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Replacing Grasp of the Undying

Jbels·3/17/2017, 10:20:12 PM·4 votes·675 views

I think it's pretty safe to say that Grasp of the Undying has been pretty much fazed out thanks to Courage of the Colossus. There are just too many champions that have the CC to be able to use it, and on top of that, it's visually and functionally VISIBLE during teamfights. Your health bar has a giant freaking slab of gray shoved into it to absorb a shit ton of possible damage for the next 4 seconds. That feels awesome, and at the same time, not too overbearing for the enemy team (They can just not focus you for 4 seconds).

Grasp is a tiny bit of extra damage and sustain that goes almost completely unnoticed in the midst of a giant teamfight. I propose a keystone that rewards the tank/juggernaut who takes it for remaining the thick of things for so long. Here's my suggestion:

Grasp of the Undying -> Titan's Spirit Every 1.5 seconds in combat, gain 1.2% damage reduction and increase in size. Stacks up to 10 times (5 times against non-epic monsters (No size increase when farming the jungle). Stacks fall off two at a time every 3 seconds What this keystone aims to achieve is: 1). Being meaningfully different from Courage of the Colossus. 2). Bringing the meaningful visual and functional impact that Grasp of the Undying lacks but Courage of the Colossus has. (It is incredibly hard to not notice when the enemy team suddenly has a giant, and god doesn't that sound fun/awesome to do?

6 Comments

Doozku3/18/2017, 3:39:44 AM2 votes

The damage reduction should scale from maximum health so that other roles don't abuse it as much as juggernauts.

You Disgust Me3/17/2017, 11:27:15 PM1 votes

Not really a necessary change imo. If you analyze both mastery keystones, you'll see why. Both keystones are used for trades, but they have a distinct difference.

  • Courage of the Colossus: Grants a 3 sec. temporary shield for short trades. (45-30 sec. CD)
  • Grasp of the Undying: Grants sustain and damage for extended trades. (4 sec. CD)

It really depends on the situation. Not all teamfights end in 3 seconds. Usually when I see an enemy champion with Courage of the Colossus, I just bait that keystone out and full engage afterwards. Also, Grasp of the Undying's heal is quite noticeable and has a visual effect. If you've ever fought a Maokai or Trundle, you would know. The heal becomes pretty deceptive and obnoxious when you're trying to peel for your carries.

As for your suggested mastery: I think this is a rather interesting and fun concept, but I feel it may need some adjustments.

  • Technically, any champion can become a giant if they buy Elixir of Iron or Sterak's Gage. However with increased size comes a huge trade off. Your auto attack range may slightly increase but your hitbox increases as well, making you an easier target to hit. This makes it easier to body block skillshots, but it leads to some unnecessary damage taken as well as adds to the enemy's kiting capability.
  • For me, the damage reduction feels a bit too unreliable. A 15 second delay to get the maximum potential of a keystone is a bit too long for my tastes. Considering that most teamfights occur on a whim, you probably wouldn't be able to experience the full potential of the mastery unless you were in combat prior. Even then, you only have half the stacks (if hitting minions), that's still 7.5 seconds you still have to wait. Instead, you could make it like Bond of Stone with a standard base amount but that adds smaller increments over time. Perhaps you can reward the player for reaching max stacks by increasing the duration temporarily to allow them keep the stacks. (IDK)
  • Overall, I feel that this mastery may be a bit too easy to bait/wait out. If you have max stacks, my team will just wait until your stacks disappear before fully committing. But I feel this is a fair trade off.
  • I feel that this mastery keystone lacks a certain Offensive/Defensive combination synergy that the other two have. Grasp of the Undying gives you sustain while dealing additional damage. Courage of the Colossus grants a shield that blocks damage for aggressive plays. However, you could experiment on this, though. Think in terms of potential not only with Teamfights but with Laning as well.

TLDR; I'd rather just add a fourth keystone to the defensive tree. I like it, but it needs some slight adjustments.

Big Lincoln3/17/2017, 11:32:54 PM1 votes

gain 1.2% damage reduction

no