LoL – Champion Rotation: S1 (Week 40), the Latest Patch, Brand and Free RP

Much later than usual this week, but the League of Legends free champion roster has finally rotated. We will be getting the champions below for the following week, and one suspects probably into tuesday the week after as well.

• Alistar


• Avinia


• Fiddlesticks


• Janna


• Malphite


• Nasus


• Sivir


• Miss Fortune


• Maokai


• Lee Sin

I'm sure many people will like this line up. There are a number of favourites (Fiddle, Malphite, Sivir, Miss Fortune) as well as some heroes that people would love to try out before buying (Alistar, Avinia, Maokai, Lee Sin).  The skill level for this group of heroes is slightly lower  than the previous 2 weeks, and this should make it for less feeding as people try out new heroes (hopefully). I personally am 50-50 on this weeks line up. Though I'm looking forward to trying out Avinia and Maokai, I already own most of the heroes that I would want to play on this list. I've also been rocking Nasus alot and it makes me sad that I'll now have competition to play him.

The latest patch was a massive one. Not only do we have the release of Brand (which I'll touch on below), but we also have tons of balancing tweaks. Many of the Tanky DPS heroes have been nerfed abit, while it seems that many casters, tanky or not have been buffed. I for one am especially glad that Teemo has been nerfed slightly. That little Yordle was much too mobile for his own good! I really hate shrooms!

The items are a mixed bunch, with Wriggle's Lantern getting a buff and a nerf of sorts. I think the change to convert the proc damage to magic, is going to cause junglers more problems than Riot imagines. I like that B.F. Sword has it's cost reduced by 200 gold for a 5 point damage reduction. This is definately going to be a big help to carries, as that cost reduction is going to allow many heroes to pick up the damage boost the sword gives much faster. I don't know why Riot decided to buff Infinity Edge though. It is not as if DPS chars are not already dealing loads of damage with the items as it is. With this buff, it is just going to make a tank's life that much harder, which by default is already a very thankless role.

Now on to Brand. I have managed to have a few games with and against the new fiery, Lich King from DotA wannabe, and these are my initial thoughts. He has high burst damage with a passive that is very Anti-Tank. He is also alot more useful in team battles than in a 1v1 situation. Brand is a hero that excels early to mid game, but doesn't scale as well late game. Team mates will be need to help Brand reap the benefits of his abilites. Smart teams will be able to greatly reduce Brand's effectiveness. I think that heroes like Amumu and Avinia, with AOE crowd control will have great synergy with Brand. Amumu's ultimate followed up by Brand's Pyroclasam ultimate is almost a guaranteed Ace is Amumu catches the whole team. Overall though, I find Brand less overpowered than heroes like Nocturne when he first came out. Not really my kind of hero, but with the free RP from Riot added to the blance RP that I have, I may just pick him up.

Yup. That's right free RP. Riot is giving away 350 RP for free to each player who logged in to the game in the last month to compensate for bad server performance of late. Thank you Riot!

Also looks like 2 new heroes are on the horizon! Rumble and the Monkey King!