Quick Gameplay Thoughts: June 8

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 put 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

Botlane

We’re monitoring a lot of stuff in bot lane right now, particularly performance of different groups of champions (crit ADCs, versus non crit ADCs, versus non ADCs etc). Seeing a lot of upheaval as people experiment with different builds and picks, with some champs still struggling so far. Should have some extended thoughts on that and possible changes in response first post of next week.

Edit: Adding a bit extra at time of posting.

If, as some folks are claiming, crit ADCs are in a terrible spot and should never be picked anywhere, we'll definitely we'll address that. Our goal is to have them be a decent (not mandatory, but decent) option in bot lane at a minimum. Certainly seeing some concern they just won't have a home at all, which is a very understandable worry. Still working to distinguish which of the different positions being argued are accurate though. As above, hoping to have more concrete thoughts next post.

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Banner of Command

As you might have seen we’re going to remove Banner from the game in 8.12, at least for the short-medium term. It's an item that's pretty consistently been either a poor choice or, when strong, been unhealthy for the game overall. Not impossible some heavily revised version returns someday, likely in a preseason or midseason if so. No immediate plans for that however.

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Kindred W

As a follow up to Kindred's 8.12 buffs we're also potentially returning the Heal on W for 8.13. Change is just going into testing now, so it's not a certain thing yet. Tentative plan is to remove the monster AS slow and replace it with a heal that scales with Kindred's missing health.

While we're working on the W already we're also hitting a couple of notable bugs with it. The first is that some of Wolf's visual effects aren't playing properly when he hits, making the skill less satisfying to use and a bit harder to follow. The second is that Wolf's Attack Speed isn't scaling properly with item purchases.

** Rageblade**

Changes to Rageblade are likely in 8.13, we're still sorting out the details though. We've got a range of opinions internally on exactly what Rageblade should/shouldn't be and how close it is to that state. We need to talk through a bunch of stuff as a result, things like how much it should be a rush item versus a later-in-the game multiplier for on-hit builds, how much AP scaling it should/shouldn't have (does it remove distinction between AP and on-hit builds too much?), what sort of price point it should sit at etc.

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Some other 8.13 work

Some of the other stuff we're also working on during 8.13 below.

• Ornn - Continuing work from 8.12 that wasn't ready to ship.
• Ashe/Xayah - Looking at their kit specific interactions with crit, now that IE's changed.
• Karma - Likely she'll be one of the most in need of work post 8.12 heal/shield changes. Penciling her in for a look as a result.
• Pyke - Looking at whether AD purchases are appropriately rewarded, or whether he's too skewed towards building tank/utility when played optimally (open question, not a firm statement)
• Ongoing assessment of the state of bot lane.
• There'll also be a range of additional champion buffs/nerfs that happen a bit later in the cycle, so this isn't a comprehensive list. Likely includes a Trynd buff, potentially a Singed nerf.

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