League Of Legends' Most Unsatisfying Ultimates
Since Kayn started ripping up the jungle on the Rift, players were excited to start demolishing [...]
Since Kayn started ripping up the jungle on the Rift, players were excited to start demolishing some ADCs with the assassin's ultimate ability, Umbral Trespass. During the champion's spotlight video that showcased his abilities, the ultimate was said to have "massive damage," something that didn't quite hold up when Kayn was revealed.
Champion designer DanielZKlein explained what the deal was with the not-so-massive damage, though, saying that it's more about utility and less about tons of damage.
"Its base is pretty low for an ult (150/250/350), but the scaling is quite decent at 1.1 bonus AD," Klein said during the AMA about Kayn. "But you're right: for an ult, that's pretty damn low damage. So much of Umbral Trespass's power budget is in its 2.5s of untargetability and the fact you move with the enemy champion."
And that's totally understandable to have the power moved towards the utility of the ult instead of damage, but it was still a letdown for an assassin's "massive damage" output.
Kayn isn't the only champion that suffers from this dilemma, though, as there are plenty of other champions such as the ones listed here whose ultimates are equally underwhelming.
Tryndamere: Undying Rage
Tryndamere can be a serious pain to play against depending on how long the game progresses. He'll split push your lanes until something gives, and no matter how many times you kill him, you'll see him waltzing back down the lane in no time at all to try again. His ultimate makes killing him even more difficult, but for the user, using it feels almost as bad as facing it.
The Barbarian King is one of the older champs in the game and hasn't been looked at in a while, so he gets some leeway with his lackluster ultimate, but it still doesn't change the fact that it feels lame to use. Amid auto attacking, crits, mocking enemies, and spinning around, his ultimate simply allows him to keep doing those things for a few more seconds.
It could give him enough time to burst down the rest of an inhibitor or perhaps turn on his attackers, but with how much CC every champ brings to the game now, it mostly just delays the inevitable.
prevnextTahm Kench: Abyssal Voyage
Tahm Kench certainly has his place in a team as a strong support — or even a viable top laner and jungler if you're feeling a bit different — but his team utility is perhaps part of the downfall that makes his ultimate feel more like a summoner spell and less like a level six power spike.
While he excels at removing his ADCs and other teammates from peril with his Devour, his ultimate, Abyssal Voyage, can feel like a glorified Teleport at times with a trade-off of reduced range for the benefit of not needing a ward or other object to target.
It's got the potential to make big plays, but without proper team coordination, you either have people walk right past your ultimate, or you end up getting the wrong teammate to come with you when trying to take objectives. If nothing else, it excels at cutting off choke points in the jungle or getting you and a teammate out of trouble if you can cast it quick enough.
prevnextDr. Mundo: Sadism
Poor Dr. Mundo seems to be getting some attention lately with a recently updated lore and some changes to his abilities currently being tested on the PBE, but his fast-healing ultimate unfortunately isn't one of the abilities that's getting any love.
Sadism is one of the core parts of Mundo's kit that allows him to regain lost health while expending his own life force to toss some cleavers, but it feels pretty awful to have such an integral part of his identity be destroyed by items like Executioner's Calling, a weapon that only costs a measly 800 gold.
We've seen self-healing champions have issues elsewhere — looking at you, Aatrox — but until Dr. Mundo gets some kind of update, his ultimate will likely continue to cause Mundo the pain that he enjoys so much.
prevnextKindred: Lamb's Respite
Kindred suffers from a combination of factors mentioned with the previous champions' ultimates that causes their ultimate, Lamb's Respite, to appear on this list of underwhelming abilities.
Like Tryndamere's ult, Kindred's protective aura that they put down around the champion simply allows everyone around them to keep on keepin' on. When Kindred was first released, there were complaints that their ultimate, like Bard's, was un-fun to play against and with because it halted gameplay. This reasoning isn't unlike Tryndamere's issues with his ult aside from it affecting more than just one champion.
Similar to Tahm Kench's ultimate, this one also requires a certain level of teamwork as opposed to others' ultimates. The whole point of Lamb's Respite is to keep you and your allies alive, and without proper communication, the high-cooldown ability will be wasted as teammates walk out of the aura or don't properly chain CC to get enemies out of it.
prevnextPantheon: Grand Skyfall
For an ability that's got as much build-up as Pantheon's Grand Skyfall, the end result of the ultimate certainly doesn't feel worth the wait.
The ultimate is a powerful zoning tool since it practically takes up the entire width of the lane, but unfortunately, that's probably how it's going to end up being used. Either that, or like Tahm's it'll get you where you need to be in a hurry.
If you can manage to land the ultimate on top of a teamfight, especially on those closer to the center, you'll deal some impressive magic damage for a physical damage champ. It deals up to 1,000 damage at max rank and slows those who are caught in ability to allow for a quick Aegis of Zeonia follow-up, but that's assuming that the champions haven't dashed out of the way yet like most of them can do now.
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