New Resolve Keystones

The Yetii Rider··2 votes·1,103 views

This thread seeks to address three problems

  1. Bond of Stone is invisible power and is weaker than Knight's Vow, which is an item that any support can rush (even a ranged support) and have more impact than Bond of Stone.

  2. Grasp of the Undying feels bad, and is generally less effective because its power is front-loaded into the laning phase and even there it does not contribute as much as some other early game keystones.

  3. Because these two keystones are underwhelming, everyone who wants 18 points in Resolve is taking CoC if they can proc it. ([zombie-nunu-tears] FeelsBadMan)

So, here are two keystones I want to present to try and balance the Resolve page and give everyone clear choices.

First, a keystone for juggernauts, who do not want Courage of the Colossus (which is for divers and vanguards):

Titan's Warpath - Moving towards an enemy champion grants you 20-50% movement speed and slow resistance that builds up over 3 seconds and lasts for 3 seconds when it's at full power (this duration stops at any time if you stop moving toward the enemy champion). Cooldown 45-15 seconds.

Now you can do as a juggernaut should, and go in after your diver or vanguard has absorbed all their CC and reach your target quickly. In particular, champions like Mordekaiser, Mundo and Olaf will appreciate a nice boost of speed to help them close the gap on their targets. However, if you don't react fast enough or the enemy saves some peel for you, you get peeled off as normal. The keystone helps shorten the window for exploiting a juggernaut's weakness, but does not help ameliorate that weakness.

The second keystone is for wardens, who would prefer a more defensive tool to help cover their teammates than a selfish defensive tool like Courage of the Colossus:

Runic Bulwark - If an ally champion is hit with any hard CC within 1000 units of you, you are CC'd instead. (Telegraphed by a white shield-shaped icon under your champion's feet). 60-30 second cooldown.

Basically this ability allows you to get stunned, snared, or rooted for your ally. It does not work on displacement effects (because those usually have some kind of directional function based on the caster that wouldn't make sense if they were somewhere else, like a Lee Sin kicking you instead of his target) nor does it work on the stuns that are applied during displacement CC to prevent champions that are displaced from moving/dashing/flashing out until the end of the effect, because that would just be confusing and strange. But Morgana's Dark Binding, Leona's Zenith Blade, Zyra's Entangling Roots, all of these would affect you and not your ally.

I'm not sure whether Runic Bulwark would simply cleanse an ally if you were hit by the same CC (like if both you and your ally were affected by Galio casting Idol of Durand). I imagine that the fact that it does not apply to displacement is already narrowing enough, so allowing a cleanse of your nearest ally in the case of AOE CC is fine.

9 Comments

MohawkBird1 votes

[deleted]

The Yetii Rider1 votes

Well the current keystone gives damage and healing and isn't able to be a reasonable amount. It's either too weak or too strong. What else should a juggernaut have but conditional, predictable mobility?

As for Runic Bulwark, it's a powerful utility tool on the same level as CoC. Anything weaker would probably be ignored for CoC.

Ralanr1 votes

I'm not sure these are really the right kind of keystones. They just reward you for moving closer or being near an ally.

The Yetii Rider1 votes

{quoted}

I'm not sure these are really the right kind of keystones. They just reward you for moving closer or being near an ally.

That's what Bond of Stone does already. Wardens in general stay close to their allies, that's what makes them different from vanguards.

Ralanr1 votes

Not defending bond. In fact I think Bond, Warlords, and Windspeakers all suffer from the same problem. They reward passive effects rather than giving you a bonus for taking an action.

The Yetii Rider1 votes

{quoted}

Not defending bond. In fact I think Bond, Warlords, and Windspeakers all suffer from the same problem. They reward passive effects rather than giving you a bonus for taking an action.

How is Windspeakers passive? Healing and shielding is an action.

Ralanr1 votes

Because it's passively making them stronger rather than you doing something to make them stronger.

The Yetii Rider1 votes

{quoted}

Because it's passively making them stronger rather than you doing something to make them stronger.

What do you mean? It's enhancing your shield, which you are actively using. That's like saying Fervor isn't actively enhancing your autos, it's just a passive buff.

Ralanr1 votes

Because fervor keeps enhancing it to a point as long as you keep attacking. Windspeaker already has the shields enhanced before using. If they got stronger as they went on, then maybe. idk.

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