What’s up guys it’s me Jeremy!
Every time we’ve talked about Urgot in the past, we’ve talked about the disparity in
his kit as the main thing Riot has an issue with.
For example, his appearance is that of a terrifying monstrosity, but instead of using his creepy
mechanical legs to chase you down and stab you with his knife-hand, he actually wants
to stay at a distance and fire ranged attacks off.
He’s also pretty bulky, which suggests that he should be a pretty tanky champion - but
for the most part Urgot players will be more focused on dealing damage than soaking it
up.
The issues don’t stop there, everything about his thematics and gameplay is confusing,
like how he’s a Noxian that looks like he’s from Zaun, or the fact that he’s a ranged
champion that has an Ultimate that swaps him into the enemy team instead of encouraging
the artillery playstyle.
All of these big contradictions in his kit have been the main reason that an Urgot rework
has never been completed - Rioters have tried to make it happen in the past, but it’s
always ultimately failed because they couldn’t figure out what direction to take him.
That meant his reworks never made it past the conceptualization phase into actual production.
The good news is that it’s finally happened - Riot has decided on a single direction to
take Urgot, meaning they can start getting started producing his update.
Now that the direction has been settled on, the rest of the process is actually going
to be a bit simpler.
Urgot’s messy thematics and gameplay kinda forced Riot to decide which parts they want
to keep, and which parts need to be thrown out.
That means some of his iconic design will be kept around, and all of the stuff that
disagrees with those features will be removed and replaced with something that better suits
the direction that Riot plan to take him.
That’s no small task, because it’s essentially going to mean that Riot will cut Urgot in
half, and have to rebuild that second half from the ground up in order to create an actual
cohesive package.
Riot haven’t yet announced exactly what mechanics and design choice will stick around
and which will go, but from what they’ve said it seems like it can go one of two ways.
For starters, Urgot’s appearance is really likely to stay on theme, the idea of a mixture
of man and machine isn’t exactly new to League of Legends, but the more terrifying
take on it that Urgot has always provided is definitely unique.
That’s not to say he’s going to stay as a fleshy machine crab, Riot have always admitted
that his current design doesn’t really do the theme justice, but he’s pretty much
guaranteed to stay as a man/machine amalgamation with some serious horror elements tied into
his design.
Urgot’s update is going to be a full scale visual and gameplay update, so we can expect
that this is going to mean everything will be brand new - a new model, new textures,
new animations, whatever it takes to make him nice and horrifying.
He could still stick around as a crab-looking dude and just be updated and modernised, but
it could also mean that he is completely re-imagined as a champion, and ends up having his machine
elements built into him in different ways that result in him still looking kinda humanoid,
maybe kinda similar to the bad guy from the Ekko champion trailer.
Either way, his narrative is going to get some healthy updates so that he betters fits
into the world that Riot has spent a lot of time developing over the last few years, and
that will definitely be reflected in his new appearance.
So let’s talk gameplay.
When Riot designs a champion, they like to make sure that you can figure out how they
will behave in-game from their actual appearance.
That means tanky champions look bulky, and mobile champions tend to be a lot sleeker.
The same goes for melee vs ranged - melee champions tend to be unarmed or have weapons
like swords or spears, and ranged champions clearly hold bows or firearms.
This is where Urgot is really failing as a champion, since he looks kinda like he’s
a tanky melee champion - and his Ultimate suggests the same thing - but in actuality
he’s currently a marksman.
That leaves Riot with two choices when it comes to his gameplay - they can either keep
him on as a long-ranged artillery champion, or revamp him completely and turn him into
a melee champion instead.
Since they want to keep the terrifying fleshy machine theme intact, that gives two pretty
defined directions that Riot could go with Urgot’s rework.
They could either build on his current theme as a walking artillery hero, and turn him
into a grotesque tank champion - like a literal tank, that moves slowly but sits back and
unleashes massive damage from a distance.
Alternatively, they could go with the more humanoid appearance similar to guy in the
Ekko teaser, and pull the terror elements from the thought of this massive terrifying
abomination chasing you down and trying to absolutely murder your face.
There are convincing arguments for either side - for example, the Crabgot concept is
pretty strong because there’s nothing really like it in the game right now, whereas a big
scary dude running at you is kinda covered by Sion.
On the other hand, having a really horrifying champion that sits back and doesn’t get
in your face is kinda bad because you’re wasting his potential as being scary.
Riot Meddler made some interesting comments about his gameplay rework that might help
suggest which of these two directions Riot are going.
First up, there’s the issue that he’s super binary - he lands a grenade, locks on
with Acid Hunters, and that’s about it for his gameplay.
There’s not a whole lot of counterplay outside of dodging the Noxian Corrosive Charge, and
it’s not particularly interesting to play because all you’re doing all game is spamming
Q. You’ve also got the huge issue of his Ultimate not really meshing with the rest
of his kit, and being a way better fit for a tanky melee champion than a ranged character
with a lot of kiting power.
Rioters have actually gone on record before to say that they actually do like the design
of Urgot’s Ultimate, but it just doesn’t fit his kit so they would more likely remove
it and replace it with something else.
They also mentioned that they’d rather put it on a true tank than a bruiser - simply
because bruisers prefer to kill things themselves, whereas Urgot’s Ultimate is more about locking
a target down and helping your team kill them, which is definitely a tank’s ability.
Historically, Rioters have always leant towards the removal of Urgot’s Ultimate rather than
the removal of his ranged kit, and since it would pretty much have to be one or the other,
that’s probably the biggest indication that they will stick with the ranged concept rather
than turning him full melee and eating into Sion’s design space.
When Riot mentioned removal of his Ultimate in the past, they also mentioned they would
probably find a melee champion to fit that ability onto instead, since they were pretty
big fans of the ability itself.
The recent Warwick rework’s E ability, Primal Howl, is surprisingly similar to Urgot’s
Ultimate in terms of the way it works.
Both reduce the damage you take, and both fear enemies around you - with the exception
of the target hit with Infinite Duress - which acts as the gap closer and triggers the AoE
fear.
These similarities might be the biggest piece of evidence yet that Riot is going to stick
with a ranged basis for Urgot’s gameplay and design, since maybe they already found
a new home for his original Ultimate!
Anyway that’s going to wrap things up on Urgot’s future rework for now, make sure
you leave us a comment and let us know which you would go for if you were Riot - maybe
you think he should stay as a ranged champion, or be a melee tank with some crazy new spin,
or perhaps Riot should go even crazier and turn him into a transforming champion that
can alternate between the two!
Let us know your thoughts, it’ll be cool to see if anyone guesses correctly at what
Riot’s new direction for Urgot actually is.
Anyway it looks like that’s gonna be it from me, if you enjoyed the video drop a like,
subscribe if you want, thanks for watching, and I’ll see you guys next time.