I’ll be around this evening for a few games if anyone would like to join. If you’re interested in playing with the other readers here, join the chat channel “Fearless Gamer” in the PvP.net client. You can also add me at “The Wiggin Boy” if chat rooms aren’t your thing.
Log in around 9:15 so we can check our numbers and get started. Hope to see you tonight!
I covered the upcoming rune changes in a post the other day but neglected to provide a breakdown of the champion and mastery changes slated for the Ahri patch.
Twisted Fate is getting a little much-needed love. He’ll have better range in lane and his Pick-a-Card will now require target selection. I have to say, I’m excited to see TF again. I can’t help but miss him around this time of year. This is when I started playing LoL and he was the first champion I really loved. Granted, he was OP as all hell, but still fun.
Tryndamere is also getting a small nerf, though I honestly doubt it will be enough. His healing-per-stack on Bloodlust will be reduced in the coming patch. Really, though, Trynd is just too strong in a solo situation. The fact that he has a heal at all gives him more sustain than just about anyone he faces. With the Cleanse change, I think his kit is just too problematic.
Morello also mentioned bringing back Strength of Spirit for Utility mastery lovers. I’m honestly not sure how putting it deep in the tree will make things any better. The tree is just way too focused on a stat that no one really worries about any more: mana. Because of the way blue buff gets passed around, a mana-focused build is only relevant on Singed and Ryze. Beyond that, we don’t need the mana, and the rest of the utility tree is bad enough that even Ryze and Singed would be better off speccing defense.
I’ll be interested to see how the TF buff plays out, but beyond that, I don’t see this patch having much impact on the game.
It looks like the next patch for League of Legends will indeed include the Ahri release. Along with the new champion, Riot is introducing a variety of new rune options. This patch will also see dodge runes headed the way of the Wooly Mammoth (although, I hear those guys may be making a comeback).
Among the new runes will be some gold-per-10 seals. I can’t say I’m excited to see more options for passive play in lane, though it will make my GP10 builds even more interesting. There will also be Lifesteal, Spell Vamp, and hybrid Armor/MR shredding runes.
I’ll be interested to see the numbers on the Lifesteal and Spell Vamp. You’ll notice from the Patch Preview that Morello isn’t worried about the runes becoming sustain problems. I hope that’s truly the case. Personally, I’ve been having a lot of fun with flat AD runes on my carries with the new masteries. I would hate for Lifesteal to suddenly trump that decision.
Some of the veteran players may remember the days when a player with a few champion kills under his belt could be as many as six or seven levels ahead of his competition, even early in the game. Riot nerfed champion kill experience to help address the issue, and things seemed pretty even for a while. I would rarely see a disparity of more than four levels, even between solo lanes and duos.
Lately, though, things seem much more like the good old days. I am regularly seeing players with five or more levels on their opponents, sometimes in the same lane. Seriously. I played a game a few days ago in which my team’s bot lane Singed (don’t ask) was level 5 when the enemy Vayne was level 10. He didn’t AFK. He wasn’t getting zoned. He did die a couple times early in the game, but that kind of discrepancy should require a much more significant turn of events.
Have you noticed more significant level gaps than usual, lately?
This may be old news for some of you, but I didn’t notice it until today while I was playing Shaco. I Deceived over a wall to catch a low-health Ashe under her second turret. She saw me and moved away, though not before I could land a Two-Shiv on her. I was devastated to see that the spell wasn’t quite enough damage to drop her, especially since I was soaking so much turret fire to attempt the kill. Much to my surprise, she died just as she entered the fog of war. As she disappeared, I saw what looked like the burning animation from lizard buff.
I haven’t been able to find anything official from Riot regarding this change – it certainly wasn’t in Volibear’s patch notes – but it seems that this has been active since the most recent patch. I saw it today with Shaco, Nunu, Ryze, and Swain, though some of the threads I’ve found confirm that it is any single target spell.
This is a pretty huge change, one that further complicates the current jungle situation. Imagine giving lizard buff to Urgot at level two. Yeah, now his Q applies lizard. Have fun with that. How about Ryze? Katarina? LeBlanc? Kassadin? Kennen? Akali? Oh dear god, Akali. The problem, of course, is that it means the jungler is giving up a serious amount of XP early in the game. Unless he is ganking extremely well, passing off buffs isn’t really an option in the early game. Still, I always like to have more options than fewer, so I’ll call this “interesting” a the very least.
Had you already noticed the change?
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