why mords rework failed, how to fix it without changing mord

While im glad riot wants to change up the meta while still keeping the general feel intact their decisions in how to do it were a litte off. but with the new jungle marksmen (graves/kindred) bot lane still needs some variety so teams can justify putting a big chunk of damage outside of a lane.

That being said mord had very little place being down their primarily because he is a juggernaut. juggernauts by definition lack hard cc and any true forms of mobility. a sort of "im gonna trudge at you and if you get to you my bitch slaps gonna make you parents feel it" kind of thing. however the natural counter to this trudge forward is kiting (a basic of marksmen carry's) where you whittle down the terrifying bastards until they have to give up or die trying. to compensate they gave mord a little more power then he should have which made him to good to begin with. having him as the undead commander is fitting and making him synergize well in a duo lane is great. however unless he is super specialize (to the point where the juggernaut label doesnt work) he will be to weak to survive his counters without enough over the top power to steam roll the game period.

So how do we fix this? one way is to change mord to either function better without the insane bs but there is another. one that keeps mord a juggernaut while still keeping him balanced. introduce a third element bot lane. somthing that counters mords counters and lends it self to being bullied and beat on by mord. well lets think. what does poorly against juggernauts and well against marksmen.

mages dont really care as they can kite to a degree and they burst marksmen but only if they are kind of fed. plus their reliance on spells makes them vulnerable to the sustained damage of a marksman (ie if the mage misses) and the duo diconomy makes mage function in the bot lane limited without making them sort of supporty

tanks dont carry so as an adc/apc they are out from the start

so what do adcs fear most and juggernauts laugh at, assassin. unless their is a huge gold gap there is no assassin in their right mind that should go toe to toe with a juggernaut. assassin v darius "get dunked" garren vs the last assasin to get a kill "DEMACIAAAAA... GIANT SWORD IN THE SKY" skarner vs assassin "puncture, now lets go meet my friends and on the way im gonna smack you over and over" there is a pattern here. mean while the thought of a wild knife cat (rengar) leaping out to widen your poop hole is the fear of most every marksman (graves and draven maybe being acceptions).

"but" you may say "the thing is assassins go everywhere else but bot lane." well the simple fact is that people play champs where they work and or are fun. assassins like to burst squishes so the most common places for them are jungle where they go to the squishy in question, or mid where they get one delivered to them. assassins are normally solo artists who aim to pick off the shmuck who went off alone just a little to far to be saved. kha'zix is a perfect example of this with talon fizz and rengo coming in behind him. assassins in nature are just single target burst machines that gamble what little life they have for the chance to take somone out of the fight. this is why tank ekko and fizz are so frigging obnoxious. but what if one assassin wasnt a solo artist. what if this assassin did his best work in a crowd, using allies as spring boards, targeting back line squishies through iron wall that is the front line. what if there was an assassin who 1v1 with a marksman might actually give them a better chance, but in a 2v2 with supports around turns most forms of peeling into a bad joke. of course this individual wouldnt do much against a mord who should just wack him everytime he is close enough to engage but at the same time a marksman cant take the same kind of damage a mord who just E'd a minion wave can.

so without further adieu here is my take on a bot lane assassin and how they could not only encourage bulkier bot lanes but in response also increase the demand for high damage jungles ie kindred and graves to make up for the ranged damage loss bot lane. disclaimer, riot can do what they want with these and i hold no rights over these ideas and give them freely as a proud member of the community, i also expect that if riot takes anything from this it will be in bits and pieces to the point where the character wont be recognizable and as im not a balancer im going to avoid damage numbers as its more about the concept and i will not likley be that fair with the numbers used

name: what rito wants but probably something Chinese in origin with what my idea is if they keep the general concept

look: monk looking young man with dual hook swords. probably fairly thin and lightly dressed in robes, personally imagine a young man with a almost jokingly whitty personality who more of casually jogs or skips around when out of combat

passive: hamstring; basic attacks ground targets stoping them from using movment abilites or spells for .5 second, stacks of hamstring can be replaced/reapplied to a target but after the stack has decayed away the target becomes immune to hamstring for 10 seconds

Q: monkey springs from branches; the monk leapes to target champion before leaping to the enemy champion with the lowest current health, upon hitting the second target the monk springs back to the first target, enemies targets takes damage scaling with ad. if the first target was an ally that ally is grounded for .2 seconds and the damage to the second target is increased by 50% (similar range to nami healing waves thing)

W: crane takes flight; the monk leaps over a nearby target (think khazix Q range that functions like short distance fizz Q) landing on the other side of them, while mid air the monk deals damage and removes a flat amount of armor from the target (not very much so it should be usless against tanks but leave marksmen with little to no armor (except maybe graves). if the target has hamstring in effect the target is rooted for .75 seconds

E: Deer charges tiger; the monk takes a stance that causes him to counter attack the next hit he takes from a champion damaging and blinding enemies close to him upon countering dealing damage based on ad. (think fioras old reposte)

R: mantis guardian; the monk leaps onto an ally becoming untargetable and striking all enemy champions within a small radius dealing damage and applying on hit effects. damage will scale based on the number of enemies being hit (more enemies more damage). while untargetable the monk takes 25% of the damage dealt to the ally he is positioned on.

the E is the roughest as i honestly came up with it on the spot (i realized how crap my original idea was) so please forgive its lacking

As I said before it brings me nothing but joy to see riot try to change up the formula but starting with somone whos natrually countered by marksman in the bot lane was probably a huge mistake. and my hope is that an introduction of some new things such as an assassin in the bot lane might allow mord to go back there as a fair and balanced counter pick.

sorry for the long post so here is a biscuit