Friday, January 17, 2020

Red Post Collection: 1/16 Mid-Patch Updates, Quick LoL Thoughts: 1/17, & More

Today's red post collection includes 1/16 Mid-Patch updates, Meddler's quick LoL thoughts, more info on LoL Esports watch missions, and more!
Continue reading for more information!


Table of Contents


1/16 Mid-Patch Updates

A few mid patch updates went out overnight, with some balance changes for ARURF, as well as a Sett bugfix:
1/16/2020 ARURF Balance Changes 
Buffs 
  • APHELIOS Normal ⇒ -5% damage taken
  • MORDEKAISER Normal ⇒ -5% damage taken
  • NIDALEE Normal ⇒ -5% damage taken
  • NUNU AND WILLUMP -5% damage taken ⇒ -10% damage taken
  • PANTHEON Normal ⇒ -5% damage taken
  • POPPY Normal ⇒ -5% damage taken
  • PYKE Normal ⇒ -5% damage taken
  • RYZE -5% damage taken ⇒ -10% damage taken
  • SETT Normal ⇒ -5% damage taken
  • TALIYAH Normal ⇒ -5% damage taken
  • ZILEAN Normal ⇒ -5% damage taken
Nerfs
  • FIZZ -5% damage dealt ⇒ -10% damage dealt
  • IVERN -15% damage taken ⇒ -10% damage taken
  • JAX Normal ⇒ -5% damage dealt
  • MAOKAI Normal ⇒ -5% healing
  • NAMI Normal ⇒ -5% healing
  • ORIANNA Normal ⇒ +5% damage taken
  • SYNDRA -5% damage dealt ⇒ -10% damage dealt
  • VI Normal ⇒ -5% damage dealt
  • VIKTOR Normal ⇒ -5% damage dealt
  • VLADIMIR Normal ⇒ -5% healing
  • YUUMI Normal ⇒ -15% healing 
1/16/2020 Sett Bugfix 
Sett 
  • R - THE SHOW STOPPER Champions targeted by two Sett ultimates at the same time (i.e. from Sett and Sylas), no longer get stuck to the champions that cast it first"

Quick LoL Thoughts: January 17 

Here's Meddler with his quick LoL thoughts for January 17:
"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
Format change for posts this year 
Hope 2020 is treating you folks well so far! As part of this first post of the year I wanted to start by talking about a format change we're doing. From today onwards instead of a weekly post from me we'll instead be doing alternating weeks of posts from myself and RiotScruffy. My day to day at work doesn't involve as much interaction with the SR and Champion teams as it used to when I started these posts. A lot of the topics you folks want more context on are from the work of those teams though. As a result Scruffy's going to cover the work of those teams more than I will, talking about things like state of the current patch on SR, balance plans, how new champions have landed etc. My posts will be taking a broader look at topics across LoL as a whole. with some overlap on SR topics but less focus on things like recent/upcoming balance changes. 
Blue versus Red win rates post preseason 
One of the metrics we keep an eye on when making large changes to LoL is how win rates for the two sides of the map are affected. Different queues (blind pick, flex, solo/duo etc) have different trends, as do different regions. For today I wanted to share some data on Ranked Solo/Duo primarily post preseason. Historically Blue side has had a slight advantage in ranked on SR, preseason changes however have removed most or all of that edge though, depending on which region you look at. Increased importance of dragons is what we believe has driven this change, given Red side has better dragon access than blue. Overall it's a result we're quite happy with for ranked.



Blind pick also shows red side performing stronger post preseason. In that queue however red was already favored.
While it's tempting to assume that's due to draft champ select favoring blue over red Flex queue shows the same trend as blind pick, suggesting other factors are significant as well or instead. We're going to dig into non Solo/Duo win rates by map side a bit more to figure out what's going on there.
 
Continuing with no mid-season this year 
In 2019 we decided not to do a large midseason patch, keeping the game more stable mid ranked season and putting dev time instead into other work like preseason. Looking back at 2019 as a whole and player response to that decision we think that was the correct call so will be doing the same this year. We realize for some players with a preference for more frequent large changes that will be a bit disappointing. Overall consensus from feedback we gathered was very strongly in favor of a more stable mid year period though hence the decision. 
Clarity focus this year 
By contrast something we'll be looking to do differently this year is focusing more on clarity, both in and out of game. Upon reflection it's something we don't feel we've done as well at as we should have recently so we'll be making it more of a priority over the course of the year. Examples of issues we'll be looking to improve include things like clarity of spell visual effects for new champions, ease of understanding how event passes work, ability to follow combat in TFT, removing unnecessary complexity from abilities/items etc. 
That will be a focus across the year as a whole, rather than a single set of changes, so will be a gradual process. Wanted to call it out though since I know it's something on a number of your minds as well and feedback on how we're doing throughout the year would be much appreciated. 
Event Improvements 
Another focus for us right now is improving our event experience, with our hope being that each large event we do this year has some clear improvements in it. Current thinking involves things like:
  • Making sure we've got a temporary game mode for each event as per the recent Gameplay and Ranked Dev Video
  • Improvements to Event passes and missions. Reduction in grind needed and more missions completion flexibility for the recent Night and Dawn event seemed to go really well for example and we think there are some other ways to improve those elements further.
  • Story and theme having a stronger presence throughout event experiences. Still figuring out approach here but want to take a shot at this goal throughout the year. 
TFT Pass 
Finally for anyone wondering which TFT rewards they'll still be able to unlock this Set - there are about 8000 points still to come. If you're chasing that final egg as a result for example it should still doable provided you're at or above the 8000 mark right now."

On Karma changes, Meddler commented:
"Karma changes are intended to be a small buff to her early power specifically (hence rank 1 damage up). We're avoiding ratio buffs at least at present to avoid heavy AP builds late game being as effective as we've seen in the past given the problems that's created."

On Itemization work, Meddler noted:
"Major itemization work, whether AP bruiser items or others, would be a preseason project yeah. It's possible some smaller stuff is appropriate to release during the year but I wouldn't want to promise anything. AP bruisers certainly have to be balanced around the current item system, that's true of all champs as well of course. I expect items that feel more tied to their needs would feel better and improve gameplay in some respects though also require some power be removed from their kits."

Meddler commented on Aphelios' clarity:
"For Aphelios we're working on a few things: 
  • Improved VFX clarity for some spells
  • Better visualization of secondary weapon he has ready for enemies
  • Adjustments to some gameplay edge cases (e.g. multi target ults, mini chakram interactions etc) 
A lot of our clarity focus will be on making sure future content hits the mark, or that systems as a whole are clearer. We will be doing some clean up for cases like Aphelios as well too though."

On Akali, Meddler replied:
"We'd like Akali to be a reasonable pick for the average player. The current shape of her kit though means she skews towards really high MMR and pro play and if balanced for them will be pretty weak elsewhere on average. We're making some functionality changes to make her weaker there, goal being to then put power back in in ways that don't bias her balance towards such a small group of players."

Learn More: LoL Esports Watch Missions 

Here's details on the Watch Missions from LoLEsports:
Watch Missions are back! On January 10 @ 11:00AM PT, the first watch mission in the mission chain became available. These missions are completed by watching any professional live match or VOD from this split on watch.lolesports.com while logged in. When you complete a mission, you’ll immediately receive the next mission. You can track your progress by logging in to watch.lolesports.com/rewards or by checking your mission log in the LoL client. The rewards below are exclusive to these watch missions and can’t be earned anywhere else!  
Mission: 
New Season, New Rivals (1 of 5)
Watch 2 regular season games on watch.lolesports.com/rewards
2 games total 
Reward: Surf n’ Urf Summoner Icon
Mission: 
Familiar Foes (2 of 5)
Watch 4 regular season games on watch.lolesports.com/rewards
6 games total 
Reward: 1000 Blue Essence 
Mission: 
Don’t Stop Watching (3 of 5)
Watch 12 regular season games on watch.lolesports.com/rewards
18 games total 
Reward: NOT AGAIN Emote
Mission: 
I Watched All These Games… (4 of 5)
Watch 12 regular season games on watch.lolesports.com/rewards
30 games total 
Reward: Hextech Chest & Key

Mission: 
…And All I Got Was This Lousy Icon (5 of 5)
Watch 60 regular season games on watch.lolesports.com/rewards
90 games total 
Reward: Blown Awa

from
http://www.surrenderat20.net/2020/01/red-post-collection-116-mid-patch.html
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)