User blog comment:Tylobic/Gardylan, the Dark Warlock/@comment-24496127-20150902003538

Alright, as a foreward, nothing I say is meant to be offensive, judgemental, or in any way discourage you from your project champion. If anything said comes off that way then I apologize in advance, it's just my attempt at giving good criticism. Keep in mind, I will be reviewing this as if it's an actual champion set to be released for League of Legends, and you're a developer looking for feedback.

So lets get started on a review of your idea. Just to give this some structure, I'm going to start with the theme you've built him around and his lore, then my thoughts on his abilities and anything I feel is wrong with them, then lastly just question you a bit about his gameplay.

First of all, the theme of Dark Warlock. It's a pretty generic starting point, and him getting corrupted by a dark magic object is a very trite story, that while not bad, has already been used with Varus. It's not a bad story, but it needs something more to it in my opinion. Why did he get into dark magic for example? You say he practiced it from time to time, but that's not exactly a very strong reason, and gave me the impression that he didn't really care, but had nothing better to do. I could imagine him hanging at a bar and talking about his taxes in the same sentence he mentions practicing dark magic.

So why did he look for a magic staff for power? Or did he just stumble upon it in the woods and decide why not? I'd say that's my main problem honestly as far as lore goes. Your character has very little personality that makes me think of him as an interesting character. Right now, I look at his lore, and I see a man who just kind of does things. I'd need some sort of reasons in order for it to be relatable. For an example, check out Veigar's lore, he turned to dark magic because he was mocked by others, or Varus, who took upon a curse in order to fight back an army that razed his village. Giving reasons for actions just makes the character more relatable.

The concept of accidentally hurting someone near to you with your power is an interesting idea, but it left me wanting to know if he's looking for a way to change him back, or right his wrongs. Is he a good guy who was lead down a dark path? Is he a bad guy that only realized his mistakes when he hurt one of his friends? Does he regret changing his friend, but not really care enough to fix it, and has just become apathetic to the world. Clearly he fears his powers in some way, but I don't see that being portrayed anywhere outside of locking himself up. He even took on two students, which seems kind of against the character you made him out to be.

I'm going to just say here, I'm a highly cynical person, so please note I don't dislike your idea, I'm just sure you want some critique, and this is how I do so. Feel free to disagree with anything I say, because I'm not always right, and this is your idea :).

Laslty, how do his powers have anything to do with the void? Dark magic and void magic are different, so I'm kind of confused there.

Now, onto his abilities. First of all, they could definitely be explained better, but that's nitpicky.

First, his Q. It's projectile speed scaling with incantation length is kind of weird, and could feel awkward to both use and have it used against you. I'd rather that be changed in some way, but it's up to you. The stun duration could also be a bit long but I'd say that it depends on whether or not he can command his summon to move while he charges it. I'm not going to comment on it's damage because It's damage because I'd need to see this champion played to get a better feel for his damage.

HIs W. If i'm not mistaken, you want this to be a core part of his kit, but it seems somewhat weak outside of when he uses his ultimate. It also could be a very anti-fun thing early game for his opponent, with him just using it to zone them away whenever it's off cooldown, or the opponent just killing it whenever it spawns. It would be really hard to find a balance, and may need some changing and extra to make sure it's not just a low interaction summon like Annie's Tibbers or Malzahar's voidlings.

His E seems just outright bad. It's cooldown is way too long, the passive would only really help with last hitting, and the two second window before a blink would mean getting caught out of position is death, and using it to catch someone would probably end up just letting them get farther away from you. It eithers needs some serious buffs, or just to be changed completely if you want it to be a useful skill. Sorry if that's harsh, but two seconds is way too long for a squishy to wait to reposition, and the slow kills his kiting.

Last but not least, his ultimate. In my opinion, It could use some pretty major overhauling. The increase in damage is nice, but it might still not be enough damage, depends on eil's attack speed, the increase in health is cool, but maybe a little extreme. My biggest problem with it is that it just doesn't feel like it's impactful until Rank three when it lets Eil jump.

In fact, I'd say that's the biggest problem with the champion, he lacks damage, and only has decent cc to make up for it. 20% of ap on attack from eil is cool, but Azir's soldiers deal 60% from roughly 1200 range. They also can dash at people and can't die from damage. Compared to that Eil has like no damage, and with the E being a very weak escape in most cases, I just see people ignoring him and killing Gardylan instead.

There we go, now for the final thing. Gameplay questions. YOu don't have to answer them, but they should be addressed while revising your champion.

First of all, do you want him to be an early game bully, or a late game powerhouse, or something in between?

What visuals would he have that would make him stand out from Swain, Malzahar, Kassadin, and any other mages that use dark powers?

How do you want him to perform differently in the hands of different people? I.E. when played by a pro vs. when played by a total noob?

At what points should his power spike, and what would his idea condition to fight in be?

What would make him a pick over other champions?

Well, that's about everything. Remember, these are just my thoughts and opinions, feel free to agree or disagree, but most of all I wish you luck and hope you have fun with any revisions or other custom champions you do.