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Thinking About Frozen Mallet in Comparison to its Sister Item.

toxıc sIut·12/11/2014, 3:52:28 AM·3 votes·995 views

You all the know the Frozen Mallet. It's that item that gives a good slow and a buttload of HP and a little AD on the side. Despite this, almost nobody builds it. I believe it has the same problem Ryali's had before it had its ratios changed. And, with this is mind, let's look at the differences between Crystal Scepter and Mallet.

item 3116 -- Ryali's Crystal Scepter (2900g) Build: Giant's Belt (1000g) + Amplifying Tome (435g) + Blasting Wand (860g) + 605g Stats: +100 Ability Power, +400 Health Passive: Dealing spell damage slows the target's movement speed by 35% for 1.5 seconds (15% for multi-target and damage-over-time spells).

item 3022 --Frozen Mallet (3300g) Build: Giant's Belt (1000g) + Ruby Crystal (400g) + Pickaxe (875g) +1025 Stats: +30 Attack Damage, +700 Health Passive: Your basic attacks slow your target's Movement Speed by 40% for 1.5 seconds (30% slow for ranged attacks).

Let's talk first about build path.

With Ryali's, you build a two damage items- one low price and one medium price, with a semi-expensive health item. With Frozen Mallet, however, you build both a low and high price health item, but only purchase one medium-price damage item. Even before completing the item, Frozen Mallet gives a lot more health and much less offensive power. In addition, completing FM takes 400g more to purchase. Now, stats are stats and Mallet's passive could make up for the higher price point, and having a more health-oriented build path isn't exactly a bad thing... However, in this case, where the item is meant for a defensive chasing buy for ADCs, it is quite a negative thing that the build requires so much invenstment into health instead of damage. Furthermore, other defensive options have better builds and, in the end, provide more benefit than Mallet. On the other hand, Ryali's buid path works because it allows a mage to buy a good amount of offensive power while still building towards a defensive purchase. These build problems could be repaired by replacing the Ruby Crystal in the build with a Long Sword.

So, to sum it up, Frozen Mallet's build is less damage oriented and that's generally not a good thing when you're playing a damage-oriented role. Other defensive items (GA, Banshee's) better help damage dealers, you know, deal damage by keeping them in the fight much longer than Mallet's health bonus can.

Now, to talk about the items themselves, because that's kind of the whole point of this rant.

Ryali's gives you a slow on abilities, and a considerable mix of HP and Ability Power. Heck, the item gives enough of these stats for the item to be over 100% efficient, passive or not. Mallet, however, gives a metric assload of health, and a small amount of AD. It doesn't help the cause that the stats are over 350g below being cost efficient. While one may argue that the slow from FM is stronger than the slow from Ryali's (and they would be correct), The stats given from Frozen Mallet are not fitting enough to make up for this. Keep the 90% efficiency if you so please, but giving the item more AD and less health sould be a giant boost to the item's usefulness. And even if the item is made efficient, the slow could be reduced to compensate. As I said previously, changing Ruby Crystal to an AD item could help the item drastically, and changing the item accordingly would make the stats more useful to an AD carry.

The changes I think should occur are similar the the Ryali's adjustment a few patches back: More offense, less HP.

Revised Frozen Mallet (3100g) New build path: Long Sword (360g) + Pickaxe (875g) + Giant's Belt (1000g) + 865g Stats: +450 Health, +50 Attack Damage **Adjusted Passive: Your basic attacks slow your target's Movement Speed by 30% for 1 second (20% slow for ranged attacks). **

The revised stats and cost lets the item be more cost efficient than before, and can easily be tweaked if anything is too powerful (too efficient of stats, too strong of a slow, etc.). The total cost was dropped 300g to make up for the weakened passive, and with the new stats is now about 7% more stat efficient than before (~95%). I believe this can make the item a much more attractive defensive buy to contend with other ADC defensive buys, as an item to react to a fed melee carry or short range damage dealers (Sorry, Brazil).

I know these changes are rough, and the stats were though up off the bat and may need further tweaking, but I think changes in this direction would definitely improve the item beyond being a very situational buy.

7 Comments

IwfiKe3qjM12/11/2014, 4:32:28 AM2 votes

I agree about the built path... but for the cost I think it's still too expensive... and the slow... it's reduced??? the slow is fine... but the difference between melee and range is small... and the duration maybe... still too short...

UNIQUE Passive - Icy: Your basic attacks slow your target's Movement Speed by 40% for 2 seconds (25% slow for ranged attacks)

For the price maybe: 3000 gold for 400 Health and 50 Attack Damage 2900 gold for 500 Health and 40 Attack Damage

Linna Excel12/11/2014, 5:51:55 PM2 votes

I think frozen mallet is meant for tanks who need a CC.

Knight Devout12/11/2014, 9:35:52 AM1 votes

I agree 100%. I rarely see FM on adc, and even on fighters, because as a fighter 700 health don't mean much with zero resistances, and considering the 3300 price, it will delay your FH/Thornmail/Randuin of quite some time. Plus, for an ADC it's still bad to sit in mid-to-lategame on a build with a Giant Belt and Ruby Crystal in your inventory. Having a Pickaxe and Giant Belt, on the other hand, it's more feasible: not much damage, but after all, you are building a defensive item.

In my opinion, FM should be more of a valid pick, especially when other classes have so many slows and gapclosers.

I understand your concern with the tweaking, but IMHO FM will only become problematic in a scenario where ADC can rush it midgame without sacrificing damage. Which shouldn't happen , because 50 ad is fine but without crit, attack speed, or arpen is not that valuable.

The Worst KogMaw12/11/2014, 5:30:21 PM1 votes

I like your changes, but I think part of the problem with the item at the moment is that it's purposely underpowered...

Back when Phage and Trinity force still had slows they (and FM) became problematic top lane because you got ahead, got one, and then if your opponent ever got near you they had a super difficult time getting away, especially because the slow procs were random. When they reworked Phage and Tri's passives to MS on hit instead of slows, Frozen Mallet lost its phage component and got this crappy build path precisely because permaslows were hard to deal with and it's an item they don't want to become popular. That's also why the passive takes up so much of the item's cost.

There's also the fact that it's currently competing with BotRK for slow-tied chasing potential, and it's hard to compete with BotRK if you're buying for an AA reliant champ.

Reducing the slow amount on-hit would definitely be a good place to trade power, so perhaps it can actually become a somewhat decent item since that was the problematic aspect.