Alright, it's been a while since I made any new posts so I think I'm gonna start a little series to keep consistent and that's going to be on Breaking the Meta.
Here's the game plan.
Each day I'm going do a nice in-depth explanation on why x champion can work for y role. To start things off, we gonna go with something that many people will scoff at the mentioning of.
Support Malzahar.
Why does this work? The thing with support Malzahar is that he can offer his team a lot of damage without needing a lot of gold. Sure, he has mana issues early on unless he can maintain his Visions on creeps but I don't think that's going to be enough to stop the Prophet of the Void from being a great support.
Now, Malzahar is pretty unreliable as a mid-laner due to lacking mobility and essentially rooting himself when he uses his ultimate.
That being said, his Null Zone has always been an AMAZING ability. Large area covered, great percentage damage, and it has really nice base damage and pretty decent scaling.
My theory for support Malzahar is that your job is the final line of defence for the carry. With how many people have high mobility and great gapclosers, it can be pretty difficult for a carry to kite effectively. With support Malzahar, you can suppress whatever is going for your carry with your ultimate while still providing pretty decent AoE support damage for your team.
With the rising popularity of incredibly beefy frontliners, Malzahar's percent damage would make a great addition to a team especially if you have teammates that can assist you in locking down targets.
If that Shyvana diving your carry doesn't have a lot of magic resistance, she's going to be losing upwards towards 36%(40% base damage assuming no resistance) of her maximum health if you can get her to stick around in your Null Zone for a full 5 seconds.
Now, you've already got her there for half the time thanks to your ultimate but what if you were supporting a Vayne? Even more percentage damage and she can also kite exceptionally well to begin with so it's even easier to keep her safe.
It would also be good to add that while it's rarely the best support item, the Spellthief's Edge for a starting item is perfect for Malzahar, especially once you get it fully upgraded as the slow effect from Frost Queen's Claim can keep people in your Null Zone for a long period of time.
There's one more thing to consider about support Malzahar that I haven't touched on yet.
The damage from his Voidlings. These little guys are not to be underestimated. As long as you can get some form of mana regeneration, you can dish out some serious damage with the Voidlings. Hell, I'd even consider getting a Zeke's Herald since Voidlings get 100% of Malzahar's bonus damage.
There's plenty of ways you can maximize Malzahar's damage when he's not farming so I think that maybe, just maybe, support Malzahar might be just crazy enough to work.
Showing posts with label Analysis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Analysis. Show all posts
Saturday, 25 January 2014
Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Champion Analysis: Yasuo
Okay, now that it's been a full patch since Yasuo was released, I thought I'd go in-depth with him and talk about what works well and what doesn't.
This isn't about playstyle or anything relating to how effectively he is used in-game, this is straight by the numbers.
Alright, here's the thing. Yasuo is a melee carry which generally means no-go. Melee carries are rarely viable and if they are, they're generally overpowered. I would say that in his current state, Yasuo is one of the most broken champions in the game for a couple of reasons.
Actually, there's only one reason.
Way of the Wanderer is completely and utterly broken. Double the crit chance at the loss of 10% of the damage he would deal with crits. In other words, with Infinity Edge and Statikk Shiv, you have 90% crit chance. Without IE bonus damage, if you would normally crit for 400 damage you instead deal 360. Versus what would've been 200 damage without a crit. Honestly, if his passive was just this, I'd be okay. Most melee carries have some ridiculously high damage so it's not uncommon to see something like this, especially when Master Yi just straight increases his raw damage by a large percentage and can deal bonus true damage.
My problem is not with the critical strike chance or the damage it deals.
My primary issue with Yasuo is the other half of his passive, Flow.
His flow bar starts at 60 and scales up to 690 at level 18. When this bar is full and Yasuo takes damage from a champion or jungle creep, he gains the 60-690 Flow as a shield for a few seconds. With patch 4.1 Yasuo's ultimate, Last Breath, will now fill his flow bar on activation.
Do you know what else we have for melee carry defensive buffs? Master Yi's Meditate(has to stand still), Fiora's Riposte(only affects basic attacks and modified basic attacks) and her ultimate makes her temporary untargetable, and then we have Tryndamere's heals and ultimate. Most of these have a hard counter. You cast spells on Fiora and group loosely when she ults. Master Yi, use any form of disruption or hard CC/silence and he's screwed. Healing reduction on Tryndamere and his ultimate is more or less the only thing on this list without a really hard counter.
Yasuo gets his shield just by moving around. Flashing, dashing, grabbing Thresh's lantern, anything. The only champion passive that can match Yasuo's shield is Mordekaiser and he has no crowd control and no mobility. Yasuo has both. Malphite would need 6,900 health to match Yasuo's shield and Malphite's shield can't be charged in combat in any way.
Now, already in the EU LCS we've seen Yasuo receive a large number of bans. This wasn't on patch 4.1 where Yasuo gets *buffed*.
If you burn through your shield in a fight and *then* ult someone, you'll receive a boost to your effective health roughly equal to 1,380.
This is genuinely absurd for a champion that can easily his 800+ DPS with only 2 items and boots.
Am I really supposed to believe that it's balanced by it's low duration and medium-high recharge speed outside of his ultimate?
Sad thing is, Yasuo would probably be considered underpowered without his shield.
The primary issue with melee carries is that they have to sacrifice most forms of defence to go for pure damage. On top of having an incredibly good defensive bonus, it's also not always a visible defensive buff.
This passive not only gives Yasuo a large amount of effective health, it also makes it incredibly difficult to burst him down(ignoring the wall that blocks more damaging abilities than anything else minus Poppy or Kayle's ultimate).
Honestly, his wall is the only defensive ability he should be given. It rewards intelligent play and reaction time very, very well while still offers counterplay via melee attacks and non-projectile abilities.
The only counterplay to his passive was to just poke him before starting a fight but with the changes to his ultimate, the only reliable way to counter it is to straight up attack him once and then kite like hell(if you can).
If they can do something to fix the strength of his passive I think he'll be in a great place but until that time I'm pretty sure I'll be banning him more often than not.
This isn't about playstyle or anything relating to how effectively he is used in-game, this is straight by the numbers.
Alright, here's the thing. Yasuo is a melee carry which generally means no-go. Melee carries are rarely viable and if they are, they're generally overpowered. I would say that in his current state, Yasuo is one of the most broken champions in the game for a couple of reasons.
Actually, there's only one reason.
Way of the Wanderer is completely and utterly broken. Double the crit chance at the loss of 10% of the damage he would deal with crits. In other words, with Infinity Edge and Statikk Shiv, you have 90% crit chance. Without IE bonus damage, if you would normally crit for 400 damage you instead deal 360. Versus what would've been 200 damage without a crit. Honestly, if his passive was just this, I'd be okay. Most melee carries have some ridiculously high damage so it's not uncommon to see something like this, especially when Master Yi just straight increases his raw damage by a large percentage and can deal bonus true damage.
My problem is not with the critical strike chance or the damage it deals.
My primary issue with Yasuo is the other half of his passive, Flow.
His flow bar starts at 60 and scales up to 690 at level 18. When this bar is full and Yasuo takes damage from a champion or jungle creep, he gains the 60-690 Flow as a shield for a few seconds. With patch 4.1 Yasuo's ultimate, Last Breath, will now fill his flow bar on activation.
Do you know what else we have for melee carry defensive buffs? Master Yi's Meditate(has to stand still), Fiora's Riposte(only affects basic attacks and modified basic attacks) and her ultimate makes her temporary untargetable, and then we have Tryndamere's heals and ultimate. Most of these have a hard counter. You cast spells on Fiora and group loosely when she ults. Master Yi, use any form of disruption or hard CC/silence and he's screwed. Healing reduction on Tryndamere and his ultimate is more or less the only thing on this list without a really hard counter.
Yasuo gets his shield just by moving around. Flashing, dashing, grabbing Thresh's lantern, anything. The only champion passive that can match Yasuo's shield is Mordekaiser and he has no crowd control and no mobility. Yasuo has both. Malphite would need 6,900 health to match Yasuo's shield and Malphite's shield can't be charged in combat in any way.
Now, already in the EU LCS we've seen Yasuo receive a large number of bans. This wasn't on patch 4.1 where Yasuo gets *buffed*.
If you burn through your shield in a fight and *then* ult someone, you'll receive a boost to your effective health roughly equal to 1,380.
This is genuinely absurd for a champion that can easily his 800+ DPS with only 2 items and boots.
Am I really supposed to believe that it's balanced by it's low duration and medium-high recharge speed outside of his ultimate?
Sad thing is, Yasuo would probably be considered underpowered without his shield.
The primary issue with melee carries is that they have to sacrifice most forms of defence to go for pure damage. On top of having an incredibly good defensive bonus, it's also not always a visible defensive buff.
This passive not only gives Yasuo a large amount of effective health, it also makes it incredibly difficult to burst him down(ignoring the wall that blocks more damaging abilities than anything else minus Poppy or Kayle's ultimate).
Honestly, his wall is the only defensive ability he should be given. It rewards intelligent play and reaction time very, very well while still offers counterplay via melee attacks and non-projectile abilities.
The only counterplay to his passive was to just poke him before starting a fight but with the changes to his ultimate, the only reliable way to counter it is to straight up attack him once and then kite like hell(if you can).
If they can do something to fix the strength of his passive I think he'll be in a great place but until that time I'm pretty sure I'll be banning him more often than not.
Monday, 13 January 2014
League of Draven
Alright, while I generally try to avoid calling a champion "overpowered" or thinking of them as too strong, I am calling it right now that within the next few months, Draven is going to be receiving some serious nerfs.
Why do I believe that? It's quite simple, really. It's been fairly consistent for Riot to nerf champions instead of buffing the champions that counter the flavour of the month. This has been very obvious as far as marksmen go. If one gets out of line, it gets put to the back. The next marksman to get to the front of the line will generally be sent back as well.
Honestly, it feels like it defeats the purpose of having them on the team when a lot of current assassins perform their job just as well and in a shorter span of time.
The only time I would consider a marksman to be better than an assassin or any other damage dealer is when they're dealing with bruisers.
To defeat bruisers, you need sustained damage, you can't so easily burst them down. What does this have to do with Draven?
Draven has what is potentially the strongest movement speed based active ability in the game due to the fact that he can maintain it by catching axes. Movement speed is very, very important when dealing with bruisers so you can kite them. These bruisers also typically buy a Randuin's Omen is it drastically decreases the damage of marksmen that deal consistent damage via attack speed. Fortunately for Draven, he doesn't generally benefit too much from attack speed, he's much better off with making each axe hit for as much as possible versus getting enough attack speed to attack between axes(which shouldn't be happening anyway if you have 2 axes spinning).
Normally, this wouldn't be an issue. Unfortunately, it is due to Draven's passive. With Pre-Season 4 matches taking longer to end, this means that people generally get more gold and look to scaling to end games. Draven has *amazing* scaling. When he gets a Bloodthirster(which is only matched by Infinity Edge for how important it is for him) he will receive a total of 185 attack damage from it as long as he has a Spinning Axe available.
If Draven gets full build(read as 'when Draven gets full build), it won't be uncommon for each axe to hit for 1,500 damage.
The only "downside" to this is that you have to delay the game long enough for him to peak. Mind you, if you pair him with a Leona, Annie, or Thresh, it's not difficult to get early kills.
While I would like to see Draven's counters get some minor buffs. Champions like Nami for instance that can punish Draven pretty hard for catching axes out of position, or Caitlyn who can easily put a trap where his axe will land or fire off a Piltover Peacemaker to punish him for it.
That being said, if anything of Draven's gets nerfed, the nerfs should be directed at one of two things.
Either his Blood Rush or League of Draven, his passive.
For his Blood Rush, I would give it the same effect that Cassiopeia's Twin Fangs has. If he catches an axe, the cooldown is reduced to x amount(2 seconds would be good as it gives him 1.5 seconds without his movement speed buff and you can't activate it right before catching an axe to double up on the boost).
For his passive, either reduce the base gold he gets or reduce the value of each stack to 1.5 or 1. The reasoning for that is because Draven essentially gets 2 stacks(minimum) per last hit which is an additional 4 gold per last hit which doesn't really sound like much but early on, it's very easy for Draven to push a wave and get multiple stacks from a single creep.
All in all, Draven is an incredibly fun champion that is also incredibly rewarding to play. Everything about him is completely over the top, including his power and scaling.
It's entirely possible that the biggest ego in town may finally get what's coming to him.
Why do I believe that? It's quite simple, really. It's been fairly consistent for Riot to nerf champions instead of buffing the champions that counter the flavour of the month. This has been very obvious as far as marksmen go. If one gets out of line, it gets put to the back. The next marksman to get to the front of the line will generally be sent back as well.
Honestly, it feels like it defeats the purpose of having them on the team when a lot of current assassins perform their job just as well and in a shorter span of time.
The only time I would consider a marksman to be better than an assassin or any other damage dealer is when they're dealing with bruisers.
To defeat bruisers, you need sustained damage, you can't so easily burst them down. What does this have to do with Draven?
Draven has what is potentially the strongest movement speed based active ability in the game due to the fact that he can maintain it by catching axes. Movement speed is very, very important when dealing with bruisers so you can kite them. These bruisers also typically buy a Randuin's Omen is it drastically decreases the damage of marksmen that deal consistent damage via attack speed. Fortunately for Draven, he doesn't generally benefit too much from attack speed, he's much better off with making each axe hit for as much as possible versus getting enough attack speed to attack between axes(which shouldn't be happening anyway if you have 2 axes spinning).
Normally, this wouldn't be an issue. Unfortunately, it is due to Draven's passive. With Pre-Season 4 matches taking longer to end, this means that people generally get more gold and look to scaling to end games. Draven has *amazing* scaling. When he gets a Bloodthirster(which is only matched by Infinity Edge for how important it is for him) he will receive a total of 185 attack damage from it as long as he has a Spinning Axe available.
If Draven gets full build(read as 'when Draven gets full build), it won't be uncommon for each axe to hit for 1,500 damage.
The only "downside" to this is that you have to delay the game long enough for him to peak. Mind you, if you pair him with a Leona, Annie, or Thresh, it's not difficult to get early kills.
While I would like to see Draven's counters get some minor buffs. Champions like Nami for instance that can punish Draven pretty hard for catching axes out of position, or Caitlyn who can easily put a trap where his axe will land or fire off a Piltover Peacemaker to punish him for it.
That being said, if anything of Draven's gets nerfed, the nerfs should be directed at one of two things.
Either his Blood Rush or League of Draven, his passive.
For his Blood Rush, I would give it the same effect that Cassiopeia's Twin Fangs has. If he catches an axe, the cooldown is reduced to x amount(2 seconds would be good as it gives him 1.5 seconds without his movement speed buff and you can't activate it right before catching an axe to double up on the boost).
For his passive, either reduce the base gold he gets or reduce the value of each stack to 1.5 or 1. The reasoning for that is because Draven essentially gets 2 stacks(minimum) per last hit which is an additional 4 gold per last hit which doesn't really sound like much but early on, it's very easy for Draven to push a wave and get multiple stacks from a single creep.
All in all, Draven is an incredibly fun champion that is also incredibly rewarding to play. Everything about him is completely over the top, including his power and scaling.
It's entirely possible that the biggest ego in town may finally get what's coming to him.
Sunday, 12 January 2014
Champion walks into a bar...
Today I wanted to discuss one of the greatest sports, competition, and strategy.
Counters.
There are very few strategies in competitive sports and games that don't have a counter. Usually these things become popular for a short period of time as people exploit their strengths but then lose popularity after things change or people find a way to counter it.
Naturally, counterpicks and counterplays are some of the biggest aspects in League of Legends and with the recent changes that have brought sustained damage bruisers back into popularity, that also means that we're going to be seeing some of their counters becoming popular again.
Let's assume for just a moment that you're playing Dr. Mundo. Would you rather play against an Elise or Jayce top-lane. Most people would prefer Jayce because in his current state, he isn't considered to be exceptionally powerful. That's not to say he isn't strong, he's just not perceived that way.
Now what if the Elise had Liandy's Torment? Jayce for sure, right? Well, Jayce just bought Blade of the Ruined King which, when combined with his cannon form's W, allows for a large number of applications of it which leads to more overall damage versus Dr. Mundo.
Basically, if things keep going the way they are, we're going to be seeing a lot more percent based damage dealers popping up. Kog'maw, Vayne, Elise, Brand, etc. Especially champions that have ways of hindering enemy movement because despite their durability and damage potential, they can still be hindered fairly easily(depending on the champion). For example, it doesn't matter how much Dr. Mundo's Burning Agony reduces crowd control, he's still going to be slowed by Kog'maw's ooze for a good long time.
With the potential for percent damage dealers to show up in competitive play again that means one other champion has the potential to appear and this one champion genuinely scares me.
Poppy has an incredible kit that makes her extremely durable and capable of dishing out some serious damage. Even early on in the game, she is incredibly durable thanks to her passive. Even later in the game, Poppy shrugs off critical hits like a Cho'gath shrugs off creeps.
While in her currently state, she's not exceptionally competitive, there's still the possibility of her becoming a force to be reckoned with.
Now, that being said, Poppy has the same issue that any other bruiser has. Sustained damage is annoying to deal with. As long as we have champions like Mundo and Shyvana that are capable of idly walking to the backline to start wailing at them, we're going to need safer carry picks. Lucian is a prime example of this. Tristana may see competitive play again due to her synergy with attack speed, and while there's still some issues with his current state, Varus could be seeing more competitive play again very soon.
Rumble may be seen more again due to the nature of his kit and it's synergy with Liandry's Torment and there's incredible potential for Trundle to get to trolling.
What I suggest to anyone who is reading this is when you load up into the champion selection screen, take a look at the current roster of 111 champions that are available(after bans) and just consider the possibilities.
If the enemy picks x, can I counter them with y? Will I be able to contribute after the laning phase with y or would I be better off with z?
When you're picking and there's still enemies yet to pick, consider what their potential selections could do to affect you.
Just because you countered your opponent in the laning phase doesn't mean you can counter their team. This isn't a 1v1 tournament, that left with the Snowdown. League of Legends is a team sport whether you want it to be or don't want it to be, that's what it is.
Every team, player, strategy, champion, ability, etc. can decide the outcome of a game.
While I may have been discussing bruisers, that's because top-lane has almost always been home to bruisers. The only thing that has changed is it's picks.
If you do pick Kog'maw to deal with that late-game Dr. Mundo how are you going to deal with their bot-lane? If their bot-lane is Draven and Annie, Kog'maw isn't exactly the best pick for that. If you're taking Brand mid because their jungler and top-laner are extremely durable, how are you dealing with that Yasuo? He can easily dodge half your combo since they're skillshots but that doesn't mean you can't beat him either.
In the end, countering opponents isn't just about picks and bans, it's about every move, every ability, every click.
Counters.
There are very few strategies in competitive sports and games that don't have a counter. Usually these things become popular for a short period of time as people exploit their strengths but then lose popularity after things change or people find a way to counter it.
Naturally, counterpicks and counterplays are some of the biggest aspects in League of Legends and with the recent changes that have brought sustained damage bruisers back into popularity, that also means that we're going to be seeing some of their counters becoming popular again.
Let's assume for just a moment that you're playing Dr. Mundo. Would you rather play against an Elise or Jayce top-lane. Most people would prefer Jayce because in his current state, he isn't considered to be exceptionally powerful. That's not to say he isn't strong, he's just not perceived that way.
Now what if the Elise had Liandy's Torment? Jayce for sure, right? Well, Jayce just bought Blade of the Ruined King which, when combined with his cannon form's W, allows for a large number of applications of it which leads to more overall damage versus Dr. Mundo.
Basically, if things keep going the way they are, we're going to be seeing a lot more percent based damage dealers popping up. Kog'maw, Vayne, Elise, Brand, etc. Especially champions that have ways of hindering enemy movement because despite their durability and damage potential, they can still be hindered fairly easily(depending on the champion). For example, it doesn't matter how much Dr. Mundo's Burning Agony reduces crowd control, he's still going to be slowed by Kog'maw's ooze for a good long time.
With the potential for percent damage dealers to show up in competitive play again that means one other champion has the potential to appear and this one champion genuinely scares me.
Poppy has an incredible kit that makes her extremely durable and capable of dishing out some serious damage. Even early on in the game, she is incredibly durable thanks to her passive. Even later in the game, Poppy shrugs off critical hits like a Cho'gath shrugs off creeps.
While in her currently state, she's not exceptionally competitive, there's still the possibility of her becoming a force to be reckoned with.
Now, that being said, Poppy has the same issue that any other bruiser has. Sustained damage is annoying to deal with. As long as we have champions like Mundo and Shyvana that are capable of idly walking to the backline to start wailing at them, we're going to need safer carry picks. Lucian is a prime example of this. Tristana may see competitive play again due to her synergy with attack speed, and while there's still some issues with his current state, Varus could be seeing more competitive play again very soon.
Rumble may be seen more again due to the nature of his kit and it's synergy with Liandry's Torment and there's incredible potential for Trundle to get to trolling.
What I suggest to anyone who is reading this is when you load up into the champion selection screen, take a look at the current roster of 111 champions that are available(after bans) and just consider the possibilities.
If the enemy picks x, can I counter them with y? Will I be able to contribute after the laning phase with y or would I be better off with z?
When you're picking and there's still enemies yet to pick, consider what their potential selections could do to affect you.
Just because you countered your opponent in the laning phase doesn't mean you can counter their team. This isn't a 1v1 tournament, that left with the Snowdown. League of Legends is a team sport whether you want it to be or don't want it to be, that's what it is.
Every team, player, strategy, champion, ability, etc. can decide the outcome of a game.
While I may have been discussing bruisers, that's because top-lane has almost always been home to bruisers. The only thing that has changed is it's picks.
If you do pick Kog'maw to deal with that late-game Dr. Mundo how are you going to deal with their bot-lane? If their bot-lane is Draven and Annie, Kog'maw isn't exactly the best pick for that. If you're taking Brand mid because their jungler and top-laner are extremely durable, how are you dealing with that Yasuo? He can easily dodge half your combo since they're skillshots but that doesn't mean you can't beat him either.
In the end, countering opponents isn't just about picks and bans, it's about every move, every ability, every click.
Monday, 6 January 2014
BONUS: Passive
Just for the fun of it, I thought I'd do up a little tier list of what I think some of the best passives in the game are and why I believe they're so powerful.
We're going to divide it into 3 categories which will be Offence, Defence, Utility, and Core(which will be passives that define the champion).
We'll things off with...
Offence.
Placing as what I believe to be the third best offensive passive in the game is...
Darius with Hemorrhage.
There are two parts to this passive. First part is, of course, the bleed. Decent base damage, scales with 30% of Darius' bonus AD and stacks up to 5 times. The second part is a 5% movement speed buff for each enemy champion affect by the bleed. This is actually pretty huge. With his base speed of 340, if you have 3 enemy champions with a bleed in a team fight, you're gaining 51 bonus movement speed.
The second place winner for best offensive passive in the game is...
Kha'Zix with Unseen Threat.
This passive is a big part of Kha'Zix's early game damage. Bonus magic damage and slow on his next attack and he gets a charge of it when he leaves enemy vision. Juking in and out of brushes and using your ultimate effectively can drastically increase the total damage output of Kha'Zix
The first place winner for my opinion on best offensive passive in the game is...
Brand with Blaze.
Not only is his kit designed to combo with his passive but it is ridiculously powerful as well. 8% of a champions maximum health as damage over 4 seconds. While it is reduced my magic resistance, all it takes is a few applications of Blaze early game and your opponent is back in their base.
Moving from offensive passives, let's take a look at my top three for...
Defence.
Starting with third place we have...
Xerath with Ascended Form.
With Xerath's ranges, there's not much he isn't safe from when positioned correctly. Unfortunately, a lot of attack damage bruisers can dive onto Xerath quite easily. That's where Ascended Form comes in. 15% of Xerath's ability power is added as armour. Since you're usually building Xerath pretty damn aggressive, this adds up fast.
In second place we have...
Irelia with Ionian Fervor.
While one of our favourite Ionians has been beat down with the nerf hammer on numerous occasions, that doesn't stop Ionian Fervor from making it to this list with good reason. While 10% crowd control reduction isn't much, being by 2 people ups the power to 25% reduction and if you're fighting 3 or more, you're gonna be loving the 40% reduction.
While Irelia's Ionian Fervor is amazing, there is one passive that tops all others for defence.
Poppy with Valiant Fighter.
This is an absolute nightmare of a passive. If any damage that Poppy takes exceeds 10% of her current health, it's reduced by 50%. If you deal 100 damage to a 900 health Poppy, you're now dealing 50 damage to the 900 health Poppy. Having this is rank one is pretty much a no brainer.
Anyway, as great as Valiant Fighter is, damage and survivability aren't the only things champions can have for passives. Now we move onto...
Utility.
Ranking in at number three is...
Jinx with Get Excited!
I was honestly tempted to put this in with the offensive abilities but I figured it would fit in better right here. If Jinx receives a kill on a champion or tower or they died within 3 seconds of being damage by Jinx, she'll gain 175% bonus movement speed that quickly decays over 4 seconds. Repositioning, chasing, running away, you name it, this passive is perfect for such a bursty all-in marksman.
Now let's Get Excited for the number two placement.
Fizz with Nimble Fighter.
The two glorious parts of this passive are as follows. Number one, Fizz takes reduced damage from enemy auto-attacks. If you see an enemy marksman that's going mid, I'd even suggest getting a Doran's shield to stack that damage reduction. Part two allows Fizz to ignore unit collision. That alone is pretty nice but in combination with his damage reduction makes this a great passive for a melee assassin.
For our final Utility passive we have one of the best support passives in the game.
Sona with Power Chord.
After casting 3 spells, Sona will charge her next auto-attack to deal bonus damage and apply a specific effect depending on what the last spell was she cast. Hymn of Valor doubles the bonus damage, Aria of Perseverance reduces her target's damage output, and Song of Celerity slows opponents. Can't get much more utility than a passive like that which is why I believe that Power Chord is the best utility passive in the game.
Now that we've gone over all the general types of passives, we're gonna take a look at passives that define the champion they belong to. They may not always be the most powerful passives but the list toppers are great.
Core.
First passive that defines the champion it belongs to.
Morderkaiser with Iron Man.
Not only is this an awesome Black Sabbath song, but Iron Man can make Mordekaiser incredibly durable in prolonged fights. Unfortunately, not so useful when he's burst down quickly.
The second passive that truly defines it's owner's playstyle is...
Evelynn with Shadow Walk.
If this doesn't define Evelynn then I don't know what does. After a short period of time, Evelynn stealths and begins regenerating mana. Evelynn can only be detected by abilities and items that give true sight or if she gets too close to an enemy champion.
Now, there's one more passive that defines it's owner even more than Evelynn. He's a new champion but that doesn't stop his passive from being incredible.
Yasuo with Way of the Wanderer.
This passive reduces the damage of Yasuo's critical strikes but doubles his chances of getting one. All you need to buy is 50% critical strike chance and let this passive do the rest. That doesn't seem like much to define a champion though, does it? That's why Yasuo also gets a shield that charges when he moves. Any type of movement or displacement counts to charging it and, as long as he keeps moving, Yasuo can be deceptively tanky.
Well, that's it for my short just-for-fun tier list of champion passives. All I ask is that you keep in mind that this is entirely my personal opinion and I am not saying these are the absolute best passives as there are many others that are quite strong in the right situations.
Be sure to tell me what you think in a comment and happy summoning.
We're going to divide it into 3 categories which will be Offence, Defence, Utility, and Core(which will be passives that define the champion).
We'll things off with...
Offence.
Placing as what I believe to be the third best offensive passive in the game is...
Darius with Hemorrhage.
There are two parts to this passive. First part is, of course, the bleed. Decent base damage, scales with 30% of Darius' bonus AD and stacks up to 5 times. The second part is a 5% movement speed buff for each enemy champion affect by the bleed. This is actually pretty huge. With his base speed of 340, if you have 3 enemy champions with a bleed in a team fight, you're gaining 51 bonus movement speed.
The second place winner for best offensive passive in the game is...
Kha'Zix with Unseen Threat.
This passive is a big part of Kha'Zix's early game damage. Bonus magic damage and slow on his next attack and he gets a charge of it when he leaves enemy vision. Juking in and out of brushes and using your ultimate effectively can drastically increase the total damage output of Kha'Zix
The first place winner for my opinion on best offensive passive in the game is...
Brand with Blaze.
Not only is his kit designed to combo with his passive but it is ridiculously powerful as well. 8% of a champions maximum health as damage over 4 seconds. While it is reduced my magic resistance, all it takes is a few applications of Blaze early game and your opponent is back in their base.
Moving from offensive passives, let's take a look at my top three for...
Defence.
Starting with third place we have...
Xerath with Ascended Form.
With Xerath's ranges, there's not much he isn't safe from when positioned correctly. Unfortunately, a lot of attack damage bruisers can dive onto Xerath quite easily. That's where Ascended Form comes in. 15% of Xerath's ability power is added as armour. Since you're usually building Xerath pretty damn aggressive, this adds up fast.
In second place we have...
Irelia with Ionian Fervor.
While one of our favourite Ionians has been beat down with the nerf hammer on numerous occasions, that doesn't stop Ionian Fervor from making it to this list with good reason. While 10% crowd control reduction isn't much, being by 2 people ups the power to 25% reduction and if you're fighting 3 or more, you're gonna be loving the 40% reduction.
While Irelia's Ionian Fervor is amazing, there is one passive that tops all others for defence.
Poppy with Valiant Fighter.
This is an absolute nightmare of a passive. If any damage that Poppy takes exceeds 10% of her current health, it's reduced by 50%. If you deal 100 damage to a 900 health Poppy, you're now dealing 50 damage to the 900 health Poppy. Having this is rank one is pretty much a no brainer.
Anyway, as great as Valiant Fighter is, damage and survivability aren't the only things champions can have for passives. Now we move onto...
Utility.
Ranking in at number three is...
Jinx with Get Excited!
I was honestly tempted to put this in with the offensive abilities but I figured it would fit in better right here. If Jinx receives a kill on a champion or tower or they died within 3 seconds of being damage by Jinx, she'll gain 175% bonus movement speed that quickly decays over 4 seconds. Repositioning, chasing, running away, you name it, this passive is perfect for such a bursty all-in marksman.
Now let's Get Excited for the number two placement.
Fizz with Nimble Fighter.
The two glorious parts of this passive are as follows. Number one, Fizz takes reduced damage from enemy auto-attacks. If you see an enemy marksman that's going mid, I'd even suggest getting a Doran's shield to stack that damage reduction. Part two allows Fizz to ignore unit collision. That alone is pretty nice but in combination with his damage reduction makes this a great passive for a melee assassin.
For our final Utility passive we have one of the best support passives in the game.
Sona with Power Chord.
After casting 3 spells, Sona will charge her next auto-attack to deal bonus damage and apply a specific effect depending on what the last spell was she cast. Hymn of Valor doubles the bonus damage, Aria of Perseverance reduces her target's damage output, and Song of Celerity slows opponents. Can't get much more utility than a passive like that which is why I believe that Power Chord is the best utility passive in the game.
Now that we've gone over all the general types of passives, we're gonna take a look at passives that define the champion they belong to. They may not always be the most powerful passives but the list toppers are great.
Core.
First passive that defines the champion it belongs to.
Morderkaiser with Iron Man.
Not only is this an awesome Black Sabbath song, but Iron Man can make Mordekaiser incredibly durable in prolonged fights. Unfortunately, not so useful when he's burst down quickly.
The second passive that truly defines it's owner's playstyle is...
Evelynn with Shadow Walk.
If this doesn't define Evelynn then I don't know what does. After a short period of time, Evelynn stealths and begins regenerating mana. Evelynn can only be detected by abilities and items that give true sight or if she gets too close to an enemy champion.
Now, there's one more passive that defines it's owner even more than Evelynn. He's a new champion but that doesn't stop his passive from being incredible.
Yasuo with Way of the Wanderer.
This passive reduces the damage of Yasuo's critical strikes but doubles his chances of getting one. All you need to buy is 50% critical strike chance and let this passive do the rest. That doesn't seem like much to define a champion though, does it? That's why Yasuo also gets a shield that charges when he moves. Any type of movement or displacement counts to charging it and, as long as he keeps moving, Yasuo can be deceptively tanky.
Well, that's it for my short just-for-fun tier list of champion passives. All I ask is that you keep in mind that this is entirely my personal opinion and I am not saying these are the absolute best passives as there are many others that are quite strong in the right situations.
Be sure to tell me what you think in a comment and happy summoning.
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