6.22.2011

Patch v1.0.0.120 Reactions

I decided to record my initial reactions to the latest patch.

Yorick looks fun. I'll wait to see other people play him.

Evelynn nerf seems strange. She is now unusable. Why not allow her to remain lost in anonymity until the rework?

Fiddlesticks needed this buff. We'll see if anyone plays him now.

Gangplank buff was much needed. Still not enough to make him viable. He needs an actual rework.

Heimerdinger buff is still not enough to make him viable.

Irelia had just an interesting change. I'm not sure how much it will change anything.

Janna and Twisted Fate's passives deactivating on death makes a lot of sense.

Jarvan IV nerf = :( He's still viable, but I think I'm gonna try out Blitzcrank or Renekton now as primary offtank (3v3 is still Irelia)

Jax nerf is very strange. He's really not any good, maybe they're trying to force players toward AD?

Kassadin buff is very interesting. He is no longer handicapped by that armor penetration, but is now more AP driven. All in all, probably a very good and very strong change for kass.

Malzahar. Why did they nerf him? He was already pretty difficult to use and really only useful on a team that knew how to play with him... This makes me really sad. I guess I'll move on to Vlad...?

Morgana gets a pretty insignificant buff. This won't make anyone play her.

Nunu nerf was coming. I really like the change to Ice Blast slow. It was a little too powerful at low levels. Also, consume at low levels was letting him jungle too fast. Basically, his ganks were too good and his jungle too fast.

Rumble nerf makes sense. They didn't realize how easy that ult was going to be to place.

Udyr buff. THANK YOU. I love him, and it's been too long coming. This makes his jungle super fast. He might rival Olaf now, but I doubt he'll be viable without a legitimate ranged ability or valid initation ability.

Vayne nerf. Fuck you very much and go away :P She was just a dumb design. They basically just scaled back ALL of her damage. Maybe she'll finally come back down to earth.

Vladimir change is very interesting. They buffed him early and nerfed him late... I thought the problem with Vladimir was that he was too good early...?

Xin Zhao nerf makes sense. He's been a little too good recently.

Philo stone nerf is strange on top of making the passive unique. Speaking of which...

I'm one of the few fans of the 5per10 item nerfs. It makes sense of philostone and heart of gold, but why Kage's pick and Avarice Blade? Who were they hurting?

Quicksilver Sash buff is much needed. That item isn't used enough.

Hextech revolver nerf is so necessary. Basically a vladimir nerf.

I like the changes to player kills, and I also thought that Spirit Visage and Ignite already affected lifesteal and spell vamp? So I was confused to find out that I was wrong all this time about that.

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TL;DR

Big Winners:
  • Fiddlesticks (he might actually be playable now!)
  • Kassadin (he might be Tier 1 now, not just a counterpick)
  • Udyr (he still needs a minor rework to be Tier 1)

Winners:
  • Gangplank (pirate gets a buff, another shot at a new build making him viable)
  • Irelia (escapes the nerf hammer again! no big change here, she's still top-of-the-line)
  • Heimerdinger (reduced mana costs on turrets makes his lane phase stronger)
  • Quicksilver Sash (reduced cooldown might make this more playable)
  • Spirit Visage (the item doing what it is supposed to do seems like a good thing)
  • Ignite (the summoner spell doing what it is supposed to do seems like a good thing)

Neutral:
  • Janna (no big change here, just stay alive, you're a support)
  • Twisted Fate (no big change here, just stay alive, there is a support babysitting you)


Losers:
  • Jarvan IV (slight nerf, probably still very strong, but we'll see)
  • Jax (random nerf on underpowered champion - Gangplank's remake anyone?)
  • Malzahar (nerf hurts Malzahar pretty bad, I hope he's still viable)
  • Morgana (nothing much changed, but that means she's still underpowered after they addressed her)
  • Nunu (nerfed jungling, nerfed ganking. this patch really hurts Nunu)
  • Rumble (nerfed the ultimate. they discovered that it wasn't as hard to land as expected)
  • Vladimir (hopefully not ungodly powerful anymore, we'll have to see how hard he falls)
  • Xin Zhao (nerfed his strength in teamfights - he's back to his intended role, usefulness in question)
  • Philosopher's Stone (nerfed stackability - not the end of the world)
  • Heart of Gold (nerfed stackability - not the end of the world)
  • Kage's Lucky Pick (nerfed stackability - but no one played more than one copy of this ever anyway)
  • Hextech Revolver (nerf aimed at Vladimir unintentionally renders this item useless for all other mages)
Big Losers:
  • Evelynn (nerfed into OBLIVION)
  • Vayne (we'll see how hard this nerf hits her, but it looks like it's gonna be rough)
  • Avarice Blade (this was only used to stack for crit builds - this may never be purchased again)

What do you guys think?

1 comment:

  1. Revisiting this a month later is pretty interesting to see how things worked out. Working from my TL;DR list...

    Big Winners:

    Fiddlesticks: I was mostly right about this. The buffs made him much better and actually bordering on viable. However, he's still not very good.

    Kassadin: I was kinda wrong about this. Kassadin is still just a meh champion that should only really be used as a counterpick.

    Udyr: I was wrong about this, but not because the buffs weren't strong enough. He's rocketed to bordering on OP - and it has nothing to do with the jungle. He is a house in the lane, with Turtle Stance, he simply can't be moved. He's going to be addressed in the next patch.

    Winners:

    Gangplank: Wow I was wrong about this. This buff has made him a rockstar overnight. He is wayyy too good and will be addressed in the next patch.

    I was right on with the others.

    Neutral:

    Yep.

    Losers:

    Jarvan IV: Poor bastard... Still good, but he got nerfed AGAIN after this nerf and he's still viable, which is saying something, but still... Sad.

    Jax and Morgana are still bad, I was correct.

    Malzahar: this nerf was really bad for him. I was correct.

    Nunu is practically nonexistent anymore. He either needs to be rebuffed or Alistar needs to be nerfed.

    Rumble is still really good, this just reined him in.

    Vladimir is not good anymore. This was worse than I thought it would be.

    Xin Zhao is still really good. I was wrong.

    It turns out that the nerfs to the 5per10 gold items was overall just not that bad.

    Hextech Revolver: This tangential nerf to Vladimir rendered this item useless.

    Big Losers:

    Evelynn doesn't exist anymore. I was right.

    Vayne isn't bad, she's just not that good anymore. I exaggerated the effect of this nerf.

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    Overall, pretty spot on.

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