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This "League of Dark Harvest" meta is just like the "League of Thunderlords" but worse.

Mighty Mortein·11/27/2018, 9:28:24 AM·113 votes·23,665 views

I remember when Thunderlords was the go to Keystone. If you didn't pick it, you were basically trolling. Either team consisted of at least 3 Thunderlords users and it was a fiesta. Now, with this absurd Dark Harvest, it's the same thing but it's giving everyone an execute THAT SCALES. I remember when the PBE was actually for testing broken shit like this and not just a glorified skins spotlight. It's fun seeing 2-4 people in most of my games running Dark Harvest.

This patch feels like whichever team has more Dark Harvest users wins, and it sucks. But, Riot just want to keep this clown fiesta of burst per second in their game, and it's horrible.

How was this iteration of DH even let through testing? Didn't someone realise "Oh, Dark Harvest is a little too strong and champs that would normally take other primary Runes are now running this. Maybe we should nerf it or just remove it from the game." And yeah, I know there are plenty of rant threads, but I, along with many of your players want this game to become more strategic and not just "press more buttons and do the damage and win".

84 Comments

Spooky Skeleton11/27/2018, 3:01:50 PM46 votes
  • It's only on the PBE guys, stop complaining
  • It's only pre-season guys, stop complaining
  • It's only the start of the season guys, stop complaining
  • They'll fix it by midseason guys, stop complaining
  • It's near the end of the season, they'll change it before worlds, stop complaining
  • It's only on the PBE for next preseason guys, stop complaining
Cait Main11/27/2018, 11:10:09 AM11 votes

Most people are taking it right now because day 1 it was far out of line. It got hotfixed 24 hours after release but people are still taking it because they think it has no counterplay.

Skýcrow11/27/2018, 3:37:43 PM8 votes

Less and less players in high Diamond/low diamond are taking it. Dark harvest got hotfixed, and alot of players just test it out. It's not even that great. do the math and tell me how good this dark harvest is suppossed to be in your "opinion". You are clearly overexaggerating and it takes around 20stacks just to equal the electrocute base dmg, and then it still does lower dmg because it has less bonus scaling. In ranked people average out between 10-13stacks, and when they have a super good game they actually do reach 20stacks. However it's far from broken. each day i saw passing less and less players are taking it in my ranked games at least, and only on certain champions like karthus it has become a main keystone.

In other and quick words from a player that peaked at d2 100Lp. Dark harvest is not broken, and any nerf on it, would make the keystone worthless. (but i guess i will get downvotet, because no way in hell a new keystone can ever be balanced because it got made by riot... right? RIGHT?) [slayer-jinx-wink]

PS: when i play normals with friends i always go dark harvest for fun and not because i think it's broken, because its a stacking rune, and i just enjoy perma fighting without trying to win and stacking is fun. So ofcourse 80% of the players will do it aswell that dont take normals serious and take dark harvest instead of the to go keystone for "x" champion

sobi99911/27/2018, 7:33:13 PM5 votes

The rune's scaling and damage is fine in my opinion. The issue is with how it works.

For example, take 3 people had DH in my team and all of them proc it on the same person. That person dies and all get a DH reset. That's 3x DH reset with only a cooldown of 1.5sec. In addition, if you hit an AOE ability on more than one target, you apply multiple stacks and this obviously means AOE champs will get those stacks much quicker.

There are simple solutions to this that riot could apply.

  1. Multiple DH no longer can proc on the same target below 50%HP
  2. It only gives one stack per proc, regardless of how many targets got hit (more like how electrocute works)
  3. Last but not least, it's cooldown resets on takedown but has a minimum of 4 second CD.

To those who are worried about DH's infinite scaling, the whole purpose of DH was to be used as a scaling rune, as confirmed by riot in the patch notes. Before it had a more niche pick that only proc'd by autos but now the rune can be used by all champs. If anything, it has introduced choice, the only reason this diversity is backfiring now is because of the way it works, and as such, it is literally cancer to play against a team with multiple DH users. Fix above to fix the rune.

SennaFirstPick11/27/2018, 5:51:41 PM5 votes

i provide evidence https://imgur.com/a/m0vle19

MadViking11/27/2018, 2:31:40 PM5 votes

When two or more people proc it on you at once your basically dead. Imagine 3, 4 or even 5 people procing it on you, the amount of burst your getting is disgusting. Unlike electrocute where you have to make 3 consecutive attacks all you need is 50% or lower hp, which means literally anyone can use it to an even fuller effect. It scales infinite, and you get a stack each time you proc it plus you can reduce its cool down upon takedown or assists. In team fights if you have 3 or more on your team you could potentially chain the harvests toghether leading to an absurd amount of burst damage than you iu can just keep reapplying once shit dies.

That's a recipe for staight damage cluster fuck.

imfoolish11/27/2018, 3:30:47 PM4 votes

revert dark harvest. at least with old dh u had to farm for stacks and u have to use it within 30 seconds or it goes away and if u dont stack efficiently ur team will lose because of u

Sightless6611/27/2018, 10:35:24 PM4 votes

I remember when the PBE was actually for testing broken shit like this

You mean never? It's never been used that way. Since the thing first existed, it's been basically for bugs only. Do you remember all the stupid shit that got through in seasons 2-3 and had to wait for fixes? And that was back when they never hotfixed anything.

I agree that League of Dark Harvest sucks (though post-hotfix it's not nearly as bad as League of Thunderlords), but it happened in the same way that things have always happened in this game. It's not new for shit to get through the PBE. This pattern has been going on for over 8 years now. No one should be surprised anymore.

Just bitch about Dark Harvest without making shit up. It's easy enough. You don't have to pretend the PBE used to be better to bitch about Dark Harvest right now.

Cosnirak11/27/2018, 9:59:08 PM3 votes

I remember when the PBE was actually for testing broken shit like this and not just a glorified skins spotlight.

No you don't. Because that was never the case.

It's fine to have issues with Dark Harvest (I do as well) but don't just make stuff up to bolster your argument.

Spank the Fox11/27/2018, 12:53:34 PM3 votes

PBE was never used for balancing lmao.

However, Dark Harvest was nerfed several times on PBE. Are you ignoring that on purpose to earn imaginary points?

Dark Harvest isn’t even that much of a problem on it’s own - the base damage scales 2 damage per level, has weak AP/AD ratios, and most games you either have 7 stacks (losing) or 20-25 stacks (winning hard). Electrocute basically beats it post-6, barring getting resets.

The problem with Harvest is multiple champs proccing it one target at <50% HP.

Stephenizgod11/27/2018, 6:04:00 PM3 votes

There is no iteration of Dark Harvest that could ever be balanced or fair. (this is true for nearly every Rune that gives free damage)

Free Damage without paying for it, without strategy, and without counterplay will never ever be balanced in this game. It will either be Overpowered as it is right now, or it will be completely useless. There is no in between, there can't be in a game that was built on the idea of strategy. That is why Power Creep is so unbalanced right now, this game was designed around Strategy not instant flashy plays. Forcing this meta is like forcing a glove onto a foot. It sorta stays on, but its ineffective and feels bad.

ZaFishbone11/28/2018, 9:40:06 AM2 votes

I actually hope more people take it. It is weaker than electro in lane and if you don't give the opponents many kills they won't be able to stack it up quick enough. Not to mention that in the current meta games end so fast. Electro, on a champ who can proc it easily and consistently, is way more powerful.

WAZZZUP50011/28/2018, 12:52:12 PM1 votes

As long as no one notices the sleeper champ who uses it the best, I'll be happy

5050BS11/28/2018, 2:38:15 AM1 votes

You mean League of Electrocute.

Looks like they will be nerfing DH so no one will take it again...

They need to make it so SOME champs want it over Electrocute but not all champs.

Meep Man11/28/2018, 5:12:52 PM1 votes

I remember when the community’s opinion actually influenced balance on the PBE...

Skarner in the Juggernaut Patch

Released with 63% Win Rate because the community actually has no idea how to balance the game.

The PBE has never been about balance.

Zerο11/28/2018, 7:37:27 PM1 votes

Honestly they should just get rid of the scaling part and make it an actual execution rune.

"NEW Dark Harvest - Damaging a champion below 35% of their maximum health by any means deals 40 − 100 (based on level) (+ 30% bonus AD) (+ 20% AP) Adaptive damage. Resets on kills."

JoeMG11/29/2018, 6:38:18 PM1 votes

I didn't think the previous version was that bad tbh. I like the concept of a farming/scaling "harvest" rune. If they didn't want to front-load the damage, they should just make it so kills or assists harvest a soul and you should just get some adaptive damage scaling with souls collected. At least then you'd have to work for your damage.

Tusutaki11/28/2018, 1:59:48 PM1 votes

Yeah it is sad to say that DH puts Thunderlords to shame. It wasnt even like Thunderlords was exactly hard to balance since most champs that were "abusing" it in my eyes were DoT champs that could proc it in an instant like Morgana. So as a response, instead of adding some sort of tick cooldown for DoT, they just remove it completely with Electrocute. Even during Thunderlords' time, it had competition with other runes that also somewhat equal in strength. Courage of Colossus will be forever missed and will forever say it was greatly undervalued.

As for DH itself, what was the point in remaking it to it's current state? To the point that it practically negates the existence of Electrocute in every way. Did they want to make Thresh's soul collection passive as a keystone originally? What purpose does Elec serves now when DH exists? Its Wanting More DMG or Wanting More DMG+.

Not only that but you would also have to consider how much DH actually hurts the Sorcery path as well since it makes it less appealing.