8.1 Patch notes impressions.
>Blaze
>Damage per stack: 2% >> 4%
Yeah, Brand needed a little love. Seems a little much, but with the aftershock changes next patch, he'll need it.
>Whiplash
No longer goes on CD if it fizzles due to interrupted vision.
Reasonable.
>End of the Line
>Mana Cost: 60/70/80/90/100 >> 60/65/70/75/80
>CD: 14/13/12/11/10 seconds ⇒ 13/12/11/10/9 seconds
>
>Smokescreen
> Slow Strength: 15/20/25/30/35% >> 50% at all ranks
> Slow Duration: 1.5 seconds >> 0.5 seconds.
His early ganks are slightly better, but not by a huge margin. The Q buff makes his clear slightly better. He's still not a good pick.
>H28Q-Apex Turret
> Beam Base Damage: 200/270/340 >> 100/140/180
This. This is why people call the balance team silver. What's next? You gonna gut Aatrox? Teemo? Nunu? Heimerdinger was sitting in the same tier as those three. He's a troll pick that a couple OTP's make work, and you're nerfing him.
>AD/level 2.8: >> 2.2
Innate AS bonus: 15% ⇒ 10%
>Righteous Fury CD: 16 seconds at all ranks ⇒ 18/17/16/15/14 seconds
Alright. This lets her have 100% uptime at 30% CDR, which is pretty manageable. Shaving off some damage as compensation is fine.
> Mana: 272.2 >> 320
>
> Fracture
> Proc Damage: 25/35/45/55/65 ⇒ 30/50/70/90/110
Stun Duration: 1 second >> 1.5 seconds.
Does Skarner need buffs? Yes. Does this fix his problem? No. Get rid of the damn spires and give us back Crystal Venom.
>Unleashed Power
>Lots of Bugfixes
Ok wow that is a lot of bugs.
>Paddle Star
>Now does not register Zoe's new position (for purposes of Q range) until she has fully emerged from R - Portal Jump
>
> Spell Thief
> No longer drops Gunblade from creeps.
>
>Sleepy Trouble Bubble
> Trap spawn delay: 0.6 >> 0.8
>
> Portal Jump
> Removed delay before exit portal spawns.
Q change removes some of the margin for error from her ult, but isn't significant. W change was absolutely necessary. E change is nice; gives you more time to react to a max range bubble. No idea what the R change means.
Overall fine. Zoe doesn't really need any major nerfs, just some tweaks to deal with player frustration (though it didn't stop you with Heimerdinger, who wasn't even debated to be strong).
I don't have much to say about the rest of it... except one thing.
"Bug Fixes" >Champions with manaless abilities (such as Elise or Nidalee in Cougar form) can no longer stack Tear of the Goddess with their manaless abilities
- You implemented this last patch.
- Manaless abilities stacking tear wasn't a bug. That was intended functionality.
- Call this what it is. You're nerfing tear on Nidalee and Kassadin, despite the item being sub-par already.
