http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od10884Mv7M
A new patch ninja'd its way into the game. Here's what you get in this patch for those too lazy to look at the site.
Anything in red is a quote from Pwyff.
Custom Item Sets
The big change. It now allows you to set your own item set up from your summoner profile.
Choose items to appear in the shop set up in categories like the Recommended section. These sections can be named.
These can be assigned to whatever champions you choose.
These can be assigned to whatever maps you choose.
To select them in-game, just click the "Recommended" tab in the shop and a drop-down menu should appear.
Champions - Important Changes
Akali got a buff (sorry, Ame). Twilight Shroud grants her vision, and the Essences of Shadow got a slight cut in charge time. "These two changes are intended to give Akali's kit some utility. With Twilight Shroud now granting vision where it's placed, Akali can perform interesting jungle and lane jukes by first casting Twilight Shroud to gain vision of an enemy or jungle monster, and then using Shadow Dance as an escape tool. Overall, it should be a cool little trick that adds some depth to this ability."
Caitlyn...got a little bit of love and hate. Not good that she can't just shoot up turrets to gain Headshot stacks anymore, or the decrease in base AS, but at least she will get more Attack Speed late-game. "Caitlyn was crowding out a lot of other AD champions with her potent siege capabilities and strong lane trading potential. We wanted to highlight her weakness to extended trades as a sniper by reducing her base attack speed. Additionally, by removing the accrual of headshot stacks when attacking turrets, it'll be a little more difficult for Caitlyn to perpetually siege towers in early game while zoning out enemies with the threat of a headshot."
Cassiopeia's Twin Fang is now a single-target spell. This affects things like Rylai's passive.
Diana got a big change. It's mostly nerfs attaining to damage output from Moonsilver Blade and shield strength from Pale Cascade, but the shield can now stack on top of the original amount given. "As a melee champion, Diana should have an inherent weakness to lane harass. These changes are to reduce some of the safe and efficient wave clear Diana was getting from auto-attacking with her shield up in lane. The shield change will help Diana in mid- to late-game team fights when she needs to dive into multiple enemies to engage. Before the changes, Diana's shield refreshed almost immediately and she got no benefit from the first stack unless she took damage very quickly upon initiating. Now with her shields stacking on top of each other, Diana will gain a little more survivability in these kind of engagements."
Elise got a buff and nerf, like Caitlyn. Skittering Frenzy does slightly more damage but her Spider Form no longer grants bonus defenses. "Removing the bonus Armor and Magic Resist in Spider Form while increasing the ability power ratio on Skittering Frenzy will better position Elise's offensive capabilities and vulnerabilities. Elise continues to be a very strong lane bully; she will just need to think carefully about when she can win a trade."
Jarvan IV's Demacian Standard got a nerf in terms of its vision range (vision radius is now 700 rather than 850).
Miss Fortune got a small slap from the nerf gun. Impure Shots, despite now having a higher stack cap, do less damage per stack. "Miss Fortune excels at trading in lanes, but her Impure Shots were building too quickly and dealing too much burst damage with the use of Double Up. With this change, Miss Fortune loses some of her burst potential, but will do around the same damage in extended trades."
Nami buffs, just for Erick. Her basic attacks hit faster, she gets bonus movement speed from Surging Tides, and the stun on Aqua Prison is slightly longer. "These general usability buffs are for Nami to feel more impactful in team fights and skirmishes. In particular, with Surging Tides giving more movement speed and Aqua Prison having a longer stun duration, Nami players should feel better about playing aggressive in a lane."
Nunu's Consume was the focus of some cool buffs. It's now an interesting spell; although healing is decreased, it does more damage, and using it on a jungle monster grants a temporary bonus based on the type of monster that was eaten. "Nunu naturally fits in the jungle with his strong objective control and high map mobility – these changes should add more depth within that role. Above all, we want Consume to be a cool spell –Consume has traditionally languished in late game for everything besides objective control, so making it an attractive spell with these changes adds more depth and rank-up incentive."
Rumble got some changes. Flamespitter and Electro-Harpoon got cuts in damage, but the danger zone is up to 50% from 25%. "We did tone down some of Rumble's overall damage, but we also took this opportunity to make Danger Zone more impactful in Rumble's overall play. Here we've decided to increase his benefits for staying in the Danger Zone, so Rumble players will have more incentive to carefully manage their abilities."
Twisted Fate seemed to be one of the main focuses of this patch. Blue Card restores more mana, Stacked Deck no longer grants CDR but gives a much bigger boost in Attack Speed, and Destiny now has a longer cooldown. "With his huge global map pressure in early and mid-game, we wanted to reduce Twisted Fate's overall power without hitting the core components that make him fun. We're changing the passive cooldown reduction on Stacked Deck to attack speed to take out some of the free power he was getting without much gameplay interaction. Additionally, given Destiny's high impact, we've brought it more in line with other global ability cooldowns."
Varus saw a power increase with Piercing Arrow, but Hail of Arrows had its damage increased. In addition, his base movement speed is slightly lower (now 330). "Hail of Arrows makes Varus very strong in lane trades and zoning enemies out, but the strength of this ability was crowding out the intended use of Piercing Arrow as a high-damage snipe. With these changes, Hail of Arrows still has its strength in area control but it no longer completely trumps Piercing Arrow as a method of proccing Blighted Quiver and dealing high burst damage."
Warwick's Infinite Duress channels for less time than it suppresses the target. Additionally, he will now always appear in front of his target when using it. "These are mostly quality of life changes for Warwick, who actually spent more time channeling Infinite Duress than he spent suppressing his target. Additionally, the fact that Warwick will now always place himself in front of the target rather than in a random location around them should add a little more strategic depth to who he suppresses and when."
Zac got a small nerf. His base Health Regen dropped almost by half, and Let's Bounce lost some power and tenacity. "For all of the utility and sustain he brings, Zac was just a little too strong across the board. These changes should tone him down in places where he had excessive power – reducing the burst power of his ultimate and his already unusually high sustain from bloblets."
Zed got assaulted with the nerf gun. His Q does less damage, his shadow doesn't see as far, and his E's cooldown got increased. Ouch! "As a resourceless champion, Zed was able to farm efficiently and safely without giving his opponent much opportunity for interaction. These changes should hit his wave clearing efficiency, especially at early levels. The vision reduction on Zed's Living Shadow was just to bring it more in line with other abilities of this type."
Zyra's pets now get benefits from the Banner of Command aura.
Champions - Insignificant
Very small changes were made to:
Karma
Karthus
Mordekaiser
Quinn
Rammus
Syndra
Udyr
Zac
Items
Mana Manipulator's cost went down, and its recipe was changed, but its aura provides slightly less Mana Regen. Shard of True Ice has been affected in turn.
Mikael's Crucible's effects are now as follows: +7 Health Regen per 5 seconds, +40 Magic Resist, +18 Mana Regen per 5 seconds. UNIQUE Passive - Mana Font: Increases your Mana Regen by 1% per 1% Mana you are missing. UNIQUE Active: Removes all stuns, roots, taunts, fears, silences and slows on an allied champion and heals for 150 + 10% of the target's maximum health (180 second cooldown). Its recipe has now been changed to Philosopher's Stone + Chalice of Harmony + 920 G = 2500 G. "Mikael's Crucible is a very strong item for supports who want to stay on the back line out of harm's way. Most supports, however, opt for Philosopher's Stone in early game, which makes them adverse to buying another high-sustain item like Mikael's Crucible. These changes also open up more diversity for supports when upgrading their Philosopher's Stone - Shurelya's offers more offensive and defensive disengage, but Mikael's Crucible offers more in-fight potential."
Maps
Summoner's Rift: Caster minions do slightly less damage. "While this change doesn't seem significant, it will help auto-attack reliant laners when trading against ability-based laners. Champions who rely on lane harassment through abilities typically don't draw minion attacks as much as auto-attack champions, and this disparity was forcing a lot of champions to opt for high-sustain starts in order to compensate. This change will have a larger overall effect on lane trading as the game progresses."
Howling Abyss: A couple of cosmetic changes, they don't affect gameplay.
UI
Loss of control indicators now appear underneath a player's nameplate when the player's champion is afflicted by a crowd control effect.
A unique icon is displayed for each type of effect, and a shrinking progress bar indicates time remaining on the effect.
When multiple, unique crowd control effects are active:
An additional icon is displayed for each unique effect type.The progress bar represents whichever effect has the longest remaining duration.
Icons are removed as their associated effect type becomes inactive.
Indicators are visible to the afflicted player, that player's team and the player who inflicted the crowd control effect.
Other Shit
3v3 fights vs AI now give out proper XP and IP.
You can no longer pick "Random" at champion select in ranked games.
Some crowd control effects now have updated visuals.
Players who fail to connect to the game will now be granted the same bonus Magic Resistance/Armor that disconnected players receive.
Rerolls in the ARAM queue will now prefer champions not being played by a member of the other team.
Changes to Adobe AIR will now make the game more stable.
That's that. No Aatrox. Thank god this patch came, it will make life playing as Ashe much easier. Perhaps this is the start of the return of viability for melee carries? I dunno, but it kinda looks like that's what they're working toward, just toying around to see what works and what doesn't before making another Fiora-like character.
