I despise Riot's obsession with saving essence flare

Tychusfindlay918·Feb 7, 2019·165 votes·22,787 views

"We recognize several champions make good use of essence flare"

God forbid he can't counter strike every second and be basically immune to auto-based champs because he pressed R.

God forbid she can't dash every .3 seconds

God forbid he can't alpha strike every 1.5 seconds

Essence flare is a shitty mechanic that should have never even been created, and the fact that you shat on spear's original idea and used the item as an excuse to keep this cancerous tool in the game is an absolute tragedy.

58 Comments

VerxintFeb 7, 201967 votes

I'm still annoyed that their logic was that spear had too much overlap with steraks. I don't even get that. One stops burst the other throttles dps. They're not the same.

RagnaveilFeb 7, 20196 votes

They could have done so much with that item, instead they went with the cop out and decided to give Riven an item that makes her more brainless.

ZedthulFeb 7, 20193 votes

{quoted}

They could have done so much with that item, instead they went with the cop out and decided to give Riven an item that makes her more brainless.

Strange, every site I know and YouTube video that talks about Riven says she is one of if not the hardest champion to play properly. So you can do the Fast Q every time perfectly without fail?

RagnaveilFeb 7, 20192 votes

Heres all you need: Attack speed. That item grants it in the effect and lets be honest, Dawnbreaker Riven allows for much easier Q auto weaves than the base does.

I have no clue if I can do a fast Q auto weave, because I personally don't like the champ's kit, plain and simple. Doesn't mean me saying this is hating on the kit and her. The "hardest" part of her kit is slowly but surely becoming a norm, just like when Yasuo was "hard". People have slowly adapted without realizing it.

Hellmaximus1Feb 8, 20191 votes

Sure riven has a high skill cap, but her skill entry is low, same with yasuo.

You don't need to be godlike mechanics as the champion can do the work for you, but if you do have godlike mechanic than every game becomes a stomp fest.

Riven used to require some levels of mechanics but around season 6-7 they improved the auto weaving mechanic and improved the way her abilities interacted with walls etc.

GayFluffyUnicornFeb 8, 20191 votes

That might have been the case years ago when riot didnt make her animation cancel easier and easier to the point it's nearly the champions default mechanic. Not even talking about all the p2w skins.

Also even without any animation cancel or weaving in autoattacks rivens Q deals 285 base dmg on it's on. That's more than most champions in the game.

Princess BunheadFeb 7, 201922 votes

Guess we just don't have enough ways of boosting damage... We need more, harder and faster.

It annoys me to no end, they implement Spear as yet another (broken) damage increase item, instead of the mixed dmg/mitigation item it was meant to. The problem with this game is not lack of damage, or people not being able to spam abilities enough... Guess Rito disagrees.

SaezioFeb 7, 20195 votes

Well, I'd rather not have another Offensive but at the same time defensive item for bruisers. It's not like it was an item for tanks anyway. All the cancerous champs would use it and be tanky as fk

Princess BunheadFeb 7, 20194 votes

They could make it melee only - and even better, make the mitigation scale of base AD in some shape or form. Could i.e. only start scaling above 100 base AD, kinda like warmogs 3000 hp requirement for regen.

In general they could start basing the juggernaut items around base ADs, and start tuning base AD scaling on those items, in whatever form they choose. It would also make individual champions far easier to to balance. Item making a champion overperform? Nerf the base AD of said champion a little, with it actually having some impact all game through.

SaezioFeb 7, 20196 votes

Well, I would still rather see the old shojin passive on an armor+HP item with a tad of offensiveness (maybe something that synergizes with thornmail? ADC have their items synergize with runes etc so why not tanks too)

I think we should make bruisers squishier and tanks tankier in order to make our game experience better.

Creating ad items that will make darius, riven, yasuo and all ad bruisers/skirmishers do their job with more safety is the wrong direction imo. I think the most AD an item that provides defences should be like 40.

Princess BunheadFeb 7, 20191 votes

I really don't think we should make immobile juggernauts any squishier - ie. Darius is squishy af, unless ahead by a decent margin. He can not take any kind of focus fire by the enemy team - he just crumbles, big time, doesn't even get to utilize his in combat sustain... Specially if just one lane is fed. He works far better in tandem with other tanky dudes to take the focus off him till he can actually pop off.

Though, feel free to gut those dashes-and-plays-for-days and all-the-agency-are-belong-to-me champions somewhat. I despise Irelia, Jax, Yas, Camille, etc etc, and even Trynd and Fiora, because they have to fuck up hard for you to beat them as an immobile champion, and at some point, they will just outscale and facetank. Essence Flare/Awakened Dragon just solidifies that cancerous shit even more.

But I do agree that tanks should be tankier - specially at 3+ items. At that point they start blowing up too. -.- I'm even hoping they remove Conq so we can actually work towards having tanks actually soaking up dmg for more than 2 secs.

SweedishGunnerFeb 7, 20192 votes

Yeah I don't think the current iteration of Spear is good but the old iteration would've been just as cancerous.

RagnaveilFeb 7, 201940 votes

You forgot Riven. EDIT: And Ren. I was more focused on the fact she's top tier when mains have said "shes shit".

SaevumFeb 7, 20193 votes

and Renekton.

InfernapeFeb 7, 20194 votes

You forgot Renekton lol

AcanthusFeb 7, 201930 votes

Essence flare is such an obviously unhealthy mechanic. But things being obviously unhealthy hasn't stopped things like the Rengar and Leblanc reverts. Or the burst meta in general.

Pokemonred200Feb 7, 20192 votes

Reworked Rengar was burstier. Reverted Rengar is just harder to dodge (and has more build options because of the attack speed and auto resets)

Princess BunheadFeb 7, 201917 votes

OBVIOUSLY UNHEALTHY doesn't even cover it - it's a godmode button for champions who get a little ahead, and synergizes well with it - I can't stress this enough. It's blatantly OP - It's my most hated item effect in this game.

Meanwhile at Rito HQ: http://i.imgur.com/jkMb4kf.png

JeaneGreeneFeb 7, 20191 votes

Be glad that Leblanc has some shred of counterplay now.

PoskeFeb 8, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Essence flare is such an obviously unhealthy mechanic. But things being obviously unhealthy hasn't stopped things like the Rengar and Leblanc reverts. Or the burst meta in general.

0 Clue what you mean by putting Le blanc in that sentence

Jet SettFeb 8, 20191 votes

Do you also have zero clue why LeBlanc builds AP? Lol

SexualNutsFeb 7, 201928 votes

As a Jax main I entirely agree.

The idea is stupid and the mechanic is flawed.

TyroneWatermelonFeb 7, 201918 votes

same goes for phantom hit. the only champion that uses phantom hit and doesn't break his own kit is Varus.

Princess BunheadFeb 7, 201914 votes

I agreed so hard I turned into a diamond.

limebusterFeb 7, 20198 votes

I totally agree with this, this item is absolutely disgusting

JechtLionheartFeb 7, 20196 votes

this. with 45 % cdr counter strike have 4 sec cd, and with essence flare jax basically have a 1/2 sec windows for aa based champ to do anything. not to mention it's an aoe stun. it's breaking the champion honestly

SaevumFeb 7, 20195 votes

So all they gotta say about it's "Yeah, we know."?

FixHealsRemoveGWFeb 7, 20194 votes

Essence flare just makes one sided match ups where you get counter picked even more one sided. It's kinda fucked up.

MoonscourgeFeb 7, 20194 votes

On this I agree with the boards. The effect shouldnt be on an offensive item if anything.

ZackTheWaffleManFeb 7, 20191 votes

imagine if it was a support item lol

wouldn't that be a hoot

TwitchDaKingFeb 7, 20193 votes

RIOT YOU HAVE PBE FOR SOMETHING ! I THOUGHT EVERYTHING WOULD BE TESTED BEFORE GOING LIVE ??!! REMOVE IT OR NERF IT NOW ! 2 weeks playing is really cancerous with those items

delete shacoFeb 7, 20193 votes

This stupid fucking passive is the reason why Jax is permabanned now along with conqueror and it pisses me off

Mokuto BunshiFeb 7, 20192 votes

Don't forget Riven in some situations.

Yeah I really used to like the idea of Shojin item 3161 for Kled and the like, but now I guess I have to work with... this... thing :P From what I read they didn't believe Shojin was good because it was a Steraks item 3053 that Jhin would be too good at using and maybe also Rengar

Late Game KayleFeb 7, 20191 votes

No, it was because the item's purpose was basically the same as item 3053 , which means that item 3161 would only be used if it had better numbers than .

GayFluffyUnicornFeb 8, 20191 votes

Bullshit.

GayFluffyUnicornFeb 8, 20192 votes

Cant even imagine that item on kled. It sucks cuz kled has no good items.

every single game after 3 items i don't know what to build anymore since everything is so shit on him.

DD, BC, titanic, GA aaaaand that's it.

Steraks isn't good on him even when you might think it is because of his insane HP.

I used to go ghostblade but why bother with conq. PTA sucks outright so i default to conq.

The actual spear of shojin could have been so good on him tho.

Relius D OrnezFeb 7, 20192 votes

So item 3161 gets to make it in the game as a better version of item 3508 and we still don't get item 3005 .

DARPAFeb 8, 20192 votes

essence flare is an unhealthy mechanic but rageblade vayne is

ZedthulFeb 7, 20191 votes

The only Champion I find this effect truly frightening on is Trynd. But then again he's also 4th tier so...

xAcidikFeb 7, 20195 votes

Tryn makes bad use of it. If you start a fight with ult, you have to leave it after 5 seconds when your ult is down, and preferably after 4, so that you actually escape. Jax, meanwhile, can and will continue to fight the entire time.

ZedthulFeb 7, 20191 votes

Not optimal for team fights you mean. In the top lane he's going to eat people alive.

ChettarFeb 8, 20191 votes

No, it really is garbage lmao

Modl Ryden lFeb 7, 20191 votes

I mean... who else bought Essence Reaver for the sake of using Essence Flare?

L U C I A N??

And then who else?

Exactly.

And don't list champs that it could work on.

ElewdFeb 7, 20193 votes

it was bought on Riven Fiora Jax and Yi almost everygame, not a rush item, but it was built around 2-4th item. it was really stupid.

Spooky SkeletonFeb 7, 20191 votes

MasterYi is just a huge problem with current items. His passive gives him an extra auto every 4 hits, that's fine. With rageblade, his passive gives him an extra auto every 2 hits. This feeds into rageblade itself. That's a problem. Add essence flare to a champion that auto attacks 4-5 times a second and you suddenly have a champion that is literally untargettable in fights (because his Q cd is removed by auto's AND essence flare, and further by kills/assists)on top of dealing 60-90% of his damage as true damage. Now i'm just low elo trash but how the fuck do you balance that? "Just cc him lul" doesnt work if you can't ever target him.

Hellmaximus1Feb 8, 20191 votes

They made an item for the abusers of the reworked ER, one that removes the useless mana stat out of the equitation in favor of Hp.

Riven, renekton and tryndamere are some core examples of abusers of reworked ER.

ChettarFeb 8, 20191 votes

No Trynd worth his salt ever built Essence Reaver after it was reworked into Essence Flare. That shit is garbage and so is this version of Spear of Shojin.