I'll also be doing a meta review at the end of the article. However, I wanted to quickly apologize for making four suboptimal comps. I got the ideas very close to correct, however, most comps were built on the assumption that four Mystic is insane, which it is not. So, there will be a lot of small changes which led me to pretty solid success. Now, enjoy the patch notes notes summoners.
TL:DR
- Combat recap displays two new panels: damage blocked, and healing and shielding.
- At level eight, four costs have a 20% lower chance of appearing and two costs have a 25% higher chance of appearing.
- Chosen Sharpshooter is dead.
- Chosen Yasuo is back.
- Ahri may be the best comp.
- Sunfire Cape is suboptimal.
Game Changing
- Combat recap displays two new panels: damage blocked, and healing and shielding.
- There are 5 less seconds per each planning phase.
- At level eight, four costs have a 20% lower chance of appearing and two costs have a 25% higher chance of appearing.
- Three mage reduces spell power by 14.3% less. There's now a spicy Ahri build I'd like to show y'all.
- Jinx's ultimate now counts as a spell instead of an auto-attack override. This means her ult will not proc Shojin, meaning she won't be able to perma-stun. I think this completely kills Chosen Sharpshooter as they were already pretty weak.
- Veigar now targets the champion with lowest total health instead of percent health. This means we're stacking more easily and sniping the Ashe comps baby. Also, his level-three ultimate got nerfed or something, don't worry about it. Just worry about my Ahri build.
- Shen reduces 15.2% more physical damage, reducing 38% damage instead of 33%. Also, he requires 23.1% less mana to ult for the first time and 20% less mana to ult all subsequent times. The extra armor is nice, but Shen being able to potentially ult twice in a fight is massive. This is great for Chosen Diana and Enlightened Talon, and we may see Shen in a few more comps.
- Sett requires 40% more mana to ult for the first time and all subsequent times. This hurts Brawler Ashe significantly, but should really just mean Sett's not an auto-include in most comps at level nine.
- Zilean can no longer ult himself. This means less stall and which hurts quite a few comps.
- Sunfire Cape procs 50% slower. This shouldn't directly mean it does 50% less damage. However, I think this item is massively overrated and is strictly suboptimal if given the choice. To explain what given a choice means: you should never voluntarily take a Giant's Belt, except to build one Morello.
Major
- Tyrant Galio has 16.7% AD and 11.2% less health. Running three Cultist, two Keeper is still probably going to be the best opener, so this shouldn't impact your stage-two performance at all unless someone's high-rolled items.
- Diana deals 33.3% and 25% more ultimate damage at levels one and two. This should make you way happier to get an early level-two Diana.
- Nami's ultimate stuns for 25%, 20% and 33.3% longer at levels one, two and three. This is a hot take, but I think Nami, especially level-two Nami, and Chosen Nami, is a crank. In the early game, I streak so hard with this champ. If you get AP on her with a random Enlightened champ, you're lit. Remember when I said three Cultist is probably the best opener? Well, this might be stronger. Invest in Nami pairs.
- Vayne has 12.5% more attack speed. I rarely go for a single Vayne, but if I'm offered pairs, I'll be a bit more happy. She'll now be an excellent item holder.
- Jax has 15.4% more attack speed, requires 33.3% less mana to ult for the first time, and requires 20% less mana to ult all subsequent times. I think this should push Chosen Yasuo into viability, especially if Jax can get two ultimates off in the late game.
- Lee Sin requires 20% less mana to ult. Now this should push Chosen Yasuo into viability.
- Yone requires 20% less mana to ult unmarked targets. This certainly puts Chosen Yasuo into viability, ya?
- Statikk Shiv does 6.3% more regular and bonus damage. This is a solid buff to Warlords, Chosen Yasuo, and decent for Ashe is she can't find other items.
Minor
- Six Dusk now gives 20% less team spell power and 6.7% less Dusk spell power. Overall, if you get a Dusk Spat or a Chosen Dusk, you should still get top two, so this isn't that big of a deal.
- Four spirit now grants 11.2% less attack speed. Other than sometimes with Zed, I never touch more than two Spirits. With Zed, if you have items, it's a free top-two anyway, so don't worry about it.
- Three Fortune drops a bit more gold. Still basically unplayable.
- Lissandra does 16.7% and 12.5% more primary and secondary ultimate damage at levels one and two. Similar to Diana, you should be more happy getting a level-two Lissandra, but she's still one of the worst one costs to get.
- Annie's ultimate shields and deals 25% and 16.7% more damage at levels one and two. I don't think I've ever played Annie and I rarely see it, so I don't have much of an opinion on this. Apparently there's a Mage reroll comp, but I've never seen it, nor has it won a single game in top-10 NA.
- Aphelios's ultimate lasts for 16.7% and 14.3% longer at levels one and two. This is nice for streaking with Moonlight, but I don't think it will impact him much as a transition into Ashe. Typically, you should just run two Sharpshooter into Ashe for that.
- Hecraim's ultimate heals for 14.3% and 20% more at levels two and three. The only time I can see this being relevant is for Chosen Hecarim. I rarely get the opportunity for a level-two Hecarim as I'm typically either using him as a random unit into Ashe, or a random Vanguard into Riven.
- Xin Zhao requires 40% less mana to ult. Also, his ult's been fixed so it properly works with Bloodthirster, Shiv and Rageblade. The fix isn't that big, but the mana buff is great for Chosen Warlord.
- Luden's Echo does 11.1% more damage. Neat.
Insignificant
- Six Keeper grants 23.1% more shielding. I've literally never seen four Keepers, let alone five with Chosen.
- Six Fortune gives 10.8% more gold and better items. Excellent meme.
- Yuumi's ultimate heals for 25% more and grants 20% more attack speed at level three. I've been given the opportunity once to go for a level-three Yuumi and I'm unsure if I would've taken it with this buff. If you're nine and have nothing else to do, level-three Yuumi could be ok, but I don't think this changes anything.
- Level-three Riven got nerfed. I'm not doing the math on this; you instantly win still.
- Aphelios's turrets die instantly when he dies instead of a few milliseconds afterward. They don't attack, but they count as units, meaning in the case of effectively a tie, you'd lose because there's still an Aphelios turret on board. This happened to me once, so I just wanted to document and explain the change.
Compositions
As I said, I immensely overvalued four Mystic. So, most changes are taking out two Mystics, small item optimizations or positional changes.
Mage Ahri
After the buffs to mage and the buff to Veigar, I think this is going to be the strongest composition.
Just go Blue Buff or Shojin and AP on Ahri and tank items on Riven. You don't need to go nine for Azir, but you definitely should.
Also, one small change, Yuumi is positioned opposite of Ahri because in theory, she'll heal her and give her attack speed. You'll see this in a few comps.
Note: "S" stands for Sandy Boi, meaning you should place your Sandy Bois there.
Riven
I really screwed up this comp last week. It turns out that four Mystic is not good and Jhin is a crank.
The weird positioning is so Thresh shields Aatrox and Riven doesn't begin tanking too early.
Also, you should try streaking into this with a Cultist opener.
Brawler Ashe
As it turns out, Giant Slayer is more useful than I thought.
Other than that, I changed Yuumi's positioning. I still think this is the optimal way to make an Ashe comp and I beat a Chosen Brawler Ashe comp, so...
Chosen Warlord
I think the comp is on a similar level to Chosen Shade, however, it's less item dependent and more flexible.
You can stack Kalista, you can roll for Jarvan or Garen. It's lit!
You should ideally go eight and roll for Katarina by the way.
Chosen Shade
Roll for Zed at seven; get a lucky Kayn; gg. Also, you need RFC on Zed.
Note that you can get a GA and frontline Ahri so she can instantly cast. You can also take out the Zilean and Sejuani to play four Spirit, but I like this version more, especially after the Spirit nerf.
Chosen Yasuo
Just stack Yasuo and Kalista. It's that simple.
Also, fun fact that I just learned: Kalista has a base attack speed of 1.0. So uh, Guinsoo's and Hurricane for free LP.
Enlightened Talon
It's like Zed, but Talon. But not.
You can also play a Chosen Enlightened and go for six, but I'm not sold on that idea.
Chosen Diana
If you get a Chosen Moonlight, ideally Diana or Lissandra, go five and slow roll. It should be a free top four.
Chosen Wukong
I still have no idea what I'm doing.
Fornari’s Definitely Not Meme™ Comps
Did you know about Kalista? I sure didn't.
Chosen Cultist
As it turns out, Kalista's attack speed is insane. If you get a Chosen Cultist and a bunch of Bows, you should try this comp out. If not, go Riven, but this should be lit.
I dream of 2.0 attack speed Kalista shocking people and this might be the comp to do it, other than Chosen Yasuo of course.
Just go eight and roll for Kali. Easy.
Meta Update
Like I said, I really overvalued four Mystic. However, I got the comps pretty close to optimal on week two of the set. It's lit!
Please note I haven't taken a look at winrates, so I won't be able to objectively tell you how good a comp is until next week.
What I Got Right
- Riven's items on Dusk Riven seem optimal.
- Ahri's items are definitely optimal.
- I got the champions in Brawler Ashe perfect.
- I got Chosen Shade perfect other than Yuumi's positioning.
- I think I got Enlightened Talon perfect, but I'm not 100% sure on that.
- I got Chosen Warlord's champions perfect .
- I think I got Chosen Diana pretty close to perfect, but I'd like to play it a few more games.
What I Got Wrong
- Four Mystics sucks.
- Please don't look at my old Riven comp.
- My Ashe items were a grief. In general and not just on Ashe, if you have IE, you should probably always go HoJ over Last Whisper.
- Giant Slayer is great because of Chosen and a ton of Ashe players.
- Riven should be positioned a bit away from the frontline so she doesn't get instantly focused.
- Katarina already explodes comps, so you should run Blue Buff on her and ideally a Quicksilver.
What I Didn't Know
- Kalista's attack speed is 1.0.
- Yuumi can be positioned away from your carry to likely heal them. Thanks Soju!
- Thresh should be positioned next to a melee unit so he can shield himself and the melee unit.
- I still don't know how to play Chosen Wukong.
