Reign of Gaming

Gentleman Gustaf here with a quick discussion of the patch notes! I wanted to try something new, so I'll just go through the patch notes, highlighting major changes.

First, there are a few general changes I wanted to point out. Movement Speed values had to be tweaked as a result of the boots changes; a few champions got small MS buffs/nerfs. As well, a few junglers just needed tweaks, due to their relative jungle strengths.

Annie

Disintegrate

• Mana cost reduced to 60/65/70/75/80 from 60/70/80/90/100

Molten Shield

• Cooldown reduced to 10 seconds from 16
• Duration reduced to 5 seconds from 8

These changes to Annie are interesting. The first isn't really a big deal; you get most of that mana back anyway. But the latter change is interesting. This is definitely a buff; the shield may be shorter, but it can still be up 50% of the time, and its downtime is shorter by 3 seconds. Since it is an Armor/MR shield, and not a health shield, there is no benefit from the spammability, but it allows Annie to be even more consistent of a stunbot, and penalizes her less for using the shield pre-emptively.

Blitzcrank

Mana Barrier
Cooldown increased to 90 seconds from 60

Rocket Grab
Will now give vision when it hits a target

This is a pretty good change to Blitzcrank; before, his shield served to make him all the more snowbally in lane; after every lane fight, regardless of who got the kill or won, he'd be back to lane with his shield. If his lane was ahead, it just made them harder to take on; if they were behind, it mitigated that.

The Rocket Grab change makes blind predictive grabs more usable; often times, the enemy would not show up, despite having been grabbed, until they were on your side of the wall/bush, making it hard for your team to react.

Evelynn

Hate Spike
Mana cost increased to 16/22/28/34/40 from 14/18/22/26/30
Bonus attack damage ratio increased to 0.5 from 0.4

Ravage
Damage reduced at later ranks to 35/55/75/95/115 from 35/60/85/110/135
Bonus attack damage ratio increased to 0.5 from 0.4

Agony's Embrace
Damage changed to 15/20/25% of the target's current health from 15/20/25% of their max health
Cooldown increased to 150/120/90 seconds from 120/90/60
Cast range reduced to 650 from 800

The ultimate nerf is really the necessary nerf, in my opinion. All three changes are very important. The first change makes it worse as an execute, while maintaining its initiation power. In my opinion, there is nothing inherently wrong with % Health damage, but stackable sources of it cause a lot of trouble, especially in combination with Deathfire Grasp's Doom Mechanic. % Current Health is much easier to deal with against stacked sources. The cooldown change was also necessary; it gave little penalty to a missed ult. Finally, lowering the cast range means you at least maybe get to see Evelynn before you die.

Ezreal

Base attack speed reduced to 0.625 from 0.665

A small patch change that may go unnoticed, but is actually a big deal. Currently, Ezreal maintains a dominant position because, like old Corki, no lane really counters him. Moreover, his late game damage is strong, and he is a very strong kiter. Nerfing his attack speed will slow that scaling a bit.

Kha'Zix
Unseen Threat
Damage reduced at later levels to 15-190 from 15-220
Slow reduced to 25% from 35%

Taste Their Fear
Bonus attack damage ratio reduced to 1.5 from 1.6
Isolation bonus attack damage ratio reduced to 2.0 from 2.4

My only worry is that this nerf will seem like enough that people will stop banning Kha'Zix, and he'll go back to making my AD Carry life a living hell.

Lee Sin

Iron Will
No longer grants armor while active
Life steal and spell vamp increased to 5/10/15/20/25% from 5/9/13/17/21%

Cripple
Slow amount reduced at earlier ranks to 20/30/40/50/60% from 30/37.5/45/52.5/60%
Range reduced to 600 from 800

 The early game nerfs balance out the late game buffs Lee Sin got as a result of better itemization, and the range nerf will further separate great Lee Sins (like my team's jungler) from good Lee Sins (like me). The less good Lee Sins will have to actually get better to continue having an easy dominant jungler. I'll try not to cry too much.

Nami

Base movement speed increased to 335 from 330

Aqua Prison
Cooldown reduced to 14/13/12/11/10 seconds from 16/14.5/13/11.5/10

Tidal Wave
Missile speed increased to 850 from 750

 Nami has felt slightly lackluster, and I think the missile speed buff will help Tidal Wave a lot. As it is, the slow speed means it either feels inevitable (really good positioning/team-fight location), or useless.

Rengar

Bonetooth Necklace
Now grants +5 Attack Damage

Savagery
Attack speed duration increased to 4 seconds from 3
Fixed a bug where Savagery could be used three times consecutively

Battle Roar
Empowered Battle Roar now heals for 60-400 (based on champion level) instead of 10% of his Rengar’s health

Thrill of the Hunt
Initial delay reduced to 1 second from 1.25 (still can be delayed up to 3 seconds)
Stealth duration increased to 7 seconds from 5

I'm mostly concerned with the Battle Roar change. Anybody who wasn't currently building Warmog's/Sunfire Cape/Frozen Mallet should see this as a buff, and a decent one.

As far as the ult change goes, it allows more counterplay when used as an escape, and allows for more creative use when used as an initiation. My poor squishy AD Carry body.

Riven

Base health regen reduced to 6 from 10.4
Health regen per level reduced to 0.5 from 0.9

Valor
Shield amount increased to 70/100/130/160/190 from 60/90/120/150/180

Blade of the Exile
Cooldown increased to 110/80/50 seconds from 75/60/45
Targeting cone is now attached to Riven

 And there was much rejoicing.

Talon

Noxian Diplomacy
Bleed damage reduced to 10/20/30/40/50 from 18/36/54/72/90
Bleed bonus attack damage ratio reduced to 1 from 1.2

Cutthroat
Fixed a bug where the damage amplification did not actually apply
Fixed an bug that sometimes caused Talon’s Rake to fire backwards after using Cutthroat.

Shadow Assault
Damage reduced at later ranks to 120/170/220 from 120/190/260
Bonus attack damage ratio reduced to 0.75 from 0.9

This isn't the huge nerf it looks like, because of the bug-fix. Here are what the single target numbers look like, accounting for that change:

Noxian Diplomacy
Bleed damage reduced to 11.5/23/34.5/46/57.5 from 18/36/54/72/90
Bleed bonus attack damage ratio reduced to 1.15 from 1.2

Shadow Assault
Damage adjusted to 138/195.5/252 from 120/190/260 (mostly a buff)
Bonus attack damage ratio reduced to .8625 from .9

So Talon will be stronger early on/in lane, but a bit weaker in team-fights. I'd expect to see another (small) nerf in the future.

EDIT: Thanks to gameguy and pldl, an error has been caught.

The damage amplification is scaling, not flat, so the early game will indeed be weaker. However, the late game single-target damage will still be stronger, because of the amplification of auto-attack damage. Finally, the AoE damage is still nerfed.

Vi

Vault Breaker
Fixed a bug where Vault Breaker would sometimes not refund mana or cooldown when interrupted
Fixed a bug where interrupting Vault Breaker would sometimes render Vi unable to cast spells
Fixed a bug where Vault Breaker's stun duration was sometimes shorter than intended
Fixed a bug where Vi would sometimes stop attacking after hitting a champion with Vault Breaker

Excessive Force
Increased the responsiveness of Vi's attacks after using Excessive Force

Assault and Battery
Fixed a bug where targets could cast spells after being knocked into the air
Fixed a bug where characters with stealth could cause Assault and Battery to miss
Fixed a bug where damage was not applied to targets immune to disable effects

I think this won't be the small bug-fix it could look like, as all of these issues caused huge playability issues with Vi. I expect this to give her the Riven treatment, and people will realize how potentially strong she is. Expect Vi FotM at some point.

Wraith

Base gold increased to 30 from 25
Base health increased to 1000 from 750
Lesser Wraith
Base health reduced to 150 from 250
Giant Wolf
Base gold increased to 55 from 40
Base health increased to 1100 from 900
Wolf
Base health reduced to 200 from 300
Golem
Base gold increased to 55 from 45
Base health increased to 1200 from 1000
Small Golem
Base health reduced to 300 from 500

I'm not usually a sore winner, but I seem to remember a certain RoG writer saying "The only 'extra' gold I see in the jungle comes from the passive gold increase everybody's getting, and you dump half of that into the ability to jungle at all". Fast-forward a few weeks, and there are gold buffs to jungle camps? Overall, that's 5 gold in the wraiths, 15 in the wolves, and 10 in the golems, for a total of 45 gold per minute if you power clear. That's 450 in the first 10 minutes. Assuming you do other things, that's maybe 300, or enough to pay for your Machete. Overall, I like this change, although optimally, I'd see even a bit more gold early, at the exchange of less gold scaling. This will bump up clear times a little, however, which may make it hard to fully take advantage of this gold without abandoning the lanes. I think Wriggle's champions with some AoE (Nocturne/Lee Sin) will benefit a lot from this. Here are the exact numbers, as compared to the old jungle:

Manamune

Attack damage increased to 20 from 10

 I'm not sure I see the reasoning for this, given the recent tournament games with Jayce and Kha'Zix getting Manamune -> Muramana + BT + LW + BT + BT + BT + BT + BT + BT. It may seem like a BT problem (and it may partially be), but the ability spam Muramana gives you should be canceled out with less damage, and this is doing nothing for that.

Crystalline Flask

Cost increased to 345 from 225
Now restores 120 health and 60 mana over 12 seconds from 100 health and 40 mana over 10 seconds per charge

 A good nerf. I was starting Flask + 5 pots + a ward on anybody who needs mana sustain, and feeling a bit dirty doing it.

Iceborne Gauntlet

Duration of slow field reduced to 2 seconds from 3
Slow percentage reduced to 30% from 35%
Slowing field now displays team color rings

 This makes Iceborne Gauntlet less of a zone control item and more of a slowing item. I like it.

Spirit of the Elder Lizard

Now grants +10% cooldown reduction

 Cool buff, but I still don't like such a damage oriented item out of the jungle; if you want one, BT and BC are still better options.

Spirit of the Spectral Wraith

Ability power increased to 50 from 40
Cooldown reduction is no longer UNIQUE

 Cool buff, but only really applies to a few champions.

Will of the Ancients

New recipe: Kage's Pick + Hextech Revolver
Total gold cost is now 2550 (combine cost: 585)

 Makes this item more enticing for supports; further makes Kage's Pick a strong and versatile buy. I worry about what this could do to mid builds, by encouraging gold starts on more farming laners.

Twin Shadows

Ability power reduced to 40 from 50
Magic resist increased to 40 from 30
Movement speed increased to 6% from 5%

 I call this the Skarner buff, although it helps all tanks. Twin Shadows was a great AP tank item that suffered from giving too much AP and not enough MR. It's starting to feel more and more like a mini-FoN with a cool active.

Ranked

Added a new provisional medal for players and teams that are in their placement matches
All players and teams have been temporarily set to this medal in preparation for Season 3

 In case anybody's worried, the effect is entirely psychological. This will make the ladder system more relatable at lower levels.

General

Turrets
Now prioritize minions in the following order:
Player-owned minions (ex: Tibbers, Zyra Plants)
Super Minions, Cannon Minions
Melee Minions
Caster Minions

Now when I'm running across the map to clear a wave, half of the minions won't be dead by the time I show up!

The Minimap has been improved:

Wards now show special icons on the minimap
Players are outlined in blue while recalling
Players are outlined in orange while using teleport
Teleport is now colored based on enemy/ally team

Pretty cool UI changes that will especially help in solo queue.

Overall, I'm happy with the patch changes, but for me, the big one is the jungle change. It takes a big company to say 'yeah, we made a mistake', and Riot continues to be that big company, and I continue not to regret my opinion to work so co-dependently with them.