Patch day analysis will come tomorrow, for now I have some initial thoughts after taking advantage of the Akali changes.
It's not, unfortunately, very exciting news. While you can theoretically use other rune and mastery setups, my tests indicate that the same exact setup from before is the fastest, safest, and most effective in general. Other setups are functional, but inferior.
So if you really want to free up a rune page or modify one to be more general you can do so, just be aware that it will likely weaken any Akali jungling you plan on doing.
Showing posts with label season 3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label season 3. Show all posts
Thursday, February 14, 2013
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.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Thought: Replacing Urgot
I discussed Marn's Urgot-based composition yesterday, but it suffers from one notable flaw; enemy teams can always ban Urgot. A few opponents did, and while Marn still moved forward and snagged a spot amongst the salaried teams of Season 3, they had no alternative setup for this playstyle. Without Urgot Marn simply chose somewhat traditional team compositions.
Replacing Urgot isn't necessarily easy, as he does bring a lot to the team. His range his short, but he has excellent poke, an incredibly strong crowd control ability, innate tankiness, and super-strong laning. There is no perfectly analogous champion, but with a few small modifications to playstyle and composition there are possible candidates.
Jayce is one of the most obvious choices to replace Urgot. He has fairly decent poke, great team utility, potent tower pushing, and the ability to all-in bruiser style on opponents. Taric could still serve as a decent support for him, but he could easily be paired with other tanky supports and still be effective. Leona would be a good option to make up for the loss of initiation, and Thresh, the upcoming champion, could also serve as a potent support.
Nidalee is another possible option. Built as a bruiser she can serve to push towers with or without the team. However, her utility is strongest when her team isn't fighting, and many of her abilities rely on Ability Power to be potent. She's not a bad option, but she lacks the oomph that Jayce and Urgot bring.
Any other bruiser could potential serve, but they are all notable in that none of them have ranged attacks. While many of them have ways to farm at range, pushing towers is another matter. You'll have to modify the plan if you were counting on using range to help push towers from safety.
Of those bruisers, Zed stands out for his infinite harass/farming, slipperiness, AoE clearing, assassination potential, and incredible scaling. Once his ultimate is available any crowd control from a support spells death. While he lacks the ability to push towers from range, the danger he presents to the enemy carries is enormous.
These aren't the only options, but they are the first I would try as alternatives to Urgot. If the Urgot composition is truly too much for any traditional carry to handle, finding variations in the inevitable event of Urgot bans is the key to truly breaking the meta.
Replacing Urgot isn't necessarily easy, as he does bring a lot to the team. His range his short, but he has excellent poke, an incredibly strong crowd control ability, innate tankiness, and super-strong laning. There is no perfectly analogous champion, but with a few small modifications to playstyle and composition there are possible candidates.
Jayce is one of the most obvious choices to replace Urgot. He has fairly decent poke, great team utility, potent tower pushing, and the ability to all-in bruiser style on opponents. Taric could still serve as a decent support for him, but he could easily be paired with other tanky supports and still be effective. Leona would be a good option to make up for the loss of initiation, and Thresh, the upcoming champion, could also serve as a potent support.
Nidalee is another possible option. Built as a bruiser she can serve to push towers with or without the team. However, her utility is strongest when her team isn't fighting, and many of her abilities rely on Ability Power to be potent. She's not a bad option, but she lacks the oomph that Jayce and Urgot bring.
Any other bruiser could potential serve, but they are all notable in that none of them have ranged attacks. While many of them have ways to farm at range, pushing towers is another matter. You'll have to modify the plan if you were counting on using range to help push towers from safety.
Of those bruisers, Zed stands out for his infinite harass/farming, slipperiness, AoE clearing, assassination potential, and incredible scaling. Once his ultimate is available any crowd control from a support spells death. While he lacks the ability to push towers from range, the danger he presents to the enemy carries is enormous.
These aren't the only options, but they are the first I would try as alternatives to Urgot. If the Urgot composition is truly too much for any traditional carry to handle, finding variations in the inevitable event of Urgot bans is the key to truly breaking the meta.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Thought: Analyzing Team Marn
On the final day of the NA Season 3 Qualifiers, Team Marn picked an identical team composition three times, winning each game it was used. Today I'll analyze that team composition.
Ahri, Nocturne, and Taric were all excellent picks for the playstyle. Each is right at home in clustered, messy fights because of their AoE, while also bringing other key benefits to the team. Taric dramatically amplifies the threat of Urgot during the laning phase, as his stun and Shatter combo is an easy setup for Urgot's harass, while also providing sustain. Late-game, Taric's steroids increase his teams tankiness and damage, and his stun is excellent for dealing with potential dangers such as Katarina or Vayne. Nocturne increases early pressure across all lanes with his ward-bypassing ultimate, and augments a diving Olaf by providing additional control and danger. Ahri, again, is simply one of the hardest AP carries to kill, can catch opponents with Charm during sieges, and is more than happy to skirt around the edges of a messy fight. While this team composition is centered around Urgot, and to an extent Olaf, these picks round it out nicely and helped to make it a dominating force during the qualifiers.
While Marn changed strategies after Dirt Nap Gaming banned Urgot, the underlying principles behind the composition could potentially be applied with other champions. Using a tanky bruiser or pseudo-bruiser bottom in place of an AD carry could prove to be a winning strategy against traditional compositions. That remains to be seen, but the possibilities are tantalizing.
Marn's Winning Team Composition:
- Top: Olaf
- Jungle: Nocturne
- Mid: Ahri
- Bottom: Urgot/Taric
What should stand out immediately in this composition is the use of Urgot. Urgot is technically an AD Carry, but because of his incredibly short auto-attack range, lack of steroids, tankiness, and spammable Q, he tends to be built and played more like a bruiser. Urgot's lane harass and ability to assist ganks is legendary. It is not without reason that he is considered one of the strongest anti-carries in the game.
The potency of this pick becomes obvious when you consider how it alters team fights. Without a squishy AD Carry to focus or chase out of the fight, Marn's opponents had no clear target. Focusing Urgot would be to expend effort on possibly the tankiest target, and getting close to him would be extremely dangerous as at any moment his ultimate might catch someone. Olaf can completely ignore entire teams using his ultimate, and does incredible damage while still building tanky. Ahri is one of the most slippery and hard to catch AP carries in the game. There were no good targets on Marn's team, barring catching someone out of position.
Meanwhile, Marn had many easy targets. There were plenty of squishy champions for them to choose from when stunning, diving, or swapping places, pressuring their opponents while they themselves could be relatively relaxed. While Urgot's range would normally make him weak as a tower pusher, his tankiness, and the threat of a swap or charm, gave Marn all the pushing power they needed.
The carries facing Marn also had very little room for error. Nocturne and Olaf, two of the best divers in the game, could dive with impunity knowing that the rest of their team was largely self-sufficient. At the same time, the combination of Olaf, Taric, and Ahri meant that anyone swapped or caught would be chain controlled and burst down.
Ahri, Nocturne, and Taric were all excellent picks for the playstyle. Each is right at home in clustered, messy fights because of their AoE, while also bringing other key benefits to the team. Taric dramatically amplifies the threat of Urgot during the laning phase, as his stun and Shatter combo is an easy setup for Urgot's harass, while also providing sustain. Late-game, Taric's steroids increase his teams tankiness and damage, and his stun is excellent for dealing with potential dangers such as Katarina or Vayne. Nocturne increases early pressure across all lanes with his ward-bypassing ultimate, and augments a diving Olaf by providing additional control and danger. Ahri, again, is simply one of the hardest AP carries to kill, can catch opponents with Charm during sieges, and is more than happy to skirt around the edges of a messy fight. While this team composition is centered around Urgot, and to an extent Olaf, these picks round it out nicely and helped to make it a dominating force during the qualifiers.
While Marn changed strategies after Dirt Nap Gaming banned Urgot, the underlying principles behind the composition could potentially be applied with other champions. Using a tanky bruiser or pseudo-bruiser bottom in place of an AD carry could prove to be a winning strategy against traditional compositions. That remains to be seen, but the possibilities are tantalizing.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Thought: The Future of AD Carries
As discussed yesterday, AD carries are in a bit of a bind. The many changes in Season 3, combined with the proliferation of assassins and AD casters, has made running away the hallmark of their role in team fights. The problem is large and important enough to draw the attention of players across the globe, and many notable voices are weighing in.
For my part, I see two solutions to the issue:
Building tankier on AD carries seems problematic in that it will cut into the multiplicative scaling which makes them so prized. With fewer items dedicated to offense, the AD carry won't reach the ridiculous levels of damage that allow them to win team fights later in the game. In the end, can AD carries still be effective if they aren't able to dedicate four items to offense?
The problem is actually very similar to one that occasionally pops up in MMORPGs with raiding and dungeons as a core part of gameplay. There are often unavoidable damage sources in a fight, and if you don't have sufficient defenses to survive them it doesn't matter how good of a healer or damage dealer you are, you can't do much while you're dead. The same principle applies here, all that multiplicative damage scaling is useless if you don't survive long enough to make use of it.
A lot does depends on the carry in question. Carries with good AD scaling and built-in steroids will do inherently better with fewer offensive items. Graves, Vayne, and Kog'maw are excellent examples of this. Those who rely on achieving a critical mass of items won't do quite so well. The list of popular carries is bound to shift and change, as damage increases in importance versus mobility.
However, it's also true that multiplicative scaling is heavily reliant on having all factors represented. To drop one item in favor of defenses is to dramatically reduce a carry's late game damage. If their damage doesn't end up being significant better than that of another champion, why not simply have another champion?
Aside from multiplicative damage, the primary reason for having an AD carry is to siege turrets. To replace them requires having an alternative strategy. It might be split-pushing, diving, or simply overwhelming the opponent through jungle/objective control, but a strategy must be present. AD carries, however, have shone as the safest method of pushing a turret for some time.
There are reasonably close alternatives. A number of bruiser champions have sufficient range to siege turrets as well. Jayce, Nidalee, and Kayle have the range and the item builds for the job. Quite a few AP champions also have a good deal of range, and with a lot of AP and/or Lich Bane can do significant damage to turrets. If teams fail to find a consistent answer to assassins, these are alternatives that don't demand a radical change in how towers are taken late-game.
As things stands, AD carries are certainly still viable, especially if the enemy team lacks assassins or AD casters, so it's unlikely they'll disappear entirely. At the same time, the likelihood that we will see compositions with no AD carry at all is the highest it may ever be.
For my part, I see two solutions to the issue:
- Build tankier on AD carries, allowing them to survive burst and contribute to the fight.
- Replace AD carries with another champion, and approach the problems of taking towers/objectives another way.
Building tankier on AD carries seems problematic in that it will cut into the multiplicative scaling which makes them so prized. With fewer items dedicated to offense, the AD carry won't reach the ridiculous levels of damage that allow them to win team fights later in the game. In the end, can AD carries still be effective if they aren't able to dedicate four items to offense?
The problem is actually very similar to one that occasionally pops up in MMORPGs with raiding and dungeons as a core part of gameplay. There are often unavoidable damage sources in a fight, and if you don't have sufficient defenses to survive them it doesn't matter how good of a healer or damage dealer you are, you can't do much while you're dead. The same principle applies here, all that multiplicative damage scaling is useless if you don't survive long enough to make use of it.
A lot does depends on the carry in question. Carries with good AD scaling and built-in steroids will do inherently better with fewer offensive items. Graves, Vayne, and Kog'maw are excellent examples of this. Those who rely on achieving a critical mass of items won't do quite so well. The list of popular carries is bound to shift and change, as damage increases in importance versus mobility.
However, it's also true that multiplicative scaling is heavily reliant on having all factors represented. To drop one item in favor of defenses is to dramatically reduce a carry's late game damage. If their damage doesn't end up being significant better than that of another champion, why not simply have another champion?
Aside from multiplicative damage, the primary reason for having an AD carry is to siege turrets. To replace them requires having an alternative strategy. It might be split-pushing, diving, or simply overwhelming the opponent through jungle/objective control, but a strategy must be present. AD carries, however, have shone as the safest method of pushing a turret for some time.
There are reasonably close alternatives. A number of bruiser champions have sufficient range to siege turrets as well. Jayce, Nidalee, and Kayle have the range and the item builds for the job. Quite a few AP champions also have a good deal of range, and with a lot of AP and/or Lich Bane can do significant damage to turrets. If teams fail to find a consistent answer to assassins, these are alternatives that don't demand a radical change in how towers are taken late-game.
As things stands, AD carries are certainly still viable, especially if the enemy team lacks assassins or AD casters, so it's unlikely they'll disappear entirely. At the same time, the likelihood that we will see compositions with no AD carry at all is the highest it may ever be.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Thought: Of Assassins and Carries
The game is still in a state of flux following the massive Season 3 changes, and will remain so for some time. Black Cleaver stacking was just the tip of the iceberg, the first shot in what will be a long series of metas, overpowered champions, and heretofore unheard of item builds.
Murky as the future may be, there is at least one clear trend in the present which deserves attention. Assassins and AD casters have exploded in popularity, to the detriment of AD carries. Unless a coordinated team is prepared to peel for an AD carry, they can expect to spend most of a team fight running for their life with death the punishment for the smallest misstep. This isn't limited to the NA servers either; players and publications in Korea have been discussing the issue. The usefulness and necessity of the AD carry role is, for the first time since before Season 1, seriously being called into question.
So what, exactly, happened in Season 3 to make AD carries so vulnerable?
First and foremost, the vast majority of AD carry items received significant nerfs. Phantom Dancer's movement speed was made identical to Zeal and it costs more than before. Bloodthirster's Life Steal was reduced. Infinity Edge lost Attack Damage. Guardian Angel's defenses and passive were heavily nerfed. Overall, AD carries do less damage than before, have less defense, and are less mobile.
At the same time, the new itemization isn't sufficient to make up the difference. Runaan's Hurricane, as interesting an item as it may seem, isn't useful if you can't kite your opponents long enough to do damage. Statikk Shiv is a worse version of Phantom Dancer. Sword of the Divine has limited usefulness if you can't kill your target outright with it. The only light in the tunnel is the new Mercurial Scimitar, except it actually helps assassins and AD casters as much or more. In short, the Season 3 itemization changes did little except nerf AD carries.
On top of all of that almost every Season 3 change buffed assassins and AD casters. Deathfire Grasp is now an incredible asset to assassins like Akali, Fizz, or LeBlanc. Black Cleaver is an insanely strong item for AD assassins and casters like Pantheon, Talon, Zed, and Kha'zix. Combined with the penetration changes and nerfs to defense, these champions are able to assassinate any carry who comes in range.
It is because of these circumstances that the usefulness of AD carries is being questioned. Is it worth babysitting them for so much of the game if, in the end, they don't do significantly more damage than a champion who requires half as much attention and care? Are AD carries really necessary for pushing/sieging turrets, or can we find a way to do it without them? Couldn't champions who become powerful much quicker be advantageous? These are the thoughts that have started crossing the minds of many players, and in the coming months we'll begin to harvest what these seeds have planted.
Tomorrow I'll write down my thoughts about how one might alter the role of the AD, or replace them outright. Stay tuned.
Murky as the future may be, there is at least one clear trend in the present which deserves attention. Assassins and AD casters have exploded in popularity, to the detriment of AD carries. Unless a coordinated team is prepared to peel for an AD carry, they can expect to spend most of a team fight running for their life with death the punishment for the smallest misstep. This isn't limited to the NA servers either; players and publications in Korea have been discussing the issue. The usefulness and necessity of the AD carry role is, for the first time since before Season 1, seriously being called into question.
So what, exactly, happened in Season 3 to make AD carries so vulnerable?
First and foremost, the vast majority of AD carry items received significant nerfs. Phantom Dancer's movement speed was made identical to Zeal and it costs more than before. Bloodthirster's Life Steal was reduced. Infinity Edge lost Attack Damage. Guardian Angel's defenses and passive were heavily nerfed. Overall, AD carries do less damage than before, have less defense, and are less mobile.
At the same time, the new itemization isn't sufficient to make up the difference. Runaan's Hurricane, as interesting an item as it may seem, isn't useful if you can't kite your opponents long enough to do damage. Statikk Shiv is a worse version of Phantom Dancer. Sword of the Divine has limited usefulness if you can't kill your target outright with it. The only light in the tunnel is the new Mercurial Scimitar, except it actually helps assassins and AD casters as much or more. In short, the Season 3 itemization changes did little except nerf AD carries.
On top of all of that almost every Season 3 change buffed assassins and AD casters. Deathfire Grasp is now an incredible asset to assassins like Akali, Fizz, or LeBlanc. Black Cleaver is an insanely strong item for AD assassins and casters like Pantheon, Talon, Zed, and Kha'zix. Combined with the penetration changes and nerfs to defense, these champions are able to assassinate any carry who comes in range.
It is because of these circumstances that the usefulness of AD carries is being questioned. Is it worth babysitting them for so much of the game if, in the end, they don't do significantly more damage than a champion who requires half as much attention and care? Are AD carries really necessary for pushing/sieging turrets, or can we find a way to do it without them? Couldn't champions who become powerful much quicker be advantageous? These are the thoughts that have started crossing the minds of many players, and in the coming months we'll begin to harvest what these seeds have planted.
Tomorrow I'll write down my thoughts about how one might alter the role of the AD, or replace them outright. Stay tuned.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Update: Streaming Plans
The online S3 qualifiers for NA and EU are tomorrow. Riot is going to be streaming the games sans commentary, leaving people like myself to fill in the gaps.
The EU qualifiers start at 4 AM my time, so between sleep and work casting those is out of the question. However, if the NA qualifiers have started by the time I get home (Riot has yet to give details) I'll be casting them with TeamLiquid veteran Scip.
These may not be big name teams (yet!) but if you're trying to get your head in the game and learn a few things this should be a great opportunity. Be sure to tune in.
The EU qualifiers start at 4 AM my time, so between sleep and work casting those is out of the question. However, if the NA qualifiers have started by the time I get home (Riot has yet to give details) I'll be casting them with TeamLiquid veteran Scip.
These may not be big name teams (yet!) but if you're trying to get your head in the game and learn a few things this should be a great opportunity. Be sure to tune in.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Jungler: Akali (Season 3)
I've released a new jungle Akali video. It's just the basic route, but it still provides a good point of discussion.
It's been well over two years since I first started experimenting with jungle Akali. In that time she's gone from a joke, to low tier, to viable but inappropriate for the meta, to her current state. This slow but steady progression is fairly well documented in my numerous video guides archived on Youtube. It's funny to look back on her early jungling days, which were a very far cry the from the safe, fluid jungling she is now capable of.
Season 3 is perhaps the zenith of Akali's viability as a jungler. Dive compositions are becoming more popular due to the reduced effectiveness of tanks. At the same time early ganking junglers have much greater pressure to succeed, or else face falling behind their opponents who simply farmed for level 6 before ganking. That Akali has weak early ganks is no longer quite the handicap it once was.
Akali's weakest point is level 1, she does not do quite enough damage to clear a small camp before a buff spawns. With assistance at level 1 she can easily gain 10-20 seconds on her clear time. Add in Bladed Armor and taking Golems rather than Wolves before Red, and her clear speed is actually substantially faster than the video may lead you to believe. The video, however, was largely concerned with the basic, safest route and demonstrating Akali's strong sustain for the benefit of inexperienced junglers.
Whether jungling or laning, Hextech Gunblade is simply the best single item for Akali. Hitting 41% Spell Vamp turns Smite into a personal Heal when fighting near creeps. The slow is extremely good for chasing, especially with Akali's high single target damage. This also feeds into what I believe to be Akali's ideal build, Gunblade + Deathfire Grasp + Lich Bane. With those three items Akali can absolutely decimate any carry before they can react. The ideal build isn't possible in all games, but Gunblade is absolutely and irrefutably the core item.
Once you've hit level 6 or 7 on Akali you should be extremely aggressive, especially if you have enough gold for Sorcerer's Shoes or Hextech Revolver. Even without crowd control Akali's ganks are incredibly potent due to her extreme chase potential. So long as her opponents are not in the immediate vicinity of their towers Akali can easily force Flash and other summoners. She's absolutely terrifying one on one, capable of taking on practically any champion in the game (especially if she gets first strike). Your goal is to less to farm the jungle and more to farm the enemy team.
Your late-game role is the same as any assassin, be enough of a threat that if the enemy team doesn't pay attention to you and blows cooldowns on your allies they're guaranteed to lose one or more carries. The hardest targets to kill are typically carries with stuns and roots, as they can potentially use that time to flash out of your ultimate's range. Otherwise any target you have vision of is probably a dead target.
With the meta warping under the influence of Season 3, now is finally (I swear, really, this time it's true) Akali's chance to shine as a jungler. Try her out and enjoy emerging stealthily from the jungle to complete your covert assassination missions.
It's been well over two years since I first started experimenting with jungle Akali. In that time she's gone from a joke, to low tier, to viable but inappropriate for the meta, to her current state. This slow but steady progression is fairly well documented in my numerous video guides archived on Youtube. It's funny to look back on her early jungling days, which were a very far cry the from the safe, fluid jungling she is now capable of.
Season 3 is perhaps the zenith of Akali's viability as a jungler. Dive compositions are becoming more popular due to the reduced effectiveness of tanks. At the same time early ganking junglers have much greater pressure to succeed, or else face falling behind their opponents who simply farmed for level 6 before ganking. That Akali has weak early ganks is no longer quite the handicap it once was.
Akali's weakest point is level 1, she does not do quite enough damage to clear a small camp before a buff spawns. With assistance at level 1 she can easily gain 10-20 seconds on her clear time. Add in Bladed Armor and taking Golems rather than Wolves before Red, and her clear speed is actually substantially faster than the video may lead you to believe. The video, however, was largely concerned with the basic, safest route and demonstrating Akali's strong sustain for the benefit of inexperienced junglers.
Whether jungling or laning, Hextech Gunblade is simply the best single item for Akali. Hitting 41% Spell Vamp turns Smite into a personal Heal when fighting near creeps. The slow is extremely good for chasing, especially with Akali's high single target damage. This also feeds into what I believe to be Akali's ideal build, Gunblade + Deathfire Grasp + Lich Bane. With those three items Akali can absolutely decimate any carry before they can react. The ideal build isn't possible in all games, but Gunblade is absolutely and irrefutably the core item.
Once you've hit level 6 or 7 on Akali you should be extremely aggressive, especially if you have enough gold for Sorcerer's Shoes or Hextech Revolver. Even without crowd control Akali's ganks are incredibly potent due to her extreme chase potential. So long as her opponents are not in the immediate vicinity of their towers Akali can easily force Flash and other summoners. She's absolutely terrifying one on one, capable of taking on practically any champion in the game (especially if she gets first strike). Your goal is to less to farm the jungle and more to farm the enemy team.
Your late-game role is the same as any assassin, be enough of a threat that if the enemy team doesn't pay attention to you and blows cooldowns on your allies they're guaranteed to lose one or more carries. The hardest targets to kill are typically carries with stuns and roots, as they can potentially use that time to flash out of your ultimate's range. Otherwise any target you have vision of is probably a dead target.
With the meta warping under the influence of Season 3, now is finally (I swear, really, this time it's true) Akali's chance to shine as a jungler. Try her out and enjoy emerging stealthily from the jungle to complete your covert assassination missions.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Season 3: Liandry's Torment
Today's we're going to cover an item of some controversy, Liandry's Torment.
Liandry's Torment: (2900g)
70 Ability Power
200 Health
Passive: UNIQUE - Eyes of Pain: 15 Magic Penetration
Passive: UNIQUE - Dealing magical spell damage burns enemies for 5% of their current health as magic damage over 3 seconds. If their movement is impaired, they take double damage from this effect. Multi-target or periodic effects deals 2.5% over 1.5 seconds. 300 max damage vs monsters.
Before we dive into discussion, let's get a few quirky mechanics out of the way.
First, Liandry's periodic damage ticks every half second. This will become important in later discussion.
Second, Liandry's periodic damage does not refresh like Teemo's Toxic Shot or Nautilus' Titan's Wrath, but resets. If you deal damage which would proc Liadry's milliseconds before a tick would have occurred you lose that tick of damage forever.
Third, Liandry's does not proc from on-hit effects. The aforementioned Toxic Shot and Titan's Wrath are good examples of Magic Damage that will not proc Liandry's.
The practical upshot of the first two mechanics is that it is very, very easy to lose ticks of Liandry's damage, especially with colliding periodic damage sources. Even with just one periodic damage ability ticking every second Liandry's will only tick once before it is reset, dramatically reducing its potential damage. Whereas you might have expected nine ticks from Teemo's Noxious Trap, in fact you only get six.
Despite that, Liandry's does appear to have a lot of potential. For one, the damage is independent of ability rank, so running into Rank 1 Nidalee traps will yield the same benefit from Liandry's passive as Rank 5. Liandry's also has Flat Magic Penetration, an extremely valuable stat with Season 3's changes. Finally, it's not lacking on the Ability Power front either. It's expensive, and a lot of its cost goes toward the passive, but as an upgrade to Haunting Guise it seems a worthy item.
Which brings us to the controversy. It's very, very hard for most of the champions that favor Liandry's to discern the value of that passive. As a result there's an ongoing debate as to whether it's worth upgrading Haunting Guise into Liandry's early, or if it should be put off until later, or even if it should be built at all. This is an extremely difficult argument because Liandry's damage is very difficult to math out and account for, not only because of the complicated ways you can lose ticks, but also because its damage depends heavily on how much damage has already been done to a target. It's likely that the debate over Liandry's will continue for some time before anything resembling a consensus is reached.
Overall, however, it's a fairly effective item provided you aren't attempting to burst down an opponent. It also has one of the smoothest build paths of any Ability Power item, as every component is cheap and you never need to dedicate more than two slot at a time toward its construction. Haunting Guise makes for a good early item whether you intend on finishing Liandry's now or later. If you're going to be poking at enemy champions and/or laying traps, Liandry's can be very effective.
Teemo is currently the poster-Yordle for Liandry's due to the minefields of mushrooms he leaves across the map. Because they not only deal damage but slow the half-damage effect for periodic damage is cancelled out. The resulting damage adds up to roughly 5% of a target's current health, which is nothing to sneeze at. While he's currently the king of Liandry's users, Nidalee, Ziggs, and Xerath are other champions that make excellent use of the item.
Liandry's passive may not be as exciting as some of the active abilities we've seen, but it still conforms with Riot's goal to shift itemization away from a cut and dried comparison of stats, and into less objective debates about the merits of utility.
Liandry's Torment: (2900g)
70 Ability Power
200 Health
Passive: UNIQUE - Eyes of Pain: 15 Magic Penetration
Passive: UNIQUE - Dealing magical spell damage burns enemies for 5% of their current health as magic damage over 3 seconds. If their movement is impaired, they take double damage from this effect. Multi-target or periodic effects deals 2.5% over 1.5 seconds. 300 max damage vs monsters.
Before we dive into discussion, let's get a few quirky mechanics out of the way.
First, Liandry's periodic damage ticks every half second. This will become important in later discussion.
Second, Liandry's periodic damage does not refresh like Teemo's Toxic Shot or Nautilus' Titan's Wrath, but resets. If you deal damage which would proc Liadry's milliseconds before a tick would have occurred you lose that tick of damage forever.
Third, Liandry's does not proc from on-hit effects. The aforementioned Toxic Shot and Titan's Wrath are good examples of Magic Damage that will not proc Liandry's.
The practical upshot of the first two mechanics is that it is very, very easy to lose ticks of Liandry's damage, especially with colliding periodic damage sources. Even with just one periodic damage ability ticking every second Liandry's will only tick once before it is reset, dramatically reducing its potential damage. Whereas you might have expected nine ticks from Teemo's Noxious Trap, in fact you only get six.
Despite that, Liandry's does appear to have a lot of potential. For one, the damage is independent of ability rank, so running into Rank 1 Nidalee traps will yield the same benefit from Liandry's passive as Rank 5. Liandry's also has Flat Magic Penetration, an extremely valuable stat with Season 3's changes. Finally, it's not lacking on the Ability Power front either. It's expensive, and a lot of its cost goes toward the passive, but as an upgrade to Haunting Guise it seems a worthy item.
Which brings us to the controversy. It's very, very hard for most of the champions that favor Liandry's to discern the value of that passive. As a result there's an ongoing debate as to whether it's worth upgrading Haunting Guise into Liandry's early, or if it should be put off until later, or even if it should be built at all. This is an extremely difficult argument because Liandry's damage is very difficult to math out and account for, not only because of the complicated ways you can lose ticks, but also because its damage depends heavily on how much damage has already been done to a target. It's likely that the debate over Liandry's will continue for some time before anything resembling a consensus is reached.
Overall, however, it's a fairly effective item provided you aren't attempting to burst down an opponent. It also has one of the smoothest build paths of any Ability Power item, as every component is cheap and you never need to dedicate more than two slot at a time toward its construction. Haunting Guise makes for a good early item whether you intend on finishing Liandry's now or later. If you're going to be poking at enemy champions and/or laying traps, Liandry's can be very effective.
Teemo is currently the poster-Yordle for Liandry's due to the minefields of mushrooms he leaves across the map. Because they not only deal damage but slow the half-damage effect for periodic damage is cancelled out. The resulting damage adds up to roughly 5% of a target's current health, which is nothing to sneeze at. While he's currently the king of Liandry's users, Nidalee, Ziggs, and Xerath are other champions that make excellent use of the item.
Liandry's passive may not be as exciting as some of the active abilities we've seen, but it still conforms with Riot's goal to shift itemization away from a cut and dried comparison of stats, and into less objective debates about the merits of utility.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Season 3: Blade of the Ruined King
Today we have an item which isn't new per se, but was never seen on Summoner's Rift before Season 3: Blade of the Ruined King
Blade of the Ruined King: (2900g)
40 Attack Damage
10% Life Steal
Passive: UNIQUE - Your attacks deal 4% of your target's current health in physical damage and heal you for half the amount (120 versus versus minions).
Active: UNIQUE - Drains target champion, dealing 150 (+50% of Attack Damage) physical damage and healing you for the same amount. Additionally you steal 30% of their Movement Speed for 2 seconds. 60 second cooldown. 500 range.
Blade of the Ruined King (BotRK) is an interesting item because it seems to overlap significantly with Bloodthirster. Both give Attack Damage and Life Steal, but BotRK trades a significant chunk of both for passive and active effects of difficult to ascertain value. Why have both on Summoner's Rift?
The answer is survival. The Movement Speed changes in Season 3 dramatically favor situational actives. Even Furor, the Tier 3 Enchant, requires single target attacks for its 12%, decaying boost. BotRK possesses one of these situational actives, useful both for chasing someone in close range or escaping. I'm highlighting it today due to a problem commonly facing AD Carries.
While the current Black Cleaver-laden meta will fade the moment its inevitable nerfs land, several aspects of Season 3, and the game in general, have become plain. Teams that can simply dive your most vulnerable players are powerful even in the face of teams with significant crowd control. One player diving can be stopped, but three or four players who coordinate and avoid unnecessary clustering will demolish your principal damage dealers before they can contribute. Against many teams the glass cannon builds of the past are simply a quick ticket to the afterlife.
BotRK is one tool to help combat this. It's no Flash, Heal, or Exhaust, but still provides a tool for surviving, escaping, and kiting a bruiser or assassin who's jumped you. A full build won't help you if you can't distance yourself from the foes clamoring for your head.
Runaan's Hurricane makes an excellent companion to this item. The additional attacks also proc the full damage of the passive, tripling the potential healing. Combined with Bloodthirster you can very quickly heal any incidental damage from a team fight, or even tank to an extent.
If AD Carry is your forte but the big scary bruisers have been crimping your style lately, BotRK may be the item for you. It's no substitute for good positioning, but it can still make all the difference.
40 Attack Damage
10% Life Steal
Passive: UNIQUE - Your attacks deal 4% of your target's current health in physical damage and heal you for half the amount (120 versus versus minions).
Active: UNIQUE - Drains target champion, dealing 150 (+50% of Attack Damage) physical damage and healing you for the same amount. Additionally you steal 30% of their Movement Speed for 2 seconds. 60 second cooldown. 500 range.
Blade of the Ruined King (BotRK) is an interesting item because it seems to overlap significantly with Bloodthirster. Both give Attack Damage and Life Steal, but BotRK trades a significant chunk of both for passive and active effects of difficult to ascertain value. Why have both on Summoner's Rift?
The answer is survival. The Movement Speed changes in Season 3 dramatically favor situational actives. Even Furor, the Tier 3 Enchant, requires single target attacks for its 12%, decaying boost. BotRK possesses one of these situational actives, useful both for chasing someone in close range or escaping. I'm highlighting it today due to a problem commonly facing AD Carries.
While the current Black Cleaver-laden meta will fade the moment its inevitable nerfs land, several aspects of Season 3, and the game in general, have become plain. Teams that can simply dive your most vulnerable players are powerful even in the face of teams with significant crowd control. One player diving can be stopped, but three or four players who coordinate and avoid unnecessary clustering will demolish your principal damage dealers before they can contribute. Against many teams the glass cannon builds of the past are simply a quick ticket to the afterlife.
BotRK is one tool to help combat this. It's no Flash, Heal, or Exhaust, but still provides a tool for surviving, escaping, and kiting a bruiser or assassin who's jumped you. A full build won't help you if you can't distance yourself from the foes clamoring for your head.
Runaan's Hurricane makes an excellent companion to this item. The additional attacks also proc the full damage of the passive, tripling the potential healing. Combined with Bloodthirster you can very quickly heal any incidental damage from a team fight, or even tank to an extent.
If AD Carry is your forte but the big scary bruisers have been crimping your style lately, BotRK may be the item for you. It's no substitute for good positioning, but it can still make all the difference.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Season 3: Hextech Gunblade
Hextech Gunblade: (3400g)
45 Attack Damage
65 Ability Power
10% Life Steal
20% Spell Vamp
Passive: UNIQUE - Reload: Your basic attacks and single target spells against champions reduce the cooldown of this item by 3 seconds.
Active: UNIQUE - Deals 150 + 40% of your Ability Power as magic damage and slows the target champion's Movement Speed by 40% for 2 seconds. 60 second cooldown.
While roughly the same, Gunblade has seen a little reshuffling in stats and costs. It lost 5% Life Steal but costs 200g less, and a little Ability Power was swapped for Attack Damage. While the shifting stats aren't particularly notable, the fact that the Spell Vamp is no longer unique heralds the return of Gunblade stacking (as much of a troll build as that may be).
The exciting changes aren't the stats but the new passive and revamped active. The base damage on the active was halved, but now has a 0.4 Ability Power ratio (breaking even at 375 Ability Power). The effect and duration of the slow were also reduced. All of those nerfs are to compensate for the new passive, Reload. There's no internal cooldown on Reload, and it has the potential to allow for multiple uses in a single teamfight, or repeated uses in lane.
Akali is one of the classic Gunblade champions, and Reload is obviously particularly effective on her. Mark of the Assassin procs Reload twice, once for the cast and once for consuming the Mark, meaning that Akali can easily remove half the cooldown in a single chase. Combined with the Artifacer mastery, Akali can easily reset the cooldown on Gunblade after a single kill.
Simply attacking fast can also do the trick. A champion with 2.0 Attack Speed and nothing else will reset Gunblade within 7-8 seconds. Jax' combination of fast attacks and single target abilities makes him similarly well attuned to this item.
Even if you won't be stacking Ability Power, the ability to potentially reuse the active multiple times in a fight is strong. Because Gunblade is still largely a hybrid item most champions may not find it very interesting or useful, but for those that do the changes are potent and compelling.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Season 3: Assorted Jungling Thoughts
Jungling is my forte, and I keep all my jungle setups in a document for when time and disuse lead to forgetfulness. As you might imagine, Season 3's jungle revamp has made my current document obsolete, warranting a lot of effort in updating it.
As I've been working my way through the list of forty or more champions, some more serious than others, there are a few trends that have come to my attention. It's early yet for there to be much certainty, but I'm confident in the following points.
First, there is a universal jungle setup which will more or less work for every single champion in the game. If you have but one rune page to spare for jungling, use this:
The Universal Jungle Rune Page:
Quints: Attack Speed
Marks: Attack Speed
Seals: Armor
Glyphs: Attack Speed
This page will not only work for 99% of junglers, but will most likely be the page that yields the fastest, and safest, clear time. Only Attack Speed scales the jungle-specific true damage on Hunter's Machete, so this isn't unexpected. The page is not optimal for all junglers, there are more considerations than just speed and safety (e.g. having enough Magic Resistance to not instantaneously die when ganking mid), but as far as universal pages go this is the most effective there's ever been.
Second, there is far less leeway for optimizing a jungle setup. In Season 2 jungling was easy enough that most of a jungle setup could be oriented towards concerns outside of the jungle. Season 3, being far less forgiving, demands that the bulk of one's attention be paid toward clearing the jungle. Some junglers have more leeway than others, but the majority make themselves more vulnerable and less effective early if they sacrifice clearing speed and safety for other goals.
Finally, a much greater number of junglers are likely to be viable than before. This seems like it would be in contrast to my second point, but in fact it is not. Because almost all junglers have been forced to shift toward Machete + 5 Potions as an opening, junglers who previously were lacking in sustain, but not necessarily killing power, are now much more competitive. While I doubt that certain champions are serious contenders due to other issues (e.g. Cassiopeia and Malzahar could not possibly function without Blue), the potential pool has widened. Whether we see these new options or not is going to depend on the meta.
Nothing terribly exciting, but any tectonic shifts in the meta have only just begun their rumblings. If you're disappointed simply wait a few more weeks. By then the meta might be five bruisers all building as many Black Cleavers as possible.
As I've been working my way through the list of forty or more champions, some more serious than others, there are a few trends that have come to my attention. It's early yet for there to be much certainty, but I'm confident in the following points.
First, there is a universal jungle setup which will more or less work for every single champion in the game. If you have but one rune page to spare for jungling, use this:
The Universal Jungle Rune Page:
Quints: Attack Speed
Marks: Attack Speed
Seals: Armor
Glyphs: Attack Speed
This page will not only work for 99% of junglers, but will most likely be the page that yields the fastest, and safest, clear time. Only Attack Speed scales the jungle-specific true damage on Hunter's Machete, so this isn't unexpected. The page is not optimal for all junglers, there are more considerations than just speed and safety (e.g. having enough Magic Resistance to not instantaneously die when ganking mid), but as far as universal pages go this is the most effective there's ever been.
Second, there is far less leeway for optimizing a jungle setup. In Season 2 jungling was easy enough that most of a jungle setup could be oriented towards concerns outside of the jungle. Season 3, being far less forgiving, demands that the bulk of one's attention be paid toward clearing the jungle. Some junglers have more leeway than others, but the majority make themselves more vulnerable and less effective early if they sacrifice clearing speed and safety for other goals.
Finally, a much greater number of junglers are likely to be viable than before. This seems like it would be in contrast to my second point, but in fact it is not. Because almost all junglers have been forced to shift toward Machete + 5 Potions as an opening, junglers who previously were lacking in sustain, but not necessarily killing power, are now much more competitive. While I doubt that certain champions are serious contenders due to other issues (e.g. Cassiopeia and Malzahar could not possibly function without Blue), the potential pool has widened. Whether we see these new options or not is going to depend on the meta.
Nothing terribly exciting, but any tectonic shifts in the meta have only just begun their rumblings. If you're disappointed simply wait a few more weeks. By then the meta might be five bruisers all building as many Black Cleavers as possible.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Season 3: Seraph's Embrace
Today's item is an upgrade to Archangel's Staff: Seraph's Embrace.
Seraph's Embrace: (Transforms from Archangel's Staff)
1000 Mana
60 Ability Power
10 Mana Regen per 5 seconds
Passive: UNIQUE - Insight: Gain Ability Power equal to 3% of your Maximum Mana.
Active: UNIQUE - Mana Shield: Drains 25% of your current mana to shield yourself for an equal amount for 3 seconds - 120 second cooldown.
Item transformation isn't entirely new to League of Legends. Rengar's Bonetooth Necklace upgrades itself based on a stacked buff, and even changes into Kha'zix' head if you murder the void horror in the right circumstances. This item simply extends the core concept.
Fully stacking the bonus Mana on Archangel's Staff will cause it to transform into Seraph's Embrace. The stats on the two items are nearly identical, save for an additional 10 AP and the active ability. The passive Maximum Mana to Ability Power is unique for both items, so enjoy stacking Archangel's Staves while you still can.
Building Archangel's Staff has long been an indicator of a player's inexperience. The time require for stacking its Mana combined with Tear of the Goddess' complete lack of offensive or defensive potential made it a weak choice. You had to rush Tear to be sure of stacking it, but rushing Tear put you at a severe disadvantage in lane. Even though Archangel's Staff could easily provide in excess of 135 AP late-game, the cost, effort, and ultimate lack of defense were not worth the risk.
Some of these problems have been addressed in Season 3. It is now only necessary to stack 750 Mana, rather than 1000, and the upgrade to Seraph's Embrace provides a very significant defensive shield. Even with half of one's mana spent, Mana Shield can potentially provide a 300 damage shield, almost as good as Barrier
Still, it will take a significant portion of the game to stack the mana. You can't count on the transformation until well into the mid-game, even if you rush Tear. However, at that point it offers a great combination of offense, defense, and mana sustain. Who wouldn't want more AP on a single item than even Deathcap, practically unlimited mana, and a potent shield?
While Singed and Ryze are the obvious champions for this item, I expect many champions for whom Archangel's was previously a mistake will find this a useful item when aiming for a strong mid or late-game.
Seraph's Embrace: (Transforms from Archangel's Staff)
1000 Mana
60 Ability Power
10 Mana Regen per 5 seconds
Passive: UNIQUE - Insight: Gain Ability Power equal to 3% of your Maximum Mana.
Active: UNIQUE - Mana Shield: Drains 25% of your current mana to shield yourself for an equal amount for 3 seconds - 120 second cooldown.
Item transformation isn't entirely new to League of Legends. Rengar's Bonetooth Necklace upgrades itself based on a stacked buff, and even changes into Kha'zix' head if you murder the void horror in the right circumstances. This item simply extends the core concept.
Fully stacking the bonus Mana on Archangel's Staff will cause it to transform into Seraph's Embrace. The stats on the two items are nearly identical, save for an additional 10 AP and the active ability. The passive Maximum Mana to Ability Power is unique for both items, so enjoy stacking Archangel's Staves while you still can.
Building Archangel's Staff has long been an indicator of a player's inexperience. The time require for stacking its Mana combined with Tear of the Goddess' complete lack of offensive or defensive potential made it a weak choice. You had to rush Tear to be sure of stacking it, but rushing Tear put you at a severe disadvantage in lane. Even though Archangel's Staff could easily provide in excess of 135 AP late-game, the cost, effort, and ultimate lack of defense were not worth the risk.
Some of these problems have been addressed in Season 3. It is now only necessary to stack 750 Mana, rather than 1000, and the upgrade to Seraph's Embrace provides a very significant defensive shield. Even with half of one's mana spent, Mana Shield can potentially provide a 300 damage shield, almost as good as Barrier
Still, it will take a significant portion of the game to stack the mana. You can't count on the transformation until well into the mid-game, even if you rush Tear. However, at that point it offers a great combination of offense, defense, and mana sustain. Who wouldn't want more AP on a single item than even Deathcap, practically unlimited mana, and a potent shield?
While Singed and Ryze are the obvious champions for this item, I expect many champions for whom Archangel's was previously a mistake will find this a useful item when aiming for a strong mid or late-game.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Season 3: Crystalline Flask
Continuing our Season 3 Item Extravaganza, we have another entirely new item: Crystalline Flask
Crystalline Flask: (225g)
Passive: Starts with 3 charges and refills each time you stop by your shop.
Active: Consumes a charge to restore 100 health and 40 mana over 10 seconds.
There is a stage in player development where they learn the importance of potions, and how purchasing them liberally can turn the tide in difficult lanes or break a stalemate. A potion used in combat can be the difference between glorious victory and ignominious defeat. However, few players mentally track just how much gold they spend on potions. It's not until they realize they are an item or two behind their opponent that the potential cost of their drinking habit catches up to them.
Crystalline Flask serves as an efficient solution to this problem, so efficient that Riot very quickly nerfed its sell value. Flask's three charges are equivalent to two health potions and one mana potion, and recharge for free every time you recall. Flask effectively breaks even with just one use, and only gets better from there.
Starting with Flask is, in short, something of a no-brainer. It's cheap, so much so you can add a Rejuvenation Bead or Faerie Charm (both of which are immensely more useful than before) and still have enough gold for two regular potions (or a ward and a potion with the Wealth mastery).
Flask is also an excellent item for level 1 skirmishes. If two teams clash, but one bought Flasks while the other bought potions, the Flask team will generally procure an advantage so long as they stay even on kills. By forcing the opposing team to use potions, while making use of their own free refills, the Flask team earns a small, but important edge.
Using the Wealth mastery it's actually possible to start Flask + Cloth Armor/Hunter's Machete, allowing even junglers to make use of the item. However, this opening is incredibly dangerous for many junglers, and essentially impossible for most of the rest. Unless your team is giving you incredible amounts of help on your first buff camp, don't try this unless you're someone with very, very high sustain (e.g. Warwick, Nunu, Udyr etc.).
One final, notable aspect of Flask is that it can be used at the same time as regular potions. Both act as 10 Health per second for their duration, resulting in a potential 20 Health per second. The Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation can overlap the other two as well. In early levels that could easily be the difference between dying to Ignite, and living with a sliver of health.
Crystalline Flask is going to be a useful, cheap purchase for everyone, save for the rare case where zero sustain is necessary at all (and even then). There are simply far too many factors in its favor, and practically nothing bad to say about it. As a result, you can expect to see a lot of Flasks come Season 3.
Crystalline Flask: (225g)
Passive: Starts with 3 charges and refills each time you stop by your shop.
Active: Consumes a charge to restore 100 health and 40 mana over 10 seconds.
There is a stage in player development where they learn the importance of potions, and how purchasing them liberally can turn the tide in difficult lanes or break a stalemate. A potion used in combat can be the difference between glorious victory and ignominious defeat. However, few players mentally track just how much gold they spend on potions. It's not until they realize they are an item or two behind their opponent that the potential cost of their drinking habit catches up to them.
Crystalline Flask serves as an efficient solution to this problem, so efficient that Riot very quickly nerfed its sell value. Flask's three charges are equivalent to two health potions and one mana potion, and recharge for free every time you recall. Flask effectively breaks even with just one use, and only gets better from there.
Starting with Flask is, in short, something of a no-brainer. It's cheap, so much so you can add a Rejuvenation Bead or Faerie Charm (both of which are immensely more useful than before) and still have enough gold for two regular potions (or a ward and a potion with the Wealth mastery).
Flask is also an excellent item for level 1 skirmishes. If two teams clash, but one bought Flasks while the other bought potions, the Flask team will generally procure an advantage so long as they stay even on kills. By forcing the opposing team to use potions, while making use of their own free refills, the Flask team earns a small, but important edge.
Using the Wealth mastery it's actually possible to start Flask + Cloth Armor/Hunter's Machete, allowing even junglers to make use of the item. However, this opening is incredibly dangerous for many junglers, and essentially impossible for most of the rest. Unless your team is giving you incredible amounts of help on your first buff camp, don't try this unless you're someone with very, very high sustain (e.g. Warwick, Nunu, Udyr etc.).
One final, notable aspect of Flask is that it can be used at the same time as regular potions. Both act as 10 Health per second for their duration, resulting in a potential 20 Health per second. The Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation can overlap the other two as well. In early levels that could easily be the difference between dying to Ignite, and living with a sliver of health.
Crystalline Flask is going to be a useful, cheap purchase for everyone, save for the rare case where zero sustain is necessary at all (and even then). There are simply far too many factors in its favor, and practically nothing bad to say about it. As a result, you can expect to see a lot of Flasks come Season 3.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Season 3: Sightstone
Very few items are going to make it through the Season 3 revamp unscathed, and plenty of new choices will present themselves to players of all roles and skill levels. A number of these altered or alien items are worthy of exclusive examination. From now until Season 3 begins, and possibly even after, I'll be reviewing one of these items every day.
Today's item is the brand new Sightstone.
Sightstone: (700g)
100 Health
Passive: UNIQUE - Ward Refresh: Starts with 4 charges and refill each time you return to the shop.
Active: UNIQUE - Ghost Ward: Consumes a charge to place a Sight Ward. You may have a maximum of 2 wards from this item at once.
The strength of this item should be readily apparent to any support player. For 700g you immediately gain 300g in wards and ~250g in Health. Assuming you place these wards continually, it's effectively an 8gp10 item. With its current sell value of 490g it is actually cheaper to buy this item, place two sets of wards, and sell it than to simply buy and place four wards. Even if they nerf the sell value to 50%, a standard for gp10s, it will still be a mere six minutes before enough wards have been placed for the item to break even in value.
Sightstone's ridiculous cost efficiency is going to have interesting ramifications for more than just support players. At higher rankings it's expected that junglers and mid players will also ward in order to track the enemy jungler and warn of impending ganks or roaming opponents. With two access points by mid, warding can be very costly. Yet, with Sightstone the entire burden can be easily shouldered by one of the two players. Even top can make use of this item, as it's not uncommon for enemy junglers to sneak through the fog of war into the lane brush. Unless you have no intention to ward at all Sightstone is going to be an important item for almost every player on the map.
This incredible utility is likely to get the item nerfed. While dropping 700g at once for a Sightstone can be a little difficult for a support, it will be trivial for anyone else. The theoretical power discrepancy between a champion with Sightstone and one with stronger items of similar cost is limited by the lack of vision forgoing wards provides. Unless one's jungler or mid is inept (which, to be fair, is a common condition in lower rankings) the champion who doesn't purchase Sightstone is the one with a disadvantage.
On top of that, Sightstone actually has an upgrade. For an additional 600g (475g for a Ruby Crystal and 125g for the combine cost) you can acquire a Ruby Sightstone, which increases the Health bonus to 300, charges to 5, and number of simultaneous wards to 3. Supports are likely to be the only ones particularly interested in this upgrade, as only they can afford to be so slot-inefficient.
Sightstone doesn't represent the death of wards entirely. You'll still need to pick up wards at the beginning (unless you think you can hold out for a minute or two with no items whatsoever) at the very least. Pink wards will take on a particular significance given the ability of opponents to ward and reward important locations. Late in the game three wards won't be nearly enough to control the map. Still, the amount of gold spent on wards is likely to decrease drastically thanks to this item.
I'm fairly certain that Riot doesn't want the map lit up like a Christmas Tree, and with the nerf to Oracle's there won't be much preventing such a situation. It takes no special foresight to see that Sightstone will be treasured not only by supports, but by laners sick of roaming mids and jungle ganks. Sightstone will be the equivalent to a fast expansion in StarCraft, only without any significant all-in cheeses that might punish the play.
I fully expect that Riot will be forced to impose some limit on the number of Sightstones in the game. Until then, abuse it all you can when Season 3 begins.
Today's item is the brand new Sightstone.
Sightstone: (700g)
100 Health
Passive: UNIQUE - Ward Refresh: Starts with 4 charges and refill each time you return to the shop.
Active: UNIQUE - Ghost Ward: Consumes a charge to place a Sight Ward. You may have a maximum of 2 wards from this item at once.
The strength of this item should be readily apparent to any support player. For 700g you immediately gain 300g in wards and ~250g in Health. Assuming you place these wards continually, it's effectively an 8gp10 item. With its current sell value of 490g it is actually cheaper to buy this item, place two sets of wards, and sell it than to simply buy and place four wards. Even if they nerf the sell value to 50%, a standard for gp10s, it will still be a mere six minutes before enough wards have been placed for the item to break even in value.
Sightstone's ridiculous cost efficiency is going to have interesting ramifications for more than just support players. At higher rankings it's expected that junglers and mid players will also ward in order to track the enemy jungler and warn of impending ganks or roaming opponents. With two access points by mid, warding can be very costly. Yet, with Sightstone the entire burden can be easily shouldered by one of the two players. Even top can make use of this item, as it's not uncommon for enemy junglers to sneak through the fog of war into the lane brush. Unless you have no intention to ward at all Sightstone is going to be an important item for almost every player on the map.
This incredible utility is likely to get the item nerfed. While dropping 700g at once for a Sightstone can be a little difficult for a support, it will be trivial for anyone else. The theoretical power discrepancy between a champion with Sightstone and one with stronger items of similar cost is limited by the lack of vision forgoing wards provides. Unless one's jungler or mid is inept (which, to be fair, is a common condition in lower rankings) the champion who doesn't purchase Sightstone is the one with a disadvantage.
On top of that, Sightstone actually has an upgrade. For an additional 600g (475g for a Ruby Crystal and 125g for the combine cost) you can acquire a Ruby Sightstone, which increases the Health bonus to 300, charges to 5, and number of simultaneous wards to 3. Supports are likely to be the only ones particularly interested in this upgrade, as only they can afford to be so slot-inefficient.
Sightstone doesn't represent the death of wards entirely. You'll still need to pick up wards at the beginning (unless you think you can hold out for a minute or two with no items whatsoever) at the very least. Pink wards will take on a particular significance given the ability of opponents to ward and reward important locations. Late in the game three wards won't be nearly enough to control the map. Still, the amount of gold spent on wards is likely to decrease drastically thanks to this item.
I'm fairly certain that Riot doesn't want the map lit up like a Christmas Tree, and with the nerf to Oracle's there won't be much preventing such a situation. It takes no special foresight to see that Sightstone will be treasured not only by supports, but by laners sick of roaming mids and jungle ganks. Sightstone will be the equivalent to a fast expansion in StarCraft, only without any significant all-in cheeses that might punish the play.
I fully expect that Riot will be forced to impose some limit on the number of Sightstones in the game. Until then, abuse it all you can when Season 3 begins.
Season 3: Utility Masteries
In Season 2 the Utility tree was much maligned and generally avoided, save for the first nine points. Nothing it offered was particularly compelling, with some supports opting to ignore it in favor of the Defense tree. Season 3's revisions make it significantly more competitive.
Obligatory mastery calculator links:
Season 2: http://leaguecraft.com/masteries
Season 3: http://www.finalesfunkeln.com/s3/
Unlike the Defense tree, which was almost completely uprooted, the Utility looks very similar to its previous incarnation. However, plenty of masteries have been shuffled around and altered, and the results are generally very good.
The first tier now features Wanderer, once known as Swiftness. The frequently taken 2% Movement Speed mastery now only works out of combat, cementing its place as a tool for roaming, clearing wards, and traveling back to the lane. Meditation, the Mana Regen mastery, has also been moved to the first tier, but is otherwise unchanged. These simple changes belie the larger ones coming in the remaining tiers.
Mastermind, once the final mastery in the Utility tree, has been moved all the way to the second tier. It now costs three points and only reduces summoner spell cooldowns by 10%, but the change in accessibility is notable. Scout still appears to be something of a throwaway mastery despite its buffs, but will at least be useful in specific situations. Expanded Mind is now in this tier without any other alteration. Also of note is a new mastery, Artifacer, which reduces the cooldowns on item active abilities by 15%. Overall this tier presents some interesting choices, especially given the increased importance of item actives.
The third tier still sports Runic Affinity and Greed without change. Transmutation, however, has moved and in its place are Biscuiteer and Strength of Spirit. The latter of these two was moved down from the penultimate tier, and received a notable nerf to compensate. Seeing as how it was practically never taken in Season 2, and the addition of new mana items in Season 3, this seems a fair trade. Biscuiteer is a one point mastery which grants the player a one off item at the start of the game. The Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation heals 80 Health and 50 Mana over 10 seconds, roughly adding up to one potion's worth of restoration. This is a new and interesting precedent for masteries, and makes another appearance in the next tier.
Explorer is a one point mastery which grants the player a special ward at the start of a game. It only lasts 60 seconds, but nevertheless represents an opportunity to detect invasions, avoid face checking, and control brush. Vampirism combines the old Life Steal and Spell Vamp masteries into one, forcing carries who wish to load up on sustain to make sacrifices in the Offense tree. Wealth has received a slight buff, granting 25-50 gold, which opens up new starting item possibilities such as Cloth Armor + Crystalline Flask. Only Awareness is unchanged.
The only notable change to the penultimate tier is the new Pickpocket mastery. This mastery grants 3g (5g if you're melee) every time you auto-attack an enemy champion (on a 5 second cooldown). Theoretically one could gain 3.6-6gp10 from this mastery alone, if your opponents were accommodating. In practice it will be worth far, far less, but as Greed is commonly taken for a mere 0.5gp10 per point, one would only need to auto-attack a champion once or twice per minute to match that value. Unless you're jungling, you should definitely grab this mastery if you're this deep already.
The final Utility mastery is Nimble, which increases Movement Speed by 3%. That's a significant boost for one point, considering that in Season 2 it cost four points for 2% Movement Speed. Placing this mastery so deep in the Utility tree is clearly Riot's answer to the Movement Speed stacking that was rampant in Season 2. If a champion wishes to zoom around with 400+ Movement Speed at level 1, they now have to sacrifice significant offensive and defensive potential.
The Utility tree is true to its name in Season 3. Every mastery in the tree somehow enhances player choices and actions. Whether it's reaching a location sooner, using abilities or items more frequently, getting items faster, or leveling more quickly, the Utility tree clearly enhances a champion in very different ways than the other mastery trees. Compared to Season 2, the new Utility tree is a compelling place to invest points even for non-Supports.
Obligatory mastery calculator links:
Season 2: http://leaguecraft.com/masteries
Season 3: http://www.finalesfunkeln.com/s3/
Unlike the Defense tree, which was almost completely uprooted, the Utility looks very similar to its previous incarnation. However, plenty of masteries have been shuffled around and altered, and the results are generally very good.
The first tier now features Wanderer, once known as Swiftness. The frequently taken 2% Movement Speed mastery now only works out of combat, cementing its place as a tool for roaming, clearing wards, and traveling back to the lane. Meditation, the Mana Regen mastery, has also been moved to the first tier, but is otherwise unchanged. These simple changes belie the larger ones coming in the remaining tiers.
Mastermind, once the final mastery in the Utility tree, has been moved all the way to the second tier. It now costs three points and only reduces summoner spell cooldowns by 10%, but the change in accessibility is notable. Scout still appears to be something of a throwaway mastery despite its buffs, but will at least be useful in specific situations. Expanded Mind is now in this tier without any other alteration. Also of note is a new mastery, Artifacer, which reduces the cooldowns on item active abilities by 15%. Overall this tier presents some interesting choices, especially given the increased importance of item actives.
The third tier still sports Runic Affinity and Greed without change. Transmutation, however, has moved and in its place are Biscuiteer and Strength of Spirit. The latter of these two was moved down from the penultimate tier, and received a notable nerf to compensate. Seeing as how it was practically never taken in Season 2, and the addition of new mana items in Season 3, this seems a fair trade. Biscuiteer is a one point mastery which grants the player a one off item at the start of the game. The Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation heals 80 Health and 50 Mana over 10 seconds, roughly adding up to one potion's worth of restoration. This is a new and interesting precedent for masteries, and makes another appearance in the next tier.
Explorer is a one point mastery which grants the player a special ward at the start of a game. It only lasts 60 seconds, but nevertheless represents an opportunity to detect invasions, avoid face checking, and control brush. Vampirism combines the old Life Steal and Spell Vamp masteries into one, forcing carries who wish to load up on sustain to make sacrifices in the Offense tree. Wealth has received a slight buff, granting 25-50 gold, which opens up new starting item possibilities such as Cloth Armor + Crystalline Flask. Only Awareness is unchanged.
The only notable change to the penultimate tier is the new Pickpocket mastery. This mastery grants 3g (5g if you're melee) every time you auto-attack an enemy champion (on a 5 second cooldown). Theoretically one could gain 3.6-6gp10 from this mastery alone, if your opponents were accommodating. In practice it will be worth far, far less, but as Greed is commonly taken for a mere 0.5gp10 per point, one would only need to auto-attack a champion once or twice per minute to match that value. Unless you're jungling, you should definitely grab this mastery if you're this deep already.
The final Utility mastery is Nimble, which increases Movement Speed by 3%. That's a significant boost for one point, considering that in Season 2 it cost four points for 2% Movement Speed. Placing this mastery so deep in the Utility tree is clearly Riot's answer to the Movement Speed stacking that was rampant in Season 2. If a champion wishes to zoom around with 400+ Movement Speed at level 1, they now have to sacrifice significant offensive and defensive potential.
The Utility tree is true to its name in Season 3. Every mastery in the tree somehow enhances player choices and actions. Whether it's reaching a location sooner, using abilities or items more frequently, getting items faster, or leveling more quickly, the Utility tree clearly enhances a champion in very different ways than the other mastery trees. Compared to Season 2, the new Utility tree is a compelling place to invest points even for non-Supports.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Season 3: Defense Masteries
After a brief interruption due to a national holiday involving the mass consumption of plump fowl, the examination of Season 3 masteries continues. Today we'll look at the new Defense masteries.
Again, you can follow along using these mastery calculators:
Season 2: http://leaguecraft.com/masteries
Season 3: http://www.finalesfunkeln.com/s3/
It should be immediately apparent that the Defense masteries have changed fairly dramatically. While a few of the old favorites remain untouched, almost everything has been at least moved, if not replaced entirely.
The Armor and Magic Resistance masteries are conspicuously missing from the first tier, replaced by the Health Regen and Health per Level masteries. The former of these two has undergone a large revision, increasing the amount of Health Regen granted based on how much Health you're missing. Summoner's Resolve and Tough Skin are notable in that they are two of the only masteries in the entire Defense tree which have not been moved or altered in any way.
The second tier features the Armor and Magic Resistance masteries that were missing from the first. Moving them down a tier makes them slightly less accessible, a necessary change given their ubiquitous use at the end of Season 2. Bladed Armor is also now in this tier, meaning all the essential jungle masteries can be obtained with only seven or eight points invested.
In the third tier is Veteran's Scars, the only remaining Defense mastery which has not been altered or moved. Indomitable has been renamed Unyielding, and now only reduces damage from champions. Two new masteries also appear in this tier. Relentless decreases the effectiveness of slows (e.g. a 40% slow becomes a 34% slow), and Safeguard reduces damage incurred by turrets. While the Defense tree is useful to any champion, these and other specialized masteries make it clear that this tree is primarily aimed at helping bruisers and tanks.
All of the previous fourth tier Defense masteries have been removed, leaving the tree completely without Movement Speed or Cooldown Reduction. The new fourth tier is populated by Tenacious and Juggernaut, two masteries which split the crowd control reduction and % Maximum Health once given by Season 2's final Defense mastery. There is also Block, a mastery which reduces damage from champion auto-attacks. This tier is one of the strongest in the Defense tree due to the power of crowd control reduction and the direct effective health benefits of % Maximum Health.
The Defense tree's penultimate tier is also completely different. Defender is an incredibly strong mastery in a team fight, granting up to five Armor and Magic Resistance with a single point. Legendary Armor isn't quite so amazing, but if you're a champion with a strong defensive steroid or defense itemization heavy on Armor and Magic Resistance it can be potent. Good Hands has moved here from Utility, and now only costs one point for the full effect. Finally, Reinforced Armor serves to help protect a tank or bruiser from the crit happy end-game of enemy AD carries. Because both this tier and the previous tier have so many compelling masteries, putting more than 21 points into Defense may be common.
Honor Guard is now the final Defense mastery, and costs only one point for 3% damage reduction. In Season 2 it cost three points for half the effect, making Honor Guard the recipient of one of the largest buffs any mastery has ever seen. If you're going to go deep into Defense, this is a must-have mastery.
Overall, the Defense tree is much, much stronger in Season 3. In Season 2 most everything past the third tier had little to do with actually tanking, or was a very marginal increase in durability. The new masteries are quite the opposite, very few masteries do not relate directly to taking less damage, and almost all have value to one champion or another. Even though the masteries are aimed toward bruisers and tanks, even carries and supports may well be inclined to invest heavily in this tree.
Again, you can follow along using these mastery calculators:
Season 2: http://leaguecraft.com/masteries
Season 3: http://www.finalesfunkeln.com/s3/
It should be immediately apparent that the Defense masteries have changed fairly dramatically. While a few of the old favorites remain untouched, almost everything has been at least moved, if not replaced entirely.
The Armor and Magic Resistance masteries are conspicuously missing from the first tier, replaced by the Health Regen and Health per Level masteries. The former of these two has undergone a large revision, increasing the amount of Health Regen granted based on how much Health you're missing. Summoner's Resolve and Tough Skin are notable in that they are two of the only masteries in the entire Defense tree which have not been moved or altered in any way.
The second tier features the Armor and Magic Resistance masteries that were missing from the first. Moving them down a tier makes them slightly less accessible, a necessary change given their ubiquitous use at the end of Season 2. Bladed Armor is also now in this tier, meaning all the essential jungle masteries can be obtained with only seven or eight points invested.
In the third tier is Veteran's Scars, the only remaining Defense mastery which has not been altered or moved. Indomitable has been renamed Unyielding, and now only reduces damage from champions. Two new masteries also appear in this tier. Relentless decreases the effectiveness of slows (e.g. a 40% slow becomes a 34% slow), and Safeguard reduces damage incurred by turrets. While the Defense tree is useful to any champion, these and other specialized masteries make it clear that this tree is primarily aimed at helping bruisers and tanks.
All of the previous fourth tier Defense masteries have been removed, leaving the tree completely without Movement Speed or Cooldown Reduction. The new fourth tier is populated by Tenacious and Juggernaut, two masteries which split the crowd control reduction and % Maximum Health once given by Season 2's final Defense mastery. There is also Block, a mastery which reduces damage from champion auto-attacks. This tier is one of the strongest in the Defense tree due to the power of crowd control reduction and the direct effective health benefits of % Maximum Health.
The Defense tree's penultimate tier is also completely different. Defender is an incredibly strong mastery in a team fight, granting up to five Armor and Magic Resistance with a single point. Legendary Armor isn't quite so amazing, but if you're a champion with a strong defensive steroid or defense itemization heavy on Armor and Magic Resistance it can be potent. Good Hands has moved here from Utility, and now only costs one point for the full effect. Finally, Reinforced Armor serves to help protect a tank or bruiser from the crit happy end-game of enemy AD carries. Because both this tier and the previous tier have so many compelling masteries, putting more than 21 points into Defense may be common.
Honor Guard is now the final Defense mastery, and costs only one point for 3% damage reduction. In Season 2 it cost three points for half the effect, making Honor Guard the recipient of one of the largest buffs any mastery has ever seen. If you're going to go deep into Defense, this is a must-have mastery.
Overall, the Defense tree is much, much stronger in Season 3. In Season 2 most everything past the third tier had little to do with actually tanking, or was a very marginal increase in durability. The new masteries are quite the opposite, very few masteries do not relate directly to taking less damage, and almost all have value to one champion or another. Even though the masteries are aimed toward bruisers and tanks, even carries and supports may well be inclined to invest heavily in this tree.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Season 3: Offense Masteries
The masteries revamp is too big a topic to tackle in one post, unless you're one of those noble souls who enjoys reading fifty page white papers, so I'm dividing it up into three obvious sections. Today we'll be covering the new Offense masteries.
You can follow along using these mastery calculators:
Season 2: http://leaguecraft.com/masteries
Season 3: http://www.finalesfunkeln.com/s3/
There are only two new masteries in the Offense tree, the least of any, but they are interesting nonetheless.
Spellsword is a one point mastery adds 5% of your AP to your auto-attacks. 5% isn't much, but for one point it's a reasonably strong mastery. AP champions who do a lot of auto-attacking, such as Teemo, Diana, Twisted Fate, and Eve, could certainly get some mileage out of it, though most won't.
Frenzy is another one point mastery that grants a 10% Attack Speed buff for two seconds after a crit. Lethality, everyone's favorite Crit Damage mastery, is its prerequisite. It's an interesting concept, but ultimately feels fairly weak. By the time you have enough Crit to reliably proc the buff 10% Attack Speed will hardly be noticeable. It is only one point, but it's nothing to write home about.
The only mastery outright removed from the Offense tree was Vampirism. Anyone seeking that 3% Life Steal must now venture into the Utility tree instead. Everything else should be familiar, if jumbled around.
The first tier in Offense now sports the Attack Speed and Cooldown Reduction masteries, instead of Flat AD and AP. This decouples them from the Penetration masteries they were previously prerequisites for. Having them as prerequisites was always slightly awkward as they aren't otherwise tied to one damage type. Moving them to the first tier also makes picking them up easier for those who would dive deep into the other mastery trees.
The AD and AP per Level masteries fill the holes left in the second tier. What I find interesting about this change is how valuable it makes the first nine points of the Offense tree compared to the rest. The difference in offensive power between a carry who goes all the way into Offense versus one who invests in other trees is very, very slight. Also, Demolitionist has been renamed Destruction and now increases damage done to towers by 2.5-5%, though it costs two points instead of one.
The third tier is almost identical, minus the absence of the AD per Level mastery. Interestingly, this encourages players to take Havoc. It's the only mastery in the tier which isn't one point with a prerequisite, and most champions won't be interested in the masteries they've already skipped. While Havoc has been buffed to 2% from 1.5%, it's still a fairly weak mastery. This is part of why going further than nine points into Offense isn't as good as it might first appear.
The fourth tier contains Spellsword, Lethality and the Flat AD and AP masteries that used to be in the first tier. These latter two have been buffed by 50%, but are still fairly weak compared to their per Level peers. Lethality has been increased to two points and is half as effective for ranged ADs, essentially dividing its value per point for them by four. Again, the relatively weak nature of this tier calls into question the value of pushing forward.
The final two tiers are almost identical, save for the presence of Frenzy in the penultimate tier and a slight change to Executioner. Executioner now increases damage by 5% against targets at less than 50% health, versus 6% at less than 40%. This makes the mastery stronger as it is now slightly harder to leap frog the benefit when bursting an opponent. Sunder also benefits from the Penetration changes I discussed yesterday, increasing its potential effectiveness by up to 220%. These tiers are strong, but given all the questionable points that had to be invested to reach them they are, by proxy, also questionable.
Offense may be the weakest of the three trees post-revamp, and that may be slightly intentional. The community has a great deal of inertia when it comes to ideas and changes, and in Season 2 the Offense tree was arguably the strongest by far. Its slight disadvantage in Season 3 may be compensation for its current greatness.
You can follow along using these mastery calculators:
Season 2: http://leaguecraft.com/masteries
Season 3: http://www.finalesfunkeln.com/s3/
There are only two new masteries in the Offense tree, the least of any, but they are interesting nonetheless.
Spellsword is a one point mastery adds 5% of your AP to your auto-attacks. 5% isn't much, but for one point it's a reasonably strong mastery. AP champions who do a lot of auto-attacking, such as Teemo, Diana, Twisted Fate, and Eve, could certainly get some mileage out of it, though most won't.
Frenzy is another one point mastery that grants a 10% Attack Speed buff for two seconds after a crit. Lethality, everyone's favorite Crit Damage mastery, is its prerequisite. It's an interesting concept, but ultimately feels fairly weak. By the time you have enough Crit to reliably proc the buff 10% Attack Speed will hardly be noticeable. It is only one point, but it's nothing to write home about.
The only mastery outright removed from the Offense tree was Vampirism. Anyone seeking that 3% Life Steal must now venture into the Utility tree instead. Everything else should be familiar, if jumbled around.
The first tier in Offense now sports the Attack Speed and Cooldown Reduction masteries, instead of Flat AD and AP. This decouples them from the Penetration masteries they were previously prerequisites for. Having them as prerequisites was always slightly awkward as they aren't otherwise tied to one damage type. Moving them to the first tier also makes picking them up easier for those who would dive deep into the other mastery trees.
The AD and AP per Level masteries fill the holes left in the second tier. What I find interesting about this change is how valuable it makes the first nine points of the Offense tree compared to the rest. The difference in offensive power between a carry who goes all the way into Offense versus one who invests in other trees is very, very slight. Also, Demolitionist has been renamed Destruction and now increases damage done to towers by 2.5-5%, though it costs two points instead of one.
The third tier is almost identical, minus the absence of the AD per Level mastery. Interestingly, this encourages players to take Havoc. It's the only mastery in the tier which isn't one point with a prerequisite, and most champions won't be interested in the masteries they've already skipped. While Havoc has been buffed to 2% from 1.5%, it's still a fairly weak mastery. This is part of why going further than nine points into Offense isn't as good as it might first appear.
The fourth tier contains Spellsword, Lethality and the Flat AD and AP masteries that used to be in the first tier. These latter two have been buffed by 50%, but are still fairly weak compared to their per Level peers. Lethality has been increased to two points and is half as effective for ranged ADs, essentially dividing its value per point for them by four. Again, the relatively weak nature of this tier calls into question the value of pushing forward.
The final two tiers are almost identical, save for the presence of Frenzy in the penultimate tier and a slight change to Executioner. Executioner now increases damage by 5% against targets at less than 50% health, versus 6% at less than 40%. This makes the mastery stronger as it is now slightly harder to leap frog the benefit when bursting an opponent. Sunder also benefits from the Penetration changes I discussed yesterday, increasing its potential effectiveness by up to 220%. These tiers are strong, but given all the questionable points that had to be invested to reach them they are, by proxy, also questionable.
Offense may be the weakest of the three trees post-revamp, and that may be slightly intentional. The community has a great deal of inertia when it comes to ideas and changes, and in Season 2 the Offense tree was arguably the strongest by far. Its slight disadvantage in Season 3 may be compensation for its current greatness.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Season 3: Movement Speed
A heck of a lot is changing in Season 3, so much that it overwhelms even detail-mongers like myself. To help you digest the metaphorical mountain of information I'll be zeroing in on specific topics for analysis and explanation. Today's subject: Movement Speed.
In Season 3 Boots of Speed will only provide 25 Movement Speed, and to compensate all champions' base Movement Speed will be increased by 25. With Boots of Speed being only half as effective, other items will rise in viability. This change also gives junglers a break, as the new jungle severely limits which junglers can safely start boots. If the lanes all still had a 50 Movement Speed boost ganks would have been impossible past Bronze. In many cases picking up boots is going to be an afterthought, something you can put off a few minutes in order to pick up an important early item.
In addition, Season 3 has five "enchants" for boots which can be applied to any Tier 2 boots. They are:
Movement Speed items in general have seen vast reductions in their effectiveness. Phantom Dancer, once the proud bearer of 15% Movement Speed, will only sport 5%. All Movement Speed items will fall between 5% and 8%, save for those with actives/temporary boosts. In short, the days where half the champions on the field sprinted around at 450+ Movement Speed are numbered, and having a % Movement Speed boost should be more effective than before.
Movement Speed masteries are also being shifted and heavily modified. Initiator will be replaced by a mastery which reduces the effectiveness of slows. The 2% Movement Speed mastery in the Utility Tree is moving to the first tier, but only works out of combat. At the very bottom of the Utility Tree is a new mastery which will grant 3% Movement Speed called Nimble, but obviously will require a full investment. It will be very difficult to be both tanky and mobile simply from masteries.
Overall, the champions dependent on %-based items for their speed will be slower when moving from place to place, but everyone else will hardly notice. In-combat effects like Furor will preserve the battle between those who kite and those who are kited. Mobility Boots will still be a way to catch unsuspecting lanes off guard, especially with the addition of Alacrity. As with all things Season 3 the Movement Speed changes are both alien and familiar, and it will take time to adjust.
In Season 3 Boots of Speed will only provide 25 Movement Speed, and to compensate all champions' base Movement Speed will be increased by 25. With Boots of Speed being only half as effective, other items will rise in viability. This change also gives junglers a break, as the new jungle severely limits which junglers can safely start boots. If the lanes all still had a 50 Movement Speed boost ganks would have been impossible past Bronze. In many cases picking up boots is going to be an afterthought, something you can put off a few minutes in order to pick up an important early item.
In addition, Season 3 has five "enchants" for boots which can be applied to any Tier 2 boots. They are:
- Alacrity: +15 Movement Speed (475g)
- Captain: Allied champions running toward you gain 8% bonus movement speed. Nearby minions gain 25% bonus movement speed. (650g)
- Distortion: Decreases cooldown of Ghost, Teleport and Flash by 25%. (475g)
- Furor: Whenever you deal damage with a single target attack or spell, you gain 12% movement speed that decays over 2 seconds. (650g)
- Homeguard: Whenever you are at fountain, you instantly gain full health and mana, and gain a 200% movement speed boost that decays over 8 seconds (4 seconds on Crystal Scar). (475g)
Movement Speed items in general have seen vast reductions in their effectiveness. Phantom Dancer, once the proud bearer of 15% Movement Speed, will only sport 5%. All Movement Speed items will fall between 5% and 8%, save for those with actives/temporary boosts. In short, the days where half the champions on the field sprinted around at 450+ Movement Speed are numbered, and having a % Movement Speed boost should be more effective than before.
Movement Speed masteries are also being shifted and heavily modified. Initiator will be replaced by a mastery which reduces the effectiveness of slows. The 2% Movement Speed mastery in the Utility Tree is moving to the first tier, but only works out of combat. At the very bottom of the Utility Tree is a new mastery which will grant 3% Movement Speed called Nimble, but obviously will require a full investment. It will be very difficult to be both tanky and mobile simply from masteries.
Overall, the champions dependent on %-based items for their speed will be slower when moving from place to place, but everyone else will hardly notice. In-combat effects like Furor will preserve the battle between those who kite and those who are kited. Mobility Boots will still be a way to catch unsuspecting lanes off guard, especially with the addition of Alacrity. As with all things Season 3 the Movement Speed changes are both alien and familiar, and it will take time to adjust.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Update: PBE Madness
For those who are curious I did not, in fact, have any idea the Season 3 changes would be hitting the PBE last night. My oddly timed post regarding how to prepare for the chaos was a coincidence, and my cryptic twitter message was for a secret personal project the details of which will be revealed in due time.
Now that it's all out there, both reignofgaming.net and surrenderat20.net have good round ups of all the crazy stuff that's on the PBE. You can only sign up for a PBE account at the start of the month, so unfortunately those of you who are without one will have to live vicariously through streams, blogs, and YouTube videos (the queue for the PBE is probably as long as the Great Wall of China anyway).
I'll talk about everything in much greater detail as I have the opportunity to test and digest it all, but for now here are my initial impressions:
Now that it's all out there, both reignofgaming.net and surrenderat20.net have good round ups of all the crazy stuff that's on the PBE. You can only sign up for a PBE account at the start of the month, so unfortunately those of you who are without one will have to live vicariously through streams, blogs, and YouTube videos (the queue for the PBE is probably as long as the Great Wall of China anyway).
I'll talk about everything in much greater detail as I have the opportunity to test and digest it all, but for now here are my initial impressions:
- The new jungle is poorly balanced, much in the same way the Season 2 revamp was.
- The new HUD is pretty and clean, but the shop's sounds are unsatisfying.
- Nami is about as "Regal" as Ariel.
- Xypherous wasn't kidding when he said Runaan's Hurricane + Muramasa would drain your mana fast.
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