"We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy Udyr!"
-Christmas Carol
Friday, December 21, 2012
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Prognostication: Preseason Recap
So Season 3 hit, and it's time to examine all of my predictions to see how well I did.
Items:
So it turns out that Lord Van Damm's Pillager did not get ported to Summoner's Rift and was, in fact, removed from the game entirely. Instead, Blade of the Ruined King arrived on the Rift. Infinity Edge, meanwhile, is alive and well. Whoops.
I was half right in my third prediction, Haunting Guise did get an upgrade path. However, Spirit Visage was simply made a more powerful (and expensive) item in its own right. Not bad as far as predictions go, but not great.
My most accurate prediction was regarding Tenacity items. They were, in fact, very significantly rebalanced. However, I refuse to claim full credit because I did not anticipate the addition of new Tenacity items nor the removal of existing ones.
Jungle:
My jungle predictions were thrown out of whack by the unanticipated addition of Hunter's Machete. I could claim partial credit for identifying that a 300g item would be necessary to clear the jungle, but that's a stretch. Moreover, my prediction for the cost of new jungle items was off by a factor of two, so no credit there.
The value of the jungle didn't exactly increase by 10-20%, at least not initially. It's actually very difficult to measure this against the game as Riot primarily increased the scaling of the jungle, and only modified base values insofar as necessary to adjust for the changes to ambient gold and to take some value away from Wraiths and distribute it elsewhere. I'll take half credit for this one.
I was incontrovertibly correct on spawn timers. Score one for Montegomery.
Masteries:
My Movement Speed prediction could be interpreted in different ways. Initiator was removed entirely, but one could argue it was replaced with Nimble in the utility tree. Swiftness was replaced with Wanderer and move up a tier rather than down. While Movement Speed in general is harder to come by, I'll only claim half-credit for this.
Strength of Spirit was buffed significantly. However, I was very vague as to the nature of the buffs, so this isn't exactly a great victory. Havoc still remains, in defiance of my final prediction of this category. I shake my fist angrily.
Summoner Spells:
Unfortunately while I was correct that Flash and Ignites cooldowns would increase, I was off on magnitude. Flash increased by 35 seconds, and Ignite by 30 seconds. Failure.
Heal is most definitely not single-target. Fail.
Revive's cooldown wasn't directly decreased, but you can now decrease it using an item. The speed boost was not changed. Partial credit, but another near miss.
Clarity does not restore Energy, fail.
Champions:
As of yet Riot has not released another AP jungler. They may do so in the future, but for now I appear to have been wrong.
In the end, I was generally very successful in identifying the areas that would be changing, but when it came to accurately hitting the targets themselves I was rarely accurate, only coming close to a bull's eye on one or two predictions. I did, however, do remarkably better than my jungle prognostications.
I'll do another of these sometime in the future, but for now I'll send my crystal ball to the cleaners because obviously everything was its fault and not my own.
Items:
So it turns out that Lord Van Damm's Pillager did not get ported to Summoner's Rift and was, in fact, removed from the game entirely. Instead, Blade of the Ruined King arrived on the Rift. Infinity Edge, meanwhile, is alive and well. Whoops.
I was half right in my third prediction, Haunting Guise did get an upgrade path. However, Spirit Visage was simply made a more powerful (and expensive) item in its own right. Not bad as far as predictions go, but not great.
My most accurate prediction was regarding Tenacity items. They were, in fact, very significantly rebalanced. However, I refuse to claim full credit because I did not anticipate the addition of new Tenacity items nor the removal of existing ones.
Jungle:
My jungle predictions were thrown out of whack by the unanticipated addition of Hunter's Machete. I could claim partial credit for identifying that a 300g item would be necessary to clear the jungle, but that's a stretch. Moreover, my prediction for the cost of new jungle items was off by a factor of two, so no credit there.
The value of the jungle didn't exactly increase by 10-20%, at least not initially. It's actually very difficult to measure this against the game as Riot primarily increased the scaling of the jungle, and only modified base values insofar as necessary to adjust for the changes to ambient gold and to take some value away from Wraiths and distribute it elsewhere. I'll take half credit for this one.
I was incontrovertibly correct on spawn timers. Score one for Montegomery.
Masteries:
My Movement Speed prediction could be interpreted in different ways. Initiator was removed entirely, but one could argue it was replaced with Nimble in the utility tree. Swiftness was replaced with Wanderer and move up a tier rather than down. While Movement Speed in general is harder to come by, I'll only claim half-credit for this.
Strength of Spirit was buffed significantly. However, I was very vague as to the nature of the buffs, so this isn't exactly a great victory. Havoc still remains, in defiance of my final prediction of this category. I shake my fist angrily.
Summoner Spells:
Unfortunately while I was correct that Flash and Ignites cooldowns would increase, I was off on magnitude. Flash increased by 35 seconds, and Ignite by 30 seconds. Failure.
Heal is most definitely not single-target. Fail.
Revive's cooldown wasn't directly decreased, but you can now decrease it using an item. The speed boost was not changed. Partial credit, but another near miss.
Clarity does not restore Energy, fail.
Champions:
As of yet Riot has not released another AP jungler. They may do so in the future, but for now I appear to have been wrong.
In the end, I was generally very successful in identifying the areas that would be changing, but when it came to accurately hitting the targets themselves I was rarely accurate, only coming close to a bull's eye on one or two predictions. I did, however, do remarkably better than my jungle prognostications.
I'll do another of these sometime in the future, but for now I'll send my crystal ball to the cleaners because obviously everything was its fault and not my own.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Quote: On Patch Notes
"Take nothing on its patch notes; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule."
-Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
-Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Mechanics: Spell Vamp
Spell Vamp is an odd mechanic because it has a bunch of confusing rules as to its application. These rules have confounded and confused the community for some time because whenever someone asks, "Does Spell Vamp work on insert ability here?" they get 20 different answers. I hope to do my part in raising the general awareness of Spell Vamp's mechanics today.
Spell Vamp is actually a bit of a misnomer. "Spell" for many players implies "magic", and so they reasonably assume that Spell Vamp only works on magic damage. This is not the case, as Spell Vamp works on all cast abilities regardless of damage type (otherwise what would the point of Spell Vamp on Olaf or Lee Sin?). A more accurate name would be Ability Vamp, but Riot has never seen fit to change it.
So everything from Reckless Swing, to Noxious Trap, to Resonating Strike can make use of Spell Vamp, but there's plenty more confusion to be had. Spell Vamp's effectiveness is reduced by two-thirds on multi-target abilities. This is a necessary mechanic because otherwise a Morgana with no Ability Power at all could heal for 500+ Health with a single Tormented Soil. Still, it's something else for players to remember about Spell Vamp.
More confusion abounds because of Smite and Ignite. Because they are coded like abilities they actually work with Spell Vamp. You can, to this day, find threads where people ask whether these two Summoner Spells work with Spell Vamp, and get multiple answers. Rest assured, Spell Vamp definitely works with both (though it can be hard to notice for Ignite as its damage is done over time).
Then there are items like Hextech Gunblade and Deathfire Grasp. These too use Spell Vamp because their actives are also coded like abilities. These don't come up as often as Smite and Ignite, but they have classically been a point of confusion.
While damaging item actives do make use of Spell Vamp, on-hit effects from items do not. However, champion on-hit effects aren't so well delineated. Because the "on-hit" effects for many champions use backend code tricks to function, a number of them do work with Spell Vamp. Rather than have me list them all, you should refer to this list on the LoLWiki. When in doubt, you can always run your own tests, and then update the wiki as necessary.
As an aside the most Spell Vamp any champion can have in the game is 244.7%. It requires an Akali with 6 Gunblades, stacked buffs and is generally utterly implausible, but it's fun to imagine Akali Smiting something and healing for 2400 Health. A much more reasonable (relatively speaking) number is 153.5% (5 Gunblades + Runes/Masteries). It's overkill, you can solo Baron at 2 Gunblades, but it's fun overkill.
Hopefully that made Spell Vamp's mechanics slightly more clear. There are a lot of misconceptions about the mechanics of League of Legends, and while they may never be eliminated if I can reduce the cacophony of errant answers even slightly I'll be satisfied.
Spell Vamp is actually a bit of a misnomer. "Spell" for many players implies "magic", and so they reasonably assume that Spell Vamp only works on magic damage. This is not the case, as Spell Vamp works on all cast abilities regardless of damage type (otherwise what would the point of Spell Vamp on Olaf or Lee Sin?). A more accurate name would be Ability Vamp, but Riot has never seen fit to change it.
So everything from Reckless Swing, to Noxious Trap, to Resonating Strike can make use of Spell Vamp, but there's plenty more confusion to be had. Spell Vamp's effectiveness is reduced by two-thirds on multi-target abilities. This is a necessary mechanic because otherwise a Morgana with no Ability Power at all could heal for 500+ Health with a single Tormented Soil. Still, it's something else for players to remember about Spell Vamp.
More confusion abounds because of Smite and Ignite. Because they are coded like abilities they actually work with Spell Vamp. You can, to this day, find threads where people ask whether these two Summoner Spells work with Spell Vamp, and get multiple answers. Rest assured, Spell Vamp definitely works with both (though it can be hard to notice for Ignite as its damage is done over time).
Then there are items like Hextech Gunblade and Deathfire Grasp. These too use Spell Vamp because their actives are also coded like abilities. These don't come up as often as Smite and Ignite, but they have classically been a point of confusion.
While damaging item actives do make use of Spell Vamp, on-hit effects from items do not. However, champion on-hit effects aren't so well delineated. Because the "on-hit" effects for many champions use backend code tricks to function, a number of them do work with Spell Vamp. Rather than have me list them all, you should refer to this list on the LoLWiki. When in doubt, you can always run your own tests, and then update the wiki as necessary.
As an aside the most Spell Vamp any champion can have in the game is 244.7%. It requires an Akali with 6 Gunblades, stacked buffs and is generally utterly implausible, but it's fun to imagine Akali Smiting something and healing for 2400 Health. A much more reasonable (relatively speaking) number is 153.5% (5 Gunblades + Runes/Masteries). It's overkill, you can solo Baron at 2 Gunblades, but it's fun overkill.
Hopefully that made Spell Vamp's mechanics slightly more clear. There are a lot of misconceptions about the mechanics of League of Legends, and while they may never be eliminated if I can reduce the cacophony of errant answers even slightly I'll be satisfied.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Jungler: Akali (Season 3)
I've released a new jungle Akali video. It's just the basic route, but it still provides a good point of discussion.
It's been well over two years since I first started experimenting with jungle Akali. In that time she's gone from a joke, to low tier, to viable but inappropriate for the meta, to her current state. This slow but steady progression is fairly well documented in my numerous video guides archived on Youtube. It's funny to look back on her early jungling days, which were a very far cry the from the safe, fluid jungling she is now capable of.
Season 3 is perhaps the zenith of Akali's viability as a jungler. Dive compositions are becoming more popular due to the reduced effectiveness of tanks. At the same time early ganking junglers have much greater pressure to succeed, or else face falling behind their opponents who simply farmed for level 6 before ganking. That Akali has weak early ganks is no longer quite the handicap it once was.
Akali's weakest point is level 1, she does not do quite enough damage to clear a small camp before a buff spawns. With assistance at level 1 she can easily gain 10-20 seconds on her clear time. Add in Bladed Armor and taking Golems rather than Wolves before Red, and her clear speed is actually substantially faster than the video may lead you to believe. The video, however, was largely concerned with the basic, safest route and demonstrating Akali's strong sustain for the benefit of inexperienced junglers.
Whether jungling or laning, Hextech Gunblade is simply the best single item for Akali. Hitting 41% Spell Vamp turns Smite into a personal Heal when fighting near creeps. The slow is extremely good for chasing, especially with Akali's high single target damage. This also feeds into what I believe to be Akali's ideal build, Gunblade + Deathfire Grasp + Lich Bane. With those three items Akali can absolutely decimate any carry before they can react. The ideal build isn't possible in all games, but Gunblade is absolutely and irrefutably the core item.
Once you've hit level 6 or 7 on Akali you should be extremely aggressive, especially if you have enough gold for Sorcerer's Shoes or Hextech Revolver. Even without crowd control Akali's ganks are incredibly potent due to her extreme chase potential. So long as her opponents are not in the immediate vicinity of their towers Akali can easily force Flash and other summoners. She's absolutely terrifying one on one, capable of taking on practically any champion in the game (especially if she gets first strike). Your goal is to less to farm the jungle and more to farm the enemy team.
Your late-game role is the same as any assassin, be enough of a threat that if the enemy team doesn't pay attention to you and blows cooldowns on your allies they're guaranteed to lose one or more carries. The hardest targets to kill are typically carries with stuns and roots, as they can potentially use that time to flash out of your ultimate's range. Otherwise any target you have vision of is probably a dead target.
With the meta warping under the influence of Season 3, now is finally (I swear, really, this time it's true) Akali's chance to shine as a jungler. Try her out and enjoy emerging stealthily from the jungle to complete your covert assassination missions.
It's been well over two years since I first started experimenting with jungle Akali. In that time she's gone from a joke, to low tier, to viable but inappropriate for the meta, to her current state. This slow but steady progression is fairly well documented in my numerous video guides archived on Youtube. It's funny to look back on her early jungling days, which were a very far cry the from the safe, fluid jungling she is now capable of.
Season 3 is perhaps the zenith of Akali's viability as a jungler. Dive compositions are becoming more popular due to the reduced effectiveness of tanks. At the same time early ganking junglers have much greater pressure to succeed, or else face falling behind their opponents who simply farmed for level 6 before ganking. That Akali has weak early ganks is no longer quite the handicap it once was.
Akali's weakest point is level 1, she does not do quite enough damage to clear a small camp before a buff spawns. With assistance at level 1 she can easily gain 10-20 seconds on her clear time. Add in Bladed Armor and taking Golems rather than Wolves before Red, and her clear speed is actually substantially faster than the video may lead you to believe. The video, however, was largely concerned with the basic, safest route and demonstrating Akali's strong sustain for the benefit of inexperienced junglers.
Whether jungling or laning, Hextech Gunblade is simply the best single item for Akali. Hitting 41% Spell Vamp turns Smite into a personal Heal when fighting near creeps. The slow is extremely good for chasing, especially with Akali's high single target damage. This also feeds into what I believe to be Akali's ideal build, Gunblade + Deathfire Grasp + Lich Bane. With those three items Akali can absolutely decimate any carry before they can react. The ideal build isn't possible in all games, but Gunblade is absolutely and irrefutably the core item.
Once you've hit level 6 or 7 on Akali you should be extremely aggressive, especially if you have enough gold for Sorcerer's Shoes or Hextech Revolver. Even without crowd control Akali's ganks are incredibly potent due to her extreme chase potential. So long as her opponents are not in the immediate vicinity of their towers Akali can easily force Flash and other summoners. She's absolutely terrifying one on one, capable of taking on practically any champion in the game (especially if she gets first strike). Your goal is to less to farm the jungle and more to farm the enemy team.
Your late-game role is the same as any assassin, be enough of a threat that if the enemy team doesn't pay attention to you and blows cooldowns on your allies they're guaranteed to lose one or more carries. The hardest targets to kill are typically carries with stuns and roots, as they can potentially use that time to flash out of your ultimate's range. Otherwise any target you have vision of is probably a dead target.
With the meta warping under the influence of Season 3, now is finally (I swear, really, this time it's true) Akali's chance to shine as a jungler. Try her out and enjoy emerging stealthily from the jungle to complete your covert assassination missions.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Quote: On Winning 4v5
"Now is the winter of our disconnect, made summer by this sun of Leona."
-Gloucester, Richard III
-Gloucester, Richard III
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Patch Day: Balance Update
Patch notes can only mean one thing, analysis!
First up we have a minor nerf to Cho'gath. His jungle sustain was a little high considering how strong his ganks were. While his passive is slightly better late game this is definitely a flat out nerf.
Diana got the nerf bat home run smackdown, and understandably so. She's been a fixture in every recent tournament, and is extremely hard to deal with when played well. Her base damage, range, and ease of landing skill shots all took substantial hits. She'll still be strong, but she won't be quite as overpoweringly so as before.
Master Yi get a few useful changes. His jungling will be significantly less like a lottery, which is helpful to both him and opposing teams. Regular Master Yi junglers will always remember that one clear where his Alpha Strike procced every single time and they shot out of the jungle in less than three minutes. A fun as that randomness was, it's gone in favor of actually being able to reliably clear the rest of the time. There's also a slight buff to Wuju Style, which will help Master Yi feel less crippled if he doesn't get his reset.
Some obvious nerfs hit Rengar. Anyone could have predicted that Rengar's W would drop in healing and damage. The addition of delay to his stealth is a similarly obvious change. Rengar's tankiness and ridiculous escape potential are thus nerfed, though he'll still be a beast.
Everyone's favorite Yordle to hate also got hit with the nerf bat. The base damage on Teemo's shrooms and the Ability Power ratio on his Toxic Shot were hit. Dropping 150 damage is really big, and it's likely we'll see a little less of him. A month later he'll return because his shrooms are still annoying as hell.
Zyra gets some nerfs largely targeting her ability to support. She'll still be effecting as both a carry and a support, but with slower roots and a weaker passive she won't dominate lanes quite so hard.
Black Cleaver got nailed for its stackability, and Riot tool some care to avoid repeating the mistake on other Armor Penetration items. No surprise there, though surely many a Kha'zix and Talon will weep for their glory days. Black Cleaver + Last Whisper is still going to be painful anyway.
And now for the best change of all, Smite was buffed! It does substantially more damage at all levels, meaning substantially more healing for jungle Akali!
All in all it's a fairly straightforward balance patch. The obvious problems were hit hard, a few outlying issues of weakness were addressed, and maybe jungling will be slightly easier for everyone. Any huge shifts at this point are still going to be a result of the cataclysmic Season 3 changes, not these minor balance fixes.
First up we have a minor nerf to Cho'gath. His jungle sustain was a little high considering how strong his ganks were. While his passive is slightly better late game this is definitely a flat out nerf.
Diana got the nerf bat home run smackdown, and understandably so. She's been a fixture in every recent tournament, and is extremely hard to deal with when played well. Her base damage, range, and ease of landing skill shots all took substantial hits. She'll still be strong, but she won't be quite as overpoweringly so as before.
Master Yi get a few useful changes. His jungling will be significantly less like a lottery, which is helpful to both him and opposing teams. Regular Master Yi junglers will always remember that one clear where his Alpha Strike procced every single time and they shot out of the jungle in less than three minutes. A fun as that randomness was, it's gone in favor of actually being able to reliably clear the rest of the time. There's also a slight buff to Wuju Style, which will help Master Yi feel less crippled if he doesn't get his reset.
Some obvious nerfs hit Rengar. Anyone could have predicted that Rengar's W would drop in healing and damage. The addition of delay to his stealth is a similarly obvious change. Rengar's tankiness and ridiculous escape potential are thus nerfed, though he'll still be a beast.
Everyone's favorite Yordle to hate also got hit with the nerf bat. The base damage on Teemo's shrooms and the Ability Power ratio on his Toxic Shot were hit. Dropping 150 damage is really big, and it's likely we'll see a little less of him. A month later he'll return because his shrooms are still annoying as hell.
Zyra gets some nerfs largely targeting her ability to support. She'll still be effecting as both a carry and a support, but with slower roots and a weaker passive she won't dominate lanes quite so hard.
Black Cleaver got nailed for its stackability, and Riot tool some care to avoid repeating the mistake on other Armor Penetration items. No surprise there, though surely many a Kha'zix and Talon will weep for their glory days. Black Cleaver + Last Whisper is still going to be painful anyway.
And now for the best change of all, Smite was buffed! It does substantially more damage at all levels, meaning substantially more healing for jungle Akali!
All in all it's a fairly straightforward balance patch. The obvious problems were hit hard, a few outlying issues of weakness were addressed, and maybe jungling will be slightly easier for everyone. Any huge shifts at this point are still going to be a result of the cataclysmic Season 3 changes, not these minor balance fixes.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Season 3: Liandry's Torment
Today's we're going to cover an item of some controversy, Liandry's Torment.
Liandry's Torment: (2900g)
70 Ability Power
200 Health
Passive: UNIQUE - Eyes of Pain: 15 Magic Penetration
Passive: UNIQUE - Dealing magical spell damage burns enemies for 5% of their current health as magic damage over 3 seconds. If their movement is impaired, they take double damage from this effect. Multi-target or periodic effects deals 2.5% over 1.5 seconds. 300 max damage vs monsters.
Before we dive into discussion, let's get a few quirky mechanics out of the way.
First, Liandry's periodic damage ticks every half second. This will become important in later discussion.
Second, Liandry's periodic damage does not refresh like Teemo's Toxic Shot or Nautilus' Titan's Wrath, but resets. If you deal damage which would proc Liadry's milliseconds before a tick would have occurred you lose that tick of damage forever.
Third, Liandry's does not proc from on-hit effects. The aforementioned Toxic Shot and Titan's Wrath are good examples of Magic Damage that will not proc Liandry's.
The practical upshot of the first two mechanics is that it is very, very easy to lose ticks of Liandry's damage, especially with colliding periodic damage sources. Even with just one periodic damage ability ticking every second Liandry's will only tick once before it is reset, dramatically reducing its potential damage. Whereas you might have expected nine ticks from Teemo's Noxious Trap, in fact you only get six.
Despite that, Liandry's does appear to have a lot of potential. For one, the damage is independent of ability rank, so running into Rank 1 Nidalee traps will yield the same benefit from Liandry's passive as Rank 5. Liandry's also has Flat Magic Penetration, an extremely valuable stat with Season 3's changes. Finally, it's not lacking on the Ability Power front either. It's expensive, and a lot of its cost goes toward the passive, but as an upgrade to Haunting Guise it seems a worthy item.
Which brings us to the controversy. It's very, very hard for most of the champions that favor Liandry's to discern the value of that passive. As a result there's an ongoing debate as to whether it's worth upgrading Haunting Guise into Liandry's early, or if it should be put off until later, or even if it should be built at all. This is an extremely difficult argument because Liandry's damage is very difficult to math out and account for, not only because of the complicated ways you can lose ticks, but also because its damage depends heavily on how much damage has already been done to a target. It's likely that the debate over Liandry's will continue for some time before anything resembling a consensus is reached.
Overall, however, it's a fairly effective item provided you aren't attempting to burst down an opponent. It also has one of the smoothest build paths of any Ability Power item, as every component is cheap and you never need to dedicate more than two slot at a time toward its construction. Haunting Guise makes for a good early item whether you intend on finishing Liandry's now or later. If you're going to be poking at enemy champions and/or laying traps, Liandry's can be very effective.
Teemo is currently the poster-Yordle for Liandry's due to the minefields of mushrooms he leaves across the map. Because they not only deal damage but slow the half-damage effect for periodic damage is cancelled out. The resulting damage adds up to roughly 5% of a target's current health, which is nothing to sneeze at. While he's currently the king of Liandry's users, Nidalee, Ziggs, and Xerath are other champions that make excellent use of the item.
Liandry's passive may not be as exciting as some of the active abilities we've seen, but it still conforms with Riot's goal to shift itemization away from a cut and dried comparison of stats, and into less objective debates about the merits of utility.
Liandry's Torment: (2900g)
70 Ability Power
200 Health
Passive: UNIQUE - Eyes of Pain: 15 Magic Penetration
Passive: UNIQUE - Dealing magical spell damage burns enemies for 5% of their current health as magic damage over 3 seconds. If their movement is impaired, they take double damage from this effect. Multi-target or periodic effects deals 2.5% over 1.5 seconds. 300 max damage vs monsters.
Before we dive into discussion, let's get a few quirky mechanics out of the way.
First, Liandry's periodic damage ticks every half second. This will become important in later discussion.
Second, Liandry's periodic damage does not refresh like Teemo's Toxic Shot or Nautilus' Titan's Wrath, but resets. If you deal damage which would proc Liadry's milliseconds before a tick would have occurred you lose that tick of damage forever.
Third, Liandry's does not proc from on-hit effects. The aforementioned Toxic Shot and Titan's Wrath are good examples of Magic Damage that will not proc Liandry's.
The practical upshot of the first two mechanics is that it is very, very easy to lose ticks of Liandry's damage, especially with colliding periodic damage sources. Even with just one periodic damage ability ticking every second Liandry's will only tick once before it is reset, dramatically reducing its potential damage. Whereas you might have expected nine ticks from Teemo's Noxious Trap, in fact you only get six.
Despite that, Liandry's does appear to have a lot of potential. For one, the damage is independent of ability rank, so running into Rank 1 Nidalee traps will yield the same benefit from Liandry's passive as Rank 5. Liandry's also has Flat Magic Penetration, an extremely valuable stat with Season 3's changes. Finally, it's not lacking on the Ability Power front either. It's expensive, and a lot of its cost goes toward the passive, but as an upgrade to Haunting Guise it seems a worthy item.
Which brings us to the controversy. It's very, very hard for most of the champions that favor Liandry's to discern the value of that passive. As a result there's an ongoing debate as to whether it's worth upgrading Haunting Guise into Liandry's early, or if it should be put off until later, or even if it should be built at all. This is an extremely difficult argument because Liandry's damage is very difficult to math out and account for, not only because of the complicated ways you can lose ticks, but also because its damage depends heavily on how much damage has already been done to a target. It's likely that the debate over Liandry's will continue for some time before anything resembling a consensus is reached.
Overall, however, it's a fairly effective item provided you aren't attempting to burst down an opponent. It also has one of the smoothest build paths of any Ability Power item, as every component is cheap and you never need to dedicate more than two slot at a time toward its construction. Haunting Guise makes for a good early item whether you intend on finishing Liandry's now or later. If you're going to be poking at enemy champions and/or laying traps, Liandry's can be very effective.
Teemo is currently the poster-Yordle for Liandry's due to the minefields of mushrooms he leaves across the map. Because they not only deal damage but slow the half-damage effect for periodic damage is cancelled out. The resulting damage adds up to roughly 5% of a target's current health, which is nothing to sneeze at. While he's currently the king of Liandry's users, Nidalee, Ziggs, and Xerath are other champions that make excellent use of the item.
Liandry's passive may not be as exciting as some of the active abilities we've seen, but it still conforms with Riot's goal to shift itemization away from a cut and dried comparison of stats, and into less objective debates about the merits of utility.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Season 3: Blade of the Ruined King
Today we have an item which isn't new per se, but was never seen on Summoner's Rift before Season 3: Blade of the Ruined King
Blade of the Ruined King: (2900g)
40 Attack Damage
10% Life Steal
Passive: UNIQUE - Your attacks deal 4% of your target's current health in physical damage and heal you for half the amount (120 versus versus minions).
Active: UNIQUE - Drains target champion, dealing 150 (+50% of Attack Damage) physical damage and healing you for the same amount. Additionally you steal 30% of their Movement Speed for 2 seconds. 60 second cooldown. 500 range.
Blade of the Ruined King (BotRK) is an interesting item because it seems to overlap significantly with Bloodthirster. Both give Attack Damage and Life Steal, but BotRK trades a significant chunk of both for passive and active effects of difficult to ascertain value. Why have both on Summoner's Rift?
The answer is survival. The Movement Speed changes in Season 3 dramatically favor situational actives. Even Furor, the Tier 3 Enchant, requires single target attacks for its 12%, decaying boost. BotRK possesses one of these situational actives, useful both for chasing someone in close range or escaping. I'm highlighting it today due to a problem commonly facing AD Carries.
While the current Black Cleaver-laden meta will fade the moment its inevitable nerfs land, several aspects of Season 3, and the game in general, have become plain. Teams that can simply dive your most vulnerable players are powerful even in the face of teams with significant crowd control. One player diving can be stopped, but three or four players who coordinate and avoid unnecessary clustering will demolish your principal damage dealers before they can contribute. Against many teams the glass cannon builds of the past are simply a quick ticket to the afterlife.
BotRK is one tool to help combat this. It's no Flash, Heal, or Exhaust, but still provides a tool for surviving, escaping, and kiting a bruiser or assassin who's jumped you. A full build won't help you if you can't distance yourself from the foes clamoring for your head.
Runaan's Hurricane makes an excellent companion to this item. The additional attacks also proc the full damage of the passive, tripling the potential healing. Combined with Bloodthirster you can very quickly heal any incidental damage from a team fight, or even tank to an extent.
If AD Carry is your forte but the big scary bruisers have been crimping your style lately, BotRK may be the item for you. It's no substitute for good positioning, but it can still make all the difference.
40 Attack Damage
10% Life Steal
Passive: UNIQUE - Your attacks deal 4% of your target's current health in physical damage and heal you for half the amount (120 versus versus minions).
Active: UNIQUE - Drains target champion, dealing 150 (+50% of Attack Damage) physical damage and healing you for the same amount. Additionally you steal 30% of their Movement Speed for 2 seconds. 60 second cooldown. 500 range.
Blade of the Ruined King (BotRK) is an interesting item because it seems to overlap significantly with Bloodthirster. Both give Attack Damage and Life Steal, but BotRK trades a significant chunk of both for passive and active effects of difficult to ascertain value. Why have both on Summoner's Rift?
The answer is survival. The Movement Speed changes in Season 3 dramatically favor situational actives. Even Furor, the Tier 3 Enchant, requires single target attacks for its 12%, decaying boost. BotRK possesses one of these situational actives, useful both for chasing someone in close range or escaping. I'm highlighting it today due to a problem commonly facing AD Carries.
While the current Black Cleaver-laden meta will fade the moment its inevitable nerfs land, several aspects of Season 3, and the game in general, have become plain. Teams that can simply dive your most vulnerable players are powerful even in the face of teams with significant crowd control. One player diving can be stopped, but three or four players who coordinate and avoid unnecessary clustering will demolish your principal damage dealers before they can contribute. Against many teams the glass cannon builds of the past are simply a quick ticket to the afterlife.
BotRK is one tool to help combat this. It's no Flash, Heal, or Exhaust, but still provides a tool for surviving, escaping, and kiting a bruiser or assassin who's jumped you. A full build won't help you if you can't distance yourself from the foes clamoring for your head.
Runaan's Hurricane makes an excellent companion to this item. The additional attacks also proc the full damage of the passive, tripling the potential healing. Combined with Bloodthirster you can very quickly heal any incidental damage from a team fight, or even tank to an extent.
If AD Carry is your forte but the big scary bruisers have been crimping your style lately, BotRK may be the item for you. It's no substitute for good positioning, but it can still make all the difference.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Season 3: Hextech Gunblade
Hextech Gunblade: (3400g)
45 Attack Damage
65 Ability Power
10% Life Steal
20% Spell Vamp
Passive: UNIQUE - Reload: Your basic attacks and single target spells against champions reduce the cooldown of this item by 3 seconds.
Active: UNIQUE - Deals 150 + 40% of your Ability Power as magic damage and slows the target champion's Movement Speed by 40% for 2 seconds. 60 second cooldown.
While roughly the same, Gunblade has seen a little reshuffling in stats and costs. It lost 5% Life Steal but costs 200g less, and a little Ability Power was swapped for Attack Damage. While the shifting stats aren't particularly notable, the fact that the Spell Vamp is no longer unique heralds the return of Gunblade stacking (as much of a troll build as that may be).
The exciting changes aren't the stats but the new passive and revamped active. The base damage on the active was halved, but now has a 0.4 Ability Power ratio (breaking even at 375 Ability Power). The effect and duration of the slow were also reduced. All of those nerfs are to compensate for the new passive, Reload. There's no internal cooldown on Reload, and it has the potential to allow for multiple uses in a single teamfight, or repeated uses in lane.
Akali is one of the classic Gunblade champions, and Reload is obviously particularly effective on her. Mark of the Assassin procs Reload twice, once for the cast and once for consuming the Mark, meaning that Akali can easily remove half the cooldown in a single chase. Combined with the Artifacer mastery, Akali can easily reset the cooldown on Gunblade after a single kill.
Simply attacking fast can also do the trick. A champion with 2.0 Attack Speed and nothing else will reset Gunblade within 7-8 seconds. Jax' combination of fast attacks and single target abilities makes him similarly well attuned to this item.
Even if you won't be stacking Ability Power, the ability to potentially reuse the active multiple times in a fight is strong. Because Gunblade is still largely a hybrid item most champions may not find it very interesting or useful, but for those that do the changes are potent and compelling.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Season 3: Assorted Jungling Thoughts
Jungling is my forte, and I keep all my jungle setups in a document for when time and disuse lead to forgetfulness. As you might imagine, Season 3's jungle revamp has made my current document obsolete, warranting a lot of effort in updating it.
As I've been working my way through the list of forty or more champions, some more serious than others, there are a few trends that have come to my attention. It's early yet for there to be much certainty, but I'm confident in the following points.
First, there is a universal jungle setup which will more or less work for every single champion in the game. If you have but one rune page to spare for jungling, use this:
The Universal Jungle Rune Page:
Quints: Attack Speed
Marks: Attack Speed
Seals: Armor
Glyphs: Attack Speed
This page will not only work for 99% of junglers, but will most likely be the page that yields the fastest, and safest, clear time. Only Attack Speed scales the jungle-specific true damage on Hunter's Machete, so this isn't unexpected. The page is not optimal for all junglers, there are more considerations than just speed and safety (e.g. having enough Magic Resistance to not instantaneously die when ganking mid), but as far as universal pages go this is the most effective there's ever been.
Second, there is far less leeway for optimizing a jungle setup. In Season 2 jungling was easy enough that most of a jungle setup could be oriented towards concerns outside of the jungle. Season 3, being far less forgiving, demands that the bulk of one's attention be paid toward clearing the jungle. Some junglers have more leeway than others, but the majority make themselves more vulnerable and less effective early if they sacrifice clearing speed and safety for other goals.
Finally, a much greater number of junglers are likely to be viable than before. This seems like it would be in contrast to my second point, but in fact it is not. Because almost all junglers have been forced to shift toward Machete + 5 Potions as an opening, junglers who previously were lacking in sustain, but not necessarily killing power, are now much more competitive. While I doubt that certain champions are serious contenders due to other issues (e.g. Cassiopeia and Malzahar could not possibly function without Blue), the potential pool has widened. Whether we see these new options or not is going to depend on the meta.
Nothing terribly exciting, but any tectonic shifts in the meta have only just begun their rumblings. If you're disappointed simply wait a few more weeks. By then the meta might be five bruisers all building as many Black Cleavers as possible.
As I've been working my way through the list of forty or more champions, some more serious than others, there are a few trends that have come to my attention. It's early yet for there to be much certainty, but I'm confident in the following points.
First, there is a universal jungle setup which will more or less work for every single champion in the game. If you have but one rune page to spare for jungling, use this:
The Universal Jungle Rune Page:
Quints: Attack Speed
Marks: Attack Speed
Seals: Armor
Glyphs: Attack Speed
This page will not only work for 99% of junglers, but will most likely be the page that yields the fastest, and safest, clear time. Only Attack Speed scales the jungle-specific true damage on Hunter's Machete, so this isn't unexpected. The page is not optimal for all junglers, there are more considerations than just speed and safety (e.g. having enough Magic Resistance to not instantaneously die when ganking mid), but as far as universal pages go this is the most effective there's ever been.
Second, there is far less leeway for optimizing a jungle setup. In Season 2 jungling was easy enough that most of a jungle setup could be oriented towards concerns outside of the jungle. Season 3, being far less forgiving, demands that the bulk of one's attention be paid toward clearing the jungle. Some junglers have more leeway than others, but the majority make themselves more vulnerable and less effective early if they sacrifice clearing speed and safety for other goals.
Finally, a much greater number of junglers are likely to be viable than before. This seems like it would be in contrast to my second point, but in fact it is not. Because almost all junglers have been forced to shift toward Machete + 5 Potions as an opening, junglers who previously were lacking in sustain, but not necessarily killing power, are now much more competitive. While I doubt that certain champions are serious contenders due to other issues (e.g. Cassiopeia and Malzahar could not possibly function without Blue), the potential pool has widened. Whether we see these new options or not is going to depend on the meta.
Nothing terribly exciting, but any tectonic shifts in the meta have only just begun their rumblings. If you're disappointed simply wait a few more weeks. By then the meta might be five bruisers all building as many Black Cleavers as possible.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Update: Patch Day
Just in time for patch day, I the intrepid Montegomery have come down with a cold. Analysis of everything will be forthcoming and ongoing, after my Cleanse comes off cooldown.
Monday, December 3, 2012
IPL5: The Art of War
I'd like to interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to give my thoughts on this weekend's tournament. Those of you who lament the lack of an item spotlight should tune in to Mondays with Monte tonight at 8:00 PM CST, where I'll be discussing Season 3 items and showcasing a few of them in replays.
IPL5 was a grueling, four day affair which tested the endurance of the players, and tested the K-Pop tolerance of the viewers. As the final tournament before the cataclysmic Season 3 changes, IPL5 delivered with some of the best teams in the world. There were pentakills, breathtaking plays, upsets, and surprises. It was a fantastic tournament.
While much will change in Season 3, there is at least one lesson we can learn from this tournament which will undoubtedly still be relevant in the days ahead. It's an obvious one, but nevertheless is often forgotten. League of Legends is a game of information warfare.
This isn't about secret strategies and cheeses that teams jealously guard against, but the actual game itself. From champion select to the late-game, the flow of information dictates much of what happens. Teams with information and knowledge of their opponents can act confidently, making plays and dominating a match. Those without struggle, toil, and often lose. It's a story that was told multiple times over the course of the weekend, but never more clearly than the final day of play.
For a simple yet never before seen example, consider Fnatic's Evelyn and Shen combination in their third and last series against TPA. During Fnatic's final push TPA could not know where Evelyn was. If she was still with the bulk of her team, initiating on them would only have invited a Shen ult and defeat. But if she was with Shen anyone who went to stop his split push would have no chance of success. Evelyn's quantum state cowed TPA, ultimately leading to Toyz' demise and Fnatic's victory.
On a grander scale we can look to the grand finals themselves. In game 2 Fnatic had a commanding lead against WE, but eventually lost. What turned the game around for WE was superior map control. When WE realized that Fnatic had lost Oracle's without replacing it, and were also skimping on wards, WE went ward crazy. With Fnatic's jungle lit up like a Christmas tree the plays that had been dominating WE stopped working, and WE used their superior information control to make plays which would normally have been very risky. Many of sOAZ's deaths were the result of Fnatic ceding information control to WE. By the time they realized what was going on and bought a new Oracle's, WE had already taken the lead by a large margin and the game was all but over.
The final match of the grand finals demonstrated what Fnatic should have done with that lead. WE took a strong early advantage, grabbed an Oracle's, and denied Fnatic as much information as possible. Behind and without any way to see WE's plays coming, Fnatic struggled in their attempts to catch up. While they held the gold deficit steady for a time, eventually the lack of information control caught up with them and WE's lead exploded. It was a textbook example of how the unknown can force a team into a situation where their only option is to fall further and further behind.
Denying your opponent information, forcing them to make assumptions, and then defying their assumptions to catch them by surprise are core principles for everything from laning, to jungling, to champion select, and to overarching team strategy. Even with the upcoming nerf to Oracle's and the proliferation of wards thanks to Sightstone, the control of information will continue to be a critical part of League of Legends.
IPL5 was a grueling, four day affair which tested the endurance of the players, and tested the K-Pop tolerance of the viewers. As the final tournament before the cataclysmic Season 3 changes, IPL5 delivered with some of the best teams in the world. There were pentakills, breathtaking plays, upsets, and surprises. It was a fantastic tournament.
While much will change in Season 3, there is at least one lesson we can learn from this tournament which will undoubtedly still be relevant in the days ahead. It's an obvious one, but nevertheless is often forgotten. League of Legends is a game of information warfare.
This isn't about secret strategies and cheeses that teams jealously guard against, but the actual game itself. From champion select to the late-game, the flow of information dictates much of what happens. Teams with information and knowledge of their opponents can act confidently, making plays and dominating a match. Those without struggle, toil, and often lose. It's a story that was told multiple times over the course of the weekend, but never more clearly than the final day of play.
For a simple yet never before seen example, consider Fnatic's Evelyn and Shen combination in their third and last series against TPA. During Fnatic's final push TPA could not know where Evelyn was. If she was still with the bulk of her team, initiating on them would only have invited a Shen ult and defeat. But if she was with Shen anyone who went to stop his split push would have no chance of success. Evelyn's quantum state cowed TPA, ultimately leading to Toyz' demise and Fnatic's victory.
On a grander scale we can look to the grand finals themselves. In game 2 Fnatic had a commanding lead against WE, but eventually lost. What turned the game around for WE was superior map control. When WE realized that Fnatic had lost Oracle's without replacing it, and were also skimping on wards, WE went ward crazy. With Fnatic's jungle lit up like a Christmas tree the plays that had been dominating WE stopped working, and WE used their superior information control to make plays which would normally have been very risky. Many of sOAZ's deaths were the result of Fnatic ceding information control to WE. By the time they realized what was going on and bought a new Oracle's, WE had already taken the lead by a large margin and the game was all but over.
The final match of the grand finals demonstrated what Fnatic should have done with that lead. WE took a strong early advantage, grabbed an Oracle's, and denied Fnatic as much information as possible. Behind and without any way to see WE's plays coming, Fnatic struggled in their attempts to catch up. While they held the gold deficit steady for a time, eventually the lack of information control caught up with them and WE's lead exploded. It was a textbook example of how the unknown can force a team into a situation where their only option is to fall further and further behind.
Denying your opponent information, forcing them to make assumptions, and then defying their assumptions to catch them by surprise are core principles for everything from laning, to jungling, to champion select, and to overarching team strategy. Even with the upcoming nerf to Oracle's and the proliferation of wards thanks to Sightstone, the control of information will continue to be a critical part of League of Legends.
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