I remember a bit ago a well written and respected (with red comments, I believe) post that ran down the top things in league that are toxic to the game (from a game mechanics standpoint), and non-resource gated plus innate sustain was one of the top offenders. Renekton is easily one of the worst offenders within this idea, so why is he Riot's balance point for power for the top lane?
Tohoko the Neko1 votesBecause he's good at it and was designed with the top lane in mind? He's no longer the best top laner anymore though. Riot has brought up to par(questionnably) other champions like trundle.
I've had my fair shair of wins against ren in the top lane with a mage build, so maybe he's just the AD point of balance?
NinjaFifer1 votesThe point is, the major opinion on what champions with no resource consumption trade for that freedom is that they are less powerful overall. Why then, are the resource-gated champions being balanced around him, if they should be naturally more powerful for the resources they spend. Aside from that, he has infinite sustain, gated only by cooldowns and the presence of enemies to hit. That's not a healthy thing for every top lane champion to aspire to matching.
Polaritie1 votesThey don't have to have nigh-infinite sustain. If they can pressure him harder than he can heal, they win.
Tohoko the Neko1 votesExactly, Mordekaiser has TREMENDOUSLY more sustain that Renekton. Atleast, based on the games I've played against a top lane renekton on equal grounds(got dc'd once or twice) and that ren never got to my health bar, much to like the rest of the top laners I go up against that are beefy tanks or have loads of armor and magic resist. Mordekaiser's sustain is much higher than Renekton at any level of the game. PERIOD!
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(or the other way around, doesn't make much difference.)
Tohoko the Neko1 votesCooldown based champions like Riven, Garen, Yasuo and Mordekaiser are all excellent top laners against Renekton. The stronger champion than Renekton I believe is Morde. Why? Simply because of how spellvamp works so well on him. I don't know about Ren's ability costs but I do know Mordekaiser's costs is health. A cost of 57 health on Morde's maxed E with 20% spellvamp, that is a HUGE amount of sustain. Don't get me wrong, Ren's sustain is pretty strong but Morde's sustain is stronger.
The major key differences between the two is mobility and ultimates. I don't know what Renekton's ult is called but I do know it gives him extra health, armor and mr for a few seconds. On the other hand, Chidren of the Grave steals a percentage of health based on either max or current health(I think its max but I'm not entirely sure, will edit to confirm after some quick research).
I outfarm Renekton with Mordekaiser from the laning phase to the mid game where I start to pressure for kills, even if I feed a few kills to him or jungler because of ganks. I swear, top lane Mordekaiser is MUCH more of a bully than Renekton can ever hope to be.
NinjaFifer1 votesYeah, Mord probably does have more sustain after a couple items. His range also helps out a lot with harassment. Still, Mord is kind of a weird top pick. I don't believe that Riot will be using Renekton as a balance point for him. Regardless, LoLCounter does list Garen as being strong against him, but Yasuo and Riven are both filed under weaker. Garen also does fall into the category of manaless and infinite sustain. Point still stands. Manaless plus sustain is a terribly toxic mechanic, and should not be something to aspire to have.