Patch 5.16 Rundown: New Horrors for Marksmen

Everyone who is on reddit or twitter on a regular basis knows about the bad feeling that many marksmen have about their impact on the game. Well, with Patch 5.16 going live this didn’t change at all. Many pro players and coaches spoke very low of the new changes, especially when it comes to the bot lane carry role. This shows how confusing patch notes can be when not read very carefully and brought into context, because through the whole notes there are only two changes to marksman champions, a buff to both Twitch and Lucian. I’m writing this article to try to summarize not only the stat changes but also their impact on the game and to find possible impacts on the Meta.

The Juggernauts

In a recent article Justin “Fallenhope” Hovey talked about the changes to the Juggernauts and the impact of these changes on their gameplay. If you are interested in his opinion and analysis check out his article through the following link. Juggernauts-A-New-Mechanic. This article focuses on the new mechanics those champions have. While they are indeed interesting, I think that there are other huge changes to these champions that may affect the Meta even stronger. So let’s summarize the other changes to the four Juggernauts – Darius, Garen, Skarner and Mordekaiser – and bring them into the context of the game.

Summarized these champions now deal physical damage where they dealt magical damage before, ensuring that they can be played as AD bruisers, get more attack range – except Skarner – and they get more damage scaling that isn’t bound to damage items. For example Darius’ q now scales with his total attack damage instead of his bonus attack damage and he got a better attack damage growth per level. Garen’s spin now gets stronger as he gets more levels up until level 16 without any items involved and Skarner gets a total attack damage ratio on both his q and his ultimate. Both of those champions also get more attack damage growth – like Darius. Skarner also gets a different shield scaling: his w now scales with maximum health instead of it being a flat value. The same goes for Mordekaiser. His passive decays slower and based on his base health while it now scales with his maximum health instead of it being a flat value. His main damage spells – his q and his e – both have a total attack damage scaling now – with his q having even another scaling with itself as well, dealing 100%, 300% and then 900% of the damage on each of the three next attacks he performs - and he also gets stronger base stats growth per level, allowing him to build somewhat tanky while still dealing a lot of damage.

All these changes point in one direction and because Mordekaiser is not part of a popular boy group but a hardcore metal band this means more steel for all of them. All four Juggernauts now have the ability to build tank items while still dealing a lot of damage. Not only because of their improved base stats but also because of the way their abilities scale now. I can see basically any of them being really strong in the next few days and maybe even in competitive.

Source: Reddit

Other Champions

There are a bunch of changes to other champions but only a few of them are really big. There are small adjustments for Ahri’s healing ability, hurting her laning phase; some more counterplay options against Alistar with a now slower headbutt and a new episode of bug-fixing with league’s most famous emperor: Azir. Viktor, Kayle and Rumble get tuned down a little, Le Blanc, Lucian, Twitch, Nami, Rammus, Tahm Kench and Teemo get slightly buffed. It’s basically business as usual. Lissandra and Zac actually get somewhat of a huge buff; she now has a self heal if she casts her ultimate on herself and he gets even more range on his slingshot. The most controversial changes might be buffs to Kassadin, Zed and – this is not a typo – Lee Sin. Zed now gets to recast his Ultimate 50% sooner than before, allowing him to escape easier again, Kassadin got an AP ratio on his riftwalk – or riftstep - scaling with the amount of stacks he has on the ability and Lee Sin, well, let’s take a closer look on him.

Lee Sin already has the ability to roundhouse kick a Malphite through your entire team, dealing his Ultimate damage to everyone and knocking everyone in the air. But now Riot decided to try to be a little more realistic – finally. So now Lee Sin might not be able to kick a damn mountain several meters through the air, right? No! The change is actually, that his Ultimate now deals bonus damage to enemies hit by the kicked target scaling with the bonus health of the projectile. In other words: The bigger your tank the harder he hits you when kicked into your face by our beloved blind monk.

Source: youtube. Nice work by "The CadenQT"!

Items

There are some interesting item changes in this patch that further lead the game in a direction that already got clear with the Juggernaut changes. Let’s take a close look on them:

Dead Man’s Plate: This item was already in the game even before this patch but Riot mentioned it here again to raise awareness of it and it really fits the Patch actually. This item works similar to Statikk Shiv or Luden’s Echo. You gain momentum while moving up to 100, granting up to 60 movement speed. Your moment decays fast when immobilized and it decays slowly when slowed. It is consumed when attacking someone with an auto-attack, dealing one bonus physical damage per two momentum stacks. This damage is doubled when at 100 stacks – and the enemy is also slowed by 75% if it is a melee attack. The item provides 600 health and 50 armor. This item therefore offers improved gap closing and sticking potential to Bruisers, Tanks and the Juggernauts.

Sterak’s Gage: This item is going to be a core item on all the Juggernauts and possibly other bruisers like Irelia as well. Not only does it give you 500 health, which isn’t too much, but it also increases your base attack damage. This means that it increases damage you deal with your Sheenor Trinity Force. It doesn’t work with abilities that scale with bonus attack damage though. Well, we remember that all the Juggernauts now got total attack damage scaling, right? This item offers 25% bonus base attack damage and I’m not done yet! It also gives you a passive that increases your size, gives you another +25% bonus base damage and a 30% of you maximum health shield that decays rapidly. This effect triggers when you take 400-1800 damage (scaling with levels) within 5 seconds and lasts for 8 seconds with a 45 seconds cooldown. This Item prevents Bruisers and Juggernauts from being blown up instantly and offers them a lot of damage as well.

Titanic Hydra: This item is easy to explain, it’s basically Ravenous Hydra but it offers health instead of lifesteal, as explained in Riot’s summary as well. This item therefore offers AoE auto-attack damage while still improving the tankiness of the wielder, making it a strong choice on champions that don’t rely on the lifesteal or have % maximum health scaling – I’m looking at you Juggernauts.

Warmog’s Armor: So we all know Warmog’s. It just got a huge buff to its health regeneration. It now offers +200% base health regeneration and has a completly new passive. If you have 3000 maximum health and are out of combat you are now getting Warmog’s Heart, which regenerates 3% of your maximum health every second. In other words, tanks and Juggernauts don’t need the lifesteal from Ravenous Hydra at all, they can just build Warmog’s for Siege situations and they are fine.

 

The other changes to items can be summarized by increases to health regeneration, decreases on the cost for magic resist and decreases in armor values. There are two items though, which I want to look at carefully, not only because they got some huge changes but also because they might be important items on the Juggernauts: Thornmail and Randuin’s Omen.

Thornmail: Thornmail now reflects less of the target’s damage back, but now reflects a % amount of damage back scaling with 25% of your bonus armor. Generally I think this weakens the item for almost every champion in almost every situation. It’s definitely a nerf in the early to mid game while it might be a buff in the late game if going for a full armor build – not sure about this, if you did the math or know something more, please inform me. It also might be a buff for Champions like Rammus, Taric and somewhat Garen because they receive bonus armor from their kit; then again I didn’t do the math yet here. In the end it seems like a nerf to the item though except for some situations.

Randuin’s Omen: It gives 100 less health, 10 less armor and its slow duration doesn’t scale with bonus resistances anymore but instead the base slow duration is now 4 seconds, doubling the old duration. In addition to that it offers a 10% damage reduction from critical strikes. The item is probably more efficient against most marksmen now but definitely less efficient against any AD champions which don’t rely on critical strikes for their damage.

 

I think these changes further improve the Juggernaut's position within the game. Not only do they get the opportunity to build several different new items, which all fit perfectly into their kit, but also old items got reworked into their way – looking at Warmog’s and Randuin’s. I am not sure about Thornmail yet and I think it is probably stronger on full tanks and weaker on Bruisers and Juggernauts than before, while Garen might be an exception.

Conclusion

There are several huge changes to the game that lead to a huge potential of Bruisers and the Juggernauts to dominate the coming weeks. Now you might understand all the marksman players who are disappointed about the patch. While several armor items got nerfed there are many champions who get more armor per level now – not only the Juggernauts but also some others, that I didn’t mention here, you can check out the official notes for further information – and there is a completly new threat for them: said Juggernauts, with a lot of strength, tankiness and basically one will: to kill the AD Carry. These changes might affect the Marksman role drastically. I can definitely see Blade of the Ruined King rising in popularity, not only because of the lower total armor but also because of the higher total health and the potential to steal some movement speed from those Juggernauts and Bruisers with their new movement speed item, the Dead Man's Plate.

This Patch also brings the crit damage reduction and with it a huge nerf to Ashe and somewhat of a nerf to Sivir and basically all the AD carries but especially the crit reliant ones. Champions that may rise in popularity after this patch are Vayne, Lucian and Corki with Kalista already being at the top and being even stronger compared to crit AD carries. Lucian with his double Blade of the Ruined King procs and his insane mobility, as well as Vayne with her % maximum health true damage are strong contenders for Tier 1 Champions and Corki was popular already while never being much about crits anyway. But let's see what people come up with, I am definitely excited for the next weeks, and so should you as well!

 

Keep thinking and enjoy your day - leDachs

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