Journey Boots

So after a match I noticed the sheer dominance Journey Boots is having on the meta. It’s probably also the biggest reason why WP Adagio is so oppressive currently in addition to his insane range and B (Literally a 100% wr in my games whether he is on my team or the enemy team not including a thrower in one match). I do feel its current effect is just far too strong and the dominance of several WP heroes like Ringo and Adagio only exaggerates the power of Journey Boots. Being able to have a 9 second CD long duration dash nullifies many heroes’ weaknesses like Adagio’s who should have little mobility to compensate for the power of the rest of their kit.

I think Journey Boot’s ability should be similar to Baron’s B. Reduce the cd for each basic attack that way you can’t just have it active over a single AA which is abused very heavily right now and WP carries can still benefit over it when Journey Boots was CLEARLY meant for them while being more fair than the old effect. It should still have above average CD for the tier 3 boots since it will be up often with that ability though. I believe that would be far healthier than a 10 meter dash every 9 seconds.

The main reason for his strength is his ability to out sustain and out damage everyone, which is only punished by his low mobility. He can also beat most divers that should naturally counter a ranged hero, like reza, thanks to that ultimate. This is all of course, amplified by the JB.

What? He isn’t even top 3 as bot laner.

It’s not a dash, it’s a speed boost, so you can still be slowed. It doesn’t have 9s cooldown, it’s 12s.

Rip mages or any bruiser buying it.

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Maybe dominance is not the correct word for Ringo, but the item itself definitely is dominating the meta rn

My mistake about the CD. EIther way it’s still an extra low CD movespeed buff

I don’t think that’s inherently a bad thing. Bruisers still have gap closers and mages can choose whether or not they want a sprint to be up faster than usual or the energy and CD reduction chargers provides instead of abusing the current Journey Boots effect.

That’s a problem with their kits. They’re already weak with the current JB. They’ll become weaker with the rest of the JB abusers. No way to really avoid something like that. They need buffs to their own kits

Tbh I am gonna disagree here. Ringo is not at all on the weaker side. Many high tiers would probably put him in high mid tier at WORST right now. He’s in a great spot. Also, with his high attack speed, he should be able to quickly charge up his JB between fights with the change I proposed, allowing him to escape ganks or have it ready for a fight.

I agree. I think journey boots should have lower cooldown and affect AA rates as well. The current design assists AA but is not AA focused, like HC is focused on utility without abilities.

You want it nerfed because all bot laners buy it? Then nerf the HC because all mid laners buy it and nerf WT because all captains/utility heroes build it. I don’t find JB op at all, they are just useful.

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It’s not just journey boots. Both Halcyon chargers and Journey boots are becoming high priority by on almost every carry.

I’d even argue halcyon chargers are more prevelant in mid lane builds since it fills your energy needs a skill well.

That’s a strawman. I never considered Idris CP mid top tier and I never really heard anyone saying Idris was gonna dominate. RIngo may be a bit weaker than say Adagio or Kinetic, but imo the gap in their power is not too huge and Ringo’s A is pretty good rn for ganking and his burst is real.

No. I want it nerfed because carries are ABUSING its ridiculously strong effect. WP carries do not care too much for chargers since JB benefits their playstyle more, but mages can also abuse an AA centric item without having to focus on AAs and mitigate their biggest weakness and just build other energy items. The change I proposed again, could still work on mages, but without keeping it stupidly easy to use like it is now which allows mages to just use their boots whenever cause their boots CD is 12 seconds. WT and HC are not necessarily fair comparisons too due to the fact that they have meaningful CDs.

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What carries? Bot laners and that’s it. What do you mean exactly by “abusing”?

Yet basically 4/5 of the players use them over JB.

How? Any mage that’s basic attacking it’s playing the hero bad except if it’s Varya.

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I too feel that Journey boots could use a little tinkering. Perhaps a reduction to 15s cooldown. Also, I’m not sure where the 9 and 12 numbers are coming from. It clearly says it refreshes your CD to 10 if it’s higher than that.

I agree with points about mages not benefiting from an AA based structure. Change it to 15.

The 12 comes from me remembering it wrong XD

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We both remembered it wrong oof

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I gotta agree with @NinjaBryden.

Many times as a cp carry have I considered getting JBs. Some times, like on Reim, it was worth it. The reality is that JBs assist every hero, be it cp, wp, or defense. HCs on the other hand only assist in creating massive distance over time, which is essential to ranged cp ranged carries and optional to skill based captains, but does not benefit anyone else. Where WTs are concerned, multiple wts only benefit a coordinates team, therefore, in totality, you are more likely to see JBs in a given match based on certain criteria. This impetrates the need for balance.

Well you could get jbs on someone like grace or phinn if you were on a coordinated team and your ranged carry decided to pick wts up for you, and some heroes like anka have a ‘dash’ but benefit from jbs more than hcs. So does baptiste as cp. I wouldn’t say that rule strictly applies, and as in graces or phinns case, it actually benefits them more as capt if your ranged carry can use wt because it frees them to be more aggressive with their positioning and apply pressure with abilities in ways they wouldn’t be able to without a dash, while ranged carries are likely to sit behind with the team anyway and might utilize cw naturally in their build to actually get wts off cooldown more often.

Most of that is true. Again, situationally you could actually utilize jb on some captains to get them in and out of positions better if they have close range abilities, regardless of whether people usually do it. Anka is not a melee hero. She has her execute but is not usually attempting to melee until she has enemies down enough health, and her B has so much range as to put her in danger in teamfights, not to mention her C is most dmging if used to initiate into a team rather than away from, so jb helps her immensly.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with a ranged carry buying wts. They usually backline with the team anyway. Just because it isn’t done often doesn’t mean it is detrimental to them depending on your playstyle.

And thus, every hero who draws power from the shiny blue rock all instantly died.

You are right, she is a long ranged back line mage.

So because she has a ranged ability she is no longer melee? That means that Baptiste, Reim, krul, San Feng, Tony, reza, yates, phin and Catherine are melee… I’ve been tricked my whole life!

There is everything wrong with a carry building WT. the amount of kitting you are losing is extremely important. There is no carry that can benefit from going in and out, which offers a lot more than WT do to them. Adagio, Silvernail and Vox use it as a core item, Ringo needs it due to his lack of scape, Gwen needs it to go in and out and not burn her B, kinetic needs it to reposition or kite to use any of her abilities, baron needs it to compensate his slow movement speed and abuse his double attack without being punished. There is no carry that benefits from WT.

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17 posts were split to a new topic: Classification of Heroes

Inara is one of the most mobile heroes in the game, and she still benefits from :vgitem_journeyboots:. She can alternate them with her Ult and her B to be effectively running around at enhanced speed for an entire fight (bonus points for :vgitem_pulseweave:). Inara can also benefit from :vgitem_halcyonchargers: and :vgitem_wartreads: though, so I don’t see it as a problem.

I think that where there is a problem with :vgitem_journeyboots:, it’s that there is often no downside to buying them, or no reason to buy something else. If a hero is too powerful with JB, then maybe their energy use should be tweaked so that they are encouraged to build HC as an alternative. Ranged WP carries should typically feel a little limited if they don’t build either Spellsword or Halcyon Chargers — if they want to go without energy regen then they should typically run out of energy before they can use their A, B, and Ult in a fight.

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