Today, League of Legends received another update, adding a brand new champion – Fizz, the Tidal Trickster. The patch included balances to Graves and Akali, changes to ranged carries, and several other changes to many champions. This patch also marks the release of the new season two Masteries. The mastery trees have been altered substantially to accomodate new summoner spells and new ways to play champions.

Fizz, the Tidal Trickster

Nimble Fighter (Passive): Fizz’s dexterity allows him to ignore unit collision and take less damage from basic attacks.

Urchin Strike: Fizz dashes through his target, dealing normal attack damage plus additional magic damage.

Seastone Trident:

• Passive: Fizz’s attacks rend his target, applying a damage over time effect that strengthens if the opponent is low on life.
• Active: Fizz’s attacks are empowered, dealing additional magic damage and causing grievous wounds to his opponents.

Playful / Trickster: Fizz hops onto his staff, becoming untargetable. He may then choose to slam the ground or hop off to another location

Chum the Waters (Ultimate): Fizz flings a fish that can bind itself onto enemy champions – After a brief delay, a Shark will emerge from the earth to eat the fish, dealing damage and knocking back all enemy champions.

Release Notes Excerpt

Graves

• General
  • Attack range reduced to 525 from 550
  • Base mana lowered to 295 from 342
• Buckshot damage per additional missile reduced to 25% from 30%

Akali

• Twin Disciplines
  • Initial spell vamp gained upon obtaining 10 bonus attack damage reduced to 8% from 10%
  • Additional spell vamp reduced to 1% per 6 attack damage from 1% per 5 attack damage
  • Initial magic damage bonus upon obtaining 20 ability power reduced to 8% from 10%
  • Additional magic damage bonus reduced to 1% per 6 ability power from 1% per 5 ability power
• Decoy
  • Casting Decoy no longer instantly shows a reduction in Wukong’s mana bar to enemies
  • Fixed a bug where Wukong’s stealth state did not ignore unit collision
  • Improved general Decoy behavior and placement – the Decoy should now more accurately mimic Wukong’s previous position and behavior
  • Wukong is now pushed forward slightly when using Decoy, rather than the Decoy being pushed back from Wukong’s position
• Mark of the Assassin
  • Projectile base damage and proc base damage reduced to 45/70/95/120/145 from 50/75/100/125/150

Corki

• Phosphorus Bomb
  • Base damage increased to 80/130/180/230/280 from 70/120/170/220/270
  • Now reveals champions for 6 seconds in addition to revealing the area for 6 seconds (does not reveal stealth)

Miss Fortune

• Bullet Time attack damage ratio increased to .45 from .4

Tristana

• Base attack damage increased to 46.5 from 44.5
• Tristana will now automatically attack the target she casts Explosive Shot on
• Buster Shot
  • Tristana will now automatically attack the target she casts Explosive Shot on
  • Now has an indicator around the target to show knockback radius (similar to Brand’s Conflagration)

Summoner Spells

• Clairvoyance
  • Cooldown increased to 70 seconds from 55
  • Improved Clairvoyance increases duration by 2 seconds, down from 4 and no longer reduces the cooldown
• Cleanse
  • Now cleanses summoner spell debuffs such as Exhaust’s movement speed and damage reduction and Ignite’s damage over time
  • Cooldown increased to 210 seconds from 150 seconds
  • Improved Cleanse no longer reduces cooldown, but now extends the secondary disable reduction buff by 1 second
• Exhaust
  • Duration reduced to 2.5 seconds from 3 seconds
  • Improved Exhaust no longer increases the duration
• Flash
  • Cooldown increased to 265 seconds from 255 seconds
  • Range reduced to 400 from 450
• Fortify
  • Removed
• Garrison
  • Now usable at Summoner Level 1, down from Summoner Level 4
• Ghost
  • Now improved in the Offense Mastery tree instead of Utility
• Heal
  • Heal amount per level increased to 25 from 20
  • Improved Heal no longer reduces the cooldown but now increases the amount healed by 15%
• Promote
  • Added to Summoner’s Rift
  • Promotes the nearest allied siege minion, increasing its attack range, health, armor, and magic resist. 180 second cooldown base.
  • Improved in the Utility tree – Improved Promote increases the defensive bonus stats of promoted minions by 15%
  • Now usable at Summoner Level 8 (on both the Crystal Scar and Summoner’s Rift), up from Summoner Level 1
• Rally
  • Removed
• Revive
  • Health bonus upon reviving is now innate to the spell (as opposed to requiring Improved Revive)
  • Improved Revive now grants a 125% movement speed increase upon revival (Improved Revive no longer grants a 225% movement speed increase)
• Smite
  • Now improved in the Defense tree instead of Offense
  • Improved Smite no longer reduces cooldown but the gold gained on cast is increased to 10 from 5
  • Cooldown reduced to 70 seconds from 75 seconds
• Surge (New)
  • Empowers your champion, increasing ability power by 10-78 (depending on level) and attack speed by 35% for 12 seconds (220 second cooldown)
  • Improved Surge increases the attack speed bonus to 40% and ability power gained by 10%
  • Usable at summoner level 1
• Teleport
  • Usable at summoner level 1

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

Today, with the tournament only one week away, DreamHack has announced the commentator line up for its StarCraft II event at DreamHack Winter 2011 (Nov. 24-27). Taking place at “one of Sweden’s largest sports arenas Kinnarps Arena” DreamHack Winter is looking to be one of the best live eSports events this year, especially considering the caster lineup.

The lineup includes:

• Day[9] – Sean Plott
• TotalBiscuit – John Bain
• MrBitter – Ben Nichols
• Apollo – Shaun Clark
• Tasteless – Nick Plott
• Artosis – Dan Stemkoski

Anyone who follows StarCraft II as an eSport is already aware of the reputation these commentators bring. With these six commentators taking the mic, you are pretty much guaranteed exciting games and hilarious banter. For those newer members of the SC2 community who may not be familiar with these casters, allow me to fill you in.

Day[9] hosts a webshow every day called “The Day[9] Daily” where he teaches you “to be a better gamer.” A mix of comedy, tips, tricks and entertaining stories, anyone who is looking to improve their StarCraft II game should check out the daily. Considering Day[9] is a former Brood War pro and WCG champion, I’d say he’s a qualified instructor. TotalBiscuit, on the other hand, doesn’t lend too much when it comes to analyzing strategy. Don’t let this put you off of him, though. He’s by far one of the best play-by-play commentators in the business. With his charming British accent and motor mouth, you’ll find TotalBusicut to be quite gem in the commentator booth. Then you have MrBitter and Apollo, both stellar casters in their own right, however get the two together and you’re in for a treat. These two have been making quite the splash commentating the Intel Extreme Masters series together. Lastly you have Tasteless and Artosis, better known as Tastosis the Casting Archon, commentators for the GSL. Widely considered the best in the business, it should come as no surprise that when these two aren’t commentating the GSL’s Code S they’re often found flying around the world commentating the biggest eSports events. Just this year, these two have casted several MLGs, the NASL final, and Blizzcon. If you haven’t been watching Tastosis, do yourself a favor and buy a season pass to the GSL.

If you do tune in to DreamHack Winter next week, be sure to keep an eye out for both NaNiWa and DongReaGu as they will be participating and representing compLexity at the event.

For more details on DreamHack Winter, click here.

Only two hours ago Valve released a statement to users regarding a potential breach in the Steam service, including the possible risk that credit card information has been captured.

Although Steam account passwords will not be forced to change, it is recommended that all users do so immediately. Steam forum users will be forced to reset their passwords.

Below is the official statement from Valve’s Gabe Newell:

Dear Steam Users and Steam Forum Users,

Our Steam forums were defaced on the evening of Sunday, November 6.  We began investigating and found that the intrusion goes beyond the Steam forums.

We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums.   This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information.

We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked. We are still investigating.

We don’t have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely. While we only know of a few forum accounts that have been compromised, all forum users will be required to change their passwords the next time they login. If you have used your Steam forum password on other accounts you should change those passwords as well. 

We do not know of any compromised Steam accounts, so we are not planning to force a change of Steam account passwords (which are separate from forum passwords). However, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to change that as well, especially if it is the same as your Steam forum account password.  

We will reopen the forums as soon as we can. 

I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Gabe.

More information will be provided as soon as it is released.

The Devil Plays Protoss: A Fish Out of Water

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.

The hosts of Lo3, Scoots, DjWheat, Slasher

The esports community is new and experiencing growing pains. From prize pool drama to game titles losing popularity, the uncharted waters of esports are vast, and the community is still finding its footing.

One the those growing pains of esports is identity crisis. What is an esport? What competitive game titles qualify as an esport? Are there requirements that must be met in order for a game to be given the elusive esports badge of recognition? While some games are easier to identify one way or the other, there are areas of gray that will one day be easier to define. As I’m comparatively new to the esports scene, I prefer to listen to the opinions of my elders (see: the Live on Three hosts) when it comes to esports history and defining esports, and I won’t make a sweeping generalization about what’s considered an esport in this article.

Esports enthusiasts can often be simply fans of one esport. Despite waving the mighty esports flag, there are fans who only enjoy one game. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing if fans are accepting and supportive of other games, but if we’re trying to grow the community, it’s best if individuals don’t blindly hate against other games. I would consider myself an esports fan, but I will admit that I lived in the SC2 bubble for a long time. I’d dabble in other games as a casual gamer or stream viewer, but I can’t say that I regularly watched other competitive titles or participated actively in communities outside of SC2. It’s not that I disliked other games, it’s just that I enjoyed the familiarity and comfort of the SC2 bubble.

This weekend, I took a big leap outside of the SC2 world and attended Canada Cup, the biggest fighting game tournament in the country. While the fighting game community is still determining its relationship with esports from its arcade roots, I think that the signs that fighting games are becoming more and more involved within the esports community are apparent. Top players like Justin Wong and Mike Ross are on major esports teams like Evil Geniuses and compLexity, and tournaments like MLG and IEM are trying to find a place for the FGC within their tournaments.

Why did I, a SC2 fan, attend this major FGC event? I thought that it would be fun to try something new and a good learning opportunity. I knew practically nothing about the FGC aside from a handful of top players names and achievements, and I knew that I’d be a fish out of water. The tournament was a mere three hour drive away, though, so why not? Let’s be honest, how often does a major esports tournament make its way to Alberta, Canada? Not often, and I wasn’t about to miss an event that was practically in my backyard.

I had a blast over the weekend and learned a ton about the FGC. The atmosphere is nothing like anything I had ever experienced in esports thus far. I’ve been in a huge crowd at an esports event before, but the energy that this community has is completely different. The origins of the FGC is in the arcade culture, and raw passion is infectious. Side betting and money matches are the financial focal point of the tournament scene, and it makes every match even more exciting. I lost $10 to Ben “FishStix” Goldhaber during the 5v5 Team Canada vs Team USA game, and having money on the line made the hype more intense. At the end of a long day of gaming, the players want nothing more than to game more. It’s inspiring and a nice change of pace from the SC2 community.

Kelly Milkies

The best part of the esports community is the people, their stories and their personalities. Regardless of which game the person plays, from Halo to CoD, from SC2 to LoL, I have met some incredible and inspiring people. Canada Cup was no different, and I met some of the most incredible people this weekend. I reconnected with old friends like LoL player Samuel “Yuhn” Wong and Kelly Milkies, and I made new ones like Martin “MaRN” Phan. As much as I respect and appreciate, SC2 players, the FGC community and legends are the most genuine and down to earth people that you’ll meet. It was nice to meet FGC community icons and discover that they were polite, kind and friendly. People are what make a community. The passionate people are what drives this whole community of esports, and the one thing that makes us all the same is our enthusiasm, excitement and love of the game. At events, do your best to meet as many people as possible, even if it’s just the people who sit beside you in the crowd.

What’s the moral of this feel good, girl falling in love with a new community story? Don’t be afraid to try something new or to get involved with an unfamiliar facet of the esports community. You never know what you may like or enjoy. If you’re a diehard esports fan, be accepting of titles that you’re not a fan of. I’m not telling you to love every single game and watch all the esports, but don’t write off a game as a competitive title because you don’t think that you’d like it. A fan of soccer may not love hockey, but in a community as new as ours, blind hating doesn’t do any good. Constructive criticism and feedback, sure, but hating before experiencing is not the way to grow a community. If you have the opportunity to check out another esport, do it!

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 as players launched StarCraft II they were greeted by the announcement that Patch 1.4.2 has gone live. Carrying some major balance changes, the patch is sure to please Protoss players who have recently been showing some poor results in major tournaments.

The major balance changes include:

PROTOSS:
Forge

• The cost of Upgrade Shields Level 1 has been decreased to 150/150, down from 200/200
• The cost of Upgrade Shields Level 2 has been decreased to 225/225, down from 300/300
• The cost of Upgrade Shields Level 3 has been decreased to 300/300, down from 400/400
• The cost of Upgrade Ground Weapons Level 2 has been decreased to 150/150, down from 175/175
• The cost of Upgrade Ground Weapons Level 3 has been decreased to 200/200, down from 250/250
• The cost of Upgrade Ground Armor Level 2 has been decreased to 150/150, down from 175/175
• The cost of Upgrade Ground Armor Level 3 has been decreased to 200/200, down from 250/250

TERRAN
Ghost

• EMP radius has been decreased from 2 to 1.5

There are also a few bug fixes and some other changes included in this patch. These changes are:

General:

• “Alert Fade” under Sound Options has been renamed to Game Volume During Alerts. Its tooltips have also been changed for clarification.
• The fade-in for game sound during alerts changed from .5 seconds to 2 seconds.
• Play-Time Schedule under Parental Controls now applies World of Warcraft settings to StarCraft II

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a truncation on specific resolution if the current and maximum supplies are 3 digits.
• Fixed an issue which prevented footprints from being edited in the Footprint Editor.
• Fixed an issue that caused the game to have missing icons and images on low end graphics cards.

The reduced cost of Protoss upgrades should help Protoss players crush the common Terran “bio ball” that has been so troublesome as of late. Add in the reduced EMP radius and those late game engagements won’t seem so one sided.

What do you guys think of this patch? Was the EMP nerf really needed? What about the whole upgrade situation? Do you think the reduced cost will make that much of a difference? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Today the North American Star League released a few details regarding their Season 2 live final event which takes place on Dec 2-4th. Held again at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, CA, the live final is shaping up to be one of the best StarCraft 2 and Heroes of Newerth tournaments in the United States.

The StarCraft II tournament will feature commentary by Day9, Diggity, DjWheat, Gretorp, Husky, MrBitter, Orb, Rotterdam, and TheGunrun. So far the only players who have fully earned their placements are Liquid.Hero, EG.DeMusliM and EG.Huk. Like the previous NASL live event, this one will feature the standard Single Elimination, Bracket-Style format. Because it is single elimination, the games will be a best of five in the RO16 & RO8. It will then turn into a best of seven for the rest of the tournament. The prize money break down looks like:

1st: $40,000
2nd: $20,000
3rd: $12,000
4th: $8,000
5-8th: $3,000
9-16th: $1,000

In regards to the Heroes of Newerth tournament, the only information fully released are the casters, which are BreakyCPK and Phil the Thrill.

If you’re looking to attend the live event tickets will run you $25 and Premium Passes are $50. For the rest of the information (Hotel offers, etc.) click here.

The Devil Plays Protoss: The Marketplace

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.

Blizzcon 2011

During BlizzCon, Blizzard announced a number of map mod changes that will be added with Heart of the Swarm. There are a number of exciting changes for custom game and map makers in the upcoming SC2 expansion including a cinematic editor and a system to create and import custom units and doodads using 3DS Max. If you know anything about making custom doodads and units in SC2, while it is not impossible, it is a complicated mess of a process. Blizzard is trying to make the custom game and map making process easier for those individuals with the passion to do it. While all of these nifty tools and changes are fine and dandy, Blizzard recognizes the fact that both custom maps and custom games need a bit of help. None of the proposed changes are set in stone, but BlizzCon attendees did get a sneak peak at what HotS could bring for custom map makers. The first way that Blizzard will be encouraging custom games is by having a button right on the main page to encourage players to check out custom games. In the top left-hand corner where players currently chose between “Single Player” and “Multi Player,” players will choose between “Starcraft” and “The Arcade” in HotS.

What is the Arcade, you ask? It will be a place for players to browse custom games and play them. The best way to describe the system is to compare it to Reddit. There will be a featured game as well as four different columns to promote other games based on release date, rating and popularity. There will be columns such as “What’s Hot” where games that are played often with high ratings will be featured. With the Arcade, Blizzard hopes to encourage players to check out custom games. A variety of different games will appear on the Arcade page, and a number of game creators will have the opportunity to have their games played.

Blizzard plans to develop the Arcade into the Marketplace. While the Marketplace should have similar functionality of the Arcade, it gives game creators the option to charge for their maps. The details of how it will exactly work are not announced, the plan is to let game creators pick the price of the game. Whether or not Blizzard will be worked into the payment plan is unclear, but it could be a nice way to make a bit of extra cash off a one-time-buy game like SC2. With micro transactions being a great way for a video game company to make money, a piece of the pie could be good motivation to get the Marketplace online

The Arcade has the potential to bring more attention to the hundreds of custom games available through SC2. I have played a good number of custom SC2 1v1 melee maps, but as far as custom games are concerned, I’ve played less than a dozen. When I have played them, it’s with friends either at the local LAN centre. I’ve never just opened SC2 to play a custom game by myself, but I could see the more visible Arcade encouraging me to play more customs. It’s a great way to promote new custom content, and unlike the current system which really only promotes the most popular maps and games, the Arcade will have systems in place to promote other maps and games as well.

“The Arcade”

I am excited for the Arcade, but I think the Marketplace will be better in theory than in practice. The idea of allowing map creators to charge for their maps is great, but I am unsure how many players will be willing to pay for games. After buying HotS, unless a custom game has really, really great feedback, what are the chances that you’d be willing to purchase it? I’ve had an iPhone for two years and can count on one hand the number of apps that I’ve purchased. I think my relationship with the Marketplace will be much like the app store. While I may purchase four or five games if I’ve heard amazing things about them, I’m not about to start throwing cash at HotS custom games. As far as I know, there is no “test drive” option which makes it a harder sell, too. I’d be more willing to invest in a game that I’ve tried once or twice.

Blizzard thinks that the Marketplace will encourage map creators to work in teams, polishing up their products to sell them, but the DotAs of the world are few and far between. That’s what the ultimate goal would be for any custom game creator: DotA. It inspired a popular genre of video games. There will be hundreds of individuals may try to make the next big custom game but few who will be making the next big custom game.

The good news for gamers is that there should be fantastic custom games being made and published during HotS. The bad news is that these games may come with a price tag. As with any concept for a new game, both the Arcade and the Marketplace may change or never be fully developed. The Arcade should be released soon as a functioning component of HotS, which should be released soon.

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 Major League Gaming released all of the StarCraft II Replay files from both the Open and the Championship Brackets from its MLG Orlando event. To download the replays click here.

Some newer members of the StarCraft II community may be wondering why this is a big deal. Well, for starters, replays provide a great way to learn how the pros play. Essentially a replay hold all the information from the specific game you’re looking at. You can watch the game from an objective third person perspective like the commentators do, or you can watch the game through the eyes of one of the players. As I’m sure you can imagine, this type of insight can do wonders for you game.

If you are one of these newer SC2 community members, do yourself a favor and download these replay packs. Find a player whose style seems to match yours (like CatZ, RSVP, TriMaster or Drewbie) and take notes on the differences between your play and their. Keep an eye out for things like scouting methods, what choices you can infer base on what you’re seeing, and basic timings you can take advantage of. With a little work, analyzing replays can really do wonders for you game.

Today, League of Legends received another update, adding a brand new champion – Shyvana, the Half-Dragon. The patch included balances to their last champion Graves, buffs to Wukong and Olaf and nerfs to Shaco and Caitlyn. This patch also has a change to the new Dominion mode, where minor settings have been tweaked.

Shyvana, the Half-Dragon

Fury of the Dragonborn (Passive):

• Shyvana’s melee attacks enhance her abilities.
• Twin Bite – Reduces the cooldown by 0.5 seconds.
• Burnout – Extends the duration by 1 second to a maximum of 6 seconds.
• Flame Breath – Deals 20% of the ability’s damage to debuffed targets.
• Dragon’s Descent – Attacks generate 2 Fury and Shyvana passively gains Fury over time while in human form.

Twin Bite:

• Shyvana deals magic damage per second to nearby enemies and her Movement Speed is greatly increased for 3 seconds. Shyvana’s Movement Speed bonus is reduced over time.
• Dragon Form: Twin Bite cleaves all units in front of Shyvana.

Burnout:

• Shyvana strikes twice on her next attack. Both attacks trigger On-Hit effects and Fury of the Dragonborn effects.
• Dragon Form: Burnout scorches the earth, continuing to damage enemies that stand on it.

Flame Breath:

• Shyvana unleashes a fireball that deals magic damage and melts the target’s Armor for 4 seconds.
• Dragon Form: Flame Breath engulfs all units in a cone in front of Shyvana.

Dragon’s Descent (Ultimate):

• Active: Shyvana transforms into a dragon and takes flight to a target location. Enemies along her path take magic damage and are knocked toward her target location.
• Passive: Shyvana reinforces her scales, increasing her Armor and Magic Resist. Defensive bonuses are doubled in Dragon Form.

Release Notes Excerpt

Graves

• True Grit
  • Buff duration reduced to 3 seconds from 4
  • Armor and magic resistance per stack reduced to 3 from 4 at max level
• Buckshot damage per additional missile reduced to 30% from 35%

Wukong

• Crushing Blow
  • Total attack damage ratio increased to 1.1 from 1.0
  • Fixed a bug where Crushing Blow did not display critical strikes or benefit from life steal
• Decoy
  • Casting Decoy no longer instantly shows a reduction in Wukong’s mana bar to enemies
  • Fixed a bug where Wukong’s stealth state did not ignore unit collision
  • Improved general Decoy behavior and placement – the Decoy should now more accurately mimic Wukong’s previous position and behavior
  • Wukong is now pushed forward slightly when using Decoy, rather than the Decoy being pushed back from Wukong’s position
• Nimbus Strike
  • Attack speed bonus increased to 30/35/40/45/50% from 20/25/30/35/40%
  • Attack speed duration increased to 4 seconds from 3

Olaf

• Undertow missile speed increased to 1600 from 1500
• Ragnarok
  • Now breaks crowd control effects upon activation
  • Duration adjusted to 6 seconds at all ranks from 5/6.5/8

Shaco

• Rewrote his Deceive, Hallucinate, and Champion tips for more clarity
• Deceive will now still critically strike even if you break stealth (ie: to cast Jack in the Box)
• Jack in the Box
  • Base damage reduced to 35/50/65/80/95 from 35/55/75/95/115
  • Ability power ratio reduced to 0.2 from 0.25
  • Activation range reduced to 300 from 350
  • Cast range increased to 425 from 400
• Hallucinate
  • Fixed a bug where Shaco’s clone wouldn’t trigger Two-Shiv Poison’s passive

Caitlyn

• Piltover Peacemaker base damage reduced to 20/60/100/140/180 from 20/65/110/155/200
• Yordle Snap Trap activation radius reduced to 135 from 150

Dominion

• Respawn time adjustments are now +2/-2 seconds regardless of the size in score difference
• Crystal Scar’s Aura armor penetration reduced to 12% from 15%
• Personal Score reward for assisting in capturing or neutralizing a point increased to 25 from 10
• Garrison has been changed to be an untargeted spell, similar to Promote. It will only become castable when in range of an eligible Capture Point.
• Fixed the channel time display for capturing the central runes to match the actual capture time. The actual time to capture is unchanged.
• Fixed a bug where capture points could be moved off of their platforms
• Fixed a crash when audio was disabled

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

Today, Major League Gaming announced a few changes to the presentation of its upcoming StarCraft II tournament at the MLG National Championships in Providence Nov 18-20th. According to MLG, “Providence is the National Championships, the culmination of the 2011 Season, and nothing short of a blowout will do.”

What changes can you expect? For starters, MLG will now be providing three screens for the StarCraft II main stage. The center screen will be showing the casters point-of-view while the other two screen will show the point-of-view from each player.

Ideally, these screens will be showing the player’s direct POV right from their stations (mouseclicks and all) but we need to test the process on our live event equipment to make sure it works perfectly for both the competitors and the live spectators. If it turns out that we can’t use the player’s POV directly, these screens will be showing the gameplay from the POV of an Observer following each player’s POV.

Unfortunately this change is only for the live venue, well at least until the last three matches. “For those of you watching from home: when we get to the last three matches of the tournament, the two beta streams will stop casting matches from the floor and will stream players’ POVs, as they did in Orlando.”

Another major change for the Nation Championships is the removal of the group stage. In it’s place, the top 16 players (determined by Rank Points) will be placed directly into the championship bracket. There will also be an Open Bracket like the previous MLGs and, like at MLG Orlando, there will be two Beta Streams showing Open Bracket games.

If you tried to get a Competitor Pass for the Open Bracket at Providence but couldn’t because they “sold out in just a few short hours,” don’t sweat it. MLG Announced that it will be releasing more Competitor Passes tomorrow, Friday, October 28, at 7pm ET.

Regardless of whether you watch the games live in Providence or online via the Stream, it sounds like we’re all in for one hell of a show. Hopefully everything goes off without a hitch and MLG Providence turns out the be one of the best eSports event of the year.