Views: 2289 Keystone Masteries Part 1/3
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Hi everybody!
My name is jokersprank aka nightray00 and I play since the end of season 2 but that's already enough about me. Today I want to discuss as you can already see: Keystone masteries. Why? Well, I had the urge to write about them and as well to have something to keep me sane in my examination period...
In general, I think that masteries have become this year more meaningful and are more than just powerful stats boosts. However, I'm troubled by some keystone masteries because some are being abused by certain champions and some will be abused in the near future.
Critical strikes heal you for 15% of the damage dealt and grant you 20% increased attack speed for 4 seconds (2 second cooldown).
Thanks god, it's getting nerfed. On the PBE it only works on champions. That's a good thing because it's right now so easy to get 100% crit chance. 100% means that you can crit every single auto attack which means you have permanent 15% lifesteal. That's more than Blade of the Ruined King and 5% less lifesteal than Bloodthirster! It grants so much even though it has not to be bought in game. The downside is not getting the other two keystones which doesn't matter if you're a marksman or someone with crazy crit mechanics. Crit is literally everywhere.
Will of the Ancients's passive works.
UPDATE
Your basic attacks and spells grant you a stack of Fervor for 5 seconds (max 10 stacks). Each stack of Fervor adds 1-8 bonus physical damage to your basic attacks against champions, based on your level.
I would say that's another troublemaker. The problem lies in the stat it gives: physical damage. First you have to notice that it benefits champions who scale well with attack speed. They can easily aquire, with enough attack speed, fervor stacks and some of them have even auto attack resets. Furthermore, AD casters can make good use of it because purchasing high amounts of cooldown reduction is possible through Essence Reaver.
However, it can become abusive as additional 80 physical damage on every auto attack with lifesteal is really strong. Imagine you had 200 AD and now due to the mastey 280 AD. If you have 20% lifesteal, you will gain 56 health instead of of 40 health. 16 is quite a lot as it adds up the more you attack and you also have to think about the possibility of critting. The only downside is having to attack 10 times and it scales with levels but every 2 or 3 levels. Still, it's ridiculous if you keep attacking minions as you gain 10 bonus AD level 1.
Spell Weaving
or
Blade Weaving
. The values must be adjusted then.
The other proposal would be making it magic damage. It's stronger early but weaker mid to late game. The lifesteal problem would be solved though.
UPDATE
Your damaging abilities cause enemy champions to take 6 + 50% of your Bonus Attack Damage and 20% of your Ability Power in magic damage over 3 seconds (area of effect and damage over time abilities apply half of this damage over 1.5 seconds instead).
Of all keystones, I dislike this one the most. It's not bad but as someone who plays mainly burst mages, it is lackluster. However, it has its benefits. The mastery is good on champions with DOTs like Brand, Malzahar and also unfortunatly on Teemo even with the reduction. The same spllies for poke or DPS champions. I can imagine that Cassiopeia will be a lot more stronger due to this mastery but we will see.
Even though, it's a fine mastery, it has its flaws and problems. Can every damaging spell refresh this mastery? I'm unsure about this as that would be probably be broken as warlord. If that is true, it means champions with low cooldowns will be utterly strong. However, I have to test it properly because I hadn't the chance to take my time just for the sake of my curiosity yet. (school sucks...)
I hope you liked my first part of the keystone trilogy and please comment if you see inconsistencies. If you disagree with some of my statements or with the whole post, don't be afraid to state your opinion. Afterall, it sounds more OP on paper than it is in most cases.
Keystone Masteries Part 2/3
My name is jokersprank aka nightray00 and I play since the end of season 2 but that's already enough about me. Today I want to discuss as you can already see: Keystone masteries. Why? Well, I had the urge to write about them and as well to have something to keep me sane in my examination period...
In general, I think that masteries have become this year more meaningful and are more than just powerful stats boosts. However, I'm troubled by some keystone masteries because some are being abused by certain champions and some will be abused in the near future.
Ferocity
The Ferocity tree is pretty much the old offensive tree but I think it's much more favoured towards AD champions than in previous seasons.Warlord's Bloodlust
Critical strikes heal you for 15% of the damage dealt and grant you 20% increased attack speed for 4 seconds (2 second cooldown).Thanks god, it's getting nerfed. On the PBE it only works on champions. That's a good thing because it's right now so easy to get 100% crit chance. 100% means that you can crit every single auto attack which means you have permanent 15% lifesteal. That's more than
Blade of the Ruined King and 5% less lifesteal than Bloodthirster! It grants so much even though it has not to be bought in game. The downside is not getting the other two keystones which doesn't matter if you're a marksman or someone with crazy crit mechanics. Crit is literally everywhere.Proposal
First of all it's only stackable on champions like on the PBE. Secondly, I would like to change the value to 5-10%. It could scale with level to make lifesteal more useful in the early to mid game or it could be only 5% (maybe even less) but therefore also ignores armor, similar to how Will of the Ancients's passive works.UPDATE
- Now it works only on champions.
Fervor of Battle
Your basic attacks and spells grant you a stack of Fervor for 5 seconds (max 10 stacks). Each stack of Fervor adds 1-8 bonus physical damage to your basic attacks against champions, based on your level.I would say that's another troublemaker. The problem lies in the stat it gives: physical damage. First you have to notice that it benefits champions who scale well with attack speed. They can easily aquire, with enough attack speed, fervor stacks and some of them have even auto attack resets. Furthermore, AD casters can make good use of it because purchasing high amounts of cooldown reduction is possible through
Essence Reaver.However, it can become abusive as additional 80 physical damage on every auto attack with lifesteal is really strong. Imagine you had 200 AD and now due to the mastey 280 AD. If you have 20% lifesteal, you will gain 56 health instead of of 40 health. 16 is quite a lot as it adds up the more you attack and you also have to think about the possibility of critting. The only downside is having to attack 10 times and it scales with levels but every 2 or 3 levels. Still, it's ridiculous if you keep attacking minions as you gain 10 bonus AD level 1.
Proposal
This one is tricky but I have some ideas. Having to auto attack thoughtlessly or spam spells isn't the best way to promote healthy and interesting gameplay. I think just being able stack on champions would be much more healthy. It would be similar to the old mastery Spell Weaving
or
Blade Weaving
. The values must be adjusted then.The other proposal would be making it magic damage. It's stronger early but weaker mid to late game. The lifesteal problem would be solved though.
UPDATE
- Now it generates stacks only on champions.
Deathfire Touch
Your damaging abilities cause enemy champions to take 6 + 50% of your Bonus Attack Damage and 20% of your Ability Power in magic damage over 3 seconds (area of effect and damage over time abilities apply half of this damage over 1.5 seconds instead).Of all keystones, I dislike this one the most. It's not bad but as someone who plays mainly burst mages, it is lackluster. However, it has its benefits. The mastery is good on champions with DOTs like
Brand, Malzahar and also unfortunatly on Teemo even with the reduction. The same spllies for poke or DPS champions. I can imagine that Cassiopeia will be a lot more stronger due to this mastery but we will see.Even though, it's a fine mastery, it has its flaws and problems. Can every damaging spell refresh this mastery? I'm unsure about this as that would be probably be broken as warlord. If that is true, it means champions with low cooldowns will be utterly strong. However, I have to test it properly because I hadn't the chance to take my time just for the sake of my curiosity yet. (school sucks...)
Proposal
It's pretty ok as I haven't seen anything too problematic but a cooldown of like 2 seconds maybe. I have to test it yet.Conclusion
The keystone masteries are very powerful but need some tuning. It has to be noted that the state of the current patch is very chaotic. Due to this reasons, it's impossible to make a perfect judgement or anything close to it.I hope you liked my first part of the keystone trilogy and please comment if you see inconsistencies. If you disagree with some of my statements or with the whole post, don't be afraid to state your opinion. Afterall, it sounds more OP on paper than it is in most cases.
Keystone Masteries Part 2/3
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