@Meddler, why did the view on support Lulu change suddenly?
Two days ago, you said the following about support Lulu:
[...] We feel Lulu's overall both fun and healthy as a support, so would like to try and put her in a slightly better spot power wise there as a result.
And then several hours ago this was the message:
[...] This is a nerf to Lulu overall, done in a way that should have noticeably lower impact for support Lulu/solo Lulu against physical damage dealers.
What changed in the meantime? Did playtests indicate that support Lulu deserved an overall nerf? Was it too difficult to put her in a slightly better spot power wise? This is not the first time that we hear that Riot wants to compensate support Lulu, but ends up nerfing her.
As for the actual changes, how do they make sense from a support perspective?
Changes we're testing below, with the goal of making her a bit more vulnerable in some match ups, while preserving her survivability against AD damage dealers.
- Base stats Base Armor increased :: 19 >>> 23 Base Health reduced :: 553 >>> 518
- Pix, Faerie Companion (Passive) Pix can trigger Tribute (from the Spellthief item line) once per Lulu basic attack (instead of never triggering it at all)
These changes make her more feast or famine in the support role. You either dominate by poking and zoning the enemy with Spellthief, which can be oppressive, or the enemy outpokes and outsustains you. Support Lulu is already weak against magic damage poke (Sona, mages) while being strong against many physical damage based lanes.
For some champions it would be great to accentuate their strengths and expose their weaknesses, but Lulu's core fantasy is adaptability. Her abilities have offensive and defensive use cases and she has to make smart decisions with them. Give Lulu the chance to adapt (for example by buying Ancient Coin as a fall back pattern) instead of losing the game in champion select.
P. S. I only quoted a small part of Meddler's posts for brevity, it was not my intention to take them out of context. You can read the posts here: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/e8tTzj2W-speculation-518-is-the-last-chance-for-balancing-for-worlds-whos-on-the-hitlist?comment=000a001d0000 http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/ZgRPXgct-riot-meddler-some-context-on-lulu?comment=000000050000
