400 gold early game is a lot lol
also im glad they did this change most of the time i just dont watch the first few minutes of a game because theyre almost always the same until about the 5-6 minute mark
also im glad they did this change most of the time i just dont watch the first few minutes of a game because theyre almost always the same until about the 5-6 minute mark

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Reviving this thread to recap on these changes and discuss their impact. First, let's discuss what happened to the competitive meta. I think there are three core segments to highlight:
1. Level 1 laneswapping is dead. The tempo advantage the bot side team gets from these changes is massive and will lead to them taking the tower faster AND getting more gold on top of it.
2. A new kind of laneswaps has emerged, basically having bot lane hardpush the wave, base and go top around minute 5. This is the moment that the fortification buff on top tower drops. From the matches I've seen, the response differs from freezing bot wave after the push (usually results in a net loss), both teams swapping (creating Australia lanes) and sending support/jungle top to hold 3v4 while the ADC pushes 1v0. It isn't clear what the optimal move is so far.
3. Champion diversity in top/jungle/adc/support is greatly limited. Top laners generally speaking are solid laning champions, junglers are high-pressure gankers and bot lane are generally solid and safe 2v2 picks. Champion pools so far seem limited to:
Top: Gnar, Irelia, occasionally GP/Ekko
Jungle: Gragas, Rek'Sai, Elise depending on region
ADC: Jhin, Sivir, Ashe
Support: Tanky, melee supports and Karma
Just looking at the gameplay, I think the early game has become more interesting but also more limited. If nothing changes, I think this meta will become very stale very quickly.
1. Level 1 laneswapping is dead. The tempo advantage the bot side team gets from these changes is massive and will lead to them taking the tower faster AND getting more gold on top of it.
2. A new kind of laneswaps has emerged, basically having bot lane hardpush the wave, base and go top around minute 5. This is the moment that the fortification buff on top tower drops. From the matches I've seen, the response differs from freezing bot wave after the push (usually results in a net loss), both teams swapping (creating Australia lanes) and sending support/jungle top to hold 3v4 while the ADC pushes 1v0. It isn't clear what the optimal move is so far.
3. Champion diversity in top/jungle/adc/support is greatly limited. Top laners generally speaking are solid laning champions, junglers are high-pressure gankers and bot lane are generally solid and safe 2v2 picks. Champion pools so far seem limited to:
Top: Gnar, Irelia, occasionally GP/Ekko
Jungle: Gragas, Rek'Sai, Elise depending on region
ADC: Jhin, Sivir, Ashe
Support: Tanky, melee supports and Karma
Just looking at the gameplay, I think the early game has become more interesting but also more limited. If nothing changes, I think this meta will become very stale very quickly.
On the contrary, the low damage coming out from teams on this patch compared to previous patches means that team fights will be more drawn out and longer. I think that this may be healthier for the game because it'll give teams both more opportunities to make unforced errors, and give viewers more time to comprehend what's actually happening
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My Soraka Guide | My Review Service

Thanks a lot for the sig, jhoi! :)
utopus wrote:
On the contrary, the low damage coming out from teams on this patch compared to previous patches means that team fights will be more drawn out and longer. I think that this may be healthier for the game because it'll give teams both more opportunities to make unforced errors, and give viewers more time to comprehend what's actually happening
Care to elaborate? I don't feel like teams draft a lot of very low-dmg comps on this patch.
A couple patches ago, mid laners basically had to pick vlad/viktor/azir, junglers had to pick graves/nidalee, top laners basically had to pick gangplank or a tank, and supports had to pick karma, or a tank.
I think that this sort of team composition with damage emphasized on the junglers and mid laners makes fights finish much more quickly.
In the current meta, junglers are preferred tanky (like reksai and gragas), and mid laners can afford to do less damage (e.g. lissandra, zilean). While teams still draft compositions that deal enough damage, I think that the overall damage dealt per team per second has decreased over the past couple months.
I think that this sort of team composition with damage emphasized on the junglers and mid laners makes fights finish much more quickly.
In the current meta, junglers are preferred tanky (like reksai and gragas), and mid laners can afford to do less damage (e.g. lissandra, zilean). While teams still draft compositions that deal enough damage, I think that the overall damage dealt per team per second has decreased over the past couple months.
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My Soraka Guide | My Review Service

Thanks a lot for the sig, jhoi! :)
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My Soraka Guide | My Review Service

Thanks a lot for the sig, jhoi! :)
the competitive meta around mid has been around scaling mages for quite a long time, even before the azir meta. you had long drawn out mid lanes w/ consistent mages or the occasional leblanc
with azir nerfs mid lane meta has become more varied to what we have now but is still quite drawn out.
with regards to lane swapping we saw the bot lanes rotating top to take top tower a couple of waves in the game in some playoff games which is pretty cool. unsure but looking forward to how the rest of the early macro will develop
with azir nerfs mid lane meta has become more varied to what we have now but is still quite drawn out.
with regards to lane swapping we saw the bot lanes rotating top to take top tower a couple of waves in the game in some playoff games which is pretty cool. unsure but looking forward to how the rest of the early macro will develop
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The tempo is important, but the effect ends after 5 min (earlier than before) so I think holding the game for 3min30sec is not that hard. This will certainly make inversion less common, but if really needed I think it's still worth the cost.