Check out my other champions:
- Inkha, The Phantom Edge
- Lor'Mak, The Void Destructor
- Adria & Lianne, The Twin Souls
- Klishma, Messenger Of Light
- Aerith, The Scrap Genius
- Draxxar, The Automata Commander
- Amelia, The Heroine
- Jericho, The Mind Of Darkness
Rhus, Lord of the swamp is an AP Bruiser/Tank that specializes in inhibiting the enemy’s mobility. If they are foolish enough to go near him, Rhus makes sure they will never run away.
With Rhus, I gladly introduce you to a new type of crowd control, which I would like to call 
Hinder. Hinder reduces the range of the target’s dashes and blinks by a percentage, thus severely punish mobility-reliant targets. Unlike ground or other disabling effects, hinder still allows enemies to use mobility spells, but at decreased effectiveness. Thus, Hinder is considered as a soft crowd-control just like 
slow, but works only on dashes and blinks.
Enemies affected with Hinder are left with two difficult choices:
- The first choice is to accept using their mobility spells at reduced efficiency. Most of the time, the enemy would be unable to determine the current range of their mobility spells, causing them to hit the terrain instead of jumping over it.
- The second choice is to wait for
Hinder to wear off before using their mobility. This is not a good choice either, since Rhus can still have other tools in his kit to keep locking them down.
Lore[]
“I know the curse of immortality – to live forever without purpose. For that, I offer you the gift of death, should you choose to be my service and help me conquer this mortal world”. - 
Mordekaiser
Before he became a monster that he is today, Rhus used to be a completely different person: Lord Gamu, better known as the wealthiest man ever lived. The only thing that could match his fortune in terms of size is his fat belly. Gamu had so much gold that it piled up like mountains inside his enormous vaults. Everything he used for his daily life – his bed, his chairs, the entire dinner table, and even his toilet – were made of pure gold. Things that were not made of gold are either made from silver of precious gemstones. By murdering all of his siblings when he was young, Gamu become the sole heir of his family’s fortune.
Lord Gamu (concept art by hoxiaowei)
Like any rich person, Gamu was extremely afraid of dying. Thinking that he could somehow cheat death, Gamu promised to give a generous portion of his fortune to whoever could give him immortality, which would be paid after the job was done. Over the years, many had come to accept the offer, but none had ever been able to claim the price. Most of them were only scammers who thought that they could deceive Gamu by performing some cheap magic tricks. Just like any other time, Gamu would realize that it was just a hoax, and order his men to take the gold back and execute the scammers to make an example.
One day, a young boy came into his house and claimed that he knew a way that could grant Gamu eternal youth. Gamu did not believe the boy in any way, but he approved it nonetheless. Gamu led the boy to his room, and the boy started reading a strange spell. Suddenly, Gamu felt a powerful surge of arcane energy flowing through his body, something that he had not experienced before despite all those years. After the ritual ended, Gamu walked up to the boy, telling him that he had done a great job, before stabbing him in the chest with a poisoned dagger. As the boy took his final breath, Gamu laughed devilishly, knowing that he had just become immortal without paying a penny for it.
About a month later, Gamu fell ill due to a strange disease, which left him screaming in extreme agony. Gamu did not know that the spell that the boy put on him is actually a curse: The spell indeed gave him immortality, but such powerful magic always comes with sacrifice – human sacrifice for this case. By killing the boy, Gamu had accidentally made the first sacrifice, and had signed the covenant with evil gods. Whenever their prayers forget to make sacrifices, these gods will remind them with unspeakable pain, which forces them to kill someone immediately to relieve their suffering. Ironically, Gamu killed the very person that could explain that to him.
Gods of ancient evil (concept art by Maxa-art)
Gamu’s wish had become his nightmare. He was in so much pain that he could not sleep, which drove him insane. He tried every way possible in order to kill himself, from cutting his own throat to drinking poison – none of them worked. He was just kept alive by the spell, and those suicide attempts were nothing more than self-inflicted pains. Instead of trying to find ways to help him lift the curse, his sons decided to bury him alive so that they would not have to hear him screaming again. As dirt filled up the grave, Gamu’s screams slowly faded away. The next morning, the family announced that Gamu had deceased due to his illness, and his oldest son became the heir of his entire fortune.
Hundreds of years later, people discovered Gamu’s grave while cultivating. As they dug deeper into the ground, they found Gamu - who was still alive, but no longer human. His body was rotten and deformed beyond recognition; he could no longer speak, but growl; he could not remember who he was, but his insanity still remained. Gamu died long ago, but Rhus – the monster, the twisted creation of damnation, was born. As Rhus crawled out of the hole, he viciously killed everyone who excavated his grave, and then proceeded to murder his entire family, and the whole village.
Freed from captivity, Rhus began spreading terror all over Valoran. Wherever he went, all the plants and animals started dying to an unknown plague. Local residents were found dead with their insides all drained out, and only their skin and bones remained. There were a few rare moments when Gamu’s consciousness came back and he realized that he needed to seek help. Nonetheless, whenever he manages to find someone who is willing to help him, his insanity would urge him to kill his helpers as if the gods that created him wanted him to remain a monster forever.
It finally came to the moment when Rhus found himself cornered and surrounded by a group of powerful mages, while being pinned to the ground with a magic spell. As the mages discussed how to contain Rhus safely, the Black Mist came like a hurricane, killing everything in its path including the unexpected mages. From out of the Mist, it was the Iron Revenant himself that walked. Seeing potentials in Rhus, Mordekaiser freed Rhus and made an offer: If Rhus agrees to be his right hand, Mordekaiser will grant him death and end his curse. Rhus accepted, and both of them walked into darkness, vowing to bring terror and suffering to all living souls in Runterra.
Abilities[]
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Strategy[]
I/ General
- Life Drain is Rhus’s main source of self-sustain since he has no natural health regeneration. As a result, Rhus cannot gain back health while out of combat. This is contrary to normal champions, who seek to avoid combat in order to regenerate health over time.
- As Rhus levels up, the damage from Life Drain will increase, as well as the healing. This would make Rhus extremely hard to kill, while dealing proper damage during late game.
- Since his innate ability provides a substantial amount of healing, it is recommended that Rhus go for a tanky build so that he can benefit more from the healing, as well as being more useful in the role of a tanky controller. The more target he can hit, the more healing Rhus will get. Therefore, Rhus can use this ability when his health is low to give himself a enormous heal boost.
- Be careful with Grievous Wound effect. Most of Rhus’s tankiness relies on his rapid healing ability.
- Life Drain also hinder all targets inside the effective area, which punishes mobility-reliant targets.
- Life Drain is also Rhus’s main source of AoE damage and soft CC. Therefore, he should position himself in a way that can trap as many targets as possible inside the poison cloud.
- Strangling Grasps is Rhus’s main lockdown tool. Strangling Grasps can root enemies from afar, so that Rhus can have time to approach and hinder them with Life Drain. Strangling Grasps can trap multiple enemies at a time due being an AoE spell.
- Soul Reap is another of Rhus’s many tools for dealing with champions that relies on mobility. For immobile champions, it is simply a spell deals magic damage over time. For mobile champions, the ability disables their dashes for a few seconds.
- Remember that Soul Reap only disable the enemy's mobility if they dash away from Rhus. Therefore, Rhus should not stand close to terrain so that the enemy can dash towards him go through the walls.
- Instead of running, the enemy can choose to stay and fight Rhus. This will most likely to go in Rhus’s favor due to the fact that Rhus has his Life Drain to heal himself up for extended trades.
- Lurking Terror is the only gap-closing ability that Rhus has. Lurking Terror has good synergy with Strangling Grasps, since Strangling Grasps locks down the target so that Rhus can jump in and fear them, or at least hinder them with Life Drain.
- Lurking Terror also has good synergy with Soul Reap. Soul Reap knocks down the target which makes them unable to dodge Strangling Grasps, and when they are hit with Lurking Terror, they will be feared. The combination of Soul Reap -> Strangling Grasps -> Lurking Terror is formidable.
- Be noted that the root only last for a short duration. Therefore, Rhus must immediately jump in with Lurking Terror, or else he will miss his opportunity.
- Lurking Terror can help Rhus run away quite easily because it allows him to jump over terrain.
- Inescapable Nightmare is Rhus’s ultimate AoE anti-mobility spell. It cripples both mobile and immobile targets, thus helping Rhus fulfill his role as a Tank/Initiator
- Rhus’s ultimate can be combined with all of his other abilities. Lurking Terror allows Rhus to jump into the middle of the enemy team to use his ultimate. While being immobilized by Inescapable Nightmare, trapping enemies with other abilities would be easier.
- The bonus movement speed may not seem much, but remember that Rhus has already disable all enemy dashes / blinks, which means that they can only walk on foot. This bonus movement speed allows Rhus to catch up with them.
II/ Jungling
- Rhus is mostly played as a control jungler or an anti-jungler thanks to his innate. Life Drain deals damage based on the monster’s maximum health and heals him by the same amount, which is quite substantial. Therefore, Rhus can clear jungle camps fairly fast, while not losing much health in the process.
- As Rhus levels up, his innate will deal even more percentage health damage, making it even easier for Rhus to steal monster camps from the enemy’s jungler.
- If Rhus encounter the enemy jungler, he is encouraged to fight them to apply pressure. As stated above, Life Drain is very useful for extended trades.
- Rhus should not spam his abilities, but rather wait for at least 5 seconds between each cast to extend Life Drain's duration.
- Strangling Grasps allows Rhus roots jungle monsters, which allows him to kite them more easily.
- Lurking Terror allows Rhus to jump between jungle camps, which maximizes his jungle efficiency. It also fears them, which makes them stop attacking him for a short moment.
- Soul Reap can be used on jungle monsters for bonus damage. However, it would be better be saved for ganking.
- Soul Reap can also prevent enemy junglers from running away, so that you can keep fighting them and kill them eventually.
III/ Laning phase
- Rhus can also be played in the top lane, due to his incredible sustain, which allows him to withstand all punishment from his opponent.
- Life Drain gives you incredible sustain by damaging the enemy minions. However, by getting close to the minions, you are also making yourself vulnerable to ganks and initiation.
- Try to trade smartly. If you think you can win, then you can initiate with Strangling Grasps then jump in with Luring Terror, and let Life Drain finish the job.
- Soul Reap gives Rhus bonus attack range, which can be used for poke / harass against melee champions.
- Strangling Grasps can be used to set up ganks for your allied jungler. It can also stop enemies from recalling / teleporting at a long range.
III/ Roaming
- Most ganks from Rhus are very deadly, due to the fact that he can chain his CC and prevent the enemy from escaping. There are several ways that Rhus can do this:
- As stated above, his best combo is Soul Reap -> Strangling Grasps -> Lurking Terror
- If you are not confident, you should jump in with Lurking Terror and then use Inescapable Nightmare next, followed by the rest of Rhus’s abilities.
- Another way is to just initiate with Strangling Grasps, then wait for the enemy to use their dash / blink to dodge it. Then you can use Soul Reap and jump on top of them with Lurking Terror, and use Inescapable Nightmare.
V/Team fight
- Life Drain can help Rhus survive for a very long period during team fights. Since Life Drain heals Rhus based on the enemy’s health, it will give him incredible sustain if the enemy has a tank who also a lot of health. The percentage health damage also shreds down tanks very easily. In short, Life Drain allows Rhus to out-tank the enemy's front line.
- Remember that the enemy has to stay inside the poison cloud from Life Drain to take damage and heal Rhus. Thus, if the enemy can manage to kite Rhus, he will not be able to do much.
- In order to start a fight, Rhus has several options:
- Soul Reap -> Strangling Grasps -> Lurking Terror -> Inescapable Nightmare: Use Soul Reap to disable the enemy's mobility, and then the rest of the abilities to keep locking them down.
- Strangling Grasps -> Lurking Terror -> -> Soul Reap or Inescapable Nightmare: Strangling Grasps has good range, and can trap multiple targets at a time. Rhus can use the ability to initiate, and then unleash the rest of his combo.
- Lurking Terror -> Inescapable Nightmare -> Strangling Grasps or Soul Reap: Jump in and then use the ultimate for immediate grounding effect on the entire enemy team. Enemies who try to escaped will be caught by Strangling Grasps and Soul Reap.
- Inescapable Nightmare -> Strangling Grasps -> Lurking Terror -> Soul Reap: This combo is used for enemy champions who can dive your back line. Many champions like Malphite or Zac has the mobility integrated into their initiation. Therefore, this combo also works as an anti-initiation and anti-diving tool.
Development[]
Hi there, it’s me again – Peter from Vietnam.
About a year ago, I posted my very first custom champion on Suggestion Wikia. Since then, designing champions has become my new hobby, and I have posted a total of 5 custom champions. After one year’s time, I am very excited to show you guys my latest projects, which I would call “Phase 2” if you don’t mind. Anyways, let’s get into the point.
The current state of the meta right now is worrying: champions with too much mobility and damage at the same time is dominating The Rift – 
Lucian, 
Fizz, 
Riven, and the like. Mobility allows you to position yourself to make plays, to chase down fleeing enemies, and to escape. Most of these champions need time to be mastered, and require good decision making in order to be efficient. Therefore, they encourage players to spend time and effort to improve their skills. The players facing against these mobile champions must also know what their weaknesses are, what they are capable of, and how to exploit them. In short, champions with mobility have raised the bar, demanding the players to be “smarter” while playing.
However, mobility has its own dark side: First of all, mobile champions like LeBlanc or 
Yasuo are usually very good at trading and all-ins, and thus have very good lane pressure. Second, due to the advent of new cooldown reduction items, mobile champions are now becoming too “safe”. By stockpiling cooldown reduction, you can afford to make more mistakes, but still manage to jump out alive. Third, immobile champions like 
Warwick or 
Galio are becoming forgotten, due to the fact they simply cannot catch up. Finally, mobility champions are always deemed by most players as being “unfair”, and “have no counterplay”. For example, an experienced LeBlanc player can take detours to avoid being spotted by your wards, dodge all CC that your support throws at her, make you waste your Flash / Heal / Barrier / Exhaust, and can still kill you.
Having a team composition that lacks mobility can be a painful experience. Players feel frustrated because they can neither run nor fight back. They cannot run because the enemy can just outrun them with their superior mobility. They cannot fight back because the enemy can just use their dashes and blinks to dodge everything you throw at them. As a result, players are constantly demanding for new champions with even better mobility (to compete with the enemy) and/or better hard CC (to counter their mobility). This has been proven to only worsen the situation, not fix it. Frustration leads to rage, and rage leads to toxicity. This is not the players’ fault, but because of how the meta has become.
If mobility is the meta, we need the anti-meta to solve the problem. Thus, the standards for this project are as follow:
- For an anti-mobility champion, my champion should be a tank. The longer my champion can survive in a team fight, the more value he/she can bring to the team.
- The champion should have some sort of AoE crowd control that helps him/her punish mobility-reliant target. However, he/she should not be a CC machine that terrifies immobile targets.
- The champion should reward opposing players for good positioning, peeling and kiting, rather than relying on their mobility to achieve their goals.
With all the he standards in place, the same problem arises again: character development. Luckily, things did towards a good direction: A while ago, I had a chance to travel to the country and stayed there for about a month. Although it lacked busy streets, shopping districts, Internet and the like, it was a really different experience. The house that I stayed in was near a swamp so at night, frogs and toads would come out and hop around, while cricket chirps filled the air. Occasionally, I would spot several teenagers from afar as they were waving their flashlights around in the forest, searching for a ghost or Big Foot of some kind.
“There it is”, I said to myself again, with delight. My next champion would be a swamp monster that lurks around in the forest, hunting down anything that dares to invade his territory. The creature was once a human who gained immortality by learning how to drain life force from the living. In time, the same kind of magic that kept him alive slowly corrupted him, turning him into the monster that we see today. To show how reliant he is on reaping souls to survive, he would have no health regeneration, but drains life from his victim instead. The self-sustain also fits my intention to make him a Tank/Bruiser quite nicely, so I decided to keep it as a major part of his kit.
The next step is to design a set of abilities that revolves around the “soul eater” theme, and then a back story. All of that took me longer than expect, but it was worth it. Anyway, let’s cheer up for a new phase, a new champion, and a new season. Thank you very much, and see you soon.
Trivia[]
- Despite being affiliated with the Mordekaiser, Rhus does not come from the Shadow Isles, nor is he the result of Ruined King's curse.
- Rhus believes that the World Runes are the key to lift his curse. Therefore, Rhus considers Ryze as his enemy for trying to hide them away.
- The Summoners secretly casted a spell on Rhus that bounded his soul to The Nexus, similar to Nocturne. This will prevent him from ever escaping The Rift.
Patch history[]
Patch 1.1 (December 15th,2019): Highlighting Rhus's anti-mobility, while allowing more chances for counter-play.
I: Cursed Ground
- Renamed to Life Drain
- Removed: Creates Cursed Ground that deals damage based on enemy's maximum health
- New effect: Creates a cloud of poison around Rhus that deals damage based on enemy's maximum health.
- New effect: Now also hinders the enemy.
Q: Strangling Grasps
- Removed: No longer creates Cursed Ground
W: Soul Reap
- Removed: No longer hinder enemies
- Removed: No longer creates Cursed Ground
- New effect: gives extra attack range, creates tether with the attacked target that knocks them down
E: Lurking Terror
- Removed: First Cast - Rhus surrounds himself in a cloud of poison for up to 5 seconds. Enemies who are exposed to the cloud will generate a stack of Dread every second. At 4 stacks, the stacks consume themselves and cause the enemy to flee.
- Removed: No longer creates Cursed Ground
- New effect: Now fears enemies being affected by Strangling Grasps [Q]
R: Inescapable Nightmare
- Removed: No longer creates Cursed Ground
- Removed: No longer creates tether that connect to all targets
- New effect: Gains bonus movement speed against enemies running away from Rhus.
- New effect: Empowers Life Drain [Q] for a short duration.