8.12 Shield Nerf Feedback & Discussion: Janna, Karma, Lulu

I'm MattUSticky, a plat support main. http://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=mattusticky

I wrote a long post earlier this week about why I felt the 8.12 shield nerfs went too far, and, as expected, the nerfs went through anyway. This post is meant for me to give my feedback after testing the nerfed supports and hear yours as well.

For those of you who weren't aware, Janna had her shield modified to decay over the duration after a .75s delay, and Karma, Lulu, and Orianna had their shields reduced to 2.5s.

Let's go down the list:

- **Verdict: Appropriate ** This was the most graceful nerf in my opinion. A decaying shield doesn't excessively impact Janna's overall playstyle (i.e. spam shield on her ADC), rewards good play (timed shields) over bad ones, and should bring down her excessive 53% win rate in lower ELOs at least. Of all the nerfs, this one should probably stick.

- **Verdict: Unnoticeable Early, Hurts Mid/Late ** Karma doesn't max shield in lane, so the shield duration nerf isn't really noticeable. It does, however, start to become an issue during the mid and late game. While her shield's 2.5s duration is usually enough time to get decent value for allies already IN combat, it is usually not enough time for aggressive allies to chase down enemies and THEN fight. Considering that one of Mantra E's main functions is to help Karma's team run down isolated enemies, the duration noticeably weakened Karma's engaging shield efficiency. This would not be a problem if Karma had a winrate like Janna's, but considering that she was sitting at 47% in her pre-nerfed state, she's probably going to need some love next patch.

- **Verdict: Feels. @#$@ing. Awful. ** We all saw it coming. This nerf is by far the most noticeable and the most painful of all three, and the numbers back it up. Dropping from a 6s shield to 2.5s shield is nearly a 60% decrease in shield uptime, and Lulu feels it the moment the laning phase ends. With proper timing, Lulu can still get similar defensive burst mitigation results to before, though a bit weaker (read: Forbidden Idol nerfs & shorter overall uptime). However, the duration nerf considerably hurt her aggressive playmaking range, as a preemptive shield + speed up on an engager is usually fading by the time the ally has started fighting, resulting in wasted shields. This. Feels. Bad. After playing several games, it feels like Lulu is considerably worse at assisting allies who aren't in her direct proximity (which is tough as a short range, low mobility support), and that her playmaking options are even more shoehorned into a "sit on my backline" role as a result. Nerfs aside, Lulu has fallen out of favor recently as bruisers and mages have moved into the bot lane, and this change will certainly drop her 50% win rate in the few games she shows up in moving forward.

Final Opinions: Janna feels fine, Karma took a hit (but needed help already), and Lulu got beat up. I'd be surprised if Riot doesn't give the latter two some help in 8.13.

Discussion What do you guys think? How does it feel fighting with/against/as Janna, Karma, and Lulu this patch? Do you notice the changes?