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Riot, remember, there's a limit to how juggernaut-y a champion can be

Soda Popkillski·10/21/2016, 8:59:49 AM·3 votes·601 views

Thing is, when a champion passes a certain point of sluggishness, they eventually become completely and utterly useless against any form of ranged champions that are actually bothering to move. Great examples of this is: Illaoi Mordekaiser Both of these champions completely rely on the enemy being stupid enough to actually walk into your range, which rarely happens, and thus, they become extremely weak against ranged champions. Illaoi has a low-range yet large delay ultimate, no proper CC, really low movement speed, tentacles that can easily be dodged, and really low attack speed. All of this together makes it so that her matchups Now, what does this do? It makes them obscenely toxic. A lot of you may have laned against Illaoi, and most of you probably still have nightmares to this day from that moment. This is because of one simple reason: The fact that Illaoi is so weak against ranged champs, forces riot to buff her to the point where she's way too strong against melee champs. This here, makes her an absolute nightmare to play against as melee, as there really isn't anything you can do against it. Ranged champs can easily just kite her and dodge her tentacles, but melee champions are forces to remain in her range while standing still and taking a massive beating if they actually want to deal any damage to her. Additionally, ranged champions can extremely easily destroy Illaoi's tentacles, while melee champions are basically killing themselves just by trying.

Mordekaiser Is slightly less of a problem of course, mainly due to 1. He's a botlaner, so he tends not to fight melee. 2. He has way less delays and amazing synergy with item 3116, but even Mordekaiser suffers from the same health issues, especially when he's fed.

2 Comments

Photos of Ghosts10/21/2016, 9:20:49 AM3 votes

He's not a botlaner, he hasn't been since 2 months after the Juggernaut patch. He actually worked better botlane BEFORE the rework.

Joxcab10/21/2016, 9:17:48 AM2 votes

Illaoi is a juggernaut. Mordekaiser is a juggernaut/AP bruiser/fighter.

I'm not sure what you meant by buffs to Illaoi. She has not gotten almost any buffs, if I remember correctly. Actually, as for that matter, I don't think she has gotten a single buff since release.

Playing against them as melee is difficult, but that is the point. It is neither toxic nor impossible. They are good at fighting people in their zone, but are balanced by not having ways to keep people in the zone. Thus, they are both stronger and weaker in teamfights where allies can help with CC or enemies can CC them. If you think about it, the same applies to just about every other champion. Dueling an extremely good 1v1er/duelist/fighter by yourself will not go well. That is why you fight them with your team. Assassins excel in picking off stray, weak targets. Hence, protection hard counters and ruins assassins. Splitpushers excel in taking towers, but sacrifice the self-value in a teamfight (4v5) for that advantage. So on and so forth.