After how long it took for this balance patch to arrive, I find the actual changes pretty disappointing. The only serious nerfs are to Poro Cannon, Quietus and... Weight of Judgment, somehow. There's a couple of significant buffs, like those for Kayle and Shyvana, but the rest look mostly pointless; if you take a terrible card and buff it ever-so-slightly, it's still unplayable. If the goal was to shake up the metagame, then this patch is a swing and a miss.
Not the LoR update I was expecting, that's for sure. Paying off the hackers only encourages them to keep on doing it, so I'm glad that they chose not to.
Most meta-relevant card of this batch will be the Bandle landmark for sure. I wonder: If Rumble discards that landmark, does it grant him a random keyword?
I'm very glad to see that Varus and Kayn share Cultist cards with their origins. This package of cards is also a big buff to Kayn, which is very much warranted. It makes Kayn's origin not seem so bad and pointless now.
I... guess Varus is gonna be in it? There's not much else to go on from the video. After the Bandle City animated videos, this trailer featuring a camera slowly zooming in and out of card art looks like they made this trailer on the cheap, and it shows.
A 2 minute developer update video with some talking heads in front of a camera, announcing the new expansion, would've been better.
As soon as they confirmed in a previous post that champions would also get rotated, Vlad immediately came to mind. He simply doesn't work.
Also happy to see Irelia go. Azir decks with Lucian and other champions were a lot more interesting and fun to play against than Azirelia. Azir + Hecarim could even be a thing.
In the case of TF, he's been too good for too long, and is very hard to nerf, so it's good that the game moves on, and TF does not.
Rotations seems like a good idea, the biggest issue with it is how Rito will handle purchased skins for rotated champions.
Very daring balance patch, with some big changes to Leona and Daybreak cards as well as Swain and Leviathan. The big buffs are to Iula, Swain, Sun Guardian and Sunburst. The nerfs are fine, but they have a Nami-sized hole in them.
To be honest though, I'm not excited for this patch. What I love to play in LoR is Freljord midrange, and small buffs to Mammoth Rager and Ornn are not enough to get them out of the gutter.
Been wanting a Viego nerf for a long time now, the champion does too much for 5 mana. Daybreak buffs are welcome, it's a straightforward midrange deck and the game could use more of those. Timelines, Sermon and Hate Spike nerfs are welcome; Decimate and Harrowing nerfs are surprising. Variety champion buffs are good to see, even though I don't play any of those. There seems to be an attempt to make big spiders viable with buffs to Shrieking Spinner, Twisted Treeline and Vilemaw.
The biggest miss seems to be not nerfing Nami decks
Glad Riot decided to implement Jax as a bit of a comical character, he works better this way than if they tried to play it straight with him. I expect him to be a menace, whether he fights with a fishing rod, a frying pan or a lamppost.
Silence and Suppress is an interesting card, like a superior version of Purify. Silences and destroys equipment but doesn't deal with Attach units... I wonder if there will be more equipment destruction cards? Because there are no cards that specifically deal with Attach units. Obliterate gets rid of the unit and the attached unit, but Obliterate also deals with equipment. Is equipment just going to be more interactable (easier to get rid of ) than Attach units? I sure hope so, attach is kind of awful in that sense.
New card type sounds ominous. Landmarks were very poorly implemented originally. Early landmarks were either entirely inviable (Vaults of Helia, University of Piltover), oppressive (Grand Plaza, Veiled Temple), or just plain toxic (Star Spring, Bandle Tree). Some early landmarks were inviable AND oppressive (Sun Disc), at different points in time.
While they did eventually settle on a formula that mostly worked in Countdown landmarks, it was a bumpy road to get here, and my guess is that we've got another bumpy road ahead with the new card type.
Gwen seems like a better Vlad. At level 2, she drains health from the enemy Nexus, but does so much more reliably, and with high power and Quick Attack making her a lot safer to attack with. She costs less mana too...
After how long it took for this balance patch to arrive, I find the actual changes pretty disappointing. The only serious nerfs are to Poro Cannon, Quietus and... Weight of Judgment, somehow. There's a couple of significant buffs, like those for Kayle and Shyvana, but the rest look mostly pointless; if you take a terrible card and buff it ever-so-slightly, it's still unplayable. If the goal was to shake up the metagame, then this patch is a swing and a miss.
Not the LoR update I was expecting, that's for sure. Paying off the hackers only encourages them to keep on doing it, so I'm glad that they chose not to.
If this expansion launches without a simultaneous Nami + Lee nerf, ranked is gonna be Azirelia levels of awful
Most meta-relevant card of this batch will be the Bandle landmark for sure. I wonder: If Rumble discards that landmark, does it grant him a random keyword?
Yes, I think he just dies
I'm very glad to see that Varus and Kayn share Cultist cards with their origins. This package of cards is also a big buff to Kayn, which is very much warranted. It makes Kayn's origin not seem so bad and pointless now.
I... guess Varus is gonna be in it? There's not much else to go on from the video. After the Bandle City animated videos, this trailer featuring a camera slowly zooming in and out of card art looks like they made this trailer on the cheap, and it shows.
A 2 minute developer update video with some talking heads in front of a camera, announcing the new expansion, would've been better.
As soon as they confirmed in a previous post that champions would also get rotated, Vlad immediately came to mind. He simply doesn't work.
Also happy to see Irelia go. Azir decks with Lucian and other champions were a lot more interesting and fun to play against than Azirelia. Azir + Hecarim could even be a thing.
In the case of TF, he's been too good for too long, and is very hard to nerf, so it's good that the game moves on, and TF does not.
Rotations seems like a good idea, the biggest issue with it is how Rito will handle purchased skins for rotated champions.
Very daring balance patch, with some big changes to Leona and Daybreak cards as well as Swain and Leviathan. The big buffs are to Iula, Swain, Sun Guardian and Sunburst. The nerfs are fine, but they have a Nami-sized hole in them.
To be honest though, I'm not excited for this patch. What I love to play in LoR is Freljord midrange, and small buffs to Mammoth Rager and Ornn are not enough to get them out of the gutter.
Been wanting a Viego nerf for a long time now, the champion does too much for 5 mana. Daybreak buffs are welcome, it's a straightforward midrange deck and the game could use more of those. Timelines, Sermon and Hate Spike nerfs are welcome; Decimate and Harrowing nerfs are surprising. Variety champion buffs are good to see, even though I don't play any of those. There seems to be an attempt to make big spiders viable with buffs to Shrieking Spinner, Twisted Treeline and Vilemaw.
The biggest miss seems to be not nerfing Nami decks
You really think he's strong? At 7 mana, you'd expect him to be a really big deal, but he seems a lot less impactful than Viego at 5 mana.
Jax looks weak and uninspired
Glad Riot decided to implement Jax as a bit of a comical character, he works better this way than if they tried to play it straight with him. I expect him to be a menace, whether he fights with a fishing rod, a frying pan or a lamppost.
Can't muster any excitement for new cards when the meta is so un-fun, I don't feel like playing LoR at all right now
Silence and Suppress is an interesting card, like a superior version of Purify. Silences and destroys equipment but doesn't deal with Attach units... I wonder if there will be more equipment destruction cards? Because there are no cards that specifically deal with Attach units. Obliterate gets rid of the unit and the attached unit, but Obliterate also deals with equipment. Is equipment just going to be more interactable (easier to get rid of ) than Attach units? I sure hope so, attach is kind of awful in that sense.
Good changes overall, but I don't like the Benemone buff. Prank is extremely vexing to play against.
New card type sounds ominous. Landmarks were very poorly implemented originally. Early landmarks were either entirely inviable (Vaults of Helia, University of Piltover), oppressive (Grand Plaza, Veiled Temple), or just plain toxic (Star Spring, Bandle Tree). Some early landmarks were inviable AND oppressive (Sun Disc), at different points in time.
While they did eventually settle on a formula that mostly worked in Countdown landmarks, it was a bumpy road to get here, and my guess is that we've got another bumpy road ahead with the new card type.
Gwen seems like a better Vlad. At level 2, she drains health from the enemy Nexus, but does so much more reliably, and with high power and Quick Attack making her a lot safer to attack with. She costs less mana too...
Disintegrate looks to me like the strongest card of the entire set. It's definitely going to make an impact in the meta.
Blocking Annie with a big unit is always risky because Disintegrate exists.