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Season 7 is really fun; yes, actually

ModKnightsKemplar··8 votes·1,150 views

I haven't seen many posts about what people think, overall, of the changes. But of the two games I was able to play since this patch hit (both normal drafts), they were a blast.

The assassin changes seem to be good; my experience was that even an assassin that has succeeded early game has to play smart to assassinate enemy carries (which was a goal of their reworks). I was able to use plants to make cool moves in one game that wouldn't have been possible otherwise (and I was only able to do that because the enemy jungle ignored the blast plant). The Elder Dragon changes have been good, it seems to me.

All in all, games were back and forth, teams had to play smart to win, even when they were a little bit ahead. Snowballing was at a minimum, teams were mostly working together, and I had fun.

I know there have been a lot of complaints about the direction of this game lately, but when I think back to the days of calling roles in champ select and getting blown up by fed enemy assassins that weren't in my lane, I cringe. This is better than it was. Riot is doing a great job, and I anticipate dumping more hours into this game this season. And possibly cash. That combination will keep both me and Riot happy, and keep this game going.

Anyone else feeling pretty good about all of this?

11 Comments

Azure Hamster3 votes

I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Caitlyn

DunkinNoobs3 votes

I'm really, really enjoying the new jungle. I thought I would hate it but it's actually been a lot more fun than before. And yes, plants are part of that.

ModKnightsKemplar1 votes

I haven't actually played a jungler yet, but I LOVE the plants. They are fun and add strategic depth without sacrificing fun (for me). I think the reduction in their spawns was key. It sounds like a ton of people hated them until then.

Kled Man Walking2 votes

played three games, here's what i think

first game was kled and holy shit the new changes feel so good. his remount animation is currently broken. he feels so strong atm and i'm happy about that. people are gonna have to adjust to the quicker remount but i don't think he's broken

second game i tried new talon and he honestly feels great. the wall jump is really interesting and definitely does its job of giving him his niche as the roaming assassin. the new q is really really interesting and gives him a lot of sustain coupled with easy access to honeyfruit. he feels really good now but idk about balance

third game i tried out the new bard and redemption is a really interesting item. opens up the build path a lot, too. i don't feel boxed into sightstone > talisman > locket > upgraded sightstone

overall i like the changes a lot! gj riot

ThugWalrus1 votes

I'm glad you have had a positive experience. Personally my small sample size of games have not been very fun. Honestly I'm surprised since I'm a support main and I thought the new items would be fun and interesting, but I'm not really enjoying them all that much. Flex queue is an absolute travesty as of right now, with diamonds getting matched with silvers and Masters players getting matched with Plats. It's not like anything game-breakingly bad is going on, but I was pretty hyped for the new season and I'm not feeling the improvements as of right now.

ModKnightsKemplar1 votes

That sounds like a bummer. I hope it improves!

But that sounds like mostly a matchmaking problem. I played Taric in my first game, and I felt great about Knight's Vow. I survived a full Katarina ult in the late game, so I felt like I was tankier than I usually get on Taric, especially against AP (with only an Aegis for MR). The cost reduction from FH and Eye of the Equinox, in addition to the health from Knight's Vow, is a great combination. What supports have you been playing?

ThugWalrus1 votes

I did play a game of Taric actually. I went FotM, Ruby Sightstone, Knights Vow, Ardent Censer, Tabis, and was going to finish with Locket. I felt tanky enough, but I thought I would really feel those passives on Ardent and Knight's Vow. Maybe the Ardent Censer is too spicy on Taric, but I thought the healing boost and passive on the AOE heals and his shield would be nice. Colossus also felt kind of meh, but that's probably good since I thought it was going to be busted.

I played a game of Sona too with that new Redemption item, it was alright. Active feels a little clunky and felt weaker without AP though so might have to hold off building that item right away on her, maybe the cheaper Grail would be better.

My boy Zilean seems to have fallen through the cracks. I liked the old Banner since it felt like an organic way to get some AP without sacrificing utility, but now all the AP support items are about the bonus healing and shields which works with his ult, but unless you're spamming a heal or shield like Janna or Sona it's not really that efficient. Now it feels like you're forced into a tanky build with little to no AP if you want to make good use of your gold. Zilean is kind of a niche support champ so I can't REALLY expect him to be considered when they are making support items, but the Banner changes were still sad for me.

ModKnightsKemplar1 votes

That sounds like a good analysis.

From an advice perspective, I think Taric is just a better tank now. Like you, I have been playing with healing boost-type items with him since the rework (also Windspeakers), but I've had the best luck just stacking armor and health for the scaling. And I go bond of stone to protect the adc and get some more value out of my tankiness. That has been the best for me. I think he benefits the most just from being alive and spamming abilities to maximize healing; he doesn't really have consistent enough cc to depend on colossus.

Zilean just needs a rework, and I won't be surprised if he is VERY high on the list. You are right on both counts; the items don't really work on him and he's just outdated (especially for support). I think just building straight mage on him would still work better. I hope they do something about him soon, though, because he's a cool champ concept.

Greymoore1 votes

Aside from plants, the jungle seems stale with the only incentive to smite camps being for health or simply faster clears and the uniqueness of camps comes from just how annoying they are to kill. I've only played against Talon so I don't know much about how the other assassins play out but Talon seems ok, the only thing that might become frustrating to play against is his ability to jump over UNIQUE structures and walls every 2 seconds since in the game I played, he was constantly escaping with very low health. Of course this where my initial thoughts after just a 1 game sample so I'm not complaining, just making observations at this point.

ModKnightsKemplar1 votes

I think the jungle is supposed to be a little stale, though... they seem to be trying to encourage player interaction. Slower spawns for monsters, trashing smite buffs, and adding plants all serve to get the jungler ganking faster. It encourages PvP. I don't think that's so bad, but we'll see.

As for Talon, that passive makes me nervous. I wish it didn't have crazy cd on certain walls (just feels wrong), I wish he couldn't use it to escape fights, etc. But I'm not sure how to fix it. Maybe he could only use it when he isn't seen by an enemy champ? That might cause quite a few problems with vision detection, though, like Fiddles old passive.

Just Blame Jenny1 votes

Only played a handful of games, but seems all right.

The assassin reworks aren't perfectly balanced, but the overall direction seems largely fine. Possible exception for Akali, who feels a little clunky to me now. AD Shaco is pretty undertuned, and Rengar maybe a little overtuned, but that's a numbers issue.

Itemization changes seem to be working and the new items feel interesting and impactful. Still adjusting to new build paths though, and some champions will naturally need to be tweaked to compensate (e.g. Lucian seems pretty weak now that the armor pen build is no longer a thing). Not really fond of the new direction for Banner of Command (i.e. too much overlap with zz'rot), but I guess that's a minor niggle.

Masteries seem, again, fine. Fervor might be a little too weak, and courage of the colossus might be a little too strong on some champions, but that's nothing a bit of fine tuning won't resolve.

Plants just feel like a gimmick. I'm pretty ambivalent to them.

I do miss the smite buffs, and I do miss the choice of whether to start a standard camp or buff, but the jungle changes aren't bad. Uninspired, I guess, but nothing gamebreaking.

On balance, some things seem to need some tweaking number-wise, some things I like, some things I don't like (but aren't a dealbreaker to me), but the number of outliers and straight up broken things is far diminished from that of preseason 6. Season 6 was a disaster, but season 7 is shaping up to be a little better.

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