Old Shadow of the Long knives Faction: Underdeeps Race: Demon, Mutant, Class: Rogue, Size: Small, Rarity: Exotic/Legendary Artwork: An arched, hunch-back looking fiend with three arms and tentacles. It stands on 2 eagle-looking legs. It's covered by a hooded cloak which partly covers its face. With one hand it pulls up a scarf to cover its lower face, 3 bright eyes can be seen on what's left exposed of its face. Its tentacles hold knives. Another arm grabs its cloak, and the other one seems to be drawing a sword under its cloak. Flavor-Text: "The one who is never seen. The one who taught them not to be seen. The one you don't want to see." Nora Cost: 79 Champion Stats DAM: 8, SPD: 6, RNG: 1, DEF: 0, HP: 45 Champion Abilities Attack: Loss of life Unique Reign of Shadows: Triggered. 6 AP. Cooldown of 5: Stealthed units with class Rogue gain 3 AP and Mobilize until end of turn. Upgrade Ability Set #1 Ability #1 Escape Ability #2 Shadowspawn Ability #3 Confuse Enemy (Default) Upgrade Ability Set #2 Ability #1 Shadowshift Ability #2 Cleave Ability #3 Defilling Aura It's a support for stealth themed bgs which allows players to counter the loss of Stealth which is for many stealth dedicated units their only source of protection against spells and attacks given the multiple ways avialable to counter it. This guy is meant to allow Stealthed champions to get a little boost battle.
With the name, flavor text, and rarity, id expect more. Why would he be a Lord for having mediocre dmg, no spectacular offensive skill, and no real personal stealth synergy. 12-13 dmg champ that either stealths until revealed by attack, dmg, or detection then has no way to stealth. Or he takes damage and stealths for 3 turns. Or he can attack and move to safety. If you take 1 or 2 in U1 then you can shadow shift. But you only use the ability once on its own with shadow spawn and you can only use it conditionally with escape. Cleave seems odd because you have to catch 2 units in position to use this and he doesn't have the dmg or defenses to make this attractive to me. Defiling Aura, my best choice cuz i like defile and would like to see more of it. However he has no inner synergy with it. Defile Corpse would make more sense. It's a support for stealth themed bgs which allows players to counter the loss of Stealth which is for many stealth dedicated units their only source of protection against spells and attacks given the multiple ways avialable to counter it. This guy is meant to allow Stealthed champions to get a little boost battle. I dont understand that assessment. Did stealth change recently and i am unaware? Stealth (ability) stealths you indefinitely until revealed right? Or has it gone the way of escape? Detection and Damage can still reveal units. I dont see how this guy aids them after they are destealth. None of his abilities inherently boost their stats or heal them or give them defensive support. His one ability Reign of Shadows only gives a AP boost to units who are currently Stealthed and are Rogues. I have no clue what mobilize is. You didn't explain it and Pox Base has no info. Perhaps you meant mobility? As i read it, if your champs are stealthed you can get 3 ap and mobility? This will help stealth champs when they have loss stealth by giving them a bit of boost battle. <<< I cant gather this logic. I feel like im missing something. This rune just seems underwhelming and disappointing from the name, art, and lore.
For a stealth support that fit your description of what you hope to create, foregoing the name. Long Knife Instructor Cost: 72 Dam:6 Spd:6 Rng:1 Def:0 HP:45 Atk: LoL Stealth Sustain: Shadow Shift Bestow U1: Commander: Rogue / ShadowMeld * U2: Swap/ Spell Swallower/ Preparation * AP:2 CD:3 - Next Turn all damage done to this champ is reduced by 50% and this champion gains 1 AP and +1 DMG permanently for every 5 damage it takes for 1 round ( Only Useable while stealth, does not destealth) Kept LoL since it's what you initially had. The champ has Stealth since it is a support for stealth theme. Also it synergizes with most of its Upgrades. Sustain: Shadow Shift to give Stealth units without it, more mobility. Bestow to transfer Commander or Shadowmeld to future champ. Keeping that +5 hp boost in play after its death or making another Stealth champ more durable and deadly. Commander to help support with increased hp. Shadowmeld (new ability) to showcase a new defensive ability for stealth units that gives them great defense while in route to a kill or immediately after an assassination. Primed with extra damage and AP after surviving an assault. Swap to position itself for a kill or an Assassin unit to conserve AP for an Assassination. Also can be Bestowed in race is shared. Spell Swallower, gives support by knowing when a spell is played and also boosts this champions dmg. Can also be Bestowed which would prove useful on an Assassin. Preparation to give some conditional range and damage. Helps this stealth unit poke while keeping a safe distance in the shadows. Can also be bestowed with shared race. Underlined and Italic are default. Bestow could be exchanged for a similar ability that only bestows 2nd line to those that share Class. Call it 'Technique' or something. But i acknowledge concerns of having Bestow on a demon and access to these abilities outside of theme.
Lord of Shadows UD/FW 87-95 Dam:5 Spd:7 Rng:1 Def:0 HP:46 Shadow Meld* Assassinate 1 One with Shadows: This unit stealths at the end of every turn. (Passive) Reign of Shadows: AP:6 CD:5 Stealthed units with class Rogue gain 3 AP and Domain: Shadows for 3 turn. (Does not Destealth) U1: Preparation/ Surge: Spirit/Surge: Shadow U2: Life Drinker/ Equip: Sword of Shadows*/ Life Siphon * This unit comes into play equipped with a Sword of Shadows Nora Modifier: +20 Shadowmeld for a little survivability Assassinate since he's the Lord of Shadows and synergizes with Surge for big damage capability when conditions are met. One with Shadows keeps him stealth, since he's the Lord of Shadows it's not a stretch for him to be a master of stealth. Reign of Shadows is the ability you crafted. I modified it with Domain instead of mobilize to give a bit of extra dmg and def to stealth units instead of mobility which stealth readily provides. Prep is good for long range assassinations and rewards patience and not getting revealed. Surge is for big dmg on Assasinate, hopefully proccing Life Drinker or Life Siphon for survivability. Surge Spirit synergizes with his U2 ability giving flexibility to his build path and role. Life Drinker is for survivability aswell as Life Siphon. You choose between cost and efficiency. Risk big kills for survive or consistent life gain at a higher cost. Equip Sword of Shadows lets this obscure rune that never see's play possibly get some love. It synergized with his name and it lends him to FW for an interesting concept for those that like creative builds and BG's. Although its +20 nora and seems not worth it you do get meat from it, its similar to Tim's plague. It also makes him pseudo "unequippable" you also get a discount on the item for it being spliced into an ability. This will open up some people to trying the actual rune. With more access to the ability through him and the actual equip an interesting BG could develop. He's low dmg. 9-10 in ff UD, 5 in ff FW, 7? in split. However Surge and prep helps him out. Assassinate also boosts his meager dmg. He can be a great utility rune throwing down some dmg mitigation and AP gen or he can snowball with surge. I had thought of Escalation on him and that may be revised and swapped for Meld or just added to base. The concept of a Lord of Shadows is open to much interpretation and everyone has their own unique take on it. This is just more of the type of interesting and powerful champ i was expecting when seeing the title.
Because if I give him the stats a Lord deserves, he would be nerfed beyond recognition simply because he would be abused for having a set of abbilities way too over the top to begin with. He already benefits stealthed units, and has a set of abbilities which can be upgraded up to eleven (Cloak of Long Knives + Cleave). And to be frank, I'm already trying hard for this guy to not be a tear-generator for whiny prots. Originally, I meant him to be something which made Stealth unloseable by means different to attacks or simply stumbling into a stealthed unit (and damage, but I guess it would mean to increase the potential cost for a power turn demanding the summon of a Murk Demon, thus, making him unnecessarily complex to play). However, and I thought it for a long time before coming up with the option above, he would be abusable. And thus, nerfed beyond recognition. Just in case you want to know how would the "uncancellable stealth" was, it was meant to be something like this: "Reign of Shadows: 5 AP. Cooldown 5. Stealthed condition can't be lost by any effect until the beginning of your next turn. It still can be lost by attacks, or by moving into a square occupied by a stealthed unit. This abbility comes into play on cooldown. This unit is Unique (yadah yadah Ya-Ya Han)" Just in case, I would also like to add an abbility to prevent other factions to abuse it. It would be something like this: "Hatred fuels hatred: This unit is a mutant from Lower Sheoul, so it is being shunned and feared by the dwellers of Upper Sheoul and the Northen Inquisition, thus he can't be put in a Protectorate split battlegroup." Edit: You won't believe how many times will your opponents stick his units together for a chance of catching a stealthed champ and launch everything he has against him.
Instead of editing that post...demonic sigh...AGAIN, I'll just make double post instead of prolonging an already long post. This is what I already know from being the only living being in the planet using a genuine stealth bg. And playing against folks in the peasant, rare, exotic, and legendary leagues and ranks. 1.-Once you got several champs stealthed, they will start playing Marco-Polo or simply summon as many Detection or AoE champs as they can. 2.-They will stop moving forward for fear of falling into a well orchestated trap and get most of their champs slaughtered by a mob of heavy hitting, or 10-11 AP champs sitting next to their already exhausted champs. 3.-Since I spice things up with Flame Skitters, they will go nuts at the idea of a perma-stealthed champ attacking, then stealthing from range, causing DoT conditions, as well as reducing their ranged attacks. 4.-They will always corner or sit-and-wait until they catch the stealthed champs. Or play UV x2 once the previous one wears off. In the end, during late game they will have the right setup even to counter Fading Recollections.
