Patch 9.23 Not your best patch Riot (Personal Thoughts and Comments)
So i have been playing sense 2011 and over all I still find the game very enjoyable. When the changes to plants was released, i had a slight disposition to it, but currently i enjoy the blast cone, and honey fruit. I think riot did a great job for the game in turret plates and they are fairly well balanced to game play. However, the game has changed for the worse with this patch. Primarily i feel that the games are all very one sided. Dragons feel to be just another camp but if you loose one the game starts to feel unwinnable. When I jg, which is almost every game, I find myself forced to start hovering bot side at level 4. Now i know you can get the rift herald twice but its not worth to attempt. I think this is because the rift has no push anymore. A rift herald really only provide pressure for what feels like a single hit. Teams do not have to respond to when the herald is spawned in. The value of the forth drake and elder are much more significant then a lone herald.
There are many things that annoy me with this update, that I feel should be adjusted.
- First: Riot need should remove the elder buff execute mechanic,
- I know everyone wants a free kill, but what about comebacks, the Underdogs, Narrow Escapes? Every player has had that close call where they outplay or last second equalize the kills. This buff just make the players playing feel worse then just loosing the drake. It feels bad knowing a missed smite cost every player 20% of health. So going into lane you only have 80% of power you had just seconds earlier. It penalizes the team that failed to make the play while also giving more playpotential to opponents.
- Secondly: Dragons need more Hp or more dps to allow for the ability to contest
- Now some of you may not feel like this is a problem but I think the drakes are way to easy to kill now. I mean come on lvl 4 drake kills should not be a thing. Junglers should not be forcing this within 4-5 min of every game. Then they also are way faster to kill making them harder to contest. At least the herald is contestable in most situations.
- Thirdly: Riot should adjust the rift herald to make it more potential to drawing pressure.
- The rift herald was a great addition to the game but the preseason patch has shown that when rift herald hits a turret it losses a large amount of health. Meaning that the rift herald maybe able to get two charges off if heavily defended. However, in most games i have played i find this almost impossible to do. This mitigates the pressure that it had on the game as once it hits the tower it practically dead. The decision to take rift herald is not as useful anymore to even taking the red or blue buff. Now I know that the herald spawns twice now but the amount of time it takes to kill for the value is not worth. I think Riot could adjust this and make it more effective in game. For instance, I think the rift herald would be a prized objective if they lowered the amount of damage it received when charging into a towers or objects. This would allow for it to last longer in lane and be more effective in applying pressure on the map. I believe that riot needs to make it strong enough to force people to respond to it as currently it losses a good 75% of health on a charge and still can be hit in the back for a significant damage in lane.
NOW THERE IS A LOT ABOUT THE PATCH I LIKE TOO!!
1: I really enjoy the extra aspect of the top and bot's alcoves. they add a fun and new way to play the lane.
2: The changes in the map from drakes is fairly enjoyable except for cloud drake.
***** Instead of areas of movement buffs it should be a like slit stream effect where when your near allies you move faster
similar to how knights vow passive  works.
3: Tanks thank you for bringing back tanks to meta.
With the adjustment of runes they are back, but did they really leave aka GAREN & YUMI
Now a lot of other players will have there own thoughts on most of the new state of the game. I also did not go into any feeling on the item changes as these get tweaked a lot during the preseason, and they tend to balance out in the end.