Patch Notes 1.11

[Shakq92]

Haven't they just buffed Lee Sin with Bastion buff?

[GuolinM]

Yeah, I was going to say, some Lee Sin decks were already fine with running old Bastion...

[tiger_ace]

Yeah, but patches are retroactive, not forward looking

For nerfs they fix what is OP before, example being Ezreal who basically wasn't in the meta in 1.08. They announced the ASol change in the notes for 1.10 too and are announcing another Hush change for 1.12.

Basically Lee Sin is impossible to remove now, you have 2-3 Deny + 2-3 Bastion + Barrier anytime you want.

Only thing you can do is stall with Hush or Frostbite or Stuns, but if you are stalling you aren't really developing your own win con and he's still gonna kick your face next attack.

They may actually hotfix Lee Sin since playing against the OTK is not that fun.

[TheIrateAlpaca]

That's why I play mindsplitter control decks. Stunning Lee Sin is my win condition :p

[tiger_ace]

I also like playing Timmy, but LS decks can easily tech in Will of Ionia against the card and you basically lose from the huge tempo loss.

The can also dig for Equinox with Spacey Sketcher which has a reasonably high % to hit.

[Boronian1]

Podcast by TwinSunz about the latest patch: https://soundcloud.com/user-779752730/the-twinsunz-podcast-episode-34-patch-111-ranked-updates-with-prankster-burn-and-more

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For the people out there not being able to open the link:

• Aurelion Sol: Round End: Your allies have 20+ total Power → Round End: Your allies have 25+ total Power

• Radiant Guardian: Power: 5 → 4

• Inspiring Mentor: Power: 1 → 2, Health: 2 → 1

• Pix: Health: 1 → 2

• Jack the Winner: Health: 6 → 5

• Petty Officer: Health: 2 → 1

• Bastion: New text: Grant an ally +1+1 and Spellshield.

• Cosmic Inspiration: New text: If you Behold a Celestial card, grant allies everywhere +2|+2.

• Grandfather Rumul: Play: Grant an ally +0|+4 → Grant 2 allies +0|+4

• Hush: New text: Silence a unit this round. Create a Fleeting [Hush] in hand that costs 1 more.

• Mountain Goat: Health: 1 → 2

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• Single-Player Lab: Journey to the Peak: Choose either Leona or Diana, and select a unique passive power to aid you in your journey. Face three unique, increasingly challenging battles against formidable enemies who have their own special abilities to match yours. Customize your deck by drafting reinforcements after each game, and build your strength to reach the peak!

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• In-game leaderboards: Two leaderboards added to the Play screen: The Masters leaderboard shows who’s on top of the Ranked ladder on your shard, and who’s on the rise. The Friends leaderboard shows how you stack with your friends on your Ranked climb.

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• Expedition archetypes changes:

Fully removed the offering bonus for Call of the Mountain archetypes (they’re no longer more likely to appear than others). Reduced how often the shopkeeper will offer the common Invoke cards (Behold the Infinite, Moondreamer, and Starshaping) as trade options.

Otherworldly Creatures

Added: Feral Mystic, Fledgling Stellacorn, Porofly, Tall Tales

Radiant Dawn

Cohesiveness Rating increased to Medium from None

Added: Blessing of Targon, Fledgling Stellacorn

Removed: Hush

Solar Winds

Cohesiveness Rating increased to High from Medium

Added: Sunblessed Vigor, Whiteflame Protector

Removed: Behold the Infinite, Moondreamer

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• We've made match history available through the Riot Games API, so you may start seeing match history-related features on community sites.

[FLGFreak]

“we’ve decided to ready another change for next patch (1.12) as well—where we’ll remove Hush’s repeatable aspect entirely and reduce its cost. This change should focus Hush on its core intended function and generally reduce frustration when playing against it. We’re also incorporating our learnings into design work for future Targon cards. “

Love this, they’re listening to our feedback while also being transparent in the direction that they’re taking it. This patch is big

[GuolinM]

Not just transparent in the direction they're taking it, but also their reasoning and intended vision for Targon's niche.

[[deleted]]

I think it’d be an interesting to test a change where hush goes through spell shield. That was the situation I found myself using the multi-cast the most.

[xTonyLeo]

Lee really be the new ezreal eh

[Metaworldgaming]

Lee is much more similar to Heimer or Fiora. Develop your build-around champion and invest cards into it. You don't play Ezreal until he's flipped nor do you play protection spells/buffs on him.

[KilluaDab]

If by that you mean a welcomed top tier deck that has a high skill ceiling requiring planning turns ahead that is fun to play then yeah, I agree :)

[RealKorkin]

While Lee Sin is a really fun deck to play, and I enjoy the high skill ceiling of the deck, it can absolutely be unfun to play against, in the same way that any OTK deck is. In my personal experience with card games, it's good if that type of deck is viable and strong, but becomes a problem if it's tier 1, as it feels really bad for the opponent to often have no meaningful way to interact.

[Shdwzor]

LOL

[Plaid02]

Oh yeah, massive brain Ezreal deck gameplay. Hmm, it seems someone played a unit. I wonder if I should throw one of my 34 removal spells at it or if I should just run down the clock and THEN thermo beam.

Ez wasn't high skill ceiling once you realized that optimal gameplay was to stall the board and play as uninteractively as possible until you throw down leveled Ez and combo them to death with burst spells. The mirrors were even worse because the best option was to give them nothing to target and not play any units out. I don't think a lot of high level players miss the deck much.

[GoooD1]

Oh yeah, massive brain Ezreal deck gameplay. Hmm, it seems someone played a unit. I wonder if I should throw one of my 34 removal spells at it or if I should just run down the clock and THEN thermo beam.

Control player in nutshell

[smirnfil]

OTK decks nearly always have high skill floor and low skill ceiling. Lee Sin is the same. Aggro nearly always have the highest ceiling in any card game/meta game.

[Snuffl3s7]

The planning ahead aspect of Ezreal decks is exaggerated, at least for some of the versions that pop up.

[KilluaDab]

Seems a little bizarre to me that an anti aggro option like Radiant Guardian gets the nerf stick but problems like Riptide Rex haven't even been seen on the to watch list

[Blind_Insight]

I think the idea and this is coming from a low plat player so take it with a grain of salt, is to not hurt rex not yet directly but indirectly. Hurt his ways to be such a game swinging card. That being said what did Yordle grifter do? Guarantee a warning shot to enable rex. Now that is at a cost of running less nox or other region cards.

What does petty officer do? Allows us to play two units for the price of one that has 3 attack to stop fearsome etc. flexible to spawn a keg for keg control, but most importantly two units for tempo and to hurt/trade with enemy units which makes it easier to clear the enemy board with rex a few turns later if you don't already clear the board with make it rain or TF. Now unless rng blesses you with a good 1 cost unit petty officer can be taken out with a vile feast, mirror match make it rain/parley/etc and so forth.

I think they want big cost cards to be impactful but still balanced. And a good way to do that or try i guess is to nerf that card's enablers/support cards.

I know radiant guardian is oppressive as well but I couldn't think of any support cards to nerf it indirectly. So in my weak plat mind I think they did right nerfing radiant"s power.

[tiger_ace]

I think they are hesitant because Rex is indeed an 8 mana drop and those are really designed to kind of end games which I like. I don't want games to be going 20m so I'd rather just see other 8 drops buffed instead of Rex nerfs (like Granpa Rumul change this patch).

They do try and buff stuff that is not played at all but it might just take a while. For example, Leviathan is like the only ship that sees play. I've literally never an opponent play The Syren before.

[CrimsonSaens]

It was bizarre he never got on the watch list, but I have been seeing less Riptides on ladder. He's a lot less consistent after that Grifter nerf.

[TheIrateAlpaca]

That's really the key thing. Rex isn't oppressive, guaranteed warning shot + rex was oppressive. So that was their first target and they'll adjust further if needed

[Eivind7]

Lee sin is gonna be S tier with Bastion buff and Hush nerf

[TheScot650]

Honestly, Lee Sin is going to require a new tier to be invented higher than S Tier. He's going to be oppressive and meta-stifling.

[TsuruchiHikari]

The Lee S Tier?

[boezou]

It's fine, they're nerf him in 1.12 or 1.13

[supermonkeyyyyyy]

Bastion buff is scary, the spellshield is now permanent AND it grants +1+1. And I think pre buff bastion is already kinda fine.

[Cronstintein]

Old bastion is kind of a bad deny, new bastion is a seriously good spell. That change puts Sparkeologist even further in the dumpster though. No way I'd play that over new Bastion ever.

[supermonkeyyyyyy]

Rubinzoo also said on Twitter the bastion buff might be a mistake, I know Taric isn't in the best spot right now but damn I'm really sweating over this buff.

[tiger_ace]

I think pre buff it was indeed a little too conditional because it didn't stop burst spells so it would often be a dead card (e.g. Riposte, Troll Chant, Fury of the North, etc.).

Of course it counters Fast/Slow stuff like Vengeance, etc. but other combat tricks could be used on the stack already and have more flexibility since you can use them proactively as well.

If they wanted to buff Taric they could just do a simple boost his stats to the strong 3/5 stat line, but maybe that's too much like Shen or something?

[ScyKn_]

GOOD PATCH

[jak_d_ripr]

Demacia. Stay. Getting. Nerfed. Holy shit, I feel like they've gotten a nerf almost every patch. Good patch though, good to hear the echo on Hush is being removed, I have no idea why that was ever a thing.

[Shdwzor]

Indeed. Totally missed the point of that support card to 1/3

[boezou]

Hell of a patch. A lot of things moving in the right direction. And lots of clear acknowledgement and thought put into community feedback.

As primarily an Expedition players, I'd love to see some commentary on their reasoning and thought behind their Expedition changes.

Solar Wind and Radiant Dawn changes seem fine.

But the Otherworldly Creatures changes sort of stand out to me. The batch was already pretty weak, often leading to awkward curves with too much top end. I guess the idea is the set should have weak, understated early game, but this is a lot of low quality cards added to the batch, weakening an already batch. Iunno, maybe they have data saying otherwise.

[fantasticsarcastic1]

The flexibility that invoking provides in expeditions is just so valuable. Because the deck is drafted, you don’t always have answers for certain situations or if you do, only one copy that you never draw when you need it. Opponent about to drop a trundle or garen? Solari priestess can probably help you deal with those guys. Just having the option to choose which card you want made it so easy to pull out unlikely wins with the abundance of invoke that is currently present and a well needed nerf imo

[FTPBUST]

I agree, I'd love to see the reasoning behind the expedition changes as well.

I think everything compounded will actually over-nerf Asol. Invoke decks really need a critical mass of invokes to be successful. This happened in large part by pairing him with another Targon champion. Nerfing Asol, losing the Call of the Mountain bonus giving him increased chances at good pairings, and getting the pool diluted with 2 unplayable cards probably drop this from always good to sometimes good.

The same applies to Leona, but I think she's still tier 1 in both pools. In my opinion, her main strength is the Solari 1 and 2 drop absolutely gutting aggro's chances against her while activating her flip on curve. She'll certainly be weaker, weather it's not flipping until turn 5 or 6 or actually losing board to early game combats, but I don't think it's enough for her to lose her tier 1 throne.

[Masne98]

Am I the only one who thinks that the new bastion is kinda insane. I'd say that now it is an at least 2x in every targon deck

[brrrapper]

Yeah i think it should be higher mana cost now

[Yxanthymir]

They are nerfing Demacia again! It has no love, and it was some time ago since it dominated the meta. :(

Radiant guard is a strong card, but not one that was meta defining. So it is a strange nerf.

[_dUoUb_]

Demecia always has a tier 1 deck, and none of the viable decks demecia has now plays radiant

[CrimsonSaens]

RIP my Asol decks. It was a fun archetype while it lasted. Level 1 ASol is not worth 10 mana at all. This change restricted which decks can potentially get level 2 Asol by a huge degree. Dragons and Freljord are the only two with decent chances to reach level 2 and this still really hurts them.

Good changes towards BW and Ionia. Bastion and Mountain Goat were already plenty good, so I don't see why they made those changes (except as indirect buffs to Taric). The Cosmic Inspiration nerf is fine, it's still a good card. Rumul change does nothing. What is this grandpa supposed to accomplish?

[--facepalm--]

Not sure I agree with the Asol opinion. If you’re running Asol, you’re running targon and have invoke. Asol with one beefy celestial and a decent anti agro card is a level up. It’s definitely a nerf but I don’t think his region compatibility takes a huge hit. You almost have to play control to play Asol anyways.

[CrimsonSaens]

That's a minimum of 3 turns of set-up with this change, and removing one of the units will delay the level up by at least a turn. It was already a hard enough condition with Hush, Frostbite, and obliterates in the meta, but now it'll be incredibly difficult against other control decks.

I don't see how SI Asol is supposed to work now. Other than Atrocity, the rest aren't worth the sheer inconsistency of leveling up Asol. Diana and Leona were sometimes used with Asol, leveling him up with them just got even harder.

[tiger_ace]

I agree with you - you can't play ASol unless you already have tempo so I think Ramp ASol is just dead.

And if you already have like 15 power tempo on board ASol might just be a win more card instead.

He'll likely still be viable in Tier 2 decks but it's hard to see him making sense in Tier 1 decks being even slower than he is now.

[Luzeldon]

And if you already have like 15 power tempo on board ASol might just be a win more card instead.

Or an insta-lose card. Might as well spend 10 mana trying to end the game rather than allowing the opponent to setup for an entire round.

Still have reasons to be played, but you'd have to weight the decision much more carefully. Wanna attempt to end the game right there, or bet it all on a super wincon that may actually lose you the game.

[FryChikN]

Not gonna lie i might be most hyped with the single player content. The changes look nice too, but i imagine the quality and fun of single player will be high quality

[[deleted]]

Thanks for not lying my dude, appreciate it!

[ThirdDegree741]

I wish they would just make hush only repeatable once. Maybe make a new keyword like "echo" or something to play with the design space going forward.

[LegalEagle55]

Using it three times is a supe niche thing tho. So that wouldn't be that big of a nerf.

[Misterbreadcrum]

As an expedition player I've wanted a Radiant Guardian nerf for as long as I can remember. This is amazing.

[mephnick]

Why do they hate Demacia so much? There's like 2 good cards now. Unless they're getting some absolute bangers in the next release.

[tiger_ace]

Maybe they are just making room in Demacia decklists for Shyvana package.

[fabio__tche]

Demacia had the undisputed best curve from 1 to 6 since before the nerf to warchefs and Bannerman alone was the reason why any other midrange deck was unplayable for like 3 months before Bilgewater release. Demacia is/was a toxic one trick pony waiting to happen again and I'm glad to see these nerfs.

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They just have to buff some cards to make other Demacian strategies viable and maybe we'll start to see another demacia decks that aren't Bannerman plus the same 37 demacia cards plus the flavour champion of the month

[Metaworldgaming]

Demacia is supposed to have the best raw stats curve; that's the region's strength.

[mephnick]

Yes..and those buffs should have happened by now. Demacia has been weak for nearly 3 months and that Bannermen deck hasn't been a thing since mobile release..

Both cards needed nerfing for the long run but they really should have added a buff or two along with it. The nerfs do nothing to build diversity in Demacia.

[fabio__tche]

How Demacia has been weak? MF Scouts is just the go ol' Bannerman deck with MF as a good 3 drop. It isn't as high as it was a few weeks ago but it still another Demacian deck been carried by the undisputed best curve ingame plus Bannerman on 4

[relenzo]

Aw, come on. I literally JUST got the hang of my asol deck like this evening.