Alright, I plan to start these threads on the same day as they broadcast the patch notes, but I was at E3 yesterday and thus didn't have a chance.
So let's see:
Cu Chulainn TL;DR
I can't wait to see how many people misspell this one.
I guess it's about time Hi-Rez introduced a mechanic like this...surprised it took them this long. A bunch of other games have already done this. The mechanic is really interesting, and seems like it calls for being really aggressive to get the most out of his kit.
I wonder how it's going to affect his builds...it says mana, MP5, and mana heals are applied to his health pool, and Wiki says the health conversion is 10% of his mana. To me, this renders items with mana pools to be somewhat less effective. Take, for example, Breastplate of Valor. 300 mana is equivalent to 30 health now? It'll be interesting to see how long it takes them to find proper balance on this guy.
If the above is indeed accurate, although it's not like he wouldn't appreciate the physical protection and CDR from BoV, it might push him toward different items altogether. But let's consider some of the various stats:
Cooldown and need for CDR: his abilities have CDs of 16-12 seconds for Barbed Spear (#1), 6 seconds for Vent Anger (#2), 16 seconds for Salmon's Leap (#3), and 75 seconds for Spear of Mortal Pain (ult). Seems somewhat average overall, but with a nice lower CDR on his ult...some CDR might be nice, but it's not like he needs max CDR.
Health: At level 20, he'll have base health of around 2,100 (standard for a warrior), but when he's in Berzerk mode, he automatically gains 40+23 per level, which translates to an additional 500 health. Not too shabby...will remain to be seen how easy/difficult it will be to make him Berzerk, and how long it lasts.
Ability damage: his base damages are pretty good, and his scaling is okay...not great, but solid. He also gets 5+2 power per level in berzerk mode, so at level 20, he automatically has an additional 45.
Basic attacks: He's got a 0.7 / 0.7 / 1 attack speed progression in regular mode, and 1.05 / 1.05 / 1.05 in Berzerk. Outside of Berzerk, it'll be interesting to see how much he might like Qin's Sais for that progression...I could see a partial basic attack bruiser build, similar to Erlang Shen but tankier, with a strong need for a lot of basic attack canceling to get the most out of that progression. Then again, I could see more of a standard ability-based build too, focusing on protections and CDR, with a lot of potential for disruption.
Control & mobility: So, his #1 has healing reduction (we'll ignore the stun for now, since it's against minions only), and in Berzerk form he gets a 1 second root. His #2 gives him a weak Mystical Mail passive effect along with 10% increased move speed with an extremely low CD. His #3 is a leap that can be used for escape or initiation, and in Berzerk form is like a Tyr or Hercules push. His ult has a knockup effect (and maybe a 30% slow for 2 seconds?), and in Berzerk form makes them "tremble" (whatever the hell that means) for 1 second instead of the knockup. That tremble had better be good. In all, seems like he's got decent CC, but nothing to write home about. Better in Berzerk mode.
In all, I liked Stuke's description of berzerk mode best..."I see a handsome celtic man, and behind him is sloth from the goonies on roids."
As for the rest of the patch...
All these damn beautiful skins. If only I didn't have kids, I could spend my money on aesthetic things...*Sigh* The Tyr skin and the Osiris skins look awesome.
AURA nerfs...ouch. Gauntlet of Thebes is probably hit hardest...now down to 300 health and only a 15 protection aura. Depending on how a match goes, I see myself possibly shifting from that item to Mail of Renewal if I want more CDR and want to retain that health boost.
As for Sovereignty, well...I'm a bit bummed on this, but I guess it's perhaps a good thing. Rather than be almost a required item for a Support, and have its functionality just depend on the location of the support, it shifts to the Support having to make more skill-based plays to be effective. The added protection is now minor, in my opinion, so Supports really will need to make more precise plays with their CC to influence fights.
That said, I think that Sov shouldn't have gotten an overall nerf...if it's losing major aura protection, they should have at LEAST kept the physical protection the same for the owner...but now, instead of having 60 protection, they get 55. Minor, but when you decrease one of its main functions, I say the first step would be to keep the total protections the same...and make another minor adjustment if it plays out as not having been quite enough. But I'm not Hi-Rez, so what do I know.
Shifter's Shield minor 150 gold price jump...back up closer to where it was originally. This is a good change, says I.
Damn, what has Fafnir done to piss Hi-Rez off? Nerfs 2 patches in a row, huh? Not that I care all that much, I don't really like him anyway.
Seems like a decent adjustment to Nemesis...somewhat minor shift from max 24% power shift to 20%, and only on basics, so as not to directly affect abilities by themselves.
Haven't done one of these in a while.... let's do it.
DAT NOBLE KNIGHT SKIN THO
DAT NOX SKIN THO
Cu Chulainn has a interesting kit and stuff, but he definetly isn't my type of character. Sad that I won't be using him.
For the few matches I played support since I came back (around 2 or 3, and none on CQ), Gauntlet of Thebes felt like a great choice for when I needed more health, but still needed protections. I still see it as that, so I don't think the nerf is that bad
Sovereignty nerf/buff doesn't affect much overall, it WILL affect allies, but not so much the tank.
Haven't seen a lot of ppl using Shifter's Shield, or have used it myself, so I don't know what do say about this one.
Paolao is a really awkward ability, so I hope this aims to fix the awkwardness
I like the change to Dharmic Pillars, since it's pretty much one of the only reasons I decided to try and play Ganesha, so yay (Also, I want to get mastery 1 with him, he feels like a more Safe safe safe god then Khepri himself!)
NOOOOOO NOT MY Nemesis !!!!! I NEED HER HI REZ !!!!!! The nerf on this patch wasn't that bad, tbh it is well placed and deserved, but if they screw her up mid-season patch I'll probably take a break again.
It'll be interesting to see how Cu Chulainn is built with his passive. Initial thoughts, I agree that an AA based build could be decent but am not sure as well. I think AA since you want to get his passive up as much and as quick as possible. Plus it looks like his attack progression is relatively quick. But I will wait and see. How much mana is returned on basics? Not sure if I saw a number
*Edit- saw that it is 1 mana per basic attack.
Those skins look awesome. Love the Osiris and Tyr ones. Lady Liberty is neat as well and fits well with her look.
The aura items will hurt teammates more than the actual support. I don't think Thebes nerf is that bad you can make up health other ways and only losing 5 protections each for sharing, but Sov nerf will hurt your teammates a little more than Thebes nerf. Shifter's price increase makes me a little upset since I have been using it lately on assassins, but 150 extra gold is terribly much. Probably pushes it back late game purchase for me.
Da Ji's ultimate still sucks. It's hard to hit on console and so many ways to break out of the chains. I think it actually needs a damage increase so when you actually hit it and the purify out you still at least get some damage. but the new change should help get you down quicker, since enemies usually try to surround you while you are stranded up there.
Fafnir nerf. Good not a fan of that damn slow.
Ganesha buff- seems fine.
Nemesis- I don't think this will affect her that much. Hopefully they won't break her in later patches.
Duke Sloth ran the numbers, and his conclusion, based on effective health and what it provides, is that Sovereignty is still probably the best early physical protection choice...was my general feeling...
Duke Sloth ran the numbers, and his conclusion, based on effective health and what it provides, is that Sovereignty is still probably the best early physical protection choice...was my general feeling...
So while I was going through a list of videos to comment under this so you could see what I was saying previously, I've noticed that the majority of them are from 3-4 weeks ago, so that used to be in a different time window that could've changed support mentalities. My bad, but still, I love Sovereignty, and will continue to use it !
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