With season 4 in full swing the time is drawing near for a restructuring of the games mechanics with the goal in mind to balance all champions and Riot has released their patch notes which can be found here. Now ultimately the feat may prove impossible. League of Legends features 118 champions right now and one slight change could have some unintended consequences. Balancing champions like Leona, Heimerdinger, and Rengar will help balance the game around many of the champions that are popular in season 4. But as we have seen in the past when a new season comes around many of the lesser played champions emerge as powerhouses, and some popular picks of the past often reemerge as well. Now I don’t think these changes are completely in vein, but rather I’m stressing the reality of the situation.
Now there are too many changes in patch 4.5 for me to focus on in this article so I’ll just focus on the major champions changes. Champions like Rengar, Heimerdinger, Gragas, and Lee Sin are seeing large to drastic changes in their abilities and mechanics.
Rengar
Almost all of Rengar’s abilities have been adjusted to make him a better, more versatile team fighter. His passive Unseen Predator now reveals him at the beginning of his leap rather than in the middle of the leap. This will makes his ganks slightly less effective but an argument can be made that the animation is fast enough that an opponent will not not be able to react in time anyways. His Q ability Savagery is now on a shorter cooldown while reducing the abilities base damage at each rank and removing the attack speed buff unless it is empowered. Empowered Savagery also gives Rengar an additional 10% for 5 seconds. Battle Roars cooldown has been changed to a static 12 seconds. The armor and magic reduction has been reduced per rank, and empowered Battle Roar now heals Rengar for less. Battle Roar does have a new feature that the bonus armor & magic resistance increases by 50% per enemy champion or large monster hit to counteract the reduction in defense during teamfights. Perhaps the biggest change is that Bola Strike is now a skillshot and as a reward its range has been increased as well as its slow effect. Its base damage has been reduced but the skill receives a buff at max level. Rengar’s Ultimate ability has had it’s cooldown reduced at each rank and the movement speed buff has been changed to 15% at all ranks as well as a sleuth of new utility changes that can be found in the patch notes. His unique item Bonetooth Necklace has been changed from a basic item to a trinket. Now this puts Rengar in a very unique position because now Rengar is on an island more than any other champion. At the cost of increased combat effectiveness Rengar will lose ward coverage making ganks against him more effective as it will almost be guaranteed that a ward will not be nearby especially in the early game when players are relying on their trinket wards.
Overall I see the changes made to Rengar both good for him and for the game as a whole. His increased utility and changes to the Bonetooth Necklace will make him a dangerous duelist at all stages of the game. If all the changes in the notes stay, expect Rengar to be harassed early to try and keep him out of the late game for as long as possible.
Gragas
Gragas has been a very popular pick in the current meta due to his tankiness and extremely long range on his abilities. Riot announced about two weeks ago their intention to rework the champion so that his role is more clearly laid out as a brawler as opposed to a long range sniper.
Gragas’ passive has been changed so that he will gain 4%of his maximum health instantly as opposed to 2% over four seconds. I think the biggest reason for this change is that Gragas will no longer restore mana while using Drunken Rage which seemed to give him too much overall sustain compared to other champions. Hopefully with these changes Gragas will be forced to go back to base to restore mana and buy items sooner, as it often seemed that provided his summoner has adequate skill he could stay in lane almost indefinitely. His Barrel Roll ability now reduces movement speed as opposed to attack speed, as well as its range and power have been reduced. Body Slam appears to be the only ability in Gragas’ kit to receive a buff. It is obvious that Riot wants summoners to be throwing Gragas into the middle of teamfights so that his tankiness can be fully utilized. Gragas’ Ultimate remains largely unchanged except for a slight damage reduction and ability power ratio reduction.
The changes to Gragas seem to be better for the game as a whole while it seems like it is mostly a nerf for the champion himself. Forcing Gragas into teamfights though will more than likely change how players itemize him, building him as a tank as opposed to a straight ability power mage.
These are just a couple of the large overall changes being brought to League of Legends in the near future. Although no official release date has been announced it is likely that these changes will be rolled out by as early as the end of the month. Hopefully these changes resolve as many of the games problems as Riot intended while minimizing new problems being brought to the table. See you out on the rift, Summoners.