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Aphelios can shapeshift from a champion to a headache.

Lee sin be like: Peasants need to shapeshift to have 6ability

I want to see riot make a support shapeshifter that has an enchanter form and a warden form. We already have champions that have a similar mix of healing and tank like Rakan and Taric, so i dont think it would be too hard to make happen

You forgot Garen. He can transform from vanilla easy to kite to Instant Killer of ADC chad pretty easily.

Quinn once was shapeshifter before season 6...

It's basically balancing 2 champions at the same time, even if for the most part they just have 6 basic abilities instead of 4 basic abilities and an ultimate

What about Yasuo? When he's my mid laner he's just Yasuo but when he's in the enemy team he shapeshifts into Faker.

I love these videos, it feels like nowhere near enough people talk about champion design philosophy like you do. Most people that discuss champion design talk about their aesthetics or "__ is broken" but you usually break a champion's kit down to the core aspects in a digestible method.

My prediction : - The difficulty of balancing up to 7 Abilities - Their amount of ability making them to versatile and even more of a balance knightmare - Bug fixing the abilities' interactions with one another

Anivia is also a shapeshifter. Cryo bird, opressive burst, good crowd control and good wave clear. vs. Egg

Is it just me or are most shapeshifting champs are highly contested in pro play like elise reksai nida and jayce but average in soloq. And why is that im guessing proplay is more earlygame focused so at lvl 3 your champ has 7 abilities while the enemy has only 3 abilities

Vars I just want to mention a thing: Lillia was going to have two interchangeable forms in her original concept (a bruiser form and an assassin form). While we can't be sure if her abilities would change entirely like Nidalee or just power up like Kayn/Rhaast, we can assume Riot still wanted to do a kinda shapshifter in recent times. Only thing that prevented that, people hated it.

As a Jayce main, I can confidently say JAYCE is why true shapeshifters don't exist anymore. Super high skill ceiling but they gave him an absurd combo with his E+Q shock blast, it has damage and range that can compete with actual ults and his melee W has the highest base damage in the entire game as a non-ultimate ability. It does like 400 dmg before ratios. The only reason he isn't as popular anymore is that they basically spent nine months nerfing him during season 8 preseason into season 8 then gave everyone dashes so big effect ultimate became mandatory to compete with the other champions in mid and top. Playing against a good Jayce even when the meta isn't necessarily in a position for him to win the game is still absurd because you have to lane against one of the most stressful Poke/Burst/Rushdown champs in the game that has base stats that make him harder to kill than Darius without items. Jayce E+Q took a lot of his power budget but his mix-up of the dash+burst+AOE+Poke is still one of the worst feelings when you hit level 3 and suddenly have to pray till level 6 and you can try to even the odds. But hey as a Jayce main, I enjoy being a dick, I'm a good jayce which by default probably makes me a bad person after all. He isn't healthy but by god is he fun.

I recall Lillia was supposed to be a shape shifter. She could shift between three forms but the shift was not under players control. Apparently the game testers said the gameplay way so toxic they had to scrap the entire concept mere weeks before release.

They should take some cues from smite with shape shifters. Smite has a good amount of them and have varying play styles and class types as opposed to league where they are all early game champs.

keep in mind: shape-shifters basically get two skins. so they're never gonna make another. or if they do its gonna have ridiculously overpriced skins. no more "bogo" deals.

How about a video about champions with "false" ultimates? By that, I mean spammable Rs that have a lower impact on their own but have synergy with the rest of the kit. It makes their champions have less big flashy moments but allows them to distribute their power budget along longer periods of time. Some examples could be Karma, Leblanc, Quinn, Elise, and Kassadin.

I think it is kind of a strech to classify Rek´Sai as a shapeshifter tho. Yes, she "Changes her form" and gains different abilities, but once you are in a fight you sorta have to unborrow since you can´t aa while borrowed. It´s not just that her main damage lies in unborrowed but rather that you can´t do any damage without unborrowing (except q). She seems more like a sub-Shapesifter IMO.

I loved stance switchers in SMITE and then I loved Jayce and Elise in League!

would have loved to see Rell as a true shapeshifter... and as a madman, why not give her three forms with only 2 abilities each and 1 ult per form : mounted, fast, light support with small shields and speed buffs ; armored, slow, big self-shield, self regen and cc ; and empowering an ally were the shield is given to the ally, stat buffs based on her AP for the ally, short ranged high damage and healing for one ally

I think Shynava is a transformer not a shapeshifter. Like Aatrox, Nasus, Swain, Volibear, etc. Champions who can turn into something when press ultimate or fill passive bar or something, like Shyvana turn into drag, Naus bigger and Swain grow wings and glow red. When they transform, their role don't change just become better version of themselves. Like they get extra stats, temporarily upgrade abilities or both. Sorry for long passage and grammar😄

Meanwhile in smite: *Tiamat has 11 abilities*

Love that you mentioned "Aphelios will be included in this video :D" as an aphelios enjoyer this made me happy to see :)

It would be cool to have a champion that in the beginning of the game, gets to choose from 1 of 5 consumables that then effects the direction their base scaling goes. The potions would be for 1. health 2. Resist 3.Move speed 4.Adaptive damage and 5. Ability haste. You only get to choose ONE, so this champ could technically go in any role depending on what potion they want to take. The champion would also change the moment they take the potion, matching in appearance to whichever he/she takes. A nightmare to balance no doubt but, would be so dope.

They cant complain about shifters are hard to desing when aphelios exists

I think if they ever make a true shapeshifter again, then it will be more like Gnar or Kled than Jayce or Nidalee in that they have very limited control over when they transform. Actually now that I think about it, I would bet that when Shyvana gets a VGU she'll get the shapeshifter treatment, rather than just stronger abilities.

As a Poppy main, I’d like to see a video on are Yordles an abomination? Teemo, lulu, Kled, etc.

Imagine a support shapeshifter that can shift between enchanter and engage/tank. But not with an ability or an Ultimate, but with a passive. The tank form is like an armor that you can equipt/wear *just in base* (kinda like Corkis package that you pick it on base) and that armor gives you aditional health, resistances and damage reduction that scale with level. The aditional health that the armor gives you would be like Skaarls health (a "second" bar) that makes you shift form when is over but with a little twist, when that second bar is over the armor explodes knocking up/stunning every enemy that is near the armor, after the armor explodes and you are near the armor your movement speed gets reduced for idk 3 seconds (this for not making this champ an OP one), your aditional resisistances and damage reduction is gone. The tank kit focused on CC and tankyness but with an ability to send the support flying away (like Tristanas W) while leaving the armor behind and if you recast it you can explode the armor The enchanter kit focused on shields, buffs and heals A support like this would be interesting to see You can even make it so the support needs to roam to collect armor pieces to create the armor, instead of just picking it from base

Nah man, it's because in order to make shapeshifters they need to make two skins for every skin they make and that's just not in the budget

I really do hope they come back, i'm a Guild Wars 2 player and the entire game is designed for you to switch betwen your main and secondary weapons. It's just so much fun. I wish we had a champion that in one form is a control mage and a phisical melee assassin on the other.

I hate premiers because now I have to wait :(

Haven't watched a video from your for years and still recognized your voice immediately! Great video

I really like the forced change shapeshifters. I play a lot of Kled and knowing when you’re gonna lose Skarrl or get him back is where you get to flex on your opponets. Same with playing around Gnar’s transformation. Seeing how much rage has been built and knowing when to go in or back off is a depth i like. It shows the champion and game mastery.

Isn't Gnar the only exception to the rule that all shapeshifters are Early-Mid champs? Because I've always felt he does better as the game goes on (Mid-Late game).

damn bro, i’ve been watching you since the realm videos, and watching u grow, all i have to say is wow! You deserve all the credit you get because goddamn these videos are so well edited

All champs are designed to have flashy esports highlight reel ultimates now.

11:43 I would definitely disagree with that, since the abilities that make or break a champion are mostly not the ultimate. Maybe if you only look at a single usage of every ability but that should not be how you have to look at a power budget.

5:46 "defense converting to offense is close to impossible" k'sante: hold my beer

12:24 are u sure about that? I'm pretty sure champs nowadays already conflict with how League of Legends was designed from the start with 1 passive, 3 basic abilities and 1 ultimate. They have multiple passives in their passive, more than one basic ability in a single basic ability, passives in their basic abilities/ ultimate, their basic abilities having as much impact as an ultimate, their ultimate basically being a basic ability, etc, etc.

Riot shapeshifted them into a dead archetype and frankly I'm glad we don't have anymore Jayces

Knowing how they operate these days it's because they don't want to put extra effort on making skins for them :/

4:29 'designing and maintaining a shapeshifter is no easy task' In contrast of Irelia, Akali, Yone, Zoe, Akshan, AS, Azir, Ryze, Fiddlesticks, Urgot, Morkdekaiser, which were/are easy to balance

Wow i like that you included a pokemon example.Brings back memories :)

Didn't expect to find high Quality Competitive Pokémon content on this video. What a Nice surprise

That gameplay Sound 12:00 looks so good without the hud and health bars!

Rell had a huge shapeshifter potential, like he could became an charging knight, them shapeshift and became something like an bastion, but riot is to lazy to do something good.

As a fan of theorycrafting myself, I once made a Quinn rework where she became a shapeshifter, which I know, she used to be, but I went on a direction more similar to Rek'sai, albeit it still being her ultimate. She gets her ultimate from level 1 and its form gets new abilities. Her bird form's W is her current human form's W, her new human form's W is, roughly speaking, an instant consume of all units marked with her passive for some more wave clear. In addition, her bird form's Q is a quick burst of movement speed and her bird form's E is similar to ASol's or Kayn's E allowing her to cross over terrain for a short duration. That said, I kept her bird form abilities extremmely simple not to make her kit too overloaded. Q = movement speed, W = vision, E = ignore terrain while her human form's new W gives her quicker waveclear.

Can you count Sion as a shapeshifter? Primarily a tank cc-beast, but once he's killed his transformation triggers, and he turns into an all-in damage dealer for a few seconds. And some people focus specifically on the second form by building him as a glass-cannon assassin to capitalize on his second form's damage output.

Vars: "Today we'll be talking about Shapeshifters." (Doesn't mention Neeko) Neeko: "And Neeko take that personally."

6:54 "one form being artillery, and one form being a diver" that is quite literally what jayce is -- insanely high damage on long range poke, while being able to dive your backline when 1 or 2 targets are below 60% hp

I have always loved shapeshifters. A champ that I think would be really cool to see would be an enchanter shapeshifter. I really like darkin so I’d like to see another one and make it freely change between human and darkin stance (unlike kayn), where the human drains hp to shield and protect while the darkin more relies on damage to regain the lost health. I think it would also just be really cool to have a darkin dynamic that also cooperates with their host

I miss Quinn & Valor. Being able to buy Hurricane & Hydra back when they were melee/ranged locked was super fun.

I wonder if they made a shifter that had his transformation move oh his e and gave them a temporary steroid like udyr instead of ult /what if it was only temporary

Just to through out an idea, what if there was a stat convertion like in pyke case with life to damage? But taking it to another level

I just realized because of this vid, that I kinda wish swain had an empowered ability during ult. It's literally called demon form. Even if it's just like a simple passive cd reduction so u can pull more often

You could balance items for offense/defense by giving champ a passive that partially converts the bonus stats from items to another type (armor/attack, magic resist/AP) based on their current form. That way they can itomize based more on the Passives/Actives of the items, rather than their stats

Though a vastly different game, Dota;s Lone Druid I think you would find interesting Mr Vars. LD himself is a shapeshifted between a ranged and melee form once level 6 but also has a second gimmick in his kit that he is more well known for. His Q summons a bear thats a summon with a hefty cooldown but is summoned indefinitely or until it or LD dies. The Bear produces a dual playstyle where the bear has its own items so when reaching ultra late game, an LD can have 6 items both on the Hero and the Bear. A really good and efficient LD is a marvel to watch but his balance has not been the nightmare that some of League and Dota's similar characters faced. Also there has been a highly diverse build paths over the years, many opting for a bear focused build making the bear become a hypercarry and the Hero to support it with buffs and auras, but there have been times when people build the Hero as an attack speed / on hit carry and using the bear to tank and peel. Love your content, hope you could look into some design choices made in other similar games without the classic league player mentality of "LOL BETTER DOTA". All the best Sir x

I was quite happy seeing my queen reksai get a video :D

would like to see a champion whose form changes from dmg scaling and defence scaling with ap

"The concept of turning offence to defense is impossible to pull off" is false. Sylas ult turns ult that is ad to ap, hence it is possible to turn offensive stats to defensive and vise versa but its just how much is the question.

I was waiting to hear you talking about Quin (the old one) :c

I would love to see a support shape shifter as I personally love the mechanic. I think it would be really cool if they implemented the "ranged Udyr" idea they had, and made a Shaman that shapeshifted between a ranged enchanter built around 3 deployable totems with different simple area effects and interactions, and a melee engage form where he/she "becomes the totem", ie they provide similar buffs but centered around themselves, encouraging allies to get in there with them. I can imagine: P: Can switch between stances without cost, on a 10-5s cooldown. In ranged form abilities place a totem on the ground with 2-6 hits (like a ward or yorick wall). Switching to melee form will consume the two most recent active totems and give the champion altered effects. Melee form has bonus health, armor and AD. Ranged form has bonus ms, mana regen, Q: A font of life style mark on enemies in the area, with a 20% slow on first attack. Consuming the mark gives a 5-10s burst of adaptive force. Melee form: the shapeshifter's attack becomes a small dash (Illaoi W) and first attack stuns for 0.5 s instead W: Melee form a large zone that redirects damage from allies to the champion as damage over time, and their damage back to you as healing. Switch to ranged cleanses remaining DoT. E: Grant true sight in an area (finally an Akali counter), and when the champion and an ally is in range, drain the champions mana and give to allies (Soraka's old E). Melee form: Champion and allies gain bonus ms and become ghosted. R: switch shape I think there are a lot of cool directions the creative work could take, but the kit for sure would need some work, these were just some thoughts.

As far as I'm aware, when Anything Goes became a thing with the advent of Mega Rayquaza, Ubers was granted the status of being an actual tier (since that meant it had a ban list), although I wouldn't be surprised if people treated it as an actual tier (albeit unofficial) beforehand (for example, DPP Ubers has had Arceus legal and banned throughout the years). I might be mistaken, though, I'm not fully knowledgeable about the history of its status as a tier (or of Arceus' legality in DPP Ubers, for that matter), I haven't been an avid Ubers player myself.

I m glad you are getting sponsor your content is great

I love all the pokemon/smogon references. Didn’t know smogon was somewhat popular with other league fans

Isnt udyr a shapshifter too? I mean he can become a battle mage with phoenix burn or a tanki bruiser with his w or a one dot assassin with his q

My favorite shapeshifter is "the Ripper" from Cod Ghost. Super good smg and an ok long range AR.

What if a future shapeshifter was, say, a damage dealer/tank who's passive converts bonus defenses into bonus attack when in their damage form and bonus attack into defenses in their tank form, translating the effects of some of their items to fit their form?

I used to be a gnar one trick, when I first got the game I scrolled through the champ list looking for the cutest champ to play and I chose gnar, so I began one tricking him, I have 153k on him now but I rarely touch him, I have now shifted over to jayce after accidentally locking him in a like 6 months ago when he was on rotation and falling in love with him (very hyped he was arcane he’s so hot, but people really suck ass at him) and I find that yes, a lot of people don’t know how to play against jayce, I personally enjoy him in the mid lane, and I roam a lot because a lot of mid lane match ups are hard, like akali, except I think akali is one of the most busted champs I’ve ever seen. Although he doesn’t fall of too hard late game since he can poke from so far away, I find him really fun and I hope riot doenst try to change him, because in his current state, he isn’t good in the meta. Gnar on the other hand is a beast tho, his early and late game are good. That’s my spiel that has no purpose other than to say I love Gnar and Jayce (he’s so hot)

The problem with Joyce is that a skilled player can land both empowered autos and basically have void staff and grudge applied to the enemy for a second which makes his next attack just hurt unless you have like 5k hp, the best option might be to change his passive from magic armor and armor shred to like stun, lowers the skill floor provides a still good passive and decreases his burst output but making his ability to catch or escape you higher

This is such a good idea!!

Can anyone identify the music used in this video? I know I've heard it before, I just don't remember what it's from.

Kayn: "you guys can transform many times in a game?"

I like shape shifters they are pretty fair, but you need to know their kit like hell to play them & also face them. I think we can still have shapeshifters. Melee to mele or range to range. on a rek'sai model. One form sustain / 1 DPS ( that's what i hoped for Aatrox rework) One AoE, one Mono target. ( jinx rocket are a good one, but it could work on sivir too & define her kit betwenn battle mistres & mercenary leader utility) Caster/AA Spirit/ Material form. ( that one is more a theme to explore) Mana/ Rage Sustain/CC ( for a tank) that could offer obvious windows of opportunity.

What is the song used? Edit: The Forgotten - Fire Emblem Three Houses

I love the examples from other games!

Though, Aegislash was banished to Ubers because of his mix sweeping ability, I.E. you'd take an HP nature that sacks speed, go Shadow Ball/Shadow Sneak/Sacred Sword, Rock Slide or Iron Head/King's Shield. Max out Sp. Atk and Atk, swap in, win game. Though the reason he's still their is because its easy to get free stat boosts, like Sword Dance, or you can run a defensive stall-esq set and ware down any bulky pokemon or swap into sword stance and nuke a squishy pokemon. The issue with it wasn't because it could wall or pump out serious damage on a whim, but because it had too much coverage. Even as a wall, he can check both sp. attacker and regular attackers because if you build him sp. defence, and take kings shield, he's flexible enough to check to either attackers because King Shield would lower attack by two stages if he blocks an attack with it. Also his stats are nutters with 520 total stats, with atk/sp. atk, being able to be swapped by 100. So he'd have access to 320 in total stats plus 200 that can be swapped.

Rell could have had more of an opportunity to have a proper mounted/ dismounted form would have maybe made her presence in support role more unique.

rewatching old vids, but to think K'sante would be a headache, I mean shapeshifter in 2023

In a Moba called Heroes of the Storm there are only 2 shape shifters that you can play, Greymane and Deathwing, I don't remember how greymane is doing but I can say that his gameplay is similar to Nidalee, Deathwing on the other hand I know what is going on with him now. Simply put he has a melee and ranged form, his trait was that his allies cannot heal him but he has 4 plates that give him passive armor against all damage and he can lose up to 3 plates with each being assigned to a specific 1/4th of his health and lastly he is permanently unstoppable. on release it was all about the melee form to the point that most players would never go into ranged form, you could see that Blizz tried to make both viable by making it that the melee has more damage and healing but lacks CC while the ranged has less damage and healing but is safer (ofc since it's ranged) to heal back up but by also being the form with the most CC, however that didn't matter as Deathwing was so tanky and melee form did so much damage and healing that you could just go in and 1v5 the whole enemy team and the only thing stopping you from doing so was if the enemy had percentage health damage, so Blizz nerfed his melee form and capability as a tank to the point that now in the recent games that I have been into I almost never leave the ranged form for the melee as in most situations it's just suicide especially if the enemy team have characters with percentage health damage

Some support shapeshifter who can heal over time in one form and deal poke damage and/or have heavy cc in another would sound fun. Or some knight who would heal and shield in first and tank in second from too. (Of course i took inspiration from druid and paladin in wow).

what about this: a warden to -> vanguard tank character where one side is defensive and the other is offence(tank) it would be so cool to see

Does anyone know the song name at the end?

Half-expected to see Kayn here, but when you stated the reasons on why he is not, its understandable.

I think an approach similar to that of Rell is probably the best way going forward.

ksante is kind of a shapeshifter too, switching between damage and tank instead of completely different abilities

I think a short range mage who turns into a ap bruiser when he pops his ult (like for 10 secs) would be a nice twist on the idea

Riot did say that originally Aphelios was intended to be a mage, and I really really want an actual wizard with a spellbook who changes out which abilities he has without affecting his playstyle for example maybe his q is a blast spell, and his w is a wall spell, and his E cycles between which element of spell he is using fire maybe does some extra burn damage, ice maybe causes a slow, lightning maybe reduces auto attack speed or lowers magic resist or something, the walls might be sort of like passable wall but it blocks vision, so you can walk through it but you can't see through it, or idk, something, and the wall should persist for a few seconds, damaging everyone who lingers inside of it while temporarily slowing anyone who trys to move directly through it until they get through this way the wall is a get off me tool and zone control, and the blast is the primary source of damage, and then the ultimate is some sort of cover up for the weaknesses of the champion, maybe it's an empowers the next w or q that you cast, the ability that makes the wall solid, and larger, and it massively increases the aoe of the q or maybe it's just a really big area cone, following the same rules as the qw, and maybe it's lingering effect is simply more powerful or has a longer duration

btw, what is the music used in this vid? it feels so familiar, but I can't put my tongue on it.

something you didn't mention but is a very good example: Gnar on release was an absolute nightmare from what I remember. He dominated top lane and there was very little you could do to stop him from taking over the game, simply because he did too much.

They should rework A Soul to switch between close and far orbits, changing his abilities depending on the form. Like in small form his q swaps the rotation direction, his w passively charges a storm, and can be activated to release a slowing blast around him. His e lets him fly to a location rapidly charging his storm and allowing it to get bigger than the normal cap, but it will rapidly decrease in size as soon as he stops dashing. Then his ult swaps orbits and his q makes them orbit faster, his w releases the storm in target direction as an aoe stun, and his e releases the storm like his ult. Swapping during his dash will end the dash and release the storm which continues moving and starts shrinking until it’s gone, stunning based on size (large orbit w). Obviously the numbers would be reduced but he would have more combos than just spacing and timing, and his kit wouldn’t feel so lackluster.

I think it's also an issue of the number of animations and the difficulty of making skins for multiple forms. It's less efficient for them monetarily as well.

I think the thing that redeems Gnar is that you have to manage your rage and make sure you don't screw up your engage. As soon as he goes back to mini form, he's super weak and as long as he doesn't have his E, it's pretty easy to capitalize on his weakness. His engage is also pretty predictable once you realize what he can and can't do. It's similar to nidalee's combo, but you aren't dead as soon as you get hit by one ability. I do see how he can be pretty annoying though, especially when the gnar knows what he's doing.

What if they did something like they did with pyke for the attack/defense form when you switch to damage your armor becomes ad switch to ad your ad becomes adaptive resist? Both scaled to make a full damage armor build just bad and vise versa

how about a semi-shape shifter where when there a relatively tanky character with low damage except for when she attacks they changes forms to a high damage squishy except during ult where they turns into it for like 15 seconds straight with high attack speed and movement where they can still use abilities since there the same as they transformed anyway they incentives correct timing on when to attack them aswell as makes poking dangerous for both parties and would make for a unique champ

I thought of an idea about a melee aphelios also an ad carry not a bruiser But having 4 weapons you can choose 2 of them as main and off hands And to balance it that you have to change it every certain amount of time once out of combat And you can't choose one weapon more than 2 times in a row Seems weird but possible

I can see Singed would have Rek'sai-like forms based on his new lore.

What if you made a shapeshifter that actually do swap stats around. Like let's say your main form is a ranged champion but then when you transform your amount of AD turns into an amount of bonus health. Then your attack speed and crit could turn into armor/mr or something. You'd obviously need to work out the percentages for all these swaps but I feel like that'd be a cool idea. That way you don't need to change items.

Shyvana's R literally changes everything the increased range of her E is so big that makes her an Artillery mage