Zekes Herald could use a change

Nakawaka·1/11/2015, 6:22:13 PM·1 votes·812 views

Currently Zekes herald gives the following:

kindlegem+vamp sceptor 2550g +250 health +20% cooldown reduction Aura UNIQUE: Nearby allied champions gain +20 attack damage and +10% life steal. (1100 Range)

Originally Zekes had an AP counterpart (WOTA) and even if it isn't particularly strong on a lot of characters, there are some champions that can work with it to a degree (RIP aura Sona RIP Taric ). I hadn't seen this item built ever - full AD teams are uncommon and supports usually prefer to keep their carries alive.

Aegis item 3105 gives 200 health to the support or jungler but more importantly it gives 40 MR to the carrier while protecting team mates with 20 mr for a significantly cheaper price of 1900. For an additional 900, it protects the team further from AoE Ap teams and gives leverage over AP burst assassins. This is fine and all, as AD assassins, while having better auto attacks, are in some way easier to peel with CC. For roles meaning to lack gold, they make other people indirectly more gold efficient by keeping them alive.

Now on paper Zekes doesn't look bad; it gives survivability and a big cool down boost. It also grants 100 AD and 50% life steal to the whole team - if they stick together or don't go out of 1100 range in a team fight. AD assassins won't always be within 1100 range of the aura and are bursting things just fine. Junglers don't normally build this because they are spending limited gold on either bursting or not-dying.

This means the only ones getting full benefits of the aura are AD carries. However melees act like assassins or don't have support to back them up as often as their ranged counterpart. Also, they are probably AFK split pushing anyways. Ardent censor already exists and give benefits (like AP) to the support who in turn give back to the team with better utility and as a support, 20% cooldown is nothing because everything needed to keep carries from being instant gibbed already have cooldown reduction. In addition, the build path isn't great. What you build with a vamp sceptor may as well go into bilgewater as BorTK.

Suppose Zekes is designed as a different sort of counterpart to Aegis:

Kindlegem+cloth armor (850 +300 + 750)

1900g 400 health 10% cooldown Aura UNIQUE: Nearby enemy champions (700) range have 15 AD reduced and 10% crit chance reduced

Which upgrades to...Zeke's Bigger Herald 2800

Zeke's Herald + 2 longswords (1900 + 800 + 100) 400 health 10% cooldown Aura Unique: Nearby enemy champions (700) range have 15 AD reducted and 10% crit chance reduced Active: For 5 seconds, target one ally (or the carrier) to be buffed with an additional 30 AD and 10% crit chance. While the active is in effect, the unique Aura is temporarily disabled

I'm not too sure about the item build path an d the name is obviously troll, but this change allows Zekes to complement Ardent Censor while giving something to when the team is relatively separated.

edit: Item revised

2800

Zeke's Herald + 1 amp tome (1900 + 435+ 465) 400 health 10% cooldown Aura Unique: Nearby ally champions take 15 less damage from auto attack Active: For 5 seconds, target one ally (or the carrier) to be buffed with an additional 30 magic on-hit damage per auto. The aura is temporarily disabled for this duration.

1 Comments

disregardable1/11/2015, 6:25:50 PM1 votes

I agree that Zeke's needs something to be viable on the rift, but I'd prefer if it'd be something that didn't entirely kill how useful it is in ARAM.