@Riot, I am really starting to question...

Jingerbeardman·4/16/2014, 12:28:00 AM·1 votes·368 views

So I have really started questioning the reliability not of Riots decision making but of the Public Beta Environment and those that have PBE accounts. Are these players that are fortunate to receive access even testing what gets put on the PBE? Are they even capable of giving any sort of decent, reliable, and educated feedback? I am beginning to think they are not. While I feel that the new way people get to gain access to the PBE is a much nicer and far more fair system, I am not so sure it is working out the way they had hoped.

I began questioning this, not to scratch at healing wounds, when the Skarner rework hit live. these feelings eventually subsided after I realized that, yes, his rework was in fact viable and that he only needed a little extra love and attention to clean everything up nicely. My concerns returned with this latest patch and the release of Feral Flare to live. This single item now dominates the jungle scene. Any auto-attack/on hit jungle champ are capable of using it and dominating their opponents. I have nearly run the full gambit of champs that benefit from Feral Flare the most, even some that really shouldn't but do, and have cleaned up in nearly every game. I used to main jungle but have recently moved to the top lane because I did not enjoy some of the changes that happened to jungle items at the start of season 4, especially wriggles lantern. When I found out that wriggles was getting a much needed update I started looking forward to trying it out. I was reluctant at first until I started seeing it on my teammates and opponents. Champs that formerly were extremely niche picks began to surface as dominant and superior picks. That is when I decided to take a look at this Feral Flare for myself. At first I was thrilled with it, but quickly after I started trying it on different champs that I wasn't very good with did I notice the problem. This thing is way to fricking powerful.

This brings me back to my original question of if the players that have PBE access are really worthy of that privilege. It is hard to believe that Feral Flare made it to live in its current state. How did it not throw red flags across the board that it was still to strong. Are the players on the PBE even thinking about the balance and health of the game? Or are they just giddy to be granted PBE access to the point where they simply say, that's cool, I like it, it is good the way it is. Hopefully it is not that they realize certain changes are unbalanced and simply not say anything so it gets onto live that way.

I realize that this might seem like the rantings of someone jealous that does not have access to the PBE. Truth is it would be cool to get that chance, I know I can give strong and reliable feedback, but it doesn't bother me that I do not have access either. What bugs me is that it seems like many of the people that have received PBE accounts do not realize that they are expected to give constructive feedback. Instead, it feels/looks like, they just think of it as some elite player community they get to be a part of. It is one thing to help catch bugs and report them, which is an extremely important part of the PBE, but they also want good educated feedback. I really do not see enough of that when I read the threads, posts, and replies on the PBE forums.

9 Comments

Kikirino4/16/2014, 1:06:33 AM1 votes

I got on the PBE but refuse to use it anymore. Almost everyone on there is only there because you get all champions and skins on that account. They couldn't care less about actually Beta Testing and making Riot's patches more of a success. But I am pretty damn sure Riot has they own internal Private Beta Group that helps do what these 'Beta Tester' are supposed to do. At least I hope they do...