Why Urgot needs some love.

Hello! My name is Robochicken7, and I've been playing league since late December 2016. It took me a long time to figure out what I was doing and not feed every game, but over time I slowly figured out what to do. However, not one champion in the game particularly clicked with me. I knew I liked to play heavier, duel centered characters, but at the time, the limited bruisers I owned didn't appeal to me, and no one I touched on the rotation felt right. Because I couldn't find someone I really enjoyed, my learning process was slowed. But then, the Urgot rework happened. A little bit after the rework, I asked some friends who to play. One of them Suggested the new and improved Urgot, so I took him up. I bought some rp, bought Urgot and Giant enemy Crabgot, and got going. I fell in love. Finally, after almost a year of playing, I found someone who actually felt good and fun to play. I played Urgot and practiced him for a long time, and started to improve every aspect of my playstyle from dueling, to CS, to macro play and more.

Urgot kept me playing the game.

Before we dig into the things that are off, lets talk about what makes Urgot great.

His role as the one and only ranged juggernaut in the game

Urgot is the most unique ranged champion in the game. He doesn't build like any other one, and is able to poke out a lot of champs toplane with it. This is why Urgot is a poor adc: because his focus is dueling and not backlining. Urgot is one of the only frontline ranged champions I can think of, and it works for him.

His simple, yet effective kit

Urgot's kit is about as simple as it gets. He gets percent max health damage from his passive, his Q is a decent range AOE damage with a slow, His W makes him fire fast with reduced damage on marked targets (which targets become marked after they are hit with an ability), His E dashes towards enemies and flings them over his shoulder, swapping their position, and his ultimate is a 25% HP execute skillshot. His kit is extremely effective at dueling, and is one of the few champions in the game with no AP scaling, meaning your damage you build is going towards every ability and its power. This leads to him being a champion anyone can pick up and play, but still has a few tricks up his sleeve that players who take the time to learn him can do.

Now that the great things have been talked about, lets talk about some of the off things.

His role as the one and only ranged Juggernaut in the game

Urgot's biggest strength is also his biggest caveat. Due to him being the only ranged juggernaut, there are items that simply wont be effective on him, and some juggernaut items that can't be used at all. He lives in a limbo of not being able to use the ranged only items, and not able to use the most effective juggernaut items. The first sign he was starting to go downhill was when became melee only. It seemed odd that they'd let a bruiser, the class who typically builds sterak's on every build, lose the ability to build this item. I just Shrugged it off though, because Urgot was still fun to play for me at the time. Next, there was the change, making ranaged champions slows reduced on the item. This helped remove Urgots stickiness and made it much harder to all in. It shifted one item out of his build path for me. The more I played, the more I realized Urgot suffers from some of the poorest itemizations in the game as a bruiser.

Here is a list of every item Urgot can effectively use as a bruiser top.

Required: /

Secondary Items:

Situational:

10 Items. 10 items that are effective. Now let me tell you, I find this to be awfully boring for a champion. Most champions have the ability to vary their required items and secondary items a lot more than Urgot, who really cant vary replacing anything but one or so of his secondary items without a loss in his general strength. Urgot also really CANNOT build any other build toplane, as he will fall off sooner. This is what leads me to believe that Urgot has some of the worst itemizations of any champion in this game. Sure, there are a few worse than he is, but this post is about Urgot.

He doesn't have a keystone that truly feels at home

Urgot's rune choices are limited. He doesn't particularly have a keystone that works well with him as many others do. After the resolve nerfs and nerfs to aftershock, its viability became a niche pick to take into heavy engagers such as . PTA is odd, because it really only increases the DPS of his W by a little bit, helping his all ins, but getting rid of important runes to take in resolve or sorcery, and the rest of the runes in precision don't work to well for him aside from Legend: Tenacity. The two ones that actually work a little more universally on him are Arcane Comet and Unsealed Spellbook. Arcane comet is probably the best he has, but it's boring. His Q will automatically land the comet hit, his shotgun knees can proc it, his E makes it automatically miss, and it can hit off of his ultimate. Sure, he can poke better, but its nowhere near as fun as having more viability with his all ins like PTA does, which is a shame that PTA isn't great on him like aftershock used to be. Unsealed Spellbook works on him simply because its one of those runes that will work on any champion by a skilled enough player. It will allow you to swap between teleport and ignite, allowing him to have map control and a way to finish off low targets or get them below the threshold for his ultimate to execute. Same thing as comet, this is just incredibly boring and not all that useful in the long run.

Now, that I've talked about his downfalls, lets talk about suggestions. As a preface, if I ever mention the premise of making Urgot able to use melee, I dont mean letting him build or , because I'm aware of how broken they may make him. When I say that, I mean letting him build Sterak's, and be able to effectively use certain runes and items.

Let Urgot be considered melee AND ranged, but only melee on the shots that proc his shotgun knees

This suggestion was suggested a long time ago. This would allow Urgot to build again, which I mentioned before is an essential Bruiser Item. This would also allow him to use in an effective manner once more, without it being broken due to his ranged auto attacks. Alongside that, he could benefit from Grasp of the Undying and Conqueror, without letting him totally abuse them as a ranged champion. To fix these issues for late game, when his knees cool down quicker, past level 11, it would take every other knee shot to proc melee effects.

Give him more items that are viable

A few months ago, and appeared on the PBE. Both items (Although Atmas more than spear) seemed like they would be perfect for Urgot. Alas, these two items were pushed back to preseason 9, which is fair considering they were a little busted. This is a problem that these items may fix for the time being, but there needs to be more to allow varying builds during more situations.

Quality of life changes

These are the changes that would just make Urgot more refreshing to play. First, give us that Ultimate indicator. We were told Urgot would be getting it in an Ask riot, but two months later, nothing. I know that we will be getting this, but the sooner the better. (check the edit at the end). Another thing is make a quality skin for him. I'm thankful that Urgot is finally getting a new skin with High Noon Urgot, but compare to Lucian's and Thresh's skin, its lacking. I've seen the improvements, and I'm glad you're listening to us Riot, but we just feel a little screwed over. Perhaps in the next year or two we can get a lighthearted skin, like Pool Party Urgot. We have gotten some quality of life changes this season, and I really do appreciate it!

Conclusion

Urgot is a champion who's uniqueness is also his downside. Though fun and easy to play, his poor itemization and lack of a proper keystone both cause trouble for him. I hope that Riot may be able to find a solution to this awkwardness, but even in the end if they don't, it's not like he's totally unplayable. I just feel these things would be helpful towards making him great again.

EDIT: Riot Recently confirmed in In today's Quick Gameplay Thoughts that we're getting the Ultimate indicator on healthbar similar to Pyke's in patch 8.19! Thank you, Rito!