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Welcome to another post-patch analysis guys, my name is impaKt and I'll be giving you the
run down of all the significant support-related changes in this patch.
First of all, welcome to the first official Season 4 patch. We have waited quite some
time for this, and now it's time for the support players to truly shine. There weren't a lot
of changes this time around, but there were some significant ones. I'll be talking about
minor fixes first, I'll move on to items and other gameplay changes and I'll talk about
the champions last.
So let's get the minor fixes out of the way: Fiddlesticks' Terrify could cause enemies
to flee in a straight line instead of just wandering around in random directions. It
could be a pain because casting Terrify on someone wouldn't be as impactful (heh) as
you'd like it to be, but it should now be fixed. Nami's ultimate (Tidal Wave) was also
slightly changed. The ability will now go on cooldown as soon as you finish casting
it, instead of when you begin casting it. It shouldn't be that much of a difference,
but it will make it so that your ult will now have a slightly slightly longer cooldown.
If you die while casting your ult however, it will no longer go on cooldown. Thankfully.
Item-wise, the item that I think is definitely worth mentioning is Sunfire Cape. Now, you
don't really see this on many supports but a lot of Leona players would get it as their
first item. Anyway, it got nerfed. It's magic damage was changed to 25 + character level
from the previous flat 40. Meaning that if you want it to be as good as it used to be,
you'll need to be at least level 15. I do believe that this change will make randuin's
omen more appetizing for all support players, especially Leonas. It gives you more HP, more
armor and while it doesn't give you an aoe damage source, it does provide your team a
lot more utility, especially when playing an engager support that will have to initiate
team fights.
As for game play changes, there is one that I think is really important to mention. It
concerns Turrets. Outer turrets will no longer gain bonus armor and magic resist for the
first eight minutes of the game, and the top and middle lane outer turrets now have 20
damage reduction from champion basic attacks. So why exactly am I mentioning this?
Well, remember when you could just pick Lulu & Caitlyn in Solo Queue and get the turret
at minute 6 or so? Well you couldn't really do that anymore lately because of the turret
armor increase. With this change, you can start noticing a lot more push oriented bot
lane combos coming out of the closet since they'll work a lot better than they did. Even
though Lulu wasn't exactly buffed directly this patch, I can definitely see this as an
unintentional buff to the champ. Nunu can also start being played even more because
of it. Ultimately you can even start noticing teams focusing their early game focus to the
bot lane, even in competitive play, especially because the mid and top turrets are now more
resilient to basic attacks.
And it is time to champion changes. First let's talk about Annie:
Incredibly strong champion when picked as a support. She has a load of base damage,
her auto attack range is enormous, her stun is incredibly reliable and her cooldowns aren't
that high either. Going against an Annie can be a pain in every stage of the game, whether
she builds AP or not. For this reason, she's getting somewhat nerfed this patch:
Her passive's stun duration is now shorter in early levels. It used to last 1.75 seconds,
and now it'll last 1.25 seconds until you reach level 6, and 1.5 seconds from level
6 to 11. After that, she'll have the same stun duration. Her Tibbers cooldown, however,
was reduced at level 11 and 16. Let's analyze this for a second: the stun
duration nerf is definitely warranted. One of the reasons she used to be so incredibly
strong was her ability to poke safely from afar. You could initiate with your stun, land
your W, an auto attack, and backed off. Your opponent couldn't even react because of the
insane high stun duration. Now that's gonna change: it does give her opponents some room
to breathe and to counter attack. Do I think it's enough? Not in the slightest. She still
has high base damage, she'll still burst you down in a blink of an eye, and she still has
one of the highest auto attack ranges of the game. It is still a step forward though. The
Tibbers cooldown reduction at later levels though, is somewhat curious. I do feel Riot
is trying to make her more appealing for mid laners, but I don't really know if this is
the right way to do it. Tibbers lasts 45 seconds or until killed. At level 16 her tibbers will
have an 80 second cooldown. Now, consider you build 40% CDR on her. That's a 48 second
cooldown on your ult. Damage or not, it's an incredibly low cooldown for such a powerful
spell. Besides, you can pretty much have Tibbers with you the entire time because the cooldown
is pretty much the same as Tibbers' duration. Bottom line is: Annie isn't as strong during
the early game but she's even more powerful during the late game. If you're playing against
her, you need play aggressive and use the stun duration reduction to your advantage.
The further behind Annie gets, the higher changes you'll have of playing a safe late
game.
Secondly, Janna! Her ultimate was buffed. Again. It now begins
channeling immediately upon activation, the channel duration was reduced by 1 second but
the heal per second was increased just like the total heal amount.
Riot is pretty much trying to buff what they call "the cooler parts of her kit" even though
it doesn't really help her that much. Janna has always been strong during the mid and
late game because of peeling and disengaging focused kit. Her problem is the laning phase.
She falls into the poke support category because of shield, which boosts the ADC's damage,
and because of her disengaging tools. The problem is: she's not that great by herself.
If you compare her to a Zyra, for instance, they both have disengaging spells on their
kits and they both do well during mid and late game. The difference is the laning phase
power. Zyra can poke and harass from afar by herself. She does have quite some presence
in the lane. Janna on the other hand doesn't offer much. I do feel like the best way to
make Janna picked more often is to buff her Zephyr with more range and damage. It would
give her the chance to poke by herself, offer more lane presence to her partner, and still
be good during the mid and late game. The Monsoon buff, even though well received, probably
won't make you see a lot more Jannas in your games because her weak points will still be
pretty obvious.
And last but not least, Thresh. A Lantern buff. THANK YOU LORD. It now shows
indicator particles to nearby allies - to make it more appealing for clicking, that
is - and it now has a collision radius. So you can't really walk through it, or even
try to block it when an enemy is trying to click it. If you cast it on top of minions,
they'll move aside. You can definitely say no one has an excuse for not clicking it now.
His ultimate was also changed, and it does feel like a nerf: there is now a delay on
the wall formation, a 0.75 second delay. Doesn't sound like much, but if you like to sidestep
before you cast the ult to land the wall right on top of your enemies like I do, you'll find
it harder to do so. Overall, Thresh is stronger now. The ultimate
nerf isn't that problematic once you get the hang of it, and the dark passage buff is definitely
welcomed.... As long as your team mates start clicking it.
That is it for this patch guys! As always, don't forget to subscribe to Machinima VS
if you still haven't done so and to leave a comment down below. If you like the content,
you can also subscribe to my own YouTube Channel and you can expect a new video every 2 days
there. Hopefully this will help you start Season 4 well, so until next time guys, good
luck and have fun! Peace!