As anyone who knows me is probably aware of I used to be a massive Krul spammer, probably the most notorious one in EU at high tiers. However I feel pretty uncomfortable with the way he is in 5v5 for a few reasons;
One, his early game is disgusting and I mean disgusting, any hero who can get a red buff and pretty much get a guaranteed gank off, or stroll into the enemy jungle and go ham on some farm before proceeding to kill anyone who darest challenge his holiness the the farm with his free shiversteel is rather game-breaking. What you have with Krul is a hero who rushes a couple of damage items and is pretty much only killable by 3, 4 or 5 heroes before 10-15 minutes.
However what you also have with Krul is a hero who goes from omnipotent immortal Demi-god, to minor, irrelevant pest. I never thought I’d say this but Koshka scales into the late game SO much better than Krul, maintaining the ability to assassinate a squishy or kite a bruiser for the entire game while Krul is too easy to peel off.
The thing is with Krul is that he basically needs to be gaining more health than he is losing- he can’t avoid damage as he has to run in cavalier head first, and he can’t absorb that much as his barrier is destroyed by one heliogenesis or Gwen auto attack before his entire bar depletes in about 5 if either. 80% lifesteal just doesn’t cut it. Krul probably deals the least damage in the entire game when comparing equal amounts of gold, and his single target utility doesn’t really cut it either as going balls deep into 5 enemies will at best result in a trading of lives unless you’re snowballing hard.
So what can they do, well
Krul’s stickiness is way too much- it’s no fun to play against and doesn’t feel skilled to execute either, maybe have his perk duration scale with levels perhaps.
Krul can’t survive a late game team fight for his life, his lifesteal NEEDS to scale with levels of his B again- 5-8% per stack would be enough to make his early game decent while at least 12-15% would be required to see him sustaining through late game chaotic team fights, that or a ridiculously massive barrier so he actually felt like a bruiser but that seems uncounterable.
He’s easy as fuck early game, gaining complexity as he completes items and his ultimate; a late game spike from the changes above would make him much more skill based as every other early game hero like Koshka or Grumpjaw feels much more rewarding and difficult to execute.
Idk what everyone’s thoughts are, I think I’m correct and have heard similar opinions on him from ttigers etc but yeah he’s a tough one to balance due to his kit
I think that they really need to nerf his early game potential and buff his late game potential like you. Also, they should change it that slow doesn’t stack or he’d have a 55 or 65% slow for an entire 2s +.
To be fair there is no hero that can sustain well in the late game unless he snowballs even Alpha who is basically unkillable in the early game drops like fly in a 5v5 teamfight if the gold is even. The issue with tanks is more with the items, there is no defensive item that scales well in the game it’s the reason why metal jacket is built first on top laners we need an item that gives damage reduction imo.
I agree Krul’s stickiness is too much and his nerf wasn’t enough. I can’t complain about him dropping like a fly in 5v5 late game because everyone does. I’ve been saying this but defense overall needs a buff. When you go into a team fight with 4 dps with 4 damage items you’re going to die instantly no matter your defense items.
I’m happy with how he plays, his early game dominance descends into late game irrelevance as he is blown up… I don’t see how you can ever balance this, in team fight his mechanics will need him to be running into the mix and from their he’ll be CC kited to death. Good teams need to abuse his early game power spikes, bad teams won’t and they’ll lose.
Idk about Krul being UP. He’s meant to be stronger 1v1 and melt vs. multiple opponents, which is what happens. This isn’t ideal with more enemies, but he’s meant to pick off rather than engage groups.
Compared to Krul? Krul is single target, it makes sense, whereas Flicker has a massive radius in comparison. Grumpjaw? There’s a reason why he’s the best jungler in the game right now.
I think they nerfed it because defense builds can be overwhelming when stacked and combined with proc builds. They were probably trying to find a way to solve that issue without nerfing proc builds.
Oh and one major thing to add- his B is shit, everyone builds aegis therefore an ability dealing crystal damage on a wp hero (who can’t build bm bjt still relies on some cp damage) is bound to fall off hard (maybe make it wp damage or grant it some shield pierce )