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sorcery 3rd triplet buffs/discussion

DarkTree1·10/24/2018, 5:26:42 AM·3 votes·1,199 views

currently, if you're using a sorcery keystone (lots of champions use arcane comet or aery, as well as a select few that pick phase rush) you're locked into choosing either scorch, waterwalking or gathering storm, however each have their own issues:

Scorch - deals next to no damage at early levels and deals unnoticable damage at higher levels. this is usually the "if i have to pick something, i'll pick this" keystone because of its extra poking power - i realize that in preseason and early S8 this keystone was really really good on earlygame champions like brand, malzahar and zyra and re-buffing it back into that state will just be an unnecessary damage increase. IMO the only way to truly fix this keystone is to replace it - it's not even interesting in the way that cheap shot - a very similar rune is, whereas cheap shot requires the enemy to be movement/action impaired, scorch is just "do you have an ability that does damage? take this and deal a little bit more damage".

Waterwalking - this is terrible and only saw/sees use during the scuttlecrab meta where if you didn't get the first crab, you lost the game, and anything that benefited your ability to duel in the river was really good. nobody outside of junglers or maybe someone who's running full movespeed will ever take this, and even then it's a very rare pick even in situations where it would supposedly be good. not to mention that it's completely disabled on maps that aren't SR, meaning you only get 2 options for this triplet in other gamemodes.

Gathering storm - i don't actually have many problems with gathering storm, it's a mostly well designed rune that synergises well with certain champions and can be taken as a generalist rune on champions which aren't sure what to take or don't like scorch (which is most champions) - however, this rune is absoloutely useless on twisted treeline, howling abyss, and i'd imagine other maps such as the crystal scar - all of these maps have their main gamemodes be heavily centered around the earlygame, with most matches ending around 25 minutes unless both teams stall out the game. 14 AD or 24 AP is usually the most this rune will give you in those gamemodes which is basically nothing, not to mention the fact that most action will be happening before 10 minutes, which is before this rune even gives you the tiniest bit of stat buffs.

changes i personally would implement to make this rune triplet more useful:

  • rework/replace scorch & waterwalking. waterwalking is an interesting rune, but in execution it's literally worthless unless you're fighting for scuttle at level 2/3. scorch does too little damage to be impactful, but if it was ever buffed to be impactful, it would be overbearing.
  • make gathering storm on non-SR maps have different time scalings. every 5 or 7 minutes would be a massive improvement and would see the pick rate of this rune on alternative maps be much higher, and encourage more diversity for this triplet overall.
  • as for replacements for runes, scorch isn't a bad idea per se - pretty much the entirety of runes reforged lacks any other real DOT rune (besides aery but that doesn't really count), but make it have actual depth to it instead of "hit ability, burn champion for flat magic damage". replace it with a number-tweaked version of deathfire touch for all i care.
  • if waterwalking's reworked instead of replaced, make it a mobility/defensive rune at most - something like 10 + 3% bonus movespeed and 5 + 3% bonus armor and mr while in the river or brush and 3s or 5s after exiting it - something like that could be good on junglers and specific champions.

anyways, this is just something i've thought of after playing TT/aram a bit recently (summoner's rift sux). thoughtscommentssuggestions?

3 Comments

iiGazeii10/24/2018, 6:12:27 AM3 votes

I agree. Scorch and Waterwalking are just plain boring. Other runes like Ghost Poro, Triumph, Demolish, and Biscuit Delivery are so tangible and interactive, while these are very passive.

I'd love to see more Sorcery runes that revolve around, well, sorcery. So few runes from this path actually care about whether or not you're casting spells or playing like a mage.

Stuff like this:

Empty Vessel - Your auto attacks deal an additional 5 + (4% AP) magic damage and restore 2 mana while none of your abilities are available.

Witch's Brew - Gather the hair of a dog (wolves), toad spittle (gromp), a raptor's feather (raptors), a piece of living stone (krugs), and the blood of your enemy (champion kill). Once complete, you gain the Witch's Brew potion. (Witch's Brew: Restores 15% of your maximum mana over 5 seconds and gives you 25 AP, 25 flat movement speed, and 10 magic penetration for 5 seconds. After that, you permanently gain 5 AP, 5 flat movement speed, and 3 magic penetration.)

Meditation - If you don't take an action for three seconds, you get +20% CDR until you take an action (moving, casting an ability, etc.)

Hubris - Whenever you fire a direction- or ground-based ability, refund 33% of that ability's cost if it hits a champion. However, if that ability hits nothing, the cost of that ability increases by 10%, stacking up to five times until you hit a champion with it.

Séance10/24/2018, 5:37:43 AM2 votes

For gathering storm, make it proc on less then 10 mins for TT and ARAM, similarly to what they did for nexus blitz, edit: just noticed you mentioned this

Sharpest glasses10/24/2018, 12:12:50 PM1 votes

Waterwalking - this is terrible and only saw/sees use during the scuttlecrab meta where if you didn't get the first crab, you lost the game, and anything that benefited your ability to duel in the river was really good.

BS. This runes was always good. And they're was never a meta where losing first crab mean you lost the game. This delusion of low elos.

waterwalking is an interesting rune, but in execution it's literally worthless unless you're fighting for scuttle at level 2/3.

??? You clearly dont understand how jng work.