Jumping on the Juggernauts Rework Bandwagon

Hi there. Bit of background on me: I'm an NA Summoner, been playing since somewhere between Hecarim and Varus. I'm a maaaaassive casual player - I don't do ranked, and I used to think if I did, I could maybe get to Silver. On a good day. And given that I recently had to cut down on my playtime, I think even that is kidding myself.

Having said that, I have played several hundred games and generally sunk hundreds of hours into this game, and as such, I like think I have a decent handle on game mechanics. My last forum board post was during the Cassiopeia debacle (RIP Kite-Snake), and given the similar circumstances, I've decided to join the conversation (or jump on the bandwagon, whichever you prefer) on the topic of the Juggernauts update that recently hit the PBE.

Warning: I have a tendency to ramble. This is gonna be a long one.

Gut Reaction Patch 5.15 is one of my favorite patches in recent memory. Granted, it didn't change much, but what was there was more or less justified: the Fiora rework (Grand Duelist - now requires skill!) which I've yet to play because of bugs, but shit happens so it's fine; Tweaks to Ekko emphasizing his assassin nature; Nid spear nerfs doing essentially the same, putting more emphasis on a spear-pounce-swipe-takedown combo and less emphasis on the endless spear poke; a Sivir nerf that reads more like a bugfix than anything else; and buffs to the dreaded dark lord of League, Teemo... which mostly just give him fun new tools to mess around with, without impacting his power in a significant numerical way.

I love this patch. It's great.

And I am absolutely livid at almost every single change in the Juggernauts update. I realize that at least part of that is knee-jerk "THIS IS DIFFERENT! I DON'T LIKE DIFFERENT!" reaction, but the fact remains that I am totally unhappy with these changes on paper. I don't have a PBE account, so I can't actually speak as to how they play. But whatever, the point of this post is to give my two cents. So let's run it down:

Changes for Change's sake: The stated goal of the Juggernaut update is, quote "Each champion in League should feel distinct from one another". An admirable goal, but one that I feel the update takes too far in the wrong direction. According to the gameplay update page, "What we did with this update was we took a look at some of the juggernauts that occupied the same ‘tactical space’ as Nasus", a tactical space defined as "powerful, durable, immobile and melee". While I agree that these champions - Nasus, Darius, Garen, Skarner, and even Morde, do share tactical similarities, I'd argue that they already feel completely different from one another.

• Nasus is a late-game threat - every creep he whacks with his staff is a step up the ladder of infinite damage. He doesn't need to build damage, letting him focus on farming up tank stats and pimp-caning everyone later in teamfights.
• Darius is a bully in lane and a chained execute time-bomb in teamfights. While it's very unlikely that he can carry a game by himself, a fed Darius cetainly complicates teamfights for the enemy team if they can't keep him away from the squishies.
• Defining Garen as immobile is laughable. With Decisive Strike and a good pair of boots, Garen can run laps around Summoner's Rift in the time it takes your average champ to run down one lane. Where Darius is a threat, Garen is a disruption. At most he'll execute one target, but until you take him out, he'll just spin on in the middle of your team.
• Skarner, like Garen, is not immobile. The crystal scorpion's ability to just run into the enemy team, stick to a valuable target, and run them into his own team is an ability few other champions have, and certainly not with as much style.
• Morde, being AP, feels even more separate. Certainly, he still builds bruiser most of the time (HP+AP+Resistances), but his role is best suited to split pushing, with his high burst, tankiness and ultimate meaning that sending only one champion to stop him is a risky propostion.

Even if all these champions built the exact same way (and Morde really shouldn't...), they'd still play differently. Yet the Juggernaut update seems to work under the assumption that all of these champions were the same. Multiple champions occupying a similar tactical space doesn't ruin the game, so long as all those champions bring something different to that spot.

Either way, let's break it down. Below you'll find my reaction to the changes proposed, and what I think might've been a better idea. Given the above, you shouldn't be surprised to see my proposed changes be much smaller. Everything there is just a matter of opinion, so take it as you will.

Darius: This was one of the first champions I picked up when I started playing League, and despite totally justified changes - anyone else remember release Darius? and his half-second grace window on his ult? - I still love the Hand of Noxus with all my heart.

Changes - I go more in depth with the Darius changes than with anyone else, as Darius' changes rile me up more than anyone else's.

The proposed change to Darius' passive, with the addition of the Bloodrage mechanic, severely changes the dynamics of Darius in a teamfight. Now, the fuse on the time-bomb is much shorter, and the potential result are even more catastrophic. I'm not entirely sure what the idea of giving Darius access to 40-200 free AD is, and while giving Darius a way to stack his bleed quicker is interesting, there were more elegant solutions proposed than just saying "If you let him get 5 stacks on someone, he gets 5 stacks on EVERYONE".

Changing the bleed damage to physical is also a sore point for me. Darius' magic bleed was always, to me at least, a core part of him - armor doesn't matter to the bleed. Not to mention, this adds a profoundly stupid mechanical interaction with Black Cleaver: Land one auto attack, watch as the enemy bleeds armor for 5 seconds.

Decimate, his Q, now has a cast time, heals when hitting champions, and no longer applies a bleed stack when hitting with the handle - ie, the less damaging part of the ability. The cast time takes away part of the threat of getting close to Darius, as you can now see his bread and butter trading ability coming. Healing on champion hit feels like stepping on Renekton's turf; in fact, a lack of natural sustain was, again, a core part of him to me. It helps further differentiate him from Mr. Demacia, and means the only way you win fights is the Noxian way - make the other guy die first. On top of that, I think it's overkill to punish people for hitting with the handle, when you've already made it harder to hit because of the cast time.

Crippling Strike, his W, has had its damage adjusted so all ranks are equal to the old rank 2, the slow is double strength but half speed, no longer reduces attack speed, and the cooldown is no longer reduced by bleed on target and instead reduces based on rank. While I don't particularly care too much about the damage change, it feels weird to have a damaging ability that has no rank scaling whatsoever. The slow change is similarly fine, but the part where it no longer reduces attack speed has me miffed. Crippling Strike's attack speed reduction was always the unsung part of Darius' kit, and I'm sad to see it goes, as it helped differentiate him as an anti-ADC Fighter. The cooldown being reduced by bleed stacks was (you know the song by now) a core part of his identity to me, and it's a mechanic I'm sad to see disappear. As far as I know, no one else in the League has a similar, direct interaction with ability cooldown.

I'm not gonna go overlong on the changes to his E and R as they're mostly justified. Apprehend has a faster cast time and slows briefly on pull - in a way similar to Trundle's bite I imagine. The ultimate damage has been lowered, which I suspect is a result of accommodating for the possible 200 free AD of Bloodrage, but even without it I'd approve the change if only because the new flat numbers are simpler to think of for an execute.

Solutions - I dislike the Bloodrage. Giving Darius a way to amp up quicker in teamfights has been a stated goal of a Darius rework for a while now, and I remember seeing an idea, proposed by a Riot developer no less, wherein Decimate would "spread" bleed stacks around. Hit one champ with 4 stacks? Boom! Every champ you hit now has 5 stacks. That seemed a much more interesting solution to me, instead of simply giving Darius 5 stacks on hit.

Garen - Mr. Demacia himself is another favorite top pick of mine, and has always been a "noob-friendly" pick. No mana, pretty tanky, decent damage. And he spins! What's not to love?

Changes - The nerfs to Garen's level 16 passive and Q silence are justified. As much as I loved the late-game feel of regenerating 150 hit points per second, I gotta agree it was kind of silly. Silences are on their way out it seems, and a 1.5 second silence is still solid.

The changes to Garen's W however...bwuh? Removing the passive Armor and MR steroid, and instead replacing it with a permanent 0.2 Armor and MR buff on unit kill? I'm sorry, I thought I was playing Garen, but clearly I'm some kind of shitty resistance-based Nasus. I get that the old passive steroid was boring, but actually going back to an even older model of the ability is NOT a solution! Also, why remove the active tenacity component exactly?

The Judgment changes are a mishmash of incomprehensible numbers, so I'll have to wait to experience them. The fact that it no longer crits is sad, but crit-boat Garen hasn't been attractive to me ever since Atma's was removed. Not too happy about the spin speed scaling with level, however....

I'm torn on the new Villain mechanic. It fits with Garen thematically, but giving the big guy percentage of max HP true damage does not. I remember a Riot dev mentioning, after the Fiora rework, that percentage of max HP true damage was a mechanic they intended to keep rare, and now I'm rolling my eyes at this. I do like the ult dealing true damage to the Villain however.

Solutions - For Courage, I'd certainly bring back the tenacity active. If the flat percentage passive component is too boring, remove it altogether - make the ability active only, and buff the active components. As for the true damage to Villains, here's a thought instead: bring back the Judgment crits, and give Garen free crit chance against the Villain, perhaps?

Morde - es numero uno! While I don't play him as much as the other two big guys above, Morde is still a fun AP bruiser to bring top lane, and with his unique passive and ultimate, he's always been one of the League's stand-outs.

Changes - So apparently, the goal of the Morde update is to make him a duo-bruiser lane replacement for an ADC?

I'm just gonna go ahead and say it: MOST HAM-FISTED ATTEMPT AT SHAKING UP THE META EVER

I get that emergent gameplay is fun, and that the meta of 1-1-2+J has been what it is since forever. But I'm not sure Riot actively trying to break it will work. Honestly? I think they'll just end up breaking Morde.

I do applaud the normalization of his shield - no more random numbers pulled out of the ether, now he just scales with his max HP. The changes to Q are interesting, but I don't have much else to say about it.

The new passive component of his W, giving him full XP on minion kills regardless of allies present, fits thematically but only exists to further the above meta-change. I also think the active has been overcomplicated by the addition of the re-cast, but I'll admit, maybe that's just me.

Siphon is unchanged, thank god, and the bonus shield generation on champion hits is very nice.

As cool as the zombie dragon is, I actually dislike it for one simple reason: Morde is the only champion to interact with Dragon in such a significant way. If mechanics interacting with Dragon or other jungle camps existed, I'd be just as hype as everyone else is.

Solutions - Stop trying to push bot-lane Morde, it's not gonna happen. You'd have more luck with Jungle Morde, or even Support Morde with an ADC.

Skarner - While I don't jungle very often, I've tried the crystal vanguard on occasion, and I certainly liked him. His ability to stick to a target, dealing consistent damage all the while, makes for a great play experience.

Changes - Guys, you already gave Skarner a new, awesome passive last season. Why are you taking it away and making his passive "Discount Crystal Scar"? As far as I can tell, Skarner's new passive is giving the enemy jungler free gold in the early game for capturing the shrines in their jungle.

Crystal Slash's stacking move speed buff was redundant, given his W does the same thing. But the attack speed buff was relevant, considering it helps lower the cooldown of Crystal Slash even further.

Crystalline Exoskeleton now scales with Max HP instead of having a base amount. Again, one of the few changes I'm okay with.

Fracture now applies Skarner's old passive, in a more straightfoward, binary way. Good jorb, Rito

Impale is effectively unchanged, except it no longer interacts with Skarner's new passive.

Solutions - I'd bring back the old passive for one. Failing that, tone down Skarner's shrines as a "global" objective - how about, only Skarner can activate them, but he can only activate one at a time, and activating one locks him out of activating another for a modest amount of time? Would force him to pick his battles, and emphasize him as a "this is my turf" kind of jungler.

Closing Word: The bottom line of this truly titanic post is this - just because two champions occupy a similar strategic niche doesn't mean they play the same. Every champion is already different from every other champion, and while updates, reworks and patches should certainly continue to emphasize the ways in which they're different, the Juggernaut update is pushing too far, adding mechanics where none were necessary, and slashing mechanics that actually made these champions feel unique.

If I could, I'd dump the whole thing down the drain and start over with smaller, incremental changes. But I'm just a casual player, and so I guess in a few weeks, I'll just have to accept that a few champs I loved changed in ways that makes me not love them anymore.

PS: This post was so large, I couldn't proof-read, so apologies if any typos found their way in. Also, I have no comment on the Armor/MR item changes - I actually like most of them! Sterak's Rage looks dumb, though - I'm 100% certain it'll never activate when you want it to.