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Thornmail has always been a generally unpleasant item to see your opponent build. Something about it is kind of cheesy and it’s universally known to be a good item against auto-attack compositions.
Now with the new changes to Thornmail, it’s a bigger “F you” than ever. The item now gives grievous wounds to the player attacking the wearer.
According to champion.gg, a lot of the beefier champions have had improvements with the new Thornmail, and while we can’t attribute every win rate change to the new item, it’s apparent that it’s doing work. Top lane champs like Dr. Mundo and Renekton have seen a bit better performance with Thornmail in their “frequent core” build. Rammus, Amumu and Maokai have also seen a bit of success with the item in the jungle.
Most auto-attack carries like Master Yi or any marksman felt fairly comfortable auto-attacking tanks with Thornmails as long as they had a bit of lifesteal or a healing support, but now that isn’t the case.
Maybe you’re sad because you main one of those champions or maybe you’re ecstatic because you love tanks and the tank meta feels like it’s coming back. Either way, Thornmail feels like a generally useful item now! Thanks a lot, Riot! (Whether or not you think that statement is sarcastic is up to you.)