Boards›Gameplay

New Runes Have Almost Invalidated Melees

Ravenous Howls·11/27/2017, 2:34:05 PM·6 votes·890 views

I am a melee kind of guy. I main Nasus, Shen for the most part but also like to pick up Warwick, Galio, Maokai, Zac and Nautilus as well.

What kills me though is how Riot decided to give us almost no defensive stats early but there are a ton of abusive combos with some Runes and Champions kits especially if they are ranged and can proc dot damage. Even hyper aggressive melee's that have high kill pressure at lvl 1-3 are abusing things like Summon Aery, Press the Attack and Lethal Tempo.

Teemo with Summon Aery is stupidly oppressive as his poison tic from his AA's can trigger the damage multiple times. Riven and Pantheon can also make strong use of this Keystone to give them more burst and kill pressure than ever before.

Vayne with Lethal Tempo is absolutely the stuff of nightmares. She can basically auto proc her passive in 1 second late game and melt a tank in about 2 or 3 tops.

Corki with Press the Attack is absolutely insane. With his Gatling gun running he can basically invalidate any champions health in a matter of seconds. Once he get's Triforce he is nigh impossible to kill without dying yourself. Urgot is another one. Being medium range you can stay out of harms way but one mistake and he gets the flip could, most likely will, be your death at level 3.

These are just examples and I know there are other heavy abuse cases but I just want Riot to give us some decent defenses to either take or they need to start evaluating the base stats of all there struggling melee's who are absolutely getting slaughtered by the insane amount of damage that is now in the game.

I will admit that the effective health on tanks through shields or damage reduction passives helps them weather this better than other melee's but the ranged match ups are hell. Especially Teemo, Vayne and Heimdinger who can basically attack you consistently with little to no opportunity to outplay or challenge them.

32 Comments

Weedbro11/27/2017, 2:46:27 PM3 votes

If you're having trouble with melee I would suggest switching to Tryndamere. He is not currently having trouble, he is the trouble. He is the one who knocks.

SuperLuigiLXIV11/27/2017, 2:37:04 PM3 votes

Range has never been weighted as heavily as it should be as a stat. Don't expect it to start mattering now.

Kats Pajamas11/27/2017, 2:56:52 PM2 votes

Melee champions aren't defined by their stats. They are defined by their abilities. Rengar uses bushes, Garen Ultimates, Nasus Slows, most of them are Melee because their abilites are so oppressive if they were ranged they would be broken, most have insane base damage or scale to compensate for the known fact they will get less CS. They're like nerfd down mages, but that's not just League, that's like every MOBA ever.

Melee attacks have a range too by the way. You may not be able to dodge abilities as easily, but much of the range melee champions have is also hidden in their size. Sure Teemo has 500 range, but you cannot run around a Malphite's extra 100 points of hitbox as easily, thus he has a more comparable reach to Teemo from the back of his model. This is more apparent on a character like Aatrox, who has a range giving Ultimate, that it's actually effective to be bigger for melee autos range.

In short though, Melee characters are not designed to run around and actually slap people, they are designed to be melee as a handicap for overpowered abilities to exist.

FireDrizzle11/27/2017, 4:43:37 PM2 votes

If you are playing a melee champ you need to be almost full tank or extremely mobile becasue you wont get onto anyone alive otherwise. Why press the attack has 12% "increased damage from all sources" I dont know. Uness teamfights are spread out they dont last long so it is bad too put that on a rune.

Ralanr11/27/2017, 3:01:13 PM1 votes

No defensive stats early? Tanks like Nautilus and Galio were given bigger base resistance increases than any other class. Hell, Support tanks got like maybe 20 extra armor.

Is this his comparing the resolve tree to others? Cause the resolve tree is very good on tanks because of how much resistances they already have.

Sona Ping11/27/2017, 3:03:51 PM1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Lazarus Blade,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=vwk1ubAm,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-11-27T14:34:05.583+0000)

I am a melee kind of guy. I main Nasus, Shen for the most part but also like to pick up Warwick, Galio, Maokai, Zac and Nautilus as well.

What kills me though is how Riot decided to give us almost no defensive stats early but there are a ton of abusive combos with some Runes and Champions kits especially if they are ranged and can proc dot damage. Even hyper aggressive melee's that have high kill pressure at lvl 1-3 are abusing things like Summon Aery, Press the Attack and Lethal Tempo.

Teemo with Summon Aery is stupidly oppressive as his poison tic from his AA's can trigger the damage multiple times. Riven and Pantheon can also make strong use of this Keystone to give them more burst and kill pressure than ever before.

Vayne with Lethal Tempo is absolutely the stuff of nightmares. She can basically auto proc her passive in 1 second late game and melt a tank in about 2 or 3 tops.

Corki with Press the Attack is absolutely insane. With his Gatling gun running he can basically invalidate any champions health in a matter of seconds. Once he get's Triforce he is nigh impossible to kill without dying yourself. Urgot is another one. Being medium range you can stay out of harms way but one mistake and he gets the flip could, most likely will, be your death at level 3.

These are just examples and I know there are other heavy abuse cases but I just want Riot to give us some decent defenses to either take or they need to start evaluating the base stats of all there struggling melee's who are absolutely getting slaughtered by the insane amount of damage that is now in the game.

I will admit that the effective health on tanks through shields or damage reduction passives helps them weather this better than other melee's but the ranged match ups are hell. Especially Teemo, Vayne and Heimdinger who can basically attack you consistently with little to no opportunity to outplay or challenge them.

I think we need more discussion on why this conclusion that they have been invalidated has been reached. The top Win Rates for Top, Jungle and Support are all melee champs and the same is all but same for the Pick Rates as well.

"What kills me though is how Riot decided to give us almost no defensive stats early but there are a ton of abusive combos with some Runes and Champions kits especially if they are ranged and can proc dot damage. Even hyper aggressive melee's that have high kill pressure at lvl 1-3 are abusing things like Summon Aery, Press the Attack and Lethal Tempo." Same here. Champions were given defensive stats with the update and you seem to be arguing under the idea that those runes were only for ranged champions and that are being "abused" by melee champs. Which again, makes me not understand how you say runes have invalidated melees if they are performing well enough for you to call it abuse and to find a conclusion that they are somehow doing something wrong by it.

I'll wait for the discussion to expand before continuing.

The Bad Touch11/27/2017, 4:17:08 PM1 votes

Think the OP means fighters/bruisers/juggies and no "melee" in general.