Patch day in League of Legends is sometimes like sitting in a courtroom, waiting for the judge to render a verdict. For some, relief is coming, for others, retribution. Either way, that time has come again. A less elaborate patch than the previous one, 6.4 looks to bring some balance to the more fringe craziness of a particular set of stand out champions. It also marks the end of a long standing game mode and a big change in one of the more controversial keystone masteries. Lets get to it!
That’ll Do, Dominion
Somewhat of an experiment, Dominion was introduced back in 2012 as an alternative option for players who were looking for a game with different parameters and objectives. The capture-the-node focus of Dominion forced teams to think differently about team fighting, item building, and skill selecting. Small skirmishes across the big map kept players on their toes and out of their relative comfort zones. That said, it could never really get off of the ground for a number of reasons. Early this week, it was finally put out to pasture.
I hadn’t played my first Dominion game until the latter half of last year out of simple curiosity. After around five games, I could accuratly say that I had fun playing it, but I had a hard time figuring out how exactly I was supposed to get good at the game. Maybe this was a problem for more people than not. How do you learn the ebb and flow of movement patterns on the Crystal Scar? How do you build for so many combat situations, including those that would involve taking a holding a position for long streatches of time. How does Riot balance that mode to keep the environment healthy? I suppose they don’t.
The (new) New Warlord Keystone
Since Masteries were reworked at the beginning of the season, Warlord’s Bloodlust has been one of the most contentious of the significant “keystones” outside the oft misunderstood Thunderlord’s Decree. Its sustain through lifesteal was incredible in the early game, placing characters who would love that sort of thing into a really intense situation in the first 20 minutes of a match. Its lifesteal percentage was smoothed out a bit, lessened in the early levels and heightened towards the latter. It was moved from being effective on any crits, to just crits on enemy champions. The next big change: removing the crit proc altogether.
Now the lifesteal is relative to the user’s missing health, up to 20%. The usefulness of Warlord’s isn’t so restricted to people focusing on crit-based builds, anymore. Yasuo and Tryndamere can still benefit greatly from Warlords, but other champs who use lifesteal as a spicy seasoning to their particular killer salads can get in on the fun, too. The obvious synergy is Olaf and his Vicious Strikes, but now quirkier aggressors like Aatrox are back in play.
Top Lane Blues
Of the heavy amount of adjustments made to characters this patch, it seems that the Top Lane has taken the biggest hits. Its mainstays – Fiora, Gangplank, and Malphite – all took a blow from the nerf bat. For the greater good, of course.
Fiora got some of her abilities cooldowns increased, but that’s arguably not the biggest change. Fiora mains almost always relied on a tricky little cooldown exploit built into her ability, Bladework. Bladework gives her next two basic attacks higher range and attack speed, with the first attack slowing the target, and the second one auto criting. The cooldown would begin at cast, though. Meaning people would store the second attack until the cooldown was up, auto criting on the next one and immediately reactivating Bladework. Early, all-in dives were all but guaranteed kills, and it was part of what made her feel so incredibly un-counterable. Now, when we get ethered by Fiora, it will just be because we’re bad.
Gangplank has gotten his gold generation from his Q reduced per rank, and he can only have up to 3 barrels at any one time when using his E. There’s a pretty long winded contextual explanation as to why something like this would happen to GP, which more or less boils down to “we really don’t know where his weaknesses are.” I get that. There are few champions who have seen consistent tweaks and nudges almost every patch and still it’s hard to say what the perfect GP should look like. Is his strength in the early game? Should he be a powerhouse late in the match? Hopefully were closer to finding out.
Malphite might have gotten off the easiest of the bunch, with only the base damage of Ground Slam going down a bit per rank, and his life regen getting lower. His new-found power this season is coming more from items than him, it seems. I’m sure there will be plenty to address on that side as well. All in all, though, Malphite is still one of the scariest initiators in the game, which is an interesting trait for a guy who looks like he eats rocks in Fantasia.
If you want to learn more about Patch 6.4, including the nerfs that hit a wide range of marksmen and tweaks to Muramana and Manamune, check out the blog post on Riot’s website. Tell us how what you think about the new patch on Facebook or Twitter, and don’t forget to check out our Leaguepedia for everything Pro-League related.