User blog:Nazareadain/Lenaieka, Protector Itinerant

Champion Role, Purpose and theme.
Body guard, and duo-duelist. Can greatly bolster the power of a single ally, and lock down single opponents, as she throws herself between her allies and enemies to protect and avenge them. Power is greatly limited when by herself, and not ideal for teamfights, but when it comes to low number brawls, she's top in her class. She can borrow the defenses of one ally to go on the offensive, while stopping blow after blow as she dashes around the battle field, or lend her own body as protection and attacking the nearest assailant to intervene and bolster their shields, and force blows onto herself.

Durability required due to short range and being a melee fighter, meaning health, armor and magic resistance. AP to outlast the enemy by continually bolstering shield. Cooldown reduction all around good. AS to deflect and build retribution. AD for actual damage. What she focuses on countering is melee assassins, stopping upfront damage and locking them down, while struggling with long range casters and aoe damage.

If you're wondering why a double bladed sword?

- A shield is good for defending. When it can reach the attack. For defending others - Better to extend a blade of your own in greeting and in challenge. And so I call it my greeting blade. My retribution.

Aesthetic and Story
She's someone who's had to fight through armies just to keep another alive. She'll do it again. She's trained to navigate and escort whomever her partner may be through or around any fight, others be damned. Friend or foe.

Growing up as a soldier, she eventually earned the right to carry an heirloom. One half of a double blade - so to most: just a sword, though a named one at that: though it may have other names, she simply new it as Defender. Trained and already naturally skilled beyond the capacity of her peers, despite it all, when the sudden and unjust war came to her lands, she could do nothing for her people. As the army swallowed her friends and family, soon darkness took her, too.

Only - unlike the others, she woke from the darkness. Woke to sound of distant crying. Dust lay thick in the air, shafts of light through the canopy making the clouds of dust and the corpses apparent. Her face was stiff with caked blood, and throat raw from breathing - Still breathing. Through the confusion a question crawled up her spine: 'did I do this?' That she had no honest answer tightened her chest and narrowed her eyes. Her sight trailed down to her hand. In it, she held Defender, as clean as when she'd first received it. Her sight trailed further and attached to the hilt was a blade black and caked in blood - its sister blade: Vengeance.

Again a cry rang out through the stagnant air to clear her mind. Lenaieka followed the call. The puddles of blood soaking into the earth splashed as he walked through them. She came closer to the voice, trudging through the swamp of death. Her eyes, straying from the path, saw many corpses. Too many. Some in uniform and some not. The answer to her role in this lay caustic and bitter on her tongue, but as still and fresh as the corpses.

Once more she heard the cry and the tiny source sat baptized in blood. Lenaieka's sword slipped from her hand and she rushed to pick up the small child. For a moment Protection and Vengeance lay behind her, and guilt and maternity streaked down her face. Her mask of blood cracking as the tears fell to reveal her face. Trembling, the only thing certain in her mind was the she had to protect her. This was her path. Thin and narrow, as all else was unclear except for one small thought. A name. Nanamoré. Little Nana. I'll keep you safe.

Yet after all that, there was little safety to be found. The self-proclaimed emperor sent assassins and soldiers after her. And trying to send gentle Nana to safety and away from this, resulted in the potential new surrogates' death, and the child held hostage. Fate would not have them separated, and the emperor would not let them live. After years on the run, going between the necessities to survive and naivety of a childhood that Lenaieka was determined to give her, she was eventually confronted with the situation. The emperor had to die.

The false emperor - the target of her vengeance.

The girl - the symbol of her redemption.

It was as if they were choices set before her. When she committed herself to killing the emperor, even if it was to bring safety to her and the girl, that morning Nanamoré had disappeared. She set of in search for her, casting aside thoughts of vengeance. In trade for information on the girl she sold herself as a bodyguard. Repeatedly she was lied to by the desperate, used by the cruel, but still protected those who needed it by no other virtue than that need. She never knew which one they were until she had already defended them, and as if fearful of what would happen if she once more started down that path, against them, too, she set aside vengeance to find her surrogate daughter. And so still she remains a protector itinerant.

- There's a line between protection and vengeance. I am that line.

When moving:
I'm coming for you.

I'll find you eventually.

Don't worry. Mommy's coming.

Sweet child.

when intervening:
Decide - fight or flight!

I'll pull you through. Don't worry.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

I'd better not regret this.

When using defiance:
Stand with me!

I'll defend you. Come what may.

When using Oath of Protection:
Attack them. I dare you.

Be brave, child.

When using Hold the Line:
This far! And no further.

Cross that, or cross me.

Playing as Lenaieka
Always keep your range in mind. Just running at your opponent is rarely going to get you anywhere.

Your best shot is having an ally that can take risks, which you can jump to, or grant crowd control to help you.

Keep in mind what you want to do in a fight before going in. If you want to go on the offensive, shield someone with high resistances to have some of your own. If you're scared for your team mates, shield them, but keep in mind you should keep a balance of offense and defense to be useful and waiting around to block a blow that never comes won't get you anywhere.

Be aware of your weakness against mages. You can intervene a spell, and you can't kill what you can't reach.

Understand your own durability: if your shields disappear, you have a period of significant weakness.

You can do a lot of damage with AD. But you won't get to deal it without Retribution.

If you're not tanky enough, there's no reason not to focus you. You can't intervene strike against yourself.

Keep at least one of your shields alive to maintain the resistance buff, and ability to bolster. Having a hard time doing that? Get more shields to add on top of that.

Playing against Lenaieka
Though she's tanky, she's very weak by herself as she needs someone to defend in order to build retribution which allows her to retaliate. Her powers are also significantly weaker when only used on herself.

By herself Devastate not only deals significantly less damage - it's also her only real offensive ability.

If you find her with an ally, be sure to either keep your distance while wearing them down, or that you outnumber them.

She can come leaping into battle on the back of an ally, from especially far if they were struck during oath of protection. The visuals are pretty clear when that may happen.

During oath of protection, that target is the danger. If they are struck after, Lenaieka becomes the danger. Try and gauge which case is worst, and keep in mind the stun.

You can't dash across Lenaieka's marked ground from Hold the Line, so if she dashes to you and you can't move for a second, it's a clear tell that you should not try to dash behind you. She did, however, spend a point of retribution, so it might be worth going on the offensive. Just try to keep her separate from her allies during this.

See a juicy target near Lenaieka? Be careful as she can stop you dead in your tracks: If she sees you, she can stop your auto attack, stun you, and stop a significant amount of damage aimed at that target, as well as stop your escape route if your were planning on dashing, and all of it just as fast as you were planning on killing them.