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So, this might be a long post, then I'll divide it into three parts so you could read whichever part you want to. Those are: 'What Yone's kit was like during development', 'Why it didn't make it live', 'Discussion on how it would have been if it had made it live'.
In case you didn't know, Blaustoise (a Rioter) posted three videos in his Youtube channel talking to EndlessPillows (Yone's designer). In the videos, they discuss different versions of Yone during his development and why they scrapped some ideas. Link is at the end of the post in case you want to watch it.
To the point:
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'His kit':
Obviously, many versions of his kit were tested, but these are the ones that stuck around for longer and made playtesters and the dev. team really excited about:
Yone's E: This was supposed to be his main defining characteristic. Yone's E was supposed to be a targeted dash (like Lee Sin's Q), which allowed him to dash to ANY character using a dash or being moved. Apparently this was an 'at-will' ability which allowed Yone to match his opponents mobility and counter them. The reasoning behind this ability was to emphasize that Yone is a hunter, and he will relentlessly hunt down his prey (or demons) wherever they go.
Yone's Q: His Q was similar to how it is live and Yasuo's Q, except that his dash would not knock people up, and instead would knock people back slightly (making it possible for him to use his E to dash to them).
Yone's W: His W would be similar to his Q and Yasuo's Q. He would stab with his Azakana blade, and gain a stack. But instead of dashing forward, at three stacks he could use it to dash backwards, and the wind would slightly pull his opponent with him if it hits them (and again, he could then dash to his opponent). Yone having two different types of Yasuo's Q was quite effective at emphasizing that he indead fought with two swords.
Yone's Ultimate: Yone's Ultimate basically turned him into a "Gragas Ult". Except that when he ulted, he would first knock the targets up into the air (making it possible for him to combo with Yasuo), then he would scatter people in all directions (like Gragas), which mean he could use his E to dash to any one of the targets hit. If Yasuo ulted targets from Yone's ult knock up, Yone wouldn't scatter his targets, but instead would join Yasuo in his ult, combo-ing with him and granting him his damage.
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'Why it didn't make it live':
According to EndlessPillows, some people in the team really liked his E, so it stuck around for a long time in his development. The main reason why it didn't make it live was because it created a lot of problems that would take a long time to solve, and the team was already pressed to deliver Yone's kit ('Kin of the Stained Blade' probably took a lot of time to be made, and the team couldn't have made it without knowing how Yone fought". They had to settle for something else, then.
Without having his E dash, scattering people with his Ult made no sense, because he would then have no access to them, making his assassin playstyle poorer.
Some problems with his E that were mentioned:
- It gave him more mobility than the people he's supposed to counter.
- It made people suddenly be afraid of using a mobility spell that they had been using for years.
- It made people not use mobility, so neither the enemy nor Yone would be using their mobility.
Some problems with his W that were mentioned:
- It made him hard to balance, because that's a lot of damage coming from two Yasuo's Q.
- It made him very mechanically difficult, so that player's that are good with him would be amazing, and players that are bad with him would be terrible (Irelia, anybody??).
- According to Blaustoise, the combination of his Q, W and E was so fun to play that simply put it couldn't be release. It's like all of a sudden you have a champion even more fun than Yasuo.
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'Discussion':
So, I particularly love the old idea of his E. Apart from 'Poppy's W' and some 'Cripple' effects, we don't have a lot of direct counters to mobility in the game. I played another MOBA called Smite which had a champion (Awilix) whose ultimate would pull a champion to her only if they used a jump, and it didn't make it feel like it was unfair. We already have to time cooldowns/make decisions for Yasuo's Wind Wall, Fizz's E, using a dash around Poppy and so on. Maybe it took out some of the fun of it, but adding some cooldown/range limit to his E could have been close to a way of making it work? Many champions like Nocturne, Vi and Yasuo already have a free ticket to get access to a champion, if you add a cooldown to it, that's where the decision making starts coming into play. You could also have used your mobility as an ADC (Lucian, Samira, Tristana) to bait a bad Yone to dash straight into your team.
I also love how dynamic fights could have looked between Yone and high mobility champions. Can you imagine a fight between Yasuo and Yone, with Yasuo EQ-ing back and forth into a minion wave and Yone following after him? Sick plays.
So, what are your thoughts? Would you have liked if that version of Yone made it live, or do you like the live version better? Would you have been frustrated to play against him if your champion has a dash? Would you have liked to have a Yone on your team against a high mobility composition? What do you think about the sick Yasuo/Yone ult combos?
I am a Yone main ever since his release, and I love this champ. But I think that other version of Yone would have been more skill expressive, and I would have liked that.
Link for the part 1 of the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGwwBDvE_KA
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