The Slow, Sad Descent of Rengar
It's honestly tragic. For a long time, we've seen Rengar become less and less playable. Way back when his e became a skill shot (which I will say was necessary), to the nerf to his q damage ratio, down to now, when he and nearly all the items that have been truly great on him have been changed, nerfed, or destroyed altogether. It's honestly quite sad to see videos over the past couple months of long time Rengar mains with several hundred thousand mastery points appear to be running with a broken leg (metaphorically speaking), always casting bolas over enemy carries, and starting a stampede of enemy players to their own nexus when the see the "!" indicator above their head from a mile away.
As far as indirect nerfs go: -Yoummu's ghostblade, while not nerfed by any means, was changed to no longer give critical strike chance, a MASSIVE stat on Rengar, especially into late game. -Last whisper has become something rather despisable on Rengar, although still viable in some cases. -This next patch, we'll be seeing a nerf to Titanic Hydra's damage. While not necessarily a super popular item on Rengo, it has become a favorite to meand many others. Due to the fact that it's so hard to itemize to become a true assassin on him now, the extra health it provides is very useful.
And the direct nerfs. Ugh, for crying out loud, the direct nerfs.
For those of you who aren't familiar, E - Bola Strike got nerfed to have a cast time of 0.25 whilst in mid jump. While this may seem insignificant, it massively throws off the calibration of any experienced Rengar. Not to mention that it's currently very buggy in that it will often times be thrown over a target if they're moving toward Rengar. See the video linked for examples. This is DEVASTATING to the way that Rengar is played and destroys one of his only aspects that legitimates him as a jungler, due to the fact that his only means of hard cc is his empowered bola. Since it is a skill shot, it can be difficult to land at times, and in the past, one of the only ways to almost guarantee its landing was to ult then e in mid air.
Currently, the very characteristic of Rengar that has been loved (and hated) by summoners around the globe has nearly been taken away, that being, the infamous 1 shot. The 1 shot combo normally involved Rengar ulting with 5 stacks of ferocity, activating youmuu's (if it was possessed), readying an empowered q, jumping, using bola, then tiamat (if possessed) and w while landing. If they were lucky, their q would crit, the e would land, and the enemy squishy would be completely deleted. There's very good reason for people to get upset over this happening to them, but it was by no means unpreventable, due to Rengar's large list of counters, and the ability to buy scanners and pink wards. That's not to mention that the Rengar had to be at least slightly fed, or extremely lucky, in order to not die after jumping into most situations, especially mid game.
If we want facts and statistics, Rengar currently has a 47% average win rate, according to champion.gg. The overall win rate increases based on a player's experience with the champion, as it should. We can also see that the major area that he struggles is mid game with a massive decrease in win rate at the 25-30 minute mark, with an atrocious 44% win rate. His early game isn't much better, if you were wondering, with a peak of 47% win rate at 20 minutes. His late game, as of now, is his only redeemable quality. By this point, if he's lucky, he'll have a bonetooth necklace with something around 15 stacks, 20 if he's lucky. The bonetooth is unique in that upon kills and assists, Rengar gains a stack on it, giving unique benefits at certain points. As it is now, you receive 1 stack upon a kill or assist. Not so long ago, you used to receive 2 stacks upon a kill and 1 upon an assist. This could be a critical aspect to making Rengar relevant again. If there was a way to gain stacks on your bonetooth necklace without getting kills or assists, this could help move him into mid game more quickly, thus making him more relevant in team fights, etc. Say if he received 2 stacks upon taking a tower, dragon, or baron, this could encourage rengar players to be more objective oriented, thus increasing his winrate. Aside from bugs with his E, slight modifications to the bonetooth necklace system may help boost his stats significantly, along with, perhaps, being able to proc your q on towers, which would make him a significantly better split pusher.
Honestly, I just want something besides a nerf on Rengar for once. I'm so sick of reading patch notes and seeing nerfs instead of modifications or changes that he so needs. I don't want to see the adc buy a zhonya's out of pure hatred, I just want to make the cat good again for people who've worked so hard to be so.
