I am a low elo Rumble main who likes Riot and is confused by the PBE Harpoon changes

MacDougal Li··6 votes·931 views

I don't want this to be inflamatory. That accomplishes nothing and I don't want to lower myself to whining or bitching.

Straight up; I really like League of Legends, and my go to champ for a long time has been Rumble. He has an incredibly unique playstyle and a cool theme, and Super Galaxy Rumble is the best purchase I have ever made that I am ashamed to tell my friends I did not pull from a mystery skin.

There are a few experimental changes on PBE this cycle, and in red posts many of these changes were given context. Rumble was not on this list.

I am a low tier silver 3; I have no clue if the changes are good or not. I can say that so far,it seems unfortunate that I willl not be able to fire a second missile on overheat, and that slowing enimies appears to be much harder now (at least on paper).

I just wanna know whats up with the changes. I know PBE is not set in stone but insight into these new E properties would be nice.

10 Comments

Meep Man4 votes

This is actually an overall buff to Rumble... or at least a change that helps in a minor way. Now, instead of having to wait 10 seconds for two harpoons, you can wait 6 seconds for one harpoon or 12 seconds for two. This means if you only need one harpoon, you will only have to wait 6 seconds instead of 10 seconds. If you need two harpoons, you only need to wait 12 seconds.

Since each harpoon now also has an individual Heat cost now, being 10 Heat, this also makes it easier for Rumble to manage his Heat, letting him more often reset the Heat Drain. This also makes Rumble have more power over going into the Danger Zone and Overheating, letting him cast his E on 80 Heat without Overheating.

The trade off of a slightly longer full 2 harpoon cool down and lower slow duration might be outweighed by the benefits of this change.

MacDougal Li1 votes

Thank you kindly for the detailed reply.

Erdamon4 votes

As a D5 Rumble main (how humble) who managed to play him on the PBE (humble x2) I can assure you, these changes lean more towards beneficial.

The fact that each Harpoon has an independant cooldown makes it a much better farm/poke tool (which helps a lot in matchups like Gnar or Riven and makes E a lot better of a spell to rank up at lvl 1 in more difficult matchups). And additionally now he's able to potentially cast three harpoons instead of two in one trade (obviously from 4th harpoon onward the current cooldown outpaces new ammo system). The heat cost change is also a nice thing, it allows you to control the heat bar better which is already a really good thing.

Sure, you can't [75 heat -> E (DZ) -> 95 heat -> Q (DZ) -> Overheat -> E (DZ)] anymore since there's no way you can cast E while overheated in the new iteration, but it's a nerf pretty much only to this scenario, which wasn't my favourite anyway. It was too much of a hardcore all-in strategy that was too situational and not really practical if the enemy knew how to react, but it wasn't always a bad option either. However, if we compare new E to current E in situations like [40 heat -> E -> 60 heat -> Q (DZ) -> 80 heat -> E], you'll see it actually makes it better if you just try to take a diffrent approach, for example, the same combo with the new E looks like this: [40 heat -> E -> 50 heat -> Q (DZ) -> 70 heat -> E (DZ) -> 80 heat]. A pretty important diffrence here is, that you can cast the first E to get yourself into danger zone, empowering second E, which didn't work like that previously and that's the main reason why this change is a big plus for me.

As long as you know how to turn the new E mechanic in your favour, you shouldn't be too worried about your own performance on Rumble. The only thing that's bad about this whole thing is the slow duration being 2 seconds instead of 3, but then, if it was the same you could potentially slow one person for 9 seconds lol.

MacDougal Li1 votes

Thank you for the detailed reply!

How does the cast time between 2 harpoons on PBE compare to the live iteration?

Erdamon2 votes

The cast time is pretty much the same, not much change here.

You're welcome, I'm here every Tuesday and Sunday! (and the rest of the week)

Saianna1 votes

I'll be totally honest here: I've never liked those harpunes. Low range, Low damage.. They were good for slowing target... But that's about everything it did. Maybe you think otherwise, but for me this whole ability is just filler where Rioter responsible for Rumble just couldn't think of anything better OR the better part was just too good and had to be replaced with harpoons.

MacDougal Li1 votes

Filler ability? Maybe.

Low damage? Not...really...its nothing spectacular, but the live version, in its current state, does plenty of damage. The skillshot is relativly easy to use, and you can use it to melt adc's on your ult.

Dat magic pen helps too.

Saianna1 votes

Actually I don't know what has Riot cooked for rumble. I'm just saying how I feel of rumble right now.

My rumble build is: Max CDR (yea, insane, i know). Cast your ultimate every 1 minute. Laugh at people who try to run away.

I'm usually too scared to go in harpoon range, cause ARAM and deadly poke and Nidalee spears etc :P

MacDougal Li1 votes

CDR seems....bad. Maybe 1 CDR item...but what would it be? I would NOT max CDR though.

Poke is not an issue for me, and honestly neither is the average low elo nidalee. I can shield most of the damage from spears, and all in them if they jump me with danger zone empowered harpoons and fire.

Erdamon1 votes

If anything, W is the filler abillity. I was so hyped for the buff to it and it got randomly reverted.

And besides, I wouldn't necessarily say they have bad damage, once you get some levels going you can outright murder the enemy adc with just 2xE -> Q (assuming you're in Danger Zone)

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