**Hello League!** It’s been a very long time since I’ve posted a champion concept related to melee carries. In between the time of my last post on this subject and now, I’ve learned a lot of things about League of Legends that have influenced the way I think about the game overall. The game’s been evolving, and I’ve been evolving with it. That being said, I think this time I’ve hit the mark spot on with this concept. Arzo is a swordsman who wields two burning swords. He is designed to play in a duo lane as a melee attack damage carry. Yes, you heard that correctly. He will effectively function in a similar fashion to the way a marksman functions, and will actually work as a replacement to a marksman in the bot lane. As a melee carry, he will have the tools with which to succeed as a marksman substitute. Below is an image I borrowed from google images shamelessly (**credits to the author/owner: http://joshcorpuz85.deviantart.com/ seriously, I am NOT an artist and I do NOT own this picture**) that could give you an idea of what he'd look like in game. Absolutely hope you enjoy. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KAZSN17wIms/VOc8s0Kag5I/AAAAAAAAVpc/IyrQAr6zu30/w800-h800/Beacon%2B-%2BThe%2BFencer_Red%2BDuel%2BSwordsman%2Bby%2BJoshCorpuz85.jpg **Arzo, Burning Blades** *Arzo is a melee attack damage carry who works best when paired with an ally. In order to compete with ranged carries who would otherwise win every trade against him simply because of their extra attack distance, Arzo has developed a swordsmanship technique that would make the Wuju bladesman supremely jealous.* --- **Extinguisher (Passive):** Damaging abilities apply Soul Flame to enemy champions for a short duration. Clicking to attack a target afflicted with Soul Flame causes Arzo to turn into an untargetable flame as he dashes behind the target. Upon arrival, he extinguishes the soul flame and reduces the target’s bonus armor for a duration. >*Arzo’s passive is Extinguisher. It applies a debuff that lets him dash, untargetably, towards an enemy champion from afar whenever he damages them with one of his damaging skillshot abilities. Because there’s no cooldown on this passive, Arzo can potentially dash back and forth between enemy champions repeatedly as long as they have soul flame applied, dealing one basic attack’s worth of damage each time. In teamfights, this passive will be Arzo’s primary method of closing the gap, staying alive, and avoiding disables.* --- **Ring of Fire (Q):** Arzo slashes the air with his right hand sword, projecting a thin ring fire outwards in a line that deals damage to all enemies hit. >*Arzo’s Q ability works like Zyra’s E – he aims in a target direction and sends out a skillshot that damages enemies in the flame’s path. It has a low cooldown, but also a thin width (think Nidalee Q), so he’ll have to aim carefully. In lane, this is how he’ll earn last hits from a safe distance, not so much unlike his ranged opponents.* --- **Nova Strikes (W):** Arzo boosts his attack and movement speeds. If he lands three consecutive attacks on a target during this time, the target becomes afflicted with Nova for 2 seconds. When Nova expires, the target explodes, sending out five fireballs in random directions. The fireballs deal damage, but the explosion itself does not. >*Nova Strikes is Arzo’s steroid ability and secondary survival ability. If he pulls it off correctly, his target will explode and send fireballs flying outwards, which may hit other enemy champions. Once an enemy champion is hit by a fireball, it will be debuffed by Soul Flame, allowing Arzo to dash towards it (and potentially avoid being hit by an ability in the process).* --- **Sweltering Cross (E):** Arzo dashes while slashing in a target direction, dealing damage and heavily reducing the attack damage of enemies struck for 3 seconds. >*Leveraging Sweltering Cross, Arzo can accomplishes a variety of different tasks. In lane trade situations, Arzo can use this damaging dash ability to lower his opponents’ ability to trade back effectively while keeping up. In disengage situations, Arzo can combine this with his W to create distance from his foes. Finally, in teamfight situations this ability is important both as a mobility spell and a means of survival – he needs it to survive encounters with attack-damage based assassins who would otherwise burst him down too quickly as he slashes them for a little bit of DPS.* --- **Sacrificial Flame (R):** Arzo turns into a flame, becoming untargetable and invulnerable for 2 seconds (he can't attack, move, use items, use abilities, or cast spells). During this time, Arzo can click on an ally within range to dash towards them. Enemies in the way of Arzo as he dashes are dealt damage based on their missing health. While dashing, Arzo remains untargetable and invulnerable. >*Arzo’s trump card and finisher ability. It functions as a pseudo Zhonya’s Hourglass, keeping him alive in situations where a regular melee champion would instantly be burst down and destroyed. If he plays perfectly in sync with his ally, he can also use it as a finisher and escape – dive the enemy duo bot until they’re low enough to be killed by the ability and then dash towards his ally for a perfect double kill and simultaneous escape from the last turret shot that would otherwise shut him down.* --- **Summary** - Arzo relies heavily on his damaging abilities, all of which are dodgeable, to enable him to perform a flaming dance back and forth at his opponents in order to stay alive while dealing DPS with his melee basic attacks. He's a melee "marksman" in a sense - he lacks the burst damage of assassins and the sieging power of ranged marksmen, instead trading those for better DPS and survivability while being positioned directly in the middle of combat. Unlike assassins, he can stall for time by dancing back and forth admist his opponents as he waits for his allies to grant him an escape route with his ultimate, or for his allies to disable and single out a target for him to DPS down. **TL;DR** - Please check it out if you have time. It's the best melee carry concept I've come up with to date. - Champion is a melee attack damage carry that can replace a marksman at bot. - Passive lets him dash to targets while being untargetable (deals the damage of a single basic attack). - Q is skillshot that applies passive. - W is steroid. - E is dash. - R is pseudo Zhonya's for survivability. - Champion deals DPS in tiny bursts, doesn't really deal burst damage like an assassin, but can survive hazardous situations. *Note to Arzo solo laners: If you build him tanky, he will deal as much damage as a marksman that's built tanky. He is balanced like a marksman - he functions as a substitute for a marksman, so feel free!* **Yours very truly, Cardi**

Title



Body Cancel

Save