Barrier
Can someone try to persuade me that barrier is actually worth taking?
I believe it’s weak and doesn’t do as much justice as other spells.
Change my mind. Or fix it Riot. Please and thanks.
9 Comments
I recently came to the conclusion that barrier was the superior choice in many situations when dealing with assassins mid. Of course not a universal rule.
This is because of its low cooldown (lower than flash, ignite and exhaust). The fact that it nullifies ignite until late game. And is instant cast (you can react with it better than exhaust). Exhaust can be avoided until it's too late ( champs who dissappear like zed or go onvul like fizz)
Against the likes of 
I like barrier.
But against 
I like exhaust due to their dps dmg pattern and strong chase abilities.
.
See my recent Anivia game as an example. My first death was at 16 minutes in a 3v1 where I got caught. (Didn't use barrier) Yet Zed couldn't snowball off his new lead. Instead he tilted off his inability to kill me Without barrier his first all in would've popped my passive easily and from there I would've fed
It isn't countered by ignite.
id be careful though it can easily get out of hand as a spell if buffed, just a nudge would suffice
Barrier is an early counter for ignite, and ignite only outdamages it at later levels, and in general its a great counter against all-ins in a 1v1 (or 2v2 if you remember the ardent meta last year when supports would bring heal and their adc would bring barrier).
Lower cooldown during lane phase helps against champs, especially in mid, who have their ults up often such as Talon. I play Karthus a lot with barrier, you can combo Barrier and the shield from Seraph's to take a huge burst and come out alive during teamfights.
barrier can be combined with support heal to give the most effective hp to a carry in a 2v2, as dual heal is worthless.
Barrier also has a 3 minute cooldown vs a 4 minute cooldown on heal.
Barrier can be used to increase your maximum effective hp before burst, heal cannot.
Barrier outscales heal in damage taken after level two. And percent damage taken at all levels. It is highly underrated.
I can't think of any reason to not take heal over Barrier. Maybe if you needed to protect yourself from a strong ability like a MF Q or a Pyke ult
Am i wrong, or can you cast Barrier while stunned?
I think you can.
But yeah.....
Worst part for me, is I'll panic cast it at 5% health, and block like 2 minion autos....
I'm thinking, that COULD have saved me from the killing blow, but i wasted it..... it did nothing.
That's kinda a ME problem though I guess.