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[INTRO] Jeevun "Jag" Sidhu - Technical Game Designer, Live Gameplay and Champions

RiotJag·12/11/2015, 8:30:28 PM·1 votes·38,631 views

WHO AM I?

Sup guys, I'm Jeevun Sidhu aka Riot Jag. I've been a competitive gamer my whole life, and before getting Diamond in League of Legends my video game mistress of choice was World of Warcraft, where I held onto a 9 consecutive season streak of getting Gladiator in Arena before I realized it may be time to do other things (will put away my horn now). I've also really enjoyed Starcraft, Super Smash Bros, the Batman: Arkham, XCom, and Metal Gear Solid series, and (might be dating myself a bit here) I have a soft spot for Goldeneye 007 and Mario Kart 64. I got into League through my WoW friends when the servers were down for maintenance. Someone in Vent said they just started playing LoL and it was really fun, and I replied that if I wanted to micro 1 unit for 45 minutes I'd just build a Ghost in SC2. I was a little ignorant at the time...

Aside from Video Games, I enjoy Sports Cars and Motorcycles. I'm currently running a Ducati Panigale 899 that I keep under armed guard, seeing as the last two bikes I got after moving to LA were both stolen in a matter of weeks. I've also always loved sports, particularly Football (Giants fan for life) and Basketball. I listen to a range of music, but am mostly into Hip-hop and House/Electro. My Spotify has been blasting a lot Run the Jewels and Disclosure lately, although my boy Kanye is never far off the playlist. Before I was a professional nerd for a living, I was something totally different - a software engineer at Microsoft.

WHAT AM I DOING AT RIOT?

Some of the fun stuff I've done at Riot include the Lucian mini-rework, Runeglaive and Zeke's Harbinger, and most recently I lead the charge on Rift Herald. I've spent the last 2 years on Live Gameplay (aka the Rito balance team) nerfing your favorite champ, but I am moving to new Champion team to find new ways to add more anti-fun into the game. Until that happens, I've had front row seats to every balance and game health struggle that we've had in League for the past two years, so feel free to hit me up with anything in that area.

WHAT AM I GOING TO TALK ABOUT?

I'd like to talk about interesting struggles with the live state of the game, ranging from the intricacies of preserving game health, to how to interpret win rate metrics, to how we handle eSports concerns. I might also get into what it's like for a novice champion designer to start taking on the task of building a brand new iconic experience in LoL. Finally, ADCs are my peoples, so if that's your passion, or if you just need help with that Vayne build, I'm down with the clickers.

97 Comments

Keevalroy12/11/2015, 8:55:32 PM7 votes

Look, I'm not going to sugar coat this so I'll just come out and ask it: why does the balance team insist on protecting problematic champions and toxic mechanics by shielding their favorites from harm while healthy champions are nerfed for absolutely no logical reason? It's been getting really bad over the last few months which is quite scary considering what's been done in the past two years.

Just how much thought goes into some of these decisions?

aperson112/11/2015, 9:04:17 PM3 votes

You've got a pretty good track record. I don't want to knock on your teammates, but of all the Rioters I've seen on the Patch Rundown you're the one who most seems like they know what they're talking about. I think the changes you've done are pretty good and I hope you go on there to speak again soon.

Anyways questions:

  1. We all know the various statistics you guys commonly cite for your balance decisions: playrate, winrate by elo, winrate by games played, etc. What are some less commonly cited statistics you guys use, that we might not think about on first thunk?

  2. A lot of balance outliers on the upper end feel like they have been hit pretty soft this preseason. I know Riot has committed to no longer "Olaf'ing"/"Eve'ing" champs but where do you draw the line between that and patches changing nothing about how the game plays?

  3. I was surprised to see nerfs to high-winrate low-playrate champs a.k.a "hidden op" champs like Malzahar this patch notes. How do you choose which champions will receive changes? Has this changed recently?

  4. You're probably not allowed to answer this but I've always wanted to know: which patch drove the most players away from LoL, temporarily or permanently?

Thanks for reading.

Earl Eulrich12/11/2015, 9:24:19 PM3 votes

Well...then talk marksmen:

  • are you happy with everything going crit? before this preseason i could play most of the marksmen as AD-Casters sucessfully, some of them even as AD-Bruisers. Now there´s no variety anymore for me, the Champ always plays the same way. Which is rather boring/frustrating...as i really like having more options available (i´m mostly an RPG/turn-based-strategy guy) to react to the game unfolding.

  • i can not say how much i dislike what happened to MF...she had been in a great spot and there had been no need for change, she walked to people and she shot them...now she´s a gimmicky Champ that does only work if you don´t have to focus, rather encouraging bad gameplay and lack of decisions than anything that remotly reminds on fun for me. I know it´s not a question, but as she had been one of my favourites and now it just pains me to play her...i just had to vent that somewhere.

  • maybe take a look at http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/j1dEhWyL-detailed-preseason-feedback-part-2-marksmen? that´s really detailed feedback on the current issues with marksmen (and itemization)...i think there´s a lot to think about during the holidays to fix next season before it´s too late to do so.

Son Jarvan12/12/2015, 1:53:11 AM2 votes

In 5.24, both Brand and Rammus was nerfed. Brand was given a very minor lovetap of a small scaling mana cost increase on one ability, citing considerations for the underlying system that made him strong being nerfed (Deathfire Touch). Why, then, was this consideration not made for Rammus? Rammus got a much larger direct nerf, on top of four underlying systems nerfs - three of his masteries and one of his core items. Rammus lost 200-300 HP in mid-late game from Veteran's Scars+Dead Man's Plate nerfs, lost 2% damage reduction from his keystone, and lost a marginal amount of armor/MR from a low tier mastery. And yet his signature ability still lost 33% of the CC duration and the catch range. Not even scaling back in lategame, it's just permanently gone now.

I know that Rammus needed a nerf. But what gets me is the completely unfair treatment, people who play Brand get to continue enjoying their strong champion who is now only slightly weaker whereas Rammus is so much weaker now.

Adalvar12/11/2015, 8:55:03 PM2 votes

What are your thoughts on the current triple crit item builds? Given the nature of crit it seems awkward to stack that many items, especially since crit needs AD to back it up.

Also what are your thoughts on the how the pre-season changes gimped AP itemization. The large gold increases, coupled with the accelerated game pace makes it hard for some AP mages to have time to scale into relevancy, before the ADC/AD counterpart outscales them.

Best KhaZix Void12/11/2015, 9:18:53 PM2 votes

Whats your opinion on Khazix's evolution path diversity?

meddler said it was notoriously difficult to balance out meaningful choices for his evolutions, and making sure he isn't oppressive and always viable into everything you could pick him into

have you thought about maybe trimming power from his evolved E, and shifting it into his base E so his evolutions open up and E isn't such a must have by level 11, and gives room to change around his other evolutions, notably R and W? he's never really been diverse in his evolution choices, it's just that the best path has shifted as he's been changed over the years.

RiotPWYFF12/11/2015, 8:32:59 PM2 votes

Just seeing how the past few threads have gone, these are pretty Q&A-y which is cool. I'd also remind everyone, this is a cool opportunity to make requests about what sorts of topics you'd like to hear from Jag.

Things like "can you talk about the process of designing a champion and update us as you go?" etc. Any cool ideas you want to hear about, it'll give us ideas as to how to pursue them.

DreamCrushed12/11/2015, 8:39:42 PM1 votes

Any thoughts on the type of champions that are known for their early power and then fall off? (Shyvana Pantheon etc.) They are certainly strong early, but the new flow of gold in the game makes their power window smaller, so I was wondering if any balance adjustments were planned.

Thanks in advance :D

SpecterVonBaren12/11/2015, 8:59:46 PM1 votes

As an ADC kinda guy, what are your thoughts on the current Support/ADC relationship? I don't just mean this in a "Should the Support always go bot with a Marksman" but what do you see as the more interesting elements of the relationship when a support and ADC work together? What new things would you like to see introduced through items and champ kits to create new interactions between the two roles?

ShadowParker12/11/2015, 10:03:16 PM1 votes
  1. State on Bard? Also gave you noticed all the players picking up Bard?
  2. Why do you guys support zyra bot lane over midlane when she's intended to go mid. (Recommended items are for support)

What are your thoughts on how the mandrake ward(It was released) would effect champions like Evelynn and twitch? (Your opinion)