The impact of Patch 6.10 on pro play

Riot·5/26/2016, 6:30:13 PM·1 votes·40,564 views

Welcome to Patch 6.10, the patch after the Mid-Season Magic update. Where the contents of the Dragon pit are a dice roll, top laners hit random until three dominant champions emerge, and AD carries live in perpetual fear of crowd control without Quicksilver Sash.

Every time a new patch is released we get to think about new team strategies, look at how the competitive meta may be affected, and learn how the game of League changes holistically. At first, we make educated guesses, but at the end of the day, they’re still guesses. A single change that might not even make a difference at first (looking at you, Viktor and Brand), can actually turn out to have massive implications in the future.

Let's see how the Mid-Season Magic update may affect competitive play.

Epic River Monsters

In Patch 6.10 one of four random Elemental Dragons can spawn on Summoner's Rift. Out of the four Dragons that can spawn, controversial opinions of their value have been often discussed. But with competitive play in mind, here’s my current read on the Dragons’ real strength. Rusty's Elemental Dragons Power Rankings: 1. Mountain (Earth) 2. Infernal 3. Ocean 4. Cloud (Air)

Mountain Drake: Damn good. Arguably the best element of the Drakes to be taken. Harder to kill as the tankier, slower moving Dragon, but his buff gives true damage to epic monsters and turrets. Baron and future Dragons feels like easy objectives when this buff is active. Historically, pro teams have always emphasised either Dragon -- or Baron -- as major win conditions to cement victory. This makes it easier to do, and as such, it's a priority objective to control.

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Infernal Drake: A quick glance tells us that this one's a great Dragon to take. Increased attack damage and ability power is a perfect scaling tool for any team composition. Providing combat statistics empowers team fighting capabilities, this should naturally be a Drake you must contest. You can forego one of these if need be, but two? You’re asking to lose the game.

Ocean Drake: What was actually a top tier Drake choice for any team composition to have, prolonging sieges and providing sustain, is now effectively mediocre, joining its brethren Cloud Drake in the bin. Patch 6.10 has gutted the Water Dragon to be essentially useless for scenario’s that don’t involve prolonged, poke heavy sieges. Only 4% of your missing health is restored every eight seconds, if you don’t take damage. Ocean Drake, I’m going to tentatively put you in the needs work pile -- with the concession that mana regeneration is still good, but the health regeneration is not worth the effort in taking it.

Cloud Drake: This Drake makes you light on your feet, being a new incarnation of the old Alacrity enchantments. Ultimately not necessary, but nice to have. The only major benefactors of the Stratus Walk buff will be junglers and supports, to close distances quicker. Instead of stressing over the buff, focus on what Drake spawns after you take this one, because it could be more important!

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Elder Dragon: This is a phenomenal buff, making every single dragon far more beneficial. You effectively make every Drake you already had 50% more effective, which is huge. This is arguably more important than Baron, and will only help in the speed with which you can take Baron if you have an Earth element in your back pocket!

Which should I take, Dragon or Baron?

If you were given the choice between the two Epic Monsters -- and you were in control of the game or map prior to this -- Elder Dragon is largely a better option.

As mentioned above, Baron control is easier claimed with the Elder Tyrant’s buff and team fights are easier fought and won. The only instance in which I’d immediately look towards Baron as an option is if you can’t team fight them for any objective, instead looking to win through slow map play around turrets and sieging. Alternatively, if you have no Dragons to speak of and the opposition does not effectively benefit from having the Elder Dragon buff themselves.

So, we’ve covered the new Dragons.

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Let’s now draw our eyes to the Epic Monster on the other side of the river: the Rift Herald. A largely uncontested buff in the past, Harold the Herald has only really been taken when there’s nothing better to take. Or as response to an incontestable Dragon due to lane swaps. With the changes to the new Healthy Harold, incentive to (at the very least) deny the buff is well and truly present.

When killed, Rift Herald grants a buff that lasts 20 minutes (and persists through death), to empower split pushers and allow them opportunity to cause problems in their respective lane. Naturally, this is a top lane buff, and many teams will be actively seeking opportunities to take it down for themselves.

This leaves me with one big question: will split pushing champions be picked specifically for this situation? There are only certain defined split pushing champions that could take full advantage of the buff while still being competitively viable: Gnar, Trundle, and Fiora. But generally, no top laner would mind having having the Glimpse of the Void backing them up.

Get the buff, split push with it, and have a great time. But don’t start a world war to take it.

Mid-Season Mages

Mages have also seen a lot of changes to itemization and design to create unique identities. The fun thing about mages is they’re always one step away from being supports, and this is where I’ll kick it off. Without going into every mage, these are the few -- who received a mage update -- I expect to see in competitive play.

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Brand: His new passive is absurd. Though his area of influence remains the same, he’s gotten better at dominating clumped enemies. I’d imagine mid and support are both options for Brand, but his items are costly, making support a difficult role for him to fulfill.
Zyra: She has plants everywhere and her damage is insane, though she still suffers the same flaw of being easily killed. I’d expect support Zyra to show sparingly throughout competitive play, and it's unlikely to see her in mid lane.
Viktor: Hasn’t seen a lot of changes, but the new pulsating damage blasts from his ultimate are quite simply obnoxiously strong. He should be a 100% pick or ban mid laner throughout competitive play.
Vel’Koz: There's a lot of utility behind true damage and there is always going to be a place for it. If Brand and Zyra can both see action, nothing is stopping the tank shredder Vel’Koz to show up as well. I predict him to show up in the mid lane, but we might see him once or twice in support.
Syndra: More balls, more damage from the balls, balls everywhere. Syndra's a strong mid laner whose burst is near unparalleled and should see competitive play as a strong option.
Kennen: Quality of life buffs with his ultimate hitting everything -- including minions -- places this Yordle in an strong position. There will be scenarios where teamfighting is necessary, and teams will look towards the lightning yordle to slice through the enemy.

Mage Itemisation

Patch 6.9 brought in a couple of new items, as well as a lot of changed and revamped old items. The addition of two new Hextech items has seen a substantial amount of experimentation take place, but the consensus thus far is that Rod of Ages is always just the better choice.

RoA being altered to provide health when using mana, and mana when losing health, means it’s a combat item -- as much as the other two are -- but you scale better with the Rod.

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The Hextech Protobelt-01 however is another ball game completely. It’s essentially a stripped back Rod of Ages with an added dash. So imagine Rod of Ages gave birth to an item that has a weaker version of Nidalee’s Pounce attached, and you get the Protobelt-01.

Now that’s a lot to actually consider, so think about the item like this: if your champion has dashes or high burst, it’s good. If you don’t have that, it’s not worth it over any other AP item in the game. As a core design, it allows champions with burst to burst more. Given its range however, it makes far more sense for burst mages to pick it up over anything else. Control mage players on the other hand should still be going for Morello’s into a Needlessly Large Rod upgrade.

Lane Swaps Begone!

Dragon's become a priority once again, arguably a bigger priority than that of turret swapping. As such, duo lanes may finally shift back to the bottom lane, creating more 2v2s to contest Dragon. Rift Herald is good, but not that good to justify a 2 vs. 1 swap. Siege comps may want to open the map up, however, so I’d imagine teams will still swap on occasion.

For competitive play, things to look out for in a lane swap are:

Taking the turret is now harder, as they now have armour throughout the game, likely requiring the assistance of a jungler to take them down early.
Double jungling is a lot more delicate. It’s now crucial that top laners get last hits on jungle champs due to the experience share changes.
This also means supports will be a bigger pain if they pester the enemy jungle/top duo and steal a creep away.

Patch 6.10 is a largely undiscovered affair for viewers and commentators/analysts alike. We’ve discussed what is good, what is strong and what isn’t, but we'll have to wait to see what the pro players can do to really show off the limits and true capabilities of all of these changes. I look forward to seeing how regions differ through discovery, and then clash once more to find an optimal design for competitive play.