Undead executioner Urgot seems like he’s already feeling the effects of one rework too many. A rolling mass of patchworked grey skin and steel grafts, he looks every bit the zombie nazi commander on his third trip back from the other side.
But Riot have plans to tweak the Headsman’s Pride one more time, to address some “substantial game health issues” and make Urgot one of the more accessible League of Legends champions for beginners.
To quote LoL lore: “We can rebuild him. We have the techmaturgy.”
Riot lead champion designer Meddler admitted last year that Urgot had “fallen out of sight” after a round of nerfs. Frankly, he said at the time, the concept of a reanimated undead monstrosity with scythes for hands and anger behind the eyes deserves better – and now Riot are finally willing to talk about some of the changes they’re considering.
Urgot is the “next major rework” Riot’s champion balance team have on their calendar. He’s due a full visual update, rewritten lore, and some “really big” kit changes – and might well see some smaller reworks before then.
Riot want to tackle Urgot’s update slowly – they’re concerned that throwing “raw power” at him will leave him in the same problematic state that necessitated those nerfs in the first place. The first set of changes will therefore target “feel and clean up”.
“Assuming these don’t spike his power substantially we’ll then look into whether there are some other safe buffs we can throw his way too,” said Meddler at the weekend. “To be clear however Urgot’s still got some substantial game health issues in his kit.”
Meddler said the dev team were considering changing Urgot’s shield, so that it scaled with mana instead of AP.
“Doing so would offer some additional build distinction for Urgot and supports using Tear, which I feel is fun and synergizes well with the Q refund change if that sticks,” he explained. “Potential downsides are a risk of forcing Urgot down a single build path [and] a lack of appropriate mana items to support such a passive.”
Elsewhere, Meddler seemed hesitant to enact some other player suggestions, either because they constituted a “power spike” or, in the case of increased range, threatened to turn Urgot into a generic Attack Damage Carry.
Whatever the eventual changes Riot bring to Meddler, expect them to come slow and steady. When was the last time you played as this particular reanimated undead monstrosity?
Thanks, Reign of Gaming.