I'm Pleasantly Surprised By The New Update

I haven’t played 3v3 yet but so far I’m surprised by the other things in the new update. Everyone seems to like Ylva to a degree and a lot of things I thought were gonna be nerfs are actually buffs that make builds clearer. I particularly enjoy the new SAW. Definitely a buff. I’ve heard that Ardan is clearer as a wp or captain as well, though I don’t play him much. Always room for improvement in everything though.

One thing hasn’t changed though: laners still gonna jungle. :expressionless:

One important note: communication has been a positive, as well as the new ban system. Yes you get your ignorant fools, but damn is it helpful for actually explaining strategies, and people listen more and share tips real time! Also I haven’t experienced much spam, and mute is handy as ever. All in all I like what I’ve seen so far. The biggest benefit I’ve seen is you can explain mistakes to your teamate and they don’t repeat them all game! Biggest frustration was seeing people make the same bad moves over and over. Now they understand what the problem is. And focusing enemies or telling an ally to switch builds is much easier!

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i’m actually fine with laners being able to take jungle as “an optimal strategy”. As in, I’m ok with it being a competitively viable options for laners to take certain jungle camps in some situations. A map where the jungler and only the jungler can take jungle is a less dynamic and interesting environment. The jungler (and I think this was achieved in this update pretty well) just needs to have autonomy to clear and rotate having an impact besides being there to help one lane and funnel gold.

For example it still seems optimal for the mid lane to take the everything but the first CP buff (assuming you have a CP jungle), and for the bot laner to clear bot jungle on occasion if the jungler is busy elsewhere, or at least take weapon buff moving into the mid game. As long as the best strategy is not to play a utility jungle, and just give all the farm to your carries I’m fine with it.

3v3 was destroyed. The saw rework in his ult was a heavy nerf, that ult has little to no damage with an extremely long cooldown compared to any other similar ability. It’s literally useless. 15 base cooldown for a skill shot that can be body blocked with 300+140%. Compare it with empowered Samuel (the most similar), it has 220+110% with 33% more range, 2 shots and 1s cooldown (empowered), or skaarf’s A 275+100% with 5 more range and less than 1/3 of the cooldown. Saw’s ult is bad compared to all of them, and it’s an ult. It also doesn’t work with the play style of Cp saw.

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@coltonJW

I agree completely. I guess I still get frustrated when I see laners jungling when they should be in their lane and we start losing it but that’s a player issue that’s gonna exist until they learn better. Junglers definitely own the jungle now, they clear it a lot faster.

@Guest_78

I played SAW today and his ult seems a lot stronger per bullet. Note: I usually play cp SAW. The cooldown isn’t very noticeable even at lvl 1 and it packs enough punch to do its job. Later on, especially with cw, you don’t even really notice not having it as it’s almost always up. It’s also much safer to use as a skillshot rather than having to AA. I prefer it. It definitely is stronger per bullet though. I use it mostly to last hit or to chip opponents health so my allies can chase. It frees saw up to not have to build defense so much as health imo, which speeds up his build time. Again this is as cp saw. I usually don’t touch wp saw so I have to try him out to see how it does but I can’t imagine it not being more helpful on him. The standard dmg instead of splash dmg also seems to help immensely.

But before you would get 9 bullets instead of 3. You said it: to chip opponents. It’s an ult, ults should be for something more than just chip. The whole ability is so bad compared to other similar abilities, but this one is an ult. It also has no synergy at all with his kit.

CP SAW has no damage in his ult compared with the pre-rework ult

Yeah but the thing is even though you get 3 you get a shot back a lot faster. This means that you don’t have to wait as long for a shot back and you also don’t have to worry about wasting ult on clearing minion waves, which was an issue prior. Again I also find that you get more shots out of the lower cooldown in total, even though they are spaced out more, and being as you can now lead enemies with them instead of chase enemies to aa, I find it preferable. That’s just me. Also his early game is a lot better to me because of it.

@VaKTaBi

Just not seeing it. His shots definitely seem to hit harder and especially against whole teams due to not having to worry about splash. In fact I now actually don’t mind using it to clear waves as it’s aoe and not splash now.

Again this is just my opinion. No issue with you guys disagreeing.

The cooldown per bullet was greatly increased. The rework was good, and it may end up being a buff in the long run, but right now it needs numbers to be adjusted.

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Yeah likely so. It might just come down to fitting his, or my, playstyle more. I used to be so frustrated with sitting there with 9 bullets I had to waste on minions and also enemies always knew to be careful until my basic attacks went back to normal. Now I can pop off on pushing enemies with it a lot better. It really isn’t noticeable once you get a t2 cw though but idk. I just like it a lot more now.

Its not really that but they took away his missing health per damage. That was a great finisher for both paths.

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I tried it, and his ult is now useless, weaker than previously

Well ye, Missing health % is a major and strong aspect of any abilities. Cough WP scaling execute damage for BF A

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I also like the chat in game feature. My first ranked match since the update was yesterday. We got beat up. I loved being the positive presence though. Teammates did begin to talk smack to each other. It was empowering to be the one to try and rally the troops and encourage positivity.

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One other thing I noticed about SAW now, just as a note: he can run and gun a whole lot better. Dashing with his a to then use his ult and blast someone in the face and then run away is now a thing. I think they traded off some of his per hit power for more aoe and less opportunity to spam it imo. You don’t have to be as careful with him but he definitely can’t one trick like 2-3 enemies as cp anymore. However spellfire is more effective on him now.

Jungling will always be possible with any hero as long as stormguard banner and stormcrown exist in the game. As far as players leaving their lane to take jungle creeps, that is totally fine. If there are enemies missing on the map and they are threatened in the lane then how is it a bad move to take the safer jungle farm until the creeps reach the tower? There is no way the jungler has enough time to clear all the camps as well as make gank rotations around the map. In game chat feature is a huge positive. It decreases the toxicity by allowing more ways to communicate other than just pings.

Nobody said it should never be done under any circumstances. But when the bot goes and sweeps your entire bot jungle while you’re in a 2v3 fight right next to his lane and then he pings you when you CSing under his turret while he’s dead then it’s totally unacceptable. Just laners in VG feel way too entitled to your jungle.

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Yikes, I don’t think any type of patch change would fix that. Chat function helps in regards to helping explain decision making, but if a player is going to act that way then its an error on the player’s part. Hopefully this is not a common occurrence

Unfortunately it happens too often. I agree with your point though and practice it myself, even as a captain. If the laner leaves to recall or is dead, and the jungler isn’t rotating in, I will absolutely work my cs and get some gold. Even doing this, at times, gets me pings from the entitled laner ha. Lately it’s been a little better, but it should just never happen. I always try to remind folks in chat: it’s a team game!

Oh for sure it is a players problem but it was born from the meta. We had stupidly designed jungle and that’s why we are where we are now. I think we need a few patches in a row where junglers take their jungle or are useless and maybe that will change general mentality. Because right now it is very common for them to steal something/everything. Like back in 3v3 there were people who did it too but I’ve never been like “damn this needs to be fixed as it’s a big problem”. It was the exception back then. Now you’re like “Hey this dude didn’t steal my goldoak, what a nice guy” as it’s just surprising if they don’t.