Melee Champions don't need to change, they simply need more defined itemization.

General Elephant·Oct 8, 2013·5 votes·1,666 views

I think ranged champions are properly defined, and melee should have a slightly hard time getting to them. Below are some unique items that I feel would make Melee champions more viable over all, and give people a more defined build direction that fits fighters better than the current availability.

------Ransom's Mauler: builds from pickaxe, cloth armor, null mantle.

item part costs 875+300+400= 1575/combining cost 725/total cost 2800

40 AD

35 mr

35 armor

passive:Auto Attacks now gain an additional 10-180 bonus magic damage (10(current level)) this effect can not happen more than once every second.

the point of this item is to give tanks and fighters an offensive/defensive weapon that beefs up their auto attacks a little while allowing for their builds to remain tanky. It is also significantly less effective for people who try building aspd because the effect only happens once per second, so they would only trigger it every other (sometimes even every 3rd) AA. Since it is an AA modifier it is also not in danger of abuse through critical strikes.

------Nature's Fortitude: (my take on what FoN should have been)

builds from QSS, chain vest, ruby crystal.

item parts cost 1550+720+475= 2,745, combining cost 555, total cost 3,300

+300 hp

+45 mr

+45 armor

passive: if you receive damage that would drop your hp below 25%, you receive a shield equivalent to (armor+mr)+75 for 4 seconds. This effect can only occur every 90 seconds.

active: removes all debuffs (90 second CD)

this allows resistances to gain a bit more popularity by rewarding having more mr/armor. This item is one that really makes tanks tougher to take down and slow down, but at such a high cost and expensive build path, it won't be fully utilized on anyone who doesn't plan on being a full tank.

------Enraged Flail: (builds from phage and bilgewater cutlass)

2,750 item cost+ 450 = 3,200 total

300 hp

50 AD

15% lifesteal

UNIQUE Passive - Rage: Basic attacks grant 20 Movement Speed for 2 seconds on hit. Kills grant 60 Movement Speed for 2 seconds. Active - Fury's Terror: passive rage is lost for 3 seconds, MS is increased by 50 for 3 seconds, ignores unit collision, and if an enemy champion is within AA range, that enemy champion receives 150 magic damage, and is slowed by 25% for 1 second. (120 second CD)

this allows melee champions who are at risk of being kited to have a small window of opportunity to really close the gap and stick to their targets, while still allowing for counter play through roots, stuns, and even slows. It also allows for some really interesting team fights :) (use active, run in, damage and slow the whole enemy team if they are clustered) it also gives Olaf a new best friend(ult+active synergy), and we all know he needs that.

Honestly any one of these items in any form would make me incredibly happy. I feel like I tweaked them pretty well as far as cost/balance, but I am no professional.I'd love to hear some feedback and concerns, as well as any changes/tweaks that could be made to better these items.

13 Comments

RiotZenonTheStoicOct 8, 20135 votes

Hi!

I agree with you that the gameplay for most melee carries in our game currently isn't well defined, particularly past the mid-game, but the items you suggest are much better suited to bruisers than to melee DPS. The Mauler, for instance, has negative synergy with attack speed due to proccing only once a second (so any AS over 1.0 does not benefit the item), and the class that likes to build tanky + damage without AS is the melee bruiser. Irelia, Wukong, Jarvan would all love this item, while Tryndamere or Master Yi would not benefit from it very much at all.

Furthermore I don't believe that we can solve the melee dps problem through itemization. Melee DPS, similar to ranged DPS, suffer from the problem that their spells tend to be very simple (either setup moves or steroids) for a bunch of reasons. For Ranged DPS this means the late game fallback pattern becomes positioning play: do I stand close enough to damage important targets without being so close that a CC-heavy character can jump on me? A melee DPS does not have the option to engage in this gameplay; their melee range necessitates an all-or-nothing pattern where they go in and hope to do enough damage to swing the fight before they're mercilessly murdered. This is not a pattern that benefits greatly from player skill: beyond judging whether or not you can now go in and picking your target, there isn't much skill involved. This seems backed up by the wins-over-ELO curves we see for characters like Master Yi or Fiora, where they trend downward as ELO grows. As it turns out, there is a much deeper skill expression opportunity for their enemies, so as the average ELO of the game goes up, melee DPS are shut down more easily.

Active itemization that would allow melee DPS to go in, do their damage, and either leave or get a temporary reprieve would be much more efficient on certain other classes, like assassins and bruisers. Instead what I believe we need is a new type of melee DPS: one who comes with the tools to dive in and out of combat and who has opportunities for clutch play once in the fray. I am not a good enough designer to make such a character, but fortunately we have much better designers than me around here...

General ElephantOct 9, 20134 votes

I was simply trying to suggest way to make full fledged tanks more effective to allow a stronger front line to break into enemy teams and make room for the melee carries. Or even to redefine their roles. I personally think we shouldn't have any melee champions building no defense. It makes no sense. I think if you choose a melee champ, you are admitting you will be involved in front line fisticuffs and to do that defense and maneuverability is required. Just as you wouldn't build a full tank range.. You shouldn't build a full ad melee. I feel the best way to normalize Melee carries, and melee in general, is to give them a stronger defense. The yin to ranged's yang. Also I feel resistances are under utilized on tanks and melee in general.

I see it like this. The fewer resistances you have, the more you're letting ranged champions utilize their massive damage from a range. The only thing range does is increase the time of the engage in favor of the ranged person. with resistances/hp you lessen the value of the few seconds of AAs/skills they have as a trade off for some of your own damage, which needs to be exponentially greater if you have 30%ish less time to deal damage if an engage lasts about 10 seconds and are trying to purely out-trade a ranged champion. With significantly less damage being taken, it allows your lesser damage/sustain to overcome the downside that is being melee without needing to scale to unbalanceable levels in damage.

in LoL a "pure Melee Carry" is unviable in my opinion.

Thats My BrandOct 9, 20132 votes

I think the item pattern that could actually impact Melee Carries is Youmuu's Ghostblade. Melee carries should be like Tryndamere - get in, put insane DPS out, get out or die. Thing is, items like Sword of the Divine emphasize only the unfun snowballing part of this type, while Tryndamere's power lies in the fact that he has 5 seconds of not getting killed.

"How to fix Melee Champions", take two:

Youmuu's Ghostblade (Melee Only)

Recipe: Avarice Blade + The Brutalizer

30 attack damage, 15% critical strike chance, 10% cooldown reduction
UNIQUE Passive: +20 armor penetration
UNIQUE Passive - Revenant: Summoner spell Ghost grants you 40% attack speed and reduced damage from are-of-effect abilities.

The idea is to tie summoner spell Ghost and its cooldown with some neat effect that fits the idea of "I am useful now". Something like extra tenacity and reduced damage from AoE should eliminate part of the problem.

Next idea is to bring back the Spellbreaker.

Spellbreaker

Recipe: Cloak of Agility + Hexdrinker

40 attack damage, 20% critical strike chance, 25 magic resistance

UNIQUE Passive - Lifeline: Upon taking damage that would reduce health below 30%, grants a shield that absorbs 400 magic damage for 5 seconds (90 second cooldown). While the shield persists, you are immune to crowd control effects.

Basically Morgana shield in an item. Highly conditional, though. A nice addition to the Hexdrinker is that any damage will trigger the shield, so it comes really useful when battling a Renekton.

Last one is to fix champions like Mundo and Shyvana.

The Thunderhammer

Recipe: Pickaxe + Kindlegem

30 attack damage, 300 health, 15% cooldown reduction UNIQUE Passive - Gathering Storm: After dealing 500 magic damage to enemies you can use Thundering Strike. The active is lost if you exit combat for more than 5 seconds. UNIQUE Active - Thunderstrike: Your next autoattack will stun the target for 1 second. 15 second cooldown.

The item is basically: "You're that weird AD-scaling magic damage dealer with no CC. Here, have some". Magic damage requirement eliminates most of the bruisers, leaving only Udyr, Shyvana and Mundo.

HellsawOct 9, 20132 votes

Yeah that doesn't really work when you already have melee dps in the game, either you find a way to bring them to par, [Items, melee only summoner spells, change in numbers, kit] or continue to make the new melee dps causing a must pick champ which will get nerfed straight down to where the other melee dps are solving nothing.

TerricusOct 10, 20131 votes

Instead what I believe we need is a new type of melee DPS: one who comes with the tools to dive in and out of combat and who has opportunities for clutch play once in the fray.

This is a kind of neat idea. A purely damage-focused melee could perhaps "poke" by jumping in and out of the threat zone (as apposed to skirting the edge of that zone in the way a "marksman" does). That would require these champions be given drastically different skill effects though.

I currently look at all melee dps as having the exact same teamfight role as assassins. They can't burst like most assassins until they reach level 18 and have 2/3s of their items, but in exchange they get to deal that burst-level damage in a sustained way.

LifeSmashOct 17, 20131 votes

Sort of like Yi?

TerricusOct 21, 20131 votes

Yi would be a good example for my second paragraph there. But, any melee champion that's currently "good" at going glass cannon AD seems to work like that.

ModCaptainMårvelousOct 8, 20133 votes

The fact that there is literally no tradeoff to picking range over melee carries is the main problem I see. Make ranged do less damage. Make melee have higher reward. Do SOMETHING to give them an edge to being picked over ranged.

"But that's not fair" you'd say. Well range gets range, melee gets an advantage to compensate.

TaintedTaintOct 8, 20131 votes

Ummm Melee Bruisers already dominate, why give them more reason to dominate?

General ElephantOct 8, 20131 votes

They don't dominate though.... The lack of gap closers and susceptibility to kiting makes it hard to be a melee. Olaf especially. They are out classed by ranged tops. How do you make it more even? Give them a way to get even.

TaintedTaintOct 8, 20131 votes

Do you even watched high end rank play? Bruisers rule the game!

General ElephantOct 9, 20131 votes

Bruisers are strong, but not OP because they epitomize what all Melees should be close to. Every melee needs a balance of tankiness and damage to protect themselves and kill their target.

Here is my example for each class's necessary stats

Melee carries- Aatrox:merc treads bork randuin's SV pd IE

Bruisers- j4:tabi BC RH randuin's SV GA/BV

Tanks- shen: tabi mog SV FH randuin's GA/BV