Font of Life is Still Underpowered

Frosted Tips·Nov 21, 2018·48 votes·14,644 views

Now that Bone Plating is moved from the first row of resolve runes the first row feels awful. Demolish for tower pushing which may or may not be overtuned, but doesn't feel good on a lot of champions. Shield bash only works with a few compositions and then that leaves Font of Life which is one of the least impactful runes. The end game numbers on this rarely exceed 2k and something like Ravenous Hunter heals for 10k plus even after the nerfs. This rune is just extremely underfunded and needs a buff or to be changed before the preseason is over.

28 Comments

SSmotzerNov 21, 201815 votes

Font of Life isn't for healing. Font of Life is there to proc Ardent Censer.

SalronNov 22, 201828 votes

and yet no one will ever take it on ardent supports because it is dogshit

SSmotzerNov 22, 20182 votes

{quoted}

and yet no one will ever take it on ardent supports because it is dogshit

...I take it. On supports who have built in auto attack buffs it's pretty good. Like Malphite Nunu Teemo even Neeko will be pretty good with it.

EschetonNov 22, 20182 votes

I actually use it on Sion support sometimes if I get my adc fed early. Font of life alone is great in lane, as the adc heals off potshots against slowed or knocked up foes. And in late game teamfights is a subtle but noticable advantage for your team to heal a bit.

KrynnˉNov 22, 20182 votes

{quoted}

and yet no one will ever take it on ardent supports because it is dogshit

It's only used so that the heal procs the Ardent Censor magic damage and attack speed. I like taking it on Nami since early on it can be hard to keep Ardent Censor up but with Font of Life, I can proc Ardent with all 4 abilities.

Tahminatrix Nov 22, 20181 votes

Its not for ardent supports because they can already easily proc ardent, take it on someone like TahmKench and youre getting an attack speed buff ontop of movement speed and cdr.

People don't realize that champs like TahmKench or Alistar don't need to build full tank as a support because they die as soon as their shield or ult goes down anyway, let item 3193 be your only tank item and buff yourself right before gargoyle ends.

Frosted TipsNov 22, 20186 votes

Why does it have a max health scaling then? Why do tank supports get no runes then?

SSmotzerNov 22, 20183 votes

{quoted}

Why does it have a max health scaling then? Why do tank supports get no runes then?

They still have demolish.

Frosted TipsNov 22, 20182 votes

Most tanks don't want to hit tower because they need to be ready to CC enemies either for a dive or to peel. Also what about my other question.

Z3SleeperNov 22, 20181 votes

They probably just don't want to touch it right now since engage supports are basically the meta right now. Once they figure out what they're gonna do about that they'll probably touch up on it.

I think what's really holding it back is that it's balanced for a 5v5 scenario so it's kept weak in a 2v2 lane. They need to scrap the "heals everyone" thing and move it more towards "healing the one guy you care about" so they can buff it up to actually be meaningful.

Basically just needs more conditions. As it stands a straight buffed FoL would be pretty broken on someone like Sion if they buffed the % health.

Critmaster GarenNov 22, 20186 votes

just replace that useless rune and give us something that everyone can use in its place.

lets be real, its really only ever usable on leona and taric. even if they buffed it, its only ever going to be considerable on some champions in bot lane. if you play in any of the 3 other lanes, there is no reason to think about this rune.

just give us legendary guardian or something like that. at least the rune would "only" be usable on all tanks, fighters and battlemages, instead of only support tanks.

y0r1ckNov 22, 20181 votes

It lets my yorick play support. For some reason it has one of the higher winrates of runes on yorick...

ViciousSummonerNov 22, 20183 votes

FoL is super niche. Soraka Lulu Janna Braum are the only champions that I ever take it on. Even then it's not about outright healing it's more about sustained fight potential. It's basically a pot for your allies when they damage targets that you cc.

NightTimeBlues19Nov 22, 20182 votes

I agree. As a nunu (tank) jungler font of life doesn't seem to have any impact during the game. I could take shield bash but my ult is the only thing that gives a shield. So that isn't helpful and the tower demolish is not helpful as I normally am not in a lane to do damage. Seems like there is really no good option in the resolve tree for tank junglers without shields.

BigFBearNov 22, 20181 votes

So true

Tahminatrix Nov 22, 20182 votes

Font of life procs item 3504 atleast.

YuGiHoNov 22, 201815 votes

support Ashe approves.

ScreamingLeafJan 3, 20192 votes

Maybe font of life should heal you as well. That would be cool

wolviusNov 22, 20181 votes

Its only real use i can think of is to help get S's on aram if you have CC or slow to get better Kill Participation, thats it or some ashe build with new overgrowth but why would you even do that build.

I agree it should totally be replaced.

HupsisNov 22, 20181 votes

The whole idea behind that rune is kinda boring. It's only useful on few champions and doesn't directly benefit the user at all.

It would be cool if it was replaced by something that had an interaction with plants. Like a honeyfruit plant spawning near you after succesfully cc'ing enemy champions for a total of 10 seconds.

BakeadakeboNov 22, 20181 votes

ASHE SUPPORT WITH ARDENT CENSER I saw it in a reddit post but I was playing it recently. Basically I was going ap for the bursty ults but it only seemed to work on the game that my team snowballed. I still got high damage probably from that braindead poking

TwitchInMyPantsNov 22, 20181 votes

Honestly they should just make Font of Life a keystone again, it'd be way more functional and justify itself more often. Guardian fills a similar niche as a rune that offers supportive durability, but the presence of Stoneborn Pact (If I remember the name) would be unique in that its based on sustain wheras Guardian is meant to block some burst in a trade. And frankly Guardian is probably as small as it is given that shield boosts and Font of Life exist, could justify buffing it if it was competing with Stoneborn Pact.

True GarenNov 24, 20186 votes

{quoted}

Honestly they should just make Font of Life a keystone again, it'd be way more functional and justify itself more often. Guardian fills a similar niche as a rune that offers supportive durability, but the presence of Stoneborn Pact (If I remember the name) would be unique in that its based on sustain wheras Guardian is meant to block some burst in a trade. And frankly Guardian is probably as small as it is given that shield boosts and Font of Life exist, could justify buffing it if it was competing with Stoneborn Pact.

Stoneborn Pact also came with a %5 health buff. They would have to add this back to the rune to give it enough value to be worth taking as a Keystone. And they won't allow that much extra early health in the game right now. With old Stoneborn Pact and Veterans Scars alone, you could start the match with more than 100 extra health. They removed all the flat health runes now, and even nerfed Chrysalis was too much to be allowed to remain.