Patch Day: 3.04

A day late, but there was a patch which had notes and everything yesterday.

Elise takes a laning phase hit, but ultimately this isn't going to dramatically change her viability. The Health-based damage on Neurotoxin wasn't affected, so it'll still be a very effective poking/damage tool against top lane champions.

Jarvan loses his team Armor buff. This actually surprised me when I saw it. Jarvan is definitely strong, but at lot of his current power stems from the current popularity of physical damage junglers and solo lanes. His winrate wasn't excessive despite that circumstance, and he would have fallen in popularity with a shift in the meta. As a result I think this change was premature.

Everyone's favorite chemist, Singed, receives nerfs. This will make him slightly easier to catch, but his deadly cloud of poison is still the most dangerous part of his kit, and will still choke to death anyone foolish enough to chase him.

Taric is likely to see a significant drop in popularity due to these nerfs. However, I'm inspired to try a variation on jungle/top-lane Taric where his stun is maxed first. With these changes it makes a lot more sense to max that first, regardless of role, especially with Shatter's armor bonus no longer based on skill rank.

Runic Bulwark and Locket of the Iron Solari both received nerfs. Yes, each is cheaper, but the combination of the two was extremely common on support-oriented junglers. Dropping 200 Health and 5 Magic Resist is significant, even if you save 400 gold in the process.

As with most recent patches, most changes are aimed at making popular champions and items weaker, with a few minor buffs here and there to make others more viable. In general the nerfs have been outnumbering the buffs, a trend which remains concerning. We'll see what 3.05 hold, but for now I wonder what popular jungler will next get the nerf bat.