Some new balance changes have arrived, and as usual I'll give them the old analysis once over.
The changes to Akali will have a semi-significant impact on her laning. While technically speaking she'll do more damage part 300 Ability Power, most games are decided before Akali could reasonably acquire that much power. You basically need a 3-4 item build finished before you cross that threshold.
Corki hasn't seen much play as of late. These changes help him a little, as missiles have been a limiting factor for him for some time. His lack of play is really an oddity in any case, so if you were on the rocks about playing him before now is as good a time as ever to pick him up.
Karma sees a few adjustments to her abilities. These are almost entirely quality of life buffs. Beyond making her Mantra easier to access through buffs to her passive and its activation, her most important change is to her Focused Resolve. Now that using Mantra charges automatically gives the 60% speed boost she no longer has any abilities who gain Mantra benefits for being skilled up.
The cast range reductions on Kayle's abilities are steep. Dropping her utility to 900 range forces her to stay much closer to a fight in order to ensure she can save or aid allies in need. However, this primarily affects Support Kayle, as any other form of Kayle is already going to be in the thick of it or near a needy ally.
Lux will no longer be able to instantly clear a creep wave every 24 seconds. Instead, she'll be able to clear a creep wave every 30 seconds. Ultimately (har har) she hasn't been significantly hurt, save for those foolish enough to consistently overextend while laning.
Morgana, Nami, Nautilus, and Nunu all got minor tweaks to make them more competitive. I'm of the opinion that it's largely unnecessary in Nami's case. Nami is good, but before anyone could get used to her Thresh (who is clearly amazing) arrived. Morgana and Nautilus' changes are mostly friendly bumps to remind you these champions exist and are good. Nunu, however, is still on the edge of competitiveness.
Quinn had a few significant playability issues which have now been addressed. Valor's mark timing was such that it was extremely common that you would start to attack a target, and before you finished Valor would have started to mark it. However, because your attack was in the air before he finished marking you'd fail to get the proc, resulting in no benefits and a 10 second wait for the next mark. This is a little more rare now, and along with her Vault change should improve her popularity slightly.
Volibear got a slight nerf. He's still extremely strong, especially when ganking, so don't freak out if you love jungling as a bear.
Jungling is now different, thanks to changes to the items which build out of Spirit Stone. They now all cost 2000 gold. In order to effect this change, Spirit of the Elder Lizard received a slight nerf, and Spirit of the Ancient Golem traded its Armor for Cooldown Reduction, with a slight change in recipe. This will incidentally also make it easier for jungle tanks to get the Cooldown Reduction they need to spam their utility.
Overall there were any crippling nerfs or incredible buffs, nor was there anything out of the ordinary. However, there were significantly more buffs and quality of life changes than nerfs this patch, which reverses the previous, concerning trend where almost everything was a nerf. Good show.
Showing posts with label patch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label patch. Show all posts
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Friday, March 29, 2013
Patch Day: Zac & Karma
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.
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.
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.
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.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Patch Day: 3.02
I'm much later than I wanted to be with this "patch day" analysis, but better late than never. Some people think Quinn will be coming out before 3.03, but I'm not so certain. For now, let's focus on what the patch notes themselves say.
There are a lot of quality of life changes and bug fixes this patch. While many champions have been affected, most of those changes aren't notable enough to be analyzed here.
Akali's passives no longer require a set amount of Attack Damage or Ability Power to activate. This is extremely useful for players who don't have many runes or rune pages, as it allows them to avoid dedicating an entire page to Akali. However, the best page for jungling hasn't changed; Spell Vamp Quintessences remain vital for sustain, Ability Power Glyphs remain vital for clear speed, and Attack Damage Marks remain vital for both.
Nasus' entirely balanced and not in any way abusive crit glitch has been fixed. Though I mourn the loss of my overpowered and unfair crits, it's entirely understandable. In return, Nasus gets some extremely valuable buffs. The mana cost reduction on Q is extremely useful for both laning and jungling, allowing him to farm his Q without worrying about mana. The cast and attack range changes on his ultimate may not seem like much, but being able to spam Wither from 900 range makes Nasus a nightmare for any carry not rocking Cleanse or Quicksilver Sash. He may not be able to one shot bots in Coop vs AI games anymore, but he's still significantly better off than he was a few patches ago.
According to LoLWiki Riven's new passive is actually 20-50% of total Attack Damage, not 15- 45%. The original numbers were probably too much of a punishment at early levels, and slightly too little later on. This should have the desired effect, as even at level 9 (when the passive reaches 35% of total Attack Damage) the new passive should be slightly stronger than before due to base Attack Damage.
There are significant changes to items as well this patch.
Cooldown Reduction got shuffled around a bit. Athene's Unholy Grail, Spirit Visage, and Zeke's Herald all saw increases, while Deathfire Grasp, Glacial Shroud, and Iceborn Gauntlet all saw decreases. This was one knob Riot very consciously turned to help balance overused and underused items.
Armor and Magic Resistance became cheaper. Stacking Health was the best option not only because it was cheap and easy, but because defensive stats were costly and difficult. In some cases items had their stats increased, and in other cases they had their costs reduced. Riot obviously wanted to make non-Health defensive items more competitive.
Liandry's Torment was modified slightly. Previously damage over time abilities or repeated casts munched some of the passive damage from this item. It's an old problem that used to plague Teemo and Nautilus, but no longer. The change, and the damage increase, should help make this item strong against Health-stacking opponents. Blade of the Ruined King received buffs as well with the same goal, but Riot is already playing around with a different iteration due to the insufficiency of the changes.
Ohmwrecker has been modified to try to appeal more to supports than tanks. Despite that, the gold cost is extremely steep. A lot of the cost comes from the Ability Power, which is arguably less than useful for supports. Riot seems to have forgotten that they nerfed the Ability Power ratios on supports long ago, making Ability Power a largely undesirable attribute for a role centered around ability actives and team utility.
All in all, not the most exciting patch, but a good one nonetheless. You'd think I'd be more thrilled about the Akali changes, but as I primarily jungle Akali rather than lane it didn't change all that much for me. It's the lane Akali players who can now run Magic Penetration who should be excited.
There are a lot of quality of life changes and bug fixes this patch. While many champions have been affected, most of those changes aren't notable enough to be analyzed here.
Akali's passives no longer require a set amount of Attack Damage or Ability Power to activate. This is extremely useful for players who don't have many runes or rune pages, as it allows them to avoid dedicating an entire page to Akali. However, the best page for jungling hasn't changed; Spell Vamp Quintessences remain vital for sustain, Ability Power Glyphs remain vital for clear speed, and Attack Damage Marks remain vital for both.
Nasus' entirely balanced and not in any way abusive crit glitch has been fixed. Though I mourn the loss of my overpowered and unfair crits, it's entirely understandable. In return, Nasus gets some extremely valuable buffs. The mana cost reduction on Q is extremely useful for both laning and jungling, allowing him to farm his Q without worrying about mana. The cast and attack range changes on his ultimate may not seem like much, but being able to spam Wither from 900 range makes Nasus a nightmare for any carry not rocking Cleanse or Quicksilver Sash. He may not be able to one shot bots in Coop vs AI games anymore, but he's still significantly better off than he was a few patches ago.
According to LoLWiki Riven's new passive is actually 20-50% of total Attack Damage, not 15- 45%. The original numbers were probably too much of a punishment at early levels, and slightly too little later on. This should have the desired effect, as even at level 9 (when the passive reaches 35% of total Attack Damage) the new passive should be slightly stronger than before due to base Attack Damage.
There are significant changes to items as well this patch.
Cooldown Reduction got shuffled around a bit. Athene's Unholy Grail, Spirit Visage, and Zeke's Herald all saw increases, while Deathfire Grasp, Glacial Shroud, and Iceborn Gauntlet all saw decreases. This was one knob Riot very consciously turned to help balance overused and underused items.
Armor and Magic Resistance became cheaper. Stacking Health was the best option not only because it was cheap and easy, but because defensive stats were costly and difficult. In some cases items had their stats increased, and in other cases they had their costs reduced. Riot obviously wanted to make non-Health defensive items more competitive.
Liandry's Torment was modified slightly. Previously damage over time abilities or repeated casts munched some of the passive damage from this item. It's an old problem that used to plague Teemo and Nautilus, but no longer. The change, and the damage increase, should help make this item strong against Health-stacking opponents. Blade of the Ruined King received buffs as well with the same goal, but Riot is already playing around with a different iteration due to the insufficiency of the changes.
Ohmwrecker has been modified to try to appeal more to supports than tanks. Despite that, the gold cost is extremely steep. A lot of the cost comes from the Ability Power, which is arguably less than useful for supports. Riot seems to have forgotten that they nerfed the Ability Power ratios on supports long ago, making Ability Power a largely undesirable attribute for a role centered around ability actives and team utility.
All in all, not the most exciting patch, but a good one nonetheless. You'd think I'd be more thrilled about the Akali changes, but as I primarily jungle Akali rather than lane it didn't change all that much for me. It's the lane Akali players who can now run Magic Penetration who should be excited.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Patch Day: Season 3
The preseason is over, Season 3 has arrived. With it, we have new patch notes.
The new League System is perhaps the most notable change in all of the notes. Gone are the days of Elo Hell. Welcome to Division Hell, Tier Hell, Promotion Hell or whatever other catchy names players come up with to describe their inability to advance. The system is very reminiscent of the one used by StarCraft II, which has earned Riot's implementation both criticism and accolades. I don't have a firm opinion yet as I plan on running the system through its paces before I make any judgements.
Blitzcrank's mana and Rocket Grab's mana cost have been nerfed. This change doesn't really change Blitzcrank's effectiveness unless you're highly inaccurate or careless with your grabs.
Ezreal gets another round with the nerf bat. The lower duration on his passive will make landing every Mystic Shot critical, and is the largest of the changes. Reducing his movement speed, even by so small an amount, will make proper use of his Arcane Shift slightly more important. Overall these changes are less about the math and more about increasing Ezreal's difficulty.
Tank Katarina has been seeing a lot of play as of late, and the changes this patch are largely targeting that build. With less base damage, reduced duration on her damage reduction, and more incentive to build AP, AP Katarina's viability has significantly increased. However, the changes are likely too small to eliminate Tank Katarina as a build.
The scourge of all ARAMs has been dealt a severe blow. Master Yi will no longer be able to casually Meditate in the midst of an entire enemy team and get free pentakills by building AP. The build will still be potent and viable, it just won't be impossible to deal with if you're lacking in crowd control.
Nasus, Sion, and Veigar all got a special bonus on their stacking abilities. It's small if you aren't jungling or frequently taking jungle camps, but it's still a nice little boost.
Nunu's ability to just sit in a bush spamming W and winning lanes is gone. Many claim this has utterly killed his jungling, supporting, and many other things, but that seems a bit of an exaggeration. He's certainly worse off for losing 20% Attack Speed, but his buff still provides roughly 1425g worth of stats, not counting the Movement Speed. He still has one of the most spammable and effective Movement/Attack Speed slows in the game. Ultimately, he's still Nunu and he'll still be good, he just won't be as effective when played as a buff bot.
Olaf, my favorite bruiser to hate when I'm a squishy champion trying to hide behind a wall of crowd control, is a little less fearsome post-patch. His free damage sources from his W and ultimate were nerfed, and his slow's effectiveness will be much more dependent upon proximity and good aim/axe placement. He's still going to be extremely powerful and a pain in the neck.
If you think for a moment that the nerfs to Shaco are going to prevent your team from inexplicably feeding him, you're thinking wishfully.
Tristana and Tryndamere, a couple of carries lost to time, have both received a few minor buffs. These aren't completely game-changing, but they're enough to edge them toward being played more frequently.
I'm not a big fan of Seeker's Armguard. It will be a very strong item for AP champions, helping them to deal with the proliferation of bruisers, AD casters, and assassins. I don't like it because it allows players to be lazy; they could have been grabbing Cloth Armor guilt-free before anyway. The item represents Riot making decisions for their players instead of allowing the game to evolve naturally. Philosophy aside, you'd be pretty silly to ignore this item.
The removal of Mana Regeneration from Fiendish Codex is interesting for the effects it has on other items. It now allows champions building Deathfire Grasp to acquire Cooldown Reduction before finishing the item. It reduces the cost of Nashor's Tooth (over the years it's dropped from 2835g, now down to 2270g), maybe to the point where we'll see it on champions other than Kayle and Teemo. If nothing else, support champions might actually consider picking up the new, cheap Fiendish Codex.
Black Cleaver now takes longer to stack is provides less Health. It's been a one-stop shop for everything bruisers and AD casters could want, and while it remains so it will be less effective in this role.
While all Spirit Stone-based items are now cheaper, Spirit of the Spectral Wraith got the most significant reduction. It now costs a mere 2000g, and provides an insane amount of stats for that cost. Riot is obviously displeased with the lack of traction AP junglers are seeing, but they may have overcompensated here, as this value is in the range where lane champions are liable to pick it up.
Also, bots now talk at the start and end of Coop vs AI games. Obviously the most important change this patch.
The new League System is perhaps the most notable change in all of the notes. Gone are the days of Elo Hell. Welcome to Division Hell, Tier Hell, Promotion Hell or whatever other catchy names players come up with to describe their inability to advance. The system is very reminiscent of the one used by StarCraft II, which has earned Riot's implementation both criticism and accolades. I don't have a firm opinion yet as I plan on running the system through its paces before I make any judgements.
Blitzcrank's mana and Rocket Grab's mana cost have been nerfed. This change doesn't really change Blitzcrank's effectiveness unless you're highly inaccurate or careless with your grabs.
Ezreal gets another round with the nerf bat. The lower duration on his passive will make landing every Mystic Shot critical, and is the largest of the changes. Reducing his movement speed, even by so small an amount, will make proper use of his Arcane Shift slightly more important. Overall these changes are less about the math and more about increasing Ezreal's difficulty.
Tank Katarina has been seeing a lot of play as of late, and the changes this patch are largely targeting that build. With less base damage, reduced duration on her damage reduction, and more incentive to build AP, AP Katarina's viability has significantly increased. However, the changes are likely too small to eliminate Tank Katarina as a build.
The scourge of all ARAMs has been dealt a severe blow. Master Yi will no longer be able to casually Meditate in the midst of an entire enemy team and get free pentakills by building AP. The build will still be potent and viable, it just won't be impossible to deal with if you're lacking in crowd control.
Nasus, Sion, and Veigar all got a special bonus on their stacking abilities. It's small if you aren't jungling or frequently taking jungle camps, but it's still a nice little boost.
Nunu's ability to just sit in a bush spamming W and winning lanes is gone. Many claim this has utterly killed his jungling, supporting, and many other things, but that seems a bit of an exaggeration. He's certainly worse off for losing 20% Attack Speed, but his buff still provides roughly 1425g worth of stats, not counting the Movement Speed. He still has one of the most spammable and effective Movement/Attack Speed slows in the game. Ultimately, he's still Nunu and he'll still be good, he just won't be as effective when played as a buff bot.
Olaf, my favorite bruiser to hate when I'm a squishy champion trying to hide behind a wall of crowd control, is a little less fearsome post-patch. His free damage sources from his W and ultimate were nerfed, and his slow's effectiveness will be much more dependent upon proximity and good aim/axe placement. He's still going to be extremely powerful and a pain in the neck.
If you think for a moment that the nerfs to Shaco are going to prevent your team from inexplicably feeding him, you're thinking wishfully.
Tristana and Tryndamere, a couple of carries lost to time, have both received a few minor buffs. These aren't completely game-changing, but they're enough to edge them toward being played more frequently.
I'm not a big fan of Seeker's Armguard. It will be a very strong item for AP champions, helping them to deal with the proliferation of bruisers, AD casters, and assassins. I don't like it because it allows players to be lazy; they could have been grabbing Cloth Armor guilt-free before anyway. The item represents Riot making decisions for their players instead of allowing the game to evolve naturally. Philosophy aside, you'd be pretty silly to ignore this item.
The removal of Mana Regeneration from Fiendish Codex is interesting for the effects it has on other items. It now allows champions building Deathfire Grasp to acquire Cooldown Reduction before finishing the item. It reduces the cost of Nashor's Tooth (over the years it's dropped from 2835g, now down to 2270g), maybe to the point where we'll see it on champions other than Kayle and Teemo. If nothing else, support champions might actually consider picking up the new, cheap Fiendish Codex.
Black Cleaver now takes longer to stack is provides less Health. It's been a one-stop shop for everything bruisers and AD casters could want, and while it remains so it will be less effective in this role.
While all Spirit Stone-based items are now cheaper, Spirit of the Spectral Wraith got the most significant reduction. It now costs a mere 2000g, and provides an insane amount of stats for that cost. Riot is obviously displeased with the lack of traction AP junglers are seeing, but they may have overcompensated here, as this value is in the range where lane champions are liable to pick it up.
Also, bots now talk at the start and end of Coop vs AI games. Obviously the most important change this patch.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Patch Day: Balance Update 2
Thresh is coming later, but for now we have plenty of patch notes to evaluate. There's a lot to cover so I won't mention every change and bug fix.
Some of Alistar's nerfs have been rolled back. His jungling in Season 3 took a significant hit, and he's long since fallen off the ban lists, so Riot probably felt safe giving him a little nudge.
Annie gets a few quality of life changes, and a visual upgrade in the near future. Despite her lack of popularity straight buffs aren't necessary. If bruiser/assassin teams continue to be popular Annie is likely to see a lot of play for her AoE damage/initiation and tankiness.
Blitzcrank's passive gets duly hit with the nerf bat. For his trouble he does get vision on grabbed targets, which is a huge quality of life change. Knowing that you've landed a grab thrown into fog of war (and who you landed that grab on) is extremely important information.
After being given a very thorough beating in previous patches, Diana has been given some recompense. While she won't resume her frightening domination of the meta (in part because of all the AD assassins now chilling in the mid lane), restoring some of range to her ultimate and giving her shield extra duration and collision detection will be very noticeable.
Evelynn, who is all too familiar with the nerf bat, received another round of nerfs. The bonus Attack Damage ratios on Q and W aren't all that significant in the face of increased mana costs and cooldowns couple with reduced range and damage. Evelynn will still be good, but definitely not as good.
Changing Ezreal's base attack speed may not seem like a big deal, but it's actually huge. That 0.04 reduction is equivalent to reducing the effectiveness of all Attack Speed on Ezreal by 6-7%. A similar nerf dropped Graves from favor not long ago. To be honest, however, I doubt Ezreal will cede from popularity until Riot increases the cooldown on Arcane Shift.
Today we lay to rest the most enduring and frustrating bug of all time, Kassadin's reverse Force Pulse. Surviving through the beta all the way to the present day, the Force Pulse bug has befuddled and infuriated Kassadin players for years. It will not be missed.
Kha'zix, everyone's favorite overgrown cockroach, was understandably nerfed. He's been extremely popular even in the post-nerf Black Cleaver era due to his ridiculous damage with just that one item. His poke with evolved W is also extremely potent. Both of those aspects of him have been nerfed, but not by enough to sate the anger of his detractors.
Lee Sin didn't see these nerfs coming. The armor on Safeguard has been removed, and the range and effectiveness of his Cripple have also been reduced. These changes will hit both his survivability in the jungle and lane, and his early gank strength. He will still be overpowered in the right hands, and hilariously useless in the wrong ones.
The little support, Nami, received a few small buffs. The speed increase on her ultimate will make it much easier to hit, but isn't so large as to reduce the ominous, slow nature and corresponding psychological factor. The change to her base movement speed should her when trading early or trying to land her stun.
Rengar received changes which are, for the most part, actually buffs. Stacking health early on Rengar will no longer yield impossible healing values, but regardless of what you build the healing at level 18 is equialvent to what you would have received if you had 4000 Health. With extra Attack Damage on his Bonetooth Necklace and longer duration Attack Speed buffs and stealth, he's actually probably slightly better in the late game. The problem is whether he can still lane well, which remains to be seen.
Riven can thank her lucky stars she wasn't nerfed as hard as Evelynn, but she still received quite a few herself. The hits to her sustain and damage mitigation are big, and the cooldown nerf on her ultimate will severely impact her effectiveness early on. She might be fine regardless, but Riven players are definitely going to notice these changes.
Syndra gets a couple notable buffs. The increased range on her ultimate at level 16 makes her dramatically easier to use in a teamfight, and reducing the cooldown on her push back makes her harder to reach. It's likely we'll now see her in competitive play.
While Talon got nailed with the nerf bat at first glance, his ability to assassinate targets actually hasn't changed. His AoE damage took a hit, but that was largely necessary due to the bug on his E. Without these nerfs that bug fix would actually have made him incredibly strong.
Udyr, long forgotten after the "farm forever" jungle meta died in Season 2, has finally received a buff. It's not a huge buff, but 12% Armor and Magic Resistance will help him survive being kited long enough to accomplish something, hopefully.
Vi stands for viable. It only took more quality of life changes and bug fixes than any champion, to my knowledge, has ever received in a single patch before.
In addition to all the champion changes, there are some other changes of note.
Jungle creeps have redistributed health toward the bigger creeps, and picked up some extra gold in the process. The advantage of AoE junglers is now close to non-existent. Jungle gold values are at a point where simply farming the jungle is equivalent to a lane where creeps are last-hit with 75% accuracy. Depending on where the meta goes we might see some interesting changes in who we place in the jungle.
There are a lot of item change, but I'm going to stick to the most important ones.
Crystalline Flask's cost has gone up by 120 gold. It's now cost efficient after 6 uses, rather than 3, but only after it's sold. In the meantime you've locked 345 gold down for infinite potions. It won't be a bad item, but it will be harder to fit into builds.
Last Whisper now has a greater combine cost, raising its price to 2300 gold. This nerfs AD carries, and also nerfs bruisers who stacked Black Cleaver and Last Whisper. I'm curious why they felt this was necessary.
Iceborne Gauntlet remains a very good item even after the nerfs. The duration of the field isn't a particularly damaging change when you're chasing people as they tend to run out before 3 seconds are up anyway. However, it is noticeable when running away.
Spirit of the Spectral Wraith and Spirit of the Lizard Elder both got additional stats for free. They generally hadn't been picked up very often, and may yet see more buffs before they are accepted as useful items. Health regeneration simply isn't valued highly by the community (with reason).
Finally, the minimap now features animations/icons for when teammates recall or teleport. The next time I ping for my team to back off, tell them in chat that I'm no condition to fight and need to spend gold, and then recall, they'll now have three different vectors of communication they ignored rather than just two.
This is actually a very big patch even without Thresh and the upcoming changes to how rankings are determined. It seems bit much this early in Season 3, when players still have so much to figure out. We'll see if Riot continues this trend of extensive changes throughout the year.
Some of Alistar's nerfs have been rolled back. His jungling in Season 3 took a significant hit, and he's long since fallen off the ban lists, so Riot probably felt safe giving him a little nudge.
Annie gets a few quality of life changes, and a visual upgrade in the near future. Despite her lack of popularity straight buffs aren't necessary. If bruiser/assassin teams continue to be popular Annie is likely to see a lot of play for her AoE damage/initiation and tankiness.
Blitzcrank's passive gets duly hit with the nerf bat. For his trouble he does get vision on grabbed targets, which is a huge quality of life change. Knowing that you've landed a grab thrown into fog of war (and who you landed that grab on) is extremely important information.
After being given a very thorough beating in previous patches, Diana has been given some recompense. While she won't resume her frightening domination of the meta (in part because of all the AD assassins now chilling in the mid lane), restoring some of range to her ultimate and giving her shield extra duration and collision detection will be very noticeable.
Evelynn, who is all too familiar with the nerf bat, received another round of nerfs. The bonus Attack Damage ratios on Q and W aren't all that significant in the face of increased mana costs and cooldowns couple with reduced range and damage. Evelynn will still be good, but definitely not as good.
Changing Ezreal's base attack speed may not seem like a big deal, but it's actually huge. That 0.04 reduction is equivalent to reducing the effectiveness of all Attack Speed on Ezreal by 6-7%. A similar nerf dropped Graves from favor not long ago. To be honest, however, I doubt Ezreal will cede from popularity until Riot increases the cooldown on Arcane Shift.
Today we lay to rest the most enduring and frustrating bug of all time, Kassadin's reverse Force Pulse. Surviving through the beta all the way to the present day, the Force Pulse bug has befuddled and infuriated Kassadin players for years. It will not be missed.
Kha'zix, everyone's favorite overgrown cockroach, was understandably nerfed. He's been extremely popular even in the post-nerf Black Cleaver era due to his ridiculous damage with just that one item. His poke with evolved W is also extremely potent. Both of those aspects of him have been nerfed, but not by enough to sate the anger of his detractors.
Lee Sin didn't see these nerfs coming. The armor on Safeguard has been removed, and the range and effectiveness of his Cripple have also been reduced. These changes will hit both his survivability in the jungle and lane, and his early gank strength. He will still be overpowered in the right hands, and hilariously useless in the wrong ones.
The little support, Nami, received a few small buffs. The speed increase on her ultimate will make it much easier to hit, but isn't so large as to reduce the ominous, slow nature and corresponding psychological factor. The change to her base movement speed should her when trading early or trying to land her stun.
Rengar received changes which are, for the most part, actually buffs. Stacking health early on Rengar will no longer yield impossible healing values, but regardless of what you build the healing at level 18 is equialvent to what you would have received if you had 4000 Health. With extra Attack Damage on his Bonetooth Necklace and longer duration Attack Speed buffs and stealth, he's actually probably slightly better in the late game. The problem is whether he can still lane well, which remains to be seen.
Riven can thank her lucky stars she wasn't nerfed as hard as Evelynn, but she still received quite a few herself. The hits to her sustain and damage mitigation are big, and the cooldown nerf on her ultimate will severely impact her effectiveness early on. She might be fine regardless, but Riven players are definitely going to notice these changes.
Syndra gets a couple notable buffs. The increased range on her ultimate at level 16 makes her dramatically easier to use in a teamfight, and reducing the cooldown on her push back makes her harder to reach. It's likely we'll now see her in competitive play.
While Talon got nailed with the nerf bat at first glance, his ability to assassinate targets actually hasn't changed. His AoE damage took a hit, but that was largely necessary due to the bug on his E. Without these nerfs that bug fix would actually have made him incredibly strong.
Udyr, long forgotten after the "farm forever" jungle meta died in Season 2, has finally received a buff. It's not a huge buff, but 12% Armor and Magic Resistance will help him survive being kited long enough to accomplish something, hopefully.
Vi stands for viable. It only took more quality of life changes and bug fixes than any champion, to my knowledge, has ever received in a single patch before.
In addition to all the champion changes, there are some other changes of note.
Jungle creeps have redistributed health toward the bigger creeps, and picked up some extra gold in the process. The advantage of AoE junglers is now close to non-existent. Jungle gold values are at a point where simply farming the jungle is equivalent to a lane where creeps are last-hit with 75% accuracy. Depending on where the meta goes we might see some interesting changes in who we place in the jungle.
There are a lot of item change, but I'm going to stick to the most important ones.
Crystalline Flask's cost has gone up by 120 gold. It's now cost efficient after 6 uses, rather than 3, but only after it's sold. In the meantime you've locked 345 gold down for infinite potions. It won't be a bad item, but it will be harder to fit into builds.
Last Whisper now has a greater combine cost, raising its price to 2300 gold. This nerfs AD carries, and also nerfs bruisers who stacked Black Cleaver and Last Whisper. I'm curious why they felt this was necessary.
Iceborne Gauntlet remains a very good item even after the nerfs. The duration of the field isn't a particularly damaging change when you're chasing people as they tend to run out before 3 seconds are up anyway. However, it is noticeable when running away.
Spirit of the Spectral Wraith and Spirit of the Lizard Elder both got additional stats for free. They generally hadn't been picked up very often, and may yet see more buffs before they are accepted as useful items. Health regeneration simply isn't valued highly by the community (with reason).
Finally, the minimap now features animations/icons for when teammates recall or teleport. The next time I ping for my team to back off, tell them in chat that I'm no condition to fight and need to spend gold, and then recall, they'll now have three different vectors of communication they ignored rather than just two.
This is actually a very big patch even without Thresh and the upcoming changes to how rankings are determined. It seems bit much this early in Season 3, when players still have so much to figure out. We'll see if Riot continues this trend of extensive changes throughout the year.
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.
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, November 12, 2012
Patch Day: Pre-Season 3
The Pre-Season 3 patch is here, and unfortunately there isn't much to see. All of the juicy, exciting changes aren't coming until the Season 3 Patch proper. For now all we have are a large number of bug fixes and a few minor changes.
Elise received very significant buffs to her ratios, and some extra utility on her skill shot stun. These changes seem premature given that it's barely been two weeks since her launch. Particularly with the huge Season 3 upheaval incoming, it's too much too soon. Given the versatility of her kit chances were she would have found a place for herself without this sort of intervention.
Kassadin's Nether Blade got a mixed buff/nerf. It's never been a central part of his playstyle, and that isn't likely to change after this. What makes notable is that it diminishes his ability to sneak Inhibitors, and also makes Attack Speed/AP troll builds more entertaining.
Katarina's base damage on her two principal damage abilities was nerfed slightly. This very marginally reduces her ability to snowball, as level advantages will be lessened. However, the changes are still very minor, and with Season 3 coming soon who will be overpowered and underpowered is anyone's guess.
Ziggs can now do bonus damage to turrets with his passive. This is a surprising change, thematically appropriate and minor as it may seem, as Riot rarely, if ever, increases an AP champion's ability to damage turrets or structures. The explicitness of this change, even as Kassadin lost his ability to deal extra damage to Inhibitors and the Nexus, is striking and unexplained.
All the other champion changes were bug fixes, mana cost adjustments, tooltip alterations, or otherwise not noteworthy enough to mention. If you're a fan of the Twisted Treeline or Dominion there are some item changes that might interest you, but as they don't affect Summoner's Rift (yet?) I won't discuss them here.
When Season 3 does finally hit you can expect extensive analysis on everything from the new items and masteries to the jungle and where the meta will go. It's going to be an exciting time, but for now this is the calm before the storm.
Elise received very significant buffs to her ratios, and some extra utility on her skill shot stun. These changes seem premature given that it's barely been two weeks since her launch. Particularly with the huge Season 3 upheaval incoming, it's too much too soon. Given the versatility of her kit chances were she would have found a place for herself without this sort of intervention.
Kassadin's Nether Blade got a mixed buff/nerf. It's never been a central part of his playstyle, and that isn't likely to change after this. What makes notable is that it diminishes his ability to sneak Inhibitors, and also makes Attack Speed/AP troll builds more entertaining.
Katarina's base damage on her two principal damage abilities was nerfed slightly. This very marginally reduces her ability to snowball, as level advantages will be lessened. However, the changes are still very minor, and with Season 3 coming soon who will be overpowered and underpowered is anyone's guess.
Ziggs can now do bonus damage to turrets with his passive. This is a surprising change, thematically appropriate and minor as it may seem, as Riot rarely, if ever, increases an AP champion's ability to damage turrets or structures. The explicitness of this change, even as Kassadin lost his ability to deal extra damage to Inhibitors and the Nexus, is striking and unexplained.
All the other champion changes were bug fixes, mana cost adjustments, tooltip alterations, or otherwise not noteworthy enough to mention. If you're a fan of the Twisted Treeline or Dominion there are some item changes that might interest you, but as they don't affect Summoner's Rift (yet?) I won't discuss them here.
When Season 3 does finally hit you can expect extensive analysis on everything from the new items and masteries to the jungle and where the meta will go. It's going to be an exciting time, but for now this is the calm before the storm.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Patch Day: Twisted Fate Update
Today's patch has nothing but bugfixes and the awaited visual revamp to Twisted Fate. Sadly, that means no patch note analysis. You will also note I have yet to post any Season 2 World Championship Finals analysis, leaving you utterly bereft of my insights. For that I apologize, and hope to rectify that problem soon.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Patch Day: Kha'zix
The most exciting parts of today's patch are obviously Soraka's visual rework and the arrival of Kha'zix, but there are a handful of balance changes to discuss.
Having only just been buffed barely a week ago, it's clear that the changes to Rengar made him stronger than intended. Nerfing the innate survivability and damage of his W significantly weakens Rengar's ability to ignore defenses early on and largely build assassin. The early rank cooldown nerf on Q is similar, but doesn't make him any less dangerous at full Ferocity. He'll still be a strong champion, but I'd probably avoid jungling him.
Syndra is receiving extensive buffs, and in light of Rengar's nerfs I'm concerned Riot is repeating their mistake. Rengar had the worst winrate of any champion upon his release, up until Syndra broke his record. However, with only bug fixes he eventually reached a winrate that was within the margins of acceptability. Syndra wasn't on course to do likewise, but the extent of these buffs is far greater than Rengar's. Despite currently having a winrate of 30%, it would not surprise me to see her pass 50% with these buffs and incur nerfs later.
Those are the only direct buffs and nerfs in the patch, but they represent a much more drastic approach to balancing recent champions than we've seen in recent months. It'll be interesting to see if I'm correct about Syndra's status post-buff.
Having only just been buffed barely a week ago, it's clear that the changes to Rengar made him stronger than intended. Nerfing the innate survivability and damage of his W significantly weakens Rengar's ability to ignore defenses early on and largely build assassin. The early rank cooldown nerf on Q is similar, but doesn't make him any less dangerous at full Ferocity. He'll still be a strong champion, but I'd probably avoid jungling him.
Syndra is receiving extensive buffs, and in light of Rengar's nerfs I'm concerned Riot is repeating their mistake. Rengar had the worst winrate of any champion upon his release, up until Syndra broke his record. However, with only bug fixes he eventually reached a winrate that was within the margins of acceptability. Syndra wasn't on course to do likewise, but the extent of these buffs is far greater than Rengar's. Despite currently having a winrate of 30%, it would not surprise me to see her pass 50% with these buffs and incur nerfs later.
Those are the only direct buffs and nerfs in the patch, but they represent a much more drastic approach to balancing recent champions than we've seen in recent months. It'll be interesting to see if I'm correct about Syndra's status post-buff.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Patch Day: Syndra
There are absolutely zero balance changes in today's patch, unless you count sunglasses as balance. This leaves Syndra as the most important point of interest for the patch.
Syndra's design has changed slightly over the course of the PBE, in ways that have impressed me considerably. Initially her spheres lasted longer, and their lifespan was increased by grabbing them. With CDR it was feasible to have six spheres in the field, though it required considerable setup. This presented a significant balance issue, as balancing her ultimate around this ideal would have severely crippled it in more practical use cases.
In response Riot made a few clever changes. First they increased the cooldown of Syndra's Q slightly, slowing her ability to generate spheres. Next, they made it so that her W only extended the life of spheres that were already near death. Finally, they reduced the lifespan of spheres slightly. The net result is that the maximum number of spheres is three with both 0% and 40% CDR. The elegance of the solution is the creation of a limit on the number of spheres through emergent properties rather than hard limits.
That said, I'm still mad she isn't Kassadin's daughter.
Syndra's design has changed slightly over the course of the PBE, in ways that have impressed me considerably. Initially her spheres lasted longer, and their lifespan was increased by grabbing them. With CDR it was feasible to have six spheres in the field, though it required considerable setup. This presented a significant balance issue, as balancing her ultimate around this ideal would have severely crippled it in more practical use cases.
In response Riot made a few clever changes. First they increased the cooldown of Syndra's Q slightly, slowing her ability to generate spheres. Next, they made it so that her W only extended the life of spheres that were already near death. Finally, they reduced the lifespan of spheres slightly. The net result is that the maximum number of spheres is three with both 0% and 40% CDR. The elegance of the solution is the creation of a limit on the number of spheres through emergent properties rather than hard limits.
That said, I'm still mad she isn't Kassadin's daughter.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Patch Day: Late August
Today's patch notably comes without any new champion whatsoever, not even a note about requiring further testing on the PBE. Of course, this doesn't mean there's nothing to talk about.
Alistar is getting some much needed nerfs, and in the right places. He's been banned consistently for quite some time, largely because he's been the ideal jungler for the current meta. His ganks are amongst the strongest in the game, while his farm requirements are amongst the lowest. Nerfing his movement speed and his headbutt range cuts into his ganking power significantly, but he'll still be a very strong jungler regardless.
Corki gets a thorough smacking with the nerf bat. The modification to his passive is the most notable of his changes, as it reduces his auto-attack damage significantly. Due to the mathematics of the true passive it's roughly a 10% auto-attack damage nerf late game. That's a very strong nerf, and will hurt Corki significantly.
Diana's nerfs are reasonable, and she'll likely still be incredibly strong afterward. Her base damage and innate tankiness remain very high. The key change is the cooldown nerf to her ultimate, which forces Diana to be much more thoughtful about its use. She is now, as she should have been in the first place, very reliant on her Q for sticking power.
The Eve changes will significantly help both her laning and her jungling, but she remains an odd champion. She's much more at home in a gank composition meta, which no one is currently running. Should that become common she'll see a resurgence of popularity, but until then she's not likely to see the limelight.
Ezreal is the least-nerfed of the three popular ADs. What made Ezreal's W strong wasn't its damage as much as its attack speed slow. Landing a W in a skirmish bottom meant winning the skirmish, as your opponent's damage potential plummeted. This hasn't changed, and buffing Q only makes Ezreal stronger. Expect him to utterly dominate whenever played by someone who can aim.
Gragas' ultimate has long been known for its ridiculously short cooldown. With cooldown reduction he's been able to throw potential game winning barrels every 36 seconds for some time. The nerf is warranted, but saddening for long time Gragas players. The mobility nerf is notable but less important, as ultimately the mana cost won't matter.
Graves' changes can be hard to wrap one's mind around due to the arcane and mysterious nature of Attack Speed. However, the end result of the changes is that with a typical build Graves will be auto-attacking 10% slower than before. This is roughly equivalent to the Corki nerf, though via a different vector.
Nerfing Karthas' wall hurts his laning phase more than anything else. It will still be great for cutting off fleeing enemies, or countering an initiation.
Katarina's damage scaling has been nerfed significantly, likely as a counter-weight to her passive's change. Previously getting a reset on her ultimate required near-maximum CDR and three dead enemies, meaning it was pretty common for her to get her ultimate back with only one foe left to attack. With this change 2-3 deaths will ensure a reset, warranting a slight nerf on her other damage sources.
It surprised me how little Twitch is played. These buffs are very slight, and likely are aimed at putting him on the radar rather more than anything else. I expect that eventually people will learn the power of a Twitch kill lane, and we'll see him become extremely popular.
This was a nerf-heavy patch, but they were all warranted. We'll see if Syndra's patch doesn't bring with it a greater proportion of buffs for needy champions.
Alistar is getting some much needed nerfs, and in the right places. He's been banned consistently for quite some time, largely because he's been the ideal jungler for the current meta. His ganks are amongst the strongest in the game, while his farm requirements are amongst the lowest. Nerfing his movement speed and his headbutt range cuts into his ganking power significantly, but he'll still be a very strong jungler regardless.
Corki gets a thorough smacking with the nerf bat. The modification to his passive is the most notable of his changes, as it reduces his auto-attack damage significantly. Due to the mathematics of the true passive it's roughly a 10% auto-attack damage nerf late game. That's a very strong nerf, and will hurt Corki significantly.
Diana's nerfs are reasonable, and she'll likely still be incredibly strong afterward. Her base damage and innate tankiness remain very high. The key change is the cooldown nerf to her ultimate, which forces Diana to be much more thoughtful about its use. She is now, as she should have been in the first place, very reliant on her Q for sticking power.
The Eve changes will significantly help both her laning and her jungling, but she remains an odd champion. She's much more at home in a gank composition meta, which no one is currently running. Should that become common she'll see a resurgence of popularity, but until then she's not likely to see the limelight.
Ezreal is the least-nerfed of the three popular ADs. What made Ezreal's W strong wasn't its damage as much as its attack speed slow. Landing a W in a skirmish bottom meant winning the skirmish, as your opponent's damage potential plummeted. This hasn't changed, and buffing Q only makes Ezreal stronger. Expect him to utterly dominate whenever played by someone who can aim.
Gragas' ultimate has long been known for its ridiculously short cooldown. With cooldown reduction he's been able to throw potential game winning barrels every 36 seconds for some time. The nerf is warranted, but saddening for long time Gragas players. The mobility nerf is notable but less important, as ultimately the mana cost won't matter.
Graves' changes can be hard to wrap one's mind around due to the arcane and mysterious nature of Attack Speed. However, the end result of the changes is that with a typical build Graves will be auto-attacking 10% slower than before. This is roughly equivalent to the Corki nerf, though via a different vector.
Nerfing Karthas' wall hurts his laning phase more than anything else. It will still be great for cutting off fleeing enemies, or countering an initiation.
Katarina's damage scaling has been nerfed significantly, likely as a counter-weight to her passive's change. Previously getting a reset on her ultimate required near-maximum CDR and three dead enemies, meaning it was pretty common for her to get her ultimate back with only one foe left to attack. With this change 2-3 deaths will ensure a reset, warranting a slight nerf on her other damage sources.
It surprised me how little Twitch is played. These buffs are very slight, and likely are aimed at putting him on the radar rather more than anything else. I expect that eventually people will learn the power of a Twitch kill lane, and we'll see him become extremely popular.
This was a nerf-heavy patch, but they were all warranted. We'll see if Syndra's patch doesn't bring with it a greater proportion of buffs for needy champions.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Patch Day: Rengar/Mid August
It's patch day once again, and that means analysis. Unfortunately there's not whole lot to analyze this time around.
Rengar will be coming out later after Riot finishes balancing him on the PBE. He's got the chops to be a great jungler or top lane, but we'll see how he does in his final incarnation.
Garen received huge changes in an attempt to make him a competitive top lane. These changes are something of a wash for the comical Doran's Blade Garen build, but considerably increase Garen's strength later in the game if you aren't being silly. Because his passive is broken by jungle creeps he still isn't a viable jungler.
The Katarina remake is highly controversial as it appears to shift her playstyle from that of a burst assassin to more of an AP bruiser style. Due to all the changes Katarina can jungle, but she's very Shyvana-esque in that her first clear has sustain issues and she doesn't bring any crowd control to the table. Except to see her shift from mid to top lane, and only appear in the jungle occasionally.
Several champions have had AP ratios tweaked to make AP more desirable on them. The minor tweak to Kayle's W isn't going to dramatically alter her top lane play, but AP Teemo was definitively buffed. AP Varus will likely remain a joke, but the modifications to his ultimate will help make him a competitive AD carry.
Honestly the most important change this patch is that Katarina no longer has a semi-sentient octopus nesting on her head. If not for that and the changes to everyone's favorite Shakespearean couple, this would have been a boring patch.
Rengar will be coming out later after Riot finishes balancing him on the PBE. He's got the chops to be a great jungler or top lane, but we'll see how he does in his final incarnation.
Garen received huge changes in an attempt to make him a competitive top lane. These changes are something of a wash for the comical Doran's Blade Garen build, but considerably increase Garen's strength later in the game if you aren't being silly. Because his passive is broken by jungle creeps he still isn't a viable jungler.
The Katarina remake is highly controversial as it appears to shift her playstyle from that of a burst assassin to more of an AP bruiser style. Due to all the changes Katarina can jungle, but she's very Shyvana-esque in that her first clear has sustain issues and she doesn't bring any crowd control to the table. Except to see her shift from mid to top lane, and only appear in the jungle occasionally.
Several champions have had AP ratios tweaked to make AP more desirable on them. The minor tweak to Kayle's W isn't going to dramatically alter her top lane play, but AP Teemo was definitively buffed. AP Varus will likely remain a joke, but the modifications to his ultimate will help make him a competitive AD carry.
Honestly the most important change this patch is that Katarina no longer has a semi-sentient octopus nesting on her head. If not for that and the changes to everyone's favorite Shakespearean couple, this would have been a boring patch.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Patch Day: Early August/Diana
Today's patch comes with Diana to follow later. If the Zyra patch was any indication Diana will be released sometime this weekend or early next week. In the meantime, there are patch changes to analyze.
Amumu's changes dramatically reduce his damage when he builds AP. It was fairly common for Amumu to pick up at least one AP item when jungling, such as Abyssal, so this does have a significant effect. The mana cost reduction on Tantrum honestly isn't a big deal, hardly sufficient compensation for dropping 0.5 in AP ratios. However, it might be enough for Amumu to forgo Philosopher's stone and rush other items instead.
The change to Brand's ult should greatly reduce its randomness. Sometimes Brand would dominate due to lucky bounces, and sometimes he'd feel like he had no ult at all. I'd posit we'll see more Brands, but then the substantial Malzahar buffs didn't exactly bring him back to the forefront.
Cho'gath's changes are, like Brand and Malzahar before him, quality of life changes first and foremost. Cho'gath should be somewhat easier to use now that his delays and cast times are streamlined. Again, I'd guess we'd see more Cho'gaths, but quality of life changes are no guarantee of a lasting increase in popularity.
Continuing the theme of quality of life changes we have Eve. The shorter stealth fade time is fairly important, as it was a ridiculously long time before. Similarly her ult's cooldown was extremely long before, they literally shaved 30 seconds off it at rank 1. With these changes her play should feel smoother, particularly relating to stealth.
Finally we have Hecarim to round up the quality of life changes. E was previously fairly unresponsive, with its pushback going at odd angles and freezing Hecarim thereafter. If this is fixed it will make his ganks substantially easier, along with his greater initial velocity. Similarly faster fleeing targets will make his ultimate feel much stronger when placed well. Overall he should be far easier to use for the many players who have felt he was clunky and difficult.
Most of what remains are minor bug fixes and nerfs, but it's worth noting that Janna, Xin, and Yorick were nerfed due to overly strong laning phases. While small, their nerfs should make them easier to deal with. Also, the reversal of Urgot's nerf should make him competitive again (he had, as I suggested he would, fallen completely off the competitive ladder).
Overall this patch largely has quality of life changes, a few nerfs, and a few minor buffs. After the plethora of buffs and remakes last patch this is a welcome reprieve. I'll talk more about Diana later this week.
Amumu's changes dramatically reduce his damage when he builds AP. It was fairly common for Amumu to pick up at least one AP item when jungling, such as Abyssal, so this does have a significant effect. The mana cost reduction on Tantrum honestly isn't a big deal, hardly sufficient compensation for dropping 0.5 in AP ratios. However, it might be enough for Amumu to forgo Philosopher's stone and rush other items instead.
The change to Brand's ult should greatly reduce its randomness. Sometimes Brand would dominate due to lucky bounces, and sometimes he'd feel like he had no ult at all. I'd posit we'll see more Brands, but then the substantial Malzahar buffs didn't exactly bring him back to the forefront.
Cho'gath's changes are, like Brand and Malzahar before him, quality of life changes first and foremost. Cho'gath should be somewhat easier to use now that his delays and cast times are streamlined. Again, I'd guess we'd see more Cho'gaths, but quality of life changes are no guarantee of a lasting increase in popularity.
Continuing the theme of quality of life changes we have Eve. The shorter stealth fade time is fairly important, as it was a ridiculously long time before. Similarly her ult's cooldown was extremely long before, they literally shaved 30 seconds off it at rank 1. With these changes her play should feel smoother, particularly relating to stealth.
Finally we have Hecarim to round up the quality of life changes. E was previously fairly unresponsive, with its pushback going at odd angles and freezing Hecarim thereafter. If this is fixed it will make his ganks substantially easier, along with his greater initial velocity. Similarly faster fleeing targets will make his ultimate feel much stronger when placed well. Overall he should be far easier to use for the many players who have felt he was clunky and difficult.
Most of what remains are minor bug fixes and nerfs, but it's worth noting that Janna, Xin, and Yorick were nerfed due to overly strong laning phases. While small, their nerfs should make them easier to deal with. Also, the reversal of Urgot's nerf should make him competitive again (he had, as I suggested he would, fallen completely off the competitive ladder).
Overall this patch largely has quality of life changes, a few nerfs, and a few minor buffs. After the plethora of buffs and remakes last patch this is a welcome reprieve. I'll talk more about Diana later this week.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Patch Day: Remake Trifecta
Zyra has been delayed, but the Mid-July patch still has many major changes to discuss. Three champion remakes in one patch is unprecedented, and many other champions have seen substantial buffs, nerfs, or quality of life changes.
The Eve changes make her viable as a jungler again. While she can no longer approach completely unnoticed, the ability to bypass wards remains one of the strongest abilities in a ganker's kit. Even without crowd control a jungler can terrorize lanes, and there's always Exhaust to help guarantee Eve's gank effectiveness. Later her ultimate does a ridiculous amount of damage and grants Eve the strongest shield in the game, 1500 health. Expect to see a lot of her in solo queue.
Twitch makes his return as a ranged AD carry, massive cleaving ultimate and all. While not as overpowered as it was in his heyday, Twitch can still decimate tightly clustered foes when he has a lead. The short duration of his stealth may impede his ability to roam or gank, but as a tool for repositioning in team fights or escaping ganks it's unparalleled. He'll still be harder to play than many other AD carries, but in the right hands he'll be frightening.
Be afraid of Xin Zhao. While his abuse case of infinite knockups is gone, everything else about him has been buffed to compensate. He now has the ability to split up a team while isolating a single opponent, and can stick to a target better than ever. Capping CDR on him gives him an infinite Q->E combo unless a strong peeling champion intervenes, and even then all Xin has to do is attack the nearest target to bring his E back up again. Of the three remakes, Xin is the most likely to be overpowered.
Gangplank's Parrrley change seems innocuous but has huge effects on both his jungling and laning. It may only cost 50-70 mana, but with its low cooldown and gold return Parrley easily sapped his mana dry. With a mana return effect Gangplank can now farm without worrying about becoming too vulnerable in the process. That said, this change reflects the continuing game-wide shift from mana being an important resource to being forgettable unless you are completely careless.
Malphite's changes force him to choose between tankiness and damage, while also eliminating his potential to permanently slow the attack speed of an enemy carry. He'll likely remain on the ban list for some time as his damage will be hardly affected so long as he builds Abyssal, and 3 seconds of slowed attack speed is still brutal.
Malzahar's changes are largely quality of life, but have the potential to make him frightening. His Voidlings really stick to opponents now, enhancing his Malefic Visions harass. That he can now pull off his combo consistently should also scare opponents.
The nerfs to Morgana target her safety in the lane. It's practically impossible to gank or harass her unless she's overextended, as her Black Shield blocks all crowd control effects until it fades. With a 50% longer wait time between casts at rank 1, Morgana will be very vulnerable every time she's forced to use her shield.
In line with previous nerfs to global ultimates and the champions who possess them, Nocturne has received a couple small nerfs. These will have an effect on his game presence and defenses, but not enough to make him unviable. At this point he's not worth banning unless your team is particularly weak against him.
Sona's changes are likely to give her new life as a support. While a methodical player was capable of planning out her Power Chords, being caught off guard could easily result in being locked out from the one you truly wanted. With the shorter global cooldown between abilities switching between auras will now be far easier. Sadly, it's now impossible for Sona to permanently maintain two auras at once, even with maximum CDR.
Urgot has been very thoroughly nerfed. The changes completely alter his ability to function as a tanky anti-AD, and likely will cause him to completely disappear from competitive play.
All in all this patch has a huge swatch of changes. Be ready for some curve balls as we see the return of stealth champions and everyone's favorite Dynasty Warrior.
The Eve changes make her viable as a jungler again. While she can no longer approach completely unnoticed, the ability to bypass wards remains one of the strongest abilities in a ganker's kit. Even without crowd control a jungler can terrorize lanes, and there's always Exhaust to help guarantee Eve's gank effectiveness. Later her ultimate does a ridiculous amount of damage and grants Eve the strongest shield in the game, 1500 health. Expect to see a lot of her in solo queue.
Twitch makes his return as a ranged AD carry, massive cleaving ultimate and all. While not as overpowered as it was in his heyday, Twitch can still decimate tightly clustered foes when he has a lead. The short duration of his stealth may impede his ability to roam or gank, but as a tool for repositioning in team fights or escaping ganks it's unparalleled. He'll still be harder to play than many other AD carries, but in the right hands he'll be frightening.
Be afraid of Xin Zhao. While his abuse case of infinite knockups is gone, everything else about him has been buffed to compensate. He now has the ability to split up a team while isolating a single opponent, and can stick to a target better than ever. Capping CDR on him gives him an infinite Q->E combo unless a strong peeling champion intervenes, and even then all Xin has to do is attack the nearest target to bring his E back up again. Of the three remakes, Xin is the most likely to be overpowered.
Gangplank's Parrrley change seems innocuous but has huge effects on both his jungling and laning. It may only cost 50-70 mana, but with its low cooldown and gold return Parrley easily sapped his mana dry. With a mana return effect Gangplank can now farm without worrying about becoming too vulnerable in the process. That said, this change reflects the continuing game-wide shift from mana being an important resource to being forgettable unless you are completely careless.
Malphite's changes force him to choose between tankiness and damage, while also eliminating his potential to permanently slow the attack speed of an enemy carry. He'll likely remain on the ban list for some time as his damage will be hardly affected so long as he builds Abyssal, and 3 seconds of slowed attack speed is still brutal.
Malzahar's changes are largely quality of life, but have the potential to make him frightening. His Voidlings really stick to opponents now, enhancing his Malefic Visions harass. That he can now pull off his combo consistently should also scare opponents.
The nerfs to Morgana target her safety in the lane. It's practically impossible to gank or harass her unless she's overextended, as her Black Shield blocks all crowd control effects until it fades. With a 50% longer wait time between casts at rank 1, Morgana will be very vulnerable every time she's forced to use her shield.
In line with previous nerfs to global ultimates and the champions who possess them, Nocturne has received a couple small nerfs. These will have an effect on his game presence and defenses, but not enough to make him unviable. At this point he's not worth banning unless your team is particularly weak against him.
Sona's changes are likely to give her new life as a support. While a methodical player was capable of planning out her Power Chords, being caught off guard could easily result in being locked out from the one you truly wanted. With the shorter global cooldown between abilities switching between auras will now be far easier. Sadly, it's now impossible for Sona to permanently maintain two auras at once, even with maximum CDR.
Urgot has been very thoroughly nerfed. The changes completely alter his ability to function as a tanky anti-AD, and likely will cause him to completely disappear from competitive play.
All in all this patch has a huge swatch of changes. Be ready for some curve balls as we see the return of stealth champions and everyone's favorite Dynasty Warrior.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Patch Day: Jayce
So much for a patch on Tuesday! Fears and worries of another disaster weekend patch aside, there are numerous interesting changes as the one hundredth champion makes his debut.
Akali's changes honestly aren't a big deal. Crescent Slash will be slightly less horrible to use in team fights, but its major flaws still remain. That it can proc Mark is nice, and can see potential use in avoiding creep aggro while laning, but ultimately I don't think Akali will be significantly stronger as a result.
Caitlyn is likely to see a resurgence with her changes. They may not look like much, but they're huge quality of life improvements. The crisper net mechanics alone would be noteworthy, but combined with a faster firing, longer range ultimate Caitlyn is going to feel a lot more responsive.
Gragas' additional armor will make him a safer jungler, not that anyone jungles him these days. More notable are the Body Slam changes, a flat mana cost and huge rank 1 speed increase are huge buffs to the mobility of Gragas at both low and high ranks. Gragas has long been ignored and undervalued, so expect to see him as a new flavor of the month.
Nautilus received a number of nerfs, but I don't believe they'll have much effect on his jungling. Q was being leveled last as it was, and the cooldown change doesn't alter how strong a hooking mechanism is for ganks. Increasing the cooldown on his ultimate similarly does little to change the strength of a gank when his ultimate is up. While there will be 20 seconds of additional reprieve, Nautilus will still be an incredibly strong jungler.
Nunu's changes are much talked about, but ultimately all the fervor over counter-jungling is nothing but hype. Nunu was already perfectly capable of stealing important creeps before, the problem was always that dedicated counter-jungling is a team effort more than a solo endeavor. What is different is Nunu's potential objective control. With Consume now doing full damage to Dragon and Baron his ability to steal or ensure kills on objectives is unparalleled. That's what junglers and teams will be keeping an eye on, the other changes are just to smooth out Nunu's jungling in general.
Those are the big changes that stood out to me. Obviously there was a lot more to the patch, especially if you play Orianna or Lux a lot, but these were the changes I found most notable (and most within my area of experience).
Akali's changes honestly aren't a big deal. Crescent Slash will be slightly less horrible to use in team fights, but its major flaws still remain. That it can proc Mark is nice, and can see potential use in avoiding creep aggro while laning, but ultimately I don't think Akali will be significantly stronger as a result.
Caitlyn is likely to see a resurgence with her changes. They may not look like much, but they're huge quality of life improvements. The crisper net mechanics alone would be noteworthy, but combined with a faster firing, longer range ultimate Caitlyn is going to feel a lot more responsive.
Gragas' additional armor will make him a safer jungler, not that anyone jungles him these days. More notable are the Body Slam changes, a flat mana cost and huge rank 1 speed increase are huge buffs to the mobility of Gragas at both low and high ranks. Gragas has long been ignored and undervalued, so expect to see him as a new flavor of the month.
Nautilus received a number of nerfs, but I don't believe they'll have much effect on his jungling. Q was being leveled last as it was, and the cooldown change doesn't alter how strong a hooking mechanism is for ganks. Increasing the cooldown on his ultimate similarly does little to change the strength of a gank when his ultimate is up. While there will be 20 seconds of additional reprieve, Nautilus will still be an incredibly strong jungler.
Nunu's changes are much talked about, but ultimately all the fervor over counter-jungling is nothing but hype. Nunu was already perfectly capable of stealing important creeps before, the problem was always that dedicated counter-jungling is a team effort more than a solo endeavor. What is different is Nunu's potential objective control. With Consume now doing full damage to Dragon and Baron his ability to steal or ensure kills on objectives is unparalleled. That's what junglers and teams will be keeping an eye on, the other changes are just to smooth out Nunu's jungling in general.
Those are the big changes that stood out to me. Obviously there was a lot more to the patch, especially if you play Orianna or Lux a lot, but these were the changes I found most notable (and most within my area of experience).
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Patch Day: Draven
The Darius patch is finally live. There's not a lot here for junglers, but there are a few points of note.
The nerf to Jax' empower only barely affects his jungling. It's his ultimate, passive, and items that really drive him past level 6. That said, a nerf's a nerf and this will impact how quickly Jax can kill Dragon.
Nautilus' W has had its damage nerfed at later ranks. This change will slightly slow down his later jungling, but not by enough for most players to notice. Nautilus will still be a top tier jungler without question.
Nocturne's passive has been adjusted in an attempt to hit his early sustain. The 5 health will add up fairly quickly on his first clear, but ultimately this punishes people who can't tailor their rune pages more than it nerfs Nocturne.
Shen's Ki Strike nerf will slow his jungling, not that he's a common jungler. There aren't any adjustments to be made for this, it's just a nerf to Shen.
Overall the patch lacks any sweeping changes, save for the introduction of Draven. While he can jungle it's not all that great. He's almost certainly an AD bot or top lane champion given how well he scales with farm and levels. Draven is ban worthy if only because the majority of players are going to try him and find out they can't catch axes to save their lives, but the mechanically strong players who can will utterly crush people.
The nerf to Jax' empower only barely affects his jungling. It's his ultimate, passive, and items that really drive him past level 6. That said, a nerf's a nerf and this will impact how quickly Jax can kill Dragon.
Nautilus' W has had its damage nerfed at later ranks. This change will slightly slow down his later jungling, but not by enough for most players to notice. Nautilus will still be a top tier jungler without question.
Nocturne's passive has been adjusted in an attempt to hit his early sustain. The 5 health will add up fairly quickly on his first clear, but ultimately this punishes people who can't tailor their rune pages more than it nerfs Nocturne.
Shen's Ki Strike nerf will slow his jungling, not that he's a common jungler. There aren't any adjustments to be made for this, it's just a nerf to Shen.
Overall the patch lacks any sweeping changes, save for the introduction of Draven. While he can jungle it's not all that great. He's almost certainly an AD bot or top lane champion given how well he scales with farm and levels. Draven is ban worthy if only because the majority of players are going to try him and find out they can't catch axes to save their lives, but the mechanically strong players who can will utterly crush people.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Patch Day: Darius
The Darius patch is out, and with any patch comes the opportunity for analysis! I like an art revamp as much as anyone else, but I'm going to focus on the gameplay changes that caught my attention.
Increasing the damage Fiddlesticks' E does to minions is a boon to both his laning and jungling. I question, however, whether it will bring jungle Fiddlesticks back. A shift from maxing Q to maxing E will certainly help his clear speeds, but so much of his effectiveness as a ganker is dependent upon his Q that I'm not sure he'll be significantly more viable. Gauging how much this change increases his effectiveness will require some testing.
The Hecarim buffs will make him overpowered. While difficult to play he was, in my opinion, extremely strong before when played properly. Increasing the effectiveness of his primary farm and ganking tools only pushes him further forward. However, I don't expect him to be popular because, like Lee Sin and Orianna before him, he's hard to play effectively.
Athene's Grail does for Chalice what Maw of Malmortius did for Hexdrinker. You are not likely to rush this item, but now that Chalice has a decent upgrade it's a much more viable item. At this point Chalice will be as good or better than Catalyst or stacking Doran's Rings.
As for Darius himself, he's an instant ban. He has his weaknesses, but his ability to snowball is unmatched. He can crush games building simple items like a few Doran's Blades into Hexdrinker and Phage. Beware Garen's evil twin.
Increasing the damage Fiddlesticks' E does to minions is a boon to both his laning and jungling. I question, however, whether it will bring jungle Fiddlesticks back. A shift from maxing Q to maxing E will certainly help his clear speeds, but so much of his effectiveness as a ganker is dependent upon his Q that I'm not sure he'll be significantly more viable. Gauging how much this change increases his effectiveness will require some testing.
The Hecarim buffs will make him overpowered. While difficult to play he was, in my opinion, extremely strong before when played properly. Increasing the effectiveness of his primary farm and ganking tools only pushes him further forward. However, I don't expect him to be popular because, like Lee Sin and Orianna before him, he's hard to play effectively.
Athene's Grail does for Chalice what Maw of Malmortius did for Hexdrinker. You are not likely to rush this item, but now that Chalice has a decent upgrade it's a much more viable item. At this point Chalice will be as good or better than Catalyst or stacking Doran's Rings.
As for Darius himself, he's an instant ban. He has his weaknesses, but his ability to snowball is unmatched. He can crush games building simple items like a few Doran's Blades into Hexdrinker and Phage. Beware Garen's evil twin.
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