Cho'Gath, the Terror of the Void
Overview:
Champions like Cho'Gath are who I had in mind first and foremost when (re)starting this project - the cases where I'd look at a champion that was unique but maybe not the most coherent and say something like "Cho'Gath doesn't make sense, he looks like a xenomorph so I'm gonna make him do xenomorph stuff" before doing just that.
I was partly right, of course. To this day, Cho'Gath remains one of the weirdest and least readable champions in the roster. He's this...red-purple alien thing that screams at you and summons spikes from who-knows-where. That said, one of the goals of these (re)redesigns is to celebrate the things that make each champion unique, and I'll be damned if there's anything that eats and gets huge quite like Cho.
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The goal of this redesign, then, is threefold: make Cho'Gath less weird and random, let him eat and get huge again, and make him feel like a proper raid boss. The good news is, leveraging Cho'Gath's visual elements to drive the kit and re-integrating his old Innate and Ult are easy enough.
But what, then, does it mean to be a raid boss? In this case, it's a combination of being physically massive and having larger-than-life "mechanics" that demand the enemy team's coordination, resulting in a presence that offers strong counterplay but is hard to ignore.
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Despite the noticeable lack of screaming, the thematic elements of Cho'Gath's kit are largely intact - he shoots spikes, and he makes things burst from the ground, but now these elements are parts of him with clear visual and mechanical reads.
Cho'Gath's basic play-patterns remain intact, albeit shifted around somewhat. He still wants to be eating everything, but now he wants to eat everything all the time in order to stay huge. He still wants to chain crowd control, but now he brings enemies to him instead of waddling towards them while they're airborne. And yes, he still starts out tiny, but now he reverts to that state to balance out his raid boss mode.
All values in blue are meant to give a general idea of the ability's properties, and are subject to change.
Class: Warden
Recommended Positions: Solo Sidelane, Jungle
Complexity: High
Innate: Infinite Hunger
Whenever Cho'Gath kills an enemy, he restores 20 + (7% bonus HP) health and 10 Biomass, up to 100.
Cho'Gath benefits from only 75% of his bonus health, and uses Biomass instead of mana. Bonus mana reduces the Biomass costs of Cho'Gath's abilities by (10% per 100 mana).
Q: Rupture
SPAWN: Cho'Gath pierces the target enemy with his tail, dealing 60/100/140/180/220 +
(10% bonus HP) + (50% AP) magic damage and doubling Infinite Hunger's effects if it deals lethal damage. Piercing a minion or monster will stun it for 2.5 seconds.
TERROR: Cho'Gath plunges his tail into the ground and causes it to erupt at the target location after a 0.6 second delay, dealing 80/135/190/245/300 + (10% bonus HP) + (50% AP) magic damage to enemies in the area and knocking them up for 1 second.
Cho'Gath's tail will remain at the target location for 3 seconds, leaving it vulnerable to attack and immobilizing Cho'Gath for the duration. 50% of the damage it takes is shared with Cho'Gath, and it will return early after suffering (30% total HP) damage.
If the tail remains for 3 seconds, it will swipe at the surrounding area before returning, dealing 80/135/190/245/300 + (10% bonus HP) + (50% AP) magic damage to enemies caught in its path.
Range: 250 (Spawn target range), 950 (Terror target range), 175 (initial/knockup radius),
350 (swipe radius)
Targeting Type: Targeted (Spawn), Skill Shot - Circle (Terror)
Cooldown: 7
Cost: None (Spawn), 20 Biomass (Terror)
W: Ravenous Spikes
SPAWN: Cho'Gath launches a spiked tongue in the target direction, dealing 60/85/110/135/160 + (5% bonus HP) + (25% AP) magic damage to the first enemy in its path and executing minions and monsters below 180/255/330/405/480 + (15% bonus HP) +
(75% AP) health.
TERROR: Cho'Gath immobilizes himself and fires waves of spine-like Terrorspawn from his carapace at the target location for up to 6 seconds or until Ravenous Spikes is re-activated. Terrorspawn land at the target location every second, dealing 3/4/5/6/7% + (1% per 100 AP) of the target's maximum health as magic damage to enemies in the area before returning to Cho'Gath and restoring 22/34/46/58/70 + (5% bonus HP) health.
The target location will slowly follow the mouse.
Range: 600 (Spawn), 1100 (Terror target range), 250 (spine radius)
Targeting Type: Skill Shot - Line (Spawn), Skill Shot - Circle (Terror)
Cooldown: 14/13/12/11/10
Cost: None (Spawn), 10 Biomass per second (Terror)
E: Snatch
SPAWN: Cho'Gath lashes out with a claw in the target direction, slowing enemies struck by 30% for 2/2.5/3/3.5/4 seconds and reducing the attack speed of minions and monsters
by 50% for the duration.
TERROR: Cho'Gath slams both of his claw arms in the target direction, dealing
75/125/175/225/275 + (7% bonus HP) + (35% AP) magic damage on impact.
Cho'Gath's claws will remain at the target location for 3 seconds, leaving them vulnerable to attack and immobilizing Cho'Gath for the duration. 50% of the damage they take is shared with Cho'Gath, and they will return early after suffering (30% total HP) damage.
Enemies between the claws and Cho'Gath are slowed by 60% and grounded. If they remain for 3 seconds, Cho'Gath will rake them back towards himself, dealing 75/125/175/225/275 + (7% bonus HP) + (35% AP) magic damage to enemies in their path and pulling them in.
Range: 450 (Spawn), 700 (Terror)
Targeting Type: Skill Shot - Line
Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12
Cost: None (Spawn), 30 Biomass (Terror)
R: Feast
PASSIVE: Upon reaching 100 Biomass, Cho'Gath will burrow underground for 1.25 seconds, before emerging as a Voidborn Terror with (100% total HP) + (200% bonus HP) health, massively increasing his size and altering his basic abilities.
ACTIVE: Cho'Gath attempts to eat the target enemy, dealing 300/475/650 + (10% bonus HP) + (50% AP) true damage. Against minions and monsters, the base damage is increased to 1000.
If Feast kills its target, Cho'Gath gains a Feast stack, granting 80/120/160 bonus health, and further increasing his size, attack range, and Feast's range as a Voidborn Terror.
As a Voidborn Terror, Cho'Gath ignores terrain collision and converts disables into a 50% slow that decays over its duration, but loses 5% health per second after not gaining Biomass for 8 seconds and is not hidden by brush. When the Voidborn Terror's health is depleted, Cho'Gath will emerge with 100% health but loses all remaining Biomass.
Range: 175 (+ 4.5/6/7.5 per Feast stack as a Voidborn Terror)
Targeting Type: Targeted
Cooldown: 80
Cost: None