My problem with some of the preaseason changes
I was fine with all of the marksman reworks, and I think they're really cool and will add more identity to the champions. Some of the item changes are simply ridiculous, like the changes to Black Cleaver and Frozen Mallet. Since I main Gnar, I'm naturally going to care about these two items, and I think the nerfs to Black Cleaver and the buffs to Frozen Mallet are both unwise. Black Cleaver will now be incredibly difficult to build on most champions who used it, as it now costs 500 gold more. I think Trinity Force might actually be better on Gnar now, since it provides so many more stats and only costs 300 gold more. Frozen Mallet will now be much more gold-efficient than it used to be, and much easier to rush. The problem with this is that Frozen Mallet is very anti-fun, especially on Gnar. Most final items in the game have had their costs increased, which will likely lead to people building a lot of component items that they don't finish until later. This is not really a good thing, as it will lead to people building more like a ball of stats early. "Ball of stats" champions are not fun to play as or against. So many items are being changed that is impossible for me to address every single one here. I will only address some of the changes I think are most significant. The Tiamat changes are huge, lowering the cost to 1300, lowering the stats, and removing the passive. These changes will allow AD assassins like Rengar and Riven to get their power spike earlier. The Youmuu's changes will benefit casters but not autoattackers, as they removed the crit chance but increased the AD to 65. Warrior enchantment gained AD but the armor penetration was removed, so it will be stronger earlier but weaker later. The Death's Dance items heals for a percent of the physical damage dealt, although it is unclear if it will only proc on abilities that spellvamp (i.e. will it not work on Malzahar's voidlings). The new Essence Reaver seems like it will be overpowered, as in conjuction with Trinity Force, you will get 90 AD, 40% crit chance, 50% CDR, mana restored on crits, 15% attack speed, 5% movement speed, 250 health, and 250 mana, and the Rage and Spellblade passives. All of the changes so far seem like they will bring about an ADC and AD assassin meta. The tank meta is long since gone, and I think tanks and bruisers will only get weaker. Despite what Riot claims, it seems that they are making a rotational meta and are intentionally bringing ADCs and AD assassins back into the spotlight. It is clear that there will be massive balance problems in preseason, which will hopefully addressed quickly. Further, Riot has not addressed the problem of Runes and Rune pages. Runes and Rune pages should be made free or the price should be drastically reduced, as they only serve as a method to gate new players. They should also be looking at a way to have an IP sink for players who have long since bought everything they can with IP, such as being able to buy skin boosts or something like that. What would you guys like to see in the preseason.