Patch Notes Update and Discussion Thread

Hi all, this is to serve as a discussion thread for patch changes as they come. Listed below are the proposed changes for the Hecarim Patch. I will be listing my personal comments in italics below each change, on how that change might affect gameplay in my opinion. For all previous patch changes, please refer to http://lol-patch.com/

Hecarim Patch Preview

Akali
Base Health increased to 530, up from 510.
Base Armor increased to 20, up from 17.

An appropriate buff to her early game ever since they nerfed her passive and Q a few patches back.

Janna

Monsoon now costs 150/225/300 Mana, down from 200/275/350 Mana.

A rather minor buff, possibly to compensate the previous patch's nerf where her shield's AD buff is lost upon breaking.

Kayle

Divine Blessing now increases movement speed by 18/21/24/27/30% for 3 seconds, up from 15/17/19/21/23% for 2.5 seconds.
Divine Blessing now heals for 60/105/150/195/240, up from 45/85/125/165/205.
Divine Blessing now costs 60/70/80/90/100 Mana, up from 60/65/70/75/80 Mana.

A good buff all round. We will be seeing more Kayle picks now, especially since the more popular supports have been getting nerfed, and this effectively narrows the gap between Kayle and the perceived "tier 1" supports. The increased speed buff makes her even more attractive given that the meta is now leaning towards non-sustain supports(nunu, leona) rather than just pure healing.

Orianna

Command: Attack now costs 50 Mana at all levels instead of 50/55/60/65/70 Mana.

About time, because Orianna has been suffering from a similar fate as Irelia; overnerfed.

Sejuani

Arctic Assault now costs 70/75/80/85/90 Mana, down from 70/80/90/100/110 Mana.

Pretty minor. She's mostly played as a jungler, and even then I don't think she has serious mana issues anyway.

Swain

Ravenous Flock now costs an extra 5/6/7 Mana each second to sustain, down from 5/7/9 Mana.

Good buff that makes him less reliant on blue, bringing him closer on par with the other popular tanky caster in the game, Vlad.

Ziggs

Hexplosive Minefield now slows enemies for 1.5 seconds, down from 2 seconds.

I felt Ziggs needed a slight nerf to this skill on release, but this wasn't the nerf I was looking for, I expected a casting range nerf. Ziggs gives melee champs a hard time in lane due to this skill, and only time will tell if this nerf will help bring him in line


Zilean

Chronoshift now costs 125/150/175 Mana, down from 200 Mana at all ranks.
Time Warp now costs 80 Mana, down from 100 Mana.

Nice buffs, not great, but still good since anyone who's played Zilean knows that he has mana issues. This will help solve some of them.


Item Changes


Atma's Impaler now grants Attack Damage equal to 1.5% of your maximum Health, down from 2%.

Long overdue nerf, almost everyone knows this item has been borderline OP, and that's why Warmogs + Atmas's or Frozen Mallet + Atmas's builds have been so common on melee champs. Previously, the breakeven point for this item was 1125hp, now it's been raised to 1500hp, which still makes it quite good imo.

Doran's Blade now grants +80 Health, down from +100 Health.

Doran's Ring now grants +80 Health, down from +100 Health.

Honestly these nerfs surprised me. Boots + pots/cloth + pots are far more common starts, so were these really necessary ? Maybe they had to do with flat runes being buffed this patch as well

Hexdrinker shield effect now lasts 5 seconds, up from 3 seconds.

Not much to say here. 3 seconds seemed fine for its cost/purpose.

Wit's End now has a 2150 Item Cost and 700 Recipe Cost. Up from 2000 Item Cost and 550 Recipe Cost.

Between the two early offensive items that gave some MR, Wit's End was always more popular than Hexdrinker. Added to the fact that there are more champs with "on-hit" skills nowadays only served to make this item more appealing. Commonly seen item now on bruisers. Appropriate cost increase imo.

Runes Changes


Glyph of Insight now grants +0.53 Magic Penetration, up from 0.44

Glyph of Potency now grants +0.92 Ability Power, up from 0.77

Glyph of Warding now grants +1.04 Magic Resist, down from 1.16.

Greater Glyph of Insight now grants +0.68 Magic Penetration, up from 0.57.

Greater Glyph of Potency now grants +1.19 Ability Power, up from 0.99.

Greater Glyph of Warding now grants +1.34 Magic Resist, down from 1.49.

Greater Mark of Warding now grants +0.77 Magic Resist, down from 0.97

Greater Quintessence of Destruction now grants +2 Armor Penetration / +1.3 Magic
penetration. Up from +2 Armor Penetration / +1.13 Magic Penetration.

Greater Quintessence of Insight now grants +2.18 Magic Penetration, up from +1.89.

Greater Quintessence of Warding now grants +4 Magic Resist, down from +4.5.

Lesser Glyph of Insight now grants +0.38 Magic Penetration, up from +0.32.

Lesser Glyph of Potency now grants +0.66 Ability Power, up from +0.55.

Lesser Glyph of Warding now grants +0.74 Magic Resist, down from +0.83.

Lesser Mark of Warding now grants +0.43 Magic Resist, down from +0.54.

Lesser Quintessence of Destruction now grants +1.11 Armor Penetration / +0.72 Magic
Penetration. Up from +1.11 Armor Penetration / +0.63 Magic Penetration.

Lesser Quintessence of Insight now grants +1.21 Magic Penetration, up from +1.05.

Lesser Quintessence of Warding now grants +2.22 Magic Resist, up from +2.5.

Mark of Warding now grants +0.6 Magic Resist, down from +0.75.

Quintessence of Destruction now grants +1.55 Armor Penetration / +1.01 Magic Penetration. Up from +1.55 Armor Penetration / +0.88 Magic Penetration.

Quintessence of Insight now grants +1.69 Magic Penetration, up from +1.47.

Quintessence of the Piercing Screech now grants +2.01 Magic Penetration, up from +1.75.

Quintessence of Warding now grants +3.11 Magic Resist, down from +3.5.

Offensive Caster Runes (Flat AP and Mpen) getting buffed, and defensive MR runes getting nerfed. I felt these changes were appropriate since for a long time now, AP/level runes were commonly preferred over flat AP runes given that they overtake flat values by level 6. At the same time, Flat MR runes were commonly preferred for most champs over MR/level. These changes should help even things out. Mpen quints got a buff as well, making the ideal caster setup become 9 Mpen reds and 1 mp quint, combined with sorc boots to hit 30.68 Mpen. Before this, Flat AP quints were considered superior to Mpen. Players who wanted to hit the magic number of 30mpen still took flat AP quints and opted for 3 mpen blues.

These changes are not the finalised changes as of yet, but I was hoping we could get some discussion going on these changes here.

i feel that the doran nerfs are extremely appropriate, that is to stop the "snowballing out of control" meta. As it is now, once mid/top gets a few kills from jungler early, dorans are the best choice for them to put their advantage in stone. It is almost impossible to gank a fed mid because the 3 dorans has effectively increase his hp by 1/3 while being threatening enough to not permit tower dive plus enough mana regeneration that laughs at the current nerfed blue buff.

That kind of advantage has always stop me from getting other survival kits such as catalyst, negatron cloak, belt of giant, or chainmail even if my lane has the upper hand and can afford that little setback. Because it isn't funny anymore when my lane opponent starts out with only 1 doran when i gain advantage. But a fews ganks from jungler, let the solo mid proceeds with sitting on top of me with 3 dorans(300hp) while i had a pathetic giant belt(430hp) or catalyst (290hp, 325mana).

This then ultimately contributes to the 1st item rabadon strat because it is so much safer to stack 3 dorans, go straight to big wand than buying many small parts separately that couldn't even compare to half the advantage that doran stacking brings.

trexene wrote:

i feel that the doran nerfs are extremely appropriate, that is to stop the "snowballing out of control" meta. As it is now, once mid/top gets a few kills from jungler early, dorans are the best choice for them to put their advantage in stone. It is almost impossible to gank a fed mid because the 3 dorans has effectively increase his hp by 1/3 while being threatening enough to not permit tower dive plus enough mana regeneration that laughs at the current nerfed blue buff.

That kind of advantage has always stop me from getting other survival kits such as catalyst, negatron cloak, belt of giant, or chainmail even if my lane has the upper hand and can afford that little setback. Because it isn't funny anymore when my lane opponent starts out with only 1 doran when i gain advantage. But a fews ganks from jungler, let the solo mid proceeds with sitting on top of me with 3 dorans(300hp) while i had a pathetic giant belt(430hp) or catalyst (290hp, 325mana).

This then ultimately contributes to the 1st item rabadon strat because it is so much safer to stack 3 dorans, go straight to big wand than buying many small parts separately that couldn't even compare to half the advantage that doran stacking brings.

MM.. very valid point you have there. I didnt consider doran's stacking. Yeah triple doran's ring into Deathcap has been a very common build for most burst casters.

Dorans items encourages the early snowball effect.

well hexdrinker is good now because the introduction of maw. i find myself to buy maw for every tanky dps hero such as renek, gp. i find the increase for the duration is better. 3 sec is good, 5 sec? lets abuse the power. the problem is, it only block magic damage. same as morg shield./

for kayle, this will develop a new playstyle for her. she can go either ap carry or a support. imo, she is better play as sp due to recent buff, the movement speed buff from divine blessing will prove it worth offensively and defensively.