Idea for a Keystone Change Involving PTA and HOB

Usernamehere1235·12/17/2019, 10:10:08 PM·6 votes·6,011 views

Hi there guys, I'm a top lane main who plays mostly bruiser/fighter based champions, and some of these champions indeed use Press the Attack. I also have some experience trying Hail of Blades on these champions, as well as a select few champions in other roles. My arguments for why I think changes are necessary stem from my personal experience using these runes and noticing potential shortcomings.

With that out of the way, I'll jump right in.

Press the Attack has always been a pretty neat and unique keystone. It has a really satisfying use case (unlike less noticeable keystones like Summon Aery) and also feels like a super relevant part of certain champions' kits (such as Camille). My issue stems from one specific mechanic that Press the Attack has: the % total damage increase on proc. The issue with this specific mechanic is that it takes away a part of the personal effects a keystone normally has, and converts that into a team-oriented rune. This isn't inherently bad, but on a keystone like Press the Attack, I think it's misplaced. Most of the champions that use the rune aren't interested in increasing their team's damage on the opponent; they're more interested in doing as much damage as possible themselves.

Hail of Blades is relatively related to Press the Attack in its function: put out high bursts of damage utilizing auto attacks. Few champions can even consider taking it, and usually there are other options (Conqueror / PTA) that work just as well if not better, and for that reason I consider Hail of Blades to be a relative failure even if it has a super cool mechanic.

So my suggestion (which is perhaps a bad idea) is to merge the two runes into one keystone: that is, you get increased auto attacks and a three or four hit proc that does increased damage. Clearly this would have to be retuned; if they were both combined as they exist now it'd be broken. But by changing the damage of the proc, removing the % team damage increase, and tuning the attack speed increase, I think that this new keystone would be much more satisfying to use. And more importantly, it might end up being a better competitor to Conqueror, which many champions take as of now even when it's not optimal simply because there aren't many competing runes in the melee fighter space.

Let me know if you guys think this is a bad idea, or if there are other changes to these runes that you think would better serve the game.

11 Comments

iiGazeii12/17/2019, 10:22:45 PM8 votes

Are you suggesting something like this:

Shatterer Basic attacking an enemy champion grants 50% bonus Attack Speed for your next 3 basic attacks within 2 seconds of each other. If all three of these attacks hit the same champion, that champion takes 20-90 bonus adaptive damage and takes 10% more damage from you for 6 seconds. 6-second out-of-combat cooldown.

Drezden12/17/2019, 10:21:49 PM5 votes

I think my major issue with Hail is meant for short burst of damage on enemy champ...but while last hitting doesn't allow for a reset...so it stays on cd way longer than it should. Imagine if lethal tempo cd kept resetting just for autoing a minion :P

Hail of blades however I look at it more in the concept of....lethal tempo = late game strong (with some early), hail of blades = early game strong, (with little strength late game)... IF they would fix the laning issue hail of blades has!

PTA I agree people overlook the whole "champ takes bonus damage" and mostly is overlooked at for "how easy is it to proc with this champion" (looking at you lucian) I do think the conq changes override it wayyy to much, since its just...more self damage.

Every season it feels like the make a keystone more caster base when it used to be melee base (look at you, dark harvest s8 vs s9) and I don't like that (an I am mostly a caster player) Imagine if they made spells start stacking PTA, and then made when PTA is fully proceed it does like the font of life rune for your team, where anyone who attacks it gets healing from that target. That is basically what they did to conq, sept for yourself haha.

Idk maybe since PTA was initially meant to replace Fervor of battle, and now that is replaced by conq, they could change PTA to double down more on the TEAM WIDE impact rather than the self impact. If they made PTA a team version of conquor, that isn't as strong for you but makes your team stronger, it might be useful to take on some supports

Mc Raton12/17/2019, 10:25:51 PM3 votes

a better runes for champions like Vayne to abuse ? No thank you.

LightswornLance12/18/2019, 12:41:03 AM3 votes

One problem with Hail of Blades is that it's pretty buggy. Example on Graves one of the few champions that could actually get benefit from it. There is a bug where his E which is an auto attack reset doesn't count as one and takes up one of your autos.