Patch Chat with the Playtest Team - 6.18, Worlds Patch!

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-618-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.

While we always keep normal and ranked games in mind for balance (e.g., the terror of tank Yasuo is getting hit here), 6.18 is the patch that Worlds will be played on so we're focusing a bit more on competitive play for this one. First off, a few champions who've fallen a bit behind in the meta have gotten some minor buffs (Lux, Nocturne, Miss Fortune, and Lee Sin). Primarily though, we're nerfing several champions that have caused pros to dismiss other options due to their just-a-bit-too-high power levels. Notable champions that received varying degrees of nerfs based on how overbearing their presence was include Ashe, Ekko, Gnar, Lissandra, Reksai, Taliyah, Shen, and Vladimir. We're expecting that tuning down these staples of competitive play will cause an increase in champion diversity while not completing butchering their viability in both competitive play as well as normal/ranked games.

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

Adam "Afic" Cohen Preston “Hinderaga” Bunker Ben “Cezium” Burkhardt Shawn “I Am The IRS” Currie 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