Theorycrafting for Runes: Reforged - PRESS THE ASSAULT (And Bonus! SUMMONER SPECIALIST)
Hello and welcome to the first of my theorycrafting threads for the Runes Reforged Update.
In this first thread, we'll look at the Precision Keystone: "PRESS THE ATTACK" in its current incarnation and which champs should be interested in running it.
Remember, there are 138 champions and 15 Keystone Runes, so for a Keystone to break even in usability, it needs to be a primary option for at least 9-10 Champions.(9.2)
PRECISION: PRESS THE ATTACK Effect:
Press the Attack grants 1.5(Ranged) or 4(Melee) AD per each autoattack, resetting after 4 seconds. Switching targets, halves your stack count.
Who would want this? This is a gradually growing AD Steroid. As with most AD Steroids, it pairs well with attackspeed - Champs that have Attackspeed buffs in their kit can more quickly stack the Keystone and get a stronger effect faster. Autoattack Resets are also useful.
In addition, you should have high AD ratios on your skills, so after building up a bonus, you could make good use of it.
In my opinion, here are the Primary users of PRESS THE ATTACK.
ASHE Armed with the ability to permanently stick on her foes via an icy grip, Ranger's Focus allows Ashe to boost her stack gains, even assuming she isn't allowed to quintuple her stacks via 5-arrow hits. After getting a nice high charge through focus, Ashe can then unload a boosted Volley and wreck an entire team while continuing to ice down her target. Overall, PRESS THE ATTACK is a very appetizing option.
EZREAL Since it's likely On-Hit effect is the aspect that procs Keystone stacking, and that Ezreal builds up so much free attackspeed, it's only natural that such a powerful growing damage steroid would be fabulous on him. PRESS THE ATTACK is a natural fit.
JAX Let's face it. If there's one guy who bonks you over the head as fast as possible while being ridiculously sticky and safe, it's Jax. I mean, his passive -is- Relentless Assault. Jax, say hello to your new Keystone, PRESS THE ATTACK. Play nicely.
JINX Able to heat up via Pow-Pow and then switch over to Fishbones and start splashing massive damage on everything unfortunately near your target. Dead target? Find a new one to shoot and keep half your stacks. Other Keystones may work, but PRESS THE ATTACK is right up there.
KINDRED With various attackspeed boosts, able to grant herself 4 seconds of invulnerability, and an autonomous partner that makes the most of Kindred's ever-mounting AD, PRESS THE ATTACK could be the nudge Kindred needs to be considered playable again.
KOG'MAW Innate attackspeed plus a trend to build more, an impressive stickiness, and the ability to use bonus AD effectively in artillery shells should the enemy slip away, make the Keystone PRESS THE ATTACK an excellent choice, even if Kog has other options.
LUCIAN By alternating between skills and Lightslinger, Lucian can stack PRESS THE ATTACK twice as quickly, and when the enemy is slipping away, The Culling gets a nice bonus from the building force.
MASTER YI Have you ever played as, or fought a Master Yi? There is no conversation to have here. PRESS THE ATTACK, after pressing RQ. An 80% attackspeed boost coupled with periodic double stacks, will transition Yi into an absolute monster.
NOCTURNE A valid choice for the usual slash-happy Nocturne. PRESS THE ATTACK, combined with Shroud of Darkness, will make it all the easier to take out prey.
OLAF Olaf is capable of freaking out on his enemy, becoming CC-proof, and throwing Undertows that utilize his full AD. Using PRESS THE ATTACK to carve up an enemy will be a fully valid and potent choice, even if Olaf has other options in his toolbox.
QUINN Hunting fast and vicious with a barrage of attacks, including an 80% attackspeed steroid innate, PRESS THE ATTACK will be quite vicious and tough to escape. Even with other potential choices, it's still a good one.
SIVIR As long as Sivir's Ricochet doesn't cause her to lose focus via interaction with the rune, this will be a great choice for her - allowing her to deal ever-mounting damage to absolutely everyone who dares draw close. PRESS THE ATTACK is a fine choice.
TARIC The dark horse of the PRESS THE ATTACK Keystone. As long as he has the mana, Taric relies on getting in close and walloping the enemy over and over. With the ability to drag out fights using heals, shields, stuns and invulnerability, and the attackspeed to stack like crazy, this Keystone heralds Taric's triumphant return to the Rift. He's a king of 1v1, so Arrogant bruisers beware!
TRISTANA With Rocket Jump to stick, extreme range later in the game, a 110% attackspeed steroid, and explosive charge, it's like this keystone was made for Tristana. I imagine most will take PRESS THE ATTACK.
URGOT High AD Ratios. Purge. 3.0 Attackspeed. If it works, Urgot should never be without PRESS THE ATTACK. If not, there's always other Keystones.
XIN ZHAO We're all waiting to see how the new Xin shakes out, but on paper, PRESS THE ATTACK looks like a good fit.
Primary Matches: 16 It seems to be a good option.
If those are the champions that get high benefit, who could potentially get at least something out of it?
Aatrox Able to dish out hits over time and with an ultimate that builds attackspeed, it is not ideal for Aatrox but may be serviceable.
Bard Bard's stacking may be limited at any time due to his meepcount, so this might not be the ideal Keystone.
Camille While not overflowing with matching stats, Camille's ability to stick to an enemy and force a drawn-out fight is hard to top. If she starts a fight with Hookshot, this Keystone may prove a nasty surprise as it will build quite a few stacks quickly and then boost her skill damage.
Kled Violent Tendencies may infact make Kled quite able to use this Keystone, but another option will probably be a better fit.
Diana Diana gets some nice attackspeed boosts from Moonsilver Blade, but she mainly builds AP to raise her damage. This could potentially be a surprise alternate build.
Draven Blood Rush provides him with a good way to get going, but the need to continuously catch axes with a 2 second pause will slow stacking down. There are possibly better options, but maybe not. Could be a primary user.
Elise With the ability to poke from a distance and build stacks, then suddenly close the gap and unleash a nasty barrage of high-potency attacks, she is only held back by having primarily AP scaling. It may be an interesting alternate build.
Fiora Bladework, Lunge, and nice high bonus AD ratios make Fiora an interesting fit for this Keystone, though there may be better options out there.
Irelia With Irelia's incredible stickiness through bladesurge and Tenacity, this particular Keystone just might work out - but there are probably better choices available.
Ivern This goofy idea could possibly work out, thanks to brushmaker, rootcaller and the slow from triggerseed. Given how many Ivern players value creative ideas, you might occasionally see this pop out of the brush.
Jarvan IV Since Jarvan's skills scale some from AD, and he has some innate attackspeed, and can trap opponents at melee range with Cataclysm as well as close the gap, this option may play surprisingly well. But most Jarvans will probably be drawn to other Keystones.
Kalista Kalista loves to stick to a single target and rain down attacks. She will stack this Keystone a bit slowly, so maybe something else is better, but it may still work.
Kayle Kayle has a trend to build attackspeed to make the most of her kit. As a result, this Keystone might function, though something else could be a better choice.
Lee Sin Lee Sin's AD ratios are so high that, while not ideal, this Keystone could probably technically work.
Leona There are probably better choices. But Leona can stick tight to an enemy and keep pummeling them, so the Keystone would at least function.
Lulu Glitterlance and Whimsy would combine to allow Lulu to gain a decent chunk of AD from this Keystone, but there's got to be something better.
Maokai It wouldn't stack quickly, but the absolute inability to get away from Maokai would ensure the Keystone DOES stack. There's probably a better choice, though.
Miss Fortune Love Tap is a bad fit, but slows and a 100% attackspeed boost make this Keystone at least viable.
Nunu While Nunu tends to build AP, he's also pretty sticky and has a potent attackspeed buff in Blood Boil. This Keystone might not be the best, but it would likely work out.
Rammus Go ahead and laugh. If there's one champion who knows how to draw out a fight, it's Rammus. Good luck escaping him, too. If he chooses this Keystone, you'd better watch that mounting damage.
Sejuani Sejuani is so hard to slip away from, this Keystone might work on her. But her Winter's Wrath animation interrupts her autoattacks for a long period, so it probably isn't very good.
Shyvana Twin Bite is at least something, able to inflict two more stacks quickly every few seconds via an autoattack reset. There are probably better choices, but it might not fall completely flat.
Teemo AP is the convention, but with 80% Attackspeed buff and a blind for safety, AD Teemos are occasionally a thing. They may use this Keystone when they happen.
Trundle Trundle's attackspeed steroid and ability to reverse a 1v1 make this a tempting option, but he lacks a certain stickiness and there are probably better choices.
Twisted Fate Most TFs are going to want a Keystone that makes the most of his wildcard abilities. But a few may opt for a somewhat ADC-ish playstyle, and this Keystone could fit that.
Twitch This Keystone seems pretty good for Twitch, but it's held back by the fact that Spray and Pray will probably cause Twitch to "hit" multiple targets with On-Hit, resetting the bonus... bummer. If it doesn't, he's a primary user for sure.
Udyr There is probably a better choice of Keystone for Udyr, but his tendency to run up and sit on someone's face, smacking them over and over, means that you'll get some mileage out of this if you choose it.
Varus The attackspeed buff for killing an enemy sure is nice, but there are probably better options. Technically, it should work, anyway.
Vayne Vayne is in that awkward position where, due to Silver Bolts, she can't stack this passive that well because her targets -die too quickly-, limiting how much free AD she can pile up. It should still work, but there are better choices.
Vi Vi is similar to Vayne in that her targets die too fast to stack... not that her attacks are all that devastating, but she inflicts a lot of skill damage which takes foes down with a minimum of autoattacks. Something else will work better, but you'd get a little benefit from this.
Volibear Volibear's Frenzy and his CC enable him to stick to an enemy and pound out attacks. With all that AP and a tendency to build tanky, a gradual steroid to his damage could be shockingly effective. However there are better picks.
Warwick There are quite a few interesting choices for doggy, and one is to use that massive attackspeed boost to stack this Keystone. Be aware, though, you'll get the biggest speed bonus on a target that will die in just a few hits, yielding very little stacks.
Wukong Nimbus Strike may provide you with a strong attackspeed boost, and Crushing Blow lowers Armor, but I've never seen a Wukong that just walks up to you and smacks you over and over. Even if the stats are a fit, it's probably not well suited to the playstyle.
Xayah Xayah gets some nice attackspeed buffs and does continue attacking a target when she's in her zone, but she relies on a lot of skill damage. Something else may fit better, but you could probably play with this Keystone.
Potentially viable: 33 Not bad at all!
In potential consideration: 16 Primary 33 Secondary
Total possible users: 49 of 138 (35.5%) It's nice. Not everyone, but about one third of the champions would potentially be playable with this Keystone.
========
Normally I am going to do one of these per day but I wanted to squeeze one more in!
INSPIRATION: SUMMONER SPECIALIST 15% Summoner Spell Cooldown.
Gain one shard every 6 minutes, plus one at 2 minutes. Use these at the shop to switch Summoner Spells
========
In my opinion, here are the Primary users of SUMMONER SPECIALIST.
...
...
NOBODY. That's right, nobody.
In the version we've seen, it doesn't even refresh your cooldowns when you switch summoners. Why would you give up ANY kind of benefit, for this?? Except maybe to try and smite steal the baron, one single time per game, and then switch back.
Proactively making mistakes with your build? Not too sure which summoners you should be using? Are you so careless that you set the wrong spells? Decide that Flash/Exhaust is too cliche as a support so you'll randomly switch to Flash/Heal? Your partner will love you for that!
A secondary user might be Shen, who can swap in Teleport while his ultimate, Stand United, is on cooldown, and then swap back when it comes back up. Except Teleport is on a 5 minute cooldown, so if you use it, there's no point in swapping because Stand United will be back before Teleport is. . . (3 minutes vs 5?) Why didn't you just take Teleport in the first place???
Let's choose between:
An infinitely scaling AD buff, a 60-220 damage Thunderlords Chunk, Grasp of the Undying combined with Perma-HP Increase, Shielding an ally periodically with a forgiving panic-cooldown, a powerful slow on your first basic attack on an enemy champ, every 6 seconds, or...
... or... the ability to be indecisive about our summoner spells... really? This is junk. This is a fidget spinner.
Wheee neato nifty I swapped Ignite for Teleport here i go ok that was stupid gimme ignite back wait no its on a 5 min cooldown rito pls
And the fact that we only get to use it once every six minutes is ridiculous -because who is going to swap summoners that much? At 8 minutes into the game the charges will be maxed and stay maxed until 28 minutes into the game when Exhaust gets swapped out for Smite, the support fails to smite steal the baron, everyone calls him a noob, and he switches back and likely rage quits over his own failure of a choice.
Shoulda picked the space-cat-shield. It had cats. And space.
Is my point getting across? This is not good. This is not worthwhile. This is just novelty - bait for newbies to goof off with.
This needs a redesign.
If, for instance, it didn't put the new spell on a cooldown - well, that would be different. Being able to swap a used spell for a fresh one is an interesting tactic. You could simply get fewer swap charges to accomodate. But in the version we see, cooldowns stick. The effect of switching is useless if the skill you want to switch is on cooldown - and nobody's ever gonna switch out their flash, so whenever your second skill has been used, this particular Keystone is garbage. And anytime you'd rather have your (currently up) second skill than something else, it's garbage.
And if you want to hotswap for a smite or a teleport or something, and then switch back and wait out the cooldown, you can do it at 8 minutes, and then at 20, and then at 32. You will use your Keystone Mastery at most three times, for an EVEN VALUE trade of one spell for another, with no guarantee your new spell is going to get you anything more valuable than the proper spell you had originally set...
It is no good.
And it will take very little time before Diamond+ players all reach the same conclusion - it has zero uses below platinum, and zero uses in Solo Queue regardless of skill level, and it's essentially a Keystone Rune for 0.01% of players - less than 1 in 10,000 players should even consider using SUMMONER SPECIALIST, and that 1 is going to be the support in a 5 man premade on a champ that has so much utility that he doesn't give a crap what he's giving up (Like Tahm Kench) and therefore can switch for smite-steal and other nonsense plays.
That's it for the rant. See you again, when I analyze PRECISION: LETHAL TEMPO.
- me
