Zemo's grand machination is weakened even further?

In May we got announcement of Baron Zemo and Absorbing man balancing updates.
Dev team stated that they are aiming to change his furies that he gains from purify/immunity and armor up buffs that act as cooldown of cleanse passives. With fury buffs they simply wanted to add cap of 15.
Armor up on other hand should've been changed from Buff to a Passive and reduced its duration to 15 seconds.
They also stated that "With the idea of it being changed to a Passive, we’re also exploring what type of defensive effect best helps Zemo as a Skill attacker."
Its August now and we got patch notes for V41.0, where balancing updates are coming into force for both champs.
I followed updated champion spotlight to check for the changes, and what do i find?

Indeed, now its duration is 15 seconds. And yes, they said that they are exploring new effect for Zemo instead of armor up.
But there were not a single word about new effect having its POTENCY REDUCED.
Previously, 6 star rank 5 could get armor up buff that would increase his armor rating by 9000. And now its resistance up passive of 2250 potency.

(information from https://auntm.ai/champions/baronzemo/tier/6)

Of course directly comparing potency or armor ups and resistance up effects is not exactly mathematically correct from point of game mechanics and implications (like the fact that resistances can influence dmg taken from dot-effects that do energy/physical dmg). Yet it is drastic decrease in potency, and ANOTHER NERF for Zemo.
This change will make him significantly less tanky both on attack and on defense once his cleanse charges run out. There was not a single word in balancing update about dev team wanting to reduce his survivability.
Just couple of weeks ago we got silent root nerf, and now this?
What's even the point in ranking up champs at this point? To wait until they will get "bugfixed" and nerfed to the ground?

Comments

BitterSteel

Just bear in mind that 2250 is 4x smaller than 9000, but because of diminishing returns, it’s not that much of a decrease overall

2250 is around 50% resistance

9000 is around 80% armour

And with what you said about armour only affecting the damage you take from hits, whereas resistance affects the damage taken from hits, damage taken from bursts, damage taken from DOT. I feel a reduction in potency is wayyy reasonable.

It seems you’re annoyed about the 9000 going to 2250, but I’d just want to point out that 9000 is the amount of resistance that Abs man gets in his forms and we all know how powerful that is.

So Zemo won’t be as powerful as Abs with this resistance, nor should he be, but he will have 50% resistance compared to Carl’s 80% resistance.

BigPoppaCBONE

Waiting for someone to notice that they've replaced his sword with a soggy eclair and that his gun has an orange tip.

BigBlueOx

Man… who’s sundae did Zemo poop in.

ThePredator1001

Yeah Zemo is getting hit hard with the balancing and the root “fix”. Strange they have such a vendetta against him. He’s good but he wasn't good enough to be nerfed like this. Absorbing man is much stronger and he only got a slight defense nerf.

SirGamesBond

I blame the overhype around him.
Good thing I never liked him and don't hate him either, have him r3 and there he shall stay.

AverageDesi

Just bear in mind that 2250 is 4x smaller than 9000, but because of diminishing returns, it’s not that much of a decrease overall

2250 is around 50% resistance

9000 is around 80% armour

And with what you said about armour only affecting the damage you take from hits, whereas resistance affects the damage taken from hits, damage taken from bursts, damage taken from DOT. I feel a reduction in potency is wayyy reasonable.

It seems you’re annoyed about the 9000 going to 2250, but I’d just want to point out that 9000 is the amount of resistance that Abs man gets in his forms and we all know how powerful that is.

So Zemo won’t be as powerful as Abs with this resistance, nor should he be, but he will have 50% resistance compared to Carl’s 80% resistance.

It's be kind of stupid if he had 90% resistance

BeastDad

Good rule of thumb, don't chase new champs and always wait a year before any rank up...

Fantomaxop

Good rule of thumb, don't chase new champs and always wait a year before any rank up...

This should not be the case, otherwise there is literally no point in balancing program at all.
If we are at the state where kabam can change anything at any point they want and we as playerbase can only respond with complete disinterest in new champions, we will end up in very unhealthy situation for the game

Magrailothos

This change will make him significantly less tanky both on attack and on defense once his cleanse charges run out.

Less tanky yes; although obviously the reduced duration of the Physical Resistance means he gets his Cleanse back sooner; and it will (for example) reduce Rupture DoT.

And personally, I do think the 9000 Armour was insane. That's double the armour rating of War Machine's tough but irreplaceable armour (one break, and it's gone forever). Four times the Armour that Dr Doom walks around with... 9000 was overkill for a guy who has no powers, and doesn't even have any visible armour.

However, you're ignoring the fact that they haven't actually undertaken any Offensive balancing - all his DoT has the same Potency; his Fury buffs have the same Potency, and the Fury buffs haven't been capped. Which was also something they had said they were looking at doing - but clearly changed their mind.

So it's a defensive rebalance that removes the Cheesy interaction with Armour Break champions; but at least leaves his offensive abilities untouched.

Personally I'd take it. It leaves all his offensive potential untouched; will hardly be a noticeable change unless you're in the habit of getting hit, and makes him a little easier on defense.

Pikolu

This change will make him significantly less tanky both on attack and on defense once his cleanse charges run out.
However, you're ignoring the fact that they haven't actually undertaken any Offensive balancing - all his DoT has the same Potency; his Fury buffs have the same Potency, and the Fury buffs haven't been capped. Which was also something they had said they were looking at doing - but clearly changed their mind.

Just wanted to point out zemo furies were still capped but are still potent.

SecondSkriller

This change will make him significantly less tanky both on attack and on defense once his cleanse charges run out.
However, you're ignoring the fact that they haven't actually undertaken any Offensive balancing - all his DoT has the same Potency; his Fury buffs have the same Potency, and the Fury buffs haven't been capped. Which was also something they had said they were looking at doing - but clearly changed their mind.

Just wanted to point out zemo furies were still capped but are still potent.

Bruh, why did they do that… that was really not necessary after the root nerf.

BigPoppaCBONE

They decided to pile on. Not cool.

Magrailothos

This change will make him significantly less tanky both on attack and on defense once his cleanse charges run out.
However, you're ignoring the fact that they haven't actually undertaken any Offensive balancing - all his DoT has the same Potency; his Fury buffs have the same Potency, and the Fury buffs haven't been capped. Which was also something they had said they were looking at doing - but clearly changed their mind.

Just wanted to point out zemo furies were still capped but are still potent.

Oh.

That's annoying. Thanks @Pikolu - I'm on Android - haven't updated yet - so was going with the "updated" Champion description here: https://playcontestofchampions.com/news/champion-spotlight-baron-zemo/ which looks like this, without the obvious red text...

Trafalgarwar96

Why kabam is punching Zemo so much?
Stop kabam, he is already dead!

HungaryHippo

Good rule of thumb, don't chase new champs and always wait a year before any rank up...

It’s sad to see so many r5 sig 200 Zemos in BGs (unless they are a huge fan).

jcphillips7

They decided to pile on. Not cool.

Almost like an intentional "Let's see if we can piss em' off more." Read the ****in room...

Karatemike415

50% Energy & Physical Resistance > 80% Armor - and it's not even close.

The armor effect only impacted him when he was hit by attacks, and you preferably aren't getting hit when this effect is up and the opponent is rooted - preferably during over 66% of its duration.

The Resistance passive lets him take nodes & defenders like Hazard Shift, and encounters with other elemental effects and heal from the debuffs as they're on him, increasing the already large quantity of fights he could take.

Plus, it'll reduce the damage taken from Quicksilver's whiplash, & rupture, etc

The duration of the passive & its effects were both improvements here.