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About Volibear and overall balance.

Cujo·2/26/2015, 4:23:00 AM·1 votes·985 views

I'll try to keep this short:

Volibear is the true Jack of All Trades, Master of None. At least he's supposed to be? I remember when I started playing League that Volibear was known to be the true line of a balanced champion. And he was. I started playing League around pre-season four and even after his Q nerf he was still what he was supposed to be. A decent choice for his role but could be outclassed or his weakness could be exploited. And that was fine because he was strong when he got in and he could deal with counter strategy as long as he didn't give up too much. He was really useful for his team.

Look at him now and he's just not even a good choice anymore. Niche at the most. He just can't really deal with the environment League has to do so anymore. There's a lot more to that but like I said I'm not going to make this long winded. I know it's not much of an argument but I'm trusting most people know this has happened.

In a short while it will have been two years since Riot has even done anything to him. And it was a nerf.

I'm sorry but I don't just think it's a meta that generally discards him. He's fallen off and struggles to really find a place.

My question is, if he's supposed to be a role model then what does this mean about the direction the game has taken? Have they lost sight? Or if they've really just neglected him but still moved forward with how they feel the game should be does Volibear deserve to be buffed? He doesn't seem to perform the way they intended for him to overall. If they aren't going to work around balance should they restore balance by yet again changing/buffing another champ? He's not a mage and he's got mobility issues (which these days is kind of ridiculous, i think there's maybe 2 or 3 others who do). So probably not, even then though I'm pretty sure last season and up until now at least every other bruiser(actually every champion) has been at least been in the patch notes and Riot tried to give them something.

I could be wrong though. Please share your thoughts.

6 Comments

Kaokentake2/26/2015, 4:44:49 AM2 votes

i do not think volibear is a jack of all trades champion... not at all..

there are many roles in league such as long range poke champion, sustained damage ranged champion, sustained damage melee champion, burst assassin melee champion, burst assassin ranged champion, cc heavy support, sustain heavy support, highly mobile champion, tanky champion, etc

volibear is definitely not a "jack of all trades" champion when looking at his design / fantasy / concept. theres many "roles" that volibear does zero of

a champion much more jack of all trades in theme would be jayce. you could probably build jayce tank if you wanted to, he has no defensive steroids sure but he could be pretty damn tanky with full tank items while still having all of his utility and still being able to shockblast 500 damage at long range to poke etc. jayces kit can almost do everything, hes probably the most "jack of all trades" champion in league, his kit even contains CC and teamwide utility, just about the only thing his kit lacks is team healing

anyway, maybe you meant to say volibear is a "jack of all trades MELEE champion" such as he can can do almost everything a melee champion could be designed to do all depending on your items. he can be a versitile melee champion with several options, tank, semi assassin, or whatever, depends on the items you make.

sure you could probably look at things that way. no harm in that.

as far as volibear balance. i think hes very balanced in what he does. i feel his kit is super strong, he is a melee carry. he can build very tanky and still dish out tons of damage. if he builds damage he will be doing lots, if he builds tank he will be hard to kill. i dont see much problems with volibears balance

i think volibear is very very balance compared to every other melee carry / champion in the game

compare to irelia. volibear will probably throw out more aoe damage than irelia in a teamfight (with his ultimate), and be harder to kill / tankier (with his passive). irelia has a reliable stun and is faster / harder to catch in some ways. but all in all i feel volibear is a balanced melee carry comparable to irelia / trynd / riven / renekton / shyvana / mundo whoever you wanna look at

Kaokentake2/26/2015, 5:20:04 PM1 votes

your post seems to suggest volibear is weak and may need buffs.

i dont think hes weak. i think hes just as strong as irelia or renekton or shyvana or gnar which are all decently strong

volibears numbers are strong. any buffs too his kit could make him straight up OP.

i think the biggest problem with volibear right now is the kalista problem, and the kalista problem effects almost every melee champion in the game.

by design, a melee champion should be able to catch ranged champions in a 1v1, otherwise theres no reason to play a melee champion. volibear can currently catch every ranged champion in the game except kalista.

melee champions could always catch ranged champions, until kalista was made.

kalista has so much mobility that only 2 or 3 melee champions can actually catch her. those being yi, udyr, and maybe one more.

champions like volibear, garen, and darius can NEVER touch a kalista, ever

i believe volibear is just as powerful as irelia, shyvana, renekton. you dont need to buff volibear, he is as powerful as all the other mele carries

but you definitely need to nerf kalista. kalista invalidates almost every melee champion in this game

cZair2/26/2015, 10:56:37 PM1 votes

All I think is that they need to bring back his movement speed back up to 45 all across. That's it.

Also put some AP % on his Q and lower the damage on it a little.