Patch 5.13 "Mid Season" - Bran's Thoughts

I honestly have no clue. This definitely increases base skill level for her use in some ways, and I expect some early mana struggles as people get used to her kit.

An early Chalice of Mana might help dumb things down and allow people to worry less about using Aurora Blade's ranged toggle, especially since her mana regen comes from melee attacks (which obviously makes her more exposed).

Until I actually try this out, though, I don't know exactly how bad the mana drain will be. It'll quickly become costly, as level 1's cost is 25 per shot, and level 3's cost is 41 per shot. (this means one Mana Potion will only support 3-4ish ranged shots, lol). Enemy gods can also reduce the effectiveness of that shot by getting in the middle of a wave. Sure, that'll hurt them, but bye-bye to your wave-clear.

The passive restores 6% of her MISSING mana, so it gets less effective as she uses it consecutively. If she's basically at 0 mana, a melee hit will restore 15 mana or so, which isn't even good enough for one ranged attack.

10 shots at level 5 will be 570 mana. That's pretty insane. This means she'll likely have to weave in and out of a fight, getting some ranged, then getting some melee, if she wants to remain effective.

Her base mana at level 1 is 257 (only 10 shots at level 1 before her mana is completely gone), and at level 20 is 960 (20 shots worth). She used to be able to easily get 10+ shots off a full Pulse channel when her attack speed was built up. I see MAJOR mana struggles ahead in theory, and likely cost reductions either before the patch hits, or shortly thereafter.

Book of Thoth is just not a generally suitable item for her, so it really is about that melee/ranged toggle.

As for her damage output...well, the single burst hit she can get from Northern Lights is nice, but damn if her burst is hindered. Consider that if both Pulse and Irradiate are activated at level 5 of each, she gets a combined 160 bonus damage, not counting scaling. Now, in ranged form, she'll only get 47...and even in the higher damage melee form, only 76. It's one or the other, so as of right now, although this is a really interesting rework, it seems like a huge nerf. It DOES help that Demonic and Telkhines have been recently buffed...but I'm feeling that in order to remain competitive if these stats remain the same, we would need to see a resurgence of the old Hastened Fatalis in Ring form (no CD).

Welp, there goes my Ravana Guide.

They overnerfed Baron now. He's basically as bad as early season 4 Raijin now.

I love the Jungle Practice changes. Now not only do we get to test out skins, we can now test out structure damage

I'm having flashbacks to the Susano post release nerfs now. That was really nasty.

I'm most excited about Jungle Practice changes, as it is my most played game mode xD lol

Finally, no more slaying the Ra bot repetitively to build stacking items. And 5 man queue? We could do some interesting testing/theory crafting.

What platform're you on?

Okay, so I've likely drastically underestimated Freya's damage potential. And here are some other thoughts. (I'll likely make a video showing some of this later)

Early Mana Usage

So I went into PTS Jungle Practice, and, while her early mana usage using Aurora Blade is a concern, turning it off and hitting melee quickly fills it back up pretty well. This is in combination with the MP5 from Hunter's Blessing. Her big issue is going to be taking damage or getting locked down from CC, like Ymir's Frost Breath.

She'll absolutely need to use melee to maintain her mana, since that seems to be WAAAAY more efficient than getting Mana Potions. Basically, a few ranged, then switch to basics, if it's safe enough.

Because the damage increase isn't HUGE, you might conserve mana by only leveling Aurora Blade up to 3 or so, then switching to the added burst from Northern Lights. Not sure how that will feel on the speed of clearing waves, but it's something to experiment with.


Builds

This is what I'm proposing for ADC function:

• Starter: Hunter's Blessing, Shoes, Potions (or Baron's Brew)
• Shoes of Focus or Shoes of the Magi
• Hastened Ring
• Demonic Grip
• Bancroft's Talon
• Spear of the Magus
• Telkhines Ring
• Replace Shoes w/ Rangda's Mask

Rangda's is an incredible damage booster. Combined with the flat boost from Telkhines, and her basic attack damage is fairly amazing.

The MS drop from Rangda's is offset mostly by the 3 rings (which have a total base MS of 25%). That MS drop actually puts her MS just slightly BELOW if she just had T3 shoes.


Damage Output

Okay, so...she seems to do a LOT of damage with her Northern Lights. The base damage is low, but the scaling is pretty good. I have to do some more damage comparisons though.

Old and new Freya build at level 1 is just Hunter's Blessing and T1 Shoes.

Old Freya build at level 20 is Hastened Ring, Demonic Grip, [[Bancroft's Talon, Spear of the Magus, Telkhines Ring, Rod of Tahuti (just for power/damage comparison purposes)

New Freya build at level 20 is Hastened Ring, Demonic Grip, [[Bancroft's Talon, Spear of the Magus, Telkhines Ring, Rangda's Mask

The below shows level 1 and level 20 (full build) comparisons against an Odin bot.

Basic Attack (meaning level 1 Aurora Blade for level 1, level 5 Aurora Blade for level 20, not active):

• Old Freya, level 1: 39
• Old Freya, level 20: 201
• New Freya, level 1: 54
• New Freya, level 20: 409

Pulse / Aurora Blade active:

• Old Freya, level 1: 58
• Old Freya, level 20: 338
• New Freya, level 1: 50
• New Freya, level 20: 356

Northern Lights without Aurora active (just to see this burst damage):

• New Freya, level 1: 81
• New Freya, level 20: 1,039

One thing to keep in mind is that Pulse used to stop on the first enemy hit, and have splash damage as long as Irradiate wasn't active. That splash damage was unlikely to hit 6 minions unless they were bunched up.

Aurora Blade in active state pierces and can hit the entire wave with normal spacing.

So...she's going to feel quite a bit different, especially juggling mana/health sustain functions, but I take back the feeling that she'd be significantly weaker. She's got much more burst potential here.


Role

So, with that burst, and the ability to pierce the entire wave...she's now a better candidate for Mid, I think. As before, she should be able to jungle as well. And...with sustain function...she might work for Solo, in getting that mana buff and probably opting for Chalice of Healing perhaps, but I don't know. Definitely interesting.

Added the new mask items:

Mask

Protector's Mask
Lono's Mask

Messenger's Mask
Bumba's Mask

Fighter's Mask
Rangda's Mask

If any of those are still showing the old icons, try refreshing by using Ctrl + F5 and let me know if the issue persists.

WOOT. Thanks Wayne! Now I can complete my Freya guide (and items guide) XD