Warlords Blood Lust Feels Really Underwhelming After the Changes

Frigid Ice Storm·2/28/2016, 7:02:20 PM·22 votes·3,415 views

Hey guys. So after the recent changes to warlord's bloodlust, where the lifesteal scales off your missing health, it just feels really weak. I mean they completely got rid of the attack speed it gave you, you only get the maximum 20% lifesteal cap from it when you're almost dead, and overall its not that good. I know Riot was like " ohh its gonna make champs like Olaf and Aatrox strong!". But Olaf's win rate dropped to 45% because people are taking this noob trap mastery and not realizing it's not even that good. Aatrox's win rate is not that good either, its around 48% for top lane and 50% for jungle. summoner 11 ( to seperate paragraphs)

So it's apparent that this mastery change was NOT a buff, people thought it would make champions like Yasuo or Tryndamere's laning phase stronger, but you're not going to be using that lifesteal anyway when you get low in lane that often anyway, because you're melee. If I'm at 200 hp lets say, missing 80% of my health, I'm not going to be able to use that 20% lifesteal I'm getting, because the moment I get close to those minions I'll get fukt hard.

Please Riot, buff Warlord's. I know where you were trying to go with this, trying to let other autoattack based champions utilize this and not just the Crit-chance builders, but a better way would be to maybe have it proc every 8 autoattacks in the early game and then the number of autoattacks needed for the heal scales down. Yasuo For example :
Every 8th consecutive autoattack heals you for 20% of the damage dealt. The amount of autoattacks needed scales on level, from 8 autoattacks at lvl 1 to 2 autoattacks at level 16. After you heal from this mastery, it will go on a 2 second cooldown and your next autoattacks in those 2 seconds will NOT build up towards this mastery until it goes off cooldown. However, while this mastery is on cooldown you gain 30% attack speed.

So I feel like this would help Warlord's Bloodlust still benefit the autoattackers, while not being underwhelming by activating only when you're almost dead. And also it would scale as you level, so you're healing every 2 autoattacks, then 2 sec CD and you gain that 30% attack speed.

( Sorry for the long paragraph). Thoughts?

29 Comments

KING ATTILA2/29/2016, 2:30:58 AM5 votes

Riot doesn't know anything about balance. lol

tougherswede2/28/2016, 8:42:01 PM3 votes

I agree that the changes to Warlord's have in some ways weakened it as a viable choice for melee champions. However, from reading some of @Meddler's comments on the matter, it seems like this change was in some ways intended to make Warlords a feasible build for Ranged ADC's. In fact, when you think about it, this would be quite strong on most Marksmen champions. By giving them a non-item means of building lifesteal it opens up their build paths a tremendous amount (no more being forced to build Bloodthirster in order to survive for extended periods of time). Adding any kind of additional "buff" to the mastery, while making it more viable for melee auto attackers, would make it incredibly powerful on ranged champions who can attack from a distance. I've only messed around with the new version a tiny bit, but so far I find that while it doesn't quite fit my playstyle I do like the changes they have made and find the new version to be quite balanced. Just my opinion, but take it as you will.

SnazzyTheMister2/28/2016, 9:20:22 PM1 votes

i think the best thing to do for warlords as a mastery is to make it clear when you want this keystone. before it seemed to be about getting more from your crits, now its this fight for your life style sustain. i can understand that why people are reluctant to take a mastery that for most champs is only gona start to shine around 20 mins when you have more crit but with the changes to champion kits and to zeal items i was hoping to see more people trying out warlords.

i can see this new version on adcs but i don't think it has any more of a place over fervor then old warlords did, if anything it offers less without the attackspeed boost. this could be an attempt to get fighter type champs like fiora etc to want to take 18 points ferocity and focus on damage over 18 resolve and building tank but i dont know if this will be enough to make players want to give up on tank builds.

assuming we can only move forward from this change to lifesteal i would be interested in making this a trigger ability with a cooldown where when you hp drops below something like 30% you get 20% lifesteal and 20% attackspeed boost either for x number of seconds or until you leave combat, similar to a maw passive. that would fit the idea of "bloodlust", it could be picked up by players that want to be more aggressive with their aa champs regardless of if they are ranged or melee, it has some relevance at all points in the game, and it has enough levers that it can be tuned up or down depending on how its received.

thats just my thoughts tho

Tridem2/28/2016, 9:29:46 PM1 votes

Unless your aatrox... oh wait

Fat Bastard GOD2/29/2016, 1:31:55 AM1 votes

Oh it's good alright. Build a Blood Thirster on Nasus with that mastery and you become incredibly hard to kill.

The Ecdysiast2/29/2016, 2:11:00 AM1 votes

Just wait until they can test it on Aatrox.

Papa Slothy2/29/2016, 2:19:11 AM1 votes

problem is that it's so bland and only works on champs like tryn who can vomit auto attacks everywhere and survive with low health or ADCs who can't sustain

Marauder Alistar2/29/2016, 3:39:55 AM1 votes

I loved playing Jhin with the old Warlords it was so good on him with his 4th shot healing and giving him bonus ad from the bonus as. Now its shit and he has to take deathfire touch which i hate to use cause its so uninteractive

Twitch Chat2/29/2016, 3:41:40 AM1 votes

Welcome to Patch 6.4, the one where Warlord's Bloodlust is useful.

xddddddddddd

XeroKimo2/29/2016, 4:47:48 AM1 votes

I actually mind if they left warlord's bloodlust the way it was before, but changed it so critting a minion would give attack speed, and it would be in stacks simlar to that mastery in S4/S5 where critting gave you AS. Tho as a keystone mastery, changing it into that would still make wardlord's seem the most underwhelming mastery still,

Saianna2/29/2016, 4:50:03 AM1 votes

Just FYI, if you wanna separate paragraphs use 3x minus (---) and you'll get this:


Nice and stylish ;)

Naag One2/29/2016, 10:48:22 AM1 votes

grasp of undying > warlords :|

Hedgehog Hustler2/29/2016, 2:10:59 PM1 votes

But, I like it... Aatrox is actually PLAYED now, which is great (even though he's disabled right now). Draven gets to have more sustain before first back as well. Gnar can actually have lane sustain without having to go 12/0/18.

Wipe My Come Off2/28/2016, 7:06:05 PM1 votes

Lol true, most win rates did drop after that change went out and champs like Olaf or Aatrox didn't benefit THAT much, the lifesteal is pretty much useless if they burst you down or get kited, requires you to be low hp in the first place

Wolfram Oxford2/29/2016, 8:57:52 PM1 votes

I do like the idea of making it effective for champions besides crit-based auto attackers, but I agree, it needs some buffs and changes. Also have you guys tried Tank Graves top with the new warlords? Its really strong.

Graves item 3072 item 3022 item 3110item 3102ORitem 3065 item 3026 item 3047 ORitem 3111

Ruin Lance2/28/2016, 8:43:33 PM1 votes

yeah I agree, it feels really underwhelming. Even on Olaf, who was supposed to be able to be able to benefit a lot from it, didn't even seem that good from it.