The Current State of the Bruiser Class: A story of Love, Loss, and Lots of Cold Hands and Hot Capes.

Hi, I'm an avid player of LoL who's played more than 500 games this season already, and I'd like to have a real, unbiased discussion about the Meta.

DISCLOSURE: All of this is just my opinion and perspective- feel free to disagree or point out flaws. Just know that you're wrong and your affronts toward me will be remembered at the Gates of Paradise. lol jk. Moving on

I know what you're probably thinking, that this is going to be a monologue filled with me bitching about how skill-less Iceborn-Sunfire is like everyone else-- but that's where you're wrong. I'll cover the dynamic duo later in the post, but I'd like to preface it by saying it serves as a perfect example of why the meta isn't in as much disarray as it is made out to be by the vast majority of league media.

The focus, however, is on the bruiser class-- an archaic term used by our forefathers to describe someone who builds more defense than just a Sterak's Gage, yet more offense than just a Black Cleaver.

"But faceless reddit post," you say, "Did some such champions even exist?" --Why yes they did, among their ranks were forgotten names like Jax, Irelia, and Wukong-- who have since become almost full damage, tank, or completely obsolete (thanks ADCs).

The story of how they fell from graces is long, but not all that complicated-- and I'm sure you can attest to most of it.

Here we go:

In the Summer of 2015, RitoTM, also known by their evil alter ego "Riot Games" unveiled their plans to rework a metric shitload of items, champions, and game tautology that would precede the cataclysmic changes brought on by pre-season (commonly known among me and my friends as "League 2". These changes started with rebalancing some core items like TriForce, but moved into the introduction of new ones like Dead Man's Plate, Sterak's Gage, and Titanic Hydra (I'm including the Bilgewater Arc in all this.) These new items were the beginning of the end for many an unsuspecting Mid, Support, and ADC.

Then they came: The 4 Juggernauts of the Apocalypse. Garen (75-80% pick/ban), Skarner (80-85%), Mordekaiser (60-70%), and Darius (topping out at a disgusting 90% pick/ban)

On Black Cleavers and Sterak's, they rode in-- Dunking, Dragon-ing, and "DEMACIA"-ing. If you were a not yet man, fresh out of Placements as I was, after that you were a boy no longer. These Top Lane Titans (who began to include the newly fresh and shiny Fiora and Gangplank) would farm fearlessly in their lane, taking negligent harass with their bullshit healing and high base damage-- only to teleport botside and alpha-male the shit out of any teamfight. The only exceptions were Skarner and Mordekaiser, who preferred 1v2ing jungle invades at half health and casually taking Dragons back to lane with them (WTF RIOT??), respectively.

"Just kite them", said Riot. But they didn't understand, they never understood the monsters they had created. These champions would have internal mobility, along with many of their already higher base movement speed than most Midlane assassins and ADCarrys. To get away would be considered lucky.

Examining why riot would do this requires a little bit of context, the Tank Meta before had been seen as boring and behooved very few besides champions like Gragas, Sejuani, etc. The AP Midlane Assassins/Mages like Ziggs, Leblanc, and Cassiopeia were also tearing it up, but that was due more to somewhat of an oversight by Riot. Multiple AP items would soon be nerfed, favorites like Zhonya's (although I think we can all agree that remembering the days where it cost 500 less, had 5 more armor, and 20 AP more were kind of bullshit). Also at this time, Runeglaive (the predecessor to the Runic Echoes jungle item) was recently introduced, and was having some weird shit happen -- see "Runeglaive GP Mid" for whatever context you need. The abomination known as Ekko was also released around this time, who if you remember was even more op then than he is now-- see his 1.3 AP ratio mana-less ult and one-shotting anyone in the game for context. Nerfing their items lead to a saltily-watched consolation video of Zirene giving item combos that "didn't suck that bad", and a large number of AP champions feeling rather shafted.

The point is that AP champions were dominant, Riot saw this and reacted accordingly. Yet so much attention had been on AP champions that for the following months, the focus would be almost entirely on AD champions. The real question: where were the bruisers? Well, they were there all along. Outscaling, carrying, and farming as they always had. The issues lied with their early and midgames. Many are largely duel/splitpush oriented, with little-to-no multi-target cc. But games were being won and lost in teamfights, and as much as LCS had always been a distilled, more pure form than solo-queue; it was actually reflecting a lot of what happened in ranked. While Jax was always a masterful duelist, splitpusher, and late-game powerhouse, no one could ever call him a playmaker or a teamfighter. His mid game was whatever but games were being won earlier and earlier because of leads. How is such a purple, helicopter-dicking champ to overcome a game where all that he is isn't needed and all that he isn't is crucial?

To elaborate on the earlier point about the bruisers becoming more damage or tank, look at the "essential" items for Jax as an example: for the longest time Boots, Rageblade, Gunblade, Triforce, and Devourer. That's 5 Items! How can all of them be essential? I only have 6 slots! That leaves little more room for personal preference than a North Korean election.

Now why, friend, do I not just say "fuck the recommended path" and build only some of that or a more defense oriented build like I might otherwise? Well for once the recommended items were spot-on: all of them synergized so well with his kit and sacrificing one or more was sacrificing a huge portion of damage. Simply put, with the way games were going, Jax didn't have the teamfight or utility to be afforded defensive items. As such he was moved to the carry role, and similar synergies existed among other bruisers, with the changes to such items as Youmuu's, Tiamat, and Black Cleaver, champions like Khazix and Wukong went absolutely ape-shit. Pun intended. It wasn't so much that the champions were forgotten or that the items were nerfed as the class itself was deserted.

To remind you what it was like to play bruisers, you would buy a Randuins Omen, Spirit Visage or Banshee's Veil, and Triforce/Cleaver alongside 2 other damage items. That was all it was and as beautiful and simple as it was the defensive items were changed heavily in the months where everyone was getting analed by the Juggernaughts. They could build 1 Offensive item and go full tank for maximum scaling and bruisers usually required multiple offensive, varying by their kit-item synergies. Visage and Banshee's gave more MR and Dead Man's Plate flipped everything on its head.

For Context, do you understand how op DMP used to be? It gave 50 armor, 600 health, 60 Movespeed, and an on-hit slow that made Juggernauts a literal nightmare. Tanks, Juggernauts, Bruisers, and even Supports everywhere were lining up around the corner for that shit like it was the newest iPhone.

We had a great creative team at Riot, but the balance team was probably working graveyard to stop Skarner from achieving a 70% win rate.

In recent months the old "Bruisers" just don't measure up unless they build according to the meta, which all but changes everything we knew about them. The age of the bruiser is gone. They aren't realistic anymore, which makes a lot of sense if you look at the concept in and of itself. Bruisers are, in essence, carries who you couldn't kill and still had damage relevant enough to sit there and take your turret in front of you while you try and kill them through the ungodly resistances they could get relatively inexpensively. They were outdamaging with 6,000 gold, ADCs who had 10,000. And against them you had to pick another bruiser or a lane bully. Now that the meta isn't so restrictive, it is annoying to see that champions can kite these people and actually do damage to them, but it makes more sense.

And that's the problem with the logic, there will always be someone complaining about how the meta is unstable and unfair. Nerfs to some, are indirect, relative buffs to others. Every nerf is made with something in mind, it's not because something is fun or good, it's because ADCs have been dicking every lane since pre-season, so sorry they have to nerf the item that works well on Aatrox because Graves has been abusing the shit out of it. Until there is a time where we can figure out how to make items not destroy solo queue by giving Quinn the edge she doesn't need just because it works well on Wukong without completely segregating ranged from melee (bc that's tacky af guys come on.)

And I'm not biased against them either, top/jg is my preference-- I have probably 600 games with fighters and bruisers make up a substantial portion of that. Right now they just don't fit with the the predominant comps forcing more cooperation than solo-gaming. And if you wish to see them played more then you are going to have to itemize differently than you used to. The old ways are simple, outdated, and unoriginal. As long as the class is given the privelige of high damage and being allowed MR, Armor, and Health, you are going to need to figure out a way to juggle that with your head, rather than following a set guide. The game is more dimensional and if you want to blast kids and survive to tell about it you're asking to have your cake and eat it too, and with all the new items it's possible just requires a little more skill with itemization.

While the environment isn't perfect for it it's not the wasteland it's made out to be. And if it doesn't work, hey, neither does Full AD Thresh Middle, but I've seen it, so why not.

To address the items themselves is something that does need to be done, because there are some HUGE misconceptions going around.

Firstly, to address the Iceborn-Sunfire meta, people need to calm the fuck down. It's strong, but it doesnt win games. The real issues is that the champions it works BEST with have too high of base damage, and playing around that isn't possible when they build tank and still get tons of damage. They aren't don't more damage than full carries, I've taken enough silver bolts to the back to attest to that. The reason it seems like they do is because they do heavy AOE with their damage, Iceborn being physical, Sunfire being magical, while taking negative damage BECAUSE THEY'RE A FUCKING TANK. Might as well remove all passives from defensive items and buy 6 warmogs apiece boys bc tanks aren't allowed a 125% Base AD modifier every 2.5 seconds, and 45 damage per second if you stand right on top of them, which ads up to a total of 250 damage if your lucky enough. It's an item, the stats aren't amazing, it's the synergy and the dumbasses who are used to tanks being gentle giants who you can sit next to and not worry about unless they are engaging for their team. Here's a thought, they're an enemy, assume they do damage. If Ekko and Trundle do too much with just these items, nerf them but don't bitch about two items just because they show up on-screen alot.

Let's redo Worlds and put Dyrus on Ice-Fire Sun-Borne Karthus Top and pretend like we ain't gonna lose 0&10. It's not the items, it's the champions. Ekko works well with sheen because of his E, but his Passive and W base damage are High AS FUCK. That's what kills you not the 2 items.

Here's an idea, lets nerf Deathcap and Voidstaff, considering they been one-shotting kids from D1, they must be strong right? Or what about Devourer and BORK? You already made Devourer unplayable on ranged champions and BORK no longer core on 80% of the people it used to be. How about about boots? Pretty op that you can run faster right why don't we just give everyone the same stats, the same items, and the same champion (no cigar of course).

Or we could all realize that creativity and item pairing makes the game fun. Idk about you but when I first saw Blue Ezreal my reaction wasn't "nerf it rito they're not playing the game right." That's an ADC using an item meant for Blitzcrank. It's a cool idea and messing with the champion is better than indirectly nerfing every other person who can build it.

And while it's possible to play bruisers in the new meta the reason its hard is because 2 of the items that were essential before were nerfed: TriForce and BORK.

Say what you want but that "preseason rework" was nothing short of a prison shower scene for TriForce. You will never convince me that -5 AD, -15% Atk. Speed, -30 AP, and -5% Movespeed is worth a lil crit and CDR. Gimme my 5 goddamn AD back Riot I needed it and you removing it just makes me think you're petty.

"Oh but every offensive item is all Crit and CDR now" Yea, fuck you.

It reminds me of that episode in Spongebob where Squidward visits the future and a plant pops up so a dude spray-paints it chrome so everything is uniform.

Segue out.