What do you know – the day I write a post about the general lack of LoL-related news we get a patch announcement and a preview Champion Spotlight. There is much to cover so I’ll be making several posts to try to wrap everything up.

Let’s start with the obvious: Olaf. The viking champion will be making his live debut some time tomorrow afternoon (for those of you on EST like me). He’s a tanky melee DPS champion, not entirely unlike…well, okay, he’s unlike most melee champions in the way his damage scales up with his health and the fact that his attack speed goes up as his health goes down. Overall, I think he will be a dangerous character to tangle with anywhere past level eight or so. For more on Olaf’s abilities check out my earlier post.

Aside from the new champion, the most notable change is a big fat nerf to support healing toons. Nidalee finally caught a heal nerf that should significantly reduce her ability to play like a crazy fool in the early game and heal through it all. Her heal is down nearly 30 percent at all ranks, though it did get an ability power bump from .8 to 1.25. That sounds big, but it will mean a weaker early game and about the same mid to late for her, which is just what she needed.

Ezreal caught a similar (and long overdue) nerf. The heal from his Essence Flux is now down to 50 percent of the damage dealt and has had the attack speed debuff reduced as well. Trueshot Barrage had its AP ratio down from 1.0 to 0.7, which should keep him more in line with other highly escapable champions.

The rest of the champion changes are fairly minor barring the Kayle remake, which I’ll cover in another post. TF caught a bit of a nerf and Shen’s shield was indeed reverted to work like a regular shield, which is sure to bring a lot of tears from Shen players (honestly, those guys are starting to sound like Jax players to me).

As for the rest of the game, there’s a new, ability power equivalent to the BF Sword called the Needlessly Large Rod. For 1600g you can get 80 AP. It’s a nice boost for those AP Kat players and frankly, it’s been a long time coming. Twisted Treeline got a few gold generation changes and some rework on the Lizard, but none of that stuff is really going to change the game too much.

I’ll be covering the rest of the patch throughout the next couple days. Keep an eye out for the new skins. They are oh-so-sweet.

Well, that was fast. The “champion approaches” post is already up for the viking champion, Olaf, along with a few in-game screens and his splash page (which is huge resolution, by the by).

Abilities:
Undertow: Olaf throws an axe into the ground at a target location, dealing damage and slowing the movement speed of units it passes through. If Olaf picks up the axe, the ability’s cooldown is reduced by several seconds.

Vicious Strikes: Olaf’s attack damage is increased, scaling based on his health, and he gains massive lifesteal and spell vamp.

Reckless Swing: Olaf attacks with such force that it deals true damage to his target and himself.

Ragnarok (ultimate): Olaf becomes immune to disables, gains increased armor penetration, and reduces incoming damage by a flat amount.

Berserker Rage (passive): For each percentage of health Olaf is missing, Olaf’s attack speed is increased by that percentage.

There you have it – from what I can tell he sounds a bit like Yi, though his ultimate is about a thousand percent better (as is his passive). I’m guessing we’re due for another patch early next week if this post is already up. That’s mighty quick turnaround for a new champion, especially considering how buggy Malzahar is currently (anyone else noticed the crazy ult bugs?).

Still, I’m pumped to see the champion list continue to grow.

Ho ho ho, Riot! What have we here? You know, I was starting to get a little concerned about the art department at Riot. The most recent new champions have had their own distinct flavor, but nothing screamed badass like this axe-wielding norse maniac.

Since it’s just a sneak peek, the initial details are very slim, but I would highly encourage interested parties to avail themselves of tools that may be disappearing over the next month or so. Though I am a little concerned to see yet another melee toon, Olaf does have that special look – a certain flair for disaster – that makes me want to use him for some good old fashioned face stomping.

You can see what Riot has to say about our viking friend in the announcements forum.