Break down of Rammus "mini rework"

TL;DR This mini rework to Rammus did not bring any new elements of gameplay to his kit, and is a straight up nerf in every aspect. There is no purpose to all these changes and they achieve nothing but make Rammus unplayable. Rito pls don't buff him to try make this garbage rework work, just revert, he was fine as niche ad counter pick.

Let's break down these changes and why they are bad.

new Passive - Spiked Shell removed Rammus no longer gains 25% of his armor as attack damage new Rammus’s basic attacks deal 8-20 (at levels 1-13) (+10% armor) bonus magic damage

Damage provided by passive is basically nerfed other than very very early game. Not much more to say about it.

Q - Powerball COOLDOWN 16/14.5/13/11.5/10 seconds ⇒ 16/13.5/11/8.5/6 seconds DURATION 7 seconds ⇒ 6 seconds **new is now a channeled effect ** MAXIMUM MOVEMENT SPEED155% ⇒ 150-235% (at levels 1-18) DAMAGE 100/150/200/250/300 ⇒ 100/135/170/205/240 SLOW 20/25/30/35/40% for 2 seconds ⇒ 40/50/60/70/80% for 1 second Radius slightly reduced, allowing Rammus to better navigate through enemies. Collision check rate increased, making collision more consistent. AREA OF EFFECT Unchanged. In other words, Rammus will knock back, damage, and slow enemies in a larger area than the collision radius. BUGFIX Rammus can now interact with Plants during Powerball

cooldown slightly buff late game is nice, but changing it into a channel is a straight up nerf. It is extremely easy to knock Rammus out of his Q now, and you can't use item actives during a channel. This means initiating as Rammus is going to be extremely hard since powerball is his only way of engaging.

W - Defensive Ball Curl COOLDOWN 14 seconds (starting when W is cast) ⇒ 6 seconds (starting when W ends) DURATION 6 seconds (unchanged) BONUS RESISTANCES 40/60/80/100/120 ⇒ 20 flat, plus 50/55/60/65/70% of Rammus’s total resistances **new CURLED UP Rammus slows himself by 60% while Defensive Ball Curl is active ** new OK Rammus can now reactivate Defensive Ball Curl to end the effect early new SPIKIER SHELL While Defensive Ball Curl is active, Spiked Shell is amplified by 50% THORNMAIL-ESQUE Enemies that basic attack Rammus while Defensive Ball Curl is active take damage equal to 25/35/45/55/65 (+10% Rammus’s armor) ⇒ Spiked Shell’s bonus damage (12-30 (+15% Rammus’s armor) while Defensive Ball Curl is active)

The damage and resistance change is straight up nerf to his early and mid game. The 60% slow just breaks his leg and made him useless. The enemy can ignore Rammus' existence after the taunt ended because of how much self slow he gets from he's W. He will never get in range to do damage to carries with the W slow on, but if he use Q his W will wear off. This also means that Rammus can no longer W-E for maximum damage, since if he W first the enemy will just walk out of his E range due to how slow he is. Having to E-W (btw since E is a channel you can't cast W immediately) means when you engage a fight, all you can do is Q+W(1, at most 2 auto reflection)+R(1 tick), then you become a walking minion with legs broken.

E - Frenzying Taunt removed PUNCTURING Frenzying Taunt no longer reduces the target’s armor by 5/10/15/20/25 new FRENZYING Rammus gains 20/25/30/35/40% attack speed for the duration of the taunt (1.25/1.5/1.75/2.0/2.25 seconds) new ALRIGHT The attack speed buff’s duration constantly refreshes while Rammus’s other abilities are active

From this ability you can see what Rito tried to do with this garbage rework: let Rammus gain some attackspeed with taunt, then use W to amplify the passive on hit magic damage. I have no idea why they think Rammus need to have attackspeed steroid(not to mention a shitty one) and do onhit magic damage, but with W slowing Rammus for 60% this attackspeed buff is meaningless, as the taunted target or whoever you wanted to hit will kite you to death before you can land a second or third auto.

R - Tremors DAMAGE PER SECOND 65/130/195 (+0.3 ability power) ⇒ 40/80/120 (+0.2 ability power) new ARCHITECTURAL INSTABILITY Tremors deals double damage to structures new SHAKY FOOTING Tremors slow affected enemies by 8/10/12% for 1.5 seconds. Subsequent tremors add an additional stack and refresh the duration (max slow: 64/80/96%)

Damage nerfed(just like literally every ability), now have an aoe slow that can stack up. Looks nice right? Until you realize W self slow makes it almost impossible to stay in range for the slow to stack.