League of Legends dates back to a decade ago, and while tons of new champions have been added since, many initiatives have been scrapped and never saw the light of day.
A user shared a paper sheet of all 40 champions who were supposed to release with the game a decade ago in a Reddit thread. Some saw their concept slightly altered before release, while others simply were canceled.
Tabu, a shaman, was created in this way. He appears on a shared paper sheet with a massive skull, a red hat, and a tribal outfit.
This champion was canceled before his release, and his abilities later became Yorick's. He was created to be an aggressive support, capable of applying debuffs to opponents and dealing over-time damage while regenerating HP when linked to them.
Players said they were interested in his "voodoo" approach. Even though Yorick's abilities were later used for his own creation, the character's design is quite different from Tabu's.
In the highest-voted comment, a user wrote, "If he were a anti-AP reflect-damage drain tank (kind of like anti-magic Rammus with more healing than innate resistances," "that might be an interesting alternative to machine gun mages."
Because they’re difficult to balance, champions who apply specific debuffs are rare in the game. That said, an AP-countering version of Rammus would be interesting to see, especially if the champion is designed as a support.
In the community, ideas of playstyles based on Tabu's initial idea have been reimagined for years, but this is also a dividing issue.
"Debuffs (or 'curses)) take out from the game, and having a champion purely related to curses would make him either OP or useless," wrote a previous thread's top-voted comment on the matter. It's unclear whether Riot staff considered this another approach afterward, but it's certainly an ambitious plan for the League.
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