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Vespula - The hive queen

Barkley·4/28/2017, 1:32:56 AM·2 votes·1,051 views

Vespula will be a 8-ability champion like Elise or Jayce. (2x each of Q,W,E, Passive, R changes forms) She is a queen bee type character who is designed to be a jungler, and functions as a control jungler through the use of her hives and mobility. With the current counter-jungling and invading meta, I thought it'd be cool to have a champion that specializes against these kinds of tactics. Obviously the numbers here are tentative, I am not a video game designer and I've never balanced anything for a video game in my life ... was kinda hoping the community could help me with that. Vespula will have a walking form and a flying form. The walking form is meant for melee combat and in-jungle fighting, while the flying form is meant for mobility and escape.

Passive - Stinging sentries -Vespula gets a charge of Stinging Sentries every 60/50/40 seconds up to a cap of 3 charges. Upon taking flight or landing in a bush, Vespula leaves a drone bee to begin building a hive, consuming one charge. After 10 seconds, the hive becomes active and begins manufacturing and storing a bee every 5 seconds up to a cap of 5 bees. If an enemy champion steps into the same bush as an active beehive, all stored bees will attack the enemy champion, and the entire team will be alerted to their presence via global minimap ping. Beehives have a health bar that shares similar properties to a control ward, taking 4 hits to kill and regenerating health out of combat. Beehives themselves do not grant vision. Only 5 friendly beehives may be on the map at once. Beehives may only be placed in jungle bushes, and will not be usable in lane bushes or river bushes. Only one beehive may be placed per bush. If a beehive is killed while its bees are deployed, all deployed bees will instantly die. Bees will only travel within a certain range of their own hive. Bees who have not attacked an enemy champion will return to their hives upon exiting combat, but bees who have attacked an enemy champion will die.

Stinging Sentries attacks apply Mark of the Swarm which is a stacking on-hit debuff that grants vision of the target, applies a stacking slow up to a maximum slow of 35/40/45%, and applies a stacking magic damage DoT. Mark of the Swarm can stack up to 20 times.

R - Take Flight / Land -If Vespula is currently flying, she quickly dashes to, and lands at a target location within low range, applying a 10% slow for 1 second to all enemies in a small area. If Vespula is currently walking, she takes flight from her position after a 1.25 second channel time. For .5 seconds after taking flight, Vespula is considered "Airborne" for the purpose of airborne targeting abilities. This ability has a 5 second cooldown between casts, which will reset if her takeoff is interrupted. -While flying, Vespula gains 10% movement speed out of combat and attacks using a very weak, very short ranged stinger attack. -While walking, Vespula gains a small amount of bonus armor and uses a melee attack that applies an AP-scaling poison DoT.

Q - (While Flying) - Flight Pattern -A medium range dash ability. Can be free-cast or targeted on an enemy champion marked with Mark of the Swarm. If an enemy champion is targeted, Vespula will fly over the targeted champion and land (may cause slightly increased maximum range if they move, up to a cap). Grants Vespula a shield upon completion of the dash animation. Shield health is determined by flight pattern: 1.5% of her maximum health for .5 seconds if she dashes without passing a non-minion unit. 3% of her maximum health for 1 second if she flew over a monster or large monster 5% of her maximum health for 1.25 seconds if she flies over an epic monster or a marked champion. Can pass through terrain.

W- (While Flying) (Active) - Recon mission -Vespula can choose an area near an active hive to be patrolled by one of its resident bees, granting vision in an extremely small 360 degree area around the patrolling bee. The area is established by casting the ability once to designate a starting point, and a second time to designate an ending point for the patrol. The path is linear, and ignores terrain. The patrol path must start and end entirely within a contiguous coverage area. If an enemy stays within vision of the bee for longer than 1.5 seconds, it will send out a global minimap ping and cause the closest hive(s) to attack the enemy champion. The hive will not manufacture additional bees because of this ability. Up to 2 bees can be on patrol per hive.

(Passive) - Signal Strength - Increases the coverage range of all active hives per level.

E - (While Flying) - Blinding Pollen -Vespula leaves a cloud of pollen in her wake that expands outward, blinding all enemies who stand in it. The pollen begins as a linear trail emanating from behind Vespula for 2 seconds, and from its initial spawning point expands outward to a cloud. The pollen remains for 2 seconds before dissipating. Enemies NOT marked by Mark of the Swarm can only be blinded by this ability for a maximum of .5/.75/1/1.25/1.5 seconds and can cleanse the ability. Enemies marked by Mark of the Swarm are blinded for as long as they stand in the pollen cloud, and the ability cannot be cleansed. Blinding pollen can be cast during Flight Pattern.

Q - (While Walking) - Stinging Strikes -This skill can be cast up to three times before going on cooldown. The first and second casts are empowered auto attacks which deal slightly more damage than a normal attack, and the third cast grants slightly increased range, and applies an on-hit cone-shaped AoE effect that poisons all target in the area, dealing moderate magic damage over time. The poison effect deals increased damage to non-epic monsters. Enemies marked by Mark of the Swarm will take a portion of the poison damage as true damage.

W - (While Walking) - Sound the Alarm! -Vespula summons all bees from all nearby hives to assist her in combat. Bees will attack enemy targets by the following priority:
1.) Any enemy that Vespula Targets with attacks or abilities 2.) Any enemy that damages Vespula 3.) Any enemy that damages Vespula's allies, 4.) Any enemy in combat with a jungle monster
While Sound The Alarm! is active, bees heal Vespula for a portion of their damage dealt. If there are no hives nearby, Sound the Alarm will instead grant Vespula a 20% movement speed bonus that decays over 1.5 seconds. All bees that attack an enemy champion will die after 3 seconds of being out of combat.

E - (While Walking) - Bee Drill -Vespula lunges at a target champion with her stinger, envenoming them for moderate magic damage over 3 seconds and slightly knocking them back. If the enemy is marked with Mark of the Swarm they will receive maximum stacks of the debuff.

I hope to hear feedback for my idea!

8 Comments

Elisza Kitsune4/29/2017, 4:55:10 AM1 votes

I recently started reading the concepts and creations sections of the boards and I feel like they're very underappreciated compared to every other section of the boards. There's people like you who put so much effort into thinking up a champion design only to be completely neglected. Just know that there's always someone out there to appreciate you! :D

Now onto the real topic/issue, your champion design.

I think her anti-counter-jungling kit is pretty neat especially the passive! The passive is definitely unique and something League hasn't seen before and it would be interesting to see how that would play out in-game/lcs.

R- this would be a cool way of making her transition from one form to another but unless you want her to be a tank/bruiser [which I'll assume she's just a bursty AP jungler from her 8 ability kit] you may have to take out damage from other parts of her kit since you don't want her to outshine already existing junglers such as Elise and Nidalee who excel at different things in the jungle role

Q [Flying]- This ability seems neat but a bit overloaded since it gives her mobility, a 'possible' root, a shield, and a bit of light damage

W[Flying]-This seems like a Singed E Q but just with more damage over time which is fine but it will also make her stand out and be more likely to be picked than Singed if she does more damage than him and has more mobility

E[Flying]- This seems very interesting but unless you can counterplay it when you have Mark of the Swarm with a QSS or something it might be too impactful [note there's different kinds of blind].

So far she seems to have a fairly standout kit from a bunch of other champions and I really like her passive idea! But like I said before. there may be too many things in her kit, and being able to deal that much damage while having a lot of cc that outclasses a tank may be a bit overpowered.

Q [Walking]: This seems like you're usual 3 hits and then you get a small buff kind of ability except with a special AoE, for the damage it deals it would be balanced since she needs time to use the AAs unless she gets an attack speed buff on the ability/on another ability.

W[Walking]: I'm assuming these are like Elisa Spiderlings combined with Malzahar Voidlings and your hive idea. I feel like this ability [unless global] would balance out her kit since it could either be extremely good/helpful or outright useless if you don't have any nearby hives

E[Walking]: I'm assuming this is like a Vayne E? It seems like a high risk high reward type of ability since you have to use her and go all the way in to get a wall stun and it may leave her vulnerable, but it works well with her R and then Q but the combo may give her lots of safety and help her retreat/get in and out too quickly

Anyways this champ concept was fun to read and I hope you make more in the future :D It would be fun to look at new ability concepts from time to time and I encourage you to read other people's champion concepts! Who knows what you can find out there? :P

And I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm criticizing your champ design! I think it's awesome! ;-;

-Have a good day on Summoner's Rift! Sincerely, Kitsune Leader of O1S [Only 1 Shot]

Nekusen4/29/2017, 6:14:45 AM1 votes

I recommend you clarify the scaling on abilities,the damage they deal, cooldowns, range, mana/hp/energy/whatever cost, casting time (if applicable) and % & duration of slows, this helps figuring out which is the main source of damage, and if it is an ad-ap-tank champion, etc.

General idea: Making the air/ground spells look the same, but while on air-mode they don't do damage and apply status (slows, shields, etc), and in ground mode they do damage.

  • Passive: Though similar to things like Zyra's and Illaoi's passive might be a bit "random" and hard to appropriately use as it triggers each time you enter a bush and you can only have 5, because she sounds like a jungler, she will be constantly stepping on bushes even without really meaning to. Hitting a champion with Mark of the Swarm with an basic attack deals extra (x) damage and reduces R cooldown by (x). 5 Second cooldown.

-R: Is she considered "airborne" while "flying" ? (because yasuo's ult i ask). Usually, lvl 1 ults don't do damage, they just serve as a boost or way to swap between modes/skills. A tentative suggestion, would be replacing the damage of this spell for the passive, making her leave a hive when she changes modes. This would make her temporarily "vulnerable" for how long this spell is, giving the usage of this a strategic component and premeditation. Also, the changes i'll suggest help her airborne-mode to help initiate the battle while also leaving a Hive before a battle.

  • Flying Q: You should be more specific about what kind of enemies give you a shield, because in lane, you could get a giga shield if you cast this on a minion lane. Im guessing you meant champions+all jg monsters, or campions+large and epic monsters. Maybe making it jump walls is already giving her too much mobility (i imagine a walljumping Quinn (oh god pls no) ) Dashes at an enemy and knocks it back, if it in the way, the target hits an enemy champion, a large or epic jungle monster, or a wall, stuns it for 1/1.2/1.4/1.6/1.8 seconds.

  • Land Q: Same as before, you should clarify what is this "empowered" attack (scaling, type of damage, modifications such as range, etc.) Maybe making a spell from a 8 spell champion having to be cast 3 times will make it extremely demanding. Does each cast consume mana ? I would change it to: 1rs: Next basic attack deals extra 10/30/50/70/90 (+40% AP) magic damage. (example) 2nd: Next basic attack deals damage in a cone and slows enemies by 30% for 0.7/0.8/0.9/1/1.1 seconds. 3rd: Heals Vespula by 15/30/45/60/75 (+ 5% max HP) (+70% AP) and refreshes duration of Mark of the Swarm.

  • Flying W:

  • Land W: Passive: Increase Vespula's movement speed by (x) while in (x) range of a Hive while moving towards it.

Active: Temporarily (x seconds) enrages target Hive, making it grant vision and increases its damage/hp by (x), if Vespula is (500?) units away from the Hive, increase that bonus.

  • Flying E: Seems fine but the spread into a large cloud part might be too much considering 3 seconds of movement (with airborne speed boost) is already a lot, and i would even change the release time to be around 1 second.

  • Land E: Launches a sting forward, dealing (x) damage, if the target has Mark of the Swarm, poisons it for x seconds dealing ((x) maybe % hp) damage per second. Applies on-hit effects (synergy with Q)

Barkley4/29/2017, 7:47:40 AM1 votes

Oh wow people actually looked at this!

I really like the idea of having her R trigger her passive, instead of it being randomly cast while in a bush. Especially the notion of "Taking off from the hive". I don't think her Q would be too powerful, the first two strikes wouldn't do much damage, its the third strike that's the really big hit. It's meant to really only do damage if you can "stick" to a target. That's what I'd envisioned her to be. Someone who can catch someone in her jungle and just chase them down and kill them. She'd (by design) have a little bit of trouble sticking to someone in a lane, unless they were dumb enough to walk near a wall. She's meant for close corridors. In-jungle fighting.

Her only real function in team fights would be to lay down some soft CC and hope to god she can find someone out of position near a wall so she can pin them down. Other than that, all she's really got for team fighting is the big AoE blind, which isn't going to accomplish much if the enemy isn't marked. I can understand toning down the numbers here... maybe have a 1.25 second blind at max rank if the enemy ISNT marked? Also, yes, this can be QSS'd.

Basically, the whole point of her is to really secure your jungle so the enemy can't use it, and once your lanes are winning, she can move into the enemy jungle and COMPLETELY deny one side of it. Obviously this would take some time and cooperation to set up, but once she's in.... she's hard to get out. However, as stated, she won't be like a nunu or ivern that just comes in and steal stuff - she really wants to set up shop and stick around, denying the entire portion of the jungle. This is balanced by the cap on her beehives. She can't just place them all over the place. she gets 5 to use, and she must use them wisely. They also take a good bit to recharge, and can be disabled by nearby control wards. But man... if she gets established in your jungle? Just kiss it goodbye.

Her walking form is meant to be a high-damage burst assassin, but it has no innate escapes or mobility. If she's landing, she's going in for a kill. If she finds herself in a sticky situation, though, she can quickly take flight and run away. Perhaps a good bit of balance to this would be that roots and snares will ground her? That way she can't just get in, kill someone, and get out, because that's not really how I want her to be played. I want her to really concentrate on locking down her jungle. She should only be running if she's in danger, not because she just assassinated someone. How would you recommend working around this? I don't want her to play like a fizz or a leblanc where she does her damage and disappears. I kind of like the idea of adding a cooldown or channeling time to her taking flight, but still keep her landing instant. That's how she ganks. She flies into a lane, lands on the enemy which applies the slow, and then tries to knock them back toward her ally or into a wall. Most of her jungle debauchery will be conducted while aerial. The fighting happens on the ground. I'm interested to hear feedback about this.

Also, the bees will have a substantial range from which they can be called. The bushes near kruggs or gromp will easily reach the midpoint of the outer lanes, while the bushes near raptors or wolves will easily reach the midpoint of the mid lane. The bushes near buffs will reach baron and dragon. In this way, as long as her combat decisions are jungler-centric (Ganking, defending, securing objectives) she will have some bees to help her out. however, if she's trying to go for a tower dive or push a lane, she'll need to have set up some hives in the enemy jungle - and that takes some time and forethought.

I'm not any good with numbers or balancing, as I stated above, and I'd be more than happy to see someone put some numbers to my idea who knows better how to do so.

Other than that, keep the feedback coming!

Nekusen4/30/2017, 12:32:51 AM1 votes

One thing i see, is that her lvl 1 early game would be too strong do to the various choices she has. Thanks to her lvl1 "Quinn ult" she has pretty cheesy earlygame ganks, while also having the option to produce potent invades. So having this in mind, her early numbers would have to be weak, scaling on with levels or items. Her bee damage and hp will do doubt be a number salad, and her Air for MS bonus with certainty have to scale up from a low earlygame number.

Im glad you liked some of my suggestions.

I guess you mean her build to be something like this ? item 3100 item 3115(help with clears) item 3048(because 8 spells)item 3089item 3020 item 1402

Barkley5/4/2017, 7:34:43 PM1 votes

I made quite a bit of substantial changes to OP. Let me know if you like them!