Hello again Summoners.

Today i’m here to talk about how the champion changes in patch 3.14 will influence how those champions play. I’m not going to be looking at supports in this analysis because there is plenty of other articles and blogs looking at those.

What’s changed?

Q – Phosphorus Bomb

• Mana cost reduced to 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 (from 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120)
• Now lobs a bomb through the air that explodes at the end location, instead of instantly damaging the area
• Cast range increased to 825 (from 600)
• Now additionally grants vision while the missile is in the air

This is a necessary change in my opinion. Corki has gotten away with ‘free’ poke for far too long, because it was instant, it was effectively undodgeable, and it has been a limiting factor in his kit for a long time. This is a nerf to Corki and the worst thing, in my opinion, is the cast animation is one of the ugliest in League.

E – Gatling Gun

• Mana cost reduced to 50 at all ranks (from 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80)

A nice change for Corki, especially at early levels. I’m glad to see the mana cost reductions across his kit in season 3 because he was such a mana hungry champion. Not something you’ll notice massively in lane, because you shouldn’t really be using Gatling Gun unless you’re doing an extended trade, which isn’t something Corki is especially strong at, but it all adds up.

R – Missile Barrage

• Total Attack Damage ratio increased to 20 / 30 / 40% (from 20%)

Corki’s Ult change from before, increasing the time between rocket casts, is one of the more frustrating nerfs for us long time Corki players. This doesn’t solve this problem but will allow Corki to scale harder into the late game and increases his poke.

Overall some interesting changes for Corki. Mana cost reductions are always useful and the Q change in a ‘skillshot’ direction has allowed some of the power from Q to be redirected to other abilities without heavily nerfing his playstyle. Overall he’s a little weaker.

Q – Barrel Roll

• Now has a small buffer before the barrel reaches its destination (not when Gragas casts it) where Barrel Roll can be activated again to explode on arrival
• Cast range reduced to 950 (from 1100)

Interesting Fat man change. The range nerf will hurt him but will hopefully alleviate the problem of throwing a barrel down to have people dodge it as it lands. Will require some testing to see what it ends up feeling like but I think it’s a good change to a strong champ.

E – Body Slam

• Now deals full damage to all targets hit (rather than divided amongst them)
• Cooldown increased to 12 seconds (from 7)
• Cooldown reduced by half if Gragas collides with a unit

Can you say even more burst? Gragas’ E was always frustrating to use in lane because you tended to hit minions as well and that caused the ability to do a surprisingly small amount of damage. This is now gone, which will increase Gragas’ already good wave clear, and the cooldown change is a great change that good Gragas players can now use to their advantage. Will reduce the speed he gets around the map though, but you can always crash into minions and jungle camps to get the cooldown reduction.

R – Soul Shackles

• Now displays the leash radius to Morgana and her victims for the duration of the effect

Not really sure if this is a nerf or a buff really. It should now make the juggling act of trying to stun more people a little easier but if you’re hit by the first part of the Morgana ult you now know the exact distance you need to move to break the stun.

General

• Nasus has received a visual update!

OP, please Nerf. Infernal Nasus skins looks amazing. Can’t wait to see that in-game.

Passive – Soul Eater

• Lifesteal rescaled to 10 / 15 / 20% (at levels 1 / 7 / 13) (from 14 / 17 / 20% (at levels 1 / 6 / 11))

Small change to Nasus’ passive but one i’m happy to see. His lifesteal in lane is very very strong, especially at early levels, and can lead to a situation where you just cannot get the dog’s health down despite all of your harassing. The increases in lifesteal also kick in 1 and 2 levels later, so this drops Nasus’ level 6 and 11 power. Early ganks are still the best way to deal with the Curator of the Sands.

Passive – Staggering Blow

• Root duration increased to 0.5 / 0.75 / 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 seconds (at levels 1 / 6 / 11 / 16 / 18) (from 0.5 / 0.75 / 1 (at levels 1 / 7 / 13))

Not really sure why this change has happened personally. (Edit: It wasn’t a nerf to his level 6 and 11. Got the numbers mixed up. His level 6 gank is now even more insane) With strong initiation, more jungle gold, and an increased ability to CC members of the enemy team late game, could we see Nautilus making a strong comeback in season 4?

Q – Javelin Toss

• Now calculates damage based on where the Javelin was initially cast rather than where Nidalee is when the Javelin hits the target
• No longer gains damage from distance traveled until it exceeds Nidalee’s human auto attack range (maximum damage unchanged)

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! As someone who doesn’t play a lot of Nidalee, and even when I do its embarrasing, I am so glad I don’t have to watch half of my health pool disappear when Nidalee throws a javelin. Admittidly it’ll still be about 1/3rd of my health instead but its a small step in the right direction. I’d rather they would’ve looked at the sort of changes suggested on /r/leagueoflegends with a cooldown refresh mechanic because I don’t feel like Nidalee is punished for missing spears, or we’re not rewarded for dodging them, but i’m sure Riot will keep an eye on it.

W – Bushwhack

• Vision and Armor / Magic Resistance shred debuff duration reduced to 8 seconds (from 12)

This is something i’ve been going on about for a long time. It was a huge chunk of shred for an incredibly long time and something that i’m glad has come in. Vision reduction is tied to it as well so junglers won’t be punished as badly for triggering a trap.

Q – Consume

• Cooldown at earlier ranks reduced to 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 seconds (from 17 / 15 / 13 / 11 / 9 seconds)
• Damage at earlier ranks reduced to 400 / 550 / 700 / 850 / 1000 (from 500 / 625 / 750 / 875 / 1000)
• Heal at earlier ranks reduced to 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+0.75 Ability Power) (from 90 / 130 / 170 / 210 / 250 (+.75 Ability Power))

Still does an obscene amount of true damage for a move on a 13 second cooldown but Nunu’s niche is his jungle clear. I’m glad it’s a bit less of a one-point wonder, but the shorter cooldown will increase his clear speed while potentially allowing him to use it twice per camp.

Q – Boomerang Blade

• Now scales with Total Attack Damage rather than Bonus Attack Damage
• Damage changed to 25 / 45 / 65 / 85 / 105 (+0.7 / 0.8 / 0.9 / 1.0 / 1.1 Total Attack Damage) (from 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240 (+1.1 Bonus Attack Damage))
• Damage falloff per target hit reduced to 10% (from 20%)

My inspiritation for this article. In a straight up trade, this is a nerf. Previously it would do 60 + around 30-40 extra damage at level 1, while with the change it will do 25 + 50 damage. An interesting change with the switch to total AD from bonus AD is that if Sivir gets behind in lane her Q might end up doing a little more damage because she’s less item dependent than before.

However the big change for this is actually the damage fall off. Previously if you hit 3 targets before you hit your intended target then the ability would do the minimum damage. However now you can hit 5 before the damage falls to minimum on the 6th.

This will allow poke through minions, and other champions, to do additional damage to the targets in the back line. To those kinds of targets the damage is probably going to stay about the same as before all of the nerfs but it also increases Sivir’s pushing power.

E – Condemn

• Vayne can no longer queue up a basic attack on a champion after hitting them with Condemn.
• Fixed a bug where the target would be briefly unable to act at the end of the effect, even if they did not hit a wall.
• Condemn now deals all damage after knocking the target back. Wall hits are now displayed as critical strikes.

A small change to Vayne. Riot have stated they wanted to nerf her without directly changing her numbers. These adjustments will mean that the higher skilled Vayne players will notice a nerf, especially to the Auto-Condemn-Auto combo to proc silver bolts, but it should keep her power around about the same. Small nerf but nothing to be too worried about.

Shadow Dash

• Collision radius at the end-point has been slightly increased

Riot felt like they had hit him too hard with the nerfs to his taunt. Haven’t played him since the changes so i’m not sure if it was too harsh or not. If you think this is a good change i’d be interested to get some feedback on it.

Items

• The term “hat” is now searchable in the item shop. (Finally!)

Just a quick note on one of the biggest changes in league history.

Conclusion

Nothing too big with non-support champion changes this patch. I think we’re unlikely to see significant numbers changes with the above champions as a direct results of the adjustments Riot has made but that is only because of the huge changes appearing in the jungle and for supports.

If you’ve got any comments on the changes listed above then post them in the comment section below. I’ll do my best to respond to as many as I can. Follow me on twitter @lolfridgecake for more updates and pictures of my dinner.