MAYBE UNPOPULAR OPINION: I like keystones and think they should stay

Unlucky47·Jan 26, 2017·22 votes·786 views

The problem isn't the fact that there is keystones, just the strength of said keystones. I'd say fervor and thunderlords are in a good spot right now, but any of the others are way too overbearing or way too underwhelming. Warlords bloodlust for example gives adcs with vampiric scepter enough lifesteal to out burst an assassin. Bond of stone on the other hand doesn't provide enough damage reduction to stop full tank gragas from 100-0 ing a fed corki or something.

They just need some tweaking and in the above two mentioned, probably a rework.

10 Comments

ProfDrDeathJan 26, 20172 votes

No, Warlord's does not give enough Lifesteal to outburst an assassin. It only gives its maximum bonus of 20% Lifesteal at 80% missing HP.

The thing with assassins and ADCs is that an ADC's death-radius after 3 crit items is his auto-attack range (and he will crit 70 or 80% of the time, making 3 crits in a row likely), meaning that an assassin that can only slowly close the gap in 1 second will take 1.5 to 2 autos already before touching the ADC. And, as squishy champions themselves (no assassin builds any armor), assassins are not equipped to tank ADC autos for long.

An idea to avert this could be an active similar to Night's Veil (Noon Sun's Veil?) that blocks the first auto-attack that hits you, unless you cast a spell, use an auto-attack or dash.

Unlucky47Jan 26, 20172 votes

20% lifesteal is around 900 gold worth of stats. Thats significantly more stats then the other keystones give you. If the adc is someone mobile like vayne or caitlyn or they just do insane amounts of damage like ashe and kogmaw they certainly can outburst assassins. You use your entire burst combo to jump on an adc and almost kill them through whatever shields they get and then they auto you once or twice with vamp and warlords and all of the sudden they're at half health again. And once most adcs finish bloodthirster bursting them with half the assassins in the game is next to impossible.

ProfDrDeathJan 26, 20174 votes

64 AD is 2240 gold worth of stats.

Concerning that point where ADCs have Bloodthirster - that's when they are supposed to become harder to kill.

And the other point - if an ADC gets enough shields and stuff to survive your full burst, you failed as an assassin by choosing to use the wrong moment to go into the fight. It wouldn't be healthy for the game if an assassin could just waltz through whole enemy team to get a guaranteed kill on his chosen target - we went there before in League, and that was not a fun time for anyone but the assassin.

Troll for TrumpJan 27, 20171 votes

There's no point to pick the asssassin at this point when most classes can still pull off their dmg without having to wait for the special moments that assassins do. Assassins are meant to capitalize for opportunities.

Not only are these opportunities so much rarer with all the cdr flying around, but assassins can't capitalize on those opportunities anymore.

One of these reasons is forcefully extended burst windows.

RavenMagusJan 27, 20171 votes

Nearly every single assassin has a way of closing the gap.

The problem with assassins is that their damage is loaded on the back end, which means they take a second or two to actually unload their burst, while the ADC is full steam from the start.

The second problem with assassins is that diver damage is not backloaded so they can actually burst down the ADC instantly while also being tankier, thus doing the same job but better.

CyberBaltJan 27, 20172 votes

The problem is that keystones will ALWAYS benefit some champions more than others. Champions who can abuse keystones are left so much better than those who can't. It just adds a whole other thing that Riot needs to balance around, and it's unnecessary.

h5LYF41LamJan 27, 20171 votes

of course its necesairy,warlords finaly brought playmaking supports on bot,no more soraka sona nami healbots in every game ,adcs have built in sustain.

h5LYF41LamJan 27, 20171 votes

fervor brought back ad toplanes on a meta full of rumbles kennens and swains.

h5LYF41LamJan 27, 20171 votes

coc allows junglers to dive first instead of sending in the support