Addressing Top Lane Bruisers
So a couple people seem a bit annoyed about some things that Meddler didn't mention about the state of Top lane.
Meddler's thoughts:
Top Lane:
Contributes less to strategic play than mid (more isolated), so should test and reward play in lane more on average (some exceptions, especially from champs with global mobility on their kits).
Should be able to support a wide variety of champion types, in particular those not well suited to solo laning elsewhere. Ideally all champs should have a home in lane somewhere, though that’s been a challenge for us for a long time with some champs who’ve only really existed in the jungle.
Needs to be able to cope with jungle/roam pressure from being a long lane with only one champion per side providing vision.
Top Lane Summary
So, to try and sum a bunch of things up, we believe top lane needs some improvements at both the tactical and the strategic level. Tactically some things are distorting the lane and need to be addressed (a range of Runes, some individual champions, ranged harass that doesn’t draw agro). Ability to be aggressive on some champs, and get damage to stick to others, may also need further work too. At a strategic level top’s impact on the game at really high MMRs is likely too low. Addressing that likely involves increasing the benefit of winning top lane and looking at how dependent on TP top lane is.
He also noted on how some runes affect top lane and how the aggro changes should affect laning overall.
What is disappointing however is that several issues with the fighter/bruiser class were not addressed at all. Those being:
They have some of the most expensive itemization of any class. Trinity Force: 3733, Death's Dance: 3500, Titanic/Ravenous Hydra: 3500, BoRK: 3400, Maw of Malmortius: 3250, Sterak's Gage: 3200, Black Cleaver: 3000. Some bruisers have to build two or three of these items, and their power-spikes are almost solely dependent on them (usually their ult too, but not always).
Bruisers are also really weak early game, as they don't have any of the stats they need. Unlike other classes they have to split purchases between damage and protection early in order to be viable. They also end up being bullied by ranged opponents early and tanks who have higher base damage and defenses. That in itself isn't an issue, it can be okay for a class of champions to have a weak early game for the most part. The problem arises when you look at their power-spikes. Bruiser power-spikes are tied to items as pointed out previously. If they get bullied early game, it's hard to get gold for the items needed to hit that power-spike. So if they don't get ahead on gold, they can't be viable. The entire way bruisers are set up now is they are feast or famine. Again that might be fine if you wanted to relegate bruisers to the jungle role only, as jungle can be feast or famine at times, and their early game isn't hurt by bullying that way. However Riot recently said they want all champions to have multiple roles.
These aren't changes a few buffs or rune changes will fix. Yes, the aggro changes should help some cases with this, but I think bruisers need a clearer place in league. Should they be mostly late-game carries? Mostly Mid-game? I don't think them being the good-if-fed, or good-if-catching-out class is acceptable, as they currently seem to do a poorer role of that than assassins right now while also being meh tanky. They need something they can call their own that isn't just a hodge-podge of what all the other classes can do but worse. Like I would assume that if you have the most expensive build path of any class, that at full build you would be the best class, however that doesn't appear the case. I really think the class would benefit from a class update, or at least an itemization pass over, seperating tank from juggernaut from bruiser itemization-wise. I know that there was supposed to be a class update before those were cancelled, and that an itemization update for them was supposed to be planned once that cancellation happened. Is the itemization still planned? And when (estimate for us, or give us a vague answer like before the end of the season)?
So to summarize the issue and put it into a better respond-able format:
Bruisers ability to carry is too tied to gold, and their laning phase is at a disadvantage unless they are fighting another bruiser, what are the plans with this? Or what are your thoughts on these observations?
