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My thoughts on Athene's changes, and the loss of a 20% CDR support item

Weasel Kensei·7/7/2017, 12:27:16 AM·1 votes·191 views

I was really kinda interested in the idea of Riot trying to make Athenes more compelling when I head about it. Then when I saw the proposed changes, and having used it a bit I dont care for it and would prefer the previous version.

I actually prefered it with 20% CDR instead of the mana regen AP conversion.

My reasons being that I liked to build it (I know someone who was building it) on Morgana and Bard because that affordable early 20% CDR along with either item 3092 item 2301 of these made for 30% (35% with masteries) CDR very early. This is powerful on a champ with strong CC on a Q skillshot. It also allowed for some healing on Morgana and extra healing on Bard.

So the mana regen conversion on Athenes is... I mean consider this:

item 3504 item 3174 item 3222 item 3107 item 2301 item 3117 (215 AP build)

If Athenes mana regen to AP conversion is supposed to give extra AP, then the passive gives 90 AP with this build. Thats nice if you were building this as its 80 more AP than this build gave before the changes to Athenes. Also consider that build contains every finished item that increases % base mana regen that Athenes can turn into AP. item 3114 item 1039 and the jungling items (but only in the jungle) are the only other items that increase % base mana regen.

My problem is that my build on Morgana was usually:

item 2301 item 3174 item 3107item 3151 item 3116 then boots in there at some point item 3117 item 3020 (195 AP build)

On Bard:

item 3092 item 3174 item 3512 item 3107 item 2045then boots in there at some point item 3009

I know you may not like my builds, or think theyre good. Fine. Not the point. With this Athenes change a reasonable 20% CDR item was taken away from supports. Now there is NO 20% CDR item for supports. To make matters worse, the patch notes even said they know supports will rush Redemption first. This A) says Riot knows Redemption is busted as its a rush or youre trolling item, and B) says these Athenes changes weren't really to increase options just change what was there.

On top of this I still dont see people building it. Most games were fairly short and all I would get to build was 2 items past boots/sightstone, and those were usually Athenes and Redemption. Thats fine I hit my 45% CDR, have moderate to strong healing options on Morgana, a thing she cant do in her base kit. My biggest problems stem from the fact that in a short game hitting full CDR on Morgana or Bard support fast is important, and now to do this I have to build item 3165 if I want a second item 20% CDR spike... and thats not a support item, and its 800 more gold.

So I would be thrilled if a red saw this, and brought it to the attention of the balance team. It would be nice if enough people cared about my/their desire for a 20% CDR support item for this to have some consideration.

Id also like to hear other peoples thoughts on Athenes, and if they like it, or hate it, or still ignore it like it doesn't exist. I know a lot of people didnt care about Athenes. Hell half the problem was some people just wanted the old "cant go out of mana" version back. Thats another issue. Ignoring that it used to be a mana sustain item, Im focused on the support item it became and how its changes made a hole in support itemization options. Taking away things from support itemization should be the last thing Riot is doing, but as it stands, there is now a 20% CDR item hole where there wasnt.

3 Comments

Mcsquzzy7/7/2017, 1:03:34 AM1 votes

All I can say is, most meta sup items have cdr so yes it's sad we can't max on 3 as sup unless u Annie malz brand or lux(please someone this is cancer bot) most sups can get that max cdr

I would like Athens if there were more Mana regen items to work with it's passive that raises ap

Weasel Kensei7/7/2017, 1:27:29 AM1 votes

I like the substancless downvotes. All the "I dont like what youve said, but cant bother to say why" people doing little more than angry caveman grunts.