31.7.11

Elo Hell Ft. Dorian - Audio Commentary # 3 - Sion - The Undead Champion

30.7.11

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS ADVICE AND TIPS FROM THE TOP PLAYERS

http://www.pleasedontbanme.com/protip/

26.7.11

New patch notes

by Borengora on Tuesday, July 26th 2011 - 07:09 / 6815 Views /
Yes, I'm still alive. I've been out of sorts for a while with grad-school registration (read: jumping through the hoops instated by a stagnant academia. That I will soon join, probably...). But I am back to give you my (highly theoretical with no practical data whatsoever) comments on the patch that is being released as we speak. I am writing this about half an hour before I have to be at work, so I may just get part posted and finish it later.

As always, remember that this is much less detailed than Elementz's Meta Talks and is just my personal opinion. Keep the comments rolling in, especially when I miss stuff, so we can all glean a better understanding of what these changes mean.



Wukong, the Monkey King

Crushing Blow: Wukong swings his mighty staff with incredible speed, crushing his opponent. This attack deals additional physical damage and reduces the enemy's armor for a short duration.
Decoy: Wukong utilizes his cleverness to trick his foes. He becomes stealthed for 1.5 seconds and leaves an uncontrollable decoy behind that will deal Magic Damage to enemies near it after 1.5 seconds.
Nimbus Strike: Wukong dashes on a cloud toward a target enemy and sends out images to attack up to 2 additional enemies near his target, dealing physical damage to each enemy struck.
Cyclone (Ultimate): Wukong's staff grows outward and he spins it around, dealing damage and knocking up enemies. Wukong gains movement speed over the duration of the spell.
Stone Skin (Passive): Wukong's armor and magic resistance are increased for each nearby enemy champion.

- Yaah, more tanky DPS...


Annie

Disintegrate
Damage reduced to 85/125/165/205/245 from 90/130/170/210/250
Ability power ratio reduced to .7 from .75
Incinerate
Damage reduced to 80/130/180/230/280 from 85/135/185/235/285
Ability power ratio reduced to .75 from .8

-Pretty decent Annie nerfs. But it was about time, even though I am personally sad because she's my best toon. At least they didn't run her into the ground like many of their nerf-stick recipients.


Cassiopeia

Miasma now gives persistent vision in the area where cast

-not that big of a deal, but nice nonetheless. Even less excuse to facecheck those bushes.


Corki

Phosphorus Bomb
No longer blinds
Damage reduced to 70/120/170/220/270 from 80/130/180/230/280
Gatling Gun attack damage ratio reduced to 20% from 25%
Missile Barrage: Big One bonus damage reduced to 50% from 60%

-Doubleyew Tee Eff?!? GINORMOUS Corki nerfs. Q doesn't blind anymore? 20% GG damage nerf? And an ult nerf just to kick him while he's down? Poorly played, Riot. Very poorly played. Corki will be seeing much less usage.


Ezreal

Fixed a bug where Mystic Shot did not interact with spell shields

-Aaaaand he's still worthless. Please try again.



Galio

General
Base health increased to 520 from 495
Base armor increased to 20.5 from 16
Armor per level reduced to 3.5 from 4
Resolute Smite
Projectile speed increased to 1300 from 1200
Mana cost reduced to 60/65/70/75/80 from 70/75/80/85/90
Ability power reduced to .7 from .8
Bulwark
Duration increased to 4 seconds from 3.5 seconds
Heal increased to 25/40/55/70/85 from 20/32/44/56/68
Idol of Durand damage reduction while channeling increased to 50% from 30%

-Nice, needed buffs. Maybe he'll be usable again. I sure hope so, cause he's lots of fun.


Gangplank

Parrrley gold bonus reduced to 4/5/6/7/8 from 4/6/8/10/12
Raise Morale
Active attack damage bonus reduced to 14/22/30/38/46 from 20/28/36/44/52
Active movement speed bonus reduced to 10/14/18/22/26% from 14/18/22/26/30%

-Good nerfs. He was a little stupid.


Janna

New models and textures for Janna and Tempest Janna
All new animations for her and her skins!

-Meh. Doesn't effect gameplay. Maybe she's a little hotter now, though. Wait, did I say that out loud? Er...I mean...YES I'M AWESOME!


Jax

Leap Strike
Attack damage ratio increased to 1.0 from 0.7
Base damage reduced to 35/60/85/110/135 from 50/75/100/125/150

-Making him scale better. Jax is already a monster in solo que if he gets some items, and this will make him even more so. I doubt he'll ever be very viable in draft mode, however.


Kayle

General
New model and animations!
Community contest "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" /dance animation
Attack damage per level reduced to 2.5 from 3
Attack speed per level reduced to 2 from 2.3
Recommended items updated
Holy Fervor
New Passive: Kayle's basic attacks against enemy champions now reduce their armor and magic resistance by 2% for 5 seconds (stacks up to 5 times)
Reckoning
Missile speed increased to 1300 from 1000
Ability power ratio increased to 1.0 from 0.8
Mana cost reduced to 70/75/80/85/90 from 80/85/90/95/100
Slow increased to 35% from 25%
Damage amplification reduced to 5% from 8/10/12/14/16%
Righteous Fury
Cooldown reduced to 16 seconds from 22/21/20/19/18 seconds
Bonus damage increased to 20/30/40/50/60 from 4/10/16/22/28
Increased splash range to 300 from 200
Ability power ratio decreased to .2 to .3
Mana cost reduced to 45 from 65
Divine Blessing
Base heal adjusted to 45/85/125/165/205 from 65/100/135/170/205
Movement speed duration reduced to 2.5 seconds from 10 seconds
Movement speed boost increased to 15/17/19/21/23% from 12%
Ability power ratio reduced to .35 from .5
Cooldown increased to 15 seconds from 10 seconds

-I like her reworks. Too many of them to make much of a judgment until I see her in play, though. But it looks like she'll be pretty fun.


Maokai

Sap Magic can now be cast while silenced

-Meh.


Orianna

Command: Dissonance
Ability power ratio reduced to .5 from .6
Movement speed slow and boost reduced to 20/25/30/35/40% from 25/30/35/40/45%

-Good nerfs. She'll still be annoying as crap in a lane, however.


Pantheon

Grand Skyfall now has a range of 5500

-Nerf all teh globals! ALL TEH GLOBALZ!!!


Swain

Ravenous Flock now prioritizes champions

-Great buff. I'll have to start playing him again, especially with Annie nerfs.


Teemo

Fixed a bug where Move Quick did not proc on-spell cast effects such as Sheen

-Meh. Who really cares?


Tryndamere

General
New model and animations!
Tryndamere has been working out and is now approximately 20% bigger
Tryndamere now uses Fury, gaining 5 per hit, 10 per crit, and 10 extra per kill.
Fury decays at 5 Fury per second after being out of combat for 10 seconds.
Bloodlust
Passively adds 5-20/10-30/15-40/20-50/25-60 Attack Damage depending on how wounded Tryndamere is
Consumes all Fury to heal Tryndamere for 30-80/40-135/50-190/60-245/70-300 depending on how much Fury was consumed
Cooldown adjusted to 12 seconds from 12/11/10/9/8 seconds
Mocking Shout is now free to cast
Spinning Slash
Spinning Slash is now free to cast
Cooldown increased to 13/12/11/10/9 seconds from 9 seconds
Base damage adjusted to 60/90/120/150/180 from 40/90/140/190/240
Scaling adjusted to 1.0 bonus Attack Damage from 0.5 total Attack Damage (still scales with AP)
Now deals physical damage instead of magic damage
Battle Fury now grants up to 35% Critical Chance, depending on how full his Fury bar is

-Another big rework. Hopefully will make Trynd less of hell to play early. Again, need to see it in action before making much of a judgment.








NOTES STOP HERE - WORK BE CALLING!!!-----------------------------------------NOTES STOP HERE - WORK BE CALLING!!!-----------------------------------------







Twisted Fate

Gate now has a range of 5500
Udyr

Tiger Stance Attack Damage ratio reduced to 1.5 from 1.7
Fixed a bug where turtle stance was healing off of the damage dealt by Madred's Razor.
Vayne

Fixed a bug where Silver Bolts would go through Blind effects.
Yorick

General
Base armor of ghouls reduced to 10 from 20
Omen of Death damage percent reduced to 45/60/75% from 50/75/100%
Omen of Pestilence now scales off of ability power at a 1.0 ratio instead of a .8 bonus attack damage ratio
Omen of Famine
Heals for 40% of the damage dealt, down from 50%
Range reduced to 550 from 650
Items

Zhonya's Hourglass combine cost reduced to 800 from 1000
Randuin's Omen and Shurelya's Reverie will now grant assists

21.7.11

Inb4 Next Patch

Morello is doing talks about a "global teleport tech" which has been one of my ideas for a long time, limiting the range of global abilities. While I have supported the idea in the past, I think that adding a range to globals at this stage in the game could be detrimental to the heroes that it will be affecting. Why?

Well, there is the classic instance of Shen, where he is first picked/banned every single solo queue match. Then, a patch later (and a blog later where I predicted this would happen), Shen is seen to not be viable anymore, simply because what Riot did to him was change certain aspects that were not OP to compensate for the one thing that made him OP. They changed around stats and made his laning phase utterly terrible which was his weakness to begin with. This tilted the balance of the OP scale so much out of his favor that he was basically deleted out of the minds of a majority of the community.

While TF may be percieved as OP at the moment, I am not sure if adding a range to his ultimate would truely "balance" the hero. Without his ultimate, TF is very weak. We are already seeing a decline in TF bans in tournaments, and nerfing his ultimate by adding a range to it could be the final nail in the coffin of TF that will bury him alongside Eve and Twitch, and countless other heroes that have been nerfed out of viability. Adding a longer casting delay on his teleport (1-2 seconds) may be all that is needed to fix TF, rather than making his ultimate a ranged ability.

As for Pantheon, I see him to be a niche hero. He sacrifices laning dominance for having a global ultimate, one that I have seen to be very strong lately if used correctly even at 2200-2400 levels of solo queue play. I do not think that Pantheon changes are necessary, as his global has a huge casting delay that makes up for the overpowered global mechanic, balancing it out in effect. I think that Pantheon is in a great place, and bringing him back to where he used to be where he dominated lanes with little effort is not a direction I would like to see him go.
The most overpowered mechanic I see at the moment is teleport. Giving heroes a global mechanic that should not have them is detrimental, and this was seen at dreamhack. Having to farm at tower because the mid carry can instantly kill you if he leaves the map for 3-4 seconds is a mechanic that is seen as "anti-fun".

Giving you the ability to see the ward that the enemy is teleporting to was a very weak fix. I suggest making teleport only targettable on blue/purple minions (not player minions) and towers, which would be a very simple and correct fix. Teleport would still be strong, just not unavoidable to the point where you have to buy a level 6 oracles or you WILL be stuck at tower farming for the majority of the game.
PST me for more free balancing advice.

8.7.11

Jungle Tutorial - Leashing

Patch Notes Comments

by Elementz on Tuesday, July 5th 2011 - 17:59 / 9958 Views /
Basically these are some balance changes that I think would help the game out

Galio - W: Now instead of waiting for a hit to heal the target, heals the target for half of what the first hit would heal for upfront.

Reason: Basically giving Galio a mini heal on the first heal so he can be a support / tank. I feel Galio could use some love and he could be viable if he was able to lane and support someone bottom a bit better. I think this little change could make him a viable support / tank.

Lux - W: Shield now absorbs 65% on first hit and 35% on come back.

Reason: 50/50 isn't that great. An extra 15% upfront really helps out her early game shielding damage, and overall improves her survivability and that of those she wants to save. You cast your shield to hit someone on the way out with it, catching them on the way back is just an added bonus. If the shield upfront % shielded was increased it would help out her laning, survivability, and overall team utility.

Early game stats: Some HP, armor, and MR buff to her early game. Like 60 HP, 7 or so armor and like 5 MR.

Reason: Her early game stats are quite weak and her early game CD's on her spells are long. She can't spam as well as other casters and stat wise she's one of the weakest. I believe helping her stats out early game would really help her laning phase out.

Renekton - E: Now slices for 5% of armor per Slice N Dice. Rage Slice N Dice for 7.5% of enemies armor. This debuff stacks twice. Totaling 10% normal, 15% rage.

Reason: Regular Slice N Dice really has no offensive value other than position. I feel if the non rage ability could use some love and add some much needed utility to Renekton.

R: Now provides 15/30/45 bonus MR and 15/30/45 bonus armor

Reason: His ultimate is good and all but I don't feel it's enough especially late game. I Feel giving tankyness to it could really benefit him. 15/30 aren't really that big of a deal for early and mid game. The 45 late game though does help out quite a bit and that's where he really struggles to stay alive.

Kassadin - Q: Now deals 80 damage up from 60 at level 1. Rank 2 increased by 10 damage as well. Level 3,4,5 remain the same.

Reason: Kass has issues early game trading with opponents. 60 damage + MR = around 45 damage, where as an AD carry or ranged AP carry can merely auto attack or spell + auto attack and deal much more damage to Kassadin. Similar to Vlad's early game Q damage buff this would allow his early game to be a bit stronger where he is weakest.

Got some balance changes you think should be added? Disagree/Agree with mine? Leave me a reply then