Season 7 Initial Thoughts

Curious about everyone's thoughts and feelings about Season 7, now that it's been in effect for a couple of weeks. I have 3 main ones right now.

• Magical items: Changing magical pen and some other things have really screwed with what I feel was good general flow with mage builds. I think it helps early game function that there are less flat pen options and the nerf to Magus was necessary...but it feels like something's now lacking. And then there feel like a ton of % pen options, to the point where I could easily overcap the 40% if I wasn't thinking. I feel further balance and item reworks are necessary. Shoes of the Magi are one of the things I think definitely needs to change, even if it only gets back 5 flat pen. I just don't know right now why you'd build it over Focus in most cases.
  
  
• Joust map: When I first looked at the map, it seemed like the size was increased too much. Having played it several times now, I no longer feel that way. It actually feels very good, and I like the extra camps.
  
  
• Bruiser items: On the magical side, this sort of goes hand in hand with the changes to some of the pen items. On the physical side, I think this has more to do specifically with Void Shield. But just changing that one item, it feels like there's a huge gap in options for bruisers, or maybe I was over-reliant on that item to get that feel in my builds. Maybe I'm underestimating that item, as changing from flat to % protection reduction automatically shifted it in my mind from early/mid game item to mid/late game item. I almost feel like Shifter's needs a smidge of flat pen or something.

So, what do you feel about my thoughts, and what different ones do you have?

Quite a few solo laners are building Heartseeker right now cause it's busted

I liked most of the changes. I confess the mid harpies near the red still weird. I like the less flat pen options. However I think they should increase the power of purple shoes. Void became a must item on solo if your jg didn't get it. I always thought that shifters should have some changes.

can;t talk about the magic item changes As I haven't played a lot of games this season because of being busy and no games have been on mages so far.

Like the joust change although I think it did change duel into a farming sim. for 3v3 it's nice

Crit changes are kinda nice mostly for gods that utilize them pretty well. building the qin;s route on certain gods was meh with their steroids and the build comes online quite late compared to crit. I do expect the change to get reverted mostly since Rage was already at a good point the other crit items weren;t really
Also spectral armor probably going to be quite decent as nemean has been nerfed.

for most bruiser builds my use for Void Shield hasn;t really shifted, although haven;t played a lot of assassins in assault yet. although the item probably won;t really have a replacement

Oh so that's another thing. Crit. I think Rage didn't need to be buffed by an extra 5%. I also think Hide of the Nemean Lion got nerfed a bit too hard, maybe. 5% decrease instead of the 10% it got. Or at least revert the Rage buff.

I agree with your thoughts. I'm still not sure how I want to approach building mages, Void shield feels a bit weaker but was arguably too effective prior. New Joust map is fun also.

Solo lane feels a lot better to me now thanks to the shift to Guardians blessing. Totem of Ku is more important to secure. Less passive now, aggression is rewarded; more action, more exciting.

Kind of indifferent about the new jungle, and not a fan of the xp harpies near duo.

New mid lane walls near Gold Fury make it harder to gank mid now. Easier to ward and spot mid to duo rotations.

Duo lane feels safer with new starting ward relics.

Potion of Power is an under-the-radar change that discourages building max cdr for physical gods now. Chalices not stacking with Potions was probably a good move. New Odin is interesting. Haven't played much Bastet yet to feel out new kit but playing against her feels tougher. Still don't like Stone of Fal.

Probably missing some other things but those are just what comes to mind...

They should just put health on Hide instead of Mana and it would be a way better item, still don't understand why it is that way. The game also feels way more snowbally right now, not sure if it was that way in the last season aswell though.

So far, it's good.

I beleive smite has always been a bit snowbally, however last season there was an invade meta, which could have decided the game before minions clashed. So I think it's less.