I knew from beginning it will be you for blaming. lol
Now seriously, i see a lot of changes that still isnt gonna improve the game as they should.
just reducing the gold values of some items is not helping, like Cowbuttzex said:' the ring of the ancient will still suck', there need to be some other changes to items; their abilities&bonuses should be changed/improved not just gold.
I'll give just one example amongst the many:
- Ironwalkers: Reduced cost from 3750 to 2750
If you ask me, you could change it to 500 gold, it will still be bad. Why? Because it can only help the Rook atm, who has small speed so -10% will activate it, but he doesnt benefit it on other way becouse he has no minions! Ironwalkers are meant for generals sort of, because of (small!) minion boost, but they dont need them! It's not easy to reduce speed of Erebus(6.3) below the 5.0 (plus he has so many ways to get out of trouble (bat swarm!)), nor it is to (!tanking!) oak with SoF, nor to sedna with inner grace (& heal wich removes debuffs), and even would be to Qot after even better buffing(she will still always prefer other items), and so will all 'already strong' generals. They dont need Ironwalkers ever!, so why minion boost to it (& i repeat: small). It leaves us only the rook to use it (no way UB will ever need it, or Tb who can use fire aura buff, nor ranged Regulus, who if played properly stays out of close battles and (he) slows others). But rook will still rather spend money on other items, and save it for Armor of Vengeance rather than Ironwalkers. (specially if he has problem with minion Ereb who bites him, and in fact only bite (and mines IV) can reduce the speed of all others dgs below 5.0, therefore making Ironwalkers useful (in theory) for ppl plying against ereb/mine reg only, but why spend one item slot for just that case(when biten and slowed under 5.0), when you can have better items for all 'in general situations')
so, not even rook will use it (even if 500 gold, only maybe for some short time then switch to other item). It need to have some other benefits too! Think about it a little, like i have, imagine the game scenarios and what item benefits more.
Plus, after many ppl agreed thet rook shoul get better base mov speed (not more than 5.6), and ofc better base armor (because he really isnt best tank and hard to take down, beast & others are. He is in fact one of easier to kill), even to him then (if he gets that speed buff) Ironwalkers wouldnt help much, so i would like you to consider raising the bar for when should Ironwalkers to trigger, 5.0 is (too) low.
This is just one example, i could speak about every each of one.
I'm also in general agains new fav items (just see what ppl are saying in new thread about it)
Qot also is not buffed enough with this (but i'm sure there is more you didn't write), shambler buff is great but entourage is just waste still. (better buffing idea, please)
and parasite egg is going to be a killer! with this price if the bug is fixed ofc. (just compare it to doomspite grips)
we need more/better balancing!!! but ofc this is better than nothing. it is just a 1.2 patch, i hope to see a lot more.