[Active] Active changed from an aoe shield effect to to "After a brief delay, creates a protective field at your location for 8 seconds. Allied champions within the field are dealt 35% less damage (90 second cooldown)."
Note that the field is stationary.
Thoughts?
Oh hey thanks for finding maokai's ultimate, thought I lost it a while back.
35% damage reduction on a delayed stationary zone is less frustrating than the adc getting an instant 1k-2k hp shield while kiting you but if they kite out of the zone it becomes useless. Most adcs only have like 1800 base hp and if you include they heal/lifesteal around 1200-1500 hp or so in extreme late game scenarios its worth around 1000ish hp on most squishies who aren't building hp unless their support has even more healing/shields for them.
For bruisers/tanks the damage reduction is arguably much better since the shield is decaying and getting minimal usage compared to a long duration damage reduction. Overall this seems like a power shift to make locket more useful for the team overall and less of an carry get out of jail free card.
I honestly like it. it's pretty cool if you're on a stationary teamfight just pop it on the frontline and get them 35% damage reduction. it's less 'protect the adc against burst' and more teamfight oriented. I think it's reallly a healthy move. Well played, balance team.
I don't mind the stationary part, as it makes it less braindead to use.
However, I am more concerned with the brief delay part. How long is it going to take before it activates? If it is too long, the item is not worth buying.
I don't now how I feel about this item in regards to Baron and Dragon pits. You start taking one of these two, see the enemy team approach, have your support pop this, and you could finish them off within the 8 seconds or challenge them to come into your bubble.
Good stuff.
This is theoretically much better for more durable champs.
Might be a bit strong either by 5% too much or duration 2 seconds too long.
Worse at shielding burst because of the delay, but oh god if you play DPS into that shit good luck. Seems busted to me.
I wish they just reverted it to an aura tbh, I get that supports are intended to be more "interactive" now, but I hate having to juggle countless active items.
The thing may still be really damn strong, but it's stationary so designs a specific space where you have to be to use it. Counter-play to Locket is now to push people or chase people out of the zone. You can also scare supports into blowing it in a bad spot outright easier now that needs that start-up, rather than just being instant.
There's a delay, so you can't just land it at the last second and get this massive hp value out of it (I actually had one use of it either today or yesterday where I blocked 1.7k damage on the first use of the thing. That's about 11 Ruby Crystals of raw gold value (in hp) in one use of the item, that's up again in 90 seconds. Think about it...). Instead, you have to learn how to use it with proper timing and positioning.
This increases the value of supports that have shields now that tanks can't just buy Enchanter parts like shields, so maybe pro play won't be utterly infested with Braum eventually.
This gives space for the Face of the Mountain active to be re-implemented now that there's no overlap between it and Locket.
I think I like the change.
I like this change. I got Locket shielded once by my duo’d tank J4 jungle, and I didn’t even notice until he told me later. Seeing that giant dome would have been cool.
I wonder about how professional teams might use this item. Having one Locket on a backline Support could make a team hard to dive. Having a locket on a Vanguard like Jarvan IV or Maokai could also make their own dive easier while protecting their team afterward. Having both would be really powerful, and since Support and Jungle item slots are much more flexible, taking two Lockets could become viable or even meta.
Now that I think about it, only carries have inflexible item slots, and only four or five of them. Anyone could take Locket. Everyone could take Locket. The effective cooldown reduction from having just two Lockets would be huge, dropping it from 90 to 45 seconds. Every wave and a half, the team would get one back. This could really affect the ability of teams to teamfight.
I like it
Much more gameplay contribution than just click and instantly giving shields
This will make defending turret, or point you obtained like baron so much better.
all i want to know is about Zoe's Q buff
Oh nice another items to move assassins further out of the meta. all tanks and utility just peeling is not fun rito.. particularly in pro play. problem is if any assassins become strong enough to be used in pro they will dominate solo q, maybe changes to make game times even shorter would help? game was much more exciting when zed and ahri were viable pro midlaners, and Elise and lee sin were tier 1 jungles. The constant sejuani, sion, braum, alistar are unbearable to watch just dissuading pros from making risky plays.
not pleased since it will shift away from ability to instant save to just a delayed invisible effect that really wont be useful aside from stationary fights. Allies will need to have siginificantly more hp than currently for this item to be effective at saving them while also needing to have enough to survive the brief activation time. I dont think the removal of this effect is a good idea for tank supps especially considering the removal of FotM shield recently as well.
I havent used current locket in any of my supp builds since it was nerfed quite a while back but there wil ldefinitely be a lack of shielding item if they change this.
