PSA: PBE isn't for what some think it is for

Firearm2012·2/11/2016, 1:08:57 AM·17 votes·3,585 views

Coming with these recent Xin buffs, it's easy to see that the PBE isn't what some/most think it is for. The PBE is NOT for checking things like balancing problems or anything like that, it is only to check for bugs. I couldn't count how many posts there were about how broken the Xin changes were while it was in PBE, riot doesn't give a flying f*ck about what we think when it comes to balancing on the PBE, all they want to know is how many bugs we find.

25 Comments

Riotmoonstones2/11/2016, 2:07:50 AM13 votes

Hey Advanced Poppy!

The PBE is NOT for checking things like balancing problems or anything like that, it is only to check for bugs.

riot doesn't give a flying f*ck about what we think when it comes to balancing on the PBE, all they want to know is how many bugs we find.

This actually isn't the case. While we do appreciate the bug reports, we do encourage feedback about the content as well, including balance changes, aesthetic changes to content like skins, etc.

Feedback given to us is compiled and discussed among the appropriate team. While you may not see a red post on every bit of feedback, we do read through all of the comments on the posts - especially the ones we create, such as the PBE Bugs & Feedback posts for skins each patch.

Scramrail2/11/2016, 2:11:54 PM3 votes

Conventional knowledge would seemingly indicate that finding and fixing bugs happens in-house by the devs themselves, and the PBE is essentially to test balance before changes ship to live. After 4+ years with LoL, its painfully aware that the PBE has nothing to do with determining balance, so you are seemingly correct.

The thing that really blows my mind about that however, is the fact that they make these changes that potentially completely gut a champion or item, or propel it to the tiers of overpowered-ness. Whats mind blowing about that, is that they don't gate these changes from ranked queues at all, meaning that they can completely ruin games for untold numbers of players in ranked before they can start to perform damage control to fix any issues that might exist from a balance standpoint.

The recent changes are especially perplexing, and im sure im not the only one who is starting to seriously question riots decision making capability from a balance/diversity standpoint with how hard theyre shoving AD champions as a whole down our throats at the moment.

Vistha Kai2/11/2016, 3:05:58 PM2 votes

You are mostly correct, but most often even obvious and many times reported bugs go live untouched.

I mean, the only bugs that are being fixed are the ones that prevent people from loading into the game or completely gamebreaking stuff like Pantheon's ult on 5 second CD.

Arcade Andrew2/11/2016, 6:59:23 PM2 votes

I would hope that's all the PBE is for?

PBE stands for "public beta environment"

And what is a beta generally used to do? FIND AND SQUASH BUGS!

I don't understand why people think a beta means that everything should be what the beta players want before the rest of the playerbase actually gets to try it out?

What about the people who enjoy xin and think he isn't powerful enough and they don't have access to PBE so they can't tell if they like the change or not.

PBE doesn't stand For "public balance environment" it's a beta, a realm where bugs can be found and caught before putting them on live.

Balance changes should and always will happen after something goes live to see how it plays with the entire community

Korillo2/11/2016, 4:45:57 PM1 votes

Add to the PSA: They also care about how a skin looks. Bugs and aesthetics is what the PBE is for.

Balance? No, that is not on their list of concerns for the PBE.

DiebusterFan2/12/2016, 5:21:30 AM1 votes

When they listen too much to PBE players for balance suggestions, we get juggernaut patch Skarner. Everyone on PBE thought he was so weak, so they tweaked his numbers up slightly, and that caused the most OP monstrosity to ever hit live.