Thoughts on GP Rework/VU, Massive Bilgewater PBE Patch, Etc.
Just thought i'd give a space for people to talk about the big stuff incoming that isn't dedicated to the 'eat oranges and be k' joke. My own thoughts included, for what it's worth.
**Gangplank Update:**I like the new voicework better than most of the updates Riot's done, and i see what they were trying to do (make GP seem like more of a part of the League World), but it's not nearly as 'fun' as the previous voiceover. The previous VO gave the impression of "Yarharr! I'm a blast to play and i'd be fun to party with!", while the new one is more "YARR I be a dark and brooding pirate who murders people! YARR". Not too bad though, considering; it doesn't destroy his personality like Trundle's did, at least.
I'll have to try out the kit changes before i judge it, but i like the idea of them. It encourages you even more to last hit with Parrrley, and gives a more satisfying E.
Miss Fortune Update: Played it last night, was reminded of MF's absurd mana costs/pool. She's supposed to be a 'lane bully', but if you actually use Q to harrass you'll have much worse mana problems than even Sivir. I like the W active, but i still don't quite understand how your supposed to apply all that damage optimally, and how it applies to her ult. Is her ult just supposed to apply damage for her autos after ward through her W? Are you supposed to auto a bunch and then use the ult? Not sure why you'd pick MF when you can just pick Graves for the aim --> BOOM AoE ult.
Unfortunately, whenever anyone mentions the pretty poor state of MF a couple of rioters come out to say 'I've played her for thousands of games and she seems fine'. The only reason i could see anyone wanting to competitively picking MF is to coordinate with an AoE comp, and her ult is lackluster even in that aspect.
New skin is OK i guess; i like the hat.
Other Skins: I actually really, really like the small bit of lore connecting the new Aatrox, Garen, and Quinn skins. A ragtag group of rogue pirates? That's a premise of a book i'd love to read. It's stronger than pretty much any 'canon' lore we've gotten in the past year (except maybe the Ekko comic, i liked that), and it's a nice touch.
The Graves skin is pretty cool, but the TF one looks pretty laskluster in the preview shots. I don't really see anything that would make a TF main want to pick it up when he has his other skins. I'm not a TF main though, so maybe i'm wrong?
All in all, the new 750 skins are quite nice for their price tier- Riot has definitely made an effort to make their 750 skins more impressive than their initial ones.
Game Modes: The Bilgewater ARAM seems pretty neat i guess; i like that we're finally having another announcer VO, and it's a nice change of pace from the Howling Abyss.
I think the new game mode, 'Black Market Brawlers', sounds REALLY fun and interesting. Being able to upgrade minions is a really cool idea, and adds a lot of interesting strategy to it. My only concern is that certain types of minions will be universally 'better' than the others in every scenario, and the game mode won't last long enough for proper balancing to happen. The new items seem interesting as well, the the new Mage and Support items seem to be the strongest by far, with the Fighter items seeming pretty lackluster by comparison.
TLDR; Slightly less disappointed in the GP rework than i expected, MF rework is OK but she's still pretty garbage compared to every other Marksman, the new skins seem pretty cool and quite good for their price, new game modes seem really interesting.
What are all your thoughts?
