Have the Pantheon changes panned out?

After the global ult nerf patch, Morello put out a call for Pantheon suggestions, hoping to bring him back up to some sort of viability. With the Skarner patch, he got some significant buffs – lower cooldowns on his stun and Heartseeker, a much faster ult, an execute on his Spear Shot – to the point that I’ve been seeing him much more often. I haven’t had a lot of time to spend on him, but when has that ever stopped me from sharing my impressions?

I’ll start by saying that the changes are mostly a good thing. That short-cd stun can be brutal in combination with teammate CC, making Pantheon a very difficult champion to escape. The ranged execute is also a nice buff. I didn’t have much trouble finishing off a target with the old Pantheon but since the change I can’t say that I’ve narrowly missed a kill. I also played against a Pantheon today who was last-hitting teammates I thought for sure I had saved with a well-placed Dragon’s Rage.

It’s Heartseeker Strike that still bugs me. It’s in a much better place now that it can be used more often, but the animation feels a little too long. There also remains the simple fact that it’s a self-stun, which really hurts. He can cast more often, but that also means he’s locking himself up more often. I would really like to see Riot either dramatically shorten the animation time and reconsider the damage or just find a new ability to add in this one’s place.

So, serious Pantheon players, what do you think? Are his new cooldowns helping out? Does he feel more viable? Still just a pubstomp toon? Drop your impressions in the comments.

  

Champ of the Week: Blitzcrank extension

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I’m finally back in North Carolina and, armed with a freshly cleaned apartment and a beautiful laptop HP was kind enough to lend me while I was in Ohio, I’m ready to dive back into the happy little world of Valoran. Unfortunately I didn’t have nearly enough time to spend with Blitzcrank this past week, so I’ll be extending his Champ of the Week feature so that the robot gets what he’s due.

In other news, I just attempted to log in, hoping to snag a quick Skarner game before succumbing to the inevitable result of an 11-hour car ride, but alas, a twenty minute queue timer is standing in the way. I think I’m going to let it win, too.

So how has Skarner been? The spotlight looked like a much more accurate representation of a given champion’s skills and abilities. Phreak actually died! OMGOMGOMG! Seriously, though, I don’t consider it a good thing that Skarner is relegated to jungle duty. It seems to me there are much more reliable junglers in the game and Wriggle’s feels like a total waste. Unfortunately, he has no dash, which means he’ll also get outperformed pretty badly in lane without a decent bit of burst damage. This is all conjecture, of course. If you’re finding that his heal allows for excellent lane sustain, let me know in the comments.

Also, how’s the Pantheon buff? I miss the days when I played him, which were basically just after he released. I haven’t messed with him much since.

With that, I’m going to call it a night. Look for me later in the week – I should be around quite a bit.

  

This week’s patch to bring global changes

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The Monkey King isn’t the only thing coming with this week’s patch (assuming it happens on schedule). As Morello has it, the changes to global ults will be coming with this patch as well, and the changes are making him think about Pantheon.

In case you’ve forgotten, the global ults in the game are getting nerfed to function a bit more like Nocturne’s Paranoia. They will still allow the champion to cross large distances, but it will no longer allow for a truly global ultimate. The change affects Twisted Fate, Shen, and Pantheon at the very least (EDIT: Looks like Shen might not be getting the nerf – hard to say based on patch preview). I couldn’t find any information about Gangplank’s ult. Players will now be able to see the range of the ultimate on the minimap in order to gauge distance.

The impending change prompted Morello to ask for community opinion on Pantheon, hoping players will play with the change and consider some other ways to make Pantheon fun again. I personally hope it means a rework to Heartseeker Strike. I wrote some time ago that the skill doesn’t really have a functional balance point. The skill is either too good because it can be used with a targeted stun, or it’s too weak because the damage isn’t worth a self-stun in order to land it.

I would like to see them give Pantheon something interesting. I think he has one of the best looking skins and for the most part his skills fit really well with the spear-wielding classical soldier myth.

  

Reducing global ult range doesn’t solve the design problem

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Among the big changes slated for upcoming League of Legends patches is a rework to the global ults in the game, most notably the ones that that teleport the player to a new location. Riot has said in several places (none of which I can seem to find, though this quote from Phreak serves as an indicator of the design decision) that they want to limit the range of what are now global ults so that they work more like Nocturne’s Paranoia. The problem, of course, is that this doesn’t solve the problem with global ults.

Globals suck because they allow players to effectively be in two places at once. As Phreak mentions in the quote linked above, TF and Shen can go push bot during a mid stalemate, all the while planning to port mid when needed. They present all the defense necessary for mid lane while still being able to push bottom. This scenario isn’t completely fixed by limiting the range of those ultimates, but teamfights aren’t the only thing affected by semi-global ults.

When players can gank in a 3500 unit radius around them, they don’t have to play with any kind of foresight or worry about positioning. They can linger longer in the jungle. They can finish that dragon before defending a tower. They can spring out of the jungle from beyond ward range for the gank. In short, it encourages lazy play from less skilled players and offers masters of the game an easily exploited advantage. It’s also just not a lot of fun to play against.

Personally, I’d love to see the global ults removed. They’re too strong for skilled players and don’t provide the learning hurdle for map positioning that new players need.

  

Pantheongate drowns the forums

Perseus Pantheon for free.

I’ve been battling the hellish fever my girlfriend was kind enough to give me, so this is the first time I’ve logged onto the official forums today. Imagine my surprise when at least half the posts were about Pantheon. I was thrilled – finally his anti-fun design was being discussed. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the topic of discussion. Instead, people were complaining about Riot offering a promo code to unlock Pantheon and the Perseus Pantheon skin to inactive players.

Yup, you read that correctly. Players who stopped playing the game are being compensated some 1950 RP worth of store goods for their…absence. While I understand the idea – a lot of game companies offer some kind of teaser to bring you back after quitting a game – this was both poor timing and the wrong offer. Dedicated players have been restless for months now, wondering when we’ll see a new map or new game modes. To offer up freebies to the people who jumped ship is a big slap in the face. Granted, Tryndamere has already posted on the forums, saying:

We greatly value our loyal players and will have more info on this soon.

I can only imagine that means everyone will be getting the free champion/skin bundle, but who knows.

I also think Pantheon is the wrong champion to do this with. Do it with someone that’s sort of an even keel, not really at risk for serious developmental change in the coming months. Maybe I’m crazy, but I think Pantheon is one of the least fun characters to play against in the entire game. Heartseeker Strike is probably among my top five most poorly designed skills. At some point, I think Riot’s going to have to address that. Then again, the whole point of the dowry for returning to the game is to give the player a positive experience, and I think Pantheon will do just that. He’s a pretty easy guy to figure out, and when you get a good farm, you shred people.

  

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