Despite the fact that the League of Legends series continues to see the introduction of new characters, some champions are bound to see more use than others. However, in an attempt to highlight the strengths of some of the games underused Champions and debuff the strengths of some others, Riot Games has released the 5.11 patch, which they’ve labeled the “Diversity” patch.
Starting with the debuffs, the Sinister Blade of Noxus Katarina’s Shunpo move has seen a decrease in both its damage output and in how much extra damage the move can get from Ability Power. According to the patch notes, this was done to make “her work harder and be more cautious with when to enter a fight if she wants to make it out alive.”
Ryze players will be sad to hear that the “Diversity” patch has also made it so that his W and E moves no longer grant passive stacks/trigger cool-down effects when cast on dying targets. The reason why this happened in the first place was actually because it was a bug.
Also, despite getting some “pretty big changes” in a recent patch, League of Legends resident archer Ashe has also some under fire. For starters, players will no longer be able to use her Ranger’s Focus passive on turrets, and her Volley attack now deals less damage. Finally, her Hawkshot ability now has less vision while traveling.
On the plus side, the new “Diversity” patch has also granted some Champions buffs. For starters, Brand’s Pyroclasm now seeks out new targets if the first one becomes un-targetable during its travel time.
For the first time in awhile the Sheriff Caitlyn has received a buff. For starters, her passive Headshot now ignores 50% of a target Champions bonus armor, and her Yordle Snap Trap move now takes 1.1 seconds to set up instead of taking between 1 to 1.25 seconds. Finally, her Ace in the Hole move now gives vision at the start of its cast. In the patch notes they explain that the reason behind Caitlyns Headshot buff is because “Not much behind some general improvements to what feel like bugs (especially in regards to R and Vision), but now Headshot’s fancy bonus armor penetration (as in, only penetrates bonus armor like Yasuo’s R) will help keep Caitly’s shots relevant in a late-game of tanks and fighters as she loads them up with greater frequency.”
The “Diversity” patch also aims to make the long term Champion Malphite more fun to play. For starters, his Brutal Strikes’ passive now gives him additional armor instead of dealing additional damage, while its active now deals a set amount of additional damage to its target and surrounding enemies. Brutal Strike also now displays a visual effect to show that its active too, and Brutal Strikes attack animation is Malphite’s critical attack animation.
Along with tweaking Champions, the 5.11 patch also makes some changes to some items, levels, and jungle monsters. Riot Games has deleted the Madred’s Razor item as it “doesn’t build into anything. That’s depressing, so we’re deleting it.” They also nerfed the Luden’s Echo item so it now” builds less charges per spell and scales lower with ability power.” The Wicket Hatchet also received a small buff where it now deals magic damage instead of physical damage.
Jungler’s will be happy to hear that this patch has made being a jungler slightly more rewarding as all monsters now start on level 2. This means that after players clear their first camp, they’ll reach level 2 and level 3 after “a full clear.” Despite starting on level 2, all monsters have seen a hit to their health and they’ll now spawn in quicker as well.
Finally, the Vilemaw has seen a big buff. It now has its own “pretty” custom health bar along with 2000 extra health. While it now deals less damage, its area of effect attacks now have a slightly bigger range and there’s no less delay between its melee attacks. They also removed some of the blind spots where players could stand to get it free hits.
Upon killing the Vilemaw, the whole team will now get the Crest of Crushing Wrath. This crest turns its holders into “ghostly wraiths” which ignore all unit collision. On top of that the holders minions become more powerful while the other teams minions receive a tempory debuff.
These are only some of the changes that came in the League of Legends 5.11 “Diversity” patch and you can read the full patch notes here.
So what’s your opinion on the 5.11 patch? Let us know in the comments section below.
Published: Jun 10, 2015 12:44 pm