Patch day is the best day!

The day I live for, it has come: patch day! How pumped are you? I always get the tingles in my stomach, a sort of lightheadedness. I suddenly realize I have been holding my breath when I dive into the notes and find that my favorite champion has been nerfed, or that they are making heimerdinger viable again (HA! Like that will ever happen).

Since a long long time ago, be it MMOs, RTS, or the new class of MOBAs, patch day is a time to start fresh, to experience new things in a world I have played thousands of games in. So instead of talking to my wall about the who's who and the what's what in patch 3.03, I am going to talk to you.

Kayle and Nidalee were taken down a peg. Kayle essentially had the damage amplification taken off of her spell Reckoning while getting some quality of life changes to the slow and cast time. Nidalee lost all of her bonus defensive stats when entering cougar form, while getting a 50% better ratio for her cougar form move Swipe. Both champions also no longer gain magic resist per level. Now, compared to the olden days, the days of yore, in the Cretaceous period, these 2 champions transgressions would have been waved off, possibly with a warning at best, but times are different now.  These 2 champs arent dominating every game, and you dont auto-lose if the enemy team has one.  I love that champion balance is not so medieval as it once was.

Kayle's Reckoning will still hit like a truck with a good amount of AP. Sure her Righteous Fury will do less damage on the target marked by Reckoning, but thats not gonna remove her from the scene. She will still bully lane against most of your standard mages and she is still going to be saving the behind of her carries with intervention.

Nidalee received the harder nerf here.  Losing the cougar form bonus armor and magic resist is going to affect her midgame. I do not mind these changes though, nidalee can be near unkillable mid-game. If she has the farm then she comes to dragon for a teamfight as a high damage bruiser, the best poker in the game, and she has a solid heal. Or, instead of coming to that dragon at around level 11 she just stays top and pushes to your inhib turret. And she couldnt be caught either, not without some serious crowd control to help you. Riots changes are right on the money.

Going into melee in cougar form is going to be a bigger risk/reward choice now, with higher damage and less survivability. Her poke is going to be where it should be though. Nidalee is the best long range damage dealer in the game next to Xerath, why shouldnt it be easier to burn her down if you get up close? She still has her heal, she still has the ability to escape just fine. They brought her down a notch, but I think she is more on par with other split pushers and poke champions now.

My other noteworthy mention in this patch is blade of the ruined king. Tanky meta, where is your god now? “Deals 15% of target champions maximum health as physical damage”? I mean, this is going to be a must have for every AD carry, and easily justifiable as all the damage you need for nearly any bruiser. This is an item that was really starting to show up big recently in tournaments and high elo as a first or second item for most ranged carries. Now it is cheaper, gives 5% more lifesteal, trades 15 attack damage for 40% attack speed, and had its active buffed heavily.

“You know what is really mainstream? Percent damage with only attack damage as an additional stat. Screw the mainstream, lets put percent damage, attack speed, and attack damage on the same item, because that has never been done before!”

Madreds bloodrazer has returned! How very sneaky Riot is sometimes.

To be honest, I think it might be too much of a buff, but only by a bit. If anything I would say the lifesteal is a little high, as you can just skip bloodthirster now and get crit and more attack speed, or get bloodthirster too and sit pretty at 33% lifesteal. I specifically remember them nerfing the lifesteal on bloodthirster, yet now you get the new blade for cheaper and with more lifesteal than BT.

Is it time to stack armor on tanks again? Is nidalee going to fall from grace in the tournament scene? Will blade of the ruined king find its way into every AD carry's hands? Why not, its patch day, anything can happen. I cant wait to find out how the changes feel, so I will see you summoners on the fields of Justice.