Aerith The Scrap Genius is the very first manaless Marksmen to be be introduced into League. Aerith utilizes an ammunition system, which requires him to reload after several basic attacks. Each successful reload will fill up his resource bar: Old Batteries, which Aerith consumes to use abilities. Due to the difficulty to fill up his secondary bar, Aerith can instead purchase Old Batteries at the shop, making it convenient for him to prepare for the next fight.
What makes him even more unique compared to other Marksmen is that he has more tools to keep his opponents at bay, including initiation, mobility, crowd control, and a shield. He creates opportunities for himself, rather than relying on teammates for such thing. Check out my other champions:
- Inkha, The Phantom Edge
- Lor'Mak, The Void Destructor
- Adria & Lianne, The Twin Souls
- Klishma, Messenger Of Light
- Rhus, Lord Of The Swamp
- Draxxar, The Automata Commander
- Jericho, The Mind Of Darkness
Lore[]
Aerith in his combat suit (by Duelisto
Aerith used to be a kid growing up with no family in the slums of Zaun. He had no memories of his parents, other than an old lab coat which they left to him before going away. Aerith has never wondered who his parents are, or whether they are still alive. For him, trying to remember about them only brings pain and hate. Thus, he assumes that his parents are all dead, though he still keeps that old lab coat as something that can help his parents recognize their son in case they return. As Aerith reached his teens, he became a master of two things: how to survive the streets, and how to fix any machine that he could lay his hands on. Aerith himself does not even know where his love for technology comes from. He can only guess that it has something to do with that old lab coat, which is something that he does not want to think too much about. Just like any kids, he also has a dream of his own: to become an inventor. Although he has never properly attended in any kind of schools, he believes that he will finally earn his recognition though hard work and talent.
Due to the need to survival, Aerith joined a gang of homeless children lead by 
Ekko. Together, they helped each other survive the harshness of streets of Zaun. When the gang was disbanded, Aerith started working as a scrap collector in order to afford his daily necessities. Every night, he wandered outside various laboratories in Zaun to salvage anything that he can sell: thrown-away devices, broken-down machinery, and equipment from out-of- budget research projects. In time, he realized that he can fix these machines and sell them at a much higher price compared to disassembling them and sell the remains as spare parts. What first began as a hobby soon became a profession: With the money from selling his so-called ‘inventions’, he opened a workshop of his own, with the signs boasting himself as “the number one mechanic in Zaun”. Though many may question his self-given title, his customers were never disappointed with his service. Business was booming, and Aerith felt like his dream is within reach for the first time in his life.
One day, a group of mysterious men came to Aerith’s shop with a strange device which they asked him to fix it. After some close inspection, Aerith realized that it was an energy reactor that is powerful enough to provide electricity to an entire city block, while being small enough to be carried by one person. However, the reactor was also very unstable, capable of creating a deadly explosion that could destroy the very city block that is being powered by it. Due to the danger of accidents, Aerith refused to fix it at first, but the mysterious men paid him such an amount of money that he could not decline. Aerith accepted the offer, and returned the device to them a few days later as promised. Before the men left, Aerith was kind enough to instruct them how to handle the device safely, and warned them what would happen if they don’t do exactly what he said. The men thanked him, and paid him even some more money for his promise to not tell anyone else about this. Although the request was quite strange, Aerith was too excited about the money that he had just earned that he did not even bother to ask what the device would be used for.
About a week later, Aerith heard about a terrorist attack recently happened in Piltover. Apparently, the terrorists attempted to assassinate the mayor of Piltover as he was delivering his speech at the City Square. The weapon was some sort of improvised explosive device, but the force of the blast was something that none had ever seen before. Although the mayor was lucky enough to barely survive the attack, dozens of innocent people was killed, along with several police officers who used themselves as human shields to protect the mayor. Aerith recognized one of the arrested terrorists as one of those mysterious men that came to his shop. As a painful realization, Aerith knew that the explosive device that the terrorists used was the energy reactor that he was asked to fix earlier.
Devastated by the consequences of his work, Aerith decided to close his workshop, and has sworn to never try to become an inventor again. Aerith then joined the Police Department of Zaun, hoping to use his knowledge and skill for the greater good: to serve and protect innocent people. As his last and only true invention, Aerith created a battle suit to aid him in his police duties, and strictly prohibited anyone from touching it for fear that his invention will be used for evil intentions once again. As new breeds of criminals begin to take advantage of cutting edge technology to commit crimes, Aerith and his knowledge in technology have proven to be the most valuable asset for Zaun’s law enforcement. Zaun may have lost a genius, but gained a new hero.
Abilities[]
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Strategy[]
- Aerith’s passive, Wrecker, provides him with 2 things: attack speed and Old Battery charges. Changing batteries gives him bonus attack speed, and attack speed in turn allows him to gain Old Battery charges faster.
- Aerith’s reload time is reduced based on his Attack Damage. Therefore, you can go for an AD Caster build to minimize your ‘reload’ time, while the damage from your abilities will compensate for the lack of critical strike chance. You can also go for an AP build, since Aerith’s abilities scale well wil Ability Power, and that you would not have to worry about ‘reload’ time, as your mains source of damage will come from your abilities.
- However, most of the time, you would probably go for a standard AD Carry build with attack damage, attack speed, and critical strike chance. The bonus attack speed allows you to shoot faster, while empties your ammunition faster. This will allow you to reload more often so that you can gain more Old Battery charges, as well as keeping yourself Overcharged all the time by constantly ‘reloading’.
- Although Aerith does use the ammunition system, which means he has to reload every several attacks, you do not need to pay too much attention on the number of shots left. Rather, you should focus on Aerith’s resource bar, Old Battery charges.
- Old Battery charges do not regenerate over time, except when Aerith ‘reload’ his gun. Without Old Battery charges, Aerith cannot use abilities, which will severely cripple him during team fights. Therefore, Aerith should stockpile a lot of Old Battery charges for the incoming team battle.
- Old Battery charges can be bought from the shop at 12 gold per charge. Therefore, Aerith can quickly refill his resource bar by paying gold for it, rather than trying to attack jungle monsters and minions to get Old Battery charges from changing batteries.
- Upon death, Aerith consumes all of his Old Battery charges to create a big explosion, which can kill the enemy if they do not back off fast enough. Aerith can then use the gold earned from the kill to buy back Old Battery charges, or buy items depending on the player’s preferences.
- Hextech Combat Suit is a double-edged knife. The ability has 2 aspects: attack and defense.
- In Guard Mode, the ability gives him a percentage health shield that lasts indefinitely. This is particularly useful for Aerith, as he can absorb poke damage with it, as well as giving himself more survivability in team fights.
- In Sentry Mode, the ability provides him with a decent source of damage per second. The ability deals quite a lot of damage to champions, but requires him to get dangerously close to them. Thus, it should only be used as a tool to split push, or to help you repel enemies that are trying to get close to you.
- Guard Mode gives Aerith a shield that scales with his maximum health each time he finishes changing batteries for his gun. Thus, a build that focuses on attack speed is good for him, since he can change batteries more often and refreshes his shield.
- If you have already stacked the shield up to 3 times, you should switch to Sentry Mode. This is because the shield lasts indefinitely, and that you cannot receive any additional shield. In addition, due to the massive shield, you can afford to make more risky plays, while still dealing damage with Strike Mode.
- Explosive Magnetic Tracker is Aerith’s main tool to control the enemy. During the laning phase, Aerith can shoot a Tracker at a minion, then another one on the enemy. Doing this will prevent the enemy laner to be unable to step up and farm, due to the fear of taking free damage and a slow.
- Explosive Magnetic Tracker can be very useful against aggressive enemies. Aerith can either launch 2 Trackers into the opponent’s face to deal massive damage and slow them down, or shoot the second Tracker towards a minion behind them to pull them backward.
- The knock-back and slow from Hextech Magnetic Tracker is godsend in team fights, due to the fact that it displaces the enemy champions, thus breaking their formation and interrupt channeling abilities. It also forces the enemy to keep distance from each other, and are unable to support each other when needed.
- The Trackers' grants sight of the enemy until destroyed, or up to a maximum of 12 seconds. You have to decide whether to keep the Tracker on them to have more vision control, or to shoot another Tracker to detonate it and harass the enemy.
- The Trackers only deal damage to 2 targets at a time, so do not use them to clear minion waves. Instead, Aerith should save them for a sticky situation.
- Explosive Magnetic Tracker can be used to slow down, or at least keep track of a fleeing enemy.
- Lift Off is Aerith’s mobility. Lift Off can be used as an initiation with the knock-up, a tool to chase down the enemy, or as an escape ability.
- There is a considerable delay before the ability can actually be used. However, due to the fact that the waiting time for the second cast is up to 10 seconds, Aerith can feel comfortable to use the first cast early.
- Lift Off has a very decent range compared to dashes of other champions in League. Aerith can use Flash during Lift Off to change its direction, thus creating opportunities for outplays. In other cases, Aerith can use Lift Off to give himself a better position, particularly close the back line of the enemy team.
- Fire At Will deals a lot of damage in team fights, as well as to isolated targets. Being able deal a lot of damage in a very short period of time will scare off the enemy, and make them hesitant to face you.
- However, Fire At Will is extremely hard to use to inexperienced players. That is because you have to control your movements, while having to control the direction of the shots with the mouse cursor as well. This will cause you to miss quite a lot of shots, and you may not have enough damage to be able to finish off the opponent.
- You can try standing still while using Fire At Will to prevent missing shots, but doing so makes you become vulnerable, and that you cannot have a good angle to use your ultimate effectively.
- If you are building critical strike chance on Aerith, you should use Fire At Will right after Aerith has finished changing batteries for his gun. This is because Fire At Will can crit, and deals more damage based on your bonus attack speed. Remember that you gain bonus attack speed AND bonus attack damage right after ‘reloading’, so using Fire At Will right after that will maximize its damage.
- Fire At Will gives Aerith movement speed, so that he can pursue and take down low health targets. Fire At Will’sbonus movement speed can also help him run away from his pursuers, while he turns around and unleash a rain of lead towards them.
- Aerith is also extremely vulnerable right after using Fire At Will, since he cannot attack for a short while, and lose the bonus movement speed from his ultimate. Try to plan out where you should stand before the channel ends is a good idea.
Development[]
Hi there. It’s Peter, from Vietnam. You guys still remember me, right?
So, it has been a while since I started designing my very first champion. Needless to say, I enjoy every single minute working on these imaginary characters. For me, it’s more of a hobby than a real job, though I can’t help looking back at my previous works. So far, I am most proud of my lore-writing skill, but I still occasionally find it hard to think outside of the box when it comes to designing a champion’s abilities. In my opinion, all of the champions that I have created thus far are all successful to a certain extent, but none of them have forced me to push my limits yet. Therefore, for this project, I would like to give myself a challenge: I am going to create the very first manaless AD Carry in League.
For me, it is quite intriguing to see why Riot has been quite conservative on creating a manaless AD Carry. I mean, we have manaless champions in every role in the game: Tanks (
Zac), Assassins (
Zed), Mages (
Vladimir), Juggernauts (
Mordekaiser), Bruisers (
Lee Sin), Melee Carries (
Yasuo). The only two roles that lack a manaless champion are Supports (which is understandable) and Marksmen. This is what I could not understand: If you could create manaless champions for every role, then why can’t you create a manaless AD Carry?
About a week ago, U.R.F came back to League as one of the rotating game mode. I found it to be the perfect place to find out why there is no manaless AD Carry in the game. As you already knew, using abilities don’t cost mana in U.R.F, and that you are encouraged to spam your abilities whenever they are not on cooldown. Thus, every champion played in U.R.F can be treated manaless champions in a sense. During the few days when the game mode was available, I picked nothing but AD Carries. After a few dozen games, I managed to discover something mind-blowing:
If you have better wave-clearing than your opponent, you will almost guarantee to win your lane. Here is how it works: First, since you have better clears than your opponent, your minions will push your opponents back to their turrets. Second, try to trade aggressively, since you have more minions on your side than your opponent does. Third, your opponent will be forced retreat to his/her tower, which means they will rather focus on farming under the turret rather than trying to kill you. Fourth, place down some wards down the river so that the enemy jungler cannot pull off a successful gank on you. Finally, knowing that you will not be killed, you can safely try chip down some of their turrets’ health. The process will repeat several times until your opponent’s turret is destroyed.
However, balance is just one aspect of the problem. The bigger problem lies in game play. A typical AD Carry has to be able to perform multiple tasks at the same time: manage their resources (a.k.a mana and cooldowns), control their positioning, choose when and how to initiate a trade, last hit minions, and many more. A bad AD Carry would try to empty their entire mana pool in attempt to kill the enemy AD Carry without any concern about their CS, and often over-extend while they are doing so, putting themselves in a vulnerable spot to ganks & turnarounds. Introducing a manaless AD Carry means that such ‘brainless’ play styles like would become more popular. Only high-elo or professional players can understand how powerful a manaless Marksman can be, and will find ways to abuse this in competitive plays.
There it is - my challenge. I need to create a champion that is manaless, requires a fairly high amount of experience to play, and must not be a lane-bully. My solution is to give my champion some sort of resource to limit his/ her power, such as Energy. That kind of resource does not regenerate over time. The champion’s kit should actually use that kind of resource, rather than having for some nice effects (such as 
Tryndamere’s Fury). This also helps me introduce a new concept to League: buying your resources at the shop. When you think about it, that actually makes sense: your kit is super powerful, but it relies on a rare resource, and you have to decide whether to spend your precious gold on them. It is balanced, unique, and requires advanced decision making. It is just as perfect as it could possibly be.
Before I become over-excited and rant for another half an hour, here are my standards for this project:
- The champion is an AD Carry that does not use Mana, but still relies some sort of resource. However, that type of resource does not regenerates naturally, and can only be generated when the champion performs a specific action (such as attacking or using abilities)
- The champion must have a standard kit of an AD Carry: attack speed steroid, some sort of CC (usually a slow), a long-range poke/harass ability, a mobility spell (bonus movement speed or dashes), and a long-range ultimate.
- The champion should have a kit that is difficult to use for beginners, and only those who have spent time and effort on practicing can unleash his/her true power. This will prevent low-elo players from picking him up too often and ruin the fun of the game.
- The champion should have some tools to control team fights, rather than relying on your teammates to do it for you. This should help greatly in cases where your team has a very bad composition
For his lore, I originally intended to portray him as the son of a millionaire from Piltover, who sought League as a way to advertise his own image. His father, though not interested in League, did spend quite a lot of money on creating a state-of-the-art armor to make sure that his son will not get hurt. However, I found that my character’s intent to be too similar to 
Draven, and the story itself sounds too generic. Therefore, I turned around and looked at the opposite direction: Instead of being born in Piltover in the arms of his rich parents, my champion would be an abandoned child of a poor couple who grew up in the chaotic city of Zaun. Rather than growing up and become the king of an entire empire that his family left to him, my champion had nothing but his bare hands. One goes to prep school and gets the best education that money could offer, while the other can only learn whatever the streets throw at him.
Though there are some contrasts between the two characters, I believe that my champion should have some characteristics of the original concept: They both love technology, and consider themselves as innovators. They all believe that they are the best, and chose League as the way to show it to the world. Since they are based on the technology theme, their kits involve using fancy gadgets to fight their enemies, and they have some sort of mecha-suit to protect themselves. Most importantly, each of them have experienced a dramatic event that changed how they see the world, and decided to join League to serve a greater cause.
In short, I want to create a Tony Stark-like character, minus the multi-billion-dollar fortune. I mean, imagine that our favorite Iron Man was born in a slum instead of a wealthy family, what kind of person would he become? Well, he would definitely still be the guy that we know: arrogant, brilliant, laid-back, and does not care about anything but himself. He would still treat himself like a king, even though he does not have one yet. He would still be able to invent stuff that blows our mind, though they may occasionally do not work properly. He would try everything that he can think of to earn what he deserves: fame, fortune, and recognition. He would still create that combat armor of his own if the world chooses him to be their hero. What I am trying to say is that anyone is capable of become a hero if they were given the right purpose.
Then a hero he would be: an unwanted hero, a lonely sheriff who tries to maintain peace and order in a mad world, and a man with an iron fist (literally). That is how I would make him: a street-born inventor, who later became an icon of justice.
When I first started this project, I assumed that it would not take too much time to complete. However, during the time of development, I was afraid that someone else would come up and make a champion with the similar kit or shares the same theme. Thus, I kinda tried to rush it into publication a little bit, and always end up with something substandard, which cost me a lot of time making adjustments here and there. The champion that you are seeing right now is the result of countless changes behind the curtain that you are unable to see. For that reason, I really hope that you guys would appreciate this piece of work, just as much as how I appreciate it. Thank you, and see you guys again in my next project.
Trivia[]
- The name Aerith is devised from two words: aeronautics (an industry) and logarithm (a mathematical function). It could also be a reference from Ares, the god of war in Greek Mythology.
- Aerith used to have a crush on
Jinx. Thus, he created the Fish Bone cannon and gave it to her as a birthday present. - Aerith and Ekko used to be rivals since they used to compete against each other to win Jinx's heart. As Aerith joins the Zaun Police Department, Ekko became his rival once again, due to him being wanted for assault charges against a Piltie gentleman (who killed Ajuna, Ekko’s friend).
- Aerith and Zac hangs out with each other quite often. People of Zaun can occasionally see Zac accompanying Aerith during his neighborhood patrols.
- Despite the fact that Aerith had sworn to stop inventing, he still does so by being part of Zaun Police Department’s R&D unit.
Patch history[]
Version 1.1(May 25th,2016): Making it easier for Aerith to gain Old Batteries, as well as allowing him to carry more Old Battery charges.
I: Wrecker
- Changed: Aerith reloads after every 8 attacks (instead of 10)
- Changed: Aerith reloads after 6 seconds of not attacking (instead of 8 seconds)
- New Effect: Critical Strikes now count as 2 attacks.
- Maximum Number Of Old Batteries = 15 + 5 x (Ultimate's rank)
Version 1.2 (August 2nd, 2016): His ultimate should be an ability that uses resource, rather than giving resource.
R: Fire At Will
- Removed: Aerith reloads after the channel ends.
- New effect: Aerith is disarmed for 0.1 ~ 2.5 seconds depending on the number of shots fired.
Version 1.3 (December 15th, 2019): His passive should give Old Batteries more consistently, in case Aerith keeps dying over and over and / or does not have enough gold to buy Old Batteries from the shop.
I: Wrecker
- Changed: Aerith reloads after every 6 attacks (instead of 8)
- Removed: Critical strikes no longer count as 2 shots