Gameplay Update: Juggernauts
After a period of incredible excitement at seeing some of the new mechanics each champion is getting followed by a large amount of worry at seeing the nerfs accompanying the new power, I think I've finally gotten a hold of the situation. I have been an avid League of Legends player since Season 1, and the "Juggernauts" in this series of champion updates contitutes my favorite kind of champion. Additionally, Garen, Skarner, and Mordekaiser are all champions I have spent quite some time playing and I feel like I have an honest way of assessing these champions from a mid-high gold viewpoint.
I'll start by saying that champion changes need to be looked at holistically - there are two new fighter items that are incredibly relevant to the power levels of each of these champions, as well as entire new mechanics. Sincr this class of champion has for so long been considered one of the worst, it can often feel like nerfs to these champions are undeserved, or that the new mechanics should have been introduced without other changes. This is not a great way to look at their balance for one reason - A very large amount of each champion's power budget, on live, is spent on inconsistent cheese.
Garen stomps lane against caster melees and a lot of bruisers so hard, woth absolutely no way to avoid it without missing >50% cs, that he cannot be allowed to function as a whole champion as long as he is so dominant early game. If Garen put people in the gutter as hard as he does, and was still a relevant teamfighter, he would be monstrously overpowered.
Mordekaiser is much the same. He stomps lanes that he wins so hard that there is no chance of comeback. Either you can deal with his shield and his damage or he pushes you in so hard that you need an outside force (the jungler) to survive. It's not okay if a champion's primary weakness is being outnumbered.
Darius is in the same boat as Garen. If you are melee, good luck against him.
Skarner doesn't have nearly as much cheese as the others, but he does still have the "I am ahead hahaha I am unkillable and have damage and lots of cc" but unlike almost every other champion, Skarner does not have cc to fall back on when behind. He can only access his utility while winning. That's... no good.
The most common defense against removing the cheese is "that's all this champion has" and therein lies the problem, why people cannot be satisfied. The cheese has become the champion's identity. You only pick them if you can pull it off.
It was stated ages ago when the so-called "fighter rework" was being talked about that a lot of the tankier champions were going to have their base values lowered, their scaling increased, as well a number of items released to support it. Now that it's finally happening... it seems people can only look at how the primary reason to play each of these champions was removed instead of seeing the new opportunities.
Garen's spin has lower base damage yeah, but in the mid-late game he'll be doing 50-200% more damage than on live if he invests in just one or two of these new bruiser items. And that's not including his true damage and even happens if you get out of his spin. Skarner now has full mana clears, and much, much more reliable cc when behind, not to mention a significantly stronger shield when built tank. Mordekaiser hits people with a mace REALLY hard and even has an in-built heal.
I'm glad that Garen, Darius, and Skarner will exist once teamfighting begins (there is no argument that they are stronger mid/late game if you just look at numbers), though Mordekaiser I'll have to see in play first. It's not a fundamentally flawed idea, but seems cool.
I probably didn't change any minds, but I'd like your thoughts and counterpoints if you do/don't agree with me. I like a discussion because it helps sharpen thoughts even if it doesn't change them, and I felt that those with a like opinion to me might want to see something that isn't a complaint.