Friday, May 3, 2019

Red Post Collection: Mid-Patch Updates, Quick Gameplay Thoughts: May 3rd, & More

Today's red post collection includes details on mid-patch updates that went out earlier this week, the return of Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts, Malphite changes testing on the PBE, and more!
Continue reading for more information!


Table of Contents


Mid-Patch 9.9 Updates

A few bugfix and hotfix changes went out this week, check out the list from the 9.9 Patch Notes:
"5/2/2019 Balance Update and Bugfixes 
Aatrox
  • BASE ARMOR 33 ⇒ 38
  • BASE HEALTH GROWTH 80 ⇒ 90
  • PASSIVE DAMAGE AND HEALING 5-10% (based on level) of the target's maximum health ⇒ 5-12% (based on level) of the target's maximum health
  • Q - The Darkin Blade
    • FIRST SWING AD RATIO 55/60/65/70/75% ⇒ 60/65/70/75/80%
Blitzcrank
  • BUGFIX Blitzcrank's R - Static Field's active damage is back to 250/375/500 
Rakan
  • BUGFIX Rakan's E - Battle Dance no longer costs double the mana when using it on an ally Xayah or when recasting
4/30/2019 Bugfix 
Yasuo
  • BUGFIX Fixed a bug where Yasuo's Q - Steel Tempest has no cooldown during its combo with E - Sweeping Blade when he switches his camera perspective"

Quick Gameplay Thoughts: May 3 

Meddler is back after a long break with his quick gameplay thoughts for May 3rd:
"Hi folks, 
Usual Disclaimers 
These posts will often contain talk about future work we're doing, or planning to do, that isn't yet guaranteed to ship. The nature of the work could change or, depending on what we discover, projects mentioned may get delayed or even stopped. If you'd like to see a Tweet whenever a new one of these posts goes up: https://twitter.com/RiotMeddler 
Getting back into posting 
I've been back at work for a little bit now so will be getting these posts going again. For now at least they'll be weekly, might sometimes go back to twice a week though when we've got a lot to cover and time permits. Also looking to have some of the other folks who've been posting some stuff while I've been out continue to do a bit more of that. 
Adjusting Matchmaking's Speed versus Accuracy at high MMR 
We've made some adjustments to high MMR matchmaking this week based off some problems we've been seeing this season with too wide an MMR discrepancy occurring in really high skill games. That will be primarily felt in Masters, Grandmasters and Challenger games, with player MMRs being closer together but queue times up from around 4 minutes to around 9 minutes. Changes that increase queue times are something we're always cautious of, in this case very high MMR player sentiment was pretty consistently in favor of the trade off and the MMR discrepancies were pretty noticeable. 
Likely this change is also felt a bit by high diamond players, who won't find themselves in a Grandmaster+ game as often or have their games joined by a surprise challenger.
We're not making this change in other skill ranges because when we look through matchmaking data we're not seeing the same pretty substantial MMR differences between players. Not to say there aren't ways to improve matchmaking there too, and we're always trying to figure out how to deliver on the best combination of speed of match and quality of match we can, along with other factors like auto fill rate etc too. 
Yuumi post release 
As I'm sure you've seen Yuumi's coming out real soon! Figured it was a good time to share some thoughts on a few things we'll be watching particularly closely post release (in addition to the usual stuff like power level).
  1. We're expecting Yuumi to be quite strong against a number of champs while also having clear weakness against many others (e.g. can dodge a lot of threat via frequent attachment to allies but isn't strong against champs who really need to be peeled off her team). Will be watching to see whether the ratio of strong against/weak against is appropriate and whether the difference in performance between the two cases is too extreme. Those are things we'd track for any champ, but of increased interest for Yuumi given how much her attachment gameplay departs from normal strengths and weaknesses of a champion.
  2. Yuumi's intended to be a pretty accessible champ who nonetheless has quite a bit to master. We'll want to make sure that's the case on both fronts, so will be tracking her learning curve closely.
  3. Where is her kit falling in terms of overall counterplay? Finding the sweet spot where she's sufficiently reliable to feel decent while still having enough potential to be outplayed is going to be very dependent on the tuning of some timings on the kit (e.g. Q missile speed and turn speed, W attach speed, R speed/range). Planning on monitoring some specifics like those a lot early as a result so we can fine tune as needed. 
Rageblade Context 
We've got some changes in testing for Rageblade at the moment that should be part of the next patch. The key change is shifting phantom hit from every second hit to every third hit, with a goal of decreasing just how much Rageblade performs better on champions with very strong on hit effects in their kit, then putting some power in more generally accessible stats.Our belief is that a fairly small subset of champions getting so much more value from Rageblade than others has contributed a lot to challenges keeping it balanced. While we do want items to synergize with some champs more than others it's certainly possible to go too far in that regard and we're pretty confident that's the case with Rageblade at present."

When asked about Wukong and Tahm Kench, Meddler commented:
"Thank you. I'll be passing the Wukong work on to someone else so they can continue it shortly. Initial player labs have shown promise to it, though would like to do some more with a wider group. Also considering putting it on PBE for a cycle and then taking it off again (isn't currently shippable, and might take a while before it got there, but would give good discussion and potentially validation). 
TK - cautiously optimistic so far. Need to see how his solo lane health looks and whether we have managed to increase his power in regular games while lessening pro problems before being too confident though."

He added:
"Update here - going to try and get a rough, but representative set of changes onto PBE pretty soon (hopefully next week or week after). 
To manage expectations, that doesn't necessarily mean we're near ship (could be months still depending on other demands on artists time for example and what reception's like). 
Should help a lot with discussion of direction, feedback etc. Also, there'll be some bugs for the PBE test. Nothing crippling, but some known issues that shouldn't impede testing but will be a bit annoying that would be fixed before anything went live at some point."

Meddler provided an update on the Teemo changes that have been testing on the PBE for the last few cycles:
"Our next step on Teemo is a revised version of the changes we're going to run through player labs, hopefully sometime this month. Based off that we'll then make a call on whether to go ahead with changes or leave him as is. Update to follow at some point once we have a firm plan."

On Zac, Meddler noted:
"Zac changes should, all be according to plan, be in 9.11. Means they'll hit PBE in a week and a half or so."

He continued:
"Core of it is likely:
  • Old ult
  • Additional 1% target HP damage per 100 AP on W
Delay to 9.11 is in large part driven by needing that time to hook up all the old ult sounds."

On Yuumi being targetable during her Attach dash, Meddler commented:
"It's intended that she doesn't become instantly untargetable and immune to stuff as soon as she starts the attach dash yes. We tested versions where she did get to avoid stuff immediately and the power of full untargetability that frequently was enormous, with counterplay correspondingly way too low."

When asked about the champion changes currently testing on the PBE, Meddler replied:
"We're currently expecting to ship Riven, Vayne and Yi changes in 9.10, with Vayne and Yi also impacted by the Rageblade reshaping. Work's showing promise, though would expect what's on PBE at present to be iterated on a bit more in some cases at least."

When asked about Diana, Meddler revealed:
"We'll have some Diana changes on PBE soon, potentially next week . Not expecting we'll ship those in 9.10 or 9.11, but instead that we'll see how they test, what discussion is like etc. Based off that we'll then figure out what adjustments to make and whether to get some form of them into an upcoming patch in the moderate future or not. 
Context post with full changes and rationale to come the day they hit PBE."

Malphite changes coming to PBE 

Here's Riot Lutzburg with details on Malphite changes coming to test on the PBE soon:
"Hi everyone! My name is Lutzburg, and I recently joined Riot as a Champion Designer. We're doing a quality-of-life pass for one of League’s oldest champions, Malphite, for the near future. While we're largely considering these changes as quality-of-life updates, we're also making a few mechanical changes to modernize Malphite’s kit without taking away that rock-solid reliability he’s known for. We'd appreciate feedback on the changes! For more context, we had two high level goals: 
  1. Improve the visceral satisfaction of Malphite’s abilities (i.e. make it more fun to push buttons!) W in particular was unsatisfying to use, as it lacked an immediate impact and its long duration made it hard to appreciate its power
  2. Retain Malphite’s broadly appealing accessibility and reliable team-fighting prowess 
Full Changelist 
Passive - Granite Shield
  • Malphite now glows when his Shield regenerates. This should make it more clear when Malphite has access to his Shield as a combat resource
  • Malphite’s size now scales with his Armor! Become a literal mountain like you always dreamed of 
Q - Seismic Shard
  • Range increased from 625 >>> 700
  • Missile speed increased from 1200 >>> 1400 (and spawns closer to its target on cast)
  • Cast time increased from 0.25 seconds >>> 0.5 seconds
  • AP Scaling reduced from 0.6 >>> 0.4
  • Malphite no longer “steals” his target’s movement speed. Instead Malphite now slows his target by 20/25/30/35/40% and increases his own movement speed by 20/25/30/35/40%
  • Speed duration reduced from 4 seconds >>> 3 seconds
  • Malphite no longer summons his earthen saw blade from behind himself, and instead casts it from his right arm. This also increases how fast the missile reaches its target
  • Targets affected by Q are covered in a molten rock effect for the duration of the slow
  • Other miscellaneous values adjusted. Too many to mention in detail here, but overall this Ability should have more weight to it and ‘feel’ like a rock monster hurling a chunk of Summoner’s Rift at his opponents 
Q saw a ton of micro tweaks that should amount to a more satisfying and useful button press. Malphite should now have an easier time reaching (or fleeing) targets affected by his cheese wheel o’ death. 
W - Thunderclap (formerly Brutal Strikes)
  • On cast, Malphite resets his auto attack and deals 40/55/70/85/100 bonus Physical damage, scaling with 0.2 armor and 0.4 AP
  • In addition, Malphite’s auto attacks create ‘aftershocks’ for the next 6 seconds. These are frontal cleaves (think Titanic Hydra) that deal 10/20/30/40/50 physical damage to all enemies in range of the cone, scaling with 0.1 armor and 0.2 AP
  • REMOVED - Malphite no longer gains 3x his bonus armor while his shield holds
Brutal Strikes wasn’t fun to use, and its power was hard to appreciate. The AA reset creates some room for optimization without requiring too much mind share, and the cleave gives Malphite something to do after unloading his wombo. Conveniently, it also helps Malphite farm under tower in bad lane matchups (which are most of them.) 
To balance out all this new power, we had to remove Malphite’s 3x armor multiplier. While it was fun to see huge armor numbers, this passive component wasn’t practical enough to justify keeping. Since a lot of Malphite’s damage scales with armor, it was also inadvertently increasing his burst potential when building full tank. However, these changes are designed to be burst-NEUTRAL, as Thunderclap’s initial hit will make up for the highly situational damage that was lost. 
R - Unstoppable Force 
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