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Quick Gameplay Thoughts: March 16

RiotMeddler·3/16/2017, 5:06:57 PM·1 votes·40,319 views

Hi folks,

Not too much to mention today, we're pretty focused on mid-season work at present so less to talk about right now. As far as mid-season itself goes we should be in a position to talk a lot of details in a few weeks at a guess.

MR/level

One of the issues we've been looking at for our mid-season defensive item work is whether we should be adjusting MR/level to account for the removal of Aegis aura in the pre-season last year. That aura, even at only 10 or 15 MR, composed a meaningful proportion of some champions total MR in many games, which has left those champs significantly more vulnerable to magic damage. We're testing giving a small amount of MR per level (0.5 at present) to champs who don't currently have any as a result.

Karthus

Touching on Karthus since he's been asked about a fair bit recently and he's one of those champs we haven't talked about in a while. We don't have any current plans for Karthus, we are keeping a closer eye on him than usual right now though because of the Exhaust nerf that just went through (want to see how much that does/doesn't impact him).

Some 7.7 Balance Changes

We've just started our work on 7.7. We're still planning out what exactly we'll be focusing on, some likely candidates though include buffs to Lissandra (since we didn't find something we were happy with in 7.6) and Bard plus a nerf to Graves. Less certain are possible Lux and Kassadin buffs plus another look at Udyr and consideration of some other junglers. Aatrox followup's very possible, though what depends on how he performs over the next week or so of course. More details to follow.

200 Comments

SOLOQSUPERHERO3/16/2017, 5:10:26 PM21 votes

What were some of the things you tried for the Lissandra updates?

MR OCTOPUSSI3/16/2017, 6:51:52 PM13 votes

@ Meddler I still hope you read this at some point :D What do you think about giving Fiddlesticks Fiddlesticks a range indicator for his W - Drain like Morgana Morgana ult? I think it would help a lot because the cast range is different from the max range. It would be an easy QoL change while you work on him!

Illâoi Evê Siôn3/16/2017, 5:58:18 PM10 votes

I would like to give feedback on the Aatrox passive description rewrite on the PBE:

-This is subjective, but the "light red" color of Undying looks more like pink. Would you consider making it purple like Blood Price instead? Then you could change his energy bar to be purple when Undying is off cooldown as well. This would reduce the amount of colors he has, making him ... more complete? I don't know how to describe this. He wouldn't be all over the place. It would also be easier to recognize than the difference between red and light red.

-The closest thing to Hellbent that we currently have is Darius' Noxian Might which just immediately tells you what bonuses you get instead of creating a sub-paragraph and a sub-title for the effect. Would you consider looking at how that's written and then adjusting Undying Hellbent to be similar? League isn't very consistent in its description writing so every time something new comes out or something is changed it would be nice if you could strive to make it as similar as possible to what already exists. Also, using "Hellbent" so often in one description is just weird. Colored Keywords should be used as seldom as possible. And having three paragraphs with each their own titles is also a bit much.

-Volibear's passive also restores 30% Health and doesn't do this, but a lot of new abilities just show the actual value in the correct text color and then the mathematical value in parenthesis (just the opposite of what Aatrox does). Could you adjust that and Volibear's passive, please? (Volibear's passive doesn't even show you how much it heals).

-The current standard for revive effects with a cooldown is to write a sentence that says "This ability has a X second cooldown" instead of putting the cooldown in parenthesis or writing it on the right side. It also shows the number in normal text color instead of white despite scaling with level. Could you either adjust Aatrox's Undying to fit Anivia and Zac or Anivia and Zac to fit Aatrox's Undying?

Jaycen bOrnn3/16/2017, 6:41:51 PM10 votes

Hi Meddler, in one of your previous posts, you mentioned possible buffs to LeBlanc to compensate for the recent nerfs. Is that still on the table for 7.7?

DracaNova3/19/2017, 7:32:23 AM9 votes

What about item 3047, 103.64% gold efficiency without the passive and it costs only 1140 gold so it can easily be bought early game. This item blocks 12% of ALL auto attack damage for 100 Gold. The passive is actually is more gold efficient the more armour the user has. This seems counter intuitive in a system where armour has diminishing returns.

Dessem3/16/2017, 5:28:20 PM8 votes

How do you feel about Ivern at the moment? His shield can feel pretty frustrating to play against, and he's got a suitably high winrate. Currently happy with him, or are you monitoring?

(Also still hype for Lissandra, what changes did you look at that didn't satisfy?)

Melancholy Hill3/16/2017, 6:33:45 PM8 votes

What is your thought on the enemy missing ping? Right now its used to call your team mates idiots more than it is to say that someone is actually mia

NinjaGuy693/16/2017, 6:02:27 PM7 votes

Less certain are possible Lux and Kassadin buffs plus another look at Udyr and consideration of some other junglers.

Can you please, please remove the requirement for 6 spells to be cast around Kassadin before he can use his E? It's a really awkward mechanic that I think adds more frustration to his overall gameplay experience rather than adding more value to his theme as an anti-mage.

Zielmann3/16/2017, 5:35:34 PM7 votes

Is the state of exhaust for supports going to be monitored? The removal of the AS reduction on it seems a little heavy-handed to me, given that the justification for nerfing it at all was that the resistance reduction made it too good for both offensive and defensive use.

It's a little early, and of course the data on those 3rd party sites is a bit limited, but while exhaust remains the most common second spell on most supports, for many of them, their highest winrate builds have them switching to heal or ignite instead this patch. Before the nerfs, it was pretty consistent for most supports to have exhaust as both the most popular and the highest winrate second spell.

La Bello3/16/2017, 9:04:13 PM7 votes

Less certain are possible Lux buffs

wait

why would you buff Lux? Isn't her playstyle kinda unhealthy? Lux will never be viable until her entire kit is cured of the Cho'gath/Nidalee problem (core abilities dependent on landing a single skill/even if you dodge 50 Q's it only takes one to screw you over)

I dont think Lux is "weak" by any measure. No her whole Light binding into Lucent Singularity and Final Spark can still damn well one-shot a majority of the squishier cast assuming she is not behind on gold or anything.

I hope you guys arent forgetting that Lux's Q+E+R BnB combo as a whole deals a 1180 + 225% AP ,can be used from a distance and happens in under 3 seconds.

If you want Lux to see more play. You are going to have to dig deep and rework a couple skills or two to grant her more agency in between cooldowns. Create a more dynamic less one-dimensional playstyle and maybe give her some Utility or a Niche. On that note what class does Lux even belong too? She looks like a supportive mage akin to Karma or Lulu BUT she plays like a simple up-front nuker.Often she can be found supporting at bot but she really builds no supportive items instead opting for pure ability power generally a item 3041 .

tl;dr Don't simply BUFF Lux and call it a day. Modernize her as her kits age is beginning to show.

shakedblu33/16/2017, 5:33:55 PM7 votes

Is there any chance of buffing Lebalnc a bit? From very strong and almost 100% ban in pro games she's now really useless, and even in pro games on patch 7.4 before the huge nerf she isnt rly destroying the team ...

Dolchstoßlegende3/16/2017, 5:30:28 PM7 votes

Yeah, remember when you didn't include Karthus in the Mage Update, then nerfed his Wall Slow because Rylai's was too good and then nerfed Rylai's? Might wanna look into that.

Cut Through You3/16/2017, 5:29:08 PM6 votes

keep the good work guys i really have no complains about gameplay.[zombie-brand-clap]

Jeddy0173/16/2017, 5:31:04 PM6 votes

Wait what? Why is Lux being considered for a buff? Did I miss something?

ShadowParker3/16/2017, 6:00:18 PM6 votes

How has the stonebound mastery been received? I personally don't ever see it so I'm wondering what Riot's thoughts are.

Raxistaicho3/16/2017, 7:56:06 PM5 votes

Wait, why would you buff Lux? Do you remember what happened the last time you gave Lux buffs that she didn't need? She became the best mid in the game for about half a season before she was finally dealt with.

Forhonor3213/16/2017, 5:57:09 PM4 votes

Why are you considering about buffing Lux? Everyone else thinks she's strong enough right now. Also what do you plan on doing about Ahri? Right now she's looking to be the best mid laner at higher tiers.

As well, what are you looking to nerf in Graves, are their any more big changes to Aatrox we should know about that may come soon, and can you give us some detail about the tank update so far? Because looking back at all the previous class updates, I'm fairly worried at this point since nearly every one of them hasn't completely hit their mark or satisfied players.

RavenHusky3/16/2017, 5:54:54 PM4 votes

Besides her shield which I brought up a few threads ago, what kind of buffs did you have in mind for Lux?

Mobius3/16/2017, 10:05:05 PM4 votes

What happened to Shyvana? I feel like the mini rework was incomplete and didn't really achieve anything, since she's performing probably the same as before or slighty worse after the W nerf and passive change. Any plans to make her more viable in general, especially in the toplane? (examples: Q doing more damage early, E hp% magic damage up to 3% max hp, ult giving slighty more hp and do more damage).

robotmaster3/16/2017, 5:14:59 PM3 votes

Do you guys have the list for champ to give smaller tweaks too yet?

WiegrafOfValor3/16/2017, 5:52:51 PM3 votes

@Meddler, It's just a shower thought but wouldn't be more interesting to invest on Aatrox revival thematic and War beast, and to balance him around his passive?

It's hard to understand when I put that way so I'll try to show you what I mean. Imagine if Aatrox had a tanky sustain, low damage kit, but once he died and revive he would comeback as a temporary second form (much like Gnar) for a few seconds where he would have fast AA, lower CD on his skills or a different set of skills, with high % Lifesteal.

I think that would fit his thematic of this dangerous war veteran without making him OPpressive 24/7, and it's easier to balance around since you have the passive CD, the duration of the second form, the lifesteal%, the AA and the second form skills as means to balance him if he would to become more powerful than you want.

What do you think of that @Meddler?

PS: That would create a interesting dynamic, would you focus Aatrox and trigger his passive, or should you ignore him and try to survive his disrruptions? That would make him a unique bruiser, plus your team can play around that as well.

Risk of Fate3/16/2017, 5:18:40 PM3 votes

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iahim983/16/2017, 5:41:55 PM3 votes

Meddler, is that 0.5 mr/lvl for all chamions or just tanks? As I'm aware, the champions that don't have mr/lvl are mostly ranged champs and some melee, so who would get this buff?

EmperorPengu3/16/2017, 5:14:01 PM2 votes

Just buff turtle stance. Make him just more defensive in general. Or buff bear stance.