If you are a dedicated Support player, you are likely familiar with the Aftershock rune on champions like Nautilus and Leona. Providing a substantial amount of defensive stats after immobilizing an opponent, this rune has proven to be a perfect fit for these champions, as they can easily activate it. However, during the Pre-Season 2022, this dominance is being heavily challenged with the rework of the Glacial Augment rune.
Just looking at the recent matches in the Demacia Cup 2021, Glacial Augment has been favored over Aftershock. It’s not uncommon for two Support players to use this rune on Thresh, Leona, and even Nautilus. So what has caused Aftershock to gradually be replaced? Let’s find out.
The first reason for this shift lies within the Aftershock rune itself, as its effectiveness has significantly diminished over the past few years. After a major adjustment during the Pre-Season 2020, the defensive stats provided by Aftershock in the early game have been drastically reduced. It requires the champion using it to have multiple items that increase armor/magic resistance to boost the additional stats gained from immobilizing an opponent.
Although it has weakened considerably over the years, players continued to use Aftershock because it was the only rune suitable for tank Supports. Therefore, right after the rework of Glacial Augment, which has a similar activation method, the status of Aftershock has dropped significantly. While this rune may not provide as much defensive stats as Aftershock, it offers great versatility and significantly aids teammates in controlling opponents.
Essentially, with the rework, champions like Leona, Nautilus, and Thresh will create a large slow zone after controlling a target when using Glacial Augment. This makes it much easier to secure kills during 2v2 skirmishes in the bot lane. Additionally, this slow zone facilitates your teammates in landing their area-of-effect abilities accurately during fights.
Clearly, when it comes to versatility, Glacial Augment is far superior to Aftershock. Keep in mind that as a Support, you possess a very limited amount of economic resources, so the additional stats based on the armor/magic resistance from Aftershock are no longer as relevant. While using Glacial Augment may result in a slight loss of defensive stats, it instead offers greater opportunities to deal damage and secure kills for your teammates.
In summary, with its significantly higher versatility, the Glacial Augment rune is showcasing its superiority over Aftershock. It’s highly likely that in the upcoming 2022 season, this rune will be closely associated with tank Supports like Leona, Thresh, and Nautilus…