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Stat Stick Champions

Wind234·6/15/2018, 6:28:13 AM·1 votes·4,124 views

So with the latest "Ask Riot," it was mentioned that a lot of champions with simpler kits, especially older ones, have a problem where they don't have a lot of tools to succeed. They either win, or don't, and there isn't anything in-between. Being a stat stick champion definitely isn't a good thing, and I can't help but notice that many of the stat sticks that come to mind when discussing them are all bruiser or skirmisher type champions - all of whom are very popular right now. And with the duo boosting "Taric + stat stick jungler" strategy that's going around and making us all want to throw our computers out the nearest window, I figured this is a pretty good time to talk about who these stat stick champions are, what makes them that way and whether or not they deserve a rework. I know a lot of these champions are well-liked precisely because they're simple, and I'm not saying they need to become more complicated on a mechanical level, but when all you have to do is press two buttons and auto-win, I think we can all agree that's a problem.

And before it's brought up, because it inevitably will be, I'm not talking about how viable any of these champions are in higher elo, nor am I talking about their general state of balance in the past. We're looking more at the way their kits are currently designed and whether or not that's a good thing for the champion, others who play with or against this champion, or for the game as a whole. And I'm also not talking about champions who may be overloaded and have too much in their kits that let them win - I consider that the opposite of this problem, and a different issue in and of itself. Also, let it be known that I am by no means a professional at this game. In fact, I lose more often than I win, and I don't even really play Ranked. If I did, I'd probably be Bronze. lol But I have played this game for a few years now, so I feel like I have at least some experience under my belt. Feel free to agree or disagree with these opinions, and if there are any champions who you think are stat sticks that I don't mention, then bring them up and we'll examine them.

There's five primary champions that I think of when it comes to stat-sticks, and I'm rather sure all of them have been confirmed to be in consideration for a VGU within the next five years. But I'll go over each of them and explain why I feel they ARE stat sticks. I won't be offering much in the way of solutions, unfortunately, as I don't have much experience on four of the five of them at all, but I've gotten my ass handed to me enough times to feel like I understand the basics of how they work. So here are the seven biggest stat-sticks in League of Legends (in my opinion):

First up, MasterYi - I'm starting with the elephant in the room, and the one who is most commonly associated with the new strat that's causing people's hair to turn grey. Master Yi has always been somewhat divisive, in that traditionally he's rarely good in higher elo, but a terror in lower elo where scrubs like me reside. Nowadays, though, that seems to be turning on its head, and Yi's become a menace all over the place. This is partly because of having a support like Taric completely nullify his weaknesses and making it where Yi will always succeed, but things like Conqueror (which I think is a problem on its own, but that's another story) have pushed him over the edge even more. But what makes Master Yi a stat stick? Well, a combination of things, really, but it's mostly his E and his ult. His E is a flat-out "more damage now" skill while it's active (and this is gonna show up again for another champ on this list), it's just extra stats for pressing a button. His ult is perhaps the biggest offender here, since it's a movespeed buff AND an attack speed buff that ALSO helps reset his cooldowns insanely fast. The fact he's able to spam his abilities so much with no real drawback means he's always going to be using his ult for a team fight, making sure his Q is practically up all the time and making him very difficult to hit, and he's immune to slows on top of that. And his W is going to make sure his E and R don't run out if he does take a hit, so he doesn't face a lot of punishment at all. This goes back to what I said before about being able to win or lose and nothing in-between - we've all seen it. Either a Yi literally 1v5s the enemy team, or rushes in like an idiot and gets blown up immediately because he literally can't do anything else. And I've seen a lot of people saying that the latter is precisely why he's rarely good in high elo, but that's less because people can actually beat him, it's more that he beats himself. And now that we have that Taric thing going on, Yi doesn't beat himself anymore - hence why he's here.

In a similar vein to Yi, Jax is another example of "push buttons and win." And the Taric strat works with him, too. Actually it might be worse because double-stuns for days. Pro tip for free LP. Anyway, I'll admit that I don't think Jax is as big a stat-stick as Yi is, because at least Jax HAS cooldowns on his abilities. But 3 of his 4 abilities just grant him some kind of stat or immunity without him having to really do anything. And his only other ability is a targeted leap, which lets him make use of all that free stat he just got from pressing WER. His passive does grant him bonus attack speed for consecutive hits, but that takes a little bit to ramp up, and honestly with how he works, I rarely feel it most of the time. He usually either kills you before it kicks in or he's so fast anyway it doesn't matter. His E just lets him outright ignore damage, and his W is just "I hit you harder now." And his R is literally just a ball of stats that makes him harder to kill because why not? Oh and the R passive gives him magic damage every now and then. Now Jax isn't constantly untargetable like Yi is, so some heavy crowd control can potentially deal with him, but that doesn't mean he's not a stat-stick champion. Between him, Yi and the next guy, I think they're the trifecta of stat-sticks in League.

Bonus points if you guessed Tryndamere was the third one in that trifecta I just mentioned, and I will admit, there is likely some heavy bias on my part here. I really don't like Tryndamere's current form as a champion precisely because of how stat-stick he is, and how much it's possible to lose by per chance. Tryndamere has critical strike chance on his passive - meaning he doesn't need to buy any, he comes with it built in. I'm sure we've all suffered true damage crits thanks to that passive + Conqueror at level 2. Onto his actual abilities, his Q is annoying and does grant him more attack damage the more he's hurt, but the two biggest stat-stick abilities here are his W and his infamous ult. Now his W may not seem like a stat-stick at first glance because it's not his stats he's altering, but yours. He lowers your attack damage and potentially movement speed just for pressing one button, which already makes him a bit harder to kill especially early. But then there's his ult....There's a lot to say about that ult. It's the primary reason I don't like him. It's the main reason he doesn't really have a playstyle outside of split-pushing. With the push of a button, he literally becomes unable to die. No cost. No drawbacks. Nothing. Just pure, unrestricted "cannot die right now" button. ....why was this considered a good idea? That ult is so powerful, it shoehorns him into basically one viable means of play, and on top of that, it's really not fun to play with OR against. ....although with Taric moving on to supporting bruisers....oh god. Let's pretend I didn't say that.

So that covers the big three, and that took awhile, so the last two I won't spend as much time on. Next is Udyr and for some people, he's probably just as problematic as the trifecta I talked about above. Anyone whose ever had a fed Udyr gunning for them knows that "oh shit" feeling because you know there's nothing you can do if he catches up to you. But that's precisely why I didn't include him up there - there's an actual reasonable chance that you can stop him from reaching you. He does have a movement speed buff, and literally all of his skills are just "push button for stats now," but he doesn't have a blink or a dash or a leap to help him close that gap. So while he's undoubtedly a stat-stick champion, he's not quite as problematic as the other three.

The last one might surprise you, but I think KogMaw has a bit of a stat-stick element to him that's problematic. And I love the little guy - I have Mastery 5 on him, but I haven't taken him out to play for awhile. Partly because of how immobile and squishy he is, but also because so much of his kit's power is loaded into his W. How to win as Kog'Maw: can you stand back, press W and machine gun the enemies to death? If so, then congrats! If not, then good luck being useful. Now AP Kog'Maw builds mitigate this somewhat, but seeing as he was designed to be an ADC and is primarily played as such, I think he could definitely use a bit of power elsewhere.

So those are the five champs I think of when talking about stat-sticks. I'm sure all of them are going to get some VGU love at some point or another, but until then, we'll just have to deal with them as they are now. So what do you guys think? Are there any other champions who you'd consider to be stat-sticks? Let's see if we can get a good discussion going. I'm interested in hearing people's thoughts!

6 Comments

VoraciousX6/15/2018, 7:06:44 AM3 votes

If you mean stat CHECK champions, then the only ones I could even think of being stat check champions in that list are Yi and Tryndamere. A stat check champion is one who either has the damage to kill you or doesn't, and can't do anything else otherwise. Udyr can still stun you for his teammates and gank somewhat reliably, as can Jax who also has ways to make battles more in his favor. Kogmaw could be considered one of those, but that's just the nature of all ADCs pretty much. He just can't get there like he used to as on-hit builds practically require you to be full build to work well. Good examples of stat check champions are Olaf and Mundo. If they're behind they're just walking bags of gold. If they're ahead they can just mow you down. Olaf is probably the best example honestly. If you get into a close range fight with him, he's literally going to do one thing, auto attack you until you're dead or he is, with an E or two inbetween. He doesn't really have a way to counterplay you, and you don't really have a way to counterplay him. It's literally just about who can deal more damage to the other.

They're not talking about champions who gain stats from abilities, but champions who are literally "do I have enough damage to kill my opponent? If yes, I win ,if no, I can't do anything" because there is no counterplay involved. These types of champions are generally more simple champions like Mundo and Olaf, like I mentioned. Yi would definitely be considered one of those as well, but he can generally be killed even if ahead. It's just really difficult if he's a good enough Yi to dodge CC with his Q, whereas someone like Mundo takes a team of five with at least one of them having GW. It's kind of the same with Olaf vs melee champions. You can only hope you are able to kill him before he's able to lifesteal all his health back.

As for these types of champions, I do feel they need reworks, especially Mundo. He's always a volatile champion. Every time they buff him even slightly he can just become god tier, and if they nerf him slightly he can end up in the gutter. I don't think we've had him actually be at a balanced spot ever(if we have, it's been very rare and some slight change puts him back into his crazy habit of either oppressive or useless).

Elkington VI6/15/2018, 7:36:40 AM1 votes

Pretty much any DPS champion without utility falls into the stat check category, along with adcs. It doesn't matter if their kit is simple or not, as long as they have utility they can find a way to stay relevant.

I Like Teemo6/15/2018, 8:44:41 AM1 votes

TLDR;

There are plenty of champions that are just "get numbers or lose" and i will agree it is something that doesn't really make for a fun time if you're the victim of the cheese combos (Twitch + Lulu)(Kayle/Taric + Yi)(Nunu + Karthus(this is the current one))

IMHO;

The game still kinda needs these champions.. sure they are not really "healthy" but a lot of them are beginner friendly champions that can provide the edge if you know what to do (usually 1 simple combo and/or smacking with autos)... other beginner friendly champs (Ashe and Garen specifically) might be simple and new player friendly but unless you really understand the champion and the items they can be very very bad

Kairem P12/21/2019, 4:14:55 PM1 votes

i like simple champions. They encourage more macro based gameplay and champion knowledge. They can be played while chilling. You also forgot about the fact that stat check champions are either win or lose, which means they can lose. Stat check champions just need to be played around.