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Last Whisper nerf broke the game?

Dec 32nd·11/14/2015, 6:35:01 PM·2 votes·3,921 views

Last whisper is, in league of legends, a sacred item. It has remained unchanged and unquestionably the best item in the game since season 1. Now that it got nerfed, pretty much every AD in the game that isn't ADC is completely fucked. On the top of my head, I can think of many champions that can no longer be played properly: Talon, Zed, Riven, Wukong, Jayce, Khazix, and there's more. These champions had their winrates suddenly drop by 1 to 5%.

Since riot changed ADCs a lot this time, I will assume the last whisper change was intended for them. However, last whisper is actually not the most important item on ADCs. Since all of ADC damage comes from basic attacks, Last Whisper is only good on them after they have Attack Speed Crit etc. It was much more important for ADs who relied on abilities for damage. Last Whisper was not just for killing tanks, it was essential for many champions to do damage mid game, even vs opponents who didn't build armor.

Now, a fed Wukong can't win lane vs tanks mid game even though he outplayed them hard early. A Talon, who is meant to assassinate squishys, no longer has the damage to kill an hourglass midlaner unless far ahead. The new last whisper upgrades can help ADCs kill tanks, but they do not help other ADs kill squishies.

What's even more retarded is that Void Staff has remained the same, so magic damage champions can still kill people. Did Riot forget that there are many champions in the game that are basically mages but AD? If void staff were nerfed in the same way, the result would be the same, except ~40 champions would be deleted instead of ~15.

Last Whisper is an essential part of the game. If it remains like this, riot might as well delete 10% of the champions.

edit: I get that riot doesn't want last whisper to be for killing squishes, but at this point so many champions rely on it and can't be played properly that it needs to stay or have a replacement. Maybe have another vers of LW (lw + dirk) that works on all armor

24 Comments

Nahui11/14/2015, 6:47:33 PM4 votes

The problem with last whisper has always been that it sort of nullified the power of tanks. Champions like Riven who's argument was "Build armor and she's useless" was nullified heavily by Last Whisper. BC, Youmuus, Maw give plenty of armor shred and pen for fighters like Wu Kong and Riven. Last Whisper nerf did hit assassin's fairly hard because of the burst, however it was compensated with the giant slayer passive. Basically, zhonyas is not enough armor to stop an assassin from bursting down an average AP mid. It helps, and takes longer to burst, but a talon will still be able to full combo burst a mage to death. It weakened LW's effectiveness vs squishes and strengthened it's effectiveness vs tanks like it was meant to.

Critmaster Garen11/14/2015, 6:42:31 PM2 votes

{quoted}

Did Riot forget that there are many champions in the game that are basically mages but AD?

as you can see from the item and mastery changes. yes.

ad casters clearly werent considered at all in the changes. all of the ad items and masteries seem to be changed and designed in favour of auto attack based champions.

even deaths dance working on adc casters was probably an accident, as the item seems to be designed as offensive+defensive item for adc to just out lifesteal burst damage.

Critmaster Garen11/14/2015, 6:40:27 PM2 votes

wukong can do with a cleaver.

the assassins have 10 more armor pen on maw to kill adc.

the problem is every armor pen item that you were to introduce that helps assassins would be abused by adc to better effect.

Scapegoat 0112/15/2015, 12:34:18 AM1 votes

well it did indeed changed a few things. particularly the way u want to play an ad assassin nowadays. i came here because i wanted some clarity as to why i couldnt kill an isolated Taric as Kha'Zix when i was 17/3 and he was 6/3 with something like 4-5 items to my 6 items and i just couldnt kill him. Then they said in all chat that last whisper was nerfed really bad and the armor pen didnt matter much now. I mean its one thing if the Taric had 6 items with a boatload of armor and stuff and i was underfed/behind and didnt do that much dmg. I even noticed i couldnt 1 shot an Orianna who didnt have her shield up as the dmg just wasnt there. Khazix still dealt like 80-90% of her health upon landing a full rotation, but if am not mistaken with a full build in season 5 i could just straight up 1 shot any non-tanky isolated mage in 1 rotation regardless of zhonyas since they dont get the time to react and use its active and the armor from it was practically useless. Dont get me wrong, am not complaining that i cant 1 shot squishies anymore as they still die (just takes a bit longer) but not being able to 1 v 1 anyone that has slight to too much armor as khazix is really kinda bad; as khazix is supposed to be superior in 1 v 1 dueling due to his kit.

so unless am missing something, the nerf to LW definitely hit assassins really hard.

EDIT: He is still good and viable, as he gets ahead really easy. Its just that the effects of the changes are slightly too visible in my opinion. Like they should be there and felt every so often, but to just be blatantly visible is a bit much.

Change is not always good - Khazix

Stonington11/14/2015, 6:54:57 PM1 votes

LW was nerfed? I thought it was easily buffed to shit. It's half the price, but only works on bonus armour which is usually more than 50% of the armour a champion has anyway. 'Oh shit they stacked armour, let me buy this 1300 gold item that negates most of it instead of a 2400 gold item that negates a bit more.'

BluePolarizer11/14/2015, 7:07:11 PM1 votes

My suggestion: turn old Last Whisper's name into First Roar (to better represent it's new icon), turn its icon fom a bow to a axe or hammer, and make it melee only. Same stats and cost as before.

Dec 32nd11/14/2015, 7:09:22 PM1 votes

Also if you want to argue with your opinion instead of statistics, your in game ELO is important because that's what backs up your opinion.