Sejuani Patch Thoughts

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/news/sejuani-patch-notes

I'm going to go through the patch notes for the release of Sejuani and give my thoughts on the changes.

The PvP.net changes are meh.

Sejuani, The Winter's Wrath

I'm excited about her. It seems like Riot is finally understanding how to build and design tanks. Also, her frost triggers Anivia's Frostbite - very nice.

Ahri

Nerfed

This isn't crippling for her, but it hits her early game harass and her late game escapability. This shouldn't be that bad for her. A small nerf.

Dr. Mundo

Buffed

This is huge for Mundo. His base stats got significant buffs, and his survivability got buffed via a CDR decrease on his ultimate and less Health per second on his Burning Agony. He might actually be good now. This is exciting news.

Fizz

Bugfixes

Graves

Nerfed

Wow, did they really have to hit him again? And this time, it might be for good. This is a significant nerf, especially on top of the previous significant nerf.

Jarvan IV

Buffed

He's back! Very fun to play, but extraordinary mana issues early-mid game have relegated him to low-tier status, and certainly lower than almost every other tank. This fixes all that! Or, at least it just helps out a lot. Very exciting news.

Jax

Remade

This looks like a potentially very strong remake. Jax could be very scary, or he could just be even easier to play around now...

Nunu

Buffed

Slight buffs, but really not that much. This will help him Jungle, certainly, and make him a tad more viable late game.

Rammus

Nerfed

They nerfed his ridiculous mobility a little bit - this is mostly important for Dominion. They also slightly nerfed his only real source of damage, which is a bit strange and probably unnecessary.

Riven

Nerfed

They really hit her sustainability with this patch. Also, they made Ki Burst less the "obvious choice"

Shaco

Nerfed

They hit Shaco's Jungle here. They also hit AP Shaco pretty hard due to the max 1 minute duration of a nest of Jack-In-The-Boxes. But that's ok because AP Shaco is terrible.

Skarner

Nerfed

Well, he's now been nerfed straight back to hell. It's a shame that they can't seem to find a middle ground. When he was released, he was underpowered and had huge mana issues. They fixed that, but overbuffed him. No one seemed to notice for quite awhile, and then suddenly people realized how ludicrously powerful he is. Now he's been completely overnerfed. This is kind of really disappointing.

Tryndamere

Nerfed

Hit his sustain, hit his early game dominance. These needed to happen pretty badly.

Vayne

Nerfed

How many nerfs can she take before she is finally unviable? I think this won't stop people who really want to play her, but it's strange that they hit her and not Caitlyn. Now Caitlyn is pretty much obviously the dominant AD Carry.

Volibear

Buff/Nerf

In general, they just moved his damage capability around. He no longer only deals damage with Frenzy. Well, he still kinda does I guess, but he has less burst and more sustained damage potential.

Warwick

Buffed

Slightly. This feels much better for him.

Xerath

Bugfix

Items

Ionic Spark replaces Sword of the Divine. This is a good thing.

Ninja Tabi are... ok again. We'll have to see if they're still any good without stacking dodge.

Stinger and Nashor's Tooth buffs. Yay! Teemo!

Summoner Spells

Surge got buffed by a lot. Might be more useful now. It's on the same CD as Ignite, sounds good.

Shyvana Build and Playstyle

I've been having success with Shyvana, and I figured that I'd share with you guys what I've been building and how I've been playing her and get your thoug
hts and suggestions.

Builds (Dominion):

Runes:

9 Marks of Insight (magic pen)

9 Seals of Evasion (dodge)

9 Glyphs of Focus (flat CDR)

3 Quints of Desolation/Headless Horseman (armor pen)

• The reason for taking both Magic Pen and Armor Pen in my runes is because Shyvana's damage is pretty varied, and mostly comes down to using basics attacks/Q, Twin Bite (armor pen) while your Burnout is active (magic pen). If you happen to hit with your E, Flame Breath, then that is also magic pen on the initial hit, but also on the subsequent procs as well.
• The reason for magic pen and not AP quints is because Burnout does not scale with AP, but instead off of attack damage. So, we'd much rather get the extra damage potential off of magic pen.
• Seals: Evasion is so overpoweringly awesome in Dominion, I take 9-13% dodge from runes and masteries on almost every champion I play in Dominion.
• Glyphs: CDR is just good. Using your abilities more often is fantastic, but I could see an argument for going with Glyphs of Warding or Resilience in this slot instead.
• Other rune choices: I have not tried anything else, but I could see an argument for more Magic Pen instead of Armor Pen, Armor instead of Dodge, and Defense Glyphs instead of CDR.

Masteries:

9/16/4

• Offense:
• 1 Rank in Cripple, the Exhaust Mastery, is essential. It will give you the advantage you need to beat a Jax, Tryn, Akali, etc in 1v1 combat. It also helps with teamfights by neutralizing the other team's AD carry.
• 3 ranks in Deadliness (2% Crit Chance) or Archmage's Savvy (.6 AP per level). Either way, this doesn't really mean much to you. The extra crit chance will be nice if you wind up building Infinity Edge, or more likely, Atma's Impaler; the extra AP will be a consistent little boost to your E and R damage ratios. I personally choose Deadliness because I usually plan to build Atma's Impaler.
• 4 ranks in Sorcery (CDR). 4% CDR is wayyy better than 4% attack speed. It also gets you the next one.
• 1 rank in Archaic Knowledge. 15% magic pen is pretty huge. It makes almost everything you do deal increased damage.
• Reasons for not going 21 points in Offense: You'd probably wind up going 21/9/0 (to get Nimbleness) or 23/6/1 (if you don't do the Dodge thing). You just lost a Health boost, physical damage reduction, some Dodge, Armor, or MR, and the Ghost mastery so that you could gain extra armor pen (which you already have in spades from runes and the universal buff), 2% attack speed (which is negligible), 3 bonus AD (which is nigh negligible), a bonus on your crit damage (which doesn't matter until late game - and only if you build for it), and an extra 4% damage on everything you do (which is good). My point here is that 21 points in the Offense tree does not actually mean you're better at offense. It means you're squishier. And that is a bad thing to be when you see Xin Zhao in the jungle.

• Defense:
• 3 ranks in Resistance and 3 ranks in Hardiness. These extra resistances will help you immensely at the bloodbath at the windmill at the beginning of the game.
• 4 ranks in Evasion. Dodge is excellent in Dominion. Also, you don't have mana, so the other one isn't an option.
• 1 rank in Nimbleness. Very good with all the Dodge.
• 1 rank in Harden Skin. This is mostly just to get the 12 point requirement for Veteran's Scars, but it is still a solid 1 damage decrease.
• 4 ranks in Veteran's Scars. So good, especially early. Will help you out at the Windmill.

• Utility:
• 1 rank in Haste. Moving at 33% speed for 11.5 seconds is better than 27% for 10.
• 3 ranks in Good Hands. You die in Dominion. It's good to be alive more. These points could easily go into something else. I personally like them here. On most champions I play, these 3 points usually become 3 ranks of Ardor from the Defense tree.

• You may have realized by this point that I've only spent 29 points so far. This is because the last one is a complete crapshoot. My recommendations are 1 rank in Sunder, or an additional rank in Harden Skin. A rank in Ardor is also not out of the question.

Abilities:

I level my abilities like this:

1. Burnout
2. Twin Bite
3. Flame Breath
4. Burnout
5. Burnout
6. Dragon's Descent
7. Burnout
8. Twin Bite
9. Burnout
10. Twin Bite
11. Dragon's Descent
12. Twin Bite
13. Twin Bite
14. Flame Breath
15. Flame Breath
16. Dragon's Descent
17. Flame Breath
18. Flame Breath

• The reason why I level with these priorities is because Burnout is a significant damage dealing ability that you want to utilize to it's maximum effectiveness. Especially with Dragon's Descent active, this makes you actually useful in teamfights. Also, Twin Bite's cooldown is reduced with level, which is why it levels 2nd. Other than that, I don't really care much for Twin Bite, it is basically just an extra attack. Flame Breath gets ignored mostly for a couple reasons. A) It is a skill shot. You are not guaranteed this damage. B) It scales off AP. C) The only things that level up with it are reduced cooldown, and base damage. D) The important traits of this ability - cone in Dragon form, 15% armor reduction, marked for 4 seconds - are all constant throughout the ability. All of this means that it should be leveled last.

Gameplay:

I play Shyvana as an opportunist. I usually don't engage the enemy unless I have an advantage (my R is up, Exhaust is off cooldown, I'm at higher health, etc) and I especially try to hit with my E before I engage. Having that E mark is essential to winning a 1v1 with a melee fighter. One shot of E should deal damage 5 times if you're doing it right (once OnHit for full damage, and then 1 auto-attack for 15% proc, Q for 2 15% procs, and then another auto for another proc). Also, use Burnout to initiate - they'll probably run away from you. This will allow you to get the full 6 seconds of Burnout. Hit Q whenever it is off cooldown. Dragon's Descent is much harder to figure out how to use effectively. This is pretty much all about positioning. You leap, drag enemies, leave a trail of Burnout behind you, shoot a cone in front of you, Twin Bite also splashes to people in front of you... It's like... Yeah... The one thing I can say about your R is that you shouldn't be afraid to use it in a 1v1. Especially if you already have Burnout active (you'll leave the ground scorched behind you - where they're now standing - and you still have it active on yourself. They take double damage from it). You also want to use all your abilities as soon as they're off cooldown when in Dragon form - especially the Flame Breath, as it will turn a teamfight over to your side instantly (damage + debuff).

In a perfect world in most situations, I lead with E (land it), activate W and charge at them, activate Q, and then wait for things to come back from cooldown. Sometimes this means disengaging, running through some bushes, around the turret, etc. You're much scarier when you have everything up and proc'd. Against an Akali or Jax, etc, you're probably better off engaging them in 5 seconds spurts over the course of a 20-30 second encounter.

Items:

I have only really done one build with Shyvana, but it has worked wondrously for me.

This is the standard build for Dominion.

• Ninja Tabi. I almost always buy these shoes off the beginning. They're really cheap and realllllly powerful. This should get you to 19% Dodge chance and 31 Armor at the beginning of the game. That will help so much at the Windmill and throughout the game. I only don't buy them if the other team is like Mage, Mage, Mage, Support, AD carry that doesn't rely on Auto. Other shoe option in this case is Mercury's Treads.
• Frozen Mallet. I almost always buy this as my first item. 700 health is big - will keep you alive longer so that you can do more sustained damage. Auto-slow on attack is big - will keep people inside the range of your Burnout, or keep them from chasing you if you want to get away from them. 20 damage isn't that good, but survivability and synergy with abilities is the name of the game here.
• Sunfire Cape. More health! More armor! More AoE magic damage! What is not to like? You basically just punish people for being near you with all your abilities, and you're really hard to kill.
• Atma's Impaler. You now have a 20% crit chance. All of the sudden. That's nice. extra armor is also good. You have lots of Health already. You hit really hard all of the sudden. This is very good.
• This is where the game is usually over, one way or the other.

This is the build if the other team is being annoying with magic damage/cc, etc.

• Mercury's Treads.
• Wit's End
• Frozen Mallet
• Negatron Cloak
• Negatron Cloak
• Negatron Cloak
• Build the cloaks into other things now. Or you could always build more health and try for a late Atma's Impaler, but it'll probably be too late for that. Just survive. Attack the squishy casters - you don't need much damage to take them out anyway.
  

I know a lot of people buy Trinity Force on her, but I just feel like it would be too expensive and potentially not give her the survivability I think she needs. But I haven't tried it out, so who am I to talk?

Anyway:

This has been a rambling insight into how I play and build Shyvana. Hope someone finds this to be useful!

New Summoner Spells!

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/news/inside-design-summoner-spells-and-season-two

Holy Crap I love what they're doing with this. Maybe I'll actually wind up taking Rally/Surge now :P

Trolls

Trolls. They are everywhere. And I hate them.

LoL Beta

So I got an invite to the LoL PBE Beta, and it's pretty weird, I have to say.

I can't go into too much detail because of an NDA, but suffice it to say that anyone can look at the bug reports in the PBE forums and see the list of stuff. Mostly, it's little things, but overall it's weird to see the man behind the curtain, you know?

Things have been quiet here lately...

There hasn't been anything to respond to for a bit, so I shall take it upon myself to (maybe) start a conversation.

Over the last week or so, I've begun to step away from some of the champions I traditionally play, such as Rumble, Maokai, and Mordekaiser. Instead, I have been trying out a few champions of different play styles, and I've been having quite a bit of fun in the process.

The first of these is Gragas. He's a champion I've long been interested in, but I never got around to trying him. What with him being free, I decided enough was enough and finally gave him a go. A day after first playing him, I had spent all of my IP to buy him. I have a feeling that he would probably be decent as a tanky dps character, but AP Gragas is just too much fun. His ultimate in particular is worth mentioning; you can get the cooldown on it to somewhere between 30 and 40 seconds. That is absolutely amazing for a move that can change the game as much as that. Also, the unintentional comedy of saving an enemy champion's life with it is always good for a laugh.

Wukong is another one that I've been playing a lot lately. I really enjoy his style of play; he's a very nimble champion and it's great to be able to duck in and out of combat by using his stealth skill (the name eludes me). He has decent burst damage and his ultimate is very powerful, mainly for the knock-up effect (though the damage isn't to be sneezed at either). He fills a role I have been long seeking to fill: being someone sort of like Xin Zhao who isn't actually Xin Zhao (I'm not sure why I dislike Xin Zhao so much, I've heard he's not even that good at higher levels of play).

Finally, there's Kog'Maw. I had previously been playing as Ashe as my ranged AD character of choice, but I decided that you see quite a few Ashe players but Kog'Maw tends to be neglected. I do believe that he's trickier to play than most ranged AD characters; he's fairly slow and squishy. As a consequence of this, good positioning is even more important for him than other champions in a similar vein. I've had mixed results when playing as him in the middle lane, but a side lane with a support champion (Soraka is ideal) or a strong laning champion (I had a good time pairing up with Rhizophora as Galio) tends to work out quite nicely. You're basically an artillery unit when you play as Kog'Maw, and when you get things right it feels fantastic.

An honorable mention goes to Swain, who is also great deals of fun now that I'm actually starting to play him properly and not lose as catastrophically as before.

So, there you have it. Thoughts? Musings? Erotic limericks? If you combine all three I may be tempted to buy you a drink sometime.

Alistar!

Holy crap! I just got my first win as Alistar! After countless games of getting completely owned by enemy Alistars, I decided to try him out a couple weeks ago... And I failed. Miserably. 0-5.

However, today I decided to get his Longhorn Alistar skin and give him another try. It went wayyy better than it previously had and I got my first win as him.

I realized that my problem had been that I had been building him for AP burst, but never building his damage spells - however that's not even a good idea. So I went Desolation Runes, Flat Armor Seals, some defense glyphs? and a Fortitude and 2 Swiftness Quints for my rune page; and then 1/8/21 on masteries (smite in offense cause I was jungling, strength of spirit in defense, and typical 21 Utility). Then on items I built Philosopher's Stone, Heart of Gold, and Merc's Treads initially with a bunch of wards, then built a Trinity Force. My original plan had been to just build the Sheen and then build armor and/or MR items and finish the TriForce later, but we were doing so well and I needed my ganks to be stronger than for my sustainability to last. By the time I finished my TriForce, the enemy team had surrendered.

I was able to gank early and often. My early ganks did not result in kills, but they did result in the enemy team recalling and giving up position in lane - which is all I really wanted.

I placed meaningful and impactful wards on both sides of the river that saved lives and resulted in at least one kill.

I maintained level with the bottom lane (of course mid and top, the solo lanes, outran me), and that was awesome.

Overall, I was very pleased with myself and my performance. I finally got the stupid purple cow to work for me!