rolled with it. I can't paint anything, fancy or not so you'd just have to make due with my verbal description (that I won't be providing much of because I there are people out there with much more time, ability and cares about this aspect of a champion. I'm more pragmatic and tend to focus on gameplay).
So lets jump to it:
Lore: Totem is the head of a tribe that lives in the frejlord, secluded from civilization. He comes to the league because he seeks to find great stories and powers to bring back to his tribe in order to help it survive and evolve.
Visuals: As such I imagined him as having a "Native American" look. Braided hair, maybe he's shirtless and has leather pants, tattoos and what not. I don't know and honestly I don't care. If someone wants to draw some pictures they're more than welcome to. For some reason I also imagined him as being crippled (No leg/arm). I think we could use some more arch-types in league for body image and It could be really cool to see some without the regular formula.
Sounds: I dunno why, but I imagined him as mute. Seems fitting for an aloof and spiritual leader whose interests far differ from the rest of the league.
Skills: Won't be writing any numbers here, just crude concept. I WOULD RECOMMEND TO FIRST READ THE DESCRIPTION OF W
Passive: Ancient Heritage - Whenever Totem is near a pole or a tower (Alive/Destroyed), he gains bonus AD, Armor, MR and his AA do a portion of his target's max hp as physical damage.
_Insight_: I'm trying to create a juggernaut, so I need to pump him of strength and bulkiness. I'm also kinda Tired of all these passives that take have a screen in order to describe, so I've tried to go with something simple.
Q:Spirit Shock-Creates a shock wave on the ground, dealing damage to all units around Totem and slowing them. If one of Totem's poles is hit by the shock wave, it resonates, emanating the shock wave again to all surrounding units. This effect to chain-react (Think GP's barrels). Units cannot be hit by more than one shock wave.
_Insight_: Trying to create the bread & butter for the clears and ganks. It's AOE, it chunks, it slows. Nothing too shabby. The resonating effect is there because we're talking about a juggernaut, which means when he's ganking he can't really get up in the face of the gankee (can I say that?). Besides it's a freaking cool mechanic and it works wonders with GP, so hey, why not?
W: Raise Pole- Totem creates a totem pole. Poles emanates every few seconds, granting any allied champion within them a small shield. This effect can stack. Placing a pole directly on top of another adds another segment to that pole (Like how RL totems have several heads, each segment is a head). Stacking segments cause the pole to generate a larger shield, and grant Totem greater bonuses through his passive. Segments stack 3 times. Raising A segment directly on top of an enemy champion briefly knocks them up. Poles are treated as impassible terrain. Totems expire after a medium delay.
_Insight_: What I tried to achieve he is to sway Totem players to make a decision around the benefits of the passive and the shield. If totem chooses to throw all his eggs in one basket, he can be rewarded as long as he manages to reap their rewards within the expiration window, but if he fails to do so his influence drops significantly. If totem chooses to disperse his totems, he can enjoy his passive and the shield across a larger area and time span, but they'd be weaker.
Like that totem is a siege beast, forcing the enemy to decide fast whether they engage before totem sets up his poles or whether they better off waiting for them to expire.
E: An Entranced Trial- (Only castable from a pole). Totem sends a spiritual tether from one of his totems (pseudo-Vector shot), stopping at the first enemy unit. If that unit is a champion, it creates a bond between that champion and the pole. That champion cannot leave a certain radius from the totem for the duration of the effect. The champion affected (and only him) can AA the pole in order to try and destroy it and escape the trial before it ends, however he is applied with an increasing attack-speed debuff for every additional AA he makes within the radius (not necessarily on the pole). If the trialed champion manages to stay the full duration of the trial, when they are released, they are granted increased movement-speed running AWAY from enemy champions.
_Insight_: This is where the "Swiggins" Idea comes into place. I'll admit this wasn't what I originally had in mind but as I wrote these lines I just had a stroke of innovation and inspiration.
Entranced trial is meant to be exactly that; a trial. The trialed champion needs to understand their situation. Do they want to get out as fast a possible but dish out less damage in the short term? or if they can survive the trial while being heavily debuffed? It also gives Totem some much needed sticking power, considering he's a jungler.
R: The Elder Totem - Totem raises the Elder Totem Pole, the most sacred and important pole in his village, so much so that it destroys all other poles currently on the field. The Elder Pole is a huge, 4 segment pole, granting all the regular bonuses a regular 4 segmented pole would've given (remember that regular ones stack 3 times though). After raising that pole, Totem has access to two separate abilities (activated through the Ult key).
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If Totem taps the key, totem hurls each segment separately, creating a regular one-segmented pole where they land. If they collide with an enemy champion, they slow him.
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If Totem HOLDS the key, Totem hurls THE ENTIRE pole forward, creating a suction effect to all units close to it, and knocking them towards the center its fly path, after he passes by (think a linear Orianna ult). The Elder Pole then dissipates.
Insight: This is the Linear wombo part. Can't say it's flawless design and/or balanced, but it what I had in mind, and I think it could be a really cool concept. I chose to let Totem have to different ways to interact with his ult depending on the situation, because I recognized the kit lacked that high moment some other champions do, and I wanted to let Totem have a really powerful moment when he drops that giant thing in the middle of a team-fight. I also needed to compensate for the loss of all other poles on the field. (And I needed to trim the extra poles because 7 poles is no fun for anyone).
That's it.
I'm really tired now, so I'm just gonna post it without caring too much what's broken or whether I wrote pole with 7 grammar mistakes. Just really wanted to get it out there and see what you guys think.
Cheers!