An analysis to current contempt for Manaless/Energyless characters.

A lot of people have been complaining lately about why manaless or mostly resourceless champions, and i'm here to defend some of them. Some. Note: I am not a professional player, and this is entirely from a standpoint from a guy who has watched far too many montages, in-depth guides, professional matches, read pro-mobafire guides, and just about everything. This does not mean I am right, and I will repeat this at the end so people don't go ahead and flame me, but I expect it anyways. I am just giving some insight as to why they seem so powerful, and why some of them are deceptively hard or sometimes even weak, their given power, and counterplay.

: The little dude needs his resets and proper positioning. timing your jump, boulders, and boomerangs as well as consistently watching your w and current position is vital to play Gnar. His ult (when not in jungle) is extremely annoying to land successfully, but also game changing. He is pretty powerful, and needs to be tuned down a bit, but otherwise, what holds him down is that he builds tanky, but his mini form is his biggest weakness early game. Renekton and Irelia can heavily punish Gnar for his aggressive gameplay early on, and later on good AD carries can take him down before his CC threat as mega Gnar is close enough to devastate the team. He's quite complex, and sometimes overwhelming to newer players because of his various build paths as a tank.

: Brutally simplistic for one reason. You played a carry top lane. He didn't want you to. If Soraka is the cold shower of league, then Renekton is the rude awakening call to anyone who wants to play carries in the top lane like Fiora. He's built to punish characters who play aggressively, using his manaless harass to quickly dodge in and out of his opponent's control, stun them, burst them, then wildly dash away, or otherwise killing you. His early pressure is why he's so devastating to characters with weak early games or aren't pseudo-tanky into mid-game or raw tanks. Not only that, but he's been slowly dissipating over the past years in favor of more team-oriented characters rather than just a one-lane slaughterhouse, and the decay of top lane carries has been very prominent as well, being rare picks into comps where other characters take the job the top lane could have. In solo-queue or dyna queue where top lane carries are actually quite dominant? Oh lord he's the most annoying thing on earth.

: "Demacia." He's a bruiser tank, and yes, while annoying that he's good at almost any stage of the game, certain champs MOW Garen down relentlessly. Jinx and Kog'maw being his most prominent Nightmares. With kog'maw 's changes, and jinx's, he's pretty counterable, and while his true damage is powerful, its built for shutting down the opponent carries or the most consistent killers, usually priority targets that can shred his HP bar if not careful. Very useful, but not effective in most cases. his cooldowns also HAVE to be low, or else he'd be Darius with even LESS impact in any stage of the game. His ult doesn't reset, and his villain ability only works one at a time, forcing him to either focus his current target during a teamfight, if he's lucky, change targets after a kill, and continue, or simply try and poke at them while defending his team. he's mostly a bullet sponge who bursts a target, then spins off if the rest of the team focuses him down.

Each one of them has very defined weaknesses. If you see a first pick Renekton? Pick a tank into him. Malphite is extremely effective as his entire kit focuses on absorbing AD threats thanks to his passive bonus armor, and his ult denies a lot of engages Renekton might try to make for his team. Garen is as simple as picking a tank mower. Vayne, Ashe (if you go that route), Kog'maw, or Jinx. He's buff, but he cannot truly contest to their true damage and % max HP damage or % current HP rapid-fire tactics. Gnar? Irelia. dear lord, Irelia is crippling to Gnar. Renekton also works if you know him well enough, punishing him after he transforms, dashing in, stunning, Q burst, and dash out.

doesn't need a defense right now. He's currently got no true "weakpoint" unless his team is losing DRAMATICALLY or doesn't have knockup, and even then, a good yasuo can make insane 1v5 comebacks (looking at you trinimmortal). Riot is looking for a way to nerf him before he gets out of control, but its hard since the items he abuses are FORCED items. They aren't supposed to work on a champion like him, but they do. Like Tank ekko and Fizz, its abuse of items not being used as intended, but rather forced and proving to be a ball of stats that most players cannot overcome. His abilities are overloaded and honestly fair if used by an inexperienced or decent-ish player, but paired all together they can be overwhelming, and seemingly flat out broken if Yasuo gets ahead and keeps his lead with knowledge of his character.

. You simply don't see this guy because his impact power is high, but his skill curve is absolutely ridiculous. a good rumble is a great watch. sadly just not enough people like his design and kit enough to warrant a higher play-rate, and his skill curve leaves most rumble mains who do not group queue mostly trapped, as his carry power is quite reliant on his team knowing precisely what plays to make, and when to make those plays. An example of C9 vs APX, where Ray incorrectly places an important rumble ult, and even being the most fed member, falls prey to his team not recovering and making the smart decisions, instead aggressively dashing down the lane to get sneaky. Not only that, but his overheat actually prevents him using skills, something a lot of people forget makes him such a danger in close range where AAs matter.

Is just Kat. She's getting her rework, but she's a somewhat easy champion that rewards kills with instant CD resets by surviving her lane with heavily scaling AP assassin items, which is notoriously controversial. Hence the rework.

Kat's problem as AD, but in jungle form, and to an extreme. He's either a complete predatory god who will strike you down (lets be honest, we've all seen that rengar triple Q combo in higher-level play just delete the enemy AD carry), or flop up, and become a CC bot for his bolas. Hence the rework.

Is a special case not of cooldowns, oppressive power, or natural synergy, but rather... an assortment of abilities. Her abilities on their own are okay-ish, not great, but not bad. But she's a ball of power waiting to be unleashed through itemization. She's like Viktor in the way that on her own, she's pretty good, decent power, but items make her a complete monster. she scales hard a requires a lot of farm to do so, so her counterplay is usually enemy counterjungle control.

is another case because she is very similar to Shyvana, but with more utility, because her powers rely on her movement and control. if anyone remembers her release, everyone can agree on one thing. She. was. Insane. an unstoppable monster. Nowadays, she's more raw utility than anything, a jack-of-all-trades jungler who can build tanky, still deal decent damage, and counterjungle her opponents to starvation, usually forcing them to ask for their laners to channel CS towards them, or hunt down and kill rek'sai so they may farm in peace. counterplay is simply picking someone not prone to counterjungling, like Gragas, who can usually survive the duel, and still has the utility to scale into late game extremely well, regardless of farm.

has the exact same problem as Rumble in AD form. Riven's reliant on skilled play and good calls, as well as a team willing to sacrifice and let her do some carrying. Otherwise, her overall status a duelist stands, but her teamfighting is not the best. Her recent buff has everyone quite worried, as bringing back her high dueling potential might lead to the revival of Renekton which a lot of players forget, as he dominates a lane against an inexperienced Riven. Her cooldowns are low because without that outplay potential, she becomes simply a weak opponent, usually requiring CS to come back into the game.

has been also quite the masterpiece. his cooldowns are low, tankiness, and movement abilities. but they are also quite pivotal. They require Kled to stick to his opponent, and ONE opponent. Kled becomes useless even with his high tankiness and absurd damage because if he does not successfully mow down his target... well... He's dead. Without skaarl or with Skaarl on a cooldown or his courage not full enough, he's a sitting duck if his opponents can survive his burst. I also feel like Gnar personally does his job BETTER, being capable of rather than 1 man charging, taking on a whole group of opponents and keeping them controlled for your allies.

Finally, I'll show you my analysis of "HP use tanks" . Its obvious. They're built to be pure tanks or tanks that heal off of their opponents inexperience or lack of knowledge on the champion. Aatrox and mundo are countered by 1 item alone and Zac is slightly countered by it, but he's a more noob friendly and honestly quite safe pick. They provide the ability to soak up ridiculous amounts of damage or continue and assault or kite due to their overall regen. Morde is a special case, but he's best described by Stonewall008 "You either win gloriously, or burn in a hellish fire". He's one of the few that can be countered by simply avoiding a champion he's strong against.

Manaless characters have counterplay, but a lot of players just refuse to use the counterplay because they haven't tried expanding horizons and learning the tricks to overall overcoming them. I won't talk about Energy, because that is resources, and does require EXTREME detail even further than this.

Note: These are my thoughts as pure analytics. Not all of this is entirely written in stone, and there are probably players far higher than me who know even more about the champions and how to play as or against them. I understand if you personally differ, but these are mostly from a pure analytical standpoint, and I personally threw out my opinions on them because I understand favoritism does not result in a firm grasp of character knowledge. Hope you had fun reading, and tell me what you think! [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]