[fanmade hero] Gaius, the terrain control mage

Fan Creations Fan Heroes
1

Brace yourselves guys, this one’s wild.

Gaius
role: Jungler, ranged
Terrain control mage whose abilities change depending on his positioning

Heroic Perk: At one with Nature
Gaius’s B and Ult change depending on the ground he’s standing on. If he is on regular terrain, his abilities will be more defensively based, whereas when he is in a Bush, his abilities will become offensive. When in a bush, Gaius’s cooldowns will go down faster, but he will have reduced defences.
Cooldown speed increase: x1.5
Defence reduction: -10%

A Ability: Rooting
Gaius plants a bush at the target location. Gaius can plant a maximum of 4 bushes; planting a fifth will remove the one which has been on the field the longest.
Cooldown: 9/8/7/6/4
Energy cost: 50/50/50/50/50

B Ability: Boulder crusher / Whiplash
When on regular terrain, this ability will activate as Boulder crusher. When in a bush, the Whiplash effect will occur.
Cooldown: 6.0/5.5/5.0/4.5/4.0
Energy cost: 60/60/60/60/60

Boulder crusher: Gaius levitates rocks off the ground and directs them toward the target location in a small cone. This knocks back all enemies hit by the rocks.
Damage: 80/100/120/140/180 - 60% crystal ratio

Whiplash: Gaius commands a vine to slash the ground in the target direction, damaging all enemies in a line.
Damage: 150/180/210/240/300 - 140% crystal ratio

Ultimate: Stoneheart / Soultree
When on regular terrain, this ability will activate as Stoneheart. When in a bush, the Soultree effect will occur.
Cooldown: 60/55/40
Energy cost: 100/100/100
Duration: 9/10/12

Stoneheart: Gaius Surrounds himself with rocks which provide him with a regenerating health barrier and increased defences for a duration. While this ability is active, Gaius’s B will always appear as Boulder crusher, and the ultimate can be activated again to use Whiplash.
Health barrier: 500/600/700 - 20% crystal ratio
Bonus shield and armour: +35/+50/+65

Soultree: Gaius gains movement speed and gets increased cooldown speed for the duration of this ability. The increased cooldown speed does not stack with the cooldown of At one with Nature. While this ability is active, Gaius’s B will always appear as Whiplash, and the ultimate can be activated again to use Boulder crusher.
Bonus move speed: 1.3/1.5/1.7
Bonus cooldown speed: x1.5/x1.75/x2.0

This one took ages to make and balance (at least I hope it’s balanced). The Idea is that while on regular terrain he acts defensively, while in a bush he’s more offensive.
To all of you who replied to my fan Lore poll, thank you. Lore is on it’s way, I just wanted to get this done first.
As usual, tell me what you think, I want him to work after all.

3 Likes
2

I love the idea of a hero that can plant bushes. That would be an awesome dynamic together with heroes like krul and flicker. Without such an ability, I think a hero that changes skills based on terrain would be way to gimmicky and unreliable, but like this it actually works nicely.

His B is a bit basic but that’s fine. It is the main spammeble damage dealing skill after all.

How does the cooldown on the ult work? Since you can use the ult as a toggle for swapping your B skill, I assume the ult goes on cooldown only after the duration. Is that right?

3

I wanted his B to be simple. It’s his main source of Damage, and should be spammable, somewhat like Celeste’s Heliogenesis.

As to his ult, That’s exactly how I had meant it.

4

After reading all that… I’m also thinking if it is balanced. it looks balanced. Heavily defensive hero with only 1 attacking ability with a very low CD, especially with his perk.

How big is 1 bush? 1 hitbox? and does the bush last forever? does it act like a normal bush and other heroes can use it? it only says it has a maximum of 4. Duration?

if it does last forever, a sneaky tactic could be to plant one at the enemy base, then chuck a scout cam in there, knowing that only another scout cam in the same bush can clear it.

5

Yeah the bush lasts forever. As to size, Somewhere between the size of Skaarf’s goop and Lorelai’s Pools.

I was gonna put a CP ratio on his basic attacks to make him more offensive, but we have too many heroes that already have that. His B is supposed to be spammable (like a Heliogenesis or a Winter spire) so that when he’s in a bush, he has the damage output to make him an offensive ranged jungler, and when he’s not, he becomes hard to kill, but has very little damage output. The idea was that it makes positioning for both him and his enemies (and allies) extremely vital.

6

If that is the case, I can already see his tanky captain build become cancer… with the likes of krul and taka making use of his bush…

low CD… a line of bush towards the turret… or even a cone of bush just outside the range of the turret…

1 Like
7

Turret provides vision anyway tho doesn’t it?

8

yes, they do, but a well placed bush could mean easy ganks. first item Frost burn could mean each wiplash would be a CC.

I think bushes need a time limit. especially since the skill only cost 50 energy and a 4 second cooldown. such a valuable skill could be used defensively as well… planting bushes around the base.

Vision in 5v5 is very limited in such a huge map. it would force each player to invest in upgrading the scout cam.

9

Potentially, yes. I’m trying to think how Riot balanced a Rengar + Ivern combo, cause that seems like it should have the same problem. Maybe the way Ivern’s brushmaker cooldown works is better…

Edit: not to mention Caitlyn, Teemo and Nidalee…