Honest feedback on Volibear changes -from Volibears Keeper
is Back!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Background-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Voli's been my favorite champ since I started playing him in season 3. I'm mastery 7 with him on my Gold 4 main account, and using him currently to level up my alternate account. He's always been somewhat relevant up until the recent season which just ended. The meta kind of left him behind and with the movement speed creep thats been happening to League, he just couldn't compete with more mobile junglers at a reliable level. His character model is big, and hard to sidestep with because his q movement speed would degrade if you changed directions slightly. His damage was never an issue in my opinion, it was just a ton of quality of life things that piled on to make him fall from glory.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Changes!---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Riot's back with some massive additions to his kit that voli mains have been asking for, for a long time.
His Q no longer degrades immediately movement speed on subtle changes, so sidesteps are possible.
His Q received a speed buff towards champs (which puts him back in line with everyone else's movement speed creep.
His W gets half cooldown on minion bites. cool, but not a noticable change really.
His E now has a small INSTANT knockback and does extra damage to opponents dashing/leaping near Volibear
--------------------------------------------------------------------------Balance Issues?--------------------------------------------------------------------
My experience playing him this morning since the changes went live has been night and day to what has been occurring over the last few months. I'm securing kills, I'm actually catching up to people that are kiting me. IM DODGING ABILITIES AGAIN. The damage feels great, his passive feels great, his tankiness and cc feel great.
The knockback on his e opens him up to a good counter to all sorts of champions. Even though its extremely subtle, its still a form of cc. So 
, and everyone with teleport have a whole new threat to adjust to. It also works well with his toss, to push the enemy a bit further behind you if timed correctly. You can also use your E when the enemy is halfway through your throw if you want the damage, but don't want to displace them completely. On top of this, it has an instant cast, with a post animation. So the ability and its damage goes off as soon as you hit E, then the animation finishes. This allows for extremely quick counters to abilities such as 
jumps/leaps.
At the same time, it doesn't feel broken. Enemy ADC/top still shreds me because the build consists mostly of health and mr, so you need to play quick and smart to get a kill on them. So while he has a TON of health by end game, he's surprisingly squishy. a major part of his tankiness comes from his passive, which if the enemy keeps tabs on, they will take advantage of.
The cc is a bit much for the enemy as well. I wouldn't be surprised to see an E nerf coming soon where they raise the cooldown by 2 or 3 seconds.
-------------------------------------------------------------Upcoming Rework Thoughts--------------------------------------------------------------
Riot is considering a rework for him as mentioned in the patch notes. This is very scary for me and many other Volibear mains. He has an in your face style thats reminiscent of old-school Poppy and Olaf, with the regenerative abilities of a lesser Mundo. Whenever Riot changes someone its up in the air for the mains that use him/her. I remember the Rengar changes a few seasons back that just destroyed everything fun about the champion and made him awkward to play. So I really hope Riot does whats right, and consults with the mains of Volibear to see what we enjoy about him. See why we have a connection to this champ, and try to keep what makes him fun from changing completely. I understand his kits pretty one dimensional, and perhaps its not reliable in professional play, but he has a major place in many peoples reason for sticking to this game. I am both full of hope and fear that his rework doesn't destroy the champ, but instead expands on his ferocity and in your face playstyle.
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TL;DR
I like the changes, expect a nerf on his E's cooldown. Talk of rework is worrying Voli Mains.
Edit: You won't see any Volibear games on this account, I've been playing him to level up my alternate account which I have 13 games on today alone. My main account (also not this one) is mastery 7 Voli as well.
