Boards›Gameplay

Can we improve Devourer?

FatedTitan·4/17/2015, 7:41:59 PM·62 votes·4,938 views

I understand the desire to not have another release Feral Flare problem (I'll admit it was broken), but there are so many Junglers who thrive off of this item but are useless because Devourer sucks so bad.

Here's something that may not have been thought ot. Feral Flare was a problem because of the amount of stacks one could farm and become a DPS powerhouse with no way to stop them (we'll ignore the idea of warding here). But with the changes to SR, the jungle doesn't respawn as quickly as it used to. To get optimal use of Devourer, Poacher's is probably the best jungle item because you'll need to invade and get those stacks. If you stick to your own side of the jungle, you'll be a useless Devourer.

So why not buff it? The environment has changed. Put the ward back on it that we can use, let the damage scale a bit better, etc. It just seems like this is a jungle item that could help a ton of champs that are so weak in the jungle right now. I'm looking at Nocturne, Xin Zhao, Jax, Aatrox, Master Yi, etc. This seems like a good way to help them out, not giving them too much early survivability, but helping them have a goal they are trying to get to with their build.

72 Comments

Tis a nice day4/17/2015, 9:31:26 PM20 votes

I'm personally fine if they just increase the base on-hit magic damage from 25->30 (was 40 originally).

Cerbearus4/18/2015, 5:24:28 AM4 votes

It's 200g cheaper on the PBE, most likely coming to live with next patch.

Xietnin4/18/2015, 6:35:18 AM3 votes

Everything is fine. It is truly Fighter that is broken, not devourer! I like your statement on Poacher's being a good stack-stealer. Perhaps not a Devourer buff is in order, but a well-needed Poacher's buff.

Bethor Kookalian4/18/2015, 7:52:36 AM3 votes

They've got a buff to the item on the PBE in the form of the Recurve Bow build-path buffs. That alone means that it'll be a stronger buy. I'd like it if they made it so the stacking started as soon as you bought Machete, so that junglers didn't NEED to rush Devourer to stack it effectively.

PiVoRx4/18/2015, 8:40:59 AM3 votes

Devourer needs to provide same power spike as Cinder and Warrior does, right now it gives stats equal to pick axe upon purchase lol.

metaworldpeace104/18/2015, 1:42:40 AM2 votes

Agreed. The Warrior and Cinderhulk enchantments are both pretty strong, Devours and Magus are on the weak side of the enchantment fence. I wouldn't mind seeing a small buff to Devours.

Rinky Dinky4/18/2015, 5:41:25 AM2 votes

Xin isn't weak...

Silents4294/18/2015, 10:17:01 AM2 votes

Honestly. They should just bail on the on hit magic DPS stacking crap.

I rather the item just give a healthy ball of stats to the junglers that need them.

Of course give us some on hit effect to use but don't encourage farming on champions that shouldn't spend time farming. But don't give infinite scaling on this item, give us some CDR, Attack speed, and some lifesteal, and and maybe some 30 magic on hit affect.

BluePolarizer4/17/2015, 9:52:01 PM2 votes

All that needs to happen is a better build path or better base damage. Nothing else otherwise it'll get devourer'ed (the item equivalent of olafed).

You aren't actually supposed to farm camps with it. You are supposed to farm champs.

Chessburger4/17/2015, 10:11:22 PM2 votes

A build path that doesn't consist of 2 daggers would solve it. Maybe add the equivalent of bami's cinder. Machete upgraded + 'muncher' (dagger + 450g) + whatever gold it takes to get to the full price of enchant (too lazy to look it up now) = devourer enchant. Muncher has 15 damage per hit, counts stacks. Devourer buffed to start at 30 damage.

Now you can make a valid choice, either you get the machette enchant for the effect + more gold gain or you first make the muncher and start stacking.

And thus gain a lot more plasticity. Because right now devourer's build path is way too rigid and unrewarding.

THESuperStuntMan4/17/2015, 11:27:02 PM2 votes

It's honestly just Master Yi that causes the Feral Flare problem. I feel if they nerfed him a little bit they could buff Devourer. Cuz let's be real here, I don't think anyone kids themselves by saying Nocturne/Xin/Aatrox are OP even with a better Devourer.

Linna Excel4/18/2015, 1:37:02 AM2 votes

Can we? Yes.

Should we? Dunno.

The problem is on some champs it is too good but on others it's only okay or worse. The biggest tweak I'd make to it is cannon minions and siege minions should give it stacks for later game farming, but it'd need a hit somewhere for that to happen.

My personal biggest issue with it is whenever I try and get it, my team won't let me farm or my laners will start stealing jungle mobs. If you get counter-jungled after getting it, you are screwed.

alcatrazEscapee4/18/2015, 2:19:20 PM2 votes

I've been playing xin for a while with devourer, and i don't see it having a large weakness. Its not meant to provide a huge powerspike on purchase, because it scales up, I think Riot like it better as a hybrid gank/farm item, which you can use to great effect. If all you do is farm your side of the jungle, yes you'll have a less stacked devourer, but it helps that you can get stacks off of kills too. Personally I don't want another "farm for 45 minutes then win" item like release feral flare was.

There are a number of small buffs that you could do to it that would make it a higher priority purchase. My preferred one is let it keep stacks that you got before you bought the enchantment (similar to increasing base on-hit damage but making it scale off of your farming)

I really don't think it needs it as an item though. Its playstyle (1v1 for days) is just not that useful in the current meta.

FantasySniper4/18/2015, 7:19:03 PM2 votes

To make Devourer balanced, you need to make sure it doesn't make everyone automatically powerful through pure farming. Counter-jungling isn't a reliable way to counter Devourers, especially since most Devourers can 1v1 practically anyone, so its power needs to be inhibited innately or else we'll get FF release again.

The power boost could become more beneficial in return for a cap, so that they can get a legitimately effective power spike.

Cindikle4/18/2015, 8:22:48 PM2 votes

I think giving it some crit is the way to go. Make it a Zeal line item. Sure this doesn't help WW as much. But he's probably still got his rework out there, so it just may not matter at all.

Give it the same AS/Crit as Shiv with the bonus damage it has now. And the 5% MS.

Arcade Andrew4/19/2015, 1:06:48 AM2 votes

Id be fine if they could have it so I start getting stacks on my hunters machete or at least the first upgrade IE i buy hunters i get enough money for skirm's then i start getting stacks that will cash in once i upgrade, tbh the old feral flare was fine, this new one sucks

zomguberpro4/19/2015, 3:17:15 AM2 votes

It seems like no one here has there head on straight when it comes to this, the real problem with it, and why it is nerfed, is that if you get it with skirmishers, you are simply too powerful. Someone said the only way to make good use of it is with poachers, and that is the way it is suppose to be. If you want infinite scaling damage on your auto attack, then you just need to accept that it comes with the price of not smiting champions, and that is fine, you don't need it. I get poacher/devourer on Yi, Xin, Shyvana, fiora, udyr, and gasp elise(who people think is bad), and i have no problems at all.

I'm going to go against what I believe in here, and provide my strat for it.

1.) You need to be good enough to know where the enemy jungler is going to start, and then start at the opposite side of his jungle.

example, if enemy jungler is starting blue side, I will start on his golems, then get his red, then his raptors, generally I will only use smite on his golems. then go to your own gromp, smite it for the buff, get your blue, after getting your blue, go straight to your red and smite kill it.

the objective here is that you are removing enough jungle xp from the map, that their jungler will get behind/frustrated, and commit to a gank with a low success chance, thus putting him further behind, and maybe even making him feed a lane. If he doesnt then he will have to steal xp from a laner to catch back up.

2.) You need to let your team know your intentions, so they know to be careful because you arent going to gank for a bit, because a feeding team will ruin this play style for you. Also, around the time that you are heading to your red buff, their jungler will be realizing what has happened. he will either go to your red and attempt to get the drop on you, or he will gank almost instantly. let your team know so that you can capitalize on this

)WARD. Cant stress that enough. Not just your trinket ward. buy wards. If you like to use teleport, then they arent just for vision, you know have a handy spot where you can tp into the enemy jungle for your poachers but also, you need to back as soon as you have enough for poachers, as soon as you get the gold to upgrade your hunters machete, go back and get it. Pay attention to the timer on whatever jungle you stole from the enemy, odds are he will be off somewhere ganking instead of making sure he secures its second spawn, and you will get to clear it again, this time with bonus gold from poacher. continue to kill jungle camps, and make sure to back as soon as you have enough for devourer, so that you have maximum time to build stacks.

4.) Wits end is an incredibly underrated item, it doesnt matter if none of your skills are AP, 42 magic damage per hit totals up to alot when you already have a devourer. Plus the magic resist that you lower on enemy champs makes your devourer hit even harder, and the next item you should get is sunfire cape(sometimes i switch the order and get sunfire before wits end if they are all AD or something). Now if someone could kill you before, they sure cant now, you should be able to 1v1 anyone in a game with you at this point, unless they are doing exactly this right back to you, maybe even 1v2 if you are good/lucky. The rest of your items are variable depending on the champ, and I actually do something completely different on yi and fiora, so if you are trying to play them, ignore this

5.) Dont fall off. Once you have devourer, it is important that you dont gank too much, and also dont spend too much time in lanes, you no longer care about lane minions at this point. Make sure you are on point with getting jungle mobs to keep scaling up, because if you fall off, it is going to hurt.

Here is a link to me doing this(most of it) on yi. for anyone who would like to see it done.

http://www.twitch.tv/the_chronicler/b/649813534

Mooing Kev4/18/2015, 8:11:22 PM1 votes

Pretty sure the AP jg item can use some tweaks. Not a single ap jungler can be seen atm cept for a few occasional fids.

Clarkolas4/18/2015, 8:17:34 PM1 votes

Devourer is op af. As a yi main, i can get 100 stacks at 30 mins, which is insanely strong, in late game you can kill ppl in 2 autoattacks becasue of it

Jungle Lux God4/19/2015, 3:05:53 AM1 votes

I feel like Devourer is the most flavorful of all the jungle items because it provides something that gives junglers something unique that laner's cannot get that isn't raw stats. It makes the jungle the idea home for on-hit builds, which are not really seen at all, but has been completely untouched after its nerfs, and for good reason.

I remember someone else had an idea that they posted on the boards where Devourer had a stack system similar to the conservation system used on the jungle items last season, where you would get stacks on it over time and killing a large monster or getting a kill or assist on an enemy champion would cash in the stacks, adding magic damage to Devourer, letting more champions use it rather than just power-farming junglers that afk farm their jungle for 20 minutes, while still allowing their damage in their stacks to be relevant.

Fisk4/18/2015, 3:36:16 AM1 votes

What if devourer didn't just scale on damage? What if you got some utility out of it too for farming. Like "Every monster killed gives you +1 magic damage dealt and +1 movement speed". That could really help with roaming through jungle/split pushing like a lot of devourer champs like to do.

Bolwinkel4/19/2015, 12:45:21 AM1 votes

Oh the days when rek'sai was released and i had 130+ stacks on her at 35 minutes.

Dengeden4/18/2015, 3:01:59 PM1 votes

You forget that Devourer also stacks on kills and assists, in that respect it's a very dangerous snowball item. Unless you want to remove that part and focus entirely on its synergy with Poacher's, now that could be interesting.

SpecterVonBaren4/18/2015, 3:59:54 PM1 votes

They could give the item the on hit heal that feral flare had I guess (Not the stacking heal it had on release though, good god)? Maybe have the on hit heal increase when attacking monsters too.

t3hcollective4/19/2015, 3:21:14 AM1 votes

The old skirmisher's smite combined with all the on hit damage is what made it overbearing on people like WW and yi. Now that they ruined skirmisher smite damage wise, they can buff devourer a little bit.