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Quick Gameplay Thoughts: May 2

RiotMeddler·5/2/2017, 3:51:23 PM·1 votes·47,629 views

Morning all,

Mid-season goes out tonight/tomorrow barring any last minute unexpected problems! Really looking forward to seeing how you folks find it and how it changes our perception of what needs work in 7.10 and beyond.

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

More 7.10 changes

7.10 should be hitting the PBE today, and with it some in development work. Since we've had to start development on that before mid-season was live it's more likely than usual that we may need to change direction a bit on some of this stuff. Changes include:

  • Ivern: Lowered movement speed, higher health and mana cost per camp taken. Dude's just straight too strong
  • Rakan: Shifting some power from his E (lower shield strength) to his Q (100 more range) and probably W (bit more damage at present). Looking to ensure his play's not too dominated by just ally shielding. Probably power neutral overall.
  • Rumble: Shifting some damage from Q to Overheat auto attacks, with the goal of making his laning a bit more interactive (Overheat autos require him to draw minion agro). Also aiming for power neutral, but with better game health.

PSA on Rift Herald

One thing I'd suggest watching out for with the new Rift Herald that goes out tomorrow is that the channel to summon it is interruptible. Hadn't thought about that myself much until yesterday when during a playtest I tried summoning it just as a teamfight was starting to break out for a bit of extra pressure and someone promptly CC'd me, stopping the channel which also consumes the item. Recommend learning from my mistake on that one and either hanging back a bit when summoning or taking advantage of opponents trying to do so too far fowards.

Mid Season Spotlight

I'd imagine most of you have already seen it, for those that haven't a Mid Season spotlight went out yesterday though. Worth a look, and also at the end includes a brief glance (super brief) at one of the screens from the 5 ban system for ranked/draft that's being worked on right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fl2Wg5rkew

ARAM Followup

7.8 contained some adjustments to ARAM. We've been analyzing how those have gone and will probably be doing a bit of further followup work, hopefully in 7.10. Details to follow.

182 Comments

Erdamon5/2/2017, 5:48:39 PM15 votes

If you are indeed going to go with these Rumble changes, can you at least make his autoattacks feel less awful? I mean, sure Rumble isn't exactly the epitome of healthy gameplay, but the reason why majority of Rumble players prefer to just spam Q from range is because trying to actually make use of Rumble autoattacks nowadays is a suicide (compare Rumble's autoattacks to Yasuo, Camille, Renekton or Fizz) .

In a world where every single champion in the top lane has really good trading ability and both miles better autoattack animations on top of having really responsive animation cancels, if you cut down Rumble's Q damage he'll just get piledrived by any top laner. I'm not taking into consideration just the Q nerf here, I mean, given that Rumble has already been immensly weakened by all the changes, I mean, Season 6 and latest changes still left a ton of scars on Rumble (item 3156 completely shuts down Rumble no matter how ahead he is, Rumble doesn't benefit from Keystones as much as other champions, item 3107 and item 3190 basically make you question why the hell did you pick Rumble if a ~2400 gold item migitates your entire ultimate).

And now with the mid season update, we'll have much more ways to not let Rumble player have any satisfaction of playing Rumble (Adaptive Helm comes to mind most notably), on top of tanks getting more popualrity and from what we could have seen, majority of these tanks will still indeed have a really significant damage. By nerfing Rumble's most important damage source and shifting it to the most unreliable and the worst feeling to use part of his kit, what exactly do you want to accomplish? It should be pretty obvious that due to Rumble autoattacks just feeling outright SHIT. The wind-ups are way too long, the attack command seems unresponsive, when the animation finally finishes it doesn't even feel like Rumble even completed it in the first place, let alone did anything meaningful, even with the Overheat bonus.

So with all these unfavorable odds against Rumble, please, if you are going to go this direction, I believe it's finally time Rumble autoattack animation stop being so awful.

Dreampod5/2/2017, 4:17:28 PM10 votes

With mid-season trying to put tanks back in the jungle, is there a plan to nerf down the excessively dominant junglers (Lee and Graves in particular) if they continue to crowd everything else out with their safe, fast clears and ability to still powerfully gank?

Dokkaebi5/2/2017, 4:01:25 PM10 votes

Do you have any plans on giving buffs to some support items? item 3107 and item 3190 seem to be stomping the meta right now for every support leaving other items less worthy to buy.

MakeItEasy4Lolis5/2/2017, 5:16:36 PM7 votes

Could you make some adjustments to Yasuo laning phase the same way as u did to Rumble? Yasuo can just poke the hell to you just by spamming Q and zoning with his tornado(without getting minion aggro) and its way much unhealthy than Rumble Q

Variks the Loyal5/2/2017, 6:09:36 PM6 votes

I live for these dev updates, man. Just wanted to say thanks to you and to Riot as a whole for being a much better communicator than other game devs out there. Keep up the awesome work :)

iahim985/2/2017, 4:15:23 PM6 votes

Meddler about the Gargoyle Stoneplate case with true damage and HP scaling abilities, why not just make it so it gives a shield instead of hp, as it would solve both.

Venedictos5/2/2017, 6:02:56 PM5 votes

Rumble: Shifting some damage from Q to Overheat auto attacks, with the goal of making his laning a bit more interactive (Overheat autos require him to draw minion agro). Also aiming for power neutral, but with better game health.

I don't think you can call a change like this power neutral. Overheat is way less accessible and always brings huge risks. Unless you are compensating with some ridiculous numbers, it is going to be a nerf.

zaphod4245/2/2017, 3:57:14 PM5 votes

Hey meddler,

You mentioned future work on lb, any news on what and when that will be coming?

Leblanc item 3070

Kinky Fizz5/2/2017, 5:47:10 PM5 votes

why are you nerfing Rumble again? he is balanced...

AcidTheWarlock5/2/2017, 11:01:56 PM4 votes

When are we going to see the Lissandra and Rek'Sai changes? I'm super hyped with all of these mini-reworks coming out but I don't see any news on either.

ggambino5/2/2017, 7:04:54 PM4 votes

Hi Meddler,

Those Rumble changes dont look neutral to me. Essentially you are gating some % of his current damage behind him silencing himself. You're nerfing his teamfight damage (Rumble rarely wants to overheat there), his zhonyas combo damage, his chase and his ability to precisely control his orientation. This is a nerf for every Rumble, unless I am seeing this wrong. Call a spade a spade, right?

That said, the extent of the changes I guess matters the most here so we'll see if its relevant after the new patch notes are up.

As an aside, is this due to Rumble dominating the current pro meta?

ƒrostγ5/2/2017, 10:20:52 PM4 votes

Meddler, are you still planning to change Lissandra 's passive? I'm asking because the current changes to the Abyssal and the introduction of new tank items will make her be less relevant than pre-rework Yorick ever was. Even with her recent buffs, her winrate is still below 48%.

NekoJean5/6/2017, 4:28:07 PM3 votes

http://prntscr.com/f4tsia I hope my opinion is heard and considered. Rakan

I have been following the balance changes for the PBE for patch 7.10. I am in love with the Heimer change and Rammus change it will really make the champion fresh again. Now for my concern.

Rakan Rakan Q = Increase range by 100. I agree with this and fully support this. W= Base damage increased late game. I dont think this helps at all. Rakan is squishy and a support, we dont usually build damage and +20 damage late game doesnt do anything. If it was moved to early increase base damage maybe. E= Base shield lowered late game. Why....ok this is my opinion. You can lower the base value late game but why not increase the range of the shield more. I have been playing Rakan and when I dont have a Xayah adc i really am crippled cause my adc sometimes just a little bit out of range and I lose a lot of health after using my grand entrance.

Something else you can consider. lower the base shield, revert the W damage back to how it is on live and instead give the W a new effect. Damage reduction just test it out. When Grand Entrance is used Rakan gains um [[#]] damage reduction for 2 seconds. In team fight i get popped so easy when i W in and ult...the damage reduction can help him be less squishy when he dives in. I hope my idea is considered or listened to at least. Rakan is squishy and increase damage doesnt solve his issue. Giving some damage reduction or even bonus armor and magic resist in his W or Ult for 2-3 sec can really help him out.

CrimsonReaps5/2/2017, 4:02:59 PM3 votes

Is there anything planned for Xayah?

Illâoi Evê Siôn5/2/2017, 4:10:37 PM2 votes

Hey Meddler, what are you most excited about for the next patch?

I want to rush down a lane with Yorick, Herald and the Maiden as a sort of unstoppable force.

pulledchicken5/2/2017, 3:53:16 PM2 votes

7.8 contained some adjustments to ARAM. We've been analyzing how those have gone and will probably be doing a bit of further followup work, hopefully in 7.10. Details to follow.

how is it about to balance the game first? Summoners Rift aint balanced!

robotmaster5/2/2017, 4:13:06 PM1 votes

Have you thought about giving rakan's Q a 20% or 30% slow at all ranks just to make it more satisfying. This way he would have a bit more unity and you don't have to buff his heal on his Q.