[{quoted}](name=Moody P,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EzzeKZBg,comment-id=000400010000,timestamp=2019-02-15T20:27:14.148+0000)
It doesn't matter of you "can" just slap something on it, it matters that malph E is one of few spells thatdoes actually do it. the importance of "unique" is the effect and not the condition. this is why most reworks suck; you're getting a goal many champions already do much simpler so your only real choice is to make new champions do it better. this only gets worse when riot takes away unique traits like irelias shield busting and disarm in favor of higher generic results like damage and slows
Ok, but that's a unique effect, it doesn't actually make the spell engaging or anything more than pure statcheck. I could tack an AS slow on Lux's Q, Akali's E, Singed's poison trail - literally anywhere. That affect is ALSO granted by several items, which also makes it less and less of a unique thing, and more of a stat. The spell, an AOE damage that slows AS around him, is generic as hell. It takes no skill expression, and doesn't contribute at all to making Malphite memorable or more fun to play. My point is that they could replace the ability with ANYTHING AT ALL and as long as it has an AS slow, it'd be just as "unique" as it currently is - except if he got a VGU, it probably WOULD be something more unique than the most generic damage radius ever conceived in video games. It also is a function that works well for tanks, like Malphite is supposed to be, so I don't think it would go if he got a VGU (similar to how Galio didn't lose his taunt or his MR scaling in his VGU), it would just be repurposed on an ability that added more fun to his kit.
in this regard malphite R isn't unique at all because it's just a fast knockup. it's also why he's easily replaced by rakan and alistar because this generic ability being used better by more versatile champions being such a huge power budget for Malphite means he's easily made obsolete.
You're right, but in that sense, you're also incorrect because of how different Alistar and Rakan operate. Rakan is squishy, so unlike Malphite, he can't go into combat and stick around, he's got to be nimble and go in and out. Alistar is a tank, like Malphite is supposed to be, but to get the equivalent of Malphite's R, he has to burn 2 abilities to achieve the same function, and that limits what else he can do once he's in the fray.
malphite wouldn't be unique of you slapped some dumb gimmick minigame onto him that resulted in him being functionally a generic tank with a quirky twist to how you work towards being a generic tank
Except Malphite's current functionality as a tank is questionable at best. He's got 2 forms of CC - a targeted slow, and his R. Once his R is blown, he's got to hope the enemy is dead, because he's pretty ignorable at that point because a slow isn't going to be locking down any opponents, and he's got ZERO ways to stick to targets and continue to keep them CC'd. He's a BAD TANK, because he fails pretty miserably at doing the job of a tank, which is the only reason why his AP scalings are so high - it's just like pre-VGU Nunu, where they gave him insane scalings to accommodate for the fact that he's fairly useless in combat so that at least he can have high damage to fill the void that is caused by his inability to actually tank.
