The notes for League of Legends patch 6.4 just dropped, bringing with it a bunch of much needed changes. Kog’maw has been wreaking havoc all across Summoner’s Rift, becoming a must pick or ban in competitive play. His attack speed has been lowered, hopefully making his damage per second not nearly as OP. Just look at that damage .
A bunch of other champion tweaks came in this patch. Ryze, Katarina, and Svir received small buffs to their damage. Everyone else got either minor or significant nerfs. Lucian and Malphite have become great picks in the meta, and got some much needed toning down. The Culling lost 200 range and Ground Slam does slightly less damage. Viktor lost some damage on his Death Ray, Udyr lost some damage on his Phoenix form (along with the shield on his Turtle Form) and Tahm Lost a little width on his tongue.
The biggest nerf this patch had to be Gangplank. Like Kog’maw, the pirate has been destroying games with his barrels, which do too much damage. In last week’s game against TSM and Cloud 9, Balls on Gangplank managed to singlehandedly carry with his barrel explosions. He can now only have three barrels out at one time, which is huge since he used to have five (at max rank). Parrrley gives less gold per minion kill, which is another huge blow to Gangplank mains.
Riot went overboard on this patch, loading it with a bunch of item changes. Muramana can no longer be toggled, and is automatically active. It takes 3 percent of your mana per auto or single target spell and does twice that as bonus physical damage. This might destroy this item in competitive play, since losing most of your mana late game can lose you a prolonged team fight. Iceborn Gauntlet lost its lingering slow and some width on its field. With these item nerfs and the nerf to Trueshot Barrage, Ezreal might once again be considered too weak to play.
Boots of Swiftness had its speed lowered, which isn’t a surprise. Last patch, they raised the cost by 100 gold, but they were still the best shoes. Mercury Treads got their tenacity increased by 10 percent, which may make them the go-to shoe for tanks (again.)
The last major change has to be to the Warlord’s Bloodlust mastery. It now gives lifesteal based on your missing health. I see this mastery being used on champions that build life steal and not much else. Riot’s still having trouble finding balance with their keystone masteries, so they added another one. Expose Weakness was added to the Ferocity tree and causes enemies to take 3 percent more damage from your allies.
This patch was huge and should create more diversity in the meta. What were some points we missed? Tell us in the comments!
