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Shower thought: Do we have a thief character?

Ralanr··8 votes·2,314 views

Just a thought I found myself pondering on yesterday. When looking at the league line up, I've noticed that we have a lot of warriors, mages, and all other sorts of legendary heroes. But I don't really notice a "thief" character.

We do have criminals, Gangplank is a pirate after all, but these characters don't feel very subtle like a thief would be. Which makes sense because thieves normally want to avoid combat as much as possible and this is a combat heavy game. The closest champions that could fulfill a thief archetype in their playstyle are assassins with stealth or heavy mobility mechanics, which they use to kill targets rather than steal things.

On the topic of stealing, how could you implement that in game without being woefully unfair? Trundle has an ult that steals stats and it's frustrating to fight. Actually stealing income seems way out of the picture (As is stealing items). So how could you implement a thief character without actually stealing?

Just a thought. If league actually does have a straight up thief character then I'm probably too blind to notice them.

25 Comments

Requiemsfire5 votes

Yes, her name is Lux and she steals kills.

Fasmodey5 votes

Graves and TF's primary crime is stealing. Hurting and killing are secondary since they do that for stealing lul.

Warlord Dienekes3 votes

I think there's a subtle difference between technically being a thief and being a thief champion.

That'd be like a character who in the backstory is a world renown wizard but every ability they have involves them punching people or shooting them with a gun. Sure they may technically fit the wizard archetype but they're not what anyone who wants to play a wizard would be satisfied.

Or for me, how Swain is supposed to fit the tactician commander archetype but in game he's just a weird warlock thing who likes birds and says bad military themed puns.

Though that does recognize the problem with thief champions. What abilities would feel thief-y as opposed to the similar assassins? The obvious ability of stealing enemy gold would be damn near game breaking and rage inducing in an unfun way.

I could maybe see a thief character being kind of a roaming debuff-support like character. Laying sense traps, stealth, and maybe silences in a way that makes the champion feel like he's taking something from the enemy. But that's just spitballing.

Fasmodey2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Warlord Dienekes,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=xPhy50It,comment-id=00070000,timestamp=2017-01-23T16:28:44.211+0000)

I think there's a subtle difference between technically being a thief and being a thief champion.

That'd be like a character who in the backstory is a world renown wizard but every ability they have involves them punching people or shooting them with a gun. Sure they may technically fit the wizard archetype but they're not what anyone who wants to play a wizard would be satisfied.

Or for me, how Swain is supposed to fit the tactician commander archetype but in game he's just a weird warlock thing who likes birds and says bad military themed puns.

Though that does recognize the problem with thief champions. What abilities would feel stealthy as opposed to the similar assassins? The obvious ability of stealing enemy gold would be damn near game breaking and rage inducing in an unfun way.

I could maybe see a thief character being kind of a roaming debuff-support like character. Laying sense traps, stealth, and maybe silences in a way that makes the champion feel like he's taking something from the enemy. But that's just spitballing.

If you think about it, TF's passive is actually stealing. He doesn't create money in the end. It just does not affect the enemy since as you said It would be annoying. Not the thing you wish but still. :P

Warlord Dienekes1 votes

That's true. And of every champion in the game I think TF probably fits thief the best.

I just don't think he fits thief particularly well.

Fasmodey1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Warlord Dienekes,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=xPhy50It,comment-id=0007000000000000,timestamp=2017-01-23T17:42:07.645+0000)

That's true. And of every champion in the game I think TF probably fits thief the best.

I just don't think he fits thief particularly well.

Yes, I agree. But completely thief champion without any other strong side would be pretty uninteresting If you ask me. It is not like you can fight against champions with stealing, even gameplay wise. Since you're in a battlefield, your stealing abilities don't make that sense. So, even we had new thief character, It would probably end like TF, with combat or magic skills.

GreenLore1 votes

Overall I'd say that if they make a thief,then it is likely that he is going to be not "just" a thief,but someone who will mix the thief-theme with something else. I mean that way they'd better seperate the thief from Twisted Fate and add more possibilities for skills.

Jhin is actually a good example of this. He was pretty much made to be a sniper,since Riot felt that caitlyn didn't fill the sniper fantasy well enough. However Jhin is also a mad artist,unlike Caitlyn who is a sheriff,thus differentiating the 2.

As for abilities: What if certain "treasures" would spawn within the enemy territory and the thief could get rewards for gathering these treasures. For example in the early game this treasure would spawn in the enemy jungle,thus the thief would need to invade the enemy jungle to get the treasure,wheras the enemy jungler might want to keep an eye on the treasure. Then in the late game,there could be a treasure that spawns inside the enemy base,thus the thief would need to get into that to get the treasure.

Warlord Dienekes1 votes

Yeah probably. I hope they do it well. I dislike some of their attempts to make things not just an X.

Zen Ineth2 votes

You know, there's always technically TwistedFate

Ralanr1 votes

That...is an excellent point actually. I always assumed he was more of the magical card user or the gambler archetype. But he does fulfill the thief to some extent.

GreenLore1 votes

Overall I'd argue that even though TF is a thief,he doesn't really feel that much like one,I mean like you said,he fills the whole gambler/card user archetype more.

Sir Poodle2 votes

No one has mentioned Sivir.

SzGamer2271 votes

Saw this thread and immediately thought "Sivir" but I scrolled down and seeing everyone point out Graves and TF.

And then I saw this. XD

SrbLud1 votes

Oh this one brings me back to s3... The forum was full of thief champ requests...

be pure1 votes

gangplank is a pirate so one could assume he is a thief

Ralanr1 votes

I feel that the stereotypical thief is more subtle than a pirate.

AthenasVendetta1 votes

It would be interesting to have a champion that their ability can take/mimic someone else's ability

concon601 votes

Twitch and Evelynn? Only because they have the pickpocket skins.

L Rayquaza1 votes

There was one in production for a while now but they just never found what they wanted with him http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/0/00/Rob_Blackblade_Render_Old.png/revision/latest?cb=20110323070458

Asayake 5150glow1 votes

Graves and TwistedFate

They've even got a set of skins for it - Outlaw Graves and Cutpurse TF.

Tattersall1 votes

I'm imagining a character who has heavy reliance on invisibility or camouflage, like Evelynn. However, Evelynn is far from a thief character, so let's think about this.

  • The champion could maybe be focused on counter jungling? Maybe stealing buffs, like a reverse Ivern? I dunno, but that would get really annoying, really fast.
  • Same with straight up stealing money/items from other champions.
  • I was thinking about bringing back that old GP mechanic that allows you to kill allied minions, but that has the same problems as the last two ideas.
  • Oh, here's a thought: A champion with a lot of gold generation passives, but a lot of that gold goes to allies. You're not straight up taking the enemy's gold, and allowing the rest of your team to share in your increased spoils seems interesting.
  • Obviously this champion would have to have low damage, otherwise it'd just be an assassin.
  • I'm not really sure where this train of thought came from, but maybe this guy would have the ability to, like, throw a sack over an enemy's head, disabling their vision.
  • We could take that a step further and have our thief straight up kidnap an enemy, maybe making them invulnerable but removing them from the game temporarily? Now that I write that down it sounds really weird to me.
  • Anyway, going down a related but different path, a champion who's focus is the disabling of the enemy's vision? Like, they have true sight at times to disable wards, they can set up null-vision areas, I dunno.

Hmm… I think those are all of my thoughts. Bye. Tl;dr: 1 - Steal buffs 2 - Steal money/items from enemies 3 - Execute allied minions 4 - Gain bonus gold for allies 5 - Just a note: Needs really low damage, otherwise just an assassin 6 - Disable enemy vision 7 - Straight up kidnapping enemy champions 8 - Champ with a focus on disabling enemy vision across the map

Solidair31 votes

I mean, Twisted Fate literally uses his teleporting magic to steal things. And he like, steals things.

He's a thief. Though his theme fits perhaps a bit more solidly with a con man.

grug1 votes

Ekko is a thief, pretty sure he stole that chronotechnology rather than build it himself

lucian too, theres no way this dude could build those OP relic guns.

zaire901 votes

{quoted}

Ekko is a thief, pretty sure he stole that chronotechnology rather than build it himself

lucian too, theres no way this dude could build those OP relic guns.

thought about making that joke but i said nah. Congrats on going through with it

grug1 votes

http://i.imgur.com/XjmUUGZ.png

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