Reign of Gaming

IMPORTANT: A new patch manifest has hit LIVE servers. This includes files for most of the changes on the PBE (including ZED, this does not mean ZED will go live in this patch however). It looks like we might finally see the live servers patch go up soon.

RoG Article Recap

• Why you should be hyped for Season 3 by VVinrar
• The Stat to Watch For In Season 3 by OldManEyeBrows
• Item Preview – Tons of Mana, just one Tear

PBE Changes for 11/9

Zed

• [E] - Shadow Slash: now deals 60/95/130/165/200 (up from 60/90/120/150/180)

Tons of Mana, just one Tear Q&A

With the new mana focused items being revealed  Xypherous has been answering a great deal of them for most of the day. We have rounded up all the questions and the answers for your easy viewing.

 OK confusion. So after I do this I can get ANOTHER tear o the godess, ill it up, and get that boost aswell? 
You'll be able to fill up another Tears of the Goddess after AAA transforms - but since the AAA passive is now Unique, stacking them won't be as good.

Theoretically, you could do an really inefficient late game build with AAA / Manamune and a Tears and be able to fully charge tears 3 times - but at a certain point, buying Rod of Ages or Frozen Heart might be better for this case.

Design Question: When is it ok to take unique elements of a champions kit (mana barrier) and put them on items? 
The big question is whether or not that's an interesting "splash" feature of a champion *or* if it's a core centerpiece of why you would pick them.

Interesting splash effects can be moved onto items that are niche or gated (like AAA's fully charge requirement). You don't pick Blitzcrank because of Mana Shield - you pick him because of Rocket Grab. So Rocket Grab would be a bad skill to put on an item because it invalidates Blitzcrank's existence - but Mana Shield is okay because that's not Blitzcrank's primary thing.

It also depends on whether or not the stacked effect makes that champion cooler or not. Blitzcrank's passive doesn't actually consume Mana - thus Blitzcrank with AAA can double scale off his own mana. If the champion with the similar mechanic in question doesn't get a different, more awesome stacked effect, then it's not as great. If we made a passive similar to Nidalee's passive for example - It wouldn't actually be a good thing because Nidalee is already uncatchable in Brush - and the stacked effect doesn't make her more awesome, it just gives her redundant unnecessary stats.

what's the point of rod of age now ? less mana, less ap, less mana regen, and also less hp compared to the hp shield. 
Rod of Ages has a very clear purpose: It builds out of Catalyst and is best when rushed early as it gives you a huge mid-game boost and solid survivability statistics. The other part of this is that Seraph's embrace potentially gives you a 600 to 1k health shield for 2.5 seconds. Rod of Ages just gives you 600 health all the time.

They accomplish similar things but Seraph's allows you to go far more glass - and the two items also have a pretty decent synergy with each *other* as Catalyst -> Tears -> RoA -> AAA will create a very strong durable tank mage. So one is Mana + Spike Survivability and one is Mana + Passive Survivability and when combined together they give you a decent mix of passive survivability, spiked survivability and raw ability power that makes you a fairly well-rounded mage.

@Xyph - is the Bonus mana counter on Archangel's tied to the item (or tear component)? There are items which grant bonus mana (i.e. manamune). If it's not tied to the item specifically for the 750 count=upgrade to Seraph's Embrace, things like innate bonus mana gain per level, Ryze's Desperate Power, or even Clarity would enable builds that would exponentially speed up the rate that the Staff goes to Embrace. 
Bonus Mana is tied to the 'Mana Charge' passive itself - which is tied to only the item itself. There's no getting around charging the item if you want it to upgrade.

Will it still have the 2 second internal cooldown? 
It's actually a 3 second internal cooldown - and yes.

I must admit, this right here worries me a bit. I always assumed Tear didn't work with toggles to keep champion like Anivia and, more specifically, Singed from abusing it. I mean, with just a Rod of Ages and a Frozen Heart, you could have a somewhat hard to kill Singed right there... if he's allowed to stack a Tear, isn't there a worry about him becoming too much? 
Potentially - but look at Singed's viable alternate: Rod of Ages, which gives him a similar amount of Mana (800 vs. 1000) and similar stats. While enabling tears on Singed might push him over the top - it wouldn't push him any more so than getting a fast Rod of Ages would.

She used to be a decent archangel user but with the fact that transform and all the cougar abilities don't cost mana I can't see how on earth she could possibly charge the thing to full. 
The tooltip doesn't currently mention it - but anything that used to charge tears will still charged tears. 'Whenever you cast a spell or spend mana' is the actual full trigger.

So in all theory, it is POSSIBLE to have 2 fully stacked Seraph's Embraces, both providing +1000 mana? Obviously not optimal, just theorycrafting here. 
Yes. Probably a better path to get a Manamune as the second item if you're going to get *two* tears.

Eleisa's Miracle in Season 3

It looks like Xypherous has been working over hours to bring you even more information about the new items for season 3

Tentative Stats (In Testing)

Eleisa's Miracle (1175 Gold)
+10 Health per 5 seconds
+15 Mana per 5 seconds
Removed Tenacity
Unique Passive - Aid: Your Heal, Clairvoyance and Revive cooldowns are reduced by 20%
Unique Passive: If you gain 3 levels while holding Eleisa's Miracle, you gain 10 HP/5, 15 MP/5 and the Aid Passive permanently and the item disappears from your inventory.

Hopefully it'll be interesting on Dominion/Murderbridge and Supports - while also indirectly giving supports an extra item slot to work with. It's probably terrible but something I wanted to try.

I'd like to hit this directly as this line of thought is flawed in two ways:

1. You can't add an item that does something similar to an already existing one without making both items awful.

Why? Because they do the same thing. Thus if one item is good enough to get, you now have to balance towards their stacked potential - which innately forces both items to be bad.

Let's take Stark's and Zeke's - both AS/LS auras. Well, since now you can have both auras, you have to account for the fact that stacked, the team now just has way too much AS or LS. Making them cross non-stack is just random choice for no reason - nor does it make any sense for determining which one should take precedence.

End result: You have to nerf both their auras. You now have 2 bad items at the same time because both can't be good individual buys because their stack case is too abusive.

2. You can't keep adding item pools and "buffing" weak item niches to exist. Weak items are weak for a reason. It mostly has nothing to do with raw statistical power either.

If we remake an item - it's typically because it's incredibly nuanced or the times where it is effective is really really low. You can't buff niche items to the correct power level - because they are often only conditionally useful. Which means that you have to buff to such an extent that when the condition is fulfilled, you automatically win. This isn't the purpose of items.

As an aside - why we wouldn't want to do this in a PvP setting specifically:

Large item pools of the same item over and over again with minor variants doesn't actually give you any real choice - It just adds an additional layer into finding the current OP item among the set of items that fill the same niches.

This both hinders learning and planning of many champion items and builds - especially if you can't devote the time to test and experiment in a laboratory setting or heavy math crunching to determine when it is optimal.

Obsfucation of the 'correct' item for this situations means that the only way to build items is through rote memorization and guides. This kind of destroys the concept of building in accordance to the enemy. If minor variation is required to maximize the effectiveness of an item - you're far better off adding incremental enchantments to an solid base item rather than having multiple items that try to solve the same problem in different ways on the same class. (For example, Boots does this well.)

Blade of the Ruined King and Wicked hatchet - Season 3

Minor spoiler: Blade of the Ruined King and Wicked Hatchet are actually Season 3 items.
During development, we actually had a very powerful version of Madred's called Tankbusta that completely destroyed the Bruiser meta (yes, it can be done!). However, we found that there was a lot of crossover between Tankbusta and the S3 items, so we scrapped Tankbusta and brought over the S3 items instead.

BotRK is definitely weaker than Tankbusta, but we'll separate them out again and give TT its own replacement if necessary. Also note that this was the plan when we were launching TT. I don't know if they're still going to be on SR as-is, if they're going to get changes, or if they're scrapped from the map altogether.

to Watch: Lone Star Clash 2 and Tales of the Lane

Lone Star Clash 2

This November 10-11, the first collegiate League of Legends final four meets an exciting pro invitational in Lone Star Clash 2, presented by the Texas eSports Association and Cyber Sports Network.

With $5,000 in prize money at stake, four collegiate teams from Georgia Tech, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, and UT Austin will duke it out in the IvyLoL Final Four. In the pro invitational, Team FeaR, CLG.EU, Team Curse NA, and Reddit Nation will compete in a double elimination matchup for $15,000 in prizes.

The action-packed matches start at 9am PST every day. Mark your calendars; you don’t want miss a single moment!

Check out TESPA’s website to learn more about the event.


Tales of the Lane

Europe’s top teams will battle it out in the Tales of the Lane tournament finale! Hosted by Chips and Noi, Tales of the Lane will feature some of Europe’s best teams competing for their share of a $30,000 prize pool.

On November 11, the top four teams from the online quarterfinals will gather at the “Casino de Paris” to determine the champion. The semifinals matches showcasing SK Gaming, Eclypsia, Team Curse EU, and M5 BenQ will start streaming live starting at 1am PST, so be sure to check it all out.

For more information, see the Tales of the Lane website

Replays

Rioter RjCombo confirms that replays are still in the works

We are actively working on replays. I posted responses to some questions regarding the feature's development in another thread here:

Champion & Skin Sale: Paying Family Dues

Shhh! Quiet! You there: are you trying to get us caught?! Someone is out there, lurking in the forest beyond this cave. How grating it was to take orders from a sniveling, cowardly rat who skulks in the shadows, but since I betrayed his little mob family, Gangster Twitch seeks my head. It does not help matters that before I escaped, Miss Fortune told me that he secretly covets my scarlet cravat. 

Wait this out with me awhile; I have a feeling you can lead his goons away from me if you choose.

• Or just take me with you. Your wages cannot be worse than the rat’s. I would be willing to follow you for a fair price. Is Mafia Graves’ loyalty worth, say, 487 RP to you?

Wait! There: do you see? The underbrush rustles. My caution is justified.

• This assailant is clad in camouflage, surely seeking the bounty Twitch has issued. Commando Xin Zhaois too dangerous to duel alone. Lead him astray for a mere 260 RP.
• This frigid night cannot mask the chill of a dark presence nearby. I sense Overlord Malzahar’s presence. You will have to offer a higher bribe if I am going to avoid the visions of this Void-scarred seer. Try 487 RP.

• The moon is high overhead. Dawn is not far off. But I hear Zyra whispering to the night-blooming jasmine outside the cave. Quickly, hide 487 RP in the bushes. That should get rid of her before they tell her my hiding place.
• We are almost free. And what is this? Lee Sin, the monk? You send a blind man to find a Mafia enforcer? Twitch must be growing desperate. If you cannot convince the martial arts master to leave by your words, I’m sure 487 RP will assure him I’m not around.
• The sun! Ha! The rat gives up too easily…wait. What is that thundering sound? Damn! I can’t run fromRammus; his stun stops me in my tracks, and I won’t suffer his taunts. Will you distract him for 345 RP?

No matter. Stand here. If he can’t get past you, I’ll have from November 9 until November 12 to get away from Twitch. Then I can start planning my own little surprise for that overgrown weasel.

Summoner Showcase #92: Light and Dark