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About Volibear and overall balance.

Cujo··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 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

Cujo1 votes

Thanks for your answer! First I would like to say that in in theory, I too believe that Volibear is balanced. But I think there is a difference between what could be expected and what is mostly happening. He CAN be hard to kill and dish out lots of damage. When he actually has the chance to thrive as champion. More and more though, little by little, he has lost a great amount of viability. He's not who he once was now more than ever.

It seems like everything they've done, and all the resultant meta changes (most of which seem like they are supposed to guided at least a little bit by Riot), they've all moved away from him. It's all entirely general but still indirectly affecting him negatively. But you never see anything done that would substantially help him.

I do think he's a balanced champ or at least can be in theory. But when you put it in the context of the past year and a half, he's not. I wouldn't even suspect most people would consider him a B tier pick. If a champion is supposed to be so balanced then what to do when they fall so far off?

If things continue the way the past season and everything up until now has, Volibear will just have too much stacked against him. I just don't want to see him become really discarded and put on the back-burner like so many other champs. I don't want him to get changed a lot I just wish the game was a healthier place for him. Seems like when it comes to champs and champion kits the game has become so stale.

Kaokentake1 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

Cujo1 votes

You are saying that you consider Volibear, Shyvana and Renekton a melee carry? Alongside Fiora, Riven or Master Yi?

Also, Irelia is overpowered.

cZair1 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.

Cujo1 votes

I would want to see him getting a buff somewhere else. It would make early level ganks stronger and probably give him something pretty unique of his own but I don't want to see him forced into jungle. Also, I remember when his Q's speed buff was static at all level's and using it in lane was ridiculous. Of course that wasn't when ranged and/or mages weren't running amuck and laughing at melee mobility. Actually, ya that might be a substantial buff.

His Q only adds 150 damage on-hit. Not much at all compared to most other "next basic attack has bonus damage" abilities. Also, as a shaman Volibear's abilities with AP scaling are completely in sync with theme. Having 2 'thunderous claw' abilities could be cool but that would be added on top of a speed boost. His W's execute rewards tankiness while having a longer CD which in a lot of ways defines his kit. So we got AP, Bonus Health, then utility. What I was thinking of was hopefully some more utility or rather some new interactions Volibear can benefit from for having actually chosen(of the storm) to make the risky choice for going after that Lissandra and/or then successfully flipping her.

MrPerson10 said:

He also has plenty of counterplay since he doesn't promote safe play at all, in lane or otherwise - other laners and junglers (Lee sin, anyone?) have a lot less counterplay

Sometimes even using up a summoner spell like flash or ghost can even be necessary for you to do that. That's on top of it being a pretty caustic maneuver(potentially) in the first place. I'm not sure how Riot would feel about it but I would hope for that risk/cost to either be rewarded a little bit more or for the effort to be emboldened with something a little fresh. And for clarity I just wanna say I'm not saying I'd like using Summoner's specifically to land a Q to be rewarded, just trying to show how important that mechanic can be for Volibear. It's the only mechanic he has on a semi-regular basis but even then he can't use it like Udyr's Bear Stance, it needs to be a lot more selective.

Most knockback's or displacement's, even singed's now, will result in bonus damage or in knocking back other champs. Volibear's is the only that doesn't.

I do like how the Q procs sheen, so there could some pretty sweet AP interactions for it. Hell if anything let's TRIPLE THE DAMAGE! MUAHAHA! That would definitely still keep the over mobile flying damage machines running backwards for short periods.

Just saw on the PBE that Volibear's W was given half reduction if used on a jungle monster. Again, I hate that he's being pushed to only being a jungler. Why not let it receive that same benefit from killing minions? Plenty of champs have a farming tool like that and the CD on it is still pretty long but it has the lowest mana cost. It sometimes helps me last hit one minion while being able to quickly turn and bite another for the gold when it's out of melee range. And it still leaves you kind of vulnerable because your enemy knows you don't have your execute up for a while.

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