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.

Thought: What Happens to Heimerdinger?

Zyra is essentially Heimerdinger, except better. Heimerdinger already sat in a small niche before, but with everyone's favorite feminine, fatal flower entering the fray it's not clear what, if any, purpose Heimerdinger serves.

The fundamental cause of Heimerdinger's impending obsolescence is simple: Zyra does in one skill point what Heimerdinger does in two abilities (including his ultimate). Zyra's W provides seeds and CDR, and the strength of her plants is independent of its rank. Heimerdinger must invest five skill points into his turrets for them to be formidable, and his ultimate depends upon them. At a basic level Heimerdinger can't both have strong turrets and strong rockets/grenades, while Zyra can have it all and an ultimate that isn't dependent upon her plants to be powerful.

However, it's clear Riot knows their bespectacled yordle is in trouble, because recently a potential rework of the champion leaked from the private test realm. What form the rework will eventually take isn't certain, but it's good to know Riot recognizes clear cases of one champion forcing another into the shadows.

For now Heimerdinger will move further into obscurity, but eventually he may return. Not to his former glory (hopefully, the days of Heimerdinger sieging turrets are not days I would be fond to relive), but at least to a competitive level.