OK - so we know some nerfs are inbound on pbe for a few of our juggernaut pals, which is good. I want to talk a bit about those juggernauts, but 1st - the team builder experience atm is not such a hoot. Those project skins are resulting in fiora/yi most games. So, we end up with 2 super snowbally folks in most games. This is quite problematic, as it only takes a few weak people to turn snowballers into potential giants (and its teambuilder, so you have to go into blind pick assuming you need hard cc at least). Anyway, tb not quite as fun atm, but that will die down.
Also - fun fact - folks that play blind pick generally don't just pick those "op" champs we typically ban. As they get to play that crap whenever, you are less likely to see them in blind pick - in my experience anyway. Note - I'm talking blind pick here and not team builder (blind pick).
Oh - and I think skarners in a pretty reasonable place now. He's definitely been toned down a bit - not sure if he UP or not. Hopefully not as its... you know... nice to see variety in the jungle.
Championship skins vs victorious skins - I was getting really annoyed with folks asking about what the victorious skin was going to be, when we already know that championship kalista is on pbe. Oh well, so I'm slow. We still have an unannounced victorious skin to be released.
Back to juggernauts - or I guess lets's focus on one in particular - darius. So, for those that don't know (you prob should), darius is particularly strong because he can build full tank and not only do a bunch of damage, but that stupid heal enables him way too much. Rito's goal was obviously to help him survive and reduce some of the kitability, but the values are way too high. As in, if you play your crap right, unless the other team is well fed (or his team is stupid...), the odds of him being alive long enough to deal major damage and tank major damage go through the roof. Now, when I think of juggernauts, I think of giant tanks that can just roll over you. As in they do exactly what darius is doing - get tanky and crush. Where I think the real problem is (outside of the ridiculous STACKING heal stats (30% max health), is that he does not need to snow ball all that much to become a lane bully. For as much mid/late game power that he has, its incredibly way too cheap without much in the way of trade offs.
Anyway, I said there are some nerfs on pbe - darius' GIANT heal % of 15% per champion hit is dropping to 12%. This is valuable during gank situations potentially. BUT.... and here's where rito loses me again - they are currently BUFFING his total % heal to 36% of his hp. So, if he hits 3 people and he has 2k hp, that's 720 hp restored. And if he's actually super tanked up with 4k hp (1440 vs the 1200 he would have gotten before). The good news is that his mana cost is slightly up so now its ACTUALLY POSSIBLE TO RUN OUT OF MANA. Fun fact.. it was not possible before. Did I mention that his q is on a 9/8/7/6/5 second cool down without cdr. Oh, and there is no debuff timer for that heal applied, so he can heal quite a bit during fights. It's kind of stupid.
Speaking of other stupid - mord. Now, I actually think mord is rather weak and find him more annoying than anything else. I kind of think he was just tossed out as a joke really... but it sadly eats up bans. I mean, he can take and use the drake. Stupid. Can he be dealt with? Sure. Can't remember the last game I lost to a mord in tb or draft. Does he still get banned because folks just don't want to deal with it? Yeah. So, mostly I'm annoyed to have to ban a POS gimmick. His damage is quite real (and ridiculous on that 3rd aa), but he's easy to deal with in lane and in game imo. often even if you have folks feeding him. Compare that to other champs when fed that become actual nightmares. He's just this slow moving turd that was buffed foolishly to try to make him viable in lane... seriously - that full XP buff for shared lane experience to ensure he's stronger than the other folks in lane. Idiotic balancing.