League of Legends - F2P MOBA (like DOTA) part 2

[Kabob]

← Bought Fiora day 1, played her twice, convinced Riot to give me a refund.

Diana is out and I gotta say, Riot went much further with her than they've gone with any other champ in giving her a backstory and a theme. When you download the patch just sit in the loading screen and listen to the music (or you can listen to it on YouTube). Definitely a step in the right direction, I think they did a fantastic job.

Here's her Champion Spotlight.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

New Champion looks awesome.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Well she's definitely..um..special. She tower dived me 3 times with half health (while I had full health and sat and tanked the tower all while under level 5. She's a bit OP at the moment, so I'm sure she'll be a favorite until they rework and nerf her to oblivion.

Her leap I think might be further than any other character, and while I "thought" she had to land her arch move to even use that leap, I saw her more than once leap w/o it and having no prior contact to whoever she lept to (and a very long range at that). There were numerous times where she took 0 damage from anyone. She's just too tanky, does too much damage and has too many closer moves.

All in all I'd say she's a ranged Akali who has way too much staying and damage power at low levels.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

She doesn't need the moonlight thing. That only refreshes the coolodown if it lands on a lit character. Otherwise its just the single jump.

 

[Kabob]

She doesn't need the moonlight thing. That only refreshes the coolodown if it lands on a lit character. Otherwise its just the single jump.

This. If she uses her ult after her Q it simply refreshes the ult's CD. She can ult without it though.

 

[Firsttime]

She doesn't need the moonlight thing. That only refreshes the coolodown if it lands on a lit character. Otherwise its just the single jump.

On like a 23 second cd. Still pretty insane. Don't think she'll be too wildly OP, definetly very pub stompy. Like Akali. AoE team comps will blow her up. If anything the refreshing shield is OP in lane. 100+ sheild at level 1 is pretty crazy.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Her ult has a 20 second base cooldown, so down to 12 with max CDR which I shoot for since that turns her into crazy powerful assassin and initiator.

All the ones I've been facing seem to refuse to use their ult unless it's a killing blow or they landed the Q already. I was like that for the first 25 minutes of using her, then I realized with all the AP that I had I could just ult in with my W active, Q right in front of me and proc the passive for almost an instantly kill on people Game dragged on but I ended up just initiating fights more or less, dive in on a carry that wanders too close (Ezreal consistently did so trying to poke with Q) and E everyone around you and watch as your team converges on them while you take almost no damage due to the double shield

 

[ImpulsE69]

Her ult has a 20 second base cooldown, so down to 12 with max CDR which I shoot for since that turns her into crazy powerful assassin and initiator.

All the ones I've been facing seem to refuse to use their ult unless it's a killing blow or they landed the Q already. I was like that for the first 25 minutes of using her, then I realized with all the AP that I had I could just ult in with my W active, Q right in front of me and proc the passive for almost an instantly kill on people Game dragged on but I ended up just initiating fights more or less, dive in on a carry that wanders too close (Ezreal consistently did so trying to poke with Q) and E everyone around you and watch as your team converges on them while you take almost no damage due to the double shield

Yea pretty much as I said, very OP. I swear Riot doesn't even QA test anymore, it's rush rush rush and we'll sort it out later. It's really starting to look like they don't care about anyone but the tourney players. I feel like this one had to come out OP since the last few have been lackluster, they probably didn't coax enough RP out of the playerbase, but when you are bringing out new chars almost every other week, there's a point you've over saturated. You have to up the anti to get anyone to spend real cash. I pretty much refuse to buy any more skins due to the constant changes to characters. I don't need a skin if that char is nerfed so much they never get played. There are so many characters you never see any more, just the same handful. Granted, I've spoken multiple times about how I disapprove of the constant reworking of characters, that's just my opinion, I know others here like it.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Mmm I wouldn't say OP, just very strong lategame which most assassins aren't as they typically revolve around sniping 1 person outside of real fights, and while they have damage to add to team fights they usually die so fast or get zoned so readily they can't do much unless everyone is weak after the fight and they're just cleaning up.

Diana on the other hand has some pretty weak laning, although many will just jungle her, she needs a lot of farm to be that powerful assassin initiator. The problem for you is that her kit at 6 is very easy to snipe a kill here and there, so you have to play defensively for a while until you can out-damage her if she jumps on you. You have to harass the crap out of her early on, and mid-game you need to zone her (talking about lane Diana) to prevent her from just farming creep with Q casts, or at the very least out-farm her.

She's like an updated version of Fizz in my eyes, has some ranged poke but roughly the same ability styles they're working with however instead of the pole-jump disjoint which is oh so annoying, she just has a shield which can refresh. Unlike Fizz however, if she's been starved of farm all game she is going to be pathetic as aside from a slight damage Q her entire kit relies on her being right next to her target, and if she doesn't have CDR + AP she's going to melt for doing so.

All this AP assassin stuff aside, I have to wonder how strong she'll be as an AD (Fizz was used that way for a while, still is for some) as her E is a very powerful AoE disable for a bruiser, her Q might not do much damage but does allow her refreshed ult blinks for chasing/escaping. Her ult has a fairly short CD considering it has a base damage + blinks you instantly onto the target. Plus the passive proc does a decent base damage, imagine that with a Wit's End on a tank effectively. It does more than that item that was ported from Dominion, built out of a Recurve + Ruby, garbage item for the most part but still it does more and comes up faster and it's just her innate passive. I'm afraid of her evolving into that as opposed to her current AP assassin role tbh, I mean what do you do against that?

 

[ImpulsE69]

Does ignore work for anyone? All I get is an error no matter the name for a few weeks. It's very annoying to not be able to ignore. I see a few posts on the forums about it, but no replies, and nothing from the devs.

Also, while looking around to see if this is a larger issue, I found an article that said that if you ignore someone, you will not be grouped with them again. Is this actually true? It doesn't seem like that would work well for ranked system... If so, that's awesome.

 

[crownjules]

It doesn't work like that for precisely that reason. The higher ELO players could just ignore all the other higher ELO players and be matched with lesser opponents.

 

[ImpulsE69]

It doesn't work like that for precisely that reason. The higher ELO players could just ignore all the other higher ELO players and be matched with lesser opponents.

Yea that's what I thought too.

 

[Kabob]

Katarina redesign next patch:

This patch, we’ll be overhauling one of our classic champions: Katarina, the Sinister Blade. Although Katarina’s manaless, cooldown-based abilities put a unique spin on her gameplay, she’s historically faced a number of challenges in the very early game and in team fight situations. In this update, we’ve made a few changes to her kit aimed at addressing these difficulties, while retaining the core elements that make playing this Noxian femme fatale a fun and satisfying experience. We also gave her a complete visual upgrade, including a new model, animations and spell effects on all of her abilities!

Katarina’s New Abilities
Voracity (Passive): Champion kills or assists reduce Death Lotus' cooldown and refresh your basic abilities.
Bouncing Blades: Katarina throws a dagger that bounces from enemy to enemy, dealing magic damage and marking them. Striking a marked target with an ability or basic attack will consume the mark to deal additional magic damage.
Sinister Steel: Katarina whirls her daggers around her, dealing magic damage to all enemies in the area. If she hits an enemy champion, Katarina gains Movement Speed for a short duration.
Shunpo: Katarina instantly moves to her target's location and takes reduced damage from enemies for a short duration. If the target is an enemy, she deals damage.
Death Lotus (Ultimate): Katarina becomes a flurry of blades, throwing daggers with unrivaled speed at up to three nearby champions. Daggers deal magic damage and reduce incoming healing on targets hit.

The first problem that Katarina players often faced was weak performance very early on, primarily related to the steep damage curve of her core damage ability, Bouncing Blades. While Bouncing Blades scales dramatically as it levels up, early on it ricochets only a few times, dealing relatively low damage. This forces Katarina players to play conservatively early in the laning phase, encouraging passive play until Bouncing Blades can be used to harass effectively.

To address this disparity, we normalized the damage inflicted by Bouncing Blades and made it bounce the same number of times at every level of the skill. In addition, each ricochet will now select the nearest available target instead of bouncing randomly. This change should both facilitate interesting counter-play for opponents and open up new harassment opportunities for advanced Katarina players who are able to predict where their daggers are going to bounce.

In addition to her early game difficulties, Katarina’s reliance on the massive damage potential of Death Lotus has always made her a challenging champion to balance. A fully channeled ultimate could quickly reduce a team to ashes, but a well-timed interrupt from a canny defender could quickly transform Katarina from a maelstrom of death into an easy kill. For this reason, we decided to move the healing debuff from Killer Instincts onto Death Lotus and decrease the channel time slightly. While this reign in the overall damage numbers slightly, replacing some of this raw punishment with a bit of utility gave us the opportunity to make remainder of Katarina’s kit more dangerous.

To accomplish this, we swapped Killer Instincts for a spammable, area-of-effect attack that grants Katarina a brief speed boost when it lands. This new ability, dubbed Sinister Steel, gives Katarina superior mobility and allows her to continue laying down damage on multiple targets during a team fight if Death Lotus is interrupted by a stun or knockback. For a little added kick, Bouncing Blades will now apply a debuff that is consumed to deal bonus damage when Katarina strikes the target with an attack or ability. These changes should give Katarina the extra damage she needs to play aggressively right out the gates and the flexibility necessary to keep her damage potential high once the team fights start.

This brand new take on Katarina, the Sinister Blade, will be baring her blades in an upcoming patch. We hope you’re ready!

 

[krnmastersgt]

As a Katarina fan I am intrigued by this change they're making to her, though it does sound like they'll be nerfing her ult's damage output noticeably to say the least.

 

[Kabob]

As a Katarina fan I am intrigued by this change they're making to her, though it does sound like they'll be nerfing her ult's damage output noticeably to say the least.

Doesn't look like it, here's the updates to the PBE:

Rengar (New Champion)

Damage:58(+3 per level)
Health:520(+85 per level)
Mana:5
Movement Speed:320
Armor:19.5(+3.5 per level)
Magic Resist:31.25(+1.25 per level)
Health Per 5 Sec:7.05
Mana Per 5 Sec:0
Range:125

Passive: Unseen Predator
While in brush or stealth Rengar will leap at the target when using his basic attack.

Rengar builds 1 point of Ferocity with each ability he uses on enemies. When reaching 5 points of Ferocity, Rengar's next ability becomes empowered, granting it a bonus effect.


Q: Savagery
Rengar's next basic attack deals bonus damage and grants him increased attack speed.

Ferocity Bonus: Rengar deals enhanced damage and doubles his Attack Speed bonus.

Range - 300
Cooldown - 6 seconds


W: Battle Roar
Rengar lets out a battle roar, damaging enemies and gaining bonus armor and Magic Resist for a short duration.

Ferocity Bonus: Rengar heals for a large amount.

Range - 400
Cooldown - 0 secs


E: Bola Strike
Rengar throws a bola at his target, slowing them for a short duration.

Ferocity Bonus: Roots the target for 1 second.

Range - 575
Cooldown - 12/11/10/9/8 Seconds


R: Thrill of the Hunt
Rengar activates his predatory instincts, stealthing and revealing all enemy Campions in a large radius around him. He gains Movement Speed and rapidly generates Ferocity while stealthed.

Range - 2000Cooldown - 120/80/40 Seconds



Katarina (Reworked)

Health changed from 478 (+83 per level) to 505 (+80 per level)
Armor changed from 18.75 (+4 per level) to 20.5 (+3.5 per level)

Voracity (Passive)
Champion kills or assists reduce Death Lotus's cooldown by 10 seconds and refresh basic abilities.

Bouncing Blades (Q)
Throws a dagger dealing 50/85/120/155/190 (+0.5) magic damage. The dagger bounces to the 4 closest enemies dealing 10% less damage with each bounce.

Enemies hit are marked for 4 seconds. Katarina's basic attacks or spells will consume the mark dealing 15/30/45/60/75(+0.2) additional magic damage.

Range - 675
Cooldown - 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 Seconds


Sinister Steel (W)
Whirls daggers in a circle dealing 40/80/120/160/200 (+0.3) magic damage. If she hits an enemy Champion, Katarina gains 12/20/28/36.5/44% movement speed for 1 second

Range - 750
Cooldown - 4/4/4/4/4 Seconds.


Shunpo (E)
Moves to a target's location. Deals 40/70/100/130/160 (+0.4) magic damage if the target is an enemy.

After using Shunpo, Katarina takes 20% reduced damage for 3 seconds

Range - 700
Cooldown - 14 Seconds.


Death Lotus (R)
Becomes a flurry of blades, throwing daggers at the closest 3 enemy Champions dealing 400/500/600 (+1.75) magic damage over 2 seconds.

Daggers apply Grievous Wounds, reducing incoming healing by 50% for 3 seconds.

Range - 550
Cooldown - 60 Seconds



Champion Changes
Cho'Gath

• Feast now deals 1000 (+0.7) true damage to minions, up from 1000. Now loses half of his stacks on death, compared to loses up to 3.
• Feral Scream Minor tooltip rewording (no change)
• Vorpal Spikes Minor tooltip rewording (no change)

Garen

• Courage now passively increases Armor and Magic Resist by 20% instead of increasing it by 0.5 every time he kills an enemy unit.
• Courage defensive shield now lasts 2/3/4/5/6 seconds instead of 3 seconds. Now reduces incoming damage by 30% at all ranks instead of 20/24/28/32/36%. Now also grants 30% Crowd Control Reduction. Cooldown changed to 24 seconds instead of 30/27/24/21/18 Seconds.
• Decisive Strike now also breaks all slows affecting Garen. 35% Speed bonus now lasts 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds instead of 3 seconds. Damage increased to 30/55/80/105/130 (up from 30/45/60/75/90) and Silence effect duration changed to 1.5/1.8/2/2.3/2.5 seconds instead of a flat 2.5 seconds at all ranks.
• Demacian Justice now has a 160/120/80 seconds cooldown, changed from 140/120/100 seconds.
• Judgment no longer breaks slow effects or reduces the duration of slow effects. Now deals 20/45/70/95/120 plus 70/80/90/100/110 % of his attack (+0.9) physical damage instead of 50/90/130/170/210 physical damage. Judgment can critically strike dealing bonus damage. Judgment deals 25% less damage to minions and monsters.
• Perseverance now regenerates after 10 seconds, up from 7 seconds - If Garen has not taken damage from monsters,towers or champions in the last 10 seconds, Garen regenerates 0.5% of his maximum Health each second

.

Kayle
Righteous Fury now scales from 40% of AP, up from 20%.

Teemo
Toxic Shot now deals 10/20/30/40/50 (+0.4) damage, up from 9/18/27/36/45 (+0.14). Now deals 6/12/18/24/30 (+0.1) damage over 4 seconds, down from 6/12/18/24/30 (+0.14).

Varus
Blighted Quiver: Now does 2/2.8/3.5/4.3/5 % (+0.02%) of the target's maximum Health per stack, up from 2/2.8/3.5/4.3/5 % (+0.01%)

New Items
Bonetooth Necklace
Item Cost - 1000
+20 Attack Damage (+2 per level) UNIQUE Passive: Rengar collects trophies when killing Champions, and gains bonus effects based on how many trophies he has. Kills and assists grant 1 trophy, and 1 trophy is lost on death. 2 Trophies: +25 Movement Speed. 6 Trophies: +10 Armor Penetration, +5% Cooldown Reduction. 12 Trophies: Rengar's leap gains 150 bonus range. 18 Trophies: New Active: Instantly gain 5 Ferocity.

Rengar looks (appearance-wise) like a cross between Volibear and Renekton...just sayin'

 

[crownjules]

Nice, a free gap closer whenever he's in brush. Glad to see them keeping mobility creep in check.

Good to see Garen getting a little love. I just wish they'd word Judgement so the crit bonus damage part was more transparent. It's so vague and doesn't give players a good idea of whether it's worth it to build crit chance or not.

 

[Kabob]

Apparently they're updating the HUD as well, not sure when the ETA on this release is:

Seems like initial response isn't good, most people don't like it.

 

[krnmastersgt]

That is definitely a nerf to her ultimate in terms of full damage potential and extended team fights as the CD reduction you got from her old passive is 15 seconds vs 10 of the new one.

That being said her W is starting to look pretty nice and while Death Lotus will do less damage it will deal it considerably faster so you won't be forced to just sit in 1 spot spinning endlessly.

I'm really confused on the wording for Judgement's new damage. From what I can see this is going to actually nerf his early few ranks of damage but make it scale considerably better later on. Not sure how I feel about the changes to Courage as for laning, where he's strongest, that flat increase is insanely powerful, only a really tanky build will benefit from the % increase as opposed to the flat

Also wooooo AP Cho has another strong point now, feasting baron for more than twice smite's damage!

 

[ivan2]

It looks to me that the fire cape kat could be viable again

 

[ImpulsE69]

Speaking of Kat....last night I mid'ed against a Kat (as Anivia) that just absolutely raped me over and over. It was bad. Of course after that she proceeded to rape the team. We were pretty sure we were going to lose, but we had a Sion that was also pretty fed (and only got more fed as the game went on)....and of course there's my persistant backdooring with an ap carry that people just don't think will happen.

The turning point was they were pushing our base and I got a penta on them (only 2nd one for me). After that things were in our favor and we eventually won. Was pretty epic game for a change. The Sion was just crazy, he was healing for over half his health with one hit.

 

[Kabob]

I'm really confused on the wording for Judgement's new damage. From what I can see this is going to actually nerf his early few ranks of damage but make it scale considerably better later on. Not sure how I feel about the changes to Courage as for laning, where he's strongest, that flat increase is insanely powerful, only a really tanky build will benefit from the % increase as opposed to the flat

I think they're trying to make him less of a "jack of all trades" champ and instead make you pick tank or damage and get a bigger benefit for that choice.

 

[Dominato3r]

AstroNautilus confirmed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KzdI_2ij-4Q

 

[PimpJuice]

I just started playing the game this week based on Kabobs recommendation. It's pretty fun and I'm slowly getting the hang of it. I've been playing Shen but look forward to trying some different characters when the list changes.

Feel free to add me if you need a teammate....my tag is PLMPJULCE

 

[Kabob]

I just started playing the game this week based on Kabobs recommendation. It's pretty fun and I'm slowly getting the hang of it. I've been playing Shen but look forward to trying some different characters when the list changes.

Feel free to add me if you need a teammate....my tag is PLMPJULCE

Glad you're getting into it, lots of fun for sure.

Anyone tried the new Katarina yet? I bought her the other day in preparation for the remake, although I assume her play style won't change much which means I'll still suck with her. Much more intrigued with the Garen changes than anything.

 

[Kabob]

So Alienware gave out codes for Master Yi + his Samurai skin today, it was a freaking fire sale. Their website crashed countless times.