User:Double Slap/Zara Thought Process

=Design= I've gone down the beaten path of trying to make a legitimate Assassin/Tank. I was working on this for a while and came to no avail since a tank that deals damage is simply a beefed up fighter. I've had some debates in the past with tanks in general with Ntoulinho. When I came to the question, "What makes a tank unique?" Upon blueprinting a design for a tank, I remembered this old project of mine.

I thought to myself about the significance of hybrids. Not just the and  everyone thinks of, but also the primary and secondary mixes and symbiosis seen in life in general. On the economic scale, it is done for growth in efficiency through trading. On a biological scale, it is done to avoid hazards and also for efficiency. In League of Legends, it is done to enhance one particular iteration to an indomitable force. One such example is in the typical item build of an ADC. These champions buy massive amounts of, , , and armor penetration in order to amplify the one thing that converges from all of them: autoattacks.

Looking in terms of class primary and secondary attributes, mage supports are known for their relentless battering of bursts and utility due to how and CDR are where they converge. The mix creates an effect of helplessness from enemies since good reactions from the mage support can allow for much juking due to the frequent level of downtime between abilities. A mix of tanks and fighters, being very apparent, is through the duration of battle due to being where they converge. Living to fight longer is the main point of the tank fighters which allows them to fearlessly charge into an ongoing battle bringing large momentum in fights to feel like an inescapable truck bulldozing its way through. So what about assassins and tanks? Where could they possibly converge? I concluded it was their base damage.

Assassins are known for getting their penetration. It allows them to handle any counters to their ratios and push their lead as far as possible. However, tanks are also known to forgo their damage options for additional base damage due to their low ratios. Juggernauts, who are mixes of tank fighters, get items such as and  to exemplify this point of high base damage with some like  being also designed for. As such, I found that the only way to truly make an assassin tank work is to take advantage of penetration and throw gigantic amounts of base damage into the kit.

Champions like and  are seen with numbers that only scale with levels, to simulate getting a lead over the enemy. I decided to make this top priority by literally removing all ratios that would increase damage output and instead making the whole damage output scale with levels discarding and  ratios that would increase damage output on his abilities. This causes him to rely heavily on his base scaling and alleviating his costs to become more powerful. That means that if there is no lead, there is no coming back. No turnabout elixirs here, sorry. Q~Q However, I used this as legitimacy for the massive numbers you see on Zara. Having an ultimate that deals a net 2,580 damage is nothing to scoff at. It also loosens priorities a bit. Instead of ranking up an ability to maximize damage, priority shifts towards the utility since the damage will go up through levels anyways.

The visceral aspect of the priority on base damage is massive impact. Tanks are known for having large downtimes and assassins are known for being very vulnerable. By creating a gigantic level of base damage and armor and magic resistance shredding, there is a massive amount of pain able to be dealt with the combination of your own damage and the damage of teammates. The combination also crushes the priority of building damage as there are no ratios for increasing damage output outside of and  for the shredding. However, this brought about massive struggles that I compromised through pushing the boundaries vastly.

The handicaps I placed are all speed related. More specifically: movement speed,, cast times, extreme cost, and DPS vulnerability. I cut down on movement speed, because the last thing we need is a monster slapping every carry with a. If, and potentially , did not have infinite damage scaling, I would say that this is the most intense form of a juggernaut as you can get. Of such grandiose intensity that it pushes itself from the boundaries of fighter into assassin. As such I needed to completely obliterate and significantly lengthen cast times to prevent him from being ridiculously overboard. I also gave Zara a cost based on his  on his most spammable ability, Runic Redux, so that if he does decide to spam it recklessly, he will swiftly find himself out of  and unable to extend the duration of the fight much further.
 * The DPS vulnerability comes with his tankiness. Now, if he is tanky why can't he survive DPS? Well, the method I went about it completely removes the prominence of sustain--such as the potentially insane lifesteal. By completely removing damage resistance, Zara is going to be taking tremendous damage output. Proof is in how we believe assassins are the top notch damage around, when carries obviously have the highest damage output due to consistency.

The compensations I gave back to him were all burst related. More specifically: gigantic, turret destruction, largest pool, and burst durability. The tremendous allows him to utilize powerful autoattacks like  and. I want to encourage the more offensive route of since his slow actions make him feel like a traditional samurai due to the tremendous force behind each strike. With this tremendous force in mind, I felt that all this compensation was still not enough to make Zara feel powerful in a unique way. So I gave his Blade of the Reborn King the ability to damage turrets on its true and physical damage portions. I wanted to give a vibe similar to how barrels into a turret with his ultimate as it is an extremely slow ability. Due to how important his abilities are, I made a shift towards having a large pool with low capability to regenerate it. I wanted to give Zara the priority of using his abilities carefully to focus on the consumption of. Giving him the largest pool allows Zara to have a very strong opening will little worries. It also translates into a bomb as Runic Redux has  scaling on it. This allows his investment in to be one way for Zara to increase his burst damage.
 * The burst durability is through his tankiness. Since assassins and carries are known for getting penetration, I wanted to create a method that would defend him against penetration. As such, I thought about the concept of EHP. If his EHP was unaffected by penetration, it would be tremendous. I liked the limitations a shield gave so I transformed what was supposed to be EHP into shields. Zara has slight vulnerability to and  reductions in terms of tankiness, but it is over time rather than immediate. This means that in order to defeat him, methods of increasing raw damage is best. However, against burst, the fact he can transform investment in  into a shield against physical damage and vice versa is very valuable. He also gains the capability to defend against true damage with / through Might of the Occult. However, I balanced it in a way that is not too much over a super.

As for the background of Zara, he is actually one of the original characters made in my story. In my story, he is known as the conqueror due to wielding the sword called: the Avenger. He is the rival of another called the guardian, who wields a sword called: the Defender. If this sounds familiar, yes these are both the same as of Lenaieka's sword from Nazareadain. I was very surprised with how well it matched with my own story. Her upbringing was a lot like Don, the guardian's. However since Runeterra has nothing to do with my story, I am transforming Zara into a totally different character which will avoid any clashes.

While he is supposed to be something like a General from the Fire Emblem series, I am instead making him a samurai ghoul to better fit into the lore of League of Legends from my story. Since anger and death are two very prominent themes in my story, the Shadow Isles is a very good place for many of my characters. It's particularly good for Zara though, since he the Shadow Isles is in the Conqueror's Seas. However, runes and glyphs are of immeasurable importance and as such I gave him a title that seamlessly merges it all together, The Cryptic King.

Strategy
Zara specializes in making extremely powerful trades at the cost of his speed. Unfortunately, he is very clunky in doing so as he is extremely slow in all endeavors except his first autoattack. He is especially vulnerable to harassment due to his lack of damage resistance and inability to sustain effectively even with items.

Fortunately, he becomes much more powerful as levels drag on so farming under the turret is more than enough for him to overwhelm the enemy. With Runic Redux, he can set up a very powerful gank with the jungler given it's large range. Successfully stunning the enemy even once with Runic Redux is enough to kill the enemy as the long and  duration of a follow-up Archaic Bludgeon will ensure that the enemy cannot escape death.

During teamfights, stay very close to your backline as the sheer power of Zara's first autoattack is enough to obliterate enemy assassins while Archaic Bludgeon allows divers to become managable while Might of the Occult keeps you healthy and the enemies weak. Use Blade of the Reborn King when the enemy attempts to flee. The will keep the enemies locked down for a swift chain with Runic Redux and the sweeping attack. Aim the tremor strike at the enemy turret to deal massive damage or potentially set up a fight for your allies if enemies decide to block the attack.

Zara's greatest weakness is his ability to be easily kited. Without aid, Zara is completely helpless to the harassment of any ranged abilities. Even though his first autoattack is strong, will easily mitigate his damage and the large cooldown of Archaic Bludgeon on top of his reliance on farming with the ability makes even melee enemies difficult for him to handle. So skirmish with him during the delay for his next autoattack.

Any shredding is very powerful against him as the vast majority of his defense comes from Veil of the King. Thus he is at even when his shield is about to be destroyed. Try to avoid relying on abilities that rely on, as this fact also makes it much harder to execute him since his is blocked by the tremendous shield. If you can force Zara to use Might of the Occult at high shield levels, simply poking will be enough to drag him down to a point where he can be easily killed. Despite how large his shields may be, his complete lack of damage resistance makes him as easy to kill as a standard minion. Also, penetration will be absolutely worthless against him and / shredding has minimal effect so rely on increasing raw damage such as in order to defeat him.

Item Synergy
Items that grants Zara massive burst and increases raw defenses are extremely beneficial to Zara. Sustain of any kind is completely ineffective on him. This includes, , and.
 * is an overall amazing item for Zara due to his extreme and  synergy. This item alone transforms his trades into a terrifying force as he can easily be dishing out  if he manages to land an Archaic Bludgeon and follow up with an autoattack.
 * is essentially the best item that Zara could ask for. Given his incredibly low, being able to attack multiple enemies for is a big deal, especially given just how large his  is. The  ratio also coincides with his own  ratios which makes his  feel much more valuable.
 * is arguably the worst upgrade, but it is the absolute most powerful in terms single-target damage. In the situation where on enemy keeps jumping in at him, landing an Archaic Bludgeon an enemy allows him to deal a whole of physical damage to that enemy. This alongside  serves as a tool for instagibbing Assassins.
 * is useful for the fact that Zara completely lacks ratios. It serves as the introductory tool for him to focus on dealing magic damage. While Zara can reduce, he is limited to only  for increasing magic damage on an extremely costly ability. Building it is quite a challenge since the  and  gives little to no benefit until he finishes the item, but that is the price to pay for breaking the meta. This is a pivotal item for a  build as it supports , which is essential to the  build.
 * comes naturally as a good item to Zara due to the ease of setting the condition given his massive damage taken. While the shield is fairly useless to him, the increased is invaluable to him. At level 18,  gives  casually, which is more than even . When the passive is activated, it can give as much as . A monstrous amount that is incomparable to anything else. This serves very well to his  items.
 * easily complements the his titanic strength to supernatural levels. It is not the stupendous waveclear nor the scaling ratios that make it stupendous, rather the autoattack reset that transforms Zara to an absolute monster. The sheer strength of Zara's autoattacks means that being able to launch two in quick succession is catastrophic for the enemies. A lucky two  shot can net a whole 5000+ damage, enough raw damage to destroy any average fighter and even sunder tanks to minimal health levels.
 * is as important of an item to Zara as it is to . Zara's innate costs are exorbitant to unreasonable lengths, the sheer fact that this item reduces this is enough to rush it instantaneously. On top of this, Zara has incredible  synergy thanks to Runic Redux. The reduced cost actually reduces the  ratio on the cost which further increases his  synergy.
 * is natural item for him to build. While he has very little gains from the on-hit capabilities, is his primary form of damage output innately. As such the increased  synergy in this regard allows him to much more smoothly build other  items that aid him greatly.
 * is an excessive item. This item cannot even be considered unless going for a  build. Although the constraints are harsh, having  alongside  grants  right there. This tremendous amount of  serves very well in the explosive power of the  build.
 * is an incredible item for Zara to build as the overall reduced allows him to survive much longer than he normally can. Reducing the damage capabilities of the enemy is one of the few ways Zara has to protect himself. Also the  component of this item serves to aid in alleviating his  costs while increasing the damage of Runic Redux.
 * is the only boots Zara can consider. Due to Weight of the World, Zara cannot make much gains from the movement speed of other boots. The reduction of the from Weight of the World greatly alleviates this burden which makes it much better than the other options for that reason alone.
 * is a stress alleviating item for Zara as missing one minion kill causes him to wait a ridiculous amount of time to kill another minion. A melee minion upgrade will chip down enemy minion help to allow better farming. On top of this, this item has a naturally high and  while also giving  that synergizes with Zara well.
 * like is terrific for Zara as it reduces, but this also reduces . This definitely makes it a much more defensive item for Zara to consider as it offers . The  can also be used after the stun wears off from Runic Redux to keep enemies around for longer.
 * has a special interaction with Zara. Given Zara's unique form of and / interaction, he gains a shield for the  regained from . This can serve to be very useful to Zara in a pinch as he can activate Might of the Occult soon after revival to gain a formidable total shield to last longer. Specifically, the shields gained are the  initial total shield,  per  physical shield, and  per  magic shield.
 * is formidable on Zara due to the damage over time functionality of Archaic Bludgeon. Also given that it is % armor shredding, the destruction of is tremendous when combined with the flat armor shredding of Might of the Occult. This gives him a strong tool to deal with enemies moderate amounts of  fairly well. A major concern to consider is how it also amplifies the frequency of spellcasting which skyrockets his  consumption.
 * is an item for him to be dealing nuclear autoattacks. While this doesn't serve as a good item to rush due to his lack of  scaling on his abilities, his innately large  makes this a very difficult prospect to pass up.  is very good on Zara to the point in which he could be rushing  to great effect. It also serves as one of the few ways to increase his  ratios through its increased  and chance. While it does rely heavily on chance given his inability to effectively gain high levels of, this is a testament to the Shuriman faith--as it is a gamble to live in the ruthless sands.
 * parallels with Zara's duty as a character. A cool mind, and a lethal blow that sustains it. Given Zara's large innate pool, which is further extended through investment in, this is a very useful item for farming. While this does not increase the damage dealt by Archaic Bludgeon, it does alleviate its tremendous cost. Weight of the World also greatly helps him utilize autoattacks to kill minions. The large amount of  can ensure last hits as with any other champion while a chance  sustains his . This can allow him to more efficiently trade with enemies as he can still be dealing large damage with his autoattack and abilities while sustaining himself. However, this should only be considered after  is built, as the rarity of his  combined with how slow his autoattack windup is serves to cripple the gains heavily in comparison to something like.
 * is a moldy old sword that Zara used to swing around. Now it's completely useless on him since he's and became extremely  from carrying the Weight of the World.

Zara can be built three ways: a siege fortress against all champions, an incredibly powerful bodyguard against assassins, or a bomb. All methods are valid in their own ways.
 * Building with tremendous defensive capability will make it an incredulous feat for anyone to truly destroy him in a single teamfight and his vast control over the fight will swiftly be made apparent. This allows Zara to easily siege turrets making more use of the first strike component of Blade of the Reborn King to chip them down. Fortunately since Blade of the Reborn King is an innately powerful ability, he is able to express his tremendous power even if he goes very tanky and Might of the Occult will allow him to support the damage of his allies too.
 * One extreme component of what makes Zara powerful with his autoattacks is his extreme . This allows him to utilize very well, even gaining efficiency from  runes that swiftly supercedes flat  runes. Alongside the fact that  and  are great items for Zara, he has the potential to instagib assassins with a single autoattack. Even so, divers may even have trouble if they are unfortunately struck with Archaic Bludgeon as his physical damage burst transcends to whole new levels. Unfortunately, such investment in  will significantly weaken his shield given the lowered amount of  and .  may help significantly with this, but it will make it much more difficult to deal with divers given his low DPS capabilities if he happens to miss Archaic Bludgeon.
 * The bomb an even more extreme damage option that would opt for the   items once he gets .  reduces the cost of Runic Redux enough for him to dump his entire store of  onto the enemies if he continuously spams the ability. This leaves him dry on  very fast, but the large AOE if he gets  alongside the extremely high possible numbers for  pool is enough for him to completely go glass cannon for this. As such, he is extraordinarily squishy as he needs to make major sacrifices between all forms of EHP. However, given his innately high  costs and his incredible  synergy in this one ability, it serves as the absolute most powerful late game build he could ever obtain. The success with this build relies heavily on the ability for allies to lock the entire enemy team down for a large period of time.

Runes and Masteries
Compared to all champions, Zara's soars high over anyone else at all stages of the game. This allows him to be a special case when it comes to runes. While almost every champion will certainly have a much greater early game benefit using flat  runes at the start of the game, Zara is the rare case that actually gains a tremendous amount of early game power from  runes. This is due to the fact that his at level one is extremely close to the  threshold where  becomes more effective than. At level 3, Zara is guaranteed to reach this mark which means he can use these runes very effectively early on.

Unfortunately, unlike other champions in the game, his defensive benefits are very poor with flat and  runes. This is due to the fact that he cannot take advantage of the damage resistance which makes the early game much more powerful. As such, most of his defensive capability early on is derived from alone as it increases the values of his shields to surpass his lack of damage resistance. Using early game runes may certainly be necessary as it is impossible for him to merely stick it out in lane if his is bursted too heavily early on. Zara's is definitely on the low end of the spectrum and while his shields will make him seem like, he is not nearly as tanky due to the lack of damage resistance.
 * Although flat runes are fairly dull, something to note about and  runes is that he does have other ratios in which he can utilize his  and . He has his shields,, explosion radius, and / shredding. If any of these traits are desired early on, investing in these runes may still be valuable to some degree. However, know that the ratios are not nearly high enough to gain a visible effect from the relatively low values of / in runes. In the end, the gains from these ratios are expected to be from itemization. Only per level runes are enough to have even a slightly visible effect on these ratios.

Something else to note is that Zara has tremendous costs. These are extremely prominent and difficult to deal with. Of course the large power of the abilities easily compensates for the costs, but it is not something that reduces these costs. Unfortunately, itemization against this is poor given that he is essentially required to invest in to even manage at all. On top of this, his is extremely low on the spectrum so this cannot be merely alleviated by items alone on a long term laning scale. Fortunately, runes are not chained by his base values.
 * Both flat and per level scaling runes are amazing on Zara. While the values may seem small, understand that his regeneration innately is even smaller. What is really important is that it coincides with his priorities of gaining . If he is always forced back due to low, he will never be gaining the  he needs to survive the laning phase, even less win it. While player-based  management certainly is possible given he can farm  with Archaic Bludgeon, it opens up the avenue of enemy harassment which is an extreme weakness to Zara. Getting flat  makes this much less of a problem since it passively aids in this matter from the very start of the game.

Given Zara's high reliance on levels to become powerful, he wants to have tools to maintain his. Although there are many limitations that causes Zara to fail to obtain a steady stream of, there are times when the stars align and there are no problems in that regard. However, this fact does not change that Zara still wants to get as many levels as possible. As such, boosting this fact through runes is favorable.
 * The gains from runes are deceptively low. Thinking about how its gained in terms of  itself is not accurate to determine the reality of it. The reality is that there is a constant fluctuation for killing champions + gaining assists for  and being near enemy minions dying + clearing jungle to get.
 * The general way it goes is according to the difference between your level and the enemies'.
 * The greater the difference, the better it is to kill champions. Even when you are overleveled, the decrease caps at -20%, it will still be 50% from your level and the 1 level above the enemy.
 * In all other cases, the latter options are better since they offer flat . In general the reason why runes are powerful is ironically how difficult it is to obtain.
 * It takes methodical effort to obtain as the act of roaming itself will offer absolutely no  at all. As such, the leads gained from prioritizing such a thing can be tremendous. For example, a roaming assassin may only gain  due to a lack of focus on such a regard. However, a siege master who is always at opportune places to get experience may get  they could have gotten.
 * As such if one plays with that 80% efficiency consistently, the range of lead gained from  runes can be anywhere in the range of . This is the  from the runes alone. Alongside the  from being overall efficient at gaining  ends up with a surging amount of levels over the enemy. This is extraordinarily favorable for Zara in particular due to how much he gains per level.

For those who are investing in Zara's potential to soak up a lot of raw damage, runes are invaluable. The scaling potential alongside his shields is absolutely tremendous and can put him to absurdly high levels of raw shields and. While he still has no damage resistance, against champions who wasted their investment on penetration, the numbers are nothing to scoff at. While the enemies may be able to deal a consistent 1000 damage a second against anyone, which certainly is high and unbearable, what is 1000 damage a second to an entire and 13,000 shield? Where most champions would fall in less than 5 seconds, he would fall in 14 seconds.

is absolutely necessary on Zara for an obvious reason: his costs. On top of that, it even scales with which is great since he has an innately large  pool. If he gets more, the problems can eventually fade later on in the game. Of course it will always be a problem while Runic Redux has that epic cost, but the management at least becomes reasonable.

is a great keystone mastery for Zara to use in particular. With alone, he can reach his 400 movement speed cap simply, because it greatly reduces the strength of his  from Weight of the World. This mastery opens some avenues for the choices of boots if choosing to act as a bodyguard of sorts, given his extreme bursting potential when someone is an unfortunate diver hopping into an Archaic Bludgeon. Given how extremely overbearing the passive is in the game, (real movement speed ranges around 211-300 without it) that fact is reason enough to use it as a keystone mastery.

Matchups
Zara has extreme potential to become an overwhelming beast. However, alongside this comes an extreme vulnerability to harassment. The weakness that comes with absolutely no damage resistance should not be underestimated. Alongside Zara's inability to do anything about harassment, this is a major crutch that will easily bring him to ruin once more. Although weak as he may be to something universal, persevering through these dangerous times will unleash a monster that can destroy enemy turrets while sitting in the spawn pool.

is no match for Zara's titanic blade. Unlike, Zara has attained mastery over the runic arts and uses exclusively to power his blade while  has no knowledge of  at all. In truth, both blades are very strong in their own right. However, Zara has one special form of control that tears asunder:. Archaic Bludgeon completely obliterates and prevents her from using most of her signature abilities. On top of that, scales off of the missing  of the enemy, but given how monumentally difficult it is to actually reach his  at all, it goes to waste a vast majority of the time. She may be slippery enough to handle most enemies who rely on autoattacks, but never has she encountered one that has autoattacks equivalent to burst right at the very first level. reforged a broken blade. Zara reforges a broken spirit.

is known to shred through and bully enemy laners to subjugate and weaken them through immense consistent burst. Ironically, due to the nature of Zara's power, despite his weakness to harassment overall: Zara is one who instills fear into this foolish crocodile. is rarely afraid of his foes because they are either weak in defending against burst or weak in instant burst. Zara is the unholy combination of both strengths. Playing his cards right, Zara can offer no opportunity for to simply dive in and dive out with Archaic Bludgeon. Even then his autoattack is too might for him to handle. Even if decides to get  to mitigate this overwhelming strength,  already lost because his sole duty is to win the early game, and Zara's power is only getting stronger.

charges and barges with lethal force. brings death to all, but unfortunately for him: Zara is already dead. Unlike the other dead, he already knows lethal pain all too well and does not take any more damage from it. As such the factor that gives the horseman such immeasurable strength is deemed laughable in the non-existent face of Zara. Zara may be slightly spooked by the steed charge, but he stands firm and will strike down with a graceful strike and a sundering --after all, he's done it once before.

Captain is an utter monstrosity. The little badger known to make the manliest of men fall to their knees. Part of this is due to his. Timed well, he can completely waste Zara's extremely important autoattack, very frequently as well. Given the pain of, he can very well whittle away at Zara with extreme ease. He can do it safely, he can do it painfully, and worst of all: he can drop a on the rune for Runic Redux.

Zara has denied his passing, so as one would imagine, death does not take too kindly to that. comes to serve as an indomitable duo that Zara will have immense troubles with. While is subject to all the pains of being a squishy marksman that could get bonked by an Archaic Bludgeon, what they have that the others don't is. As easy as it would be to kill them, this allows the duo to freely barrage Zara with massive amount of. The combination of and  serves as the inevitable downfall to Zara as he is affected more by  shredding than anyone else would.

Zara's overwhelming might simply doesn't compare to grandmaster's brass. Who wants a piece of the champ? is one of the most dangerous melee fighters that Zara can encounter. As ruthless as and as barbaric as,  can easily dodge the one autoattack that matters to him Zara most. While Archaic Bludgeon will stop him from running, does not need to flee. ensures that Zara will never be able to win a duel against him and he even has which nullifies the reducing in  and  with sheer power. This makes him the one diver that he actually cannot handle, which completely ruins his purpose in teamfights. Perhaps the biggest thing that makes scarier than, is that he can start this barrage right at level 1.

Zara's ultimate foe is on equal standing with him, except on a different viewpoint. is his most terrifying adversary. In terms of impact, Zara is completely superior to due to Zara's monumental teamfighting capability. However, in terms of individual strength, is a much swifter version of Zara. does not suffer the crippling delays that Zara must deal with and thus has the ability to easily kite him and deal his monumental damage. Both Zara and has similar tankiness due to the large  scaling. The most terrifying part of going up against is his. This is especially threatening for Zara with an assassin slaying build given the monumental autoattack burst. Combined with the from, Zara would be the most terrifying ghost in existence as a single autoattack from that ghost is enough to deal a 2400+ damage --enough to instagib many champions in the game. Zara's soul was chosen to reform Runeterra, and is well aware of the value this holds.