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Shield Champion Tune-Up Needed

LanceplaysLoL··2 votes·376 views

There is a problem in the meta right now with the balance of shield champions vs heal champions. Most tanks and even supports in the game right now are running courage of the colossus, or are a support such as lulu, janna, karma, and rush ardent censor(another huge problem in the current meta). The executioner's calling, and even to some extent morellonomicon/bramble vest helps to shut down high HEALING teams(soraka, nami, vladimir, swain, mundo), but there is a nonexistent itemization for anti-shield.

My suggestion to you good folk would be to consider doing something like this: the anti heal effect on morellocon is situational but a bit strong at 8 seconds, maybe we can look at tuning it down a little and making it more relevent in non-kill situations, to 4-5 seconds, but active at all times. On the other side, the anti heal effect on executioner's seems a little short at only 3 seconds. You should also think about adding an additional effect on executioners, ignite, and morellocons that also reduces shield strength by 40%(tweakable).

This small change would allow you guys to better balance champions with strong utility shields, and would create interesting choices to allow players to counterplay teams full of shields/heals, and also create more complex choices for players PLAYING these champions. Do they build more tank/damage to be more effective in case the enemy chooses to build executioners/morellos? Or do they continue going glass cannon shield support?

Note that this idea would also help to shift the meta away from tanks building support items which heal and shield item 3190 item 3109 , which I'm sure plenty of people would be interested in since it helps increase diversity I would be interested to know your thoughts and what scarizard(if he still works for balance), or whomever thinks of this idea.

Cheers!

11 Comments

Ironfield3 votes

Think they should just reduce shield duration so its more of a reactionary burst of hp and cant be kept 100% up.

LanceplaysLoL1 votes

This would be another way to fix, but I don't think that would be healthy for shield champs personally. This was a way they were able to tune down Riven 's E, though

Ironfield1 votes

{quoted}

This would be another way to fix, but I don't think that would be healthy for shield champs personally. This was a way they were able to tune down Riven 's E, though

which shield champs are you talking about?

LanceplaysLoL1 votes

for someone like Karma this would be terrible, to boost your whole team into a fight only to have the shield fall off, the speed not last long enough, etc. Same for Ekko , where the shield, no matter how large, would simply fall off after his stun ends. Shorter shield duration might also become a nerf to shield champions who have large shields as well such as Janna and Lulu , who are only good BECAUSE their shield might last longer than 3-4 seconds, but there is where I could be reasoned with with buffs in other areas, such as pix strength, ad bonus, etc

Ironfield1 votes

{quoted}

for someone like Karma this would be terrible, to boost your whole team into a fight only to have the shield fall off, the speed not last long enough, etc. Same for Ekko , where the shield, no matter how large, would simply fall off after his stun ends. Shorter shield duration might also become a nerf to shield champions who have large shields as well such as Janna and Lulu , who are only good BECAUSE their shield might last longer than 3-4 seconds, but there is where I could be reasoned with with buffs in other areas, such as pix strength, ad bonus, etc

You could just buff the movement speed of kama boost, or the shield strength etc. Having it a shorter duration allows for more windows of counter play which it feels like shields dont have at the moment. Such as with Janna shield having a 6? second cooldown with max cdr and a 5 second duration. Buffing the shield strength and maybe the bonus ad it provides balance out the shorter duration. I dont think reducing shield duration should be used for everyone like ekko because he has a self shield, that isnt reliable, and doesn't have a almost 100% uptime.

I think the main problem with shields are they're refreshable Heals atm and dont have windows of of opportunity where you can punish them for having it on cooldown. They practically that dont have the negative of heals such as high mana or hp costs. They last too long and provide the shielded allay almost 100% uptime on arden censor and windspeakers. Shields should be a high "health" restoring tool that lasts a short duration vs heals being a low heath restoring tool that lasts forever.

LanceplaysLoL1 votes

thats the problem though im saying, janna shield is already 400/500 with item 3504 + item 3107 , making it a bigger shield for shorter might only confound the problem. Karma shield only lasts 4 seconds, and giving bonus movespeed would nerf the mantra version because of diminishing returns on movespeed, you know? And like I mentioned before, giving it a shorter duration but stronger shield power would run you into the situation where ranged champions like karma engage into a fight with a shield that falls off as soon as you reach the engage range. Thats my only problem with that idea, which I think works well for melee shield champs, Ekko excluded, but not in general. I agree with you on most of what you said there about small heals for longer vs big shields for shorter would be a nice give and take to have

ModKnightsKemplar2 votes

I wonder if it would help to make shields have stacking magnitude reduction.

In other words, if you were effected by multiple shields, the strongest one was full strength, but the weaker one was at 70% or 80% strength. That way, with all the shields in the game, it would at least be less effective to stack multiple shields on the same target.

Nut on my Butt2 votes

The duration on Executioner's Calling is too short? That's supposed to be the point. It only costs 800 gold and has no situation except deal damage with the duration increasing once you upgrade it.

LanceplaysLoL1 votes

has no situation except deal damage?

Darkdemon6531 votes

Mortal Strike fucking over healing too much doesn't mean it should fuck over shielding, too.

LanceplaysLoL1 votes

If you think mortal strike is too strong, give your opinion that it should be fixed. The fact is, though, Soraka , Nami bot lanes are obnoxious to lane against(absent a massive positioning or vision mistake) until you get item 3123 . Vladimir Swain DrMundo Maokai , are all obnoxious to lane against post 6 without item 3123, and item 3076 is only useful against someone like Fiora or Akali . I acknowledged in my OP that item 3165 lasting for 8 seconds is a bit too much and item 3123 lasting for 3 seconds only might be a bit too short, but I don't think cutting the healing from 50% to 30 or 40% would be a better fix than making it a fairer duration. Supports with shields in the ardent censor meta are getting huge shields and also huge healing all in one, and this fix is a way to keep the item still relevant while also allowing for some form of counterplay. There are items which give +20%, +10% to heals AND shields, and there is only ONE item item 3123 for each class item 3165 item 3076 , 2 of which are situational, that allows you to play around this, and ONE summoner spell summoner 14 that plays around increased heals, but there is no item in existence that allows you to play around increased shield strength, the only thing you can do is just kill the shield champion within 4-6 seconds with 2-3 ccs, or you lose the fight after the 2nd or 3rd shield comes out

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