'LoL': 'League Of Legends' 3.9 Patch Notes Released, Changes Coming To LeBlanc, Jayce, Brand, Items, More

Patch 3.9 for "League of Legends" is coming fast. Riot Games, developer of "League of Legends," has released the Patch 3.9 notes, detailing many changes that will be coming to the popular multiplayer online battle arena, or MOBA, strategy game. Some of the biggest changes are coming to LeBlanc, Jayce, the melee/ranged AD fighter and Brand, the fire-based AP carry. First though, a potentially huge change is coming to the game overall. Here it is, word for word, from Riot:

"With Patch 3.9, we are setting a new precedent by making separate, map-specific balance changes to certain champions. The intent is not to reach a balancing cadence similar to Summoner's Rift, but to address some egregious balance outliers to improve the overall player experience. In this patch, we're toning down Kassadin on Crystal Scar and Singed on Twisted Treeline. If this approach proves successful, we'll follow suit with additional tweaks where necessary."

Oh, dear. If Riot keeps doing this, you may have to change your play styles from one map to the next if you play the same champion(s) often. Is this really necessary? "League of Legends" has enough issues already. Was anyone really clamoring for this change? This is an example of Riot fixing a problem that didn't exist. Sigh.

Riot, however, is adding an ARAM-specific item called the Orb of Winter, which will allow players to absorb damage, making it easier to survive against teams that have good or superior poke compared to your squad. ARAM stands for "all random, all mid." Here are the details:

• Orb of Winter
  • Recipe: Rejuvenation Bead + Rejuvenation Bead + Negatron Cloak
  • Total Gold Cost: 2080 (combine cost: 1180)
  • +70 Magic Resist
  • +20 Health Regen per 5 seconds
  • Unique Passive: Grants a shield that absorbs damage. The shield will refresh after a short period without taking damage.

Our Take: Ehh. Should make this item have a damage absorbing auro. 2,080 gold is a big early investment, and could be too costly considering it will only benefit you. In the Patch Preview video, Riot compared Orb of Winter to Guardian's Horn, which allows melee champions to initiate fights easier by providing a brief burst of movement speed; however, at 1,025 gold, Guardian's Horn is nearly half the cost of Orb of Winter. Orb of Winter is a good idea, but it needs to be cheaper. Lower the Magic Resist to 40 - 45 and up the Health Regen to +35, then slash the price to 800 - 1,000.

Now, we'll cover some of the changes that will be coming to champions, starting with LeBlanc.

LeBlanc

Sigil of Silence

Mana cost reduced to 50/60/70/80/90 from 70/75/80/85/90

Damage changed to 55/80/105/130/155 (+0.4 Ability Power) for both initial impact damage and mark detonation damage

Impact damage was 70/110/150/190/230 (+0.6 Ability Power)

Mark damage was 20/40/60/80/100 (+0.3 Ability Power)

Silence duration reduced to 1.5 seconds from 2

Distortion

Cooldown now starts on cast rather than after returning to your Distortion

Mana cost increased to 80/90/100/110/120 from 80

Fixed a bug where Distortion was visible in the fog of war

Ethereal Chains

Slow duration (and time until root) reduced to 1.5 seconds from 2

Root duration changed to 1.5 seconds from 1/1.3/1.6/1.9/2.2

Cooldown increased to 14/13/12/11/10 seconds from 10

Mimic

Mana cost reduced to 0 from 100/50/0

All mimicked abilities now deal their own base damage instead of amplifying the base spell's damage

Mimic: Sigil of Silence

Now deals 100/200/300 (+0.65 Ability Power) damage once on impact and again if the mark is detonated

Mimic: Distortion

Cooldown now starts on cast rather than after returning to your Distortion

Now deals 150/300/450 (+0.975 Ability Power) damage on impact

Mimic: Ethereal Chains

Now deals 100/200/300 (+0.65 Ability Power) damage once on impact and again if the target is rooted

Our take: We like that Mirror Image will start running away instead of standing around, which should make it harder for enemies to determine which LeBlanc is the real you. We didn't think that any mana costs needed to be adjusted though. The silence duration on Sigil of Silence was short enough at 2 seconds. The nerf to 1.5 seconds wasn't really necessary, either.

As for the reworked Mimic abilities, with so many changes made in one fell swoop, it's tough to say how this will affect LeBlanc on the battlefield. We're always skeptical whenever Riot tries to "balance" a champion's damage abilities. Sure, Leblanc destroys squishies, but she also falls off hard late -- especially against tanky champions. Will these changes result in LeBlanc finding some middle ground between those two extremes? There's only one way to find out.

There's one change coming to Jayce that bothers us. There are two in total. Here they are:

Jayce

Shock Blast

• Basic missile speed increased to 1450 from 1350 (Accelerated Shock Blast missile speed remains the same)

Acceleration Gate

• Cooldown increased to 16 seconds from 14/13/12/11/10

Our take: Avoiding Shock Blast was hard enough, considering its fairly large blast radius as well as its ridonkulous range. Now, it's going to travel to its target faster. Joy. At least the cooldown on Acceleration Gate was increased.

Here are the changes coming to Brand:

Brand

Pillar of Flame

Mana cost reduced to 70/75/80/85/90 from 70/80/90/100/110

Conflagration

Mana cost increased to 70/75/80/85/90 from 60/65/70/75/80

Pyroclasm

Mana cost reduced to 100/100/100 from 100/150/200

Our take: The decreased mana cost for casting Pillar of Flame will make it easier for Brand to harass early and often. Good for Brand players, bad for everyone else.

Read the full "League of Legends" 3.9 Patch Notes here. Watch the "League of Legends" 3.9 Patch Preview below, courtesy of YouTube.

What do you think of the changing coming to "League of Legends" 3.9 Patch notes? Do you like any or all of the changes? Why or why not? What do you wish Riot would change in this or future "League of Legends" patches, and why? How will this "League of Legends" patch change your play style or strategies, if at all? Sound off in the comments below.