Idea for a Keystone Change Involving PTA and HOB
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.
to abuse ? No thank you.