Patch Notes Thoughts

For anyone that missed it someone posted the June 5th patch notes (to be released June 16th) here.

I think HiRez did quite a good job with these ones, liking the Nox rework (thank the gods), the quick Ratatoskr nerf, as well as the items changes. While it's not a full rework to Hunter itemization in general, I think it's as good as we're going to get for now, so hopefully they won't be dominating the meta for too much longer.

Was curious what all of your thoughts were though?

I think everyone knows what skin I'm eyeballing right now; other that that this patch is going to be good as it seems the balancing team is starting to pull things around.

#progress

THANK THE LORD

I think that Nox is the Female Mage version of Odin. Had a rocky start, considered the worst, and got a kit redesign to become better than before. She's following Odin's shadow.

Uh except Odin was a radical redesign. Nox is probably just Scylla now.

I expect Nox to be nerfed in lika 2 weeks or so after the release. Her 3 with Loki,Athena and so on just gonna be devastating

Except it does no damage. Sure, she can use it for mobility, but that just means she'll be good. I easily see her being high-tier, though; she's on par with Scylla as of these patch notes.

Also, am I the only one saying that 100 gold was not enough for Heartseeker? Now you just have to wait for 1240, not 1140; still less than 1400 for Devourer's Gauntlet.

(quietly smirking about Ancile getting a buff IT HAD TO HAPPEN)

I think that HiRez is full of dumbasses even more after seeing this patch, because some careful analysis makes me wonder just what they are smoking.

I'll highlight relevant parts.


Nox Rework: This could be hilariously broken if her Shadow Step made her untargetable while inside a shadow. Aside from that, this is yet another wombo combo chain CC type god that I despise - silence into root into nuke, just like Poseidon's cripple into ult into tidal wave. And her ultimate, depending on how it works, could make her instaban simply by neutering an entire team's damage, which is dumb. A debuff that powerful should not be AoE.


Arena: OMG, another map rework? If you took the budget for map remodeling and put it into god design, the game might be marginally less terrible.

I like how their Misc/Skin/UI/Ward Skins/Etc other cosmetic stuff is longer than the actual balance changes.


AMC: This is an example of how HiRez has no clue how to design: You don't default to fixing things by slapping on buffs, especially CC, especially CC that has unlimited application and counters his own class. At least they made it more interesting and interactive, which is a plus, but...I don't play AMC, so I don't know how the mechanics interact with each other, but Bees! might turn out to be overpowered or practically worthless depending on how exactly the extension works and how abilities interact with it.


Ah Puch: More counterplay is good. Sadly, you're forcing people to try to kill the healing zoning master while they're permaslowed, so I have a feeling this won't change anything.


Hou Yi: "Snappy playstyle?" Don't you mean "stun into ult and stall/chase until death?" Because that's his playstyle, right there. I mean, what does snappy even mean? It's one of those words that don't mean anything. He plays like pretty much every other ADC - escape when needed, use abilities to poke/kill, ult for damage, autoattack as much as possible. His kit is bland, boring, and plays identically to most other standard ADCs, so I have no clue what you're talking about.


Loki: Still has no counterplay.


Ne Zha: This is a very dumb change. What is with HiRez' fetish for putting healing on this guy? He's an assassin, not a bruiser, so he's never going to stay long enough in a fight while basic attacking for the heal to ever matter. He's a burst assassin, so he's going to go for the ASAP steroid rather than waiting for the heal - lifesteal without crits would be more efficient than that.


Tree Rat: Still boring, and I have no idea how balanced this guy is, but I'm guessing not very.


Bluestone: I think they overnerfed it to the point where Death's Toll will give more mana when it matters. You have around 250 mana at level 1, translating to 3.75 mana regen every five seconds, if you have zero mana. Sure, it gets better the more levels you get, but the point of a starter item to be there early.


Witchblade: The anti-counterplay is real. Personally, I think this item is now overpowered.


Ichaival: Still way too efficient.


The Executioner: I don't care if the attack speed was reduced to 10%, you're putting a perfect penetration item for a filthy low price that gives perfect stats. This, combined with Ichavial, means that ADCs will get -15% attack speed in the average build, which means...very little, honestly. -15% attack speed is like -10% overall damage to ADCs' attack speed...but that's only with just Ichavial and Executioner, assuming the hunter in question doesn't have a steroid of some sort or another item, or other factors like crit chance or physical power scaling or abilities...which means that the overall damage reduction is <10%, which is barely a factor to begin with.

That's not even mentioning how ADCs still have that "items are priced stupidly efficiently" problem.


Heartseeker: An item's efficiency is making it broken because it gives more stats at a lower cost than any other power item. Hmm, better raise its price, but still make it cheaper than any other power item. That'll totally prevent ADCs from instantly snapping it up.


Shield of Regrowth: HiRez's thought process is questionable - an item with 30 physical protections, 20 power, and zero health isn't going to be used, ever, when items like Ichavial and he Executioner are running around, especially when its passive is pretty much worthless on 90% of gods.


Runic Shield: Personally, I'd say this item would be broken as anything if it weren't for that ADC meta. Items like this highlight just how ridiculous the ADC meta is - this item is meant for a niche class to fight another niche class that would be utterly overpowered if both of these classes weren't shoved aside for the bloated ADCs.


Ancile: This is pretty much another Runic Shield in terms of its role, so you know my thoughts on it already.


Celestial Legion Helm.


Celestial Legion Helm.


Celestial Legion Helm.



YOU ****ING MORONS, YOU THINK THAT MAKING AN ANTI-CRIT ITEM WITH ONLY 50 PHYSICAL PROTECTIONS THAT BLOCKS ONE ****ING CRIT (AND NOT EVEN THE ENTIRE BASIC ATTACK) EVERY SIX SECONDS IS GOING TO DO ANYTHING? THE LOGICAL COUNTER TO THIS ITEM IS RAW AMOUNTS OF CRITS, AND THIS ****ING ADC META HAS LIKE THREE CRITTERS ON ONE TEAM AND LOADS OF ATTACK SPEED! IF THE ****ING ITEM BLOCKED A CRIT EVERY 3 SECONDS IT WOULD STILL BE WORTHLESS!

AND THE STATS! WHAT THE ACTUAL ****? IF ITS PASSIVE WAS PART OF ITS BASE STATS, 50 ARMOR AND 80 AP WOULD STILL BE ****ING GARBAGE FOR 2850 GOLD! AND EVEN AT 2350 GOLD, THE PASSIVE IS STILL ****ING USELESS!

*calmly* Do you know what would actually make sense?

2150 gold, 90 physical protections. That's it. Passive blocks 20% of damage you take from basic attacks.

It counters crits, yet itself has counterplay in on-hit effects and it's performance against balanced teams. It's cheap, and therefore accessible, and never becomes irrelevant due to its damage reduction. At the same time, it scales relatively poorly late game.

This is what you call a "restraining" item. An item designed to counter a particular playstyle so it doesn't become dominant. Because its passive actually does its ****ing job right.

...and yet I knew Sub was going to go HAM.

Sub, I don't know how old you are, but if you ever want to go into HiRez design, please use these threads as your resume. Please. You'll get in, and we'll have a better game.