League of Legends - Overview and comments about new patch v1.0.0.110.

(To make things more clear, I have put my comments in green, hope that helps.)

New Skins in the Store

·         Sun Goddess Karma

·         Sakura Karma

·         Lion Dance Kog’Maw

·         Djinn Malzahar

(New skins are always good, just don’t take them away before we want to buy them, eh Riot?)

League of Legends v1.0.0.110
Karma, the Enlightened One

·         Heavenly Wave: Karma sends forth hidden blades from her fans, dealing magic damage to units in a cone in front of her. Mantra Bonus: In addition to dealing damage to enemies, Heavenly Wave will also heal allies in the cone based on a % of their missing life.

·         Spirit Bond: Karma bonds an ally or enemy creating a beam between them. Allied anchors have increased movement speed and enemy anchors have reduced movement speed. Enemy units that come in contact with the beam take magic damage. Karma strengthens the bond to double the effect of the movement speed modifier.

·         Soul Shield: Karma summons a protective shield that absorbs incoming damage. Mantra Bonus: In addition to casting the shield, energy radiates out from the shield dealing damage to enemy units around Karma's target.

·         Mantra: Karma empowers her next ability to do an additional effect. Mantra is available at level 1 and does not require a skill point.

·         Inner Flame (passive): Karma gains increased Ability Power corresponding to her % of missing Health.

(I’ll probably do a separate post about Karma, from first impressions she seems like a great support character.  Although she might have the Sona Syndrome which makes her damage too powerful for a support character, even though she has very powerful support moves.  Sure, she doesn’t have a real ultimate, but most champions have a pretty weak ultimate in general. [I’m looking at you Taric.] )

Akali

·         Twin Disciplines no longer deals bonus damage to towers

(She can’t push towers so hard anymore, though I wasn’t one that was expectant on her back door prowess.  Her job is to kill people, so it is mostly irrelevant.)

Cassiopeia

·         Twin Fang range increased to 700 from 675

(So-So buff, might make her a bit more powerful in the laning phase.)

Ezreal

·         Rising Spell Force now has a particle to indicate the amount of stacks

·         Fixed a tooltip bug that stated Ezreal was gaining 15% per stack instead of 10%

·         Fixed a bug where some of Ezreal's spells were displaying incorrect text on cast

(Bug fixes are always good, but these don’t really matter too much, the particle effect might look cool but it’s probably more for the enemies to watch out for, not for the player playing him.)

Galio

·         Resolute Smite's area of effect size and projectile speed have been increased slightly

(Hmm.. makes his poke more effective.  Just have to see how much this changes the effectiveness of his skill shot combo.)

Gragas

·         Fixed a bug where Barrel Roll was not properly drawing aggro from towers and monsters

(I’m sure no-one will notice this change.)

Jax

·         Fixed a bug where Jax would lose health while leveling in some instances

(Again, I’m sure hard-core Jax fanatics were probably relieved to see this fix, but it’s probably nothing too noticeable.

Katarina

·         Death Lotus

o    Base Damage per dagger increased to 50/65/80 from 40/50/60

o    Ability power ratio reduced to .25 from .3

o    Attack damage ratio reduced to .5 from .55

(This is one of those things that I’ve noted Riot for doing, which is giving a champion and small nerf and buff, but it really does nothing, overall.  Katarina is still a beast in the right hands.)  

Miss Fortune

·         Fixed a bug where Strut sometimes wouldn't show a particle while active

·         Fixed a bug with Bullet Time where it would occasionally scale off of ability power instead of attack damage even though attack damage provided slightly more overall damage

(Ultimately pointless, I’m partial to hating Miss Floozy anyways, so let’s just move on.)

Mordekaiser

·         Fixed a bug with Iron Man where the tooltip said it had 5% decay but was actually 3%

·         Shield generation increased to 25/27.5/30% from 20/25/30%

(Being a Mordekaiser player, I’ve been noting the flux of changes every patch by Riot.  Every single patch they have been shifting Mordekaiser’s Shield generation after a patch that buffed him a while back.  It makes his shield come up a bit faster now, but still it’s nothing to note, except that Riot has been currently constantly unhappy with his shield mechanic.  I think he is still a fine character, but this tweaking may unfortunately lead to Riot doing something drastic.  I hope not.)

Olaf

·         Fixed a bug where Undertow could not deal damage to the same target within 1 second of the previous hit

(This is a sneaky fix but good for Olaf in general.  Skilled players could actually throw the axe, pick it up and throw it again within that one second duration.  If it didn’t actually do damage, then it was a great fix on Riot’s part.  See, I do actually have positivity sometimes!)

Rammus

·         Powerball slow duration reduced to 3 seconds from 4

·         Powerball slow percent reduced to 20/25/30/35/40 from 28/36/44/52/60

(This was a change hinted at on the preview video for this patch, with the designer’s mockery grunts of ‘Ok’. This being Rammus’s only spoken dialog.  Nerfs to the extremely powerful tank Rammus is nice to see but I don’t see how it is much good, except for early, early game jungle Rammus ganks.  The thing that you fear is the exploitable taunt he throws on you; the powerball ability is more of less just a means to get him that close to you.)

Renekton

·         Cull the Meek

o    Cooldown changed to 8 seconds from 12/11/10/9/8

o    Base damage increased to 60/90/120/150/180 from 40/70/100/130/160

o    Attack Damage ratio increased to 0.8 from 0.6

o    Healing reduced to 7.5% from 15% (Fury-enhanced heal unaffected)

o    Champion healing increased to 4x from 3x

·         Ruthless Predator cooldown reduced to 13/12/11/10/9 from 14/13/12/11/10

·         Slice and Dice armor reduction changed to 15/17.5/20/22.5/25% from 10/15/20/25/30

·         General

o    Health per level increased to 87 from 82

o    Base health increased to 513 from 508

o    Armor per level increased to 3.8 from 3.2

o    Base armor increased to 19 from 17.2

·         Fixed a bug where Renekton was gaining bonus attack damage while wounded

(Another talked about change, and pretty needed from what I’ve heard.  Aside from the bug fix which probably didn’t do much anyways, he has gotten a pretty huge buff which is targeting in specific his laning early game, making him more powerful and resilient which translates to a better overall game.  These changes also help his jungling as well, making him heal more and take less damage.  It will be interesting to see where this puts him also other such tough melee champions.

Shaco

·         Fixed a bug where Deceive could be dodged

(This is a bug fix that will change everyone’s perceptions of the power of Shaco.  Actually, I think no one cares.  Next!)

Soraka

·         Astral Blessing

o    Base heal changed to 60/120/180/240/300 from 80/130/180/230/280

o    Ability power ratio reduced to 0.9 from 1

o    Buff duration reduced to 4 from 9

o    Armor buff increased to 20/35/50/65/80 from 15/20/25/30/35

·         Removed Innervating Locket from her tips

(One of these changes I didn’t see coming.  I’ve always seen Soraka in a couple of different lights.  She is generally weak in a team that is a pick up group or players that are new to the game and new to the champion.  However in experienced hands she is said to be extremely powerful – if not overpowered.  I’ve always seen her as an effective laning presence but a very easy gank if not always careful.  Maybe if I played ranked games I might see her in her true light.  Overall, I don’t like the thought of a Soraka nerf, because she is one of the more pure support champions in the game and she is already not played in favor of more ‘powerful’ support champions.  Nerfing her I fear will only increase this trend.

Teemo

·         Move Quick - Ability Rework

o    Passive - Now grants 10/15/20/25/30% increased movement speed until struck by a champion or turret

o    Active - Teemo gains double his passive move speed for 4 seconds. This bonus is not lost on hit

(This is probably the most surprising change I’ve seen in this patch.  This is a direct buff to Teemo, which changes his passive to be a movement speed buff instead of his lame passive to stealth him if not moving for an amount of time and giving him attack speed if you broke the stealth.  If you play Teemo you realize that his passive was once an ability of his now changed into a more useful passive because you always wanted the movement skill on.  [Unless you just disliked the thought of a fast moving Teemo… then I don’t know what to say.]  What this patch note doesn’t tell you however is that they actually switched the passive with the ability.  So now the movement speed is again his passive and the stealth is now his ability.  This will give him the amazing skill to turn on his stealth when he wants it, giving him a very powerful buff to his attack speed when he wants it, letting him set up ganks very effectively and just letting him have a great way to get away from people.  As much as I dislike the tiny critter… it’s nice to see Riot working hard to make champions effective.  I’m looking forward to seeing this change in-game.)


(Okay, apparently I made a huge mistake with this analysis and it needs a revision.  They did not switch these abilities around.  The passive is completely the same still.  The change is that the movement speed ability - Move Quick, now has on activation an effect that doubles the movement speed bonus of the passive effect.  Thanks for the heads up, guys!)

Vladimir

·         Sanguine Pool

o    Slow percentage reduced to 40% from 50%

o    Slow duration reduced to 1 second from 1.5 seconds

·         Tides of Blood health cost reduced to 30/40/50/60/70 from 30/45/60/75/90

·         Fixed a bug where Vladimir would lose health when leveling in some instances

(Oh, great! Lots of changes to Vladimir!  -Reads- Oh, Riot Games.  You trolls.  All this change does is make Vladimir a little less of a chaser, but may actually increase his tanking ability.  If you don’t know who Vladimir is, he can best be described as a tough mage champion.  Unfortunately this also can make him a good tank. [This does not mean that I don’t like tanking options!  I love tanks, but having very little tanks to choose from means that players often turn characters like Vladimir or Malphite into tanks.. Riot, we need more pure tanking champions, now.  Stop making female support and mages!] This is why a lot of people don’t like playing against Vladmir.  Because he has the power of a mage, toughness of a tank, can chase and has lifesteal.  If this wasn’t enough, he has an extremely effective get away move.  –Sigh-)

Items

·         Boots of Speed now shows Ionian Boots of Lucidity as a build option instead of Ninja Tabi

(One short question: Why?)

·         Doran's Shield

o    Cost increased to 475 from 435

o    Armor increased to 9 from 8

o    Health regen per 5 seconds increased to 10 from 8

·         Doran's Blade

o    Cost increased to 475 from 435

o    Damage increased to 9 from 8

·         Doran's Ring

o    Cost increased to 475 from 435

o    Mana regen per 5 seconds increased to 5 from 4

(The Doran items change.  What this means is if you field a Doran’s item, you can’t buy a health potion to go with it.  This will make laning a harder task and means Doran’s will be less bought as a first item in exchange for building straight into items with a health potion.  Hmm…  I always thought Doran’s was a bit too popular as a starting item, so this might make things more different.  It certainly makes people starting the Doran + Health potion combo more vulnerable.  It might make summoner abilities such as heal and teleport more commonplace.  We’ll see.  Also, who is this Doran anyways?  Why did he make so many items for newbie level 1 champions..?)

·         Last Whisper cost increased to 2290 from 2090

(Great.. Last Whisper is nerfed.  I never used the item anyways.)

·         Fixed a bug with Lich Bane where the cost was inadvertently increased and the mana gain lowered

(Huh? I didn’t know anything about this.  Maybe it will make Lich Bane a more used item.)

·         Rabadon's Deathcap cost increased to 3600 from 3400

(This is a needed change, actually.  Deathcap is an extremely powerful mage item and it needs to be something that takes a lot of money to buy.)

Summoner Spells

·         Rally

o    Fixed a bug where Rally provided ability power whether or not you had the mastery

o    Fixed a bug where Rally was granting less ability power and attack damage than it stated

o    Each unit now gains ability power and attack damage based on the caster's level, rather than each individual unit's level

(But this still makes Rally a useless summoner skill.  Perhaps if you decreased the cooldown to useable levels, made the buff surround the actual player but made it a non-stacking buff; for instance, it might be more used.  As of now it’s a forgotten relic of the incredible pushing buff it used to be.  Hell, I think revive is used more than Rally.. Think about that, guys.)

Masteries

·         Strength of Spirit mana to health regeneration converted reduced by about 33% and clarified the tooltip to show that it was regeneration per 5 seconds

·         Meditation mana regeneration reduced by 40%

·         Veteran's Scars health reduced to 12/24/36/48 from 15/30/45/60

(This is the trio of buff-nerfs that has been heatedly talked about on forums and comments.  So I’ll be talking about these one at a time.  First off the masteries change.  Strength of Spirit was a talent that was extremely useful for certain champions but for a lot of people was skipped.  With a large mana pool you can have a very high health regen bonus which was a lot of fun to play around with for characters like Nunu, Singed and Kassadin.  As well as more caster champions like Heimerdinger. 

Meditiation nerf is an attempt to limit the mana regeneration that high level players have – compared to low level ones.  When these bonuses are combined with runes and items, they create extremely high mana regen for characters.  This is Riot’s way of making mana characters more fun for people who are low level or don’t have the masteries and runes.  A lot of people criticized these changes, feeling their hard earned runes and selection of masteries became meaningless.  However, I actually approve of them, sure I feel bad that my mana runes are less useful but they’re still good and players with the talents and runes get about the same about of mana when used.  All this does is make champions that use mana more fun for people that haven’t invested.

Lastly, the nerf to the defensive health masteries… This will hurt true tanks and I don’t have to worry about 850 health Ashes walking around at level one.. We can adjust to this.)

Runes

·         Clarity Runes reduced in effectiveness by about 33%

(I talked about this more on the paragraph above, read that.)

·         Quintessences of Fortitude reduced in effectiveness by about 20%

(I actually have mixed feelings about this nerf.  Being one of the most expensive runes it is hard to see their effectiveness reduced.  However, maybe it was necessary.  They’re probably one of the most used Quintessences and I’ve been wanting to use others but didn’t want to lose the substantial health bonuses.  Maybe this was needed to force me to try something different.  Or maybe it was a tactic to suck more IP from people.. Who knows?)

General

·         Fixed several spells that did not preload properly, causing a delay the first time used in game

(Never noticed this, still more bug fixes are nice.)

·         Adjusted many champions' PVP.net attack, defense, spell, and difficulty ratings

·         Removed many PVP.net tags (like heal, stun, and pet) and made the remaining tags more accurate

(I’m commenting for both of these since they both have the same place in my mind.  I always liked seeing these tooltips to help me when I was first starting the game to understand what champions do in the game, it still helps me in my mind to sort them out.  It’s good to know they’re more accurate now.  Some of them were pretty questionable.  Like Urgot being considered a recommended easy character to learn.)

·         Updated many Champion's recommended item lists

(It’s okay, but I think it would be more effective if it showed you recommended item lists for champions for different builds, sort of like how the champion spotlight item lists are shown with one item list being shown for AP and another for Support and showing how they are the same in sort areas.)

·         All Champions with mana had their base mana regeneration increased by 2.5 mana per 5 seconds and mana regeneration per 5 seconds per level increased by 0.2

(This is the change that makes mana regen better for players without the mana runes and masteries.  Read those if you wanted a more through look at them.)

·         Dragon is now immune to disables

(I never tried to kite dragon anyways, how pointless.  Seriously though, this will affect how some champions such as Fiddlesticks or Xin Zhao will try to solo Baron.  Since dragon is often warded or checked in high level games, you shouldn’t attempt to solo Dragon anyways, always coordinate with your team to kill it.  There isn’t any reason not to.)