Possible rework to Zhonya's/Armguard to be better balanced idea

Steelflame·11/2/2015, 11:03:35 PM·2 votes·444 views

I was thinking about it, and currently Zhonyas is facing rather large nerfs on the PBE to it's gold efficiency and raw stats, because while a very powerful offensive item, it provides one of the strongest defensive actives in the game as well.

What if we re-tuned Zhonyas into two different items, while changing how Seeker's Armguard works? Effectively, Seeker's Armguard will get a very short duration form of Zhonya's Stasis active, like .5 seconds, while also adjusting/removing it's scaling mechanics, rather than the current 2.5 stasis Zhonyas has. Second, we re-tune Zhonyas into a mostly offensively focused item, with high AP, but very low armor, and only a 1 second stasis (good for blocking a single high threat attack, but not just turning invunerable during a teamfight for a few seconds while some other ability takes it's time to do its thing).

Finally, we make a new upgrade to Seeker's Armguard, where we get back the super-stasis of 2.5 (or even longer if we want) where the primary thing it does is be a defensive item, focused more on protecting the person using it than killing the enemy. It would have light AP (30-50 range), moderate armor (40-50 range), and some other defensive stat, either HP, or MR, depending on what felt more balanced (I'd prob say HP. Perhaps build out of Crystal Bracer? Wouldn't want it to be a GB item, as that would be too bulky, but don't want CDR on it either from Kindle).

How do you guys feel about this idea? Gives us a way to finally tune Hourglass without making it ridiculously gold inefficient for it's powerful active, but does let us have a way to keep a powerful defensive choice to mages wanting to deal with AD assassins in lane (And even helps earlier against them, with the introduction of a mid-build stasis rather than fully locking it after the 3.2k purchase).

2 Comments

Drake Xi Onyx1/25/2016, 8:30:08 AM1 votes

I think this idea is brilliant.

Drake Xi Onyx1/25/2016, 8:39:27 AM1 votes

Further thoughts:

item 3191 Is definitely under-powered at the moment and severely handicaps any mage forced to build into it. The passive is item 3191 biggest problem as it makes it incredibly gold inefficient upfront, when the only reason someone is building it is for survivability. Taking 30 kills to stack up, this requires cs-ing 5 waves or 4 and a raptor camp in best case scenario which is at least 3 further minutes before the item is cost efficient, let alone making an appreciable difference. You pay a horrendous 465g to combine item 1029 and item 1052 for just a measly 10 Armor upfront. This then becomes 25 armor and 15 AP. The result is almost identical to buying item 1031 (+40 Armor) and item 1052 (+20 AP) for total cost of 1235g, except the latter is all up front - when you need it.

As it stands on most mages I just buy item 1029item 1029 if struggling against AD, and later get item 1058. Then I just upgrade to item 3157 from there (which costs 1740g, including selling the extra cloth armor).


A (simpler) alternative suggestion to, or in concert with, your ideas would be to make item 3191 build out of:

  • item 1029 and item 1026; or,

  • item 1031 and item 1052

(Depending on how you wanted to tune it, I lean towards the latter) Increase the total cost of it a little, and remove the scaling passive from kills.


An additional idea would be a new item that builds out of item 3191 and item 3140; and it can then have QSS's active and Seeker's (former) passive perhaps tuned with more max stacks, i.e:

  • 50 stacks at: 0.6 AP, and 0.4 Armor and 0.3 MR per stack;

  • Min stats: 45 AP, 35 Armor and 30 MR;

  • Max stats: 75 AP, 55 Armor, 45 MR;

  • Total cost: 2800g.

This for an alternative item for mages to build, akin to item 3170, which emphasizes the utility early on for tough match-ups without giving you too much strength, and allowing an opponent counter-play in denying you cs to make the item reach legendary tier, but without denying you the utility and upfront survivabilty you need from the components.