Blogs

By spell

michał radosław w.

Thoughts and Analysis - Draven Patch v1.0.0.140b

Wed 6th Jun 2012 - 10:26pm Category: League of Legends

Draven Today a new patch has come out on EU servers which introduces a new champion - Draven, the Glorious Executioner. I will analyse the most important changes in this patch which are worth mentioning and how they are going to affect champion picks in solo queue and 5v5 premade matches, as well as for new players starting their adventure with League of Legends.

Full Patchnotes

In this patch there are only champion changes so let's think how they will influence gameplay:

Ahri

• Fox-Fire (W)

- Damage reduced at later ranks to 40/65/90/115/140 from 40/70/100/130/160

- Ability Power ratio increased to 0.4 from 0.375

• Spirit Rush (Ultimate R)

- Damage reduced to 85/125/165 from 100/140/180

- Ability Power ratio increased to 0.35 from 0.3

This is not a simple nerf to Ahri's damage and I will try to show that ratios boost won't equalise lost base damage. New Fox-Fire damage of Ahri will be equal to previous one after you have a 800 AP (0.025 increased ratio x 800AP = 20 flat damage at max rank, you are going to need a 200 AP per rank to equalise damage). Ahri's ultimate got even a bigger nerf - with 15 damage per hit of the ultimate (45 total) and ratio of 0.15, amount of AP needed to do the same damage by Ahri is going to be 300. Huge nerf to Ahri without a doubt, since now you will have to build more AP heavy to do same or higher damage.

Darius

• Hemorrhage (Passive) bonus Attack Damage ratio reduced to 0.3 from 0.4

• Noxian Guillotine (Ultimate R) will now only refresh its cooldown when it deals the killing blow

• Apprehend (E) pre-pull animation modified to be more readable for enemy champion

Darius is considered as one of the currently hardest champions to counter in 1v1 situations on top lane and one of most snowbally top laners in current state of the game. Those changes won't change much, but are going in right direction. Darius is still incredibly strong, but quite vulnerable to ganks.

Ezreal

• Essence Flux (W) Mana cost reduced to 50/60/70/80/90 from 60/70/80/90/100

• Trueshot Barrage (Ultimate R) Mana cost reduced to 100 from 150

Ezreal was in a fine spot and with these changes in effect we might see even more of him. I am not an Ezreal player, but reducing mana cost on his abilities is always good thing.

Galio

• Resolute Smite (Q) Ability Power ratio reduced to 0.6 from 0.7

These changes are not that huge, but will make him a less wanted pick in the competitive scene. Not much more about to say about this change, because it's simply flat tune down to Galios Q. His base damage is the thing that makes the Resolute Smite (Q) incredibly strong spell.

Graves

• Buckshot (Q)

- Damage reduced at later ranks to 60/95/130/165/200 from 60/105/150/195/240

- Damage per extra bullet increased to 35% from 25%

• Smoke Screen (W) duration reduced to 4 seconds from 5 seconds

Graves Smoke Screen is considered as one of the strongest zoning abilities in game, especially because it’s in the skill of an AD carry - 5 second vision removal was huge and needed a nerf. Change to his Q is quite interesting - now he will deal much more damage from close range than before, which leads to even more ridiculous level 2 trading potential (dash E and Q in front of enemy will deal now 15% more damage (before - 119 physical damage , after - 135 physical damage). Quite interesting change since it will make him even more aggressive AD carry.

Jax

• Empower (W) damage reduced at later ranks to 40/75/110/145/180 from 40/85/130/175/220

Jax lately is considered as one of the new top tier solo laners. His damage output is on an insane level and lane trading potential is quite good, because of Empower damage and a low cooldown. Nice tuning down, but still it feels like it's not enough to put him in the right spot.

Kog'Maw

• Living Artillery (Ultimate R) damage bonus to champions reduced to 125% from 150%

Kog'Maw as an AP carry was a nightmare to many people and many teams. His base values on abilities were incredible and even without much Ability Power his poke damage was really really high that you could easily out poke, whole enemy team from safe range. 25% damage reduction is huge nerf, but well deserved. He still will be great champion to pick as AD and AP carry, but more in the line from others since he was considered (at last I did consider him) as one of most broken picks in current state of the game, because of his amazing range and amazing base values.

Nautilus

• Titan's Wrath (W) damage reduced at later ranks to 30/55/80/105/130 from 30/60/90/120/150

Nautilus jungle clear speed was incredibly fast even without building any damage items and had to be adjusted since his clear speed, ganking potential, amount of CC and tankyness were simply too good. Lowering his jungle clear speed is quite a good move from RIOT to put him in a lane with junglers such as Maokai.

Nocturne

• Umbra Blades (Passive) healing amount per target hit adjusted to 10/18/26 from 15/20/25

Nocturne early game will be hurt by this change. His lifesteal per minion hit in jungle is reduced by a fair amount at first few levels. We still are going to see a lot of this guy thanks to great AoE jungle clear speed and incredible ultimate ability. He is one of my main champions so I am not happy about this change, but overall probably was a good idea to nerf him a little bit.

Renekton

• Slice and Dice (E) Armor reduction increased at later ranks to 15/20/25/30/35% from 15/17.5/20/22.5/25%

This change simply won't change that much about Renekton since mostly it was used as an escape mechanism or gap closer. It's a nice buff, but at the end of the day it’s still a gap closer/escape ability and not mainly used for armor shred/burst.

Shen

• Ki Strike (Passive) cooldown increased to 9 seconds from 8 seconds

As I wrote before 1 second cooldown increase on low cooldown abilities is quite a huge change. Reducing Shen's ridiculous trading potential on top lane is a pretty good thing in my honest opinion, but I am not sure if that won't make him too slow in jungle to be a viable pick. Hopefully his ultimate means he is still worth picking even after this change.

Swain

• Basic Attack range increased to 500 from 480

• Decrepify (Q)

- Range increased to 625 from 600

- Slow increased at later ranks to 20/25/30/35/40% from 20/23/26/29/32%

• Ravenous Flock (Ultimate R) cooldown reduced to 8 seconds from 10 seconds

Next buff to Swain is going to make him slowly a viable pick. His auto attack range and Q are now increased by a fair amount, which leads to easier trades and safer laning phase. Q at max rank got 8% increased slow, which is really nice, especially for champion with melee "kinda-dot aoe ability" (Ultimate R) and AoE skill shot root (W), which will be much easier to land.

Urgot

• Terror Capacitor (W) shield health reduced at later ranks to 80/130/180/230/280 from 80/140/200/260/320

• Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser (Ultimate R) Armor and Magic Resist bonus reduced to 60/90/120 from 80/105/130

Urgot initiation is incredibly strong especially, because of his extreme survivability. Adjustments to Urgot were really needed since he became one of the most dominant AD-tank champions that could not only dominate his lane pretty easily, but could do extremely well in late game as tank-initiator.

Draven, the Glorious Executioner

• Wicked Blades (Passive) - Draven's critical strikes deal 30 + (4 × level) bonus physical damage over 4 seconds. Spinning Axe also causes this effect even if it does not critically strike.

• Spinning Axe (Q) - Draven's next attack will deal bonus physical damage. The bonus is equal to a percentage of his total attack damage.
This axe will ricochet off the target high up into the air. So long as Draven catches it, Spinning Axe will keep applying to his next attack.
Cooldown permitting, Draven can have up to two Spinning Axes readied at once.

Cost: 45 mana

Cooldown: 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 seconds

Bonus Physical Damage: 45 / 55 / 65 / 75 / 85 % of attack damage

• Blood Rush (W) - Draven gains increased movement speed for 1.5 seconds and increased attack speed for 3 seconds. The movement speed bonus decreases rapidly over its duration. Catching a Spinning Axe will refresh Blood Rush's cooldown.

Cost: 40 mana

Cooldown: 12 seconds

Bonus Movement Speed: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60%

Bonus Attack Speed: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%

• Stand Aside (E) - Draven throws his axes, dealing physical damage to targets hit and knocking them aside. Targets hit are slowed for 2 seconds.

Cost: 70 mana

Cooldown: 18 / 17 / 16 / 15 / 14 seconds

Physical Damage: 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+0.5 per bonus attack damage)

Slow: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%

• Whirling Death (Ultimate R) - Draven hurls two massive axes in a given direction, dealing physical damage to every unit struck.
Upon reaching the edge of the map, striking an enemy champion or upon the reactivation of Whirling Death, the axes will slowly come to a stop before changing direction and returning to Draven: dealing the same damage to every unit struck on the way back.
Whirling Death deals 8% less damage for each unit hit, down to a minimum of 40%. The damage reduction resets when the axes reverse direction.

Cost: 120 mana

Cooldown: 110 seconds

Range: Global

Physical Damage (one hit): 175 / 275 / 375 (+1.1 per bonus attack damage)

Maximum Physical Damage (single target): 350 / 550 / 750 (+2.2 per bonus attack damage)

Minimum Physical Damage (one hit): 70 / 110 / 150 (+0.44 per bonus attack damage)

Minimum Phyiscal Damage (two hits): 140 / 220 / 300 (+0.88 per bonus attack damage)

I did play Draven on the PBE to check out his abilities. My personal opinion is that he is extremely hard to master but extremely fun. Ricochet mechanic is quite tricky since at first it feels completely random. I didn’t play long enough to know it 100%, but it as well feels like there is some script behind it so you should be able by perfect positioning be able to master this ability to full potential. He doesn't have any form of defensive cooldown except small movement speed boost from his W and slow from his E, which makes him a really risky pick - all-in champion.

Summary of this patch:

- Buffs - Swain, Ezreal, Renekton

- Nerfs - Urgot, Shen, Nocturne, Nautilus, Kog'Maw, Jax, Graves, Galio, Ahri, Darius

- New champion - Draven - Seems like a lot of fun. Great design, but might be too hard to master compared to other AD carries. Might be not worth the risk.