What are the best passives? What makes them great?

IcyPepper··4 votes·728 views

Let's be honest.

Some passives are boring. Some are annoying. Some are in between.

What defines a good passive for you, and what champions have good passives? Are multiple passives a bad thing, or is there a way to fit them in without it appearing tacked on?

22 Comments

Iron IV dude3 votes

Riven Simply the best champ best skills best passive best ult best balance :3

flames incoming... xD

What Is Smite1 votes

Inserts CD into Surround Sound System, starts to play "Through the Fire and the Flames-Dragonforce" summoner 14 item 3751 Brand There is your flame

IcyPepper1 votes

Annie

Singing Lark3 votes

Braum

disregardable2 votes

A good passive is a passive that you're incentivized to adjust your gameplay around.

Morg's playstyle is identical whether she has spell vamp or not, but if you take away Akali's spell vamp, how she is played would probably change. Bonus spell vamp is a good passive for Akali but not for Morgana.

Jinx's get excited encourages her to overstay a bit, to push her boundaries, so she can rush out or rush in even further, while MF's strut actually turns off when she's not just going from place to place.

Then you have passives like Orianna's clockwork windings, but autos feel absolute shit on her, or Fizz's Nimble Fighter, where Fizz would dive enemy champions with or without it. Proper incentives that don't actually do anything.

My personal favorite passive is actually Bard's. It's basically farming things that neither your team nor the enemy team can take from you. It lets you have fun and makes him strong, even if you're losing the game really hard. I've been complaining for a long time that League isn't fun enough for the individual player, and then BOOM, they release Bard.

IcyPepper1 votes

Great post, man. I personally love Bard's passive, and I still don't understand why I don't own him yet.

ModAcademy Kayn1 votes

Malzahar It's interactive, its fun and you get to yell GET DOWN MR. PRESIDENT if a voidling blocks a skill shot

oribix1 votes

Good passives are usually high utility or high steroids.

In regards to steroid passives, I believe Poppy's passive is the best passive in the game considering the raw amount of tankiness it gives poppy, even when not building tank.

As for utility, I think Kalista has the best passive.

Maximum Zilean1 votes

Karthus

Cause in some cases, not focusing the fed Karthus is safer then killing him early.

Myrddin1 votes

I like kayle's passive

The Whamboozler1 votes

Define best?

The strongest passive? That's probably Poppy or Urgot . YES YOU HEARD ME. URGOT. The most fitting for the champion? Anivia , Darius , or Karthus . The most obnoxious to deal with? Kalista , Garen , Tryndamere and Katarina come to mind. The "best" passives? Renekton , KogMaw or Zyra . The most excessive? Yasuo and Riven

IcyPepper1 votes

It's up to personal interpretation, as I wanted to see what people think.

Interesting champions you chose. I personally like Urgot's passive.

Taredom1 votes

Most people who have actually played Poppy would agree that her passive is likely the strongest in the game, keep in mind it's 10% of CURRENT health, that's nuts. Edit: Also Kalista because damn...

Abyssphere1 votes

I like passives that either a) make you do something you otherwise wouldn't do (like AFK Farmer's post) b) cover up a weakness in your kit in a unique way or c) define your playstyle as a whole. For a 'b' example, I like Orianna's passive because it allows her to compensate for her weak laning phase if she's willing to commit to auto attack trades. Regarding passives that define playstyle, I mean stuff like Katarina's passive. It's powerful, it's one of her most defining traits and it enables her to do stuff that would otherwise be totally impossible.

Penguin Eclipse1 votes

I've always been a big fan of Orianna's passive. I don't think it gets near enough appreciation around here. It's not the most powerful passive in the game. And as someone will probably argue, it doesn't fit her lore or the rest of her kit all that well. But it helps her greatly at all points in the game. Not many champions have a passive that benefits them at level 1.

IcyPepper1 votes

It's great for last-hitting, especially when you don't want to waste spells to waveclear >.>

Lichbane is nice on her, if you ask me.

Simpumba1 votes

Teemo summoner 12 summoner 14 =item 1075 item 1075 item 1075 item 1075 item 1075 item 1075

Drunk Rummate1 votes

I like Azirs passive. Scaling with CDR is cool and the turret is very strategic. Always makes me feel amazing when I put it up in the middle of a fight. It's like "surprise! bet you didn't expect you would have to tower dive us on your side of the map!"

Rebonack1 votes

AFK basically hit the nail on the head.

The best Innates in the game are the ones that provide the champion some unique hook in their gameplay that they would lack without it. In that sense, Sion and Karthus' Innates are much better than Koggy and Zyra's. With the later it's 'whoops, I'm dead. May as well try to do some extra damage'. Karthus and Sion, on the other hand, are able to remain a very real threat to help create zones of 'don't go there' that your team can take advantage of.

Lux and Ori's Innates are both designed to reward them to get into the danger zone rather than hanging back where it's safe. Jinx' Innate lets her push the envelope on what's safe. Vayne's Innate allows her to chase in a meaningful way when normally such behavior is a terrible idea. Brand's Innate gives him a fun little mini-game to decide how best to use his skills. Poppy's Innate allows her to pull off kills from the edge of death that would be suicide otherwise. Mord's Innate makes him Mord.

And so on and so forth.

Innates that just make a champion hit a little harder (Yi) or tank a little harder (Shy) in all situations are pretty dull.

Innates that just give extra resources (TF, Zil, Draven) are the worst.

FastAsHeck1 votes

Karthus because his entire playstyle can revolve around it, but not necessarily (tanky teamfight karthus will do less damage but actually live after the fight, glass cannon karthus is the one that makes use of his passive)

Big Bang Bob1 votes

Rammus back when item 3139 have more mr, I would build this on him and stack armor so I'd have 300 ad. xD

Killer of Poros1 votes

Pantheon gives him utility that exemplifies his early game strength but also gives windows of opportunities to opponents when it's down

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