Upon his release, Renekton seemed like he would be a powerful front-line warrior like his brother, Nasus. Does Renekton meet those high family standards? Find out!

On paper, Renekton definitely looks like a heavy firepower-packing crocodile, but the big problem with him is that he needs a lot of things to be a strong champion. Don't get me wrong here, I've seen my fair share of Renektons doing well (as have I done well in ranked games as Renekton), but the big issue is that you should realize that there are piles of other champions who are better in almost all ways than Renekton. To tell the truth, I think the big reason I really didn't enjoy playing Renekton was that he felt, and played, a lot like Irelia. While Renekton's 'Fury' mechanic is certainly an interesting one, Renekton himself feels rather contrived as a champion; there's nothing truly interesting about him.

Ultimately, what I really found annoying with Renekton was that he is quite similar to Irelia, except he lacks her inherent crowd-control resistant strengths. Most champions tend to 'excel' in specific areas, and good League of Legends players can choose to either capitalize on those strengths (like building Poppy as a chasing-champion with her speed and tackle) or they can focus on their champion's weaknesses to make them more well-rounded. Irelia, for example, can focus on more 'tank' items with some damage to be the ultimate 'in-your-face' champion with her high crowd control resistances, or shecan stack tons of damage, allowing her to wipe out entire teams when they can't control her. Renekton, on the other hand, has no significant strengths, so players end up trying to get 'tanky' items so that he can survive team fights, but then they also need to get cooldown reduction items to help with Renekton's longish cooldowns, and then they realize that Renekton lacks raw damage to take on enemy teams.

Renekton just seems to represent Riot Games' careful approach to new champions; where a lot of new champions were always quite powerful when they were introduced, now a lot of champions come out the gate quite underpowered, and players must hope that Riot Games gives them a solid buff during the next patch. Renekton can fit into teams where any physical melee champion can fit into a team, but you'll often find that you wish you brought Irelia instead, and if you get to thinking that, you might as well go for a strong ranged champion to deal all of your damage safely, like Sivir, Ashe or Miss Fortune. For now, Renekton merits a pass in my books, but time will tell if this crocodile deserves anywhere near the recognition that his brother gets.