Announcement: Moving To A More Generalized Gaming Blog

Hello All!

It's been quite a while since I've posted. This is partially due to work/school, and partially due to me playing less and less League of Legends over time. So, I have decided to turn this blog, which formerly was a League of Legends only blog, to a blog about any game that I want to talk about. My focus will remain on game design however, since that is still a topic of great interest to me.

You can expect a couple of Destiny posts coming up soon. I've been thinking about Destiny for quite a while from both a players perspective, and a game designers perspective. These should be fun to write and talk about!

Until Next Time!
-Rikukun

League of Legends Champion Design: Big Moments

Hello everyone, In this article I would like to discuss the importance of champion's kits including the ability for that champion to have what I call a big moment during the game. I would like to note here that I do not think that having a big moment or not has much to do with actual game balance; it is more about game fun.

What is a Big Moment?
Here is what I mean by big moment: A big moment for a champion is when they are able to use one or more of their abilities in a way that provides a large, noticeable, and fun impact on the current situation. To give a few examples, Skarner using his ultimate to drag an enemy champion to their death is a big moment, Malphite Ulting into the middle of several enemy champions, setting them up for your team to land a kill is a big moment, Tryndamere surviving for a long time with his ult, and sticking to targets with his W and E, all while dealing large amount of damage thanks to his Q and passive is a big moment when successful.

The list goes on and on, as most champions in the game do have the ability to have these big moments, and they are often, but not always, tied to their ultimates. However, not all champions have what I would consider a big moment. Take Karma for example. She lacks a real ultimate, and none of her abilities by themselves, even with Mantra empowerment, really push it to the same state of a normal ultimate. The closest thing generally would probably be if she shield/speed boosted her whole team, but that is often not easy to do, and of course even then, it is not the same impact that someone like Janna can have on a fight.

Karma has what I would call multiple Moderate moments, where each of her abilities are fairly strong, but none of them are really game changing, or super strong on their own. She can help others engage and disengage fairly nicely, but she doesn't do the main work herself. She does a lot of moderately satisfying things for her team.



So why am I talking about this? Well, I believe that one oversight that a few champions have had in design, is not being able to have those big moments that so many other champions have, and this leads to low play rates. Look at Karma, she is even getting some competitive play as of late, largely thanks to the season 4 changes I would imagine, but I hardly ever see her in games that I play. Why is this? She is clearly strong and can do a lot for a team, so why is she so unpopular? Well, I think that it has a lot to do with the lack of a big moment.

As I said above, big moments add a lot of fun to playing that champion. It is really fun to ult a whole team as Galio or Amumu or Leona. It is really fun to assassinate someone in a few seconds with Kha'zix or Zed. It is really fun to execute someone with Garen's ultimate crashing down from the sky. It is much less fun to have much smaller indirect impacts in a team fight, that are dependent on others taking advantage of all of the things you do.

What Champions are lacking in Big Moments?
I have talked a lot about Karma here, but there are a few other champions that I feel lack big moments, or their big moments may be a little bit lacking compared to others. Here are a few that I feel lack the really big moments:

• Karma 
• Trundle 
• Udyr 
• Gangplank (perhap arguable) 
• Irelia (largely because of all of the nerfs, making her a jack of all trades, master of none champion) 
• Maokai (kind of on the fence about this between no big moment, or a smaller big moment) 
• Sion (AP) 
• Taric (also on the fence) 

I would also note that some champions have the ability to have big moments, but are really hard to execute in practice because of item build demands, or just simply the current meta. Such champions include:

• Rengar (ignoring his Q bug) 
• Master Yi 
• Fiora  
• Sion (AD) 
• Yorick

Also keep in mind that this if for Summoners Rift, and may not apply to any or all other maps.


Now do keep in mind that I am not saying that any of these champions are not necessarily fun for some or many people, or they are imbalanced. At the moment I actually feel that most of them besides Sion are fairly balanced, and I have enjoyed playing several of these champions myself in the past. However, I can easily see why it is that many of these champions are not very popular, at least on the summoners rift, or are possibly champions that may be fairly popular, but a lot of players hate to have on their team (e.g. Fiora).

Taric is an exception to the popularity, and I wasn't exactly sure where to place him on the list, or if I should place him, as his stun can make for some big moments, and he can possibly be really tanky if he is not the support, and being really tanky can be really fun. However, his stun is really the biggest thing on his kit when he is played in his primary role, and it just seems to me that stunning a single target is often a more moderate moment, as opposed to a big one. I could see an argument against this being made, however.

Conclusion:
Champions should have what I call a big moment added into their kit in order to help them feel fun to their players. While having one is definitely not needed for balance, it adds a lot to making the champion a fun one for League of Legends', or any other Moba's, playerbase enjoy playing the game and that champion in particular. I personally feel that many of the above champions could use some changes to give themselves big moments, although that may be impossible for some, like Karma, who have such a defined identity of not having one. However, champions like Irelia that are the Jack of all trades champions could stand to lose part of their kit, especially any invisible power like her passive, to gain strengths elsewhere to make those big moments happen.

Feel free to discuss any of these suggestions in the comments!
Until Next Time!
"Never fear change."
-Rikukun

Dominion: Bot Lane Positioning: Where To Be and When

Hello Everyone,

This time around I would like to discuss one of the biggest things that you can do to improve your play in the bottom lane; your positioning.

Positioning is one of the most important factors in the bot lane, and can mean the difference between you getting ganked and losing your lane, to setting up ganks for your own team, to putting pressure on the bottom capture point that will force your opponents to alleviate some pressure from the top lane.

Basic Knowledge:

So now I would like to talk about the basic positions you can be in. There are basically six different areas for you to be in. Those are:

1. Middle of the lane.
2. Right or Left side of the lane, not next to the capture points.
3. Next to/below one of the two capture points.
4. On top of your capture point.

There are four main factors that you need to pay attention to in order to know where you should be. (Note that I am assuming you are playing in solo queue, so knowledge and teamwork is more limited than it will be in organized play.) These factors are:

1. How strong you are compared to your opponent.
2. Your opponents positioning/whereabouts.
3. Your teams positioning and where they are heading.
4. How much pressure your team is and has been putting top lane.

So, how do we apply our knowledge of these factors into knowing where to be? Some points are obvious, such as if your opponent is much stronger than you, you should be on or near your capture point if help is not on the way/there. Here are some more of the obvious ones that you probably know.

1. If all enemies are top and your opponent is weaker than you, then you should pressure him and/or the capture point.
2. If you have a gank coming and you feel it can be successful, then you will want to engage on your opponent at an appropriate time, depending on positioning and strengths of the champions involved.
3. If you are stronger than your opponent and they cannot push minions well and enemies are top, then you should kill their minions below their capture point so that they have to constantly deal with minion waves. Note that when you start this, you should push a little slowly at first while bullying the enemy back, so that you can build up a large wave that will be difficult for the enemy to deal with.

These are the basic rules that I feel all players with medium amounts of experience bottom lane probably know well. However, there are also some other positioning strategies that you may not know of, or may not know how to execute well. Allow me to explain these in more detail one at a time.

Advanced Tactics:

If there are enemies that are MIA from the top area, and either they or your lane opponent can engage well, move closer to your capture point, or even to on top of it if those opponents are really dangerous. Even if they cannot engage well, you will likely want to move to at least the middle of the lane if you were past it previously. This is purely a safety measure. The fact that you are strong enough to draw an enemy to the bottom lane is a good thing for your team top, as they should be able to fight a 4v3 which they should win. However, if you die and lose your capture point, then you likely just hurt your team more than you helped.

If you are fairly even in strength with your opponent, and your team has control of top, then most likely the best decision for you is the boring one, just keep the lane equally pushed with your opponent. Don't fight or get too close to their point, as those are risks that you don't need to take. Instead, just sit back and farm and try not to fight. I personally don't like a farm fest being the best solution, but it often is when you are ahead, because you do not want to take any risks to mess things up for your team. 

If your team is having trouble taking the enemy top lane, but they would not have a problem with it if things were 4v3, then you may want to engage on your opponent or start putting pressure on their capture point. You of course have to take into account how strong your opponent is compared to you, and also whether or not you or they have revive off cooldown, and how much risk that adds or removes. Always assess the situation before doing anything risky.

However, if you play champions that are good at pushing lanes and bullying/pressuring opponents, then you will likely be able to put some real pressure on the bottom lane. If you are effective enough, this will cause one of two things. Either you will take the capture point and your opponents will have to deal with it soon after, allowing your team to take top, or they will have to deal with it before you can take it, and your team can take top in the meantime.

If you are in a situation where you cannot put pressure on the enemy team when you need to, you have two main options. The first is to have someone on your team who is fairly mobile come and gank for you, while having the rest of your team defend. If you are able to kill your opponent while at fairly high health while their revive is on cooldown, then your teammate can run back up to help top, while the enemy team will have to send someone else bot to stop you from taking the point. Either you will get bot, or your team will be able to fight 4v3 top and hopefully win this and take top. Perhaps both will happen if you are lucky, but don't count on that. This strategy depends on having high levels of coordination, so don't count on it to always work in solo queue.

The other option in this situation is to call for a lane swap. This is only viable if someone on your team is willing to swap, and either they can do better bot lane, or you can do better top. If these conditions are not met, then there is not much of a point to switching.

If you cannot use either of these scenarios, then your only option is to just hold out as best as you can, farm up every minion you can, and capitalize on every mistake you see your opponent make, however small. If you do this and keep your own mistakes at a minimum, then you may find a chance to pull ahead in your lane, if only for a short time.

What to do After Taking the Enemy Bottom Capture Point:

Next, I would like to talk about what to do when you successfully take the bottom capture point from your opponent. There are basically three options that you have.

• Push towards their mid capture point.
• Stand on/near the point to try and keep the enemy from taking it back.
• Go back to base and buy, likely giving up the point to be retaken by one or more enemies.

Pushing towards the middle point is by far the most dangerous option, and you probably only want to do that when multiple enemies are dead and will be for a little while (Watch death timers!). You should defend the point you took if the enemy team only has one person trying to retake it, or two weak opponents and you are really strong and good at defending. Generally though, I make it a personal rule that as soon as more than one person shows up to retake the point, I leave if I havn't already, usually by recalling. One of the biggest mistakes I used to make, and still see others make is defending points when they really should just abandon it and recall and heal and/or buy.

Speaking of recalling, the best place I have found to recall from the enemies side of the map is the bush next to the capture point health pack. This bush is in the fog of war, and then gives you bush cover on top of that, making it so that it is harder for your opponents to get to you in time to cancel your recall or kill you, but also easy for you to engage upon them if feasible if/when they come snooping for you.

Summary

Figuring out your optimal position in the bottom lane is a process of constantly evaluating your own strengths, the enemies strengths, and the enemies positions. This puts a lot of pressure on the bot laner to constantly pay attention and compute lots of information throughout the game (unless bot just turned into a boring farm fest). However, the bottom laner who is able to use this knowledge better than his opponent will have an edge over them, and if they are smart about it, they can choose correct moves with minimal risk to take every advantage they can over their opponent, slowly leading to a win.

Analyzing Patch Notes 3.10

Another patch has come out, and with it lots of new and interesting changes. I apologize for this post coming so far after the last patch notes, but my personal life has been quite busy as of late. So without further boring introductory blahbityblah, let us begin!

Ashe:
Focus:
Focus stacks per second increased to 4/5/6/7/8 from 3/4/5/6/7
Fixed a bug where Focus was granting stacks while on cooldown in certain situations

So this is really hard to analyze, as I have no idea how often this bug was occurring, and how much free focus Ashe was gaining as a result. I am going to go ahead and call this a neutral change though and assume that Riot's intention was merely to keep Ashe's power the same while making her work properly. Note though that because of Ashe's recent LCS dominance, she could possibly be a little OP at the moment, and may need nerfs in the future. She may be fine, and I really hope that she will stay viable from here on out regardless of nerfs or buffs that she gets.

Elise:
Spiderlings:
Health reduced to 90-260 from 125-550
Armor increased to 30/50/70/90 from 30 (based on Spider Form rank)
Magic Resist increased to 50/70/90/110 from 50 (based on Spider Form rank)
Multi-target damage reduction adjusted to 25% from 10/20/30/40%
Spiderlings no longer continue taking actions before vanishing once Elise shifts into Human Form
Spiderlings now group closer together while moving

Volatile Spiderling:
Movement Speed has been reduced

Rappel:
Elise can no longer descend outside of the indicated area
Fixed a bug where Elise could begin casting spells and attacking as soon as she began her descent while she was still untargetable

Spiderlings will now descend from Rappel slightly after Elise instead of descending at the same time

Nerfs on 3 pieces of Elise's kit here. Let's start with the Spiderlings. They now die much easier, likely throughout most stages of the game because of all of the penetration being built by then, and taking more AoE damage when Elise is level 11 or higher. Pretty good change in my opinion, as to me it usually seems like most minions that champions in League control are either too strong and difficult to kill, or too easy, or both depending on the situation (team first versus 1 on 1). Elise's spiderlings were fairly tanky with that much health and AoE damage reduction late game, and reducing that will make them much easier to deal with, and are a good way to nerf a part of Elise that isn't really one of the fun parts of the kit, so players won't feel as bad.

This leads me to her next ability change, which is reducing the MS on the Volatile Spirderling spell. This spiderling moves really fast, and can outrun a lot of champions, especailly early game. Reducing it's movement speed gives some additional counterplay since it can now be dodged, and also allows the spell to still feel rewarding when it lands since it does not lose damage. Good change in my opinion.

Lastly Rappel got hit with some nerfs. First of all it's range was nerfed to match it's cast range indicator. It seems weird to me that you could cast the spell on enemies outside this range in the first place, so really this seems fine. The bug fix with Elise being able to attack while invulnerable is a good one because it really gave Elise some unfair power with no real counterplay for a brief time. Now she will have to be a little more careful to ensure she get's a kill and not her enemies. Lastly the third change really nerfs Elise's turret diving potential which quite frankly was way too strong with rappel. Now at least she will need to have allied minions around to do what she did before. All around these are some nice changes to Elise that hit her kit in ways that reduced some frustrations of playing against her, which keeping in tact everything that is fun about playing Elise (besides maybe some of the diving power, but that needed to go, and this was a good way to do that).

Karthus
Lay Waste:
Now casts at max range when targeted beyond max range during Death Defied

Defile:
Ability Power ratio reduced to 0.2 from 0.25
Fixed a bug where Cooldown Reduction allowed Defile to be rapidly toggled, increasing its damage output

Lay waste got a pretty good QoL fix that makes casting it a bit more reliable when you are trying to hit near targets on the outside of your defile and may be hovering over them outside of your range out of habit. Nice change for the usability of the spell.

The bug on Defile is actually kinda cool and I didn't even realize you could do this before I read the patch notes. I'm sure this change needed to happen to get rid of Karthus abuse cases, but I imagine it being pretty funny to just mash your E key over and over again until your enemy dies. The AP ratio nerf was likely due to Karthus' power in the LCS, and was a good place to hit him, as Defile is really Karthus' least fun abiility. His Q is spammed and already has counterplay since you can dodge it with good timing and awareness, and of course his ult and passive are his defining features. Hitting his E is a great way to limit his team fight power, which still keeping his kit fun.

Master Yi:

I am currently working on giving Master Yi his own post because of the extensiveness of his rework. I will post a link to it here when it is finished.

Ryze:

Overload:

Cast range reduced to 600 from 650

Rune Prison:

Cast range reduced to 600 from 625

Mana cost reduced to 60/70/80/90/100 from 80/90/100/110/120

Spell Flux:

Cast range reduced to 600 from 675

Desperate Power:

Movement Speed increased to 60/70/80 from 35/45/55

Alright so all of Ryze's ranges were reduced to 600 from 625-675. In return Ryze received a decent mana cost buff to W, and some extra MS on his ultimate active. Even with the compensation, this is still clearly a large nerf to Ryze's power. I honestly did not see Ryze as being that strong, although Riot clearly disagrees, and have much more access to data than I do, and I also have not gotten to watch as much of the LCS as I would have liked to because of time constraints. So, let us assume that Ryze actually was too strong like Riot thinks. Ryze already had some pretty low spell ranges compared to other mages it seemed. Now they are even lower. Although, nerfing a champions weakness instead of it's strength is a good way to help keep the champion fun as long as you don't go too far. One downside to this kind of nerf though is that players will take some time to adjust to it, although players who play a lot of Ryze will likely adapt quickly. Overall, I suppose this was a good way to nerf Ryze for his safety, while keeping his damage potential the same, since that was apparently Riot's goal.

Thresh:

General:

Base Health reduced to 500 from 541

Base Armor reduced to 12 from 18

Damnation:

Souls now always grant 0.75 Armor and Ability Power instead of starting at 1.0 and granting diminishing returns per soul collected

Alright so Thresh got some nerfs here to his early game, which includes the passive change, which is also a late game buff if Thresh continues to gather souls. Really a good change, because Thresh just had too much power in his crowd control in the early game for how safe he could be as a ranged champion. Now at least it will be a little easier to turn things on him if he and his AD carry (and maybe jungler) aren't able to finish you off in his CC combo. He is also easier to punish now while his Q is on cooldown, which is good. Overall, another good way of nerfing a champion in a way that leaves his fun parts fun, while opening up more counterplay and getting rid of some frustrations.

Twisted Fate:

Loaded Dice (Remade):

Upon killing a unit, Twisted Fate rolls his dice, gaining anywhere from 1 to 6 bonus Gold. Naturally, Twisted Fate has a higher chance to receive a larger bonus

Pick a Card:

Now has 8 seconds to lock the card and 4 seconds to throw it instead of 10 seconds to do both

So recently Riot (Morello Specifically) has come out saying that they really dislike invisible power in the game, and global passives are great offenders of invisible power. Sure, you may see a +2 gold pop up every time you kill a minion, but does that really tell you much in the grand scheme of things about how much this is helping you? No, it really does not. That's why the power is invisible. 

Now, I don't necessarily think that invisible power in and of itself is a bad thing. After all, global buffs can be useful and potentially used well in strategies if used properly. For example if there was a team full of champions that exploded with power at level 6 for example, then it might make sense to have a Zilean on that team so that your team would reach 6 before your opponents thanks to his global experience passive, so that your team could take advantage of their level advantage and turn that into some early kills and snowball from there. Things like this allow for some interesting strategies if the passives can be used well.

However, Twisted Fate was and quite possibly still is Overpowered, and he needed to be hit somewhere. By hitting his passive, you have reduced how much he affects his team by quite a bit, even if you can't always tell it (invisible power still). Now Twisted Fate will have a passive that just benefits him, and makes great sense with his kit thematically, besides the whole randomly rolling dice mid combat, which is a little weird. Ignoring that though, it is a nice direction for a Twisted Fate nerf that keeps his passive fun.

I would also like to note that I love the change to pick a card. It really was just kind of crazy that Twisted Fate could just have that ability going for up to 20 seconds. 12 seconds is much more reasonable, and will force Twisted Fate players into using their spells more aggressively, instead of just as threats, which also opens up some better counterplay where you don't have to stay back in fear for 10 seconds because of a gold card above Twisted Fate's head.

Zac:

Elastic Slingshot:

Damage reduced to 80/120/160/200/240 from 80/130/180/230/280

This change does seem a little odd to me, as I never really felt like Zac was a very damagey champion. I suppose though that Riot felt that he did just a little bit too much damage, or perhaps he got too much benefit from leveling his E first, with all of the Utility it provides, along with significantly shorter cooldowns, and large damage increases.

Either way, I don't think this will change how much Zac is picked, because you played Zac to be a strong tank initiator crowd control machine, and he will still do all of this just as well. So, I suppose if Zac needed to be hit somewhere, his damage on an ability is a good place to nerf him.

New Item: Spectre's Cowl:

Recipe: Ruby Crystal + Negatron Cloak + 205 Gold = 1400 total Gold

+200 Health

+45 Magic Resist

UNIQUE Passive: Grants +15 Health Regen per 5 seconds for up to 10 seconds after taking damage from an enemy champion

Spirit Visage:

Recipe Changed: Spectre's Cowl + Kindlegem + 375 Gold = 2625 total Gold, up from 2200

Health increased to 400 from 200

Magic Resist increased to 55 from 45

Now additionally grants +20 Health Regen per 5 seconds

Banshee's Veil:

Recipe Changed: Spectre's Cowl + Ruby Crystal + 875 Gold = 2750 total Gold, up from 2520

Health increased to 450 from 400

Magic Resist increased to 55 from 45

Mana reduced to 0 from 300

Additional UNIQUE Passive: Grants +45 Health Regen per 5 seconds for up to 10 seconds after taking damage from an enemy champion or when the spell shield breaks

Guardian Angel:

Recipe Changed: Negatron Cloak + Chain Vest + 1310 Gold = 2750 total Gold, up from 2600

Magic Resist increased to 40 from 30

Alright so we have finally had some much needed MR item changes. MR itemizaton has been pretty boring since the start of Season 3, largely due to the introduction of Runic Bulwark, and the removal of Force of Nature. It just never felt like there were many good options for a lot of champions to get a lot of the items. Now we have some changes to hopefully give tanky champions some more better personal options for buying MR. Spectre's Cowl is a really interesting and cheap item, that I imagine being great early game against AP Champions in the mid or top lane, especially for tanks who are weak to their harass like Shen. It then builds into two really good options. 

First of all we have Spirit Visage which already was becoming and more and more popular item. Now it is even better, apart from the increase in cost. However, it gained some additional stats which easily make up for it in my opinion. Really this will be a great item on anyone who has built in sustain they want to increase.

Then we also have a remade Banshee's Veil, which now no longer has mana on it, has increase MR and Health, and a stronger version of Spectre's Cowl's unique passive. It also only costs a little more gold overall for all of these additional changes, making it a much better item on most tanky champions now, especially on those that do not use or need mana. I've actually started to wonder lately if having such diversity in resources in a game like League of Legends is good for the game if those kind of stats are affected by items, but that is a topic for another day.

Guardian Angel also got a little bit of a MR boost, though it costs more to even it out. Still a better tank item though, although now it will be even more effective as both a deterrent from attacking a certain enemy, and as protection for that enemy. This change was perhaps unneeded, but we will see.

Aegis of the Legion:

Combine cost reduced to 375 Gold from 625 (total cost reduced to 1900 Gold from 2150)

Health reduced to 200 from 250

No longer grants self-only Magic Resist

UNIQUE Aura - Legion:

     No longer grants Armor

     Magic Resist increased to 20 from 15

     No longer grants additional bonuses to minions

Runic Bulwark:

Removed from the game

Locket of the Iron Solari: 

New build path: Aegis of the Legion + 600 Gold = 2500 Gold

+300 Health

+20 Armor

+10% Cooldown Reduction

UNIQUE Active retained

Now grants UNIQUE Aura - Legion

A really drastic change, but one that I really like as a jungle main. As a jungler, I always felt inclined to get both Locket of the Iron Solari, and Runic Bulwark for my team, unless my support was doing well enough early to get one themself. Many other junglers did this too, and it really turned the jungle role into a secondary tanky support role most of the time, besides a few damage oriented junglers that can work such as Evelynn. This way, instead of being built for your team, you can build maybe one item for them, and then built for yourself. Either becoming more of a strong tank, or opening up some options for more damage, which is something that I feel the jungle role really needs. Overall, I cannot say how much I just love this change because junglers can now just get one item for their team, and focus on building for themself (and warding of course) after that, instead of most of their early and mid game gold going entirely into team auras.

Blade of the Ruined King:

Active Haste/Slow duration reduced to 3 seconds from 4

This item was pretty crazy strong, and nerfing this duration was a good way to hurt it by lowering utility, without hurting it's damage which is where it is really fun. Again another good fix that helps to keep the game fun.

Warden's Mail:

Passive Slow duration reduced to 1 second from 1.5

Cost reduced to 1000 from 1100

Randuin's Omen:

Passive Slow duration reduced to 1 second from 1.5

Cost reduced to 3000 from 3100 (combine cost unchanged)

Frozen Heart:

Cost reduced to 2900 from 3000 (combine cost unchanged)

So these three armor items all had their cost reduced, and Warden's Mail and Randuin's Omen lost a little power to compensate. Perhaps the slow duration was seen as being too strong, or maybe Riot just wanted to make Frozen Heart seem like a more powerful option in comparison to Randuin's Omen as a late game tank item. Either way I guess this accomplishes those goals, although I really doubt anyone will buy Frozen heart now that didn't already. Randuin's is still the obviously better choice (unless you're Ryze and maybe Taric) because it gives both health and armor, and a slowing power, instead of just armor and attack speed slow. Sure, Frozen Heart may also give CDR and Mana, but many tanks were already getting CDR from other items like Spirit Visage and Locket of the Iron Solari, and many don't even use mana, and many that do don't really need more. Health is just too powerful a stat in season 3 still from Frozen Heart to be viable in comparison in the current states of these items in my opinion.

Wraiths

Spawn time increased to 2:05 from 1:55

Wolves

Spawn time increased to 2:05 from 1:55

Giant Wolf

Base experience granted increased to 170 from 153

Golems

Spawn time increased to 2:05 from 1:55

Big Golem

Base experience granted increased to 160 from 137

Ancient Golem

Base experience granted reduced to 260 from 340

Base Health reduced to 1400 from 1500

Lizard Elder

Base experience granted reduced to 260 from 340

Base Health reduced to 1400 from 1500

Young Lizard

Base experience granted increased to 50 from 10

Base Health increased to 400 from 300

So this is actually kind of a funny change to me. For all of League of Legends until recently, small jungle camps have spawned before the large buff camps. Now all of a sudden they went to the same time, then to spawning afterwards! While I can see the reasoning behind this gameplay wise, it feels a little weird and not very elegant as a change to be thematically, as it doesn't make as much sense to me for the large camps to spawn first. 

Another note is the experience shifting to the young lizards, which is a nice change to make early game counter jungling not so devastating, while still keeping it powerful, because in all honesty, taking the buff alone hurts the enemy enough without you needed a level ahead of them as well.

Overall though, this change does satisfy it's goal of getting rid of unfair advantages being caused by laners taking small jungle camps, so that is a good thing for game health and interest.

Baron Nashor:

Voracious Corrosion:

No longer reduces the target's Attack Damage by 50%

Now reduces the physical and magic damage the target deals to Nashor by 50%

Small change to Baron Nashor, but I like it. It makes it a little more fair against everyone who attacks him since he will take less damage from everything that isn't true, and also now it will be slightly less punishing to attempt to take baron since you don't have to worry about not dealing the damage you need to to the enemy team if you are an AD bruiser tanking it or something of the like.

Turrets:

Outer turrets now gain 60 bonus Armor at the start of the game, which starts decaying after 4 minutes have passed and finishes decaying 4 minutes later

Outer turret base Armor increased to 60 from 54

Outer turrets no longer gain Armor over the first 8 minutes of the game

So this change is completely a reaction to the 2 vs 1 lanes that have been so dominant in high level play. I agree that it needed to happen because it forced some rather boring play, since just watching a solo lane get crapped on by a duo lane 90+% of the time until his turret finally fell, and the same thing happening on the other side of the map, really was not all that fun to watch, unless they were able to make some tricky stuff happen.

Not only that, but it also forced another lane into being lacking in CS, and therefore gold, and therefore items, which is much less fun than having more items. This strategy was also the most dominant, and probably the most powerful, which shut out other possible strategies that really could have been useful. Lastly, many champions were kept out of being viable in the LCS simply because they were exceptionally bad at 1v2 lanes as opposed to other champions, and this lone fact kept them from being used in competitive play. This strategy had to be hit somewhere.

I feel that Riot found a pretty good place to hit it. They didn't do anything crazy like nerfing champions early game in 1v2 lanes or buffing the solo laner or anything like that. They took a simple, yet power approach which basically makes it way harder to shove a lane down, while still keeping it possible if you focus it well. Will the 1v2 strategy still exist after this patch hits competitive play? Well, we will just have to wait and see. I think that it is still viable, but perhaps it will be used more as a counter move to your duo lane being countered, as opposed to being something we see in almost every game.

Twisted Treeline and Crystal Scar:

Needlessly Large Rod removed

Deathfire Grasp removed

Liandry's Torment enabled

Seeker's Armguard enabled

RETURNING ITEM: Moonflair Spellblade (Ranged Only):

Recipe: Seeker's Armguard + Negatron Cloak + 420 Gold = 2300 Total Gold

+50 Ability Power

+50 Armor

+50 Magic Resist

UNIQUE Passive - Tenacity: Reduces the duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, silences, blinds, and immobilizes by 35%

Blackfire Torch:

Reworked: Blasting Wand + Fiendish Codex + 720 Gold = 2400 Total Gold

+80 Ability Power

+10% Cooldown Reduction

UNIQUE Active: Deals 20% of target champion's maximum Health in magic damage over 6 seconds and increases all subsequent magic damage taken by the target by 20% (60 second cooldown)

Wooglet's Witchcap:

New Build Path: Seeker's Armguard + Blasting Wand + Amplifying Tome + 1045 Gold = 3500 Total Gold

Armor increased to 45 from 40

So this time around, Riot helped out these two maps by making AP itemization better. First of all, they removed Needlessly Large Rod and it's only upgrade DFG from the game. This was a change that I have been wanting for a really long time. It never felt good to me to have to wait for 1600g, especially in dominion, for an item just because the game is so fast paced and pvp focused that you could fall behind in the short run by a lot which could then cause you to fall behind in the long run. Also since DFG was the only item that still built out of Needlessly Large Rod, it just seemed a little silly to keep it around, especially when NLR is not that great of an item because of it's cost anyways on many champions.

Next we have the addition of Liandry's Torment, and Seeker's Armguard. Seeker's is an item that I felt should have been added to these game modes as soon as it hit the summoner's rift. But of course, Riot takes forever to anything happen for these game modes. Finally though these maps seem to at least be getting a small but steady stream of support, which I truly hope continues.

Liandry's is a toned down version of the former Blackfire Torch, and will probably be much easier to balance in the game without making it cost a crazy amount of gold, as Blackfire Torch was really hard to balance, and ended up just being balanced after several iterations by making it cost a ton of gold, which is not a great way to balance an item, as most players do not want to wait for a long time for that kind of needed power, especially when there are so many other choice available.

Moonflair Spellblade seems a little odd to me, and I don't really see this item being picked up too much, except maybe on tanks with some AP scaling that want to get ninja tabi and need another place to get tenacity. So I could see this on someone like Amumu, but Riot went and made this a ranged only item, so tanks cannot get it. So who can get it? Tanky AP Champions, some of which are melee like Rumble. The problem is that ranged AP mages really don't build much in the way of tankiness, and when they do it is often in the form of health from something like a Rylai's, so I am wondering if Riot is just trying to change that up or what with this item. I don't really see the playerbase changing for this item though, especially when these mages are probably going to be picking up Wooglet's Witchcap too, and they are already getting some armor from that, and you really don't wanna go too armor heavy or you won't have the damage you need. Maybe I will be surprised and something will happen to make resistances great on certain mages, or maybe on some mages like Kennen who need to get in melee range. I suppose time will tell but I am not expecting much from this item as it stands right now.

The new Blackfire Torch is pretty awesome, and something I look forward to getting on any AP assassin or burst mage, especially Evelynn, who is one of my favorites. The item now gives great stats, has a good cost for these modes, and a great active that scales well with Penetration, and makes your AP on spells scale better. Overall a much better toned down version of DFG for this game mode and in general in my opinion.

Lastly, we have Wooglet's finally being built from seeker's armguard, and gaining some additional armor to boot. It should not be even easier to build over time, at least if you build it early on, since the biggest amount you ever have to save up for at a time is 860 for a blasting wand other than the rather fair combine cost of 1045. Overall this item is still rather expensive, but you get a little bit more armor from it, and still a lot of stats, and a great active, making it still a great AP item choice.

That's all for the 3.10 patch notes. See you all again for more posts coming soon(TM)!

Until Next Time!

"Let's go, Let's go"

-Rikukun

Analyzing Patch Notes - Patch 3.9

Hello all. I am starting now a series of posts where I will analyze changes made in the patch notes. Note that I will only talk about the changes that make it to the live servers, and not every change that hits the PBE. Also note that I probably won't comment on any bug fixes unless it was a major bug that really affects things like talon's e not amplifying damage from a while back. Anyways, let's get started!

Brand
Pillar of Flame Mana cost reduced to 70/75/80/85/90 from 70/80/90/100/110
Conflagration Mana cost increased to 70/75/80/85/90 from 60/65/70/75/80
Pyroclasm Mana cost reduced to 100/100/100 from 100/150/200

So brands W and E mana costs were made the same, and Pyroclasm no longer gains a cost as he levels. Overall a small buff to brand, although I feel that this is not nearly enough to really help him out, especially as mana on mages is kind of a joke as a restraint stat right now thanks to tear and even chalice.


Corki
Valkyrie Mana cost reduced to 50 from 100
Missile Barrage Mana cost reduced to 20 from 30/35/40

Corki is also in need of some help, and mana cost reductions are a nice way to do so without buffing his burst damage, which is generally fairly high. Not a bad direction, though some more damage somewhere would be nice.

Draven
League of Draven (New Passive)

When Draven catches a Spinning Axe, or kills a minion or monster, he gains one stack of Adoration. When Draven kills an enemy champion, he consumes half of his Adoration stacks and gains 3 gold per stack consumed. Draven loses half of his Adoration stacks upon death.

Major change to Draven here. It is true that Draven has proven to be a crazy strong AD Carry when played to his full potential (something that I saw coming on his release). He likely did need nerfs somewhere, and nerfing a part of him that really wasn't a part of his main fun aspect was definitely a good way to go. I am not sure if replacing his passive was entirely necessary, even if a nerfed version wasn't the most fun ability in the world (there are much worse ones though, like Sion's passive, ha). However, this new passive does fit Draven's personality and theme really well. I could see the extra gold really being able to put draven over the edge though, although he did lose a lot of damage, so we'll have to see how making it harder to get these kills affects things. Hopefully this passive will not need to be nerfed much, but we'll have to see.

Hecarim
Rampage Mana cost increased to 24/28/32/36/40 from 25

Honestly not sure why this is here. I think Hecarim is likely in a good spot right now, and I feel like all this will do is make him have to back more often because of being oom in the mid game. Maybe that is what Riot was wanting though, who knows.

Jayce
Shock Blast Basic missile speed increased to 1450 from 1350 (Accelerated Shock Blast missile speed remains the same)
Acceleration Gate Cooldown increased to 16 seconds from 14/13/12/11/10

For the first change, a nice way to make normal shock blasts not feel so weak compared to accelerated ones, although I don't feel like Jayce really needed any kind of buff. The cooldown increase will drastically reduce his poke and siege potential, which was one of the major issues I think Riot has with him. On the other hand, Jayce will be getting a large rework soon in the next patch or two, so this was probably just a hotfix meant to keep Jayce in line for a while until that releases.

Kayle
Righteous Fury AoE effect no longer affects towers

Small change likely meant to normalize the ability or something. Not really a big deal, just a slight nerf that no one really paid much attention to.

Kennen
Base Attack Damage at level 1 reduced to 50.5 from 54.6
Mark of the Storm Mark duration reduced to 6 seconds from 8

So some really big nerfs to Kennan. This is likely due to his rise in popularity in the LCS since his ult's energy cost was removed. Oh the cycle of buffs and nerfs. Design wise this was a good way to hurt his early game bully potential, and it will make last hitting a little bit harder. The passive nerf probably won't affect late game team fights too much. Not bad changes overall, though I have to wonder if they were a bit too hard of nerfs.

Leblanc

Not listing all of her changes here for sake of space, look them up on the forums if you like. I will note one major change though, which is her ult.

Mimic 

Mana cost reduced to 0 from 100/50/0

All mimicked abilities now deal their own base damage instead of amplifying the base spell's damage

Now Leblanc can use whatever mimic'd ability she wants at any stage of the game without feeling bad for doing so because of it's low rank. I really like this change. For her Q's change, making the damage be split even between the initial damage and the mark adds in some counterplay if you dodge the next spell(s), and some reward to playing well as Leblanc, both of which are nice things. The cooldown starting instantly on W is really nice, and will make her much more mobile late game, which is one of the things that helps Leblanc be powerful (which she is not late game). Chains rooting sooner is definitely also nice throughout the whole game as it is now a much more reliable utility spell instead of so often just being an extra piece of burst.

Nunu

Health per level reduced to 96 from 108

Consume Damage reduced to 500/625/750/875/1000 from 600/700/800/900/1000

Consume damage nerf makes it less powerful compared to smite, which gave Nunu possible jungle steal abuse cases. This and the health per level nerfs were both in response to nunu being a must ban or pick in the LCS since his recent buffs. Once again, cycle of buffs and nerfs. Good nerfs here imo though, since it nerfs his jungle power without hurting his support power very much.

Shyvana

Fury of the Dragonborn - Remade. All Fury of the Dragonborn effects have been moved to their respective abilities.

Dragonborn - Gains 5/10/15/20 Armor and Magic Resist. These bonuses are doubled in Dragon Form.

Flame Breath

No longer reduces Armor by 15%

Now passes through all units hit instead of stopping at the first

Debuff duration increased to 5 seconds from 4

Damage reduced to 80/115/150/185/220 from 80/125/170/215/260

On-hit magic damage to debuffed targets changed to 2% of the target's maximum Health from 15% of Flame Breath's damage (12/18.75/25.5/32.25/39 + 0.09 Ability Power).

Dragon's Descent

Passive Armor/Magic Resistance component removed

Passive Fury Gain increased to 1/2/3 per 1.5 seconds from 1/1/1

Fury decay while in Dragon Form reduced to 5 per second from 6 per second

So some components of her kit were moved around. Her E got some nice buffs in usability though she lost the (rather unnecessary) armor reduction, and her Dragon form was buffed for mid and late game and in team fights. Passive change does buff her early game jungle for sure. Overall I think these are some nice changes to make Shyvana stronger throughout the game, from level 1 through 18. It'll be interesting to see if these changes can bring Shyvana back in season 3.

Ziggs

Satchel Charge

Can now be reactivated while in flight, causing the Satchel Charge to detonate on landing

Missile speed increased to 1750 from 1600

Increased knockback distance to 400 from 350

Cooldown now starts when Satchel Charge is cast, not when it detonates

Nice buffs to his E's usability and impact. Nice way to buff a burst mage without giving them too much damage. I hope to see some of the other burst mages get some more help as well.

The following abilities no longer count as a spellcast for the sake of items like Tear of the Goddess, Sheen, etc.

Elise's Spider Form / Human Form

Nidalee's Aspect of the Cougar

Jayce's Transform: Mercury Hammer / Mercury Cannon

These champions were too easily able to stack tear, so a really good change for balancing the mid game for these champions. Not sure about the sheen, although in generally you cast another spell right after changing, so not a big deal really.

The following abilities have had their hit delay normalized:

Brand's Pillar of Flame hit delay normalized to 0.625 secondsLeona's Solar Flare hit delay normalized to 0.625 seconds

Swain's Nevermove hit delay normalized to 0.875 seconds

Veigar's Dark Matter hit delay normalized to 1.25 seconds

Consistency is nice, and I am really not sure why this wasn't done in the first place. Either way, nice that things are normalized now.

Wards

Vision and Sight Ward are now worth 30 gold, up from 25

Wriggle's Lantern Ward is now worth 20 gold, up from 15

The reward structure for killing wards has been changed to the following:

The killer of the ward gains 50% of the ward's base gold value

Nearby allied champions with Oracle's Elixir, or allied champions that placed Vision Wards nearby, split 50% of the ward's base gold value

Gold rewards buffed for killing wards. Good change especially after oracles was nerfed in S3. As for the person responsible for the ward being killed getting some of the reward, this is nice for supports and how gold starved they are. This will help at least a little bit in helping them do their job.

Oracle's Elixir

No longer expires on death

Duration reduced to 4 minutes from 5

Invisibility detection radius reduced to 600 from 750

Now displays the radius of the detection effect to the buffed player

Oracle's Extract

Invisibility detection radius reduced to 600 from 750

Now displays the radius of the detection effect to the buffed player

Overall I would say nerfs to Elixir. Sure not going away on death is nice, but it removes part of the risk reward aspect of the item. Now it doesn't have the dying risk, but you do run the risk of not finding enough wards to kill to make the item worth it in 4 minutes. And then you also lose 150 radius on top of that, make finding wards a big harder and possibly more dangerous while alone. I don't really like this change. As for Extract, I don't this is a big deal for dominion considering all of the tight corners. As for other maps, again, I don't think it's a big deal.

Tear of the Goddess

UNIQUE Passive - Mana Charge

Cooldown per charge increased to 4 seconds from 3

Updated the tooltip to clarify its actual functionality

Manamune

UNIQUE Passive - Mana Charge

Cooldown per charge increased to 4 seconds from 3

Updated the tooltip to clarify its actual functionality

Archangel's Staff

UNIQUE Passive - Mana Charge

Mana gained increased to 8 from 6

Cooldown per charge increased to 4 seconds from 3

Updated the tooltip to clarify its actual functionality

Good change to make some champions spike in power a little later in the game than they were if that was what Riot was going for. I think Riot's comments on this in the patch notes is all that really needs to be said.

Maw of Malmortius

Attack Damage increased to 60 from 55

Magic Resist increased to 40 from 36

Passive now grants 1 Attack Damage for every 2% of missing Health, up from 2.5%

Passive now capped at 35 Attack Damage, down from 40

Nice buffs to Maw's usability. It definitely needs some help, so I am glad it is getting some buffs and quality of life changes. This should make it a much better item than it is now, instead of just an item that you get when you have nothing else to do but upgrade your hexdrinker.

Death Streak gold values have been reworked to be in line with pre-Season 3 values.

Examples:

A player killed three times in a row without resetting is now worth 220 gold (previously 182 gold)

A player killed six times in a row without resetting is now worth 112 gold (previously 62 gold)

Minimum kill value of a champion increased to 50 gold (previously 15 gold)

This is most likely a nerf to proxy singed. He needed to be nerfed and this was a good way to do it. I do however have to worry about this making feeding a little stronger, although the tribunal has removed many of the feeders from our game.

Twisted Treeline

Singed

Armor per level reduced to 2 from 3.5 on Twisted Treeline

Insanity Potion cooldown increased to 120 seconds from 100 on Twisted Treeline

Crystal Scar

Kassadin

Riftwalk cooldown increased to 9/8/7 seconds from 7/6/5 on Crystal Scar

Riftwalk range reduced to 600 from 700 on Crystal Scar

As I wrote in my post Map Specific Balance, A necessary Evil these are much needed nerfs to arguably the two most OP champions on each of these maps. It is really nice to see these nerfs go out, and I cannot wait to see what else we do for map specific balance.

Howling Abyss

Added new item: Orb of Winter

Recipe: Rejuvenation Bead + Rejuvenation Bead + Negatron Cloak

Total Gold Cost: 2080 (combine cost: 1180)

+70 Magic Resist

+20 Health Regen per 5 seconds

Unique Passive: Grants a shield that absorbs damage. The shield will refresh after a short period without taking damage.

Really strong new item to help deal with poke teams. It is also a really great mr item in general. Great addition to the howling abyss overall.

That is all for these patch notes!

Until Next Time!

"Ready to set the world on fire?"

-Rikukun

Designing My Own Champion: Batman!

Hello everyone,

Recently, I asked some friends to suggest some character archetypes that they felt that League of Legends was missing, and I would pick one or more and try to make a balanceable champion kit that fit cohesively with that archetype. Several types were suggested, but the one that I have chose for now is Batman. How I see batman is a sneaky, agile, melee fighter who also uses gadgets. So without further ado, here is a proposed kit for League of Legends version of Batman!

Batman uses energy as a resource

Passive - Detective's Senses: Batman gains heightened senses of his surroundings when he concentrates. If he stands still, takes no damage, and casts no abilities for at least x seconds, the area in a y unit radius around him is revealed. This includes units hidden in brush, fog of war, and stealthed units. This does not reveal wards.

The x seconds will likely be a small number; I imagine 2-3 seconds at the moment. The radius will likely be around the same width as Evelynns passives. This ability allows batman to have a little delayed security check around him, at the cost of doing nothing else. Forcing Batman to move, or damaging him will disrupt this ability, allowing for counterplay.

Q - Batarang: Active: Batman throws out a batarang at a target, dealing x (+y% bonus ad) physical dAmage to the target. The batarang will then return to where it was thrown from. If batman is able to catch the batarang, the cooldown of the spell is reduced by z seconds and Batman restores 10 energy.



Batarangs will not deal too much damage, especially since if you catch them it makes them a bit spammable. This also adds in counterplay as you can know exactly where Batman will be heading or staying if he wants to catch the batarang, so you can head for or attack that area to either punish him for catching the batarang, or force him to not catch it.

W - Ninja's Senses: Passive: Batman gains bonus % attack damage while this spell is off cooldown. 

Active: For 2 seconds, Batman is able to read the moves of his opponents. He dodges every basic attack and targetted spell used against him. During this time, Batman must focus too hard to be able to attack anyone else, and his movement speed is reduced by Z. However, if he dodges a melee basic attack, Batman is able to return x (+y bonus ad) physical damage to the attacker. Catching a Batarang reduces this spells cooldown by 1 second (.5 seconds if the batarang was cast while Gliding).

Batman can still be hit by AoE spells. He can also be more easily outran because he slows himself down. Melee champions especially will want to avoid attacking him during this spell's duration. You also have the cost of losing the passive if you activate it, making the Batman player have to consider the costs to make sure the ability is used at the right time.

E - Grappling pull: Active: Batman fires his grappling pull at target location. If a target champion or monster is hit, the spell stops moving and that target becomes snared for x seconds. This cannot hit minions. If a target it snared, Batman may cast this ability a second time to pull himself towards the target. When Batman reaches the target, he kicks them dealing y (+z% bonus AD) physical damage and knocking them back slightly (Batman follows with this knockback) and stunning them briefly. Batman also restores energy upon kicking his target.

This is Batman's gap closer and crowd control ability. It is a fairly thin skill shot, so if you dodge it, then you hurt batman a lot. Landing it however can have great rewards.

R - Gliding Strike: Active: Batman jumps up high into the air and uses his cape to glide down slowly towards the target location he jumped from. While Batman is in the air, he may cast his Batarangs for not energy cost, and they will always return to him. Upon returning, they will fully reset their cooldown. Batarangs have double their normal range while this ability is active. Batman is untargetable while he is in the air, and cannot be damaged by any ability.

Batman may recast this ability to quickly glide down towards target location. Any enemy in a small area around where Batman lands will be knocked up for a short duration, and take x (+y% bonus AD) damage. If batman does not recast this ability, he will return to the ground from where he jumped after z seconds, dealing the same damage and knockback to any enemies hit.

So this ultimate serves as Batmans get out of a fight and harass from afar ability, as well as providing high damage and crowd control if used aggressively. Also keep in mind that his batarangs are not too strong of an ability, so especially in late game team fights they will unlikely be overpowered. For counterplay, you may run out of the area where you can be harassed, and there will be a marker on the ground where batman will land, allowing you to step away, but you will have to do it quickly (think brands W quick).

Thematically Sound: I feel that this kit is pretty sound thematically. You have your slippery gadget using melee fighter.

Balanceability: Batman relies on his auto attacks to deal a lot of his damage, as batarangs do not hit for much. This forces Batman into a similar position as my last designed champion, Kirito. However, I feel that with his high amount of CC and ability to avoid lots of damage during his W, Batman will be able to deal plenty of damage with proper use and timings. Batman is also able to overcome potential squishiness for damaging builds thanks to his W and R abilities, which will hopefully buy him enough time in team fights to be able to survive most of the damage left after he glides back down.

I explained counterplay options in my ability notes.

Until Next Time!
"You'll hunt me. You'll condemn me. Set the dogs on me. Because that's what needs to happen."
-Rikukun

Underused Items: Shard of True Ice/Mana Manipulator

Hello all!

In this edition of Underused Items, I would like to talk about Shard of True, and it's component, Mana Manipulator.

So let's start with Mana Manipulator, and start with it's stats.

Unique Aura - Mana Warp: Nearby allied champions gain +5 mana regeneration per 5 seconds. (1100 range)
Item cost 300g (120g)
5 mana regeneration = 300g
                    total potential gold efficiency = 1500g

If you just look at gold efficiency, then you would notice that this is probably the most gold efficient item in all of League of Legends. So, why is it then that this is such an unpopular item?

Well, first of all this is clearly a support item, and mana regeneration is definitely an early game stat to build. So this item would be built for the early game. So it's actual gold efficiency if bought early is 600g (300 for the support and 300 for the adc). Well, 600 gold efficiency is definitely not bad, but how much do you really need this mana? Sure, some supports can be a little mana hungry early game, so that's good for you, but ad carries who play properly generally do not run out of mana, or by the time they do, it's time for them to return to base anyways.

So the first problem is that you really aren't getting what you need to get out of these stats as it stands anyways. Then of course there is the other problem that this item shares with some of the other items I have talked about. There is an opportunity cost for buying this item. If you buy it, then you are not buying wards, or you are not putting gold towards another support item. Are the benefits from this item really worth it to delay or not get some additional gold income, some cooldown reduction, or a different aura or buff for your team? Most players say no, it is not. So, this item is rarely bought.

How to fix it? Well, I really don't think a support is going to pay much for that little mana regen unless something else comes with it. The only way I could see to make this item better is to make it cost more, build out of maybe two faerie charms again, and add on something like a gold/10 passive, or some other useful effect. However, I am not convinced that this would be healthy or even then useful in the game. All in all, I am not sure that this item should exist in League of Legends, as it seems to me to be more of a noob trap than anything.


Now let's move on to what I really wanted to talk about, Shard of True Ice! Again we start with the stats.

+45 ability power
Unique Aura: Mana Warp - Nearby allied champions gain 5 mana regen per 5 seconds.
Unique Passive: Lucky Shadow - Gain an additional 4 gold every 10 seconds.
Unique Active: Surrounds an ally with a blizzard for 4 seconds that slows nearby enemy movement speed by 30%. 60 second cooldown.
Shard of True Ice is gold efficient with two ally champions nearby.
Alternatively, the active must have at least a value of 321g for  Shard of True Ice to be gold efficient.
Alternatively, the item must be held for 803 seconds (13 minutes and 4 seconds), including time spent holding it's predecessor  Kage's Lucky Pick, for its passive to make  Shard of True Ice gold efficient.

Gold efficiency wise, this item is really easy to make gold efficient. It even has a pretty nice active on it to boot. So why is it that this item is rarely bought? After all, Kage's lucky pick is an item bought in nearly every game on summoner's rift, and this is the one item in the game that allows you to actually keep your gold/10 bonus!

Well, first of all as mentioned above, mana manipulator is not good, and so a large part of this item is by default made not good because of that. Second of all, this item is missing stats that supports generally want, such as cooldown reduction, and defensive stats/auras. So again, the big problem is that the item has too large of an opportunity cost.

Why get Shard of True Ice when I can get a Shurelia's Reverie that gives me HP, CDR, and a really nice active that benefits my whole team? Not to mention that Kindlegem is a much better item to build along the way than mana manipulator is. Also keep in mind that this is just one possible scenario. Instead of Shurelias, maybe your team needs a locket, or maybe you need a lot more wards, or perhaps what you need is an oracles elixir to always be up to help with map control. Whichever thing it is that you need, it is keeping you from buying shard of true ice.

One last problem that I have noticed is that this item's active is best cast on a front line tank or bruiser or maybe a fighter, but as a support your job is to protect the AD carry, so you are kind of supporting the wrong person. Again, another opportunity cost, though perhaps in the right team composition a worthwhile cost.

Unlike mana manipulator, I think that there is some real hope for this item. It would require reworking a few stats, but I think that it could become a good item, at least it the right niche. So what has to be done? Well first of all I think we need to get rid of Mana Manipulator building into it, and get rid of the whole mana aura stat. Next, we need to add in a stat that people would want. There are a few potential ways we could go here. The simplest is to just add in a kindlegem and make Shard have health and cdr as stats. Considering if you are buying this item, someone else on your team probably has an aegis already and you don't want to conflict with that aura, this is probably the best way to go. It eliminates one of the opportunity costs completely, which is what I believe is hurting this item so much.

Now, in addition to this change, the total cost of the item will of course have to go up, but you can now build the much more useful kindlegem along the way as well, which any support would appreciate. Now the issue is identifying when this item is useful to you. Well, it depends on your team composition a lot, but it will work best when you have front line champions that really need to stick onto their targets. Tryndamere is a good example; another is Udyr. Then you use the active on that champion, and bam they can stick to targets much easier for a few seconds, and hopefully slow down some assailants charging at your adc along the way. Keep in mind though that there is still the opportunity cost of gaining a different items passive/active/aura, or map control in order to get this item, so it would still only need to be bought when in the right situation.

So in conclusion, I don't see much hope for mana manipulator being more than a noob trap, but I do see hope for Shard of True Ice if it replaces mana manipulator from it's recipie.

Until Next Time!
"Flesh freezes so easily."
-Rikukun