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The State of Bot Lane 7 patches after 8.11: The Problem with Stormrazor

Aura 411·9/26/2018, 1:23:08 AM·26 votes·10,979 views

Just to clarify at the beginning, I am an ADC main (more specifically, a Jhin OTP)

I am a bit worried about the state of bot lane. While I may be incorrect, I'm fairly sure everyone is aware of the drama that was 8.11, where the devs attempted to diversify Bot by nerfing base stats for Marksmen and crit items. While they had good intentions, and there was SOME diversity for a little bit (Yasuo , Swain , even Mordekaiser had a spot for like a weeks). But that only lasted for a little bit. I think that gutting an entire class of champions was a stupid move, and I was not alone in that opinion, seeing the huge backlash that occurred. The devs seemed to have backtracked and currently, the Bottom lane still remains Marksmen only. But I feel that it's because of one specific reason.

The addition of Stormrazor has me concerned. That item is the thing, I feel, that is keeping weaker tier Marksmen playable (Caitlyn , Sivir and giving stupid power to others (Jhin , Draven), with some outliers (Ezreal Lucian Kaisa ). While I love being able to run around at Mach 3 doing stupid DPS as my favorite champion, having all this power on one item that helps me pressure early stupidly easily, instead of having it come from my build as a whole, feels sort of dirty. Jhin was not the best before Stromrazor and I'm concerned that Riot will choose to nerf HIM instead of what I see as a unstable, toxic item. Marksmen was always about scaling, not insane early powerspikes like Stormrazor. Having lane balance hinging on ONE item for so many champions is a balance disaster waiting to happen.

Overall, I feel that Stormrazor was a Band-aid fix to a problem that still isn't fully resolved after the failure that was 8.11, and I think that something needs to be done about the state of Bot Lane somehow. For example, I considered would take resources from making new champs to making more ITEMS, to give all champions more options, and provide more diversity in build path, and hopefully make more champions viable elsewhere. I understand that some love getting new champions fairly often, but with the precarious state game balance is in, we need to stabilize it as much as possible, or otherwise, risk the long term health of the game. Adding new champions would only add more chaos, and make balancing a nightmare more than it already is. But that's how I see it.

I would like community feedback on this issue.

42 Comments

OtterlyLost9/26/2018, 2:25:11 AM11 votes

To be honest, Stormrazor is just a line of bandaid fixes that they've been making to ADC for well over a season now. If they really just wanted to tone back ADC power in 8.11, that was easily achievable by reverting the buffs that they gave Shiv+RFC. Shiv was part of the huge problem with Marksmen in season 7 because they used it as a bandaid fix for ADC2k17lul problem, basically pidgeon holing marksmen into building Shiv in order to be relevant. :/ Even though there are four different zeal items, the default, correct choice is still Shiv, regardless of what's going on in the game. Which is frustrating as there are three other zeal items and, at this point, they could remove the other three and just leave Shiv and everything would be fine.

I wish, instead of continuing to bandaid fix the ADC roster like this, they'd actually put time and fucking effort into reworking Zeal items and marksmen itemization into things that would vary every game. Like give the zeal items unique interactions with each other that would change which ones you'd build each game. And give ADCs back ER; the crit based version of ER was literally the best iteration that's ever been in the game and many marksmen relied on it heavily to function properly.

For that matter, I wouldn't mind Stormrazor if it actually worked like a normal ADC item should; if it rewarded an ADC for providing consistent DPS in fights rather than rewarding them for waiting to do as much front loaded damage in a single AA. There's a reason that Stormrazor was abused by assassins and its purely because it behaves and acts more like an assassin item than it does as an ADC item.

Draconian5659/26/2018, 1:52:14 AM9 votes

Jhin is basically "The Fast" now on normal Summoner's Rift. So fast mang.

TekkenPlayer9/26/2018, 8:56:08 AM9 votes

Coming from a midlane player:

Buff bot lane tower resistances and HP. I do not want you ADC peasants rotating mid and siphoning everyone else's income super early. You are also made of paper so I don't want one bad trade meaning you lost the lane. Get some base resistances for fucks sake

Andevar9/27/2018, 12:47:20 AM3 votes

Stormrazor was a terrible item tbh. Not sure why they added it. Now every single ADC buys it and is reliant on it for damage.

JoeAnarchy9/26/2018, 7:14:00 AM2 votes

8.11 was only a failure because they changed too much.. the base stat nerfs were the issue. not the items.. lowering the base armor and MR of AD Marksmen at early levels just made assassins a more desirable pick, creating the burst meta, causing the game to end faster, meaning marksmen needed to adapt, which gave rise to lethality MF and burst mach 3 Jhin. they they did their crit item changes, and weakened the classic marksman runes, but DIDN'T do the base stat nerfs, it would have balanced everything (at least bot lane) much more.. marksmen would hit their item spikes later (because they cost more gold) but would just have the base armor/MR to survive, but that would give mages and fighters more of a chance in bot lane.. seriously.. wanna fix this burst meta? just give marksmen their base stats back, but make the crit items cost more again..

Gamer Gallade9/27/2018, 6:55:01 AM2 votes

I personally think that Stormrazor is not a good item in the long term.

Mainly because it limits the designs of potential ADC and Assassins that will build it.

I can say the same towards Duskblade because the damage is just insane.

But that's a completely different story.

Also they might Nerf Draven along side Jhin because of Stormrazor Draven's amplifying damage is already insane because of Conqueror with his q.

Jhin is a problem as you stated but small off chance they will change how his scaling will work hail of blades.

Still, they should raise the cost of Stormrazor a bit more because the power it delivers is too much. Like make it cost over 3k gold and change its build so that it can compliment the change.

Daddy Ants9/26/2018, 10:19:37 AM1 votes

As an ADC main who mains a non stormrazor champion (Vayne)

I want Stormrazor gone as well, It's giving way too much unnecessary power to champions like Kai'Sa, Jhin, Jinx.

The Yetii Rider9/26/2018, 6:25:33 PM1 votes

Thing is, if you take Stormrazor away, you have ADCs desperately trying to rush to THREE items, plus boots, before they are good. The entire point of 8.11 was to make it so Zeal Item + Infinity Edge was not a good power spike, and it succeeded. Once marksmen get to 3 items they are stable, but that's a long time for them not to be in the game.

And that's good. We shouldn't have two marksmen in every game.

But if you want marksmen to stick around, removing Stormrazor seems like a bad way to do it. Ezreal and Kai'sa will just reign terror again like they did in 8.11 because they don't build crit.

Atmosphere9/26/2018, 6:53:38 AM1 votes

The 8.11 changes ended up being a complete failure. Bot lane is still almost all Marksmen because they don't understand what makes a marksman such a necessary pick. They have strong, consistent, safe damage. Instead of making champs similar to that (Cassio being the best example, just less safe), they weakened marksmen and threw the game into a state of disarray. Right now, the healthiest option is to revert the crit items and champion compensation buffs, leave the stat nerfs, and come up ideas for mage bot laners. Stormrazor was a mistake of an item, and ADC still feels like a god awful role to play. Riot accomplished nothing.