timid basin
Basically title. The item is hyper specific to the offlane roll when playing into a mage, but it makes the lane incredibly hard for the mage. I know it used to be worse, 10% mit for basically every instance of damage you took from a mage was absurd, but frankly, 6% is still insane. It has basically no use outside of this situation, not even as a support pick vs Grim carry, because its self mitigation, not any damage they do to anyone.
You don't even need to be playing into a mage with healing like Count, its insane vs Shinbi (who has no healing in her kit, and only has any if she builds temp, orb, overseer, or lifebinder. I know temp super common on her, and overseer is almost a must buy on her, but still). Random midlane picks in offlane like Mori or Iggy can't do anything about it either. An item having 0 counter play and as much impact as it does calls for a rework, even if the item is niche.
It's especially exacerbated for two reasons,
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Shinbi is one of the few counter meta picks in offlane, due to her not having to step up into tanks like Steel or Sev to be able to farm, and her being able to utilize mega well.
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It has stats that pair a little too well with the passive. 400 hp and 40 magic armor means you can buy it on basically any hero second item, as long as you take something with damage first (muti, sky, bonesaw for bruisers; fireblossom, fist, overlord for tanks.)
Honestly, you could easily just take the dot damage idea from tainted guard and apply it to tainted bastion, and make it activate on ability damage instead of magic damage. It would be more balanced item, and a more used item, even without changing the base stats.
Context: I used to play a lot of Count and Shinbi offlane, and already knew how crazy it was at 10%, but since overseer came out, I've noticed I'm beating a lot of Shinbi players that are just better than me, because of one item. That should not happen.
oblique salmon
pallid field