Today's patch comes with Diana to follow later. If the Zyra patch was any indication Diana will be released sometime this weekend or early next week. In the meantime, there are patch changes to analyze.
Amumu's changes dramatically reduce his damage when he builds AP. It was fairly common for Amumu to pick up at least one AP item when jungling, such as Abyssal, so this does have a significant effect. The mana cost reduction on Tantrum honestly isn't a big deal, hardly sufficient compensation for dropping 0.5 in AP ratios. However, it might be enough for Amumu to forgo Philosopher's stone and rush other items instead.
The change to Brand's ult should greatly reduce its randomness. Sometimes Brand would dominate due to lucky bounces, and sometimes he'd feel like he had no ult at all. I'd posit we'll see more Brands, but then the substantial Malzahar buffs didn't exactly bring him back to the forefront.
Cho'gath's changes are, like Brand and Malzahar before him, quality of life changes first and foremost. Cho'gath should be somewhat easier to use now that his delays and cast times are streamlined. Again, I'd guess we'd see more Cho'gaths, but quality of life changes are no guarantee of a lasting increase in popularity.
Continuing the theme of quality of life changes we have Eve. The shorter stealth fade time is fairly important, as it was a ridiculously long time before. Similarly her ult's cooldown was extremely long before, they literally shaved 30 seconds off it at rank 1. With these changes her play should feel smoother, particularly relating to stealth.
Finally we have Hecarim to round up the quality of life changes. E was previously fairly unresponsive, with its pushback going at odd angles and freezing Hecarim thereafter. If this is fixed it will make his ganks substantially easier, along with his greater initial velocity. Similarly faster fleeing targets will make his ultimate feel much stronger when placed well. Overall he should be far easier to use for the many players who have felt he was clunky and difficult.
Most of what remains are minor bug fixes and nerfs, but it's worth noting that Janna, Xin, and Yorick were nerfed due to overly strong laning phases. While small, their nerfs should make them easier to deal with. Also, the reversal of Urgot's nerf should make him competitive again (he had, as I suggested he would, fallen completely off the competitive ladder).
Overall this patch largely has quality of life changes, a few nerfs, and a few minor buffs. After the plethora of buffs and remakes last patch this is a welcome reprieve. I'll talk more about Diana later this week.
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