League of Thunderlord's

I don't see thunderlords decree nearly enough for the game to be considered "League of Thunderlord's" In the past we called the game "League of Warmogs" "League of Cleavers" Because it was completely bought in every single game and any champion who couldn't use those items weren't picked.

The thing is that, thunderlord's decree is a very strong mastery on it's own but what makes more impact is the mastery tree itself. Cunning tree has a better path for damage and the Ferocity tree feels like the sidekick to it and secondary to complete whatever cunning lacks. Actualy, all the power is in the last 2 tiers, 5th and the keaystone. The precision mastery is very strong for both burst mages and AD champions, especialy assassins, because it provides a good amount of flat penetration. For mages, the pen it gives seems minor but considering that most champions only have 30 mr and theres have 52 at lvl18, that 8.4 magic pen combined with runes and sorc boots gives a total of 31 flat magic penetration. That's more than the mr stat of the majority of champions without even counting the void staff that you buy later on that, still, works on all mr and not bonus mr. So, going full cunning as a mage of any type, makes it easy to do effectively true damage all the time. That wasn't very hard actualy even before the change in masteries, but, the point is that, Precision talent is far more effective than it's counterpart in ferocity.

For AD based champions and especialy assassins, The same talent gives 5 flat armor pen and 0.5 per level to a total of 14. Now, the Ferocity counterpart gives 7%. In order for 7% to match the effectiveness of the Precision talent, your target must have 200 armor and considering the fact that you don't focus the tanks, the precision talent is very effective. Now, for early and mid game, when everyoe has relatively low armor values, with full armor pen rune setup and a youmus ghostblade, you get 53 total flat armor pen at lvl18. Personaly, on zed, i run armor pen marks and quints and rush youmus. I have 48 flat armor pen at lvl9 when i usualy get youmu's. At that point, i had an enemy ahri once with no armor in runes and no armor item equiped. I had 8 more armor pen than she had armor at level 10. I had enough armor pen to do true damage to her for 3 more levels at least. Also, late game, that much flat armor pen is now more effective than the old last whisper ever was on squishy targets.

The thing is, come late game, when everyone has high base stats and with % armor pen gone, things get really tough and if you get a GA, you make it very hard for assassins to actualy assassinate you and not because the ga effect but because of the stats and the absense of %armor pen. But, the thing is, now that the game is based on snowballing more than ever before, that much flat armor and magic pen make the cunning tree very strong for almost every offensive oriented champion because of the stats it provides and not because of the keystones.

So, now, it's far more effective to go 18 in cunning and pick up the Precision talent in cunning and go 12 in ferocity to get all the damage bonuses. Also, bursty ADCs like graves or lucian benefit from thunderlord's decree more than the rest ADCs but, every ADC benefits more from going for precision than going full ferocity.

Better than league of cleavers.

it's not about thunderlord being op, but everything else being bad or niche. Oh, and the offensive tree is pretty bad. You get a few % increased damage and , that's it.

In cunning, you got mercyless (probably as good as bounty hunter and opressor), dangerous game ( I alway loved that mastery) , precison and intelligence (which are the best masteries, all tree combined) AND thunderlord, meh, but still the best offensive keystone. You can't go wrong with the cunning tree, it works on every champion in the game.

Ferocity should be, you know, more ferocious.

I don't see why people think that's weird, considering it's the only burst keystone, and dft damage sucks if you're not dot or are spamming aoes. Aps have a choice of either dft or thunderlord, and most people actually don't synergize with the dot.

Oh, everyone takes Warlord's Bloodlust - let's nerf it. Oh, everyone takes Fervor of Battle - let's nerf it. Oh, everyone takes Deathfire Touch - let's nerf it. Oh, everyone takes Thunderlord's Decree..

No, it's not OK, but the problem isn't TLD; the problem is people's lack of knowledge and inability to learn for themselves. That is why I made this Excel sheet for people.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jxc5ezvdqc9basz/Masteries.xlsx?dl=0

I dont like the idea of taking thunderlord's on an ADC, but they made the on-hit one really inefficient to stack and the crit lifesteal one doesn't help early game anymore. With how snowbally the game can be you pretty much HAVE to get the bonus damage from thunderlords to stay competitive. That is if you can use it, as caster ADCs use it far better. (lucian, ez, corki, etc)

Well that's what happens when they nerf 6 of the other 9 keystones and buff thunderlords...

Stormraider's surge is pretty garbage because you have to be fed enough to do 30% of a champs maxiumum health in 2 seconds, which is harder since your keystone doesn't give you any damage

Strength of Ages has a very small benefit on anyone who isn't a jungler

Grasp of the undying is actually pretty good, but only on health stacking tanks, while thunderlords works on EVERYONE

Being that it has a 20 second cooldown, I don't really see the problem from an AP standpoint anyway. Anyone who can keep DFT running will deal double the damage through that than they could through Thunderlord's Decree. If there is anywhere it is too strong, it's with AD champions, not AP.

The problem is not just Thunderlord's, but the combination of Thunderlord's with Precision. Precision, which is literally the strongest mastery right now and which is better than both penetration masteries in Ferocity combined.

And it is not like the rest of the Cunning tree is bad/specialised enough to make up for it. You have extra damage to minions and monsters (useful for everyone but the support), cookies (better potions are, again, generally useful) or Assassin (good for solo laners) or extended buff duration (good for junglers), mana regen or extra damage to low targets and Bandit (more gold) and Dangerous Game.

I reiterate, Thunderlord's alone would not be too bad. Precision is what makes the combination blow everything else out of the water. That mastery is stronger in its general application than Battering Blows and Piercing Thoughts combined. To put it into perspective: A target would need 120 MR (after Void Staff) or 200 Armor (after Last Whisper) for PT/BB to be as efficient as Precision.

Why is thunderlord's so well liked?