Juggernaut Items Too Strong?

Suibun·8/26/2015, 4:58:18 AM·3 votes·967 views

Go ahead and get your "lol, your rank means your opinion is invalid" out of your system now before I start.

K?

K.

I feel like the new Juggernaut items, not the champions themselves, are what's to blame mostly for this outcry of OP. The champions are pretty okay and have a lot of fun to them, even if a few might be a bit silly (Skarner, Garen).

Dead Man's Plate is a godsend no matter what tank you build it on and it makes either kiting or catching the champion in possession next to impossible because of just how much MS it affords. The CC dropoff I don't feel is strong enough because it doesn't matter if you lose a few stacks considering the item charges up so quickly that unless you accidentally auto something, you'll be zipping around at full speed all the time. Considering this costs about as much as a Sunfire Cape, which is supposed to be an early game item easily affordable, this is just too good for what you get. However, I feel the biggest issue is the fact that this item has entirely negated the entire supposed weakness of the Juggernaut "class" as it were: i.e. mobility.

Titanic Hydra feels like the entire problem Olaf had before he got nerfed: stack health, have insane burst damage. Now it's in a big cone, too, so it splashes wonderfully! I don't mind having things that turn defensive itemization into damage potential (Rammus, Malphite, Galio are good examples), but this "stack health for insane burst" leaves open some very worrying edge cases like Olaf and good ol' Volibear who now has even more burst damage on his W than ever before! Any health-stacker can use this to an absurd degree and it just feels awful to play against (and cheesy to play with).

Sterak's Gage felt like an item that looked and felt neat and niche, but I feel like the only reason it's not seen a great deal of use is because people just don't know about it and it's power just yet. Again: this is a tank item. Tanks should not be getting bursted out to begin with. So I'm confused as to why there's an item that soaks up burst damage on someone who shouldn't be getting burst in the first place. Juggernauts are tanks with low mobility and high damage, right? This, again, feels unnecessary and just pouring more power where there already was plenty.

I like playing tanks. Heck, I enjoy the Juggernauts to some degree, too (Morde is pretty hilarious). This feels bad both to play against and play with. Playing with it feels like you're just cheesing them out because you're even more of an impenetrable wall than you were before. Playing against it is naturally frustrating and seeing the enemy Garen Q and run away with DMP to go heal his entire healthbar in a few seconds flat and come back to rip your team apart one Villain at a time doesn't feel good. However, let me reiterate just once more: it's less a problem of the champions, and more a problem of the items giving way too much power and negating key weaknesses.

Slow and have a hard time initiating? Get a DMP and run through the enemy's frontline and into their backline with the 500 MS you have. Good thing they nerfed Righteous Glory, right?

Sad you can't waveclear because you've spent all your money on defensive itemization? Never fear, Titanic Hydra is here!

Afraid of all that penetration and high AP ratios on the enemy team? Hey look, a Sterak's Gage gives you even more health to soak that up, plus some extra size and AD for those pesky skillshots trying to hit your backline and you can now rip through the enemy frontlines (or carries you leap ontop of)!

The champs might be a tad flawed, but it's the items that make these flaws so glaring it hurts.

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