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Quick Gameplay Thoughts: September 22

RiotMeddler·9/22/2017, 3:47:14 PM·1 votes·54,801 views

Morning all,

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

Adjusting Summoner Spell Levels Slightly

With the changes to leveling coming in pre-season we'll be adjusting which levels players get summoner spells at slightly to distribute different things that unlock (summoner spells, new game modes, ability to customize runes etc) a bit better. We'll also be shifting a couple of spells so that they're introduced to the player at more appropriate times as well. That'll overall look like Cleanse at level 9 instead of 6 once players are a bit better placed to assess its value, Flash at level 7 instead of 8, Snowball at level 6 instead of 1 etc.

We're not making all Summoner spells available at level 1 however because we've seen that be a worse experience for new players, given they're focused on learning the basics of the game and Summoner spell usage, let alone Summoner spell choice, isn't very important at that point. Ghost and Heal are offered because they're the two with the easiest targeting (just push the button) and for a lot of new players that's a really meaningful thing. Leaving some spells, Flash and Smite especially, till later levels does tend to frustrate players making additional accounts somewhat, that's a trade off we think's appropriate though, especially given we're not looking to encourage smurfing more.

Urgot W and damage reflection

In 7.20 we're planning to make a change where Urgot's W treats damage reflection as an on hit as well. That means that, in addition to reducing Urgot's on hits on other to 1/3, his W will also reduce damage reflection he takes to 1/3. That means Bramble Vest, Thornmail, Rammus W and any other possible damage reflect sources won't excessively murder him after he pushes that button.

Balance stuff we'll be looking at in 7.20

A lot of our focus, even for the folks normally putting a lot of time into patch to patch balance, is on pre-season at this point. There'll still be some balance changes in 7.20 though. Thoughts on what's likely:

  • Ongoing work that didn't make it into 7.19 - Sterak's buff, Brand buff targeted at mana restoration for CSing Brands, probably an Ornn buff (might still make it into 7.19 though).
  • Monitoring of bigger 7.19 changes - Janna, Azir, Xin Zhao, Vayne and Caitlyn all have some likelihood of needing some follow up work
  • New changes planned - Buffs likely to Graves, Karma
  • Investigating, but might still leave unchanged - Do we need to nerf Twitch before pre-season hits and upheaves the state of balance for a bit anyway?

Streaming some runes stuff on Monday

We'll be doing a stream where we talk about some runes stuff this coming Monday, looking at both some previously announced ones and some new ones. We'll be using a pre-recorded recent game from one of our internal playtests for that, so while this won't be live streaming of a game it should be a pretty good look for anyone interested at how Runes behave during normal LoL play. Recommend giving it a look if you're interested in seeing some of the system in action before it's on PBE.

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

292 Comments

warpenguin5559/22/2017, 4:15:39 PM43 votes

Please nerf twitch before the preseason

Tormentula9/22/2017, 3:56:03 PM27 votes

The primary problem with leveling accounts and SS is there is no tutorial for jg.

You literally have no idea what jungling is, and even if you did figure it out, you'd have no way to appropriately do it without smite (which resulted in grinding.)

I remember when I first joined and wanted to learn jg Kha and Elise and watched a bunch of youtubers do it to learn. Took me three levels before I realized that random lightning bolt was a summoner spell I couldn't unlock quite yet.

I don't think we care about flash or cleanse since new players will likely do bots to level 10 or blind pick where everybody is just as handicapped for their MMR, but smite and jg tutorial is something you guys should really look into, especially since its probably the most popular role and a lot of players jump into it without knowing what "ganks, farming, counter jungling, combat smites, etc" all is.

Abyssphere9/22/2017, 3:54:21 PM17 votes

Are you just doing generic buffs for Karma or are you trying to address any issues with the changes you're going for?

IxtaliKing9/22/2017, 4:04:26 PM14 votes

Hey Meddler, a few questions regarding Karma:

  • Are you only planning number buffs at this point?

  • If so, are they just bandaid buffs until you are able to work on her properly early next year like you said before?

  • Lastly, if you are going through with larger work on Karma next year, how do you feel about some of her older mechanics being updated and brought back to her? The Karma community are seeking reconciliation between the 2 player bases created by her rework.

DeathBurst9/22/2017, 3:58:53 PM12 votes

Live stream: Will it be at a reasonable hour for European people?

Winterkill9/22/2017, 5:05:57 PM11 votes

I asked you in the last Developer Gameplay Update about Karma. What are you going to do to address her identity issue? Do you want Karma to be a support/enchanter or a battlemage/enchanter. Her winrate in midlane as a mage is higher than her support gameplay. Meddler, you have to make a decision and communicate with us what you plan to do with her. A buff to shields is not going to cut it.

The following needs to be addressed or don't even bother with any work on Karma:

  1. Address her conflicting gameplay identities with her confusing kit. What is Karma? Is she a midlaner with minor enchanter interaction or is she a shield bot?
  2. Her kit needs to be unique and different from other enchanters and item actives in the game. The least you can do since you don't plan to address her thematic issues, you can change the fact that her R+E is nothing more than an Iron Locket of Solari item active with a speed boost.
  3. Karma falls off mid to late game as a mage. This needs to be addressed if you think about doing anything with her. She shifts from a mage to a dirty shield bot that builds only shield enhancing items.
  4. A new passive that plays off of her theme more. Are we asking too much of you? No. You couldn't be bothered to address it the past four years, but does she really need it? Nope. She needs something though. You created this bland champion.

Karma's main problems are her gameplay identity, poorly conceptualized and worked on theme, and art issues. These are all things I do not even think you are going to touch with this "rework (shield buff)" you plan to do on her. The least you can do is communicate with us before the changes to live so you are not wasting your time. Keep Karma in a pathetic state so she is viable for a VGU if you don't plan on doing anything meaningful on her.

Infernape9/22/2017, 4:26:20 PM9 votes
  • Do we need to nerf Twitch before pre-season hits and upheaves the state of balance for a bit anyway?

Oh. Wow. It finally might be happening.

TNing of Pine9/22/2017, 4:27:36 PM1 votes

Could you talk a bit about the reasons why CDR rather than gold generation was chosen when buffing the Spellthief's line? Is it intentional that choosing Spellthief should mean giving up massive amounts of gold compared to choosing Coin even when you're getting Spellthief procs consistently as fast as the item allows? If so, what's the rationale behind this? And if not, is there any plan to look at the items' respective gold generation levels to bring them more in line with each other?

egzonhero9/22/2017, 4:35:21 PM1 votes

Hi Meddler, Do u have any idea on when ur going to release further information on evelynn!?