Strength of the ages keystone does need a buff in order to be on the same level as the other keystones, however I disagree on getting rid of the stacking mechanic. As a person who rather enjoys playing super tanky supports like
the stacking mechanics as stands presents a good way to increase your actual physical hp's with little or no additional effort on your part.
and
both work well with this mastery as either you or the adc (depending on start item) should already be focusing on last hitting the cannon minions above the other farm minions as they are worth more. Sure you may loose a few in mid trades, however if you manage to win the trade the payoff is worth the loss (assuming you don't have to back off and end up as food for the enemy jng shortly after).
As we all know
needs at least 3k hp to proc passive, and strength of the ages is a good way to boost your current hps to make that goal achievable early game. I have had a working
as early as level 8 several times, and with that kind of early power it really forces the enemy to rethink their plays or regret even trying.
The only real downside to stacking is when you (or your adc and you depending on lane) are being pushed so heavily that farming becomes insanely hard to do, or when your adc is unskilled or afk. In the case of a solo lane (can i even call top that with the current meta of constant ganking/top camping thanks to illoais overpoweredness?) if your being bullied you simply need to ask for help and maybe learn more about each champs strengths and weaknesses to become better as there is no single champ that simply can waltz into any game and barrel roll the entire game (save for when a rework/launch goes horrid (cough
cough). In bot lane maybe you are doing extremely well tho have an unskilled adc (and there are plenty out there who cant adc, myself included) it's your job to make up for their slack even if your jng has to help shoulder the burden until you and adc are fed enough that crappy playstyle can no longer be used as an excuse (save for the intentional feed). That actually brings me to my next point, why stacking over a flat boost?
A flat boost is just that. Anyone and everyone can have a flat boost should they choose to take it. A flat boost is nothing more than a crutch for those not skilled enough/not working together enough to earn it. With that said yes, you can be the top ranked player in the world and be bullied because you're behind in a certain stat however if that person consistently is destroyed by this fact (not taking ganking or afk or intentional feeding into this scenario) do they really deserve that rank when opponent started with less of that stat and earns his stacks and there for a stat advantage?
BOTTOM LINE stacking is not a broke mechanic, teamwork and play-style however often are.
Now that I have that little rant out of the way I ask have you even though of how a flat 10% hp bonus would throw
, and even
completely and disproportionately out into the nether realm of being completely op? Mundo and garen both have annoying, and somewhat unbalanced healing as is. adding a flat 10% to their hp and by abilities means regen would only make them harder to kill at all levels, granted that is the way their kit is designed to be, however adding a
and/or
to that already hard to overcome kit would make it almost, if not entirely, noncompetitive. Sions shield and most of sej scale with max hp (although not nearly as insanely as the aforementioned heals) to this degree their defense/offense respectfully would make them shine even brighter in their areas, which typically would be a good thing if not for all the poor champs that it would render useless in fights with them. Items such as
and
only helping to make these match ups all the more feared. Vlads passive (40 hp = 1 ap and 1 ap = 1.4 hp non-self-stacking) perhaps can display the best example of why a flat percent boost is just too unbalanced. With vlad it isn't uncommon to see 4037.8 hp (1987 base hp at 18 without runes, items, masteries, abilities, or abilities. liandrys 300, ryli's 400, warmogs 850, visage 500 at full build and level. Even at a 10% boost thats 403.78 bonus hp for a total of 4441.58 hp (discounting his passives transformation of any ap to hp) giving a 111.0395 bonus ap with his passive. doesnt seem like much right? but add that to fairly common ap items on him (liandrys 80, ryli's 100, rabadons 120, will of the ancients 80) for 491.0395 before rabadons passive 20% increase which gives 98.2079 bonus with the theoretical build to total 589.2474 (478.2079 of wich gets put tward more hp (yes i subtracted what he got from passive from his final ap before calculating his ap to hp gain) for an additional 478.2079 hp) In total this resaults in a vlad with 4919.7879 hp and 589.2474 ap. Not something I would like to meet in game. Finally thought I forgot about sona? well her impact would gain a minimal boost as she tends to stack ap over hp, however simply put more max hp = more heals she can do before having to base or worry about being killed by a minion (or champ for that matter) for trying to line up her starfall.
Please consider the entire scope of an idea.