State of Rengar

Hi, I'm Casper Riven, currently sitting at diamond 5 on EU Nordic and East. As you may be able to tell i'm a riven player, but before that i used to play non-stop Rengar, which is the reason why i'm making this post. Also, sorry if my English is lacking in some areas, i'm not a native English speaker.

A while ago i made a strawpoll on /r/rengarmains, asking them about what should be done to Rengar. As it turns out, majority of the sub-reddit is not satisfied with how the rework turned out. In fact almost 80% of Rengar mains want him to either get reworked (19%) or reverted (60%). Since Rengar has always been one of the most hated champions by the community, i won't be surprised if most of you disagree. Right now Rengar has one of the lowest win-rates in the game (45.3%). With that being said, i would like to share my opinion on the matter and start a discussion about the current state of Rengar.

Q - In my opinion, one of the "most questionable" changes riot has applied to any champion in the history of league of legends. Now, maybe i'm just not well informed on this matter, but i can't think of a single reason for this ability to ever make it into Rengar's kit. Instead of adding counterplay, which was the main intention of the rework, all it does it make the champion even more clunky than he previously was (referring to the E delay change). Before the rework, one of the things that separated good Rengars from the bad ones was being able to animation cancel smoothly and fluently. The new version of his Q has 0 actual counterplay, all you can do is count on the fact that the Rengar is stupid enough to somehow miss it. Now, going back to what i said earlier, this ability is also very clunky. The animation is far too obnoxious to play around, and the dash you get from it is often does more bad than good, and has no actual good use besides increasing your range on jumping from bushes. TL:DR - the ability makes the champion less fun to play and doesn't add anything interesting to his kit.

W - Probably the best ability in his whole kit, although in spite of being pretty overpowered comparing to all of his other abilities, it still has some issues. His W does add a new interesting mechanic, and it works as a type of ability you have to get good at in order to play the champion successfully. With that being said, it doesn't have much actual counterplay, especially in the toplane, where you can trade any champion in the game without risking anything, and get out safely by just pressing one button assuming you have 4 ferocity stacks. This buff was obviously necessary, because there is no way the new version of Rengar could've possibly functioned with his old W. The last problem i have with this ability is that it's not designed for an assassin. If you decide to build sacrifice the defensive stats and go for a high-damage / glass-cannon build, this ability will rarely ever help you get out of a teamfight alive in the late game. If you actually want to prioritize it over the damage you get from your empowered Q, you will almost never be able to burst down your target, regardless of how squishy they actually are. TL:DR - Op in laning phase and early game skirmishes, but not useful late game unless you're a bruiser.

E - Since this is the only ability that didn't get changed, there's only one thing that i can complain about regarding this ability. Over a year ago, Rengar's kit got nerfed quite heavily when his E didn't have an instant cast. I'm aware that ever since, riot has worked hard on fixing this ability, and I've even seen a few Rioters look for feedback on the /r/Rengarmains sub-reddit which i obviously appreciate. With that being said, i can still name a few instances when i tried to cast my bola on someone who is walking towards my brush, but instead of hitting them it flew over their head. Although i don't consider this ability to be clunky, i don't see a reason for why it shouldn't be brought back to its initial state, seeing as how his kit is clunky enough as it is ( By initial state i mean no cast time, rather than a point-and-click slow/root). TL:DR - Despite all the efforts on fixing it, still seems a little clunky.

R - This is probably an unpopular opinion amongst Rengar players, but in my opinion his ultimate is not as bad as people make it out to be. The "camouflage" mechanic makes it so that you no longer can avoid any gank in the toplane, and i feel like this particular part of his ultimate is pretty balanced. Sadly, that's about it regarding all the good things about this ability. Firstly, i want to talk about the crit mechanic. In early game, this is not a bad mechanic by any means. Dealing a little extra damage in ganks / skirmishes doesn't hurt, but again, the issue lies in the late game. When games stretch out to 40+ minutes, Rengar's ultimate becomes nothing but a scouting / zoning ability. The crit you get from attacking the nearest target is virtually meaningless in 5v5 teamfights, seeing as how all the ad carries and casters are always going to stand behind their tanks. Now that in itself is not a bad thing, but let's not forget that Riot's intention with this rework was for Rengar to remain an assassin, rather than a bruiser or diver. TL:DR - Balanced in early game, useless in late game as an assassin ability.

Passive - The main problem i have with this change is the new ferocity system. One of the things that separated good and bad Rengars prior to the rework was stack management. That aspect of his kit is no longer a factor, due to the fact your stacks disappear after 6 seconds of being out of combat. This creates a smaller gap between experienced Rengar players and players who have just started playing / learning the champion, and it also makes it more annoying to clear / move around the jungle, since you're always pressured to keep your ferocity stacks. Secondly, Rengar now gains stacks, regardless of whether he hits his ability or not. Now, i think this is pretty self explanatory, a player should not be rewarded for missing his abilities, and, as i've said numerous times, it tightens the gap between skilled and experienced Rengar players. TL:DR - Passive now rewards you for being bad and lowers Rengar's skill cap.

That's about it for this post, I feel like I've expressed myself adequately, and i hope this post will maybe have an impact on the future of Rengar. Here is a link to a strawpoll about what should happen to rengar ( http://www.strawpoll.me/12974452 ). Feel free to vote, and whatever is on your mind in correlation to this post, feel free to share it in the comments. As I said previously, I'm only diamond V, so it's likely that my 60 IQ brain can't quite understand Riots thought process behind this rework but nevertheless, i wanted to share my opinion on the matter and hopefully at least start a discussion about what should be done to the current state of Rengar. That's about it for now, thanks for reading. Peace.