Neshek, Avenging Spirit
(Separate thread here)
Lore
The League has many written rules, most of them implemented to stop creative interpretation of the existing rules or the lack thereof ("Using necromancy to animate towers: 2500 gold fine"). Among the unlisted but commonly accepted rules is one that has never been challenged until now: the fact that a champion must be a thing. The new Noxian champion defies this rule: Neshek has no physical form and manifests only when a willing and particularly fearless spirit anchor is present.
In life, Natasha was the spoiled daughter of a Noxian noble family. Her parents lavished a fortune on their child to make her dreams come true: her own horse carroussel complete with electric lights, a clockwork ballet troupe and precious porcelain dolls, lots of dolls. She often retreated with her dolls into her fantasy world and developed a bond with one doll in particular, Anastasia, who she believed was a fairy in disguise. This disappointed her parents because it was cheaply made and cracked, sold to them for a few gold coins by a panhandling crone. They had intended to dispose of the doll before Natasha could see it, but she discovered it in a cupboard at night and declared it was a gift from the pixies. Her parents could not force themselves to deny this.
Highly protective of Natasha, her parents carefully hid the reality of life as a Noxian noble from her, until reality beat down their door at night. The noise woke her up, and she could only watch as the hired thugs overpowered her parents and stabbed them again and again, ignoring the dolls and expensive toys she threw at them. When they turned on her, she ran upstairs and hid underneath the bed. With scant minutes before the militia would arrive, the thugs decided she was no threat and left after setting fire to the mansion. Natasha crawled into a corner and clutched Anastasia as the house burned down around her...
Today all that remains is a pile of rubble in an abandoned domain where only thorny plants grow and the bony remains of a horse carroussel jut out from the weeds, warning visitors to stay away. Those who braved the thorns quickly discovered that the domain was haunted. A nobleman was found in the exotic garden, bled to death with a porcelain shard in his neck. His family refused an investigation for unknown reasons. Then others died: a wealthy enterpreneurial baron was found in a pool of water next to a broken electric lantern, then a chandelier fell on his mourning wife, then Baron Bondieu, connoisseur of fine motormobiles, was crushed to death by one of his own cars; the militia concluded that a stray spark had somehow ignited the engine and his wife's pedigree poodle had shifted the car into gear.
Sniffing out rumours of supernatural activity, Institute of War headhunters followed the trail of corpses to the rubble of a burned out mansion. Finding the remains of many, many dolls, they remembered the old crone they attempted to apprehend, who escaped the long arm of the law by turning into a flock of crows with all of her dolls. There might be more to the supernatural killing spree than a mere vengeful ghost...
Concept: Possession
Neshek is technically not a champion at all and does not exist as a separate unit. She is a disembodied demonic spirit, capable of possessing any allied champion on the map using her ultimate, riding along inside this champion and attacking from inside her host.
She can jump between champions at any time using her ultimate, but there is a short delay and a distinctive animation on both champions. This delay does not prevent her from auto attacking or using abilities. Neshek can cancel the jump by casting the ultimate again and it is also cancelled when the target champion dies. She can also possess the fountain to buy items.
Implementation details
Attacking
Neshek can cast abilities and use auto attacks from inside her host, and receives credit for her own kills.
Defending
Neshek cannot directly be attacked and does not take damage. Instead, the damage of incoming attacks against her host is reduced by a percentage. The higher her health, armor and MR, the higher the damage reduction she confers.
When she is inside a host, that host takes only HostEHP/[HostEHP+NeshekEHP] times as much damage from attacks. EHP means effective hit points, or Health*(100+ArmorOrMR).
For instance, if Neshek has 2000 health and 50 armor and her host is Irelia with 3000 health and 100 armor, then Irelia takes only 6K/(6K+3K) = 2/3 damage from physical hits. Intuitively you could think of it like this: it takes exactly as long to kill the host as it would take to kill both champions one at a time.
Death
Neshek dies with her host, even if she is in the process of possessing another champion but the jump did not go through yet.
Items and passives
All items and passives only affect their wearer. Notably:
- Movement speed (meaning movement speed items are useless on her)
- Tenacity
- Guardian Angel (if she has one and her host does not, she revives inside the fountain from where she can possess an allied champion and rejoin the fight; this also occurs if the host got egged because the egg might die before she revives)
Buffs, debuffs
All spell effects are applied to both Neshek and her host (except Zhonya's Hourglass to prevent griefing).
Model
Neshek has no independent model, but a ghostly apparition floats above the champion she chooses as a host. The apparition is of a young girl wearing a torn and burned ballgown, disheveled hair and giant shredded ribbons tied to her back, with bloodstained clawed hands in which she clutches a doll and pitch black eyes. While idling, the spirit may point out something on the horizon or pull on the host's ears.
Skin
Cathode Wraith Neshek: crawled from a television in another world, this Korean version of Neshek wears a white funeral shroud and has long black hair hanging over her shoulders. Instead of her doll, she carries a black balloon.
Stats
Health: 360 (+80) = 1800 @18
Health: Regen: 4.6 (+0.65) = 16.3 @18
Mana: 305 (+70) = 1565 @18
Mana: Regen: 7.2 (+0.65) = 18.9 @18
Attack: Damage: 50 (+3.00) = 104 @18
Attack: Speed: 0.625 (+2.5%) = 0.90 @18
Attack: Range: 475
Armor: 9 (+3.8) = 77.4 @18
MR: 30
Movement speed is unimportant
Abilities
[Ultimate] Possession
"Together we will have our revenge"
Allied champion - Neshek starts with this ability at level 1 (and can rank it up at 6, 11 and 16) and it is responsible for her unique gameplay mechanic. It has global range and enables her to possess any allied champion (see "Concept" for the associated rules) after a delay of 8/7/6/5 seconds. It has no cooldown, but consumes 1 stack of "Possession". Neshek has a maximum of 3 stacks and gains a new stack every 60/55/50/45 seconds.
[Q] Levitate
"As you wish, oh mighty exorcist, I will no longer make inanimate objects fly..."
Enemy champion or minion - Neshek telekinetically lifts the target into the air, preventing movement for a short time. When the spell ends, the target is smashed into the ground, inflicting damage and causing a shockwave that knocks up and damages nearby enemies. Press the button again while the target is disabled to end the effect and trigger the shockwave immediately, but the sooner the button is pressed, the weaker the damage and knockup effects will be.
Cast range: 625
Maximum duration: 1.1/1.3/1.5/1.7/1.9 seconds
Slam: Radius: 500
Slam: Physical damage: 70/120/170/220/270 (+0.6 AP)
Slam: Area knockup: 1.0/1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4 seconds
Slam: Damage and knockup are reduced by up to 50% depending on how soon the button is pressed again
Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11 seconds
Mana cost: 70/80/90/100/110
[W] Bleeding Skies
"I shall reign in blood!"
Point - Neshek summons a rain of blood and entrails at the target point near her host, creating a churning pool of blood that deals damage to enemies standing in it, while healing allied champions standing in it (including Neshek's host). The more enemies are hit, the more effective the heal is. By recasting the ability, Neshek can move the rain around. It has no range limit, but grows weaker when it gets too far away from Neshek. Enemies can only be knocked up once.
Cast range: 750 (strength reduced past 900 range, down to 40% at 1200 and beyond)
Rain: Radius: 600
Rain: Magic damage per second: 20/30/40/50/60 (+0.7 AP)
Rain: Heal per second: 10/15/20/25/30 (+0.2 AP) increased by 5/8/11/14/17 (+0.1 AP) per champion hit and +1/2/3/5/5 (+0.05 AP) per minion hit.
Rain: Duration: 4 seconds
Rain: Move speed: 175
Cooldown: 17/16/15/14/13 seconds
Mana cost: 60/70/80/90/100
* Hitting 5 minions and 2 champions yields a total heal of 356 (+0.65 AP).
[E] Frenzy/Tongues
"Unleash your demons"
Allied champion - Neshek invokes a demonic rage in the target allied champion (including Neshek's host), increasing movement and attack speed.
Enemy champion - Neshek invokes maddening voices in the target enemy champion, silencing the target.
Cast range: 750
Frenzy: Duration: 4 seconds
Frenzy: Attack speed: +30/35/40/45/50%
Frenzy: Move speed: 20%
Tongues: Duration: 1.6/1.9/2.2/2.5/2.8 seconds
Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10 seconds
Mana cost: 60/65/70/75/80
While Frenzy is active on an allied champion, Neshek can press the button again to cast:
Broken Chains
"Cast off your shackles!"
Skillshot - The champion affected by Frenzy shoots a hooked chain to a nearby target point. Enemies struck by the chain are stunned and start bleeding, taking damage over time.
While Tongues is active on an enemy champion, Neshek can press the button again to cast:
Immolation
"Now it is your turn... to burn"
No target - The champion affected by Tongues explodes in a burst of flame, taking damage and getting stunned for a short time.
Broken Chains: Physical damage: 60/90/120/150/180 (+0.3 AP) over 3 seconds
Broken Chains: Stun duration: 0.75 seconds
Immolation: Magic damage: 70/110/140/170/210 (+0.5 AP)
Immolation: Stun duration: 0.8/0.9/1.0/1.1/1.2 seconds
Passive: Anastasia
"Want a hug?"
By giving a movement command, Neshek briefly manifests her cherished doll Anastasia. The doll acts independently of Neshek and her host and is controlled using regular right click movement commands. It has no AI of its own and will not move or attack unless ordered to. The doll can throw small fireballs. Additionally, Neshek can cast spells and items at targets that are out of her own range but within range of the doll, in which case the doll will cast them instead.
The doll gradually catches fire and eventually burns to ash, triggering a short cooldown on the passive before a new doll can be manifested. Giving the doll no move or attack order for 5 seconds will immediately destroy the doll and start the cooldown.
Doll: Maximum duration: 20 seconds
Doll: Attack: Magic damage: 20 (+0.3 AP) per second
Doll: Attack: Range: 450
Doll: Hit points: 180 (+40 for each 2 character levels after the first, maxing out at 500)
Doll: Run speed: 285 (+15 for each 2 character levels after the first, maxing out at 405)
Grants 15 gold to the enemy when killed
Cooldown: 20 seconds after the doll is destroyed
* Items with no target (eg. Randuin's Omen) are cast from Neshek's host, not from the doll.
* This enables Neshek to, for instance, place wards without having to direct someone to go there.
* The Cathode Wraith skin replaces the doll with a black balloon with a smiley face on it that spits black magic bolts.
Strategy
Role
Hard support
Recommended items
Doran's Shield
Philosopher's Stone
Ruby Sightstone
Mikael's Crucible
Liandry's Torment
Twin Shadows
Laning
Due to Neshek's unique feature of not being an independent champion, she can only go duo bot, possessing the carry. The lane is 1v2 but due to the shared health pool the carry is literally a one man "two man army".
While Neshek does have a heal, it is most effective in large scale teamfights and not tremendously powerful unless she hits a ton of enemies and pushes the lane, though then again it is free to cast. Instead of playing healbot, she should harrass the enemy laners. Because her spells are fairly short ranged, trading damage is not a good idea, but she can spawn Anastasia and use it to harrass. It is squishy and feeds the enemy gold if allowed to die, but it is still a fairly safe way to get into poke range. And with two forms of hard CC, the carry can follow up for some more damage.
While doing this, she should keep an eye open for kill opportunities in other lanes or the jungle, and in particular ganks. By possessing the mid or jungler who is about to gank, she can turn a 2v1 into a 3v1, though if her lane opponent is paying attention and sees the possession jump go through, they can warn the other lanes. Another tactic she could try is an Anastasia gank. At low levels it does not move fast enough to get to another lane, but she can sneak it into the bush or behind the enemy laners and then cast her spells through the doll, unloading Levitate followed by Tongues and Immolation for upwards of 3 seconds of hard CC at the tail end of the laning phase.
Pushing
Neshek can assist pushes by possessing the pusher, using Bleeding Skies to provide more pushing power and either defending him or using Anastasia as a walking ward. Her Possession goes through very quickly when maxed, so should the enemy team converge on the pusher she could always escape and leave the other sucker to die. Staying to fight is obviously preferable, what with an AoE knockup and a silence/stun.
Teamfights
Possession now has a very short cooldown, enabling Neshek to jump around almost at will and grant her damage reduction to anyone under attack. This is a huge boon, but knowing when to bail out is important because stuns and silences stop the jump from going through and the enemies know that when they kill your host it's a double kill. Aside from leaping around like a deranged bunny, Neshek should also cast Bleeding Skies into the middle of the teamfight, and either Frenzy the carry or Tongues a dangerous enemy AP. Between Bleeding Skies and Levitate she excels at forcing the enemy to split up, so a Tongues into Immolation may lock up an enemy for long enough to get her host a kill.
Meeting the MCCC requirements
Gift giving
Neshek is the ultimate support, providing a teammate with a large amount of damage reduction while you attack enemies for them. All of her abilities are supportive.
No self centred AoE
Check.
Spell that can be cast on friends and enemies
Frenzy/Tongues.
Stacks
Possession uses stacks to enable several quick jumps followed by a long cooldown.
Quotes
Select
"Together... we will have revenge"
No movement quotes (obviously)
Attack
"Taste their blood"
"Rip off their flesh"
"Shred them to bits"
"Feast your eyes, host"
"I will handle this"
"Hell's fires are stoked"
"Make it rain guts"
<Evil laughter>
<Backmasked> "Erif eht raef"
<Backmasked> "Regnuh sdneirf ym"
Anastasia movement
"Right away, hihihi"
"I'm having fun!"
"As fast as I can!"
"Play with me!"
"I dance, I talk, I kill!"
Anastasia attack
"New toys!"
"I want to play!"
"You like fire, don't you?"
"Catch!"
"Fire is fun!"
Cast Possession
"Let hell break loose"
"Unleash your demons"
"This will be fun"
"A worthy host"
"I have such sights to show you"
"Karmageddon" (Karma)
"I haunt who I please" (Mundo)
"A match made in hell" (Brand)
"I hate you! I hate you!" (Swain)
Idle quotes
"Kill... everyone..."
"Claw their eyes out..."
"Murder them all..."
"You hate them..."
<Backmasked> "Em pihsrow..."
<Backmasked> "Doog si mehyam..."
Taunt
(Girly voice) "Am I scary enough? Daddy?" (Demonic voice) "AM I SCARY ENOUGH?"
"Hell hath no fury like a woman... burned"
"Afraid of ghosts? You will be. Oh yes, you will be"
Joke
"975 RP and you didn't even get the whole champion"
"All fun and games once someone gets their flesh melted off"
"This looked like a nice game, didn't it, a veeerrry nice innocent little game... AND THEN THERE'S ME!"
Dance
Neshek does not dance, but makes her host dance (when standing still only).