Welcome to this edition of PL;DR — where we examine, disbelieve, celebrate and/or protest the latest changes for League of Legends. I’m Kyle, aspiring champion designer and currently in disbelief that there are no Bard changes this patch (does this mean that people think he’s a good champion now?) and I’ll be your guide for the rest of this patch rundown.

Reworks, revamped itemization, champion diversity and quality of life improvements have been the word for the past few patches, but there is one aspect that stands out from all of them: tanky junglers. While this makes sense from gameplay and design perspectives, the introduction and changes to the jungle *cough* Cinderhulk *cough* have overall made this a new meta. While I’ll be the last to admit that the Philippine scene is one of the first metas to pick up and act on changes, we’ve definitely noticed the effects of these jungle tanks. We’re seeing less jungle counterplay than before (when was the last time that you ever saw a counter-jungling jungler?), neutral objective control is more or less just a question of who gets there first and not who contests it, and where are my top lane ganks?

In response to the frustrated screams of every player who goes bottom lane, Riot’s made some changes. While the League of Tanks is still a thing, they won’t automatically steamroll over people once they leave the jungles from whence they came.

Champions

Ashe

League’s premier utility markswoman has just been shipped with a cool new kit! However, if I’m going to talk about them here we’re going to end up staying until the world freezes over. Watch out for a special Design of Legends in the next couple of days with an in-depth examination on how far Ashe has come from her first appearance in the League.

Akali

The champion that has a fatal allergy to pink wards is getting a few power spikes in this patch. Known for her “holy crap did she just come out of nowhere and disappear right after / RESET RESET LOL I’M A NINJA”, Akali’s power had been chipped in the past few patches. This change should open up new changes to Akali’s gameplay in particular — for example, Akali can now actually push and defend lanes without investing in ridiculous amounts of AP to do it, and solidifies using her Q effectively to separate the good Akalis from the great Akalis.

Annie

Annie’s had a good season so far — with the interactions that Tibbers now has with her spells, her burst is stronger than ever before. However, anyone who has ever faced an Annie with Luden’s Echo might think she’s having too good of a time, with good reason. Annie is one of the few long ranged harass champions and can burst you down. While mostly everyone in PH plays her as a support, her high AP ratios and AOE stuns often make her more of a threat than the enemy mid laner when it comes to late game. It doesn’t take too much thought to see how this would mess up bottom lane mechanics — while you either had a chance of attacking Annie or her AD carry, you end up just being zoned so much that it’s almost guaranteed you’ll lose lane. This nerf on her autoattack range ought to make dealing with this annoying brat a little easier.

Hecarim

Hecarim’s been on the chopping block for a while, given his effectiveness in tanking and fearing the pants off top lane players with his sustain, mobility, and general pony-ness. These changes should help a little bit with the jungle Hecarim players — remember what I said about jungle tanks only tanking jungle earlier? — while toning down the ones that play him in top lane by boosting the power of his E to monsters while giving it a heavy tax on those that use it in lane.. Seems like jungle ponies shouldn’t be domesticated.

Kalista

The possible love-child of Pantheon and a rabbit from the Shadow Isles has given a whole new dimension to the concept of “kiting”. Unfortunately, that dimension veers from “you have to work hard to close the gap between us” to “lol I’m going to spear your face and you can’t do anything about it”. Giving her equal footing on her bunny hops also makes her a little easier to play against — for example, a well-timed Thresh hook to her face ought to do the trick.

Morgana

It’s not uncommon for AD carries to be frustrated with the wave clear that Morgana’s Tormented Soil offers, coupled with her having access to spell shield, linear stun and an AOE stun. This change to the damage per second on her W should allow more possibilities to shove the lane when facing her, without completely clipping this fallen angel’s wings.

Nasus

The Doggie of the Sands has always been a tough one to fight, especially once he has access to his ultimate. However, there are occasions where enemies just shoot the dog before it has a chance to fight back (LeBlanc) due to a bug that delayed granting the bonus health you would get with your R. Now you can reliably ult and add the flesh of your fallen enemies to your Q stacks without worrying about being taken down in the process.

Nocturne

League’s most famous creepypasta is a little too reliant on his ultimate to make plays — and honestly when was the last time you saw a Nocturne in game anyway? — so some improvements to his fear mechanics ought to give this champion more opportunities to make your pants wet before the darknessss comes for you.

Olaf

While Olaf has always been a threat if you’re standing right next to him, players have quickly figured that’s also the only time he’s ever a threat. As a result he’s as slow as Olaf from Frozen and would be kited too easily before having the chance to activate his ultimate, or be forced to activate his ultimate too early, cutting down on his effectivity in extended skirmishes. With this change, it should be easier for Olaf players to reach those priority targets that dance out of reach — and no, not to give them warm hugs.

Renekton

Renekton’s starting to see a little more popularity with players since the recent patches. As befitting of someone being Nasus’s brother, his ultimate has also been fixed along with smoothing out his stun skill as to not make it seem so jarring when used effectively (all hail basic attack resets). Steve Irwin approves.

Riven

A champion that blurs the line between needing little skill to be played effectively and all the skill to be played like a god, Riven’s popularity and ease of skill use has been on Riot’s radar for a while. Though not as extensive as the nerfs given to her last season, these changes should make fighting against her easier — as well as dodging her execute of an ultimate.

Ryze

After his rework last patch, Ryze has risen to the peak of top lane casters given his interaction with mana items such as Frozen Heart and Muramana — the former giving him armor and extra mana, the latter adding on-hit damage to his spells and autoattacks. Unfortunately that also meant that Muramana quickly became “get wrecked with E son” on Ryze, much to the chagrin of every champion and the now short-lived delight of Ryze mains everywhere. This coupled with a bit of bugfix and some clarity in his skillset ought to make Eiffel 65’s magician more reliable to use and play against. (If you got that reference, you get a cookie.)

Tristana

We still need buffs on this champion? Personal feelings aside, Tristana’s grenade lobbing should smooth over her “what tower?” gameplay as well as rewarding players who push for attack speed Tristana. Given her attack damage-oriented role in PH meta, this would most likely make her a little more taxing to deal with in bottom lane, so call in the ganks.

Trundle

Trundle’s always had a unique kit — a tanky, tank-busting, zone-controlling, fighting and biting champion should be a more common sight in games. But with the introduction of the tank meta, he’s been relegated to an off-tank jungler (when was the last time you saw a committed Trundle?). This change should make him once again the troll master of the Rift while adding a little extra into his utility.

Xin Zhao

Riot has been watching old Disney movies and remembered that Xin Zhao existed! That aside, there’s nothing like diving into the enemy team and ulting away everyone from the target of your narrow-minded battle fury. However, it’s also been easy to rally and kill said initiator which often happens when your team is too far away from you to respond (so basically most people in PH League ever.). This new feature should allow you to be a man a little longer while diving into teamfights without dying as soon as you touch the enemy AD carry.

Zed

PG Noob Saibot has always been a high-octane and flashy champion since his introduction into the League. However, he’s also the champion to go to when you think “what if LeBlanc had a melee weapon instead of being a mage?” style of gameplay. And just like LeBlanc, this often meant that he had a guaranteed get in, kill and get out style of gameplay by level six. This change should allow Death Marked champions to have some opportunity to mess up Zed’s plans before he manages to make your head explode.

Items

Enchantment : Cinderhulk

The thing that made the League of Tanks possible has been in hot water since its release. Essentially, the problem was balancing the buffs needed for tanky junglers to thrive without them completely wrecking face with the buffs when it came to actual champion engagements. Sejuani not completely being smacked around by Gromp was good, but Sejuani sitting in the middle of a teamfight and still racking up kills by just being there is bad. To this end, Cinderhulk’s being nudged into a jungle-centric option — things for people like Nautilus or Zac to take without it overshadowing other jungle item enchants.

A little more context on why these changes will most likely affect the playing field back home: while not so common in PH meta, Cinderhulk’s also been the premier choice of enchantment for laners that take Smite. It’s literally just that good — and therein lies the problem. With an entirely new dynamic when you bring in jungle elements to a lane that lie outside the normal pattern of poke, zone and gank, you inevitably run into some lopsided power given to the champions involved. Simply put — Cinderhulk’s designed for the jungle, and should stay there. It’s great to surprise the enemy, but when everyone else is doing it, then it loses a little bit of meaning.

Skirmisher’s Sabre

Going off the thread of the previous item enchant, it’s not uncommon to find Cinderhulk hand in hand with Skirmisher’s Sabre in the top lane. Again, it’s a no-nonsense combination — extra health enchantment with an active that reduced damage to you while dealing true damage of your own is good. Too good.

Challenging Smite has some novel uses — from making sure that a counter-jungle goes well, to discouraging ganks if you equip it while laning, revealing stealth champs or ensuring they don’t get to play “Juke City” with you, and even for just a little damage for attack speed focused champions such as Master Yi. However, given the charge system that Smite now has, it’s now ridiculously easy for skirmishes to turn into “who used Challenging Smite on who” rather than actual play and counterplay. To compensate for this, the duration is being lowered on the Challenged target. It makes sense, given that Smite is on a 15 second cooldown between charges. Fixing it so the Challenged target deals the full amount of true damage is a fix long overdue, and will make champions such as Corki very happy.

Miscellaneous

New Attack Move Functionality

This should make Vayne, Kalista, and every other champion that relies on proc effects prancing around in joy. Simply speaking, now when you attack move (that’s left-clicking and pressing A), you’ll automatically attack the enemy closest to your cursor, if there are multiple enemies in your immediate attack range. Previously, an attack move would result in you attacking the closest enemy to your position — think of all those RTS games where you have a huge army and pressing A on a location would command said army to destroy everything in their path. This feature is actually unchanged, but think of also having the option to automatically attack who you want in your attack range instead of the closest enemy.

The reason for this being a welcome change is that champions such as Vayne who rely heavily on Silver Bolts proccing on the same target have a more reliable way of making sure they attack who they want to attack — which in a teamfight, is a bit wonky to figure out unless you click the enemy champion all the time. It’s not a big change, but those who are used to the old system have the option of turning this feature off in the menu, though I would personally keep it on.

Combat Text

VISUAL CLARITY. Though I know most players turn this feature off to save from excess screen information, combat text now has a better response to damage. Basically — bigger damage, bigger numbers.

Wrapping Up

Other changes this patch are a few things to the Mark/Dash skill on Howling Abyss, some improvements to the client’s match history, the releases of our new set of Hail Korean Overlords skins (but congratulations again to Samsung White for winning Worlds), Gambling is Good skins, and Anime Lux.

So what are these changes going to do the PH LoL scene? Given the hype that’s surrounding machine gun Ashe, it’s unlikely that the PH scene will be responding to this these changes immediately. The League of Tanks isn’t really that big here given that a lot of damage is still being dished out by top and bottom lane, though the few that choose to take Challenging Smite while laning might want to stick a little closer to their towers.

Most of the buffs this patch were given to champions that are underutilized in the current PH meta right now (since PH meta is what you commonly find in normal games.) As it was foretold in the last PL;DR, Riot’s current attention seems to be focused on the early game — in particular, how early game skirmishes play out.

Keeping an eye on middle lane isn’t a bad idea — given the power boost to Akali and the general push that Riot’s been moving towards, it’s also a good time to brush up on how to survive extended sieges. Junglers will most likely still have their jungles to themselves though the changes to Cinderhulk will make taking objectives such as Scuttle Crab a lot easier, but that only opens the path to earlier skirmishes and hopefully more exciting plays.

And on that hopeful note, that ends the rundown for these patch notes. This has been PL;DR patch 5.9. I’m off to go look for the duck in Summoner’s Rift. See you next patch!

You may find Riot’s offical patch notes [here].

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