@RiotRepertoir can we get some followup thoughts on the Rammus changes?
Personally I'm not a fan of the direction of these changes, so I'd really like to hear from Repertoir (or other rioters) if any changes are being looked at. I'm glad the ap ratio on Q made it back but other than that there's been no comments since the changes were announced. I already made a post on the pbe boards but I'll repost my thoughts here for visibility/discussion.
I was pretty open to the changes when I was reading them and they didn't seem too far off, but after playing a few games he just feels off. Based on what I've played so far here's my feedback.
Q - feels... too good... but in a bad way. Don't get me wrong it's really fun to use, but in the same way URF mode is fun. It's ridiculously fast and feels like high energy gameplay, but it feels really out of place on Rammus. Especially after getting Deadman's the speed is just comically fast. Fun to use but I found myself missing the powerful and weighted feeling of the slow windup. And the new animation when he hits someone feels far too acrobatic for what's supposed to feel like a wrecking ball hit. He feels like Sonic the Hedgehog now, which is really not what I want from Rammus. Also I really dislike that the ability is a channel now. It makes him more afraid of silences than he is of roots and that sounds completely backwards to me. Pretty much all movement abilities are undisturbed by silences so I don't see why they need to affect Rammus so harshly.
W - the polar opposite of Q, feels awkwardly slow to the point where using it just feels bad unless I'm standing still autoing someone. Early game I couldn't even keep up with scuttle crab while I had red buff. I also had one instance where I had taunted someone at max range but with the W up there was a brief but noticeable amount of time it took for me to walk into auto attack range and it just felt horrible. The slow also means his only hope of being effective in a teamfight is landing his Q for a followup taunt, because without that you're either too slow to even try and taunt someone or you get blown up without the resistances.
E - kinda same complaint as Q, it makes him feel way too fast. Attack speed feels really satisfying but feels out of place on Rammus.
R - the slow is incredibly strong and feels kinda good to use but honestly I just end up feeling bad for people stuck in it. This combined with his W makes fights feel like "I can't move much but neither can you" which is unfun for both parties involved. I like the bonus damage to structures though.
Altogether he feels really feast or famine now. His Q is so fast that he can catch and kill people with ease if he is ahead. His W feels so slow that if you're losing you can either activate it and not be able to escape or leave it off and die because you're too squishy. Overall it's just less satisfying to play. When ahead getting kills is so easy that I don't even feel I earned it, and falling behind feels like I can't get close to the enemy or I'll die. Also I find his best case teamfight scenario would be getting into a teamfight quickly, followed by using W and R to slow everyone including yourself and basically bring the fight to a standstill, which again isn't really fun for anybody.
That's mostly sums up my thoughts on the changes. There's a couple things in there that I'm okay with like the new passive and W scaling, but overall I must say I hope this update doesn't hit live without seeing some changes first. If riot is adamant about pushing the changes through I hope they at least trim down the extremes (lower Q speed, reduce W self slow). Thanks to anybody that took the time to read this, and please share your thoughts on the changes (whether you have or have not gotten to try them).
Sincerely, a Rammus fan.
