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Quick Gameplay Thoughts: April 14

RiotMeddler·4/14/2017, 4:02:52 PM·1 votes·26,805 views

Hi all,

Short post today as mid-season stuff nears PBE. We should have an overview of the mid-season gameplay changes coming out later today, with a bunch of additional details to follow Tuesday next week.

Non mid-season stuff in 7.9

We won't be doing much in the way of regular balance changes in 7.9, given the mid-season changes will shift a lot of balance issues around anyway. We are still putting time where possible into looking at some issues we think we'll want to return to after the mid-season regardless though. Those include an assessment of Gunblade's status, looking at getting Malz back to solo laning effectively and further exploration into possible Heimer changes (small ish in scope, wouldn't want to ship them unless we felt we could give him both better counterplay overall and more power overall).

Unanimous Surrender at 15 minutes

We'll be getting back to looking at/talking about the status of the test in Oceania soon after mid-season. Bunch of thoughts on how it went and what we should or shouldn't do next then.

Rek'Sai

Speaking of post mid-season things we're finally in a place where we've got some of the needed art time to work on Rek'Sai's mini update. Apologies for the delay on this one since we first mentioned it, in retrospect it's a case where we might want to have waited until the schedule was a bit more locked down before talking about its progress.

135 Comments

ZadloBoze2010PL4/14/2017, 4:27:36 PM13 votes

@Riot do you have any plans for skarner? I heard he will get a VGU someday, is it still viable? Do you want to make him more a vanguard ( like malphite) or diver ( like warwick) ?

Fenikkuro4/14/2017, 4:44:40 PM10 votes

What are your thoughts on the state of the jungle? I feel like this season has been really rough for Junglers. At first we were the strongest role, probably much too strong, and it the role overall was nerfed, but I feel like in the course of a month or so, Junglers went from one of the stronger roles, to almost the weakest, aside from probably supports. It's so ridiculously hard to keep up with XP unless you steal farm from lanes, or find a side lane to farm. Usually I'm the same level as an ADC which seems wrong to me. And before the response is that I'm low elo and no idea what I'm doing, the same is being said by higher elo players who know far more about the game than I do. If at any point in the game you fall behind as a jungler, or your lanes lose and you lose priority in your jungle, you're basically out of the game with the way XP works now.

Malicious Metal4/14/2017, 4:27:50 PM7 votes

I sure hope you'd rather take a look at the abuse cases of Gunblade (Leblanc) rather than to nerf it once more for the intended users like Mordekaiser, Jax and Akali.

Maybe take a look at hos her Q shatter orb works with the spellvamp?

AgeOfTheMage4/14/2017, 4:14:51 PM6 votes

What are your guys's thoughts on kindred? do you have any plans for them?

Sahn Uzal4/14/2017, 4:27:27 PM4 votes

I read ''No mid-season stuff in 7.9'' instead of ''Non mid-season stuff in 7.9''

Fuck me, got scared there for a second...

HalcyonDweller4/14/2017, 4:05:27 PM3 votes

I noticed that some people are worried Gunblade will get nerfed because of abuse cases such as LeBlanc, what are your thoughts on that?

DCYOUNG8884/14/2017, 6:04:41 PM3 votes

Any changes or buffs planned for LeBlanc?

EDIT: What kind of changes are you planning to give Malzahar in order to make him an effective solo laner again?

ofart4/14/2017, 7:07:57 PM3 votes

I hope you find some time for FIddlesticks too. He's one of the few champions with TOO MUCH counterplay since he exists just for his ult. and there are many ways to deal with that via wards/displacement/dashes etc. The fact that it has a channel time and can be interrupted makes it even harder vs good teams. This is more about a rework than a particular buff but he also suffers from very inefficient and mana intensive farming which is itself an equally big problem at all levels.

I'm always in awe when I see his ~50% winrate because he seems so helpless when behind at all and just very underwhelming in general. If behind, the enemy team gets vision control and you have very few good ult. opportunities. Even entering the JG is liable to getting you 1-shot because you have no escape and are very squishy. I'm guessing Fiddlesticks mains are just gods at him because I have 50+ games on him with a 45% winrate. If I don't snowball it early, I lack impact and get level 6 by 9 minutes when laning's almost over.

Skyroar4/14/2017, 8:15:30 PM3 votes

Malzahar suggestions:

As in the previous thread, I suggested a minion/ monster only buff to his E - Malefic Visions skill (x% more damage, or HP scaling so it doesn't sucks against super minions or baron-buffed minions).
Have his E skill cost more mana, but also return more mana on kill (something that was more prominient with old Malz). This will will make Malz players rely more on E spreading to achieve their full combo, while supp Malzahars will have massive mana problems. (Note: this change would suck if E's damage isn't buffed in someway).

Lebłanc Bot4/15/2017, 12:42:05 AM3 votes

What are your thoughts on Leblanc? Possible buffs nerfs or a revert? How do you like Leblanc now using gunblade lich bane as her best build ?

MunchCrunchLunch4/14/2017, 5:34:00 PM3 votes

what about ahri meddler?

patmax174/14/2017, 4:40:47 PM2 votes

Context on randuin/thornmail changes from a few days ago?

IxtaliKing4/14/2017, 5:12:29 PM2 votes

It's good to know Malz will be going back to solo laning, but what about the other mages who have fallen out of mid? Karma Zyra

Xenos von Faneli4/14/2017, 4:24:32 PM1 votes

Wait so Rek'Sai's update is gonna include a visual change? Or when you say art do you mean artists to help you render new abilities and such? Also please don't take my farm alarm.

Excalibait4/14/2017, 4:09:50 PM1 votes

This probably doesnt fit in here as it's not a gameplay related question but now that Karma's splash update is out, do you know / can you tell us which champ is next in line for splash updates?