So riot accidentally confirmed 4.19 will be released this week.  So... we might get the SR updated map presently. 

Only in Teambuilder and Intro Bots. Still exciting though!

Ah that's right - the staggered roll out bit.  This means team builder should get a huge spike. I'm looking forward to uninstalling my mod and using the most current version of the map. 

Speaking of team builder... ugh.  So, I mostly play co-op vs ai games and team builder games on my alt to level it up and/or to work on champs.  I've kind of hit the team builder wall.  It's literally an 8-12 minute wait for me if I try to play top lane on that alt.  Guessing that will improve some w/ the patch, but I decided to start playing other games while I'm waiting.  I wait slightly less time than challenger players waiting to queue up for a game.... Anyway, it only recently started behaving like this - previously, I'd be in a game inside of 2-3 min flat. 

re: games w/ the dump and people wanting to kill themselves.  idk... it would have been pretty easy for me to get 1 person to join us so we would have had 5 people and could have dumped pete where ever we wanted... it would have also been pretty easy to take mid as fp and swap pete.  If we are going to play w/ the DT, let's mitigate the pain a little.  I don't mind hosting the game if that helps any.  Just kind of a bummer to have the steam let out of us so quickly after only a few games. 

also - server maintenance officially announced.  Download times will be higher than normal due to the SR map.  If you are planning on playing later that night, its a good idea to patch in advance, eh.  Ranked rewards are also in this patch, but not distributed until EOS. 

Server maintenance for patch 4.19 has been scheduled for the early morning hours of NOVEMBER 5th for NA, EUW, EUNE, LAN, LAS, BR, TR and November 6th for OCE. Here's the NA version of the maintenance post:

"On 11/05/2014, starting at 01:30 PST, ranked queues will be disabled in preparation for patch 4.19. At 03:00 PST, the servers will be shut down and all games currently in progress will end in a draw and stats will not be recorded. We estimate the battlegrounds will be unavailable for 6 hours.

As an early heads-up, download times for Patch 4.19 will be lengthy as we release the last files needed for the upcoming Summoner's Rift Update open beta. Please plan accordingly!"

Patch notes are out:  Patch 4.19 notes | League of Legends

man.. patch notes were pretty boring.  Ryze got a big nerf to his Q, singed got some visual update, sion got minor buffs, lucy got nerfed - primary diff being his ult CD is up all levels.  Zilean passive destroyed (same bonus on at 1500 range - eg support or group or its completely useless).  All other changes super minor.  Still, we get the new map...

You expected a substantial patch a week before the season ends?

Just some additional balancing

So this is on pbe..

So if I'm not slow (I am), looks like we are getting patched up in a few hours - so new fun stuff tomorrow.  I'll be on my main doing team builder a bunch I think.  Join if u like when I invite.  Night all!

also - battlecast skarner... and its legendary apparently...

http://boards.pbe.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/general-pbe-feedback/uwfEfaNq-pbe-bugs-feedback-thread-battlecast-alpha-skarner

and it occurs to me that the map roll out is supposed to start AFTER the end of season.. hurm...

Well, we all knew this was coming.  From Morello in today's Q&A:

"The pill to swallow is that jungling will be riskier, harder, and less dominant than Season 4. Jungler game impact in S4 was of-the-charts high (junglers run games, right now) and it will feel like a knee-capping. It's relative as there's new ways to succeed in the jungle and new classes of junglers to bring.The pill to swallow is that jungling will be riskier, harder, and less dominant than Season 4. Jungler game impact in S4 was of-the-charts high (junglers run games, right now) and it will feel like a knee-capping. It's relative as there's new ways to succeed in the jungle and new classes of junglers to bring."

To put it bluntly, Morello has never had a clue when it comes to jungling, which is why its always been a mess and why he has never been able to achieve his stated goals in jungle with any of his changes that he makes every single season.

Jungling is, undeniably, at its least dominant state in the history of the game.  Unless maybe if you play one of about 3 assassin champions, which forces your team into really weird comps.  But its harder to gank than ever, and the jungle champions that fit into most comps have been hit harder than ever (melee, ganks, bruisers), with no real gold to compensate.

If they seriously knee cap the position with respect to the others its just going to be completely unplayable.  Which wouldn't be that surprising given Riot/Morello's incompetence with jungle in the past.

I don't know about that.  You had to buy wards instead of getting a ward item so it was a lot more expensive to combat them a few seasons back, but they also had a more difficult jungle to work with.  Back when everyone had to start pots/armor cloth to survive and many couldn't gank till six, they were far less felt than now.  We've got jungle sustain items that make backs a matter of needing to spend money.

I wouldn't say they run games though, he probably doesn't understand map awareness and warding...

"If they seriously knee cap the position with respect to the others its just going to be completely unplayable." - karls

Or need to be played differently.  Kind of need to wait and see how things pan out.  Tend to agree that he doesn't really seem to "get it" though. 

That quote was from Morello. The Lead Game Designer who has been around from day 1. You don't have to agree with him on everything, but he probably has a firm understanding of the concepts of map awareness and warding.

That's not quite true. Season 2 they wanted the jungle to be accessible to more than just Warwick, Nunu, Udyr, allowing more "carry junglers". The problem with that was that it was TOO easy and so everyone poached the jungle, causing them to actually get less gold. But, there were way more junglers. Not to mention, the "Oracle Monkey" strategy that become a necessity at high level play made the junglers extremely extremely important. Additionally, at this time jungle tanks were pretty much immortal to mages and bruisers, due to how ridiculous end-game ADCs were. Sure, they got 4-shot by the ADC, but that's what ADCs did to everyone back then.

Season 3, they wanted to make the jungle harder, and prevent laners from poaching everything... allowing more "carry junglers". They did this by increasing the difficult of the jungle and introducing extremely slot-efficient items. There was also the brief months of League of Cleavers and League of Warmogs, which was a great time to be a jungler. This backfired because laners just bought the slot-efficient items (Blue Ezreal, Vladimir). This was also the "Assassin" Season, which somewhat warped the good junglers. You pretty much HAD to be someone who could consistently and effectively gank midlane, because whoever won midlane would transition just so much better while the other one ballsnowed.

Season 4, they wanted to refine the jungle items... allowing more "carry junglers". They tweaked the stats of the jungle items around so that laners couldn't really buy it, due to the Conservation mechanic. They also introduced Feral Flare. Thus began the dark days of the "Jungle Carry". Junglers were coming out of laning phases extremely powerful, and it was difficult to stop them because their gold was so safe. They were dealing immense amounts of damage with just SotEL and a Brutalizer. Then there was Jungle Yi. So, they nerfed them. All of them.

While i agree that, historically, Junglers have not been as strong as a role as whatever-the-strongest-lane was that season... is that really an awful thing? We say what happened earlier this season: It is difficult to deny a jungler their farm, without consistently doing 3-man plays. It would seem odd for a lower-gold position to be stronger than others.

i really feel that it's unfair to say that they haven't accomplished a part of their goals for each season. They usually did, but it backfired because they did it ... too well?

And while i also agree that Jungle is probably one of the weaker roles if you're not playing the very top junglers, you "can". i also feel like you don't play a lot of "3 minute gankers", other than Panthenon. For this reason, i just don't feel like your playstyle is going to be as dramatically impacted because they are trying to shift AWAY from the "3 minute gankers". i feel like junglers who will be able to accurately time ganks and manuever into position are going to be really stronger, rather than this season's "Trinity" junglers who always had access to extremely effective ganks, regardless of vision.

The real goal, i feel, for them this season is not to "allow more carry junglers", for once. Rather it is it to "allow a more diverse set of junglers". That means if you happen to always play whatever is strongest, you'll feel weaker because they are reducing the strength of THAT set of junglers. But everyone else should feel enabled, once they smooth out the kinks.

He who creates isn't necessarily that great at playing.  I know exactly who he is, but the only time I see junglers run games is when fools don't ward or a plat+ is smurfing the bronzies.  When I'm running support, I keep my double ward up as well as I can and pay attention to when the jungler hits other lanes.  Aside from Nocturne burning an ult to gank, there are no magic "wards don't matter" junglers that can just smoke the lane regardless.  You can even get away from a Rammus with proper warding.

I do agree that the jungle is hosed(Lee's everywhere!) but it's not hosed because junglers run the games.  If the jungler is top of the gold pile, someone else sucked to get them there.