Rek'sai and Gragas: A tale of two junglers (and the effects of direct and indirect changes)

WARNING: LONG POST

So Gragas and Rek'sai both received another set of nerfs in 5.17. They have both been dominant junglers in competitive for a while now and their solo queue presence has been felt by many players leading to these champions having near 100% pick/ban rates at some point this year (though Rek'sai's was near release). In the competitive scene, they were the safest and most blind-picked junglers in the meta. They both started receiving nerfs and they still stayed at the top of the jungle scene due to their ability to be "all around" junglers that had no inherent weaknesses and could still heavily impact the game for their team with their tankiness, utility and damage.

As time went on, both junglers started falling out of flavor with the introduction of new jungle items and champion buffs bringing Nidalee, Eve, and Elise into competitive and Devourer junglers into solo queue. But Gragas and Rek'sai still stayed relevant as they were exceptionally safe picks that fit many teamcomps. Nidalee, Eve, and Elise have also gotten some nerfs as well, though Eve's and Elise's weren't too harmful to their success as Runeglaive is very good on Eve and more than makes up for the damage she lost on her Q and Elise only lost a small portion of her full combo's damage, and kept the 1.6 second level 1 E stun that will allow her to remain strong with the rest of the damage she can bring during that lockdown.

Now some interesting things have happened with the introduction of 5.16 that changed the game drastically. The Juggernaut Patch introduced some reworks to Garen, Darius, Morde and Skarner that made them all exceptionally strong tanky carries that have inherent counterplay in that they have no gapclosers and are reliant on their teammates to lockdown opponents so they can follow up and destroy the enemy. But that isn't really what matters to Gragas and Rek'sai as much as the other changes.

The defensive item change was heavily impactful to Gragas and Rek'sai and really to most junglers as they have a tendency to build on the tanky side. What happened was that nearly ALL armor items were nerfed in some form of another but there was a new Dead Man's Plate item to give more options to the player. I think Dead Man's Plate is a great item, especially for Junglers as they can use the passive for map movement and the single target slow it can apply is perfect for catching out enemies. However, this is most definitely a Fighter item, not really a tank item. The reason lies in that fighters are built for skirmishes, diving carries, and catching out opponents, not really absorbing damage and CCing and disrupting enemies. Tanks would still rather go for the Frozen Heart and Randuin's to make an ADC's life a living hell; both of which have been nerfed (stat wise). Randuin's would still be a good pickup for all fighters as the slow is really good and the 10% off crit damage can be a lifesaver come mid-lategame, but as Fighters can build Randuin's, Tanks probably shouldn't build Deadman's Plate over other defensive items.

Other changes include the Cinderhulk power shift and the changes to Warmog's , Spirit Visage/Banshee's , and Aegis of the Legion .

Lastly, two new AD/health items were added in Titanic Hydra and Sterak's Gage

Now we look at Gragas and Rek'sai. They actually share a lot of the same items defensively. I think it's even more popular at the moment to build Cinderhulk on Rek'sai than Warrior, so they could end up having nearly the same build in some games. The major difference is that most of Gragas' damage is Magic Damage whereas Rek'sai does primarily Physical Damage. Now based on the fact that Armor was reduced on many items and MR has been increased on the major MR items in Spirit Visage and Banshee's Veil. The Jungler who came out on top in 5.16 was Rek'sai (between the 2). Even if Rek'sai builds Cinderhulk, she can still build Titanic Hydra or Black Cleaver to provide both moderate tankiness and damage and this is true of all AD junglers right now.

Now the most recent nerfs to Gragas and Rek'sai are nothing major. Gragas lost 4% targets max hp damage through leveling his W which does cut his damage come mid-lategame. But he still has his Q, E, and R to provide heavy CC to enemies and provide okay base damage while doing it. Rek'sai lost her ability to quickly generate some fury after unburrowing which cuts damage from her E and makes her passive effectively heal her less but again she still has her damage and knockups to help in teamfights and her Ultimate and Tremor sense are immeasurable in how impactful they are to her team. Now measuring where Rek'sai and Gragas were before their nerfs, but we'll use 5.5 as a baseline as that was when Gragas received his latest buff to his level 1 mana. Both champions received 4 nerfs; 3 to abilities and 1 to stats. Gragas had his E width nerfed, his Q slow nerfed, and his W damage nerfed as well as getting his HP/5 hit (it is now one of the lowest in the game). Rek'sai had her Q damage reduced, her knockup on w radius reduced, and her passive was hit most recently; she also had her level 1 health reduced.

You can see that they were nerfed in very similar ways. Taking away some reliability on their CC, reducing damage, and lowering their early survivability in the jungle. Rek'sai has actually received a buff to her tunnel in the same time. If you consider that, and the changes to items that benefit her, you can understand how Rek'sai maintains a higher winrate in solo queue after their nerfs. Gragas now sits at a near 45% winrate in the jungle, even lower than the infamous Lee Sin winrate. What I conclude is that the nerfs to Rek'sai seem a little more fair given the amount of indirect buffs she has received leaving her in a more or less stable state between 5.15 and 5.17.

Now. We look towards 5.18 and see that of all things, Warrior Enchant is finally getting the revert that everyone has been asking for, but the community was asking for it ages ago before the armor items were all nerfed and Cinderhulk reigned supreme. Now that armor items are in a weakened state, why would Warrior be buffed other than it is the most boring of all the item enchants and is inherently weak by that fact? This will be a significant buff to AD junglers in conjunction to the armor nerfs and we are already seeing buffs to the champions that would be using this item anyway in Lee Sin, Pantheon, and Vi getting touched on in 5.16 and 5.17. So I ask this question: why are double buffs/double nerfs used so liberally in League? We see this all the time when an item is change or in this case a set of items were changed and then champions that would benefit with said items are buffed or nerfed almost simultaneously. Sejuani and Cinderhulk was a case of this almost in both directions (she was buffed/soft reworked in 4.21 so this was a little bit before Cinderhulk; why I use the qualifier "almost"). Lee Sin, VI, and Pantheon will definitely be an example of this (not saying they didn't need buffs, but the double/triple buffs they are receiving might be a bit much). We are seeing this in Gragas right now with his items getting hit and the direct nerfs he received. I just am wondering how this happens so often. Is it intentional, or is it just coincidence.

Now in the end. I'll probably be glad to see Gragas out of the meta for a little bit. Maybe when they try to bring him back into the meta, they will change the minion reduction on his Q and he will be a viable toplaner again. As for Rek'sai, I think that there are better junglers than her right now in terms of ganking, teamfighting, and clear is concerned, but her utility in her tremor sense and ult will still make her very strong in competitive as she is unmatched this sense. If she still remains strong, the balance team will continue to nerf her until she is a shell of her former self, though I think she is in a pretty balanced spot right now.

Ultimately, I think these changes are for pro players at worlds as I think Riot wants to change things up drastically for pro players and that means taking away their comfort picks that are just good into everything. We see this in Maokai, Kalista, and Azir getting hit in the same patch as they are notoriously good in any matchup. I want to believe that Riot doesn't balance solely for pro play, but I think these patches are specifically for World's and not for the solo queue players out there. Though they did hit Devourer on the PBE so they haven't completely forgotten about the little people.

Thanks for reading if you did. I do like to rant about things like this. Tell me what you think. Peace.