@Meddler: What would be required to allow Rammus' ultimate to scale off his armor?

darkdill·May 2, 2015·10 votes·758 views

Rammus' Tremors is somewhat bland in that it doesn't scale with our Armordillo's chief stat: Armor. It instead scales with AP, which Rammus (almost) never gets outside of Baron buff. Pretty lame.

I'm sure the thought of making Tremors scale instead with armor has crossed Riot's minds, but so far it hasn't been acted upon. Why? Would it make him super OP? If so, what would be necessary to make armor scaling balanced on Tremors?

17 Comments

The5lackerMay 2, 20155 votes

Nobody should be given full damage scaling on a defensive stat. Getting Offense and Defense in huge amounts is broken as hell, and Rammus's Ult's current damage is crazy as-is, even without AP.

News flash: Tanks don't get strong damage scaling.

It Hertz When IPMay 2, 20152 votes

{quoted}

Nobody should be given full damage scaling on a defensive stat.

Taric would like a word with you.

JustMyBassCannonMay 2, 20154 votes

Because Taric is such a paragon of perfect design philosophy.

It Hertz When IPMay 2, 20151 votes

Not voicing support or disapproval for his design, just noting that a precedent exists. Though personally I don't think his issues are with his abilities scaling off armor, but a general lack of design cohesion.

The5lackerMay 12, 20151 votes

AP Yi used to be precedent. Any design over 2 years old is worthless in judging the current state of Riot's design philosophy.

LifeCyclesTWAMay 2, 20154 votes

It wouldn't work. How do you reduce turret damage? Armor. What does Rammus's ult do? In addition to wrecking everyone around him, it wrecks turrets.

ACTIVE: Rammus creates an earthquake around himself for 8 seconds, dealing magic damage to units and structures within 300 units each second. Tremors does not hinder Rammus's actions. MAGIC DAMAGE PER SECOND: 65 / 130 / 195 (+ 30% AP) MAXIMUM MAGIC DAMAGE: 520 / 1040 / 1560 (+ 240% AP)

You can't make an ability that destroys turrets scale off of the 1 stat that prevents turret damage.

darkdillMay 2, 20152 votes

Why not? Riot's always looking for ways to make turrets even more of a PoS.

Old Man TeetoMay 12, 20151 votes

Just look at how high the base damage on that ability is. Sure it's over 8 seconds, but DAMN 1560 DAMAGE?!?! Shit son, this doesn't need no additional scaling.

aaronconlinMay 2, 20152 votes

I think it's fine as-is. Rammus' ult does a lot of damage even when he has no AP, and it's scary when he does.

LongHair FoxMay 2, 20152 votes

Rammus is in a good spot balance wise I would argue. Despite this he might feel underwhelming due to 2 things: His taunt can be qss'ed and his ult is a damage spell that is both a dot and an aoe.

Having a spell both be a dot and aoe means that it feels very underwhelming compared to what it actually is. In fact rammus's ult has one of the highest base damages and scalings of any spell not to mention aoe spell (which typically has lower scalings and base damages to make up for them being aoe). If you want to give his ult armor scaling you need to take away base damage but that just takes us back to square one. If you wanna make the ult feel good you might wanna make the duration shorter, the aoe tinier, or something similar.

DarkwindMay 2, 20152 votes

Waitwaitwaitwait. Rammus never gets AP? What are you talking about?

item 3157

darkdillMay 2, 20151 votes

Edited. I now say "ALMOST never gets AP". Satisfied?

Either way, I personally never get Zhonya as Rammus. Not really a great source of armor compared to a Thornmail.

DarkwindMay 2, 20151 votes

But it's the only way to make use of the only truly hysterical part of playing rammus- 1v1ing towers O.O item 3157 item 3056 item 3089 item 3285 item 3116