An Open Letter @Riot—Before You Knee-Jerk Nerf Sated Devourer.

So there has been a lot of community outcry over the new "OP item on the rift", Devourer/Sated Devourer, mainly in the form of "Omg, Vayne so broken" or "Why is Yi so STRONK?" and similar posts. Really, this item is in all certainty the best iteration of a "farm jungler" item you've created yet Riot, since it encourages farming but also has a stack limit (about time you got that in :D) while having the final transform be tailored to the champs that ought to use it and not being good on laners when it shouldn't be. Also, it has innately built in scaling in that it isn't too strong on its own but scales excellently with other items. In light of that Riot, I ask that you do a few things for us before going in and nerfing this item like so many people are asking you to.

• Please hold off on nerfs for a patch or two to allow people time to adjust and remember how to counter power farm junglers.
• If nerfs are needed, nerf champions that are exploiting the item first rather than the item (i.e. nerf jungle Vayne before nerfing Sated Devourer if she's actually breaking the game).
• If you are going to nerf the item, do it in baby steps (don't just go and lop off 20 damage from the item or force it to stack twice as long for the transform).

Right now, this item is being exploited mostly by fringe abuse cases such as Vayne proccing sliver bolts every 2 hits instead of every 3 and similar situations. Champions that synergize too effectively with the item (such as Yi) could be nerfed in simple direct ways, such as a lower damage on their innate on-hit effects or nerfs to other steroids.

If you do feel the need to nerf Sated Devourer, I have a few suggestions for ways to go about it (each with its own pros and cons):

• Nerf the base on-hit damage back to 25 and increase the number of stacks needed to transform to 35.
• Pros: Leaves the item effectively unchanged once completed, but is less powerful up front and requires more time to attain its full power.
• Cons: Effectively encourages harder AFK farming, might over punish on-hit+AS reliant junglers that clear slowly (i.e. Warwick).
• Nerf the number of attacks it takes to get the double on-hit proc from 2 to 3 (this is my personal favorite).
• Pros: Nerfs abusive users such as Vayne and Kalista.
• Cons: Nerfs everyone who uses it, some harder than the abusers this nerf would intend to target.
• Nerf the base AS from 50% to 40% (more of a last resort if other nerfs fail).
• Pros: Reduces the power of Sated Devourer as an independent item.
• Cons: Nerf to all users, even the ones that aren't "OP", forces a more AS centric build and removes the viability of "Devourer then tank" style builds.

Thanks for reading, Riot, and please make sure to be thorough in your decision making about if/how to nerf Sated Devourer.

Thank you, A Jungle main hopeful for good news Soon™.