What a season, what a season. Patch 7.24b is here to close out the year for all of us. This patch is entirely balance based, and does some pretty nice work to ensure that more champions are playable over the next several weeks.

As the holiday season draws nearer, Rioters will be stepping away from development until early next year. We are done with new announcements and changes for 2017. All that remains now is to reminisce about the old rune system in front of a fire.

But don’t worry, the first patch of season 8 is promised to hit around January 9 or 10. To hold you off until then, fighters are getting buffed, lethality items are getting toned down a bit and some of the more OP runes are getting reigned in.

1. THERE ARE A WHOLE LOT OF CHAMPION CHANGES

Since this is the last patch of the year, Riot has really gone out of their way to buff some scary champions. Fighters in particular are getting some pretty significant buffs. Kayn is seeing an increase in his AD growth and healing potential. Yasuo is also seeing some significant damage buffs. Aatrox, Kled and Renekton will also be gaining some fun new strengths. Watch out top laners, this is gonna be a rough one for you.

2. LETHALITY ITEMS ARE GETTING A LITTLE LESS RIDICULOUS

Chances are, if you’ve played any games in the last week or two, almost half the champions in your game were building Lethality items, and if you weren’t, they probably killed you more than a few times. The good news is even Riot knows that’s probably a few too many longswords for one game, so Lethality items are getting a big change in the mid-patch update. All the staple Lethality items are losing two of the stat to help bring them in line.

3. SORCERY IS GETTING NERFED

The only line of runes to receive a change this patch, Riot is hoping to bring Sorcery a little closer to the Precision and Domination trees to give players a few more options when it comes to offensive runes. While Arcane Comet isn’t getting changed — sorry bot laners — the tree as a whole will give a slightly smaller adaptive damage bonus. That’s not the only change though. Scorch is also getting a slight nerf in damage, while Manaflow Band will have a much longer cooldown after the patch.

These are the main points you’ve gotta take into consideration in this patch. Full patch notes can be found on the official website.

Patch 7.21: Should I still buy Ardent Censer?

After recent patch many people are still wondering “Do I still need to buy Ardent Censer?” Supports that always got it first still cannot figure out what to do. In case you need a reminder, here’s exactly what got changed on the item:

ARDENT CENSER

Attack speed and on-hit damage reduced.

ATTACK SPEED BUFF :: 20-35% >>> 10-30%
ON-HIT MAGIC DAMAGE BUFF :: 20-35 >>> 5-20

But does that mean that the item is totally useless now? The short answer is, no, it’s not useless. Ardent Censer is still a pretty good support item, but only in exactly the right situation.

To make sure you always know when to build the newly nerfed Ardent Censer we’ve compiled a helpful list of questions you should answer before you build it in your next support game.

WHICH CHAMPION ARE YOU PLAYING?

This is the easiest and most important question to answer, because it tells you how often you actually get to use the item’s effect. Champions like Janna, Taric and Lulu, get to shield, or heal, their allies far more often than champions like Morgana. Some of the champions that could previously have used Ardent just because it was strong might want to rethink that choice now that it’s a little weaker.

WHO IS YOUR AD CARRY?

This question isn’t much different from the first one. It basically comes down to how useful the attack speed is for the AD Carry you are playing with. Is your AD Carry Caitlyn, Tristana or Kog’Maw? If so, you’re in the perfect place to buy an Ardent Censer. If your laning partner is a Champion more like Lucian, however, it might be a better idea to buy just about any other item you can think of first.

HOW’S THE GAME GOING?

This one’s a little trickier because it forces you to make a couple decisions on the fly. First of all, you certainly aren’t building Ardent Censer first anymore, and that means by the time you have the gold for it, the game could be just about anywhere. So, take stock of how your team’s doing. If your AD Carry works well with the item and is sitting on a two kill lead, pick up an Ardent Censer and snowball that Caitlyn to victory. If you lost lane and your Kog’Maw is getting jumped on every fight, maybe you’re better off buying a Locket of the Iron Solari or Mikael’s Crucible instead, helping your team stay alive a little longer.

Following the three tips it’s easy to determine whether it’s worth buying Ardent Censer or not.

There is more good news, soon we’ll drop a guide for new champion – Zoe. If you really want to know how to play her, we’ll share all the basics, hints and tricks that will let you completely grasp the new addition to the game :)

That’s it folks – see you in the Summoner’s Rift!