Chernobog: Theory-Crafting

Rather than make a guide or build, thought I'd just go over some thoughts on 5.8 release version of Chernobog.


Kit

Okay, so his 3 main skills seem okay. Nothing super fancy. His Crystallized Curses has a sizable AOE, but from activation, it takes almost 1 second to actually hit the area, and has a visual effect to warn enemies. That's plenty of time for people to react and use escape abilities if they are available. It takes 2-3 seconds to hit the second "explosion" portion, unless you trigger it with Vicious Barrage, which fires at the same speed as a regular basic, hits like a regular basic, but can pierce.

His Into Darkness had decent distance, and of course has a lot of strategy with it...stay close to walls. You can sort of get a double-dash out of it.

Specifically, though, if you're near a corner, you can actually aim around/through the corner, and you'll dash partly around it. This can be nice for escape, if the enemy is expecting you to come back out of the wall AWAY from it. ALSO...since you can sit in the wall for a time, it's enough time for you to get any out-of-combat CD from Blink Rune off so you can use it immediately after dashing out of the wall. That's a handy escape tool if you're a bit trapped, and I'd say Blink is a core relic, likely alongside Purification Beads.



The ult is likely OP due to the global ult status. Can't use it to escape though...hence also why he probably wants to mostly play it safe behind teammates and not really look to box too much until he's ready to go in for a kill.

Thing about this that really sucks is that any enemy that ends up getting hurt is going to have a tough time surviving if his ult is up. I have to see it in action and experience it myself to really see, but that's what it seems like initially.


Build

So I fiddled around in jungle practice. Here's what I feel seems like a very strong build.

• Hunter's Blessing
• Transcendence
• Ninja Tabi (if Warrior early, get Ninja late)
• Asi (try to delay getting lifesteal as much as possible, but you can get after Tabi if you need)
• Titan's Bane (whenever needed, get later if less issues with tanks)
• Rage
• Deathbringer

The combination of just Asi and Ninja Tabi, in combination with the AS boost from Vicious Barrage, gets him to 2.37 AS (1.7 without). I feel that's perfect for quick flurries and disengaging. Not as optimal for elongated teamfights. If needing more DPS for teamfights, switch The Executioner for Titan's Bane. You'll hit the AS cap when using Barrage, but have a better base otherwise.

I do feel Titan's Bane has a definite place here. You might often initiate with the 1-2 combo (because then the 2 gives you that AS boost), and TB will get more out of the abilities and the first basic attack or two if you do initiate that way.

Trans - and high power in general - is great for his ability burst. Rank 5 Crystallized Curses is 170 for each hit. With full build, scaling provides an extra 167 damage each. If you hit both Curses and Barrage, that's 674 damage (before any mitigations), which isn't bad at all for a quick burst...and you can even get in an extra basic through the 1-2 combo if Barrage hits the enemy before connecting with the crystal.

He's not going to be a boxer, as far as I can tell. He's going to want to just sort of hold his own, and wait for gank attempts from fleeing enemies. That burst is supported better with crits, I feel. Getting Rage (not only because of no real need for more AS, but also for higher crit chance) and Deathbringer really bring that gank potential to the fore.

I think he feels like more of a Jungler, or even a Mid, over being an ADC.

Thoughts?

About the Kit, Pretty nice points Bran. Blink Rune is OP with his Into Darkness. A guy escaped lot of times using this combo. Also her ultimate doing GLOBAL slow is such annoying and give him so much buffs. Thankfully it cannot be used as an pure "escape".

About the build, I also feel he is more jungler and mid (more jungler) than an ADC. He has a nice gank potencial and nice burst damage. I do like the idea of putting some critics in the build with him, mainly Rage and Deathbringer.

Build seems good, but 5th item is a bit late to get Rage. I would order the build as: Transcendence/ Ninja Tabi, Rage, Asi, Titan's Bane, Deathbringer.

I haven't watched any vids on Cher on YouTube, but I've seen pros have covered him to some extent. So the thoughts were my own, but I'm guessing I'm not nearly the first one to think of Blink =P

So it wasn't Conquest, but I tried out Cher in a quick arena match.

As you can see, it didn't go so well for my side, but I wanted to try out my base build; I can say that at least in terms of items, it feels nice.

Could have been better, but my side fed pretty hard, kept going for solo fights, and got pushed back because of that, allowing them to push minions.

Odin was a huge pain for me, forcing me to get Phantom Veil as 2nd relic. But I was able to land the 1-2 combo fairly easily all match, and at full build, when the crits triggered immediately after the combo, it wiped out the squishies, which was nice.

Ult was a huge pain in this mode, especially because the enemy kept together and worked well that way. So over half of my ults were just to give myself some breathing room...and when you don't choose anyone, you just come straight back down.

I think that build would do well in Conquest in an ADC situation. As Jungler, I'd likely go for more CDR and pen...BUT I would consider keeping the crits.

It might have gone better if your side knew how to build properly. That ***ba build man... No wonder they died 6 times.

Added the quick video showing Into Darkness into Blink Rune use for escape purposes.


Play Video

thats definitely a good little easter eggs for Chern newbies. Thanks for sharing.