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GotU 8.1

Blue Collar Bear·1/1/2018, 7:34:46 PM·1 votes·412 views

The Grasp of the Undying changes on the PBE look like they could have a problem. For reference, here are the tentative changes:

  • Changed from [Deal bonus magic damage equal to 4% of your max health] to [Deal bonus adaptive damage equal to 3% of your max health]
  • Changed from [permanently increased your health by 5] to [grant you bonus adaptive Attack Damage or Ability Power based on your max health until exiting combat. This effect can stack.]
  • [Adaptive note added: Adaptive AD or AP is equal to 1% or 1.6% of your max health, respectively.]
  • Ranged champions no longer gain 2 permanent health.

The play pattern that this will encourage is champions with large AD and AP ratios building mostly full tank, meaning they’ll be very hard to kill while doing tons of damage. I think that this is mostly fine on paper, but there is room for some abuse cases no matter how the numbers are tweaked. For example, consider champions that have innate sustain tied to their maximum health and/or their ratios. Juggernauts mostly come to mind, and this is okay. Their class as a whole has design flaws that gate this kind of play pattern, mostly low mobility. Consider how effective this keystone would be on tank assassins. GotU gives bonus adaptive stats and deals damage correlating with your maximum health. Champions like Akali, Fizz, and Ekko would love this new keystone.The community has seen this before, and I’m sure everyone remembers the frustrating experience of a champion that you just can’t peel off, does tons of damage, and won’t die.

2 Comments

Blue Collar Bear1/2/2018, 10:56:59 PM1 votes

In addendum:

I think what the designers are seeking to do with these changes is to move this keystone away from sustain, which would give it clearer use cases. The keystone has always been kind of muddled with what it’s supposed to do (keep you in combat, deal damage in combat). When the numbers were too high, there were too many abuse cases. If the numbers are low enough, it doesn’t see use over other keystones that do the same thing in a slightly different way. Moving it away from the goal of keeping the player in combat gives it a clear goal with clear balance levers.

Blue Collar Bear1/12/2018, 2:24:17 AM1 votes

@Riot

Any reason why we didn't see these tests shipped and/or returned to the PBE?