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