The servers are down, the patch notes are up; this can only mean one thing... It's time for Season 3!
With the publication of the 3.01 patch notes it's clear that some of the power issues encountered during the pre-season changes are finally being addressed.
_________________________________________________________
Annie visual upgrade discussion
Classic Annie: New Splash Artwork
On an aesthetic level, the patch has gifted us with the Annie visual upgrade. This artwork revamp of the classic champion is further evidence of the artistic direction riot is pursuing. This upgrade, along with those added for Nidalee, Vladimir, Soraka, Lux, Tryndamere and Leblanc, show a move towards a more advanced, futuristic style used to give impressions of the champion in motion. In short, the new style is more exciting and stimulating for the imagination and I don't know about anyone else, but it encourages me to play these champions more.
In addition to her classic skin, Annie received visual in-game upgrades on her Prom Queen, Frostfire and Gothic skins. Since they updated the in-game appearance (opting to forgo any splash art upgrades) of the Nidalee French Maid and Pharo skins it's reasonable to assume that the same treatment will be given to Annie. If Riot do this, it would probably be to encourage sales of the new Panda Annie skin that's coming out soon as part of the Chinese New Year line. If all of Annie's skins get a splash art upgrade they feel "brand new" and, since these older skins would be cheaper than the new ones, summoners may opt for the older skins instead. In any case, if riot have released new splash artwork for the other Annie skins I have been unable to find it. For now, though, these are only my suspicions and when the skin is released I will be giving a full review of it.
Edit: My suspicions were correct - the splash art for the other Annie skins have not been upgraded at this time.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Discussion of champion and game play changes
Champions:
It seems from the changes made in this patch, especially those concerning Ezreal, Katarina, Olaf and Shaco, that Riot are trying to undo the upsurge of power seen on some champions and roles in order to return it to those that suffered.
With the strength of AD items that came forward in Pre-season (most notably that of the Black Cleaver), some champions fell into a state of disuse. Kennen, for example, is known for his viability in both the middle and the top lanes due to his extensive sustain and utility gained after the purchase of a Hextech Revolver. With the pre-season changes he became much less viable in lane against many classic top-laners and the AD casters that in-fluxed to the mid lane. He had a hard time winning trades against a good Riven, Pantheon or Kha'Zix with all their reliable CC, burst damage and gap closers, but the removal of energy cost for his Ultimate means he can use it and still have enough energy to get out of the fight. He can both initiate and disengage and it will definitely help him regain his place amongst viable A.O.E team compositions.
Olaf's low cool downs meant that barely anyone could go toe-to-toe with him in lane, especially with the reduced price on AD items from pre-season. He merely needed to build a black cleaver for damage and stack health after that, but now there will be longer periods where a wily player might engage upon him and gain the advantage in 1v1's. Whether these changes will make a huge difference to Olaf's bullying presence in lane remains to be seen.
It also looks like Riot are aiming to increase the viability of some neglected AD Carries and reduce the dominating presence of others. Ezreal is probably the safest ADC in the game right now, but by reducing his base movement speed to 325 from 330 the annoyingly efficient escape power of his Arcane shift may be reduced. The degree of this, however, may be minimal as it puts him at the same base movement speed as Tristana and many other ADC's with inbuilt escapes. The difference between them and Ezreal is that his Arcane Shift has range of 900, a low cooldown of 9 seconds and a mana cost of 50/60/70/80/90 per rank. Compare that to Tristana's Rocket jump, which has the same range, but a flat cost of 80 mana and a 22/20/18/16/14 second cool down per rank and this puts her level of early game lane safety distinctly beneath Ezreal's. Even Corki who is considered in the top three ADC's in the game for safety (along with Graves and Ez) has a range of 800 on his Valkyrie with a cost of 100 mana and 26 second cooldown at rank 1. In summary, then, nerfing Ezreal's base movement speed by 5 will hardly decrease his safety compared with other AD carries and the nerf on his other spells is minimal in my opinion.
Still on the subject of AD Carries, Tristana received a 30 mana reduction cost to her Rapid shot and a damage increase to Explosive shot at later ranks in this patch, which will undoubtedly increase her burst damage and scaling into late game. Tryndamere also received an attack speed buff in conjunction to an increase in the leniency of his fury decay by 3 seconds. These changes will hopefully increase his validity in not only the top lane, but also in the jungle where they will improve the safety and efficiency of his ganks. I have to say that it's nice to see some neglected ADC's getting some love from Riot, even if Tryndamere annoys the heck out of me (insert "Y U NO DIE UNDER TOWER" meme).
Interestingly Riot finally responded to the cries of frustration heard on Summoners rift and Master Yi got a nerf to his AP build. The AP ratio was reduced by half from 4.0 to 2.0, but the overall health regained from the spell was increased, which will encourage a return of Master Yi to his primary AD Carry role, however I'm personally not sure how viable this will make him in the current game play. The nerf to his AP ratio on his meditate will surely show a decrease in AP Yi players, but without the same treatment being given to his Q, his efficiency in the AD role is still questionable. As a mana champion with a low mana pool there's only so much sustain meditate can bring to lane and, without the decent poke provided by the Q on AP Yi, his game play still seems risky to me. This lack of change will also affect the speed of his camp clear in jungle as AD Yi, too, at least in the early-game stages. In any case, it will definitely be interesting to see how these changes pan out over the coming weeks.
Other nerfs can be seen on Shaco and Cho'gath. In the case of the latter, his silence has seen a reduction in effect time at later ranks, whilst the range on Shaco's ultimate and the duration of his slow have been nerfed. These changes will certainly effect the safety of jungle ganks for both champions, but less so in the case of Cho'gath. His prey is more likely to get away with a shorter silence duration, especially if the summoner misses a vital Rupture. The reduced silence will also likely effect it's devasation in team fights where it's previously been a very strong asset and tide-turner. The reduction of effectiveness during jungle-ganks will apply much more strongly to those slowed by Shaco comparatively. Furthermore, if the clown misjudges a gank, the reduction on his Decieve (and therefore his escape range) is also reduced and, if facing a mobile foe, he is less likely to get away from a poor gank.
Items:
The shop has seen many changes over the last few patches and this update is no exception. In it we see the reduction on the combination cost of Trinity Force, an adjustment that will definitely be in the favour of late-game carry players such as Irelia. Furthermore the reduction of the health granted by the Black Cleaver combined with the decrease of it's armour reduction statistic will definitely reduce its dominance in game play and will help hopefully AP Mid's cope with the devastating power it brings to the lane with the influx of AD casters witnessed in the past weeks. As an AP mid laner I've found it hard to lane against AD Casters such as Pantheon and Kha'zix with the current shop due to the squishy nature of the champions I play and the gap closers on my opponents. Previously it's been an unproductive option to start with Cloth Armour and five Health Potions, but now cloth armour builds into a new AP item named "Seekers Armguard" which grants armour and AP and has been incorporated into the recipe for the classic AP item "Zhonyas Hourglass" along with several other AP mid staples. I know I can't wait to assess the effectiveness of these changes once my client updates.
Other changes include the reduction in cost and increase in adaptability for the Fiendish Codex. This item now builds into Banner of Command amongst others, but doesn't grant mana regen, therefore it's more universal, catering for even manaless AP champions such as Mordekaiser and Katarina. This change will allow AP mids to now build two armour-AP items, which will definitely increase durability when combined with health items such as Liandry's torment and Rylais crystal sceptre. This will hopefully bring about the previously seen dominance of AP carries in the mid lane, since they were becoming much less and less viable.
_________________________________________________________________
That's all for now, but I hope to post another blog soon either reviewing the Panda Annie skin or the effect of the 3.01 patch changes, whichever comes first! Also, I have posted a link to the official patch notes video below.Thank you for reading!
Garnet.
Patch 3.01 Video:
No comments:
Post a Comment