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Patch Chat with the Playtest Team - 7.5, Aatrox mini-update

RiotAesah·3/8/2017, 9:05:53 PM·1 votes·79,871 views

new "Minions" art created by inkinesss!

Hey guys! Welcome to Patch Chat, a Dev Corner thread we make to talk about our new patches every two weeks: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-75-notes

I'm Aesah on Riot's Playtest Team, a group of Diamond+ players who play with the new champions, reworks, balance tweaks, items, and map updates before they are released. It's our job to the test the changes that our designers come up with and ensure that we're introducing positive changes to LoL in terms of both balance and fun. We'll be watching this thread to answer as many questions as we can.

In 7.5, Aatrox has a mini update aimed at increasing satisfaction playing as and against him. Fizz has had power shifted out of the reliability of the ultimate into the Q. Leblanc received a hefty nerf, hopefully taking her out of 100% pick/ban status in pro games while still keeping her viable for the playerbase. Miss Fortune has gained some incentive to itemize for crit. Rengar, Ryze, and Varus have received nerfs as well (Varus also receiving indirect nerfs through DFT/lethality, but he was finding too much success without using either of those as well).

For items, Blade of the Ruined King was changed to be more attractive to Marksman and also potentially as a first item, and Edge of Night has been nerfed to focus on "I'm using this to go in" rather than "I activate this at some point then run around with a shield". For keystones, Deathfire Touch was nerfed, Warlord's Bloodlust and Bond of Stone were completely replaced with new effects so it will be exciting to see how those play out. Finally, Exhaust was nerfed and hopefully we'll be seeing it less as a generalist summoner taken by midlaners and more of a focused, defensive summoner.

All of us on the Playtest Team are avid gamers so feel free to talk to us as fellow LoL players!

Adam "Afic" Cohen Ben “Cezium” Burkhardt Don “Aesah” Ding Nicolas “Gleeb” Haddad Dan “penguin” Hardison Robert “ROBERTxLEE” Lee Rob "King Cobra" Rosa Nicholas “Nickwu” Smith Blake “S0be” Soberanis Trevor “ThEntropist” Thernes Arnor "TheLastAirbender" Halldorsson

360 Comments

Aamano3/8/2017, 9:44:31 PM16 votes

I'm a long time fan of Aatrox, and im wiling to put in more time to feel out the changes though they don't feel as well as I hoped

the one thing I wanted to try and bring attention to is how long it takes to build up Blood Well vs. how quickly it falls off

I think that after Blood Well activates when full, and then begins to drain, subsequent uses of abilities should still add to it while not attacking champions. Basically extending it's duration by another second or two

I know that while attacking Champions it refreshes completely, but I feel this could help his jungle and lane clear in the early game when it's much harder to quickly fill up his Blood Well

What situations have you had success with him? I've been struggling so far. I prefer to play Aatrox in lane but have felt bullied into the Jungle for a safer early start.

patmax173/8/2017, 9:19:50 PM8 votes

The things I find most interesting in this patch are the changes to

Aatrox
LeBlank
BotRK

What do you think of these? Why do you think they were needed, what do you think they will accomplish and what are the risks?

Chaosedge3/8/2017, 9:16:17 PM6 votes

Why does Riot seem to nerf champions that can to well in other lanes/roles ex. Sona when she was viable as a Midlane Mage then nerfed back into being Support Only?

Spideraxe3/8/2017, 10:14:23 PM5 votes

Hey guys any thoughts on new Galio on the PBE? How does he feel

SlashStriker3/8/2017, 9:27:01 PM4 votes

Yo play test team

Why can't we PING retread? What are you testing exactly?

Mysticman893/8/2017, 10:55:01 PM2 votes

New bond of stone seems like it opens a lot of doors for 'new' tanky supports, who can now be beefy tanks who are indirect healers too.

Do you think many 'new' tank supports will see lasting play? For example, support Dr. Mundo seems promising, and I could see sup Nunu* being more viable now. Theres probably a variety of other tanky sorts that just needed that extra little utility nudge from new bond of stone that could be contenders too.

Were any less conventional supports tried with the new stoneborne pact during playtest, or was is mostly tested with more standard cc supports? If there was a lot of more standard tank support tests, do you think pact will generally be superior to CotC for supports (since survivability for carries>suvivability for supports more often than not), or will CotC still have a place on some of them?

*=actual support nunu being conventionally played as a support, not that whole smite business.

Dragonslayer RS3/9/2017, 9:37:25 AM2 votes

I watched many pbe video of galio and found that he is very op in jungle. His clear speed is very fast because his passive, q and e all deal aoe damage. He can clear pretty fast even go full tank. His ganking is super powerful becasue he has tons of cc, mobility, damage and global ult. imo galio is super broken in jg unless you balance his damage.

Carnicore3/8/2017, 11:06:31 PM1 votes

What do you predict will be the impact of the LeBlanc nerfs?

Skias3/9/2017, 12:15:50 AM1 votes

Any thoughts, opinions or changes coming to Taric? I feel like he hasn't been touched or mentioned in a long time, so I would love to hear some balance team opinions on him, especially his Q. He has so much power tied up in his ult, it feels.