Rek'Sai, the Void Burrower
Overview:
Despite there already being a purple-and-blue, hard-shelled, desert-dwelling, six-legged burrowing creature with huge claws and a stinger tail within the roster, Rek'Sai makes a clean case for the variety of distinct possible gameplay identities that can exist among even champions with very similar themes.
To further distinguish her, however - both from Skarner (thematically) and from other junglers and divers (mechanically), I'll be digging deep into Rek'Sai's underutilized identity as a matriarch and pack hunter to flesh out her moment-to-moment gameplay further and establish her role as a team-enabling diver.
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This slight change in direction does mean that Rek'Sai will be a little bit less terrifying on her own, but with the ability to summon a voracious pack of Xer'Sai, she never truly will be. This posse of blind little beasties should help shake up Rek'Sai's "get near someone and keep attacking them" gameplay, giving her the option to either skirmish while letting the Xer'Sai do the heavy-lifting, or dive in alongside them.
Rek'Sai's network of tunnels is as iconic and distinct as functions come, but being a more selfish mode of subterranean travel, they've been displaced* in favor of aggressive relocation tools that her allies can utilize. With Bard's wall tunnel and Ryze's team relocation fitting the Void Burrower better than their prior owners (both thematically and mechanically), hopefully this shift shouldn't seem too out-there.
*These tunnels are too cool to go to waste, so they've been re-integrated as a healthier and more engaging method of rapid self-displacement for Kassadin, replacing his ult in a redesign that is already complete but won't be put onto this site until the next batch.
All values in blue are meant to give a general idea of the ability's properties, and are subject to change.
Class: Diver
Recommended Positions: Jungle, Solo Sidelane
Complexity: Medium
Innate: Fury of the Xer'Sai
Rek'Sai generates 25 Fury upon hitting an enemy with a basic attack, Prey Seeker, Unburrow, or Furious Bite, and loses 20 Fury per second if she hasn't generated any within 5 seconds.
While Burrowed, Rek'Sai consumes her current Fury over 3 seconds, healing up to 20 to 190 (based on level) health at 100 Fury, stopping once she consumes it all or returns to full health.
Q: Queen's Brood/Prey Seeker
UNBURROWED: Rek'Sai spawns a juvenile Xer'Sai that hunts alongside her (up to 3 at once). Xer'Sai have 200 to 370 (based on level) + (30% total HP) health and lunge at their current target every second, dealing 20/25/30/35/40 + (50% bonus AD) physical damage. Xer'Sai will focus on attacking Rek'Sai's most recent target, but if Rek'Sai remains out of combat for 5 seconds, they will burrow, regenerating their health over 3 seconds and becoming untargetable.
BURROWED: Rek'Sai fires a void-charged pulse in the target direction, stopping at the first enemy hit, revealing them for 2.5 seconds. During this time, Xer'Sai will quickly home in on the revealed target and will attack them for up to 5 seconds, and ally champions (including Rek'Sai) move towards the revealed enemy with 20/25/30/35/40% bonus movement speed.
Range: 250 (Xer'Sai lunge range), 1650 (Prey Seeker range)
Targeting Type: None (Queen's Brood), Skill Shot - Line (Prey Seeker)
Cooldown: 4 (Queen's Brood), 12/11.5/11/10.5/10 (Prey Seeker)
Cost: 100 Fury (Queen's Brood), None (Prey Seeker)
W: Burrow/Unburrow
UNBURROWED: Rek'Sai burrows into the ground, disarming herself and reducing her sight radius to 250, but gaining 15/20/25/30 (based on level) bonus movement speed and becoming ghosted. Additionally, Rek'Sai gains obscured vision of enemy and neutral units within 1300 units in fog of war every 1.5 seconds if they are moving.
BURROWED: Rek'Sai bursts out of the ground, dealing 55/70/85/100/115 + (80% bonus AD) physical damage to surrounding enemies and knocking them aside 250 units. The enemy closest to the center is knocked up for 1 second instead, and cannot be affected by Unburrow for 10 seconds. Rek'Sai can also trigger Unburrow by issuing an attack command, applying the full knock up against her target.
Range: Self
Targeting Type: None
Cooldown: 4
Cost: None
E: Furious Bites/Tunnel
UNBURROWED: Rek'Sai bites the target enemy, dealing 50/60/70/80/90 + (85% bonus AD) physical damage. Summoned Xer'Sai will follow up with smaller bites, dealing 25/30/35/40/45 + (40% bonus AD) true damage each and generating 25 Fury for Rek'Sai.
BURROWED: Rek'Sai creates a one-way tunnel through a piece of terrain in the target direction for 10 seconds. This ability cannot be cast unless it can create a tunnel. Both allies and enemies can pass through the tunnel by right-clicking on it or its exit, with allies and Rek'Sai moving at 33% increased speed.
Range: 250 (Furious Bites), 450 (Tunnel)
Targeting Type: Targeted (Furious Bites), Skill Shot - Line (Tunnel)
Cooldown: 12 (Furious Bites), 18/17/16/15/14 (Tunnel)
Cost: None
R: Void Rush
PASSIVE: Upon reaching 100 Fury, Rek'Sai's next basic attack within 2.5 seconds gains 200/300/400 bonus range and causes her and her Xer'Sai to leap to the other side of her target, slowing them by 90% for 0.25 seconds on impact. This effect has a 20/15/10 second cooldown, which is refreshed whenever Rek'Sai Burrows.
ACTIVE: Rek'Sai begins channeling for 2 seconds, calling her pack of Xer'Sai. If the channel successfully completes, the Xer'Sai will arrive and burrow beneath all nearby ally champions, carrying them underground to the target location over 0.75 seconds and rendering them untargetable for the duration. Void Rush can affect untargetable allies.
Range: 1000 (min range), 3000 (max range), 475 (effect radius)
Targeting Type: Skill Shot - Circle
Cooldown: 210/180/150
Cost: None