Expecting patch tomorrow with the advent of the patch notes and spotlight. Patch noes below, spotlight further down.

As for my thoughts about the patch, there anything that merits me picking up my torch and pitchfork . Needed buffs to Karma will hopefully make her viable. I've yet to see one since patch week. Garen's usability has plummeted since he was dethroned a few patches ago, no surprise in the small buffs there. Sort of weird Morde and Leblanc buffs, neither of them feel like they really need it, much less those specific abilities. I wonder if the buff to Trueshot Barrage is the long awaited "fix" the forum goers have been raving for. Doesn't seem all that impressive, looking at, what, a 200~ damage increase late game in a meta that is full of tanky Demacians.

Also, on a bit of a "phew" note, I was expecting to see a few Maokai buffs. People were a flame on the forums and in game complaining about how useless Maokai is, but he is vastly underrated. His 1-10 lane phase is amazing and couple him with another CC champion and you can keep them at their turret or score a first blood. Even solo lane, his passive produces so much healing that if you stay dominate with your baby toss you can dominate your lane. I'm glad they didn't go up his coefficients or anything, his role of a support/off tank is delicious and lets him play more like a Morgana, which is a slot we don't have many champions to fill.

It's that time again! New skins have been officially released and will be available upon patching. As per every other champion since Xin Zhao, Jarvan IV is launching with two custom skins; Commando Jarvan and Dragon Slayer Jarvan IV. As for other champions,  Loch Ness Cho'Gath is splashing onto the scene and Anivia is getting the Hextech treatment.















It looks like Dragonslayer Jarvan is going to run you 975 RP and Commando will cost you 520. I'd be hard pressed to imagine either the Anivia or Cho'Gath skin costing you less than 975 as well.

Q: Dragon Strike: Jarvan IV’s spear extends through his opponent, dealing physical damage and lowering their armor by a percentage. If this ability is cast on the Demacian flag, it will pull Jarvan through to his Standard, knocking up all enemies in his path.

W: Golden Aegis: Jarvan IV calls upon the ancient kings of Demacia to shield him from harm and slow surrounding enemies.

E: Demacian Standard: Passive: Grants Jarvan bonus attack speed and armor. Active: Throws a Demacian flag, dealing physical damage and granting passive benefits to nearby allies.

R:Cataclysm (Ultimate): Jarvan IV heroically leaps at his target, dealing physical damage and creating a circle of terrain around them for a few seconds.

Passive: Martial Cadence: Jarvan IV exploits his target's opening, dealing a percentage of the target's current HP as magic damage. This effect cannot occur on the same target for several seconds.


Jarvan looks to be another beefy DPS champion, similar to Renekton. His ultimate looks extremely powerful and I'm oh so interested to see how it plays out. His late game looks to be fantastic considering he has % based damage and armor pen to help his offense, a self shield and two cc effects for defense, and his ultimate is certain doom for that unlucky ranged carry that is sitting in the back of the pack.

Post from Zileas up on the official forums giving a little more information about the updates to game pacing of Summoners Rift.


"We are making some changes in the next patch to reduce the time it takes for summoner's rift games to complete. Our goal was to make game times go down in general, but also make sure that games that aren't close are ending more quickly. Some of the tweaks were also to normalize the effectiveness of towers a bit against very high armor characters. Being dived by someone that basically ignores towers is lame. Being 3 shot by a tower from half health can also be frustrating.

So we are making a few changes. Here they are (generally) along with the justifications.

- Cannon and melee minions gain more magic resist with time than before. This makes it harder to clear them quickly with spell AE later in the game when a push is occuring.

- Cannon and ranged minions have more armor increase with time than before. This has a similar justification, but against physical clearing. Turret armor penetration offsets some of this.

- Cannon minions spawn more frequently after 20 minutes. They are a key pushing tool, so we wanted them around more often.

- Cannon minion and super minions have a higher degree of turret resistance, to aid in turret pushing over time.

- Minions hurt turrets more than before -- I believe it is between +30 and +60%.

- Turrets deal a bit less base damage to champions, but penetrate armor better. This means that their effectiveness vs characters is less dependent upon armor in either direction.

FAQ

Q: Won't this just make the game an early push fest?
A: Early game pushing will be a bit easier, but much of these changes are isolated to later in the game, and tower diving is now more difficult early game. Both of these inhibit early game pushing somewhat.

Q: Won't this hurt my IP gains?
A: Actually, it increases them in terms of average IP per hour. The shorter games are, the higher your rate of IP generated per minute, since completion of a game gives a fixed bonus of IP (+18 for wins, +16 for losses). Therefore, next patch will run a higher average IP-per-minute than this patch.

Q: How does this make 'not close' games completely more quickly?
A: Because it is easier to push, small advantages where you prevail somewhat in a team fight will more consistently result in tower destruction."

 Riot games just posted a new patch preview youtube video for patch 1.0.0.112. For those who don't know, these videos are geared towards discussing a few of the bigger changes within each new patch and are released a few days prior to the actual patch notes and patch.

Highlights and mentioned changes:

1) Game pacing. Morello discusses how the natural pacing of the game is a running longer than they intended. In current build after 20 minutes every 3rd wave had a stronger cannon minion in addition to the normal minions. After patch it is going to be every 2nd wave has an extra cannon minion. Another comment about this is in relation to death timers. Morello also comments that it feels early game the death times are too prohibitive and take away too much; killing an opponent and the gold bounty seems enough of a reward as opposed to them having to spend so long out of lane because of the death timer.

2) Tower Damage. Towers are now going to have around 20% armor pen. This change comes in light of champions being able to just sit under towers and take countless hits just because they are packing a few armor items. Morello comments the towers have had a bit of the damage reduced to even it out, but over all the damage will remain the same to unarmored targets.

3) Urgot "nerfs". Urgot got a bug fix that was enabling to have around 350 extra range on his missle lock on. Although this doesn't plague normal games very much it is very prominent in ranked play.

Over all, I feel all of these are appreciated changes, especially the tower damage buff. It is so annoying to see a jungle Rammus tower diving you at level 6 without repercussions. Most beefy champions like Morde, Mundo, Irelia, whoever seem to get so unruly late game and tower dive on a whim. I'm interested to see how this effects the late game defending on a tower situations.


Video reposted below

Riot games updated their site today with an lore article discussing Blitzcrank getting a makeover from Heimerdinger and Corki via Piltover Customs. Is the Great Steam Golem getting the legendary skin treatment? The last article like this presented us with Kog Maw's Legendary Skin..