riot comments on changes to the jungle in season 3

We've actually been working on changes for the jungle in anticipation for Season 3 and though I can't really give all the details here because we are still iterating, I'd like to give you guys some insights into what's going on.

There are a multitude of issues we're tackling and they are very much intertwined. The current dominant jungle strategy (GP10 Support / Tanks) is fairly stagnant and the overall current jungle playstyle in many cases severely limits potential strategy and choices in other lanes/roles as well.

One large problem is that efficient farming of the jungle has very little pay off compared to constantly applying lane pressure by camping / ganking. Overall junglers severely lack in gold unless they successfully gank and snowball the game from the get-go and/or opt for a GP10 strategy.

The approach we're currently taking is to significantly increase the rewards of jungle camps over time (junglers already have a huge impact on the early game). To go along with this though, we are buffing jungle camps back up to actually be more threatening while simultaneously offering new / improved item paths that allow players to specialize in the jungle. Overall we want junglers to be rewarded for building combat stats rather than always being forced to build gold generation items.

This is not the only thing we're changing in the jungle for next season, but these types of things are definitely on our radar.

Warwick back to king of the jungle?

snagged this from reddit - here's what we know about season 3 changes... sadly everything is in pretty broad strokes.  No official word on the timing.

Jungle

• Will make "safe"/single-target junglers viable again (Fiddle, WW, etc.)
• Buff the jungle camps (between Season 1 and Season 2 difficulty), increase gold dramatically)
• Aim to increase mid- to late-game gold

Items

• New support-oriented items
• New ways for supports to get gold (masteries?)
• Look at start-of-game items (balancing boots+pots vs Doran's, etc.)
• Work on making on-hit builds viable

Champion Reworks

• Heimerdinger and Karma are the current rework-ees
• IronStylus re: time on redesigning champs: "no matter how many mothers you throw at it, it takes nine months to make a baby."
• They're going to look at model sizes and adjust them so they're more uniform (Sona and MF should be similar height, for example)

Season 3 Features

• Ladder "improvements" mentioned, but in vague terms
• Built-in VOIP unlikely in LoL's feature
• Achievements might show up during Season 3

Masteries

• There will be a rework similar to the one at the start of Season 2

Added note - riot indicated that jungles like ww and fiddlesticks thrive in the new jungle.

Yeah - I'm thinking they need to make it good enough to be a support with the gold per masteries/runes and some sort of gp/5, but also reduce the gp/5 value so that it doesn't make sense to get them on junglers or top laners.  So you could make more money via the support masteries and less on the gp/5.  We'll see what they come up with.  They also made it sound like a 0 cs support will get more money than what is typical for other items.  I think this means that we'll see more ap centric, non standard supports thrive as they'll be able to add more ap items to their kit.   Guess we'll wait n see.

I'd love it if there was more diversity or strategy in item builds.  adc's typically build the same stuff, etc.  hopefully ga gets nerfed or is more expensive for less base stats, etc. 

streaming

http://www.twitch.tv/1pacov1

new patch inbound

Twisted Fate

• Twisted Fate has received a visual upgrade. Click here for more details.

Fiddlesticks

• Fixed a bug where Fiddlestick's autoattack could be interrupted by Dark Wind

Hecarim

• Fixed a bug where using Devastating Charge on an enemy Tower causes it to redirect aggro onto Hecarim

Katarina

• Updated Katarina's Lore

Lulu

• Fixed a bug where Lulu's autoattack could be interrupted by Pix

Malzahar

• Fixed a bug where voidlings could get stuck in walls when using abilities in impassible terrain

Rengar

• Fixed a bug where Rengar could double jump

Ryze

• Fixed a bug where Ryze's autoattack could be interrupted by Spell Flux

Syndra

• Fixed a bug where Syndra could force Monsters to attack each other
• Fixed a tooltip error for Force of Will
• Fixed a bug where stunning an opponent on Dominion could cause a graphical error with the scoreboard

Co-op vs. AI

• Intermediate bots now have a chance to use a random skin

General

• Attack speed buffs / debuffs will now immediately take effect instead of having to wait for the next autoattack
• Fears will no longer reset jungle minions
• Fixed a bug where Baron Nashor remained "out of combat" when an enemy stealth unit is nearby
• Fixed a bug where in rare instances Champions would not be able to autoattack

Click here to comment

 of particular note: 

Methinks there is quite a bit of effort going into buffing fid/ww and unintentionally shaco for the s3 changes.

  Side note - would love to see a meaningful patch sometime soon.  I'm just glad Katrina's lore has been updated.

look - bottom line is that wards now have skins.  gg.  heh - anyway, love the new stuff... just wondering when... gotta be soon if they want to hit Halloween.

hahha

hahahahhahaha

fuggin delightful.  Ty swan

big changes inbound.  quick copy paste then discussion.  I'll start by saying... riot... smeh...

Another patch is about ready to hit the Public Beta Environment, so it’s time to take an in-depth look at a few of the potential updates slated to hit the Fields of Justice. We won’t cover everything, and some of this is likely to change based on your feedback, but here’s what you can expect when you log into the PBE.

League of Rengar

After his initial release, we made a series of improvements to help Rengar live up to his reputation as the ultimate predator. They worked – so well, in fact, that even after one round of nerfs Rengar’s still wreaking havoc all over the Fields of Justice.

To dial back some of the extra kick that we gave the Pridestalker, we’ve got a series of upcoming changes. Step one was taking the bonus from a Ferocity-charged Savagery attack down to a more reasonable level. We’re also reducing his base Health Regen to make him less sustainable in lane. Because his base survivability was so high, Rengar players were able to dump a disproportionate amount of their Ferocity into raw damage potential. This made him an incredibly frustrating lane bully. With his Health Regen at a more reasonable level, Rengar will now have to balance his Ferocity between sustaining with Battle Roar and raw ganking potential.

In addition to his laning presence, Rengar was able to abuse his ultimate to escape from sticky situations a little too easily. Since we wanted this ability to be about hunting people down and killing them, rather than split pushing and vanishing into the woods, we decided to reduce total stealth duration on Thrill of the Hunt and increase the cooldown. This should give the decision to go on the hunt a bit more gravitas.

Evelynn Makes Widows

Since the remake, the Widowmaker has really been living up to her name, and Agony’s Embrace has been causing tragic moments for champions all across the Fields of Justice. In an effort to mitigate the number of traumatized players Eve’s been leaving in her wake, we’re going to be dialing back the Ability Power ratio on her ultimate quite a bit. This should help to prevent her from snowballing out of control as the game goes on and she racks up AP.

Evelynn’s ultimate was intended to work as a great initiation tool, slowing enemies and giving Evelynn the shield she needed to stay up through a team fight. In conjunction with a Deathfire Grasp, however, it can brutally spike down an enemy before they can react.

Deathfire Grasp

While we’re on the subject, Deathfire Grasp is a particularly challenging item to balance because adding an additional nuke to an already bursty mage (like Evelynn) can be a rather scary proposition. Because the stats it offers are already so desirable, there’s almost no downside to folding the active ability on DFG in with your standard spell combo and simply blowing people up.

Because of the power the active brings to the table, we’ll be scaling back stat bonuses attached to DFG. We’re also scaling back the base damage on the active effect, but increasing the AP ratio to move it more toward the intended function of dealing with big, beefy tanks later in the game when you’ve had time to build up a bunch of Ability Power.

Syndra Rising

Syndra is getting a ton of quality of life improvements in the upcoming patch that should make her a lot easier to use effectively. While her overall utility placed her in a pretty strong position, getting the most out of the Dark Sovereign could be prohibitively tricky. In the new patch, her abilities should function much more intuitively. We also fixed a couple of nasty bugs that could prevent Force of Will, Scatter the Weak, or even Unleashed Power from functioning as intended, which could really hurt your game if you were relying on one them to keep an enemy at bay, set up a combo, or burst somebody down.

Jayce Gets Hammered

Jayce is proving a bit more formidable than we’d intended. The combination of Acceleration Gate and Shock Blast provides him with too much low cost poke, particularly for how difficult it can be to dodge the combo. To make Jayce players choose their shots a bit more carefully, we’re increasing the Mana cost on Acceleration Gate to make him a bit less frustrating to fight against.

We also removed the flat base damage from Thundering Blow to make early exchanges with the Defender of Tomorrow a bit less heavy hitting. We’d always intended for this skill to be a disengage tool, and having it function as his hardest hitting nuke made it a bit too powerful. Even with just the percentage damage and Attack Damage ratio to carry it, it still hits pretty hard, but should make the idea of exchanging combos with Jayce a little less of an intimidating proposition.

Robot Dancing

Sona and Blitzcrank are two supports who both bring a lot to the table, but both are actually too durable for the functions their currently serve. To make sure they pay the price for mistakes they might make in lane, we’ll be dialing back the base stats on both of these popular support champions.

For Sona, we really want to preserve the awesome poke gameplay she has with Hymn of Valor and Power Chord, but we still want her to be vulnerable when she overextends. She’s so safe in lane right now that other supports are actually less viable options by comparison. By taking her down a peg, we think we’ll actually open up the playing field in bottom lane to even more support characters.

While Blitz needs to be a great deal more durable than Sona to fill his role, right now he’s so resilient that he’s able to initiate with relatively little risk. While pulling an opponent is still definitely a viable way to initiate, Blitzcrank’s tanky attributes allow him to simply use Overdrive to run in and open with Power Fist, and then yank the opponent back into range with Rocket Grab as they start to run away. We’re pleased to see these balls-out Power Fist charges, but we’d like them to serve as more of a high-risk gambit than they currently are.

Ezreal’s Essence Fluxes

Ezreal’s been a pretty consistently dominant force in the AD carry lineup since his induction into the League, albeit with a significant learning curve. Ezreal was always intended to be a slippery, long-range, high-skill champion who relied on his extreme mobility and long range poke to take down enemies. Unfortunately, right now, the Attack Speed debuff on Essence Flux is so powerful that it allows him to dominate 1 v 1 duels without doing any of that.

In the upcoming patch, we’re removing the Attack Speed debuff on Essence Flux to prevent the Prodigal Explorer from simply casting his W on an adversary and then finishing off his crippled opponent with repeated attacks. This should force Ezreal players to be quicker on their feet and win duels through superior positioning rather than a brutal debuff.

Phage and Trinity Force

On a related note, we’re also bringing the slow effect on both Phage and Trinity Force down a peg. While this isn’t a direct nerf, both Ezreal and Corki (the two prime Trinity Force customers) can snowball pretty heavily through the added chasing potential that these items provide. To give injured opponents a better chance to escape from attackers both in top and bottom lane, we are reducing the slow effect applied by ranged attacks on both items, and reducing the slow duration on Phage.

k - back to pacov.  So - this is the 1st bit of crap that is pretty much official for season 3 release.  I doubt they will change a damn thing you see here.

so - here we go.  Sona - congrats-  here's how you counter her.  Heavy early game aggression.  I feel like riot completely missed the mark with this nonsense nerf.  Her strength is EXACTLY the same type of thing as blitz.  Its not that they are early game dynamos (though a good sona can poke and sustain a bit more than other supports) - its her ult.  And its blitz's grab.  Those 2 things are the reason those characters are desirable supports.  A sona flash + ult is significantly more accurate than the same move on leona.  She literally needs to barely catch 1 character to begin an initiate and its a super stun time.  Same thing with blitz.  You can play rot as a blitz support and then land a crucial grab.  That can turn the game around completely.   Sure, a support like taric could flash stun someone, but he can't potentially stun multiple folks.  While sona, even if its not in the picking off folks way that blitz works, can ult an entire team.  Anyway, here's what I would change on sona.  Adjust her ult so that there is a slight delay between the cast and effort (or slightly more than now).  Blitz is a threat because of that grab - increase the cool down at early levels and leave him as is.  instead, riot says nerf base stats. So, pacov says, execute sona every game.  If she is the support, kill her immediately with extreme aggression.

jace - the changes are silly.  He doesn't have mana problems.  Increasing the cost on acceleration gate does nothing to his early game.  Impacts his mid game a little bit, and nothing to late game.  It's a silly, arbitrary change.  Jace is strong in lane because of his poke and also his disengage.  Smart players will have enough mana to disengage still.  This does nothing.  The dmg lost on thundering blow hurts a little, but its not that big a deal imo.  And the goofs even say he still hit's pretty hard.  Anyway, the strat is still the same - if you have a top lane jayce, have the jungler add some pressure early to force him out.  He doesn't farm exceedingly well.  Give the top lane some breathing room as jungle and jayce won't shine as much.  Another miss for riot imo. 

ez nerfs... sigh... just dumb imo.  ez shines because of his mobility + that buff.  W/e tho - nerf ez.  Let's see what happens.  What they really need to do is change the way his dodge works...

syndra - here's how to fix her immediately.  make it so she can consistenly stun by knocking all of the balls at enemy hero's 1st.  Boom.  Now she can support and be exceptionally strong in lane.  As long as you cannot count on her to stun, she's going to be meh imo.  And likely everyone else's as she still won't get any play. 

rengar - blahblahblah - you'd have to change his invisibility to like 2-4 seconds for a nerf to work.  They won't.  Solution to the playstyle they hate - make him visible even if he ults if 2 or more champs are nearby - or remove the speed buff if that happens (eg he can't run like a madman).  Crazy, i know, but it forces more strategic decisions.

re eve - do w/e u want. 

jebus - PBE is overloaded.  26 minute queue time.

I'm going to give this little program a go - take a look

also, this is just awesome

FTFY

I'm finally logged into pbe.  Going to stream a little bit while I putz around.

http://www.twitch.tv/1pacov1