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Patch Chat with the Playtest Team - 6.21, wrapping up Season 6

RiotAesah··1 votes·79,720 views

NOTE: this is to discuss the current patch, not our crazy pre-season stuff! For that, head over to our PBE boards:http://boards.pbe.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/champions-gameplay-feedback


Hey guys! Welcome to Patch Chat, a Dev Corner thread we make to talk about our new patches every two weeks: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-621-notes

I'm Aesah on Riot's Playtest Team, a group of Diamond+ players who play with the new champions, reworks, balance tweaks, items, and map updates before they are released. It's our job to the test the changes that our designers come up with and ensure that we're introducing positive changes to LoL in terms of both balance and fun. We'll be watching this thread to answer as many questions as we can.

This will be our last patch in Season 6, before we hit some MASSIVE changes in 6.22. So for now in 6.21, we're cleaning up some major bugs, and also adjusting some abilities on Nidalee, Graves, Nunu, Kog'Maw, and Nasus. Nidalee is getting a pretty hefty nerf due to her high winrate amongst experienced players as well as her dominance in competitive play. On the other hand, we've given Nasus defensive stat buffs in exchange for damage which we expect to be a fairly significant buff to him. Another thing worth mentioning is that Ivern players were struggling so we hotfixed a buff for him. Additionally, Zac's E has a more clear indicator which is actually pretty significant to his gameplay.

All of us on the Playtest Team are avid gamers so feel free to talk to us as fellow LoL players!

Adam "Afic" Cohen Ben “Cezium” Burkhardt Don “Aesah” Ding Nicolas “Gleeb” Haddad Dan “penguin” Hardison Miles “Daydreamin” Hoard Bao “Bao” Lam Robert “ROBERTxLEE” Lee Nicholas “Nickwu” Smith Blake “S0be” Soberanis Trevor “ThEntropist” Thernes

97 Comments

carlmoby6 votes

I thought that the Harrowing update would be in the 6.21 patch (today). Was I wrong?

Yuzan Yoshida2 votes

I thought so too

gyyyr2 votes

It is, it's just not enabled yet.

BugLordekaiser6 votes

correction, it's the teemoing

Emojay3 votes

There ain't no happy endings, when the Teemo-ing arrives...

RiotAD Yuumi6 votes

Who is your favorite Blitzcrank player?

RiotCezium5 votes

Daydreamin

LaughingStapler5 votes

Are you guys planning on doing anything for Ziggs Ziggs ? He's really bad the higher ELO you go (very unreliable when players can dodge) and also just doesn't scale well. I lose more games late on Ziggs than I do on even LB or Corki. He has low snowball potential since he offers no kill pressure in lane and doesn't even have a great late game to make up for it.

RiotAesah6 votes

I think you are undervaluing his late game waveclear. Buying time for your team to close up gold gaps in terms of percent is extremely powerful that LB/Corki don't offer.

No kill pressure reminds me of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0FUP_5xLXY

Overall as far as I know Ziggs is in a good spot but I can double check!

ofart5 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Aesah,realm=NA,application-id=A7LBtoKc,discussion-id=2u9wA1NM,comment-id=00110000,timestamp=2016-10-20T17:46:06.345+0000)

I think you are undervaluing his late game waveclear. Buying time for your team to close up gold gaps in terms of percent is extremely powerful that LB/Corki don't offer.

No kill pressure reminds me of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0FUP_5xLXY

Overall as far as I know Ziggs is in a good spot but I can double check!

Go to lolalytics.com and notice that the best Ziggs with 50+ games in Plat+ ELO only manage an average of D4 ELO while the best Viktors, Zeds, LBs, TFs, Yasuos etc. average D1 ELO. His problems are outlined here and here although it's not really the exact subject of the thread.

It's not just a matter of winrate (although I expect this to go down a lot once assassins are popular again). He performs at a mediocre but acceptable level for someone without a lot of experience. It's that he simply FAILS TO CARRY FOR EXPERIENCED PLAYERS in higher ELO since his scalings aren't amazing and his whole kit is dodgeable. Take a look at champion.gg and notice that even Ziggs with 125+ games are just short of 49% winrate. Especially for a champion with a low pickrate, that's pretty pathetic. After 125+ games, Syndra's at 54%+, Ahri's at 54%+, Vel'Koz is at 55%+, Anivia's at 56%, Annie's at 57%, Morg's at 56%, Xerath's at 63%, Brand's at 54%, Akali's at 57%, Kennen's at 52%, Kayle's at 56% etc. I could list probably another half a dozen champions. Considering he's only picked 2% of the time, I'd expect huge winrates for people with 125+ games. Other champions with low pickrates certainly follow this trend. For example, Karthus is at 65% winrate and Zilean is at 60%.

As far as your video, that's 2014 and a lot of things have changed since then for both Ziggs and the game. His auto range was nerfed, his Q hitbox was nerfed, his MS was nerfed, his E was nerfed, his passive was nerfed early and the meta mids now are in a different class. Viktor isn't even considered strong early and Ziggs can't trade with him. He has no shield like Ryze or Viktor, no heal and ridiculous lane/kill pressure like Cass etc. Vel'Koz does pretty much what Ziggs can except for turrets but if you kill your laner, that's not an issue. Vel'Koz has good CC, can get rid of even Dr. Mundo or other hypertanks, has near 1 shot potential with E-R and has a stronger early game. ZIggs doesn't have kill pressure vs competent laners unless they chose to sit in lane after being poked down a lot (which is their fault for being too close to minions when Ziggs Qs). Compare Ziggs to a Cass early... she can pretty much solo you in a few seconds at level 3. Even if Ziggs were to hit everything, he just doesn't do damage that fast. That would be fine if his late game were better but as you can see from the stats, he's not performing well late game either and I don't think it's just from stalling out games. I've played Ziggs late and I felt completely outclassed by Viktor for example while being equally vulnerable. Viktor's extra CC, shields, higher base MS and way higher CC more than compensates for Ziggs' unreliable escape. Also, Viktor can waveclear EVEN BETTER than Ziggs. All he needs is one ability and the wave's gone. Ziggs can do it fairly well too with E and 2 Qs but it's more mana intensive.

I don't want to ramble too much but if you talk to top players, you'll know that those who actually have played Ziggs 25+ games don't consider him good. Froggen actually said "Ziggs sucks." on stream when people were asking him to play the champion. He eventually was forced to play Ziggs through a poll and got fed but couldn't carry. I don't think he played Ziggs after that even though it's a champion whose strengths fit his style. Froggen's used to carrying games from very far behind when he goes Anivia or Viktor. Ziggs is underplayed, particularly in high ELO, for a reason. It's not random when literally every region has played basically 0 Ziggs games this whole season and there's no one in high Masters+ maining him (there are plenty of TF, Viktor, Syndra and Ahri mains/one-tricks). It's not like Ziggs is a new champion and they don't know how his kit works.

EDIT: Corrected site link and added more details.

MonkeyTheGiant4 votes

As a Nunu main I was so sad to see him getting buffed last patch because I knew he would be too strong. What was the reason for buffing him when u knew you'd just have to nerf him instantly after?

RiotCezium8 votes

We just went too far with the changes. Honestly we thought it was in a decent spot after a few games, but he clearly was tankier than we anticipated. It's partially lack of Nunu expertise on our team and partially lack of playing against Nunu expertise as well. Most people still felt like they didn't want Nunu on their team even with the changes.

It's our bad though. We could have and should have put him in a better spot last patch before he was released.

Hyrum Graff3 votes

{quoted}

We just went too far with the changes. Honestly we thought it was in a decent spot after a few games, but he clearly was tankier than we anticipated. It's partially lack of Nunu expertise on our team and partially lack of playing against Nunu expertise as well. Most people still felt like they didn't want Nunu on their team even with the changes.

It's our bad though. We could have and should have put him in a better spot last patch before he was released.

You heard the man, Riot needs high elo nunu mains.

ThatGingerAgain4 votes

What is yall's favorite part about this current patch? Also, what was the hardest part of creating this patch? Just curious since I know pretty much nothing about the whole process. <3 you all![slayer-jinx-catface]

RiotCezium12 votes

Nasus was pretty rough. I'm still not convinced he isn't going to release pretty strong, but the team felt he was only going to go up a few percent. Playing him was super fun though. Felt like an absurd raid boss lol

Applicative4 votes

So what are you going to do about Ashe?

I understand the change in the last patch - you wanted to amplify her utility while decreasing her damage. But that's not what happened. Her utility was also heavily decreased until she either gets level 9 and a bunch of CDR, or at least 50% crit. The problem is that her critical slow is too uncommon (or the duration is too short) to be useful utility in the early game when it only comes from the previously-nerfed Volley or critical hits. Neither crits nor volley are up often enough for her to have useful utility early game. Level 1-5, she just doesn't have the items or cooldown on Volley to anything except try to farm safely. At level 6, Enchanted Crystal Arrow gives her some useful utility, but not much to do while it's on cooldown. It's only when she can either crit regularly or cast Volley every few seconds that she can meaningfully contribute more than ECA to her team.

The nerfs added up to too much. Are you going to restore some of her power, or just leave her as an afterthought for a while?

Joshsuo4 votes

Are Yasuo mains like me people too? :-3 [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Chillgantas2 votes

This is how i imagine Yasuo mains https://youtu.be/OXdmbZ5Fn4E?t=4m4s

RiotCezium9 votes

Well ThEntropist has a Yasuo only account he plays on, you could ask him about it. Aesah also plays a pretty damn good Yasuo too.

But I don't think they're people, no. Sorry

Marvels Stan Lee3 votes

Hey guys!

I'm a big fan of Patch chat and read the thread every day one pops up. Got some questions for you guys.

where do you think Ivern ACTUALLY stands (aside from in the brush like always) in terms of power as a champ rn? his win rate is three trashy from what I've observed, but im having a hard time knowing how much of that to account to peoples unfamiliarity with him in my various speculations.

Do you think the hot fix will be enough to get him into a decent spot? it focused alot on his base stats, which were for sure a little weak, but it seemed to me like a few changes to his skills (risky as they may be) would be what it takes to get him in a good place.

This might be a bit of a weird question but, how "ready" do you think league is for a champ like Ivern, as a game? i personally love instances of design which shake things up, but the game is to a certain extent rigid in what is determined as viable for an overall composition, given how defined specific roles are. whenever i looked at a composition i had with "The Vern"Ivern (that's what i call him) as a participating member, it for sure switched up the balance of tank to C.C. damage to utility and etc. in this process i couldn't help but get the feeling that the current architecture of team roles (as well as the role of jungler at large) wasn't really quite as prepared to accommodate him, i realize that anything missing in a team can be compensated for by other roles as with literally any other pick in the game, but it really felt like it was more substantial with him than many other champions at the moment. His clearing style, gank method, and the rather quirky style of input into team fights just seemed to shake up the lava lamp that is this games structure what are your thoughts on this? Am i just nuts? provided this is the case, what can we do to make his pick more "ecosystem friendly"? for lack of a better term

Thanks a ton!

RiotAesah7 votes

Our team generally doesn't feel Ivern is weak. He also pushes the limits of how creative we can make a champion, which I think is pretty cool. Because he is so different to play than any other existing champion, we expect it to take more time before players learn to play him relative to our other releases, leading to his low win rate.

In general, if they're in a balanced state, newer champions tend to just have low winrates while people get acclimated to them. I think the most recent Ryze rework is a great example where he was extremely low winrate (sub40% I believe) but now he's being played at worlds without any major changes.

Mega MilkJugs3 votes

When can i play Devil Teemo? I am aching to reveal my true form.

A Dragons Heart2 votes

I don't get the Nasus changes... He is already tanky enough.

RiotCezium3 votes

Data kind of pointed to him being below the line. The designer's analysis was mostly that Nasus was doing plenty of damage, but he was struggling to survive and get to the right targets to really have an impact. The changes seek to remedy that to an extent, without removing his natural weaknesses (like being kited and having a weak early game)

Spideraxe2 votes

Do you think these toned down Nunu consume changes will hold him till he gets a rework

RiotCezium3 votes

I hope. He could really use a rework, though

Riotplaytestpenguin4 votes

He'll still most likely be very strong, he fits the meta pretty well as a megatank with strong objective control and tower diving in a world where most of the other giant tanks got nerfed (Gragas/Rek'Sai) and the bugfix we shipped last patch is very substantial (His Q passive wasn't stacking with cinderhulk, his most common jungle enchant).

Serpents Queen2 votes

are the legacy skins coming back this year? ( halloween skins )?

Tempist2 votes

If you guys are going to buff Nasus, would it be feasible to see some Tryndamere buffs in the near future? Nasus was already a hard enough counter, before getting stronger. :D

I'm not looking for something ridiculous, but just a buff to deal with Tryndamere's worst weakness - his susceptibility to getting kited. Something as simple as +5 base movement speed, and maybe a 30% slow resistance (maybe even including attack speed slows) for the duration of his ultimate will go a long way towards making the champion feel better in the lategame.

With so many unfavorable matchups nowadays, anything from Nasus to Kennen to Jayce, Trynd players are forced to teamfight far more than any previous season. And while the champion will never be a strong 5v5 champion, the proposed changes would go a long way towards making teamfights a little less painful.

one feedy boi1 votes

Just wondering:

Why is TP still in the game

gyyyr2 votes

Why should't TP be in the game? or do you mean something else than the summoner spell Teleport?

StaircaseGone223 votes

He's gotta mean toilet paper or this guy > Amumu

Daetnas1 votes

Hello Playtest team!

I'd like to ask you some questions about the Kog'Maw revert and what it could mean for him in the future:

First: Now that you decided to revert the W changes and buff his R back as well, what kind of a marksman do you see him as strategically? Is he an artillery champion like Xerath, caster/ADC like Corki or Ezreal or a hypercarry like Jinx? A bit of a hybrid perhaps?

Do you think protect the Kog teamcomps could make a comeback in the competitive scene in the foreseeable future?

How reliant on his teammates should an ideal version of Kog'Maw be? Can he be balanced for solo players and for competitive teams building a team around him at the same time?

Is AP Kog'Maw especially hard to balance compared to other artillery champions like Xerath or Varus? Is it a build you're okay with or will you shoot it down If it gets popular again?

Oh and thanks for your hard work, I think you guys are doing an amazing job and getting better and better at balancing this game in general, this year's worlds patch was the most enjoyable and balanced in a while!

Riotplaytestpenguin5 votes

Kog'Maw is supposed to be a spellweaving ADC similarly to Corki & Lucian, but he's supposed to scale hard.

Is AP Kog'Maw especially hard to balance compared to other artillery champions like Xerath or Varus? Is it a build you're okay with or will you shoot it down If it gets popular again?

From what I understand AP Kog is not something that is loved by designers because he's pretty much the definition of unhealthy when he's strong, so if he gets too overbearing I would expect nerfs.

zecastar9 votes

{quoted}

Kog'Maw is supposed to be a spellweaving ADC similarly to Corki & Lucian, but he's supposed to scale hard.

From what I understand AP Kog is not something that is loved by designers because he's pretty much the definition of unhealthy when he's strong, so if he gets too overbearing I would expect nerfs.

Why though? He has so many weaknesses to engage, split push and early game comps. He even has huge mana costs so he can't poke for very long without again being very vulnerbale to engages since he'd run himself completely dry if he used the ult. then. How can a champion with no mobility and almost no CC really be problematic when going AP? The only way I see that being a risk is if Rylai's is OP. He hasn't needed more nerfs than other mids for 5 seasons.

NodirjonSattarov1 votes

"supposed to be", "supposed to scale" I don't like these words. it means you're unsure whether he is a spellweaving ADC and unsure if he scales correctly. You've avoided majority of the persons questions.

From what I understand AP Kog is not something that is loved by designers because he's pretty much the definition of unhealthy when he's strong, so if he gets too overbearing I would expect nerfs.

"Unhealthy when strong" I'm not sure you understand what you guys have done to Kog'Maw. You've removed everything he was for the entire season and forced him to move to a more safe/viable position. You know who else is unhealthy when strong? Teemo, Tryndamere, Yi. BUT ONLY WHEN THEY'RE STRONG. Maybe you guys need to rethink about current problems instead of implementing new concepts into the game.

gyyyr1 votes

how did you decide which factors make doombots harder or easier? Or asked differently, what changes between doombots lvl 100 and doombots lvl 1?

Did anyone of you manage to beat doombots lvl 100? If yes, did you think about making it even harder?

Riotplaytestpenguin5 votes

We don't deal with the RGM queues very often, they're their own team. We playtested Nexus Siege but with preseason going on we were definitely too busy to play doombots.

LuxRainbows1001 votes

Hey riot is it Ok if i ask some questions..if u don't want to look a t questions that is fine don't look at this

  1. Are you guys reworking all assassins??? Like secondary assassins
  2. HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO MAKE DOOM BOTS DO YOU JUST ADD MODS OR SOMETHING
RiotCezium5 votes

Not every assassin, I don't think. But most of them, yes. Outside of the big 4, there are a lot of smaller changes going in for stuff as well. I think it's on our preseason page.

LaughingStapler2 votes

{quoted}

Not every assassin, I don't think. But most of them, yes. Outside of the big 4, there are a lot of smaller changes going in for stuff as well. I think it's on our preseason page.

So what does it take for Ziggs to get some love? He's performing poorly for experienced players and is pretty much never seen in competitive or Masters/Challenger. This has been true the whole season. Doesn't that suggest to you that the champion has some potential problems with scaling, itemization, reliability, etc. ? Unlike Ryze or Ivern, it's not as if people aren't aware of how his kit works. Is it just about not wanting a poke make style to work? I think strategic diversity is interesting and key to a game intended to have longevity.

I'm not saying Ziggs needs a big buff and even 5 more MS again or a higher AP ratio on W could make him more worthwhile. Alternatively, maybe he can get more level dependent power late game on some ability (similar to how his passive scales).

LuxRainbows1001 votes

Ok thank you but also i asked How do you make doom bots possible?

Emojay1 votes

When will Evelynn get a visual rework? And maybe an ult change as well. While the shield does help her tank up damage, it seems kinda.. out of place? I guess? But seriously, a visual upgrade, and then a 1350 skin that is high quality. Maybe blood moon, program, or a solid snake is one, where when she goes invis, she is wearing a box. Just saying.

RiotCezium3 votes

She'd probably get one if she were to get some kit changes/reworked, but I have no clue if that's even in the pipeline right now. I personally think she could use some help and would love to see a visual update for her (just picked her up and started trying to learn her).

The Laetus XI1 votes

Hey playtest team! I wanted to know if you guy's were planning on talking about Ivern getting buffed anymore? As someone that play's Ivern a bit and would like to continue I feel that he is at times at a disadvantage. The only time you can really properly defend yourself as Ivern is when you have daisy. Otherwise someone playing Ivern is very easy to kill and feed off of. I also know because in every game I've played against an Ivern I always target him because he feeds so easily.

RiotCezium3 votes

Nope, don't think he needs any buffs. People just have to take the time to learn him and we feel like he's getting in a pretty good spot after the last round of buffs.

legendarytiger1 votes

That spinning wheel in the loading screen may seem small and insignificant, but its very comforting to know when your client is actually frozen, or just loading normally.

Riotplaytestpenguin2 votes

Right? So comforting to know you haven't crashed...

legendarytiger1 votes

Exactly.

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