Seasons ago, Riot games began a chain of class reworks that would alter League of Legends drastically each time they hit the scene. The first of these major updates came in the form of the juggernaut update, which saw changes to Darius, Garen, Skarner, and Mordekaiser. When this class rework was announced, Riot created a distinct identity for juggernauts: High Damage, low mobility team oriented carries capable of overpowering an opponent in the early game.

Keeping in theme with this idea, the available list of juggernauts ranging from Nasus with his stack happy top lane pushing dominance, to Illaoi and Trundle with their near unmatched fighting presence, juggernauts have always found a home in League as the melee powerhouses they have been. This was always the defining feature of juggernauts: Melee champions, mid to low mobility, and (aside from a few exceptions such as Skarner and Udyr) a heavy focus on soft crowd control instead of hard stuns and lock downs.

This was a formula that has been effective for the last few seasons, giving the juggernaut sub-class it's unique identity and characteristic champion pool, but there is one small issue that the role is facing now. It seems so small in perspective, but this one single change that, in all honesty, has been long overdue is now threatening the role that he is being forced in to. What is this problem, that could threaten not only the balance of his lane but the role as a whole?

The answer is simple: Urgot.

Urgot, from the Headsman's Pride to the Dreadnought

Urgot, in his old iteration as the Headsman's Pride, was something of a rare and unique oddity even among a list of over 100+ champions. His identity and kit were not well suited for League's more objective team oriented style and lent itself more towards a single targeted lane bully. Urgot, though designed as an ADC, found a somewhat poorly placed home in the mid and top lanes to a varying degree of success and, through trial and error, dedicated players could find themselves in the occasional game where he would have a potential impact for his team. Utilizing his lock on the mechanic and short cooldown on his Q Acid Hunter, he could bully a large number of enemy champions of out lane will decent success in the early game and farm up with his range until level 6.

Urgot's passive is what helped him against most champions, as it reduced the damage they would deal by 15% allowing him small windows of opportunity to harass and trade in the early levels, but Urgot does not have the same level six power spike as most champions and this is where he began to fall off in the laning phase. While most of the champions he would face in top and mid have an ultimate at level six which gives them a boost in power or trading potential, Urgot has his signature R Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser, which rooted a single enemy in place and after a small channel allowed him to swap places, slowing the enemy for 40% for a few seconds after and giving Urgot between 30-50% damage reduction for up to 5 seconds after the swap. This was what made Urgot unique in how he could use it, grabbing the enemy carry in team fights or pinning an enemy under tower for a few seconds to give himself an advantage, but for a marksmen it offered very little use and had, realistically, very few uses in the early game when he was on his own. Urgot's kit was designed to maximize his effectiveness from a distance to harass and whittle down opponents for his team to follow up and wipe out, but his otherwise short range and lack of mobility made him a risky pick in most team compositions. With his recent rework, however, Riot is giving the crab legged butcher a facelift and a new identity to help him find success in the League of Legends.

With his upcoming rework, Riot Games is turning the once forgotten champion into his new form, The Dreadnought, and giving him a new set of tools to help him hone his identity as a powerful early game duelist and late game power house. With his new kit, the dreadnought has access to very powerful early game clearing and trading abilities, including his bread and butter for dueling and wave clearing in the form of his passive Echoing Flames, which allows him fire out a powerful attack when attacking in the direction of one of his legs when they are fully loaded (that's right, Riot gave him shotgun knees).

To accompany his passive, Riot has also given him a dash which, when connecting with an enemy champion, deals damage and throws the enemy over his head positioning them behind him and locking on to them. That's right, Riot decided to make use of his lock on mechanic as well! When locked on from his charge or his corrosive charge, a mid-range projectile which deals damage and slows, Urgot can activate his new W Purge, which slows him and attacks the nearest enemy (prioritizing locked on enemies) dealing damage for a few seconds and triggering echoing flames.

While all of these abilities help him in the early game, Riot has managed to solve the one issue Urgot players always faced with the level six spike and have given him a truly terrifying new ultimate. The dreadnoughts new ultimate Fear Beyond Death sends out a hex-drill beacon that, upon hitting an enemy champion, deals damage for a few seconds and slows them. This seems reasonable enough, a projectile skill shot that lets the dreadnought and his allies close gaps to engage, nothing scary there. Well, not until an enemy drops below 15% of their maximum health, that is, when Urgot can re-cast the ability to root himself and begin dragging his target enemy towards himself.

During this channel, the enemy is untargetable and Urgot can be slain to cancel the ability, but if the champion does make it to Urgot they are pulled into a nightmare style grinder and executed, killing them instantly and fearing all nearby enemies for a few seconds. This ultimate, combined with his new kit, seems to give the dreadnought a healthy balance and we may be seeing a drastic rise in both play and win rates, so why is this such a bad thing exactly?

The Dreadnought, Not The Juggernaut

Urgot, with his rework, is going to become a ranged, low to mid mobility, crowd control heavy monster of a champion capable of turning fights in his teams favor and bullying opponents into submission. This is the problem, however, as these are the polar opposite of what Riot set out as the ground lines to define a juggernaut in the first place. The problem with Urgot, for both the old and unfortunately the new iterations, is that he really is almost impossible to class properly, but this isn't strictly true. With his rework, Urgot does maintain his identity as a marksman, so why not look into the long forgotten aspects of the marksmen sub-classes?

When Riot Games created the sub-class list they left the marksmen class empty, but this seems unfair to the carries who bring a multitude of playstyles to the game as a whole. Some carries use built in crowd control to set up meaningful fights for their team in the late game, and some use high mobility abilities to set themselves up for powerful placement in team fights, so with such varying degrees why not give this class it's long overdue look over? The solution to giving Urgot his identity is to class him with the crowd control marksmen he relates to so well, and give him a true identity as a ranged controller. If Riot chooses to label him as a juggernaut, by all means, they have the freedom to, but in doing so they threaten to open up the class from its distinct guidelines and allow a wide variety of champions, both melee and ranged, into the mix.

So what is the point of this long winded analysis on Urgot and his poor classing? To shorten it into the simplest possible terms: Class the damn marksmen Riot.