As a PBE player, let me tell you in advance what's the frontpage going to look like in the Preseason

#"Riot killed Graves, he is a melee champion now"

Close, but no cigar. Graves is currently a permaban in the PBE draft. His damage is insane, you just have to be in a close range to apply it.

#"Rito please nerf Graves"

I'll give it a week before these threads start popping up and the previous ones disappear.

#"Quinn is useless when behind"

True (without the blind she has practically zero utility), but also:

#"Quinn is a monster when ahead"

Her burst is absolutely ridiculous. I'll probably frequent those threads, she's going to be quite "feast or famine", reliant on snowball.

#"WHY DID YOU BUFF VAYNE'S SILVER BOLTS?!!!"

...yeah, because nerfs to their base damage and BotRK did not happen.

#"Mages are dead now"

Expect threads complaining about:

• removal of mana pots (that will gloss over the buffs to mana regen, Doran's Ring and Forbidden Idol)
• cost increase of mage items (that will ignore the fact that all items cost more now due to increase of global gold influx)
• removal of AP from Sheen (ignoring the fact that Lichbane gained free 10% CDR)
• the feeling of overalll nerf to mages (probably just going blindly for the "offense" masteries on assassins)
• having to choose between lategame power in the Ferocity tree and the early game burst in the Cunning tree

#"Tanks are useless"

Expect threads complaining about:

• Tank junglers being weak (because Hunter's Talisman is just the old machete without any changes to benefit tanks)
• Last Whisper buffs (even though the item was actually heavily nerfed and armor stacking is better than ever)
• Tank item nerfs (again ignoring how all items are more expensive now, and that slot efficiency of some tank items went up)
• Giant Slayer (overlooking the BotRK and LW nerfs)
• Executioner's Calling (...okay, fuck this one in particular)

#"How could the PBE players allow Executioner's Calling to get to Live? Is PBE just for testing skins?"

We spam the PBE boards about it every day. Not our fault.

There are some premises that justify its existence (vastly increased healing in masteries, Grievous Wounds lowered from 50% to 40% reduction, GW don't reduce healing from allies, lifesteal items are stronger), but having it apply to every kind of physical damage without any prerequisition like the one Morellonomicon has seems just silly. Swain, Vladimir and Mundo are going to have a bad time.

#"Yasuo and Tryndamere, WTF?"

More crit in items, the OP Warlord's Bloodlust keystone - I'd expect at least one of these two to become a permaban.

#"It's just the ADC meta, give us our turn"

We say it's "tank meta" when the Cinderhulk junglers are actually viable picks in solo queue. We say it's "assassin meta" when you can pick a midlane or jungle assassin and make an impact on the side lanes. We say it's "juggernaut meta" when toplane is not full of the likes of Lulu, Lissandra and Ryze.

Meanwhile, "ADC meta" means that ADCs will be picked not just in the bot lane, but also mid, top and jungle. The true ADC meta has been dominating for the last four years. I'll say it's over when you're able to play something else than a marksman in the 2v2 lane (that's not a CertainlyT abomination of a rework).

#"Assassins are OP! Nerf pls!"

If you've picked Vayne top, Kindred jungle, Quinn mid, Jinx bot and Ashe support - of course Akali is getting resets. She's still garbage against teams with a brain.

(what's worrying me is that with Corki ADC instead this would be a somewhat viable full AD comp...)

#"New Ranked Looks Awesome"

Boy is that thing shiny. Other than the fact that you have to click "Lock in" (why?) it's pretty great.

#"New Ranked Is No Longer Solo Queue"

I don't mind, I've been playing this game for 5 years now and this looks like a good excuse to stop. I won't get higher than Diamond, and the value of this achievement is probably going to diminish a bit with the addition of multi-man parties. Two things that could save this change are some sort of benefits for flying solo (right now I kinda feel punished for playing solo, as the organized groups have all the bonus IP and stuff) and voice chat (this would heavily improve responsibility, accountability and would maybe actually convince me to group up with some players I like hanging out with).

#"It's been X months since Mordekaiser's rework..."

The Cassiopeia mains have given up and switched to other champions or other games (Stashu has even returned from his exile from the Boards), but Malicious Metal stays unrelenting. Expect those threads on the frontpage, until our most dedicated Morde fan loses faith in Riot and lays down his weapons.

#Bug reports

The usual. I wouldn't expect less than 2-3 champions to be disabled for a while due to gamebreaking bugs that the PBE failed to spot.

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So this is how the next month is going to look like here. Have fun.