League of Legends - Overview and comments about new patch v1.0.0.112

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

New Skins in the Store

• Commando Jarvan

• Dragon Slayer Jarvan

• Hextech Anivia

• Loch Ness Cho’Gath

(I think all of these skins look pretty cool, though I don't like the Commando Jarvan skin.  While it does fit into the commando theme going on with Xin Zhao, Garen and Galio.. I feel the skin could have been made better, I dunno.  But, loving that Cho'gath skin, very cool stuff.)

(I decided to streamline things a bit and actually show what the skins look like.)

PVP.net v1.30.17

• The Login Queue will now update your position more regularly
• The Login Queue will no longer lock the focus of the application
• You can now disable the Music at the main login page
• Clickable URLs can now be sent via player to player chat
• Updated the splash art for Twitch, Evelynn, Katarina, and Annie

(Muting that music is good, too loud sometimes, not sure what the login fixes are about, so we probably won't notice it.  The main focus here is the splash art changes which change the artwork for those champions which have been there since the development of this game.  These are important because you look at these not only in the profile menu, but during load screens and in the game as well.  

This was first done [As I can recall] to Ashe because her artwork didn't really match what she looked like all that well and she was an old character.  Now these new artwork pictures are not needed because they actually looked like champion and I was skeptical at first at how they looked in the thumbnail.  But, after looking at them all the way, I really like them. They're very well made, although not in the league of legends style but in a more realistic manner.  On one hand, they don't match the cartoony style of League of Legends, but on the other hand it's better made artwork and matches the art style that the new champions have been using.  In particular, twitch's new artwork reminds me a lot of the artwork done for Warhammer Fantasy's Skaven, which Twitch is probably a direct reference to.  If only they would change more old characters artwork, maybe even skin updates because some champions are looking very outdated compared to newer ones.  Look at the animation in Jarvan's dance.  Now play Alistar and /dance or even Cho'gath for that matter.  ...Yeah.

(Ugh.. just... don't worry Alistar, you'll be upgraded soon!)

I really like it though and if you don't then just get over it... seriously though, the classic style is still obtained by buying the cheap palette swapped skins from the store, which those four characters have.  So, Riot did a good job of changing things but keeping old stuff for more choices, although it would have been nice to let players choose which artwork they wanted to see when playing.  But, overall I'm satisfied.)

• Fixed several bugs with the Login Queue
• Fixed a bug where your IP/RP balance would display incorrectly as 0
• Fixed a bug where Summoners would display as Level 1 before displaying their correct Level and Rating
• Fixed a bug where the display style for the Buddy List was overly dark
• Fixed a bug where the Recently Purchased section of the Profile was working incorrectly

(Bug fixes always nice, not noticeable however.)

League of Legends v1.0.0.112

Jarvan, the Exemplar of Demacia

• Dragon Strike: Jarvan IV charges through his opponent, dealing physical damage and lowering their armor by a %. This will pull Jarvan IV to a Standard if it encounters one, knocking up all enemies in his path.
• Golden Aegis: Jarvan IV calls upon the ancient kings of Demacia to shield him from harm and slow surrounding enemies. Triggers automatically if damage would reduce Jarvan below 300 Health if it is not on cooldown.
• Demacian Standard: Passively grants Jarvan bonus attack speed and armor. Active: Throws a Demacian flag, dealing physical damage and granting passive benefits to nearby allies.
• Cataclysm (Ultimate): Jarvan IV heroically leaps at his target, dealing physical damage and creating a circle of terrain around them for a few seconds.
• Martial Cadence (Passive): Jarvan IV exploits his target's opening, dealing 8% of the target's current HP as magic damage. This effect cannot occur on the same target for 6 seconds.

(This is the next champion that was previewed in the gaming magazine - the name I can't recall at the moment.  After viewing his spotlight I think he's okay.  I was worried that he would be a simple clone of Xin Zhao or Garen, but he does a good job of feeling like them, while not being completely the same.  He's another 4800 IP champion like Trundle and I can see him being played a lot and his style meshes very well with other aoe ulter's like such as:  Fiddlesticks, Galio, Xin Zhao, Maokai and so on forth.  I can also see Nunu being a good counter to him, just flashing in and using your ult every time you see his Cataclysm ultimate hit.  We'll have to see.)

Anivia

• Glacial Storm initial mana cost decreased to 75/125/175 from 100/150/200

(This is a direct change again to the skill after nerfing its mana cost in the previous patch.  Still not as low as it was before, but the increase is more considerate now.)

Caitlyn

• Ace in the Hole
• Projectile speed increased to 3200 from 2200
• Range increased to 1600/1900/2200 from 1400/1800/2200
• Initial cast time leading up to the channeling time has been significantly decreased

(This is a good buff for Caitlyn's ultimate ability, it will make it much harder to stop and will affect it's usefulness in the early to mid game.  I'm dreading this a little now if I see Caitlyn mid-ing against me...)

Ezreal

• Trueshot Barrage now scales with bonus attack damge at a 1.0 ratio

(Small change to Ezreal to make his ult more valuable for AD Ezreals out there.. but it still doesn't affect his overall usefulness much and I see him less played now a days instead of more traditional carries and mages.  Which is odd because he used to be very popular and I don't thing he is very underpowered now... he's just not as blatantly overpowered anymore.  Same reason you don't see that many Shaco or Teemo players anymore.  At least for 5v5.)

Garen

• Decisive Strike
  • Movement speed boost increased to 3 seconds from 2
  • Total duration available to proc the silence and hit reduced to 6 seconds from 7
  • Bonus damage ratio increased to 150% from 120%
• Judgment cooldown reduced to 14/13/12/11/10 from 15/14/13/12/11 seconds

(A change to Garen, no doubt because of the arrival of Jar van thy one fourth. [I really don't like that name...] Anyways, Garen was a champion that was complained about because of being overpowered and was nerfed as a result and it's not really justified, just look at other champions such as Mordekaiser.  Then one of his more fun builds - Sunfire stacking was removed.  Now guess what happened? No one ever plays him anymore.  Hopefully, this will bring him in line with other tanky melee champions and we'll see him more in the fields of justice.  I'll be trying him out again, I hope you do as well.)

Janna

• Monsoon no longer slows enemies who re-enter the storm

(It isn't like her ultimate was that powerful anyways and this will make it that much easier for melee to jump in and eat up Janna.  Nothing too special as it's only used anyways for the knock-back or to heal up teams before or after a fight, not during it.)

Karma

• Heavenly Wave base heal increased to 35/55/75/95/115/135 from 30/45/60/75/90/105
• Spirit Bond cooldown reduced to 15/14/13/12/11/10 from 20/18/16/14/12/10.
• Soul Shield Increased the shield strength by 10 at all ranks.
• Mantra cooldown reduced to 25 seconds from 30 seconds.

(I didn't feel like Karma was very underpowered, even though she was a bit squishy and her cool downs felt pretty high.  I wonder if this will push her into overpowered status, compared to champions like Sona and Soraka.)

LeBlanc

• Ethereal Chains ability power ratio increased to 0.5 from 0.4 for both damage components

(...Eh.  But if you think about it, it's a 25 percent increase in ratio! Sorta.)

Maokai

• Twisted Advance levelup tooltip now correctly displays the increase in mana cost
• Fixed a bug where Maokai's death animation would not play if he is slain during Twisted Advance

(Why can't Riot make a champion that is absolutely perfect on launch? Why, why, WHY?! Well because it's almost impossible for one.  People just complain too much most of the time, including myself.  At least they bother finding and fixing their mistakes and usually, they usually don't cause more bugs which is pretty rare I find, Riot has some pretty good programmers.)

Mordekaiser

• Mace of Spades ability power ratio increased to 0.4 from 0.2

(Makes magic pen morde more useful, clearly the direction he is mean't to be played and trust me guys who like AD morde, I was a fan too after trying it out after his skill revamps.)

Singed

• Fixed a bug that was causing Poison Trail to have a 1 second cooldown upon activation

(Bleh, Singed.  Should make him just a tiny bit more player friendly, oh joy.)

Sivir

• Fixed a bug with Boomerang Blade that was causing certain items to not show their bonus attack damage in the tooltip

(Who notices these small details, anyways?)

Urgot

• Fixed a bug with Acid Hunter that was causing missile lock to shoot further then intended

(This was a change talked about in the preview patch notes video.  Some people were abusing the insane range on this skill to absolutely harass early game and I've seen it in action when a skilled Urgot can lock you down in mid and continue hitting you at your tower and the skill out-ranges the tower radius, it was pretty bad.  A good fix on Riot's part, but now why played Urgot? He still needs a more defined role.  Well, at least they didn't remove him...)

Veigar

• Primordial Burst ability power ratio increased to 1.2 of Veigar's ability power and reduced to 0.8 of his target's ability power

(Wow, but from what values exactly? Fail Riot.  Well, after looking it up... this scholarly man found that it was increased by .2 ratio and the target's ability power was reduced to .2.  So now, his ult does a bit more to targets that don't have AP.  This is one of those things that make characters like Shen so good, because they're not effected by abilities that take away things like that, like mana, unless specifically told so.  So you get a character that is sometimes unbalanced when it comes to certain skills or items.  That needs to be carefully thought out when making them.)

Zilean

• Fixed a bug where the particle on Time Warp would not persist through the full duration of the movement speed modifier at later ranks

(Let's do the time warp, again~! But now you can see it all the way through.)

Items

• Fixed a tooltip bug where Haunting Guise said it provided 180 Health and 20 Ability Power, when it actually provided 200 Health and 25 Ability Power

(Nothing too noticeable.)

• Morello's Evil Tome cooldown reduction increased to 20% from 15%

(Apparently Riot saw the problem with this, in that they made an item with lots of cooldown after just nerfing a lot of cooldown items last patch.  But does this make the item too useless in the face of Deathfire Grasp?)

• Sight and Vision Wards can now be stacked 5 per slot

(But you still can't use them when you have all your slots filled.  Meh.)

• Tiamat
• Attack damage increased to 50 from 42
• Mana regeneration per 5 seconds increased to 5 from 4
• Shop tooltip is now more descriptive, matching the inventory tooltip

(But Tiamat is still a very maybe item in the face of other item choices.  Good to see them not forgetting about it though.)

• Spirit Visage increased healing and regeneration effects reduced to 15% from 20%

(This is a direct nerf to teams that have been using it in order to boast healing champions through the roof as well as a big nerf to champions like Mundo or Vlad.  I've seen this item too much from Nidalees to Mordekaisers using it to power their shields and for good reason.  It's one of the best gold per value items up there with Wriggle's Lantern or Quicksilver sash.  This may bring it in line with other items.)

Summoner Spells

• Ghost duration decreased to 10 from 14

(I always felt this was a bit too long duration, so well met.  This should make improved ghost more notable to take now.)

General

(This is another talked about change and is pretty big overall, which makes this patch noticeable.  As usual, I'll give you the layout in each section.)

• Death Timers have been reduced on Summoner's Rift to 12-50 seconds from 28-50 seconds

• Minions
• Melee minion magic resist now increases 1.25 per 3 minutes (up from 0.5)
• Ranged minion armor now increases 1.25 per 3 minutes (up from 0.5)
• Cannon minion armor and magic resist now increase 3 per 3 minutes (up from 2)
• After 20 minutes, cannon minions now spawn every 2 waves (up from every 3 waves)
• Cannon minions and super minions now reduce turret damage by 65% (up from 50%)
• Fixed a tooltip bug "This unit receive..." with cannon minions and super minions
• Minions now deal about 50% more damage to turrets

(Both of these changes are possibly game changing and affect the pacing of every game because Riot felt that these games are dragging out too long in 5v5.  If you're like many and are reading this because you don't actually want to read through the long list of the notes and think, is reduces death timers early to mid game, leaving it the same at very end game and Minions have a drastically increased amount of damage to turrets at all times, are extremely tough and increase in toughness for every 3 minutes and cannon minions spawn more frequently.  

What this really means is that towers are going to be pushed harder than ever now and games will end sooner because towers and inhibitors will be broken more quickly.  This might lead to some different strategies in games now, such as fortify being used more often and plus, it's funner staying in the game longer as opposed to waiting around forever after a gank and it encourages more risky gameplay.  This doesn't help pug teams with bad teammates however...)

• Turrets
• Turrets deal about 10% less base damage to champions
• Turrets now have 20% armor penetration

(The second part of this game outlines the fact that towers do not do enough to high armor champions like Rammus.  This means that they will do roughly the same amount of damage to champions, but more damage to tanks, so you won't be tower dived by a fed tank as often as before.)

• Fixed several typos in the Options Menu

(Taht's graet.  Did you konw taht poelpe can raed a msesgae esaliy eevn if the wrdos are jmulbed up, so lnog as the fsirt and lsat lteerts are the smae, bceasue poeple raed wdors as a wohle not at a per lteetr bsais. Usnles you d'not konw the wrod I wulod tnihk. Ezcotaon.  Taht is yuor lseson of the day!)

(So, this was a small patch but it ends up changing quite a bit, even more so than the largeness of last patch.  Speaking of which... do you remember last patch when Riot said that Coop versus AI mode would be out in a few days after patch release? Well if you weren't paying attention or haven't played much.. then you don't know that that mode never came out this patch at all.  What the hell, Riot?  It's not like you [as well as I'm aware of] came back and said 'We're currently having issues with Coop versus AI and will be postponing it until a later date.'  What happened? Did Leeroy trip over some cables? Is Tombaugh going to have to lay the smackdown on your candy asses?  I knew a lot of people [Including myself] that were excited for this and were eagerly waiting around.  I can understand delays, I'm a understanding person after all.  But you disappointed people when you said something was coming and never did, it's like you forgot about it.  I'm just asking: What happened with this mode, Riot?

Well, after some quick searching, I indeed found a response in the forums, which I'll quote below.

"We have had a few hiccups, and we are working on them.

Without speaking to the specifics of co-op vs AI, the basic issue we tend to run into is that the game is very popular, and new features make it MORE popular.... The more popular the game, the more challenging it is to make PVP.net able to support it without issues.

So, on these new 'popularity growing' features, we must use extra scrutiny... because delaying a feature a week or two to make sure we have our bases covered is better than crashing the servers because of that feature. 

Which brings me to my other point - if you know any engineers or sysadmins looking for work, we'd love to meet them. The more we have, the more reliably and quickly we can get major new features out. 

Thanks for the patience on all of this..."
- Tom

Understandable.  But from one 'Tom' to another.. Tell me what happened bud. When did a week or two, become a patch or two?  Why wasn't there a post on the front page about this?  Also, isn't it Riot's job to find people with those credentials, not asking around in the forums about it?  

Oh well, at least someone said something on the forums, instead of silence like a lot of video game forums respond with. Here I just praised their team, too.  But, you can't argue with free entertainment as they say.  Except I've invested money in League of Legends, so that doesn't apply, at least to me.  ...Anyways, I'll leave my review of 'Coop versus AI' mode until a later date, hopefully it's worth the wait.  Cheers.

- Tom