Quick Gameplay Thoughts: April 11
Hi all,
Apart from the upcoming duo release (Xayah/Rakan) we're pretty focused on mid-season right now. Imagine we'll be talking about our plans for that, possible followup, and actual followup for a while to come.
AD item changes
Along with the durability item changes there are now also some AD item changes on the PBE. They're part of the mid-season changes too, so won't be shipping in 7.8, which means they'll vanish for a few days as we test a final 7.8 build at some point.
More context on the AD changes at the link below, short version is:
- Reducing % armor pen/shred in the item system (too high, invalidating armor purchases too much when multiple sources are stacked).
- Zeal item tweaking to do things to make it so Runaan's isn't simply the best choice in too many circumstances (currently best AOE, best single target and best build path), Kircheis Shard isn't as weak if you have to sit on it for a bit, RFC is more about increased range attacks/less about damage etc
- Tweaking IE, Zeal to offer a bit more of an power spike like other frequent early/mid game items
- Tuning big lifesteal items (BotRK is too strong, others too weak, so nerfing it and buffing Death's Dance, BT, Ravenous Hydra slightly)
- Making Greivous Wounds less accessible in AD builds
Amumu
In 7.7 we made some changes to Amumu, which included a new passive that amps magic damage. Due to some internal miscommunication we ended up shipping a version that gives 15% bonus true damage calculated off the amount of magic damage dealt post mitigation. That's effectively bonus magic damage rather than true, since it's calculated after MR's done its things already. We'll be changing it in 7.8 as a result. Since 15% true damage is a lot stronger than 15% magic damage and Amumu's looking fairly strong already we'll be toning that number down though (current value in testing is 8%).
Randuin's
We've got some further experimental changes to Randuin's Omen underway at the moment that will probably be hitting PBE sometime today. Long term we think we'll probaly position crit as a multiplier that lets marksmen get through tankier targets, without being as effective as it is at present against squishies. We were testing one way of doing that until a couple of weeks ago with IE's passive being changed so it added armor pen to crits instead of increasing crit damage, though we didn't get enough confidence from testing that that was something we should ship in mid-season given it's a pretty major change. In that context Randuin's having crit reduction didn't make sense (if crits are for killing tankier targets reduced crit damage arguably belongs on an item for squishy champs instead). Since we're not going with that change though Randuin's will likely get its crit reduction back, at least until we potentially look at crits in general again (unlikely to be before pre-season at the earliest).
Support Item Changes
Starting support item changes will be part of the 7.9 PBE deploys at this point, they're not quite going to be ready in time for testing during 7.8. More details on those to come later in the week. One thing I will mention in advance though is that we're changing the actions you need to take on the Ancient Coin line to something a bit more noticeable/skill expressive (so optimizing around it gives you more rewards if done well/less if done poorly, rather than being as flat as it currently is).
or 
for instance?
through the armor increase on them and the health decrease meaning it will do less damage overall. So I would be curious to see how that plays out for the item.
were overlooked I see.
good on 
considering they have amounts of true dmg too and want to teamfight too kinda.
/ 
passive.
Vlads, 
Rumbles, and 
Kennens).
