The new patch feels pretty good for game balance. There are some nice new comps coming out, and Singed is a reasonable (still good) unit again.

Blender is super busted though. It's held in check by being contested, but if someone high rolls it, they just autowin from what I can tell.

 

Started playing today. Came first after 6 games or so. 3 star rageblade + gunblade + titanic (the important part was the rageblade) and twitch with a randomizer item carried me. The second place guy had 3 three star predators.

 

Nocturne can be a hassle, but anti-heal and especially disarm, glacial or stun(to a lesser degree, if he perhaps has a quicksilver) can stop him. I usually have anti-heal, and disarm and/or stun. I don't often run Glacial, though, for a mix of reasons. Mostly because I think other champions are more interesting, mechanically.

 

Played 6 wardens (one of them was forcibly converted renekton) + Senna Lucian. Steam rolled most others in the game except the 6/9 fire dude. After 3 losses in a row to it, I managed to win just 1 for first place. If they had Annie instead of Diana or if I hadn't taken their amumu 2 in the last carousel, probs woulda been a loss. Every time I faced glacial/berserker olaf, I thought I would lose but somehow always pulled through.

I got placed in iron 3 two days ago, am now silver 3 bronze 2. Got 3-2 confused with 2-3.

 

Very nice. Amumu really, really helps round out a Warden team. If nothing else, it means you can bump out Braum.

 

Kindred is so disgustingly strong. If I finish top 3 it's usually because she is so broken with basically anything but tank items.

Came in first in my latest game (was missing 1 kindred for tier 3, but 2nd place was holding 6 so the odds were low). Accidentally made a dragon claw when I wanted something else. Put it on Nautilus who eventually got 3 star'd. Had a 3 star Veigar in the last set of turns, then last 2 rounds I got shadow Lux to make 6 shadow.

 

I've been having a rougher time with this patch compared to the last one. My first place wins have been exclusively with Shadows/Lucian and BM-spat Nocturn. I've tried the other meta comps quite a bit and done alright, but I can't seem to transition them into first place results.

I'm still climbing (plat 1 now) but it's slowed way down compared to last patch.

 

Ran this last game. Had the fast spin item but no spatula to turn it into botrk. The whole game I was last pick in carousel because I was just doing so gosh darn well without blademaster nocture. Even while 2 levels down on others. Hush sivir on ocean map when some people want to go all the way in on mages is pretty. So is 3 star rageblade + ie nocture and 3 star rageblade reksai. One comp I couldn't deal with in the top 4 got eliminated by someone else, so I came in first. Also had a clutch zephyr in the last round on their full spell damage aatrox, which was nice.

My econ was awful that game, hence the two levels down on a lot of people.

 

Had some success with Electric Warden forcing in several of my recent games. 3 Electric puts in enough work and has won for me, but the few times I've got that Electric Lux for 4 Electric has been pretty much a no-sell First-Place win. That 4 Electric aoe is just horrifying.

p.s. Seeing the Assassins('Eggroll' teams or Blademaster Nocturne/Assassin teams, mostly) jumping Lux and just being deleted by the aoe caused by either their crits on her, or her own crits attacking other things, is just amusing.

Inferno is surprisingly decent now, as well. Although that latter tends to rely on either Kindred putting in work, an Inferno Qiyana existing, a well-timed Tibbers, or all of the above. Or a lucky Lux.

 

Wow, a friend I was playing with managed to get 3-star Kha'Zix two games in a row. With a Seraph's/IE on him both times. Hydra and Gunblade as third items(couldn't get a BT either time).

Managed to barely beat him with a 3-star Crystal Skarner with a Thornmail(Zephyr/Shojin). On the final round I also managed to 3-star Ashe(Shiv, Runaan's, Swordbreaker), but I don't think she mattered as much as me positioning to Zephyr his Kha'Zix.

On a related note, apparently Kha'Zix at 3-star no longer goes stealth and runs at a target. Instead he just drops aggro and instantly teleports to his next target. It's a little tricky to keep track of him as a result.


...and just got a 3-star Mage Malphite(Mage/Redemption/Warmog's, since I wasn't expecting to 3-star him). 6 Mage, 4 Ocean, 2 Mountain. Still barely won, though, because of a 6 Ocean 2-star Redemption/GA/?? Zed. It surprisingly helped that my 3-star Thieves Gloves Qiyana kept rolling tank items.

I'm not sure if it's people running econ more often now, but I'm definitely seeing more 3-star T4s. I myself was also one Annie off several games ago, and one Malphite off earlier today as well. There was even a 3-star Annie in the game I just won, apparently. Third place.

 

That's pretty nutty. Personally, I still almost never see 3-star 4-cost units. Just out of curiosity, were those in normal games or ranked?

Nocturn and Sivir got some pretty big nerfs yesterday making the blademaster/assassin comp feel a whole lot less good. Assassins themselves should still be pretty strong though, so I expect to see more Khazix carry. Other than that, we got ranger buffs, Senna nerfs, and pretty big Brand and Amumu buffs. Ocean mages with Brand feels like it should be able to win games again.

Also a buff to 6 inferno, in addition to the Brand and Amumu buffs should make a 6 inferno comp at least fun to try. I still don't think I'd do it without inferno Lux though.
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Made it back into diamond playing the new popular ocean mages variant! These items weren't particularly optimal but I did get a FoN. Amumu is so good now after the buffs.

 

I think buffs to both mana required for cast and radius of his ulty was too much. The radius increase without the mana decrease doesn't do a whole lot, since the problem was he never ultied. So keep the mana decrease but revert the radius. IMO

 

4 first places in a row. 3 of them with Senna + 6 lights. One with 3 star nocture blender comp. I am now gold 3.

I've only placed below 5th in 1 out of my past 20 games. That helps the climb.

 

Played a few games today and got up to Diamond 2. One thing I really like about this game is how the meta changes frequently between patches. People are playing zerkers again (why? I don't know), so every blender comp I saw died quite early.

I won a game with morello singed, and another game with light zed. Felt like playing on last patch again lol.

 

3 star ez carrying me from last place to 2nd. I was at 20 health from the point I got 2 star ez and on I think. Lost the last match because Zephyr spawned right in front of 1st place in carousel, and I didn't manage to swap both ez and zed in time.

Hit plat off of no blademaster spatula nocturne blender comp. The nocturne was 3 stars, but he was pretty useless tbh. Kept losing to actual blademaster nocturne till the very end. 3 star aatrox, the worst blademaster... 2 kha'zices away from 3 star kha. He had a runaan's as his item. Also I didn't find a yasuo until the very end of the game. All that moaning aside, I still came first.

 

I mean, 250/500/1000 aoe damage is no joke, to be fair. Yes, though, before 3-star, Aatrox serves little use outside of triggering Blademaster Synergy and on a Light comp when combined with Yi(for Blademaster/Mystic).

Managed to pull a 3-star Mage/IE/Spell-Crit Volibear on a 6-Mage team for the hell of it. 2.9k spellcrit double-cast was devastating if it started going off(nearly guaranteed to kill by the second cast, crit or no crit), and it even resets the double cast on the mana-refresh the ability grants... but that was about all my team had, sadly, so I could only swing third place:

 

Playing normals to get the hang of lunar. Had 3 star leona, but I didn't see a single karma all game. And there were only 3 karmas taken by enemies for the last half of the game. Sadface.jpg

 

This pleased me:


First time I've had a 3-star T5. 3/3/5 second duration immunity on his ult.

Nami swapped in for 2-star Janna because Janna had a carousel-combined Shojin from a couple of rounds before that didn't feel worth selling her for until the 3-starring. Singed just filled the gap of the second 2-star Taric I had in the field before.

I only got Taric 3-star for the final round. That 3-star double IE(and something else, not Spell Crit) Lucian was painful and scary for a few rounds. I even lost a round by killing his Senna, and I think his Lucian ghost living for a last moment counted to damage me.


EDIT:
Just got 8 Namis... but I won the game first. Cross the streams Namis on the field was terrifyingly effective. 3-star Nami might have actually been less useful, although my Yi's on-hit would have peaked up to about 900 per hit magic, which is amusing.
The greater irony was that I was very firmly in last place before I swung into a Yi for a stupid 3 Shadow, 3 Predator, 2 Lunar team(5 of which were 1-star), and somehow only lost one match before the end.(6 Shadow, 2 Mystic)

 

10.1B mini patch just went live with a small nerf to Yorick, a big nerf to Lucian, and a change to how Sivir works with Runaan's.

 

That awkward game where you find more Luxs than Olafs in the game.
And you're the only playing berserker. Aargh.