J4 In Need of some Balance Changes?
Let's start with his passive:
Martial Cadence: J4 deals 10% of his targets current health as bonus physical damage with a 10/8/6 second cooldown for repeat targets
His passive isn't the problem, there are plenty of current health champions, abilities, and items that don't create a complete over bearing feel in lane. Just this alone would be fine, but let's take a look at his q, the real meat in his kit
Dragon Strike: Mana Cost: 45/50/55/60/65 Range: 770 (longer than most melee basic abilities and even a handful of the ranged champions) Physical Damage: 70/115/160/205/250 (+120% Bonus ad) Armor reduction: 10/17/18/22/26%
His q has a higher ration than more than a few ultimates as well as reducing armor by 26% at max level, not a flat 26, a percentile 26 which if I am not totally mistaken is applied before armor pen, please correct me if I am wrong on this one. I personally feel as though this ability is incredibly overbearing in lane/jungle especially when you consider he already does current health damage from his passive on top of reducing armor an absolutely incredible amount. The scaling is incredibly one sided, it basically means he can deal massive amounts of damage with very little actual risk to himself with a range of 770 from his melee range of 175. That is an absolute insane range increase on an incredibly powerful basic ability that ALSO has the ability to apply a knock-up when combo'd with his e giving him massive damage/cc all in one fluid basic ability rotation. There are very few things that can actually stop this combo. This isn't about his cc or combo though without the combo he'd probably be pretty bullocks with the way his kit is set-up so we'll leave his cc combo alone. I don't see it as a horrible problem it just makes counterplay incredibly difficult as well as giving him the ability to gank from almost anywhere.
Golden Aegis: Cost: 30 (at all ranks) Range: 300 Cooldown: 20/18/16/14/12 Shield Strength: 50/90/130/170/210 (+20/30/40/50/60 Per nearby enemy champion) Maximum Shield Strength: 150/240/330/420/510 Slow: 15/20/25/30/35%
This ability isn't the absolute worst, I find most of the issue with J4 to be coming from his Passive and his q. However, the incredible power behind this cannot be ignored. Again, it's not really the problem, but I do find the scaling to be a bit on the excessive side, especially considering that it scales based on how many champions are hit within the radius when it's activated. Also the range isn't horrid it ends up being slightly smaller than Catclysm's circle. The main problem I have with this is it's lack of a scaling mana cost, it's 30 at all ranks making it a completely risk free ability at all levels of play. Maybe needs to be tweaked a bit, again that isn't the issue I personally see with his kit.
Demcian Standard: Cost: 55 (at all ranks) Range: 850 Cooldown: 13 Passive: Permanently grants J4 armor and attack speed Armor: 10/13/16/19/22 Attack Speed: 10/13/16/19/22% Magic Damage: 60/105/150/195/240 (+80% AP) Attack Speed Aura: 10/13/16/19/22%
I don't see much issue with this due to the fact that it does provide his main form of ganking and cc. I mean it does permanently grant him massive boosts to his armor and attack speed which makes fighting him harder and harder even if he builds straight tank. The standard grants vision, within 700 range and increases attack speed of ally champions up to 600 range. I am not entirely certain how to feel about this ability because it does scale off of ap which takes down the oomf behind it a bit. However, the permanent armor and attack speed seems a little odd, considering that most champions with a passive like this only have one stat that is effected. So j4 having two that are effected by the same basic ability just feels really steamrolley in game.
Cataclysm: Cost: 100/125/150 Range: 650 Cooldown: 120/105/90 Damage: 200/325/450 (+150% Bonus AD)
Jarvan Leaps to a target champion dealing physical damage and trapping them in a 350 radius impassable circle, this circle lasts 3.5 seconds and grants sight within 825 range.
I don't have much problem with his ultimate, it scales how you would expect an ultimate to scale, it's packs less range than his Dragon Strike/Standard. Yes, it deals massive damage, it is an ultimate though, so isn't that the point? Over all one of the coolest ultimate abilities in the game aesthetically and incredibly versatile with decent counterplay considering the risk in trapping and harming your own team with the ability.
J4's scaling just feels overbearing, I'll probably take an absolute beating in the comments for this post, but I honestly feel that J4 is way stronger than he should be with the possibility of building rolling defensive runes/masteries and still out tanking many champions as well as out damaging them by quite a large margin. I am not sure if this is considered balanced but I honestly feel like his power form his passive q alone makes him a tad too powerful.
Tl;dr:
Jeebus Crimminy look at the scaling on his q, good luck building armor against him. Seriously the dude makes Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime look like Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. His scaling is pretty out of this world on everything but his ult and he has two flat mana costs. All in all Riot, the man is handing out beatings like Muhammad Ali and nobody can stop him. Rumble in the Jungle? More like ass whooping in the everywhere.
Please look at this with an open mind, this post is just an observation I made after more than a few games seeing J4 absolutely crush any and all opposition. I would like Riot to take a comprehensive look at J4, whether people agree or disagree I feel that he's a problem that needs to be addressed especially with the changes in preseason putting him to a point of almost godly power.