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SpellVamp Itemization Needs A Second Look

Dryditch·4/23/2015, 6:03:01 AM·2 votes·406 views

So, I've been playing a lot more AP champions lately, and I had a few questions/ideas about what might make them feel more satisfying.

One thing I always loved about certain champions was their sustain while in fights. Not necessarily sustain based on absurd health regen, but based on lifesteal.

Vlad and Akali have started popping up in my roster more and more as I move towards some carry champions for SoloQ. (I normally play champions that require my team to trust me and follow up on my engages, so I don't hard carry most games, and end up getting screwed by a team that runs from a 4v3 in our favor.)

Akali's spellvamp mechanics might actually make Spell Vamp itemization broken for the state of the game, but, if we can allow Olaf, Xin, Jax, and others (Looking at you, Kalista) to pick up absurd amounts of lifesteal, Akali should not be a true problem.

We have two Spell Vamp items.

item 3152 -Provides CDR and Spell Vamp.

item 3146 - Provides Lifesteal and Spell Vamp

I don't consider Guinsoo's rapeblade a "spell vamp" item because it requires you to drop below a %Health to use, and it just generally isn't viable on most of these champions

So, what would I like to see in spell vamp items?

  1. WotA needs some kind of actual passive reason to buy it beyond the component pieces themselves. Perhaps a mini-Black Shield? Give like 50 health shielding from abilities?

  2. A new item that builds out of Hextech Revolver and Needlessly Large Rod. This could provide a true late game item for the champions who would benefit most from spellvamp. Perhaps it would have an added effect like a Vlad E--a shockwave which improves regen for X amount of time. To balance it out, this active might have a massive cooldown.

  3. A general rework of how SpellVamp actually works: Perhaps it could be based specifically on abilities, and not on empowered auto abilities as a result of abilities.

Akali Q would proc the Spellvamp, but the auto attack proccing the mark would not. Her E would also proc the spellvamp.

So, thoughts on these ideas?

6 Comments

Kouga4/23/2015, 7:24:53 AM4 votes

The problem with Spell Vamp is that its actually an extremely strong mechanic, and difficult to balance.

Lifesteal is easy to account for, because in 99% of the cases, it is proc'd by Auto Attacks (and a few select abilities such as Ezreal's Q) and Riot has a fair amount of control over AAs. They have a few easy to use levers - attack speed, AD (base/scaling), etc so they know what to expect in terms of Damage Out and Health In.

Spell Vamp, however, works off of abilities, and therefore is extremely unpredictable. Most ADCs will have fairly similar damage outputs - the majority of their damage is dealt through AA/Crits, and then the Champs layer their own unique damage curves onto that (such as Vayne's Silver Bolts) but with abilities, its much harder to predict the curve of damage/healing. Veigar may be a squishy mage, but imagine if he could easily build Spell Vamp without sacrificing much else - he'd practically heal to full off a combo.

Then you have the problem of AD Casters, like Pantheon and Talon. They actually benefit from Spell Vamp, but there is no good itemization for them.Were it more accessible, spellvamp on the likes of Pan, Renekton, Talon would greatly buff their survivability.

So Spell Vamp is good for AP and many ADs, where as Life Steal is only really good for a limited scope of ADCs. Hydra increases this scope quite a bit, because it allows those AD casters as well as fighters AoE damage and sustain, but its still more limited than Spell Vamp would be.

Furthermore, you have champs like Morde and Vlad that rely on health management. If you balance them around spell vamp items, then they will have a very hard early game before they get those items, plus it forces them into very strict build paths. If you balance them around their abilities alone, then they can abuse the shit out of spell vamp items. Morde used to be nearly unkillable with the right patch and spell vamp.

Its a messy problem, but IMO the solution is straight forward (but would require a complete overhaul and, therefore, is impossible). Here is how I think they should have done it from the start

  1. Abilites that deal magic damage proc Spell Vamp
  2. Abilities that deal physical damage proc Life Steal

Boom. Now obviously this wouldn't work with the current system - so instead, I think they should:

  1. Get rid of Spell Vamp entirely - the items that give it are either nerfed into oblivion, just shitty, or too niche.
  2. Balance health-based Champions around their own abilities and give them ways to better manage/sustain their health. Vlad can do this, which is why he is still a viable (and now, popular) pick but its what is holding Mordekaiser and Mundo back.
Stonington4/23/2015, 7:01:22 AM2 votes

They nerfed spellvamp to where it is today so only champs that rely on it can use those items.

GetBoomedOn4/23/2015, 6:10:57 AM1 votes

Akali's Q is designed to proc spellvamp by breaking the mark on her target. It's part of her kit. I like it cause it provides unpredictability.