Can we talk about this? Rumble Changes

So for those of you that don't know, Rumble currently has a nerf coming to him on the PBE. For those of you like myself who are sometimes too lazy to look it up on their own (Trust me I know that feeling). I have copy pasted those changes here with the exception of a rewording for the passive.

Junkyard Titan: Decay on heat stacks now starts applying after 4 seconds instead of 3 seconds. Decay speed changed. It used to be -5 heat for 5 ticks, then -10 heat every tick every .5 seconds. Now it is -10 every 1 seconds

Flame Spitter: Damage to minions decreased from 100% to 75% Cooldown changed form 6 seconds to 10/9/8/7/6 seconds Base damage changed from 75/135/195/255/315 (+100% AP) to 115/165/215/265/315 (+110% AP)

and then the most random one Scrap Shield: Duration lowered from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds.

First off, I'd like to make my intentions clear with this thread. This isn't a bash Riot thread, nor is this one that wants to accomplish getting rid of these nerfs entirely. The main point I want to have in this thread is to talk about why these nerfs might be implemented.

As an avid Rumble player myself (He took my level 7 mastery virginity), I have to say that I am quite appalled when it comes to seeing nerfs on a champion who for the most part seems fairly balanced in the current meta. He's stayed at a relative 50% win rate, never going above 52% or below 48% since almost the beginning of season 6. The only time in which he did see any drastic rise in his win rate was the first patch when Courage of the Colossus was nerfed, and the tank match ups were easier for him since he didn't have to deal with the obnoxious shields during early game. Overall, Rumble has seemed to be a fairly balanced champion for a long time now, and nerfing him may not seem to be the best idea when it comes down to it. So why are they doing it then?

For the most part I can see a few reasons why they would be doing this, and why these nerfs can actually be buffs into certain match ups. Although, I will state that into other match ups such as Riven and Renekton he will have a much harder time.

Starting off with the change in decay to his passive, for any non-Rumble players I'll try to explain it as simply (or maybe as complicated depending on who you are) as I can. Rumble's passive right now has all heat he currently has stored up start to decay after 3 seconds. When it starts to decay it will go down by 5 every half of a second for the first 5 ticks. After that it will go down by 10, still going every half of a second. The new passive proposes this. The decay starts after 4 seconds instead of three, and starts to decay by 10 every second. So assuming that you have 95 heat (which is the max you can have before overheating), you currently lose all that heat in roughly 9 seconds if my math is correct. 3 seconds for the cooldown timer. 5 ticks which brings you down to 70 heat, and then brings you to 5.5 seconds. Then the next 7 ticks will bring you down to 0, which brings you to 9 seconds total. With these proposed changes you will have 14 seconds to cooldown to 0 heat. 4 from the initial 4, and then 10 from the ten ticks it would take. So that means you have 5 more seconds in which you have some heat at maximum heat. So this means two things.

1. You will have to manage what spells you use in trading more efficiently, since unless you overheat it's going to take a while before it all comes back up.

2. You will have your heat at higher levels more often, which makes having an empowered ability much easier to do. Especially since you don't have to worry about your heat decreases by 10 every half a second.

Overall, I think the changes to the decay rate on his passive will make Rumble easier when it comes to managing his heat. It will go down slower, and make having empowered abilities be up more of the time. But here's the kicker. It will actually make the skill disparity between a good and a bad Rumble. A good Rumble will know that he will have to wait for his cooldowns, and for his heat. A bad Rumble will only know to wait for his cooldowns. Which after level 1 this will be a much easier system of heat to manage. With this change though, I propose starting E first instead of Q. If my math still holds true up to this point, then starting E would be more reliable to actually get higher heat levels at level 1.

Onto the Q change. It's weird to see a combination of a buff and nerf to the same ability. The ratio of AP was increased, and its early damage has been increased, but the cooldown on it will be longer until level 9 (the point at which you max your first ability. Which now will always be Q). Now I can already hear some of the non Rumble players saying or thinking, "Why not just build CDR?" And to them I say, "You poor... poor little soul." If these changes do go through, CDR will become even a worse stat on Rumble, since now his abilities will be up much shorter, but his decay rate of heat won't go down as fast as it used to. Allthough, the changes to Rumble's Q will be good into certain match ups where your Q is the main form of winning the match. Examples in my experience of these are Teemo, Cho'Gath, Garen, Jax, etc. Since the base damage is being increased you still will do roughly the same damage, even if you have to wait an extra four seconds. Added with the 10% extra AP, this will make Rumble's mid to late game slightly stronger than it was before.

Overall, I think with this change what Riot is trying to accomplish is take out some of Rumble's early laning power, and put it more towards his mid to late game. Which is why the cooldown becomes the same at level 9. This change will also take some potential out of Rumble's ability to shove a laner into tower without second thought by just a little bit. BUT! With these changes I propose rushing an early Rylai's Crystal Scepter so that you will not have a problem getting your better early game damage off onto a target. As long as they don't have a flash or a dash.

As for the W change... This is the only one I don't like. The W is already not the most integral part of Rumble's kit, and nerfing it isn't going to make the worst of changes to Rumble. All in all, it's going to be a very minor nerf since the shield strength and the movement speed aren't being touched.

I want to say that I wholeheartedly will embrace these changes to Rumble, because hell they might even be a buff to him. You know, especially in late game team fights where he excels already. But now I want to open discussion to everyone else, please keep comments respectful and related to the actual thread!

-TheTarians