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Patch Chat with Playtest - Patch 6.5

RiotSkarnye West·3/8/2016, 8:15:42 PM·1 votes·170,762 views

Hey all,

Welcome back to Patch Chat! We’re Riot’s Playtest Team, a group of high ranking League players whose job it is to play the hell out of things (lane tests, competitive testing, etc) and give actionable, objective feedback to designers.

Every two weeks (concurrent with the release of patch notes), we’re going to be hosting a discussion here on the state of balance on the current patch. Take this opportunity to ask us any questions about the state of the game because, as we said, it’s our job to analyze it from all angles.

Today, we’re here with Scott “Sickoscott” Hong, ex-professional jungler and top laner, S5 Challenger, and playtester to talk about the state of top lane and what it’s like to be a playtester at Riot.

In this patch, we have nerfs going through on Nautilus and Pantheon, two champions who have dominated top lane for two patches. On top of that, notorious lane bully Renekton is getting buffed. What do we expect the top lane landscape to look like going into patch 6.5?

_Nautilus and Pantheon both destroy other melee matchups in trades thanks to their superior threat range. On top of that, they have frequent windows to all-in squishy ranged champions. Even if they fall behind, they bring point-and-click CC for ganks. _

_I expect more passive champions with short melee range to become stronger, especially Rammus and Shen. While they have lower threat ranges, they take more time to ramp up. _

_Melee tanks who end up with decent damage in the late-game but still bring initiation and gank assistance shine in the current meta, but those two are the two likeliest standouts. _

_Graves and Quinn should also surface as bully laners. They have fallen in win rate in recent patches thanks to the all-in threats of champions like Pantheon or Nautilus, in part due to the point-and-click CC which nullifies their range advantage and ability to dodge skillshots with their move-blocks. With those two out of the way, these ranged champions should have more room to breathe and start abusing the other top laners who don’t have the luxury of not having skillshots. _

You’ve been playing League of Legends in Season 1; what has kept you interested so long? Do you have a favorite champion?

_I like playing champions who have a lot of room for skill expression, especially champions with “hidden” mechanics. Nidalee has so many tricks that you can play her in 1000 games and still do something better in the next game. _

You’ve been at Riot for around a year; what is your favorite thing about your job?

_I’m surrounded by passionate LoL fans. I get to play the game everyday and talk with my coworkers about anything League related, from the LCS to my terrible solo queue games. _

What do you find hardest about working in Playtest?

_Trying to stay impartial and not having your emotions get the better of you when you’re having a discussion with a teammate or a designer. Just because you hate playing against a champion doesn’t mean it needs a nerf; I try my hardest not to be biased. _

If you’d never discovered League of Legends, what would you be doing?

_I’d probably be teaching English in a foreign country. I enjoy teaching/coaching people who are eager to learn, whether it’s English or League. _

Do you have any questions about what it’s like to work as a Riot playtester? As usual, feel free to ask any questions about balance or what exactly our job is! We will be around for the next few hours and will try to answer as many questions as possible.

Adam "Afic" Cohen Ben “Cezium” Burkhardt Isaac “Azael” Cummings-Bentley Shawn “I Am The IRS” Currie Miles “Daydreamin” Hoard Scott “Sickoscott” Hong Mattias “Gentleman Gustaf” Lehman Nicholas “Drecker” Shapiro Nicholas “Nickwu” Smith Blake “Ex Shepherd” Soberanis Trevor “ThEntropist” Thernes

Link to Patch 6.5 Notes

360 Comments

ZachOfAllTrades3/8/2016, 8:24:48 PM13 votes

Hey guys! Just wondering if anyone wants to share their story on how they came to work for Riot as a Tester?

Thanks, from someone who wants to get there someday!

Merxamers3/8/2016, 8:27:26 PM11 votes

I'm a little concerned as to how the Nautilus nerf will impact his jungling. I know you rarely see him in the jungle anymore, but at least Pantheon got some compensation (increased E damage on monsters). Is this something you all talked about at all?

Also, one note about J4; i love him as a champion- he and Vi got me started playing jungle in the first place. However, it feels like he has very little synergy with the main jungle items.

For example, if J4 gets Warrior enchant he'll do great damage, but will be way to fragile to do his job (initation), while Pantheon, Rengar, etc. are just fine. If he gets Cinderhulk, his damage is negligible until he gets his next item, as opposed to Rek'Sai who wrecks people with it.

Basically, J4 (and Vi, now that i think about it) rely on early ganks, but can't really do it effectively until they have two items. I'm not really sure how this can be fixed (add another jungle item?), but it's one reason it's felt kinda bad to play J4 jungle for a while.

Oxsley3/9/2016, 12:25:49 AM10 votes

I would really like to know how the halving the time of getting to level 30 will work. For example if an account was level 24 would it just be boosted to 30 as the patch would be taken into effect or would total exp not matter? Basically will people be the same level after the patch goes live?

Ave Machina3/8/2016, 8:52:58 PM10 votes

I understand the reasons for the Nautilus and Pantheon nerfs, but why was it a problem that there were champions who countered Quinn and Graves in top lane? Do you think that these changes leave them room to become problematic?

What do you think about the prevalence of Guinsoo's Rageblade + Sated Devourer on AD bruisers?

Are you concerned that making Soraka max her Q first will make her less able to protect her allies during early game? What about the non-stackable HoT making her less able to protect her allies during late game teamfights?

What effect do you think the turret nerfs have had on game balance?

jazzerbone903/8/2016, 10:25:08 PM9 votes

"Trying to stay impartial and not having your emotions get the better of you when you’re having a discussion with a teammate or a designer. Just because you hate playing against a champion doesn’t mean it needs a nerf; I try my hardest not to be biased."

I do not think nerfing Nautilus is a good response to people finally realizing that he is a good and very versatile champ. As tanky as he is, his biggest weaknesses are consistent damage and good disengage champs. His cooldowns are high enough that if burned poorly, makes him a burden for team fight. As for his offense, I know his E has been nerfed once already, and the rest of his abilities do little damage anyways. I can maybe see making his ult a skill shot ult, somewhat like braums (maybe even a combination of braum/nami). Also, the peel he provides for his squishier teammates is also mediocre. His passive shines in small skirmishes, but is greatly diminished, and almost irrelevant in team fights against backline diving compositions. Nautilus is my favorite champ in League and I truly think he is balanced. I do not think he has been given a fair amount of time for people to react to him strategically before being considered for nerfs. I cannot speak on behalf of pantheon players because I am by no means a pantheon expert, but nautilus is a great tank without being a total juggernaut.

On another note, all these champions keep getting buffs, nerfs, or unnecessary reworks (*cough shen), but 0 attention has been given to Yorick. Even skarner got reworked in the juggernaut patch. This is a champ that needs the most work and I do not know why riot seems to be ignoring that fact.

Malicious Metal3/8/2016, 11:23:03 PM6 votes

Aw yeah, those 8% increased shielding from Runic Armor on Mordekaiser's Iron Man will definitely go a long way. Always shield, never die indeed!

iiIhNqTeka3/8/2016, 10:31:03 PM5 votes

Hi Riot, Is there ant reason for not releasing Hextech Crafting? I pls this since it was the CLASH OF FATES

NGNL Asian3/9/2016, 1:58:05 AM4 votes

hahahha. Nerfing nautilus, meanwhile Alistar.

Bladerunner77773/9/2016, 5:21:03 AM3 votes

Hey!

While it is really nice to see Hecarim buffs, I'm still concerned about his viability. A lot of the features that we Hecarim mains loved about him are gone, particularly early homeguard rush. It allowed him to snowball well so he could fund his expensive build, he could also stay relevant if he fell behind - giving him some elbow room in bad matchups.

Hecarim's gimmicks is what made him unique. Many people found him frustrating because he was an odd champion. Currently he doesn't feel like he's filling any niches. He doesn't have the damage to be a dive-assassin, when building full tank he feels extremely squishy, his engage isn't as reliable as other champions (he's very easy to flash away from, and his knockback + fear mechanic only pushes the enemy further away if they do flash).

I can understand removing the ghosting passive even though it restricts him mostly to jungle, but it feels like the core parts of Hecarim are gone and something needs to fill in the gap. My friends and I joke that Hecarim should have Corki's package to make up for the lack of early homeguards. But I would be more than excited to see any unique interaction such as "the package" added on to Hecarim.

Buuuuuut I think a simple QoL change to Hecarim would be increasing Onslaught of Shadow's missile speed. It isn't a very reliable engage tool which (from my understanding) is what you guys want Hecarim to be; an initiator.

Double JJs3/9/2016, 5:34:20 PM3 votes

This is all fine and dandy, but where did my patch rundown video go?

xshortzox3/10/2016, 4:40:44 AM3 votes

I just love how the team at riot works so hard to make their community better. Seeing a post like this really warms my heart and makes me feel that much better about riot. And through reading the comments, I really get the sense of a community. It makes me happy to know that this community is so good. So often i see the bad side of it in games, but it is posts and discussions like this that really restore my faith in League players.

Dreampod3/8/2016, 8:31:06 PM2 votes

Given how poor taking Herald is generally perceived versus taking dragon how do you think that cutting an incentive for devourer junglers to want to take him will shift his role as an already largely ignored objective?

el Tartoon3/9/2016, 11:08:58 AM1 votes

Bye bye kogmaws passive attackspeed :( the one thing that made me want to buy the champ.