Boards›Dev Corner

Quick Gameplay Thoughts: September 26

RiotMeddler·9/26/2018, 3:35:44 PM·1 votes·145,841 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 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

Preseason release notes

In response to some questions that have been cropping up about the upcoming preseason:

  • The preseason patch will be 8.23 this year
  • Our goal is to have all the gameplay changes in 8.23 if possible, rather than spreading them out like we did with midseason (that was a test to see if it would be less disruptive if we did things gradually, conclusion was definitely not)
  • 8.24 will be the last regular patch of the year. We'll likely do an 8.24b though, similar to 7.24b last year, that's just a bunch of gameplay changes as preseason followup and general balance, address things that would otherwise be known issues over the holiday break.
  • Preseason changes will be on the PBE for longer than a normal patch cycle (probably 4 weeks instead of 2, for at least some of the changes)
  • There'll be some non gameplay stuff also happening during the preseason (e.g. ranked changes). Those are on a different timing, so won't necessarily be in patch 8.23.

Future of Nexus Blitz

We're most of the way through assessing how Nexus Blitz went at this point. Should have a dev blog with a whole bunch of details in it covering things like what we learned, major trends from feedback gathered, how we're thinking about addressing some issues that arose and some thoughts around if/when we'll have a revised Nexus Blitz available.

Couple of possible 8.20 changes

  • Pyke - We'll be looking at Pyke in 8.20, specifically reducing his effectiveness with tank builds. They're outperforming AD builds by a pretty decent margin, and Pyke keeps his strengths generally while muting his weaknesses a lot when building tank. Not sure yet what exact direction we'll be going, shifting damage from base to ratios is one option, though does also increase how snowbally he is.

  • Hail of Blades/Jhin - We'll also be looking to do some work on Jhin and/or HoB, given just how much mobility it offers him. Potentially involves reducing the amount of move speed he gets from the attack speed conversion and then buffing some other part of his kit so that non HoB builds aren't penalized. Also possible we do some work on HoB in preseason instead, potentially with a temporary change to Jhin until then.

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

254 Comments

Tsuchinoko Real9/26/2018, 3:51:43 PM23 votes

Thoughts on Ivern?

Sharpest glasses9/26/2018, 3:47:30 PM15 votes

During pre season, will you address :

  • item 3508

  • item 3814

  • MonkeyKing

?

What do u think of Annie since the last buff ?

fighter1549/26/2018, 3:46:37 PM13 votes

But meddler when the new colorful mage will be revealed? Before or after preseason?

shofaz9/26/2018, 3:38:35 PM12 votes

Yo Riot/Meddler I was wondering - what do you think about Viktor and what buffs could you give him? I thought of a few ideas. Now these are just ideas and I am not asking for all or any of them to be implemented. I'm just asking if you could look at my buffs individually and say why or why not you would give him buffs. Also do you have any future plans for Viktor at all?

Stats - Increase Viktor’s AA by 25. Allows Viktor to proc q autos more easily in teamfights.

Q - Increase augmented movement speed from 30% to 40%. With so much more mobility in LoL nowadays Viktor would need someway to escape or catch up to his targets faster.

W - Increase slow from 28%-44% to 38% - 45%. With all of the mobility in League, no one is going to be trapped in his W at rank 1 and since you rank this last, it just feels like you can never get them stunned unless they are chain cc'ed.

W - Enemies who stand in Gravity Field will take 10% more damage from all sources. This would make gravity field feel more like a threat rather than just a zoning tool and would increase Viktor's teamfight potential.

E - Lower aftershock delay from 1.0 seconds to 0.8 or 0.85 seconds. Now I know why you had to increase it from 0.6 seconds. But 1.0 seconds is too much as it will almost never hit unless they are cc'ed. The only reason the delay needed to be raised was because of Rylai's. But that is now nerfed and useless on Viktor. So a 0.8 second delay would make it feel like its not impossible to land it when they are not cc'ed.

R - Increase max and min movement speed by 50. Again this was nerfed because of Rylai. Rylai is useless now and it is rare for Viktor to get any damage off from it after the initial discharge. So this would make it feel a little more possible for Viktor to actually get some ticks off from his ult onto his enemies.

R - Viktor can control his ult even after he dies AND/OR in stasis. I dunno about this one I just thought it would feel more satisfying. Especially when you die and your ult is just sitting there doing nothing. Also when he needs to get Zhonya's it would just feel like a nice interaction to have against a harder matchup. I just felt like this would be a nice QoL buff. But yeah what do you think about these buffs individually. And why or why not would you give him these buffs. I'm just interested in hearing your reasoning and thoughts on them.

Diablo v29/26/2018, 3:37:49 PM11 votes

is there any nerfs to lb? coming upp soon

SaltNPetty9/26/2018, 3:41:08 PM9 votes

Has work begun on Lissandra's new passive for her skins? Last I recall that was the next step <3

Vekkna9/26/2018, 4:33:02 PM8 votes

I know you have responded to a few Zyra comments recently, but they didn't mention the plant hp issue that most (all?) Zyra mains hoped to hear about.

Also:

In general, if you're looking for good blog topics, I'm interested in hearing how you suggest players constructively channel their frustration. There are always short-term peaks and valleys with the meta, but what should players do about long-term issues when their main champ has multiple impactful bugs and/or the champ's QoL is seriously degraded yet unaddressed for a year and counting?

YeisusofNazareth9/26/2018, 3:42:19 PM8 votes

Any thoughts on kaisa dominating bot lane all year long?

Glory to God9/26/2018, 3:45:38 PM8 votes

Hey Meddler, I'm gonna ask about Sivir . Are you planning to make her gameplay more appealing? She's a pretty interesting character to me and her bandit theme is pretty resonating in her voicelines, yet it's lacking in her kit.

Pokemonred2009/26/2018, 3:52:05 PM7 votes

Has it been decided yet if there will there be anything for Fighters in the preseason? Not just the AD ones that would use item 3005 or item 3161, but also the AP ones like Diana that need to share items with assassins and mages.

Shirvallah9/26/2018, 4:05:49 PM6 votes

Hi, Meddler! :)

Any update on Karma’s situation? Any mini rework or larger scale reworks in the making? I really miss playing her...

Ivoryreaper9/26/2018, 3:46:30 PM5 votes

Any ETA on possible Lissandra's change? There was a passive change a few months ago that was teased, but that was scrapped I believe

Linna Excel9/26/2018, 3:57:19 PM4 votes

Meddler, are you guys going to do anything with Shyvana? I really don't think she's a great fit to league right now and her lack of play shows it.

Salvor Hardın9/26/2018, 3:44:16 PM4 votes

Hello Meddler! I read something about changes to RekSai to make it more attractive for new players, something you can tell about this?

Speak or Die9/26/2018, 3:55:21 PM4 votes

Would you guys ever consider allowing a jungler like Eve to be able to lane? She is practically impossible to lane with. It would be so nice to be able to mid lane with her.

Derp Princess9/26/2018, 4:06:00 PM4 votes

Hi,

Any chance the Lulu Q damage being reduced could just apply to minions (so it hurts her solo laning but not her support bullying potential). It's way too easy for a stray minion to walk in front of the Q bolt which makes it do far less damage vs champions... seems a bit silly since the entire point of the nerf was so she couldn't obliterate waves. Her shielding got nerfed, understandable, but she really needs to excel at something vs opponents so people will actually player her outside of organized play.

RAINBOW GUMDROPS9/26/2018, 5:40:29 PM4 votes

{quoted}

Hi folks,

Usual Disclaimers

These posts will often contain talk about future work we&#039;re doing, or planning to do, that isn&#039;t yet guaranteed to ship. The nature of the work could change or, depending on what we discover, projects mentioned may get delayed or even stopped. If you&#039;d like to see a Tweet whenever a new one of these posts goes up: https://twitter.com/RiotMeddler

Preseason release notes

In response to some questions that have been cropping up about the upcoming preseason:

  • The preseason patch will be 8.23 this year
  • Our goal is to have all the gameplay changes in 8.23 if possible, rather than spreading them out like we did with midseason (that was a test to see if it would be less disruptive if we did things gradually, conclusion was definitely not)
  • 8.24 will be the last regular patch of the year. We&#039;ll likely do an 8.24b though, similar to 7.24b last year, that&#039;s just a bunch of gameplay changes as preseason followup and general balance, address things that would otherwise be known issues over the holiday break.
  • Preseason changes will be on the PBE for longer than a normal patch cycle (probably 4 weeks instead of 2, for at least some of the changes)
  • There&#039;ll be some non gameplay stuff also happening during the preseason (e.g. ranked changes). Those are on a different timing, so won&#039;t necessarily be in patch 8.23.

Future of Nexus Blitz

We&#039;re most of the way through assessing how Nexus Blitz went at this point. Should have a dev blog with a whole bunch of details in it covering things like what we learned, major trends from feedback gathered, how we&#039;re thinking about addressing some issues that arose and some thoughts around if/when we&#039;ll have a revised Nexus Blitz available.

Couple of possible 8.20 changes

  • Pyke - We&#039;ll be looking at Pyke in 8.20, specifically reducing his effectiveness with tank builds. They&#039;re outperforming AD builds by a pretty decent margin, and Pyke keeps his strengths generally while muting his weaknesses a lot when building tank. Not sure yet what exact direction we&#039;ll be going, shifting damage from base to ratios is one option, though does also increase how snowbally he is.

  • Hail of Blades/Jhin - We&#039;ll also be looking to do some work on Jhin and/or HoB, given just how much mobility it offers him. Potentially involves reducing the amount of move speed he gets from the attack speed conversion and then buffing some other part of his kit so that non HoB builds aren&#039;t penalized. Also possible we do some work on HoB in preseason instead, potentially with a temporary change to Jhin until then.

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

@MEDDLER

WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE? ME AND EVERY OTHER ZYRA MAIN HAVE BEEN POSTING ABOUT THE BUG YOU ACKNOWLEDGED OVER 3 PATCHES AGO, WHERE HER PLANTS SOMETIMES DON'T ATTACK -- THEY LITERALLY DO NOTHING AT ALL. THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR OVER 2 MONTHS. YOU YOURSELF SAID YOU WOULD FIX THIS ISSUE, AND YOU'VE IGNORED IT. WE GET IT, YOU DON'T LIKE ZYRA, IF YOU HATE HER THAT MUCH THAT FREAKING DELETE HER , MIGHT AS WELL SINCE HER PLANTS WONT ATTACK.

Ultron Mage9/26/2018, 6:21:15 PM4 votes

Please do something with sejuani she is one of my favorite champions and at the moment is almost unplayable for a low elo scrub like myself

MikeyRage9/26/2018, 6:34:21 PM4 votes

Hi meddler. I only play mid and top lane yi (99% of games mid) as I hate, hate jungle. However what was already a hard role for yi has been made 10x harder he has no wave clear what so ever and any mage with good wave clear just wins by pushing (if they know) yi can not keep up, and against melee match ups pretty much everyone has better wave clear then shove him in to easy and even if you do get a kill yis still to slow the laner will be back to lane by the time the wave hits there tower and it makes backing akward becuse its impossible to shove the wave fast enough to back and be back before in time for the wave.

with how that the jungle item has been changed to stop funnelling can yis q nerf be reverted or work without a jungle item. Also yis q still has the damage against minnons on aram stiill.

also id just like to ask ontop of the above is double stike meant to use 2 autos of hail of blades up? my normal style of getting double strike and harassing is inefficient because ot this.

I know im one person but lane yi is the only thing i like any more and have for years please, please reconsider Q damage revert. you fixed funneling and kasai was always a bigger better funnel issue then yi anyway

Martian Spartan9/26/2018, 11:30:10 PM3 votes

Anything for Udyr's phoenix stance? Tiger outshines phoenix by a ton. Thanks!

Spideraxe9/26/2018, 3:39:10 PM3 votes

Hey Meddler can I ask about preseason item changes, will you guys be looking at starting items again or the more niche and unsatisfying items like Essence Reaver or Ohmwrecker or GLP

Guts Man9/26/2018, 5:08:08 PM3 votes

Can Wukong be addressed? After his harsh nerfs, it was said he would be buffed in the form of sustained damage, tankiness, regen, etc. He was given a 8% attack speed buff, which would help with sustained damage a bit...

However, right now, he feels good in very few aspects (late game damage) and bad in a lot of aspects. The "bad" aspects include his mana pool (7th lowest mana with high mana costs), his rank 1 Q doing 10 damage, and his jungle clear prior to tiamat. His passive also does not fit his kit and most effective builds (assassin style).

I understand his burst was way too high, but as of right now, it feels like he was nerfed in the only area he was useful - burst damage. If his tankiness was increased so he is less of a glass cannon, his mana was increased / mana costs decreased, or if his Q did more damage (or striked multiple targets like his E), he'd feel like such a more useful champion without blowing up ADCs with no counterplay.

To summarize, while the 8% attack speed buff was nice, I don't think it brought Wukong up to a place where he's particularly useful in the jungle. I understand he has a slightly above 50% win rate, but with such a minimal play rate, that sample size doesn't feel like it truly reflects his usefulness. His early game is way too weak as of now, and I think Wukong mains would appreciate if his current state was acknowledged and if there are any plans to make changes to him. It sounded highly unlikely he would get a rework, which is fine. What doesn't seem fine, is how he's worse than almost every other jungler in every area.

PopCorn Chick3n9/26/2018, 6:30:10 PM3 votes

When can we expect to see Zyra get some changes for her Mid role? I know that reverting Zyra's Q back to circle is not welcome anymore since there are way too many Zyra support mains compared to Mid Zyra, can you increase the width and decrease the length of the current Q to make it closer to a square? This way it won't screw up support role but help mid lane Zyra tremendously.

Daddy Ants9/28/2018, 11:22:36 PM3 votes

Alistar nerfs, when?

Sexy Jack Rabbit9/26/2018, 10:02:13 PM3 votes

Meddler can we get an opinion on item 3907 ?

No one buys it and no one finds it especially effective at its job.

Napoleon39/28/2018, 8:51:18 AM2 votes

can you guys revert quinn i think she deserve to be reverted why you guys let quinn have so much good winrate and be the higest in any lane she goes? this is not balanced and i think that riot should revert her rework.

ned the kled9/26/2018, 3:41:38 PM2 votes

ahoy, meddler

i was wondering if you're gonna get near kled by any chance

Zoli Ben9/26/2018, 3:43:47 PM2 votes

{quoted}

I'll check in on that, was expecting it to be in 8.19, not sure if it's just late getting into the patch or if we hit some snag along the way.

Hi Meddler what happened to Urgot R indicator?

Better Jungler9/26/2018, 6:42:04 PM2 votes

Hello Meddler!

The community has recently called for more emote slots on the emote wheel. can we expect to see this implemented in the future?

With the constant release of more and more emotes, having 5 on a wheel is just too low. Especially with different emotes fitting better with certain roles (The tent with jungle). The issue this causes is less time in champ select. After keystone and summoner spells, you only have a couple seconds to get the emotes you want on your wheel. If I play against a blitzcrank, I want the blitzcrank emote. If I'm playing jinx I want all 6 of the jinx emotes.. If I'm playing BEEMO I NEED THE BEE EMOTES.

I designed a wheel that had 9 slots. You can see the post with the community support here: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/0hlwWY90-riot-can-we-please-get-more-emotes-on-the-wheel-here-i-even-designed-it-for-you

232349/26/2018, 6:44:37 PM2 votes

Do you have any plans on nerfing graves even a little bit before preseason? He's been super op for more than 6 months . He's super tanky with like 230 armor while a stupid melee bruiser like fiora only has 100 armor atm. And graves is super strong to kill my 70% hp fiora with 2 aa when i had like 8 kills but the guy was only 3/3. Im not saying that the champ is unbalanced . Im saying that the champ is just abnormal af

Martian Spartan9/26/2018, 11:32:40 PM2 votes

Anything for phoenix stance Udyr? It's far out shined by tiger stance. Thanks!

R0T0N9/26/2018, 4:50:07 PM2 votes

What's the team's current thoughts on Aatrox?

He still seems to be quite weak in regular play VS Pro play, even if far less than previously. In addition, there are still quite a few pain points regarding his kit in terms of satisfaction that I feel could be adressed.

What's your take on it?

Rework Quinn9/26/2018, 3:53:13 PM2 votes

How much did you get to abuse the Ziggs strat in Odyssey before it was hotfixed, and how sad were you? item 3070

Cryxe9/26/2018, 5:17:25 PM2 votes

I'm rather puzzled that Jhin would even be considered the innate problem when Hail of Blades is the thing that launched the whole situation in the first place. If you'd ask me, Hail of Blades is a rune that needs work on because :

  • It's very rarely used by other champions (only Rek'Sai comes to mind, even though she hasn't been meta in a long time);
  • It coincides in purpose to Lethal Tempo, even though HoB would find more benefits in the Precision tree instead of Domination. Jhin having very limited usable runes in the rest of the minor runes (running Taste of Blood, Eyeball collection and Ravenous Hunter) shows weakness in options. Perhaps replace lethal tempo by Hail of Blades and make further changes from there?
Valor Bot9/26/2018, 3:44:13 PM1 votes

Hey Meddler, got any major changes or plans for this preseason that you're free to talk about?