I’m actually not surprised to see so few Renekton players, but I’m wondering if you’ve seen the same thing. For the first couple days, as with most patches, he was picked pretty quickly. He’s fallen off the radar, though. In fact, I’ve had a couple games without a Renketon on my team or the other.

Part of that is probably the IP cost. I know I mentioned in a previous post that I don’t mind the IP cost – I think it’s a good way for Riot to encourage financial support for the game. I am surprised that it has taken so long for people to run out of IP.

The other part is no doubt that his playstyle is a bit underwhelming in lane. He’s great 1v1, he’s a solid ganker, but his heal is really lackluster in lane. Yes, he can be a strong lane partner, but without that he loses a lot of the survivability he needs to stay in lane. Think about Pantheon as a counter example. His primary harass combo is Spear Toss -> Aegis -> HSS -> Spear Toss. It’s targeted, reliable, and best of all, he builds up a shield when he does it so he doesn’t take too much return damage. He can even do that on a turret and soak two hits free of penalty. It’s kind of a sweet deal.

Renekton, by contrast, is wide open to return fire when he dashes in. Even if he dashes back out he has still been in range for quite some time, and his heal definitely won’t save him.

For now, the skill ceiling is probably high enough on Renekton that you won’t see him in many games. That is, of course, unless he gets buffed.

I wrote that title as 75 percent joke, and to be fair, most of his problems are melee related, not champion related. Let’s forget all that and talk about the good stuff for a minute, shall we?

Renekton has the hyperactive playstyle that I love. He’s regularly casting, has a fun little dash, and he flourishes his blade when he swings. Also, he’s a damn crocodile, in case you didn’t notice. Renekton also brings a decent stun to your team, and once the skill is at max rank, he can use the stun pretty often. His ult isn’t bad, and if you couple him with a stunner, you could have a decent lane.

That said, I am just now having my first runaway game with him, and I don’t really feel like I’m dominating all that hard. A big part of the problem is his cooldowns. They are long, to the point that you better have some cooldown reduction items with you. I understand they sort of have to be this way because of the fury system – too short and he’s constantly using furious abilities – but it limits the regularity with which you get to use his skills, which are all pretty cool. No doubt, part of the issue is that the resource system is new, and it’s still tough to know what the best use of all that fury is in the moment.

The other problem is that Renekton seems to be balanced around 1v1 fights where he is at or above his opponent’s level. In that situation he is very strong, much like Xin Zhao. His stun really cuts people up, especially if you’ve used a furious Dice, and a furious heal can be enough to keep you up against one target. Against multiple targets, though, you’re taking too much damage to even notice that heal.

It’s as though he was designed specifically to take second solo, which, when he can get it, is great. In the six or seven games I’ve played with him, though, I haven’t been solo. More often than not, I’ve been against strong ranged harass with another melee. When you’re the same level as multiple opponents and lower than the people ganking you, Renekton suffers like every melee toon. He’s easily kited despite his dash (the range is very short because he can do it twice if he hits someone) and often subjected to chain CC before he can even reach a target (or safety).

As for build, I’ve tried several things, but the thing I liked most so far is a Bloodthirster -> Trinity. Trinity is a little strange on him, but the added movespeed, health, and slow proc make a big difference for his gameplay. His cooldowns are long enough that you usually aren’t wasting the bonus damage procs, either.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say about him in a few days. I’ve been pretty busy with work and starting up a Minecraft server so I haven’t put quite as much time into studying him. This weekend I should be able to get a few more games and let you know how he feels.

If you’ve been wondering just how Renekton will feel in game, check out his Champion Spotlight above. He’s definitely looking very strong, with a playstyle a bit like Xin Zhao but with more mobility. That’s right, I said more mobility. Expect to get crushed by him today.

At one point, Phreak addresses an apparently OP little chain of events by saying, ‘remember that I have 2-5 levels on all my opponents and 6000 gold worth of items at 18 minutes.’ So…his farming potential is not overpowered? Remember when you said, ‘because you should always be able to heal yourself, you should be farming minions very quickly,’ at the middle of the video? I’m fine with the existence of melee carries, but we’re talking about a melee champion that got 110 minion kills in 12 minutes.

All of this really belongs in my impression post for later today, so I’ll leave you with this. I think Renekton is going to be exactly like Xin Zhao – extremely powerful, able to jungle, but much better in lane because he’s such a huge threat to his opponents.

It’s been a busy week, and I’m sad to say it has set me a little bit behind on my forum reading. I did get a little bit of time after dinner today to check out the recently announced ability list for Renekton, including his new resource system. Let’s dive in, shall we?

You can’t talk about Renekton without talking about the new resource system. Renekton uses ‘fury,’ which, from the sound of things, should work like most any warrior in any RPG you’d be familiar with. You hit stuff, you get fury. You use fury, you hit stuff harder. It’s a bit of an odd system for League of Legends, because you really need to be able to cast, even when you haven’t hit anything in a while. Riot deals with that by (as far as I can tell) making Renekton’s abilities free to use. By using them while he has enough fury, Renekton augments his abilities in some way. It seems a little confusing, but I’m sure it will make sense once I can play it.

I’ve interspersed my commentary with the ability list because there’s a lot to cover. My comments are in italics. Here’s the list:

Tyrant’s Reach: Renekton cleaves, dealing damage to nearby enemies and healing for 20% of the damage dealt. Each target hit grants 5 fury, up to 25. Heal amount is tripled against champions up to a hard cap.

When Renekton has more than 50 Fury he heals for a large portion of damage dealt. Consumes 50 Fury.

Few skills in LoL scream ‘jungler’ quite as loudly as this. With auto attacks generating fury along with that cleave he should be healing very quickly. The only way this isn’t a jungle skill is if it has a massive cooldown, but I doubt that. I know it is possible to jungle on Nasus (I do it myself here and there), but this skill will serve you much better in the early game than Siphon Strike.

Ruthless Predator: Renekton’s next attack will swing twice dealing a percentage of his Attack Damage as physical damage and stunning his target for a short time. Applies on-hit effects.

When Renekton has more than 50 Fury, his next attack will swing three times dealing a percentage of his Attack Damage and stunning his target for an increased duration. Consumes 50 Fury.

This is where Renekton gets the sticking power Nasus so badly needs (don’t you dare say ‘what about Wither’ – that skill is almost completely countered by Merc Treads). When coupled with the dash skill below and a Phage/Trinity Force/Frozen Mallet, Renekton will be attached to you like a facesucker on anything not named Sigourney Weaver. To me, this is basically a delayed auto attack reset, likely for slightly reduced damage. A reasonable combo would probably be Slice/Dice and if you’re over 50 fury, hit Ruthless Predator, if not, use his cleave/auto attacks to break 50, hit RP and finish your target.

Slice: Renekton dashes forward, dealing physical damage to targets along the way. If he hits a target he gains the ability to use Dice. .
Dice: Renekton dashes, dealing physical damage along the way.

When Renekton has more than 50 Fury during Dice, he deals 50% additional damage and shreds the armor of targets he hits. Consumes 50 Fury.

This is an interesting skill because it is probably the first hard counter to Flash in the game. If you Slice to a target and they Flash, you Dice to them again. Even Kassadin would have a hard time getting away if Renekton takes Flash. This skill is also your setup for everything else. Depending on the cooldown, I would guess you’ll take one rank of Slice/Dice and max the other two.

Dominus (Ultimate): Renekton empowers himself with dark energies, gaining increased size and health for 15 seconds. While empowered, he deals additional magic damage and generates bonus Fury every second.

Here we have the thematic tie to Nasus, as well as a defensive skill to add a little survivability. It’s strange that he deals bonus magic damage in this form. I’ve never liked it when Riot hybridizes a champion’s damage; it makes that champion very difficult to build against in an otherwise balanced team. Again, I wonder about the cooldown. I personally think Nasus’ ult CD should be half as long as it is, but maybe that’s just me. This guy has enough other high-impact skills that this one doesn’t have to be incredible (as an aside, it sucks to write that – this is his ult and as such it should be epic).

Reign of Anger (Passive): Renekton gains 10 Fury per autoattack. Having sufficient fury empowers Renekton’s abilities with bonus effects, but this drains Fury. Out of combat, Renekton loses 5 Fury per second.

When Renekton is below 40% life, he generates 50% more Fury.

Again, this is a case for Renekton as a jungler. Melee does not do well in lane as it is. The quick Fury decay means he needs to be auto attacking fairly often to keep enough available for use on champions. In a way, it’s sort of a beautiful system for a jungler. In the early game he’ll probably struggle to get to that 50 Fury during a gank. The Fury will decay while he’s positioning in the brush and he’ll need 4-5 auto attacks plus an ability or two to get to the 50-point stun from Ruthless Predator. With Slice/Dice and a mobility summoner spell, though, I could see him sticking to targets in the early game with or without Fury. We’ll see.

On the whole, I’m really interested to see how this guy turns out. It’s strange that Riot is releasing what appears to be a very strong jungler after it’s been mentioned several times by several people that they want to reduce the importance of jungling. That could mean jungling nerfs are getting close, but it could also be that pure melee toons thrive in the jungle because they get crippled in lane and there’s no easy way to fix it. Let’s hope it’s the former.