Riptech, The Ancient Predator

Tags
Primary: Fighter
Secondary: Assassin


Working lore
"Even I would keep him from a dinner party" - Cho'Gath

In ancient times well before recorded history on Valoran, there were less
advanced creatures who ruled the world. Creatures driven by instinct,
especially the need to feed.

In the Shurima desert, Zilean was making a trip with Ezreal and some summoners after receiving a anonymous tip
that something was to be found there a few miles south of Zilean's old
home. They were unaware of being followed by Warwick, the aforementioned
anonymous tip. After almost half an hour, Ezreal's exploration skills
found them upon a strange set of bones in the sand with a strange
marking on the skull. The mark seemed to call to Zilean as he reached
for it, but as soon as he did he felt a surge of his magic pulse into
the skeleton as he pulled his hand away and they all watched as the
skeleton soon regrew its muscles and skin, time in reverse.

The creature leaped to its feet and looked around bewildered, not
recognizing it's environment. It let out a deafening screech before the
summoners could detain it and leaped at Zilean, which it thankfully
missed. Even though it immediately fled, the creature still posed a
threat.

It ran for a few minutes before running into Warwick,
exhausted due being unaccustomed to the desert heat. It tried to attack
him, but was subdued easily by him. Warwick collected his prize and
dragged carried him to Zaun for Singed. Shortly after entering the
city-state, the creature came to and escaped Warwick after biting his
hand.

Now alone in Zuan, it wandered aimlessly, somehow not
encountering any civilians, before it felt a strong jolt and passed out
again. When it awoke it found itself in a cage and with new sense of
self. It saw a robotic man holding a steak before it. As it weakly
reached for the meal, it found itself understanding the man's words as
he spoke, saying if he did what told it and accepted it's evolution, he
would feed it as much as it wanted. Desperate, it bit the meat and ate
it as the man chuckled.

Its cage covered and now moving, the man chuckled as he mentioned someplace called "The Institute of War."

"The past and future in one neat bundle. Time really is on my side."
-Viktor, after finishing Riptech's augments and naming his creation.


Passive: Savage Wounds
Riptech's damaging skills cause the target to bleed magic damage for three seconds. Striking with another skill only refreshes the duration.

Savage Wounds deals 10/14/18/22/26/30/34/38/42/46/50/54/58/62/66/70/74/78 +.2 per AP magic damage per second over three seconds.



Q: Feral Pounce/ Tech Leap
Active: Riptech leaps to the target location. If there are any enemies there he knocks them away and bites the nearest one, prioritizing champions. The bite heals for a flat amount.
When upgraded to Tech Leap, Riptech can leap farther and deals magic damage to all enemies at the impact site.

Bite Damage
55/90/125/160/195 +.6 per bonus AD

Follow up bite range
350

Range to center of AoE
700/900 for Tech Leap

AoE diameter
275

Knock back distance
100

Heal
35/60/85/110/135

Magic damage
40/65/90/115/140 +.5 per AP

Cost
40/50/60/70/80 Mana

Cooldown
16/15/14/13/12 seconds

Notes
Riptech will only bite enemies that are struck by his landing, as in he will not bite at enemies if they enter range after he lands, so be sure to lead your target appropriately. This skill can be used to jump over walls and some impassible terrain.




W: Raptor Dash/ Metal Terror
Active: Riptech dashes a short distance in the target direction, knocking back and dealing damage to the first enemy he hits depending on how far he traveled.
When upgraded to Metal Terror, he passes through all enemies he hits and knocks them up shortly. The damage still scales with distance.

Impact damage
30-80/70-120/110-160/150-200/190-240 +.3-.8 per AD

Dash Distance
550

Knock back
50-200

Knock up time
1.2 seconds

Travel time
1/.5 seconds with Metal Terror

Cost
40/55/70/85/100 Mana

Cooldown
15/13.5/12/10.5/9 seconds

Notes
This skill cannot be used to move through walls, as Riptech will stop dead in his tracks if he hits a wall of any kind.




E: Bloody Roar/ Decoy
Active: Riptech roars loudly, increasing his hunting ability and raising his armor and attack damage briefly, but also reveals himself to enemies within 800 distance of himself.
When upgraded to Decoy, Riptech is able to silence his roar and place it somewhere away from himself. The decoy shows 80% of Riptech's current health.

Buff duration
3/3.5/4/4.5/5

Armor buff
15/20/25/30/35

Attack damage buff
10/18/26/34/40

Reveal duration
4 seconds

Decoy placement range
1500

Cost
55/65/75/85/95

Cooldown
14 seconds

Notes
Once upgraded you must left-click to activate Bloody Roar after pressing E once, and press E twice to switch to Decoy, which you can aim like a skill shot to determine which way the Decoy will travel. The Decoy will not "walk" through walls.




Ult: Upgrade
Active: Riptech releases his system locks, increasing his move speed and makes his basic attacks apply Savage Wounds.
Passive: Riptech can augment one of his basic abilities.

Buff duration
6/8/10 seconds

Move speed buff
30%/40%/50%

Cost
80/100/120 Mana

Cooldown
80/72/66 seconds

Notes
The upgrade process takes three seconds to finish.






Quotes
*Riptech does not speak. He only makes noises and gestures*

Select
*He growls, but it almost sounds like laughing*

Move
*Riptech growls or roars*

Attack
*He roars loudly*

Joke
*He tries to roar, but only ends up making a squeaking noise like a squeaky toy*
*He coughs up a bone, looks around, then slowly picks it back up to swallow it again*

Taunt
*He activates his augments and gestures to tear you apart*

Dance
*He gestures opening a door, falling to the floor, then gets up to walk in place (Open the door, get on the floor, everyone walk the dinosaur)*

Dang it. Transferring messed with the text placement.

MynxTheOrigin wrote:Passive: Feral Hunter
Riptech's ancient predatory instincts and senses allow him to effectively track and take down wounded prey. Bleeding enemies are shown on the map a large distance around him, and if nearby send him into a frenzy, increasing his move and attack speed.
Enemies that stopped bleeding are still revealed 10 seconds after their bleeding stops. Enemies that are recently damaged for over will be revealed for 5 seconds.
In Tech Mode, he also deals bonus damage to bleeding enemies. Enemies with less than 15%
percent health will be revealed in Tech Mode.

Eh...this looks a lot like Warwick's Blood Scent + Hunter's Call. When you say the tech mode though, do you mean >15% health targets are always revealed? Like permanently? There needs to be a range on that, because that's like say permanent Destiny, if I'm reading this right. Do you know how evil this would pair up with Pantheon and his Certain Death??

Q: Ancient Maul/ Tech Maul
Riptech leaps onto his target and viciously and repeatedly bites at them, repeatedly dealing damage and making his target bleed stacking magic damage. Minions and monsters take true damage, while champions take physical damage. Riptech also heals himself for a portion of the damage
dealt.
While in Tech Mode, he bites twice as many times and releases a kinetic burst, dealing bonus magic damage in radius. He can be shaken off by any form of crowd control.

True damage per hit 380/500/620/740/860 +.2 per AD
Heal ratio of true damage 5%/7.5%/10%/12.5%/15% of damage dealt
Physical damage per hit 45/90/135/180/225 +.4 per AD
Heal ratio of physical damage 2%/4%/6%/8%/10% of damage dealt
Bleed damage per second 24/32/40/48/56 +.3 per AP
Bleed duration 2/3/4/5/6 seconds
Burst damage 55/70/85/100/115 +.2 per AD +.3 per AP
Range 550
Burst range 320
Cost 45/60/75/90/105
Cooldown 14/13/12/11/10 seconds

I need to know how many hits happen. But really, this just sounds like a weaker, yet more sustainable version of Warwick's Infinite Duress. The kinetic burst is a good touch to at least separate him and to help with AoE farming. I just don't know though, it just screams Infinite Duress to me, with a Tiamat/Hydra in techmode.

W: Unending Hunt/ Technological Marvel
Riptech charges at a target, knocking away any enemies in his path. Once he hits it, he pins them down and takes a bite at them, dealing large physical damage and making them bleed magic damage. He also recovers a small portion of health.
In Tech Mode, Riptech also mauls the enemy with his enhanced claws before biting them, also rooting them for the duration. The number of additional attacks is equal to Technological Marvel's rank.

Bite damage 90/120/150/180/210 +.5 per AD
Health restored 2%
Bleed damage 10/15/20/25/30 +.3 per AP
Bleed duration 1/1.5/2/2.5/3/ seconds
Claw damage 60/90/120/150/180 +.3 per AD +.2 per AD
Range 600
Cost 60/75/90/105/120 mana
Cooldown 12 seconds

Is the pin a root for both ways, or just in Tech Mode? I really don't know what to say about this one. At least it gives him ganking power with the CC I guess. There's more sustain, but that's now 2 that do that. I'm just a little worried that that might be a little bit much, but perhaps 2 is enough.

E: Feral Roar/ Kinetic Burst
Riptech looses a ferocious roar, fearing all enemies nearby for a short time. In Tech Mode, After he roars, Riptech fires the kinetic beam installed in his mouth to attack nearby enemies within a moderate radius of himself with magic damage while also stealing a bit of flat move speed.

Fear duration .25/.5/.75/1/1.25 seconds
Burst damage 60/80/100/120/140 +.2 per AP
Move speed stolen per enemy 8/10/12/14/16
Range 400
Cost 20/28/36/44/52 mana
Cooldown 12/11/10/9/8 seconds

Normal mode's just a weaker version of Volibear's Majestic Roar, being able to fear everyone and not just creeps. At least the duration is lesser than his. The move speed stealing is alright, at least giving a rare mechanic another place to be used. Damage seems a bit weak, but it may work out if the beam pierces through targets.

Ult: Tech Mode
Riptech activates his technological augmentations for a short time, giving flat boosts to some of his stats and enhancing his abilities.

Duration 5/7/9 seconds
AD boost 20/30/40
AP boost 30/45/60
Attack speed boost 4%/8%/12%
Move speed boost 40/48/56
Cost 70/85/100 mana
Cooldown 80/75/70 seconds

Tech mode's not a permanent thing? Huh...had the impression it was like being assimilated overtime. Anyway, duration could probably go a bit longer, considering the effects that the new skill set gets isn't overly destructive, so they should be able to be done at least twice each before time's up I feel. The boosts are fine.

I dunno about this guy. It has ganking potential, and the clear time should be alright. Counter-jungling seems to be rather viable, so he can be built and played similar to Shyvana perhaps.

Thanks for the input and pointing out the rough spots.

Maybe I can put more detail in explaining the effects.

I really need to research champions more before making one. XD

I was originally going to make his roar fear for one second at rank 5 and not at all at rank 1, then I realized that would really waste a level up.

MynxTheOrigin wrote:I really need to research champions more before making one. XD

Already told ya where to look for a guide. >.>
I don't care how much it looks like I'm plugging, it bloody works!

I don't know what you mean by plugging in this sense unless it means to bring up an old topic again and again.

I usually use LoLwiki.

NOOO!!!
I made a lot of changes and they weren't saved! :'(

MynxTheOrigin wrote:I don't know what you mean by plugging in this sense unless it means to bring up an old topic again and again.

I usually use LoLwiki.

Katsuni's Guide. It's good. No more talk now.

Edit:

4/10/2013
Adjusted abilities for greater balance.

Added quotes.

I'd probably move some of the power from his basic abilities into his ultimate. He's really strong without it, and the ulti just makes his abilities even more OP, but doesn't change what he's already planning to do anyway.

Thank you. I'll see what I can do.

Who knows, I may have to give him a complete over haul. XD

Yeah, ultimates that are just "I am now stronger in every imaginable way" are hard to balance.

Yep.

Pre-Review
Going to be working over it as I see it now, which might mean I'll end up repeating some things already said by others. I skimmed over ElementalSteel's comment and it already said a couple of my thoughts, but I'd like to clarify everything, since the statistics have changed drastically since that point. Also, going to review it from a primarily mechanical aspect, rather than from a thematic standpoint.

Passive
Diagnosis/Prognosis
1: Combined with other features, the range on the passive is just too extensive. It's 5/6's the range of Lux's laser, which gives you pretty dang close to 1/4 the entire jungle in view distance and is too much to be a fair mechanic.
2: Bonus damage to the bleeding targets needs to be specified.
3: 10 second reveal after bleeding stops is way too long of a reveal time, and will be blatantly overpowered during chase situations, because it will remove their ability to juke. Or on the flip side, it will be entirely useless because you'll be able to see them most of the time anyway when you're chasing them.
4: The constant reveal for targets under 15% health is pretty much just a nerfed version of Warwick's Blood Scent.
5: Bonus movement speed and attack speed need to be specified.
Conclusion/Suggestions
1: You got way too much going on in one ability, especially a passive of this magnitude. Reducing the number of effects would be a good start.
2: It's far too similar to Warwick's ability, which takes away from the uniqueness of both characters.
3: The reason I say the range is too far is because this is a passive and doesn't take away from your active skills, like Warwick's does, making it too good for its position in the kit.
4: I would suggest, in general, to remove the idea of having separate bleeds for each skill and just apply a static bleed duration and strength to the passive. Different bleeds for each skill makes it messy and less reliable, giving a player too much to think about when considering their window of vision on the target and how consistent the DPS will be from the bleeds. And adding the extra 10 seconds is too much vision time on a target in total.
5: The bonus damage during Tech Mode could be kept, if done right. If you follow my suggestion about making the passive a bleed effect, then I would also suggest making the bonus damage do something along the lines of doubling the bleed damage, rather than making other effects receive bonus damage. It would help simplify the ability, while still keeping it viable.

Q
Diagnosis/Prognosis
1: Heal ratio from the physical damage is too low early on to even bother having it.
2: Range might be too high for an auto-target ability, if it is indeed one.
3: Mana cost scales too severely.
4: The CC is too strong for a basic skill, especially combined with the damage. CC of that strength has so far exclusively been reserved for ults, and they still aren't as powerful in total as this skill.
5: Physical damage is a bit too high, especially with total AD scaling.
6: Bleed is far too strong when placed on top of the primary damage.
7: Allowing this ability to deal double damage is flat out overpowered.
Conclusion/Suggestions
1: 2% of your damage even into midgame is practically nothing, and is pretty much worthless to even have exist at that rank, if it's going to be that low. I'd suggest making the heal ratio for the physical a static amount. Maybe 8% or 10%.
2: Having an ability that instantly locks on to and then locks down a target would be better off with shorter range. A lot of dashes don't even go farther than 450, and those aren't near as strong as this ability. I would suggest lowering the distance, or more preferably, making it a skillshot that can be dodged.
3: The mana scaling is unecessarily high. When you take into account damage to mana ratio, it's actually really really high. I wouldn't increase it by any more than 10 a rank.
4: 2 second suppress? Warwick can't even suppress that long with an ult. Even if his does do more damage, you're using a CC that is way too strong for a normal ability like this. A non-ult ability should be a less potent CC, with probably less duration, considering how this character would end up being played. A snare, maybe, but not a suppress. What I would personally suggest, however, would be to not even have CC. Instead, I would recommend making the ability just kinda magnetizes Riptech to the target for a short duration, so he moves with them and gets his damage off over that duration.
5: The total damage output of the ability, at the very least at early levels, is too strong. 90+40% of total AD can easily take 1/3rd of certain champs health. The flat damage should really be scaled down. I would also suggest increasing the AD ratio, but making it bonus AD, rather than total AD.
6: As stated in the passive, I would suggest removing the bleed entirely. The bleed damage alone is enough to be its own skill's worth of damage and is entirely too high.
7: While I enjoy the idea of the AoE effect from the Tech Mode, because it gives a new aspect to the character, it would be far too strong to give this ability double damage at any point in the game. 500 damage + 40% AD is more than ult-worthy, and that's not even taking the bleeds into account.
8: When you define the "Burst range", if you mean radius, that might be a bit high of a radius. I would suggest reducing it to probably around 250. If you mean diameter, then you'd be fine off where it is.

W
Diagnosis/Prognosis
1: Heal is practically worthless on that kind of cooldown, particularly with a character who seems to focus hybrid. Building enough health to make it matter would remove his hybrid potential.
2: Similar to the Q, the damage is too high, at the very least in early ranks, if not in all ranks.
3: Adding the additional burst, (especially that much,) to an already very high burst damage ability, (or almost any burst damage ability,) is redundant and far too powerful.
4: Again, range may be a bit far for an auto-target skill, if it is one.
5: Once again, the mana scaling is far too high.
6: Considering the amount of dashes the character has, the cooldown is far too low.
Conclusions/Suggestions
1: Two things you could do with the heal. Either increase it to an amount that will make it useful, or remove it all together. I would suggest removing it, as he already has another skill which heals him, and you're giving the ability too many effects. It's making it cluttered and removing the tactical aspects.
2: Again, I'd insist on reducing the damage at all ranks, and making the AD ratio bonus instead of total.
3: Just scrap the extra damage while in Tech Mode. It not only makes an already strong ability too powerful, but it's just unecessary reptition.
4: Like the Q, I would suggest making the ability a skillshot, rather than an auto-target skill, if it is one. This would not only give it counterplay, but it would allow more versatiliy and clutch usage by the person playing Riptech as well.
5: Bring the scaling down on the mana to no more than 10 a rank.
6: Being able to dash as often as this character can, due to having multiple other mobility skills, (as well as movement buffs,) is just way too strong on only a 10 second cooldown. This direly needs to be increased, so that he won't be double dashing constantly and will have to make tactical choices between initation, escapes, damage, etc.
7: Once more, I suggest removing the bleed. Not only is it unecessary bonus damage on an already high damage skill, but it just clutters the ability and doesn't sync well with his other bleed effects.
8: I really enjoy the idea of enemies along his path getting knocked up. It's a neat piece of CC that can be used in all kinds of situations. Yet another reason why I think making it a skillshot would be much more suited for it.

E
Diagnosis/Prognosis
1: When using the word "charges", I am slightly confused as to if you mean he is "channeling" the ability, or if this is yet another movement/dashing ability. If the latter case of it being yet another dash is true, then he has beyond far too much mobility in his kit. (The reason I am confused is because you say "if he hits an enemy", implying he can hit before the damage/fear would release, which would mean dash; But also only list one range and say it fears nearby enemies. I am confused as to what attributes to what, making it hard to tell what you mean by "charging".)
2: Fear is probably not gonna be much use early levels.
3: The AP ratio on this skill is actually quite low and doesn't give well to his hybridization factors. However, the base damage of the skill is quite high for how many other high damage burst skills he has.
4: Mana cost in this case is far too low for such a powerful skill.
5: Cooldown is far too low. A 1.5 second fear effectively means you can fear them every 6.5 seconds, which is very low for a hard CC effect.
Conclusions/Suggestions
1: Clarify better what you mean by "charges". If you mean it is a dash, then scrap that part of the ability, because that makes him far too mobile, beyond all reasonable standards.
2: I would suggest just making the fear a flat duration at all ranks, rather than ranking up, or it won't be much use early levels. Alternately, and more preferably, I would suggest removing the fear in general. The character already has pretty high amounts of CC, and you already get a movement boost from the skill. Having the fear is redundant with the slowing effect they receive, and speed up you receive, as well as making him too strong in the CC department. All of his skills being a CC is too strong for someone with his damage, survivability and mobility.
3: The lack of a good AP ratio means that this skill won't scale very well at all throughout the stages of the game, relying solely on the base damage and ranks. But because he already has so much burst capability, the base damage atop his other skills makes him incredibly strong in general. You'd be best increasing his AP ratio so that there's actually some dynamic to the skill, but reducing his base damage, so that it's not too powerful without him actually working for it.
4: Unlike the other skills, you've got the mana too low on this one to have much impact for how strong the skill itself is. While the scaling rate is good enough, the first rank being only at 20 is far too little for how much the skill gives in return. I would suggest increasing the first rank by another 20, at least, and reworking the other ranks from there.
5: Due to the cooldown being so low, you'll practically be spamming this effect. If it truly is a dash skill, you'll also be able to exploit that far too easily. The cooldown needs to be heavily increased, regardless what angle ya look at it from.

R
Diagnosis/Prognosis
1: In general, the ability is far too strong of a steroid, essentially boosting every aspect.
2: Cooldown doesn't scale hard enough for an ult.
Conclusions/Suggestions
1: It's practically impossible to make a skill like this balanced, because in order to be effective, it has to be overpowered, or it'll just be mediocre and not actually do its job. Just too everywhere, all at once. I can't think of anything else to do but scrap the statistical portions of it. You should, however, keep the idea that while active, his other skills have bonus effects.
2: Pretty much no reason to have it scale at all, if you're going to have it only a 5 second different. You should have at least 20 second increments between, in my opinion. But then again, considering I said scrap the other stats of it, that might decrease or increase by 5-10 seconds either way.

General
Diagnosis/Prognosis
1: Trying to fit too many things into each skill.
2: Too broad of potential in too many areas.
Conclusions/Suggestions
1: In each of your skills, you tend to stuff a lot of effects into each one. This tends to make characters a binary of either too strong because of how many effects they have, or too weak because the skills need to be nerfed to such a large extend to not be overpowered. I'd suggest trying to make your skill more specialized, so that their purpose and effects are more defined.
2: The character is just too strong in too many roles. He can literally be played in just about any roll because his skills come with CC, damage, mobility and sustain, all in one, on each skill. Like for your individual skills, the champion as a whole will become a binary strength. Either it's so strong that it doesn't need to focus anything and can just roll over the entire field, or it's so mediocre at everything that it can't specialize properly without being too underhanded in its other areas. Again, try to specialize your character more for a specific role or two. Just to specify, jungler itself doesn't really qualify as a role in the same sense as ADC or Mage; It's simply a kit that can be used in the jungle.

Summary
The character itself could potential work, he just needs to be more refined. He needs to have more obvious strengths, and actually needs to implement some base weaknesses in his design to give him counter-playability. Right now, he's just too good at everything. The mechanical idea of his Tech Mode is a great addition, as far as how it adds bonus effects to his other abilities, but it needs a more specific use than just a giant steroid that turns him into a superbeast.

That's pretty much all I have for now, as I'm writing this in the early morning hours after quite a long day. Hope this gave you kinda what you were looking for.

I thank you for the review. I've honestly have been raking my brain on how to fix this stupidly broken champion. But with your ideas I may be able to make him salvageable.

This is honestly my least favorite champ of mine for the reasons you stated.

Alright, I just literally reworked his entire kit. Hope it's more balanced than before.

Wonderfully revised; Very clean and concise. One thing I would like to know about though is how exactly does he "augment" his abilities? Is it a temporary buff, or a permanent buff in the same manner as Kha'Zix? Cause depending on that, there might be a problem with his E.

Think how Kha'Zix evolves.
As for the E, what do you see wrong with it?

Quality of Life Problems
1: Since it's a permanent upgrade, it means that everyone will know that it's a decoy after the first time you've used it, basically turning it into a one-use ability before everyone learns it's a trick.
2: 25% current health is pretty low, which will make it a bit too obvious to others that it's a decoy.
3: Can you move the decoy? If you can't, revealing a stationary decoy will without a doubt give it away that it's a fake.

Suggestion
1: If this isn't already the case, you should be able to target himself as a point of origin, or use a ground target to create the decoy, making it so that he might reveal the real him or a fake him, and it won't just be the decoy every time after a certain point. This will prevent people from instantly knowing it's a decoy for the rest of the game once they've discovered that you've upgraded the E.
2: Just simply make the health of the decoy the same as his current, maybe 20% lower at most. This will make it trickier to tell the difference.
3: If it doesn't move, give it some form of movement. Rather it does or doesn't, I'd suggest giving it a set path that it travels through over its life duration. Like clicking a starting point, then an clicking an ending point, and the path-finding does the rest with plotting the course. That'd give it enough realism to fool players, but not so much control that it practically becomes a Shaco ult.

Mechanical Problems
1: For being a steroid and for the type of utility it presents, the cooldown should probably go up a good 6 or more seconds. This way you'll have to make the tactical choice of how to optimize its use between the decoy and the steroid effect, and not just pop it whenever it's up. Otherwise you'll be able to just toss out decoys every 4 seconds, and there's almost no downtime between the buff he receives from the steroid, (3 seconds,) and it's a pretty big buff to have up that often. Not to mention, that's all without any cooldown reduction. At 40% cooldown reduction, the cooldown will finish before the buff even ends, meaning it'll be up perpetually.

Ah, that thought had eluded me. Thank you for pointing it out.

No problem. ^^

How's that? :3

Looks good. Everything I can think of has been addressed.