The patch is actually here, and with it comes Zac and a remade Karma.
Karma's remake is interesting in that it makes her much more of an offensive caster than a support. While she can support, she'll likely be played as a straight carry more often than not due to her high damage and survivability.
Nerfing Akali's Twilight Shroud through its mechanics is painful, but only for those overly reliant on it. The truth of the Shroud is that beyond the laning phase its usefulness drops due to pink wards and Oracle's. In fact, in high level play pink wards are par for the course when it comes to ganking Akali.
Hecarim gets another bout with the nerf bat. This dramatically affects his survivability in longer encounters, especially at low ranks. He'll still be played, but his popularity is likely to decrease as will his chances at competitive play.
Rumble's ultimate is now entirely damage over time without any special upfront burst. Using it to catch people who were nearly dead was apparently too strong. I'd be interested in seeing the analysis which lead to this change.
Everyone's favorite gap closer-less jungler, Udyr, has essentially been given a minor rework. This should help his jungling and distance closing issues, though he loses a bit of tankiness, mana sustain, and longer duration mobility as a result. Chances are he'll still be very strong both top and as a jungler.
The changes to turret damage will make early dives harder, but in the end it's mostly going to make foolish junglers accidentally kill themselves more.
A decent patch overall, and nice in that it had a fairly even share of both buffs and nerfs (even if I didn't discuss them all). Hopefully this balance will continue in future patches.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
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.
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.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Thought: Dragon Priority
There may be a few spoilers regarding MLG Dallas in this post. Consider yourself forewarned.
There were many fantastic games over the weekend, but rather than highlight any particular one game I'd like to focus on an interesting trend I've noticed across all of LCS and Season 3 thus far. It's something Gambit Gaming has picked up on and made central to their strategy. Specifically, Dragon is more valuable early than turrets.
The strategy Gambit Gaming, and some others, employed was to simply take every Dragon during the early-game, even if it meant committing all five members of the team and losing a turret. Dragon is considered more valuable because the outer turrets are almost guaranteed to fall eventually. Thus, taking a turret in exchange for Dragon will only temporarily keep the teams even in gold. The team that prioritizes Dragon has an advantage because they evenly trade a permanent advantage for a temporary one, and eventually the other team will have to pay the piper.
The key to the strategy is the initial mid-game team fight. If the Dragon-hoarding team wins that first, crucial team fight they'll easily gain several thousand gold on their opponents due to all of the easy objectives within reach, regardless of their relative position before the fight started. Even without a decisive win, it's far harder to defend outer turrets than inner ones, meaning even a disadvantaged team is likely to make up ground. The result is a near-guaranteed slingshot effect, where the team which had yet to take towers will catapult forward.
This is not an invincible strategy, but it appeared to be a very reliable one for Gambit Gaming. It took them all the way to the international exhibition finals, and almost made them the victors. It was only KT Rolster B's superior early game pressure, consistently shutting down Darien, which kept Gambit in check.
I've mentioned this to a number of people in a number of places, and the reaction has been largely the same every time. Practically everyone becomes immediately concerned about map control, citing how the loss of one's jungle, increased necessity of wards, and the like negates any benefits. Given how prominently this strategy was on display, especially during the first two games between Gambit and KT Rolster B, I myself was, in turn, surprised by the reactions.
Map control is an issue, but I believe it to be nowhere near as dire as others seem to believe, at least competitively. Against a coordinated team who wards as a team and reacts as a team, jungle invasion and aggressive map control are risky even with turrets down. The potential for the defending team to intercept incursions is high with proper warding, and the likelihood that there are unsuspecting players to catch out of position is low. Especially with GG Edward prioritizing warding and clearing wards over personal development, the map control issue seems born out of solo queue experience more than competitive. At the very least, Gambit Gaming was not particularly inhibited by this.
It's also important to note the progressive nature of the exchanges. One does not instantly trade three turrets for Dragon, but does so over the course of 12 minutes. For much of that time map control is still assured due to the remaining turrets and the developmental stage of both teams. It's only when the mid-game is effectively in progress that map control becomes a major issue, and that's when the strategy calls for team-fighting in order to begin making up the difference.
Again, the strategy isn't perfect or without counter, but I believe it's more effective than many players will realize. It has potential applications in both solo queue and ranked 5s, and should be carefully considered by any competitive player.
There were many fantastic games over the weekend, but rather than highlight any particular one game I'd like to focus on an interesting trend I've noticed across all of LCS and Season 3 thus far. It's something Gambit Gaming has picked up on and made central to their strategy. Specifically, Dragon is more valuable early than turrets.
The strategy Gambit Gaming, and some others, employed was to simply take every Dragon during the early-game, even if it meant committing all five members of the team and losing a turret. Dragon is considered more valuable because the outer turrets are almost guaranteed to fall eventually. Thus, taking a turret in exchange for Dragon will only temporarily keep the teams even in gold. The team that prioritizes Dragon has an advantage because they evenly trade a permanent advantage for a temporary one, and eventually the other team will have to pay the piper.
The key to the strategy is the initial mid-game team fight. If the Dragon-hoarding team wins that first, crucial team fight they'll easily gain several thousand gold on their opponents due to all of the easy objectives within reach, regardless of their relative position before the fight started. Even without a decisive win, it's far harder to defend outer turrets than inner ones, meaning even a disadvantaged team is likely to make up ground. The result is a near-guaranteed slingshot effect, where the team which had yet to take towers will catapult forward.
This is not an invincible strategy, but it appeared to be a very reliable one for Gambit Gaming. It took them all the way to the international exhibition finals, and almost made them the victors. It was only KT Rolster B's superior early game pressure, consistently shutting down Darien, which kept Gambit in check.
I've mentioned this to a number of people in a number of places, and the reaction has been largely the same every time. Practically everyone becomes immediately concerned about map control, citing how the loss of one's jungle, increased necessity of wards, and the like negates any benefits. Given how prominently this strategy was on display, especially during the first two games between Gambit and KT Rolster B, I myself was, in turn, surprised by the reactions.
Map control is an issue, but I believe it to be nowhere near as dire as others seem to believe, at least competitively. Against a coordinated team who wards as a team and reacts as a team, jungle invasion and aggressive map control are risky even with turrets down. The potential for the defending team to intercept incursions is high with proper warding, and the likelihood that there are unsuspecting players to catch out of position is low. Especially with GG Edward prioritizing warding and clearing wards over personal development, the map control issue seems born out of solo queue experience more than competitive. At the very least, Gambit Gaming was not particularly inhibited by this.
It's also important to note the progressive nature of the exchanges. One does not instantly trade three turrets for Dragon, but does so over the course of 12 minutes. For much of that time map control is still assured due to the remaining turrets and the developmental stage of both teams. It's only when the mid-game is effectively in progress that map control becomes a major issue, and that's when the strategy calls for team-fighting in order to begin making up the difference.
Again, the strategy isn't perfect or without counter, but I believe it's more effective than many players will realize. It has potential applications in both solo queue and ranked 5s, and should be carefully considered by any competitive player.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Jungler: Karthus
Jungle Karthus? What madness is this!? You might be confused by the topic, but believe me when I say that jungle Karthus is real, effective, and arguably the strongest Ability Power-based jungler in the game (apologies Akali, but tis true).
Jungle Karthus:
His ganking is also extremely dangerous both before and after level 6. His Wall of Pain is an extremely long range and long duration crowd control, reaching 1000 range and lasting 5 seconds. With only one rank the slow is a potent 40%, making any opponent hit an easy target for Lay Waste. So long as your aim is true Karthus brings more than enough damage to a gank to take down all but the tankiest, most slippery champions by himself.
Once he has Requiem, Karthus can "gank" without even leaving the jungle, although it serves just as well as a follow up to an actual gank. The constant, global pressure applied by the threat of red orbital laser death is not to be underestimated. If undisturbed or distracted Karthus can hit level 6 less than a minute after a typical solo lane, sometimes in parity. The result is a jungler who can quickly take control of the game.
Karthus also is extremely good at taking Dragon. His huge single target damage when spamming Lay Waste on a stationary target means Dragon falls quickly, not even requiring the presence of anything other than a support should there be sufficient mana. Later in the game he poses a similar threat to Baron, meaning that as a jungler he has surprisingly few weak areas despite being so unorthodox.
It's important to embrace lane taxation and selfishness as jungle Karthus, for it benefits your team significantly for you to gain farm. Hold lanes whenever possible, do not shy away from grabbing a few creeps following a successful gank, and figure out in advance who will have priority on Blue buff. So long as you do not handicap your team you'll be able to carry them in mid-game fights.
In terms of item build I generally focus on getting a quick Spirit Strone, followed by Sorcerer's Shoes. The former item helps your clearing significantly, and the latter makes your ganks and Requiem significantly scarier. From there, building a Tear of the Goddess and finishing Spirit of the Spectral Wraith should be your priorities. Follow those items with Haunting Guise, Seeker's Armguard, and whatever else suits the game at hand. Unless your team is truly struggling, you'll have a commanding presence in team fights.
Jungle Karthus is often overlooked in today's meta, but despite not being a dive-oriented tanky bruiser he is an extremely secure and viable jungler. Just be ready for when people call you a troll (they don't know any better).
Jungle Karthus:
- Quints: Spell Vamp
- Marks: Attack Damage or Magic Penetration
- Seals: Armor
- Glyphs: Flat Ability Power or Magic Penetration
- Masteries: 21/0/9 or 21/7/2 or 9/0/21
His ganking is also extremely dangerous both before and after level 6. His Wall of Pain is an extremely long range and long duration crowd control, reaching 1000 range and lasting 5 seconds. With only one rank the slow is a potent 40%, making any opponent hit an easy target for Lay Waste. So long as your aim is true Karthus brings more than enough damage to a gank to take down all but the tankiest, most slippery champions by himself.
Once he has Requiem, Karthus can "gank" without even leaving the jungle, although it serves just as well as a follow up to an actual gank. The constant, global pressure applied by the threat of red orbital laser death is not to be underestimated. If undisturbed or distracted Karthus can hit level 6 less than a minute after a typical solo lane, sometimes in parity. The result is a jungler who can quickly take control of the game.
Karthus also is extremely good at taking Dragon. His huge single target damage when spamming Lay Waste on a stationary target means Dragon falls quickly, not even requiring the presence of anything other than a support should there be sufficient mana. Later in the game he poses a similar threat to Baron, meaning that as a jungler he has surprisingly few weak areas despite being so unorthodox.
It's important to embrace lane taxation and selfishness as jungle Karthus, for it benefits your team significantly for you to gain farm. Hold lanes whenever possible, do not shy away from grabbing a few creeps following a successful gank, and figure out in advance who will have priority on Blue buff. So long as you do not handicap your team you'll be able to carry them in mid-game fights.
In terms of item build I generally focus on getting a quick Spirit Strone, followed by Sorcerer's Shoes. The former item helps your clearing significantly, and the latter makes your ganks and Requiem significantly scarier. From there, building a Tear of the Goddess and finishing Spirit of the Spectral Wraith should be your priorities. Follow those items with Haunting Guise, Seeker's Armguard, and whatever else suits the game at hand. Unless your team is truly struggling, you'll have a commanding presence in team fights.
Jungle Karthus is often overlooked in today's meta, but despite not being a dive-oriented tanky bruiser he is an extremely secure and viable jungler. Just be ready for when people call you a troll (they don't know any better).
Monday, March 11, 2013
Quote: On Skillshots
"I love skillshots. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
-Douglas Adams
-Douglas Adams
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Quote: On Want
"It is curious how often players manage to obtain that which they do not want."
-Spock
-Spock
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Thought: On Quinn
It's too early to have any hard opinions on Quinn, but I have a few observations.
Quinn seems to have a few issues in a duo lane. Her very short range makes her vulnerable to longer ranged champions, and more susceptible to being crowd controlled. This also weakens a lot of her abilities considerably. With greater restrictions on her positioning it's hard to land her Blinding Assault or follow up on her passive, and using her Vault offensively is dangerous as it removes her primary escape mechanism. She's not completely worthless, but she feels weak in that position.
However, Quinn appears to excel in a solo lane. Her ability to roam with her ultimate is extremely significant. One on one it's much easier to force an opponent into a position where her Blinding Assault harass is deadly, and to follow up on her passive. Her Heightened Senses is also an excellent tool for a champion who can only ward one ganking path. There are very few ranged carry champions who can exert map pressure like she can.
I worry that her short range will be a liability against many mid champions, but I won't know how much of a factor that will be until I have further opportunities to try her out. In the meantime, remember that you can interrupt Vault's backward jump with Flash, and that Vault will chase flashing/dashing targets ala Maokai.
Quinn seems to have a few issues in a duo lane. Her very short range makes her vulnerable to longer ranged champions, and more susceptible to being crowd controlled. This also weakens a lot of her abilities considerably. With greater restrictions on her positioning it's hard to land her Blinding Assault or follow up on her passive, and using her Vault offensively is dangerous as it removes her primary escape mechanism. She's not completely worthless, but she feels weak in that position.
However, Quinn appears to excel in a solo lane. Her ability to roam with her ultimate is extremely significant. One on one it's much easier to force an opponent into a position where her Blinding Assault harass is deadly, and to follow up on her passive. Her Heightened Senses is also an excellent tool for a champion who can only ward one ganking path. There are very few ranged carry champions who can exert map pressure like she can.
I worry that her short range will be a liability against many mid champions, but I won't know how much of a factor that will be until I have further opportunities to try her out. In the meantime, remember that you can interrupt Vault's backward jump with Flash, and that Vault will chase flashing/dashing targets ala Maokai.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Support: Nasus
It's time for me to eat a little bit of humble pie and talk about support Nasus, a concept which I initially spurned due to several bad but unrepresentative experiences. Support Nasus is actually a fairly frightening partner for many popular carries. It's counter-intuitive, as Nasus is best known for his carry potential, but his utility is actually significant enough to make him a potent support.
The key to support Nasus lies in Wither and Spirit Fire. The former ability is an incredibly potent slow, affecting both Movement Speed and Attack Speed to significant degree. Not only is it powerful in laning, but throughout the game it will shut down any carry who forgets to grab Cleanse or a Quicksilver Sash. The latter ability is the single strongest Flat Armor Reduction ability in the game, removing an incredible 20 armor with only one rank, and scaling up to 40 at maximum rank. The degree to which Nasus both decreases an opposing carry's damage while improving his own makes him a scary support.
Because of these factors, Nasus works best with high physical damage carries, and is best used against carries who depend heavily on auto-attacks. Champions like Miss Fortune, Twitch, Graves, Caitlyn, or Draven become absolutely terrifying when Spirit Fire is placed properly. It's therefore important to be very judicious when placing Spirit Fire; haphazard placement will dramatically reduce Nasus' effectiveness.
Nasus needs to be built similarly to any all-in support. While his two most important abilities are ranged, hanging back is a gigantic waste of his potential. He should be in the thick of things, and as a result he prioritizes items like Locket, Aegis, and other items which make him tankier while providing team utility. Cooldown Reduction is also extremely important for support Nasus, as capping it yields very high uptime on Wither and Spirit Fire, dramatically increasing his teamfight contributions.
Obviously in a supporting role Nasus will not be able to stack Soul Siphon very much, but even with limited stacks he can contribute significantly to a tower push. Soul Siphon's auto-reset also allows him to quickly dispense with wards if his AD is attentive. While not his most defining feature when supporting, it's not a useless ability.
Nasus' ultimate, however cannot be underestimated. By simply standing near opponents he can deal significant damage while also gaining AD. Even with just one rank it deals nearly a third of a target's health in damage over the duration (even Baron and Dragon). With Health stacking a common itemization path, Nasus' ultimate is extremely potent.
Overall support Nasus is not mainstream. It's likely that his use will be met with derision, fear, and loathing by those afraid of the unknown. Still, when playing among friends or simply defying the jeers of solo/duo queue, support Nasus can be surprisingly effective.
The key to support Nasus lies in Wither and Spirit Fire. The former ability is an incredibly potent slow, affecting both Movement Speed and Attack Speed to significant degree. Not only is it powerful in laning, but throughout the game it will shut down any carry who forgets to grab Cleanse or a Quicksilver Sash. The latter ability is the single strongest Flat Armor Reduction ability in the game, removing an incredible 20 armor with only one rank, and scaling up to 40 at maximum rank. The degree to which Nasus both decreases an opposing carry's damage while improving his own makes him a scary support.
Because of these factors, Nasus works best with high physical damage carries, and is best used against carries who depend heavily on auto-attacks. Champions like Miss Fortune, Twitch, Graves, Caitlyn, or Draven become absolutely terrifying when Spirit Fire is placed properly. It's therefore important to be very judicious when placing Spirit Fire; haphazard placement will dramatically reduce Nasus' effectiveness.
Nasus needs to be built similarly to any all-in support. While his two most important abilities are ranged, hanging back is a gigantic waste of his potential. He should be in the thick of things, and as a result he prioritizes items like Locket, Aegis, and other items which make him tankier while providing team utility. Cooldown Reduction is also extremely important for support Nasus, as capping it yields very high uptime on Wither and Spirit Fire, dramatically increasing his teamfight contributions.
Obviously in a supporting role Nasus will not be able to stack Soul Siphon very much, but even with limited stacks he can contribute significantly to a tower push. Soul Siphon's auto-reset also allows him to quickly dispense with wards if his AD is attentive. While not his most defining feature when supporting, it's not a useless ability.
Nasus' ultimate, however cannot be underestimated. By simply standing near opponents he can deal significant damage while also gaining AD. Even with just one rank it deals nearly a third of a target's health in damage over the duration (even Baron and Dragon). With Health stacking a common itemization path, Nasus' ultimate is extremely potent.
Overall support Nasus is not mainstream. It's likely that his use will be met with derision, fear, and loathing by those afraid of the unknown. Still, when playing among friends or simply defying the jeers of solo/duo queue, support Nasus can be surprisingly effective.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Quote: On Sport
"For what do we play, but to make sport for our opponents, and laugh at them in turn?"
-Mr. Bennet, Pride and Prejudice
-Mr. Bennet, Pride and Prejudice
Friday, March 1, 2013
Patch Day: Quinn
Quinn should soon be released, but in the meantime her patch brings with it a crapton of notable changes.
Amumu has been nerfed. Reducing the damage on his Bandage Toss and range on his ultimate makes him a less scary initiator. These changes, however, concern me. Perhaps it's different in some other tier of play, but he didn't strike me as anything more than decent. Riot would do well to avoid a game of perpetual whack-a-mole, where anything that's being picked frequently must be nerfed.
Ashe, Tristana, and Vayne received minor buffs. For some time these champions have been second tier picks due to either poor mid-game performance or reliance on outside protection. The buffs will help a little, but more than anything else they'll simply remind people these champions exist (and aren't as bad as people think).
The change to Darius' ultimate addresses a common abuse case. Getting killed by his ultimate once essentially set off a chain of inevitable executions. Riot's changes should do exactly as they've stated, removing this unfun situation without impacting Darius' teamfighting.
The Garen nerfs represent another case of proactive balance. He frequently got a little too tanky with too little effort, so a minor nerf to his durability is useful. However, I also didn't think him more than decent, so he is another "whack-a-mole" case from my perspective.
Hecarim is getting nerfed. The fact that Spirit of Dread has higher healing at low ranks is a red herring, the loss of 10% healing at maximum rank as well as the increased cooldown at lower ranks makes the ability much weaker. The slight buff to Rampage doesn't make up for this. Perhaps he needed it, but Hecarim was only a fixture of the NA meta (EU largely ignored him), and so I call into question the necessity of the changes.
Kayle also received nerfs, despite Riot's dancing around that word. In her case it was likely necessary, as she was not only a first pick/ban in tournaments but a powerful choice in any tier of play. That said, removing the damage amplification from her Reckoning and replacing it with a single stack of her passive makes it the most underwhelming debuff application I can think of.
Meanwhile, Nidalee is losing all her bonus Armor and Magic Resist. This essentially kills Bruiser and Tank Nidalee. Given Nidalee's recent popularity as an AP champion this may be warranted, but it does kill off a once-popular build.
Taric received some notable buffs. While he needs 250 Armor to give an equivalent armor buff to his team as before, Taric's laning phase was always less about his Armor aura and more about his stun -> ult+Shatter combo. That now does more damage and costs less mana, meaning Taric is actually scarier than before.
Tryndamere's once overpowered sustain from Ability Power is being significantly nerfed. As even I was able to play him top without issue, it's probably a necessary nerf.
Vi and Xin Zhao, NA's most popular junglers, are both receiving nerfs. Vi was simply able to clear too quickly and deal too much damage, whereas Xin Zhao had too much sticking power and damage even when building tanky. They'll still be strong, just slightly less so.
Zed's changes don't really change anything. A slight damage boost on later ranks of his shuriken doesn't remotely make it as good as his AoE. You can still use the latter twice as often, making it much more important for both wave clear, damage, and stacking with his ultimate.
Overall the patch changes worry me. Aside from a few token buffs, it's all nerfs. While it's good to try to avoid power creep by favoring nerfs more than buffs, this patch was very, very heavy on the latter. I'd rather they err a little more toward buffing weak champions, or letting the players find counters to popular champions.
There are also some item changes to consider this patch.
Warmog's Armor dropped to 1% maximum Health regenerated every 5 seconds. This is a very significant nerf, though Warmog's position as the largest, most cost efficient Health item remains.
The Bilgewater Cutlass changes convince me that no champion should bother getting Hextech Gunblade any more. Unless you can make very good use of Cutlass (which is significantly less inspiring than before), it's not a very fruitful build path. As a step toward Blade of the Ruined King, however, Cutlass is a worthy item.
Blade of the Ruined King is currently overpowered and is definitely going to get nerfed. What made Madred's Bloodrazor so bad was its heft cost (3800 gold) and inefficiency (magic damage on a physical damage champion is awkward). Blade of the Ruined King is almost 1000 gold cheaper, has a Deathfire Grasp-esque active ability, and does physical damage. You're going to see a lot of this item before it's hotfixed.
That's all for this patch. Hopefully we'll see Quinn before long.
Amumu has been nerfed. Reducing the damage on his Bandage Toss and range on his ultimate makes him a less scary initiator. These changes, however, concern me. Perhaps it's different in some other tier of play, but he didn't strike me as anything more than decent. Riot would do well to avoid a game of perpetual whack-a-mole, where anything that's being picked frequently must be nerfed.
Ashe, Tristana, and Vayne received minor buffs. For some time these champions have been second tier picks due to either poor mid-game performance or reliance on outside protection. The buffs will help a little, but more than anything else they'll simply remind people these champions exist (and aren't as bad as people think).
The change to Darius' ultimate addresses a common abuse case. Getting killed by his ultimate once essentially set off a chain of inevitable executions. Riot's changes should do exactly as they've stated, removing this unfun situation without impacting Darius' teamfighting.
The Garen nerfs represent another case of proactive balance. He frequently got a little too tanky with too little effort, so a minor nerf to his durability is useful. However, I also didn't think him more than decent, so he is another "whack-a-mole" case from my perspective.
Hecarim is getting nerfed. The fact that Spirit of Dread has higher healing at low ranks is a red herring, the loss of 10% healing at maximum rank as well as the increased cooldown at lower ranks makes the ability much weaker. The slight buff to Rampage doesn't make up for this. Perhaps he needed it, but Hecarim was only a fixture of the NA meta (EU largely ignored him), and so I call into question the necessity of the changes.
Kayle also received nerfs, despite Riot's dancing around that word. In her case it was likely necessary, as she was not only a first pick/ban in tournaments but a powerful choice in any tier of play. That said, removing the damage amplification from her Reckoning and replacing it with a single stack of her passive makes it the most underwhelming debuff application I can think of.
Meanwhile, Nidalee is losing all her bonus Armor and Magic Resist. This essentially kills Bruiser and Tank Nidalee. Given Nidalee's recent popularity as an AP champion this may be warranted, but it does kill off a once-popular build.
Taric received some notable buffs. While he needs 250 Armor to give an equivalent armor buff to his team as before, Taric's laning phase was always less about his Armor aura and more about his stun -> ult+Shatter combo. That now does more damage and costs less mana, meaning Taric is actually scarier than before.
Tryndamere's once overpowered sustain from Ability Power is being significantly nerfed. As even I was able to play him top without issue, it's probably a necessary nerf.
Vi and Xin Zhao, NA's most popular junglers, are both receiving nerfs. Vi was simply able to clear too quickly and deal too much damage, whereas Xin Zhao had too much sticking power and damage even when building tanky. They'll still be strong, just slightly less so.
Zed's changes don't really change anything. A slight damage boost on later ranks of his shuriken doesn't remotely make it as good as his AoE. You can still use the latter twice as often, making it much more important for both wave clear, damage, and stacking with his ultimate.
Overall the patch changes worry me. Aside from a few token buffs, it's all nerfs. While it's good to try to avoid power creep by favoring nerfs more than buffs, this patch was very, very heavy on the latter. I'd rather they err a little more toward buffing weak champions, or letting the players find counters to popular champions.
There are also some item changes to consider this patch.
Warmog's Armor dropped to 1% maximum Health regenerated every 5 seconds. This is a very significant nerf, though Warmog's position as the largest, most cost efficient Health item remains.
The Bilgewater Cutlass changes convince me that no champion should bother getting Hextech Gunblade any more. Unless you can make very good use of Cutlass (which is significantly less inspiring than before), it's not a very fruitful build path. As a step toward Blade of the Ruined King, however, Cutlass is a worthy item.
Blade of the Ruined King is currently overpowered and is definitely going to get nerfed. What made Madred's Bloodrazor so bad was its heft cost (3800 gold) and inefficiency (magic damage on a physical damage champion is awkward). Blade of the Ruined King is almost 1000 gold cheaper, has a Deathfire Grasp-esque active ability, and does physical damage. You're going to see a lot of this item before it's hotfixed.
That's all for this patch. Hopefully we'll see Quinn before long.
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