Boards›Dev Corner

PBE Chat with the Playtest Team - 8.12

Novalas·5/31/2018, 8:10:41 PM·1 votes·25,021 views

Hey guys!

I’m Riot Novalas. I'm a QA Analyst on Riot’s Playtest Team, a group of high elo players who work on Core Gameplay playing new and in dev content before they’re released. It’s our job to test the changes that our designers come up with to ensure that we’re introducing positive changes to League in terms of both balance and fun.

Rather than a Patch Chat, we’re opting for a new approach these next few patch cycles. Lots of changes are planned in the upcoming patches and a lot of content is or has been on PBE for awhile. We’d like you guys to talk to us about your questions or concerns with upcoming content - We’ve tested a lot of it and would be more than happy to give you guys insight on how the changes are panning out. If you’d like us to test something in particular out - let us know and we can try to get it into a playtest.

The biggest changes on PBE right now are the Fighter itemization changes. If you have any questions related to the items on the PBE, ask Riot Endstep who is the primary ticketholder for the itemization changes!

We’d love for players to get in on this & help the Playtest team make Patch 8.12 launch as smoothly as possible!

Here’s a link to the content currently on the PBE. https://www.surrenderat20.net/p/current-pbe-balance-changes.html

Brandon "Roku" Davis Chris “Auberaun” Roberts Nick “Riot Endstep” Frijia Sigmundur “GangIeri” Helgason Arnor “Riot Hjarta” Halldorsson Miktat “Riot Koyuncu” Koyuncu Brian “Riot Madness Heroo” Pressoir Nabi “Riot Novalas” Barak Dan “Riot penguin” Hardison Robert “ROBERTxLEE” Lee Louis "nubblez" Carpetto

122 Comments

TheSingularity5/31/2018, 10:17:30 PM5 votes

I'm still terrified of Spear of Shojin, I feel percentage resists on offensive items have no place in the game and there's no better example than Yasuo item 3046 . Before he gets it he is managable as Kled , it's a skill match up. But the moment he buys it, it doesn't matter what I do, he wins purely through stat checking. Now pair this with spear of shojin and item 3047 and not a single champion in the game could duel him.

Do you have any great concerns regarding this item? Or who may buy it? What's the point of the titanic hydra change? Seems like a flat out nerf. I don't think many care if it's a little pricey, but lowering its AD is just silly. How much of Ornn's power budget is consumed by his passive? I know pros use him almost purely for the ult. But for a regular player like myself he felt so crap in lane even if I could stay there forever. His 1v1 is horrid vs just about everyone. So far I haven't vsed one but I think I'd end up devouring him based on what I've seen and who I play. What's the overall goal of the ornn changes on pbe?

Dope Solo5/31/2018, 8:53:59 PM5 votes

The sorcery tree has 4 movement speed runes in it, and not much else to promote build diversity. This, while other trees are getting their 4th keystones. Instead of fixing this problem, you've worsened it by removing ultimate hat. At the same time, mage itemization lags severely behind AD itemization. You could in fact, try making some AP defensive options, or give them tenacity or cleanses if you want mages to be slippery.

Is the official riot position to just dodge AP questions related to move speed runes? Taliyah - "It's never good to run from your problems".

SonicÐeHedgedawg5/31/2018, 8:21:08 PM5 votes

Playing a little on it as Evelynn, I can definitely say that the build path and the base stats are just plain better on item 1402 now, but I just feel SO SLOW compared to before, even with celerity and water-walking until I fully upgrade boots, but it feels like I need to finish Runic Echos first because it's SUCH a power spike due to raw stats.

How do you guys feel on AP junglers? Think they need a movespeed pass or that we just got used to being faster than we needed to be?

Regarding what's on the PBE, The sejuani changes confuse me a bit just because it seems like a mild increase to her clear speed wihout really anything to help her PVP despite her already being in a rough spot and ADCs being better at killing tanks now.

SirPurrr5/31/2018, 9:31:45 PM3 votes

Have you considered reverting the AD nerf on WW or Corki? The meta doesn't favor either of them anymore imo. WW needs level 3 and feels pretty awkward as an "early game jg" who can't level 2 contest scuttler well. If you level E 2nd instead of W, you really ruin your clear (similar if you level W first). I think the meta when WW was "good" (and literally only good in SQ... and in KR or competitive was still no problem at all) was entirely different than now. It was a really fast level 3 meta where you could quickly invade or gank top (because they never adapt) after red-blue-wolves or red-blue-gromp. I think those paths are huge for WW to really be worth picking. Now, because it's harder to snowball early off predictable level 3 top ganks, it's also harder to get Tiamat and farm properly.

Corki is in a similar spot. He was nerfed hard when the meta was very different (despite never having an amazing winrate or high ban rate) and was left that way. Now his usual TF-Shiv-RFC is hugely more expensive. Also, while he has decent damage, he offers literally nothing else. No cc, no utility, just damage with some safety. It's easy to look at just the damage and safety and say "wow, so strong" but the opportunity cost is huge.

Ziggs? I don't even know what to say really... just feels very weak right now and I think most of it is his squishiness but I'm not really sure. Maybe he needs a little better ratio somewhere. I think he was definitely in a worse spot than something like Anivia which also had 2x the play rate (or lux).

Any thoughts on trading some of the AP on Runic back for MS? Maybe 10 AP for 5% MS or something? It seems pretty good now but I still miss it and I think raw stats incentivize laners too. What do you guys think of it so far from the very limited data? I think AP junglers are alright now because the meta is very fast so something like Yi is not likely to hit late game etc. AP junglers are generally not strong early in terms of compared to the opposing jg but have pretty good ganks (better than most ADs) and a good mid-game.

I remember there used to be PBE AS changes on Shyv & Voli. What happened with that? Are they still planned or did it seem unnecessary?

When can we remove the random and unfair component on scuttler? I should know where it will spawn at all times even if it isn't always in the same spot. Can't you even draw something on the ground? I think right now it's terrible. When I get the timer,I feel like I just get lucky to be on the side of the map it spawns when I get the timer (and vice versa).

Sincarnation5/31/2018, 9:57:54 PM3 votes

Yo, I asked this question earlier but no one answered

Why did you guys make conq unique among runes in that it doesnt give adaptive stats? What was the design call?

There were a couple champs that I thought it would be good on, but I was hesitant because I wasnt sure if the AD over AP might cost me hard in the early game. The three champs I had been thinking were Singed, Rumble and Morde. After a couple games, I can say I dig it on Singed (in certain matchups) and Morde in general, I dont play rumble anymore

Daddy Ants6/12/2018, 2:51:02 PM2 votes

Are we gonna see any work towards either

Buffing the under performing ADC's namely
Possibly reverting IE but making the % critical modifier weaker? say 30-35% instead of 50.
Giving Marksman the tools to fight vs the bruisers that are trying to push us out of our lane. Hitting our base stats and our items was a bit too extreme.

Needing 35 minutes to have a miniscule impact on the game when games are usually decided in the first 15-20 minutes renders a large portion of the Marksman roster redundant

Magic Serwyn5/31/2018, 8:30:20 PM2 votes

A few months ago, meddler said pantheon would receive some buffs soon, but we didn't get any news. Personally, I find him weaker and weaker, given how he gets rekt by every other bruiser toplane between levels 6 and 11, even if he is completely fed. His early pressure his still strong, but with changes to minions agro less than before. Also it is quite simple for the adversary to play passively, get a bit outfarmed but rapidly become stronger than pantheon. Then he has good roaming power, but only if he's winning lane, but then he let's the enemy come back. What are your thought on him ? I personally would really like a better scaling, and making him a bit less straightforward to play, with the more mechanics needed.

Spideraxe5/31/2018, 8:55:33 PM2 votes

But more seriously can I ask who's the playtester work with notorious villain CertainlyT on Akali

Larriet6/1/2018, 12:09:25 AM2 votes

What are your thoughts on the Taliyah changes? It's my understanding that they have a similar goal to the recent Lux changes (trying to equalize her strength in different levels of play). It will take time to get used to it, so I'm not one to instantly complain, but overall it seems okay to me. My only complaint is the removal of movespeed from Worked Ground. Not that I care about strength implications, just a mechanic I personally like. Sad to see it removed.

DW Diana6/1/2018, 10:00:44 AM2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Novalas,realm=NA,application-id=A7LBtoKc,discussion-id=BXPmZYyd,comment-id=,timestamp=2018-05-31T20:10:41.543+0000)

Hey guys!

I’m Riot Novalas. I'm a QA Analyst on Riot’s Playtest Team, a group of high elo players who work on Core Gameplay playing new and in dev content before they’re released. It’s our job to test the changes that our designers come up with to ensure that we’re introducing positive changes to League in terms of both balance and fun.

Rather than a Patch Chat, we’re opting for a new approach these next few patch cycles. Lots of changes are planned in the upcoming patches and a lot of content is or has been on PBE for awhile. We’d like you guys to talk to us about your questions or concerns with upcoming content - We’ve tested a lot of it and would be more than happy to give you guys insight on how the changes are panning out. If you’d like us to test something in particular out - let us know and we can try to get it into a playtest.

The biggest changes on PBE right now are the Fighter itemization changes. If you have any questions related to the items on the PBE, ask Riot Endstep who is the primary ticketholder for the itemization changes!

We’d love for players to get in on this & help the Playtest team make Patch 8.12 launch as smoothly as possible!

Here’s a link to the content currently on the PBE. https://www.surrenderat20.net/p/current-pbe-balance-changes.html

Brandon "Roku" Davis Chris “Auberaun” Roberts Nick “Riot Endstep” Frijia Sigmundur “GangIeri” Helgason Arnor “Riot Hjarta” Halldorsson Miktat “Riot Koyuncu” Koyuncu Brian “Riot Madness Heroo” Pressoir Nabi “Riot Novalas” Barak Dan “Riot penguin” Hardison Robert “ROBERTxLEE” Lee Louis "nubblez" Carpetto

What about the AP fighters? are there any plans for them to get any new items to help them be viable?

Kadexe6/2/2018, 6:25:14 PM2 votes

If Rumble is as weak as Yasuo was on the first day of 8.11, then why is Rumble being ignored while Yasuo got hotfixed immediately?

Taylor D6/1/2018, 2:12:41 AM1 votes

@Riot Endstep

Any word on those potential changes for buffering instant cast abilities? IE: Jayce and Zyra.

Mediocre Top6/11/2018, 8:00:44 PM1 votes

Hoping I can get an answer on this - is the new cursor going to be forced at some point, or is it going to be like the old SR music - toggleable in options?

Personally, new one doesn't do it for me.

BobaFlautist5/31/2018, 8:43:42 PM1 votes

What's the funniest bug/unexpected interaction that y'all've rooted out in the past few patches? Weird combos or unexpectedly strong/weak options also count.

Also, what's sleeper right now? What should I play if I wanna be too cool for the meta and surprise people with a strong pick?

jamican banana6/1/2018, 12:32:03 AM1 votes

As a Ivern main and now that the champ is finally good again I hope with all these Forbidden idol nerfs you guys thought of giving ivern a small buff to compensate. He just got good again :(

BEK Makadur6/1/2018, 12:48:48 AM1 votes

I like the small buffs/nerfs like "+5 Movement speed" and"-3 AD" as it doesn´t give the feeling of making a champ to strong or useless.

Why isn´t this done more frequently? As you have more data than anyone else, wouldn´t it be possible to apply those small changes to much more champions every patch to make the champ variety more fluid?

Sometimes champs just need that tiny bit to perform well again, or at least be niche pick.

Are there any plans to increase jungle variety? Obv AP jungler aren´t in a very good state, and alot of champs who were able to jgl, aren´t rly as they can get abused to easily.
Would it be possible that changes will come that would chnage the overall meta since it is pretty much the same since adcs started to go on the botlane. For me one of the main fun factors "back in the days" was that it wasn´t always so clear who would do what and that you would see different strategies very often.

:* Tryndamere