Quick Gameplay Thoughts: March 14

You guys haven't forgotten about Lissandra right? She's sitting at a 46% winrate in a meta with plenty of assassins. I just want to verify that the changes are still happening, us Lissandra mains feel really neglected currently and would love just some sorta confirmation we're being heard!

What's Yorick state?

Is Riot looking at Combat smites at all? If Riot are content with Junglers being able to keep up in gold and XP with everyone else in the game, removing their intended weakness, then can you at least take a look at Combat smites, they were a fine idea in a meta of gold and XP starved junglers, and thats just not the case anymore, its allowing junglers to be supreme 1v1 duelist, red smite in particular

Smite as a summoner gives you all the objective power in the game, it shouldn't also double as a combat summoner on an incredibly low cooldown in my opinion.

Any follow up on Leblanc?

Hey meddler always good to hear from you like this!

How's live balance team feeling about aatrox atm? His hot fix buff is noticeable and has saved him from a >40% winrate but I've talked to a number of aatrox players and would be aatrox players and without going into detail there's some real pain points like:

-passive doesn't do anything building up to becoming hellbent -hellbent is very difficult to maintain when the enemy disengage from you -his base AD amplifier is difficult to really capitalize on when his main offensive abilities scale with bonus AD -His ult maintaining an AP ratio when his E lost it just seems strange

Where's our demon swordsman rough rider at in you guys mind?

What was the conclusion at Riot surrounding the Nunu/Singed Smite Support cases? I may have missed it, or has no definitive stance been reached?

any plans on ahri? 20% pick rate, 53% winrate.

Regarding the Honeyfruit, would it be possible to make a scuttle that eats a fruit lose its armor/MR as though it had been CC'd as a way of giving junglers lacking hard CC an option to speed up their Scuttle clear? I like the honeyfruit steal but the fact that it really doesn't DO anything and also just kind of happens (rather than having to seek it out like other easter eggs such as the vilemaw dance) kind of rubs me the wrong way. You don't really feel like you've found something, it's just a gameplay mechanic that doesn't do much.

So Meddler, will the unanimous surrender at 15 option happen before or after mid-season?

Please don't forget about Lissandra!

Good morning, Meddler.

A few Quick Gameplay posts back, there was a brief discussion about supports. Was it only the underdog xp changes or is there more consideration being done (and if so, what?)? Thank you very much, and have a nice day!

{quoted} Changes to struggling junglers

Given that previous posts from Rioters have mentioned exploring +damage to monsters more, is there a chance that we see the category of "struggling junglers" expanded to include more champions than the current "popular jungler" list?

Specifically looking at rarely seen characters who used to jungle in the past. People like Aatrox, Cho'Gath, Diana, Malphite, Sion, Karthus, Mundo, Irelia, Pantheon, Wukong, etc. It feels like monster-specific mechanics (damage, durability, etc against monsters specifically) could bring a few atypical junglers into interesting places even if they're not considered to have jungle as a main role, and I know it's something that I'd personally love to see as an expansion of champion flexibility if it could be done without compromising their overall balance.

Thoughts on that? Obviously not going to assume thoughts = intent, but I'd be curious if it's something you're exploring internally, or plan to explore in the future.

What's going on with Cassiopeia's tail animation? It's a small thing, but it's been on the PBE for a long while and it's making that playerbase feel very forgotten.

Meddler, I've got to say I'm impressed with the potential changes you've made on Quinn. They're much better than simply nerfing her Vault and calling it a day, and they actually tackle the problem at hand while helping her in an area she's been weak in. Kudos.

Hi Meddler any plans for Gnar, he seems rather weak, even with the tanks that show up on toplane that he is suposed to be good against

Personally I like how scuttle crab currently is, I wouldn't change it.

Not only does the honey fruit make good bait for the crab (doing scuttle as eve, diana, fiddle, and kindred isn't as frustrating anymore), but it also makes it more telegraphed, or in other words, if I'm rushing to bot lane but need the honey fruit first, I know I can expect the crab to go for the nearest fruit spawn and catch it first, whereas if you randomize whether or not the crab will go for it, I might miss out on healing for when I assume it won't.

Additionally, scuttle crab is technically an objective, giving you some river control and drake/baron vision, so being able to lure it with fruit instead of face checking the river bushes or to make it so it doesn't run in the general direction the enemy jungler could be feels like this easter egg actually has competitive use.

An easter egg should be a cool gimmick like a voice line, visual change, or something random like tahm dancing with scuttle, but this is a gameplay interactive easter egg that I feel should be considered to see if maybe this implementation can be used for other stuff (like maybe the buffs go check to see what the explosion from blast cone was without losing their patience meter?)

Wait, the Scuttle Crab eating honeyfruit is supposed to be an Easter Egg and not an intentional gameplay change? It keeps fucking me over because it keeps bodyblocking a fruit, and usually one that's close to me. It's been so aggravating 100% of the time every single game (I'm a jungle main) since you made that change.