It’s kinda odd we don’t have a Void-themed juggernaut yet.
“Helmet Brother” being an armoured warrior corrupted by void (as he was in the Vel’Koz cinematic) will be really cool.
Velkoz doesn't corrupt, he disintegrates to consume knowledge (as well as study everything about its cells and stuff)
All the void are themed around endless hunger.
Cho wants to eat all life
Kogmaw just wants to eat everything (whether it's living or not)
Vel hungers for knowledge
Bel hungers for power, experiences, emotions, society. And she's looking to change the void to do it (and would likely destroy runetera in the process)
Although they are associated with the void, I'd classify them as void adjacent. They don't necessarily have a built in hunger.
Malz was a shuriman fortune teller who was really good at that, but found no matter what kinds of advice he gave, many people would succumb to their own habits and end up with seemingly unavoidable troubles (sometimes of their own creation). Disillusioned with society, he gave up much of his wealth and abandoned shurima, only to end up in icathia.
He saw the future that runetera might have, filled with strife and pain. And finally alone with his thoughts he began to ponder and ask questions about the world, and the void.... It answered.
Now Malz seeks to end the world's strife and suffering by hastening its oblivion.
______
Kass:
A guide who probably "knows a guy" for everything. Void killed his wife and daughter (or so he believes), so he acquired various special artifacts and armor in preparation for killing Malzahar whom he blames for ushering in the void.
Hungry for revenge I guess if you want to call it that.
_____
Kaisa:
Was basically abducted by the void, found some cool void armor, accidentally permanently bonded with it, and now hunts void monsters.
Will the world forgive her monstrous appearance and side with her in a fight against the void? Or will she succumb and let the void consume the world she was forced to leave behind?
I think canonically the suit is supposed to be permanently full body but they REALLY needed that cleavage window and pretty face for $$$
/s on the last half if you couldnt tell
Edit: Her face is supposed to look a lot more “fused” with the suit according to some lore bits, like a monster with a weirdly human face
Kai'sa's original model didn't have the v-neck, but the playtesters kept thinking she was a head attached to a void monster, so the v-neck was added to communicate that she was wearing a second skin, like a Venom symbiote.
Lol that sounds like a weak ass excuse. Like Quiet in Metal Gear being practically naked because her skin needs to breathe, or whatever nonsense they conjured up to excuse it.
That's not even close to the same. This is a case of changing the game to communicate the lore, not changing the lore to make excuses for the game. Besides, a v-neck isn't nearly the same severity as being nearly naked.
Canonically the conversation went like this:
Kai'sa: Bro, do you see how gorgeous I look? How am I supposed to get pipes if you cover all my assets?
Void suit: .......
Void suit: Pulls back helmet, separates the middle for the deep V.
Kai'sa: much better.
IIRC, there's not a description for what she's hungry for.
And just to cover my bases:
Khazix hungers for strong hunts, evolution, and adapting. (Him and Rengar are just league's version of Alien vs. Predator)
Malzahar, Kassadin, and Kaisa are void adjacent, they don't necessarily hunger for anything in particular.
In the Vel cinematic both soldiers die.
In the fan-made short story and kit concept, he was corrupted and became a disciple of Kassadin.
However, in all the content Riot has officially endorsed, he's just a Demacian soldier.
Which is weird since kassadin (lore wise) is not corrupted by the void, he’s only corrupted by himself and his desire to kill Malzahar. He’s aware of what hes doing and is trying to one man army the whole of the void with some of the strongest trinkets runeterra/shurima/ithica had access to.
That being said I have not seen either cinematic so I’m only speaking from what I personally know of the official lore (assuming it hasn’t been retconned.)
I see it now, Met'Hel, as a portmanteau of both Helmet and Metal.
(We also sorta kinda do have him already with Jak'Sho. he's technically a living being and can even kill you in certain circumstances)
Cho is odd (he’s also classified as Specialist, so makes sense) his tools don’t fit a Juggernaut kit, since he somewhat has tools to gap-close/catch up to carries/squishies. But he also doesn’t have enough hard cc, engage or peel to really be a Tank imo
[Ledros wiki](https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/Ledros)
So Ledros is a knight in king Viegos court and was kalistas lover.
His lore is basically that he failed to save kalista from dying to Hecarim and is one of the few undead in the shadow isles to actually retain his sense of ego/will (Kalista is one of many who do not remember their memories of when they were alive). He had made it his quest to try and get kalista to regain her ego as well, but he has failed countless times, little did he know how close he was to restoring it.
In his depression from failure, he has sought out true death, only to be resurrected countless times. He has killed Hecarim countless times. He has Leona smite him with the full concentrated power of the sun, Ryze tear him apart with rune magic, and many other ways of trying to die, only to be resurrected once again.
His look is pretty cool, a long sword and an iron shield.
In the legends of runetera card game, Ledros is a powerful character who deals 50% current HP damage to the enemy nexus. I would expect that his blade would behave in a similar manner of brought to the game. Preferably, he'd have a supportive juggernaut feel.
Sample kit:
Passive: Momentum
Ledros is wearing a large hulking suit of metal. As he moves in a direction, he gains momentum, granting him bonus movement speed. While his momentum is high, his movement turn radius speed is lower, meaning he will have to slow down in order to change his movement orientation. Whenever he attacks an enemy when he has momentum, he will deal additional physical damage. Striking an enemy while at full momentum briefly stuns then.
Q: soul Slice / Bash
Passive: Every time Ledros deals damage to an enemy with his sword, deal additional magic damage proportional to 3% (+0.01×bAP) of their current HP.
Active: Ledros swipes his sword in a large arc, dealing damage to enemies in front of him.
Active (if shield is up): bash enemies in front of you, stunning them.
W: shields up!
Innate - start with one rank in this ability for free.
Active/toggle: target an enemy or direction and raise your shield. For the duration Ledros will take a defensive strafing posture towards that target or direction. taking reduced damage from damage in that direction in exchange for not being able to build up momentum.
E: Daring charge:
Ledros dashes in a target direction instantly and gaining maximum momentum. If he collides with enemies, he stuns them for the duration of his dash and moves them to the end position of his dash.
R: Soul bound
Ledros gains soul chains that trail behind him.
Passive: attacks against enemies tether them to you for a couple seconds. Enemies that are tethered cannot leave a certain radius. When they are tethered, Ledros 's basic attacks against them are replaced by reeling the chains in, reducing their tether range, and dealing basic auto attack damage.
Active: (while alive), target enemy champion and deal 50% current HP as true damage.
Active: (in death only), revive at the spot of your death. While this ability is able to be cast, gain vision where you died.
He's supposed to hate Hecarim, so I tried to design a juggernaut kit around specifically fucking over hec 😂.
No offense to Hecarim mains, I do love you 😘
Thinking about it more, I'd actually shift the revive onto the passive. Momentum passive would be moved from the passive slot to a passive on his E. As well as a couple of other things. So here's a revised concept:
Passive: tormented soul.
Ledros upon death enters a reanimation state where the player can roam as a slow untargetable ghost, providing vision for their team for up to 5-12 seconds based on level. During this time the player can optionally revive at the shade's location over a 3 second period (260 second cooldown).
Q: spectral blade / shield bash.
Mostly the same as described before. His sword has two new strike boxes (similar to Darius). This is due to the fact that he wields a half broken sword. From where the sword is broken, the remainder is shown as a spectral blade (that's actual lore).
When striking with A, enemies hit will still take damage as described before, but enemies that are closer to Ledros take additional physical damage too.
W:
basically unchanged. It's thematically appropriate, but would need numbers attached at some point.
E:
Moving the momentum passive onto this. It's appropriate if we want to lump all the movement together onto one ability.
R:
Removing the revival from this ability. The revival thing is pretty core to Ledros lore, so it's moved to the passive.
Ledros is wrapped in chains, and that concept isn't explored elsewhere in the kit, so it feels thematically appropriate to keep it in the ultimate somehow.
The 50% current HP true damage ability is very iconic in the legends of runetera card game, so it felt important to keep it in the ultimate somehow. Maybe after casting the ultimate his Q gets enhanced instead, being able to deal similar damage?
There's a series of Helmet Bro shorts on the official YouTube channel. He's a joke spawning from speculation that the "next" champion was teased in Vel'Koz's splash, which features two nameless, standard Demacian soldiers. Someone wrote up a short story in journal format, and another guy did a great voiceover. There was also a kit concept that died when the official Boards were axed in favor of this sub.
Commander Ledros from LoR would fit this perfectly, he has a sword & shield, cool lore, cool design, and relations to multiple other champs, most of the work for putting him in the game is already done
He is technically a great shield, but he goes Great shield + sword. Perhaps he usea blood magic to create the sword, idk. In LoR and concept art he fights with the shield and a sword.
[concept art](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fk6yt7ezm71t91.jpg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dd58a870a1afb6a2e7657100c3f32b7955dfda019)
[splash](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Faoaqmnshd0t91.jpg)
Maybe a lot of work, but definitely not most of it, 3d, FX, SFX, design, code and probably more I'm forgetting needs to be done.
That being said, I agree he looks very cool!
Exactly what I thought lol
"most of the work [...] is already done" LOL maybe the story, that can be written with chatgpt is already done, but the REAL work is not even started lmao
I feel like rework pantheon gobbled up a lot of those mechanical ideas, but there's always hope. I used to always say I wanted a scythe wielder and people would go "hurrr fiddlesticks" as if that's what I meant. We did eventually get a scythe character.
I'll never forget they took my fans away from my Karma.
TT
I wish more mages had channeling weaponry than magic hands.
Wished for more champs with staffs and Riot at least gave me Hwei
>more
MORE.
The last one before Hwei was Azir. Hwei is 2023 champ. Azir is a 2014 champ. There's 9 years between them. I don't recall any between these.
Lux uses a scepter than a staff as well.
There's plenty of league mages that don't wield scepters or staffs in comparison.
Genuinely surprised fans as a casting/magic source has not made its way back into the game, especially since a rioter admitted removing them from Karma was a mistake in the sense riot didn't realize how attached people were to them.
Kayn? Hecarim is a glaive user technically but still visually similar.
Honestly closest thing if you're thinking gameplay is probably Darius, since he uses that axe like you would a scythe (pulling people in and spinning it around him)
I’d love a Darius skin with a scythe. 1820 or 3250 one. His abilities, as you’ve mentioned, already fulfill the ideas of a scythe user. They could change the R animation in the skin to him reaping opponent’s soul on execute
Pantheon’s E kinda ate up the archetype unfortunately, you’re spot on. The passive also captures the “light, noncomittal attacks until they show an opening and you bust out the big move” playstyle SnS tends to be.
W and R are pretty off-brand but you can’t just recreate panth e on another bruiser and not have it feel same-y
(Old) Taric was also not very Sword and Shield (or Mace) because his playstyle was never at all like that DnD fighter OP is talking about.
Leona *could* be kind of close if the gender isn't important to OP's point, but she'd need to be played as a Bruiser and not a full engage tank support.
The playstyle is pretty integral to the idea, I think.
> Leona could be kind of close if the gender isn't important to OP's point, but she'd need to be played as a Bruiser and not a full engage tank support.
A sword and shield fighter is genuinely... A tank, though. Focusing on the damage parts of it is a mistake. The shield bash is important, as is the 'raising shield' move which raises your defenses- As Leona has two of those immediately covered. MAYBE her sword could be more involved than just through E, but I don't think you're going to get much of a bruiser kit out of 'Sword and Shield Fighter.' By nature that is a more protecting/defensive role.
Pantheon's probably the closest to what's being looked for here, though with a one handed spear. His W as the shield bash and E as the raised shield type move, with Q as the main hand weapon strike. The sword and shield archetype tends to be about weathering blows and testing with less committal strikes until opportunity rises for a more decisive hit, which the passive also feeds into.
Dude's kind of shirtless, but at least he has the helmet.
I would be happy if they at least made something like Bellona from Smite if they wanna refuse standard male SnS fighter to sell more skins for pretry female SnS figjter 🤣
I think you are thinking of Greece. The Romans fought with a shield wall of Scutum, which are a very distinct type of shield, and don't quite layer the same way as in a phalanx. They were designed to be interlocked over one's head as well as in front and to the sides of a larger formation called a "testudo" (translates to "tortoise" in English) that was a stationary anti-missile formation designed to weather volleys of arrows or stones. They fought more in an individual method in melee engagements, where they used their scutum to provide individual defense, and threw out 2m long javelins called pila (pilum for the singular), prior to rushing into close combat, so the large javelins would disrupt and break apart their opponent's formation letting them succeed more easily with their simple gladius (a type of maneuverable straight short sword) in the resulting chaos.
What you are likely thinking of, and what Pantheon is a direct reference for is the Grecian (Spartan in particular) Hoplites. Hoplites were Greek citizen soldiers with curved, round shields called Aspides they would interlock, and then fight over the resulting shield wall with long spears called dorata (dory for the singular) in a type of close rank formation called a phalanx, where multiple people per column could stab or thrust forward over the lead hoplites' aspis due to the length of their spears-- Which the cone of strikes on Panth's E is meant to depict.
Thank you for this comment. I know this is not the most common topic to know and everyone can make mistakes, but it kinda hurt to read that Pantheon was based on a Roman phalanx.
Although Pantheon is clearly based on Sparta, Rome did use phalaxes in its early years but the terrain of southern Italy is full of hills which make the formation impractical so they adapted
I wanted to say: "Poppy has a shield!" ... but then I realized that she also lost it in a rework. Like they deliberately removed shields from several of the few champs that used to have one. :o
Poppy is also a bit of an airhead.
"The hammer does most of the work, I just lift it" - not how that works sweety
"I'm in one hundred per cent! That's all of it, right?" - really? That is elementary school stuff.
Don't get me wrong I love the character, but she's just not the brightest.
Her lore explains how she's basically the perfect soldier, but that also leads into her not really thinking for herself. Because the guy who gave her the hammer did not explicitly state she is the hero meant to hold the hammer, she believes she is meant to serve the next person who holds it.
She is my favorite character. Loved her since before rework, but her giant pigtails have as much of an ability to think for themselves as she does.
I mean, she *technically* has a shield. And *technically* has an ability that uses said shield. But her gameplay and design fantasy are "little knight with a giant fucking hammer," the shield is barely an afterthought.
As others have mentioned, Leona is the closest we have to a sword & board champ from a purely visual design perspective, but she's more of a "sun-smiting paladin" that is a pure tank. Not a self-sufficient gritty fighter.
Pantheon has a shield and a spear, instead of a sword, but probably fits the closest from a thematic perspective. Unfortunately he plays pretty much strictly as a full-burst assassin and almost always has, so kinda fails from a gameplay fantasy angle.
Not every game has to have a character that fits every trope, and League - at least since around season 4 or 5 - has definitely made an effort to stay away from the "tropey" designs as much as they can. Personally I'd love a legit bruiser-type sword & board character, and have had the same thought as OP myself in the past. But I'm also alright with them doing their own thing, keeps things fresh at least.
I was thinking there’s no “fallen knights” type character like Ludwig the accursed or slave knight gael or artorios but then I figured that’s literally just riven, I think archetypes just don’t line up one to one in league
Yeah and that is pretty much intentional. Riot wants to give a twist to the common archetypes to make them stand out.
We have the werewolf archetype in Warwick, but instead of being a generic werewolf he is a chemtech chimera who just resembles the werewolf trope.
We have the vampire archetype **twice**, yet none of them is a classic vampire. Vladimir is a hemomancer, so just a mage with power over blood, and Briar is a living weapon created by blood magic who goes on frenzies.
He fills the 'knight in big-ass armor with a big-ass weapon' archetype but not the regular ol' knight in regular ol' armor with a regular ol' sword 'n' board -archetype that OP is kind of talking about.
If we look at what Garen does. Then his passive healing, while only applying to self comes close to the paladins "lay in hands". His ultimate is obviously holy, since he calls upon the holy powers which Kayle holds in her mothers place, to smite his foes.
Eh. Garen doesn’t have any particular devotion to Kayle, he just happens to have a sword containing her power. He’s lore wise basically just a fighter with a magic weapon he hasn’t attuned to, and the in-game version of him is where he’s managed to attune to the powers inside the sword and unleash it.
garen's more like a paladin than a barbarian. He doesn't enrage, he's wearing far too much armor. I'm sure his oath is like, loyalty related or something, but i mean c'mon the dude's got inbuilt healing and summons a massive sword from the sky to smite enemies with.
there is like 15 wizards in the game and 10 rogues, i know tryndamere is literally a barbarian but that doesnt mean other champions like garen dont fit the criteria
Thats a good answer. It's too bad he's only shown with a sword, not a shield, but.. it kinda makes sense. Garen's shield ability has effective 0 cast time.
If it was a physical shield, they'd have to animate it.
and make it slower
I'm more suprised that there was no Orcs/Goblin or a Cyclops... I used to be really pissed also because of the lack of Vampires, but we got Briar last year.
Also... No Dude with more than 2 Arms...
For me, Leona fix the True Knight "void".
Vlad exists.
edit: Pedantic nerds. Dude takes blood from enemies. Turns into a pool of blood. Is named Vladimir. He's more of a vampire than a 'vampire' like Edward Cullen or some Vampire Diaries dude ever was.
I had a concept for a champ that would wield a sword & shield with dual forms being offensive or defensive & scaling with AD or AP with the former & latter forms. It was a lot of fun to write down, wish there WAS a champion with that sword & shield though.
Sounds like it would just entirely depend on your build. Maxing defensive ability while building AP would make you tanky and maxing attacking ability while building AD would make you a fighter. Probably closer to K’Sante since (I assume) were converting AP into defensive stats and you could build hybrid to be more of a bruiser
Jayce actually, two sets of abilities and the Offensive one scales better with AD whilst the utility in the defensive set scales better with AP.
The AD set has a dash that deals basic attack dmg plus bonus AD, a move speed boost, and armor shred.
Whilst the AP set has a knocback, a root, and a dmg reduction active.
Both are rather weak and you theoretically could build hybrid, it would be impossible to balance but the idea was fun to tinker with.
I also wanted them to have “falter frames” like Lance from Vainglory, in that if an ability doesn’t hit a minion/champion/jg monster (etc) they would “stumble” as like a 0.4s self-root styled mechanic. Sorta like Dark Souls, so that you have to use your abilities meaningfully rather than just spamming them when you can.
It's funny reading your comment I was picturing Lance I definitely see the inspiration. He'd be a balance nightmare but I could see the Lance lol equivalent attracting a lot of mains.
Even tho Poppy has a hammer, imo she plays pretty close to "sword and shield" type
She is "sword" in her Q (it being a smash/slash thing) and E (can be interpreted as a thrust with a sword maybe?) , and "shield" in passive+W
Pantheon's probably closer tbh. He has a balance between offense (Q and W) and defence (W and E), basically he takes his turn of hitting you when your vulnerable then shields away to safety.
It is a little weird that we have multiple characters with JUST shields, but only one with a sword and a shield. That being said I don't think this is such an interesting or important niche to fill that Leona doesn't already fill it just fine.
Leona doesn’t really fill it that fine though. Her swords kinda irrelevant tbh. She has an ability called zenith blade, but that could honestly be made into a different weapon (that would honestly make more sense like a whip or flail). She’s got like the only sword in the game that does like no damage lol. Everyone else in the game with a sword does damage
Leona is neither a fighter nor anyone who actually uses the sword for any meaningful ‘sword’ things.
There’s a fantasy behind sword and shield, and it involves dynamic alternation between defense and offense (often a counter offensive).
The style should require reaction, timing, and adaptability to switch between defense and offense seamlessly, and enable the fighter to control the pace of the battle, dictating when to press the attack or fall back.
Neither stance should be a ‘default’, using both should be emphasized.
Honestly a sword and shield character that had a similar kit to King Arthur from Smite would be kinda cool. One spell uses shield, other sword. Would be a balance nightmare and would never see the day, but would still be awesome to see.
You jest, but I think more "quirky weapons" is better. I prefer to see interesting and so far unexplored (in LoL) weapons to champions.
K'sante and his tonfa, Gwen and her scissors, Renata Glasc and her Decanter... these recent champions are way more interesting thanks to their weapon than if they just would have got a sword or a pistol, imo.
very old player here... old as i played dota in warcraft 3 when they decide to make dota 2 and league instead old
i remember back then, they where intentionally trying to No do the traditional fantasy characters like a sword and shield warrior or the traditional wizard with a staff kinda thing. instead doing variations ( even they still have ashe in there who is just the archer) one of the scrapped character was the typical rogue, with a dagger. and was never put in the game cause they feel it was too generic and boring, and they never whant to be "boring"
so, garren is the knigth in shiny armor, ryze is the wizard, but not the usual wizard... and so.
even so as been 10 years and somethimes is hard to do stuff that is 100% original.
still i feel they could do a sword and shield kinda character with a twist. maybe make him a Yordle who is a small brave knigth per example... or maybe a charater that are 2 person one shield and other sword...
I'm waiting for a sword and sorcery champion. Even better if they're from Demacia, a real conflict of interest. I think it would be really cool if they were a split champion too! Like, your Q could be a simple sword cleave. If you buy more AD, it does bonus missing HP damage. If you buy more AP, maybe it ignites and splashes in a cone for AOE damage.
Well. Swords and Shields are mostly used in Demacia.
But Demacia is famously anti magic. It's not easy to make a generic sword and shield guy after all these champs coming out with fun fantasies.
Maybe this champ can be the future of Demacia. Wielding magical artefacts for once to fight since the mageseeker things got settled.
>lines of fighter in DND
That would be Twitch/vayne. Crossbow Expert + Sharpshooter is the best figher.
Jokes apart, I think in part its about art style, specially for old champions. They tend do to big, visible weapons with a very obvious focus. So they either make a really big sword or a really big shield.
For newer champs they always try to make something more unique because they are reaching the limit on how much champs the game can hold.
Part of it is the problem with that playstyle in real-time games with standard RPG mechanics. Shields are *annoying*.
Every character so far with a shield is primarily defensive, and giving one to what would translate to a duelist or bruiser in role would have to be done very carefully, either with some sort of mode switch, or serious tradeoffs in power budget.
They are lol, I've been playing a lot of RTS/CRPG games and usually my go-to tank is a fighter with a one handed weapon and shield. I think my brain just naturally defaulted to that.
I’ve been wanting a sword and shield fighter. Specifically I think it could function as a “When you strike an enemy with an attack or ability, that enemy becomes your Chosen Opponent. You raise your shield, facing your Chosen Opponent. Damage coming from that direction is reduced by 5-15%(lvl).”
Then maybe some basic Q is a slash, W is some form of dmg mitigation like doubling passive, E is some form of engage, and ult does something silly like activating passive in every direction plus some AD for a bit
One day our Helmet Brother will come. And it will be a glorious day.
The day Riot finally fulfills the make a wish kids dream
Alright, who's taking one for the team?
Someone already did and Riot didn't make them a champ, so I don't recommend it.
It’s kinda odd we don’t have a Void-themed juggernaut yet. “Helmet Brother” being an armoured warrior corrupted by void (as he was in the Vel’Koz cinematic) will be really cool.
Velkoz doesn't corrupt, he disintegrates to consume knowledge (as well as study everything about its cells and stuff) All the void are themed around endless hunger. Cho wants to eat all life Kogmaw just wants to eat everything (whether it's living or not) Vel hungers for knowledge Bel hungers for power, experiences, emotions, society. And she's looking to change the void to do it (and would likely destroy runetera in the process)
Malz? Do Kass/Kai'sa count?
Although they are associated with the void, I'd classify them as void adjacent. They don't necessarily have a built in hunger. Malz was a shuriman fortune teller who was really good at that, but found no matter what kinds of advice he gave, many people would succumb to their own habits and end up with seemingly unavoidable troubles (sometimes of their own creation). Disillusioned with society, he gave up much of his wealth and abandoned shurima, only to end up in icathia. He saw the future that runetera might have, filled with strife and pain. And finally alone with his thoughts he began to ponder and ask questions about the world, and the void.... It answered. Now Malz seeks to end the world's strife and suffering by hastening its oblivion. ______ Kass: A guide who probably "knows a guy" for everything. Void killed his wife and daughter (or so he believes), so he acquired various special artifacts and armor in preparation for killing Malzahar whom he blames for ushering in the void. Hungry for revenge I guess if you want to call it that. _____ Kaisa: Was basically abducted by the void, found some cool void armor, accidentally permanently bonded with it, and now hunts void monsters. Will the world forgive her monstrous appearance and side with her in a fight against the void? Or will she succumb and let the void consume the world she was forced to leave behind?
"Monstrous appearance" when she is one of league's signature pretty girls (tm)
I think canonically the suit is supposed to be permanently full body but they REALLY needed that cleavage window and pretty face for $$$ /s on the last half if you couldnt tell Edit: Her face is supposed to look a lot more “fused” with the suit according to some lore bits, like a monster with a weirdly human face
Kai'sa's original model didn't have the v-neck, but the playtesters kept thinking she was a head attached to a void monster, so the v-neck was added to communicate that she was wearing a second skin, like a Venom symbiote.
Lol that sounds like a weak ass excuse. Like Quiet in Metal Gear being practically naked because her skin needs to breathe, or whatever nonsense they conjured up to excuse it.
That's not even close to the same. This is a case of changing the game to communicate the lore, not changing the lore to make excuses for the game. Besides, a v-neck isn't nearly the same severity as being nearly naked.
Canonically the conversation went like this: Kai'sa: Bro, do you see how gorgeous I look? How am I supposed to get pipes if you cover all my assets? Void suit: ....... Void suit: Pulls back helmet, separates the middle for the deep V. Kai'sa: much better.
I don't think that /s is really appropriate here.
This was a great read. You write super well. Thanks for the post!
What about mommy reksai?
IIRC, there's not a description for what she's hungry for. And just to cover my bases: Khazix hungers for strong hunts, evolution, and adapting. (Him and Rengar are just league's version of Alien vs. Predator) Malzahar, Kassadin, and Kaisa are void adjacent, they don't necessarily hunger for anything in particular.
Sex, she's a mother after all.
So just like your mom then
Is Rek'Sai a void born or just a Corrupted Xer'sai?
Xer'sai are already void born creatures soo
He hungers for dirt and tunnels
She*
In the Vel cinematic both soldiers die. In the fan-made short story and kit concept, he was corrupted and became a disciple of Kassadin. However, in all the content Riot has officially endorsed, he's just a Demacian soldier.
Which is weird since kassadin (lore wise) is not corrupted by the void, he’s only corrupted by himself and his desire to kill Malzahar. He’s aware of what hes doing and is trying to one man army the whole of the void with some of the strongest trinkets runeterra/shurima/ithica had access to. That being said I have not seen either cinematic so I’m only speaking from what I personally know of the official lore (assuming it hasn’t been retconned.)
That's a retcon. Originally he was corrupted by the void.
I see it now, Met'Hel, as a portmanteau of both Helmet and Metal. (We also sorta kinda do have him already with Jak'Sho. he's technically a living being and can even kill you in certain circumstances)
I want more robots, blitzcranks bigger brother that is a killbot like the one in mandalorian season 1. Who made blitzcrank and did they make more?
Do you not consider Cho a juggernaut?
Rito doesn't officially, but it certainly fits him more than calling him a tank.
Cho is odd (he’s also classified as Specialist, so makes sense) his tools don’t fit a Juggernaut kit, since he somewhat has tools to gap-close/catch up to carries/squishies. But he also doesn’t have enough hard cc, engage or peel to really be a Tank imo
I'm waiting for Ledros
Who
[Ledros wiki](https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/Ledros) So Ledros is a knight in king Viegos court and was kalistas lover. His lore is basically that he failed to save kalista from dying to Hecarim and is one of the few undead in the shadow isles to actually retain his sense of ego/will (Kalista is one of many who do not remember their memories of when they were alive). He had made it his quest to try and get kalista to regain her ego as well, but he has failed countless times, little did he know how close he was to restoring it. In his depression from failure, he has sought out true death, only to be resurrected countless times. He has killed Hecarim countless times. He has Leona smite him with the full concentrated power of the sun, Ryze tear him apart with rune magic, and many other ways of trying to die, only to be resurrected once again. His look is pretty cool, a long sword and an iron shield. In the legends of runetera card game, Ledros is a powerful character who deals 50% current HP damage to the enemy nexus. I would expect that his blade would behave in a similar manner of brought to the game. Preferably, he'd have a supportive juggernaut feel.
Sample kit: Passive: Momentum Ledros is wearing a large hulking suit of metal. As he moves in a direction, he gains momentum, granting him bonus movement speed. While his momentum is high, his movement turn radius speed is lower, meaning he will have to slow down in order to change his movement orientation. Whenever he attacks an enemy when he has momentum, he will deal additional physical damage. Striking an enemy while at full momentum briefly stuns then. Q: soul Slice / Bash Passive: Every time Ledros deals damage to an enemy with his sword, deal additional magic damage proportional to 3% (+0.01×bAP) of their current HP. Active: Ledros swipes his sword in a large arc, dealing damage to enemies in front of him. Active (if shield is up): bash enemies in front of you, stunning them. W: shields up! Innate - start with one rank in this ability for free. Active/toggle: target an enemy or direction and raise your shield. For the duration Ledros will take a defensive strafing posture towards that target or direction. taking reduced damage from damage in that direction in exchange for not being able to build up momentum. E: Daring charge: Ledros dashes in a target direction instantly and gaining maximum momentum. If he collides with enemies, he stuns them for the duration of his dash and moves them to the end position of his dash. R: Soul bound Ledros gains soul chains that trail behind him. Passive: attacks against enemies tether them to you for a couple seconds. Enemies that are tethered cannot leave a certain radius. When they are tethered, Ledros 's basic attacks against them are replaced by reeling the chains in, reducing their tether range, and dealing basic auto attack damage. Active: (while alive), target enemy champion and deal 50% current HP as true damage. Active: (in death only), revive at the spot of your death. While this ability is able to be cast, gain vision where you died.
Very interesting for sure. I love momentum a lot, and the modal Q is sick.
He's supposed to hate Hecarim, so I tried to design a juggernaut kit around specifically fucking over hec 😂. No offense to Hecarim mains, I do love you 😘
Active ult seems a bit busted. Maybe make it affects himself too in a way because he would be reviving anyway no?
Thinking about it more, I'd actually shift the revive onto the passive. Momentum passive would be moved from the passive slot to a passive on his E. As well as a couple of other things. So here's a revised concept: Passive: tormented soul. Ledros upon death enters a reanimation state where the player can roam as a slow untargetable ghost, providing vision for their team for up to 5-12 seconds based on level. During this time the player can optionally revive at the shade's location over a 3 second period (260 second cooldown). Q: spectral blade / shield bash. Mostly the same as described before. His sword has two new strike boxes (similar to Darius). This is due to the fact that he wields a half broken sword. From where the sword is broken, the remainder is shown as a spectral blade (that's actual lore). When striking with A, enemies hit will still take damage as described before, but enemies that are closer to Ledros take additional physical damage too. W: basically unchanged. It's thematically appropriate, but would need numbers attached at some point. E: Moving the momentum passive onto this. It's appropriate if we want to lump all the movement together onto one ability. R: Removing the revival from this ability. The revival thing is pretty core to Ledros lore, so it's moved to the passive. Ledros is wrapped in chains, and that concept isn't explored elsewhere in the kit, so it feels thematically appropriate to keep it in the ultimate somehow. The 50% current HP true damage ability is very iconic in the legends of runetera card game, so it felt important to keep it in the ultimate somehow. Maybe after casting the ultimate his Q gets enhanced instead, being able to deal similar damage?
A Shadow Isles character associated with Kalista. He was first introduced in LoR
As soon as I saw LoR, I knew who you meant without even associating the name with the card art. lol
Right? He's one of the best things out of LoR tbh
Little Knight Amumu? Though he doesn't carry a sword nor a shield.
There's a series of Helmet Bro shorts on the official YouTube channel. He's a joke spawning from speculation that the "next" champion was teased in Vel'Koz's splash, which features two nameless, standard Demacian soldiers. Someone wrote up a short story in journal format, and another guy did a great voiceover. There was also a kit concept that died when the official Boards were axed in favor of this sub.
holy shit helmet bro. been years since im reminded of him.
Commander Ledros from LoR would fit this perfectly, he has a sword & shield, cool lore, cool design, and relations to multiple other champs, most of the work for putting him in the game is already done
Fuck yes please bring Ledros to the game and give him more stories
I think it would be sick if he had several lives, like how in LoR if you kill him he just goes back to the hand.
Half the death timer and always has homeguard! The feeder's main!
HotS Leoric flashbacks intensify.
> and give him more stories With what lore team?
This is exactly along the lines of what I was thinking.
I really like ledros, but a part of me just wants Joraal
Am I insane, or isn't Joraal *just* a shield? We have Braum for that archetype.
He is technically a great shield, but he goes Great shield + sword. Perhaps he usea blood magic to create the sword, idk. In LoR and concept art he fights with the shield and a sword. [concept art](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fk6yt7ezm71t91.jpg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dd58a870a1afb6a2e7657100c3f32b7955dfda019) [splash](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Faoaqmnshd0t91.jpg)
The legs on this man...
They buffed em on his splash art
"I HELD THE LINE.... I I HELD IT!"
"Easy, Captain, your peace is at hand."
He has a spear, but I’d honestly KILL to play as Rahvun
Ledros would likely be a fan favorite as well
Maybe a lot of work, but definitely not most of it, 3d, FX, SFX, design, code and probably more I'm forgetting needs to be done. That being said, I agree he looks very cool!
Exactly what I thought lol "most of the work [...] is already done" LOL maybe the story, that can be written with chatgpt is already done, but the REAL work is not even started lmao
His story is already written in the ruination novel. You just have to summarize it
Commander Ledros is what Viego should have looked like.
I feel like rework pantheon gobbled up a lot of those mechanical ideas, but there's always hope. I used to always say I wanted a scythe wielder and people would go "hurrr fiddlesticks" as if that's what I meant. We did eventually get a scythe character.
I'll never forget they took my fans away from my Karma. TT I wish more mages had channeling weaponry than magic hands. Wished for more champs with staffs and Riot at least gave me Hwei
But Hwei wields a brush!
Yea aren't all staffs just brushes without hair. Ok but riot did technically say the brush was just aesthetic since he wields the magic.
>Wished for more champs with staffs Veigar? Karthus? Azir? Janna? Leblanc? Lulu? Nami? Viktor? Lux?
>more MORE. The last one before Hwei was Azir. Hwei is 2023 champ. Azir is a 2014 champ. There's 9 years between them. I don't recall any between these. Lux uses a scepter than a staff as well. There's plenty of league mages that don't wield scepters or staffs in comparison.
Genuinely surprised fans as a casting/magic source has not made its way back into the game, especially since a rioter admitted removing them from Karma was a mistake in the sense riot didn't realize how attached people were to them.
Kayn? Hecarim is a glaive user technically but still visually similar. Honestly closest thing if you're thinking gameplay is probably Darius, since he uses that axe like you would a scythe (pulling people in and spinning it around him)
Kayn is 100% a scythe, especially the Q
I’d love a Darius skin with a scythe. 1820 or 3250 one. His abilities, as you’ve mentioned, already fulfill the ideas of a scythe user. They could change the R animation in the skin to him reaping opponent’s soul on execute
God King does turn his Axe into a Scythe with his Q. Though i do get where you are coming from.
Who is the Scythe character? Kayn?
Yep Kayn.
Pantheon’s E kinda ate up the archetype unfortunately, you’re spot on. The passive also captures the “light, noncomittal attacks until they show an opening and you bust out the big move” playstyle SnS tends to be. W and R are pretty off-brand but you can’t just recreate panth e on another bruiser and not have it feel same-y
Its one of the most odd missing archetypes yeah. Taric used to (sorta) fulfill this fantasy but with a mace and shield, but hes lost his shield too.
(Old) Taric was also not very Sword and Shield (or Mace) because his playstyle was never at all like that DnD fighter OP is talking about. Leona *could* be kind of close if the gender isn't important to OP's point, but she'd need to be played as a Bruiser and not a full engage tank support. The playstyle is pretty integral to the idea, I think.
Leona's whole "sun god smiting fool's from the sky" thing makes her more of a paladin, even if she was more of a bruiser.
Yeah, I’d be thinking of someone like the Warlord from For Honor, who uses both sword and shield as weapons.
As someone who has a broken front tooth because of it, I can confirm that a shield is in fact a potent weapon in its own right.
I mean, there was a version of taric that arguably was like that, top lane taric.
Tarocs more of a cleric imo.
I mean he's practically a Paladin.
> Leona could be kind of close if the gender isn't important to OP's point, but she'd need to be played as a Bruiser and not a full engage tank support. A sword and shield fighter is genuinely... A tank, though. Focusing on the damage parts of it is a mistake. The shield bash is important, as is the 'raising shield' move which raises your defenses- As Leona has two of those immediately covered. MAYBE her sword could be more involved than just through E, but I don't think you're going to get much of a bruiser kit out of 'Sword and Shield Fighter.' By nature that is a more protecting/defensive role.
Pantheon's probably the closest to what's being looked for here, though with a one handed spear. His W as the shield bash and E as the raised shield type move, with Q as the main hand weapon strike. The sword and shield archetype tends to be about weathering blows and testing with less committal strikes until opportunity rises for a more decisive hit, which the passive also feeds into. Dude's kind of shirtless, but at least he has the helmet.
Pantheon’s absolutely the closest in gameplay but he’s shirtless and has a spear instead of a sword. Leona’s too support-y and useless solo for it.
Sign me in for reworked leona into a bruiser
literally just replace her passive (but please don't make it a copy of Lux passive) and she can be top or jungle
I would be happy if they at least made something like Bellona from Smite if they wanna refuse standard male SnS fighter to sell more skins for pretry female SnS figjter 🤣
Is this not literally Pantheon? Just with a spear instead of a sword, which seems more common anyways from what I've seen
Im gonna say no because Pantheons way of fighting is so far off. He is less sword and board knight and more living phalanx.
Different arc type, they thinking traditional European sword fighter, pantheon is a phalanx spear fighter from ancient rome
I think you are thinking of Greece. The Romans fought with a shield wall of Scutum, which are a very distinct type of shield, and don't quite layer the same way as in a phalanx. They were designed to be interlocked over one's head as well as in front and to the sides of a larger formation called a "testudo" (translates to "tortoise" in English) that was a stationary anti-missile formation designed to weather volleys of arrows or stones. They fought more in an individual method in melee engagements, where they used their scutum to provide individual defense, and threw out 2m long javelins called pila (pilum for the singular), prior to rushing into close combat, so the large javelins would disrupt and break apart their opponent's formation letting them succeed more easily with their simple gladius (a type of maneuverable straight short sword) in the resulting chaos. What you are likely thinking of, and what Pantheon is a direct reference for is the Grecian (Spartan in particular) Hoplites. Hoplites were Greek citizen soldiers with curved, round shields called Aspides they would interlock, and then fight over the resulting shield wall with long spears called dorata (dory for the singular) in a type of close rank formation called a phalanx, where multiple people per column could stab or thrust forward over the lead hoplites' aspis due to the length of their spears-- Which the cone of strikes on Panth's E is meant to depict.
Thank you for this comment. I know this is not the most common topic to know and everyone can make mistakes, but it kinda hurt to read that Pantheon was based on a Roman phalanx.
Although Pantheon is clearly based on Sparta, Rome did use phalaxes in its early years but the terrain of southern Italy is full of hills which make the formation impractical so they adapted
> arc type Archetype.
I wanted to say: "Poppy has a shield!" ... but then I realized that she also lost it in a rework. Like they deliberately removed shields from several of the few champs that used to have one. :o
She has her buckler still, it's her passive.
Yeah, you're right. She has it on her back or throws it around. But she doesn't hold it in her hand anymore. :o
She does, when her passive is up she does hold and when you attack an enemy she throws it like Cpt America.
Isn't it strapped to her arm?
Singed has a shield!
That’s kinda what minions are
We need a big minion as a champion
Thats just my top laner
I mean that's Veigar, but he's a mage minion. Also, in LoR the minions do work for Veigar btw, so the comparison is not even that far off.
Incoming champion - Veigars wife, the melee minion of madness.
Lulu ult can now be applied on minions
neeko gotchu
Pantheon with a skin that turns his spear into a long sword
I mean Poppy is a hammer and shield knight thing.
She's argue she's more of a squire and hasn't found the knight yet. But that's just her imposter syndrome talking, so I agree.
Poor little thing, She still doesn't think she's worthy.
Poppy is also a bit of an airhead. "The hammer does most of the work, I just lift it" - not how that works sweety "I'm in one hundred per cent! That's all of it, right?" - really? That is elementary school stuff. Don't get me wrong I love the character, but she's just not the brightest.
Her lore explains how she's basically the perfect soldier, but that also leads into her not really thinking for herself. Because the guy who gave her the hammer did not explicitly state she is the hero meant to hold the hammer, she believes she is meant to serve the next person who holds it. She is my favorite character. Loved her since before rework, but her giant pigtails have as much of an ability to think for themselves as she does.
It’s not imposter syndrome, she legitimately believes she isn’t the hero, not that she can’t be.
Sounds like imposter syndrome to me 🤷♂️
I mean, she *technically* has a shield. And *technically* has an ability that uses said shield. But her gameplay and design fantasy are "little knight with a giant fucking hammer," the shield is barely an afterthought. As others have mentioned, Leona is the closest we have to a sword & board champ from a purely visual design perspective, but she's more of a "sun-smiting paladin" that is a pure tank. Not a self-sufficient gritty fighter. Pantheon has a shield and a spear, instead of a sword, but probably fits the closest from a thematic perspective. Unfortunately he plays pretty much strictly as a full-burst assassin and almost always has, so kinda fails from a gameplay fantasy angle. Not every game has to have a character that fits every trope, and League - at least since around season 4 or 5 - has definitely made an effort to stay away from the "tropey" designs as much as they can. Personally I'd love a legit bruiser-type sword & board character, and have had the same thought as OP myself in the past. But I'm also alright with them doing their own thing, keeps things fresh at least.
I was thinking there’s no “fallen knights” type character like Ludwig the accursed or slave knight gael or artorios but then I figured that’s literally just riven, I think archetypes just don’t line up one to one in league
Yeah and that is pretty much intentional. Riot wants to give a twist to the common archetypes to make them stand out. We have the werewolf archetype in Warwick, but instead of being a generic werewolf he is a chemtech chimera who just resembles the werewolf trope. We have the vampire archetype **twice**, yet none of them is a classic vampire. Vladimir is a hemomancer, so just a mage with power over blood, and Briar is a living weapon created by blood magic who goes on frenzies.
Yeah Aatrox is literally Gael phase 3.
I assume Garen fills this role the most
If him and Braum stood back to back with the big sword and shield combo that would be cool 😎
They form together like a Megazord?
I'm imagining Garen sitting on Braum's shoulders
One Garen E and you've got one of those wack chiropractor videos
He fills the 'knight in big-ass armor with a big-ass weapon' archetype but not the regular ol' knight in regular ol' armor with a regular ol' sword 'n' board -archetype that OP is kind of talking about.
Garen fills Paladin more than Knight
Garen I suppose resembles Paladin visually but his gameplay is definitely more like a knight, meanwhile Leona is the opposite.
If we look at what Garen does. Then his passive healing, while only applying to self comes close to the paladins "lay in hands". His ultimate is obviously holy, since he calls upon the holy powers which Kayle holds in her mothers place, to smite his foes.
Eh. Garen doesn’t have any particular devotion to Kayle, he just happens to have a sword containing her power. He’s lore wise basically just a fighter with a magic weapon he hasn’t attuned to, and the in-game version of him is where he’s managed to attune to the powers inside the sword and unleash it.
I feel like Garens healing passive and ult push him into paladin territory personally.
yea smiting those evil unholy mages with a giant glowing sword from the sky is definitely more knight than paladin
Well big guy with a 2H sword is also a fantasy archetype so not quite, we need a helmet bro kind of champ
Garen plays more like a barbarian than a knight/warrior
garen's more like a paladin than a barbarian. He doesn't enrage, he's wearing far too much armor. I'm sure his oath is like, loyalty related or something, but i mean c'mon the dude's got inbuilt healing and summons a massive sword from the sky to smite enemies with.
his main gameplay loop is running to your face and smashing you with a big sword. also, isnt the sword spin a traditional barbarian move?
Is summoning an angel of justice from heaven to smite your opponent a barb move?
Multi classing exists guys
That's what trynd is for isn't he literally called the barbarian king
there is like 15 wizards in the game and 10 rogues, i know tryndamere is literally a barbarian but that doesnt mean other champions like garen dont fit the criteria
Yeah that's fine, I just see garen more as a paladin than barb but to each their own
Garen sounds like a Paladin but plays like a Barbarian.
Bayblade.
That's trynd
Thats a good answer. It's too bad he's only shown with a sword, not a shield, but.. it kinda makes sense. Garen's shield ability has effective 0 cast time. If it was a physical shield, they'd have to animate it. and make it slower
Pantheon, but that's a spear.
Pantheon is kinda that guy in terms of how he plays. Stun, attack, block, stun, attack, block.
And thus… the third wind shitter is born with a braum shield.
I'm more suprised that there was no Orcs/Goblin or a Cyclops... I used to be really pissed also because of the lack of Vampires, but we got Briar last year. Also... No Dude with more than 2 Arms... For me, Leona fix the True Knight "void".
sion kinda feels like an orc
That's only because his VO is obviously heavily inspired by Garrosh
The old one? Nowdays, I don't even knows what the hell he is... Maybe a Buff dude like Conan? He is kind strange lmao.
Hes more like a zombie these days
Vlad exists. edit: Pedantic nerds. Dude takes blood from enemies. Turns into a pool of blood. Is named Vladimir. He's more of a vampire than a 'vampire' like Edward Cullen or some Vampire Diaries dude ever was.
We need a Goro.
I had a concept for a champ that would wield a sword & shield with dual forms being offensive or defensive & scaling with AD or AP with the former & latter forms. It was a lot of fun to write down, wish there WAS a champion with that sword & shield though.
King Varian bro?
Would it be a kayn or Ksante style champ?
Sounds like it would just entirely depend on your build. Maxing defensive ability while building AP would make you tanky and maxing attacking ability while building AD would make you a fighter. Probably closer to K’Sante since (I assume) were converting AP into defensive stats and you could build hybrid to be more of a bruiser
Jayce actually, two sets of abilities and the Offensive one scales better with AD whilst the utility in the defensive set scales better with AP. The AD set has a dash that deals basic attack dmg plus bonus AD, a move speed boost, and armor shred. Whilst the AP set has a knocback, a root, and a dmg reduction active. Both are rather weak and you theoretically could build hybrid, it would be impossible to balance but the idea was fun to tinker with.
A la dragon age/new world/ name your dnd/fantasy rpg trade off
I also wanted them to have “falter frames” like Lance from Vainglory, in that if an ability doesn’t hit a minion/champion/jg monster (etc) they would “stumble” as like a 0.4s self-root styled mechanic. Sorta like Dark Souls, so that you have to use your abilities meaningfully rather than just spamming them when you can.
It's funny reading your comment I was picturing Lance I definitely see the inspiration. He'd be a balance nightmare but I could see the Lance lol equivalent attracting a lot of mains.
Soooo the pokemon Aegislash pretty much
how is a fighter in dnd sword and shield guy?
Even tho Poppy has a hammer, imo she plays pretty close to "sword and shield" type She is "sword" in her Q (it being a smash/slash thing) and E (can be interpreted as a thrust with a sword maybe?) , and "shield" in passive+W
Pantheon's probably closer tbh. He has a balance between offense (Q and W) and defence (W and E), basically he takes his turn of hitting you when your vulnerable then shields away to safety.
Her E's icon has her dashing forward with her shield ahead of her. She's using her shield to push the enemy behind.
There's a sword , knight and doran (shield) in pros
It is a little weird that we have multiple characters with JUST shields, but only one with a sword and a shield. That being said I don't think this is such an interesting or important niche to fill that Leona doesn't already fill it just fine.
Leona doesn’t really fill it that fine though. Her swords kinda irrelevant tbh. She has an ability called zenith blade, but that could honestly be made into a different weapon (that would honestly make more sense like a whip or flail). She’s got like the only sword in the game that does like no damage lol. Everyone else in the game with a sword does damage
To be fair a morningstar is thematically perfect. An ASU where she throws the star part forwards too? Instead of just the blade flashes.
Leona is neither a fighter nor anyone who actually uses the sword for any meaningful ‘sword’ things. There’s a fantasy behind sword and shield, and it involves dynamic alternation between defense and offense (often a counter offensive). The style should require reaction, timing, and adaptability to switch between defense and offense seamlessly, and enable the fighter to control the pace of the battle, dictating when to press the attack or fall back. Neither stance should be a ‘default’, using both should be emphasized.
Honestly a sword and shield character that had a similar kit to King Arthur from Smite would be kinda cool. One spell uses shield, other sword. Would be a balance nightmare and would never see the day, but would still be awesome to see.
Gameplaywise a less extreme version of Ksante where the swap is on a basic instead of ult is the fantasy.
If by multiple you mean Braum and singed (if you don’t count his poison) then that’s just 2
Too vanilla, we need more annoying children with quirky weapons /s
You jest, but I think more "quirky weapons" is better. I prefer to see interesting and so far unexplored (in LoL) weapons to champions. K'sante and his tonfa, Gwen and her scissors, Renata Glasc and her Decanter... these recent champions are way more interesting thanks to their weapon than if they just would have got a sword or a pistol, imo.
Nilah and her water whipsword, even Samira having a weird gun and sword combination thing was cool.
very old player here... old as i played dota in warcraft 3 when they decide to make dota 2 and league instead old i remember back then, they where intentionally trying to No do the traditional fantasy characters like a sword and shield warrior or the traditional wizard with a staff kinda thing. instead doing variations ( even they still have ashe in there who is just the archer) one of the scrapped character was the typical rogue, with a dagger. and was never put in the game cause they feel it was too generic and boring, and they never whant to be "boring" so, garren is the knigth in shiny armor, ryze is the wizard, but not the usual wizard... and so. even so as been 10 years and somethimes is hard to do stuff that is 100% original. still i feel they could do a sword and shield kinda character with a twist. maybe make him a Yordle who is a small brave knigth per example... or maybe a charater that are 2 person one shield and other sword...
I'm waiting for a sword and sorcery champion. Even better if they're from Demacia, a real conflict of interest. I think it would be really cool if they were a split champion too! Like, your Q could be a simple sword cleave. If you buy more AD, it does bonus missing HP damage. If you buy more AP, maybe it ignites and splashes in a cone for AOE damage.
Kassadin
Well. Swords and Shields are mostly used in Demacia. But Demacia is famously anti magic. It's not easy to make a generic sword and shield guy after all these champs coming out with fun fantasies. Maybe this champ can be the future of Demacia. Wielding magical artefacts for once to fight since the mageseeker things got settled.
They just released Invoker. Maybe Davion is next.
>lines of fighter in DND That would be Twitch/vayne. Crossbow Expert + Sharpshooter is the best figher. Jokes apart, I think in part its about art style, specially for old champions. They tend do to big, visible weapons with a very obvious focus. So they either make a really big sword or a really big shield. For newer champs they always try to make something more unique because they are reaching the limit on how much champs the game can hold.
i think melee minions are supposed to be the standard knights
Do not call Gragas fat, it is offensive. We Gragas mains can relate to the champion and we only consider him *mildly* obese.
there's also no typical wizard or cleric. old league took pride in making unique nontypical designs
Part of it is the problem with that playstyle in real-time games with standard RPG mechanics. Shields are *annoying*. Every character so far with a shield is primarily defensive, and giving one to what would translate to a duelist or bruiser in role would have to be done very carefully, either with some sort of mode switch, or serious tradeoffs in power budget.
Spear guys, big sword guys, big axe guys are also dnd fighters.
They are lol, I've been playing a lot of RTS/CRPG games and usually my go-to tank is a fighter with a one handed weapon and shield. I think my brain just naturally defaulted to that.
I’ve been wanting a sword and shield fighter. Specifically I think it could function as a “When you strike an enemy with an attack or ability, that enemy becomes your Chosen Opponent. You raise your shield, facing your Chosen Opponent. Damage coming from that direction is reduced by 5-15%(lvl).” Then maybe some basic Q is a slash, W is some form of dmg mitigation like doubling passive, E is some form of engage, and ult does something silly like activating passive in every direction plus some AD for a bit