by Reece "Sabrewolf"
Dos-Santos
One
thing it certainly means is that Nidalee’s 7/0 record in the NA LCS will either
stay frozen or begin to pick up some losses. Nidalee’s human form numbers were
hit across the board to provide some kind of counterplay and a bit more
attractiveness to the cougar form.
The
“keep throwing spears from the fog of war and one will hit eventually” gameplay
was incredibly frustrating to watch and even more frustrating to play against.
Where big damage should usually have some kind of drawback, spears were a
guaranteed health bar eater with no positional setback. In the off chance that
you were caught, all you needed was a few helpful teammates to wall you off and
allow you to pounce away, heal yourself with Primal Surge’s unreasonably high
healing output and throw some more. But
Riot were holding nothing back against the Bestial Huntress as her main source
of sustain got hit as well. The changes to Athene’s Unholy Grail means it’s not
always going to be a must have rushed item for AP mid laners anymore. With the
magic resist levels halved and the mana regen lowered it will no longer heavily
snowball the mid laner that buys it first, and opens the door to other items
like Morellonomicon returning to the meta - especially with the added 5 AP
bringing its AP up to 80.
But
the Athene’s nerf and the nerfs to mana regen items also opens the door for a
new breed of mid laners to reign supreme. Abyssal Sceptre’s 70 AP and 45 MR is
now unrivaled if you are looking to pick up AP and MR, especially when
factoring in that it lowers enemy MR by 20, meaning if the enemy mid laner
decides to pick up Athene’s, you need only get close to them and it’s like they
never even had it. The gap closing burst-assassin mid laners like Fizz,
Kassadin, Katarina and Lissandra will benefit greatly from this and should look
to disturb the current-meta mid laners like Ziggs, Nidalee and Orianna. I
predict that Kayle, however, shall remain a highly-contested pick, as the
indirect rise of Abyssal Scepter favours her already MR shredding style. With a
Wit's End and an Abyssal Scepter under her belt, I don't see how any champion
could withstand the huge amounts of MR shred she can dish out without simply
bursting her before she gets to you.
But
AP items aren’t the only things to change in patch 4.10.
The
changes to the BF Sword line of items is a move to ensure that they are all
just as equally viable as each other and that will have a huge baring on AD mid
laners like Yasuo - who is already a highly-contested pick. With Mercurial
Scimitar now providing 80 AD, it cannot be overlooked as a pickup that could benefit
any ADC or AD mid laner who is up against a
CC-heavy team comp. On top of this, while the loss of stacking upon
Bloodthirster will be greatly missed, I believe the overheal shield will be a
huge asset to champions like Yasuo, Zed and Talon who look to get into the
middle of teamfights, chunk out damage, and live in the process. Yasuo in
particular will undoubtedly benefit greatly from the Bloodthirster shield on
top of his own passive shield which could only then be enhanced further by a
Hexdrinker/Maw of the Malmortius shield, bringing Yasuo’s potential shield
count up to three.
Last
but not least, another change that will be greatly overlooked is the change to
Leblanc’s Q, which will no longer silence, meaning that there is finally
counter-play to Leblanc’s high damage output. This change is the best thing for
her balance as she still retains her damage like Kassadin but doesn’t leave
enemies completely helpless to reply. This leaves Malzahar, Talon and Viktor as
the last three mid champs with the ability to silence.
