League of Legends Sustain Nerf Patch Looms
By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief
This week marks a momentous time in League of Legends history. The patch coming later this week is set to change the current meta game while laying the groundwork for their upcoming map and mode, Dominion. Oh and a sick looking fella by the name of Talon will be joining the League as well!
For those not in the know, League of Legend’s Dominion mode is set to change the entire way the game is played. In Dominion mode matches will no longer be fought among 2 or 3 lanes with creeps coming in predictable waves and towers waiting to be crushed on the way to ultimate victory at the enemy’s nexus. Instead a more dynamic donut shaped map has been created with 5 control points and a capture the flag style victory condition. The result? Chaos.
Players will find themselves clashing without the interference of minions at level 1 as they attempt to control various control points among the map for minion support and points that lead towards ultimate victory. Gold and leveling speed has also been amped up to ensure these action packed arena matches only last around 20 minutes (I’m doubtful the average player’s heart could handle much more). Although the mode won’t be released this week, the initial coding is being inserted into the patch laying the framework and instilling players with the faith that Dominion will be here much sooner than soontm. In fact OnRPG will go hands on with Dominion at PAX Convention this weekend and return with a detailed review!
For those with a short attention span that only care about the present, the nerfs coming to the sustain meta are a big freaking deal in the here and now. As it currently stands, the most effective way to ensure victory was to send a beefy bruiser to solo top lane, an agile and often AP based carry to feed in mid, a jungler to protect to AP carry and cover for the bruiser, and a dedicated 0 gold earning healer on bottom to babysit an AD character who farmed minions until rich and powerful. This often led to boring games of tag lasting 20+ minutes before any real action could take place. Riot’s solution? Beat those supports ugly with a nerf bat!
Soraka, Sona, Taric and Nidalee are all receiving hefty cuts to the effectiveness of their passive styled heals in exchange for more dedicated tools of destruction. While Kayle’s heals were already nerfed a couple patches ago, she is also receiving similar treatment with a buff to her AD capabilities.
What does this mean? Well theoretically, it means Soraka is now a silence bot that only serves as a healer when it comes to vital tower dives, Sona is useful for canceling ulti damage with a buff giving double defensive point heal auras, Taric must now built attack speed to be viable, and Nidalee has been altered from backline support to backline artillery. While the community is up in arms fighting this nerf, my guild members and I have already planned out our offensive support troll team to capitalize on the changes.
Tank: Taric; Offtank: Sona; AD Carry: Kayle; AP Carry: Nidalee; Aura Support: Soraka
We’ll show Riot just how hard we ‘sustain’ now.
What will this mean for the meta (and normal people)? Well that remains to be seen and our own MOBA reporter Jason Harper will be bringing us a more indepth look at the impact and repercussions along with his review of Talon later this month! Never tried League of Legends? Now is the time to Get Practicing if you want to be ready to handle the competition come Dominion’s release!
