It’s not a secret that League Of Legends has those games that just seem stale. Games where every champion is point and click, every fight is entirely one sided and are overall just incredibly boring. A new game mechanic for Garen, Darius, Skarner, and Mordekaiser was recently announced that will certainly create hype in the games that these champions are in, granting more opportunity for fun and intensity. Lets take a look:

Darius: “Death By My Hand”

“Passive:

Hemorrhage: Darius cuts enemies he attacks, causing them to bleed. Hemorrhage can stack up to five times.

[New] Bloodrage: Whenever Darius executes an enemy with Noxian Guillotine or fully stacks Hemorrhage on a target, he gains Bloodrage for a few seconds. While under the effects of Bloodrage, Darius deals greatly increased physical damage and applies max Hemorrhage stacks to all enemies he hits.”

This kind of passive is exactly what Darius needed to make him more viable in the later game. Of course, Darius is still a powerhouse when he has the items he needs, but when behind falls off extremely hard. With this new passive, it allows him to get the necessary damage in teamfights faster and allows him to have a strong contribution to his team. Though this change is great for solo queue, his lack and heavy crowd control and overall utility will still most likely keep him out of being a common pick in competitive play.

Garen: “Justice by Law, or by Sword”

“R: Demacian Justice

[NEW] Passive: Garen identifies the enemy champion with the most recent kills as the enemy team’s Villain. Judgment ticks and basic attacks on the Villain deal an additional 1% of their max Health as true damage.

Active: Garen calls upon the might of Demacia to deal a finishing blow to a targeted enemy. The more health they’re missing, the more damage Demacian Justice will deal. [NEW] Demacian Justice deals true damage to the enemy team’s Villain.”

Looking at this change alone, it seems like a major buff to Garen in both mid and late game when teams begin grouping. But, with this buff comes a lot of nerfs to Garen’s lane phase. Damage being lowered on his E in lower ranks as well as a reduction to his silence timing removes a lot of capability Garen has to shut down his lane opponent while not having the risk of getting kited. His Q nerf disallows him from getting a full E duration in while the target can’t dash away, removing a lot of his guaranteed damage in trades. With that said though, if you’re the fed one on your team against a Garen, you’re not going to have a very fun time when he tunnels on you until you’re dead.

Skarner: “Fear my Sting”

“Whenever Skarner is in a game, six crystal spires appear on the Rift. They’re located by red buff, blue buff, Baron, and Dragon.These crystal spires are capturable, just like the altars on Twisted Treeline. When someone on the lonely scorpion’s team captures a spire, it creates a zone that gives Skarner (only Skarner!) pretty significant boosts to his movement and attack speed. The enemy team can capture them too and, when they do, they gain gold, a short burst of vision, and temporarily lock Skarner out from his super meaningful buffs. That’s the key - with these changes, Skarner becomes a neutral objective control king, and super useful for teams looking to overcome their enemies with buff and map control.”

This change is incredibly interesting, and a lot of people are curious to know how it will play out, including myself. It seems that Skarner will be very good at denying the enemy jungler late game if he is ahead using his crystal spires to gain vision and control of the enemy jungle, but will have a terrible time attempting to regain control of his own jungle when behind if his spires are used against him. In a way, the Skarner change is a nerf, especially with all the changes being thrown at him, but in the hands of a fantastic Skarner play can be used to give his team a major advantage.

and finally, Mordekaiser: “Misery Loves Company”

“Last but certainly not least, we took a look at ol’ Morde. Over the years, he’s been a consistently difficult champion to balance thanks to his pretty unique mechanics. League’s very own man of steel is a shielded and manaless AP burst mage who’s super slow, lacks crowd control… and is often played in a solo lane. So, rather than committing to balancing him in a patchwork fashion for the next few years, we decided to try something a little crazy. Here goes…

We’re trying Mordekaiser out as a duo lane juggernaut, intended to step up in lieu of a regular marksmen pick.

Yep.

Morde’s rework has some pretty unique aspects. For starters, Creeping Death now only deals damage if Morde and his targeted ally stay near each other, a change intended to help entice Morde into duo lanes the way we mentioned. Secondly, even if he’s playing in lane with a support, he’ll earn full experience from any minion he’s able to last hit (support will get their usual half share of xp). This means that Mordekaiser, unless he dies horribly beforehand, will always hit level six way before his lane opponents, and will always have a pretty handy advantage when it comes to bot lane battles and early game dragon contests.”

There’s a lot to break down here, but for one I absolutely love this change. Mordekaiser has always lacked something about him, a tanky slow burst mage with no crowd control just doesn’t make sense. With that said these changes are exactly what he needs to make him unique as well as powerful in every stage of the game. Mordekaiser’s changes are attempting to specialize him in a duo lane environment, as both an attack damage carry and a support. This is the first time a melee carry in the bot lane has been possibly viable, and excitement is very present in the community for this. Seeing a new ad carry will give a lot of opportunity for other melee carries to see changes in the future and allow a lot more variety than just the same marksman played over and over again.

That’s not the only changes though, there’s one more that is quite exciting.5

“Whenever he deals damage specifically to the dragon, Mordekaiser curses it - if his team’s then able to kill it, Morde summons a specter of dragon that follows him around and fights for him. If you’ve ever thought about watching dragon and Baron duke it out... well... now you can.”

You can’t get much cooler than that. Imagine this scenario: an intense dragon fight occurs, 5v5, and your jungler just gets the smite off. Mordekaiser summons a massive dragon that shreds the enemy team leading yours to victory. Not only does that sound like a great experience, but it’s a major buff to mordekaiser around objectives and when it comes to controlling them. Overall, these changes look fantastic and there will be a ton of excitement when they hit live.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feedback, or edits that you feel need to be made then please feel free to leave comment on the article or contact me on twitter @TheFallenHope. All images and quotes are taken from Riot's blogpost.

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