User blog:Emptylord/Custom Champion - Titan the Case 53

' ' began its design as the Yordle Jungler we've all been waiting for, although his ability to jungle wasn't actually taken into consideration during the design process and... well, here's a Yordle Juggernaut you might be interested in!

Personal Hook
This is something I don't often do, believe it or not, but I'm starting with a role and a species first and designing the champion backwards from there (usually I have a core ability or gameplay direction...).

I was inspired to this by Jeremy's video, and asking myself "do I want to see a yordle jungler?". Honestly? No. The initial appeal for me when Riot announced it was the prospect of a feral yordle, which made the most sense to me as to why he was jungling. Having a generic Hunter or Assassin type champion who also happened to be a yordle just didn't ring with me as something Riot would do, especially with the current bar for design, so this champion would really have to make sense as to why a yordle is hanging out in the wilderness. However, Gnar kinda ticks all the thematic boxes and my drawing board was empty of other avenues to explore. Jeremy even shared Kaerru's Vesper concept art as an example of what this "yordle jungler" could look like, but it falls into the generic assassin category and the concept for a bat-like creature would definitely suit a more dedicated [[User blog:Emptylord/Nighthawk the Winged Fury|Man-Bat (DC Comics)}} rip-off.

That said, I conceded that Mini Gnar doesn't actually look all that feral (and Mega Gnar doesn't look like a Yordle). If what really appealed to me was a yordle that thrashes around, similar to Warwick or Kha'Zix, then the opportunity for a feral yordle still exists if the lore was exceptionally well written (not something I'm going to attempt). When searching for images of "feral yordles" to see if someone else had beaten me to the punch, I stumbled across an old piece of concept art that has always been a favourite of mine -. What's a guy to do when he's trying to decide on a unique look for a yordle and this masterpiece falls into his lap?

But... I do not have any ideas for abilities.

I have initial concerns that Titan may clash with and. While Mundo currently does not utilize his mad doctor theme at all in his kit, even if his model features syringes sticking out of him and some of his former icons/abilities involves "experimenting on himself" - I cannot rule out the possibility that his future relaunch might make him more true to his lore. Titan must only be an experiment, maybe even Mundo's experiment, but his gameplay cannot revolve around experimentation - only the rewards.

Design Direction
Titan's design started off, aside from the visual inspiration, with his personality. I imagined him being similar to Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood's Sloth. He's bored. He's nigh unbreakable and doesn't understand why things keep hitting him. He just wants to lie down and go to sleep. But. It's. Just. So. Nosey. Titan holds someone's head against the ground and slowly applies more pressure until something gives.

When I imagine Titan on the battlefield, a core gameplay fantasy that immediately came to the surface was knocking people aside with an effortless ease. Similar, perhaps, to Poppy's Keeper of the Verdict, but much more... repeated. ''Go away. Get off me. Stop it. Perhaps similar to The Hulk running through a antique shop and trying'' to knock everything over individually.

And so I ripped off Malzahar's Void Rift, although did my best to word it in such a fashion that it is not apparent.


 * Titan marks an area around him as his personal space. Titan will enemies who enter this area, which cannot affect an enemy more than once every  seconds. Titan is a patient yordle, and will wait for targets with crowd control immunity to become vulnerable before tossing them aside. This luxury does not apply to spell shields.

And the concept of personal space, similar to area of influence, has stuck and the aforementioned innate has taken many forms with different power distributions:


 * Titan suppresses himself for the next seconds, intercepting all hostile effects all the while being invulnerable and immune to crowd control effects. Enemy champions that enter Titan's personal space during this time are  to him. After the  seconds, Titan thrashes, dealing physical damage and  all enemies within his personal space.
 * Titan marches forward, gaining immunity from crowd control effects for the duration as well as the ability to intercept all hostile effects. Enemy units hit collides with are and, after the dash, are dealt damage and . Titan's speed during the march is reduced for every unit his holding.
 * Titan marks an area around him as his personal space for the next 8 seconds, also modifying his attack speed to 1.75. Titan will knock back enemies who enter this area, dealing Colossal Fists'  damage.


 * Other Abilities
 * Colossal Fists (Innate)
 * Titan's basic attacks (and abilities?) deal the greater value between and.
 * Steady Forward (Basic Ability)
 * Titan marches toward the target location, performing three powerful attacks over the duration that deals physical damage and enemies hit by 99% for  second. Steady Forward cannot be used to go through terrain.
 * Adaptive Regeneration (Basic Ability)
 * Titan stores % of the damage he takes over the next 4 seconds, which is tracked as grey health. After the 4 seconds, Titan restores health equal to the stored value.
 * Clobber (Basic Ability)
 * Titan rears up and then slams into the ground, damaging all enemies within his personal space.
 * Tunnel (Ultimate Ability)
 * Titan charges at through the target piece of terrain, clearing a pathable area for the next long while. Titan has a static movement speed for the duration of Tunnel, affected by neither hastes nor slows. Enemies within the area when the terrain reforms are harmlessly displaced. The notion of a burrowing ability is derived from one of the Yordle Jungler's core abilities, which is in part how FMA's Sloth got involved in Titan's development.
 * Tunnel (Basic Ability)
 * Titan burrows through the target piece of terrain, rendering himself untargetable for the duration. Titan has a static movement speed for the duration of Tunnel, affected by neither hastes nor slows.

Taliyah's Reveal
On Twitter, ZenonTheStoic mentioned that at one point during development, had an ultimate ability that let her destroy terrain. While this ability was conceptually amazing and ignoring all the massive coding issues (particularly making it playable for players with toasters for computers) and asset support it would require to make it look good (each bit of terrain would need an appropriate substitute) - it was ultimate scrapped because Taliyah didn't want to destroy terrain. In fact, the rest of her kit revolved around choke points and corning people.

Now I'd already conceptualized Tunnel, as detailed above, but hearing that a terrain-destroying ability was fairly well received on a mechanic level (unlike the scrapped abilities of some champions), I was inspired to go with it. Titan does want to plow through terrain, even if Taliyah doesn't. Regarding the specifics, I haven't actually decided if I would rather that Titan create a valley/tunnel - or whether he would just completely shatter the area. I imagine from an asset creation standpoint, it would be easier to lay an asset over the terrain that has the appearance of being pathable than to create a terrain-less version of the map. There's also a relative lack of balance-levers for an ability that "destroys terrain" when all the terrain pieces are such wildly different sizes.

Quotes

 * Upon Selection
 * "What now...?"


 * Movement
 * "This is taking too long."


 * Upon Dying
 * "At last..."
 * Falls asleep with feint snoring.

Trivia

 * Titan's title, "Case 53", is a reference to the monstrous parahumans from Worm. This is a placeholder title due to lack of a better idea.