Why is Exhaust so Terrible?

TakaDama·7/22/2019, 2:29:28 PM·7 votes·4,250 views

A bit of a backstory; I picked Darius into Teemo top last game. I usually feel pretty confident about the matchup, but I honestly havent practiced enough with Darius lately, so I figured I would take Exhaust over my usual Ghost.

Managed to get first blood, but then wound up being useless later, even when Exhaust was up. So I look at the tooltip, and see that Exhaust slows an enemy champion down by 40% for a whopping 2.5 seconds. Ghost lasts for 10 seconds with only 2 seconds spent ramping up the MS steroid. Combine this with the fact Exhaust has a 210 second cooldown to Ghost's 180 second cooldown, and it makes me wonder why any role would take it outside of Yuumi who doesnt need Flash.

29 Comments

boricCentaur17/22/2019, 2:38:52 PM10 votes

40% damage reduction is really good vs champions like assassins or adcs like Draven.

Zero Shingetsu7/22/2019, 2:37:13 PM6 votes

As someone who runs Cleanse/Exhaust in every single game on every single role, I can tell you this: Exhaust isn't meant as a chasing mechanism, nor an escape mechanism, so much as it's meant to turn the tide in a battle. It doesn't just slow, after all, it also reduces damage output (of all kinds) by 40%. It's best used when the fight is at a point where it could go either way, or when a really powerful ult is about to go out.

.... Wait, did they change it?

Baron Barian7/22/2019, 3:33:30 PM6 votes

Exhaust is really meant to be something of a peel, because while the slow is helpful, the real purpose is to keep a certain damage dealer from pulverizing a squishy teammate. Ghost only selfishly gives you speed while exhaust can potentially save a life. Sometimes, your own life.

2Charmnot2Charm7/22/2019, 3:34:43 PM4 votes

You don't take exhaust for the slow, you take it for the damage reduction.

And if almost 3 seconds of being slowed isn't enough for you to kill or get away from someone without them burning flash then you're doing it wrong.

Sacred Monsoon7/22/2019, 2:36:56 PM4 votes

its because the true power of exhaust has been nerfed so many times and yes you are right atm its completly useless it used to have huge effects during early to late game especially towards adcs but now it just became a shitty spell that just slows enemies.

Velasan7/22/2019, 6:26:43 PM3 votes

They nerfed it like a season ago I think it was. Used to reduce attack speed as well as the other effects, and was primarily an anti adc and anti diver tool.

Still provides a lot of damage reduction though.

R0ses R Red7/22/2019, 7:53:42 PM3 votes

Exhaust is a more reactive summoner than Ghost, so it finds its purpose when enemies engage on you. It's especially good to take against champions that constantly want to jump atop of you. Champions like Riven, Yasuo, Irelia and Diana invite themselves to death if you have exhaust and they use their mobility to get atop of you.

Marshbouy7/22/2019, 3:43:18 PM3 votes

Because riot wants all supports to take ignite to force kills in bot lane

TyRamos7/22/2019, 6:04:39 PM3 votes

The more insulting part is how long the CD on exhaust is compared to ignite, so geee I wonder why exhaust is never taken now.

chipndip17/22/2019, 6:35:39 PM3 votes

Exhaust isn't bad.

The problem is that solo queue demands you hard win lane to try to influence the game by yourself as much as you can. Ignite is offensive and gives gold value to you. Exhaust is defensive and denies gold value for the enemy by saving someone.

What's more reliable: Netting power for yourself to kill people more or denying a kill on a potentially idiotic teammate so they just get killed 1 minute later?

Exhaust isn't the problem. Solo queue is.

CaptainAntiHeroz7/22/2019, 4:56:01 PM2 votes

summoner 14 meta

Moody P7/23/2019, 12:28:14 AM2 votes

Exhaust is exactly where it should be, a niche summoner used as a counter pick.

Saevum7/23/2019, 4:50:38 AM1 votes

In that specific match-up, Exhaust is useless cause teemo is not a burst type of champion, but a DoT one.

Exhaust in general works better against squishy burst type champions that do not have a large range of effectiveness. Aka, even artillery mages have a chance to reduce the impact of the exhaust debuff. Niche summoner, as Moody said. I just elaborated to answer the question.

Salamencę7/23/2019, 1:33:16 AM1 votes

The real question though is why would you ever take exhaust on Darius

Shmeeve7/22/2019, 3:01:26 PM1 votes

Yes but you would like to use exhaust in place of ignite for champions that have already high enough dps to finish off the enemy laner to the point that they don't need ignite, such as Mordekaiser or Renekton