Renekton is currently rocking an almost 46.8% winrate and a WHOPPING...3.7% pick rate.. It looks like his damage is ridiculously underperforming, especially weird given that he's not too great for much else, and it seems to be chopping into his KDA potential.
What are some changes that can be made to meaningfully buff the crocodile without putting him way over the top?
woodvsmurph1 votesThe meta just really doesn't suit him right now. Ranged champs make better use of damage keystones to bully him more than before - preventing him from out-sustaining them in lane so easily as before. Mana issues are much less now with mana flow band. Even last year, other champs could match his sustain in lane - such as fiora spamming q to proc vitals. This year is no different - if anything, champs have just gotten more damage and/or sustain while renekton has essentially stayed the same. Meanwhile, tanks have such high base damage to allow them to farm that they effectively match renekton's damage output while building tanky from item one on. Thus, they are able to absorb more damage while still matching renekton's damage output.
Essentially, he's sandwiched out because he can't trade and out-sustain full damage champs; while from the other end, he can't out-damage or out-tank tanks. The only way he really can win is with effective and repeated early ganks or via massive outplays. Obviously, he still has matchups where he wins regardless of this, but these are few and far between compared to what they are meant to be. And while he can be very scary with the new runes in the right scenario, they either force him to build basically full tank or very heavily in damage at the cost of being too squishy to frontline teamfights.
Suggestions I've made include: longer scaling stun duration on w move armor pen to w instead of second proc of e add armor and mr to renekton ult; maybe something like 20/40/80 armor and 10/20/40 mr change abilities to scale off TOTAL AD but keep the same ratios uncap the healing on renekton q much lower cd spells at max rank; they should be approaching riven levels of spammability
It doesn't make sense for a champ that's designed to become a tanky teamfighter to scale ability damage off BONUS AD instead of total ad; that would be more suited to someone like riven. Renekton stun locks him in place for awhile AND it doesn't last all that long compared with many other cc. Due to a sometimes whacky hitbox on e and the long cd, renekton is actually barely more mobile than someone like darius in teamfights - especially if focused with cc. The armor pen he can get from his empowered e on the dice portion of slice-n-dice is clunky to use. Moving it to w would make it much more usable and it wouldn't make his laning phase any harder for opponents to deal with since you max w last. If champs like nasus can get percent armor pen and magic pen, more spammable damage via q during ult, and hp added to the resistances their ult provided; then why can't renekton get some resistances added to his ult? After all, they want him to be a tanky teamfighter. Again, this wouldn't be overly oppressive in lane; 20 armor and 10 mr at rank 1, 40 armor and 20 mr at rank 2 of ult. These would only come into play when he ults, so regular trades in the lane would be just like before.
FireDrizzle1 votesI think Renekton is strong vs tanks. I think this winrate is due to ranged champs being played a lot top and melee damage dealers(aside form assassins) being hopeless atm. You need to tank too much in a 5v5 to achieve anything as a melee.
woodvsmurph1 votesCan renekton lane fine against tanks that are not disgustingly op and in need of nerfs? Yes. But that's not the issue. Renekton is supposed to be THE champ at making it impossible for other MELEE toplaners to lane. They are SUPPOSED to be farming at tower... not doing so used to mean they'd get chunked big time. Do so repeatedly and you are: killed by renekton, forced to leave and miss a bunch of cs to your tower, or killed under your tower for staying to farm. This does not happen nearly as much as it SHOULD be happening. Most melee toplaners - if played on-par with a renekton - can farm just fine away from tower and duel him just fine early game. That is NOT supposed to happen. The reason he's meant to be so oppressive is because he falls off. He needs to be about 1 full item ahead by mid/late game to be as relevant in teamfights as say... a poppy, maokai, malphite, etc. So when he can merely lane against such an opponent and not destroy them 1v1 or at least deny them a bunch of cs and build a healthy lead without major outplay being required, he becomes useless very quickly. Not just in teamfights either, but in 1v1's as well.
Sure, you can build accordingly for either teamfights OR splitpush/dueling, but not really for both. Thus renekton is torn between... build pure damage to have ACTUAL kill potential in duels and teamfights (but be squishy as an adc) or build full tank after cleaver (but have no damage and STILL be less durable than a tank who has 1/2 an item less than you). So you see, he needs some help via buffs in one direction or the other. I think his laning can be bearable in most cases the way it largely is. So adding some better scaling to either make him a better splitpusher/duelist OR making him a better teamfighter is the way to go. I mean, it goes without saying that when half the melee champs get buffs (over many patches) to their early game in durability, damage, or both and renekton gets no buffs at all; he won't be the same early game bully he used to be while also still failing to scale comparatively to other champs.
Colton1471 votes
is also sitting at around the same winrate.
woodvsmurph1 votes
or
with transcendence and ult hat as secondary
the problem people have with fiora is that they build too damn squishy early on... people used to build cleaver on her for a reason; you need to tank an opponent's burst damage and THEN let lifesteal take over. If you are 1/4 hp before your lifesteal kicks in, they will kill you before your extra sustained damage and lifesteal matters. Thus, just like the riven players with no clue, you can't generally go death's dance first item like so many tried to do last season. Get some hp first, then get your lifesteal so you can actually make use of it.
Red Wreckage1 votes 
46% and dropping
