After yesterday’s delay, the Ziggs patch went live on the servers this morning. After watching the Champion Spotlight, I’m more than a little sad I don’t have the IP to get this guy. He looks awesome, but he also looks crazy broken. His burst damage is ridiculous, and his range is amazing. I hope you’re ready for some frustrating matches.

I think the worst offender in Ziggs’ kit has to be his ultimate. I’ve never been a fan of global ults or even semi-globals. They’re just too powerful, mostly because they allow an unseen party to add unpredictable damage to a fight. Players engaging in bot lane suddenly have a ton of unpredictable damage changing the outcome of their fight. The existing globals/semi-globals are just too easy to land. Gangplank’s ult hits almost instantly, Nocturne’s ult is targeted, and even TF’s port can cause problems. With Ziggs, Riot is adding a high-damage AoE nuke to the mix.

Just watch Malphite get hit with that ult at 3:25 in the video. Granted, Phreak is 16 and has a Deathcap, but holy hell. And Ziggs will regularly be in the position that he overlevels his opponents, just by nature of being a typical pick for mid lane.

I’ll have more thoughts later in the day. For now, I’m not excited to be facing this guy.

Riot has released the official skill list for the new coolest-champion-I’ve-seen-in-a-long-time, Ziggs. I don’t know what it is about his splash art that makes me so happy. Maybe it’s that he looks so happy…to be blowing things up. That said, I’m really curious to see how his skills will play out. He seems to be built around serious lane and positioning control. That could make him a powerful choice in mid with strong ganking abilities. I don’t really see him doing well in side lanes.

Short Fuse (Passive) – Every 12 seconds Ziggs’ next basic attack deals bonus magic damage. This cooldown is reduced whenever Ziggs uses an ability.

Bouncing Bomb – Ziggs throws a bouncing bomb that deals magic damage.

Satchel Charge – Ziggs flings an explosive charge that detonates after 4 seconds, or when this ability is activated again. The explosion deals magic damage to enemies, knocking them away. Ziggs is also knocked away, but takes no damage.

Hexplosive Minefield – Ziggs scatters proximity mines that detonate on enemy contact, dealing magic damage and slowing.

Mega Inferno Bomb (Ultimate) – Ziggs deploys his ultimate creation, the Mega Inferno Bomb, hurling it an enormous distance, Enemies in the primary blast zone take more damage than those further away.

Most of these skills are pretty self-explanatory; I wonder about the skills’ range and visibility, and the latter only really applies to the proxy mines. It looks from the screenshot like the mines are visible, which is probably for the best. With the rest of his skills, an invisible minefield would be a little ridiculous. The only real question, then, is whether his range can compete with other AP carries in mid or not.

I’ll be interested to see his Champion Spotlight. I’m a little bummed out that I won’t have the IP to buy him on release, but I’m sure I’ll see him enough on launch day to give some basic impressions.

Riot has posted both the art spotlight and the sneak peek for Ziggs, the Hexplosives Expert. I really feel like they missed an opportunity for “Hexpert” but since he doesn’t actually hex anything I suppose I’ll let it slide.

I don’t know if it’s just my distance from League of Legends these days, but this guy looks awesome. I love the splash art, and I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t some sort of homage to my good friend from DotA, Techies, going on here. Keep an eye peeled for his skill list some time this upcoming weekend. I’ll definitely be interested to see what he can do, even if I don’t have the IP to pick him up on release day.