Life Without Doran's Shield
Riot·4/2/2014, 9:09:05 PM·0 votes·3,770 views
Bruisers (and really 3 bruisers in particular) have dominated top lane in the 2014 Season. Why? As covered previously, this is due to the safety of bruisers; they're able to fulfill their role whether they fall behind or not. But in large part, this was due to the large amounts of health regen available from the Perseverance mastery and Doran's Shield.
Doran's Blade has jumped up to about 43%, while Cloth Armor was picked up in about 10% of games, both with a 55% win rate.
As mentioned in The Giants of Top Lane, many champions rely on Doran's Shield to avoid bullying by Renekton. Dr. Mundo especially relies on Doran's Shield to get over his weak early game. As such, the changes have hit him the hardest.
Before the nerf, he held a 21% pick rate. Now, he has fallen to 3%.
Renekton, however, has only grown in strength. He previously accounted for 22% of picks with a 54% win-rate, now up to a 27% pick-rate and 60% win-rate. His ability to start Doran's Blade has proven him more versatile than the previous top-lane bruisers, and has taken his lane bullying to a whole new level.
Auto-attackers have long been restrained by Doran's Shield; the regen makes it hard to harass champions out of lane and the damage reduction on auto-attacks reduces ranged champions' early damage potential. With Doran's Shield's power reduced, we've seen Aatrox, Jax, and Irelia step into top lane. For what it's worth, Irelia and Aatrox have been significantly more successful than Jax, who has only won one game despite never facing Renekton, one of his strongest counters.
Irelia and Aatrox, unlike Jax, have the sustain to make up for the loss of sustain from Doran's Shield, whether or not they choose to purchase it.
Mages have suffered from their starting items not being competitive with Doran's Shield, but not benefiting enough from Doran's Shield to start with it. We've seen a few mages (Ryze in particular) come out in the past weeks. While Ryze was only picked 5 times, he has also been banned 12. It's a bit unclear whether those bans were aimed at top or mid in Europe, but in North America, they were most likely aimed at top lane, given that they were aimed at Nien to start.
This may seem like a slow start, with only 7% fewer picks on the main 4 bruisers, but as new strong champions come into the scene, so will their counters, and with them, fresh new champions. Youngbuck even played Heimerdinger in top lane, so who knows what's next!
Top lane? Let's get ready to Rumble!
Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman is a League of Legends mathcrafter turned esports journalist who spends his spare time staring at mountains of League of Legends data. Follow him @GentlemanGustaf on Twitter.
Note: Statistics in this article accurate up to April 2 2014
Cutting through the Competition
With the Doran's Shield nerf, we've seen a significant change in the demographics of top lane. First and most obviously, Doran's Shield purchases are down. Doran's Shield had fluctuated around 80-90% of top lane item purchases. Since the nerf, it has accounted for only 35% of top lane starting items.
Doran's Blade has jumped up to about 43%, while Cloth Armor was picked up in about 10% of games, both with a 55% win rate.
Bruised but not Broken
Pre-nerf, 77% of all top lane picks were Renekton, Dr. Mundo, Shyvana, or Trundle. Now, that number is only 70%, and likely to keep dropping as new champions Ryze to the occasion. However, expect at least Renekton to stay strong, due to his ability to bully most laners.The Fall of Dr. Mundo
As mentioned in The Giants of Top Lane, many champions rely on Doran's Shield to avoid bullying by Renekton. Dr. Mundo especially relies on Doran's Shield to get over his weak early game. As such, the changes have hit him the hardest.
Before the nerf, he held a 21% pick rate. Now, he has fallen to 3%.
The Butcher of Top Lane
Renekton, however, has only grown in strength. He previously accounted for 22% of picks with a 54% win-rate, now up to a 27% pick-rate and 60% win-rate. His ability to start Doran's Blade has proven him more versatile than the previous top-lane bruisers, and has taken his lane bullying to a whole new level.
Challengers Approach
A number of new champions have seen play, and a few have started to be cemented as go-to picks. They can be readily broken into two major classes: auto-attackers and mages.
Auto-attackers have long been restrained by Doran's Shield; the regen makes it hard to harass champions out of lane and the damage reduction on auto-attacks reduces ranged champions' early damage potential. With Doran's Shield's power reduced, we've seen Aatrox, Jax, and Irelia step into top lane. For what it's worth, Irelia and Aatrox have been significantly more successful than Jax, who has only won one game despite never facing Renekton, one of his strongest counters.
Irelia and Aatrox, unlike Jax, have the sustain to make up for the loss of sustain from Doran's Shield, whether or not they choose to purchase it.
Mages have suffered from their starting items not being competitive with Doran's Shield, but not benefiting enough from Doran's Shield to start with it. We've seen a few mages (Ryze in particular) come out in the past weeks. While Ryze was only picked 5 times, he has also been banned 12. It's a bit unclear whether those bans were aimed at top or mid in Europe, but in North America, they were most likely aimed at top lane, given that they were aimed at Nien to start.
This may seem like a slow start, with only 7% fewer picks on the main 4 bruisers, but as new strong champions come into the scene, so will their counters, and with them, fresh new champions. Youngbuck even played Heimerdinger in top lane, so who knows what's next!
Top lane? Let's get ready to Rumble!
Mattias "Gentleman Gustaf" Lehman is a League of Legends mathcrafter turned esports journalist who spends his spare time staring at mountains of League of Legends data. Follow him @GentlemanGustaf on Twitter.
Note: Statistics in this article accurate up to April 2 2014
hehehehe i look kool now.
is life, 
build path anywhere. Since 
might've been a viable pick for starting item for some matchups, but now the 
) or the opposing team as a whole (
, 
, 
). At least AP champs can always go 
-> 
(Though even that might not be a good pick for your champ), but AD champs are kinda shafted when cloth armor doesn't eventually build into 
, the one armor item that is almost without exception worth getting later into game. :/
and 
step back into the top lane :)
Who needs it any way 
gets blind darted from 
dafuq riot?
? he is still popular in korea wtf is going on at eu and na?
didnt get mentioned
[zombie-brand-clap] [zombie-nunu-tears] 
[zombie-brand-clap] 
then you're done
become a "challenger" if only one person has played her in LCS and that one person has played her forever?
i start always with doran's blade
and 
