Rengar in the Jungle

Blue Collar Bear·Jan 7, 2015·3 votes·1,386 views

I have been playing Rengar pretty solidly in the new jungle. What I am curious about is the Devourer enchantment. I have seen plenty of players build this and be successful. Granted, these players are between Silver and Platinum. So, questions:

What situations would I buy a Devourer on Rengar?
Mathematically speaking, does the on-hit damage from Devourer make up for the lost AD, armor penetration, and cooldown reduction from Warrior?
Due to most champions having low base MR and a majority of people take scaling glyphs of magic resist, is it possible that Devourer may give Rengar a better early game (and potential late game due to scaling) than if he were to take Warrior?

Any other pieces of information you can pass on will be welcomed. Thanks!

9 Comments

Steve SpurrierJan 7, 20152 votes

Most people I've asked have said that Devourer is better for late-game scaling on some champs (e.g. Rek'sai) and can also be the "safer" pick, whereas Warrior can help you get more kills early to mid game. For a champion like Rengar, though, where you want that Empowered Q, Q, Empowered Q after using the ultimate, I think the AD/Armor Pen works better than sheer AS. You want your target to be dead VERY quickly before you can get CC'ed or the target can escape.

Maybe the Devourer would help for extended trades and fights, but isn't Rengar's primary role to assassinate high priority targets using his abilities, empowered abilities, and items? How many attacks do you get off before you get CC'ed, the target is dead or escapes, etc.? I think the Devourer would help with early to mid game camp clearing and/or if you were behind/need farm. But if you aren't behind or you're ahead, I think Warrior is the better pick.

Question, do you usually get Ranger's Trailblazer or the Stalker's Blade? I usually get Stalker's for the extra CC but I've seen a lot of Ranger's on Rengar as well. Happy hunting!

Blue Collar BearJan 7, 20151 votes

To answer your questions, I do think that Rengar's most popular role is to quickly assassinate targets. In the early game, I do believe that I can get off many auto attacks as well as Q's on targets. As the game goes on, I do believe that I would be consistently less and less able to deal damage in the forms of autos. As for which jungle item I usually buy, it's quite a toss up. If I'm against someone who adopts a heavy counter jungling attitude and I know that I don't want to meet them in my jungle, I will take Ranger's Trailblazer to efficiently clear and make their invades much less productive. Most games, though, I take Stalker's to have an angrier gank. If I am against an opponent that I know I will be able to dominate (which isn't very often), I'll take Skirmisher's Sabre. After doing the math, it turns out that at any point in the game (assuming you're able to consistently refresh the true damage over the three seconds that the opponent is marked), the damage is consistent with ignite.

To be honest, the attack speed is not necessarily the reason why I would want Devourer. The on hit magic damage is what I want. I've researched that Rengar can still efficiently burst carries with a Devourer / Ghostblade / Blade of the Ruined King in the mid to late game. Having played this, I can say it's certainly not the #deleteyourenemy efficiency of Warrior / Ghostblade / Hydra / Last Whisper and the likes. At least, this is true in the early game. At forty or so minutes, Rengar's damage output in your initial burst is still fear worthy and in any extended fight, Rengar simply does more damage.

For an example of when I think I should buy Devourer, I was consistently bursting my enemy's back line into oblivion. However, they had a Zilean. I was consistently in the middle of fights without my initial burst and I couldn't out duel them once the burst was gone. I also couldn't ensure that the enemy carry would be dead after the initial burst. I feel this would have been a good time.

I am currently researching armor penetration, magic penetration, and damage reduction in general. I have a few theories.

P.S. I like biscuits, too.

Steve SpurrierJan 7, 20151 votes

Thanks for answering my questions! I guess it must be the way I play Rengar jungle. But the on-hit extra magic damage is what I meant by the late-game scaling as it gives you the extra mixed damage too :3. I see what your point is on picking the jungle item based on the enemy jungler. I usually have based my pick on the champion I'm playing, not who my opponent is. Thanks for the tip and for opening my eyes a little! I just hit level 30 about a week and a half ago and my ranked friends told me not to jump straight in, so I've been playing draft normals for a while. Not sure when I'll start the seeding process. I've been playing Rengar for about a year now (back when BT, Frozen Mallet, Maw of Malmortius, Mercs, etc. was a successful build for Rengar, for me at least) and was curious about the new jungle items and him. I haven't had much success with him in the new jungle D:. But I'll try Devourer out next time I play him if I think it'll go well. Thanks again for the tips.

Blue Collar BearJan 7, 20151 votes

I saw your post on my way to bed. I tried to get to a response, but it didn't turn out that way.

Anyway, you've been playing a lot longer than me. I have played Rengar since his rework. I couldn't muster the IP to buy him before it. The new jungle is very different from the old jungle. I'll be happy to give you some advice in game, if you like. I'd even duo with you, because I've been in my series to Silver II about fourteen times now. I never demote, and I never win my series.

I'm off to test Devourer.

EDIT:

I also did a lot of research on % penetration and flat penetration. Apparently, if you're able to penetrate a large majority of someone's resistances and put it in single digits or even zero, you will do more cost efficient damage than without a % penetration item. However, if your damage is high enough, it doesn't even matter because the % penetration will increase your damage by a certain amount. I did the math. A Jinx with armor seals will have ninety armor at level eighteen and if you have more than about 200 AD with a Last Whisper, the item is cost efficient. The more armor they have and the more damage you have, the more cost efficient the penetration is.

Steve SpurrierJan 7, 20151 votes

No worries it was really late. Yeah I miss the old Rengar sometimes, back when his normal Q had an AS buff, the time to use the Q after activating it was longer, but QQ I guess.

I have a rune page with Armor Pen Marks in it. Do you think that would be good to do on Rengar if you knew going into the game that you would get Devourer's? I seem to think that would work but my normal page for him has AS Quints on it. Interesting research, thanks for doing it.

Yeah, go ahead and add me! I'm all for help and constructive criticism. I may not be able to play every day (about to start a new semester of college). Let me know

Blue Collar BearJan 7, 20151 votes

I'll tell you all my secrets in game. College doesn't start up again for another month, I thought?

So, I did some fancy math. I calculated the amount of damage one would do with Devourer and Warrior, taking into consideration armor penetration (flat and percent) and resistances using formulas found on the Wiki. Devourer definitely does a lot more damage, assuming that the enemy hasn't completely stacked magic resistance and you're still able to stack it.