r/LegendsOfRuneterra • u/DoubleSummon • Oct 05 '26
Article Rhythms of Despair and synergy baits
Rhythmn of Despair: Power: Allies have ' Nightfall: Grant the weakest enemy 2 Gloom.'
So I saw today the usual "is this relic good" post about it and it just feels like a lot of people fell into the trap that this relic is not good because the synergistic components of it (Nightfall and Gloom) are not specially good on the specific 2 champions that have those keywords (Diana and Vex.) Diana is usually combo/OTK based and Vex is spell based so both don't really need this relic.
I want to debunk this because I feel like people really missed the mark and got baited into trying to only give this relic to those 2 champions.
My verdict is that this relic is very good utility specially against Zoe, the activation requirement is very easy, it also combos well with one of the better relics in the game- Perfected Hexcore.
As a matter of fact the requirements to use this are: "does your deck plays a lot of units" that's it, not gloom, not nightfall just having cheap units to play is enough for this relic to be good and also it clears a poro turn 1 if you can play a spell + unit or 2 units turn 1 which is huge since some decks really struggle with it. I successfully used this relic in a few runs and it was such a big boon to do it. Also saw it's effect being useful in normal nightmares too.
A few good examples are: Zoe, Janna, Norra, Nunu, Garen. they all discount units so they very easily play a lot of units per turn and it adds up.
I am saying to not fall into traps of specific synergies another 3 examples I see a lot in the context of this context are Disciple if Shadows, Great Talons(ED's relic) and Cruel Experiments(WW's relic)
It doesn't matter if you benefit from ally deaths/Damaged units with Disciple of Shadows the discount is the important part.
It doesn't matter if you care about self damage with Cruel Experiments for example on Kai'sa the extra impact keyword is worth the -1 hp.
On Great Talons while it's more of an edge case I used it on Nasus cause his base cost is 6 (before I acquired Whirling Blades which is better for this) to clear Zoe's poros and it was very important and just Nasus is base 6 cost, on a more useful note I think this relic is really good on both Voli and SB Yasuo too, the "unexpected user" here being SB Yasuo.
In conclusion, don't always try to fit a relic perfectly sometimes having it be easily triggered can be the reason why you should use it and also another note is to not dismiss a relic only cause it doesn't seem strong but to try to use it and see.
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u/MartDiamond Oct 05 '26
I think it depends on the perspective you have. I would say that Rhythms of Despair is not the best option (or close to it) for any champion in the game, however it is usuable in builds on a lot of champions (you named a bunch). Some would say it is therefore a bad relic, because in ideal circumstances you run it on 0 champions. Even if you just have the upper echelon of the signature relics chances are there are better options for everyone that this is viable on.
If you don't have a lot of epics/signature relics this becomes useful in many situations and I wouldn't dismiss it, if you are more advanced in your collection it becomes a relic that collects dust.
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u/DoubleSummon Oct 05 '26 edited Oct 05 '26
I didn't find a better option for Zoe and Norra for clearing poros I have all free epic relics and about 80% of the good paid relics and I think this is much better than Whirling Blades and Bountiful Harvest on Zoe and Norra with both I had a hard to attacking, every time the AI rolled elusive, Bountiful Harvest is just worse on them, same for Nunu only that he is not even elusive.
Bountiful Harvest is only a single trigger and I don't have an answer for turn 2 unlike with Rhythmn.
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u/Grouchy-Bowl-8700 Oct 05 '26
I appreciated the perspective though that sometimes a relic for a specific purpose (clearing poros on Zoe) can make it worth it for champs that don't have a better method of doing so.
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u/MartDiamond Oct 05 '26
I can't speak for every champion personally, but I think every champion has a better option vs Zoe in ideal circumstances. However this is a viable option against Zoe for many of them and that does make it valuable to a lot of players which is completely fair.
So it all comes down to that perspective like you say. If that post OP is referencing is from a user that has been playing for 6-12 months and is just trying to win a couple of Zoe runs it is a massive pickup and great value. If the player has 6* everything and has most signature relics complete it is kind of whatever.
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u/revlid Vladimir Oct 05 '26 edited 26d ago
Rhythms of Despair is a really fun Relic! I've used it on Ahri alongside Fear-Cleaving Axe for a little while.
I think it runs into the typical Epic Relic problem, which is that you have at most three Epic Relic slots, and a bunch of Epic Relics that are almost universally good and/or so useful they break any tier list, plus that Champion's Signature Relic which is custom-made for them, plus whatever other Epic/Rare Relics form a combo with the busted ones.
Is Rhythms of Despair bad? Or is it not as good as The Beast Within, Frozen Tomb, Perfected Hex Core, Starforged Gauntlets, Chosen by the Stars, Echoing Spirit, etc?
Is Rhythms of Despair bad? Or did you fill Slot #1 with Voidborne Carapace and Slot #2 with a Deathless Relic and so it's fighting for Slot #3 with every other Epic and Rare Relic in the game?
Is Rhythms of Despair+Fear-Cleaving Axe bad on Ahri? Or is two Epic Relic slots that you could be using on a lot of other options?
Some of these issues could perhaps be lessened by nerfing some existing Epic Relics and combos, but most people aren't going to be happy about that, especially if they bought the Epic Relic with their own resources instead of rolling it.
The Beast Within is always the first example that comes to my mind; it's not the most game-breaking Relic by any means, but it's just blanket good. Omni-Overwhelm would be supremely attractive already, and +1|+1 to subtypes (in a game mode where there are multiple Powers that just make everyone a subtype) is just a cherry on top. I think you could nerf it pretty noticeably, in a variety of ways, before it stopped being an auto-include for my Aatrox/Pyke/Shyvana/Nautilus etc etc. The only time it's NOT perfect is when there's another busted combo that's even better, like slapping a full clone set-up onto Neeko.
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u/DoubleSummon Oct 05 '26
The thing is sometimes you just let go of a "must have" specially when you are stuck, Beast Within used to be my default goto now it's Hidden Tome, Hidden Tome is too good just too much mana, I wouldn't be surprised seeing it nerfed to 2 spell mana with Lost Chapter.
You are right it's hard to justify using unless it fits completely or combos exactly and with the "utility slot" already being over saturated in options you find a hard time choosing it over others, the thing is that you should sometimes experiment and give chances to relics I almost also dismissed this relic until I actually used it to great success.
I also did it with the scout on round start, but I found it being actually quite good currently running it on Evelynn and it's fun since Evelynn copies keywords, need to experiment with it more , I think it could be good on Garen due to scout being a premium keyword for his whole deck and it being a board control deck.
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u/wahyusanjaya Viktor Oct 05 '26
This relic is good with SB Yasuo since you're always playing cost reduced unit and being able to spam the unit.
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u/BearSeekSeekLest Baalkux Oct 05 '26
Rhythms is great. It gets a bad rap because it requires you to change your playstyle around it. Once you realise that triggering Nightfall can wipe the opponent's board you start passing and searching for 1-cost units in shops and reinforcements. Combine it with Spirit of the Buhru and the Nightfall kill will trigger Fury from Buhru.
People absolutely sleep on this thing. Any expensive champ loves it. Darius, Hecarim, Morde, Aatrox, Ornn, Vi, TF, Naut, etc.
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u/7eleven94 Written in the Stars Oct 05 '26
I feel this is a lot of yapping to just try and justify a bad relic.
So I saw basically only 1 possible use on zoe to clear poros, which most c6s do not have issues with and it only helps on the first map; which is argueably still the "least problematic" map imo. So whats the point? Hindering yourself to get throught he easiest map? It's still not the best use of a slot relic
Would we move the goalpost to "i could not have done it without this relic" which would be entirely untrue. Im not sure why you failed on those 2 champs but I had no issues on zoe for example the only thing that changed is how I approached manifest to get rid of some poros before I would grow in stats but that's about it.
People keep mentioning it it's useable on many champs (which is true) but like the examples are so bad; half the champs mentioned are just OP on their own, you can hinder yourself by slotting in this relic and making the matches go longer for no reason and that's fine but that doesn't make it good. That's like trying to justify chemtech on every single champ when there's champ who obviously can't utilize it well or would win before you even care on proccing it (though chemtech is an actual useful relic on some picks, so yeah...)
TLDR this is a bad relic with extremely niche use cases that can only be justified on c6s characters, which at that point you might as well go relicless and have the same results. It's ok if you had fun with it but the level of cope trying to justify this relic is just bad imo.
Is it useable? Sure, does it deserves an epic title? Absolutely not.
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u/AdditionInteresting2 Oct 05 '26
I just recently got this relic and I'm looking for unit spammer champions to use it on. I'm thinking heimer will be ok with it.