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Resource-less Vs. Energy

The Ecdysiast··3 votes·612 views

I've always wondered this; Why have resource-less champions at all, when they tend to be overbearing even compared to Energy-using champions? At least the latter can be played around, since they're given a mechanic that penalizes them if they miss the energy regen ability. (except in Lee's case, where his is AA's.)

Every champion without a resource could easily be put on Energy.

Why is everyone responding as if I meant Yasuo? I meant.. everyone.

Fury is a resource, dude who said Tryn.

Edit, copied/pasted from my response to a comment: Some examples of resource-less champions and how they'd easily be set to Energy: Kat would be EXACTLY the same as Akali, where she regains energy if she AA's the person with the mark from her Q (Those are basically the same ability). So she could keep up the spam, just like Akali, if she took the time to auto.

Riven's passive could work VERY well with energy, since it buffs her autos, make it so she refunds the energy from abilities when she lands an AA with the passive.

Yasuo, Make his Q cost energy and refund the cost entirely if it hits an enemy. Then , if he misses during a fight, he's penalized for it.

8 Comments

TehNACHO4 votes

{quoted}

By concept, different resources have different effects on champions.

Mana for example is a resource amazing at doing a shitton of things at once, sometimes in a continuous stream. Burst mages for example are the prime definition of this as they can often throw at least some spell at a solid pace for long periods of time before dropping their entire kit on the enemy's head. It also provides early game gating and late game freedom, as early game you may have to consistently worry about your mana, but by the later stages of the game you quite frankly do not care about it anymore.

Energy is a resource that, if you are careful about, acts essentially resourceless. You can not fire large amounts of your kit consecutively like a mana user can, but you can drop an entire rotation of spells on the enemy's head after pacing your abilities in a way that your fast energy regen kicks in over time. Energy lacks the ability to build out of this restriction however, so if an energy based kit is designed to max out on energy with only 2 rotations of the champ's spells, you're not going to ever get around it no matter how you build.

Cooldowns, finally, have two significant weaknesses depending on how the champion is built. If it's a champion like Garen who is restricted by longass cooldowns, or on the opposite end of the spectrum Katarina with weak ass spells, resourceless champs are often balanced around the fact that they perform subpar to energy and mana in very specific matchups. Katarina for example is straight up weaker than Talon in many raw damage scenarios if you consider that her ult is easily interrupted and Talon can rely on multiple auto attacks with far more power than the former.

The reason why resourceless champions exist is to put a different spin on a kit than energy or mana could allow. Yasuo's design quite frankly is impossible with mana or energy because his Qs are essentially auto attacks and as his main combat skill damn near mandatory towards his damage potential. Wind Wall was designed as a reactive skill and therefore giving mana or energy is nothing more than a damning limit to using the ability in emergency situations. And don't even get started on trying to make his E function off a resource.

Original post.

Stupendoes2 votes

Well some champs like Tryn and Gnar don't exactly have a mana or energy cost, but I'd say they're in a good spot. Same with Mundo. But I could understand a Katarina energy bar. But, I doubt it would do much too nerf her, if that's what you're looking for, tbh.

The Ecdysiast1 votes

Fury is a resource. I'll give you Gnar, but he still has the option to postpone his transformation. Mundo's resource is HP, which basically functions the same as a mana gate, but much more risky and only exists until the first back. Kat... Sure, why not Kat? Akali is basically the same thing without AOE.

MasterSomething2 votes

Most likely because they thought Energy wouldn't fit this champion at all. While it would be easier, would it make sense for Riven to have energy? Considering her spam-able combos, she could easily run out of energy lightning fast. Gnar also has his Rage bar, which makes him very unique, and quite a task manager. And Rumble is more or less the same, benefiting the player who maximizes his heat gauge without overdoing it.

Akali is SO HOT2 votes

Champions that don't use mana are like that for a reason. Some have no resource and some may use energy. This mostly applies to champions that have to rely on spamming their spells over and over again to get the job done instead of doing short rotations or auto attacking for their damage. Energy champions are very well designed from this standpoint because if Akali Kennen LeeSin Shen Zed could spam their abilities indefinitely then they would be overpowered. It gives them flexibility to spam their skills without having to worry about running out of mana and not being able to use them anymore but still inhibits their uses and forces them to play well around the costs.

This can also be said in a similar way for resourceless champions. Good design from this standpoint can be seen through champions like Katarina Mordekaiser Riven Yasuo because if they had an energy to manage at all they would be completely useless due to how much they need to spam their skills. In return they have certain weaknesses that make up for having no resource.

Bad design can be seen through champions like Garen Gnar Renekton Tryndamere because they don't have a large enough of a weakness to make up for the fact that they have no resource to manage (or a resource that requires minimal management). There is no reason, for example, that Gnar should be resourcless because he is very safe during laning phase and can endlessly spam his skills to push you out in a very braindead sort of way without having to worry about not being able to spam his skills. Garen is the same way. Not to say that these champions are overpowered or anything but that them having no resource is not very well designed.

The Ecdysiast1 votes

I've actually got an answer to all of that.

Kat would be EXACTLY the same as Akali, where she regains energy if she AA's the person with the mark from her Q (Those are basically the same ability). So she could keep up the spam, just like Akali, if she took the time to auto.

Mordekaiser isn't resourceless. He's simply the only HP-cost champion with a shield to make up for it. HP cost champs have a gate until maybe the first back, which isn't much but still exists.

Riven's passive could work VERY well with energy, since it buffs her autos, make it so she refunds the energy from abilities when she lands an AA with the passive.

Yasuo, Make his Q cost energy and refund the cost entirely if it hits an enemy. Then , if he misses during a fight, he's penalized for it.

Korillo2 votes

{quoted}

I've actually got an answer to all of that.

Kat would be EXACTLY the same as Akali, where she regains energy if she AA's the person with the mark from her Q (Those are basically the same ability). So she could keep up the spam, just like Akali, if she took the time to auto.

lol rip Katarina if this were to ever happen

The Ecdysiast1 votes

why RIP? It would also give incentive to have some build diversity besides flat damage. As it stands, she has two AD scalings on her abilities that are never used.

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