[FOLLOWUP] Juggernaut Items
Hi folks,
Following up on the Juggernaut itemization changes made in patch 5.16, particularly the additions of Dead Man's Plate, Titanic Hydra, and Sterak's Gage, I wanted to quickly go over our thoughts on the current state of these items.
Original Goals (for the 08/20/2015 Release)
- Offer Juggernauts items that meet their specific needs and provide a foundation for future juggernaut item diversity
- Use stat bindings to ensure those items can be balanced for juggernauts, rather than being superior on other classes.
- Stat bindings refers to the statistics that a champion kit encourages its players to itemize for, e.g. Marksmen with Attack Speed and Critical Strike
What's Working (as of 1/25/2015)
- All the updated Juggernauts use some of these items in their builds to solve the problems they were meant to address
- No metagolem - stacking all these items together doesn’t dominate all other builds
- Clear item satisfaction created by thematic linkage (e.g. Black Cleaver on Darius) and visual effects/audio (e.g. Dead Man’s Plate’s trail)
- Non-Juggernauts aren’t using these items excessively or unfairly (stat binding works)
Problems to Address (as of 1/25/2015)
- Non reworked juggernauts have pretty hodgepodge itemization
- Dead Man’s Plate remains too strong and is crowding out other choices
- Unclear if Dead Man’s Plate and Black Cleaver correct an intended juggernaut weakness (immobility) too effectively
- Titanic Hydra has very few users (lack of health-bound, Basic Attack-oriented champions)
Known Tradeoffs
- Juggernauts are well-supported with core items, but have few choices to make other than order/build path.
Next Steps
- Look to improve bindings on other Juggernauts (e.g. Nasus and Udyr)
- Further reduce Dead Man’s Plate’s power and assess other similar items
- Assess who should use Titanic Hydra and changes needed to make it attractive to them
- Discuss frameworks for use of flat MS versus % MS and in what ways items should or shouldn’t offset class weaknesses.
: One of the very few solid AP Juggernaut items, essentially the Black Cleaver for AP champs. Solid stats, a good passive, and makes its way into plenty of AP Juggernaut builds. Occasionally picked up by full mages, but causes no major abuse cases where it becomes a must-buy for non-Juggernaut champions.
: A decent option, works well together with Rylai's, but always feels a bit like overkill unless you're really ahead. Provides less raw HP and AP than Rylai's, and though the Pen is nice, AP Juggernauts usually do enough damage that they rarely need it, and if enemies are actually building consistent MR, it would usually be better to just get a Void Staff for raw damage, even though you lose out on some HP for it.
: At first glance it seems great! Scaling HP and AP, along with Mana? Good stuff! Except... well, one of the primary AP Juggernauts, Mordekaiser, doesn't use Mana at all, making it a wasteful option for the big guy. He's your poster-boy for AP Juggernauts, and will NEVER want to buy this.
and 
: Both of these seem like great options. Solid resists, backed up by powerful passives, and nice chunks of AP. This is great... except everyone else is going to buy them even more than Juggernauts. Abyssal is more often purchased by assassins, melee-range AP burst champions. While Zhonyas is purchased by... well, everyone. Seriously, the item is STILL one of the best defensive AP items in the game, and almost every AP champion who is worried about getting hurt is going to buy the thing.
: This is the only item left with both HP and AP. It's rarely purchased in the first place, and when it is, it's more likely on a support than to ever actually be on an AP Juggernaut.
