League of Legends

[John Doe]

Holy shit. Guardsman Bob > Noxus.

And hell yes to 15% CDR Boots.

Guardsman Bob did NOT care about anyone's shit. 5v1? Yeah, I can take them. He was like that Cho' Gath we lost to.

Also, Mandrop (AP) Pantheon is TOTALLY viable.

[John Doe]

Did anyone notice that Sunfire Cape's passive is now unique? It ruins my Sunfire Eve build!

[Kaden]

That was one of the biggest changes of the patch. Took them long enough.

They also raised the price of a Sunfire.

[John Doe]

I've just spent a lot of time laughing at the stupid comments from the patch notes. But I do wonder, has anyone noticed any significant changes in gameplay? I'd test this myself if I could.

[Belle Hibiki]

Still waitin' on Mundo changes, lawl.

[Tyr]

Reckon they're happy with him. If they buff him, he gets insanely op on Twisted Treeline so it's unlikely. Same reason Jax didn't get any changes for a long while.

[Belle Hibiki]

Well, they've stated they want to make Mundo less dominant on TT and better on SR.

I dunno how they'll do that, exactly, but that's what they've said.

[Kaden]

has anyone noticed any significant changes in gameplay? I'd test this myself if I could.

Played my first Morde game today. It was very sad. His shield just plummets and building it up is significantly harder. Self-casting his AoE damage shield seems to negate the natural decay at ~4 targets, which is sad because it used to provide a significant amount of damage mitigation.

What's really annoying is that he still plays exactly the same, it just feels like you get less for it. I guess that's what they were shooting for. He still pushes just as well.

I'm definitely feeling the nerf to ward duration, though. Junglers got a significant buff with the change to CS tracking, which obviously makes side-lanes more dependent on wards for defense, but wards are a pain in the ass now. It feels like the wards are gone after ten seconds, not three minutes. There were definitely some skills that were hitting wards, too, that shouldn't have been.

I feel like Riot got some of their signals crossed with this patch. While I agree with the overall, longer-term goal of removing passivity from early game play, they're never going to accomplish it with things like the CS change and the ward nerf. If you want people to play more actively, you have to give them the tools to do it. Three minutes is about enough time to farm two waves, pill back to base, purchase, and run back to the lane; since most of that time will be spent away from the lane, it makes the ward nearly useless as a defensive tool. Either you need someone in the lane to keep a full stack of wards on them at all times to make sure they don't get jungle ganked or you need to keep running back and forth from the base to set up new ones. Both hurt their goal of proactive gameplay (spending a minimum of 270 gold for a full stack of wards means players aren't buying their core items, which means they're not going to be active because they feel naked, whereas running back to base every two minutes so you're able to place a new ward is simply not playing the game).

The above sounds like an exaggeration, I know, but it's not. Place a few wards the next game you're in. You'll feel it. Consequentially, Wriggle's not an indirect buff, since its wards weren't nerfed.

EDIT: Mundo's in a good place right now, even on 5s. Waff or Ashe or even shifo can vouch that almost every time I play him I end up just crushing. He's got sick pushing power, a crazy AD steroid, and gets very survivable with only a couple of items. I like to go Merc Treads (when I'm not running my AS runes), Spirit Visage, and Randuin's and that makes me one hell of a tank, even when my ult is down (which it rarely is, thanks to the CDR from two of those items).

[Orion]

I've noticed that Garen can't roflstomp people with no skill anymore, which is welcome. It's still pretty annoying going up a team of tanky dpses, and while they're not necessarily guaranteed a win, they've still got a better than average chance.

[Tyr]

Garen and Mordekaiser is a similar case because they both had incredible damage without building for it and great survivability because they did not need to build for it. After the remake to Mordekaiser, if you want to be doing any damage, you have to build damage. I don't know about Garen, but I'm betting that's what they're trying to go for in general.

[John Doe]

From the look and sound of it, this patch was pretty game-changing.

Speaking of Omen, Kaden, I think that it was nerfed as well. Did you notice the change? And has anyone seen the effects of Locket's removal?

Edit: The ward nerf was the most surprising part of the patch. I thought that they wanted people to actually use the things, then they cut the duration by a third. :\

[Kaden]

Garen and Mordekaiser is a similar case because they both had incredible damage without building for it and great survivability because they did not need to build for it. After the remake to Mordekaiser, if you want to be doing any damage, you have to build damage. I don't know about Garen, but I'm betting that's what they're trying to go for in general.

The nerfs to Morde really only had a significant impact on his early game. With the health costs for his spells and the ridiculous rate that his shield decays at, he's actually pretty squishy. EDIT: Just last night I was completely shut down in-lane by an Ashe while playing Morde. I simply couldn't handle her ability to poke and kite me, and I was specced 9/21/0 and started with a Shield. It was brutal.

From the look and sound of it, this patch was pretty game-changing.

Speaking of Omen, Kaden, I think that it was nerfed as well. Did you notice the change? And has anyone seen the effects of Locket's removal?

Edit: The ward nerf was the most surprising part of the patch. I thought that they wanted people to actually use the things, then they cut the duration by a third. :\

Omen's CDR went from 15% to 8%, a pretty significant change. It's one of those changes that you just know is there more than you feel it. If that makes sense.

I haven't played Udyr, Sona, Soraka, or Gragas since the patch, so I haven't really noticed the removal of Locket. There was someone else I bought it on regularly, but I don't remember who, at the moment.

[Belle Hibiki]

EDIT: Mundo's in a good place right now, even on 5s. Waff or Ashe or even shifo can vouch that almost every time I play him I end up just crushing. He's got sick pushing power, a crazy AD steroid, and gets very survivable with only a couple of items. I like to go Merc Treads (when I'm not running my AS runes), Spirit Visage, and Randuin's and that makes me one hell of a tank, even when my ult is down (which it rarely is, thanks to the CDR from two of those items).

No Stark's? Most people seem to build that on him regardless of role.

[Kaden]

Didn't usually buy it, though I might start with the change to Last Whisper. I tried to just grab a LW and then either IE or Bloodthirster, but I might start going Stark's and then LW.

[Belle Hibiki]

I remember junglers typically starting with Fort elixir + 5x Health Pots. How has the nerf to elixirs affected them, if at all? Are they required to bluepill back any more than usual?

[Ashe]

I remember junglers typically starting with Fort elixir + 5x Health Pots. How has the nerf to elixirs affected them, if at all? Are they required to bluepill back any more than usual?

The only jungler that I would say starting with a red elixir and some health pots was Irellia. The rest always started with a cloth armor and pots so they could build into razor. As for how much it hurt her, we actually discussed it but I'm not sure what the result was. It didn't seem to hinder Kaden as much as we thought it would but he also had Smite instead of Ignite, which most people agree with though I personally think is unnecessary with her. It does, however, greatly speed her up regardless.

[Kaden]

It didn't seem to hinder Kaden as much as we thought it would but he also had Smite instead of Ignite, which most people agree with though I personally think is unnecessary with her. It does, however, greatly speed her up regardless.

I absolutely wouldn't have been able to do it without Smite. Don't forget they've also nerfed Irelia's self-healing since she was released.

The nerfed elixers aren't much different than the Level 1 equivalent of the original elixers, so the champs that were reliant on them to jungle shouldn't really be affected. That said, not many people did. Xin and Irelia could do it pretty easily with a Green (which got nerfed the hardest, btw), but most went Cloth Armor and pots/ward.

[John Doe]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5WmG-LKhwA

[Kaden]

I really liked that video. It's cool of them to come out and tell us what they're trying to accomplish with specific changes.

[John Doe]

Not what I was expecting for my first Solo Ranked game in weeks.

Side Notes: Pantheon was 10/0/1 at 11 minutes. Eve was jungle. Zil was going Bravery and got First Blood.