Greetings and salutations MOBAFire, the name's Firbane, bane of fir trees...that's actually a typo. Refer to me as Firebane or my summoner Michael Firebane if you've read this whenever I'm on the forums. Or don't, it'll be funny to be refered to as Firbane. At any rate, I made an Ahri Beginner's Guide not too long ago that you people may want to check out and give me some feedback. I'll get working on another guide here soon, I just want to decide which champion first, so I'll be brainstorming for a bit, but I have a basic idea of who to do. No spoilers until I start working on it though!

At any rate, when I blog here I'll try my best to throw my hat into the ring and step up onto the soapbox about the patch notes myself, though being inexperience in League, I can only give insight on what it might possibly do the the champion's kit as a whole based on what I know about them. Otherwise, don't expect me to be too insightful about the ranked gameplay regarding champions. Anyway, since 5.4 wasn't too far back, and 5.5 is probably around the corner, let's get into the habit of this.

Azir

• Shurima's Legacy apparently counted as a turret kill when you destroyed it, and I did not know this. As Riot said, it's really a fix to fantasy League. Sorry to all you folks out there who managed to get some abuse out of that with your fantasy players, but it sounds like they were on top of things.

Janna

• Tailwind - Maaan, that passive was good to help you and your ADC engage. Though to be fair, as it stood it could get very powerful as your opponents couldn't get away. The way it works now makes Janna the champion you want to fall back to instead of just run a random direction from making yourself a bit more vulnerable, giving her some extra value when you're running into lane or away from enemies. Not a terrible change in my book.
• Zephyr - This is not an unwelcome change with the change to Tailwind. Janna still retains her mobility with this change, and the spell seems like it still works that it only gives this movement speed if Janna hasn't used it yet, meaning she only chases to slow and help her ADC/team to get kills. It also places value in it since you don't want to use it while running, you'll lose too much movement.
• Overall - It seems like Janna has changed into the champion who really is a support now, good at chasing and getting her ADC those kills, and one-hundred percent being the one you run to to get away faster. Her build does not change from these changes in my book, I'd build her the same as I always have. Even if Ardent Censer makes me the ADC's servant.

Jarvan IV

• Base Stats - The small armor increase, that's going to make a small but significant difference. Maybe not, it'll prevent another three to four odd points of damage from physical damage, so that's a like an 8% increase, totally using an arbitrary number. I don't know, it doesn't seem like a big deal to me, it's a small buff so I'd be happy if you were a Jarvan player, and indifferent otherwise.
• Dragon Strike - Hey, a bug fix! Seems like a nasty little bug too, I've never witnessed nor experienced it, so really it's a bug that makes Jarvan more fair to fight against, and I'm happy for that.
• Demacian Standard - Why would a standard give armor? Boost in morale, ergo, boost in your combat prowess, ergo, boost to your defense and offense. That aside though, this explains the slight armor buff, this is a big nerf if I'm not mistaken, as it removes the flat/scaling armor Jarvan would have gotten for throwing this down, removing any tankiness he might get. I'm indifferent to this change to be fair, I think thematically it fits the idea of a standard better; it inspires allies to fight harder, maybe not necessarily better.
• Overall - Looks like Jarvan didn't get changed much, but this overall looks like a nerf. Am I mad? Considering I've never played Jarvan at the time of writing this, no not really. Am I happy? I think the changes won't matter in the long run, Jarvan is still very strong, especially since this nerf was pretty light. Builds seem unchanged. Go get 'em Jarvans, you got this.

Kalista

• Martial Poise - Well, that SEEMS like a nerf, but I honestly think this is implemented for better control of Kalista's jumps, so it's a mechanic fix truly. Slowing down attack speed scaling could probably get really tricky, but with Kalista it's VERY important to have a balance of control and speed, else you can't use her passive unless you use her Q Pierce, or at best use her passive inconsistently, making a HUGE power dropoff at late game since she can't move out of an auto, which is bad. I personally think it's a good change...except for the guys out there who MASTERED doing this when she hit at 100% speed you Starcraft 2 players.

Kassadin

• Riftwalk - I saw a LOT of people get salty about this change, and if we compare him to the likes of Nidalee and Ahri, I can understand why; he loses a ton of mobility to chase the high mobility champions. I want to say the thing is his mobility was TOO good, as he could literally jump through the thickest walls in the game, but then it falls back that he loses the ability to chase Nidalee really well. I stand by that he retains a good chunk of his mobility, as the cooldown between uses is still really short. If it's a problem for you, then I'd say get Athene's Unholy Grail/ Morellonomicon and Archangel's Staff, get the most uses out of these items for your spell. I've heard in the PBE his range is increased a little bit, so rejoice! Next patch he'll have slightly more range!

Katarina

• Voracity - If I'm completely honest, this change needed to happen. As long as Kata could get hit everyone at any point in a teamfight, her ult Death Lotus would just come off of cooldown before the fight ended. Now she has to make her ult count to get those assists within the three seconds she used it. It's a minor change, but it can make it so Katarina won't have her ult back up for the next team fight sometimes, and especially mid teamfight if she didn't get those kills. What I think though? It's practically a useless change however, make the timer 1.5 seconds may be too intense, but it really would make a difference, in my opinion.

Lissandra

• Glacial Path - Hey a bug fix that makes her ability clearer to see! As an uncommon opponent to Lissandra sometimes, it's good to know I'll know she may be going one direction versus running up to me instead. For visual fixes, I can only be happy, even if Lissandra players everywhere get mad because they abused this glitch to the high heavens.

Mordekaiser

• Base Stats - A greatly reduced health regen? We'll get into this a little bit, but this is a somewhat large nerf it seems. I didn't realize this until recently, but Mordekaiser is like Vladimir in that he uses his health as a mana source, so it actually nerfs everything about him, making it harder for him to sustain in lane for longer. We're going to hit the bigger things, and we're gonna see why this needed the nerf.
• Mace of Spades - Added range to this attack AND reduced it's blood cost. I'm not going to lie, that seems like a silly buff, but then again, this was melee ranged and it gives him options for his lane opponent...sort of. He'll still probably start with his E Siphon of Destruction as it has more range, but in melee he's not completely useless, and his opponents won't get away as easily anymore.
• Creeping Death - Hey, it won't deal double damage if Mordekaiser and the ally champion he targets with this spell with stand right next to you, so that's good. The buff is kinda big though; both he and his target get the benefit of this spell, making it more viable to target the ally tank with this rather than self lest you have no other option, and the movement speed if they move towards each other seems odd. The tank has Mobility Boots and Mordekaiser follows, instantly faster Mordekaiser you can't get away from. At least, that's what it seems to me. What's more is that this ability also has a reduced blood cost. This won't get silly, though thankfully it's base and scaling damage were nerfed.
• Children of the Grave - This looks like a shutdown to an alt build you could do with Mordekaiser that was AD Mordekaiser. Can't say I'm mad, just looking at the notes makes me terrified of what THAT would be like. So the first change is that instead of getting bonus AD and AP from his enslaved champ, the AD is traded for health and the AP scales better if the champ has any AP, making him more tanky in a fight, and also obviously giving him more of a pool to use his abilities for, as well as giving him more damage. This doesn't look like a bad change thus far. The enslaved champs are really nerfed in that they don't get 75% of Morde's AP or AD as bonus damage, and instead scale on a base rate for extra damage. Overall, it looks like a nerf, a fairly large one at that.
• Overall - In my mind, this looks like a balanced change that doesn't truly nerf nor buff Mordekaiser as a whole. Since his passive is still silly, giving him what basically amounts to a second health bar, making it harder for him to sustain on health alone is great, it also gives his ult much more value as it gives him more health to sustain, but he needs to either get the tanky target or the AP target (preferably one like Diana for both) because of how it works now. Then the buffs to his two non-core abilities (in my mind they're not core) just make him scarier to deal with in melee range, and gives him a better chase after fights as well, so that's pretty nice. Any changes to the build I'm actually completely unaware of, but more health regen might be a thing, so Banshee's Veil looks much more lucrative to me who has never played Morde.

Rengar

• Bonetooth Necklace (Yellow) - This applies to all colors, but the novel idea of this keeping track of Rengar's kills are over, as it's now a permanent stack on him instead of on his trinket. To be fair, that gives Rengar the option to run actual trinkets instead, so look at it this way; if he doesn't need this trinket to keep the permanent stacks, then it's actually a buff.

Syndra

• Scatter the Weak - Apparently the change has complicated math, but overall the spell is more consistent when the orb hits a target. Sooooo...buff? I don't know, they don't give a lot, but apparently the radius of the sphere to hit is wider. That's all I got to say about that...complicated math that's hidden from us.

Veigar

• Preface - Let me say this before I begin; I love Veigar, and I've been thinking for a while now that I may switch my main from Ahri to Veigar because of these changes. They're a little much as far as making him stronger than you might think, and in the overall section I'll give you ideas of what items you're gonna need to make this work. In short though; Veigar is not weaker, he's actually MUCH stronger.
• Baleful Strike - This hits two targets, has a range increase, and is now a skill shot. Considering his passive on this is unchanged, this can get really silly really fast. Kill two minions with every cast of this spell, and that's what you call efficiency, as that's a lot of AP in a short time if you cast this once every seven seconds now since THAT got shortened. That's .30 AP per second really! Even if you don't kill two minions, you can kill one minion and poke, that farm will get silly.
• Dark Matter - A cooldown shortened at higher levels and mana cost reduction at higher levels? Riot, did anyone tell you that this scales on a 1:1 ration with Veigar's AP? Who cares about base damage, you don't need to upgrade this fully until last, but now you give incentive to try and upgrade this sooner. The late game Veigar will deal so much damage and so frequently, just let that AP stack.
• Event Horizon - It's nerfed in the sense that it now takes .75 seconds for this thing to pop up instead of it popping up instantly, but to be fair? That's a reasonable nerf. What's not so reasonable are the buffs to it, shorter cooldown at first and later levels and lower mana cost at later levels, add a needed range extension to make up for the time difference and you overall have a sick buff! We'll get into how to land this more consistently, but for now take my word for it; if you land this, you have a cheap, long stun.
• Primordial Burst - Riot downgraded this spell's AP scaling from 1.2 to 1.0, and it's target AP scaling bonus is unchanged which isn't too bad. What's silly is that it now costs a consistent mana cost for all ranks, and is truly like Ahri's ult in that it's cooldown at level three is 80 seconds now, meaning cooldowns as the level gets higher are reduced. It's overall a buff, you can use this spell more often which increases your DPS.
• Overall - You people get too salty about something that's actually a great change to Veigar! You just need to learn to live without a DFG and realize that Veigar is as scary as Nasus, but harder to deal with. So, what do you build instead of DFG? Twin Shadows...now before you go let me explain! Veigar has some slow movement speed, and needs to make up for it somehow! The active on this item will slow down his target(s) and its passive lets him run faster, making it easier for you to stun them in a fully upgraded (first) Event Horizon! Trust me, because you gain AP with Baleful Strike and Dark Matter scales 1:1 with your AP, you don't need to upgrade either of those spells until later, you deal damage just fine without them being upgraded. What's more is that if you get Boots of Swiftness - Alacrity, yes you may be losing spell pen, but make up for that with a lot more burst from Baleful Strike's passive, and a Void Staff or a Liandry's Torment, then practically no one can ever get away from your Event Horizon, and you can usually get away from them. So what are my thoughts on this change? Huge buff that NEEDS to change soon! I'm cool with a double target Q, but something needs to be fixed on this guy, as Veigar is 100% the new Kassadin right now.

Xerath

• Shocking Orb - The stun duration has been shortened on this skill shot, and I personally don't have much to say about it, it just makes escaping the wrath of Xerath all the easier, even though his Q Arcanopulse is super silly with it's range and damage. In short, it makes Xerath at close range less scary to face, as he really can only run now...mostly.

Zilean

• Base Stats - Base armor is increased by two points, attack range is decreased, and his attack animation is sped up, which in short means his attack will hit sooner, but the delay between attacks is longer to compensate. These overall are not major nerfs or buffs, so I wouldn't worry much about these changes.
• Time Bomb - Hey, it's a lobbed skillshot now! And it stuns if a second Time Bomb hits the same enemy target! Time to explode is decreased by a full second, range is increased, base damage is overall decreased, cooldown is no longer flat but decreases as you level up the ability, and mana cost is overall reduced. This is a big buff in many ways, but now that it's a skill shot, it can be tricky to land the double bombs so the enemy is stunned, especially since the bomb explodes quicker now. It also is a sticky bomb, so if your ally jungler runs over it, they can still make it detonate in the face of the enemy ADC.
• Rewind - No longer reduces the cooldown of Zilean's ult. I can't say I'm angry, as the notes do shorten his ult's cooldown, but it got silly fast and it was great. It's a needed nerf though.
• Time Warp - The duration is a flat 2.5 seconds now, upgrading this now gives it a bigger slow starting from 45%, which is a nerf, but goes up to 99% (which is just silly), a shorter cooldown, change in mana cost per level that goes up and is overall lower, and the range suffers a large nerf. It's another one of those changes I don't care much about, but I'm surprised Zilean isn't played more from when I play because this is a bigger buff. It literally allows him to get kills and land his new skill shot really easily, making him an invaluable support.
• Chronoshift - The duration was nerfed so you need to place this more carefully, and now has cooldown change per level, going down and is overall a lower cooldown. It's a balanced change, especially since Rewind doesn't reduce the cooldown time on this spell is gone, and it makes it more skillful as to when to use it, though it's only minorly more skillful. It really gives Zilean good utility though, so I'm still surprised I don't see him more often.
• Overall - This is a buff through and through, and building less AP and more cooldown reduction is probably a thing on Zilean more than ever. Otherwise, he should be more popular, and I forsee some minor changes to him in the near future, some nerfs really. Otherwise I don't have much more to say, he's a really good champ as he's always been, just infrequently played because of how passive he is.

Revive

• Removed from the game - Goodbye revive, Teleport/Revive Karthus will miss you. This gives the game more focus on death and its importance in the game, making life an objective in and of itself.

That's all I have for my thoughts on the last patch, overall it's a lot of decent balancing and one champion gone from good to overpowered in my book! Once the next patch comes out, I'll give you my thoughts on that, so if you liked this don't hesitate to say so, and give some constructive criticism if you didn't like it. I hope I could've played devil's advocate against some of your favorite voices, and hopefully it made you think about the game from another perspective. Either way, I'm off to go kill some firs, and remember to become champions in your own right!