Things to note:

1. Now married as of June 10th 2011.

2. Working full time- that’s 50+ hours a week.

3. Playing WoW again. So far so good.

4. Still playing League of Legends. Still is the adverb, signifying that the game is becoming tiresome, but there’s hope with Dominion!

Quickly, I joined a PVP guild on the WoW server: TFC- The forgotten coast, if you don’t remember, that’s my home server. They have a YOUTUBE Channel, which is new, but nice. Because it means they are serious. Check them out here!

In WoW new’s, I recently learned that they have a shortage of RANGED DPS in my guild, which leaves me in a awkward spot. I’ve  leveled my DK to 80(wotlk)and my shaman to 83(wotlk-cata), and my warlock to 69. I say awkward because I have no ranged toons at this time. My shaman was Elemental last year during Wotlk, but I decided to play him as Enhancement for Cataclysm. I very well can change this and go back to elem- I’m just not feeling up for that right now. I could always level up my Lock, but I hate, really, really hate Outlands and Northren.

In other (League of Legends) news: Dominion is coming. That’s all I really have.

I’m just saying, if Trion can, is Blizz just greedy?

I’ve been busy. Busy with school and children and a beautiful faïence, in which we shall tie the knot on June 10th 2011.

BAD NEWS- Dropping out of school

With that said, I’ll be UN-enrolling from the Game Art Program at Westwood College, for 2 reasons.

1st. It’s not official yet, but I believe that I found a full time job, that if I work hard at, I potentially could move up to a nice position in management. (short term goals!)

2nd. WESTWOOD College is “Teaching Out” their Game Art program this year. Which means it will likely be replaced by a General web/ or Computer Science degree. As I had mentioned a few weeks ago, Two of the Four “gaming” companies (Net Devil and SOE) located right here in Sunny Denver Co, shut their doors and packed for warmer climate. With that news, Westwood stopped enrolling students for the GA program and “decided” that it was probably a better idea to go ahead and close that chapter down. It makes sense for a career minded/focused college, I mean if their are no jobs in this market, why teach the curriculum?

I decided that if I am going to “invest” in myself, that I’d probably want my school to be teaching the curriculum for a few years after I graduate, just encase I wanted to show a potential job some credentials.

Anyways, I believe that I should be able to post more about games and League of Legends now that I’ll have some, not much, extra time.

And as always, GAME ON

Around the gaming world, I have not been vigilant in keeping up with my fellow bloggers and titles/games that have been coming out. I am really looking forward to playing Rift:Online but that may not happen for quite some time as my wedding day approaches, school gets more intense and bills continue to pile up. Quite frankly, I’m at my wits end for job searching, the job market is toast, IMO.

Since this is my personal space, that I allow the public to view. I feel a little personal rant coming on. I am a bit lost, in life. I recently turned 30 (nov.) and though I do not feel a proverbial mid-life crisis is happening, I do sense a lack of self motivation setting in.  I love learning about the gaming industry, but the more I learn, the more I realize that I most-likely will not be able to make it. Reasons being- I live in Colorado, where we have had 4 namely gaming companies reside. That is until last week, when Net Devil, and Sony Online Entertainment both closed their doors and laid off 200+ workers. That is 50% of the gaming industry in Co. gone, in one week. My heart kinda sank. I figure that my future wife and our kids will mostly likely stay here in Colorado for a time, but in reality, moving to California with hopes and dreams of landing a job in the gaming industry is Juvenal at best.

I have just become unsure of my life goals and direction. I feel as if a dense fog has washed over me, and refuses to part with the rising of the sun.

It seems that near the end of every term, I get busier and busier with finals and kids. Not to mention, I’m getting married in June; so we have that to plan/deal with. I learned a lot, and had a much better time this term with Professor Neigh, than I did last term with _______. Teaching style is very important when you have a gamut of students. 3DS Max is an awesome program and I learned how to box model, and edge loop. Next term will be, advanced 3D as well as life drawing.

In gaming news, I’m still fond of League of Legends, but have found that since the last two patches a lot players have either left for Rift, or just focus on playing the ‘OP’ champions. The games have become less fun, and more aggravating, as abilities and combo’s aren’t going off correctly and in-game latency (server spikes) ruin team fights. Cool-down reduction on mana-less champions are stupidly annoying.

Katerina is devastating in 5v5. If you don’t have a Sion, Ashe or Taric then you might as well forget it. Stuns and Silences are a joke, 50% of the time they don’t even work correctly.

Cassiopeia’s ult, sucks balls. Her ult is a slow if the opponent  is running away, and a stun if they are facing you. Well, on several attempts to use this, neither the slow or stun worked correctly. As a ranged dps, her ult requires that you be in the front line of combat, where you just get exploded, well before you can even cast it.

These are just two examples I can think of, off the top of my head. Recently Riot has released Jarvan: the Prince of Demacia, and the Co-Op vs AI option.

The C0-Op is a nice break, but I tried both setting: Beginner and Intermediate. Neither is a real challenge. I did play with a lowbie friend who was level 25, and that was a good game. Annie Bot hits super hard, while Miss Fortune will just Kill Steal their entire team. Over all, it was a fun match- definitely worth at least once a day to get that guarantee bonus XP boost.

Aside from League, I have been going through Call of Duty: MF2 on hard mode. It’s really a really well done game. I enjoy the solo player experience of it a lot.

Well, that’s all I got for now. Hopefully in a few weeks or so, we’ll get a new map for LoL and I’ll have more to post on. Until then, take care.

New Skins in the Store

• Totemic Maokai
• Charred Maokai
• Longhorn Alistar

PVP.net v1.29.23

• Created a new UI flow for joining games of all types
• Updated the Friend List UI
• Runes are now stacked in the Summoner profile
• A new game mode approaches: Co-op vs. AI!
  • This mode pits a team of all human players against a team of all AI bots on Summoner’s Rift.
  • This mode is supported by matchmaking, and allows summoners to join the queue solo or with friends.
  • Summoners may choose between two AI bot difficulty settings: Beginner or Intermediate.
  • IP and XP rewards are earned, and adjusted based on summoner level and difficulty setting.
  • The following bots are enabled for Co-op vs. AI:
    • Annie
    • Ashe
    • Cho’Gath
    • Miss Fortune
    • Nunu
    • Renekton
    • Ryze
    • Shen
    • Soraka
    • Taric
    • Trundle
    • Warwick
  • Coop versus AI will be available to play in the coming days after the patch goes live, but not on release day.

XP & IP Rate Changes

• We have completely overhauled the IP and XP system in order to make it more fair. Our intention was to leave the overall XP and IP gained by players unchanged.
• Previously, IP and XP were awarded for winning or losing a game. Now, they are granted based on how long the game was, and whether you won or lost.
• In a long game, you will make significantly more XP and IP than before. However, in a very short game, you will make less IP and XP. We found it frustrating to be stuck in an hour long games, and then get what was effectively 30 minutes of IP reward.
• When calculating the number of minutes the game took, we only award for actual game time. However, we give all games a small fixed bonus reward, which is to give you credit for time in queue and champion selection.
• Other details:
  • We have also tweaked the formulas so that new players get larger quantities of IP in their first 10 or so levels so that they can unlock their first Champions more quickly.
  • First Win of the Day remains unchanged – it is still a flat bonus you will receive when you are eligible.
  • We removed the no-leave-streak bonus and increased the IP rewards in general to compensate. The reason we did this is because we felt that with the new LeaverBuster system, this was no longer necessary.

League of Legends v1.0.0.111
Maokai, the Twisted Treant

• Sap Magic (passive): Each time a champion near Maokai casts a spell, he gains a charge of Magical Sap. When he has 5 charges, Maokai’s next melee attack drains energy from his target, healing him for a percentage of his maximum HP.
• Arcane Smash: Maokai slams the ground, the force of which knocks nearby enemies back and sends an arcane shockwave forward, damaging and slowing his enemies.
• Twisted Advance: Maokai dissolves into a cloud of arcane energies. He regrows near a target enemy, dealing damage and rooting it in place.
• Sapling Toss: Maokai hurls a sapling, dealing damage on impact. The sapling becomes implanted in the ground, warding a nearby area. When enemies approach, the sapling attacks, exploding in an arcane blast that damages enemies.
• Vengeful Maelstrom (ultimate): Maokai shields his allies by drawing power from hostile spells and attacks, reducing non-tower damage done to allied champions in the area. Maokai can prolong the effect as long as he has mana to spend on it. When the effect ends, Maokai unleashes the absorbed energy to deal damage to enemies within the vortex.

Akali

• Fixed a bug where the sound of Mark of the Assassin could persist after her target died

Amumu

• Base damage increased to 47 from 45
• Base armor increased to 18 from 15
• Tantrum passive physical damage reduction increased to 2/4/6/8/10 from 1/2/3/4/5
• Despair mana cost reduced to 8 from 10 at all levels
• Despair now has a new particle to match the area of effect

Anivia

• Fixed a bug where Flashfrost stunned for 0.75 seconds instead of 1 second as the tooltip stated
• Fixed a bug where unlike other skillshots, Flashfrost could not be cast from out of range
• Glacial Storm
  • Initial mana cost increased to 100/150/200 from 25/35/45
  • Cost per second reduced to 40/50/60 from 50/70/90
  • Slow duration reduced to 1 second from 2.5
• Rebirth
  • Armor/magic resist modifier changed to -40/-25/-10/5/20 from -40/-20/10/40
  • Rebirth now always shows the passive in the passive slot, and an additional buff in the buff bar with the current status (ready, active, or on cooldown)

Dr. Mundo

• Fixed a bug where Infected Cleaver’s PvP.net description was incorrect

Fiddlesticks

• Base magic resistance reduced to 30 from 35

Irelia

• Fixed a bug where the Transcendent Blades cooldown tooltip was incorrect

Karma

• Spirit Bond now properly assigns assist markers to allies that receive the haste bonus
• Fixed a bug where Spirit Bond would break friendly spell shields and not apply the haste bonus
• Fixed a display bug where Spirit Bond’s beam would appear at Karma’s feet for enemy players

Kog’Maw

• Fixed a display bug with Bio-Arcane Barrage attacks on several skins

LeBlanc

• Fixed a bug where the sound of Sigil of Silence could persist after her target died

Nasus

• Fixed a bug where attack damage granted by Fury of the Sands was not showing in your stats/character sheet
• Fury of the Sands now updates the buff tooltip to explicitly state how much attack damage granted

Olaf

• Fixed a bug where Undertow could hit the same target twice

Pantheon

• Heartseeker Strike now deals damage slower – it takes 0.5 seconds longer to deal full damage
• Grand Skyfall now has a small area near the center that deals full damage (previously it was impossible to deal full damage to any target)

Rammus

• Powerball speed reduced by about 15%

Renekton

• Fixed a bug where Slice and Dice would remember your order after casting, causing him to move toward previous locations

Ryze

• Overload
  • Cooldown reduced to 3.5 from 11/10/9/8/7
  • Base Damage reduced to 30/55/80/105/130 from 50/90/130/170/210
  • Mana cost changed to 70/70/70/70/70 from 30/65/80/95/110
  • Missile speed increased to 1400 from 1200
  • Ability power ratio decreased to .2 from .45
  • Range increased to 675 from 600
• Rune Prison
  • No longer deals damage per tick and deals 60/95/130/165/200 damage up front (down from 80/120/160/200/240 over the duration)
  • Ability power ratio changed to a flat .6 from .4/.6/.8/1/1.2 (depending on snare duration)
  • Now deals 5% of Ryze’s maximum mana in bonus damage
  • Cast range increased to 625 from 600
  • Duration reduced to 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 from 1.2/1.5/1.8/2.1/2.4
• Spell flux
  • Ability power ratio per hit reduced to .35 from .38
  • Cooldown increased to 14 from 9
  • Mana cost reduced to 60/75/90/105/120 from 60/80/100/120/140
  • Cast range increased to 675 from 625
  • Base damage reduced to 50/70/90/110/130
• Desperate Power
  • No longer grants ability power but now grants 15% spell vamp
  • Area of effect damage percentage reduced to 50% from 65%
  • Cooldown changed to 70/60/50 from 50/50/50
  • Duration changed to 5/6/7 from 8
  • Now grants a passive 75/150/225 mana
• General
  • Reduced base magic resistance to 30 from 35
  • Fixed a bug where Ryze’s base mana regen did not get updated properly during the previous patch’s revamp

Sivir

• Boomerang Blade
  • Damage reduction to each subsequent target increased to 20% from 10%
  • Now scales from bonus attack damage instead of total attack damage
  • Base damage increased to 75/120/165/210/255 from 20/70/120/170/220
  • Attack damage ratio increased to .95 from .75

Tryndamere

• Fixed a bug where Undying Rage could not be used while suppressed

Vladimir

• Crimson Pact Bonus ability power gained reduced to 1 ability power per 40 bonus health from 25 health
• Sanguine Pool no longer grants a speed bonus on use
• Fixed a bug where Turrets would sometimes idle while Vladimir was pooled
• Fixed a bug where Sanguine Pool would occasionally not properly draw aggro upon exiting his pool

Zilean

• Base magic resistance reduced to 30 from 35

Items

• Fixed a bug where Vampiric Scepter improperly showed it could build into Malady
• Sight Wards and Wriggle’s Lantern wards now have a green top
• Vision Wards now have a pink top
• Doran’s Shield
  • Fixed a bug where it said it provided 9 armor but actually provided 8
  • Armor increased to 10 from 8
  • Health regen per 5 seconds reduced to 8 from 10
• Frozen Heart
  • Combine cost reduced to 650 from 800
  • Cooldown reduction decreased to 20% from 25%
• Glacial Shroud
  • Combine Cost reduced to 425 from 575
  • Cooldown reduction decreased to 15% from 20%
• Ionian Boots of Lucidity cost increased to 700 from 550
• Quicksilver Sash magic resistance increased to 56 from 48
• Randuin’s Omen cooldown reduction decreased to 5% from 8%
• Spirit Visage cooldown reduction decreased to 10% from 12%
• Soul Shroud cooldown aura reduced to 10% from 15%
• New Item: Morello’s Evil Tome
  • Builds out of Fiendish Codex and Blasting Wand (Total Cost of 2350)
  • +75 ability power
  • +12 mana regeneration per 5
  • UNIQUE passive: 15% cooldown reduction

General

• Added a new UI to better convey Shields on the health bar.
• Surrender time on Summoner’s Rift reduced to 20 minutes from 25
• Surrender time on Twisted Treeline reduced to 15 minutes from 17
• Smite now deals true damage instead of magic damage
• Updated tooltips for Akali, Annie, Ashe, Caitlyn, Cassiopeia, Jax, Malphite, Rammus, Singed, and Zilean

Nice, we get a new item to play with; but no new map? Ugh, I am bored to death of Summoners Rift.  I’m excited about all the new changes, nerfs, buffs and such, but what I / the people really want, and need right now is, a new map. Or a few new maps, like two.

Later.

Kal out!

Moving on to this weeks Patch Preview, I must say that I’m not very happy with what looks like a big Vladimir nerf, but at the same time I’m extremely happy with the new changes coming to my 3rd favorite caster in the game RYZE.

Here’s the low-down

“Summoners!

We’re taking a short break from the regularly scheduled Patch Preview video series, but we will definitely be resuming the series with some improvements in the near future! Still, we wanted to give you a preview of what the upcoming patch will bring to League of Legends. It’s important to note that this preview doesn’t reflect all of the changes coming with this update, but it does address the larger items.

Survivability and Items

For this patch, we’re taking a look at survivability items that provide a ton of cooldown reduction. Due to the higher base damages of bruiser-style characters, this combination of CDR and damage mitigation was particularly powerful. We ultimately found that many items had excessively inexpensive CDR. With this in mind, we took a swipe at Spirit Visage, Frozen Heart, Glacial Shroud and Soul Shroud to bring these values more in line. This isn’t the only change to tanky DPS that we have in mind, and you can expect more comprehensive adjustments for a future patch. BOOOO!! I love the CDR on Vladimir with Spirit Visage and new boots, he caps out with Transfusion at 1.3 sec or close to that and it really helps out his mid game. Other than that, this doesn’t really concern me as I almost never get CDR items on champions. The CDR glyphs for my rune page give me enough to focus on other stats.

Champions Changes

Vladimir remains a problematic champion who — while not explicitly overpowered — nullifies a lot of meaningful interactions between players and tends to snowball more heavily than others due to the gold value multiplier of his passive. We reduced this value, along with making Sanguine Pool a little less of a “get-out-of-gank-free” card, while retaining its anti-focus-fire mechanic. This included some long-awaited bug-fixes to Sanguine Pool, which should affect his pre-level 6 tower diving.

Also, while we’d done some smaller nerfs to Rammus over the last couple patches, we decided to hit the speed on powerball by 15% in order to make his chase/CC combination a little bit less of a sure thing. We’ll be keeping an eye on this change over the course of the patch, and evaluating it to see if this has the intended impact. This might be too much, I mean three patches in-a-row now. Rammus is going to be suffering after this patch; I have already noticed a huge decrease in people playing him, as well as his game play when played.

Anivia’s lane harass was proving too easy to pull off for too high of a reward. To address this, we increased the mana cost of pulsing (quickly activating and deactivating) Glacial Storm and lessening the slow duration. This will reward leaving it down longer a little more, but make her R-to-E lane harassment less of a free-be. HAIL! The long-awaited Anivia nerf!! Yes, this is one of the most annoying champs to fight against. In the past Anivia has been a power house because her abilities cost very little mana, but do incredible amounts of magic damage.

Ryze: A Legend Reborn

Finally, we took time to give Ryze a needed overhaul, updating his design to make his gameplay more unique.

Ryze has always had a ton of burst damage potential, along with a repeatable, single-target. However even with a very powerful ultimate and a substantial amount of AoE damage he wasn’t reliable enough as a champion. Players didn’t have an incentive to select Ryze when alternatives such as Annie have a stronger upfront burst.

With Ryze we decided to attempt a new type of champion design: a ranged, caster-carry. We worked to turn him into a champion that dished out sustained DPS and has a powercurve similar to a standard ranged physical carry. In essence, Ryze would become the Ashe of magic.

In order to achieve this, we started by dropping the base damage of Ryze’s spells across the board. To compensate, we added scaling along a stat that increases with each level (in this case mana), since champions don’t gain ability power with level. Next, we reduced his cooldowns significantly, turning him into a sort of spell machine gun. Finally, we increased the range on his abilities in order to give him better options for kiting strategy.

Ultimately, we wanted to create a character that would thrill those players looking for a high skill-cap champion with an active, fast-paced play style.” (League of Legends.com)

So with this next patch, we should see a fair amount of balance coming to champions that have been long overlooked. Also we should see the release of Maokai, the Twisted Treant.

Lore:

The twisting magical energies unleashed by mages during the Rune Wars caused an incredible amount of devastation to the natural world. The League was established to control the use of this magic by confining it to the Fields of Justice. By limiting its use to there, they thought that they could prevent it from doing further harm to the environment. It seemed that they were successful until Maokai came into being. During a League match on The Twisted Treeline, Maokai, an ancient oak that stood above the upper jungle, spontaneously roared to life. Ripped from the natural balance by arcane forces, his sentience was forged in chaos. Before the Adjudicators of the League could step in and suppress him, he slew all six champions participating in the match. The scholars of the Arcanum Majoris took a keen interest in him, as they were eager to discover the secrets of his animation.

Maokai was furious, however. He abhorred the existence that was thrust upon him; he felt it was a corruption of nature. He learned to communicate with people in hopes of finding a way to be returned to his former, true state. Seizing the opportunity, the League offered a trade. They would research a way to revert him so long as he agreed to fight in the League of Legends. Maokai was indifferent to verdicts rendered by the League, but he was eager to punish summoners for their wanton use of magic. He agreed to the terms under one condition: once they learned how to turn him back, they would never animate another tree again. He wears a lantern on the Fields of Justice to set him apart from the other trees, and as a warning to the “animals” that would do him harm.

“I will use this power until I am free of it.” –Maokai

Abilities:

Arcane Smash: Maokai slams the ground, the force of which knocks nearby enemies back and sends an arcane shockwave forward damaging and slowing his enemies.

Twisted Advance: Maokai dissolves into a cloud of arcane energies. He regrows near a target enemy, dealing damage and rooting it in place.

Sapling Toss: Maokai hurls a sapling, dealing damage on impact. The sapling becomes implanted in the ground warding a nearby area. When enemies approach, the sapling attacks, exploding in an arcane blast that damages enemies.

Vengeful Maelstrom (Ultimate): Maokai shields his allies by drawing power from hostile spells and attacks, reducing non-tower damage done to allied champions in the area. Maokai can prolong the effect as long as he has mana to spend on it. When the effect ends, Maokai unleashes the absorbed energy to deal damage to enemies within the vortex.

Sap Magic (Passive): Each time a champion near Maokai casts a spell, he gains a charge of Magical Sap. When he has 5 charges, his next melee attack drains energy from his target, healing Maokai for a percentage of his maximum HP

Abilities:

Heavenly Wave: Karma sends forth a wave of hidden blades from her fans, dealing magic damage to units in a cone in front of her.

• Mantra Bonus: In addition to dealing damage to enemies, Heavenly Wave will also heal allies in the cone. The amount healed is amplified depending upon the amount of life Karma, or her allies are missing

Spirit Bond: Karma bonds an ally or enemy creating a beam between them. Bonded allies have increased movement speed and bonded enemies have reduced movement speed. Enemy units that come in contact with the beam take magic damage, and champions who pass through the beam receive the same movement speed modifier as bonded champions.

• Mantra Bonus: Karma imbues the beam to grant bonus movement speed to any ally that passes through the beam. Any enemy that passes through the beam suffers reduced movement speed-Karma strengthens the bond to double the effect of the movement speed modifier.

Soul Shield: Karma summons a protective shield that absorbs incoming damage.

• Mantra Bonus: In addition to the shield, energy radiates out from the shield, dealing damage to enemy units around the recipient.

Mantra (Ultimate): Karma empowers her next ability to do an additional effect. Mantra is available at level 1 and does not require a skill point.

Inner Flame (Passive): Karma gains increased Ability Power corresponding to her missing Health.

Wow, she sounds like a power house in the making. I’m loving the idea of a champ who’s Ult. doesn’t require skill points. So we know that she’s going to be support Champion, with good offensive capabilities. What I’m really looking forward to is a video of her inaction and hoping and praying that we’ll see a sub-6300 IP champion this go.

Well, that’s all I have time for today. Until later guys, here’s some Lore on Karma.

Even in her youth, Karma exhibited almost superhuman composure.  While her peers explored the torrent of emotions that came with adolescence, Karma meditated in the Lotus Gardens.  She was convinced that the true path to enlightenment was a journey inward, to a place within the self, overlooked by most.  She exuded such inner contentment that she quickly became a go-to mediator and confidante in her village.  Her instructors used to say: “That girl can not only weather a storm, but calm it.”  Karma did not live extravagantly; her parents owned a local business selling antiques in the Navori province and they often struggled to provide for themselves, though they did so with cheery optimism. Her most prized possessions were two exquisite fans taken from her family’s shop.

When Noxian troops invaded southern Ionia, her village was one of the first to fall.  The villagers who survived the assault were captured by Noxian forces.  It was then that Karma found her calling.  By exploiting the insecurities of the Noxian commander, she negotiated the safe release of the villagers to the northern lands.  She was present at the Placidium, where the Elders had considered surrender until Irelia’s impassioned last stand renewed the Ionians’ hope.  Karma used this hope to solidify the Elders’ commitment to remain defiant against the Noxian onslaught.  For her devotion and charisma, Karma was made the figurehead of the Ionian resistance.  She never compromised, and she shared every hardship with her people, even when it came to combat.  By tapping into her inner resilience, she discovered that she could bring great force to bear against her foes on the battlefield.  She modified her fans into lethal implements, and was tutored by Janna to enhance their effects.  The Noxians called her “The Enlightened One,” a nickname she embraced, and one which they would come to dread.  She joined the League to represent Ionia in the ultimate political arena.

“Her fan technique is a deadly art of grace and poise, but her truest strength lies in the hearts of those willing to die alongside her.” –Irelia, the Will of the Blades

Karma, the Enlightened One is coming to the League, Nothing to big to update with right now as information on her is non-existing. Well at least she looks cool.

New Skins in the Store

• Galactic Renekton
• Outback Renekton
• Dreadknight Garen
• Commando Galio

PVP.net v1.27.47

• Fixed a bug where selecting a Skin late in the countdown process would produce an error
• Fixed a bug where players that had been disconnected from chat could not enter the Matchmaking queue

League of Legends v1.0.0.109
Renekton, the Butcher of the Sands

• Renekton uses a new resource system called Fury. Renekton gains Fury by attacking or dealing damage with spells. When he has gathered enough Fury, the resource will be expended to empower his skills with bonus effects.
• Cull the Meek: Renekton swing his blade, dealing damage to nearby enemies and healing for a portion of the life dealt. Fury Bonus: Heal amount raised dramatically.
• Ruthless Predator: Renekton’s next attack swings twice, dealing a portion of his weapon damage, stunning his target briefly and applying on-hits each time. Fury Bonus: Renekton’s next attack swings three times, dealing a huge portion of his weapon damage, stunning his target greatly and applying on-hits each time.
• Slice and Dice: Renekton dashes forward, dealing physical damage to targets along the way. If he hits a target, he can use Dice for a brief period of time for the same effect. Dice Fury Bonus: Renekton deals 50% increased damage and reduces the armor of units hit.
• Dominus (Ultimate): Renekton empowers himself with dark energy, gaining size and bonus health. He deals periodic damage to enemies around him and rapidly gains Fury.
• Reign of Anger (Passive): Renekton gains 5 Fury per autoattack. Having sufficient fury empowers Renekton’s abilities with bonus effects, but this drains Fury. Out of combat, Renekton loses 5 Fury per second.

Caitlyn

• Piltover Peacemaker
  • Base damage changed to 20/65/110/155/200 from 40/70/100/130/160
  • Attack damage ratio increased to 1.3 from 1
  • Damage loss per unit increased to 10% from 6%
  • Maximum damage loss increased to 50% from 30%
• Ace in the Hole
  • Base damage increased to 250/475/700 from 250/400/550
  • Now provides vision on the target for the duration and thus is not canceled when the target leaves line of sight
  • Fixed a bug where Ace in the Hole didn’t scale from the Havoc mastery
  • Damage is now treated as a spell instead of an attack
  • No longer triggers hit effects like Blessing of the Lizard Elder
  • Now triggers spell hit effects like Rylai’s Crystal Scepter
  • Cannot be dodged or blocked by Pantheon’s Aegis Protection

Cho’Gath

• Feast now loses half stacks (rounded up) instead of 3 stacks on death

Evelynn

• Base mana reduced to 180 from 212
• Mana per level increased to 42 from 38
• Base damage reduced to 48 from 53
• Damage per level increased to 3.3 from 2.9
• Base armor reduced to 12.5 from 14.75
• Hate Spike mana cost increased to 12/15/18/21/24 from 8/10/12/14/16
• Shadow Walk duration reduced to 10/20/30/40/50 from 20/30/40/50/60
• Shadow Walk cooldown reduced to 12/11/10/9/8 from 12 at all ranks upon breaking stealth
• Malice and Spite duration reduced to 10 seconds from 15

Garen

• Judgement bonus attack damage scaling increased to 1.2 from 1.0 per second

Heimerdinger

• H28G Evolution Turret
  • Improved Turret AI so they will prioritize attacking Champions that attack Heimerdinger
  • Turrets now work on an ammo system (25 second ammo cooldown)
  • 1 second placement cooldown
  • Levelup progression changed:
    • Rank 2 – places green turrets
    • Rank 3 – places 2 turrets
    • Rank 4 – +150 Health
    • Rank 5 – places red turrets
  • Fixed a bug where Upgraded!!! turrets would stop firing resistance piercing and area-effect shots
  • Turrets now gain 15 health per Heimerdinger level down from 21
  • Turret magic resistance increased to 80 from 60
  • Tooltip now references ‘turrets’ rather than ‘towers.’
• Upgrade!!!
  • Now increases number of Hextech Micro Rockets to 5 while active
  • Now increases missile speed on Ch-1 Concussion Grenade to 1000 from 750 while active
• Fixed a bug where Techmaturgical Repair Bots provided less health regeneration than stated

Jax

• Leap Strike cooldown reduced to 13/11/9/7/5 from 17/14/11/8/5.
• Counter Strike now shows a brighter particle when Jax has recently dodged an attack and Counter Strike is ready

Katarina

• Shunpo damage changed to 80/120/160/200/240 from 90/120/150/180/210

Kennen

• Mark of the Storm duration reduced to 8 seconds from 12
• Electrical Surge range decreased to 800 from 825

Lux

• Fixed a bug that caused Lux to have 0 base mana regen

Mordekaiser

• Shield decay reduced to 3% from 5%

Nasus

• Base movement speed increased to 325 from 320
• Siphoning Strike damage bonus per kill increased to 3 from 2

Olaf

• Undertow
• Fixed a bug where Undertow was dealing too much damage
• Attack damage scaling increased to 0.5 from 0.3
• Base damage reduced to 50/90/130/170/210 from 65/110/155/200/245

Pantheon

• Aegis of Zeonia stun duration reduced to 0.7/0.9/1.1/1.3/1.5 from 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds

Rammus

• Puncturing Taunt cooldown increased to 12 from 9

Sivir

• Ricochet bounce radius reduced to 450 from 500
• Ricochet damage loss per bounce increased to 25% from 22%

Taric

• Fixed a bug with Radiance where it would cause performance issues while on

Tryndamere

• Undying Rage duration reduced to 5 seconds from 6
• Battle Fury passive critical chance increased to 10-50% from 0-50%

Twitch

• Base attack range increased to 500 from 475
• Ambush duration reduced to 10/20/30/40/50 from 20/30/40/50/60
• Ambush’s attack speed bonus now reaches its maximum duration twice as fast

Warwick

• Blood Scent now properly remembers toggle state when you respawn

Xin Zhao

• Three Talon Strike cooldown changed to 10 from 12/11/10/9/8
• Crescent Sweep base damage reduced to 125/225/325 from 125/250/375

Zilean

• Chronoshift duration reduced to 10 seconds from 13

Items

• Chain Vest now shows 6 items it builds into instead of 5
• Longsword upgrade paths updated
• Wards no longer grant experience on death
• Vision Ward cost reduced to 125 from 150
• Rabadon’s Deathcap cost increased to 3400 from 3300
• Black Cleaver now appears in the Attack Speed tab

Masteries

• Ardor
  • Now provides all of its benefit at level 1 rather than half at level 1 and the other half scaling up to level 18
  • Fixed bugs where Ardor was not counting Ability Power and Attack Speed from many sources – essentially anything that wasn’t an item
  • Fixed a bug where Ardor and Zhonya’s Ring/Rabadon’s Deathcap were double multiplicative
  • Clarified the tooltip

General

• We have changed how critical strike and dodge chance work. You will now get fewer ‘lucky’ or ‘unlucky’ streaks where you get no critical hits/dodges in a row, or a lot of them in a row. Your average chance to get a crit is the same as before though – if you have a 50% crit rate, and you make 100 attacks, you’ll still crit about 50 times.
• Baron’s Wrath of the Ancients spell no longer targets stealthed units
• Jungle monsters that previously had negative magic resistance now have magic resistance of zero
• Monster camps will now properly updated when scouted with vision

Wow, that’s a lot to take in for one patch. Great to see Riot working on evening out some of the overpowered champions. Even with the over-all nerfs, most champions got some love at the same time.

What are your thoughts on this and even the last patch? What’s changed in-game for better or worse?  Please leave your comments below.

In other news, some of the guys I play LoL with have decided to form a guild, or league and we’ll be putting up  a website and discussing gameplay and mechanics along with ranked and unranked games.

So until then, GLHF