The Bond of Stone replacement keystone

SanKakU··2 votes·1,148 views

Okay, first off. it's a worse keystone(for your individual champion), absolutely. Math doesn't lie. Unless you are basically being burst down from 100 to 0, which doesn't happen as often as whiny babies like to make you think it does, it's much, much worse for tanks. I haven't managed to win a single game with the new keystone. I might be missing something, but I don't think it fills any particular niche. At first I was skeptical of this keystone and figured it would make more sense to add it as a fourth keystone to that section of the mastery page, instead of replacing Bond of Stone...but now I think it's even worse than I thought it was.

My suggestion for making it better would be to make the healing scale with AP or some other stat than with maximum health. Any champion that I already used Grasp of the Undying with, I lose with when I pick the new keystone. And when I try the new keystone for champions that used to use Bond of Stone, it seems to be even worse. I try to get allies to fight with me, but it's so rare they trigger the healing, and the health boost is really nothing compared to the old keystone's ability.

I haven't extensively tested the new keystone, Braum for example shows some promise...but I'm pretty skeptical about any other champions at the moment. He worked just fine with Grasp, so being able to choose between 2 keystones might be nice for him...but all the tanks that used Bond now are going to have a lot of problems as they won't even be able to lane anymore. They're going to have to stay in the jungle and go back to Grasp or whatever.

The fact of the matter is, this keystone requires a low health ally to attack someone that you've slowed down. That means it depends on the teamwork of your ally to function. Keystones shouldn't rely so much on allies IMHO.

5 Comments

Umbral Regent2 votes

Any champion that I already used Grasp of the Undying with, I lose with when I pick the new keystone.

This is probably the biggest problem - Stoneborn Pact isn't meant to be used instead of Grasp of the Undying, because the two keystones fill different niches altogether.

Grasp of the Undying is used for tanks/juggernauts who go for trades and want to come out with the ability to go back in, and Stoneborn Pact is meant for tanky champions playing primarily in a support position - champions like Braum, Leona, and Thresh, who have good CC and often play with an ADC to capitalize on the healing mark Stoneborn Pact provides.

Basically, this is the easiest way to sum up the Tank Keystones: Grasp is for trading tanks and Juggernauts, Courage of the Colossus is for hard-engage tanks, and Stoneborn Pact is for support-oriented tanks and disruptors.

SanKakU1 votes

Yeah well, Leona has failed every game with the new keystone as a support. She could barely get by with Bond of Stone...after the nerf to her W she's been in a tough spot...if the idea is to take Courage of Colossus, that's funny because there isn't a single ability she has that scales with health. Honestly...aside from Poppy, I don't know who even uses Courage well.

Umbral Regent1 votes

Alistar, Jarvan IV, Sejuani, Maokai, Nautilus and Vi are all champions who can make some pretty good use out of Courage of the Colossus - and Alistar and Nautilus, as Support options, can also make good use out of Stoneborn Pact - I don't really think a Champion has to have health scaling in their kit to make use of tank Keystones, since, usually, by default they'll be building health items in some respect anyways.

The key to using Keystones is to know how you're going to play and amplify your playstyle with the Keystones. For example, let's say I wanted to play Leona - all three Keystones could work on her, since she's sticky enough to make use of Grasp of the Undying, but if I want to play into the late game as an engage tank, I'd take Courage of the Colossus so that I can survive when I dive. Or, alternatively, I could try to play the entire match accompanying my ADC, and take Stoneborn Pact so that my CC abilities serve strongly to their benefit.

That's just the rough gist of it though, and with only one champion as an example.

SanKakU2 votes

Okay so I just was trying the new keystone on Rammus...and it seems like it WOULD work on him just fine...I think the thing holding it back from working properly is that the players refuse to believe that the keystone is not in fact bond of stone. I guess they needed to change the art for the new keystone. Maybe it won't matter what champion you use with the keystone, they will ALL fail if the allies don't use it.

At least one opponent thought I had Bond of Stone...that wouldn't be such a problem except that my allies seemed to think I had it too, even though I told them I had the new keystone in the draft lobby. Even my mid lane ally was trolling me and asserting that my keystone doesn't heal my allies, but instead heals me.

desertcroc1 votes

I thought the new keystone worked better on champs like taric rather than leona or thresh, I thought you still took courage with those two

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