Quick Gameplay Thoughts: October 20

Why don't you handle homeguard animation like old walking animation? When she uses e.g. her taunt, the animation she does when she has homeguards activated changes.

Think this would propably be one of the best solutions since players then can see the version they prefere all the time instead of being annoyed because it's a different one. Overall I would expect this solution to make the most players happy*[slayer-jinx-wink]*

Eve Homeguard Anim

No promises, but we're looking at potential ways to include the previous Eve Homeguard animation (link below to a video) as a hidden easter egg somehow. It's not the right fit for her primary Homeguard anim, might be able to get it in in some way though.

Make her only use it when in a game vs a wolf-like champ :P maybe

Meep Meep!

Put the homeguard animation as basic walk after penta because with no one to kill she have nothing to hide anymore

Wasn't the point of Zac's update to make his Q and Ult more satistying and needing more skill expression? What's the point of nerfing it back down to unimpactful spell?

{quoted}Looking at AP junglers a bit

We're going to take a look at a couple of AP champs from a jungle perspective, see if we can give them a bit of help. Not sure on timing, given there's some more critical work (runes stuff mainly) that's demanding a lot of work right now, hoping to do some explorations during the next few patches though. That might mean work on AP champs who already jungle, or at least used to in the past, could also mean work on AP champs with play patterns that would be fine in the jungle who just haven't been good enough at clearing historically to do so (e.g. someone like Morg might be a good candidate, Annie given her high reliability when ganking probably not).

This is part of a bigger question I have about jungling champions in general, but could you perhaps take a minute to talk about why +/- damage to monsters and unique monster mechanics aren't used more often in champion/item balancing? It seems like it's a great opportunity to get a lot more variety into the jungle and enable some really cool team compositions -- anything from extra damage to damage resistance to monsters to mana restoration seems like a great way to enable interesting junglers without skewing their laning phase.

My initial thought is because, in addition to possibly adding a bit of extra power in specific situations, those statistics can skew perceptions into believing that champion is INTENDED as a jungle pick rather than simply able to be one, but I'd love to know your opinion on the subject.

I'm thinking specifically about unique possible junglers here -- people like Akali, Aurelion Sol, Diana, Fiora, Illaoi, Gnar, Karthus, Lissandra, Malphite, Morgana, Orianna, Renekton, Rumble, Tahm Kench, Taliyah, Vladimir, etc -- characters who may have the AoE damage or the interesting gank possibilities but don't have the power or the sustained damage to survive clears efficiently (or junglers who need a little jungle edge without a power spike).

Any thoughts on Leona? Mainly Passive wise cause I feel it could be a little more interesting.

I like the thought of making Zac a little better with buffs but as long as he has that ultimate I don't think Zac will be easy to balance. Simply put, that ultimate holds way to much power compared to his old one. Has going back to the old one every crossed the team's mind?

I like the thought of support other AP junglers. AP junglers have always been kind of in a weird spot and opening the gates on some of them is an interesting idea.

Why do you already work on Zac when Rengar has been in a shitty state since his rework?

The problem is not AP jglers. The problem is AP itemization and no diversity. You have different types of AP champions and you have hardly any options for them to choose from. Maybe if you reworked some existing AP items and add some meaningful new items into the game . . . . . it would help all AP champions and not the AP jglers you somehow . . . . think are struggling. Really. AP itemization is the issue . . . and not the jglers.

Needs a buff or something else to it. We need more magic pen options. Needs buffs or something because no one uses it. Hardly any defensive items for AP mages. Itemization for on-hit/AP assassins is terrible. They really need help. Might need a slight buff now because of all the movement speed mechanics and other factors in the game that make it that much harder to catch players now.

The issue is AP itemization and the difference between AD/ADC itemization. They have more options and better itemization. You were told this last year and you gave us two items that have hardly any impact on AP champions and their builds. This is the issue Meddler. AP jglers are not the issue. Your incompetence towards AP itemization is.

Morgana is already good at jungle clearing with her spell vamp passive xD. It's just that her clears aren't intuitive

Other mages that might be fun junglers could be:

• Cassio
• Brand
• Zyra
• Lissandra (might be OP though)
• Taliyah
• Karthus
• Ahri (might be OP though)

Soooooooo... still no thought how to bring botlane back in line?

In my opinion the weakness with AP junglers is the lack of separation between AP items. AD jungle can build a bruiser-like build. ROA doesn't work because of its slow start, Liandry's is meta for everyone, Rylai's is rather niche right now (out of necessity), and protobelt has needed balanced around midlaners as well.

To improve AP junglers, I think there needs to be something in favor of certain bruiser AP items for junglers. Maybe Liandry's burn gets augmented (and a minor one gets added to Haunting Guise) against monsters if you've recently applied one of the echoes procs (which in turn no one builds both except AP junglers), then slightly nerf the AP on the item to compensate.

AP Junglers? Interesting for both traditional and new comers. I'd like to see how that might go. I've heard of AP itemization work happening in the early season. I estimate by the time you guys get to the AP jungers, they'll overlap in tie frame. How might the two effect each other? Are there plans for having both in mind?

how about shaco riot ?

Any thoughts on Kindred's perfomance?

A slight QoL request for Eve. Could hate spikes be activated automatically by holding the ability button down instead of having to individually cast every spike? Of course players would still need to have the ability to cast them individually.

1. will we see the new champ soon?
2. will edge of night ever be reworked?
3. when is that level cap/blue essence change coming?

Hey Meddler, hope your day is going well. Two questions I had about Eve:

1.) Considering Eve’s struggling with closing the gap between her and her target, is there a reason the balance team prioritized damage buffs to her E instead of buffing her base movespeed or giving a small buff to her E and empowered E?

2.) Is Eve even an assassin? She honestly plays more like a slightly more bursty skirmisher. She’s not at all bursty in the same way tha Kha’zix or Rengar or Talon are as true assassins?

First they make Zac a CC bot with no damage, now they want to make his Q useless like his old Q and give him damage xDD

How to ruin a champion 101

How is Zac getting buffed ahead of Volibear. The balance team has gone mad