Jericho, The Mind Of Darkness

Jericho is a bot lane support champion, bringing a heavy CC kit to the table. With Jericho, I would like to present a new collection of crowd-controlling effects, which I believe would make the game more interesting. Through this concept, I also hope to propose some rework ideas for the current CC system, which has been frustrating many players for years. The new crowd-controlling effects that I have invented are as follow:
*: the target loses their sense of direction for a few seconds. All movement commands and ability targeting are distorted.
*: the target becomes provoked, and will attack any visible nearby target regardless of whether they are allies or not. Similar to taunt, but the affected target will attack the nearest unit instead of the person who casted the spell.
*: the target’s damage output is reduced for a few seconds. Similar to Exhaust, but without the slow
*: for the next few seconds, the target’s health bar is always displayed as full, regardless of their current or missing health.
Check out my other champions:
*Inkha, The Phantom Edge
*Lor'Mak, The Void Destructor
*Adria & Lianne, The Twin Souls
*Klishma, Messenger Of Light
*Rhus, Lord Of The Swamp
*Draxxar, The Automata Commander
*Aerith, The Scrap Genius
*Amelia, The Heroine
==Lore==
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Jericho=
For many years, W.O.L.F soldiers have fallen victim to enemy ambushes and traps. Despite not causing any mass casualties, these ambushes struck fear into the hearts of any W.O.L.F soldiers, causing them to become hesitant when advancing forward. Their hesitance, in turn, caused them to not be able to take advantage of their element of surprise. As a result, W.O.L.F had been interested in creating soldiers with telepathic capabilities - combatants who can read the enemy’s mind and reveal their battle plans. W.O.L.F believed that with this ability, their soldiers would be more confident when charging into enemy territory. Furthermore, knowing the enemy’s plan would give them tactical advantage in a battle, allowing them to turn the enemy’s strategy against themselves. As a result, Project Alpha was initiated in order to research into this matter.
Despite receiving high expectations, the project turned out to be a massive failure. During the very first experiment, a mechanical error caused permanent brain damage to half of the volunteers, and that was just one of the many events that went awry. After each phase of experimentation, many of the volunteers either died right away, or went mad and attacked the lab workers. Those who managed to retain their sanity would try to escape, or find ways to sabotage the research facility. In the end, only one of the test subjects was telepathically enhanced successfully. W.O.L.F later had to admit that tinkering with human minds was an expensive and dangerous process. Thus, Project Alpha was halted indefinitely. Any documents or research notes about the project were hidden in order to prevent W.O.L.F’s competitors from learning about the project.
The sole survivor of the project was Jericho, a dedicated soldier. Jericho was very eager to join his brothers in battle, and put his powers into use. However, W.O.L.F thought differently: Jericho was too valuable of an asset to be sacrificed in a war. Therefore, instead of being deployed in battle, he was assigned a different duty: interrogating prisoners. Before any operations, W.O.L.F scouts would infiltrate the enemy’s hot zone in order to gather intelligence, and sometimes capture some of the enemy’s personnel for questioning. These prisoners would then be sent to the interrogation room, where Jericho would use his telepathic abilities in order to read their minds. Sometimes, they knew nothing, but most of the time, they hold top secret information that was crucial to the incoming battles. Thanks to Jericho’s help, several of W.O.L.F’s recent operations were successful with minimum casualties.
Even though his abilities were proven useful, Jericho felt like he was receiving too much favoritism: Why did his brothers have to sacrifice their lives on the battlefield, while he was safe in his office? Jericho knew he was not the only one who thought so: Every time he walked by a W.O.L.F soldier, he could read their thoughts, and feel their contempt and disgust towards him. Against his better judgement, Jericho decided to put his life on the line in order to prove himself. One day, he dressed up as a regular soldier, and secretly jumped on one of the transport convoys into battle. As soon as both sides began exchanging fire, Jericho channeled all of his energy, and unleashed it towards the enemy base below the valley. For a few seconds, the enemy force suddenly stopped shooting, and then began firing again...on themselves. W.O.L.F soldiers watched in confusion as the enemy combatants murdered their own comrades in the most brutal ways possible. In the combat report, it is stated that the entire enemy base was wiped out within one hour - by their own men’s hands.
Jericho’s demonstration surprised even W.O.L.F ‘s top commanders: They have never seen such an operation being carried out with such a short time, with no casualty, and with such low cost on equipment. What baffled them even more was the fact that Jericho was able to manipulate the enemy’s actions to his will - something that they never intended for project Gamma. Despite his achievement, W.O.L.F did not change their mind, and Jericho was put back in the interrogation room. They even assigned bodyguards to watch over Jericho to make sure that the same incident won’t happen again. Jericho was not satisfied with the decision, but at least W.O.L.F soldiers now show much more respect for him now. He accepted his fate and returned to his daily job with no regrets.
One day, Jericho was assigned a special task: To interrogate a recently captured prisoner who was, as W.O.L.F described, “the greatest threat to the organization”. Reports stated that for the last few months, this person had been infiltrating W.O.L.F’s bases across the continent, stealing classified information, assassinating W.O.L.F officers, and destroying their equipment. Jericho was surprised: Being a mercenary corp, W.O.L.F had many enemies, as well as competitors. Nonetheless, none of them were actually stupid enough to actually attack their bases, yet smart enough to escape every time. Jericho was even more shocked when the wardens dragged a girl into the interrogation room, and told him that she was the person that needed to be questioned. The girl, despite showing signs of being brutalized and starved, still tried to struggle, and only stopped when the wardens finally managed to strap her tight into the chair.
Jericho tried not to show any emotions, and began questioning his subject as usual. His techniques had always been simple, yet effective: Jericho would ask a question, and the prisoner would then think of the answer in their head. Using his telepathic power, Jericho would then read their minds and gather all needed information, even when they say nothing. The girl’s name was Amelia, daughter of a Piltovan scientist - that’s all he learned about her. The rest of her mind was just blurry memories, due to a head trauma that she suffered when she was younger. No matter how hard he tried, Jericho could not find out who she was working for. He discovered that she used to serve some years in the Demacian army, but there was no evidence proving that she was working for them. Jericho had no choice but to conclude that the girl was acting on her own. Even so, another question arose: If she was not following orders from anyone, then why did she do it?
Jericho changed the topic, and asked Amelia a bit about her past with hopes of revealing her motives. She was defensive at first, but thanks to Jericho’s persuasion combined with some subconscious controlling, she eventually told him everything: W.O.L.F killed her mother when she was a child, and imprisoned and tortured her father. But this was not just about personal revenge: During her time in the Demacian army, her unit had been deployed multiple times in order aid Demacia’s allied states in battle. It was at these battles that Amelia witnessed the crimes committed by W.O.L.F: using chemical weapons, murdering entire innocent villages, rape, pillaging, recruiting child soldiers, and so on. At the end of the war, W.O.L.F would then frame the winning side for these crimes, and motivate the people to rise up and overthrow the new government, thus creating another war and bring new contracts for W.O.L.F. Jericho did not say anything, except calling it a day and ended the interrogation session.
That night, Jericho went to bed early, but had an uneasy sleep. As he rolled himself in his blanket, he kept thinking about the conversation he had with Amelia earlier. Jericho wished that everything she said was a lie, but his telepathic powers showed the opposite. For many years, he and his brothers had been told that W.O.L.F were the ‘good guys’, and that they were fighting for a better tomorrow. Even when his father, a high-ranking officer, died in battle, he still told Jericho to “be loyal to W.O.L.F till the end” in his last words. But now, when the veil of secrecy had finally been lifted, Jericho did not know what to believe in anymore. There was also something else: Somehow, during the exchange, he began to have feelings for Amelia, and eventually had a crush on her. The feeling was mutual, too: Amelia also developed some liking for Jericho, even though she tried to deny that thought. It was like they were meant to be for each other, but fate decided to play games and made them become enemies.
“Crazy day,” Jericho thought to himself. He had always laughed at the idea of battlefield romance, but now when he experienced it himself, he didn’t know what to do. Should he speak out to her, or keep silent? For some reason, this girl came into his life and turned everything upside down. He closed his eyes, but still could not fall asleep. Thanks to this, Jericho became one of the first respondents when an explosion went off in the middle of the night: A fire broke out from W.O.L.F’s armory, which then created a chain reaction that triggered all the explosives stored inside. The explosions immediately killed a dozen of W.O.L.F soldiers, while the smoke and flames killed many more afterwards. While helping others put out the fire, Jericho suddenly remembered that Amelia was still locked down inside her cell, so he rushed to check on her. To his surprise, Amelia was nowhere to be found, and the wardens guarding her cell were all killed.
After the flames were put out, an investigation was launched to determine its cause. It was revealed that Amelia managed to break out of her cell prior to the fire, then set up the fire as a distraction for her escape later. Shortly afterwards, W.O.L.F established a special task force unit with one sole purpose in mind: To capture Amelia and ‘bring her to justice for her crimes’. Jericho was also drafted into the team, due to the fact that he was the person who interrogated Amelia. Now that he had known about the true nature of W.O.L.F, Jericho became conflicted: If he helps Amelia, he would be betraying his ideology and his brothers in arms. If he helps his brothers, he would be allowing W.O.L.F to continue their dirty business, and drive the world to total conflict. To make matters more complicated, Amelia and Jericho actually fell in love with each other at first sight. Jericho had to make a hard choice: to follow his orders, or follow his heart?
For this time in his life, Jericho went into battle with fear and uncertainty.
|-|
W.O.L.F=
The World Order and Liberation Forces (W.O.L.F) has a long history that dates back to the establishment of Zaun. Back then, the city was faced with the threat of invasion from the Noxian Empire. On the sea, trading was disrupted due to constant pirate attacks from Bilgewater. It was clear that Zaun needs a military force in order to protect its benefits, as well as its future. As a result, Zaun‘s Citizen Army was established. 
However, the Noxian invasions never reached Zaun, and the number of pirate attacks had dwindled ever since the establishment of the army. As a result, when the chem-barons came into power in Zaun, they believed that an army is no longer needed, and decided to disband it. The officers of Zaun’s army instead reorganized it into a mercenary force, and adopted the name W.O.L.F. The so-called Zaun’s army now serves whoever gives the highest bidding. 
W.O.L.F prides itself for the use of cutting-edge weaponry, as well as its well-trained soldiers. Recently, small armed conflicts were sparked all over Runeterra, and W.O.L.F presence at these conflict zones has given them some popularity. Yet, there is evidence that W.O.L.F agents have been seen in these areas just before the fighting began, which suggests that W.O.L.F is responsible for starting these conflicts. 
When the Institution Of War was built, W.O.L.F have openly criticized it. They see the Field Of Justice as nothing more than a bandage solution to war, and that all nations will eventually choose to fight each other face-to-face on the battlefield just like before. As a result, W.O.L.F has sent some of its most elite soldiers to Summoner’s Rift to demonstrate the quality of its service, as well as to advertise its image as an alternative to the Institution Of War.
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==Abilities==
==Strategy==
I) ROLE
*Despite being categorized as an initiator / disruptor, Jericho is rarely the person who starts a fight. Unlike support mages like Brand or Veigar, Jericho needs a fair amount of setup from his teammates in order to make full use of his kit. As a result, he would usually wait for his teammate to initiate first, and then chain his own CC into the mix.
*Aside from his crowd-controlling effects, Jericho has no other means to protect himself, such as heals, shields, or escapes. His kit also provides unreliable damage, which means that most of the time, he should itemize himself towards tankiness rather than aggression.
II) GENERAL
*His passive, Mind Breaker [I] pinpoints the position of all enemy champions on the battlefield. This information is crucial to your team’s strategy, as it dictates when and where to begin a team fight, whether your team should contest Baron / Dragon, whether your teammates should continue split-pushing or group up.
*Neuroblast [Q] is the most important ability in Jericho’s kit. Not only does it set up for his other abilities, it also works as an initiation tool for your team. It also triggers Mind Breaker [I] upon contact, thus punishing the enemy for bad positioning.
**Throughout the duration of Neuroblast [Q] , if the enemy player issues a movement command, there is a chance their champion will randomly run towards you instead of running away. Any spells and attacks used by the enemy also have a very high chance of being misused since they are casted randomly. In other words, unlike other CC effects like stun or suppression, the victim is still able to do something, but they can’t control what they are doing.
**Neuroblast [Q] disorients the target based on how far the beam has traveled. Therefore, Jericho should not stand too close to the enemy, so that the effective duration will not be reduced too much. Yet, Jericho should not stand too far away from the enemy, thus giving them enough time to dodge the beam.
**Neuroblast [Q] will continue to travel if it hits a target that is already immobilized. This is a very useful effect, since many of the time, your teammates will (accidentally) unload their hard CC on the enemy first, making Neuroblast [Q] useless. This effect gives Jericho a chance to hit an alternative target if such a situation happens. The secondary target will also suffer from a longer disorientation duration, since the beam has also travelled further.
**Neuroblast [Q] can be used to slow down enemies chasing you. However, as stated above, the effective duration is reduced if they’re too close to you.
*Unstable Temper [W] has a good mix of both damage and crowd control. However, the ability is very unreliable, as the effects only occur if the enemy takes a certain amount of damage over time. By himself, Jericho has very little means to achieve the said damage threshold. Therefore, your team should have a champion that can deal burst damage, usually an assassin or a mage, in order to help Jericho out.
**Neuroblast [Q] can set up nicely for Unstable Temper [W] : While the enemy is confused, Jericho can approach them and use Unstable Temperl [W]. Your teammates can then begin attacking the target, thus allowing the Vulnerable mark to consume itself. As a result, after the effective duration of Neuroblast [Q] ends, they will continue to be taunted by Telepathic Control [W], which further prevents them from running away.
**Remember that Unstable Temper [W] deals AoE damage, and it enrages all enemies hit. If Jericho manages to hit at least two enemy champions, they will begin attacking each other, further taking more damage over time. If they kill each other, then Jericho would earn half of the gold and experience from the kill. As a result, the value of Unstable Temper [W] increases based on the number of targets hit.
**Furthermore, whenever Jericho uses Unstable Temper [W] on a target, their teammates will try to stay far away from the victim in order to avoid being affected as well. As a result, Unstable Temper [W] also works as a potential zoning / isolation tool. The abandoned victim then becomes an easy target for your team.
**Unstable Temper [W] also triggers Mind Breaker [I] when the mark consumes itself. Therefore, Jericho can use Unstable Temper [W] if Neuroblast [Q] is on cooldown.
**One thing that should be noted is that the damage threshold of Unstable Temper [W] scales with . If Jericho does not buy any items that gives , the target becomes harder to get because they must take more damage to trigger the mark. Once, the mark is triggered, however, the effective duration is longer because they will have more . Conversely, buying items that gives allows Jericho to his targets more easily, but it also reduces the duration.
*Sudden Remorse [E] is a powerful defensive ability, since it causes the enemy to deal less damage for a short period of time. The ability is extremely effective against champions with burst damage (such as mages / assassins), making them unable to kill you or your teammates with one combo. The duration is also long enough to cripple enemies that rely on sustained damage.
**In practice, in order to actually affect the enemy, Jericho sometimes needs to walk towards the enemy until they are within range. This is extremely risky, since Jericho cannot use abilities or basic attacks while channeling. Therefore, Jericho needs to disable the enemy first with either Neuroblast [Q] or Unstable Temper [W] first before using Sudden Remorse [E] .
**Remember that the target(s) can only be affected as long as Jericho keeps channeling. Once the channeling begins, Jericho needs to back off to safety as soon as possible.
**If an enemy decides to jump on you or your team, however, things would be much more simple. All you have to do is use Sudden Remorse [E] immediately, since they walk into range by themselves. With their damage reduced, they cannot kill their intended targets fast enough. By now, their only option is to either run away, or stay and get overwhelmed by your team. As a result, Sudden Remorse [E] can potentially create a large denial area around him that discourages aggressive plays.
**Do not use Sudden Remorse [E] while Unstable Temper [W] is still effective. The idea is to ensure that enemy champions can deal the most amount of damage to each other while under its effect.
**The strength of Sudden Remorse [E] increases based on the number Guilt that the enemy has accumulated. As a result, the value of Sudden Remorse [E] increases as the game progresses, since the enemy team will always be farming minions / jungle monsters, gaining a significant amount of Guilt over time.
*Overconfidence [R] is Jericho’s most powerful ability, not because it disrupts / disables the enemy, but because it gives them false information. Be noted that there’s a short delay before the energy sphere can reach the target. The delay gets longer based on the cast distance, so good positioning and timing is crucial.
**While affected, the enemy’s health bar is displayed as full at all time. Normally, two scenarios would happen: 1) The enemy would overestimate the amount of health they have left and become over-aggressive. Your team can exploit this to get a free kill, or 2) The enemy would underestimate their survivability and become too defensive. Your team can also exploit this to easily contest objectives and Dragon / Baron.
III) LANING PHASE
*As stated above, Neuroblast [Q] is a very important ability since it instantly triggers Mind Breaker [I] upon contact. This will help you and your teammates determine the exact position of the enemy jungler. At higher levels of competitive plays, this piece of information is crucial, giving your team a wide variety of options: Your jungler can come into the enemy’s jungle and steal jungle camps from them without being punished; your laners can back off and play safe if they learn that the enemy jungler is coming to gank them; your team can coordinate a counter-gank that easily wipes out the entire enemy team.
**Neuroblast [Q] also confuses the enemy champions long enough so that Jericho can come close and cast Unstable Temper [W] on them, which is his most common initiation combo. Don’t forget that Neuroblast [Q] cannot go through minions, so good aim and timing is critical, or else you will waste mana for nothing.
**Again, Neuroblast [Q] can be used to slow down the enemy jungler when you are being ganked, or make them become dazed if they jump on you. Yet, most of the time, they would be too close to you, which makes the disorientation duration not long enough to stop them.
*Unstable Temper [W] fits perfectly in the bot lane: Since there are always two champions in the bot lane, Unstable Temper [W] can make them attack each other, allowing you and your ADC to get a double kill.
**Unstable Temper [W] can be used with or without conjunction to Neuroblast [Q] , as it only requires the target to take a certain amount of damage in order to take effect. Jericho can save Neuroblast [Q] until after Unstable Temper [W] has been used in order to extend the CC duration, although it is recommended that Neuroblast [Q] be used first so that the enemy cannot run away from Unstable Temper [W] ’s cast range or fight back.
**With Unstable Temper [W] , it is recommended that Jericho team up with an ADC with good early game damage, such as Jhin, Miss Fortune, or Lucian to make sure that Unstable Temper [W] will trigger. If your ADC does not belong to this group, ganks from allied junglers are needed.
**Unstable Temper [W] is very effective against enemies trying to tower dive you. The damage from your turret is more than enough to trigger the taunt effect, and can possibly make them attack the wrong target and get killed by the turret in the process.
*Sudden Remorse [E] is not very useful during the early game, since the enemy does not have too many Guilt stacks yet, which makes it underpowered during this period. While channeling, Jericho cannot use other abilities, so Sudden Remorse [E] should only be used if both Neuroblast [Q] and Unstable Temper [W] is on cooldown.
**Sudden Remorse [E] can somewhat be useful when dealing with enemy ganks: Reduced damage causes them to not be able to kill you fast enough, allowing you and you ADC to escape.
**Sudden Remorse [E] is also very good against tower dives: again, reducing their damage output will increase the amount of time they need to kill you, while the turret will keep shooting them to death.
*Overconfidence [R] has some uses during early game trades: Without knowing how much health they have left, they would either refuse to recall even with low health or retreat even with full health. In these situations, there is a high chance that they will waste their Summoner’s Spells in attempt to kill / run away from you, allowing you to win trades easily. Even if you and your ADC get no kills, this is still very profitable since these Summoner’s Spells would be on cooldown when Jericho hit them again with Overconfidence [R] during mid-game team fights.
**Overconfidence [R] also is also useful for tower dives: If the enemy tower dives you, Overconfidence [R] makes the opponent lose track of how much damage they have taken from your tower, which eventually leads to their deaths. When tower diving enemies, the ability makes them think they have more health than they actually do, and will be killed by your team’s coordinated effort.
IV) TEAM FIGHTS
* Mind Breaker [I] and Neuroblast [Q] still bring great values to your team during mid- to late-game in a variety of situations:
**Before team fights: catching an enemy off-guard with Neuroblast [Q] will reveal the position of enemy assassins / tanks / bruisers who intend to flank your carries. This allows your team to better prepare for their enage.
**Taking objectives: Neuroblast [Q] allows your team to see whether the enemy is grouping up to contest objectives or not. If they are busy farming and are splitting up, then they would not be able to stop you.
*Neuroblast [Q] can still be used to engage and start a fight, just like in the laning phase. He can still walk up to disoriented targets and use Unstable Temper [W] and Sudden Remorse [E] , although it is much riskier now.
**Once the team fight breaks out, however, Neuroblast [Q] must be used in a different manner. As explained above, your team will unleash all of their CC on the enemy frontline, making Neuroblast [Q] useless. However, Neuroblast [Q] can pierce through disabled targets, possibly hitting someone more important behind them (such as an ADC or mid-laner). If this happens, your team will gain a significant advantage in a team fight since the enemy’s main source(s) of damage is incapacitated. Your assassin / tank / bruiser can then capitalize on this opportunity to flank the enemy’s back line and finish them.
**Alternatively, Neuroblast [Q] can be used to defend your teammates against enemy assassins / bruisers. When they jump into your team, Neuroblast [Q] would disorient them long enough that your ADC / mid-laner would have enough time to either run away or kill them.
*Unstable Temper [W] can be used without Neuroblast [Q] , since your entire team’s damage is sufficient to trigger the taunt. However, as said before, it is much easier to use Neuroblast [Q] first, then combine with Unstable Temper [W] . Even so, it is still very risky to just approach a target and use Unstable Temper [W] . If the enemy sees one of their teammates being incapaciated, then will rush in to intervene and attempt to kill you.
**Yet, Unstable Temper [W] brings much more value during team fights compared to the laning phase, due to the fact that it can taunt all 5 enemy champions at the same time. While the entire enemy team is busy fighting each other, your team can then charge in and get. Therefore, using Unstable Temper [W] presents many risks, but also brings much more rewards.
**Similar to Neuroblast [Q] , Unstable Temper [W] is rather useful against enemy assassins / bruisers. After using Neuroblast [Q] to disorient them, you can use Unstable Temper [W] to further prolong the CC duration, giving your team more time to deal with them. Be noted that the target is still able to do some damage with their basic attacks, so Sudden Remorse [E] is also needed.
*During mid- to late-game, Sudden Remorse [E] is now much more efficient, since all enemy champions have accumulated a large amount of Guilt stacks. However, it does not have much use in team fights, since most of the time, Jericho can only approach the enemy’s frontline (tanks), who does not deal much damage to begin with. As a result, Sudden Remorse [E] is best used as a defensive ability against assassins / bruisers.
** As usual, the ability should only be used if Neuroblast [Q] and Unstable Temper [W] are on cooldown, though Jericho can still use it as a panic button and it will still fulfill its job well.
*Overconfidence [R] is probably Jericho’s most powerful ability, yet most underrated (by the enemy team). As discussed before, the false information that this ability gives causes them to make wrong decisions. Your team, on the other hand, still can see the exact amount of health they have left, and can take the upperhand in a team fight. If an enemy is low on health, Jericho can freely use Neuroblast [Q] and Unstable Temper [W] to prevent them from running away.
**Be noted that Overconfidence [R] should be used when the team fight begins, meaning that once the enemy team is committed, they are unlikely to back off. Even if they do back off, your team can take this chance to contest objectives (such as towers, dragons, and Baron), or at least make them think your team is taking objectives and bait them into another team fight.
==Development==
Hola, my friends. It is me again, Peter from Vietnam.
With today’s concept, I would like to discuss a rather familiar topic: crowd-controlling effects. Everyone both loves and hates them to some extent. For example, when you manage to stun-lock an enemy and prevents him from using Rewind [R], it’s a satisfying experience. On the other hand, being continuously pinned down by both and is not fun at all. For obvious reasons, the hate side of CC is growing exponentially, and is contributing to the community’s toxicity.
The main purpose of CC is to prevent an enemy champion from fulfilling their role, thus giving yourself an advantage. For example, a stunned cannot run towards your team and get a pentakill; a silenced cannot unleash his powerful spell combos with ridiculous damage; a grounded cannot hop around the battlefield like a crazy frog. While CC effects are indeed useful, they also pose one big problem: There is too much CC across the roster. Every time a new champion is created or an old champion is reworked, Rito will provide us with new ways to immobilize the enemy. For instance, we have ’s charged stun, ’s wall stun, ’s dash-and-collide stun, ’s bubble stun, and recently, ’s areal stun that deals ridiculous damage and shields her.
Eventually, this creates a meta where ‘too much CC’ in your team composition is actually a good thing: if your opponent is stun-locked and cannot do anything, including running away, you win the game. Not realizing what the meta has become, Rito made the problem worse by creating champions who have both crowd control AND damage. Examples include , , and - all of whom have been deemed ‘cancerous champions’ by the majority of League players due to the negative gaming experience that they bring. Despite an overwhelming amount of rage from the players, it does not seem that Rito will address this problem any time soon.
In my opinion, the solution to this problem is simple: increase the amount of ‘soft’ CC effects (such as , , , etc.) in the roster, while reducing the amount of ‘hard’ CC (e.g. , , , and so on). The idea is that you are still able to do something while being affected, which in turn will reduce frustration among the player base. At the same time, there should be some revisions to the current CC system in order to create a more positive experience for the players. With my newest champion concept, I’m hoping to achieve both.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at this project’s criteria:
* The champion should focus on creating confusion among the enemy team, rather than straight up pinning them down in place.
* His / her crowd-controlling effects are powerful and can change the outcome of the game, but requires specific conditions to be triggered.
* The champion should not have too much damage, since damage and CC is a very cancerous combination. As a result, he/she is automatically categorized as a support.
From the moment of idealization, I already identified that my champion would be a telepath - a master of mind manipulation. This character design fits the entire ‘creating confusion’ theme, and has not been used by any other champions in the roster. The next step has to do with designing the kit that fits the theme which is, based on my experience, rather challenging. Luckily, there is an abundance of source material available - novels, comic books, movies, and animations - that describe what telepaths can do. The ones that I could choose from are: mind reading, creating confusion, aggression control, and morale increase. These skills were then translated as four new CC effects: , , , and . As you can see, there’s a lot of originality going on in this project.
Then it came down to the lore. Recently, I have been working on the W.O.L.F storyline, so it was obvious that the my new champion would belong to this faction. There would be some continuation from Amelia’s lore too: After Amelia destroyed one of W.O.L.F’s facilities, she became their number one target. Jericho was one of their top agents that were sent to capture her. This lore sounded decent enough, but it presented one important plot hole: Amelia may be fast and strong, but she does not have any means to protect herself against telepathy. As soon as they encountered each other, Jericho would just use his power to force Amelia to surrender. My W.O.L.F storyline would just end right there, without any climatic moments.
This is one of the issues that I have never expected to happen, since I have always been confident with my story-writing skills. Regardless, I needed to come up with something to keep the plot going: Jericho would run into Amelia at some point, but chose not use his power (or at least not use it to full power). But why would he not want to capture her in the first place? There must be something that caused him to go easy on Amelia. Maybe they have met each other before, but only recognized each other until then. Maybe Jericho had some compassion for Amelia’s motives, and decided to help her (a bit). Perhaps Jericho saw Amelia as a worthy opponent, and wanted to see how strong she could become. Or maybe...love?
Of all the reasons above, none of them could add the same amount of interesting details to the story as the last one. Firstly, it depicts the idea of ‘battlefield romance’ - a guy and a girl from two opposing factions who suddenly fell in love with each other. It is beautiful, but tragic at the same time. Secondly, it creates a new ally for Amelia in her war against W.O.L.F. Obviously, she cannot win without any outsider help, or insider help in this case. Thirdly, it creates a special kind of interaction between the two characters. Now that they have had feelings for each other, what would be their next action? Finally, this situation presents a fantastic cliffhanger: What would happen to them in the end? Would they be able to live happily together, or one of them would have to kill the other?
Jericho’s development has been a fascinating experience. Usually, whenever I come up with a new concept, the lore is often better than the abilities, or vice versa. Jericho’s concept, however, is a good balance of both, and I’m very happy with the results. It is through projects like this that my love for the game is renewed, and my passion for creative writing grew. As promised, more champion concepts for the W.O.L.F faction will come soon, so stay tuned. For now, just sit down, relax, and enjoy the content.
==Trivia==
*Nobody knows exactly where Jericho's birthplace is, and Jericho did not like to talk about it. However, some older soldiers who knew his father claimed that he was a Freljordian.
*Despite popular beliefs, W.O.L.F soldiers did not spend their entire lives in training camps. The constantly travelled the world, fighting foreign wars whenever a contract was signed.
==Patch history==
==Gallery==