Volibear's Future: my hopes and concerns

I am on my phone so forgive lack of fancy formatting.

To preface this, I am a Diamond and climbing Volibear enthusiast. I have played him occasionally since I joined in season 4, but only picked him up for serious play in season 7 and he has since become my second most played champion in the past 2 seasons. Many of Riots reworks have caused me to stop playing champions; there are about eight champions I no longer enjoy due to reworks and overhauls by my last count. However, Riot is being more transparent with Volibear and Lutzburg has been communicating with Volibear mains, so I want to be cautiously optimistic and use this chance to voice myself too.

I will talk about Volibear as a character, what I want to stay, what I would like to change, and what I want the VGU to accomplish.

As a character, I do not like the idea that Volibear is completely monstrous and alien, which is why in the chosen concept arts my favorite is 3. I prefer the idea that Volibear, as a representation of the wilds, is as majestic as he is ferocious - as the wilderness truly is -- and should carry an air of self-assured regality ordering on arrogance. I would like to see his VGU show that he as a character has at least some positive aspects that makes him appealing to people.

As a kit I most strongly identify with Volibear as a Juggernaut/Vanguard hybrid with a strong bias for his fighter side. I like the idea of him having superior initiation tools not quite on the level of a dedicated tank but superior to his juggernaut peers.

When I think of his current kit and what makes him enjoyable right now, I think of 2 main things that I would consider as things that absolutely need to stay; his Q and his R.

His Q is no doubt the most thematic spell for him and is probably a no brainer for a charging bear. I don't think there is much else to say and I don't think anyone would argue that his Q should be removed.

I will forever argue that his R is a fitting spell for what Volibear wants to do and that it IS enjoyable. I think Volibear has a very enjoyable role as a juggernaut who can do potentially devastating DPS to a whole team at once if not respected.

I think his overall feeling as an attack speed juggernaut is a core of his identity. If he does not retain inherent AS scaling in his kit then I would like him to have a steroid that incentives building AS to apply it more rather than stacking up absurd amounts of AD to kill you in a small amount of swipes.

Functions that I consider interesting and valuable and would be sad to see removed, but aren't deal breakers;

Volibear's E and Q make for very enjoyable mobility denial play. I think it gives him an enjoyable niche within his roster and I really enjoy stuffing Rivens stupid dash spam constantly like Voli lets me do.

I also really enjoy that Volibears E is such a deceptively powerful spell due to its ability to erase enemy minion aggro and to depush a lane. It is an unusual strength because so many champions are designed around just immediately wiping out minions after getting enough stats, but Volibears E makes it so that he doesn't need mindless wave clear and can use it more creatively to stall the wave and build his own pressure.

I do not care for his bite and his passive. His W active is the most generic spell in his kit and IMO has too high a power budgeting relative to its satisfaction. We have lots of bite attacks in the game. More importantly, I wouldn't be upset about the bite because there is a more radical change I have later. His passive is just boring and has been power creeped out of relevance. More importantly though I would rather he not have sustain but would rather prefer a strong defense steroid. Volibear strikes me as a champion who should be inherently very bully rather than a champion who is equipped with absurd lifestealing powers.

As for what I would like changed. Well, obviously, more lightning. Combine the ferocity of a bear with the power of elecricity. His spells should still primarily revolve around the fact that he fights as you would expect a bear to, but heavily augmented with his supernatural powers.

I think I would like it if Volibear became a continuous threat the longer a fight continues. Id like to make the comparison to dota2's Ursa. He has a strong steroid that requires repeated application to stack up and become potentially infinite damage, and his build paths mostly revolve around increasing his durability and atk speed to survive in order to keep applying his steroid. I think a scaling like this would work best for Volibear; not necessarily infinite potential damage but that he has a potent steroid that would prefer he be durable enough to keep applying it and become seriously devastating.

As I said before, his passive could be replaced with a more appealing and satisfying defense spell that he has control over using. A new passive completely and I won't miss it.

I think Q and E could be combined to replace his flip and mediocre slow with a more satisfying spell that also frees up another slot for a more completed kit.

I think his R simply needs more. It is the only steroid ultimate I can think of that only does one thing; most of them have multiple effects. I do not mind whatever that "more" could be as long as it does not heavily interfere with the rest of his kit. Just... More. Give it more to work with so that it is more appealing.

I have gotten the idea in my head that Volibear could be a more late game oriented juggernaut and possibly a genuine hyper carry, if Riot does indeed focus on his attack speed scaling. This is probably my most radical suggestion but we already have many early game juggernauts and Volibear has basically never been the best of that bunch; leave that job to Udyr, or Olaf, and so on. A mere power scaling change is enough to help make Volibear stand out in his class. I know this one will be the most contested because many players like his early game power.

Lastly I would like Volibear to have a unique contribution to his team as a pick. You've been good with this on juggernauts lately; Mord R, Aatrox constant disruptions, Urgot's R, Yorick wall and Illaoi E are all tools that give them ways to contribute that other champions (not just other juggernauts) don't have. Its completely unique to them and I want something like this for Volibear. I am of the philosophy that all champions need at least one truly unique tool and niche to justify their existence, especially in a roster this large.

Finally, I see this VGU as an opportunity for a couple of things. One, to cement Volibear as an attack speed based juggernaut and give him a more enjoyable kit to work around with that dynamic and make it truly work. Two, to use that as the groundwork for other attack speed juggernauts to make their reworks better. Volibear is actually the youngest of any AS leaning juggernaut, and all new juggernaut releases and remakes being casters or hybrids. Use this as an opportunity to figure out what would make an AS juggernaut work in the way you want them to so that you do not have this learning pain when you get to Shyvana.

While he is not a high AS fighter I would actually like to point to Mordekaiser as a good template that isn't from another game. Notice that most of his damage being in his passive and his auto attacks, the rest of his kit is set up to either provide utility or defense. I think this is the best example of what I would like to see from Volibears changing.

I think I have missed a few points but I can add them in later if I remember then. Thank you for reading.