League of Legends Champion Review: Thresh

Aesthetics:

Good Thresh do have his own intro song, I was afraid Vi would be a one time deal. And then I would have to complain on that. Well it don't feel as cool as Vi's song ,but I guess its more aesthetically correct with the chanting song Thresh has.  

Thresh looks good, I really like how he walks (especially compared to how Vi walks). And all his ability got good animations. And good voice acting, so I dont have much to say in his regard.

Except that he do reminds me of an angler fish.



The resemblance is eerie is it not.


9/10.

Gameplay:

Thresh is a support role character, but to at least to my experience he can be pretty good as mid or top and then building tanky/attack speed.

Thresh got a lot of displacement mechanics and is a heavy control character, controlling the battle by pulling or pushing away opponents. He can also pull in allies and lastly his ultimate creates walls, which are not real walls but for most users they revere them as walls.

Passive: Damnation

 

I like the idea of this passive but I think its not implemented well enough in the regard of the numbers and value what it gives.

What Damnation does is that nearby enemies(creeps, champions etc) that dies drops souls which Thresh can pick up.

What is important to know with Thresh is that he don't gain any armor when leveling up instead these souls gives armor and ability power. So the idea is that the user has to walk and pick these souls up, the user can also use Thresh second ability to pick up close soul to where the lantern summoned by the second ability lands.

In theory this will make it an interesting gameplay as the user has to take risk going after souls. However, from almost any game I have played as a support it is rarely a problem to take up souls. Only time it is hard is when the lane is completely lost e.g 6.0 to the opponents etc and then the game is kinda lost anyway. Furthermore, I have been trying out Thresh in all lanes and he works good as top and decent in mid(more on this later) and in a 1v1 situation it is very easy to take up souls. Unless as in 2v2 when the lane is really, really over but as that never happened in a 1v1 (for me as Thresh at least) I can only assume it would be hard then.

But the main problem is that every soul is not worth that much,  this is what I mean with the value. The souls drop very frequently and they don't give so much alone meaning it is OK to skip a soul which spawned in a really bad location and stil reach a really high armor and bonus AP in the end game.

This passive should be changed so it spawns less frequent souls and make them be worth more. This will enforce the user to go and get the souls. Which then will create more of the gameplay I assume Riot games want Thresh to have.

Because as I said, in theory good passive but not well in practice.

Hmm I guess one bad thing with it is that makes him be unplayable in jungle as the soul spawn will be to few.

Death Sentence

• Cooldown: 18 / 16.5 / 15 / 13.5 / 12 
• Cost: 80 mana

Passive: Bonus Magic Damage: Souls + up to 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 / 200% AD
Death Sentence has both a passive and an active effect. The passive is that when not attacking he builds up damage for the next attack and then its all gone in 1 attack. Makes him really strong as a support champion as its a very lethal poke for his normal attack.
-Personally I do Thresh with flat AD runes as support and it becomes a very powerful normal attack.  
Active: Magic Damage: 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 / 200 (+50% AP)
The active one is a hook type of game mechanic, its kinda a mix between Blitzcrank’s hook and Nautilus hook.
But actually its more of a Goblin Clockwork mechanic from Dota.
When the user hook someone with Thresh they can by pressing q again fly to the opponent, so its more of a safe version then Nautilus and Goblin Clockwork has. Furthermore, when the target is hooked they will be pulled towards Thresh but its not like a Blitz pull (or Butcher for that matter) but a small in pull and then once more, and if he hits them next to him they cant leave then. So its clearly like a light version of the more standard hooks. Which is reasonably as it gives t hat passive increase of damage and the possibility to move to the target.

I do found Thresh pretty hard to play (compared to other champions not to other games -_-) as this ability has a very long cast time. It takes some practice to get used to when one should start throwing it, it also makes it kinda annoying as its almost impossible to hit anyone in close vicinity as they will just dodge it. It is much more applicable at long distance if one has predicted the movement,.
However, this also makes it more fun to play Thresh he clearly emphasize a strong control gameplay style. Of course I am very bias here as that's my favorite gameplay in basically all games.

So this is a pretty neat ability altogether but it has one thing I am really annoyed with. And that is that the target is hooked Thresh wont auto attack! This might be for balance reason in a 2v2 at bot lane. The main problem is that it makes the hook almost pointless in 1v1 laning, expect for jumping to them. The major benefit of hooking someone at for example top lane is that it might then be able to flay(third ability) them into turret range. The damage is simply lower then just auto attacking. I really think this should be changed.  

Dark Passage

 

• Cooldown: 22 / 20.5 / 19 / 17.5 / 16
• Cost: 40 mana  
• Shield Amount: 60 / 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 (+40% AP)

This is Thresh most interesting ability by far. Thresh throws out a lantern that shield allies and himself from damage, it picks up souls and 1 ally can press it and then get teleported to Thresh.

This is one really nice designed ability. First of all it also gives map vision so the user can throw it in bushes etc, the damage reduction can be very useful and stack of course with other shield e.g Iron Locket etc. And then its a great ability to have and it can be used in so many different ways.

It can save people from ganks, it can be used in conjunction with an initiating tank e.g the tank jumps in and can then TP out by pressing the lantern. Another good part is how the lantern distance works. The user can move freely on a 1500 range from were the lantern was placed. Meaning the user can throw the lantern to the east then flash to the west and still be in range for the lantern and the result is then that the user has gained a pretty long distance from the lantern so if an ally press it they will surely be saved from the opponents.

Overall I really like the lantern as I can place it and then move around for a while a lot of the times I throw it a place I believe will be the later location for my carry. Usually at a bottom bush and then the carry can chase for a bit into that bush and then get TP out to safety. Doing this also gave us vision over the bush, deflecting surprise visits from other people and helping the carry not lose focus.

Its a really awesome ability and it feels great using it. It really feels like you are supporting the team

Flay

• Cooldown: 9
• Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 mana
• Magic Damage: 65 / 105 / 145 / 185 / 225 (+40% AP) 
• Slow Amount: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%

This ability is ridiculously annoying to use, I would go so far and say its has the lowest usability in the game. What it does its very interesting. Thresh Flays the ground and either pull people towards him or away from him, the distance is pretty short but it interrupts them and displace them, so its a very potent ability. But using it is very frustrating, the user has to kinda move around the mouse while doing moving to get the Flay in the right direction as normally the user want to Flay and hit the opponents behind Thresh to make them move towards him = move towards his team.
- I do it by moving with Thresh I constantly twist around the moue to get a good angle, or when i do a  Hook hit I quickly move the mouse so it becomes a in pull. It toke me quite some practice to get it smooth for that combo. I like the ability on paper but its very bad implanted, I also think that leveling it should rather increase the distance they move or the distance the Flay in itself moves as many, many times hitting with a Hook is not actually leading to hitting with Flay(I am excluding the cases the user hit Q again to move to the target).
Its a very good ability in 5v5 team battle and in conjunction with using it after a dive by Hook or just by walking in and initiating but, its really hard to use it as the user wants, the reason it works fine in 5v5 is mainly because its a lot of targets so hard to not get hit even if its a weird cast choice and the way it is improved by leveling does seem slighytly weak.

The Box

• Cooldown: 150 / 140 / 130
• Cost: 100 mana
• Magic Damage: 250 / 400 / 550 (+100% AP)

 

The box looks really cool, Thresh creates several walls creating a box. Each of these walls can only be walked into once by any opponents then it disappears but the rest of the walls stays. An opponent that goes into a wall get slowed and I mean slowed 99% for 2 seconds. It also does damage but that damage is kinda indifference to the battle. I might not be if anyone ever build an AP Thresh but that seems bad, so the damage is kinda whatever. However, an opponent can only be slowed by 1 wall if they walk into 2 walls they get damage from both but only slow from the first time. So in theory 1 person can take huge amount of damaging if they walk into each wall.

It’s quite a strong AoE ability for team battles. It is pretty shitty as a support ability in 2v2 situations and in 1v1 it don't do much expect maybe letting the user run away. Rarely will it secure kills alone or for the carry at bot, but it is a good ability for team battles. If Thresh can get it of hitting several opponents it can Cc them good but mainly what it does is a Ccing thorough existing. It creates a wall between the opponents. The best use I have observed from this ultimate is not to actually hit anyone but to it being placed splitting the opponent team so that they don't dare touching it. Its a nice control ability.


Its interesting that Thresh clearly is similar to Goblin clockwork as he can pull himself to the enemy and  then trap them with this ultimate(However, Goblin is better as he walls them in). Still it don't actually feels like that so much, I believe this is mainly because of the difference in cooldown. While Thresh can use his Hook frequently,but its a 2.5 min CD on his ultimate. So the user cant do the hook to wall very often.
And this actually makes me wonder about his coherency as a character while the hook also pulls the target to him, meaning it is not useless just because the user cant jump in and wall. It still means  the user very, very rarely will ever fly to them. When I play him, so far the only time I fly in is when I have ultimate or when I am diving a turret(in the support role) to tank the turret for the carries.
Because of this the fly in feels kinda bad especially as it seems his hook effect is nerfed because of the possible fly mechanic.
Furthermore, the user can of course use it to escape. Which is never worthless but because it has such a long cast time it is actually quite hard to use it effectively in combat. It is mainly only applicable when the user is kinda safe already (having enough distance from the enemies to use it properly).  


Thresh is a nice addition to the support champion. Its nice how he is not about healing or empowering the damage out put. Its about displacement mechanics, either displace the enemies or displace the allies with his lantern.

But there are is one  huge problem with playing Thresh is the allies and especially the adc. While this shouldn't really be an issue that is counted for how good Thresh is, by that I mean it shouldn't be a minus of the allies are to stupid to use the lantern. Problem is they are a lot of stupid people, this will surely be less frequent when people have seen him for a year. But right now every game I play there are always at least 1 teammate that cant use it.
And its really, really annoying I am playing him on rank mainly and as with any support the team has to have some level of skills or you will lose as the player cant carry as a support. With Thresh then it becomes even more obvious how the support cant really do anything if the team mates cant play. So while this shouldn't be a minus for a character, but Thresh is the most highly reliable on his team support champion and its extremely frustrating playing him many games so be warned.  

In the end I quite like Thresh but he do have many minor issues, as I mentioned the passive should be better enforced the hook removing his auto attack the really troublesome use of his third ability and that the teammates really has to be good. The ultimate might need to last a little longer as well.

7.7/10 - I like Thresh more then most other supports but he has a lot of minor problems and the system for  using Flay I hope will be changed.  

Fighting Game Design: Death, Control

Death

 

Death is the latest character I been working on. His combo list and images are kinda --- bad.
But really its mainly for 2 reasons. He don't really have any combos, he got huge amount of control mechanics so he cant have combos. So if it it looks like I was lazy, its because I don't have anything more to write in that regard.
The images however, there I have been kinda lazy as he for Death it don't really matter

Stats:

As with many other games a control (control) character usually have pretty average stats in everything except having very low health. Death is similar to this with an slight edge towards speed over strength.

Health pool:
The basic value is 100: Death has 45 slightly below half of what the average value is. Which is the lowest Hp in the game. This to ensure it wont be to easy with Death. Especially with his passive he cant have to much Hp.

Agility/Mobility: Basic value 10: Death has 12. Death moves pretty quickly so that the user will be able to avoid and keep distance.


Strength: Basic value 10: Death has 6. Death will deal damage with his passive and as he can easily chip the opponent his attacks cant deal to high damage.

Recovery: Basic value 10. Death has 13. Death is a very fragile character and cannot have to low recovery then the user will be to open to counter attack. (note if Death was a strong control he would instead have low recovery and high health - this is the most obvious difference between control and strong control).


Weight: Basic value 50: Death has 35. Death shouldn't really pick up anything.




Prime Core gameplay:

Death has a passive mechanic that makes him become stronger and stronger the longer the game passes. I want to create a control character that truly wants the game to be as long as possible. Furthermore, this mechanic is used to create several dynamic choices for the user.


Death and decay: Prime core game mechanic of Death.
Deaths will constantly hurt his enemy if they are in close proximity of him. This proximity will grow and eventually cover the whole screen.
During times Death take damage the effect will be turned of.
This ability wont give Death any energy but will give the enemy character energy as any normal attack would.
This ability cant be turned of.

It will deal 1% of the opponents characters max health. This could be implanted in numerous way, but I believe its better if it have a set damage deal as otherwise it would be to weak in the end. Also as his aura will grow each second it would be pretty counter intuitive if the aura also got weaker, it might make sense but game wise it would mean that when it finally can hit the opponent it would be very weak. Still the 1% might have to be balanced, to a decaying number.

Also the aura in itself will grow 1% of the screen space each second. It will start being being 5% screen space out from Deaths body, collision detection, should then be around 10-15% of the screen. From the center of his body.
This will then grow in radius and should be able to touch the enemy when its around 35 second left of a match(a match being 99 seconds), if the enemy is standing in one corner and Death in the other. As different character will have different hit boxes some it might hit earlier, and as it will be further away to the air over in the other side of the screen  if an enemy would jump the aura wouldn't hit them. So at roughly 30 second left, the aura will hit the enemy regardless off either characters position.

This is Deaths basic “attack” his prime game mechanic that defines his playing style. The idea is that the game will be very dynamic as it will start of with Death having the trouble of actually being pretty weak early game so he will keep the enemy away, or he will go in very close to try and combo combined with dealing aura damage.
At around 60 sec of the game death will be able to stand in the middle of the screen and being able to hit the enemy with projectiles/distance attacks this will be the time where he can act offensive in a good way.

Another thing is that the user of Death might want to save up his energy to be able to utilize much stronger combos when the aura has grown but as Death will have very low life and be pretty weak using with more energy at start it might not be a good strategy. Or better put the user might be forced to use energy. And his enemy will be in a similar situation where she/he might want to save energy for late game when the aura has grown or use energy all the time at start to try and kill Death before his Aura grows.

This will create for a huge variety of game tactics, for example Erik might try and kill him faster by using energy at start but as he can teleport with one of his abilities another approach could be to save all his energy by that he can still attack Death when the aura is at full and Death only goes for long range attacks.





Unique game mechanics:

Throw:
Launch so it can be used to throw them into dead cloud.

Unique attacks(input attacks)

Death has very important unique attacks, they don't just add in some different angle or speed they gain huge range or adds effects.

Anti Gravity.Back L pushes them away 25% of screen

Anti Gravity.Back M pushes them away mid 50% screen distance.



Range attacks, Same in air

H and VH is range attacks. Mid screen distance
H scythe attack high mid cut, crunching H low cut.
Back H Trusting - more range.
Crouching back H diagonal distance attack going in a line

VH downward motion attack
Crouching VH Upward motion attack
Back VH upward motion attack - from enemies back
Crouching back, Downward motion attack from top screen to mid screen.




Special abilities:

Age bullet: Quarter circle forward.


Priority: 10
Strength X 0
Recovery/ 2
Mobility: 3
Effect: Enemies speed, mobility and recovery is reduced by 50% for 5 seconds.

This projectile deals no damage but will make the enemy move slower. This bullet travels very slowly. And can be shot in different ways depending on button use.

Quarter circle forward.
Light: Starts from Death travels to mid screen
Medium: Starts from mid screen travels to end screen.
Hard: Starts from Death travels to mid screen, but travels diagonal from death to top of mid screen.
VHard: Starts from mid screen and travels to the upper corner of the screen.

This attack can also be shot in the air.
L and H same
Medium travels from Death downwards to ground
VHard. Move downwards from 50% of screen space from Death


Dead cloud. Quarter circle backward.
Priority: Cant be removed.
Strength X 0
Recovery/ 3
Mobility: 0(instantly appears at desired location)
Effect:
Percent lose of life over a time: Poison effect.
1% of max hp per second for 5 seconds.
Cloud disperse after one touch to an enemy, cant be blocked.

Quarter circle backward.

4 different positions.
Back quarter circle.
L Deaths back wall
M middle of screen
H Other wall
VH Outside screen, half a screen from H.



Used for Acid rain.

Limit of 3 clouds in total, not on screen. If there is 2 clouds outside the screen only 1 more can be placed.
They can stack. Wont affect poison but will affect Acid rain.


Energy abilities:


Death pulse(escape mechanic): S
Cost 2 + removes 5% of screen aura.
Priority: 100
Strength X 0
Recovery/0.01
Mobility: covers whole aura field on the same time.
Effect: Pushes enemy outside the aura sphere or to a wall if cant be pushed more.
Removes 5% of the enemies max health. While also removing 5% distance of deaths aura

Can always be used to escape combos, can be used to combo own attacks.
Major drawback not only does this cost more then other escape mechanics(1) it also removes 5% of screen distance of deaths aura to balance out the fact he takes away 5% of enemies health always.
Note: this damage is still 5% of max health even in combos which otherwise would have diminishing returns.

- I want Death players to really have to think twice before using his moves. And as this is his escape the opponent user can force the death user to lose aura space.



Acid rain: Quarter back S
Cost 2
Priority: 100
Strength X 0
Recovery/0.01
Mobility: 10 rains fall from the clouds. After it have hit ground it will be a pillar of hit box.
Effect: Rain will remove 1% of max hp per second. Last for 5 Seconds per cloud.
Rain is unblockable

IF 3 clouds are stacked, its open for a combo. Because this damage cant be blocked a 3 rain attack opens up for a unblockable combo.

All combos can be extended by using Acid rain.
If player uses Acid rain their combo wont stop and the rain can possibly fall on the enemy increasing the damage.


Free scythe. Quarter Forward S

Cant be used while taking damage.
Cost 5.
Priority: 100
Strength X 0.2 Hits 2.5 times per second for a complete damage of 12 times
Which is equal to 12 damage.
Recovery:  Death cant move while controlling the scythe.
Mobility: 20
Effect: Last for 5 seconds.
The player controls the scythe that flies around and can do infinitive combos as long its in the enemies hit box.
Can be used at all times expect when taking damage.
Player can still cast
Acid rain and Death pulse during this.
This can be combo after its over- Diminishing returns will although make the damage be lowered.


Explanation Image Death:

First its different Normal attacks with Death. As they are very different then with the other characters. Following this is Death cloud. Yellow when its 3 cloud stacked together.
Then different Age bullet. Age bullet can start at different locations.
Following this is Death and Decay. Last is the Free Scythe attack.













 Different Unique Attacks with Death.






Different placement of acid cloud. Yes (I know its outside my blogs UI and looks ugly its in purpose) Death can even place clouds outside the screen, this to later use them on the opponent for example force the opponent to later move into them. 





Death cloud starts at different location depending on the button the user uses.





Death's Death and Decay grows per second in the game. 










Combos List:

L,M,VH to hit them upwards.
Crl,CrM,VH to hit them upwards.
VH in melee combos launches the scythe upwards pushing them into Acid Clouds.
L.L.L
L,M
M.L
M.
VH V CrVH 6V
VH V CrVH 6V
Cr4V Cr4VH
Cr4V Cr4VH Jump VH V CrVH 6V
L4M VH V CrVH 6V
M. 4L 4VH Jump Dash  L4M VH V CrVH 6V

All combos can be canceled by using Death pulse.

All combos can be canceled mid time if used Free scythe.
This means a combo like Cr4V Cr4VH can for example be followed by using Death pusle pushing them away more and then in air using a VH V CrVH 6V
or a VH V CrVH 6V followed by Free scythe the player can after the Free scythe is over yet again use VH V CrVH 6V or another combo that can hit.

All combos can be extended by using Acid rain.
If player uses Acid rain there combo wont stop and the rain can possible fall on the enemy increasing the damage.