This post is a little overdue, but I wanted to give some quick thoughts on Patch 3.5 and some of the recent trends I have been seeing in League of Legends. Most of these trends will revolve around what champions are being played, so I hope you like trying out new champs as much as I do.
Patch 3.5
The notes for this patch are here. I think it’s pretty safe to say this patch is bringing with it some interesting new changes. Karma will be getting her update (so don’t expect to get to play her much for the next day or so), the files for Zac are supposedly contained in the patch and there are a number of minor balance and champion changes. I will touch on some of them below.
Towers: Will now be doing more damage to champions. This shouldn’t change the way you last hit under your own tower, but do not expect your early dives to go as well as they once did. I’m also interested to see if this will change the Korean meta of taking early towers. Riot has basically stated that they are trying to make this more difficult, and I wonder if the new tower damage will actually be enough to change the entire meta.
Udyr: To quote the jungler from Team Curse, (who you should probably watch if you want to learn how to be an outstanding jungler) “this guy is going to be broken as ****.” I’d say getting all of his abilities buffed is a good start. But, wait, what is Udyr’s biggest problem? Getting kited. Ok, so let’s give him more sources of bonus move speed and a mini dash when he goes to auto attack with his bear stance activated. Yeah, I think that should definitely help our friendly man bear turtle go roaring through his and the other team’s jungle. So remember folks, this bear now has bigger claws and the ability to actually use them on you.
Karma: I don’t want to risk my own karma by shamelessly plugging my previous post, but if you scroll around, I’m confident you can find a post detailing what I think of the new Karma. It’s an interesting time to be one of her fans!
Hecarim: The cooldown on Spirit of Dread has been significantly increased. Having this available less often, coupled with an increase in tower damage, should mean there will be less instances of early game Hec’s diving you under tower. If the previous Xin Zhou nerfs are any indication, increasing a champs cooldowns on key abilities can lead to them being played less often. I think you will still be able to ride Hec to victory, but we might not see him quite as often as before.
Rumble: His ult no longer does damage on cast, and it is totally reliant on the burn damage. I don’t play enough Rumble to know for sure, but the pros have been saying that this hurts his laning phase. I can see how this could be possible. In lane, you are trying to target only one opponent who can fairly easily anticipate the ult coming and get out of the burn reasonably quickly. Without that initial cast damage, forcing your opponent to fight on your ult becomes a lot more necessary, and if you can’t do this, Rumble will be worse off.
I think those are some of the major changes related to Patch 3.5. Now let’s talk a bit about some of the champions you who would be trending if Twitter were used only as it was clearly intended, for League of Legends.
Volibear: I’m a little jaded about how popular he has become. He was one of the first new champions I ever purchased, and I had no clue how to make him work in lane. It turns out that I was not the only one, until some some of the European pros realized that he was a ridiculously good jungler, in the Season Three jungle. He has good clear times, a tonne of health and health related damage, and his Q gives him the same kind of speed boost you would get from ghost (when VBear is running towards an opponent). If you are looking for junglers with a lot of gank potential, you should bare the costs proudly and pick up Voli or Udyr.
Nasus: I believe it was Korea that brought Nasus back into style. With attack speed being so valuable in Season Three, anything that slows attack speed is considered to be extremely precious. Wither (Nasus’ W) is basically an exhaust that can be cast every 10 seconds. Nothing makes an ADC squirm quite like slowing their attack and movement speed.
Build him tanky with as much CDR as you can fit in. If you’re running him in the jungle, which is mostly where he is going at the pro level, consider maxing his Q and E evenly to give him a fairly quick jungle clear. I also believe that any champion with a built in exhaust has some support potential. I’ve had some success running him as a support in low level games, and if I keep having success, I will definitely write something up on this.
Zed: If you haven’t been walking along, minding your own business, only to have this guy come out of the shadows and burst you down, I don’t know what game you’ve been playing. Zed’s insane burst damage with his ult virtually ensures that you will kill one of the carries in a fight. He is very mobile, but does require some practice to use effectively. I believe this is why it has taken him so long to be seen in competitive play. Look to shut him down the minute he engages on your carries, or recruit Soraka to ensure that he can’t burst the carry down regardless of whether you CC Zed.
Note: I’m not kidding about Soraka. She is extremely good at countering burst assassins like Zed and Akali. There is nothing these types of champs hate more than having their combos interrupted, or finding out that their targets are a lot tankier than they expected.
Diana: Scarra, a notorious North American pro mid player, has been proving one of my earlier points about Diana. Yes, she is no longer the easy to play beast she once was, but her extremely strong kit still allows her to do amazing things – especially in skilled hands. Consider giving her a pickup if you want to play someone tankier than Akali and have the patience to give Diana some practice.
I think those are all of the champions and elements of the upcoming patch that I wanted to talk about, just now. If there are any champs that you are currently rocking, or who you think are super strong, let me know. I’m always looking for an OP champ to play 😉 . For all of you Udyr fans, remember to Bear Stance responsibly and not chase the enemy Janna too far into her jungle. For everyone else, remember, “Karma always catches up to you!”