Volibear Fan Rework Concept
Volibear has been a fairly binary champion for quite some time, only receiving minor adjustments (and 1 buff on his E for the airborne damage bonus) during his time in the game. He has always been an exceptional early-mid game bully, but he falls off in power during the late game, basically turning into a meatshield unless he is significantly ahead of his opponents. This rework concept is designed to addresss the issues of his power curve, his binary-ness, and lack of counterplay to make him a more successful juggernaut. I'm also aiming at allowing him to better fulfill his fantasy as lightning demigod.
Warring Maelstrom (P): Every 4th consecutive basic attack or Ursine Frenzy hit, Volibear's claws unleash a chain lightning strike that deals 20-120 (+15% AP) bonus magic damage to his target and up to 2 additional nearby enemies.
Additionally, whenever Volibear falls below 30% health, he becomes FEROCIOUS for 5 seconds, causing every basic attack or Ursine Frenzy hit to trigger Warring Maelstrom. This effect cannot occur more than once every 60 seconds.
Rolling Thunder (Q): Exact same mechanics as live version. Damage tweaked from 30/60/90/120/150 to 30/55/80/105/130 (+5% bHP).
Ursine Frenzy (W): Volibear moves freely as he cleaves all enemies in a fixed 150° cone 3/3/4/4/5 (+1 per 30% bAS) times over 2 seconds, each dealing 30/35/40/45/50 (+5% bHP) physical damage. Each cleave deals 0.5% increased damage to enemies for each 1% health they are missing. Ursine Frenzy can stack and trigger Warring Maelstrom, applying the chain lightning to the nearest eligible enemies.
Blood Tribute (E ver. 1): Passive: While Blood Tribute is off cooldown, Volibear's physical damage against a large minion, monster or champion marks them for Blood Tribute, stacking up to 4 times.
Active: Volibear savagely bites a target enemy with 4 Blood Tribute stacks to steal health from them equal to 20/30/40/50/60 + 6/6.5/7/7.5/8% of their max health (max 200 damage and healing against monsters).
Storm Rage (E ver. 2): Volibear calls a bolt of lightning to strike from the sky at a target area after a brief delay, dealing 40/50/60/70/80 (+20% AP) + 6/6.5/7/7.5/8% of enemies' max health as magic damage and slowing them by 40% for 2 seconds. If Volibear is within the blast radius, he instantly readies Warring Maelstrom.
Warmonger (R): Passive: Whenever FEROCIOUS is triggered, Volibear permanently gains 10% bonus attack speed. Current bonus: XX%
Active: Volibear becomes FEROCIOUS regardless of his current health (does not trigger the cooldown). Additionally, for the next 5 seconds he takes 0.5/0.6/0.7% reduced physical and magic damage for each 1% health he is missing.
The primary change in Volibear here that I believe improves him is adding very noticable counterplay to his W mechanic. I've turned it into a cleave to improve his jungling speed, toplane waveclear and teamfighting presence. This change also provides enemies with a very clear and manageable option to avoid a big portion of his damage, especially early game, as the speed of his cleaves is in direct proportion to the amount of attack speed he has. I've kept his mixed damage to allow him to remain a threat throughout the game regardless of what he or his opponent is building, and I've also made sure that AP, tank and attack speed items are all viable on him so players can have some flexibility in their item choices without wasted stats. Finally, I made sure to make his lightning claws a much bigger part of his kit.
