Boards›Dev Corner

Patch Chat with the Playtest Team - 8.6

Novalas·3/22/2018, 9:45:51 PM·1 votes·20,662 views

https://i.imgur.com/F81h0d2.jpg

Hey everyone and welcome to Patch 8.6, the second "It's Definitely Not Mid-Season, but here's a pretty big Patch!" patch. As a quick note, we'll be experimenting with a new type of patch chat for Patch 8.7 where we'll be hosting the chat on the PBE forums. But let's focus on 8.6!

I’m Riot Novalas & I’m a QA Analyst on Riot’s Playtest Team, a group of high elo players who work on Core Gameplay playing new champions, reworks, balance tweaks, items, and map updates before they’re released. It’s our job to test the changes that our designers come up with and ensure that we’re introducing positive changes to League in terms of both balance and fun.

Patch Chat serves as an opportunity for us to talk about the patches that come out every two weeks. You can find information on the most recent patch by following this link: https://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-86-notes

Prepare to conquer or be conquered. With this patch, two new runes have been introduced; Conqueror, a keystone that excels in elongated skirmishes. Bruisers will be quite fond of this one. We also have Chrysalis, a rune that gives you extra starting HP but turns into stats after you get 4 takedowns. Also, say goodbye to Iron Skin & Mirror Shell. They're deadzo.

Aside from runes, we have a reshaping to Duskblade. Duskblade now deals less damage; in exchange, you can now one-hit wards that you see with the Duskblade passive. Graves, Kayn, Kha'Zix, Miss Fortune, Nocturne and more have received compensation buffs since they were heavily reliant on Duskblade.

Additionally, we've got plenty of buffs and nerfs to various champions, buffs to summoner spells like Ignite, itemization reshapes and buffs/nerfs, and a new (old) item introduced into the game: Shurelya's Reverie!

Ask us ANYTHING about 8.6. We're here to answer questions about your favorite champions, inquiries about runes, or maybe how often we execute to jungle camps! Let's talk about the best users for the new runes, play pattern shifts for assassins, or our thoughts on meta shifts this patch!

Disclaimer: We have no insight on upcoming/future skins.

Chris “Auberaun” Roberts Christy “Riot Ender L” Frierson Nick “Riot Endstep” Frijia Sigmundur “GangIeri” Helgason Arnor “Riot Hjarta” Halldorsson Rob “Riot King Cobra” Rosa Miktat “Riot Koyuncu” Koyuncu Brian “Riot Madness Heroo” Pressoir Nabi “Riot Novalas” Barak Dan “Riot penguin” Hardison Robert “ROBERTxLEE” Lee

178 Comments

Ducasi3/22/2018, 10:54:12 PM7 votes

Hi everybody!

Different question I guess....

What is your point of view on many big streamers (eg Dyrus, Trick2g, Nightblue,...) opting out of League of Legends right now for other games? Do you think it can be due to the current meta/state of the game or it is more likely due to personal reasons (eg viewers, money, personal attitude to the game/boredom?,...)

[vlad-salute]

Shíny3/22/2018, 10:30:13 PM5 votes

Any chance on Nautilus getting buffs or does he need some work before he can be strong again?

BadPiriPiri3/23/2018, 12:58:52 AM5 votes

Hi! With the sudden impact nerfs, Katarina will be nerfed for the 4th time in 6 patches (if we count the AP Itemization one). Are you thinking in doing a compensation buff on Katarina ?

CyberBalt3/22/2018, 10:45:10 PM5 votes

Anyone on the team play Mordekaiser by any chance? I just wanna get some stuff off my chest about him (but I promise I'll try not to come off as whiney or anything). :) Even if you disagree with my thoughts, please feel free to tell me! I won't be annoyed.

Ever since pre-season, he has felt really weak. Stormraiders got replaced with phase rush (which is MUCH worse for him, both the way it now procs and the actual values), but not only that, he's been really shafted in the base stats department. Don't get me wrong, I know Morde's never been an amazing champion in recent years, but previously if you took the time to learn him you could do really well with him, but after the pre-season he has never felt weaker.

I think his damage is being really overvalued by Riot. Yes, it's pretty high up there, but when you're giving up ALL CC, ALL mobility, and on top of that you have very low base stats, I can't really see why he should be anything short of the best melee-duelist in the entire game -- yet he's not. Fiora can outduel him, new Irelia very likely can, Illaoi, Kled, Jax etc. The only difference is, they don't need to give up their cc, mobility, and base stats to do it.

It just feels like we will forever be ignored by Riot, because our playerbase simply isn't large enough to ever be able to grab Riot's attention. Even Skarner, Volibear, Aatrox, and Nunu have gotten attention, but so far there has still been NOTHING for us! Most of us aren't even asking for anything unreasonable; some simple base stat buffs, as well as a couple bug fixes and quality-of-life changes. We don't need a mini-rework or anything to hold us over till the VGU. It just seems like there's a deep-rooted paranoia that even touching the champion could result in the monstrosity that was post-juggernaut update Mordekaiser, but this is simply not the case.

Even the new rune, Conqueror, is going to benefit just about every fighter in the game except ... you guessed it ... Mordekaiser, who has difficulty sticking on champions to make optimal use of it, AND values AP much higher than AD.

Short list of changes I think should happen(maybe not all at once). Numbers can obviously be tweaked, I'm just going for the general idea.

  • Base HP from 530 to 570
  • Base armor from 25 to 35
  • Base movement speed from 325 to 335
  • Casting Q increases his auto range by 25/25/50 (as far as I'm aware, this works for every other similar type of enhanced autoattack ability; Yorick Q, Darius W, Nasus Q, etc. I don't really see why Morde should be the exception.)

Bug fixes:

  • Omnivamp is treating his Q as an AOE ability, when it's not! It's single target, there is no reason it should be getting the reduced healing from Gunblade, and it REALLY sucks.
  • Titanic Hydra doesn't act as an auto reset on Mordekaiser Q.

And if Riot wanted to be especially nice, maybe make his level 18 base AD the highest in the game again (it was before preseason, but no longer).

I'm really sorry this came out so much longer than I intended, but I love this champion really much and it feels so bad to see him like this, and I couldn't bring myself to cut anything out. Anyways, what do you guys think his state is right now? I really want to know your thoughts on him!

(This comment inspired by https://www.reddit.com/r/MordekaiserMains/comments/8020og/a_call_to_arms/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/MordekaiserMains/comments/861wfv/we_really_need_a_base_stat_buffs/ ).

Vekkna3/22/2018, 10:12:17 PM4 votes

How worried are you about unintended/abusive users of Conquerer? For example, basically any mage or tank support (with empowered aa) can stay in combat with minions, poke with an AA, and then unload a combo in the next 3 seconds. Thinking Leo, Sona, Zyra, Thresh, etc.

And did you notice any problems with it facilitating tank assassins again? (Ekko, Fizz, Akali, Kat, etc)

How worried should we be about scenarios like MF entering combat with E, then hitting QR and getting 20% true damage on Bullet Time?

I give 0 fuks3/23/2018, 3:07:57 PM2 votes

so the new conquer rune description tells us about refreshing the damage when you are a melee champion but doesn't say crap about how often it can be refreshed by a ranged champion. Overlook something did ya????

Impish Yordle3/22/2018, 10:38:35 PM2 votes

Top lane mages like Rumble and Kennen have not been doing so well lately. Is there anything planned for them?

F3EDfromDesIr33/22/2018, 10:18:48 PM1 votes

[deleted]

Raptor3/22/2018, 10:08:00 PM1 votes

Going to try my luck again guys,

ANYTHING about the new champion that you can tell us ?? xD

Laceration3/22/2018, 11:04:07 PM1 votes

Will we see more buffs to zed, talon and kayn if the buffs aren't enough?

Landorin3/22/2018, 10:06:18 PM1 votes

Who do you guys see as good users of Conqueror? I will say I haven't tried it yet, but it seems pretty underwhelming at a glance since it is very conditional (4 seconds in combat, only good on melee, and need high damage from auto attacks), and I can only think of a handful of champions that might like to take it. Is this supposed to just be a really niche rune, or am I significantly underestimating the value of the true damage?

Arammus3/22/2018, 9:49:32 PM1 votes

do you hate adcs?

why did you buff lee sin now? usually this happens before worlds.

who decided to bring shurelya back?

why the nerf to statikk and rapidfire? again do you hate adcs?

even tho the entire pbe boards screamed "DONT RELEASE CONQUEROR LIKE THIS!!!" you did, why?

thats all i'd like to know right now

no reason to dislike me because riot answered me <3