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Patch Chat with the Playtest Team - 7.3, nerfing permabanned champs

RiotAesah·2/8/2017, 7:53:45 PM·1 votes·106,636 views

new "Minions" art created by inkinesss!

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-73-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.

7.3 is primarily focused on addressing champions that were too far out of line in pro play. We certainly consider how these changes affect the majority of our players too- these nerfs were warranted there as well, with many of these champs being near permaban status in normal and ranked drafts. The offenders include Camille, Ivern, Jayce, Kha'zix, Leblanc, Malzahat, Rengar, and Zyra.

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 Robert “ROBERTxLEE” Lee Nicholas “Nickwu” Smith Blake “S0be” Soberanis Trevor “ThEntropist” Thernes Arnor "TheLastAirbender" Halldorsson

419 Comments

Deep Terror Nami2/8/2017, 7:57:41 PM40 votes

I saw some concern that Malzahar's changes balanced him for Support, but harmed him significantly as a solo laner. I don't think making him primarily a support is the intention, so do you have any thoughts on this? (Also, you misspelled Malzahar).

Tormentula2/8/2017, 8:17:52 PM19 votes

"The offenders include Camille, Ivern, Jayce, Kha'zix, Leblanc, Malzahat,"

You guys hate malzahar so much you can't even spell his name..

HeartseekerVarus2/8/2017, 9:20:23 PM16 votes

"Malzahat" - this makes the former bane of my ARAM existence sound unquestionably cute. I hope people consistently pointing out this misspelling eventually inspires a Malz skin. It could even be just normal Malzahar... but with a tophat on top of his hood.

"Malzahar's Malzahat" XD

Malicious Metal2/8/2017, 8:13:13 PM14 votes

Do you guys think Malzahar is satisfying enough for people playing him? Because I feel he's a lot less fun than pre rework since he revolves almost entirely around his Voidswarm.

Wouldn't redistributing some of that power elsewhere in his kit make him more healthy?

NiamhNyx2/8/2017, 8:16:30 PM10 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Aesah,realm=NA,application-id=A7LBtoKc,discussion-id=BadpFVys,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-02-08T19:53:45.545+0000)

7.3 is primarily focused on addressing champions that were too far out of line in pro play. We certainly consider how these changes affect the majority of our players too- these nerfs were warranted there as well, with many of these champs being near permaban status in normal and ranked drafts. The offenders include Camille, Ivern, Jayce, Kha'zix, Leblanc, Malzahat, Rengar, and Zyra.

Malzahat: Malzahar with a tophat.

LostFr0st2/8/2017, 8:17:15 PM9 votes

I'd be interested in knowing why you guys opted to blanket-nerf Leblanc's passive instead of addressing the frustrations with her chain. When opposing Leblanc her opponents expect her to do damage, but it's more that right now there's huge payoff for just putting 1 spell on cd.

She can close the gap with W (doesn't matter if it hits), cast chain nearly point-blank and jump back just as the chain procs. Since the tether range is pretty long, champs without a dash are forced to just accept the damage. If they trade back she still has Q to trade with, and possibly a W to follow up with depending on if she used it before the chain.

Since the passive cd is 5 seconds on the same target there's only a very small window to fight back but in order to do that you must commit and accept the E+passive dmg 100%. If you break the tether, then by the time you get close enough her passive is off cd again.

Spideraxe2/8/2017, 8:34:55 PM7 votes

Thoughts on Warwick after an entire patch of being live

EROTIC RAID BOSS2/8/2017, 8:34:42 PM6 votes

I've seen people saying you guys went too light with the nerfs, and I feel like agreeing myself with rengar in particular. he's been the number 1 jungle pick recently, but his early game damage just got a pretty good buff with the lethality buff, one i'd say he really didn't need. but I'm not a high elo player, so what're your thoughts on where rengar is right now?

Scαrlεt Dεαth2/8/2017, 8:47:18 PM4 votes

"Yasuo is too strong omg" "Zed is op omg" "Leblanc is nuts omg" What do you think of these statements? I truly dont think those champs are excessively strong, i'd personally say Zed is in a healthy spot right now, Yasuo has been taken care of and Leblanc is on the way with this new patch. My point is: those champs are heavily stigmatized as "OP CHAMPS OH NO" in bronze - low gold, and are often banned. What do you think about that?

NewGuy1012/8/2017, 9:11:55 PM2 votes

I believe the nerfs this patch were all necessary, props to the people in charge of it. That being said, do you think the recent changes to Daisy will prevent Ivern, the "support jungler", from helping his team in certain situations where he would have previously (such as not popping his ult in times he normally would have) or do you think this just forces Ivern to make wiser use of the rock lobster?

K0SMOS2/9/2017, 12:47:14 AM2 votes

Any thoughts on the state of Kindred? I have seen several posts talking about this as well as created my own but have not seen a rioter talk about this. Do you think they are in a good spot or would they need tuning?

Øctave2/9/2017, 5:45:23 AM1 votes

The thing that I wanted to ask was what was the reasoning for no sort of buffs on serious champs, besides maybe a mini buff on Vladimir? Even though you nerfed Rengar, Kha'Zix, Jayce, etc. they are still strong enough to still be meta. Other champs like Evelynn, Sejuani, Pantheon, Kled, Gnar, etc. can't compete in the meta because they are too weak. Is it because they had such a high pick rate when they were in the meta, or is it because your trying to focus on giving these other champs a spot in the meta because they haven't been in the spot light recently?Or is it just something 100% different? Would love to hear the thoughts from the balance team on this, and to see if there is any sort of plans for buffs, since you guys interact with the balance team.

InternalBleating2/9/2017, 4:41:13 PM1 votes

Every other champion gets fixes and buffs as soon as they're released and played through.

Not warwick though.

you people really are forcing a meta in this jungle. There's only 3-4 junglers that are worth playing. Why even bother raising WW's skill ceiling if he's not going to be going anywhere as a champ further than he was already.

This current warwick will never be played in LCS or even in Master, same as last WW.

So really, you guys haven't done ANYTHING to him.