Category: Patches (Page 21 of 23)

When it rains, it pours, even for Riot

October 5, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

Servers are still down, and in the wake of the Milkfat fiasco (which I’m planning to cover in depth when I have the time to really dedicate to the issue), Riot’s having a hard time containing all the rage. When you stack a very short list of patch notes on top of it all, the community has exploded in a fit of rage.

Normally, I’d give you an extended rundown of all the problems, the issues at stake, what have you. I’m tired, though, and I can really empathize with Riot this time around. Last week I saw more literal, physical rain than I have seen in my lifetime (some accounts are saying it was six months worth of rain in five days for North Carolina), and after traveling home I’ve had more hangups, mixups, and unexpected turns of planned events than I care to detail.

The long and short of it – try to be understanding today. Though much of what Riot is dealing with is self-inflicted, it’s still a lot to juggle. Hopefully they can prove, as they have in the past, that they can handle everything and walk away with a little dignity.

Editorial, league of legends, Patches

milkfat milkfat bet milkfat challenge milkfat fiasco milkfat problem milkfat promise patch patch notes server problems server stability

Swain champion spotlight

October 5, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

I’m still in Ohio due to a family emergency for my girlfriend, but I’ll be trying to update as often as possible throughout the week. After watching this video, I’m crazy pumped to get back and give Swain a go, but I’m willing to bet he’ll become a highly desirable champion, much like Miss Fortune.

Swain borrows a skill from DotA’s Witch Doctor with Torment, which deals increasing damage based on the damage you deal to the target while Torment is active. From what I remember of Maledict (the DotA version), this is a really fun mechanic and it’s great for bursting down carries when you have a team with a couple targeted nukes.

You’ll also notice from the video that Swain’s ult works like Anivia’s, draining mana as long as it’s active but with unlimited duration and what looks to be a very short cooldown (eight seconds once Phreak has Deathfire Grasp and the golem buff in the video). All in all, I hope you guys have a lot of fun with Swain. I’m looking forward to getting some time with him.

Champions, league of legends, News, Patches, Video

decrepify jericho swain nevermore nevermove ravenous flock swain torment

Riot adds “The Button,” service ticker to PvP.net

September 22, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

That’s a game from last night, shortly after Riot’s new service ticker alerted me that the company was aware of some general service issues and working on a fix. Loss forgiveness comes as a result of what’s known as “The Button.” The Button is a switch Riot can throw whenever there’s trouble that sets the game into a special mode to prevent players from accruing losses and losing ELO as a result of technical difficulties. In the game you see above, everything was fine until about the five minute mark. From that point forward there was a solid five second delay between a given command and the corresponding action. I’m glad to see I didn’t lose any ELO as a result. The Button does allow winning teams to still get the win and get ELO recorded, but at 50 percent the normal rate.

While I understand the idea behind the service ticker – more communication with the player base – I do hope Riot uses it sparingly. It could easily create a placebo effect, which might result in more backlash than if Riot just hadn’t said anything. I know when I see that yellow box all lit up, I’ll be looking for problems, and that’s not the way the game was meant to be enjoyed. If used sparingly, though, I think it could do just fine.

Development, league of legends, Patches

client problems game client lol client pvp client pvp.net server stability stability updates the button

Patch Day 9/21 – The patch for support players

September 21, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

It’s patch day once again, this time bringing us Sona, the newest support toon to join the League. Other than Sona there aren’t many changes to the League’s champion lineup. The real changes this patch come to a couple of existing items and a new item, Shurelya’s Reverie.

I’ll let you read over the champion changes for yourself, but there are a few worth mentioning. Garen’s Courage got a small nerf, Kog’Maw’s attack speed bonuses were apparently multiplicative, so that was fixed, and Zilean’s Chronoshift now lasts 13 seconds instead of 15 and the cooldown is 180 seconds at all levels. Oh, Blitzcrank’s Power Fist now resets the auto attack timer as well. That’s really it as far as notable champion changes.

So let’s talk about the good stuff. Along with Sona, Riot’s remade Innervating Locket and added Shurelya’s Reverie to the list of support items. The new items are as follows:

Innervating Locket
Combine cost reduced to 450 from 850. New total cost is 2250.
+430 Health
+450 Mana
Unique Aura: Nearby allies gain 20 hp/5 and 9 mp/5.
Unique Passive: Reduces ability cooldowns by 10%
Unique Passive: When you cast a spell, you regenerate 50 health and 20 mana over 2 seconds. This effect has a 3 second cooldown and no longer affects allies.

Kindlegem
Recipe consists of Ruby Crystal + 425 gold
+200 Health
UNIQUE Passive: Reduces ability cooldowns by 10%

Shurelya’s Reverie
Recipe consists of Kindlegem + Philosopher’s Stone + 500 gold
+330 Health
+25 Health Regen per 5 sec
+12 Mana Regen per 5 sec
UNIQUE Passive: Reduces ability cooldowns by 15%
UNIQUE Active: Nearby champions gain 40% movement speed for 2 seconds (60 second cooldown)

The new Locket is really underwhelming. A slow regen aura? Not really really worth it for the minimal benefit it provides, to both allies and the bearer. It might be decent on Sona, but I doubt I’ll be using it. Shurelya’s Reverie, on the other hand, seems like a great item. I can’t imagine why someone would choose Locket over the new item, but maybe I’m missing something. The buff that Reverie grants is pretty huge, and could make for some tough initiation against a team that doesn’t have one. I’m also glad to see that Philosopher’s Stone has been given a new purpose. It needed something.

The other big change is that disconnected players run home if the automatic recall gets interrupted. Disconnected players also gain 1000 magic resist after a minute out of game, so no more Karthus killing level one or two players with his ult.

That’s about it. I’m hoping future patches bring some fixes to the client, but I’ll be writing more on that later.

Champions, league of legends, News, Patches

innervating locket buff innervating locket remake kindlegem manamune manamune nerf new champ new champion new toon patch day shurelya's reverie sona support

Should Philospher’s Stone snowball?

September 10, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

One of the smaller changes that made this latest patch was an update to an item I haven’t seen in months. Philosopher’s Stone got a new recipe, now made of a Faerie Charm and a Regrowth pendant. I still don’t think it’ll see much use. Let’s face it, health regen items are terrible. They never save you in a fight. Lifesteal occasionally does. Heals do. But little ticks of health every couple seconds don’t really give you much in terms of lanestay. If you want mana regen, there are much better options. The only thing left is gold per five, which really doesn’t do much. It could, though.

What if Philosopher’s Stone was a snowball item, like a Mejai’s or a Leviathan? You get increasing amounts of regen (regen that actually helps your laning) and increasing gold per five. You don’t to make it so great that everyone gets one, as was the case after the Leviathan buff, but it might be a nice option if you’re settling in for a long game. Also, I don’t really dig on Sword of the Occult or Leviathan all that much. Mejai’s either, come to think of it. It would be cool to have another option.

Another option would be turning Philosopher’s Stone into a Warmog’s-style item, one that grants you permanent bonuses based on units killed. Again, don’t make it crazy, but something that can help you out if you know you’ll farm well early but maybe be out of lane or grouped a lot late.

It’s nice to know Riot’s thinking about some of these underused items. I hope a few have their functionality changed, not just the recipe.