LoL PL;DR (Perfectly Long; Definitely Read) Patch 5.7

08:00 AM April 15, 2015

Welcome to the first edition of League of Legends PL;DR (Perfectly Long; Definitely Read) Patch 5.7! This article will sum up, analyze and possibly make fun of the latest changes, nerfs, buffs, future buffs (but we don’t know it yet) and present nerfs that we think are buffs that will come with the patch.

I’m Kyle, aspiring champion designer who avoids laning mid because I can’t have central map awareness (it’s a genetic thing, so my doctor says). I’ll be your guide for the rest of the patch notes and I’ll try my best to not to crash us into something while we’re at it.

With the end of the much asked for URF mode, people have been a bit blind (this will be funny for reasons later) to the recent nerfs that came in patch 5.6. To those that think this is a bad thing, it looks like the trend will continue for 5.7.

The introduction of the Cinderhulk enchantment and Luden’s Echo a few patches ago made mid lane mages incredibly aggressive and tanky junglers almost uncounterable without prolonged struggle in the early stages of the game. While these buffs were almost universally appreciated, the idea of junglers counter-hitting ADCs before level 6 like they owed them money and AP mids eating up their lane opponents more than a hungry Gragas were some things that did not sit well with Riot. So nerfs, adjustments and fine-tunings were given in response (more specifically, the ones found in 5.6). As a result, this patch is little more than cleanup after it, but a waxed car always looks better than just a washed car.

Champions

Bard

Since his release two patches ago, League’s newest support still has the lowest win rate in the game. Riot’s made some changes to his gameplay to allow for more freedom of choice. Translation: more buffs.

Given the relatively healthy place where marksmen are now (not unlike last season where we saw nerfs as often as a pink ward in the tri-bush), Bard’s laning has become static and his gameplay heavily reliant on his allied initiators. The reason for this seem to be his ultimate: a hard disable that affects both friends and enemies, giving him very few situations where it could have a meaningful impact.

Tempered Fate is more suited to late game scenarios rather than the aggressive laning phases. A direct buff like Lulu’s Overgrowth or direct damage like Annie’s Tibbers is more effective at that stage of the game before enemy champions have had a chance to stack health or damage. In contrast, Tempered Fate shines the most around the time when champions have been able to scale their stats, and the timing, placement and objective control are the major factors that determine game-deciding skirmishes.

With this in mind, the buffs to Bard should open him up for more aggressive early laning, as well as provide additional incentive for him to roam around the map. Currently, Bards are having difficulty leaving the ADC in bot lane by themselves because they’ll be worried about their bae. The possibility of them giving up a kill or a turret for some late game power just isn’t worth it.

Favoring immediate results over scaling ones, the Meep modifier (that name just sounds too cute) has been changed to make Bards feel like their auto attacks are actually contributing in lane, as well as allow earlier access to the utility they provide with enough chimes. Hopefully this change will see more Bards roam and support other lanes perhaps allowing them to “chime” in on some of that other lane action.

For a detailed design analysis of Bard, click [here].

Blitzcrank

Blitzcrank is undoubtedly one of the strongest initiators for pick compositions in the entire LoL roster. Everytime he tries to hook me in lane, I feel like a little part of my soul dodges in response. Overdrive goes hand-in-hand with his Rocket Grab that it is essentially his other signature skill; it’s great for chasing people to Falcon PAWNCH into the air, for getting into the middle of a teamfight and silencing people — okay, with the sheer utility that this offers to Blitzcrank’s ENTIRE kit, you can see why some nerfs were needed.

This will rust the steam golem a bit, but he should still be in a safe place and will probably give all ADCs some breathing room in the early game.

Darius

Is this really happening? Once the king of top lane, the nerf to Darius’s ultimate last season has all but removed him from his throne. Every time I pick him, people always mistake me for a jungler and I end up going full tank instead because everyone needs at least two jobs in this economy. With this buff, Darius should still be able to make some follow-up plays with his Q even if his ultimate isn’t rank three yet in early teamfights. He turns into Michael Jordan again by level 16 though, a sight for sore eyes to those who remember the early days of Darius. His counters are still there (freakin’ Ashe and Kalista), but failing to capitalize on them will make you see more dunking than a child with a pack of Oreos and a glass of milk.

Evelynn

Evelynn’s been in a tricky place since the new jungle changes came out way back in Season Four. She’s been relegated to a sustained ganker where she has to continually camp one lane to make a meaningful difference (also because counter jungling her is ridiculously easy at early levels) and while her late game scaling is somewhat respectable, it gets overshadowed if her enemies manage to suppress her early. This change should allow her to shove more spikes where it hurts the most, but only time will tell if this can help her strut like she used to.

Fizz

Fizz hasn’t seen a lot of action in PH since everyone locked Zed mid because Faker-senpai said so, but during the times that he does, he’s a complete terror for every AP mage who thinks they’re safe under their tower. NOT.

Hello, AD Fizz. Again. While this change is primarily meant to shift a little more power back into the meta that is AP Fizz, the switch between his passive and active components will mean a little more bite (and reliance) on his ultimate but also make Nashor/Zephyr Fizz a thing again. Hopefully he won’t be too much of a menace in mid with these changes.

Garen

With all the nerfs to the jungle this patch, Riot seems to be opening the door for more aggressive top laners to shine. While somewhat overpowered with his innate sustain and “run-at-the-person-and-use-all-your-skills-on-him” skillset, Garen’s nonetheless getting behind in terms of mid-game trades and usually ends up transitioning as a tank late game (all that wasted AD scaling). Less cooldown on his ultimate should make AD Garen a more common sight again in early game. FOR THE CAUSE!

Hecarim

Admittedly, Hecarim’s low cooldown on his Q and sustain with his E make him a rather safe top laner, able to go toe-to-toe with champions such as Jax, hence the nerfs. However, given Hecarim’s popular jungler role in PH, jungle ponies might just become new members on the Rift’s endangered species list.

Kassadin

Kassadin’s always been a tricky champion to balance, given that he has a free flash by level six. While not a common presence in League (except during free week), Kassadin’s overall mobility and hard counter to mages everywhere make him a definite threat late game. Locking down his ultimate’s timeframe a bit should allow for more mobile AP mids and fast jungle gankers to take down this purple VLC media player during laning phase.

Maokai

While primarily played as a jungler/support in PH, Maokai’s innate sustain with his passive is just too good for early game trades — any ADC who has ever laned with Maokai can attest to this. Despite being a change targeted at top lane Maokai players, this will cull down the tree in general at early skirmishes while still allowing him to become League’s tankiest environmentalist late game.

Morgana

VISUAL CLARITY.

Man, they love hitting all these supports for some reason…

Nidalee

The cougar is always a hot topic of conversation in any neighborhood (heh) but Nidalee’s the cougar-iest of cougars. While jungle Nidalee has been a bit overshadowed as Cinderhulking intensified last patch, her poke — get in and get out (wink wink) — playstyle is still one of the more annoying things to deal with in any stage of the game. These changes should make her a little easier to deal with if she doesn’t land on her feet and give Nidalee players some pause before pouncing.

And if there was any confusion, I was making references to Cougar Town. Have you seen that show? It’s awesome.

Quinn

Despite being one of my favorite ADCs, Quinn’s one of the rarer marksmen, especially in PH given her wonky Valor passive mechanics and her steroid of an ultimate. However, this does clear things up for people who thought that being blind (you see I told you that would pay off) was a sure thing only to get a grey screen moments afterward. So now you can feel a little more secure in telling your bird to go poke people in the eye.

Rek’Sai

Undoubtedly one of League’s premier junglers, almost reaching Jarvan-like levels in terms of her utility, damage and skillset, Rek’Sai’s been the target of almost constant nerfing and tuning since her release. Lately, with the meta slowly encouraging more aggressive bot lanes, Rek’Sai’s core pattern as a counter jungler/assassin/top laner has given her too much situational power in response.

Lower scaling on her Q should clip some of that power whether she’s jungling or laning, but the tradeoff of getting to use her tunnels more will most likely push her right back to where she belongs: making people fear going into the jungle at all. Cue Predator clicking noises.

Shen

For the same reasons as Garen’s buff above, this change is more targeted to top lane Shens than the tank-support meta that is currently the thing in PH; but that aside, this change should make Shen players, or at least those that like using their ultimate as often as they can, very happy.

Singed

Just a little booboo with numbers. Otherwise, the life of this Batman villain wannabe trollmaster should continue on as normal.

Teemo

Same changes to Quinn. If you think the commentary is getting sparse, I told you that this patch was more about waxing than cleaning.

Tristana

Ah, Tristana. Despite the numbers not saying so, she’s extremely good as a marksman by the virtue of her new skillset, tower pushing and her immense range (think of a smaller, more compact Caitlyn). That being said, this change is geared to provide more incentive for people to invest in cooldown reduction rather than AP or critical chance by providing a link between these two abilities because apparently Tristana still needs help with her guns. Goodness. Now go shoot something.

Items

Cinderhulk

Cinderhulk in general is one of the rarer jungle item enchants that appear in PH meta (since we’re all about that aggressive junglers or junglers that seem to think the enemy nexus is in the jungle and never leave it) but on the rare occasions it is used, its effectiveness is almost unmatched.

Tanky junglers such as Nautilus, Warwick and Flubber (Zac) became almost a new threat overnight with Cinderhulk’s introduction as the item already complemented their build path of stacking health, in addition to their shield mechanics, AOE damage and sustain.

That being said, Cinderhulk’s being nerfed in order to open up more build paths for junglers. The problem here is not Cinderhulk itself, but the itemization that follows it. Like damage items, if you stack health, you most likely stack armor to go with it. And if you have armor, then of course you stack even more health. See what I’m getting at here?

It’s a logical build path for tanky junglers to take, but the existence of an item such as this gives more reason for junglers to go full tank instead of actually building towards their core strengths. While a full tank jungler may sound like a good idea, the existence of scaling largely diminishes their roles late-game and may just unnecessarily turn the battle into one of attrition. This change would hopefully have more junglers be more flexible with their build paths as the game progresses rather than to lock into one for the entire game.

Tiamat

VISUAL AND GAMEPLAY CLARITY!

Just kidding, that’s not all. Anyone who has excessively used Tiamat and Ravenous Hydra would have encountered the somewhat weird bug on occasion that after an enemy flashes away as you proc the cleave would’ve taken the damage they had BEFORE flashing or moving away. That was because the damage calculation for Cleave is calculated within boundary zones from the point of cast, which made for said weird bugs. While this was something said players who used these items enjoyed, those on the receiving end hated it. Now, Cleave damage will scale linearly — and this actually makes a lot of sense, wonder why they didn’t put it in sooner — instead of using boundary zones on hit, allowing for a more accurate calculation of damage. Hail Hydra.

Miscellaneous

Gift of The Toadstool

Keeping in line with the tanky jungler power that was discussed in Cinderhulk earlier, Gromp’s Smite bonus has been toned down in response. Given that it’s usually one of the earliest buffs taken by the jungler just made it hit (back) too hard against auto-attack reliant champions.

The common practice of stacking health also made it ridiculously effective against ADCs in the late game. Although I think this is just Riot’s way of encouraging junglers to take blue buff or Krugs first, this nerf should make ganks a little more fair instead of being completely one-sided. Previously hitting the jungler would’ve been a bad idea in a gank, even though without the buff they could be taken down easily. Now, there’s a little more reason to stand your ground instead of immediately fleeing to your tower or burning Flash.

Wrapping Up

So we’ve reached the end of this patch note analysis. That was a lot to cover for a cleanup patch. Other changes include some bugfixes to ward hop crashes, minion spawn animations and loading screen/end of game banners. Of course, new skins will be up so that means my wallet’s going to lose weight, but worth.

So what is this going to mean for the next couple of weeks? PH’s meta is currently aimed at top laners and aggressive AP mids, so it’s likely these changes won’t be felt until long-term when the meta shifts and on the champions in the free week rotation. A push for a more aggressive bottom lane could potentially shift the balance and lynchpin of the game from top to bottom. Given the nerfs to Cinderhulk and Gromp buff, ADCs could potentially carry the game again like before, and then Riot will nerf in response and then we will cry. But for the moment, the jungle seems a little safer for all and a bit more difficult to stay in.

We might also reasonably expect a couple more changes in the future to encourage early game skirmishes. Since most of the changes last season were meant to tone down aggressive mid game play and scaling, now would be a good time to brush up on your laning and last hitting skills. In particular, the changes to Bard and Blitzcrank indicate that Riot’s trying to make supports work for that salary by making more risky but ultimately more rewarding plays. Given how reckless our supports are in PH (for better or for worse), I think we can oblige them.

And that wraps up this rundown. This has been PL;DR patch notes 5.7. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go autolock Rek’Sai for the next ten games. See you next patch!

Here’s a little video for those who are wondering where the glorious game mode we know as Ultra Rapid Fire came from:

For the full patch notes, click [here].