Thread:Willbachbakal/@comment-7709681-20150131182542/@comment-1330314-20150131221838

Oh wow. This is huge. CertainlyT would be proud. ;P

Okay, I think the first thing we need to work on here is on how to simplify this beast. I think I might have a tendency to over-simplify things, but generally it helps figure out what's the coolest part of your champion and how its playstyle is going to be.

Here's what I think is absolutely awesome about Dmitri:
 * Blood shield that drains surrounding enemies.
 * Spreading blood everywhere!
 * That ult. So much potential in terms of gameplay and visual appeal.

Here's what I think could probably be dropped on him:
 * The health/mana duality. Basically, it means he stops being a mana champion at level 6, and I don't think there's anything really worth keeping about his mana system, especially because it's making everything about him super-complicated.
 * The Tides of Life/Death toggle. Again, it just overly complicates things and doesn't add that much value.
 * Tons of redundant effects on him (Anima Flux's three actives, his E's multiple different stacks, Sanguine Surge's active effectively being the same as one of the actives on Anima Flux). It's better to have a small amount of highly visible, iconic effects than over half a dozen mechanics that crowd each other out (though you don't always need to have a minimum amount of effects).
 * Ministry of Life's health-to-mana stat conversion (the attack speed steroid looks kinda nice, though). Stat conversion passives tend to just bring power without gameplay (just like, ironically), and I think should be avoided like the plague.

Here's what I think could be emphasized on him:
 * Dmitri spreading blood and corruption and thriving on it. works mainly by draining the blood from his enemies, and Dmitri becomes stronger as he spreads it around.
 * Dmitri sacrificing his resource and becoming more and more vicious as he does so. Health I think is the best kind of resource for this (spend more health -> greater risk -> greater rewards), and giving him his own kind of health spending/sustain minigame, along with associated power bonuses, could be a great gameplay mechanic, especially for a risky tank/mage champion.
 * Dmitri working as a tanky tankbuster. Again, health drain and conversion would work really well, because it would have great thematic feedback (Dmitri feeds off of his enemies, and the bigger his enemies the more he drains them) and would give Dmitri a great gameplay niche.
 * Dmitri dragging enemies towards him. This is a great tank mechanic, and one that would synergize with his tankbusting strength by allowing him to both drag squishy back liners towards the front, and peel for his own team by dragging tanks and bruisers away from his own back line.

Here's an example kit I propose (Note: this doesn't have to be the final kit, this is mainly a bunch of suggestions we can decide whether or not to implement. Numbers are also estimates):

Innate - Ministry of Life: Dmitri's abilities taint the ground with cursed blood which lasts up to 4 seconds. Enemies in contact with the cursed soil take 2%  in magic damage every  seconds, healing Dmitri for the same amount. Cursed soil also grants sight of the affected area as long as it persists.

Q - Anima Flux: Dmitri places a shield upon the target allied champion or himself that lasts up to 4 seconds, absorbing up to   damage. Upon placement, the shield drains the blood of enemies in a 300-unit radius, dealing  magic damage and tainting the area in cursed blood. The shield is increased by 20% for every enemy champion hit, for a maximum of. 650 range. 12-second cooldown. Costs 10% of Dmitri's current health.

W - Sanguine Surge: After using an ability, Dmitri's next basic attack within 4 seconds deals 5%   in magic damage and sprays the victim's blood behind it, dealing the same magic damage to all enemies caught in the spray and tainting the ground. Affected enemies are also by  and crippled for 1 second. Dmitri surges to the target location, dealing  magic damage to any enemy he runs through and leaving a trail of cursed blood upon the ground. Dmitri is untargetable while dashing. Dmitri can surge to any area tainted by his cursed blood regardless of range, and upon arrival refunds 50% of Sanguine Surge's cooldown and health cost. 500 range. -second cooldown. Costs 10% of Dmitri's current health.

E - Tides of Life/Tides of Death: If Dmitri is standing on non-cursed soil, this ability becomes Tides of Life. If he is standing on cursed soil, it becomes Tides of Death. Both abilities have their own independent cooldowns. Dmitri spews forth a torrent of blood in a 80º-cone in front of him after a -second delay, dealing  magic damage to all enemies hit. 700 range. -second cooldown. Costs 5% of Dmitri's current health. Dmitri calls upon the power of his tainted blood, all enemies standing in cursed soil towards his location after a -second delay, regardless of range, dealing   magic damage to all affected enemies. -second cooldown. Costs 5% of Dmitri's current health.

R - Tainted Bloom: Dmitri channels for up to 2 seconds, spreading cursed blood in the area around him, with a radius of up to a maximum of up to 1000 units. Dmitri releases blood spikes from all areas of cursed soil that impale all enemies standing upon it, dealing   magic damage and  them for  seconds.

Basically, the main schtick here would revolve around Dmitri covering the battlefield in blood and becoming more and more powerful as he does so. He does maintain a theme of duality, but instead of revolving around mana/health it would revolve around life and death, represented by him being out of his cursed blood (where he's encouraged to spread even more of his blood around and thereby spread "life") or inside of it (where he murders his enemies and brings about death). He gets to deal lots of damage to tanks, and benefits from focusing them by dealing increased damage to the backline (by spraying squishies with their tank's blood, using his W passive) and sustaining harder with his passive. I also wanted to emphasize the difference between full tank Dmitri and full mage Dmitri, even though it would likely be ideal to do a bit of both: a full tank Dmitri has stronger shields, and benefits more from keeping enemies on cursed soil, whereas full mage Dmitri deals lots of AoE damage by spreading his blood around. What do you think of this kit?