Saturday, July 23, 2011

RIOT, Y U LIEK NERFS?! Kayle Reworks


Kayle is the very, very first champion I've ever played on League of Legends. I started during the closed beta (hence my King Rammus skin on my actual CB account), and played her a lot. She's gone through 3 passive reworks now.
  1. Kayle and nearby allied champions attack 10% faster. If an allied champion dies while under the effects of Holy Fervor, Kayle's Attack Speed is further increased as she attempts to avenge them.
  2. When Kayle kills an enemy champion or an allied champion dies near her, she goes into a state of Holy Fervor, increasing her attack speed by 25%. This effect can stack 4 times.
  3. (Current) 30% of Kayle's attack damage is added to her ability power and 15% of Kayle's ability power is added to her attack damage.
Definitely, out of all those, the 3rd one has lasted the longest, and is the most balanced out of all of them. It allows her to shine late game as a Hybrid DPS Carry, add that some utility and the life-saving W and R, and you have a great champion for 450 IP.

Anyways, here are the details of the incoming rework.


According to Shurelia:

The new passive is currently a percent armor/mr shred on hit (stacking) that really helps her out against tanks, especially since her itemization route really makes it hard for her to build penetration.
Weaknesses: Kayle's main weakness will be her downtime on her E. Enemies will be able to exploit this weakness early game, while her late game weakness is her squishiness if she is caught out of position. Her other weakness is that at equivalent stat values, she has less singe-target DPS than straight ranged carries (about 10% less than Miss Fortune).
Strengths: Kayle will have exceptional carry power that puts out hybrid-type damage (which is difficult to defend against), in addition to being able to itemize hybrid-items due to her dual-scalings. Hybrid items have a stronger stat:gold value than their pure counterparts. In addition, her reliance on farm has been reduced. Her other strengths include: High amounts of damage synergy-
  • Reckoning: Grants percentage bonus damage
  • Righteous Fury: Grants splash and bonus flat magic damage
  • Passive: Percentage Shred
as well as the fact that she has very strong supportive abilities/effects while being able to fulfill a ranged carry role.

Here are my thoughts on these changes.

PROS
  • Her early game is now improved, thanks to the Armor/MR shred passive. Her Righteous Fury also has increased splash radius, damage, and reduced cooldowns.
  • She has increased utility from the same passive.
  • Reckoning changes make her burst damage much faster to achieve.
  • She can now be frontloaded with Attack Speed, since Righteous Fury scales with AS now.
  • SHE HAS A NEW DANCE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nl6f6gWJ6k
CONS
  • Her late game is now gimped due to the removal of her current passive.
  • She can no longer be built hybrid. Her itemization is now reminiscent of Teemo and on-hit effects. AS and AP is now king (or queen, in her case).
  • Her Divine Blessing costs a ton, with a reduced heal and AP ratio. This means it is now an escape/chase skill at late game rather than a clutch heal.
  • Her Righteous Fury AP ratio is gimped as well, once again reducing her effectiveness late game.

We still have to wait on the numbers on these, so I'm not going to give a final thought on this rework. It feels like she got rebalanced for more utility rather than a straight-up DPS Carry with some utility.

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