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League gameplay changes over the next few months

RiotRiot Scruffy·8/8/2018, 4:29:36 PM·1 votes·162,344 views

Hey all, it’s RiotScruffy and I wanted to address some current issues in League’s gameplay and give some transparency for our plans for the rest of this year. Nothing is set in stone; keeping you all involved in the conversation is what we want here and we’re looking for your feedback on our plans to make sure we're on the right path.

Our immediate focus

  • Damage and burst are too high
  • In 2018, damage in League is up relative to defenses in the game. This is especially true in the early game. We’re looking for the best ways to make some small improvements in an upcoming patch and do a comprehensive pass this preseason without overly stifling the action or opportunity for kills.
  • Specifically we agree there’s too much burst coming from systemic sources and many of these effects can stack. It’s not uncommon to see Scorch, Electrocute, Duskblade, and Stormrazor used together in a way that breaks our historical rules for how much reliable burst we allow without giving opponents much chance to respond.
  • Marksman feels-bad
  • While we got the diversity gains that we hoped for in midseason, the pretty heavy feels hit to marksmen was much more than we wanted and expected. A mix of us undervaluing the negative impact of some changes and sharper nerfs than we aimed for led to painful build paths, crit builds giving numbers over 100%, low satisfaction around the new crits, and a bunch of underpowered marksmen.
  • The 8.15 changes that recently shipped are targeted at improving the satisfaction and smoothing the build path of some of the crit itemizations. Additionally we think that the power curves of these champs were too slow to come online. Sacrificing some late game power to ramp up quicker we think will give marksmen players a chance to affect the game before it’s already over and not completely overtake the late game.

This year’s preseason

  • Some of our infamous preseason targets we will not be touching significantly this year. In particular we’re not changing the jungle and we don’t want to do too many fundamental shifts with all of the changes in the last months.
  • Our goals
  • Comebacks are more achievable and satisfying
    • The feeling that a game of League is over in the first 10 minutes is something we've been hearing a lot from players and this isn’t something that we think provides the best game experience that we can offer. Ideally when you experience an early game setback the reaction is to plan for an exciting comeback rather than feel like surrender is the best choice.
    • Early game successes should give teams meaningful advantages but we need more clear and feasible ways for the team that’s behind to attempt their comeback.
  • Laning Phase is slightly longer & champs usually complete 1 item by the end of it
    • The laning phase is a core phase of the game where players get to enjoy the constant back and forth of a 1v1 or 2v2. We want to make the lane phase a more stable segment of quality time in every game and push players a a bit farther into their power curves before the game transitions into the more fluid mid and late game phases.
    • Entering the mid game with a stronger baseline of power lets champs fulfill their specific roles and be an important contributor to these fights, minimizing cases where players feel like they never got a chance to do their job before the game ends.
  • Decided games resolve faster
    • Though we want comebacks to be achievable in most games, we also want to address a problem where one team in a game is so far ahead they have a near certain chance of winning, but the game still ends slowly. This to us is just not a good use of player’s time. If one team manages to gain an insurmountable advantage, the game should end pretty quickly from that point. We're looking into changes that help super snowballed teams close out the game.
  • Rune paths no longer dictate stat bonuses
    • After having some time to let runes soak, and listening to your feedback, we’re focusing on one change to the system. We want to decouple stats from your rune style choice and offer a pretty straightforward and direct choice of what stat you want for your champ. We hoped initially that attaching stats to styles would help us prevent dominant choices (a rune that's a good fit for your playstyle is in a path with sub-optimal stat bonuses; do you take it anyway?) but after seeing the results it’s preventing more choices than enabling.
    • Beyond that, we're also planning a light pass on the most dominant or unused runes

Long term learnings

  • Too much relearning detracts from the fun
  • Evolution and constant improvements to the game are key to what makes League League, but too much change too fast can make you all feel like there’s no time to settle in and master the current landscape. In recent seasons, we've been more willing to ask you all to pay that cost to make changes we truly felt would improve League in the long term, but it's clear that despite our intentions, we hit a breaking point in 2018. With this learning we are trying to gauge and pace our changes to the game so we get the best improvements and new content without cutting short the healthy period of a stable meta.
  • Don’t want to invalidate the way you play
  • Some types of change improve the game in a way that we all as current players can adopt and acclimate to. Some other tactics (like the side effects of our bot lane diversity stuff) can leave players feeling like the way they loved to play League is just no longer valid. The frustration we’ve seen from those of you trying to keep up with this year’s midseason reminded us how crushing that feeling can be, and we’re being much more cautious with these types of changes going forward. The long term promise that we can make to you is that sometimes the game is disrupted but we are here for the long haul: we will not let it stay broken forever.

League is a huge passion for all of us and we really appreciate having a player base as engaged as you are. Looking forward to the coming months and expect to hear more as we start testing changes and responding to your feedback.

-RiotScruffy

520 Comments

elo trash8/8/2018, 4:37:36 PM99 votes

"Damage and burst are too high" also "100% increase in yasuo R"

thank you riot.

Sirchachat8/8/2018, 4:39:21 PM28 votes

It is great to see that RIOT is listening to feedback and working on a plan to deal with the damage creep issue. _Now all we need to do is wait to see how well they execute it. _

Thanks for the transparency. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Deep Terror Nami8/8/2018, 4:36:39 PM27 votes

I'm all for the ability to close out a game quickly when you're way ahead, but the one thing I don't want to see is this thing in Dota 2 I witnessed where a team would just immediately forfeit if they lost Roshan (Baron Nashor equivalent).

Ataraxas8/8/2018, 5:42:47 PM17 votes

Dear Riot,

I understand you not wanting to change the jungle /again/ and normally you'd have my full support. The problem is the season you guys decided not to change jungle (8) is the season in which the jungle is at an absolute terrible place. It feels outright horrible to play. You got one half of it right when assuming we don't like change for the sake of change, but we also don't like no changes for the sake of no changes. If something is terrible and feels horrible to play then fix it by changing it to something BETTER. What we are against is change that feel for the worse (i.e. scuttle changes & not being able to split push anymore with 1st & 2nd tier jng items.)

Lulu the Support8/8/2018, 6:08:43 PM15 votes

I am SO happy to hear about those changes! It is exactly what the community has been demanding for months! I do have a small concern however.

There were specific changes to champions that happened BECAUSE of the burst meta but which were not really an issue beforehand, when tanky supports were reigning over the bot lane. One very good example of this are the shield changes on Janna, Lulu, Oriana. Their shields weren't an issue beforehand because the damage was more spread out, but with the burst meta, having an almost permanent shield on you prevented enemies from one shotting their target. I am curious if you guys will consider reverting those nerfs once the meta settles in a less bursty one.

Sincerely, A concerned enchanter support main.

im still toxic8/8/2018, 4:49:43 PM13 votes

Buff Thresh huehue. Need some extra power for that final push to challenger. Hook a brother up.

RookPusher8/8/2018, 4:35:21 PM12 votes

Upvote!

Since I can't actually upvote your post. I appreciate some of the thoughts presented here, and it's really nice to hear from Riot. Looking forward to the next season.

ddoA8/8/2018, 4:36:38 PM11 votes

We want to decouple stats from your rune style choice and offer a pretty straightforward and direct choice of what stat you want for your champ.

Can you be more specific ? Will this mean something like the old runes that we used to have?

Fízz v28/8/2018, 5:05:53 PM11 votes

Marksmen are still (or again) by far the best class overall bot lane and Stormrazor is broken, so please, dont do anything stupid xd

Also I see a huge difference in AD vs AP damage, I can easily oneshot a trundle with ninja tabi as Talon, but a bit of MR already stops most ap champs from killing you, especially Hexdrinker.

Mordepool8/8/2018, 4:45:37 PM9 votes

Are we going to see any defensive stats now that it's being decoupled from Runes.

Outplay u8/9/2018, 12:26:39 AM8 votes

Please Nerf WINDWALL, most toxic ability in the game 🙁🙁😕😕😕. I beg of you

A Nunu8/8/2018, 6:14:53 PM8 votes

#DON'T GIVE NUNU A DASH THANKS BYE https://i.imgur.com/b7Hjwht.png/img

Catsexualreturns8/8/2018, 4:43:04 PM7 votes

IM SO HAPPY TO HEAR THIS. Ive always hated the fact that I was forced into stats I didnt want and it forced me to go glass cannon almost every single match, im happy I can finally go supportish mid lane or tank mid lane now.

Are you guys happy with the current jungle tho? The gold and xp packed camps enable trats like gold funneling and its pretty boring to jungle when u have no lanes to gank. It also cockblockes certian champion (fiddle, kindred)

Ahpe8/8/2018, 4:44:03 PM6 votes

{quoted}

  • Rune paths no longer dictate stat bonuses
    • After having some time to let runes soak, and listening to your feedback, we're focusing on one change to the system. We want to decouple stats from your rune style choice and offer a pretty straightforward and direct choice of what stat you want for your champ. We hoped initially that attaching stats to styles would help us prevent dominant choices (a rune that's a good fit for your playstyle is in a path with sub-optimal stat bonuses; do you take it anyway?) but after seeing the results it's preventing more choices than enabling.

I had the same idea a couple of weeks back.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/a/ae/Joy_Pengu_Emote.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/90?cb=20180308201557

Ðdog8/8/2018, 5:59:49 PM6 votes

Ignite is very powerful right now, at least in solo queue. First Ignite was buffed, which at the time seemed ok, then heal was nerfed causing people to take tp bot lane, then because adcs were taking tp, tp was nerfed. Ignite just offers too much damage right now and is very strong compared to other summoner spells after it has been buffed and everything else getting nerfed, kind of liked what happened to Kindred. Are there any plans on reverting ignite?

Get Ogre Here8/8/2018, 4:46:37 PM6 votes

"Evolution and constant improvements to the game are key to what makes League League, but too much change too fast can make you all feel like there’s no time to settle in and master the current landscape. In recent seasons, we've been more willing to ask you all to pay that cost to make changes we truly felt would improve League in the long term, but it's clear that despite our intentions, we hit a breaking point in 2018. With this learning we are trying to gauge and pace our changes to the game so we get the best improvements and new content without cutting short the healthy period of a stable meta."

This is my favorite thing I've heard a Rioter say. It's something that isn't complained about too often but you were able to pick it out and resond to it, which I appreciate.

Jordian8/8/2018, 4:38:44 PM6 votes

Honest question that maybe a Rioter could answer. If Runes are adding too much damage overall wouldn't it be easier to just buff the defense of all champions? With HP/hp per level for example. it would also keep intact the feeling of powerful runes without making them weaker. I'm sure you guys have considered it and have not done so for a reason of course.

Also with these changes to lower burst damage wont this just make those runes weaker in general and chose less often? For example Cheap shot is already not used that much but it has it's place. This is just going to nerf it even more.

Blyted8/8/2018, 7:44:43 PM6 votes

Is minion block ever going to be addressed? Any chance of a revert to the way it used to be? I am not sure that making minions solid truly added anything positive or vital to the game.

Salvor Hardın8/8/2018, 6:10:07 PM5 votes

I am filled with joy and hope as I read this.

Thank you for listening to the community.

Momo Biased8/8/2018, 4:50:33 PM4 votes

Hey Scruffy, in regards to your final point about not changing up the way that people play the game too much, how are things looking into the future from a Bot Lane = Marksman Lane perspective?

I'm pretty much an all-the-time ADC main, so I'm a little biased in being a bit unhappy about the change with diversity, but I also fully support a time where marksmen and other laners can coexist. I noticed you guys also called the bot lane orb currently in the store the "marksman orb", which admittedly brought a smile to my face :)

Thanks for all your hard work in working to improve a game we all love so very much. I'm in this for the long haul. Awesome to be reassured that you guys are too.

Spideraxe8/8/2018, 4:45:27 PM3 votes

Hey scruffy thanks for the post, assuming the changes go well what do you expect the game state to be like? Something similar to like S4 in terms of winning and losing games?