LoL 6.22 Patch Updates – Part 1

The 2016 Worlds have been concluded, and with the season finished, it only means one thing: Patch updates!

This is a first of a series of articles dedicated to explain in a simpler way most of the changes that will happen to the League of Legends gameplay entering the new season in year 2017!

According to their website, they are mostly revamping Assassins with this patch update because they feel that the champions are a “little too similar” so they want to make them “more distinct while improving their overall game health”.

Riot also worked hard on “adding some much-overdue features in Replays and Practice Tool” and “finally moving the client update to open beta.”

“It’s a year for levelling up all around. We’re hard at work to make a season worth remembering, and that starts right here,” said in the statement from the website.

For the complete set of changes, visit League of Legend’s own website!

 

 

ASSASSINS

As mentioned earlier, Assassins got the bulk of improvements that Patch 6.22 brought, and below you’ll see the differences made for this patch!

 

Talon, with his quick attacks and critical damage, is already one of the most efficient killers in LoL, with preys trembling in fear whenever they are up against this Noxian champion.

But Riot wants to make it better, so they improved his mobility with a skill called “Assassin’s Path” – which will allow Talon to vault over structures and terrain and aid him in capturing speedy victims.

Also, Talon is now armed with a passive skill called “Blade’s End”, which will allow him to bleed opponents for two seconds after they already got wounded thrice by Talon’s other abilities. Wow, talk about bad luck for those caught in the Noxian’s flurry of attacks.

His base damage got reduced from 60 to 55, and the slow duration from his “Rake” ability got shortened from 2 seconds to 1 second, but with his improved mobility and the Slow Percentage getting upped from 20/25/30/30/35/40% to 40/45/55/55/60%, Talon is now a more balanced predator.

 

 

Patch 6.22 was really good for Katarina as she has now evolved as a true Assassin.

The improvements Riot made helped Katarina to blur into clashes to get the easy kills, before blinking out and not getting caught up in the opponents’ vengeance.

Firstly, she can now pick up a dagger from her updated “Bouncing Blades” skill and use the blade to slash all nearby enemies, then use her new ability “Preparation” to throw a dagger into the air to confuse the enemies and gain a movement speed boost for a quick escape out or to quickly catch those who want to get away.

Katarina’s “Shunpo” can now be cast into an area around a target and strike all nearby enemies. Combined with “Bouncing Blades”, Katarina can cast “Shunpo” on a dagger to damage nearby opponents, and then pick the dagger up for another huge blow. Follow it up with a “Preparation” skill then Katarina will have a movement speed boost to escape more durable foes.

As intended by Riot, Katarina is a pure Assassin that can damage many at once, though they will now remove her ability to target wards using “Shunpo”. Still, with her speed and daggers, Katarina will be a fearsome finisher of group fights.

Toss the dagger in for the kills, and then use the speed boost to get out of the fray if there are still remaining hostile champions – Yup, Katarina is now a pure assassin.

 

 

With the updates, LeBlanc is still an assassin dependent on her magic damage, but gamers can now be more creative and trickier when using the devious but gorgeous deceiver as a straight up killer.

The “Sigil of Malice” used to be LeBlanc’s first skill but is now her passive ability, and it acts as a bomb that explodes for extra damage when LB uses her other abilities on opponents that have the sigil placed on them.

LB’s first new ability is now named “Shatter Orb”, which when cast on an opponent marked by the “SOM” will bounce on the nearest enemy units.
Imagine LeBlanc casting a Shatter Orb on an unwary opponent and putting it under the sigil, then casting Distortion for damage and to defuse the SOM, then using another Shatter Orb for additional SOM damage. Yikes.

Those abilities alone give LeBlanc a good combo of damages. But paired with her new skill “Mimic”, LeBlanc can be the deceiver she was intended to become. On casting, LeBlanc creates a copy of herself then both she and the copy becomes invisible, before reappearing and casting the last spell that LB used, though the copy’s skill does not deal damage.

The best update on her Mimic is that when empowered, LeBlanc can cast an image ANYWHERE on the map. The illusion will walk towards the nearest enemy champion and will cast a harmless version of the last spell used by LB, though it will be perfect for fooling unsuspecting opponents.

 

 

Don’t worry Rengar users, this upsized beast of a cat will still be the stealthy stalker that makes even the strongest champion tremble when he goes missing on the map, but this time Riot will make sure his targets will have ample time to fight back.

From now on, Rengar’s bonus movement speed and Ferocity generation after stealth will be gone, as will his plus armor and magic resistance per champion hit and his Bonetooth Necklace rewards.

Also, Rengar will not be invisible even with the skill “Thrill of the Hunt”, though he will be under the new “Camouflage” stealth effect, which means he will be visible when he gets close to his victim, but cannot be seen from long range. Hence, he can still sneak upon enemies but they will have time to choose between their fight or flight instinct before Rengar unleashes his flurry of attacks.

Yes, being visible to nearby opponents will impair his predatory skills but he can now leap without being in brush and his landing can cause critical damage, and his new “Battle Roar” now heals Rengar for 50% of the health loss he suffered in the last 1.5 seconds and 100% of damage dealt by monsters. The Roar can also break crowd control at Ferocity 4 for 1.5 seconds.

The best thing about the new Rengar is the permanent attack damage added whenever he collects trophies. With five trophies Rengar’s damage is increased by 15 plus 30% of the current attack damage!

With the ability to Leap from anywhere, Rengar can ambush anyone in his range, and with his ability to break crowd control he can still make a getaway when he is on the disadvantage.

He is now more challenging to use with his sneaking capabilities diminished, but that’s the fun in selecting Rengar anyway.

 

 

Basically, the changes Fizz underwent in this update will make it easier for him to stay in the lane and abuse the beauty of his “Seastone Trident” ability, while his “Chum of the Waters” skill that has allowed him to kill many a foe quickly and easily, will now take longer time to manifest and will give his opponents the time to read his moves better.

Fizz is now a more balanced assassin, as his Trident will allow him to harass enemy champions because it can inflict thrice the damage at times and it refunds mana and resets the cooldown to 1 second whenever it successfully kills a unit.

But foes now have 0.5 more seconds to react to his “Chum the Waters” skill, and the damage it causes at short range is lessened, meaning Fizz will now need to use it at maximum distance for it to have the greatest damage possible, giving his targets a better chance to react.

It will not be as easy to kill with Chum the Waters anymore for Fizz lovers, but the ability to spam with the Trident should negate most of the challenges 6.22 brought.

 

 

Because many users abused the increased damage on isolated targets of the old “Taste Their Fear” ability, Riot tweaked all of Kha’zix’ abilities and made it all balanced to make his users choose between what they need to kill and not what causes more pain.

Using Taste Their Fear offers the most damage on isolated targets, but because of the new 80% slow on isolated targets from “Void Spike” you’ll have more reasons to use the latter especially against quicker and sturdier opponents.

The Voidreaver is still one of the top champions to pick off wandering opponents, but now users must be more creative in getting the most out of Kha’zix’ new set of abilities against different kinds of targets.

 

 

All of Akali’s skills got toned down except for her passive ability “Twin Disciples”, and like with Kha’zix and Fizz, users now have to be more patient and resourceful with her skills in order to effectively kill like a true assassin.

Almost all cooldowns of her skills got lengthened, and the damage caused by her “Shadow Dance” almost got halved.

But now with her new “Twilight Shroud”, she can be utilized as a true trickster, a ninja that pops in and pops out while dealing great damage with her Crescent Slash and her updated “Twin Disciples”, which gives Akali the ability to heal herself and cause bonus damage with two attacks every few seconds.

As intended by Riot, users now have to think like a juke-and-dodge sneaky fighter to maximize Akali’s new potential. Good luck!

 

 

Zed users most likely would not like how Riot stifled the pain caused by Zed’s high level sword techniques, as “Living Shadow” lost its bonus damage and “Shadow Slash” had its’ effects lessened.

He still has “Contempt for the Weak” and “Razor Shuriken”, so he is still a handful for opponents, though without the Living Shadow’s bonus he’ll be somewhat limited as a killer.

But what users will love is the updated “Death Mark”, as you can now steal attack damage from your opponent’s strongest player whenever you get to kill them with the skill.

Zed probably needs more help from his allies now to make sure he can use Death Mark as a killing blow and maximize the Shadow Reaping ability, but that’s why LoL is team game!

 

 

If you follow the trend on how the Assassins get updated in this patch, you’ll see that they get more balanced, and Shaco is no exception.

The Demon Jester’s skills are now easier to strategize with, since it now cost less mana and has a shorter cooldown, though “Deceive” is no longer guaranteed to cause critical strike and “Jack in the Box” now only has 50% damage to turrets.

Without the overwhelming damage of his “Two-Shiv Poison” and Deceive, Shaco loses a lot of punch but he can still cause a lot of trouble with the illusion created by “Hallucinate”, since it’s new effect will do opponents more harm than good whether they kill both Shaco and his copy or not. Have a nice time dealing with many Jacks in the box!

True to his name, Shaco’s “jokes and pranks” are still funny only for the summoner and not his would-be victims.

 

 

The changes that patch 6.22 brought to Ekko are fairly simple.

His passive “Z-Drive Resonance” no longer saps enemy movement speed and the max bonus damage now sits at 140. Also, the healing power of his “Chronobreak” is now upped and if mixed with “Parallel Convergence” will stun those inside the sphere.

True, Ekko is not the overwhelming fighter he was anymore, but with the larger radius of his “Timewinder” Ekko can be dangerous while staying in safe distance.

And with the invigorated Chronobreak, Ekko can go for more kills knowing he can pull back with his ultimate and regain lost health for another attack.

He used to be an all-in type of player whose ability to dance with time made him a suitable tank, but now he is intended to be a more damage-focus Ekko equipped with skills that is better used as a killer who can afford a second wind because of his timely Chronobreak.