7.4 Tier List + AMA

[quote=H4xDefender]SO, I played about 15 games today, I'll give some quick thought updates on some champs: [[Cassiopeia]]/[[Zyra]]: Have not seen either personally, but have heard cassio feels awful to play, and zyra is terrible mid but very annoying support. [[Malzahar]]: Permabanned, but have heard hes insane for objective control. [[Vel'koz]]: Absolutely MELTS whoever he combos, but does a little less with AOE lazers. Not sure if hes buffed or nerfed, although I'm leaning towards buffed now. [[Viktor]]: NEEDS rylais, but is good in teamfights if he lives to get full ult off. Overall probably nerfed a bit since the abyssal nerf hurts his waveclear heavily. [[Anivia]]: Feels incredibly clunky, very hard to dominate lane now. Nerfed. [[Brand]]: Same weaknesses but strengths more accentuated. Feel like hes buffed, but I think he is probably better off mid now? Idk, this champ is weird. [[Kennen]]: Definitely buffed. Feels a lot stronger, especially with protobelt. Might actually be the biggest buffed champion this patch besides malzahar. [[Vladimir]]: Probably slightly buffed due to itemization changes and the fact that he was just SO bad before, but his E is incredibly clunky and weird to play as, and against. I think people should stop trying DFT and try stormraiders/thunderlords instead. [[Zed]]: Definitely not as oppressive as people said he would be, although to be fair he has been banned a lot. Still struggles due to forcing full AD comps most of the time. Who would have thought that when you actually try to dodge zeds abilities after he ults you instead of pressing QSS and heal and right clicking him, you can actually survive his ult! [[Kindred]]: Best jungler in the game atm IMO due to earlier powerspike with Bloodrazor. [[Ziggs]]: Feels about the same, although slightly improved laning. If you lose baron vs a ziggs team your towers are just super fucked though ROFL. [[Xerath]]: Super scary with rank 3 ult. Feels about same before that. [[Annie]]: Feels about the same, tibbers is hilarious and reminds me of sion ult. Slightly buffed overall IMO. [[Swain]]: Haven't seen, have been told he fucks melees even harder now and has slightly better lane overall, but still falls off hard later. [[Veigar]]: Seems really busted as support, idk about mid, probably nerfed for mid. [[Syndra]]: Feels about same. Bit burstier if you use the kit properly. [[Fiddlesticks]]: Buff was nice, seems pretty decent. [[Zac]]: Lot more annoying later, about same early. [[Soraka]]: R I P [[Trundle]]: SUPER busted. [[Guardian angel]] is broken rito WHY. I'll stay true to what I said in the rundown and I'll update this weekend. Just know I don't lane directly against these champs most times so what I see isn't from a direct perspective.[/quote]

[quote=Vapora Dark]Bare in mind there's a hotfix coming up soon™, Cass Vlad and Swain buffed, Malz nerfed. Did GA get any changes? I've recently found it to be super good on [[hecarim]], but I'm not aware of it being any different than it was the rest of the season.[/quote]

[quote=Wayne3100][quote=Vapora Dark]Did GA get any changes? I've recently found it to be super good on [[hecarim]], but I'm not aware of it being any different than it was the rest of the season.[/quote] Cost went down by 300 ([s]2700[/s] -> 2400), magic resist went down by 15 ([s]60[/s]-> 45).[/quote]

[quote=FalseoGod]Can you link me the hotfix, Vapora? [[swain]]'s new Q is great versus melees, but overhall he drew a short straw this patch. E damage down cut his snowballing potential by A LOT and R not only cam with a bug (it takes like 0.2 to be turned on), but the Raven check to see if they have hit any of the available hitboxes in the last 1 second gives him a delay on the next raven. What this means is that previously his R would hit 3 targets every second (if available) and check that they hit the same target exactly the next second, whereas now the check is slower giving him an effective healind delay. Also his Q has another issue: although the range is like 75 longer, the tether itself is actually shorter than the previous one, making it easier to break. Basically, this makes him heal less, which is awful, specially since he has no MRes/lvl (which is dumb af), and since they nerfed two key CDs (Q and R have longer CD's because supposedly he should be getting at least 10% CDR from Zhonya) unless you fight in minions his lane phase vs almost anything ranged is weaker. I still think his R range should scale with levels, it's probably the key factor to reduce the amount of kiting suffered lategame and allow him to at least heal off more targets without getting instamelted. --//-- I'm also 100% sure mid Malzahar was overall nerfed. Voidling interaction with creeps is iffy, voidlings are awful vs any nonstationary target and the ability by itself is clunky. All his other abilities got their damage pretty nerfed, to make him 100% reliant on an ability that feels pretty shitty. Of course, objectives are pretty much stationary targets which means mid malz can still help clear them super fast. His jungling is amazing, though, since he can almost literally never recall and has perma 7 voidlings to tank the jungle + his passive to help him take 0 damage in between early W CDs. Overally I'm disappointed that two of my fav champs got punched in the face in the name of "gameplay update". I thought [[syndra]] was pretty nice though, her new W allows her to carry 3 spheres from like half the map, giving you an easy 7 sphere ult setup.[/quote]

[quote=Wayne3100][quote=FalseoGod]Can you link me the hotfix, Vapora?[/quote] I know my name's not Vapora, but: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/xjvV0YeJ-69-balance-hotfix-going-out-soon[/quote]

[quote=RottedApples][quote=Vapora Dark]Bare in mind there's a hotfix coming up soon™, Cass Vlad and Swain buffed, Malz nerfed. Did GA get any changes? I've recently found it to be super good on [[hecarim]], but I'm not aware of it being any different than it was the rest of the season.[/quote] ok so these are very small changes. I was concerned for a moment that vlad might get a fiora like hotfix and become too strong after this but no, those are very minor changes.[/quote]

[quote=Vapora Dark][quote=Wayne3100][quote=Vapora Dark]Did GA get any changes? I've recently found it to be super good on [[hecarim]], but I'm not aware of it being any different than it was the rest of the season.[/quote] Cost went down by 300 ([s]2700[/s] -> 2400), magic resist went down by 15 ([s]60[/s]-> 45).[/quote] w h a t t h e f u c k And I thought it was strong before this patch... Now if only my games lasted long enough for me to buy this item. :^) [quote=FalseoGod][[swain]]'s new Q is great versus melees, but overhall he drew a short straw this patch. E damage down cut his snowballing potential by A LOT and R not only cam with a bug (it takes like 0.2 to be turned on), but the Raven check to see if they have hit any of the available hitboxes in the last 1 second gives him a delay on the next raven. What this means is that previously his R would hit 3 targets every second (if available) and check that they hit the same target exactly the next second, whereas now the check is slower giving him an effective healind delay. Also his Q has another issue: although the range is like 75 longer, the tether itself is actually shorter than the previous one, making it easier to break. Basically, this makes him heal less, which is awful, specially since he has no MRes/lvl (which is dumb af), and since they nerfed two key CDs (Q and R have longer CD's because supposedly he should be getting at least 10% CDR from Zhonya) unless you fight in minions his lane phase vs almost anything ranged is weaker. I still think his R range should scale with levels, it's probably the key factor to reduce the amount of kiting suffered lategame and allow him to at least heal off more targets without getting instamelted.[/quote] Yeah his new "cooldown" on R feels so fucking awkward when I'm used to the old [[swain]], I really hope they change that because I much preferred the old R. Also did they nerf the range? Cuz his birds don't feel like they reach as far anymore, but maybe that's just me having not played [[swain]] in a while. At least the 0.2 cast time will be fixed in the hotfix. Also what build would you currently recommend on him? I've just been going RoA into Zhonya's with whatever situational items necessary. Tear seemed good when I tried it in the very first game, but not overall worth delaying the build for since RoA's new damage into mana converter felt like it gave enough mana for even [[swain]]'s needs.[/quote]

[quote=FalseoGod][[rod of ages]] feels stronger on him than the hextech item, gives overall better stats in the long run and it's 400G cheaper so the 20 AP you're missing will be back eventually. The upside of the hextech item is extra ~20 damage on E and [[torment]] augments the item's active damage, which is nice. Second item either Zhonya's or Rabadon. My issue with Zhonya's is the AP reduction. Sure it's cheaper, but you're already dealing overall less damage since E got nerfed, Q is easy-ish to evade because of the short tether and your R is currently dealing less damage per second. If you feel like it's safe, I think Rabadon will be a lot better, R procs deal more damage and heal more and E deals base damage + 300 and something. Fullbuild should look something like his old fullbuild: Roa or Hextech item, Boots (still pref sorcs), Zhonya, Rabadon, Void staff/liandry, Rilay's.[/quote]

[quote=Vapora Dark]I haven't tried the Hextech item, but likewise just comparing the two I felt the cheaper cost and overall higher stats (eventually) make RoA seem better. 30 AP for 600 less gold on [[zhonya's hourglass]] definitely seems worth the trade off IMO, even though the active CD is 30 seconds higher. And that's not even counting the 10% CDR. Overall it's a weaker item, but definitely more gold efficient than it has been for the past few patches, and you shouldn't notice the lack of AP until full build, if at all. Just think of it like this, the quicker you finish Zhonya's, the sooner you move on to building pure damage items. :P Overall going Zhonya second you should be feeling like you have more damage than you would in the previous patch, really.[/quote]

[quote=FalseoGod]I understand the logic but overall it's a nerf to Swain since they nerfed his base E damage and buffed the ratio, getting those two items - even if they're, in theory, the best option possible - sets him behind in the not-so-long run. That's basically my issue with his changes this patch: they need, at the very least, to rebuff base E damage and nerf ratio into values in between pre-patch and live :/[/quote]