League of Legends Patch v1.0.0.112 Analysis Featuring Jarvan!

Hi folks and welcome to my bi-weekly analysis of the latest League of Legends patch. I've decided rather than doing the new champion and patch notes seperately, I'll combine them into one so that I can more accurately assess the champion. Previously I was using guesswork before they came out, now I will have actually seen them a few times. Anyway, on we go.

Annie: some old splash art has been updated.

Firstly, minor changes to the art, with some of the old art on characters such as Annie, Katarina, Eve and Twitch being changed. There have been some complaints about the Eve one but I think it's fine myself, nice to see these areas haven't been neglected.


Jarvan, the Exemplar of Demacia

• Dragon Strike: Jarvan IV charges through his opponent, dealing physical damage and lowering their armor by a %. This will pull Jarvan IV to a Standard if it encounters one, knocking up all enemies in his path.
• Golden Aegis: Jarvan IV calls upon the ancient kings of Demacia to shield him from harm and slow surrounding enemies. Triggers automatically if damage would reduce Jarvan below 300 Health if it is not on cooldown.
• Demacian Standard: Passively grants Jarvan bonus attack speed and armor. Active: Throws a Demacian flag, dealing physical damage and granting passive benefits to nearby allies.
• Cataclysm (Ultimate): Jarvan IV heroically leaps at his target, dealing physical damage and creating a circle of terrain around them for a few seconds.
• Martial Cadence (Passive): Jarvan IV exploits his target's opening, dealing 8% of the target's current HP as magic damage. This effect cannot occur on the same target for 6 seconds.

When I first looked at his abilities, and saw the spotlight, my instant reaction was oh my god he is the most overpowered character ever. Tanky DPS right now is easily the most powerful class, and Jarvan is the embodiment of this - he has a shield that slows as well, as well as various utility damage skills, what more could you want? Despite this, somehow in games I have found him to be pretty much precisely balanced. I'm not sure whether people have just not learnt how to play him yet, but he seems to do the right amount of damage (ie, not that much) to stop him being a monster. He also lacks the component that makes tanky DPS so powerful - lifesteal. He is awesome looking and conceptually great, so I'd fully recommend getting him.

Anivia

• Glacial Storm initial mana cost decreased to 75/125/175 from 100/150/200

I said I felt the previous nerf was a bit far, and they've addressed this here.


Caitlyn

• Ace in the Hole
  • Projectile speed increased to 3200 from 2200
  • Range increased to 1600/1900/2200 from 1400/1800/2200
  • Initial cast time leading up to the channeling time has been significantly decreased 

This ability had some problems, and these changes go some way to addressing them, making it harder to block and feel more 'snipery'. Good change.


 Ezreal

• Trueshot Barrage now scales with bonus attack damage at a 1.0 ratio

This is a difficult one to judge. At first, I thought it was totally unecessary - I play Ezreal and generally always do quite well. However, compared to other ranged carries such as Ashe or Sivir it's difficult to argue that Ezreal has the same power later on. Ezreal stands out as the weaker ranged carries amongst them, yet he feels fine - it feels like the others are too powerful. Nerfing all the rest instead of just buffing him would be pretty stupid, so I can understand why they chose this option. Also, note that it's only bonus attack damage, most Ezreals won't get more than 150 bonus AD.



Garen

• Decisive Strike
  • Movement speed boost increased to 3 seconds from 2
  • Total duration available to proc the silence and hit reduced to 6 seconds from 7
  • Bonus damage ratio increased to 150% from 120%
• Judgment cooldown reduced to 14/13/12/11/10 from 15/14/13/12/11 seconds

Minor buffs, Garen's speed boost was annoying anyway so I feel this was the area that least needed increasing. I feel Garen is under appreciated right now, whenever I see him he tends to dish out some pain - he still really can hurt and be pretty tanky besides. He simply isn't the unstoppable behemoth he was before.


Janna

• Monsoon no longer slows enemies who re-enter the storm

Janna is a hard case, she is clearly the best support but it is hard to nerf her without ruining her. They already hit her shield massively and she remains brilliant, illustrating how powerful she used to be. It's a minor hit, and probably one of the few that won't affect her drastically - the slow is by far the least important aspect of the ultimate. It won't stop her being awesome, but it's something.

Loch Ness Cho'Gath

Karma

• Heavenly Wave base heal increased to 35/55/75/95/115/135 from 30/45/60/75/90/105
• Spirit Bond cooldown reduced to 15/14/13/12/11/10 from 20/18/16/14/12/10.
• Soul Shield Increased the shield strength by 10 at all ranks.
• Mantra cooldown reduced to 25 seconds from 30 seconds.

She needed some help, and they have been cautious in this approach. Karma has so much utility she could easily become the best character in the game if buffed too much, so I think this is the right way of going about making her stronger. I saw a post recommending Riot crushed her AP ratios but buffed all her abilities a lot to encourage playing as a full support, not as an AP champion, which I think is a great idea.


LeBlanc

• Ethereal Chains ability power ratio increased to 0.5 from 0.4 for both damage components

Teeny, tiny buff. Shes pretty heavily underrated, if people start using her they will realise shes pretty damn strong. She is, however, still Kassadin's inferior cousin.


Maokai

• Twisted Advance levelup tooltip now correctly displays the increase in mana cost
• Fixed a bug where Maokai's death animation would not play if he is slain during Twisted Advance

Mordekaiser

• Mace of Spades ability power ratio increased to 0.4 from 0.2

Another tiny buff. Morde is still a pub stomper, don't be put off playing him by his 'nerfing to the ground', I still often carry with him. This will only help that, but everyone seems to carry a conception hes not good anymore. The reality is he was, and always will be, great at solo queue low ELO, and rubbish at high ELO. I see more and more Morde's building hybrid with Hextech Gunblade nowadays, I think it's insane but it seems to work, so it may be worth giving a try.


Singed

• Fixed a bug that was causing Poison Trail to have a 1 second cooldown upon activation

Sivir

• Fixed a bug with Boomerang Blade that was causing certain items to not show their bonus attack damage in the tooltip

Urgot

• Fixed a bug with Acid Hunter that was causing missile lock to shoot further then intended

Veigar

• Primordial Burst ability power ratio increased to 1.2 of Veigar's ability power and reduced to 0.8 of his target's ability power

Made him a bit more useful against non-mage targets, but he really remains nothing but a counter pick. Theoretically he's a great champion, but he requires too many levels and farming to be useful in time.


Zilean

• Fixed a bug where the particle on Time Warp would not persist through the full duration of the movement speed modifier at later ranks

Items

• Fixed a tooltip bug where Haunting Guise said it provided 180 Health and 20 Ability Power, when it actually provided 200 Health and 25 Ability Power
• Morello's Evil Tome cooldown reduction increased to 20% from 15%
• Sight and Vision Wards can now be stacked 5 per slot
• Tiamat
  • Attack damage increased to 50 from 42
  • Mana regeneration per 5 seconds increased to 5 from 4
  • Shop tooltip is now more descriptive, matching the inventory tooltip
• Spirit Visage increased healing and regeneration effects reduced to 15% from 20%

Morello's Evil Tome is still not as good as Deathfire Grasp and Tiamat is still rubbish due to it's tiny splash area. These are simple facts. Spirit Visage really is taking a pounding of late, it's an item I really like but is beginning to teeter on the verge of being a Haunting Guise style useless mid game item.


Summoner Spells

• Ghost duration decreased to 10 from 14

This won't change much, 14 seconds was overkill anyway. If you need more than 10 seconds to escape from an opponent with Ghost, you are probably dead already.


General

• Death Timers have been reduced on Summoner's Rift to 12-50 seconds from 28-50 seconds
• Minions
  • Melee minion magic resist now increases 1.25 per 3 minutes (up from 0.5)
  • Ranged minion armor now increases 1.25 per 3 minutes (up from 0.5)
  • Cannon minion armor and magic resist now increase 3 per 3 minutes (up from 2)
  • After 20 minutes, cannon minions now spawn every 2 waves (up from every 3 waves)
  • Cannon minions and super minions now reduce turret damage by 65% (up from 50%)
  • Fixed a tooltip bug "This unit receive..." with cannon minions and super minions
  • Minions now deal about 50% more damage to turrets
• Turrets
  • Turrets deal about 10% less base damage to champions
  • Turrets now have 20% armor penetration
• Fixed several typos in the Options Menu 

The turret change is good, although 20% armour penetration is hardly going to be a vast deterrent to tanky tower divers. The death timers change I am unsure of. It has been made to stop lane passivity and I understand the logic. However, I look at it the following way. If I kill an opponent early game, lets say at mid, generally I'll be on low hp. I'll farm up the remaining creep wave, go back and buy items, then return. By this time the opponent has either returned or is seconds away. Why does it need to be made shorter? It is already easily short enough considering that, in fact I thought it was pretty much dead on. For me, this does not encourage aggressive gameplay, it encourages suicidal gameplay, that is not good.


With regards to the minion changes, this is another step towards trying to make lanes less passive. The result, however, may be an increase in overall game passivity. Now, should you try and group up for a teamfight, you may all have to split up to defend towers rather than fighting. It brings more tactical elements into the equation, which I like, but equally means it is difficult to fight unless all your lanes are pushed. If you do, you risk losing a tower easily. It also helps lane pushers - before high ELO this is already an overpowered tactic if carried at correctly, as people are not organised enough to effectively respond. This is another idea that I can understand the thinking behind conceptually (the other being the death timers), but ultimately I do not think will work in practice. I remain positive though as Riot have a clear direction where they are headed - it's not a bad one, but they are taking the odd wrong step. It's understandable, but I have faith in them. I think back to when I first started - when Twitch on the enemy team meant you had automatically lost, when Garen could happily stack 5 Sunfires, and I can't help but feel some progression. I think people need to look back at how things have been previously, and appreciate how far the game has come.

Hextech Anivia