Today, League of Legends received a huge update that focused on balancing some champions and adding a brand new champion – Talon, The Blade’s Shadow. The patch included a long awaited nerf to Jax and a minor buff to Kayle. This patch also added several UI improvements such as the ‘kill callout’, which are essentially the Counter-Strike death indicators (Who killed who). Alongside Jax and Kayle, any champion with a healing ability was also given some changes that encourages them to play more offensively. Some of the major champions that were affected were Nidalee, Soraka, and Taric.

Talon, The Blade’s Shadow

Mercy (Passive): Talon’s auto-attacks deal additional damage to a target that is under the influence of any crowd control effect

Noxian Diplomacy: Talon viciously stabs his enemy, dealing heavy physical damage and causing them to leave a blood trail that Talon can use to track them.

Rake: Talon fans out three blades in front of him that quickly return to him, dealing damage and slowing any target hit in either direction.

Cutthroat: Talon leaps behind his target and silences them for a short duration, amplifying the damage of any of his follow up attacks and abilities.

Shadow Assault (Ultimate): Talon enters stealth for a short duration, gaining a movement speed boost and sending blades that deal damage to all enemies in their path flying in every direction. Once the blades reach a certain distance, they pause and form a circle. When Talon reappears from stealth, the blades return to him, once again dealing damage to any opponent they pass through.

Release Notes Excerpt

Jax

• Leap Strike damage reduced to 20/45/70/95/120 from 35/60/85/110/135
• Empower
  • Damage reduced to 60/95/130/165/200 from 75/110/135/180/215
  • Empower now breaks spell shields

Kayle

• Attack damage per level increased to 2.8 from 2.5
• Attack speed per level increased to 2.5 from 2
• Reckoning
  • Now scales with bonus attack damage at a 1.0 ratio in addition to a 1.0 ability power ratio
  • Damage amplification increased to 6/7/8/9/10% from 5% at all levels

Nidalee

• Javelin Toss
  • Mana Cost reduced to 50/60/70/80/90 from 60/70/80/90/100
  • Cooldown reduced to 6 seconds from 7 seconds
• Pounce
  • May now be affected by Cooldown Reduction
  • Cooldown increased to 4 seconds from 3 seconds
• Primal Surge
  • Mana cost adjusted to 60/80/100/120/140 from 65/70/75/80/85
  • Base heal adjusted to 50/85/120/155/190 from 60/90/120/150/180
  • Ability power ratio reduced to 0.7 from 1.25
• Swipe ability power ratio increased to 0.4 from 0.2
• Aspect of the Cougar now grants 10/15/20 armor and magic resistance instead of 10% Dodge
• Fixed several tooltip errors (especially those in Cougar form)

Soraka

• Recommended Items updated
• Base health increased to 446 from 426
• Base health per level increased to 71 from 67
• Starcall
  • Cooldown reduced to 2.5 seconds from 3 seconds
  • Base damage reduced to 60/85/110/135/160 from 60/90/120/150/180
  • Ability power ratio increased to .4 from .25
  • Mana cost reduced to 35/40/45/50/55 from 40/50/60/70/80
  • Shred increased to 8/9/10/11/12 from 8 at all levels
  • Maximum stacks reduced to 10 from 20
  • Range increased by 30
• Astral Blessing
  • Ability power ratio reduced to .45 from .9
  • Cooldown increased to 20 seconds from 10 seconds
  • Base Heal increased to 70/140/210/280/350 from 60/120/180/240/300
  • Armor buff increased to 25/50/75/100/125 from 20/35/50/65/80
  • Armor buff duration increased to 5 seconds from 4 seconds
  • Cast range increased to 750 from 650
• Infuse
  • Ability power ratio increased to .75 from .6
  • Cooldown reduced to 10 seconds from 15 seconds
  • Silence duration adjusted to 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 from 1/1.5/2/2.5/3
  • No longer grants double Mana when casting on yourself
• Wish
  • Ability power ratio reduced to .7 from 1.3
  • Mana cost reduced to 100/175/250 from 200/275/350

Taric

• Base attack speed increased to .625 from .613
• Imbue
  • Ability power ratio reduced to .6 from 1.1
  • Cooldown increased to 20/19/18/17/16 seconds from 16/15/14/13/12 seconds
  • Basic attacks now reduce Imbue?s cooldown by 1 second (from 2) but the reduction now increases to 3 seconds when attacking an enemy champion

For a complete look at the official release notes, click here.

The Devil Plays Protoss: Respecting Our Players

by Jacqueline Geller

Any opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of compLexity Gaming or its parent company.

We need to talk.

I would be unfairly stereotyping if I said that this article needs to be read by every SC2 or eSports fan, but what I’m about to write needs to be read by some members of the community.

Despite how SC:BW players have been treated as rockstars in Korea for years, it wasn’t expected that professional players in North America would reach the same rockstar status so quick. People involved in the American scene were wishfully thinking that SC2 would reach the same level, but when the game first came out, it was more hopeful speculation than expectation. It feels like yesterday that Greg “EGIdrA” Fields was that white guy in Korea who was returning home because the Western scene was starting to grow. Thanks to the passionate and diverse community members, from Sean “Day9” Plott to Geoff “EGiNcontroL” Robinson, SC2 has exploded as an eSport in North American. As much as the community is thrilled about the growth of SC2 as an eSport in the Western scene, I don’t think the industry was quite prepared for what happened.

The community grew big and fast. It seems like overnight Greg “IdrA” Fields went from the American competing in the GSL to one of the most hated men in SC2, known by all, idolized and loved. Instead of a handful of dedicated fans, at live events there are hundreds of fans anxious to get autographs and meet their favorite players. As IdrA walks away from the main stage booths after winning an MLG game, he is swarmed by fans hoping to get a photo or an autograph from this infamous player. At MLG Anaheim, Day9 had a four hundred plus line up during his autograph session filled of hopeful fans wanting to meet the legend himself. When casting was done for the day at NASL, Nick “Tasteless” Plott and Dan “Artosis” Stemkoski had to sneak out the back door in order to avoid hordes of fans. SC2 players and personalities in North America have become rockstars and fast.

Professional players need to be treated with the utmost respect. I know that players love and appreciate their fans, but there is a time and a place for everything. It’s exciting to be at a live events among the heroic players. At both BlizzCon 2010 and MLG Anaheim, I was over the top excited about meeting players even though I was doing my very best not to show it. If you’re attending a live event, please be respectful of the players. If someone loses, it is not the time to ask for a photograph or an autograph. It is especially not the time for you to make remarks about where the player made mistakes in his last match. Players know where their mistakes were made and what went wrong. Although you can write whatever you’d like about a game on Reddit or TL, it is rude to approach a player to tell him what he did wrong after a loss.

Day9 signing autographs at MLG Anaheim.

Meeting professional players at live events is a major part of the live event experience. Because no one expected the eSport to explode so fast, live events are taking time to adjust to popularity of players and provide player-only lounges or places where players can relax without the horde of fan. Until players have a place to decompress, give them their space. Be respectful of them and their emotions, and they’ll be happy to take photos or sign autographs. Some players, like Tyler “LiquidTyler” Wasieleski, who has been open about his dislike of overzealous fans, are having an autograph signing. If a player you like is having an autograph signing, approach him then. He will be more than happy to sit and sign autographs for hours for fans during his signing session in exchange for the respect that you will let him be while he’s not at the signing booth.

At live events, please be respectful to our players and community members. The great men and women in the community deserve our respect. After MLG Raleigh, I would be thrilled to hear how polite, respectful and courteous the fans were there despite their obvious excitement and passion. Make it happen.

GL HF,
Jacq

About the Author – Jacqueline Geller

After years of playing World of Warcraft, a friend introduced Jacqueline to Starcraft early last year. Jacqueline’s relationship with Starcraft started out slowly: a handful of casual dates, a little bit of flirting but nothing serious. She took her relationship with the game to the next level after BlizzCon 2010 where she experienced eSports magic first-hand and realized that Starcraft was the one. Despite being a mediocre player, she has been clambering the ladder at a glacial pace and has spent more time watching Starcraft online than she’d like to admit. In March, Jacqueline made the leap from eSports fan to eSports professional when she was hired by the Handsome Nerd as their Art Director, combining her design skills with her love of Starcraft. Since its start in April, Jacqueline has been a contributing writer for the North American Star League, writing coverage for Division 1. Offline, Jacqueline is a bookworm, a runner, a freeride snowboarder and has a Human Ecology degree with a Clothing and Textiles major.

View Jacqueline’s profile here.
Visit @jacquelinesg on Twitter

Today ESEA announced that if it reaches 20,000 Premium subscriptions by the end of the year, the company will “throw a massive open LAN tournament next summer and guarantee a total prize pot of at least $100,000.” Promising to, “support whatever games are part of Premium come next year, and if the community wants it, we’ll make a point to throw one hell of a BYOC to go along with the main event.”

Currently, ESEA has 14,000 subscribers. In order to get the elusive 6,000 to join ESEA is revamping some of their features. The new referral system “features live rankings, free Premium accounts for the top 10 referrers, random monthly prizes for the top 100 referrers, as well as your ranking prominently displayed in your profile.” To add more incentive for current subscribers to pitch in, ESEA is promising to fly out the “#1 North American referrer to next summer’s event.”

Aside from the referral system, ESEA is also promising to “improve our search rankings, and have revamped the Premium Code system to help grow our international subscriber base.” The company will also be “unveiling a free game server network to feed into Premium, a guest pass code feature to help you refer more people and win, as well as spending some of our first dollars ever on actually advertising ESEA.”

With all these initiatives, gaining 6,000 new subscribers seems pretty obtainable. To find out more about ESEA and the benefits of their premium accounts, click here.