Quick Gameplay Thoughts: December 12

Hi folks,

Usual Disclaimers

These posts will often contain talk about future work we're doing, or planning to do, that isn't yet guaranteed to ship. The nature of the work could change or, depending on what we discover, projects mentioned may get delayed or even stopped. If you'd like to see a Tweet whenever a new one of these posts goes up: https://twitter.com/RiotMeddler

http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/6.24.1/img/champion/Ziggs.png

Mastery curves for recent updates

Last time we looked at some mastery curves we were too close to the release of various updates to compare how the champions performed pre and post update. It's been a while since then though, so wanted to take a look at how Akali, Aatrox and Nunu compare before and after.

Post explaining Mastery curves for anyone who missed it: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/1czrgEgw-quick-gameplay-thoughts-february-21

And another with some additional curves in it: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/635MVdLk-quick-gameplay-thoughts-august-24

Aatrox, Akali and Nunu pre update https://i.imgur.com/0frfcT1.jpg

Aatrox, Akali and Nunu/Willump post update https://i.imgur.com/PQL79lm.jpg

Aatrox - Ends up with more climb in the later parts of his curve, suggesting players are getting more benefit from their ongoing learnings with him between games 30 and 50. Trend suggests there's likely ongoing performance gain beyond 50 games, whereas old Aatrox had mainly flattened off by that point. Mechanical mastery seems a likely cause.

Akali - Very similar curve overall.

Nunu and Willump - Had a steeper curve than you might expect pre update, I'd imagine given how his approach to jungling/counterjungling was actually pretty distinct, even if not mechanically demanding. Curve is steeper now, likely reflecting both the kits previous skill tests and some new execution ones introduced with the update (E and W use).

For anyone wondering, no, we don't have enough data to look at Neeko yet. Will get that into a post sometime next year though!

Working on some ranked irregularities before season starts

We've been seeing a few issues with where some accounts are placed in the new ranked system. More details on that and how we're addressing it to come soon. TLDR for now though is:

• We want to put genuinely new accounts into Iron because it's a better experience both for those new players and others who previously got matched with them in what ended up being really uneven games
• Smurfs are currently getting put into Iron but then not climbing really rapidly as intended, so their MMR and rank get desynched pretty badly at times
• Returning players should be placed based on their MMR, but are currently getting put into Iron sometimes.
• We're working on a bunch of fixes for the above, plus some other polish, at present.

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What's likely in 8.24b

Patch 8.24b, our final balance changes of the year, will be out next week. Run down below of what's likely in it. Anything not listed that you're seeing on the PBE is almost certainly a 9.1 change or later. Given this patch will be live for longer than usual and our ability to respond to balance issues is extremely limited during the holiday period we're being careful not to swing too hard on any particular thing, hence a larger number of small to moderate sized changes.

Buffs:

• Aurelion Sol
• Caitlyn
• Corki
• Singed
• Varus
• Vayne
• Volibear
• Warwick
• Outer Turret MR/Armor post 14 min (40 instead of 0)
• Forbidden Idol based item buffs (details TBD at time of writing)

Nerfs:

• Akali (possible changes move to 9.1, targeting 8.24b for now though)
• Alistar
• Cassiopeia
• Kassadin
• Pyke (focused on mid Pyke)
• Tiamat
• Zeke's

Likely 9.1 buffs

• Ashe
• Jinx
• Kalista
• Nasus
• Sejuani
• Xayah

Some other future work:

• We'll be working on crit items early next year, not sure on exact patch though yet.
• For Irelia we'll be looking at mechanics changes as follow up to recent balance adjustments, probably in 9.2.
• We're still discussing Trist and whether to do something for her in 8.24b, something in 9.1/9.2 or if we should wait crit item changes, given she's probably the champ who rises or falls the most based off changes to crit.
• Buffs to some enchanters are likely at some point early next year. Would like to get a bit of peel back into the game, though don't want to swing too hard and over correct either, so probably will separate champ changes from Forbidden Idol item buffs.