Sett should be nerfed, but I don't think it's how most people are saying.

TL;DR is at bottom I am a bruiser main, alternating between top/jungle depending on how I'm feeling. As such, when I heard of Sett's upcoming release, I was pumped.

But like I'm sure many of you felt when you saw his numbers, it looked quite insane. Based on current Winrate, banrate, and playrate, he's definitely OP. While I initially thought ranged would be a great counter to him, the fact seems to be he can hold his own-at least in lane-against ranged. I'll get back to that in a minute.

Most topics I see regarding his balance talk about his overstacked W. Too much damage, too much shielding, on too little cooldown, with massive healing when combined with conqueror, he feels unstoppable. Many are calling for nerfs to his ult's damage as well.

But I think before we call for nerfs to damage, we should look at what his purpose is, and then define what he should and shouldn't be good at doing.

Clearly he's meant to be a juggernaut. Strong AD scaling, an ability which gives more shields based on how much total HP you've had/your AD, passive regen. Oh, and he operates like trundle-a juggernaut who eats up other juggernauts and tanks. And duelists.

I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with this idea for a champion, so long as they have some other clearly defined weaknesses. Being pokable/not able to reach backline on their own is one of the signature weaknesses of a juggernaut-little to no gap closing ability, low or situational CC, limited poking capability, etc.

Sett does exceedingly well at what he's supposed to, but also succeeds where he shouldn't. When I look at his kit, I think I can clearly see why. Consider this:

His ult has a range of 600, which is the same as a Caitlyn auto. This carries him an additional 200 units back. He then can use showstopper, range of 490-a total of 1290 range. Basically when a frontliner is standing in front of their ADC, like they're supposed to do, Sett can use them to carry himself towards the backline, pull the backline closer, then blast them. For reference, 1300 is the range of Caitlyn's attack when you get snagged by her trap, which is a pretty hefty range.

Why is a tank busting juggernaut able to outrange most ranged champions? THIS is what feels silly to me.

Looking at his W, it has a range of 790. Not the longest ranged attack out there but still very hefty-certainly enough to poke a ranged champion who goes in to last hit. I've done this myself playing as him, and felt ridiculous doing so. Why am I able to out poke a ranged champion, with true damage no less? What happened to true damage being difficult to use or having a high price to pay, such as being your ult, or requiring very close range, etc?

So now he can successfully poke you in lane in most cases with true damage, but even if you can outrange him, you probably won't poke him out of lane. His passive health regen that is tacked on is arguably better than even Garen and Mundo, champions who's passives ONLY regen. Garen obviously needs some time to start kicking in, and it's not much higher early game than Sett's. It gets stronger much later, but still has that requirement. Why does Sett get so much regen? You can't hope to poke him out of lane, meaning you have to go all in with your jungler, and he may turn that around. Nerf that regen.

Ok, going back to the true damage. I don't think he really needs any straight damage nerfs. Rather, the true damage should be much harder to access. Ideally true damage should, as I said a in the last paragraph, be difficulty to access or have a high price. Sett could have a hybrid of both. First, make the base damage physical damage at all times. Shrink down the center section so it's maybe 3/4 it's current size, making it harder to hit with. At this point he MUST take damage to hit you with true damage-no more free true damage poke, and the combination of a wind up and a smaller area means he really has to work to hit you with true damage. Finally, I think the center section should be changed to % armor penetration, scaling up from the outter rim to the inner portion. At the most outer tip, it has say, 10-15% armor penetration. An opponent who is directly next to Sett is hit with true damage, while one halfway is around 40-50%. This would make the skill harder to hit with, but rewarding to using it in the most dangerous situations, eliminating ranged true damage poke.

TL;DR Sett should be a tank buster/bruiser buster, excelling in the thick if a teamfight, or solo against a melee champion. Ranged should be his greatest weakness, so we should nerf the following:

-E and R ranged to prevent easy backline access -W's center area should be thinned slightly, and change it to % armor pen based on how far the target is from Sett when hit. Closer targets receive higher levels of penetration, sort of like Darius and his passive stacks for his ultimate-enemies right next to him receive true damage. Maybe trim the range slightly so he can't outpoke ranged champions. -Passive regen is complete overkill, outperforming other champion passives who ONLY get regen for their passive. Tone this down. -If you combined all these nerfs, he'd still excel where he should-killing beefy frontliners, but ranged champs would be able to successfully whittle him down in lane safely and effectively. Ranged would be his counter, just like it is for many juggernauts.

Ok, feel free to downvote me and call me dumb, I'm ready.