Reign of Gaming

So many items, so many changes. I like most of them, but not some.

Also, some new items look definitely niche.

For all people that haven't figured it out yet, a hint: the most meta impacting  game change is the Oracle.

Just some side notes: big nerf to Zeke's, reasonable change on Aegis to make it grant def stats only, DFG is good again, QsS has an AD only upgade -Mercurial Scimitar- (good for melee, kinda op on ranged ADCs), Lich Bane now deals magical damage, so it benefits from mag pen, Rageblade look even better hybrid champs, new Gunblade is worth it's cost, (Ruby) Sight Stone will probably be #1 must buy item for supports, Eleisa's may be very good depending on Clearv and Heal CDs, Mikael's Crucible looks OP as fk, Kage's Last Breath looks very flaxible (read strong), Hunter’s Machete seems like no-brain almost-compulsory must buy jungle start, Liandry's Lament is based on current health so meh, Frozen Fist may be good on some champs if someone else in the team has already purchased FH aura (curious about how powerful that passive will be), Statikk Shiv may be good on some champ or just trash depending on his passive, Zephyr may be niche but it's strong (hello Jax), Ohmwrecker + Banner of Command is gonna be hilarious (hi 'Mumu/Malph/Cho), Tiamat/Bloody Hydra, Hurricane and new BC have already been widely discussed, same for penetration mechanic changes, WB SotD, good change on Abyssal aura (many mages have between 600 and 700 max range), deserved nerf to PDs MovSpeed, farewell HoG we loved you, Doran's Ring you look a bit 5h177y now, hello tier 3 boot upgrades (Captain good for initiating, Alacrity overall good, Homeguard maybe for jungling and when sieged but meh, Furor smell OP, Distorsion even more).

Whatever... Time to go on PBE, test some of this stuff and play Nami and her imba AoE stuns and knock-up slows.

Well you're right about it. But what I meant is I'd like to see is an equivalent item for burst mages. Instead they implemented BFT for sustained damage mages just while they completely fked up DFG (burst mages early -and scaling- counter to HP/Res bruisers). So now it's just a battle of BFT + stuff APs vs BotRK tanky item bruisers. If a champ can't work with either of them, it's f@#ed.

Too bad that when a fed  enemy AD carry crits your target ally's face for 750+ dmg every half a sec (hi trist, vayne, kog) healing him even for the same amount is gonna be pointless.

Most of the times healing is not the answer outside of the laning phase. The best things Soraka (just to point out a healing champ that is slightly lackluster atm) can offer to her team lategame are the Armor buff, 2,5 sec silence on the enemy AP carry and her passive. The sheer amount of healing of her R+W to save a target or to counter AoE is ok too, but that's her CC, auras and buffs that are still keeping her relevant lategame. Same goes for Taric, Sona, Alistar, etc.

This is even more true for kill-lane supports, which are proving that you don't necessarily need heals to support, but you definitely need CC, debuffs and utility.

Aura CC machine = solid support.

Quote from Dj0z »

Maybe if everyone on TT wasn't a bruiser or offtank, it wouldn't be a must-buy.

My point it's it helps more some mages than others. Burst mages with long CDs suck with this item, whilst those with DoTs and spammy abilities can keep it stacked.

Also, Singed and Morde are technically bruisers, AP bruisers. So this item doesn't totally counter the bruiser-heavy TT meta (as intended when it was implemented), it just makes some of them more powerful (against other bruisers and all the squishies) whilst fubaring most of the burst mages viability in that map.

Quote from MerryLane »

You can refer to previous articles from Gentleman Gustaf explaining why Kogmaw has a breakeven point so high in the amount of armor required on an ennemy, for LW not to be as useful as a PD,

Long story short, lategame Kogmaw already hurts so much with his W that a little inch of attack speed gives him more DPS than armor penetration.

What he said. Kog doesn't need LW. OFC buying it is better than getting a crap items (all in all LW offers solid stats), but doesn't mean LW is mandatory on him. Just skip it and get more AS and Crit.

Quote from SpeakEasyV »

the shield's temporary health would still be a highly sought after skill, especially since current and max health percentage abilities do not take these shields into account. I believe

I think that % damage are factored too into calculating if a shield goes down.

For instance, let's take Elise's Neurotoxin (human form). It does Flat + % of target's total Health in magic damage. Now, the more Mag Pen the Elise has to counter the MagRes of her target, the less the Shield will last. But also, the more health the target of  that shield has, the more damage Elise's % nuke will do to it. Which means that in this case the shield will absorb more damage the more resistances your shielded target has, but will absorb the less damage the more HP your friendly target has. Instead True Damage is still absorbed by shields but it doesn't take into account target resistances to lessen that damage (which you can't increase the absorbed damage against it by having higher resistances). That's why stuff like % True Damage has no real counter and it's borderline OP (I look at your, Miss Silver Bolts Vayne!).

Anyway shields are always good. But if you ran a protect the Kog team, then peeling power and CC are the only thing that matter really. Which coincidentally is something Janna and Lulu have plenty of (along with shields ofc).

Quote from SpeakEasyV »

My projections for the new itemization will be this.

Shields will be the hallmark of a good defense. being as they are not subject to Armor Pen or MR.
 

do not think that I am saying that shit is OP or UP or anything like that. I'm just pointing out my observations and hoping that someone can shed some light on my ideas. 

But shields do take into account Resistances.

All absorption shields take the champion's resistances on account when receiving damage to the temporary health. [TESTED]

Which means that if you are a high armor and magic resist tank and a squishy carry friendly targets, given the same amount of AP scaling on an absorption shield. said shield will absorb more damage on the tank than on the squishy. That's one of the reasons why it's good to rush fast Aegis aura on Janna or Lulu (or have your jungler get it fast for you, so you can get Zeke's and Shur).

So conversely, if the enemy bashing on that shield has magic or armor penetration, he will break that shield faster.

About the protect the Kog tactic, yeah, I put some money on that too.

The latter version or BFT is just overpowered (on some champs just insanely strong), RiotNome already stated he's gonna nerf it again.

Atm on TT it's a must-rush buy on Malz, Brand, Swain, Morde, Rumble, Cassio, Ryze, Singed, Teemo and everyone with sustained damage or DoTs, but honestly pretty much every AP champ is buying it, just because it's simply too good to pass.

Quote from Limrasson »

I think like 99% of them are female, at least lawfull neutral (except for morgana who's more of an AP carry anyway) and they all wear as few clothing as possible. Again, most of them are using pretty magics liek light or healing sounds or whatnot.

 One after one, every support is more or less in this category. I find this absolutely boring.

How about support champs for Noxus? Or Zaun? Or the Shadow isles? No evil mastermind, who controlls the game with his spells, like chess figures, or a dark shadow who possesses it's enemies or allies and engulfs them in either fear or anger? No gluttony female monster who births nighmarish creatures to either infenst her enemies or to nourish her allies? No nothing, just pretty skinny nice ladies doing their all-for-good abilities.

 

How about this? With good balance, and because of many of his abilities doesn't rely on AP, this idea of a champ could become a different support.

FYI, Janna was a Zaunite (thus we have Zaun supports), she just converted to Piltover cause and their techmaturgical devices because she's a nerd: pretty much like Sona is from Ionia but fights for Demacia.

In all honesty we already have some "evilish" supports: Fiddle (fear, silence, AoE damage; from Zaun too but technically an extra-planar), Morgana (not primary a support champ, but still full of CC and anti CC; Noxian/extra-planar), Annie (pretty decent at supporting with AoE stun and burst; Voodoo Lands/Noxus), Zyra (control mage with AoE and root; Kumungu Jungle), Yorick (kicks you out of the lane, AoE slow, forces you to face 2 ADCs; Shadow Isles). Yet I agree we could use some more evil supports, with more evil-feeling skill kits.

About your champ skillset, I quite like the ideas behind Life Channel and Soul Link. Yet the Friendly targeted heal of Life Channel should be insta, because there is too much burst damage  in LoL, it doesn't work like WoW dudus. Soul Link may be used in abusive ways (and you just stole it from WoW lock masteries, name included). Other than that, your support kit definitely lacks CC. Which is usually a bad thing.

I second that. Time to sweat for you too, dear carries.