Riot, you really messed up with Ornn.

When Ornn came out he was one of my favorite characters ever to be introduced to the game. He was a tank who, even as someone who generally dislikes the class, was insanely fun to play. He liked to fight people one on one, he had a shitload of CC that made is super obvious you could carry teamfights, he could block damage and CC skillfully, and he had one of the coolest passives in the history of the game. Thematically he was amazing as well, reminding people of Scandinavian mythos and his lore and in game VO were fantastic. We had a god who didn't want to be the subject of anyone's worship, and just wanted to stay alone and build things with a childlike curiosity before everything came crashing down. The stage was set for an amazing character to be made.

The first few days he was out I started to crush people, and I got level 7 on him within a week or so. Damn the character felt good to play. And then you guys buffed him... whatever. Small QoL changes like instant ult redirection and little damage boosts here and there. I didn't think he was particularly weak but figured it's fine. Then you buffed him again, then again and again. Not small buffs either but insanely over the top damage buffs, the biggest stumble was changing his flamethrower to max HP instead of current HP. After a few months of him being a defensive god with the tools to punish overly zealous people (which is awesome and mostly there at launch) as well as being a nuclear warhead offense wise (this blows, he's a tank and he outclassed most bruisers) Riot finally decided to take Ornn out.

Nerfing his ult cooldown which was buffed for no apparent reason and nerfing his damage made sense. They should've never been buffed in the first place. However, instead of just changing the Max HP back to current HP damage which allowed him to basically execute anyone in a cone who was low and turned his fighting style in lane into W, W, W, like he's Pantheon or something, Riot took his CC block away. Wtf? They followed this up with more damage nerfs, as well as normalizing his E damage. Hitting terrain with E no longer rewarded you with extra damage, but it does do more damage with only the dash. His E has such a long cooldown you'd basically never want to use his E for only a dash unless you were securing a super low kill or running away. Basically they took two of his most important skill markers off his kit.

The Ornn of today is a shadow of his former self. His defensive power has been slashed, his offensive power as well but in places that make no sense. I honestly think launch Ornn was nearly perfect from a balancing perspective after players get used to him, maybe the ult instant cast and Q appearing faster were the only things I would've added and maybe the Brittle debuff duration being cut was needed. He feels bad to play, as with anytime Riot starts stripping mechanics off champion kits in the name of balance like Ahri E interruption or Kindred health shred. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but winning isn't nearly as satisfying and losing is an endless cycle of getting shit on by your lane opponent. I would just say throw his mechanics back on his kit and change his flamethrower damage back to current health % but I know Riot basically never goes back on their balance changes, which is disappointing because these aren't numbers changes and ruined the feel of the character.

Last thing, yeah I know a lot of you hate Ornn because he was dominant for a while. I also hated playing against him, but keep in mind that I hated playing against the overly buffed supergod best in class defense and damage version of the character. When Ornn came out everyone said how trash he was despite me knowing he was fine after I got used to him. I even told my friends "watch it'll be like Ivern, Riot will knee jerk buff him and then make him useless" and I was mostly right. I'm not a fan of Riot's balance team messing around with kit mechanics. Sure, numbers need to be changed and power sometimes has to be shifted around, but basically remaking the kit always makes the character less fun. In a year where Riot did well balancing champions, with Xayah, Rakan, Kayn, Urgot, and Warwick (yeah I know he's a bit much this patch) in mind, Ornn basically got shafted exclusively. I would say Zoe is in a similar boat but she is too new to say, and Riot is still tinkering with her balance.