Tag: new champion (Page 4 of 8)

Patch Day 9/21 – The patch for support players

Muse Sona.

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.

Sona is on release notice

Sona.

I know I haven’t covered her much, but really there wasn’t much to tell. It looks like Sona is on release notice, though, in about as short a time from her Sneak Peek to the Champion Approaches post as I’ve seen.

Sona joins the League as the newest support champion. All of her skills, save her ult, are focused on buffing allied champions. Think of her like a softer version of Taric (though I don’t know, maybe people will build her very similarly). On to the abilities:

Hymn of Valor: Sona plays the Hymn of Valor, granting nearby allied champions bonus Damage and Ability Power. Additionally, casting this ability sends out bolts of sound, dealing magic damage to the nearest two enemy champions or monsters.

Aria of Perseverance: Sona plays the Aria of Perseverance, granting nearby allied champions bonus Armor and Magic Resist. Additionally, casting this ability sends out healing melodies, healing Sona and a nearby wounded ally.

Song of Celerity: Sona plays the Song of Celerity, granting nearby allied champions bonus Movement Speed. Additionally, casting this ability energizes nearby allies with a burst of speed.

Crescendo (Ultimate): Sona plays her ultimate chord, forcing enemy champions to dance, taking magic damage over time.

Power Chord: After casting 3 spells, Sona’s next attack deals bonus magic damage. Additionally, Sona’s Auras persist for 3 seconds after deactivating and set off a 2 second global cooldown.

I really wish my Test Realm wasn’t broken so I could get a look at the way these skills actually play out. I’m mostly confused about the passive because the wording is so bad. Does the global cooldown occur after every aura deactivation (which…wait…they’re auras that have to be deactivated?) or after every third cast. Again, are her skills auras? It sounded at first like casting a spell grants an aura as well, but then why would it need to be deactivated? From what I can find on the web, she plays like Udyr in terms of active skill and a persistent effect (aura). Poor wording makes her skillset very hard to grasp, other than her ultimate. Personally, I think it’s cheesy, especially since she’s already playing songs (WE GET IT). Is it a disable? Is it a root? I couldn’t find any info.

I’m glad to have another support champion, but I’m guessing she’ll be at least 3150 IP. That’s not going to make many people happy. In before Shurelia changes her forum avatar.

Miss Fortune Impressions

Cowgirl Miss Fortune.

Miss Fortune joins Gangplank among the pirate champions of LoL, but after playing her, I feel like that cowgirl skin should be her default. Not only is it the hottest of the three skins, but she has a run-and-gun feel to her that makes me think of games like Sunset Riders. She’s a ton of fun to play, but that may be because she is so strong.

If you were ever into Gangplank, you’ll probably find Miss Fortune really enjoyable. She has all the great things about him – a cannon ball slow, a “wtf just hit me” shot, anti-healing, a fun ult, and very high move speed – and she has the added benefit of farming from range. She doesn’t have his free cleanse, but her range and her passive more than make up for it.

As far as build goes, it seems like AD is the way to be. I’ve personally been starting with Manamune and moving straight to Infinity because her farm is nearly unstoppable. Bloodthirster is also a good rush item, though I think you’ll realize how much she needs mana early on. The key, though, is keeping up that farm. With her movespeed you should always be near creeps, always last hitting everything you can see.

As far as playing against her, you better bring a lot of stuns. Because she has no inherent escape mechanism, I think you’ll see a lot of Miss Fortune players running Flash/Ghost for summoner skills, which means you need to lock her down fast. As a mid player, you may want to think about taking a cloth armor first with a bunch of health pots. It will mitigate some of her Double Up damage, which is where she gets most of her harass, and force her to use more mana to get you as low as she’d like, which means she won’t have tons of mana for that big ult. If you’re playing a carry, Flash is almost a must. Her ult hits so hard so fast that you need to get out of there within a half second. With a minimal farm she can hit you for 800 damage at level 16, which is a LOT on a carry. Add in a 300-400 damage Double Up and you’re looking at some fountain time.

I would not be surprised to see her nerfed next patch. Despite some of the posts in the forums calling her “useless” and “way underpowered,” she has that mix of magic and physical damage that both scale off of her attack damage. It allows her to provide a heavy mix of damage that is very difficult to build against. I would love to see Riot introduce another hybrid mitigation item like Aegis of the Legion. Players need an item to help against toons like Ezreal, Miss Fortune, and even Kog’Maw, who can all provide a mix of damage in huge waves.

Miss Fortune is on release notice

Miss Fortune.

Looks like I got my internet connection back just in time. Miss Fortune, the newest champion to hit the League, is on release notice for next week.

Take a look at Miss Fortune’s official ability list:
Double Up: Miss Fortune fires a single bullet at an enemy target, dealing [damage to] that enemy and another target behind the first.

Impure Shots: Miss Fortune passively increases damage dealt to a target with each strike. This ability can be activated to increase Miss Fortune’s attack speed and cause her attacks to lower healing received by the target.

Make It Rain: Miss Fortune unleashes a flurry of bullets at a location, dealing waves of damage to opponents and slowing them.

Bullet Time (Ultimate): Miss Fortune channels a barrage of bullets into a cone in front of her for 2 seconds, dealing damage plus bonus damage based on her attack damage or ability power per bullet, hitting up to 8 times on each target.

Strut (Passive): Miss Fortune gains an additional 25 movement speed after falling out of combat for 7 or more seconds, increasing each second up to 80 maximum bonus speed.

Miss Fortune is the second pirate to join the League, and she follows pretty closely in Gangplank’s speedy footsteps. Her passive is a movespeed bump, she has a healing debuff, a targeted shot, and “Make It Rain” sounds an awful lot like a mini-Gangplank-ult. Really, she’s like Gangplank 2.0, because that ult sounds devastating. At rank 1 it will hit a target for as much as 325 damage, on top of whatever other skills she’s throwing at you. She looks to be a very strong ganker, so I’d assume we’ll see her mid often.

I’m decently excited about her release. I really enjoyed Gangplank for a time, but he doesn’t have much presence these days. I wonder if Miss Fortune will be able to replace him.

Galio, the love gargoyle approaches

Galio, the gargoyle champ.Alright, his name isn’t “the love gargoyle,” but he sounds a little bit like he might try to hug you to death. Riot gave a cursory preview to this upcoming champion today with the usual limited information and disclaimers that he won’t puke on or bite anyone. He’ll be a monster. We know that, anyway.

Here’s the official post:

With this next champion we had a couple of goals in mind. For starters, we wanted to show our continued commitment to the monster enthusiasts by bringing those monstrous champions into the lineup. On the other hand, we wanted to appeal to those sensitive types who don’t identify with anything that’s capable of vomiting toxic bile, devouring its victims whole, or shaking the very ground on which it treads. We know that it’s a pretty tall order, but we’re pretty sure that Galio, the Sentinel’s Sorrow, should just be able to bridge that gap. If you’re a fan of monsters, just imagine a swooping, deadly predator perched on the edge of a building, waiting patiently to strike. And if you’re one of those artsy types who doesn’t appreciate the grotesque, well then, think of him as a piece of elegant statuary.

And here I thought monsters vomited by definition. Come on, Riot, learn your monsters. In truth, Galio sounds all right. I’m curious to see what his spell lineup will be like.

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