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Patch Chat with the Playtest Team: 6.17, the Pre-Worlds Patch

RiotAesah·8/24/2016, 7:05:13 PM·1 votes·135,674 views

Hey guys! Welcome to Patch Chat, a Dev Corner thread we make to talk about the new patch every two weeks.

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 around for the next few hours to answer as many questions as we can.

In 6.17, we're nerfing a few champions that have had an overbearing presence (pick/ban rate) in professional play. Specifically, S-tier junglers Gragas and Rek'sai who have been crowding out other options are both taking a hit. In the ADC role, Ashe/Sivir/Jhin are losing a bit of power while some other ADCs get minor buffs to bring them more in line with each other. Finally, Gangplank and Trundle are getting nerfs as well- Gangplank in particular taking a heavier hit due to how strong of a pick he has been for awhile. These powerhouses have been making teams uninterested in other choices when they've been available, so we hope that taking them down a notch will allow teams to feel comfortable picking a wider variety of champions and bring some new dynamics on to the Rift.

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 “Hinder” 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

578 Comments

adidas8/24/2016, 7:34:24 PM76 votes

The shen nerfs are completely unjustified. Even Meddler himself said he felt pretty unappealing to play sometimes.

The sad part is, with around 170 games and mast 7 on Shen on my other account. its pretty freaking sick how i was already considering dropping Shen because he already feels like trash to play sometimes. His ult is great but other than fighting riven and poppy you are bullied out of lane so much. Shen doesnt deserve any nerfs at all in fact i was thinking he needs buffs before i play him again in ranked. 18 Second E 18 second W at level 1 and you max those after Q. Shit shen even loses to teemo.

Its pretty sick how you guys are completely moving a champion to ''Only play him if you're in the lcs'' type because in normal play hes now considered heavily nerfed and probably a horrible pick.

Honestly its extremely frustrating that i have shens' skins but hes going straight from ''balanced'' to ''horrible tier''

I'd honestly wouldnt mind a refund because essentially you guys are excuse my language. Fucking over your whole playerbase, because of 100 players.

Yuumi or Lose8/24/2016, 8:02:46 PM14 votes

Any changes on Heimerdinger and Ohmwrecker?

Is Heimer going to get another rework? He seems to be untouched. He doesn't see competitive play and rarely even gets played in ranked or norms.

And I saw something happening on PBE about ohmwrecker but it got pulled. What's up with that?

Starlighte8/24/2016, 7:24:21 PM11 votes

Why is Lissandra getting nerfed? Who thinks her power is out of line?

Keevalroy8/24/2016, 8:05:26 PM10 votes

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.

Wow, that sounds cool, when does this start?

Cynicism aside, why does Riot spend so much time and effort on the pro scene rather than the rest of us? I was under the impression that as a player-focused company, the game the regular players play should be placed at a much higher priority than what spectators see on the big screen.

Over the last few seasons since the LCS started, Riot has seemed more and more invested on what the game looks like rather than what it feels like, often creating and forcing overloaded, flashy, hyper-mobile champions into the spotlight, and pushing "boring" picks to the side. In addition to the "boring" picks, whenever the LCS is stale, Riot appears to nerf and buff just to have something new show up, even when non-professional games have a stable meta with for the most part, healthy picks in decent spots.

Tl;dr - Why punish standard players for what happens in the pro scene if Riot claims to be player focused?

redfeenix8/24/2016, 8:02:48 PM9 votes

I hope we get to see more than 20 champions at worlds this year.

pryda0228/24/2016, 7:23:28 PM7 votes

Why was tank Yasuo,frozen mallet and phantom dancer not nerfed?

SaltyKracka8/24/2016, 7:32:52 PM7 votes

Well, I've got three topics I really want to talk about.

Firstly, do you think hitting two of Rek's cooldowns is going to disproportionately affect her in SoloQ games, or do you expect her and Gragas to show up in competitive games regardless?

Second, are none of you worried about buffing Riven and Jinx? There are a bunch of other champs you could have looked at that are suffering right now, and giving buffs to historical problem children like these two seems kind of...wrongheaded. Especially Jinx, seeing as how the only ADCs that were doing better than she is just got some heavy nerfs.

Third, as regards Nasus finally being able to stack GP barrels, a topic I've been bringing up again and again since GP's rework was first released...

https://gfycat.com/MiserableIdolizedDoe

SlashStriker8/24/2016, 10:46:43 PM4 votes

I cannot understand this ELO System at all

How can we judge player Skill if we are not including his Grade of Performance which should affect his Elo Gain and Lose at least a little bit

Why everyone want Solo Queue back but do not want their performance Grade to be included in Elo Gain / Lose?

Team 5v5 would be different story but

In solo Queue should be Players that score high grade - gain more and lose less Players that score low grade - gain less and lose more