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@Riot: Philosophy Behind Utility Mastery Changes?

Wobly·5/19/2015, 2:43:13 PM·7 votes·16,229 views
5/18 PBE Update

Yesterday we got some interesting Utility mastery changes on the PBE, with the Meditate 3MP/5 being replaced with +75 flat mana, and the 5% bonus max mana masteries being replaced with 1.5% missing mana regen/5.

On the one hand, this seems like a buff to supports who needed mana in the mid to late game and didn't get to build any of the major mana items due to role / money.

On the other hand, for champions that went 21/0/9, as lots of mana intensive mages in mid do, it seems like a significant nerf to their early game. 3MP/5 eclipses 75 total mana in slightly over 2 minutes, so you can expect to have less overall mana to work with during the laning phase now.

So I'm really curious to hear what the philosophy behind this change is. Is it just to standardize mana regen into a percent based model? Is it to buff those supports? Does Riot feel that mana intensive mages needed an early game nerf? Will they be compensated?

39 Comments

RiotMeddler5/20/2015, 5:02:08 AM14 votes

Our current focus with the Utility masteries is on making going deep into the tree appropriately rewarding, particularly for caster supports and more utility focused mages. As part of that we're experimenting with making Meditation (the mana regen) significantly more powerful, but putting it later in the tree so it's one of the key distinctions between deep utility and other routes. Expanded Mind (max mana) then goes earlier, as a flat bonus instead of a %, making it particularly targeted at champions that start with a really small mana pool and want an early increase. There's a definite risk that'll leave going 9 points into utility as too unrewarding and we might need to do some work on that too, first thing we want to address is getting 21+ points in utility into a better spot however.

Changes current in testing for anyone unfamiliar with them:

  • Meditation:

    Swapped position with Expanded Mind Now restores 1.5% missing mana every 5 seconds instead of granting 1/2/3 mana regen every 5 seconds

  • Expanded Mind:

    Swapped position with Meditation Now grants 25/50/75 mana instead of 2/3.5/5% maximum mana

  • Inspiration:

    Increased the experience gain every 10 seconds to 10/20, from 5/10

  • Bandit:

    Melee--Now grant 8 gold each time an enemy champion is attacked (5 seconds cooldown), no longer grants bonus gold from kill/assist

  • Intelligence:

    Now reduces the cooldown of Activated items by 20%, from 10%

  • Wanderer:

    Bonus Movement speed changed to a flat 20, from 5% movement speed

FourVsFive5/19/2015, 5:34:54 PM4 votes

Seems like support mana buff, and mana mage nerf.

SlytherinUmbreon5/19/2015, 2:52:45 PM3 votes

Their Balance Philosophy on this subject is "Passive laning is unfun, and strategic diversity means only strategies we think are fun should be allowed."

Celeste Benal5/19/2015, 6:34:22 PM3 votes

Stealth Zed/Kat buff. Go energy or go home.

The Bearded Bard5/20/2015, 5:05:43 AM2 votes

#Ryzebuffs woo! I can now go deeper into the other two trees since I don't have to worry about missing out on 5% mana.

HOW DID I DO THAT?

Was it just bold? I've never tried that.

No, it wasn't just bold. I seriously have no idea how I did that.

mailbox head5/21/2015, 3:39:35 PM1 votes

This change will probably benefit Veigar a great deal due to his passive.

GuardDX5/19/2015, 3:03:12 PM1 votes

Most champions will have 300+ mana with the new +75 mana. If we use a champ with 50% of their max mana, they would regen 2.25 every 5 seconds, which only increases with each level, sounds like this is a mana regen buff to me.

Divinicus1st5/20/2015, 1:21:09 PM1 votes

I think utility based Lissandra Jungle can become viable with those change (with 9/0/21). As well as other mages jungle, because what they lack the most is mana regen on core item (magus enchant). That's good.

Vampirism masteries may just need a little bit more power, 1.5/3/4.5 like the quint runes maybe? :)

Arcane Azmadi5/21/2015, 1:27:41 AM1 votes

Right, because what we needed was MORE reasons not to play mages who aren't manaless.

Erockandroll5/19/2015, 5:50:36 PM1 votes

It's difficult for me to say since I usually play my mages 21/9/0 instead of 21/0/9. I usually prefer the defenses and dueling power early rather than having more mana.

But this will definitely be a buff to supports. More so with poke and utility support rather than tank supports.