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.

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?