On the 21st of February, a patch was applied to our favorite game. Along with the changes to the AP items and the balance changes that were brought to the many champions of the league, many users from different communities came forth to debate about the patch.



The same can be said for the home of the LCK, Korea. Many users are sharing their opinions regarding the patch after playing the game for themselves and predicting how the meta will shift over time.



The biggest change most Korean users are putting their focus on is the removal of 'Tracker's Knife' and the nerf to Morellonomicon. Here is a small compilation of what the Korean users are saying about Patch 8.4.





▷Large change to the AP items, Rengar's rollback, removal of Tracker's Knife, and changes to Precision and Resolve runes... it's a huge patch.

└ It's as big as a season update.



▷Revival of Fiddlesticks, GAZUAAAAA(let's go)!

└ GAZUAAAA!

└ It's going to be scary when he suddenly pops up. If his ultimate has an 80-second cooldown, if we reduce it by mere 20 seconds, that means he's going to pop out every minute!

└ Due to the changes to Tracker's Knife, securing vision in the jungle will become more difficult. I hope Fiddlesticks make an appearance on the pro scene.



▷The biggest change this patch is the removal of Tracker's Knife.

└ Then Riot should've at least left Sightstone available for purchase... they're telling us now that only the support should manage vision...

└ I think the removal of Tracker's Knife was a bad idea.

└ This will definitely bring change to the pro scene, but Lee Sin was hit in the back of the head by this.

└└ Lee Sin will become very underpowered.







▷Wait, why are they removing Tracker's Knife? How will junglers fight for vision? Is Riot telling us to only use our totems? We can't even switch to Sweeping Lens now. This is also an indirect nerf to champions that rely on wards for mobility, like Lee Sin. We don't even have Sightstone anymore... they should've given us a replacement option instead of just removing the item altogether.

└ It's not an indirect nerf... it couldn't have been more direct. It just put Lee Sin in a coffin.

└ It's sad news for Lee Sin, a sacrificial lamb... to be fair, the Tracker's Knife did prevent early kills on the professional stage because the jungler was able to cover a lot of ground with the item. I think this change was made to shorten the duration of games.

└ Can Riot please add a rune that'll allow players to install wooden dolls that can be used like a ward? An object that can be attacked by both the enemy and team. The removal of Tracker's Knife will be too critical for Lee Sin.









▷Zoe is going to hit the ground with this nerfs.

└ I don't think it'll be that bad.

└ Nope.



▷Zoe's AP ratio on Q has been changed to 0.5. It's going to be hard for her to even wave clear now. She donezo.

└ It's okay for her to be donezo. She deserves it.



▷I can't seem to comprehend the purpose of this patch anymore. Riot claims that Press the Attack was buffed... but I can't feel a difference. It's funny too how all the champions that used the rune were nerfed. In addition, they nerfed the AS increase rune from 18% to 9%, they made it more difficult to trigger PtA. They also said that Twitch is too powerful when using PtA, but people didn't even use that rune on Twitch! The many that didn't use that keystone are just out of luck?

└ Exactly, why nerf the champions after claiming that people don't use that rune? Plus, the "buff" to Press the Attack doesn't even feel like a buff.

└ If you read carefully, it's a nerf in disguise. Jax and Camille weren't nerfed, but Xin Zhao? Lol.



▷Will Rengar become broken through this patch?

└ I'm going to play Top Rengar. I was having success with him before the patch too, lol.



▷This patch brought ruin to macro-oriented junglers. In tournaments, these junglers were already considered weak. This will worsen the situation for them.

└ In my rank, we don't have support players like Wolf, CoreJJ, Mata, and GorillA. So the jungle provided the vision alongside the support. But now, we'll we have to dive into the Baron pit to check if the enemy is hitting it? I feel like the people who are adding these patches don't know the game.





▷A patch of this scale should be applied before a season or in the middle of it. Why are they doing it now?



└ It shouldn't be limited to only preseason. Including Reddit, many people from different communities gave enough complaint about the game. What was Riot going to do? Wait out an entire year before bringing a major change? In addition, this patch is still much smaller in comparison to the preseason patch.



▷I think they went a bit too far with the Stopwatch nerf. They should've left it the way it was but only change its activation time to 10 minutes.

└ I think the nerf was a bit too much. I don't think anyone is going to use that rune now.

└└ To be fair, Stopwatch was ridiculously overpowered.

└└ At all times, there will always be runes that nobody will use.

└└ I just want Riot to remove the item completely.









▷A huge change. They should've balanced out the game a lot better during the preseason instead of dropping such a big patch so early on. The problem is that this change will most likely carry over to the World Championship. In 2015, Riot, out of the blue, buffed the hell out of bruisers, and turned a tank meta into a Fiora, Darius, and Mordekaiser meta. Last year, was the League of Censer...

└I thought Ardent Censer's potential was just discovered late by the players.

└ Censer's on-hit-heal was added in 2016 November. The buff to AS and heal was applied in 2017 January. So yes, the item was already in the game, people just found it late.

└ Many games proved that "slowly" adding patches is a bad direction to take for developers. Riot was already famous for adding many patches very quickly, ever since the launch of League of Legends. At the early stages of the game, League was patched like almost every week with new champions coming out every 2-3 weeks.

└ Just look at Blizzard. Since they're slow with their patches, people started losing interest in their games. I don't see this as a problem.



▷It's going to be difficult to play Kalista, especially after the nerf to her attack range. Also, what will people build to replace Morellonomicon?

└ The 1st core-item of AP midlaners will differ greatly now.

└└ I think that's exactly what Riot was looking to do.

└└ There will no longer be Stopwatches, so we'll have to focus more on the laning phase.







▷Making comebacks will become even more difficult. Terrible patch.

└ Baron or Elder Dragon will still completely turn games around.

└ It's only natural for a team that did well early on to win, right? What's the point of playing a 40-50 minute game if one teamfight decides the outcome anyway? Having easy comebacks happen is not good. There's no point in exhausting resources in trying to secure objectives like Baron if that's the case.

└└ It's only natural? Why not give credit to the teams that "endure" and defend well in a game to make the comeback happen later? It's not like they aren't trying their best to look for opportunities, right? Comebacks happen from the teams that are on the offensive. What you're saying is that early-game should decide the outcome of a game, but that's the worst case.

└ I like fast games. Slow and long games are the worst.

└ If you like games with comebacks, go play HotS.



▷People don't even play Twitch anymore. Why was his E nerfed to the ground?

└ Maybe because he is S-tier over in NA? Lol.



▷Remember the Jin Air vs. SKT match where SKT took Baron and Elder dragon more than 10 times but still lost? This patch proves that Riot sees a problem in that.



▷Playing support seems like the only option for Lee Sin and Jax. Aid the team with Knight's Vow and Solari and deliver enemy carries by ward jumping with Targon's. Jax can add in Flash for an AoE stun! This is all a joke by the way.

└Lol.

└ How will Lee Sin be played now? Sightstones were removed as well. He's blind, but Riot took away his guide dog as well, lol.



▷With the changes to Morellonomicon, I'm feeling the lack of mana recovery in ARAM. I miss it...

└ Tear of the Goddess has become a must buy!

└└ Even with the tear, Zilean was running out of mana.

└ The answer to your problem is "Clarity"!

└└ Morello + Clarity used to give unlimited poke.



▷With the removal of the mana restoration on Morellonomicon, I can see how overpowered the item used to be. It was the only AP items that applied heal reduction on enemies, gave cooldown reduction, and gave mana - at the cost of only 2900 gold! This item was too good for far too long.

└ Looking at the new AP items, there weren't any mana recovery. Is Riot telling us to play around expanding max mana?

└ Almost every AP champions built either Morellonomicon or Liandry's. Many built both, actually.



▷Rengar is once again hit with bugs! If you use Q while leaping towards the top and bottom inner tower, his Q damage is applied to the turrets.

└ Rengar did Rengar.

└ Rolled back the bugs...



▷Volibear and Fiddlesticks were buffed. But we'll still use either Nidalee or Elise.