Preseason "Balance" Patch Notes

Well I'm thinking I like almost all of the changes they are making this time around. Starting with the most significant changes.

Brutalizer: Flat Armor Penetration reduced to 10 from 15
The Black Cleaver: Armor Reduction per stack reduced to 6.25% from 7.5% (Maximum reduction is now 25% from 30%)
Flat Armor Penetration reduced to 10 from 15 and is now UNIQUE

HMMM I WONDER WHY THIS HAPPENED (league of dravens with 6 black cleavers each) yeah no more gay stacking guys sorry

Nidalee's Visual Rework

eeeeyyyyyy sexy lady

Cho'gath: Carnivore health restore adjusted to 20-71 from 34-68

Definitely a change for the better, his early game sustain was literally monstrous, although this is from the viewpoint of someone who encounters cho more often as an enemy than an ally.

Diana: Everything except her passive nerfed.

Man I should have expected this, guess the whining of the noobs won out in the end.

Master Yi

Alpha Strike: Initial cast time reduced

• Chance to deal bonus minion damage adjusted to 50% at all ranks from 20/30/40/50/60%
  
• Bonus minion damage adjusted to 260/320/380/440/500 from 400 at all ranks

Meditate: Reduced the startup time before channeling
Wuju Style: Cooldown reduced at later ranks to 25/23/21/19/17 seconds from 25 seconds at all ranks

LOL OH YEAH HERE WE GO AP YI GETTING SOME LOVE, minion damage getting nerfed might be bad...nahhhhh makes him look "balanced"

Rengar
Battle Roar: Base damage reduced to 50/80/110/140/170 from 60/100/140/180/220 + Heal reduced to 10% from 15%
Thrill of the Hunt: Fade time increased to 1.25 from .75 seconds + Now has fade pushback time (1 second per hit, up to 3 seconds)

Mr. kitty is getting screwed over now, no more using the ultimate for stupid ass escapes. I approve.

Teemo
Toxic Shot: Ability Power ratio on impact reduced to 0.3 from 0.4
Noxious Trap: Damage reduced at later ranks to 200/325/450 from 200/400/600

This is not going to stop people from whining about him, it will just make long time Teemo players angry.

Zyra
Rise of the Thorns: Damage reduced to 100-440 from 124-549
Missile Speed reduced to 1900 from 2200
Missile Width reduced to 70 from 90
Grasping Roots: Missile Speed reduced to 1150 from 1325

I don't get it, do they not want zyra able to get revenge after death so easily? She's one of only 3 champs that can, and you even have to actually aim the shot instead of say, just pressing R.

Smite damage increased to 490-1000 from 445-870

This'll make baron/dragon steals by the jungler a bit more feasible.

Twisted Treeline: Changed altar capture mechanics
Taking damage while capturing an altar will now cancel the capture and prevent capturing for 2 seconds
Capture interruptions will be denoted by a shiny particle

So now its a bit more like Dominion and not just sitting on the enemy's toilet long enough to flush it. Also, yay shiny

Crystal Scar: Tweaked global aura

• Armor penetration removed
  
• Magic penetration removed
  
• Energy champions now receive 2 bonus energy per second
  
• Fury champions now benefit from the aura
  Tryndamere receives 33% bonus Fury for attacks, critical strikes, and kills
  Renekton receives 33% bonus Fury for attacks
  Shyvana receives 25% bonus Fury for attacks
  
• Healing reduction now only affects self-heals and regeneration

Reduced ranged minion base magic resistance by 5
Reduced super melee minion base magic resistance by 15
Health Relics will now grant Fury
Tryndamere receives 10 Fury
Renekton receives 20 Fury
Shyvana receives 6 Fury

What the hell this is after they said they were trying to avoid "balance whiplash". First of all, I was under the impression that the fact that Health Relic's mana component was wasted on manaless champions was to compensate for the advantage of being manaless in the first place. Second, if they're going to start giving out bonuses to manaless champs, why just the energy and fury users? Mordekaiser and Rumble have unique systems too.

Corenat Rovarnus wrote:
I don't get it, do they not want zyra able to get revenge after death so easily? She's one of only 3 champs that can, and you even have to actually aim the shot instead of say, just pressing R.

Because support Zyra.

Corenat Rovarnus wrote:
What the hell this is after they said they were trying to avoid "balance whiplash". First of all, I was under the impression that the fact that Health Relic's mana component was wasted on manaless champions was to compensate for the advantage of being manaless in the first place. Second, if they're going to start giving out bonuses to manaless champs, why just the energy and fury users? Mordekaiser and Rumble have unique systems too.

Morde scaling is basically free health, which is stupid. Rumble is special because you time your skills right so you powerofpoo on people correctly. Increased gain for Rumble could mean like "Yeah ur gonna die lololo... FUU SILENCED MYSELF." Energy users makes them a tiny bit stronger but they still can't spam spells. idk about fury champs though.

I haven't played nearly enough recently but has penetration actually become that much more viable? I know they switched the order in which they applied it but then they went and nerfed most of the MPEN items.

Kevindakilla wrote:Because support Zyra.

I don't get it, what's wrong with support Zyra having a cool move?

Kevindakilla wrote:Rumble is special because you time your skills right so you powerofpoo on people correctly. Increased gain for Rumble could mean like "Yeah ur gonna die lololo... FUU SILENCED MYSELF."

Are you dumb enough to pick up a health pack when you know it's going to do that? It just makes Rumble players have to take health packs into consideration for their timing, and ONLY if they're nearby one AND are close to death AND have a high enough heat bar that the tiny bonus it gives will push it over. Besides the packs are only on the Dominmins and murderbridge which aren't very balance happy maps in the first place.

Darkgenesis wrote:I haven't played nearly enough recently but has penetration actually become that much more viable? I know they switched the order in which they applied it but then they went and nerfed most of the MPEN items.

Yeah, applying percentage first makes penetration more effective, but all penetration items got nerfed by 5/10%, except for Black Cleaver which now shreds percentage armor and also gives armor pen plus health while removing attack speed. So now you build it on AD casters instead of xin zhao. well you can still build it on xin zhao but xin pretty much scales on attack speed

Corenat Rovarnus wrote:

Kevindakilla wrote:Because support Zyra.

I don't get it, what's wrong with support Zyra having a cool move?

It's cool, but it doesn't have to be so damaging. Nothing shouts "OP" like a true damage ability on a support that scales with level. Zyra is already really strong as a support, because having a Sona ult as an ability is pretty strong and that you have a huge aoe knockup.

Darkgenesis wrote:I haven't played nearly enough recently but has penetration actually become that much more viable? I know they switched the order in which they applied it but then they went and nerfed most of the MPEN items.

They moved an extra 8% of armor/magic pen onto the tree, so the math works out to be a tiny bit higher than 40%. However, this also means that you get 8% during laning/mid game. Haunting guise builds into Liandry's, so that's not really an issue now. Sorc's now scale really well to late game since it's applied after.

Also, the change makes a lot of champs with armor/mr effectors a lot better. Darius applying BC, maxed E, LW and mastery, gets about 65% armor pen plus additional armor reduction by 10-22 (cleaver base to an efficient top lane runes/mastery page). Olaf similarly gets 55% with BC stacks, LW and mastery, but has 40-52 armor pen due to passive on ult. Smacking people with 100 armor for true damage?

At least they made cleaver UNIQUE and nerfed the armor pen value. Stacking them would make these numbers look even more ridiculous. Cleaver is still great on a lot of champs (armor pen, armor reduction which synergizes with your ad carry, health, cdr, ad)