Every once in a while League of Legends players find the one item or the one champion that can take over the game at any given moment if played correctly. It becomes even more dangerous when both the item and the champion work in tandem, and that's the situation players find themselves in today.
That's where Hullbreaker comes in, an item that could be considered extremely dominating in the top lane has broken through and not only does it give wielders strong baseline stats but it makes it so no tower or inhibitor can stand a chance.
With that being said, here's how Hullbreaker is a problem in League and what Riot's done so far to combat it.
Hullbreaker breaks top lane meta
Ever since its release in Patch 11.13, Hullbreaker was a less than ideal item, one that only split pushing champions would use. Originally added in the game to take down towers early with its massive stat offerings, the item just wasn't used as much as Riot had hoped... until pro players finally got their hands on it.
Similar to the top lane Enchanter meta with the likes of Janna top with smite that was partly dealt with in LoL 12.4, Hullbreaker has arrived to push top lane gameplay back into broken chaos.
In combination with LoL 12.1's changes to Teleport that made it so it can only be used to their respective lane until the 14th minute,
As it stands, at 2800 gold, Hullbreaker offers champions 50 attack damage, 400 health, and 150% base health regeneration, but what players look after the most is its passive: Boarding Party.
Boarding Party makes it so the wielder of Hullbreak gains 20-60 bonus armor and bonus magic resistance and 20% increased bonus damage to structures when alone. That's not all as this buff also extends to nearby allied siege minions and super minions who gain 60-180 bonus armor and bonus magic resistance and deal 200% bonus damage against structures.
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In the past few weeks, Hullbreaker has become a very popular item in pro play, making it an auto-default first or second item in most top lane build paths. As an item, Hullbreaker can get to 200% gold efficiency at Level 18, and even if the wielder was to get near his allies, they can still benefit from the strong baseline stats.
Due to the fact that the item is not locked to just melee champions, other champions like Graves can take its use to the next level, combining it with his True Grit passive making him as tanky as a Sion in duel scenarios.
That's not all as not only are the pros taking advantage of this item, but players in the League of Legends ranked ladder are abusing Hullbreaker on champions like Urgot, Quinn, Jayce, Akshan, and Vayne as well.
LoL 12.5 Hullbreaker nerfs aren't enough
After a broken top lane meta for some time, yet another new problem has forced Riot's hand quickly. With that, Riot is implementing the following Hullbreaker nerfs:
- Decreased resistances gained for ranged champions: 20-60 ⇒ 10-30
- Unchanged for melee champions
- Decreased resistances gained for large minions near ranged champions: 60-180 ⇒ 30-90
- Unchanged for melee champions
This fix will come in LoL 12.5, which will look to correct Hullbreaker with some significant nerfs.
The change will reduce its effectiveness on ranged top laners like Graves, Urgot, Quinn, and others. This alteration will make it so the resistance buff granted will be halved from 20-60 armor and magic resist to 10-30 scaling based on level.
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These are fairly significant nerfs to the item but in reality, the item will still be more than effective on melee champions, this just makes it so ranged champions that are susceptible to lots of damage might have to think twice about grabbing it.
These nerfs will hit some champions harder than others, mainly Urgot, to which Riot Phlox added, that they "will have eyes on" for possible buffs down the line.
Although these nerfs to Hullbreaker aren't backbreaking in the way many players might want, they're a great sign, and could be the start to another chain of nerfs in LoL 12.6.