Concerns about Top Lane Preseason Changes
Hiya everyone. I'm a lurker (day and night), but the preseason patch has changed some things that concern me mildly as a top laner and I'd like to discuss these concerns with people. I'll just jump right in.
1, Conqueror - In truth, I feel that the Conqueror changes are overall great for the game. It's an undisputed fact that tanks were gutted after the release of this keystone. The changes truly are good for tanks. With that said, I'm concerned for what I see to be a major buff to conqueror's early game potential.
For one, conqueror now heals for 15% of post-mit damage rather than 8% pre-mit damage. This is good for tanks, yet again. However, versus squishy targets (and tanks in the early laning phase before they can stack resistances), this is a pretty big buff overall. This is just going to heal more in laning and versus squishy targets. Mind you, I'm not necessarily opposed to buffs oriented for champions like Jax and Irelia (Irelia has been very weak in the top lane, and Jax may have trouble in the meta with the removal of Shojin), but 15% of damage dealt is HUGE for the early game.
Secondly, I haven't even mentioned the AD. The item has 10 stacks to activate instead of 5, but for melee champions it stacks at the same rate as auto attacks give two stacks to melee champions rather than the one stack it gave previously. These 10 stacks give way more AD though: literally double the AD at level 1. Conqueror used to give 10 adaptive force at max stacks lvl 1; it now gives 20 adaptive force at max stacks lvl 1.
Given these two changes, I don't see a world where many other runes can compete with Conqueror in the top lane. Changes will have to be made to the rune in an effort to better balance it for the early game, while (in my opinion) it should retain the increase in AD and the heal buff vs squishies that it's been given as compensation for the true damage removal (which, it's worth noting that the 8% true damage conversion was almost useless early game and didn't truly kick in until mid to late game).
2, Itemization - Here's something I think that most top laners can agree with me on. Removing Spear of Shojin is cool; it was an insane power spike item for a small subset of champions that made them absurdly powerful post-build. Unfortunately, Shojin simply couldn't be as ubiquitous as something like Sterak's Gage, and as a result it became a niche item. Removing it is fine.
My concern is that Riot is abandoning their initial philosophy when they introduced Shojin; which was to give more options to melee-oriented fighters with more items. Removing Shojin and not replacing it makes me feel a little bit bad because currently, fighters have a hard time finishing their builds with things they really want. Items like GA don't hurt, but they aren't nearly as satisfying (or interesting imo) as items like Sterak's and the Hydra line.
As a tidbit in this section, I think that the lack of an AP bruiser / fighter item path is a big shame as I was really looking forward to that. The time to enact a sweeping change like that is in the preseason and I'm disappointed that it was cancelled (or postponed maybe, IDK).
Summary - All in all, I think the changes aimed at the top lane are overall good for the health of the role and of the game. These are some relatively minor concerns I have of the changes, but I do think they matter. Some changes like the Doran's Shield regeneration changes are a godsend for top lane as the ranged scourge has never been worse. Combine that with the removal of Klepto and it truly looks that top lane might just feel more healthy and satisfying to play.
