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Quick Gameplay Thoughts: June 22

RiotMeddler·6/22/2018, 3:36:42 PM·1 votes·83,907 views

Hi folks,

Usual Disclaimers

These posts will often contain talk about future work we're doing, or planning to do, that isn't yet guaranteed to ship. The nature of the work could change or, depending on what we discover, projects mentioned may get put delayed or even stopped. If you'd like to see a Tweet whenever a new one of these posts goes up: https://twitter.com/RiotMeddler

Moving away from big patch/small patch

We've been trying alternating big/small patches this year, with more systemic changes in the big and mainly balance tweaks in the small. As mentioned recently we're looking to reduce the amount of change over the rest of the year though, focusing on follow up to midseason, polish and balance instead. That means we won't be doing the big/small alternation, and will instead go back to a regular patch approach like in previous years, with systemic changes concentrated more in midseason and preseason patches again too.

New Tutorial

Last month we talked about some long needed improvements for the tutorial: https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-gb/2018/05/dev-new-player-experience/

At this point the new tutorial's now out and getting used by some new players. In order to understand where it's working well and where (if anywhere) it's worse than the old tutorial flow we've got it currently enabled for around half of new players to give us comparison points between new and old at the same point in time. Barring any surprises it should be enabled for all new accounts in the near future though for anyone wanting to check it out.

Some 8.14 changes

We've just done some initial planning for patch 8.14. Some of the things we'll be looking at:

  • Monitoring how our changes in 8.13 that impact bot lane, gold/xp funneling and snowball have gone, in particular to see if we should go further in 8.14.
  • Looking at mage balance, with a focus on mages who've been left in too weak a state after the 8.9 mana changes. We'll be assessing a range of champions for that, with changes expected to some, but not all of them. Some possible candidates include Syndra, Annie, Vel'Koz, Ahri, Cass, Viktor and Ori. Likely that some of those champions don't get buffed and some not on that list do though as we dig into things more.
  • Likely a buff to Karma. We're working on some longer term stuff for her, but will likely give her some straight power as well in the short term.
  • Potentially a buff to Liandries.

Domination buff

As a late addition to 8.13 we're buffing the Domination style bonus slightly. We've been seeing the Domination tree underperform, even for many champs it should be a great choice for. Buffing it a bit overall as a result. At some point (might be preseason) we also have plans for the vision slot to make it more appealing and satisfying, feel we should also just be raising the power of the tree a bit in the meantime regardless though.

http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/6.24.1/img/champion/Ziggs.png

332 Comments

Infernape6/22/2018, 3:47:10 PM17 votes

Potentially a buff to Liandries

Brand "support" PTSD intensifies.

RiotMeddler6/22/2018, 4:04:24 PM13 votes

For anyone that's missed them, given they're not datamineable off the PBE easily, the 8.13 snowball changes I'm referring to are:

  • Reduced early death timers
  • Reduced global gold on outer towers
  • Increased gold on bounty kills, including the return of a 2 kill bounty (looks like removing that took out too much catch up chance)
Plus Twelve6/22/2018, 5:36:49 PM8 votes

Meddler, is there any hope for Nasus and Corki to get some love?

Both are in a fairly poor state right now. Nasus can't stack fast anymore without CDR runes and the game is decided before he can do anything.

Corki is and has been in a bad spot for a long time.

noxysan6/22/2018, 6:17:31 PM6 votes

nasus is the lowest win rate top laner in the game atm plat+ any plans?

Erenex6/22/2018, 3:44:19 PM6 votes

Zoe Buff? Please? Zoe [sg-jinx]

FlashnFuse6/22/2018, 4:00:26 PM6 votes

Any thoughts on Diana?

Deathfall6/22/2018, 8:59:52 PM5 votes

I cannot fathom how nothing was done for Karma right now on the PBE. You had two weeks to adjust to the changes and every single one of you said she was going to need small term buffs. I am not trying to throw any of you under the bus, but what is with the blatant hate with Karma? I mean you ruin her identity and take everything away from her in the VGU, to do absolutely nothing for 5 1/2 years. You don't comment about Karma at all and you guys are so delusional with your work ethic on her. The kit is not working, the art assets are not completed and working, the lore is not working, and the identity you gave her is not working. How much and how long does this community have to fight with you guys to do anything positive on this champion?

It's the same with Morde, Liss and so many other champions. How does the community have a better sense of your game than you guys do? Did you seriously think prioritizing work on Lux, Ryze Azir 2 times and Ahri for the past year was worth it? Do you think working on popular champions over the ones that have been waiting years now, was a fair and honest use of your time? No it wasn't. You ignored requests, discussions, and feedback on so many champions to work on the same garbage champions that get updates and VU every year, because God forbid they drop one or two points in their paly and win rates. Got to make sure they are always meta relevant in the game and have completed art assets.

Seriously Meddler . . . I wonder why you still have a job sometimes. This is me not trying to be mean but this is me trying to make sense that you prioritize a hotfix for a garbage and annoying champion like Yasuo, but Karma is going to have to wait 5 weeks now for a small buff . . . and almost 4 months for a kit rework that is going to buff her shields again. You better be doing something meaningful with these Karma changes because the community on the boards and Reddit will come after you if you don't. Do the work that was supposed to be done 5 1/2 years ago and show us you care about all of your champions. It's annoying how you guys work.

Impidimp6/22/2018, 3:42:29 PM4 votes

Are you planning on making any changes to enchanters/crit adc's in light of the recent meta shifts? Or any comments on the meta shift in general.

Seviel Vorose6/22/2018, 5:00:23 PM4 votes

Do you already know what you're going to change about Syndra's kit?

Spideraxe6/22/2018, 3:39:52 PM3 votes

Hey Meddler can I ask for your thoughts on the under utilized runes like Dark Harvest, Lethal Tempo and Glacial Augment?

Coocon6/22/2018, 5:33:29 PM3 votes

possible Syndra changes? [sg-syndra] waitin for it

Ducasi6/22/2018, 7:35:06 PM3 votes

News on Lissandra ?

You said there were some changes but never followed up.

Maybe a healing passive with her cc or abilities would fit her kit and persona perfectly given she is close-to-mid range and has an ice blood queen theme !

[katarina-love]

Vicimus6/22/2018, 7:39:24 PM3 votes

I hope you realize that the problem with Liandries isn't the strength of the item but rather its place in a build path. Most champions who want to build Liandries will often build a mana + CDR item first, and then normally straight Deathcap/Void in order to be relevant in the game. Builds that can go Liandries without severely gimping their mana/CDR are insanely powerful.

I'm saying this as a Diamond player who has experimented extensively with Liandries in the past. It has the same problem as Spellbinder. They're both INSANELY strong items, it's just that the champions that want to build them NEED mana/CDR to survive OR Deathcap/Mpen is just straight up better.

J Eevo6/22/2018, 8:02:20 PM3 votes

Any chance for Kassadin buffs that aren't scaling buffs? I know he's being kept as a niche pick on purpose even in metas that are better for him but the combining of both antimage and lategame seem a tad much since you need to be able to both survive till late(which you won't in this meta) and play against an AP(which you might). Seems like there's a very small amount of games where you can even pick him, and even then it's a toss up.

DarkinPrime6/23/2018, 3:28:19 PM3 votes

New Aatrox is in PBE. you dont HAVE to ship him. Its a failure and an insult to your players.

Flutterrs6/22/2018, 3:44:29 PM2 votes

Hi Meddler! Hope your day is going well.

For the Domination tree's vision row, do you think you might be adding a new option or just rebalancing the existing runes? If it's the former, does the balance team have any preliminary thoughts on which rune might be removed/shifted? I know Zombie Ward has been a bit of a sticking point in the past but it seems to be in an okay spot right now, not sure about how Ghost Poro and Eyeball Collection are viewed since they haven't needed as much tweaking.

Thanks for the post as always!

RaikouBolt6/27/2018, 10:58:42 AM2 votes

Any thoughts for those of us who have been waiting for lissandra Lissandra Buffs since 8.6 ? She had a new passive tested and all and then she was forgotten again . Any thoughts on that ?

Keystone Cowboyz6/22/2018, 3:47:19 PM2 votes

Hey Meddler, thoughts on the Fizz changes on the PBE? Fizz mains reddit seems think it feels clunky. Are you set on his W being the 2 hits or are you open to trying different things? Seems to me the W and R go hand in hand. Even if the W changes punishing a melee assassin for ulting in melee range is absurd. Also taking away the last hitting W mechanic is kinda rough imo.

EDIT: have you thought about lowering the ult damage a little bit but making it do the same damage at any distance but the slow and knockup cc scale with range how it is now?

Also thoughts on Corki? You mentioned he was a candidate for buffs 8.12 but never got any. Anything for Syndra as well?

Namor6/27/2018, 6:14:58 PM2 votes

What about Lissandra ?[sg-janna]

Dark Angel o3o6/23/2018, 10:14:52 PM2 votes

Meddler, I understand Riot wanting to tend away from moving purely marksmen away from botlane. But at the same time, ADC stands for "Attack Damage Carry" so why are AP champs in the lane meta? IE Kayle, Malzahar,

L Rayquaza6/22/2018, 4:04:08 PM1 votes

Anything you are looking at for Yorick?

UpooOnMe6/22/2018, 3:45:02 PM1 votes

If I recall correctly, the original aim for mid-season was opening up bot lane (to mages in particular), but as it got closer you decided to focus more on marksman changes only.

Now that bot lane has opened a bit anyway and you are trying to keep it that way, would you mind sharing how the team feels about the mid-season changes? Are there any further plans for increasing bot lane diversity?