@Riot: Good job with the Rammus rework, but I'd like to discuss the Thorns stuff for a moment.

Changing Rammus' taunt to give him AS instead of weakly lowering enemy armor was a good change. That -25 AR effect simply was imbalanceable, given it was too good against squishies, but got neutered if the target had CC resistance. As for the other stuff, it definitely helps Rammus be more diverse in what he can do, between the slow on his ult and the changes to his W resistance bonuses.

But then there's the Thorns effects. Thorns has always been quirky because it can't be strong, or it becomes toxic. Thornmail intentionally is kept at a state where it's garbage except on Rammus or Malphite, but even on those two it becomes questionable. The reason? It faces the "WotA Problem", in that it requires too many stats to be truly functional and effective.

You need bonus armor to give it potency, extra HP to live long enough to use it (armor without HP is a trap), and you also need magic penetration to ensure that enemy MR doesn't cause the Thorns damage to get heavily reduced. Unfortunately, Rammus isn't the type who can get MPen without shooting himself in the foot, as there are no viable AP-Rammus builds. As such, if his targets get even one piece of magic resist (i.e. ), then the Thorns damage gets neutered. Add on that lifesteal has a tendency to outpace Thorns damage, and you end up with some bad returns on Thorns a lot of the time. It gets worse when you take items like and into account, as those both weaken the effects of Thorns as well.

My thought is that Thornmail is an item that only Rammus (and MAYBE Malphite) uses truly effectively, but the existence of the item warps his balance. Would it be better if, like what happened with WotA and Vladimir, Thornmail was removed? If Thornmail were removed, Rammus would be allowed a stronger power budget because Thorns would become a mechanic unique to him and him alone. And without the item warping his balance state, he'd be allowed more balancing freedom.

What are your thoughts on this?