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Five Reasons and One Emotion Why Blitzcranks new W needs to go

TrueECP·4/25/2015, 10:45:08 AM·43 votes·3,535 views

Hello!

This got a LOT longer than I intended when writing it, so if you'd like a shorter read type ctrl+f for "in closing" and you'll head the bottom couple of paragraphs. Please excuse the length and some of the emotional stuff. I'm a veteran with PTSD who did technical stuff in the service, I really love video games and I started to cry a little twoards the ends of writing this.

Thanks!

I'm a long time Blitzcrank player. He's been my favorite champion for a very long time now and I heard that his W had been changed so I popped back in for some games after taking a break and, well, I was kind of shocked at how little his new W seems to do. I hear that he was having a really high winrate for some reason, but the changes seems a bit over the top. Blitz has always had a very variable winrate that had more to do with the popular champions in the meta than his core kit.

Point 1 - The Chase is Un-Real

I would press w in spawn and watch my speed scale down and by the time the spell was half over the speed boost was, depending on rank, only about 10-15 points above my unbuffed speed. As an experiment I would follow my ADC and press w to see how much distance I could close before the slow hit and the overall distance gained was very small! Maybe about as big as tumble, but then the slow hit! It's like I gained somewhere around 100-200 depending on the rank, but then lost ~150 from the 30% slow.

Additionally,

As a Blitz support keeping on the enemy and autoing for that extra little bit of damage was always very important. Now, I feel as though my Q is this only thing that matters as very soon after the fight starts I am unable to maintain either a damage output or even stand next to a character thats moving.

Point 2 - Non-Support Blitzcranks no longer viable, even in theory

Blitz is a support. That is the primary thing he is used for, but I've played him in every lane, at least a dozen or more times. With this change to his W, top and jungle Blitzcrank are no longer viable. Riot has said on a number of occasions that they don't want to enforce the meta, that in theory a champion could go to any lane.

For Blitzcrank, this is no longer true. While I suppose you could still mid because, I can't really recommend it because, in a 1v1 situation Blitz's Q doesn't really do anything unless you can get them under your tower (you won't) and without an ADC to punish them for standing in the creeps, and therefore closer, there is no way blitz can reasonably interact mid. Then there is the nerf to the attack aspects, that blitz needed mid to clear creeps.

Speaking of clearing creeps, lets move to jungle blitz. This is huge. So huge that I am surprised that the attack speed only lasting for 5 seconds wasn't even mentioned in the notes I read! I read them a couple of times and my first thoughts were "so, the attack speed is an 8 second buff, but you are slowed for 1.5 seconds in the middle? What?" and then I was like "that doesn't make any sense, so why didn't they mention it"

Blitzcranks clear times were already nothing to write home about, but now they are downright abysmal.

Top lane blitz also can't expect to duel now because this change to his W allows him to be easily kitable and his ability to fight in a short skirmish is just not there anymore. Even if the change was a simple "here is the old W, but now it lasts 5 seconds instead of 8", which would be cutting the power of the spell by 40%, would be preferable to this, because then toplane champions wouldn't have that window to mess with him while he is powerless to interact. The only real way to keep the 1.5 second slow from creating inevitably terrible trades would be to not use your Q and E during actual fights, but to save them to compensate for your own abilities weakening you!

I know Blitz is mostly a support, I only have maybe 15 games as mid blitz, 30 as top blitz, and another 30 as jungle compared to the 1200+ I've done as support, but I feel as though these positions are now closed off as even semi-reasonable "trollpick" options.

Blitzcrank is a lovely, flavorful champion and deserves better than this.

Point 3 - It doesn't actually do anything

This new version of the speed boost is, I think, significantly worse even if there wasn't a 1.5 second 30% slow attached to it. Maybe 100-200 extra distance over the course of 2 second, as anything past 2 seconds has a negligible amount of bonus speed. It felt very bad to use. I was constantly apologizing to my team mates in the first game because I didn't know what to do. I could not escape the enemy team. Blitzcrank went from a champion whose only way to be free from the enemy was to run away. Now he has no skill that can be used to escape. I know the patch notes said they wanted a High Risk High Reward playstyle from his new W, but after using it is seems like a High Risk No Reward.

Point 4 - Marginal Advantage as it relates to skill choice in League of Legends

Skills in league of legends fall, generally, into 3 categories.

Need to Max 1 pointers

Tarics stun used to be a 1 pointer. A skill where a single point is enough to capture the majority of what the skill provides you and the team. The change from a flat 1.5 stun to a 1.1/1.2/etc. The only thing that scaled on old taric stun was the damage. Big deal. Many champions have these kinds of skills where they reach their realistic "full power" from their non-ultimate skills between levels at level 9 and 13, 5 points in one/two "need to max" skills, 1 points in their dump skill, with delays at 6/11 for a point in ult.

Riot has even changed champion skills from "need to max" to "1 pointers" relatively recently with the case of Ashe. The gold scaling being set to a flat 3 at every rank eliminated all those great CASH builds that fed early game before not doing much late game, but this was a change that made Ashe a better character for the kind of people who played her normally.

Blitzcrank, somewhat ironically, had no "Need to Max" skills

Before the change, the marginal bonus for Q was 1 second off a 20 second cooldown and a small damage boost. E was a second off the 9 second cooldown, which is cool, but it doesn't matter till the late game. His W had the biggest bonus, but the effects basically doubled over the course of 5 levels, so 50% of the power of the skill was at rank 1, with a 12.5% boost per rank (I forget the numbers exactly, but I believe this is right). It was nice, but hardly a game breaking difference. My friends in plat and diamond would make fun of me for maxing W first instead of E on the premise that you could get a second e in an early skirmish more easily on a 7, instead of 9, second cooldown. The E has even more of its power in its first rank as a 9v5 means that you've only improved the skill by about 38% with four skill points. The Q is even worse from a marginal advantage standpoint as the 20 vs 16 is only a 25% increase in the cooldown. The damage increase is negligible. The actual mechanic does not change. Blitz's Q has, by this metric, about a 2% increase in his Q per skill point spent.

Most characters will, within the first 4 levels, grab one point each in their 3 skills. Many in the first 3 levels because the marginal advantage in leveling up a skill is VERY VERY RARELY more advantageous than getting one of your other abilities. This is because, even though their margins are better than blitzcranks, the skill provides more value than level 2 of another.

This is no longer true for Blitzcrank which leads us into the very rare (in lol) skill:

Max Last

Blitz W, as it exists, does so little that the tiny amounts of bonus damage provided by Q, or the possibility of more E, is of more value than having a 3rd skill.

Point 4 - History of Blitz Nerfs

When his passive was changed I groaned, because I knew that it would no longer be up for basically every engagement. I knew this was too good. People had discovered the high mana builds that I loved so dearly (I commonly buy a tear first back, and a second one after I get my archangels) The way that they tuned his passive wasn't to make it so weak that it was effectively useless, but to change its cooldown. Why was a rework the solution here before simply adding to the cooldown of the W or shaving a second off of the duration?

Point 5 - You've just made the champions more dependent on his signature skill.

Without W as a way of applying pressure, scout the map, do other blitz things, you've pushed even more of blitzcranks power into his Q. Power, here, as defined by how relevant each of his skills in his kit are to his effectiveness in a fight, not a measure of overall strength. Blitz has no ability to competently roam. Cannot chase. His E and R are only useful once a fight has started, so now his Q is it. For all the talk that blitz only matters if his Q lands, this change just makes that more so

Point 6 - It just doesn't feel fun

Thats kind of all.

It just doesn't feel fun.

Blitzy is supposed to be my little speed demon, running around the map, keeping the enemy team scared because of my grab, and applying indirect pressures

Now though? It just doesn't feel fun.

Rito please, make it feel fun again.

Revert this change.

In Closing

I feel like the points I spend in W are a waste. That the mana I use on W is a waste. That I miss the playstyles that his old W allowed for. This change to a "high risk" skill has been a mistake as it removes a startling amount of blitzcranks identity as I elaborated earlier.

Please revert the change. Double the cooldown or something. Have it be a flat 20 seconds, 12 even if blitz builds 40% CDR, and blitz will have this windows of opportunity that you want him to have.

Hell, pull an Annie E and cut the durations and cooldown in half. Keep the mana cost the same so spamming it will drain you. You'll have blitz have his "slow" periods because the spell isn't up, but instead of it being because the skill itself slows you the skill is just off quicker since it only lasts 4 seconds at a time instead of 8.

Actually, you know what, after all this I have a wonderful, simple solution for you.

You guys can have this one for free.

"When blitzcrank fires his Q, his speed boost goes away" (let him keep the AS because otherwise you hurt fringe builds") This means that those "blitz runs close, fires q, runs off" no longer happen, but his ability to have all the other relevance is still around.

Also, thank you for everyone that got through this thing! I know it was long, but, well, Blitzcrank is my baby. When my buddy got me into league he told me to only buy one champion at the start and to save the rest of my IP for runes. After 2 weeks, I fell in love with blitzcrank and played him from level 8 to level 30, nothing but him, around 200 wins, so about 400 games, even before I reached level 30. All blitzcrank. all the time.

Writing this now, and maybe its just because its 4am and I've spent about 2 hours writing this, tears are streaming from my eyes. Blitzy is my champion. I've never met anyone in my circle of friends who can play him like me. I get compliments from people for it. It's a small, stupid part of who I am as a gamer and I don't think I can do it anymore. I've loved blitzcrank from the very first game back when I just referred to him as "metal pudge" and I just don't think I can play him like this.

I'm sorry.

Thanks to anyone who read this,

-Justin

65 Comments

Sightless664/25/2015, 3:30:40 PM17 votes

Why was a rework the solution here before simply adding to the cooldown of the W or shaving a second off of the duration?

Neither of those really solve the problem. The issue they wanted to fix with the W is that when he's ahead (particularly in lane), he can just W up to an enemy, knock them up, and then hit an easy grab. He doesn't have to try to use his hook when he's ahead, because the W allowed him to ignore it. A longer cooldown or a slightly lower duration doesn't impede his ability to easily run up to me and punch me.

For all the talk that blitz only matters if his Q lands, this change just makes that more so

That was the intention of the change. The idea is that Blitzcrank's grab gives so much potential power, that he shouldn't be able to pressure lanes without needing it. You can argue that this isn't a worthwhile motivation (I'd disagree), or that it goes too far and/or wasn't the best way to accomplish this (I would absolutely agree with that), but it was the purpose of the change.

With that said, I don't like how the W has turned out.

qetzel4/25/2015, 2:55:30 PM8 votes

  1. Good reason

  2. The chase IS unreal. That was the point of the nerf, I think. The W is now "reposition for Q" rather than a possible "Run away if you got too close or missed a Q on a priority target". There were also cases of Blitz just running in and pressing E. This probably was not desired. I suppose that Blitz not being able to get that little extra damage off by sticking to his enemy could have been a necessary side effect to the nerf.

  3. Sometimes off builds need to be sacrificed for game health and champion balance. It is a sad fact but I don't see a way around it.

  4. It is great for repositioning for the Q or getting a small amount of speed to close into range. If you, at max Q range, run to one side quickly you may be able to hook a carry around the tank. This is slightly easier than before as the movement speed is more sudden. It is worth taking.

  5. Just increasing the cooldown or lowering the duration would not have solved the problem, really. It would have limited his roaming instead. All it would do for the problem would make it so that Blitz just tries to combo less often.

  6. Yes. Unfortunately, if you can't remove much power from a champion's signature skill you are left with making the rest of the kit much weaker. Blitz has such a good Q that he has to have less power in the rest of his kit. This sucks but it is the price to pay for the hooks.

Context: Blitzcrank by nature is a champion all about risk vs. reward. Land Rocket Grab on a priority target and you've single (robot) handedly won an entire teamfight - miss, and you're out of a sizeable cooldown and inviting your opponents to a big ol' counter-attack party. For a champion so steeped in this mindset however, Overdrive's up-time mitigated Blitzcrank's risk a little too much, leaving enemies still fleeing in fear even after a grab gone wide. Shortening the windows 'Crank has to make his big plays while increasing his burst of speed pushes this dichotomy further, but beware running out of steam if you misplay the moment. From the patch notes 5.7

Crett4/25/2015, 10:47:24 AM6 votes

I have only one thing to say. item 3069 item 3800item 3284 (+ MS Quints and masteries)

The slow will be near completely unnoticable, I swear. As a person who played the heck out of Blitzcrank around his rework time, this was able to close the void in my heart

Earl Eulrich4/25/2015, 1:46:55 PM5 votes

Well, i agree on the AS-part, he really should get a buff to his base-as or make his autoattacks mark the target so that the passive of his ult always hits the target he is hitting (though this could be a little strong). For the MS->Slow I think this is absolutely necessary. With the old version you just could roll all over anything as soon as you had a slight lead, as it had been fairly impossible to ever get away from Blitz steamrolling towards you. Now there´s a clear chance to play around it and hook-accuracy is more required (instead of just rushing into faces first).

TrueECP4/25/2015, 11:06:39 AM4 votes

One more note,

This is a skill, a complete skill, of which most champions only get 3, that is almost solely about making the champion faster.

It should do that well.

Two Right Wings 4/25/2015, 4:37:08 PM4 votes

I've seen blitz cranks using as it was designed to be used as a burst engage tool since the Nerf went live. What his W isn't doing anymore is providing -infinite chase -excessively low risk high reward roam -complete river and vision control through all of lane phase

I'm am very satisfied with these changes. They for thematically and from a balance perspective. Blitz was one of the most frustrating supports to play against because of how he was essentially supporting both mid and not while invading without ever missing exp while also bring able to zone you from following with his hook threat

Kieferr4/25/2015, 11:05:41 PM3 votes

-oppressive laning phase for his enemies -low risk high reward style of play ( this new W adds that risk to make him healthier) -has ability to singlehandedly win a team fight in one ability -55%winrate, which dropped to 50 after this Nerf, and 50% is still considered incredibly powerful. Yeah, I really can't sympathize with you. Blitz really deserved thus Nerf, stop crying and handle it

Theorchero4/25/2015, 6:32:54 PM3 votes

I don't mind the slowing mechanic, I dislike that the movement speed bonus is shit because it falls off so quickly that you lose ground on first rank W.

Solidair34/25/2015, 6:49:17 PM3 votes

I think it was designed to be an overall nerf. His moment of weakness was too hard to exploit and so they made it bigger.

Elphrihaim4/25/2015, 4:40:22 PM2 votes

Hmm...

I'd say that removing the slow afterward would be a fine thing to do; and definitely agree on needing to increase the timer for the AS.

It seems really weird to have that large of a drawback, to me.

I don't even play Blitzcrank anymore and I think that adding a slow to the ability ruins his fun.

I know it certainly ruins the fun in facing against Blitzcrank, though I did really like seeing the duration of the speed go down (because W->run->E->R ... -> Q was very frustrating).

A Miss Fortune4/25/2015, 5:09:51 PM2 votes

Blitz is an extremely overpowered champion. His damage and crowd control makes him insanely difficult to ever fight if he's not played as support, even then he does way too much damage.

He is rarely played outside of support, but he is so difficult to actually lane against or just duel in general. I'm surprised Blitz top isn't really popular in particular.

TenSlashTen4/25/2015, 6:51:58 PM2 votes

the W nerf was to stop blitz from walking up and knocking up into hook with no counterplay.

This can still happen they just have to literally stand there for you to do it now. So basically he still crushes idiots.

But against anyone else you actually can run away.

Blitz was supposed to be a decent initatior for a team that lacked it. He wasn't support to be some garunteed pick that if ahead could completely crush and zone out chances of making a come back. A good blitz can agree when you're ahead theres really no way to stop him.

But at least if you're even theres plenty of chances to land hooks or dodge hooks.

Dealing with blitz helping an aggro jungler invade was really the worst I've played with an against it lol.

Yeah it sucks. But if you were an eve main like me, you'd be so used to being nerfed you just expect it at this point. Be glad they didnt shave off 25% of your damage on an ability for no reason other than because their rework was shit and they know it so they fall back to nerfing numbers.

SgtCrispy4/25/2015, 1:59:35 PM2 votes

Non-Support Blitzcranks no longer viable, even in theory

I don't think the W change affected this.

magee1014/25/2015, 10:54:47 AM1 votes

You can actually counter act the slow a bit, If you see yourself in a bad spot, and hit that W just a second or two after being hit, you can outrun anyone but super kiters long enough for boots of mobility to kick in. If you are truly support blitz you probably should have a Talismen of ascension, save the speed boost for when your W runs out. There are other such tactics (such as a Mikael's crucible on yourself to heal and remove the slow debuff) that can be used to counteract the new W thing. I personally see it as a gift, blitz as he was was stupidly annoying, he could not only catch up to pretty much anyone unless they had wall jumps (at which a good Q just cancelled that anyways) but he could out run anyone as well. Now it is a bit easier to catch up with the guy, but you still have to whittle through his health and mana shield. You want sticking power? Try Frost Queen or Randuun's as part of your build.

I liked your discussion however, it was well thought out and presented, there is just things you can do to get around the new skill that is built into the game already, just need a little forward thinking and strategic thought :) See you on the Rift!

Rico Nasty4/25/2015, 4:18:33 PM1 votes

The thing about Blitz is they nerfed him in all the wrong places. The only actual nerf he needs is the range on his grab.