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Riot, if you think Zhonya's is balanced, fine, but give us other options.

FistOfSharkiesha·3/15/2016, 9:06:02 PM·241 votes·9,350 views

Myself and many other players do not think the active of Zhonya's hourglass alone is worth 1,000 gold. It's not a gold efficient item and I don't have a huge incentive to pay for it's completion unless I really, really value that active. It's great on champions like Heimerdinger and Swain, and against champions like Zed, but it's simply not reliably worth that much. There are plenty of cases where you don't want to use the active, and you lose the trade because you're basically just missing 1,000 gold in your build. On the other hand, Maw's passive is ALWAYS useful. It protects you from death in ways far better than guardian angel or Zhonya's, and is extremely gold efficient while doing so. Also, it's quite easy to play around Zhonya's active. If you're inhibited by a stun, silence, or knockup, you can't use the active to save yourself. Most champions which could have most of their damage countered by stasis such as Syndra, Annie, Cho'gath, etc have CC which allows them to completely prevent the active.

So if you think it's okay and refuse to un-nerf/rework it, okay, but at least give us other options. Maw of Malmortius is making the game an absolute nightmare for mages. Your enemy laner can just buy a hexdrinker and win by virtue of having an extremely powerful item, no matter how ahead you are. AD champions have 2 extremely strong and gold efficient anti-AP items while AP champions get an 87% gold efficient items which freezes them in place, allowing enemies to catch up or their abilities to go off cooldown.

This isn't a thread about Zhonya's, it about AP champions not having any good anti-AD options while anti-AP items are some of the most gold efficient and strongest items in the entire game. I don't care what happens to Zhonya's as long as AP champions get better options. Personally I like Moonflair Spellblade and Wooglet's Witchcap, but I don't think they belong in summoner's rift. We need a new AP/AR item.

240 Comments

Malicious Metal3/15/2016, 9:38:20 PM54 votes

Hell, I'd love to see Moonflair spell blade get introduced to summoner's rift.

Or other tanky Ap options, AP bruisers do have a build path that's not really supported anyways :P

Jet Sett3/15/2016, 11:23:29 PM13 votes

Zhonya's can't be used while CC'ed, Maw activates automatically and has bonus effects to help you fight rather than take you out of it completely.

10/10 would buy situational active again

Umirinmahgains3/16/2016, 3:54:51 AM9 votes

I'm quite hesitant to endorse the idea of another AP + armor item, simply because it has the potential to make champions that synergize with ROA or Rylais overpowered. Let's say they add a new ap armor item and it gives 40-50 armor. If you're someone like swain, you can then build ROA, Zhonyas, new item, rylais and proceed to have over 200 armor depending on runes, with a very substantial hp pool. On top of having 400+ ap. Throw a situational abyssal or spirit visage in there, or a liandries, and you have an AP drain tank that cannot be bursted and still has formidable damage. Being able to double stack ap and armor efficiently would make it really difficult to deal with someone like Swain. As much as forums bitch about tank Yi, a new armor + ap item could easily create an AP version of tank Yi in the form of Swain. Or Vlad, or any ap that does sustained dps and does well with building hp + ap. Who knows, top lane AP bruiser Sejuani or Maokai, or Malphite could become op as fuck. With just a ROA Mao's W does 15% of your max hp. Now imagine him with an efficient way to build tanky but still have 300+ ap. Doesn't sound fun to play against does it? Sure you have an easier time vs AD champs, but the consequences of introducing a new item like this has way more impact than just AD vs AP mid match ups. All I'm saying is be careful what you ask for.

Mandaari3/15/2016, 9:56:59 PM5 votes

Honestly Maw and Scimitar should be nerfed first. I really don't want to see AP items as overloaded as Maw and Scimitar.

CR4ZYRONDH4VI3/15/2016, 9:14:37 PM3 votes

Other than the fact that zhonyas stops burst and makes you invincible. I mean come on that is op. It also gives more ap than and merc scim or maw give AD and it gives 45 armor whereas the MAW only gives 55 MR and merc scim only gives 35 MR. Also the Merc Scim is more of an anti cc item than a counter for AP champions. For example you could get it to stop a Zed ult or remove panth/irelia cc.

EfficientDynamo3/15/2016, 10:00:31 PM2 votes

I wouldn't mind seeing an AP armor item with an automatic shield like Maw, but when it triggers you are slowed or have your abilities use twice as much mana as normal while the shield persists. Something that can save you, but comes at a cost, similar to how Xerath is allowed to have long range but is slowed while he is charging up his Q.