User blog comment:Czyiel/Xander, The Chained Commander/@comment-5331854-20130729105204

INCOMING WALL OF TEXT; PERFECT GRAMMAR AND WORDING NOT GUARANTEED BECAUSE OF ENGLISH NOT BEING MY FIRST LANGUAGE

First, about myself: I won't say that I'm a pro in LoL nor that I'm a very good player (mostly because I play LoL for fun and avoid Ranked most of the times because Ranked is less fun in my experience). But I'm not too shabby at analysing champs, items and techniques, finding counters, encouraging teamwork (because that's vital for most counters) and adapting to every champ (it took me a while to work with Morde and Udyr because I couldn't understand their mechanics well at first, but now I'm okay with using them). My opinion about Xander shouldn't be better than most other comments and hey, the more the merrier, I could be completely wrong. So without further ado:

Innate: I disagree with his philosophy of "every kill counts on the battlefield", but that's another story XD Blood Experience is pretty... weird, especially because he's a hypercarry. He needs 100 Stacks for his maximum bonus AD (achieved after 500 minions or 20 kills), but at the same time needs only half of it for maximum attack speed (0.5% AS would be a possible solution for this weirdness). Even with his reliance on stacks, a typical Xander player only needs to build AS, Crit+IE and LW to be a pain in the behind. And every AA suddenly gets 250 bonus AD from stacks because of 100% chance for 250% crit damage achieved in mid-late game. Which still does more damage per second because 1.5+ AS is easily achieved with most builds and playstyles. This passive makes him being fed faster and naturally snowball hard, which is disruptive even for (and at the same time especially with) hypercarries. Sure, he can lose stacks, but when he got bonus AS, he doesn't need that long to get a good chunk of it back. Add a teamfight where he won't get killed and he's back to his old glory. In short: Gives early dominance in laning phase, makes him very OP in teamfight phase when he gets decend teammates.

Q: Pretty nice in concept, I'd say. Retract should remove the mark imho, though. A question: "Delayed physical damage" is the bonus damage from the mark? If yes, then it needs better wording, as it is confusing. Make the CD and damage lower, as his Q is a requirement for his other skills.

W: The drag on enemy units looks good enough, it is a "soft gap closer" while still giving enough room to let the enemy escape if used poorly. The drag on location on the other hand... Maximum Range of Q is 1000 and doesn't seem to be stopped by terrain, so you move 400 units toward the tether so you can dash. This makes drag only useful for gapclosing when you missed the Q (which would be stupid anyway unless the fight is very much in your favor, as the important mark is missing), pointless when escaping champs capable of hard CC or dashing through terrain and pointless if you want to gank ("Oh, a chain near. But Xander needs some time before he's actually there, so I'll just move back, he is useless without his chain and it has high enough CD to make him useless for a long time, so cheerio, old chap!"). Also, if the Q gets used poorly (too close through terrain, for example), it is outright impossible to activate. Let him drag the full distance to compensate for no mark and CD on an important skill, so he can at least escape properly (it would also make a jungle build more viable for him).

E: The CD-scaling is where I have to assume you didn't had put much thought into Xander (that and a cost of 50 Energy in every basic skill at every level). sry if it's harsh, but 9 and 7 CD on a skill that requires a skill with 10 CD that only lasts 5 seconds...? I raised my left eyebrow while being puzzled by this (I know his ult can tether, but it specifically requires the Q). Other than that, the skill itself looks fun, but you should lower the scaling of the slow/stun duration. A stun that lasts 2.5 seconds is extremely strong on a ranged carry, a champion role that barely gets hard CC in the first place. Let's assume Xander stuns a champ while getting closer with Drag (looks like it would be doable) and has 2.5 AS (which is not that unlikely in late game thanks to his ability to naturally snowball hard). This means that Xander is able to do 6-7 AAs, which is massive when considering his natural bonus AD and him most possibly having crit items. Only tanks would survive and even then they're still in a vulnerable position after that.

R: A passive increase in AD without restrictions. Yeah, make his innate even more stronger while giving him a safety net when getting killed, that is very cool... NOT. Now that's this out of the way, let's look at the active... ... Does the "bind" mean the target can only move towards Xander, not away from him? It's very confusing what you want to say. Also, what's the range of his ult, since it's a skillshot ("target location")? How long is the duration of the ult (doesn't look like a "fire and forget" ult, since it involves movement-restriction)? Automatic E for free makes this ult a no-brainer. And how does the delayed damage apply, since there's no mark? Is it like Morde's ult, instantly damaging and then applying a DoT? And why does this ult looks like you can't escape from it once you've got hit, making it even more of a no-brainer?

My conclusion: Personally, I like guys and girls who fights with chains. But I wouldn't touch Xander right now for several reason:

1. His innate is very disruptive on a (hyper)carry, doesn't really fit one (they need items, it's in their job description) and has nothing to do with his chains (well, it has something to do with him being an experienced warrior, but what's more fun for most players, his military rank or his chains?)

2. The CD of his Q is way too long for something other skills absolutely relies upon.

3. 50 Energy on every skill at every level is boring as hell. Look at other energy champs and how they scale their costs. I'd make the cost for Q and E high (of course, it will get cheaper when leveled) while giving the W low cost.

4. Bad options with E when using it on location.

5. Ult has a somewhat confusing wording and leaves too many questions open. Also looks OP when paired with his innate and the possibility that escaping the ult is impossible once it hits.

6. Seriously, you can't use his W and E without his Q? That's even more boring and doesn't fit MOBAs in general and LoL specifically.

The kit needs some serious rework and I'm sure the numbers needs some bigger tweaks, too. Sadly I'm no number-cruncher, so we have to wait for them.