Like I said, she's alright, but there are tons of better supports out there. She's just so much better as a mid laner.

 

So can we talk about they items? The shiny Assassins got most of the attention, but a 60 dam/35 MR (which is reasonably competitive with maw's 55/40 and merc's 65/35) with 15 Lethality, which looks pretty good, 20 OOC Movement and a spellshield looks pretty strong. And Duskblade with Lethality and that bonus damage changes looks like it might make Top Wukong a lot stronger.

 

Is it just me or does Talon just feel like an assassin version of Sol?

Also I really want to see how the jungle changes play out. It sounds like that vision bush is going to be huge mid/late (esp. for baron/dragon) and the healing bush is probably big for early sustain. Not sure what to think about the exploding bush yet.

 

I dunno. They're adding a 100+10% max HP heal to Smite, but removing Smite buffs, so I think the healing bush will be less big and more just mandatory for early sustain in jungle. But laners crossing into jungle for a heal - or even less conventional junglers with no built in sustain becoming more prominent may be cool additions that would happen.

 

It looks like the bushes will be localized around specific areas too. Maybe like a micro objective for things like securing the larger ones. I imagine traps like Shaco boxes and Teemo Shrooms will help with some of that.

I kinda want to see Ekko with some of those Lethality items. I know they are moving him more mage style, nut he's so mobile that it would be fun to play around with. Late game Shaco will be a terror but early will probably ease up some.

 

The vision bush is going to be key for baron/dragon.

Dunno about the other two, they don't seem like much of an objective.

Curious about how long the healing fruits last. Like can you whack it and release it but then save it while youre doing dragon or something and then use it when you're low, or if there's like a window of maybe 5-10 secs where if you don't use them they despawn.

 

Idk if that'll be a good idea, though, considering they slow you down on eating.

 

It's not that significant of a slow is it? And either way I was thinking of junglers that could solo the dragon. Having an hp boost might make it possible for that to happen even earlier than expected and/or have other champions be able to solo the dragon now.

There's also two or three-manning baron with healing plants to consider. Although it's nothing significant there, since we all know how much baron hurts.

 

So, after having played five games with the new Akali:
16/4/8 win, 12/6/2 win, 25/10/9 win, 10/11/12 win, 4/9/1 loss(4 of the 5 kills on my team, to the enemy team's 35... it was a rough match for several reasons)
I've come to a few conclusions. Some expected, some a bit less so.

1.
The new Talon is actually a really easy lane match-up now, so... yay. With it being so easy for Akali to avoid his Rake return damage/slow, thus inhibiting his passive application, which is a huge part of his damage, she trades really well against him.

2.
Similarly, Katarina is also a much better match-up than it used to be(I honestly didn't mind it very much before), thanks to the ease Akali has with avoiding being near the ground-daggers.

Now, for the actual Akali observations:

3. New passive burst heal/damage are impressive, true, but are also less than previous over the course of a fight. Well, noticeably less healing, at least, the damage portion is comparable if it's a running fight such that your only autos are when triggering a Q on cool down anyway(thus giving time for the current passive to reset anyway).
Also, as predicted, having the heal apply on the first hit, and the damage on the second has ended up being rather awkward. Also having bonus damage roughly every other hit makes last hitting during lane phase a bit weird, too. Although that's just something to get used to planning around, for now.

Verdict: Not a fan of the change, but it is functional and fits into the Q-auto combat flow.

4.
The new W is, well, interesting. I have been able to use it to escape a poor situation by jumping over a wall, several times, which is nice. I've also been able to use it for the short blink, both offensively/defensively towards/away enemies. Even to dodge a skill shot a couple of times, which although the opportunity hasn't come up often in the few games I played, I feel may end up being one of the most critical factors of the ability.
You can blink most walls, I've found, although sometimes you have to get really snug up to the wall for medium or greater thickness ones, which has caused a few failed wall-blinks in the heat of combat. Something which will also ultimately be a matter of experience.

That being said, rare chances to blink-trigger Q's pre-6 aside(rare because 250 range is actually still pretty damn short), it's mostly just plain worse for laning phase, due to being unable to location-cast it into the creep wave ahead of you. In some cases, even as a zoning tool against certain champions, in particular sometimes those without mid-range skills that could hit you before you can do so now with the current ability.

Losing the ability to bush or over wall vision check is also unfortunately. In particular for follow-up ulting with the latter, at longer range than the current blink.

Overall... I think it will end up being a stronger skill for higher ranked players. While the vision aspect, and the laning assistance, was useful, a relatively on-demand(.25 cast time) blink, even at only 250 range, is still extremely versatile. As can be seen by any of the champions that have one. Also, while this one is shorter than most, the fact that the enemy can't see which direction you blinked within the radius does allow for certain outplay potential(caused at least one enemy to use a wall jump/flash during my matches, even when I misjudged and didn't blink over the wall). Or simply chase potential when there just barely isn't range to reach an enemy with your ult, or likewise to escape.

Anyway, overall Verdict: Relatively supportive here, and I think it will see some good use in the hands of the more mechanically skilled portion of the playerbase.
(Shoutout to the Invisibility change, but that's not specific to this ability, so not relevant to my verdict.)

5.
Her E is fine. Somewhat stronger for regular non-spammed use, with roughly the same cool down as before when being used for wave clear.

6.
Her ult is much worse, also as predicted. For example, at level 7 or 8, with a Revolver, +15 AP runes and the level scaling AD/AP mastery, rank 4 Q throw dealt about 125 damage and rank 1 R dealt 62. Heck, I think I had a Bilgewater, or at least some Long Swords, and my basic attack was listed at 122.
Having both the flat damage reduced by 50/75/100 (100/175/250 -> 50/100/150) AND the scaling reduced by half (.5 to .25) definitely hurts both her early game and late game noticeably. Even gaining all three charges upon first learning the ability doesn't explicitly help all that much, since it takes two charges just to do the same damage as before. Although it can obviously help you better chase down or juke an opponent right away for a possible kill, rather than the usual recall at level 6 to buy a Revolver and come back with full charges.
The re-cast cool down is also quite noticeable at later stages in the game, relative to the pre-patch Akali. This really hits her ability to output damage(triggering Q's on mobile targets in particular) comparably in late game, especially in light of also lowering the damage on the ability itself by around 200~250 per cast.

Overall Verdict: Obviously a huge penalty, and the most likely target for a buff(more likely to ratio, if nothing else, to scale better into late game) when the Devs are able to collate their data on Akali post-patch.

-----

I'll still keep playing around with it, of course, but I have noticed a definite slow-down in damage output. In particular with the rank 1 ultimate dealing about half the damage of an auto attack, being something that I have to remember is only useful as a means of mobility, and not as an actual source of damage.
Failed to kill an enemy once for just that reason, as I did have the energy to throw a Q, but knew my ult would hit them faster, and instinctively ulted for about half the damage, leaving them with less than 20 health, but hitting me with a melee attack before I could melee/q/e myself.
Re-cast cool down of the ult also results in a much slower(twice the time of pre-patch) chase/escape pattern in fast-paced team fights mid/late game.

 

I had to play the other side of the Akali/Talon matchup last night and I agree with you. Talon wins slightly pre-6 but after that if Akali jumps on him all he can never win the trade. Most of the time I had to blow my ult just to not die. Late game it was a bit better as I could basically one shot her when her Zhonya's was down, and Zhonya's cd was longer than my ult.

 

spoiler: i am low gold trash

I've been playing a lot of Talon lately, and I love him. He's pretty bad top, good mid, and an okay jungler.

So New Talon basically has to operate with 1 1/2 less abilities. His W has a range increase but the delay means it's a lot worse for poking; it's mainly a waveclear or chasing tool now. His new Q is amazingly cool and feels great to use. His ult took a massive damage down and he may as well not have an E in lane anymore.

So he relies extremely heavily on his passive now. I would not recommend playing him against most pokers; hes better vs midrange midlaners and other assassins, in my opinion, at least those that have to get close. Because his W is weaker and he no longer has a good gapcloser (Q has lower range and sacrifices damage to do so) you should play it defensively; hang back, farm, and punish them whenever they come in, which you can do effectively with your Q damage and W slow.

Jungle Talon is actually surprisingly possible. You can't get both buffs in your first farm run(at least not without ganking; or getting dangerously low), but you can get stalker's blade and after that it's fairly okay to jungle. Your new W is actually better for clearing jungles due to increased damage, and it's not that bad - though not as good as actual junglers. Healing fruit helps as well.

 

Just a point about talon, Top Talon's level 2 is actually pretty impressive if you start in melee range.

W auto Q auto can be executed in 2 seconds and basically gib most people not suspecting it.

But yes, talon is indeed trash against pokes now. Probably gonna have to put him in the jungle or top vs a hopefully melee heavy enemy.

On that note, TForce AD Tanky Talon has been interesting.

EDIT: Better to say that tanky all the reworked assassins is their best build paths, when possible. They need to survive to get all of their mechanics working now since almost all of their stuff is time gated. Except Rengar, who got to keep a good chunk of his burst.

 

So how the hell does this Ranked Flex work? I went 4-6 (I think) as a gold player (2 seasons ago plat, last season gold) and placed into bronze 1. I don't really care too much (Carrying out of bronze is easy) but it still seems silly to place a gold player with bronze players. how much fun are those games for the other guy? My last match I had a Riven vs Morde (as Morde, of course) who went 0-3 to me in lane, with 2 deaths happening under her own turret.

 

I mean, there are pro players getting placed into silver in flex queue, so you assume that there are gonna be a lot of people placing several divisions lower.

 

It's an acknowledged bug of sorts at the moment. If you play a single ranked match, it will place you appropriately to where you were last season, relative to the other placement matches you played. They said something to that effect, at least.
Found it:

 

Lying sack of shit. I did play another game and I didn't change leagues at all. Do they really think from the end of the week at Gold, to the next week the top of Bronze 1, is really balanced play? Okay, i'll stomp around in bronze a bit more, I enjoy the 10+ kill games.

 

Because it's a lot more work to re-climb? Even if every game gave me +25 LP as it currently is, and I never lost a single game, starting at 50 LP in bronze 1 means I need 4 games to get out of Bronze, then 4 more in Silver V (plus 2 to win promos), then 4 more in Silver III (plus 2 to win promos), then 4 more in Silver I (then two more to win promos) be back where I started. So 18 games if I never lose a single game, but realistically at least 50 or 100 because I WILL lose games when I get closer to the proper division.

 

It's preseason though. Like, does it really matter? Are you more concerned with rank or with match quality? Because if it's the former than preseason doesn't matter, and if it's the latter then carrying out of bronze like you said to ~Silver 1 should provide you with good match quality.

Anyways IWD was playing with silver/bronze players too, so it's not like it's just you.

Riot always does manage to fuck things up with every new season.

 

It is really strange. I have just finished my placement matches (all 10 after the fix) and I played 7-3. I was plat 3 before an now I am plat 4 so I cant really complain about bugs in the ranking.