User blog comment:Tenebyss225/Maelstrom, Captain of the Storm/@comment-67.247.72.112-20130219082943

Passive would be too strong. 24% armor reduction passively, with no cooldown or cost. Stack that with armor pen, and insta gib. Flat armor reduction with a 'cannot occur on same champ within X seconds' would certainly mitigate the imba-ness.

Which brings into play: Lightning Strike. AoE physical damage is a bit much. Slow is too high if you keep Rust stacks. 16% x 4 is a 64% slow on a 10 second cooldown. Sure rust stacks need to be built up, but Static Charge's attack speed bonus boosts that combo into OP zone.

If Wave Dash scales with AD, damage needs to be scaled back. Far too powerful for a 9 second cooldown, and WAAAAY to powerful with stacking armor reduction if it deals physical damage.

AD and AP reductions are also a bit pronounced. If were talking 18% for 4 stacks, thats a 72% flat reduction to both AP and AD. I'd say remove the reductions out right, since we already have armor reduction.

Raging Whirlpool could use a nerf as well. It should scale more effeciently with AD, but deal less base damage per second. I'd recomend having a larger area of effect, but make the damage scale off near the edge of the effect: i.e. Damage is lessened with distance from Maelstrom, reaching 50% damage at the edge of the Whirlpool.

If your going to keep Rust stacks, then the flat reduction needs to be lessened. As I said, 24% armor reduction passively (I know you have to attack, but its not an ability, so no cooldown or cost) is too much. It would be aceptable as a spell however.

Keep it up, but be extremely critical of your own work. If something seems too powerful, it probably is. Use other champs as a guide line for balance.