Five things that might be big in Season Four

But please God.  No.

The purpose of this blog is to discuss some things I've thought about while reading professional players discuss their experiences with the new season patch.  I don't claim to be a professional player or to have experienced the changes myself, but I took this as more of a fun exercise.  Obviously, Riot has probably already considered many of the things I'm bringing up (well, maybe not jungle Karthus, specifically), and they have a corrective measure in place.  But I wanted to throw this out there anyway because it's a fun excuse to think about the game.

1. The Death of Traditional Supports

Madlife, pls.

I jokingly tell people that the only champions I can play are Sona and Udyr because they have no actual abilities, just methods of right clicking, and they can pick fights without actually having to be umm skilled, which is what I want to do most the time anyway.

But I'm not here to talk about my League of Legends prowess, or lack thereof, I'm hear to tell you about why Season 4 changes will likely be the death of Sona and her supporty friends.  A collection of posts by professional players who were able to test the new changes have discussed how the role of support will change.  World Elite's Misaya has said that support carrying has become huge, as assist streaks and mastery changes provide a great deal of gold without last hitting.  Xpecial, in his VLog, has explained that supports are being retooled so that utility scales with items, like Janna's shield AD bonus scaling with AP items.  He also says their income is eaten less by wards, as there is now a per-player ward purchase limit.

This sounds interesting, doesn't it?  But let me ask you a question.  CLG's poor performance when they funnel all gold into Doublelift, and the success of double assassin compositions and teams with multiple "carry" players has proven time and again that multiple damage threats are often better than propping up a single damage threat.  Why not run something that will, instead of making your marksman better at killing other things, be self-reliant and capable of eliminating a single target, like Leblanc?

No, Hotshot.  No one does.

If support carry is real, and damage on supports doesn't scale with items (like it doesn't already; please see Nami for "I run her AD in ARAM"), then this will encourage people to run champions with a little bit of utility—if Sona-esque initiation is necessary, please see Oriana or Ashe—that have damage that scales well with items.  Here are some of my picks for Season Four support leaders.

Since AD and attack speed are some of the most expensive items, it depends on just how much gold supports can get, or even if AD carries remain desirable (see point 3), but it could open up things like support Ashe or Sivir.  The verdict is also out on how tanky supports can build by optimizing the utility tree if support tanks are viable.  I swear to god, if I see Yorick in bottom lane, I will /ff at twenty.

2. Karthus Jungle

Few combinations of four words (is "R" a word?) fill me with such complete dread.  If Riot came to me and asked me to select a champion for them to delete from the game, there would be zero hesitation in my mind.

"Please Karthus, no."

Now, he had some balancing factors when he was run mid lane.  I have seldom heard of a Karthus acquiring first blood, and his ramp up time is ridiculous.  So though he can safely farm under tower, and his AoE discourages diving, it takes quite a bit for him to get to levels so ridiculous that he can eliminate an entire enemy team with a single button—while also being dead.  In addition, with an early diver like Aatrox, when Defile has low damage early, he is tasty food for his opponent.

But there has always been a deep, ingrained fear.  What if Karthus jungle were viable?  With decreased bonus gold for acquiring first blood before four minutes, earlier minions spawn times, and more priority for junglers to secure their own camps than to invade, as well as items to increase jungle creep gold by, perhaps, 40%, early destruction of enemy junglers is unlikely, and there is less emphasis on ganking than farming.

At first, this made me excited.  Season four changes will allow me to play my favorite mid lane champions, Oriana and Diana, outside mid lane in the support and jungle roles respectively.  But then I realized what this really means.

With these two tiny abilities and the safety that the new jungle provides, Karthus will make my game miserable.  I hope that after four minutes I can still invade on him as much as possible.  I will, for the love of god, pick Xin Zhao, even though the high gold scaling sounds like this will make him an even harsher waste of time in Season Four than he already is, and kill him before four minutes if I have to.

THANK YOU FOR THAT 250 GOLD KARTHUS MAY I HAVE ANOTHER.

I don't like this champion.  I don't want him in my jungle.  But if this game turns into what it sounds like, there will be no keeping him out.

3. Who needs an Ezreal?

For those with carpal tunnel.

I have suspected that Riot has been systematically reducing the effectiveness of another class of characters since the start of season three: the marksmen.  After creating a brand new and somewhat comical term for them, Riot has put another nail in their coffin.

Teams like Dragonborns, OMG, and TPA have already experimented with compositions that eliminate the need for a marksman with high scaling divers like assassins and Jax, as well as strong pokers like Nidalee and Oriana (why they haven't used Gragas yet is beyond me).  These have spread to the North American Challenger scene, where Curse Academy is gaining some recognition with it as well.

Season Four will make this more viable.  With more gold outside lanes, this will make the focus more on shoving and roaming.  Guess who's really bad at that?  Guess who really needs to stay in lane and farm?

Yeah, assholes who build attack speed and attack damage.  Some of the most expensive stats in the game.

But okay, there are still things about ranged AD carries that are important, and the compositions that TPA run are limited by a select pool of champions.

The biggest things that ADs bring are sustained damage and tower-killing potential.  With more gold for jungle and support roles, you can compensate your sustained damage with things like Kayle and Tryndamere.  Sure, Tryndamere is also hampered by attackspeed and AD, but he has tremendous wave clear on top of it.  You can also run Tryndamere more safely in the jungle now, without his early vulnerability being an impediment.

As for tower killing potential, remember our friend Baron Nashor?

Riot, this looks nothing like him.

He isn't going to be the same.  According to Misaya, Baron's bonus AD/AP/regen buff is being replaced by a Mobis-esque out of combat movement speed buff and a tower damage increase buff.  Apparently, Lich Bane Deathfire TF can now eliminate a tower with only two blue cards.

Someone please tell me what this means?  Well, it means the rise of Baron-taking teams featuring champions like Nunu, Cho'gath, Nasus, Elise, dare I mention Karthus, and other friends will give you the option of getting rid of the AD carry and still decimate towers with ease.

And finally, Curse Academy was stopped by the elimination of Fiddlesticks and Annie when many other wave clear options will exist on supports in the future (well, they already do, and there are TPA games with Ori and Janna to clear, and Zyra is definitely an option here).

So unless changes are made to AD carries, they'll be run more for utility (like Ashe) and Baron potential (BotRK Vayne).  Wave clear will probably be support based, what with the new minion execute item making it simpler, but that could give champions like Jinx, Cait, and Lucian and edge as well.  It will limit what can be played in that role even more, and I am sure there will be more focus on champion and objective killing items like IE and BotRK.

Goodbye, Bloodthirster Cait.  I hated thee well.  Please don thy Infinity Edge instead or ye shall surely perish.

4. WHERE HAS ALL THE RUM HAVE ALL THE LANES GONE?

Pic relevant.

I have briefly discussed this already, but laning—in the sense that two people on opposite teams sit where they are and face off for creeps and kills—will surely decline.  With more gold to be had out of lane (increased gold on dragons, etc., has been mentioned), we will see more roaming mid laners shoving and securing objectives.  And if mid can roam, so can bottom.  And top.  And if they need income, they can buy the new handy 40% bonus gold on monster kill item.  With the addition of a new small camp, that's one camp per team member with the support hanging out next to someone.

Seriously, Froggen.  Get out.  Mid lane is like ten screens away.

So that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but depending on just how much gold we're talking here and how much wave clear we can build on a team, there will be a lot of roaming.  Towers will go down to splits because teams will be more selective about who gets the last hit.  According to Misaya, gold distribution, at least on outer turrets, changes.  He who last hitteth receiveth the bounty of 250, while everyone else must partake of a comparatively measly 75 gold.  This will force teams to simultaneously extend pressure to all lanes more than they already do (please see World Championship Final, Game Three).

Baron movement speed will force people to ZOOOOOM to a bunch of different lanes if an early baron is taken, and towers will just—drop—around twenty minutes if the enemy team doesn't react quickly.  And as baroned team members scatter across the map, teams will be forced to decide which towers to defend.

The so-called "support" player will still be paired with someone, as they receive gold for nearby allies killing minions with the new Philosopher Stone, but the support can pretty much pick anyone to follow around.  The support can start bottom and then transition to split experience with the fragile jungle Karthus after four minutes, if necessary.  This will be fun, but also chaotic.  I'm kind of excited about it, but it will lead to a difficult adjustment period, and the way Misaya has described Baron's new buff, that might be too strong and too annoying to deal with.

5. Baron-centric waffling takes a hit

Zuna screaming remarkably absent.

I'm not sure how many of you know the volume of Baron throwing and stealing Gambit alone was involved in during the Season Three World Championship, but it was pretty extensive.  It was at least one per Gambit game[ing].  Gambit would be ahead and then, for some reason, go for baron.  Or, in this case, the reverse happened with Vulcun (excuse me, XDG).

Everyone has experienced it.  A team is ahead and they go for baron, only to have an erstwhile enemy jungler steal it and a nice Oriana ult ace them.  They get the bonus of the gold, a small period where they can secure objectives or discourage engage with a AP/AD/regen buff.  This lets many games turn around.

Baron will change dramatically.  I have already mentioned this, but let's consider this scenario.

You have two inhibitors down, and waves of super minions are pushing into your base.  Two members of your team are dead.  You are positive the enemy team is going for baron.  If they secure it, you will probably lose the game, as their increased stats are too much to deal with.  If you challenge it, your base is devoured by minions, and you lose.  If your jungler dies, even if he steals it on his own, you probably lose.

There is literally nothing you can do.

Here is how that situation changes.  While Baron gives the enemy team turret taking power in Season Four, if you have no turrets left, that is pretty meaningless.  Your team still has a fighting chance because the enemy team doesn't have a huge buff to statistics and regeneration when they come flying into your decimated base.  You can kill them, even if they take baron.

This also means that teams that are that far ahead—i.e., have taken your turrets—have less of a reason to go for Baron.  Sure, it will give them some gold, but it will do nothing else for them, and if they go for it, they risk giving free gold to the enemy team if the jungler can pull off a smite steal.  And if they have turrets up, the huge turret taking buff means that they most likely won't in a few minutes.

Meanwhile, if a team is ahead, but there are still turrets and inhibitors on either side, it is easy for you to fix the situation of a Baron secure simply by engaging.  They have increased damage to turrets, not champions.  In most cases, if they've expended health to whittle down baron, that gives the team without Baron an advantage in a fight.  They got baron?  So what.  Ace them before they can run to your towers.  By attacking them, you wreck the out of combat movement speed bonus.

And then, once you've killed them, you get towers.

That means that no one will go for baron now unless they are sure they will not only get it, but that they will be able to take turrets with it before the enemy team kills them.  This will make desperation barons less popular, as the ability to rush to a turret is less of a sure thing, and having the buff won't stall out the game.  In fact, it will ensure that the enemy will do whatever is in their power to kill you.

Something like that, yeah.

Add in the fact that every champion now has access to free wards or some other vision mechanism, and there is almost no excuse not to have our giant magic—ummm thing—constantly warded.  You might say that, with limited wards, this makes warding Baron less of a priority, but you're pretty much kidding yourself. Even if you only have one ward on the map, it's usually either on baron or dragon, depending upon whether or not our purple people eater has spawned.  And with a CV item on every team—calling top lane split pusher picks this one up right now, because of range restrictions—that only adds to the pressure.

This will make games faster paced, and it will make Baron less annoying, but I can also see it killing high risk-reward and epic Baron comebacks.  That's a definite downside, and I'm not sure if I entirely welcome the change.

All in all, I can't really say I'm excited about the season four changes.  They'll be interesting sure, but I can see them killing the viability of almost two entire classes of champions unless something major is done (I'm sure I won't be let down).  It will also make it easier for people with lower mechanical skill and difficulty last-hitting to climb ELO.  I suppose last-hitting is a rather mundane aspect of the game, but the balance of needing to last hit and also to make it difficult for your opponent to do so was an interesting nuance.  Fast wave clear and roam will turn every lane into mid lane.

For my sources, please see:

Subpages linked here.

Blogs:

Xpecial

Scarra

Misaya
Images:
RTS Guru
Icanhazcheezburger
LoLWiki
LoLAST
Ragequit.com.ar
QuickMeme
acfun.tv
Videos:
Not made by me, but easily clickable.  Please support youtubers!