User blog:Emptylord/Champion reworks/Sion the Nearly-Headless Axeman

So I'm literally cutting Sion in half. I haven't quite decided on where to cut him in half - but at the moment I'm favouring severing his head from his body (over left/right or front/back).

The body would be a feels-no-pain Headless Axeman. A sustain-themed melee carry whose looks like a rotting mound of flesh (aka a zombie) who's all about separating your headbone from your neckbone. The head is one of many heads on a ghoulish, face-stealing champion. A ghastly, Frankenstein-like creature composed of primarily heads and face-skin. I opt'd for this theme because skeletons are taboo in China.

My initial idea was to heave the head feature some of Sion's quotes as part of his amalgamation-of-heads theme. On selection, moving and attacks, the head would sound like an amalgamation of voices speaking in one eerie unison, while his joke and taunt would feature the various faces having conversations among themselves or speaking alone (including Sion). The reason for this is because I wanted one half to look like Sion, and the other half to sound like Sion. However, I'm more fond now of giving the body back his head (although hanging in his grasp and not actually attached), and thus giving him back his voice (in addition to some highly comical neck gargling). Then the mish-mash of faces would be a more serious, death-themed champion whose relationship to Sion is merely his skills.

Sion, the Nearly-Headless Axeman
Abilities=

The changes I've made to Cannibalism isn't something that can probably be balanced without actual testing. Basically:
 * Sion now gains 75% pre-mitigation life steal instead of 50 / 75 / 100 % post-mitigation life steal. The distinction is that his healing will not be countered by armor.
 * The healing now scales with Sion's attack damage instead of the the damage dealt, meaning it will not scale with critical strike, Hack 'n' Slash or Bury The Hatchet.
 * The area of effect healing is now much larger, but decays - similar to . Sion will always be healed for the full amount, even if his target manages to exceed 150 range during Sion's attack wind-up (his attack range is 125).
 * The attack speed now scales with rank, rather than 50% at all ranks. The drop in attack speed at level 6 compensates the increases in life steal.

I toyed with the idea of granting Sion an ability that parts the ground (by swinging his axe into it). Ultimately, though, I don't know how useful being able to create a line of impassible terrain in the direction your facing is - or how it suits his theme. I guess it's a good ganking tool - walk into lane and cut of the escape route. Or, I guess, it could be curved. Like Viktor and Rumble, except you choose where you want the skill to finish and then click and hold to draw a curve. Background= Artwork=
 * http://rainbowboa.deviantart.com/art/Headless-Horseman-124720037
 * http://aerorious.deviantart.com/art/Cruel-Judgement-upon-thee-197571261
 * http://zu-2099.deviantart.com/art/HACHA-NOCTURNA-94031816

I considered the following alternative:
 * Sion gains 1 movement speed for every 5 points of physical damage he resists through armor, Feel No Pain or . This bonus decays over 3 seconds, and stacks with no limit.
 * This would be instead of the stacking movement speed on the active, and was inspired by.
 * This could work as an innate ability, since it is a static, passive effect.



Unnamed Death-themed Champion

 * http://mightymorphinpower4.deviantart.com/art/The-Aznorbaloff-113556589
 * http://hawanja.deviantart.com/art/Soul-Stealer-73122099
 * http://nitrox-marquez.deviantart.com/art/Frankenstein-73639932
 * http://envyshrine.webs.com/FMAB_Envy_Monster.jpg

Stun+Explode is currently AP Sion in a nutshell. The idea would be to, of course, keep that - only with three extra skills. I suppose the sustain feature of his ultimate could be kept, and if I persist with the fleshy amalgamation of faces, than the health-gain mechanic would work here too. I guess I could also work in a -style element.

(I'll call him Sion until I can think of another name.)

Brainstorming:
 * Scared to Death The first time Sion damages an enemy with one of his abilities, he stuns them for 1.5 seconds. This effect cannot trigger again against the same target for 12 / 10 / 8 seconds.
 * Assimilation Whenever Sion kills an enemy, his maximum health is permanently increased by 3. This effect is doubled against champions and large units.
 * Death's Caress Sion blasts his target with magic damage and curses them to take amplified damage from Sion for 4 seconds. If the target dies while afflicted, Sion's maximum health is permanently increase.
 * Rot Sion infects his target with a rotting curse for 4 seconds, dealing magic damage each second that scales with their missing health.
 * Theft of Vitae Sion leashes onto nearby allies for 7 seconds. During this time, he will be healed for a percentage of the damage his allies deal.
 * Ghastly Claws Sion summons a spectral claw at the maximum range in the target direction that slowly returns to him, damaging and heavily slowing enemies in its path. The claw moves with increasing speed over the duration.
 * Deathly Feast Sion deals damage to all enemies in a cone and restores health for every enemy unit hit.
 * Graveshift Sion curses the target enemy champion for 5 seconds, causing the hands of the dead to emerge from the ground and damage surrounding enemies. The hands form a trail for 3.25 seconds, dealing magic damage every second to enemies who stand upon them.
 * I'm trying to word it so that it sounds thematic, while being descriptive. I'm struggling. Maybe: Target enemy becomes Singed for 5 seconds, leaving behind a trail that lingers for a few seconds while taking damage every second. Enemies (other than the target) who stand on the trail take magic damage every second. The trail has the appearance of hundreds of rotting hands.
 * I'm trying to word it so that it sounds thematic, while being descriptive. I'm struggling. Maybe: Target enemy becomes Singed for 5 seconds, leaving behind a trail that lingers for a few seconds while taking damage every second. Enemies (other than the target) who stand on the trail take magic damage every second. The trail has the appearance of hundreds of rotting hands.

Frankly, themeing a kit around a damage-dealing shield is hard (unless you've seen my Averdrian concept). Maybe I should ditch the shield?

To be honest, if I were to start a fresh without being attached to any of the champions: I would probably say that throwing Mundo, Morde and AP Sion into a blender and only pulling out two replacements would probably be the best solution.

So, there I was, browsing through the forums for necromancer concepts and I noticed the Guild Wars 2 icon on my task bar (I didn't play it for very long - it was good, but I'm a social gamer and none of my friends played it). I checked out the Necromancer, and it's frankly an interesting mechanic:
 * Death Pact Sion is manaless, and instead used Life Force as his secondary resource. Whenever a nearby unit dies, Sion gains 8% of their maximum health as Life Force. Sion can have up to 200 + (50 x level) +  life force.
 * Death Shroud Sion takes on death's form, gaining a new set of abilities. While in this form, Sion's life force decays every second and any damage taken is subtracted from his life force. Upon deactivation or running out of life force, Sion returns to his standard form. 30 / 24 / 18 / 12 second cooldown.

I'll leave this here for copy-and-pasting: