User blog comment:LancettaBreeze/Corynthus, the Magical Adapter/@comment-26815373-20170503131703

Sooo... I like the idea of a champion who has class specific effects (the closest we've gotten thusfar is and  having explicit synergy with each other) but I don't think it's practical or feasable. Maybe I'm wrong.

Lesdin and Green called out the major faults here: 1) his adaptation could (should) be much more organic, i.e., it should emerges naturally from player interaction with the game world and game state. And 2) an extreme burden of knowledge for the player and his opponents.

About the 1st: I think your design, as it is now, is very artificial. Explaining this is difficult, as I'm not a professional, but I think the major difference is what does it feel like for the player?


 * When the player has room for creative expression, freedom, experimentation, etc. then we say that it's organic. It's natural. It feels 'right', 'correct', 'smooth', or 'good'.


 * When the player expression is constricted, when their choices are constrained, when the inputs are rigidly controlled, when the 'hand of the designer' is clearly apparent, then we call it inorganic or artificial.

I don't think Corynthus is poorly designed, but I do think he would feel extremely game-y. I'd be getting bonus effects left and right, not because I did anything special or clever, but because the designer had arranged it that way. I can't really show off my skill with the champion because so much depends - not on me - but on them. Not even on their skill, but on the champion they chose. It's too meta. Too removed from the game at hand. It'd be like having a champion who's passive was that they got access to entirely new masteries or runes or something. It's weird. Too weird for me maybe?

The other point was that the burden of knowledge (what Green called 'baggage') is waaay too high. This guy puts Invoker to shame. I approach design like I'm trying to 'sell' the idea to Riot. I've got to convince them. If you showed Riot this kit I can only imagine the looks you'd get. Remember that most of League's players are casuals. Also, complexity doesn't necessarily equal depth.

One final point I want to make is this: there is a lot of invisible power here. IDK what particles and animations you imagine Corynthus with, but things like:


 * "Increases their base cooldowns by 2.5 seconds for 2 / 3.5 / 5 / 6.5 seconds"


 * "Increases their abilities' costs by 10 / 25 / 40 / 55 % for 10 seconds."


 * "Reduces their bonus attack damage and ability power by 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 % for 2 seconds."

Will probably leave his enemies more confused and frustrated than anything else. There's a reason we haven't seen effects like these in the game yet. I think it's because getting players to appreciate the power of such effects (and they are powerful effects) is a challenge in its own right.

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IDK how you can save this champ, or even what would be worth saving. I like the current iteration of his E the most, as it's the cleanest ability. I think his Q and W could both be more exciting, impactful, cleaner, and have a shorter cooldown. Like I said, I like the idea of adapting and of playing with character classes. I like his name. I just think he needs more than a literal (figurative?) tool-box (workshop?) worth of effects.