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5.5 is looking to be a great patch, but...

not a starburst·2/28/2015, 10:52:33 PM·3 votes·3,006 views

That doesn't make 5.4 better. At all. The Zilean, Jarvan, and Janna changes were good and pretty well thought out. Syndra and Xerath changes were nice too. Removing Revive was kind of sad, but I get that it had to be done. The bugfixes, were, as always, gratefully accepted. The patch should have ended there.

The rest of the patch, despite

  • PBE feedback saying the reworks were not what the playerbase wanted or what balance needed

  • Raw numbers clearly dictating that it made three of the reworked champions far worse

  • Huge community backlash

  • The fact none of the champions had good win rates/pick rates

  • The fact that these changes contributed to mobility creep (except Kass, but wow were they not needed)

  • Did I mention serious community backlash?

was shoved through anyway.

  • Mordekaiser was turned into Magneto or something. Vroom vroom? I have no idea where that came from. I won't say it was a terrible idea, but it just does absolutely nothing for Mordekaiser. I don't play Mordekaiser myself, but a lot of people who do play him say the rework doesn't solve most of his problems and gives him too many weaknesses, and given what I know about Mordekaiser myself, I'm very inclined to agree.

  • Veigar. I have no idea what to even say. This was on par with Cassiopeia. Abysmal execution. As a guy who like Veigar, this hit pretty close to home. You made his E absolutely worthless. Anyone with a brain can avoid it unless they're living on the East Coast, they're brain-dead, or they've just gotten CC'd by the Sion Train. 1/10. Would not rework again.

  • You said you wouldn't touch Kassadin's signature ult. So you practically gutted it, and, thanks to the other nerfs, by extension, Kassadin as well. Without his ult, Kassadin is worthless. If you're going to throw him into the Poppy Corner, just tell us that you're reworking him later.

Nothing serious was done about:

  • Kalista, who is still the queen of trolls, got the most laughable nerf ever. Guess you must have nerfed the nerf, eh?

  • Katarina. I mean, the changes were decently thought out, but they don't really address the fact that you can fall asleep and still get a penta as Kat if you're fed enough.

  • Warriors enchant. Oh no! 5 AD. This was really unimpressive. It's like there's a wolf in the corner, and then you poked it with a stick. It's nice that you agree that Warriors junglers are a problem. But this is not the solution by a long shot, and we do not need yet another jungle nerf.

  • Zz'rot is still useless. It's just not a good item for anyone to pick. The idea is ingenious and clever but the execution is lacking. I get that this wasn't meant to be a long term solution, but the state of Zz'rot makes me sad. I hope you have something planned. :c

If you're not going to deal with the problem seriously, I suggest waiting until you have a more comprehensive solution and then having the patch. I understand you're reluctant to go full ham mode on changes sometimes, but there's a fine line between careful small changes and not-actually-a-real-change changes that rarely affect the item.

I want our feedback on the PBE, boards, and especially from live play to matter. But 5.4 didn't give me any confidence that's the case.

2 Comments

Vll5tQL3xS3/6/2015, 1:30:43 AM1 votes

You know I had almost no issues with this new patch. I thought the rework on Zilean and Mordekaiser were very well done. Veigar on the other hand I feel needs a lot more work. Veigar is extremely squishy and vulnerable in lane. As a mid laner that stun was his engage and his disengage. Putting the delay on the stun makes him much easier to gank and also much easier to avoid his damage. If Veigar doesn't land his stun than the W damage will most likely be avoided. If he is being ganked the placement on his stun has to be perfect because if they flash or dodge it before the stun procs veigar is probably dead because of how squishy he is. I think they need to make the stun less obvious to dodge. Instead of showing the ring exactly where it will proc maybe putting the warning in the center so its not as easy to side step. Also his W needs to fall faster now or be reworked because it's almost useless now. And finally if veigar is going to be more vulnerable in lane than he needs to have a higher base HP stat. More in line with midlaners who are designed to take trades rather than avoid damage all together. Thanks for reading

SmokingPuffin3/6/2015, 1:50:01 AM1 votes

The basic problem with 5.4, and I agree it's a bad patch, is that Riot didn't think about the short term game health. They're doing design work, they're executing to a long-term vision, and they know that these changes eventually need to happen. Eventually, these changes are part of a cohesive, balanced, whole game. The trouble comes in when they ship only the breaking stuff part, and not the putting stuff back together again part.

For example, they know there is a 0% chance they will ever be happy with Veigar E being an instant stun. Instead of keeping things under wraps until they've got a Veigar they can be happy with, they released only the "we know this has to happen" nerfs and none of the "we're not sure which of these ideas is best" buffs.

Basically, this is like going to your dentist and having him drill out all the cavities in your teeth. Next week he'll put in the fillings. Not a recipe for happy customers!