Boards›Dev Corner

Patch Chat with the Playtest Team - 6.23, Shyvana, Anivia, and Malzahar mini-updates

RiotAesah·11/25/2016, 12:28:16 PM·1 votes·30,181 views

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-623-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're still waiting to see how the crazy updates in 6.22 shake out, but 6.23 brings some new interesting additions. The biggest one of note is Shyvana, who can now spit fireballs after ulting to play up her dragon fantasy. Anivia's control mage aspects are emphasized at the cost of some of her burst, while Malzahar's voidlings should have more clarity. Out fo the assassin update, Akali in particular was struggling and recieved some buffs. Shen recieved small defensive stat buffs as well. A few underused items in Blade of the Ruined King, Guinsoo's Rageblade, and Sterak's Gage were improved and will be a bit more appealing to champions that were considering them before. And of course, we're still working on improving the new client!

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

203 Comments

Yuumi or Lose11/25/2016, 5:19:02 PM14 votes

Any thoughts on Heimerdinger? He's been untouched for so long and doesn't see play at tournaments, rarely played on ranked or even norms, but has a decent winrate. Heisondong says that Heimer struggles because you have to rely on your enemy not knowing what to do against Heimer to make him work. Is there a way to equalize?

Also, any news on Ohmwrecker or will we finally see the item being deleted?

Skyroar11/25/2016, 2:22:17 PM13 votes

Why are Malz voidlings instant-killed by AoE?

GinoSoldier11/25/2016, 12:32:37 PM8 votes

'Morning guys! No questions from me, but wanted to say this is a great idea. Thanks for taking the time for this! [slayer-pantheon-popcorn]

lightdragoon8811/26/2016, 4:26:31 PM6 votes

Malzahar is now crap tier...Thanks Rito. [slayer-jinx-unamused]

This change needs to be reverted or needs SERIOUS buffs...like not being **ONE SHOT BY EVERYTHING. **

Sahn Uzal11/25/2016, 12:36:58 PM4 votes

How do y'all feel Rengar will be doing next patch? In a good spot? Still too strong? Tacos?

Thefrostyviking11/25/2016, 1:26:19 PM3 votes

Hello! Just to get started i'll write that i think this is a great idea and i am thankful for it.

And so i wish to ask, what are your thought's on akali? I have seen a lot of ....sad people writing about the fact that her new passive gradually becomes quite useless, her damage taking too much time to deal and it's too little for an assassin. I am quite curious to what a diamond would think about all this for i have no idea x)

But for something that i have tried a bit more myself, shyvana. I feel that she struggles with her W seeing that she must always choose if she wants mobility or damage. This because she lacks a non ultimate gap closer forcing her to use W to catch up to people she wants to gank but by the time she reaches them the W will be over leaving her with quite little damage. Her current passive needs her to take 3 dragons or something in order to not be inferior to her previous passive and it seems quite strange. I personally enjoy playing shyvana but i find myself struggling a lot from when the enemy team is able to kite even shortly and the fact that i can't really pressure the enemy laners since they can run away before i can go near them. Her greatest virtue seems to be a relatively quick clearing speed and invades that rely on the enemy not warding their jungle since if she gets caught in there she will most likely die x)

I cant but help to feel that shyvana's kit is a bit strange for a jungler. It seems more reasonable to play top but there are a lot that simply beat her silly 1v1, darius and fiora for two. Any thoughts on all this?

Thanks for reading.

TeCoolMage11/27/2016, 3:32:37 PM3 votes

Don Ding is such a weird but cool name

On a more related note Anivia has bad itemization, she usually wants Rod of Ages + Seraph's Embrace over either + Morellonomicon, or all 3. All the other CDR items are niche defensive items (Abyssal Scepter, Zhonya's). Losing MPen boots means having even less ability to do damage early game, along with CDR runes.

Can we get an offensive CDR item without mana? For LB+Katarina against low magic damage comps, tear users, infinite mana sustain supports, etc?

Also will we be seeing further wall buffs?

Finally: Anivia's identity should be a control CARRY mage, keep in mind that champions like Janna and Zilean are control SUPPORT mages. The distinction is important as Anivia's damage shouldn't be super reliable but it also shouldn't have extremely steep requirements / be sparse.

Huang Shaotian11/25/2016, 6:37:48 PM2 votes

What's the plan with redemption? Too strong, too weak, just right?

Why are AP mids destroying so hard now?

Chromatic Eagle11/25/2016, 12:53:04 PM2 votes

Might still be early, but what's your thoughts on the assassin rework? Some seem more successful than other but I'm not sure if many are happy with them.

IAmNeverViable11/25/2016, 10:26:11 PM2 votes

Couple of question.

How Singed be after rylai changes? Kind of a big core item to singed.
How Urgot been doing? Seem everyone forgot him. (Still want Star Guardian Urgot)
Any possible changes to Syndra? Felt too punishing to not get hit by her q,e and yet lose 70-90% to the squishy's hp by a single ult. Any changes to reward Syndra for actually hitting her skill shot.
Do you think Crits are overtune? I think crit chance and ie synchronize too well. I felt adc prefer crit over atk spd/ sustain build. An example, Vayne who known for tank shredder as on-hit effect, prefer crit build to kill their target.
Do you think there is too much damage in game? I felt that there's too much damage in the game. Getting two shot felt bad and most champion can do that when 2-4 items in. I remember in season 3-4 champion take 4-6 hits to actually kill someone after 3-5 items in. I would like to react to the damage i taken rather than dying in 2 seconds. Longer teamfight is funner than pressing faster to win.
Support experiment. Do you have any analysis or hypothesis on the experiment? For me, I have couple of reason why players don't pick support.
1. The itemization does not feel very impactful. Tank support items does not tank as well as true tank items. Utility support only have very few option to pick on. Mostly on active item. Hard to see the amount of effectiveness on the item unless your a dedicated support main.
2. Really felt like a half a player and useless when behind. Players want visible control over the game. Losing as support felt awful because you had no control over it, totally reliant on the carries to not messed up. No impact beside vision and peeling. Reason why most people don't want to ranked as support because they can't control their team or map. Need objectives for support.
3. Too little damage and squishy. Late game, support get destroy quick and can't output noticeable damage as other squishy or tank. Support can't 1v1 and they can't ward in safely without escort.

Olsca11/28/2016, 6:14:11 PM1 votes

You guys seem to be completely avoiding any questions on malz... suspicious... wonder what is in store for him next.

Yandere Yandere11/25/2016, 7:05:11 PM1 votes

What are your opinions on preseason so far? Are Assassins too strong/weak? Is the jungle balanced? Did the reworks hit their marks? Something more off-topic and personal but what are your opinions about Talon and Yasuo atm? Some ppl even say Yasuo needs a small rework, any thoughts about that? (Sry for so much questions >.<)

La Bello11/25/2016, 7:35:32 PM1 votes

So your shipping Lux's new skin which will obviously inflate her playrate but there are no buffs/nerfs or mini reworks coming along with it.

Does this mean that you think Lux's current state of balance is healthy? Are there ever plans for a update to her and if you were to update her would you try to ship her to more of a supportive cliche(bottom support) or offensive one(mid)? would the Snare of Laser Death combo (Q>E+R)ever get touched?

Cynical Rain11/26/2016, 10:33:09 AM1 votes

Why are you changing Anivia? Do high ELO players such as yourselves believe she's too strong? Do high ELO players such as yourselves believe the new one is nice? The official justifications given for changes are always BS. In this case, everything that was changed, from the initial non-instant R to now has been because R+E is apparently unfair. Did you see Anivia everywhere? Insight from the people who actually allow the changes to be made would be useful.