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Gunslinger Cursed Blade Meta and How to Fix It

Codeth Zina·7/25/2019, 8:32:36 AM·3 votes·3,488 views

Allow me to introduce myself. My IGN is Codeth Zina I am currently in the top 5% of TFT players. I believe what I say has some merit and weight to it and I hope that you agree.

As many players continue to find out the item Cursed Blade (CB) is overpowered. There is no way around it. Currently the state of the game is hyper roll for low cost Gunslingers and toss a CB on either Tristana or Lucian. 9 out 10 times whoever gets their comp done first wins the TFT match. Despite the Tristana nerfs in 9.14b as well as the CB nerfs players continue to spam Gunslingers and CB because it's still the strongest option to auto win.

I hope I do not speak for myself when I say that this form of playing is far from fun and you fell forced to rush this comp every single game. There's only 3 comps that I know of that can actually beat GS CB comp if they can come online before they're knocked out.

For your knowledge those comps are as followed in no particular order: Dark Yordle Magic, Demons and Dragons, and Glacial Rangers

With CB having a 20% chance per hit to - 1 star your units there's not guarantee if RNG isn't on your side, but these comps are solid for being able to either not get hit or nuke down the GS CB comp fast enough that the CB can't make your whole team useless. While I'm sure there are some other comps that can go toe to toe with GS CB I personally am unaware of them.

Alright, so what can be done about this to make the game feel like it did only a patch ago in 9.13 where everyone wasn't spamming the same stuff every game specifically because it's OP and they want to climb. Not only does this meta hurt those that are climbing because they're not actually learning the game they're exploiting an OP item, but it's bad for the game because it makes people not want to play. This is either because they don't want to spam GS CB comp or deal with trying to overcome it.

My proposal is that I don't want to see CB removed entirely I feel it is a great item to use when you're not getting good rolls, however it's also and oppressive item when you're ahead. That being said CB isn't healthy in it's current state. You have to get 3 units to Rank up to 2 and 9 to rank up to 3 and to have that taken away with a 20% chance on an item is demoralizing. You already have the RNG of the game working against you and now you have to deal with CB making you next to useless.

What is my solution? I have several and I would love some feedback and suggestion from other players as well.

  1. Cursed Blade can only shrink on Auto Attacks. Meaning the GS Passive won't trigger it, Hurricane won't trigger it, titanic hydra won't trigger it, static shiv won't trigger it, and abilities won't trigger it. Only the champions actual auto attacks have the 20% chance. This will significantly nerf CB making it next to useless, but it still does what it's intended to do which is take stars away. If this route is taken I would like it force the unit to hit highest star on the team to make it viable for example... a team of all 2 stars and one 3 star it'll focus the 3 star. If the team is all 2 star then it'll focus whatever is closest to it. Also once it's locked on to that target it cannot swap until that unit dies.

  2. Cursed Blade can only reduce each unit by 1 star and no more. Example... 3 star to 2 star and it cannot be reduced any lower. This still gives the item a decent amount of power, but it should make it a more competitive pick. In other words do I take CB or Rage Blade type of deal. My intentions with this one is to keep it an item that a player can pick up when they're behind to remain competitive while people that are doing well have better options.

  3. Cursed Blade has a cap on how many units it can shrink. Example... it can only shrink 1 from levels 1-3, shrink 2 from levels 4-7, and 3 from 7+. This makes CB strong in the early game when players are lucky to have a 2 star anyways and fall off as the levels rack up and units pile on. Thinking about it as I type it I feel this may be the best option to make it a catch up item. Also the item scales with your opponents level. This means you cannot spam levels to 7 and shrink 3 units against a level 5. As I stated multiple times I believe this item is healthy as a catch up tool not an oppression tool.

I wanna hear your thoughts and what you think about my solutions to this issue we're having. I appreciate you taking the time to read all this and for giving your toughs. I really want to see this game thrive as it's become quite a fun pass time for me.

[katarina-love]

24 Comments

Myrmiron7/25/2019, 1:05:22 PM4 votes

Cursed Blade shouldn't be in the game.

Azurereaper7/25/2019, 9:24:49 AM3 votes

It's easier to just remove all gunslinger units all together.

Or just remove the item for something else completely like a rational person, but apparently that's too hard.

FoodMalfax7/25/2019, 9:52:05 AM2 votes

I have some points to add to it, cursed blade as it is it's still a very problematic item to balance. Why not rework the item entirely? My ideas are either in the direction of item 3153 with MR instead of dmg as a big guys physical damage shred (which will make it good against beefy comps like knights/brawlers and less ideal versus low Hp comps or item 3091 which in itself i think is the most ideal since it's on'hit dmg cannot be so easily mittigated unless you use dragons or dragon's claw. i also think that disarm effects should halve the dmg of units(magic or physical)instead of just making them stay there like braindead chickens. But all these changes all stem from the fact that gunslingers is a real issue right now with these items as they are. The fact that all extra attacks proc on hit items is a real problem that should be adressed asap as it's really damaging to the state of the game. Just came from 3 ranked games where 6-8 people were spamming for gunslingers/blademasters and curse blades, whoever got lucky to get the 4 GS bonus with a CB early won the game no questions asked. I'd say keep it as is but limit all on hit effects to primary target and apply the same to Volibear but undo the previous AS nerf since it was related to the same issue.

Sire Hippington7/25/2019, 12:58:36 PM2 votes

The easiest and best solution would be to simply scrap CB and replace it with wit's end...

Mítchel7/25/2019, 11:57:35 PM1 votes

I already posted this in another Cursed Blade forum but I'd like to think these could be viable options as well

"Another way the shrink ray could be balanced is changing its effects to a temporary shrink that could either be refreshing or maybe additive.

For example:

Proc chance: 10% T1/ 15% T2/ 20% T3 (being on the unit the item is placed on so it rewards you for upgrading the unit and is less broken on the units you spend less to invest in balancing the issue of throwing a cursed blade on early units and nuking the enemy units stats.

Duration: 3 sec T1/4 sec T2/5 sec T3 or leave it at a 2/3/4/5 second (whatever seems to level out as the most balanced amount of time which can obviously be play-tested until a good number is found) this would remove what seems to be a game-breaker style mechanic and then in addition it could also have a refresh added or allow it to be additive at a reduced amount of time as to prevent the nerf from going the whole fight even after the shrink ray unit is removed. Regardless I think the permanence of the shrink ray is one of its biggest flaws.

It also could make sense to remove the ability of gunslingers extra attacks to even proc this specific debuf allowing it to be an easier item to nerf of buff overall since you wouldn't have to worry about that extra mechanic removing all viability as an item unless its built on that specific team-comp."

hrooza dota 7/25/2019, 9:11:16 AM1 votes

i will say my opinion on each suggestion since i am lazy to read that wall fully

  1. i think the chance should be increased so it become good on high attack speed comps like blade masters and rangers

  2. not much to say about this one, i will be fine with it.

  3. this one is pretty weird as no item is tied to player level.

  4. another choice imo is to just remove the reduce to level 0 buff it get, all what CB needed was the bug fix and it would be good to go but reducing things to 0 is just overwhelming.

iV0lt4GE7/26/2019, 9:34:49 AM1 votes

The problem with nerfing Cursed Blade is that if they do it then Demons will run over every other comp. In High-Elo (Diamond+) people use Gunslingers to deal with Demons. If u want Cursed Blade changed then Riot first has to nerf Aatrox, Morgana and Kennen, nerf the mana burn chance and buff up tier 4 units to make econ viable again.

ShadWooo7/25/2019, 9:18:36 AM1 votes
  1. Not good option because it wouldn't be consistent. Imo applying items on all onhits and spells was bad idea from start and it is what caused this shit. It is not just cursed blade and it gets abused with sword breaker and hush as well. Either this mechanic goes away and we restore peace in Runeterra or another solution needs to be found.
  2. That would make CB useless except on GS/volibear which isn't good solution.
  3. CB is actually bad in early. But this goes in the right way.

However I have better solution. Let it affect only single living target per item instance. That means that if Tristana has CB then each time she attacks, procs spell or GS passive, there would be chance to trigger CB. But, the moment that happens no other unit can be further affected from the same Tristana UNLESS she would have two or three cursed blades (well this stacking could probably be needless, the % chance stacks so that should be enough maybe). However, when that unit dies, the CB "lock" will reset and Tristana will be able to proc it on another unit.

The only downside I see is that if you use CB on Tristana and Lucian at the same time, it can happen that they both trigger the CB on same unit, which will make it bit less effective. But that is RNG.

Badakog7/25/2019, 2:54:40 PM1 votes

It should be removed from the game. Why bother making any gold units if an item can drop it to silver? 9 units of the same type instantly turn into 3 with a single lucky shot. Yesterday I saw a silver volibear with 2 rapid fire cannons and a cursed blade sit in the back of the map and make the 4 golds I had into less than bronze in a few hits. The item is fucking stupid.

If this item HAD to stay in the game it should only work on one champ in a match and only on silver units or below. But they should just take it out. This item is on par with an item that can burn a player's gold.

You say you think it should be kept for when you're not getting good rolls. I think you're doing pretty well if you have a bow already since most of the best items come from bows.

If it is still able to turn my gold units silver after the next patch I'll just go play Dota.

iainB857/25/2019, 7:17:20 PM1 votes

How to fix? Removed Cursed blade and introduce a better item.