Cinderhulk and Smite on Laners

prarock·4/9/2015, 11:18:00 PM·3 votes·1,513 views

Recently I've been seeing that tank junglers have almost completely wiped out damage junglers like lee-sin and reksai with the new cinderhulk jungle item. Even after the recent nerfs to the health, I believe that its not the health that the item provides which is a problem. It has come to the point where top lane tanks like shyvana take smite just to get the cinderhulk item along with the red smite and use the insane dps and damage reduction that the combo provides to make the game extremely boring. I think riot should change cinderhulk to make it do more damage to monsters and reduce its damage to champions allowing tanky and utility junglers to still stay in meta and at the same time not giving them the insane amount of damage that cinderhulk provides. Any thoughts on this?

15 Comments

IcyPepper4/9/2015, 11:20:41 PM4 votes

Look, I'll be honest here: if it's notable when someone takes smite over flash to get a strong item, I call that diversity. They're sacrificing a powerful spell that's almost in every game now to get a powerful item.

Personally, I call it a balancing issue that flash is essentially required. If cinderhulk was taken in 98% of games because it was that strong, I'd agree. But that's flash, and since we can't nerf it... I'd rather have a little options in diversity.

Also just build item 3153 to counter it. Passive damage on-hit will scale with the bonus hp.

Sir Yamazuki4/9/2015, 11:24:08 PM3 votes

What do you mean Lee got wiped out? Lee Sin is still the #1 most picked jungler for soloq, along with Vi being 2nd and Nid being 3rd, neither of which are tank junglers.

TheFrozenIsles4/9/2015, 11:29:17 PM1 votes

Yeah I see that as well. The top lane (if on the blue side) all so use smite on the frog to get that buff as well. Mind you they dont kill it just get the buff.

I for one like it and think if they dont what smite to be in lane. They should buff the damaged on sunfire cape and make another item with the bonus health.

Erockandroll4/9/2015, 11:33:00 PM1 votes

Riot previously stated that they don't oppose laners taking smite as long as it didn't start crowding out other summoners. Top lane tanks will have to sacrifice either TP or Flash, just to get CinderHulk. Having a few top lane tanks taking smite for CinderHulk is no problem. It will only become a problem when it crowds out other top lane picks.

B3ER4/10/2015, 12:00:15 AM1 votes

If Cinderhulk laners start pushing out other options, then it can be considered a problem. If it simply comes down to a new playstyle with niche applications, we simply get more depth which is good for the game. The primary thing I'm worried about is the counterjungle pressure that Smite laners have. They can really keep the enemy jungle down hard without him having any options.

Bruiser junglers are still very viable. Tanks are just dominating a bit because of the Cinderhulk introduction. The recent nerfs to Cinderhulk bring tanks more in line. I can't wait till they make Magus and Devourer worth a damn.

Sirsir4/10/2015, 10:39:35 PM1 votes

not giving them the insane amount of damage that cinderhulk provides

Its only 8 more damage per second, at max level, after it has completely built up, than Sunfire. At that point even ADCs have 1.4k hp so its not a huge deal.

With this setup you effectively have to pay 850g to unlock one of your summoner spells, and Cinderhulk really isn't that good early. Compared to sunfire its 375 HP (nor counting RM) vs 450 HP and 45 Armor. Admittedly it is 350g cheaper, but still. This type of build gives you a heavily punishable early game.