League of Legends Patch 3.14 - IMO...

League of Legends Patch 3.14 - IMO...

So i wanted to discuss the changes made to League of Legends in the new 3.14 patch.
Riot gave League a complete overhaul in the new patch and as they put it 'tidied up' which was a little overdue IMO.
The majority of the changes made are awesome and will have some serious effects on the general gameplay and tendencies of the players.
Obviously, im not going to go through every change, just the major ones :D

So lets begin with the Champ overhauls:

Gragas:
So Riot wanted to increase 'Gragas's fighting strategy in close combat as opposed to tossing out a barrel whenever the cooldown finished. To do this, Body Slam now deals full damage to all targets hit.
Gragas always annoyed me in his range, as it is much longer than most AP carries, this with his regeneration makes him a hard carry to lane against. Thankfully Riot also reduced the range on his barrels [queue 'phew']



Sivir
Since the patch, Sivir has become one of my favourite AD carries, and provided an AP champ goes top, has bossed mid lane a few times under the control of my cruelty and keyboard.
So the buff to Boomerang Blade was well deserved as i always felt like Sivir needed a bit more 'POW' in order for me to really get into the champ. She now has such intense wave clear and lane control and in ARAM...owns it.
Also, the redo of Sivirs image was long awaited and i LOVE the new Sivir. Although her skins... they could really do with a facelift, especially in comparison to how hot the other female champs are. Its only fair she looks like a boss now that she bosses her lane.


One of the biggest changes in the game is the approach to the Support role (one of my favourites) It often annoyed me at the lack of grats a supp would get, especially when you have been setting up kills from the get go. They are often under appreciated. Because of this i tend to turn any support into a Carry as soon as possible, but always leaving one slot for wards.

Sona
Before the patch id often rock the mid lane with her as the AP carry.
Not too easy since the patch, but as Riot put it 'Crescendo and Hymn of Valor would rock just a little too hard' so unfortunately, Sona got nerfed... but the added AP ratio that allows Sona to scale better late game means that she can turn AP carry too... just a little later than the rest.

Nami
Nami is one of my favourite champs. Unfortunately her damage was a bit weak, i enjoyed her utility and with Aqua Prison she can totally hold a lane while the Carry is off shopping.
Unfortunately, Riot reduced the ability power ratio of Aqua Prison and Tidal Wave, but its all forgiven with the buff they did on he Surging Tides and Ebb & Flow. Since the patch i have seen Nami heal like a trooper... like AP Yi. (but lets not mention that.... the OP bastad.)

ITEMS (Because that Rabadons looks... fetching.)

IMPORTANT: The word 'hat' is now searchable in the shop.... in case Raba/Death/Cap is too much.

Dorans Blade:
Reduced down from 475 to 440 (thanks for the extra pot Riot ;)   )

Oracles now removed...
(Sob) But.... the Teemo shrooms!

Support Items

Like i mentioned before, Supports have now been changed pretty drastically.... and im loving it.
So the following items have been put in for Supports:
I wont put in all the stats, just the GOLD Per... passives (as that's whats important...right?)

Spellthiefs Edge:
Basic attacks against Champs grants 4 gold up to once every ten seconds per enemy. Killing a minion disables this for 10 seconds.

Ancient Coin
Being near a minion death grants 2 gold (without taking the killing blow on minion)

Relic Shield
Basic attacks execute minions below 200 health. Killing a minion heals the nearest allied champion for 2% of your maximum health and grants them the bounty plus 5 gold

Honestly... i think the last one sucks.... the carries can get their own damn gold. My personal favourite is Ancient Coin... mainly due to laziness.

These new items, means that the Supports dont have to worry about gold and desperately trying to afford boots after they have stocked up on wards.

Wards


One of the biggest changes in the game is the approach to vision and wards... this is what Riot said..

"Support players were often expected to shoulder the warding burden on the map. With these changes, we want to encourage all players on the team to participate in providing vision for their team. We also want to introduce more dynamic gameplay within the vision system and most of our underlying changes reflect this philosophy."

I personally love this approach. I was often tired of the warding responsibility to fall onto the support champs, especially when building into a carry end game.

The Sight Wards, newly names Stealth Wards have had a bit of a nerf, each player can now only carry 3 Stealth Wards at a time. This was Riots way of making the players think harder on the placement and strategic benefit of warding.

Vision Wards received the largest makeover with them no longer being stealthed.
All champions can see vision wards even in bushes, but they have now become 'infinite wards' until taken out. They now have 5 health (what a boss.) have been reduced to 1 per player and and decreased in gold cost to 100 gold.

Riot have now added in TRINKETS!
Which we are all super duper excited about!
Not only are they freeeeee (because we all love a bargain) but they have their own special slot too!


So 3 trinkets were placed into the game:

Warding Totem: Stealth Ward that lasts for 60 seconds
Scrying Orb: Reveals a location within 1100 range for 1 second
Sweeping Lens: Reveals and disables nearby hidden; wards, traps and devices for 4 seconds.

The trinket of choice appears to be Warding Totem at the moment, but i think this will change over time as players become more conscious of their uses and take more notice of the wards/ trinkets their enemies or allies are taking and their enemies abilities (example: Nidalee traps, Teemo Shrooms etc.)

For a cool guide on the new LoL trinkets click.... here -->>> http://gamerexp.com/league-of-legends-trinket-system-explanation/

Summoners Rift Changes

Anyone else noticed the haircut its had?
I definitely prefer this, it makes you think more about your champ positioning and ward placement.

Jungle

One of the reasons that jungling was one of my least favourite roles was the difficulty in keeping up in level and gold especially if you unsuccessfully gank!
With the new patch making the jungle creeps scale in gold worth and XP worth makes junglers stay with and ahead of the team.
Riot have also placed in a new Jungle Camp: Wight... although... he is all alone... maybe a mini White Riot?

Map Objectives

So there were a few changes to Dragon to stop him from 'game changing' early game and falling off end game. So now dragon constantly levels. Boom.

I personally like the decreased respawn time of the Inhibitors, often a complete game changer, players are now forced to rethink their pushing strategy and map objectives a bit more.

IMO:

So that's just a few of the updates from patch 3.14
Much of it was very welcomed, some not so much, but it all amounts to a serious game changer. Now the game is focused even more so on skill, strategy and timing than it is 'right place right time'
Its much cleaner now with some serious updates on the 'little guys' and not so much of a 'clusterfuck' of OP champs, silly ward placement and greedy Baron rushing'

With the norm now being mid champs to play as supports i guess a lot of the League Community are 50/50 on the dis/adv of this. Will supports be pushed out altogether and make way for the new AP Carry/ Support?

Supports main focus was on their utility rather than damage. But damage counts for a lot in lane.
Most champs have some form of utility & CC (crowd control) I think these changes are going to force the bot lane in a couple of ways. With aggressive mid laners like Lux, Orianna, Annie etc the combined utility and damage will force that duo to push the lane so aggressively. With Utility and Tanks like Leona, Thresh.... the focus will be on going for the kills, durability and out lasting your opponents in lane. Because of the potential to storm late game as a Support turned AP carry turned 'UNSTOPPABLE' this is the future of the Support role and i cant wait ;)

See you all on the playing field.

GG Riot.