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.
Showing posts with label Kayle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kayle. Show all posts
Friday, March 1, 2013
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Prognostication: Junglers
Everyone loves predicting which champions will be overpowered in the future, including me. In the wake of MLG I'd like to predict which junglers will soon become popular/overpowered, and why.
Amumu: He brings incredible CC and damage scaling for a jungler, and isn't as mana-dependent as people assume. His clear speeds are also phenomenal. When Nautilus is inevitably nerfed Amumu is going to be the next big tanky jungler.
Hecarim: Junglers who can both clear fast and gank well dominated MLG. Hecarim fits the bill, and brings incredible teamfighting to the table as well. Once people stop derping his skill order/item build he'll be a force to be reckoned with.
Those are the two junglers I believe we'll see dominate the scene in the future, but there are others I think are good but not that good.
Kayle: While her ultimate is always super good and her worst case scenario is she becomes a half-decent support, Kayle shines when she can have lane farm (e.g. top). She's not a bad jungle pick, but situational enough that she won't become popular.
Shen: The ability to instantly gank or counter-gank any lane is strong, but Shen is still inhibited by his slow clear times. He, like Kayle, is a good but situational pick.
Finally, one jungler who will become insane if Riot makes the mistake of overbuffing her.
Sejuani: Unlike Nautilus her CC is largely soft in nature, and she's significantly more mana-dependent. However, a few ill-conceived tweaks could easily make her and her built-in red buff super strong.
The time limit is three months, at which point we'll see how well I did (though there may be updates in the meantime). I'll gauge my success based on forum discussions, pro opinions, and tournament matches. This is the true test of a would-be analyst, one's ability to predict the future and then hem and haw when it doesn't work out the way you thought it would.
Amumu: He brings incredible CC and damage scaling for a jungler, and isn't as mana-dependent as people assume. His clear speeds are also phenomenal. When Nautilus is inevitably nerfed Amumu is going to be the next big tanky jungler.
Hecarim: Junglers who can both clear fast and gank well dominated MLG. Hecarim fits the bill, and brings incredible teamfighting to the table as well. Once people stop derping his skill order/item build he'll be a force to be reckoned with.
Those are the two junglers I believe we'll see dominate the scene in the future, but there are others I think are good but not that good.
Kayle: While her ultimate is always super good and her worst case scenario is she becomes a half-decent support, Kayle shines when she can have lane farm (e.g. top). She's not a bad jungle pick, but situational enough that she won't become popular.
Shen: The ability to instantly gank or counter-gank any lane is strong, but Shen is still inhibited by his slow clear times. He, like Kayle, is a good but situational pick.
Finally, one jungler who will become insane if Riot makes the mistake of overbuffing her.
Sejuani: Unlike Nautilus her CC is largely soft in nature, and she's significantly more mana-dependent. However, a few ill-conceived tweaks could easily make her and her built-in red buff super strong.
The time limit is three months, at which point we'll see how well I did (though there may be updates in the meantime). I'll gauge my success based on forum discussions, pro opinions, and tournament matches. This is the true test of a would-be analyst, one's ability to predict the future and then hem and haw when it doesn't work out the way you thought it would.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Post-Mortem: MLG Anaheim 2012
Big tournaments are always a chance for dissecting the thought and valuations of pros, and this past weekend's MLG Spring Finals were no exception. As a jungler I'll primarily dig into that aspect of the tournament, but there's plenty more that could be analyzed.
Three jungle picks clearly stood out amongst the others in both frequency and effectiveness: Mundo, Nautilus, and Nocturne. While many other junglers made cameo appearances, these champions were the most frequent bans and picks throughout the tournament. With just a cursory analysis it's pretty clear why these champions were so highly favored.
These three champions have absurdly good fundamentals. All three can start anywhere, start with various items, clear without blue, clear quickly, hold a lane well, and gank effectively. Very few junglers can do all of those things well. Because they are not only jacks of all trades, but [i]masters[/i] of all trades they were head and shoulders better than other options.
Beyond the basics all three also brought incredible utility to their teams. Mundo is ridiculously tanky and has the best poke of any jungler. Nautilus has incredible initiation, lockdown, and peeling. Nocturne completely bypasses wards to gank, can split-push, and can ignore enemy frontlines and peeling to hit a high-priority target. They aren't just better fundamentally, but their more advanced applications crush most of their peers.
You can absolutely expect to see all three nerfed in the future. You've already seen a few minor changes aimed at weakening them, but they're barely noticeable. If these three continue to see play in future tournaments you can expect far larger changes aimed at opening up the jungling field.
As a side note, Kayle really shown during the finals. While it was a laning Kayle instead of a jungle Kayle, similar principles can be applied. Combining Kayle with a champion like Karthus, whose high damage is balanced by his vulnerability, is deadly. Abusing that type of combination can lead to devastating victories.
All in all it was an exciting tournament, and well worth watching. If the VODs ever become publicly available I'm inclined to do some in-depth analysis of some of the more interesting jungle choices that were made.
Three jungle picks clearly stood out amongst the others in both frequency and effectiveness: Mundo, Nautilus, and Nocturne. While many other junglers made cameo appearances, these champions were the most frequent bans and picks throughout the tournament. With just a cursory analysis it's pretty clear why these champions were so highly favored.
These three champions have absurdly good fundamentals. All three can start anywhere, start with various items, clear without blue, clear quickly, hold a lane well, and gank effectively. Very few junglers can do all of those things well. Because they are not only jacks of all trades, but [i]masters[/i] of all trades they were head and shoulders better than other options.
Beyond the basics all three also brought incredible utility to their teams. Mundo is ridiculously tanky and has the best poke of any jungler. Nautilus has incredible initiation, lockdown, and peeling. Nocturne completely bypasses wards to gank, can split-push, and can ignore enemy frontlines and peeling to hit a high-priority target. They aren't just better fundamentally, but their more advanced applications crush most of their peers.
You can absolutely expect to see all three nerfed in the future. You've already seen a few minor changes aimed at weakening them, but they're barely noticeable. If these three continue to see play in future tournaments you can expect far larger changes aimed at opening up the jungling field.
As a side note, Kayle really shown during the finals. While it was a laning Kayle instead of a jungle Kayle, similar principles can be applied. Combining Kayle with a champion like Karthus, whose high damage is balanced by his vulnerability, is deadly. Abusing that type of combination can lead to devastating victories.
All in all it was an exciting tournament, and well worth watching. If the VODs ever become publicly available I'm inclined to do some in-depth analysis of some of the more interesting jungle choices that were made.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Jungler: Kayle
A few days overdue, but as I've posted a revised jungle Kayle video I should take the time to comment on jungle Kayle
Kayle is an extremely unique jungler. She is not only one of a very small list of junglers who fall back on a support role if they are aggressively counterjungled, but she is also one of the only ranged junglers. While you can jungle a number of AD carries, Kayle stands head and shoulders above them in terms of clear speed, sustain, and simple usefulness on jungle levels of farm. Similarly, she makes better use of jungle farm than most supports who can jungle. She can even become a bruiser with the right build. By being versatile and strong in both adverse and advantageous situations Kayle can fit into many team compositions.
Despite her versatility most teams are used to running tanky junglers designed either for initiation or for diving the enemy carries. Kayle, even when built like a bruiser, does neither of these things. What she can do, however, is make one of your carries impossible to kill, all while doing significant damage herself. Your team needs to keep this in mind during picks and while playing.
Kayle can be a very fun jungler. I recommend trying her out, there's little that beats watching Karthus running around invulnerable in the middle of the enemy team.
Kayle is an extremely unique jungler. She is not only one of a very small list of junglers who fall back on a support role if they are aggressively counterjungled, but she is also one of the only ranged junglers. While you can jungle a number of AD carries, Kayle stands head and shoulders above them in terms of clear speed, sustain, and simple usefulness on jungle levels of farm. Similarly, she makes better use of jungle farm than most supports who can jungle. She can even become a bruiser with the right build. By being versatile and strong in both adverse and advantageous situations Kayle can fit into many team compositions.
Despite her versatility most teams are used to running tanky junglers designed either for initiation or for diving the enemy carries. Kayle, even when built like a bruiser, does neither of these things. What she can do, however, is make one of your carries impossible to kill, all while doing significant damage herself. Your team needs to keep this in mind during picks and while playing.
Kayle can be a very fun jungler. I recommend trying her out, there's little that beats watching Karthus running around invulnerable in the middle of the enemy team.
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