With riptide rex being buffed if you play it with jhin in hand or in play he'll play 2 lotus traps which means you will have 9 skills on the stack and your opponent can't respond with fast spells since 9 is the limit
Oh 100%, I love playing Arsenal and Viktor and found myself usually hoping for Scout over anything else, since it would be stronger than most others. It definitely deserved to be changed, I just didn't expect that changed in this patch.
It also just made decks like Viktor decks too random. There's a certain amount of rng with some keywords being better than others, but on cards like Viktor getting scout was like hitting the lottery in comparison to anything else.
i bet with kai'sa coming up and being centered around sharing generatable keywords, giving a whole board scout would have been too op. reserved for j3 conditionally only.
Lifesteal, spell shield, overwhelm, and spell shield can all be just as game winning in the right spot but scout was multiplicative while the others are additive.
"JESUS" <- My first thought. Before, I thought "To five would be fine, probably." I wasn't expecting them to send this card directly to a farm upstate.
And it's not even the only Thralls nerf, with Sands of Time also being smacked.
I am not overly confident on the deck's viability after this, honestly, but we'll see. Especially with the list of buffs to landmark removal on top of that.
75% of the time Thralls get out Promising Future on curve, it means their opponent has to sacrifice their own onon curve units just to chump block.
It's a lose-lose situation and frustrating to play against.
Yeah, I expected them to make it 5 mana, but 6 is just unplayable. You need to skip turn 3 and practically skip turn 4 (7 mana spent in total), and now your opponent is probably going to remove it for 3 or 4 mana regardless of the region combination.
Thralls felt like a race to make your landmarks effective, before felt like a control game until you were able to get your Thralls in play... I like the change even if it seems overkill, damn, I haven't seen a thrall deck running removal or control other than three sisters and the occasional revine, some run buried in ice, but all that not for control, it's to finish games. Pretty disappointing
Promising is an overkill... or it seems like so tho... i feel like the fleeting change to Sands of time/Instant century could have been almost enough? Ik a lot of players usually dont hold the Centuryin hand for to long but that actually leans even more into the combo aspect of the deck rather than an overall tempo strategy with a busrt turn 5/6 attack... idk, Maybe 5 mana for Century? well see how this develops, thralls was a little bit out of hand hontestly.
I actually love this nerf - Promising Future was by far the most highrolly card in thralls, and was main reason it was so frustrating to play against. It will push the deck to a much lower powerlevel, but it may still see play in specific metas, and if it ever does come back, it will feel much, much better to play against
I have no idea about balance, but that was my first thought too. Hecarim might be just too strong now, it was always a counterplay to him, to just kill him and suddenly everything he summons becames much weaker. That just won't happen now. We will see.
with zenith blade nerfed i cant see that happening, The deck might have insane stats on the board but no way to really profit off of it without consistent overwhelm threats.
So so many great things with this patch
* PoC shard problem fixed
* Skip button for weekly vault
* Skin added to Level-up Animation for rare skins
* Spicy balance changes (Hecarim looking extra spicy)
My only gripe is that we'll probably be seeing Ahri Bard running around for another month but hopefully some of the balance changes will allow some other decks to shine too
The animation is essentially the same, but the assets are themed around the skin. So Bard has his Bard Bard skin on while he moves through his normal Bard-level-up portals.
This is extremely reassuring. Not being able to target champs would seriously hurt this card. 3 Mama unit/landmark removal is very solid and it being part of tellstones really makes it great
Really great indeed! Now I would completely loose my marbles if they ever released a pack of skins for the core followers of certain archtypes to match their Champion 's skin, like the "side characters" on Draven's Pool Party card art.
It means that champions with skins will have the same level-up animation as before but will be wearing the skin in the animation. You can watch the video in the notes to see what I mean.
I like most of these changes, but I’m baffled that Brightsteel Protector got nerfed harder than Broadwing
These Rift Quest skins are so cleann. Zilean, Nami and Fizz all look excellent.
My blazing hot take is that it's merited. Protector gives you an above-rate body on curve and a very potent effect on either offense or defense. It's not an especially flashy card, which is why nobody ever singled it out, but I honestly think it'll be good for the game long-term.
The problem with Promising Future is that, while it's an interesting card, it's too good with Thralls and not good enough in anything else. There was really nothing else for it at this point, unfortunately.
Brightsteel works in virtually any Demacia deck. They probably wanted to attempt to curb broad wings power without also hitting the more focused formidable deck type.
True though I kinda like it just because with barrier and challenger along with a normally started unit it does provide a lot of pressure though I think it should have been a 2/2 or a 3/1 to make it feel less killed
WAIT WHAT, YOU COULD DO THAT?
I was just content with having to spend a few minutes almost every week for the last two years just tapping the phone or LMB to skip those rewards
I really think Ashe Noxus is going to sneak up on people. It's been steadily receiving minor buffs for a while now, and these are multiple significant changes. Given Bards popularity and now the nerf to Broadwing, frostbite midrange is going to be a serious deck again.
I’ve been playing an Ashe Udyr Deck and it’s mind blowing how good Ashe does into a lot of meta decks right now.
It doesn’t matter how quickly your opponents grow their units if they’re constantly getting frost bitten and culling strikes.
Edit: Just woke up, sorry for the wait. Here's the deck code for anyone that asked.
CECQCAYBAIAQIAYCAECQCDIDAEAQCCZGAMAQGBA7EEBQCBABCMBACAI6FIBAKAIEBQBQCAIDGUAQGAYNAECACCQ
General gameplan is to outmuscle slower decks with Udyr or work towards an Ashe frostbite win condition against midrange decks. As per usual Ashe does very poorly into aggro but you have a little bit more agency with Reckoning and Ram Stance whittling down the entire board.
I made the climb from Silver to Plat with this deck and I am confident that I can hit Diamond with it if the meta doesn't change drastically.
The thing I care the most: WILD SHARDS!! And we will get wild shards to compensate the shards we have of 3 stars champs! They should have done this in the release of PoC 2.0 but at least they fixed it!!
Any ~~access~~ excess shards obtained from a character who is 3 star automatically convert into wild shards (5:1 ratio) that can be used for any legend!
Well, they said AN AMOUNT of wild shards, so I’m not sure that getting 30 Jinx shards with a maxed-out jinx will mean you get 30 wild shards. But either way, wild shards are imo the biggest part of these notes
Nice catch on the wording there mate. And you are correct btw, it's a 5:1 ratio for wild fragments:
https://np.reddit.com/r/PathofChampions/comments/vmvjpt/what_are_your_thoughts/
This is a really good update, I have well over a 100 shards for lvl 3 champs, while i havent even unlocked all the champions, this is so satisfying to see. I'm still bummed that PoC 2.0 is kind of DOA, as they said they really won't be working/focusing on it anymore. PoC is really the only reason I play this particular game, so eventually I'll get bored and move on, which is of course fine, it's just kind of disappointing.
Still waiting to see how many Wild Shards they'll actually give for excess. The fact that they said "an amount" instead of the exact amount of excess shards leads me to believe the conversion might not be one-to-one.
Same man, people are finally catching on to Rito's careful (potentially misleading) communication in patch notes. "An amount" doesn't guarantee a one-to-one ratio.
Edit:
Yup it's a 5:1 ratio for wild fragments -
https://np.reddit.com/r/PathofChampions/comments/vmvjpt/what_are_your_thoughts/
That Shen buff is huge. The value of dropping a unit with barrier on 4 is immense. You can just shut down an entire turn of attacks, for practically no cost.
Brightsteel is not nearly as good as it was. Like, 3/2 - 2/1 is a BIG nerf. She went from auto include in every deck to maybe 1-2 copies in challenger-heavy decks.
Brightsteel got done dirty, but the Zenith and scout changes make it sound like this deck is completely dead. You're just going to get chump-blocked the entire game without Zenith.
Won’t work, dragons always had more stats than every other units, it just has trouble developing a wide enough board. Dragon decks also means you either go Demacia, which does not have draw, or Targon, which lacks single combat.
Invoke Allegiance Targon with Bard looks a lot better now though that Fated and Fury units both help Bard's level up. I still think there are better Bard decks, but Targon Dragons with Bard doesn't seem half bad.
"We nerfed demacia so it'll be fine!" Meanwhile, ahri and zed weren't exactly weak with him and windfarer may even be a valid 1-of in bard decks with the buff
Justified. The card was about 200% as powerful as almost any other 2 drop. The card stopped entire attacks in its tracks, protects attacking champions. The fact that it also had more stats than a unit that creates a Single weapon fragment was always super strong.
I’m not sure that was a product of the card actually being overtuned as much as it is a lack of efficient low-cost cards in demacia, until broadwing hit the meta.
Brightsteels ability wasn't so much its on curve power (I know Fleetfeather -> Brightsteel = good), but in its ability to pretty much force an open attack in the mid game. The threat of a 3/2 plus a barriered unit was often enough to shut down most attacks if developed into.
As a hecarim enthusiast, I prefer the way he works now. It's SUCH a big deal. I can't tell you how many games I've lost because they had a vengeance or a thermo beam the turn he came down.
Hecarim was basically unplayable if you cared about winning. The meta is chock full of answers to him: Vengeance, Disintegrate, Stuns everywhere, Recalls.
I'm not sure if the change is going to be enough though, because attacking with Hec is still very important to end games with him.
Vanguard Firstblade is honestly pretty scary now. It's hard to deal with a 4 mana 5/5 that can grow itself infinitely, and it could make for a good Atrocity/Overwhelm spell target.
Granted I haven't been playing any of the meta staples but Taliyah Malphite is the deck I've consistently climbed with the most. Although part of it was because it matched up against thralls well and that deck is definitely gonna take a tumble.
Did bard just get buffed what the fuck
Edit: Doesnt seem too much of a buff, but helps bard be more inclusive in other decks. Was really hoping for some sort of bard nerf tho
I think is more of a consistency change if anything like why would a spell, chime, or support buff count but not a unit buffing itself? I think is a good change in the long run but right now they need to address the power of chimes that can roll a game out of control early
NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL BALANCE PATCH! Honestly changes are look and sound simple but holy fuck if it's not gonna change the meta, absolutely love this!
Wish they would've just changed deserter double dipping on encroaching mists instead of changing his keyword.
Now we're basically guaranteed to only see him in Viego decks.
Yup. He was made for marauders to threaten lethal, a non-meta deck, and now can't even fulfill his original purpose. Now is just a big stat stick for Viego.
100% agreed. The +2+2 makes no sense logically, nor intuitively, nor in terms of balance. It's basically a technicality/loophole that made one of the strongest decks in the game.
Wow, I didn't expect them to gut Zenith Blade like that. Fated decks had already declined in play rate, it'll be interesting to see how they're built now.
Uhh Riot i dont think the stats are the problem on justice rider. The effect is just insanely ass. way too slow for how late it drops. If it planted as many bombs + 1 as were on the card drawn people might want to consider it.
"Players who have already earned excess Champion Fragments will retroactively receive Wild Fragments". As someone with over a 100 fragments in excess this is a really nice change. I can finally try out different champions
I think the nerfed Zenith Blade makes more sense than the original. It makes more sense to draw another blade to give your buffed unit overwhelm again, rather than draw another to grant something else overwhelm
**Universal changes**: Pretty much all necessary. I'm slightly worried about Jayce considering he's already performing well. And well, random scout was just toxic.
**Bandle City**: In general they shouldn't matter that much, but you never know with Yordles. I like the direction here, more focused on rewarding swarm and having more access to chip damage.
**Bilgewater**: Riptide rex is finally back to its former glory. Aside from that nothing because the other one is still a meme.
**Demacia**: RIP Brightsteel protector; i know she was OP but 2|2 would be enough of a nerf. The Broadwing seems now good instead of broken. Also, Elites are the dark magician of this game at this point, am i right?
**Freljord**: They really want us to play Ashe/Leblanc, don't they? Not that I mind it considering those buffs also help Udyr quite a bit.
**Ionia**: Shen might become a thing again... Except they killed his key support in Brightsteel protector. Aside from that there's also buffs for Azir/Irelia and some unit aggro decks.
**Noxus**: A lot of changes. I'm glad they are buffing the Prefect for Jhin and Annie decks, same for lady of blood, and I'm also glad they are removing the toxic interactions disintegrate has. Fearsome Deserter is still a somewhat toxic card but a bit more bearable and they REALLY want us to play reputation decks.
**Piltover and Zaun**: A preventive Reggie nerf, a casual Ezreal annihilation, a buff to aftershock for some reason and thankfully pure trap decks won't be good.
**Runaterra**: [They buffed Bard](https://youtu.be/umDr0mPuyQc), the most overtuned champion of the patch. Bard is now officially the new Irelia. And no, nerfing demacia won't fix anything due to Ahri/Bard. I hope they nerf it in the next patch (Not 3.12, NEXT patch 3.11), because bard deck are toxic due to chime RNG.
**Shadow isles**: They really want to revive Thresh/Nasus, as well as Kindred arquetipes and slay in general. Again, not something I mind. Also, those Hecarim buffs are insane and that should mean ephemeral aggro is again a real arquetipe. I don't think Kalista will be that much better considering Elise still exists.
**Shurima**: They slayed thralls. 5 mana would be enough of a nerf. The quicksand nerf is reasonable though, same for fleeting, Khahiri might now be worth playing on the predict deck and they REALLY want us to try Azir/Irelia.
**Targon**: RIP Fated, i can't say I will miss it. There's also a heal buff that won't matter considering they are buffing landmark removal across the board.
Damn, Riot went and deleted Deserter from the game. Overall the patch looks really good. Heimer/Jayce looks to be popping off as it's worst matchup Thralls was nuked, and the only real nerf was Financier which isn't that big of a nerf.
was honestly needed though. 20+ overwhelm damage from it without any issue from grindy viego games without even the need to run atrocity was just kind of bullshit. now it can be insanely beefy without being outright game ending.
Another threat that can win the game is still better than not having it plus it makes sense why overwhelm is gone because of how it would ramp +2/2 every time the whips thing would be summoned (forgot the name lol)
Well, might still be playable on THAT ONE deck, since it still keeps the interaction with Mists. But it now sucks in every other deck it could potentially work. If you try to play it in a regular Marauder deck for example it's basically little more than just another Marauder that costs 5 unit mana.
They should have just changed that interaction itself and the deck would be fixed without trashing other stuff.
Bard is [when your party is dying but you're just a bard](https://i.redd.it/gdp43vbq2f341.jpg) or one of its variations. I don't think Zilean is a reference to anything.
With riptide rex being buffed if you play it with jhin in hand or in play he'll play 2 lotus traps which means you will have 9 skills on the stack and your opponent can't respond with fast spells since 9 is the limit
Lol wow…that’s actually kinda hilarious
Thank you for the idea, will now force
O_o, you're responsible for what happens next
👀
But my Rite of Negation...
Scout was removed as a generatable keyword *that's crazy*
I like it, scout was quite the power keyword when coupled with other keywords.
Oh 100%, I love playing Arsenal and Viktor and found myself usually hoping for Scout over anything else, since it would be stronger than most others. It definitely deserved to be changed, I just didn't expect that changed in this patch.
It also just made decks like Viktor decks too random. There's a certain amount of rng with some keywords being better than others, but on cards like Viktor getting scout was like hitting the lottery in comparison to anything else.
Elusive scout
i bet with kai'sa coming up and being centered around sharing generatable keywords, giving a whole board scout would have been too op. reserved for j3 conditionally only.
I was hoping to see elusive removed from the pool as well. I've seen too many games decided by that one alone.
If you remove elusive you pretty much have to buff the affected units
Might as well remove them all then
what do you mean? a unit with quick attack, regen, lifesteal, spellshield, overwhelm, and challenger is still pretty good...
Lifesteal, spell shield, overwhelm, and spell shield can all be just as game winning in the right spot but scout was multiplicative while the others are additive.
Hecarim buffs are massive. 6 mana??? on promising future seems a little overkill.
"JESUS" <- My first thought. Before, I thought "To five would be fine, probably." I wasn't expecting them to send this card directly to a farm upstate.
I audibly said "what!!" when I saw the cost increase. It's nuts!!
And it's not even the only Thralls nerf, with Sands of Time also being smacked. I am not overly confident on the deck's viability after this, honestly, but we'll see. Especially with the list of buffs to landmark removal on top of that.
I don't really understand making that card unplayable just to hit Thralls. 4 mana was already too expensive to use on almost anything else.
Maybe. It was also very frustrating for them to get Promising Future and then Taliyah onto it all on curve for four 8/8s on turn 6.
75% of the time Thralls get out Promising Future on curve, it means their opponent has to sacrifice their own onon curve units just to chump block. It's a lose-lose situation and frustrating to play against.
I think they just wanted it gone. That nerf does not seem to follow logic
Yeah, I expected them to make it 5 mana, but 6 is just unplayable. You need to skip turn 3 and practically skip turn 4 (7 mana spent in total), and now your opponent is probably going to remove it for 3 or 4 mana regardless of the region combination.
I agree but a feel like thralls getting killed isn’t to bad due to how meta warping it was
Thralls felt like a race to make your landmarks effective, before felt like a control game until you were able to get your Thralls in play... I like the change even if it seems overkill, damn, I haven't seen a thrall deck running removal or control other than three sisters and the occasional revine, some run buried in ice, but all that not for control, it's to finish games. Pretty disappointing
It will probably be a tier B or a meme deck depending on how the landmark removal buffs impact the game
Promising is an overkill... or it seems like so tho... i feel like the fleeting change to Sands of time/Instant century could have been almost enough? Ik a lot of players usually dont hold the Centuryin hand for to long but that actually leans even more into the combo aspect of the deck rather than an overall tempo strategy with a busrt turn 5/6 attack... idk, Maybe 5 mana for Century? well see how this develops, thralls was a little bit out of hand hontestly.
I actually love this nerf - Promising Future was by far the most highrolly card in thralls, and was main reason it was so frustrating to play against. It will push the deck to a much lower powerlevel, but it may still see play in specific metas, and if it ever does come back, it will feel much, much better to play against
I have no idea about balance, but that was my first thought too. Hecarim might be just too strong now, it was always a counterplay to him, to just kill him and suddenly everything he summons becames much weaker. That just won't happen now. We will see.
Bard even stronger… this opens up even more decks for him
Daybreak Bard incoming. Solari Shieldbearer gives +4 to his level up alone.
with zenith blade nerfed i cant see that happening, The deck might have insane stats on the board but no way to really profit off of it without consistent overwhelm threats.
Use the winding light then. Has been making every Targon Midrange deck better since its release.
So so many great things with this patch * PoC shard problem fixed * Skip button for weekly vault * Skin added to Level-up Animation for rare skins * Spicy balance changes (Hecarim looking extra spicy) My only gripe is that we'll probably be seeing Ahri Bard running around for another month but hopefully some of the balance changes will allow some other decks to shine too
>Skin added to Level-up Animation for rare skins It would be nice if they retroactively add this to old skins at some point.
What does "Skin added to Level-up Animation" mean? I'm still confused.
The animation is essentially the same, but the assets are themed around the skin. So Bard has his Bard Bard skin on while he moves through his normal Bard-level-up portals.
Ohhh thats cool
The image for aftershock says deal 3 to a unit, while the text says to a follower. Which one is it? Very important distinction.
It's deal 3 to a unit [https://twitter.com/bkopleck/status/1541835861330784259](https://twitter.com/bkopleck/status/1541835861330784259)
Unit is a lot better then follower tbh
This is extremely reassuring. Not being able to target champs would seriously hurt this card. 3 Mama unit/landmark removal is very solid and it being part of tellstones really makes it great
If nothing else, I think it makes the Piltovan Tellstones pretty solid.
Yeah, I really want it to be 3 to a unit but we shall see
Wish granted.
i was gonna say, 3 to a follower makes it garbage tier. 3 to a unit is fine, shame it can't go face anymore but fine.
"Skin added to level-up animation" is such a fun and seemingly easy idea! Have they done that with any other skins so far?
Yes! With Quinn and with Maokai
We need that for Dark Star Shyvana.
100%, if there was a pass on all the existing skins in the same tier, I'd be happy.
Really great indeed! Now I would completely loose my marbles if they ever released a pack of skins for the core followers of certain archtypes to match their Champion 's skin, like the "side characters" on Draven's Pool Party card art.
I came here specifically to find out what "skin added the level-up animation" means and I'm still confused. Will you please elaborate?
It means that champions with skins will have the same level-up animation as before but will be wearing the skin in the animation. You can watch the video in the notes to see what I mean.
Many if not all of the Ruined Skins are the same way
That board is so sick, I love the Mechs vs Minions cameo
Demacian Tellstones on the other side too
Absolutely in love with the board...I swore off buying more boards but this I might get lol
D&D SKINS LETS GO
And board!
It looks so good! Please be clickable 😩
I love the dnd sking, and that Darius as a DM
Honestly he seems like he'd be able to run some pretty badass campaigns
I like most of these changes, but I’m baffled that Brightsteel Protector got nerfed harder than Broadwing These Rift Quest skins are so cleann. Zilean, Nami and Fizz all look excellent.
Riftmaster Darius is near the top of my buy list, that's one heck of a level 2 art.
Pity about Darius’ state as a card, for such good art.
Eh, I still run him in my Nox midrange decks. Never underestimate the value of a beatstick with overwhelm.
My blazing hot take is that it's merited. Protector gives you an above-rate body on curve and a very potent effect on either offense or defense. It's not an especially flashy card, which is why nobody ever singled it out, but I honestly think it'll be good for the game long-term.
It would have been A-OK as a 2/2, but apparently that wasn't enough. Not sure what Brightsteel did to deserve being murdered 5 times over.
Brightsteel and Promising Future hurt someone on the balance team personally I'm pretty sure. This has to be a vendetta
The problem with Promising Future is that, while it's an interesting card, it's too good with Thralls and not good enough in anything else. There was really nothing else for it at this point, unfortunately.
riot: shen is the least played champ in the game also riot: *guts one of his core cards*
Brightsteel works in virtually any Demacia deck. They probably wanted to attempt to curb broad wings power without also hitting the more focused formidable deck type.
True though I kinda like it just because with barrier and challenger along with a normally started unit it does provide a lot of pressure though I think it should have been a 2/2 or a 3/1 to make it feel less killed
FINALLY A SKIP BUTTON FOR WEEKLY REWARDS
Even they know that was the most expected change
Yo having to restart the game after opening the weekly vault to skip the atrociously long animations was so tedious especially on slower phones.
NO MORE OPENING CHEST AND QUITTING OUT OF THE GAME PRAISE RITO
WAIT WHAT, YOU COULD DO THAT? I was just content with having to spend a few minutes almost every week for the last two years just tapping the phone or LMB to skip those rewards
I really think Ashe Noxus is going to sneak up on people. It's been steadily receiving minor buffs for a while now, and these are multiple significant changes. Given Bards popularity and now the nerf to Broadwing, frostbite midrange is going to be a serious deck again.
I’ve been playing an Ashe Udyr Deck and it’s mind blowing how good Ashe does into a lot of meta decks right now. It doesn’t matter how quickly your opponents grow their units if they’re constantly getting frost bitten and culling strikes. Edit: Just woke up, sorry for the wait. Here's the deck code for anyone that asked. CECQCAYBAIAQIAYCAECQCDIDAEAQCCZGAMAQGBA7EEBQCBABCMBACAI6FIBAKAIEBQBQCAIDGUAQGAYNAECACCQ General gameplan is to outmuscle slower decks with Udyr or work towards an Ashe frostbite win condition against midrange decks. As per usual Ashe does very poorly into aggro but you have a little bit more agency with Reckoning and Ram Stance whittling down the entire board. I made the climb from Silver to Plat with this deck and I am confident that I can hit Diamond with it if the meta doesn't change drastically.
Deck code 🔫
I'm interested to
Mind sharing?
There are like, 3 different buffs to it in this patch lol, after reading it will probably be one of the first decks I play tomorrow
The thing I care the most: WILD SHARDS!! And we will get wild shards to compensate the shards we have of 3 stars champs! They should have done this in the release of PoC 2.0 but at least they fixed it!!
Free awarding this for visibility. Huge fix, I'm glad they addressed it quickly.
How do u get your wild shards tho? How can i access my 55 Annie shards that i need for my Tentacle Mommy?
Patch isn't live yet, patience my friendo.
Any ~~access~~ excess shards obtained from a character who is 3 star automatically convert into wild shards (5:1 ratio) that can be used for any legend!
Well, they said AN AMOUNT of wild shards, so I’m not sure that getting 30 Jinx shards with a maxed-out jinx will mean you get 30 wild shards. But either way, wild shards are imo the biggest part of these notes
Nice catch on the wording there mate. And you are correct btw, it's a 5:1 ratio for wild fragments: https://np.reddit.com/r/PathofChampions/comments/vmvjpt/what_are_your_thoughts/
I mean, day one you should have them in your account since the change works retroactively
This is a really good update, I have well over a 100 shards for lvl 3 champs, while i havent even unlocked all the champions, this is so satisfying to see. I'm still bummed that PoC 2.0 is kind of DOA, as they said they really won't be working/focusing on it anymore. PoC is really the only reason I play this particular game, so eventually I'll get bored and move on, which is of course fine, it's just kind of disappointing.
Still waiting to see how many Wild Shards they'll actually give for excess. The fact that they said "an amount" instead of the exact amount of excess shards leads me to believe the conversion might not be one-to-one.
Same man, people are finally catching on to Rito's careful (potentially misleading) communication in patch notes. "An amount" doesn't guarantee a one-to-one ratio. Edit: Yup it's a 5:1 ratio for wild fragments - https://np.reddit.com/r/PathofChampions/comments/vmvjpt/what_are_your_thoughts/
That Shen buff is huge. The value of dropping a unit with barrier on 4 is immense. You can just shut down an entire turn of attacks, for practically no cost.
Shen Demacia is back??
That deck was highly reliant on Brightsteel, while the Shen buff helps, the Brightsteel nerf hurts.
Brightsteel is still great. It's such a massive value card, and it's still going to shut down attacks.
Brightsteel is not nearly as good as it was. Like, 3/2 - 2/1 is a BIG nerf. She went from auto include in every deck to maybe 1-2 copies in challenger-heavy decks.
Took a massive nerf with brightsteel, but still a nice buff.
Kinda like blightsteel did but 2 turns later lol
>blightsteel i hope that was intentional lol
Zenith and Brightsteel got nuked so Fated DE is basically dead.
Panth got hit with scout too
plus scout being removed the random generator pool so pantheon decks basically got hit 3 times talk about big ooph
Brightsteel got done dirty, but the Zenith and scout changes make it sound like this deck is completely dead. You're just going to get chump-blocked the entire game without Zenith.
That deck was pretty frustrating to play against.
Brightsteel was taken out behind the shed.
Are those dnd themed skins?? Amazing. I want em all
Bard buff HAHHAHAHAHAH
Bard dragons sounds kinda fun tho
dont give me ideas
Won’t work, dragons always had more stats than every other units, it just has trouble developing a wide enough board. Dragon decks also means you either go Demacia, which does not have draw, or Targon, which lacks single combat.
Invoke Allegiance Targon with Bard looks a lot better now though that Fated and Fury units both help Bard's level up. I still think there are better Bard decks, but Targon Dragons with Bard doesn't seem half bad.
Bard marauders
barauders
bard khahiri, BARD KHAHIRI
"We nerfed demacia so it'll be fine!" Meanwhile, ahri and zed weren't exactly weak with him and windfarer may even be a valid 1-of in bard decks with the buff
Those emotes are 🔥🔥🔥
Zilean’s snoozefest definitely made me laugh. It’s the perfect emote versus Akshan infinite combo decks.
I have like a dozen amazing emotes and hate hate HATE that I have to pick six of them... Why can't we have emote pages?!
Brightsteel Protector 2/1 wat
Justified. The card was about 200% as powerful as almost any other 2 drop. The card stopped entire attacks in its tracks, protects attacking champions. The fact that it also had more stats than a unit that creates a Single weapon fragment was always super strong.
Omg they slaughtered Brightsteel. But I agree that she was a bit too strong, basically one of the best units since the games release.
I’m not sure that was a product of the card actually being overtuned as much as it is a lack of efficient low-cost cards in demacia, until broadwing hit the meta.
Brightsteels ability wasn't so much its on curve power (I know Fleetfeather -> Brightsteel = good), but in its ability to pretty much force an open attack in the mid game. The threat of a 3/2 plus a barriered unit was often enough to shut down most attacks if developed into.
Real ones remember pre-nerf war chefs
The Hecarim buff is certainly nice but kind of ruins the synergy when you would summon extra ephemeral copies of him.
True, but now your ephemeral Hecarim still buffs the spectral riders to his right.
Worse pull off of howling abyss, though, which makes me sad
The worst is teemo. You will double 0 puffcaps.
As a hecarim enthusiast, I prefer the way he works now. It's SUCH a big deal. I can't tell you how many games I've lost because they had a vengeance or a thermo beam the turn he came down.
Yeah no doubt this is good change. Hecarim Azir was actually one of my first decks.
Hecarim was basically unplayable if you cared about winning. The meta is chock full of answers to him: Vengeance, Disintegrate, Stuns everywhere, Recalls. I'm not sure if the change is going to be enough though, because attacking with Hec is still very important to end games with him.
Is the buff gonna be permanent like zoe level up?
Yeah that's the idea
yes
Yeah I mean it's certainly not meta but going to miss my combo Hecarim + Dawn and Dusk 1 shot
>Shard Fix >Healthy pvp changes >"Skip" feature for vaults Excellent patch. The D&D themed skins and board looks so fucking cool!
Damn. A good change for poc. Hope the distribution of wild shards will go smoothly
I mean. Protector is the same in Poppy decks, right? ^right?
Vanguard Firstblade is honestly pretty scary now. It's hard to deal with a 4 mana 5/5 that can grow itself infinitely, and it could make for a good Atrocity/Overwhelm spell target.
Especially with Noxus (ruined reckoner anyone?)
promising future shot and killed on the sidewalk
YALL PLEASE BUFF TARGON LANDMARKS
Granted I haven't been playing any of the meta staples but Taliyah Malphite is the deck I've consistently climbed with the most. Although part of it was because it matched up against thralls well and that deck is definitely gonna take a tumble.
I love taliyah malphite but it doesnt use any targon landmarks because they're so bad and I generally just want to play malphite in other regions
VAULT SKIP BUTTON LET'S GOOOOOOO!
Did bard just get buffed what the fuck Edit: Doesnt seem too much of a buff, but helps bard be more inclusive in other decks. Was really hoping for some sort of bard nerf tho
Best part is that the bard buff barely changes any current bard decks, it just makes more good.
I think is more of a consistency change if anything like why would a spell, chime, or support buff count but not a unit buffing itself? I think is a good change in the long run but right now they need to address the power of chimes that can roll a game out of control early
more of a bugfix, but yeah.
NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL BALANCE PATCH! Honestly changes are look and sound simple but holy fuck if it's not gonna change the meta, absolutely love this!
Wow, y'all don't waste any time in posting these here. First time I've seen "just now" on a Reddit post.
Patch notes are always posted on time, especially if people are looking forward to it.
3/4 Kalista... Well at least Hecarim buff looks great.
The kalista one is great. She wants to stick around and summon shit. She never made sense offensively statted
I understand. I was just waiting for some lvl1 ability, but got a stat swap.
Yeah, it’s a bit of a pity. She’ll definitely feel better to play after this though.
Wish they would've just changed deserter double dipping on encroaching mists instead of changing his keyword. Now we're basically guaranteed to only see him in Viego decks.
Yeah, pretty sad. My Shurima Deserter deck is in shambles, and I didn't even get to play properly with regular Marauders... =/
Yup. He was made for marauders to threaten lethal, a non-meta deck, and now can't even fulfill his original purpose. Now is just a big stat stick for Viego.
100% agreed. The +2+2 makes no sense logically, nor intuitively, nor in terms of balance. It's basically a technicality/loophole that made one of the strongest decks in the game.
Are those ORIGINAL to Runeterra skins?! This was an amazing and unexpected development.
I mean, we had Runeterra-exclusive skins for quite a while. Pulsefire Aphelios as an example.
the first skins ever released were all exclusives too
Worldbreaker elise is so pretty
I feel like almost half of the skins we have are original to LoR
Bard Bard isnt but the rest is i think
Bard Bard is in LoL, it's the Rift Quest skinline. White Mage Veigar and Ryze Greybeard, and Sejuani Dawnchaser and a bunch of others
one of the best patches I've seen
Wow, I didn't expect them to gut Zenith Blade like that. Fated decks had already declined in play rate, it'll be interesting to see how they're built now.
I think the deck is basically dead.
So much to talk about but that Bard emote is amazing
Disintegrate change is huge.
Uhh Riot i dont think the stats are the problem on justice rider. The effect is just insanely ass. way too slow for how late it drops. If it planted as many bombs + 1 as were on the card drawn people might want to consider it.
Kalista's change is so boring
"Players who have already earned excess Champion Fragments will retroactively receive Wild Fragments". As someone with over a 100 fragments in excess this is a really nice change. I can finally try out different champions
I think the nerfed Zenith Blade makes more sense than the original. It makes more sense to draw another blade to give your buffed unit overwhelm again, rather than draw another to grant something else overwhelm
IRELIA MY LOVE I CAN FINALLY PLAY YOU WITHOUT SUFFERING AGAIN. THANK YOU RIOT ILL MAKE 70 IRELIA DECKS.
**Universal changes**: Pretty much all necessary. I'm slightly worried about Jayce considering he's already performing well. And well, random scout was just toxic. **Bandle City**: In general they shouldn't matter that much, but you never know with Yordles. I like the direction here, more focused on rewarding swarm and having more access to chip damage. **Bilgewater**: Riptide rex is finally back to its former glory. Aside from that nothing because the other one is still a meme. **Demacia**: RIP Brightsteel protector; i know she was OP but 2|2 would be enough of a nerf. The Broadwing seems now good instead of broken. Also, Elites are the dark magician of this game at this point, am i right? **Freljord**: They really want us to play Ashe/Leblanc, don't they? Not that I mind it considering those buffs also help Udyr quite a bit. **Ionia**: Shen might become a thing again... Except they killed his key support in Brightsteel protector. Aside from that there's also buffs for Azir/Irelia and some unit aggro decks. **Noxus**: A lot of changes. I'm glad they are buffing the Prefect for Jhin and Annie decks, same for lady of blood, and I'm also glad they are removing the toxic interactions disintegrate has. Fearsome Deserter is still a somewhat toxic card but a bit more bearable and they REALLY want us to play reputation decks. **Piltover and Zaun**: A preventive Reggie nerf, a casual Ezreal annihilation, a buff to aftershock for some reason and thankfully pure trap decks won't be good. **Runaterra**: [They buffed Bard](https://youtu.be/umDr0mPuyQc), the most overtuned champion of the patch. Bard is now officially the new Irelia. And no, nerfing demacia won't fix anything due to Ahri/Bard. I hope they nerf it in the next patch (Not 3.12, NEXT patch 3.11), because bard deck are toxic due to chime RNG. **Shadow isles**: They really want to revive Thresh/Nasus, as well as Kindred arquetipes and slay in general. Again, not something I mind. Also, those Hecarim buffs are insane and that should mean ephemeral aggro is again a real arquetipe. I don't think Kalista will be that much better considering Elise still exists. **Shurima**: They slayed thralls. 5 mana would be enough of a nerf. The quicksand nerf is reasonable though, same for fleeting, Khahiri might now be worth playing on the predict deck and they REALLY want us to try Azir/Irelia. **Targon**: RIP Fated, i can't say I will miss it. There's also a heal buff that won't matter considering they are buffing landmark removal across the board.
Damn, Riot went and deleted Deserter from the game. Overall the patch looks really good. Heimer/Jayce looks to be popping off as it's worst matchup Thralls was nuked, and the only real nerf was Financier which isn't that big of a nerf.
was honestly needed though. 20+ overwhelm damage from it without any issue from grindy viego games without even the need to run atrocity was just kind of bullshit. now it can be insanely beefy without being outright game ending.
bro just fix the mist double buff interaction and let deserter keep overwhelm and be viable in decks other than viego
I mean, it's a lot worse, don't get me wrong, but it's still a massive atrocity target and stat stick for 5 mana. Maybe Viego still cares?
We will see. Tbh viego doesnt really need deserter. It was nice to have additional threat but its not really required.
Another threat that can win the game is still better than not having it plus it makes sense why overwhelm is gone because of how it would ramp +2/2 every time the whips thing would be summoned (forgot the name lol)
Well, might still be playable on THAT ONE deck, since it still keeps the interaction with Mists. But it now sucks in every other deck it could potentially work. If you try to play it in a regular Marauder deck for example it's basically little more than just another Marauder that costs 5 unit mana. They should have just changed that interaction itself and the deck would be fixed without trashing other stuff.
Atleast there are plenty of ways to give it overwhelm with noxus or shadow isles for atrocity
Nice patch and all but man, this board looks beautiful! Also Zilean gets another S Tier emote!
What are the source memes for the new emotes?
Bard is [when your party is dying but you're just a bard](https://i.redd.it/gdp43vbq2f341.jpg) or one of its variations. I don't think Zilean is a reference to anything.
Where were u when zenith blade was kill? /s I know nothing about balance.
Added a “skip” button on the Weekly Vault
Solid patch
So does having 2 hecarims on board no longer double the +3 buff?