Any Plans for Renekton?

Tyrannogorgeous·10/5/2015, 6:58:05 PM·3 votes·1,017 views

Are there any plans or possibilities for some work on Renekton? I'm simply curious, as He's my favorite champion by far and he's not in the optimal place at the moment. As a champion who NEEDS to win lane to have any real effect on the game, life is very difficult when:

A) TP exists in it's current state B) There are options for both TP and Crystalline flask C) You're outscaled by champions that have lane power just as oppressive as yours, with more utility

I'm not whining about how OP Teleport is, I'm not asking for flask nerfs, and I haven't jumped on the QQ Juggernaut train (despite the questionable nature of Noxian Might and the unnecessary heal on Darius) but rather, I am convinced that the conjunction of the Juggernauts release and the TP buffs were both major hits, true indirect nerfs to the Croc.

Darius CAN out lane Renekton and easily outduels him post 6. Olaf has always been considered a viable counterpick, and has a considerably more oppressive lane so long as the axes are landed properly

Both these champions illustrate champions that fill Renekton's lane bully Niche, out-scaling him to a ridiculous degree. This leads me to wonder what justifies Renekton's late game weakness. Is it the dash that has been gated by a sufficiently long cooldown? Is it the lack of mana? Is it a combination of all three? These I can understand. He doesn't need more Lane power.

What Renekton needs, in my humble opinion, is more utility or a resolution to his glaring identity issues (He has cool-downs that are too long to justify going all AD as a consistant choice, while he lacks any of the qualities that might make him reliably tanky enough to fit the diver niche his dash seems to have tasked him with).

He needs something on his passive, or a passive ability on one or more of his abilities, that will allow him more impact on the game as lategame approaches. Putting a cripple on his Q - empowered or no, might apply some sticking power. You could also possibly allow for his ult to be empowered, giving an extra effect (i.e. damage reduction so that his ult can give him some suitable tankiness that his kit is lacking so thoroughly). You could give a stacking mechanic, as a counterpart to Nasus' Q, that allows Renekton to build up defensive stats for killing minions with empowered abilities or landing empowered abilities on champions as a counter to Nasus' ability to build defensively while getting free offensive capabiliies with his Q. You could add a passive scaling to his W to justify maxing it over E second. The possibilites are vast, and provide a Renekton who is even or behind some avenue to affect the game and assist his team, though these might not be anywhere closed to viable or balanced examples.

TLDR: Renekton is weak right now, his lane isn't oppressive enough to justify such a weak late game, Is it possible we can see some additions to his kit to make him an effective pick after 20 minutes?

13 Comments

Zedastian10/5/2015, 7:14:24 PM3 votes

SKT VS EDG, MaRin used Renekton precisely as a counterpick against Darius.

Rustling Bush10/5/2015, 7:06:27 PM1 votes

i like to ult with sunfire and stand in the middle of team fights as i do crap tons of damage to everything surrounding me. but i agree, his late game is lacking, not so long ago i carried so hard with rene but it got pushed into late game and i couldn't do much at all.

Shikigami10/5/2015, 7:00:25 PM1 votes

No, would they play a "weak" champion at worlds and win with a 4.2 KDA at the highest level of play?

Sir ArmaMalum10/5/2015, 7:25:05 PM1 votes

I feel the same way currently. Once the Darius Juggernaut rework came out I was very disheartened. His new Q heal alone displaced Renekton in almost every situation in both laning and teamfights. I wouldn't go so far as to say Renekton is weak, but he as definitely been pushed out of viability with the better options in top lane currently. And Renekton players simply aren't used to that since he was the standard fighter (aka he "Renekton Bar") for so long.

I'd be hesitant to add more damage or lower cooldowns to him though. Like most fighters, Renekton can easily get out of control with too strong a nudge to his numbers. But you are right imho that he needs more utility to give him more of a boost as well as carve out a little bit more of an identity against similar champs like Darius and Olaf.

----One idea would be to add things to his passive, since it does so little atm anyway. Adding a % movespeed increase towards enemies as his rage bar fills (similar to crit chance with Trynd) would be an awesome tweak. Renekton players would have to then time their rage dump correctly to get the damage and heal as well as make sure they can still close the distance.

----Inversely dividing up his current armor shred between his slice and dice dashes could be a low impact option. So slice did, for example, 6/7/8/9/10% shred and empowered dice would do 10/15/20/25/30% on top of that. It would indirectly boost Renekton's damage while simultaneously punishing using his E to re position instead of to hit.

Just throwing out ideas here. I hate complaining without at least giving a possible solution.

cFlame10/5/2015, 7:26:58 PM1 votes

I love Renekton as well, I think hes my second favorite top laner next to Olaf. I think the croc should probably gain more rage when attacked over a period of time, making him more of a counter to all in champions since hes lacking in utility or high mobility to get out of such a situation. He really could use some utility effect on his ultimate, when he roars specifically. Perhaps a small silence like Blitzcrank? Or a channel disrupt toppled with a brief slow?

TwoD10/5/2015, 8:21:32 PM1 votes

Renekton is my go to champion against the so called "juggernauts" and does the job pretty well. I'd say he's in a pretty good spot right now.

Trebbi10/5/2015, 7:19:30 PM1 votes

I dont think Renekton really needs a change, he is just not so in the open as other toplane picks. The new juggernaught items helped him a great deal and he is still great at 2 vs 1 and he probably has the best combined laning tools for a melee champion in the game, so its only fair that he should fall of abit, but he doesnt fall as hard as before the last change he got. He scales alot better than he did in season 4(dont remember exactly when they changed it)

Compared to Darius its far easier to build a team around Renekton as he is alot more independant.