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Locket Change is bad

SweedishGunner·3/21/2018, 1:51:41 AM·16 votes·3,553 views
3/20 PBE Update

> Locket of the Iron Solari Unique Active shield value lowered from[38 (+22 per level)] to [30 (+10 per level)] bonus health lowered from [2% ~ 36%] to [10% ~ 20%] Lockout time after being effected by another Locket increased from 8 seconds to 20 seconds [New Effect] "While active, allies with this shield take 50% reduced damage from Area of Effect Damage."

These changes aren't good for readability or reliability, if Locket is too strong simply change the numbers. Adding in conditional damage reduction just makes things more confusing, where as a shield is easily readable on someones health bar, trying to figure out why someone is taking 50% less damage from an ability in the heat of a team fight is frustrating.

Whilst being hard to read it also adds a huge amount of invisible power that simply isn't needed, I don't think AoE spells are running rampant or out of control and giving 50% damage reduction against AoE simply isn't needed.

Just like Minion Dematerialisers no one asked for this, if shields are too strong then change the shields and don't add a hugely powerful, somewhat invisible and conditional teamwide damage reduction. (Also this change is a straight up buff for the most reliable form of damage, auto attacks.)

41 Comments

ZapMyHeart3/21/2018, 3:51:41 AM11 votes

Rito favoring ADCs as usual.

Can't have their favorites die from any APC, which is why a support item is going to further protect them from getting potentially bursted while they rapid fire others to die in 2 shots.

RiotRiot MapleNectar3/21/2018, 5:53:26 PM7 votes

Locket stuff is still highly experimental. We already have direction that's considerably different than this testing internally.

The Yetii Rider3/21/2018, 6:09:01 AM5 votes

This is a good change. Locket of the Iron Solari is supposed to be a skill test item that helps neutralize burst. Think about its old form that gave teamwide MR. It's an anti-mage item.

Reducing AOE damage helps against plenty of stuff while giving it a clear weakness: it doesn't do anything against assassins or marksmen who are singling out one enemy.

Really, Locket being strong was hurting assassins, but just because Locket is too good against assassins doesn't mean we should nerf it and let mages run roughshod over the enemy team. This accomplishes the goals necessary for the item. Yes, there's not a lot of readability here, but that's a sacrifice Riot should make to make this a clear anti-mage but not anti-assassin item.

ModKnightsKemplar3/21/2018, 3:50:22 AM5 votes

Eh. Not sure about that.

It's possible that they are experimenting with ways to keep big teamfight champs relevant without being overbearing; I would argue that's it's been really difficult to do that in the past, and adding an item that reduces AoE damage gives a nice way to do that. It also incentivizes thoughtful purchases from support, which is a continual pain point.

As far as "no one asked for this," that could be said of 90% of the decisions that Riot has made about this game at one time or another. I'm not saying they never make mistakes, but they generally know what they're doing.

FatedSaviour3/21/2018, 7:09:47 AM4 votes

i used it once, in the middle of my team, I HAD NO IDEA WHO IT AFFECTED, HOW MUCH IT DID, OR WHEN IT ENDED,

Z3Sleeper3/21/2018, 5:37:16 PM4 votes

It's redesigning the core concept the item. Rather than just a pure shield, it's now a shield with less value but more value vs AoE.

I think it's a good change. Locket is extremely powerful at the moment, and rather than nerfing it to a state where it feels bad, they instead nerfed its generalist applications and buffed its niche, which is protecting your whole team (which, naturally, AoE affects your whole team the most).

While you may not like that the item is changing, overall changing items from generalist application to more niche'd use diversifies items more and adds more meaningful choice to their purchases.

I'm sure you're probably concerned for what this means for mages. Don't worry too much about it. Because since the power is shifting to AoE mitigation that means that single target damage (Assassins, Marksmen, anyone else with single target stuff) will more reliably be able to execute their targets even through the Locket shield, which I believe is the goal of this change.

While yes even Assassins have AoE abilities, the majority of their damage is going to come from single target spells, which will deplete the shield faster and make their AoE abilities still deal near full damage most of the time.

50% may be overstepping it a bit on the niche side though, a simple 20%-30% would suffice.

Jbels3/21/2018, 2:20:47 AM3 votes

You would think they wouldn't make this kind of mistake in balance after talking about things like "invisible power" or "hard readability"

Sasogwa3/21/2018, 2:04:02 AM2 votes

I agree on your points. For me, the %damage reduction field was a much better locket rework than this

Killer of Night93/21/2018, 11:51:55 AM2 votes

With this change are we're ever gonna see the face of the mountain item for peeling from zed combo as leona support? Btw everyone know that this item it's a trouble only because enchanter user abuse it so i've one idea.. Actually lowering the base but adding mr/armor stat to locket (mostly tank support build armor/mr instead of hp) and reducing the hp ratio would make it better on tanky user + make sure that %heal and shield item won't work on him but revitalise rune should work). This will split the class from enchanter/tank user item (need a little buff to ivern/raka maybe). For don't make life hard to peeleing support make redemption heal little better and more fast so it could be compared to solari without need both of em.

Teridax683/21/2018, 2:46:47 PM2 votes

I agree with this, changing the effect from a damage reduction bubble to this conditional, poorly visible AoE damage reduction feels like a step backwards for me. Considering how the shield is itself AoE, giving it this effect is also going to cause it to double-dip into anti-AoE protection, which is going to screw mages over particularly hard, while nerfing its protection against autoattacks.

Personally, if the problem is with shield stacking on allies, what I'd so instead is have the item provide a large personal shield, and have it redirect a portion of damage applied to nearby allied champions towards the wielder. This could solve a number of problems: first off, it would make the item a much less attractive purchase for enchanters, because they wouldn't want to force themselves to take damage, and would synergize much better with wardens, who are meant to be the intended users for Locket. It would also finally have the item provide anti-AoE protection in a manner that would neither require giving everybody on the team even more shields, nor free damage reduction.

Ahri Baka3/21/2018, 9:37:39 PM1 votes

I feel like it's a nerf lol

Champion Skin3/21/2018, 9:11:20 PM1 votes

These changes aren't good for readability or reliability, if Locket is too strong simply change the numbers. Adding in conditional damage reduction just makes things more confusing, where as a shield is easily readable on someones health bar, trying to figure out why someone is taking 50% less damage from an ability in the heat of a team fight is frustrating.

But it is only while the shield lasts meaning that it is basically like the shield is [30 (+10 per level)] + [10% ~ 20%] of bonus health for single target damage and [60 (+20 per level)] + [20% ~ 40%] of bonus health against AoE damage that is the effect it will have (unless other shields are applied on top of the locket shield preventing it from breaking)

Quackas3/21/2018, 9:15:43 PM1 votes

You are looking at this completely wrong. There is no net change against aoe damage from these locket changes it only effects single target damage which is now better against locket. The 50% reduced aoe damage the shield has counters the loss in max shield value when the shield is used to block aoe while the single target isn't countered and the loss in max shield value is a huge buff to assassins trying to get through support actives to kill carries.

Or at least that's what I read as the intention of these value changes, the numbers are probably still being worked out but as a support main I like these changes.

Rexxiee3/21/2018, 2:03:05 AM1 votes

Yet another gigantic nerf for rumble, might aswell bury the champ.