Reign of Gaming

And I really hope they don't follow through with nerfing Renekton. He is the exact same champ, and has been since season 2, where he was considered a weak pick until the end. Riot seriously only touched the % armor shred. That was the last change done to him (aside from a couple bug fixes), and this occured when Draven was released nearly 2 years ago. The only reason I see that made him great was the better itemization available to him once Season 3 hit. Really,the only thing that made him stand out were the phases of the meta: League of Cleaver, where you could stack Cleavers and blow people up (Renekton loves Cleaver), then League of Warmogs, where he fit in due to getting a massive health steroid from his ult, to the most recent meta, where it was manaless tanky tops that could win simply through base damages. And still, Renekton has stuck around, and will continue to stick around, provided he doesnt get nerfed into the ground first.

LONG LIVE THE INTERIOR CROCODILE ALLIGATOR!

Renekton is balanced: strong, but not completely overpowering to the point of warping the game around him. People complain about his sustain, but his sustain was only amazing due to Doran's Shield and how strong the Defense tree was. Now that they both have been nerfed, the only way for Renekton to sustain is to go up to the minions, expose himself to attack, and Q. To get the most benefit from it, he needs to hit the most enemies possible, which likely means going into the middle of the enemy wave. Sufficient punishment can zone Renekton away, and deny him his sustain. 

On another point, the only reason Renekton may seem overpowered at the moment is just due to the fact that he has remained untouched while his usual counters have been nerfed around him: Kayle, Teemo, Jayce, Elise, and Shen have all been hit pretty hard over the past year (Mordekaiser is also a counter, and he hasn't been nerfed, but he has other issues). The other tanky, manaless tops that were popular for Season 4 (Mundo, Shyvana, and Rengar) were all hit on some way by nerfs. So far, the only top laners that can truly stand toe to toe throughout laning phase with him are Olaf, Darius, Trundle, and Garen. Jax, Irelia, and Nasus can too, but suffer early on (until around level 9). Jayce may be making a comeback soon, due to DShield nerfs and the Tear buffs, so he can be back to deal with Renekton. 

This is a similar case to Ezreal, back around the time PFE came out: when the AD Carry Caster trinity of Graves, Corki, and Ezreal was dominant, the two others were nerfed, until Ezreal stood alone as the best ADC of Season two (until Draven). He was everywhere, but only came to prominence due to the void created from his peers falling from power, similarly to how Renekton is now.

Great. No more Mundo. I felt like if I didn't pick Renekton against him, he would be like a time bomb: I had to try to secure a kill against him pre-6, or the lane would be a wash, kinda like Singed, but SO MUCH BEEFIER. And in all seriousness, I really like where the top lane is going. I hated always having to rush Sunfire Cape against the other guy because that was what he was doing, and if I didn't get it first, I would just end up losing lane due to not being able to really dent the other guy. Now, as a Renekton main, I can go and start building the croc the way I always felt like he should in lane: Get damage early (Tiamat/Brutalizer), murder the other guy, then start tanking up for teamfights, be a god of carnage, and break the other team's squishies over your knee.

Other than shen i really gotta disagree with this. Equal skill Renekton should never lose his lane ever, its not about how the opposition plays, its just about how renekton plays. He crushes Pantheon and Jayce because they are both carries, and Renekton can just outtrade them from those all important early levels. They also have pretty hefty mana costs and no sustain on their kits.

The other issue is that Pantheon top lane is strong, but not in this matchup. Pantheon gated by his mana costs. All good Pantheons know that a level 1 Q is pretty bad, since it does very little damage for its mana cost. I wouldn't begin really spamming them until I get a second point in Q, because the mana cost is the same, but the damage goes up, making it much more efficient. But the earliest this happens is at level 3, and by that point, Renekton will have all three skills, which, when used in conjunction with each other, are much stronger than the two skills Pantheon would have at this point (if he picked up level 2 Q, then he would have to pick pick either his W or E. And by doing so, you miss out on having your stun or extra damage). In addition, Pantheon's main strength (and the reason why he is picked mid and jungle) is his global presence: by going top lane, you can really only use the ult to affect mid lane, or the enemy top jungle, whereas a Midtheon or Jungle Panth can gank any lane at anytime post 6. As a side note, for laning, Panth doesn't hit the power spike that Renekton does at 6, since Panth's ult is pretty useless for lane fighting, but Renekton can fully make use of his. 

In a way, I guess you can say Panth is like a harder-hitting, melee TF, since both characters really only use 2 skills for the bulk of their damage, and have a stun and global ult to make plays in other lanes. 

It's because they don't counter each other hard, and they're still really strong ... There's not a reason to switch it out if you're playing to win lane and not basing it around some specific team comp. 

I do however think that in the current meta, Veigar support would be very strong. He starts with relic shield so he can build Q stacks without stealing CS, he has a potent AoE stun / disengage that isn't as hard to land as Morgana's nor as limiting as Annie's... AND he becomes a very strong counter to Morgana, Annie, and any other AP support once he hits 6. Top all that off with the longer length of games due to all the antisnowballing mechanics and Veigar becomes a very appealing support.

Mark my words. Veigar support will be a thing in the LCS this season.

Just wanting to point out something since looks like you didn't notice:

the patch 4.3 only was enabled on the NA Super Week, the EU LCS still played on the 4.2, so all the data taking the european into account could be biased.

Very limited data for any conclusions. 

 

`Without Doran’s Shield as a safe start available to them, he now beatsShyvana and Mundo in lane hard enough to snowball a huge advantage. Shyvana was matched up against Trundle 5 times, going 1-2 with Doran’s Shield, and 1-1 with Cloth Armor.´

So Trundle wins one game more (in 5 games 1 of the 2 should win more often) and trundle now beats shyvana? Especially if you consider that a game isn't decided by one lane's matchup, and skill differences are also not negligible.  Seems pretty even to me.

Tough Renekton deserves a nerf. He rules top sinces worlds. I don't know if he is thát op, but some variety would be lovely. Ryze isn't the most exiting champ to watch, but I am happy he is back.

If you take into account the professionals are all the best of the best, and generally have very similar skill levels (you will literally never see them feed another), it becomes very dependent on champions and objective control. The item changes may have a small sample so far, but his predictions seem pretty sound.