It’s patch day once again folks, and though the changes have been less and less radical over the past few patches, there is still a decent bit to talk about today. The big point of contention will doubtlessly be Evelynn. She’s had a remake rumored for months, but today she’s getting a heavy swat from the nerf bat. Hopefully that means something about her development in the near future.

Caitlyn’s getting a buff, though I still think her skillset is to confused to be taken too seriously. Piltover Peacemaker is getting a little nerf at low levels and a buff at higher levels, both to base damage and damage scaling. That should make one of her skills worth casting one she has Infinity Edge, but still in limited situations. Her ultimate has also received a base damage increase at ranks two and three, is now treated like a spell (still physical damage, I’m guessing, but blocked by Banshee’s Veil, unable to be dodged, and no longer mitigated by Pantheon’s Aegis Protection). It also loses the ability to apply on-hit effects.

Evelynn. Poor, poor Evelynn. I’ve never been much of an Eve supporter – the stealth mechanic in this game just sucks, and giving a stealther a long, targeted stun that’s usable from stealth and that ridiculous heal on her ult is admittedly too much. Still, this nerf should pretty much ruin Eve back to her pre-jungle days. Her base mana, base armor, and base damage all took a serious hit that, when coupled with the 33 percent damage nerf to the first two ranks of Hate Spike will effectively ruin her jungling. Shadow Walk also got a 10 second duration nerf at all ranks, which I think is a good thing. It’s definitely too easy to stand around setting up ganks, and the old duration allowed her to take one rank and forget the skill, ranking her damage instead. Overall, though, this is one of the biggest across-the-board nerfs I’ve seen. The only thing I can think is that the remake is nearly done, but we’ve been waiting an awfully long time – might be more waiting ahead.

Heimerdinger’s getting a little love this patch. His turrets now work on an ammo system similar to Teemo mushrooms, which I think will be good. Heimer’s problem has always been the time to set up a lane, it just wasn’t as big a deal when he had lots of turrets that did lots of damage. Since the turret nerfs, it’s been even harder to justify playing him. The turret AI has also caught some improvements so that it will be more effective against champions attacking Heimer. Upgrade now increases the number of missiles he fires to five and increases the travel speed of his grenade. I’m not sure if the latter is a good thing or not. People have suggested that as a base buff for him, but to only have it some of the time could actually make it tough to land. Still, this stuff should help him out overall.

Kennen’s Mark of the Storm is getting a long overdue duration nerf, down from 12 seconds to 8. I don’t really know why this took so long. Kennen has always had strong lane harass, due in large part to the length a mark will stay on a target. His primary form of using the mark, Electrical Surge, also got a minimal range nerf. He’s still going to be one of the best lane partners in the game, but it’s something.

Pantheon’s Aegis of Zeonia (his stun) got a serious duration nerf, down to 0.7/0.9/1.1/1.3/1.5 from 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2. While I like the fact that this makes Heartseeker damage at least partially avoidable, it’s not the fix Pantheon needs. The problem is Heartseeker itself. Granted, the stun is what made Heartseeker good, but like most melee, Pantheon needs a way to stick to his target. If the target has merc Treads, he’s only getting a .9 second stun. That’s not gonna cut it. Heartseeker needs to be remade. It’s a cool idea, but it doesn’t work in a practical setting. It’s either too much damage or too little. There is no reasonable median.

Rammus got a taunt nerf. Ok.

Twitch got a range buff and a similar stealth duration nerf to Evelynn. It seems like Riot is taking steps to prepare people for a change to the stealth system, which I’m ready for. As it stands, the nerf will help, but a couple ranks in and players won’t notice a difference. Will we see the maximum duration for stealthing characters reduced to 10 seconds with successive ranks adding different functionality to the spells?

Zilean’s ult got a duration nerf, down from 13 seconds to 10. Personally, I don’t think this is a big nerf. The best Zileans I see use their ult carefully, landing it just before a target dies so that it doesn’t get wasted. Hopefully this will train up and coming Zilean players to do the same.

That’s it for the major changes. I do want to mention a small Nasus buff – Siphon Strike bonus damage went up from 2 damage per kill to to 3. It’s interesting that this is the only buff he gets when his brother releases, but it is a pretty sweet buff. That’s a LOT of damage if he can get farmed. He still suffers from his other problems, but this will give him a little more burst.

As for general changes, there aren’t many. Critical strikes and dodge chances have been normalized to prevent lucky/unlucky streaks. My guess is that it’s coded to calculate those chances in small groups of, say, seven attacks, so that you see a more consistent benefit from those stats. This should be a good thing.

Check back later today for my Renekton impressions – I’m sure I’m going to love him. Mobile melee champions are always a good time.

Since the debut of ranked games, Heimerdinger has topped nearly every player’s ban list. His pushing power, anti-pushing, and ability to shackle another team to its base while slowly ripping down turrets with his grenade, made him a menace against just about any team comp.

Yesterday changed that. Heimer caught a string of minimal nerfs over the last several months that amounted to very little, but this latest patch was a huge nerf. Heimer now casts one less turret. The rank that perviously gave him three turrets now adds 100 hp to the turrets. Honestly, 100 hp is a joke. I laned against a Ryze today and he just laughed at my extra 100 hp. Heimer’s grenades no longer deal damage to turrets as well.

It’s a short list of nerfs, but the difference is huge. Having just one turret left when one gets killed can actually make it hard to control a lane. Heimer is also a pretty squishy toon without a lot of escape options. Three turrets allowed you to roam around the map a little bit with the security of a couple turrets you could use to slow enemies if you extended too far.

I do agree that Heimer’s damage needed a nerf, but removing a damage source wasn’t the way to do it. It would have been more appropriate to nerf the damage of each turret or reduce their AP scaling, rather than eliminating one of his options.

I think we’ll be seeing very little from Heimer over the next few weeks.

Alien Invader Heimerdinger was by far the most disappointing “legendary” skin to date. It was just Heimer with a different shirt and a slightly reshaped head (like the standard skin doesn’t look like a brain, anyway). I can think of plenty of things I would rather waste $20 on.

Luckily, Riot heard the community outcry around the underwhelming skin and decided it was time for an update. Now the Invader skin casts some very otherworldly turrets, which is a big step in the right direction. It makes the skin stand out as a truly unique purchase, which is what I think most people were hoping for. Firefighter Tristana also got an update. She now sprays water from the fire hose instead of bullets. Again, a nice touch.

If there’s one thing to be said for the Riot development team, it’s that they listen to the community. Sometimes we have to harass and cajole, but this change and changes like the level 30 requirement for ranked games restore some of my faith in the developer’s ability to successfully run this game.

Heimerdinger has slowly risen to become one of the champions I see most in-game. Though known for his incredible pushing power, he is also an excellent defender and farmer, giving him the items needed to put out big damage over the course of the game. With yesterday’s grenade buff, I think Heimer is among the strongest support champions, despite his turret vs. tower nerf.

I was pretty shocked to see Heimer catch a little buff. Yes, his turrets deal less damage but he can toss more grenades so his net effect on towers is just about the same. The real key to Heimer is getting a strong early farm and good early magic penetration. Magic penetration, especially early in the game, increases the damage output of your missiles for some nice harass. My personal preference is to max turrets and missiles side by side and stand well back behind my creeps so that should my opponent come to harass they catch a missile in the face.

Heimer is strong in teamfights because he gives his team control over positioning. What could have been a successful chase through the woods quickly turns into death for you or multiple teammates if Heimer comes to back up his teammate. The slow from turrets is great CC and the heal his ultimate provides can keep a push alive. In short, Heimer is one of the most frustrating characters to play against if played well.

Phreak dropped into a recent forum thread to say they (the devs) aren’t quite done with Heimer. He specifically calls out the Heimer vs towers situation, which is really the worst of it. If his team has good ranged harass, he’ll stand by and lob grenades until your towers are gone and there’s precious little you can do about it.

Heimer is unique because he gets to play a different game than everyone else. While not quite the micro fun of a Chen or Meepo from DotA, he still has big control over the positioning of teamfights and the lane creeps. If you’re playing Heimer right now, enjoy your day in the sun. It won’t last forever.

As you probably guessed, Alien Invader Heimerdinger is indeed on his way. The legendary Heimerdinger skin will be available in the store next week.

I’m a little disappointed that this will be going for legendary prices. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always thought Heimer’s hair looks like a brain anyway. This skin feels a little less imaginative than the other legendary skins out there (though honestly, I thought toboggan Corki was really lame). Really all of the skins are overpriced in my mind, except maybe those that fall in the 200-400 RP range. Three bucks seems about right for a skin, and then more for the truly awesome skins. I was miffed that the Shaco was $10, but it’s so awesome I bought it anyway.

Still no word on Galactic Nasus.