Rengar is the newest champion in League of Legends. And he is pretty straight forward. During my first games with him, I lived streamed it. And it went decently well, later live streams of LoL will work out smoother.
Do no watch anyone of this vidoes-_- I just linked them here if you got nothing better to do. My first live stream of LoL. So its not a very good quality. Especially not the first, However, if you want to hear my direct first impression go ahead.
First thing I want to say about Rengar is that I think the tooltip of his unique item Bonetooth necklace. Should be improved for a more coherent design. Currently it is a really nice Aesthetic touch how it changes icon at the item location(users stash), but the user will also see the Bonetooth icon above her/his abilities: The buff bar. And here it says only the number of stacks. That one should change accordingly to the item icon, and possibly it could display the current buffs the items gives, while the item version should stay the same and display all the current and possibly later buffs.
Rengar really reminds me of Leonin and other cat people in Magic the gathering, which wizard introduced in the mirriodin expansion. I think its becuase of the white mane, but also the overall attidue, the whole pride thing.
Rengar really reminds me of Leonin and other cat people in Magic the gathering, which wizard introduced in the mirriodin expansion. I think its becuase of the white mane, but also the overall attidue, the whole pride thing.
Prideful cat warriors in Magic.
I mean Cat warriors are pridefull seems to be a theme.
They even have this equipment: the bolas, like Rengar’s third ability Bola Strike.
One more thing all this kitties with pride makes me think about is of course
Kitty pryde of the x-men,
Aesthetics:
I like Rengar, hes commentary works good with his character. I really like the feel of the leap ability, note I mean how it looks. The user get this faded circle around, indicating the leap distance and it feels kinda stealthy. This part is really nice, then that he is a hunter, he looks like a hunter talks like a hunter (in that stereotypically nice way we gamers want). And this in conjunction with his own unique item that gets stack from kills its a great coherency. Then all the abilities also fits very well, first a classic damage increase, the roar, the hunter weapon and Bolas are pretty cool. However what I really like is the ultimate. The ultimate gives the user another vision, which is more red’ish, and it also gives this heartbeat sounds. This is a great modeless feedback, which is rare in games. It reminds me of Vanquish a game with amazing modeless feedback. Overall I really like the feel of Rengar. One thing it I don't like its this really good feel is at its prime at 14 stack of Bonetooth necklace, then you can always argue and say well that makes it more worth having max stack. And this is true but on the same time, to me he is really starts to feel right at 9 stacks - increased leap. However that is more in the gameplay problem (mainly balance).
9/10 - Especially I like the ultimate.
Gameplay:
Rengar is clearly an intended jungler. I have to say right away I surprisingly like Rengar a lot, I thought he was gonna be another no brain melee champion but its a really nice way how high is damage is but he cant really take so much damage so its really important to prowl after the weak targets.
But OK, first his roles, it is still kinda boring he wont work as anything else expect jungle. While it is possible to play him top now, I am sure he will be reduced in damage and then that wont work. I have tested him several games as both top and jungler and there seems to be very few champion he can handle top. To play Rengar effectively you have to use the bushes a lot, so mid is obviously not gonna work. Then he do have high burst damage but not high overall damage (except late game) so its hard being 1v1 top or being 2v2 bot. However appearing and ganking people doing all your skills to do high burst that works very well.
Rengars first skill is really his passive its very interesting. Rengar don't have a passive its more a fight ability, and that's what I want more abilities less boring passives. However his special unique item, is a passive ability on it. So its more like he actually have a passive the Bonetooth necklace and then he have 5 abilities but 1 less item sloth. Great with some diversity from other champions.
OK lets start analyzing his “passive” then the Bonetooth necklace. At first glance it works like the know items, Mejai's soul stealer, Sword of occult and Leviathan . These 3 and Bonetooth increases from kills and assist and drops stack by death of the user. However Bonetooth is vastly different the user only gains 1 stack even on kills, which might be to low. It do takes quite some time to build 9 stack where it really counts. However while the 3 normal items makes the user lose 33% of the stack at a death, Bonetooth only reduces with 1. So clearly if it would grow quicker it would be to strong.
Still this is really hard to say and I am sure Riot games have tested this back and forth. Because Rengar don't gain more damage from Bonetooth( well ok slightly from 3 stacks) but its more that he gains improved ability. So getting Bonethooth is really important and you should buy it eventually. But getting high stack on it. Its a vastly different buff then having the other items. Basically it makes Rengar be able to get to people quicker, the 6 stack is increased Movement speed and 9 stack is the leap distance, while 14 stack boosts the ultimates duration. All these 3 buffs are basically to make the user reach the opponents carry easier.
You don't have to get the Bonetooth necklace, I will recommend that you do. The hard part as a player is to know when to get the Bonetooth I would say. However it is not like the 3 other stack items, as it only loses 1 stack per death. It can be bought while the team is not in the lead, and you can still gain stacks. I think this is really good otherwise it would be a pretty bad “passive” if you couldn't really utilize it if the team is not going good enough. So ignore that, what I am talking about is more when, to get it. When its the correct item decision, 800 gold could mean be better shoes, more damage etc. Still you don't want it to late as then it will be very late when you have a lot of stacks. I can’t give you an answer (this is not a guide) I might be able to after another 20+ games. But that's what I like with it, its a dynamic item/passive.
Unseen Predator is Rengar’s “passive”. But as mentioned it is really an ability. Its actually pretty simply, Rengar gain a leap for his normal attack if he is in the bushes. As mentioned this looks really cool, and it can be stacked with his Q ability Savagery, as Savagery is a self cast buff increasing the next basic attack and boosting the attack speed by whooping 50%. So these 2 abilities are clearly in synergy. The player charges up Q before jumping someone at a gank normally. One thing I like about Unseen Predator is that Rengar will keep doing it to people that run in bushes when he is in a bush himself, this means he can for example flash inside a bush and then leap to them if they are on the other side of the bush or that you can get off multiple leaps as they are running slowed in a bush. This creates a dynamic where suddenly always running into bushed to escape is not always the best choice.
And this is really good, a champion that mix up the normal gameplay.
His third ability is Battle roar ( it is really not much to say about Savagery). Battle roar is clearly indicated to be used in jungle, it do give some sustainability to top as well. Battle roar does moderately to low damage but gives armor and magic resistance. Making jungler easier. And of course workable when you gank people.
His fourth ability is the Bola Strike, which also is pretty straight forward it in itself, it does damage and slows the target for 2.5 seconds.
However Rengar has his own game resource called ferocity which makes him gameplay be very much more complicated. Which I like of course. Its time the user uses an ability he gains 1 stack it goes to 5. Having 1-4 stack gives you nothing expect the fact that its better being at 4 then 1. Without this game resource Rengar would be so boring, like give him mana and remove the last passive bonus--- would be sad. But now instead its a great design, because reaching 5 means the user can use any of his abilities right away(expect the ultimate) regardless of their cooldown. And with added bonus. The added bonus is of course important so its a very hard choice sometimes what will be the best to use. Q means its much more damage, W means you gain back 15% of max HP so using Battle roar while jungeling alone is kinda obvious. And E roots the opponent for 1 second and then slows them.
But what I like the most with this is that it gives a way to double an ability. By gaining 5 stacks in jungle and then ganking you can first root-slow them and them slow them again as soon as the slow goes away, or you can jump in and do a super strong Q attack followed by another pretty strong Q attack to do insane burst damage.
And all this is even more important as the ultimate gives the user a full max ferocity and Rengar becomes stealthed for a short duration. However he can also leap to anyone during the stealth duration and he can see everyone. This makes ti so easy to jump on their carry and then take the decisions of - do I need to go max damage or should I slow so the other who are close and kill etc. To me it feels like playing Rengar is pretty straight forward but on the same time you need a really feel of the game flow. Its a lot about finding the weak targets, either people who are alone which you can solo or people that with your double CC will be caught off guard of the rest of the team. And his ultimate has a really shot cooldown at level 3. Which is great it makes late game battle be so much about finding your prey and kill them and run to the next weak prey.
Furthermore because of the use of ferocity it feels like you have a combo meter when you play him. So jungleing feels more enjoyable. Maybe I am jumping on the bandwagon of “new is always better” (Stinson B, 2010). Rengar currently for me is by far the funniest jungler to play late game. And early game one of the best.
So based on jungle gameplay and by a lot of nice aesthetic touches. I will give him
10/10 - you will definitely see me play him more in League of Legends.
