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The Open Champion Project: Building a Skill set | Part 1

Baxter900·2/18/2015, 2:54:52 AM·10 votes·3,936 views

What is the Open Champion Project? The Open Champion Project is based on the idea that we, as a community, can work together to create a champion from scratch. This post will cover the creation of a champion from scratch, along with the appropriate game design concepts. Everyone is encouraged to chime in with criticism or ideas throughout the process.

What is the champion so far? Right now, the Open Champion Project is in it's infancy, we've only chosen the core concept of the champion: A Trap Master. If you want to see the past posts, the community went through the decision making at this post: boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/vIVuR3BE-the-open-champion-project

Necessary Legalese So as a community project, we want Riot's support, and we also want them to help us along the way, as they have a better understanding of how to create champions than we do. However, there's a legal problem that prevents them from acknowledging champion ideas or skin ideas. The problem is, upon posting an idea for the first time, the poster legally gains the copyright to it. This means that if Riot acknowledges that they've seen the idea at some point, the poster has legal basis to sue them, even if Riot can prove that they already had the champion in the works well before it was posted. This is the same reason why authors have a policy of "we don't read fanfiction", because while no one has attempted to sue someone yet, it's a legal minefield to do so. Thus we have to get around this problem. The way we do this for the Open Champion Project is by releasing everything into the public domain. Thus everything contained within the Open Champion Project is licenses via the Creative Commons CC0 license. By contributing an idea in this thread, you also agree that your idea is released under the CC0 license. This allows Riot employees to actively participate without any legal risk.

#The Kit So Far (Uber tentative, criticism is encouraged!!!)

Passive: The Trap Master slowly gains cast range for his Traps over time, up to a maximum of X range in Y seconds. Casting an ability resets this gain. The gain would likely be on a logarithmic scale, so at the start the gain would be fast, slowing down over time.

Passive on an ability (probably W since it's currently the only one someone can be trapped in): The Trap Master deals extra damage to targets which are trapped.

The Q: So the Q is actually the ability which first got many people to see that the Trap Master idea could both still have counter play, while also being powerful. The idea is that of a decent ranged, ground targeted skillshot that would attach to a unit if it hits, a wall if it hits a wall, or the ground if it doesn’t hit anything. In it’s current iteration, it stays indefinitely, and the Q can be reactivated in order to explode the skillshot, dealing damage and knocking everyone back in a small area. (It wouldn’t start the cooldown timer until you reactivate it.)

The W: The W is, in it’s current form, an ability which places a visible trap with a small area it can be triggered on. It then attaches the champion to an object in the center, and limits their movement to an area within it. (We’re currently thinking a decent amount larger than a J4 ult would be good, but it’s up for debate, and would probably be changed through balancing). The trapped champion would then be able to escape either by waiting X seconds for the trap to wear off, using a CC removing move, or destroying the object in the center. This would probably need a limitation of X on the map at one time.

The E: A small "trampoline trap" is placed. Enemies that step on the trap are vaulted away from the trap and take damage upon landing, destroying the trap in the process. Allied champions may right click the trap to vault themselves a short distance.

The Ult:

The Trap Master places a series of 3 electrostatic rods in rapid succession at the target locations (pressed 3 times). After all are placed, a stream of electricity arcs between the 3 rods, causing enemies to take continual damage and be slowed a small amount while passing through the electric arcs. Rods disappear after X seconds and can be destroyed after taking Y hits.

Other ideas: Invisibility which lasts for a very long time, isn't canceled by placing traps (activating still cancels it) and isn't true invisibility, in that the Trap Master leaves "footprints" where he's standing. Other proposed elements include a speed boost while invisible, and keeping the traps invisible until the invisibility ends.

This is all tentative, so remember, if you have an idea, post it!!!

#4/21/15 Criticism galore!!! Alright, nobody's said anything for a while, so we're going to move on to the next part, criticism! This is your time to criticize anything about the kit. So everybody try and find anything in the kit that seems weird, or out of place, then post about it! Our goal here is to find all the ways people could break it, before it's possible. Or to find things which don't encourage what we want!

#3/20/15 Beginning to make the kit So before I start this post, I want to make an apology to all those who’ve participated. It’s been over a month since the last post, and that is simply unacceptable. I’ve had numerous personal issues that stopped me from writing here, but still, this is unacceptable, I will try harder next time as you guys deserve better.

Anyway moving on to the next part, now that we know the core play style of the champion, it’s time to move on to choosing a kit. Now this part is a little bit different. In the past few sections, I’ve detailed a specific “best choice” way to walk through champion creation, in order to have the end result of the best possible champion. But here, things are very nebulous, and more organic. Everything we talk about will take place as free form discussion in the comments. If you see anything you disagree with, chime in, same if you agree with something. It’s impossible to know which ideas people like if you don’t write it, so chime in!!!

Throughout the time we discuss this, I’ll chime in and talk about ideas people come up with, and why they’re so good, or why I don’t think that they’re a good idea. Regardless what I say though, feel free to argue with me! I am far from an authority on this, I just have a general knowledge.

As you’ve probably noticed above I’ve posted the kit that insofar, has gotten the most approval from people.

I’ll be posting an analysis of the current iterations for abilities in the kit soon, and why they’re good design, and I’ll probably also put up a couple of the reasons I said an ability was not good design in the comments.

I also plan to talk about other kit development concepts as they come up, due to the fact that there are a lot of them, and they aren’t always relevant.

Anyway, for anyone who’s still here, thank you for being patient!!! The champion’s beginning to look really good! Lets keep working on him/her/it!!!

#2/19/15 Choosing a Core Playstyle Alright, so as per the poll, the champ we're designing will be a Jungler!!!

So the first thing we now have to do, is come up with the core playstyle for the champion, along with little details about how they should play. For now, I'll collect the ideas people have proposed here! Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various playstyles in the comments, remember that you should consider balance when thinking about core playstyles!!!

Core Playstyles proposed:

Edit: The Core Playstyles have been proposed much more modularly than I thought they would be, so instead, I'm putting up a list of the core tenants people seem to have been mentioning:

  • Has to farm some before ganking
  • Traps stay around for a while
  • Should be focused on trapping, not zoning
  • Potentially some conditional stealth?
  • Either damage burst, or cc burst.
  • Potentially anti-jungling (counterjungling is taking other people's camps, anti-jungling is making it impossible for them, and/or going in for the sole purpose of killing them, Shaco's often a good example)
  • Traps should NOT activate by themselves, they should require the player to press a button.

#2/17/15 Starting to Design a Champion kit So the first thing that one must do in order to design a champion kit after you have the core concept, is not, as most people would think, to decide the role they are going to play. In my experience, in moba-like games, where each character is meant to have a completely unique playstyle, pigeonholing a character into a role before they are finished is considered limiting. If you do that, you run the risk of diluting the core mechanical idea of your champion. A great example of this is Azir, yes, Azir is a mage, but he doesn't have very many mage-like characteristics. He overall, plays somewhat like a mix between an adc and a mage. However, if you were to categorize him as a mage while working on him, you'd have run the risk of making him more of a homogenous champion than he is now. It seems simple enough to choose not to do that, but when you're creating a champion, that sort of thing seeps into every decision made, and alters it, usually not for the better.

For this reason, we use something called a Core Playstyle. A Core Playstyle is what we call the intended way for a champion to be played. For example, lux's core playstyle throughout the game is to poke with E and fish for Q's, before going all in. Rengar's is to wait for people to get low, then ult and burst them, before either cleaning up or running away. Some champions it's harder to see, for example, on ADC's. All ADC's have the Core Playstyle of getting in a good position for teamfights then just sitting there, but they have their own Core Playstyles in lane. Sivir's is to poke a lot, and bait for abilities, Jinx's is to farm a lot, and go all in when a support catches, Varus's is to poke a ridiculous amount, then attempt to engage by ulting. They all have slightly different Core Playstyles. Do note that most champions have different Core Playstyles for different phases of the game, very few are like Lux and Rengar and basically do the same thing always, most will have a specific Core Playstyle for lane, and one for late game teamfights.

So now that you know what a Core Playstyle is, you're probably ready to start brainstorming some! Well there is one thing we have to do first... While I spent that whole first paragraph talking about the dangers of picking a role beforehand, there's one special condition. The early Core Playstyles for Junglers have to be designed completely differently from laners. You can interchange any laners early Core Playstyles, and you'll find some matches (For example, Zed and Jayce are actually pretty similar for lanes), however the Core Playstyle for Junglers is different. With Laners, you consider how often you want them poking, how easily you want them to farm, and when and how they should be getting kills when deciding their early Core Playstyle. With Junglers you're going to have to consider how much you want them ganking, how you want them dealing with counterjungling, how good at objective taking should they be alone, and so on. It's a completely different ballpark. Thus, we're going to vote on whether the champion should be a Jungler or not. So far I've seen most people want it to be a Jungler, but we'll see.

One last thing of note, it's worth remembering that lanes, like Jungler, are not in fact Roles. Roles are how you want a champion to behave, in a holistic sense, lanes are what ways you want the champions interacting, early on in the game. It's completely different, and you should be thinking about lanes.

Anyway, I'd encourage people to start brainstorming for Core Play styles! What follows is a quick overview of the basics of a Core Play Style:

  • A core play style does not reference specific abilities. I.E. CC them, instead of use a snare.
  • A Core play style is super vague, most are shared by several different champions at least partly (Think, poke then ult for kill)
  • Try to outline a bit of when a champion can do what, do they need their ult to gank well? How often do they have their initiation up?
  • Keep it simple, if you can't say it in a sentence, it's probably too complex.
  • Unlike Core Concepts, there are such things as bad Core Playstyles, coughUrgotcough (seriously though, who thought a good core playstyle was, "Poke, poke, poke, land a skillshot allowing for super strong, extremely high range damage, then take yourself into the center of the other team" was a good playstyle?) Anyway, remember to think in terms of gameplay health on this one!

Tl;Dr: We're going to run a poll on whether or not this champion should be a jungler, in the mean time, feel free to post and debate Core Playstyles!

When reading the comments, please make sure you are viewing the thread in Chronological view in order to allow for new ideas to have equal potential for support as older ones. We don't want the "Reddit Syndrome" where an upvote or downvote can make or break an idea. If someone has an unpopular view, we want to understand why, not condemn it.

To check that you are in Chronological view, look directly below the text which says "Discuss". If the text reads "Show in Discussion view" you are in Chronological view. If the text says "Switch to Chronological view" then you are in Discussion view and should click the text to change to Chronological view.

#Consider the poll below closed, I screwed up and thought I could delete it!!!

61 Comments

Kamiroo Wolf2/18/2015, 3:14:14 AM3 votes

Core Playstyle)

So basically, as I have mentioned before, I think the Trap Master should be a hyper squishy stealth mode AD assassin(I don't mean assassin as in the role, rather just assassin-like). Map awareness, timing, and communication should be essential for this champion to excel, making him a rather difficult pick. They should be a supporting champion of some kind that is adept at giving their allies significant tactical advantages through a wide variety(and by this I mean an interchangeable set) of traps. Not sure what kind of kit specifically I want for the champ though.

Baxter9002/25/2015, 5:44:28 AM2 votes

So right now the core idea's I'm hearing are:

  • Has to farm some before ganking
  • Traps stay around for a while
  • Should be focused on trapping, not zoning
  • Potentially some conditional stealth?
  • Either damage burst, or cc burst.
  • Potentially anti-jungling (counterjungling is taking other people's camps, anti-jungling is making it impossible for them, and/or going in for the sole purpose of killing them, Shaco's often a good example)
  • Traps should NOT activate by themselves, they should require the player to press a button.

Those sound about right? If so that gives us a lot to work with, along with some key areas to get around.

These ideas tell us that his pattern should either be: Farm alot --> go in for the kill ON THE ENEMY JUNGLER --> help laners slightly, but be bad with ganks

Farm alot --> Set up an ambush on a lane --> assasinate them

Either way, it sounds like we've decided he's not going to be a great ganker, or even be able to gank much unless his teammate coordinates with him. Which while it sounds bad, allows us to put a lot of his power elsewhere, and allows us to give him a clear weakness, gank a lot and don't farm and he can't do as much. I have an idea for how we could get around the potential problem of traps being used for zoning, and for the frustration that would inevitably come from stepping on traps all the time, but I'll talk about that later, and it's just an idea.

As for the monster-buff argument, if we do what I'm thinking, it will end up being unnecessary.

I'd like to encourage people to think outside the box, I know that seems obvious, but if you want some really good examples, look at Bard. I may actually do a post analyzing Bard tomorrow, since he has many tenants of good champion design very clear.

Anyway, if you see anything missing from that list I gave that I missed when reading over everything, speak up!!! I think it's time for us to move on soon!

SpiceIsRight3/21/2015, 9:11:34 PM2 votes

Here are a few ideas to fill in gaps (Q/W are great so far!)

Passive:

Premeditation- [Trap Master] slowly gains cast range for his Traps over time, up to a maximum of X range in Y seconds. Casting an ability resets this gain.

This passive would let the damage passive (if still desired) reside in an ability rather than inherent passive. The passive would encourage contemplation and patience... fitting the theme of a genuine trap master plotting for the ideal time (not spamming traps). The idea is to make placing traps more meaningful and will help with ganking.

E:

Sling-Trap- [Trap Master] places an elastic trampoline trap at the target location. Enemies that step on the trap are vaulted away from the trap and take damage upon landing. Allies (including [Trap Master]) may right click the trap to vault themselves a short distance and gain a small increase in movement speed.

This would give [Trap Master] some movement capacity while sticking with the trap theme. He would place the trap at the cursor and then drag the cursor in a direction. The cursor-drag would be the direction enemies/allies would be flung. It makes sense that allies can use it effectively because they could be told the secrets of the trap from [Trap Master]

Ultimate:

Triangulate- [Trap Master] places a series of 3 electrostatic rods in rapid succession at the target locations (pressed 3 times). After all are placed, a stream of electricity arcs between the 3 rods, causing enemies to take continual damage and be slowed a small amount while passing through the electric arcs. Rods disappear after X seconds and can be destroyed after taking Y hits.

Yes, this means the [Trap Master] has a trap that isn't as permanent as his others and could be used to zone a bit, but I think this fits well into his niche. It's unique, provides counterplay, and is good for jungling. He'd place one rod with first ultimate press, a second with second... Each rod would have a fixed distance it couldn't pass away from the last rod. It could box champions in if used to make a triangle, or even be used all in a straight line to cut off a chunk of map.

Vbunnie2/18/2015, 3:12:58 AM2 votes

traps that stick to surfaces, Walls ground enemies directly exc. oh yeah and invisibility/mobility/cc/damage/enhanced damage to monsters. trap set on walls pulls target to certain area if they arive in range, where ground trap is set. This goes off either slowing or otherwise ccing the enemy. hypersquishy assassin like champion with low base damage but control though the use of his traps.

MultiBuildMaster2/25/2015, 2:18:21 PM1 votes

Nope i think that about covers every thing

Vbunnie2/26/2015, 8:24:56 PM1 votes

yes agreed. Now that being said monster buffs might not be needed I do disagree with the idea of that in general however that was the best working example at how to solve his issues at the time. Another potential is monster kills grant bonus stats or something that way he builds up over time. Each type of creature grants a bonus do a different stat.

Baxter9003/5/2015, 2:48:42 AM1 votes

Alright, I want to start by saying sorry for taking this long, but know that I haven't abandoned this!

Real life took over the past week, and I haven't been able to have any free time. I should be able to update the main post this weekend, but for now, start talking about actual abilities/ability comboes that you would like to see.

Again, sorry for this, it's really been very hectic on my end.

MultiBuildMaster3/5/2015, 9:31:38 PM1 votes

Ok so im going to just start throwing out ability ideas passive: deals extra damage to targets caught within traps Q: Skin em - slashes at a target reducing armor W: Chain trap- places an invisible trap after a short channel that when reactivated deals damage and prevents moving more than 160 units from the center (basically it chains an enemies to a single spot so they can still move but no further than a given range and cant use movement ability's to escape) E: Hogtie- stuns a target within AA range R: Trappers hide - After a short Chanel becomes indivisible and gains increased vision on reactivation jumps to target location

so there's my very basic ideas about the trappers kit

Kamiroo Wolf3/6/2015, 12:44:08 AM1 votes

How about we incorporate the bonus damage to trapped enemies passive into one of his abilities(perhaps his W), making way for a different innate?

If I could suggest another ability:

How about an ability not meant to deal damage to enemies(still dealing minor damage), but instead assist with pushing in lane for allies. I was thinking a trap that deals bonus damage to minions and monsters that is useful for a Trap Master found in lane or wanting to invade/prevent enemy jungling/farming.

If not that then how about a Combat Stim(name taken from XCOM...just like the name) that improves the damage output or performance of an ally whilst they are in lane. It would, of course, last a rather short time, forcing the Trap Master to really focus on timing. I was thinking buffs along the lines of Tenacity, lifesteal, increased damage output, or basic heals(since the idea of Bard's shrine power up really fascinated me).

MultiBuildMaster3/6/2015, 1:53:02 PM1 votes

ok like i said i was just giving ideas to give us a starting place and as for the range of the leash on the W i meant 160 units radius so they can go 160 units in any direction from the center or half of jarvins ult Now for the idea with the place on wall and explode trap i was thinking it can have an aoe knock back to help keep some one in an area For the idea of the stim it could be a posiblity

Baxter9003/9/2015, 4:31:45 AM1 votes

Spent an hour writing the update, clicked save, it deleted everything -_-

I have a busy day tomorrow so I can't do it then. I will do it as soon as possible though. Sorry again for the delay, my life has been sooooo hectic recently.

Long story short, we're moving on to building the kit once I actually get it up. I had written a bunch of advice on deciding whether an ability is good or not, but the most important piece was that you should always consider whether the ability pushes the player towards the playstyle you want, or not.

Anyway, post the kits, debate, I'll update the main post eventually (and this time, I'll save it in an external text editor!!!)

LeonDemonOfDeath3/9/2015, 4:58:00 AM1 votes

Trap doors in which the Trap master can scatter a certain number around (they possibly increase based on rank), and are used as his main mobility or such. Only he can see them. He can click on a trap door to instantly travel to a different one, but the range would not be that big. (It would possibly increase based on rank up to 1000 range?) If an enemy is to walk on a trap door by accident, they're feared, take small amount of damage, and then are slowed by 35% for 1/1.5/2/2.5/3 seconds? Trap doors also have a cooldown, if you travel through one, you can't travel through it again for some time. (or even forever hence it getting destroyed or something.)

Baxter9003/9/2015, 9:16:55 PM1 votes

Alright, I have a free second so I'll give my ideas on a few of the proposed abilities: The "combat stim" I feel, would eliminate a big weakness that the trap master currently has built into his kit. What the combat stim ability says is, you shouldn't be ganking really, instead you should be farming, and keeping your lane ahead by buffing them. This has a couple of problems. The first is that there's no risk involved. With Bard, this ability type works because he has to leave his bot lane partner alone while he roams, putting his lane at a significant disadvantage for a time while he goes and gives other lanes an advantage. For a jungler, there's no tradeoff, the only reason not to do it is that you lose a bit of farm, and you'd lose more ganking anyway. The next problem is that this eliminates a weakness that, while not evident exactly in the Core Playstyle elements we identified, would be a good place to put a weakness. By creating an anti-jungler/anti-laner, your options are either to make them useless late-game, or make it so they actively lose something. Urgot, Lee Sin, and Yorick are good examples of lane bullies that fall off late game unless uber fed, we probably don't want that though. Our alternative, is we can create a jungler who is a bully, yes, but who has very littler lane presence. So far what we've set up is a jungler who can gank, but requires his/her ally to set up for it, and execute most of it. By adding the combat stim ability, it would mean that the trap master wouldn't have to gank, eliminating that potential weakness entirely.

The Trap doors sound really cool, but they also sound really, really, strong. What you're suggesting is an instant movement ability, that while it requires setup, can't be destroyed without taking damage, and you can't hunt them down to destroy them. This is not only stepping on Rek'sai's toes, it's making her irrelevant. In this case, the main feature of Rek'sai in gameplay, the tunnels, do part of what the trap doors do, but they do it worse. The only thing that would possibly make this different would be to make them destroyed on use, but it still causes a lot of potential problems. The next part to consider is the question of, do we want the Trap Master to be super mobile? I'd argue no. I'd actually argue he should have no mobility, except for maybe invisibility or a speed boost tied to said invisibility. The reason is that mobility is used for three things: To initiate, which is something the Trap Master shouldn't be doing, To escape, which we've in the past decided is something we want the Trap Master to have a hard time doing unless they plan in advance, in which case it should be easy, And lastly, Mobility is used to kite, which yet again, we don't want the Trap Master to be able to do unless you plan in advance and set up the traps right. (It's worth noting that mobility also has another use, but that's only with long term speed boosts, and that's to traverse the map. Only a few really fall into this though, the main ones being Zilean, Quinn, Bard, and Mobility boots. This is a type we might want the Trap Master to have in my opinion.) In the case of your trap doors, these would mainly be used for escape in effect. And while they are somewhat conditional, it doesn't allow the other player to outwit the trap master. A playstyle of "stop them before they get to a nearby area which could be anywhere" isn't as good as, "alright I'm CC'ed and not going to catch him, but my teammate is going to go around back and catch him". And also makes for more tense, and therefore more fun, plays on both sides.

Just my thoughts though.

MultiBuildMaster3/14/2015, 9:41:13 PM1 votes

I agree i think the idea of no mobility is a good one also i like the idea of a speed boost too but i was thinking of possibly tying it to one of the traps ie. someone gets caught in a trap you get a speed boost to get to them before they get out of the trap with the speed up increasing the farther away you are

Kamiroo Wolf3/14/2015, 10:13:34 PM1 votes

Hmmmm

Any thoughts on an ability/trap that allows the Trap Master to shroud his allies, making them invisible, but not actually enhancing their strength(unless he shrouds a champion who thrives in the shadows such as Rengar or Shaco)? The ability would also work on himself too so he can "set up shop" undisturbed. The jungle support theme is just too appealing to me, lol.

Baxter9003/20/2015, 10:02:01 PM1 votes

So here's a proposal, MultiBuildMaster had previously proposed that having the Trap Master do a lot of extra damage to trapped targets would be a good way to control his power, and force him to be around when trapping people for full damage. However, another problem we've often struggled with is how the Trap Master will do enough damage in the jungle, as someone squishy, to survive. I'd like to propose that we make so that the Trap Master's passive is in two parts, one makes it so a lot of extra damage is done when the trap master attacks a trapped unit, the second would be that neutral monsters would stay trapped longer. This means that it allows the Trap Master to naturally gain power, while giving him the boost versus monsters that he needs.

What do you guys think?

Baxter9003/20/2015, 10:31:27 PM1 votes

Also, finally an update!!!

I'm going to make a new post inviting people to participate, and redirecting them to this page, so hopefully we'll see a surge of new people soon!

EDIT: For those of you who care, here's the link to the post I put out to try to attract more people: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/aBRaEEu9-an-invitation-to-work-on-a-community-made-champion

Deathhollo3/20/2015, 11:51:55 PM1 votes

so whats happening here?

MultiBuildMaster3/21/2015, 12:48:58 AM1 votes

i like the idea for the passive too refine it a bit i would like to suggest that for the damage it should be a percent increase in all damage dealt by the trap master with the Percent increase doubling against neutral mobs also an i was thinking possibly for the E or ult we could have a damage drain, think of Leblanc teather but instead of stunning it drains a targets AD and transfers it to the trap master albeit with a much shorter teather range

Kamiroo Wolf3/21/2015, 5:30:36 AM1 votes

After reading the invitation its come to my attention that the Trap Master does not yet have an E ;-;. If ya don't mind I'd like to make a suggestion but PLEASE feel free to disregard it if a better suggestion happens to come along.

Typically, the "E" ability is a champion's engage, peel, or "trump card"(steroid, in the lack of a better word) ability. What if the E was some sort of flashbang that not only grants vision of an area, but temporarily forces some form of action that still allows counterplay.

Deathhollo3/21/2015, 5:21:42 PM1 votes

ok, so how do guys vision this champion? Like basically what does he look like? Is he a yordle? Noxian? etc

Kamiroo Wolf3/21/2015, 8:06:10 PM1 votes

Another question would be our Trap Master's basic attack. Do we want him her to be ranged or melee?

Deathhollo3/22/2015, 4:59:54 AM1 votes

The thing is, I can't really help that much, but I can make the art for it

Kamiroo Wolf4/4/2015, 2:39:36 PM1 votes

Wake up guys, come on!

Baxter9004/5/2015, 3:45:08 PM1 votes

Sorry guys, computer broke and I just got it back, anyway, here's my analysis of Arcane Flux's suggestions!

The passive, first of all, sounds good, but I feel like it doesn't have a clear use case, more feeling like extra power without a big, particular benefit. The first thing to ask yourself when thinking about an ability is when, when would you want to use it. And what it sounds like to me is that you'd want to use it to catch out people (since having range when setting up traps in advance isn't that useful). However, the majority of the traps have setup time to let people to get away from it. Of course, that was my analysis assuming that the speed of the increase would be slow and constant (i.e. over 5 seconds or something). Now that I think about it, having it be a logarithmic increase, starting at point blank range and moving up, would probably work well. What that behavior would say is, you lose your range if you cast your traps in quick succession, but it you wait a while, you might have enough range to place traps ahead of people. Unless someone has an objection, I'll put this as the passive in the main post and move the current passive to an ability. I think we'll want to tie it to whatever the E ends up being, as the W currently has a lot that it can scale with (max amount of traps and trap health) and we want there to be a reason to level W (more traps) and a reason to level E (which would probably be more damage). That said, putting it on W wouldn't be the end of the world, as it does require planning to use the ability.

The E is a well thought out ability. It has counterplay (the people can follow them) is has active choices with tradeoffs for the enemy (do I follow them and take damage, or let them get away). It has flexible usage (can be used as a trap, or as a mobility tool). I have two main criticisms of it, the first is that it would be really strong in teamfights. Placing it in the middle of a teamfight would throw enemies everywhere, without their choice. Thus I'd argue that the trampoline should be destroyed after an enemy uses it (or steps on it accidentally ^_^). That way it actually adds some more counterplay, someone can choose to take out the trap, thereby reducing mobility, at the cost of some damage. The second criticism I have is that the allies are getting a speed boost. It's already a choice for you to follow them, taking damage, we don't want to weaken that choice. If we do this we'd have to put the passive extra damage on the W. But considering it's the only ability which actually really "traps" people rather than doing momentary cc, I think that's fine. I'll put this up for the E unless someone objects.

The Ult is a really clever ability. The fact that the rods themselves don't do damage, rather, the connection to the rods does damage means that it would be possible to walk through the rods. Additionally, they're destroyable! I think this is a better ability than we currently have, though I'm a little worried about the slow speed. It would have to be a relatively small slow probably (though maybe not). Anyway, I'll put it up there.

Remember, if you have any suggestions at all, or comments and criticism, speak up!

Baxter9004/22/2015, 3:43:42 AM1 votes

Alright, nobody's said anything for a while, so we're going to move on to the next part, criticism! This is your time to criticize anything about the kit. So everybody try and find anything in the kit that seems weird, or out of place, then post about it! Our goal here is to find all the ways people could break it, before it's possible. Or to find things which don't encourage what we want!

Baxter9005/9/2015, 10:44:06 PM1 votes

Has everyone given up on this? 😰

GaleWinUnleashed2/23/2015, 12:36:03 AM1 votes

This Trap Master direction is going to be exceptionally hard to create without making it enormously frustrating for the opposing team. He/She/It will need some sort of system in place that makes it very inefficient to just camp and make it impossible for the enemy to cross a certain area. What about designing an ammo/cooldown system partially based on killing jungle camps, tuned such that there is strong motivation to also steal the enemies camps? Perhaps Trap Master has to gather materials to make their traps (bones, feathers, toad slime, etc.), so they have a good reason to move around the map frequently in order to maximize their effectiveness.

GaleWinUnleashed2/23/2015, 1:26:50 AM1 votes

Couple of ideas for Trap Master. He should have a minimum of two types of traps: one visible trap that mainly does damage, and one stealthed trap that is largely for applying CC. Using these, he could force his opponents to make tough decisions; he could place one of each trap across a jungle path, so that you can't pass without hitting at least one of them. The enemy could choose to take the damage in order to avoid the possibility of CC, or they could try to avoid the damage trap in the hope that either there is no stealth trap, or no enemy is near enough to capitalize on it.

MultiBuildMaster2/24/2015, 3:33:12 PM1 votes

OK it seems like we are getting a little bit off track here with ability's ideas so for the core play style i would like to suggest this, farm/counter jungle for ult (i think the trapper should be some one that can take over the enemy's jungle with his 3 basic ability's taking camps and setting up solo kills on enemy jungler) using ult to gank where he cant set up traps. to add to that i think he should have a manually activated trap, some type of stealth and his ult should be some a long range displacement so he can bring champs to his traps.