Nerf Definitions

Zachaeus·Mar 5, 2014·0 votes·175 views

: Verb. To reduce the effectiveness of a champion's kit across the board so that the champion is near-worthless.

: Verb. To rework a champion's kit in such a way that it is generally less effective, has less overall appeal, and becomes extremely niche in application. Not necessarily underpowered, but commonly viewed as such.

:Verb. To alter a single skill on a champion so significantly that it causes the champion's success to be entirely team-dependant because it has no ability to make plays on its own.

Seriously, why was a gank-reliant jungler that hasn't been problematic in over two years nerfed in such a way that his early ganks are somehow less effective than a gank coming from jungle Mordekaiser?

2 Comments

Sir ArmaMalumMar 5, 20141 votes

To answer your last question, it was largely meant to remove the RNG mechanic of fear's movement, making it more conditional on player reaction and not luck. It also gives Game Designers additional avenues of balance rather than playing hit or miss with different RNG's. Sometimes to take two steps forward you have to take a step back, not all changes are meant to screw or overpower a champ, contrary to very popular belief.

ZachaeusMar 6, 2014

Yes, I understand that they wanted to make fear a healthier mechanic, but Nocturne relied on having that fear function the way it did. I get that they'll likely wait a while to make any other changes to him but he's incapable of functioning in his current state. He already had some of the most underwhelming ganks for a champ with hard CC in the game due to his short leash and 2 second window before activation for a 1 second fear. Now that they always run directly away, his ganks level 1-8 are basically an excercise in masochism unless you put far more effort than almost any other champion has to into the gank.

Giving targets a two second window to position themselves to effectively turn Noc's E into a one second slow needs to change. He may not get that soon, but he's not worth picking until they make a change or two on him. When you have hard CC and your ganks are less effective than a level 3 Warwick's, there's a problem.