Quick Gameplay Thoughts: December 13

Riot Scruffy

NA
Hey all, It’s Riot Scruffy here and with Meddler out, I’m subbing in for some quick gameplay thoughts. With the holidays, this will probably be the last post of 2019, so we hope you all get some rest and stay cozy someplace warm. See you all in January. **Patch 9.24b** The end of year always presents some unique challenges with our patch schedule winding down and us wanting to get in as many tweaks as we can to tune preseason. Patch 9.24 is our last full patch of the year and just went live this week. We are planning to do a follow up “mini patch” next week with more champion and systems balance (but no major features or mechanics changes). **Dragon Souls and Elder** We’ve had enough time and data to do analysis on the impacts of dragon soul and elder dragon buff as end game objective rewards. In general both dragon souls and elder buff are stronger than we think they should be, but some individual buffs are more than others. Our plans for 9.24b are: * Ocean Soul - big nerf * Infernal Soul - moderate nerf * Mountain Soul - moderate nerf * Elder buff - moderate nerf * Cloud Soul - no change **Lethality items follow up** Overall we’re seeing the updated Lethality items as a bit underpowered across the board. Our current approach is that we want to buff Serrated Dirk by 5 AD to make the build path a bit more powerful and create some more early threat. Additionally we also want to buff Edge of Night by that same 5 AD, so that buying it in the right games (mage / CC heavy) has a slightly higher payoff. Aside from that, the individual items are filling a unique set of contexts and roles well, so assassins now have a few more choices around how they want to focus their builds. **Support items follow up** The core concept of only having to buy the support once, and then immediately transitioning into the main item system has landed really well we think. It’s leading to more flexible build options for supports that feel more tailored to the champ you're playing. Another positive effect we’re seeing is a few more viable champs to the support role that would rather not have spent a lot of gold on the old items. We do however have two areas that we want to improve for 10.1. One is differentiating the stat lines more between the aggressive and defensive options. Relic Shield and Steel Shoulderguard will have some of their offensive stats pushed into health regen and Spectral Sickle and Spellthief’s Edge will have some of their health converted to mana regen for a more glass cannon build. Overall we think that by giving these items more defined stat profiles we can give the users a bit more of what they need. The second change we’re making for 10.1 is increasing the tier 3 quest goal so that we can **remove the farming penalty** once you reach tier 3. **Sylas Mechanics Changes** We have some Sylas work coming to PBE for patch 10.1. The core goal here is to shift his mechanics in a way that open up some weaknesses for him in very high level play while making him a viable champ for the majority of players (it’s a buff overall). We’re combining a set of strategies that we think will lead to this outcome: * Less lane control, but significantly stronger late - having a safe, strong lane leads to being a strong option in all possible matchups. To counterbalance we’re buffing his late game across multiple axes (damage, tankiness, cooldowns) * Mid viability over jungle - Juggling multiple roles lead to an additional strength as a flex pick. We think we can get him to a healthier spot for mid lane if we don’t allow him to be a strong flex pick in jungle * Remove tools - E shield. Having a tool for every situation is something that can lead to this problem so we are going to remove the shield on E and give back the power in other places on the kit. * Lowering skill floor on passive and W - We want to soften a few of the optimizations that many players are struggling to access without pulling out the decisions and skills of experienced players entirely. **New Champion Release Pace** The end of this year leading into next year will have a flurry of new champions (Senna, Aphelios, Sett). We are as excited as you about this, but our current goal is not to speed up the pace of new champions and VGUs. The way that we develop focuses on getting it right over hitting perfect deadlines, so sometimes projects can cluster together like these three. Expect things to slow down a bit and 2020 should be fairly similar to 2019 in terms of champion releases. A related note is that Senna -> Aphelios -> Sett I think are a good representation of our overall approach to champion complexity and difficulty going forward. We want to have a wide range of simple, complex, accessible, and difficult offerings for players of all types so we’re aiming to balance that throughout our new champions and VGUs in 2020. -Scruffy https://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/9.24.2/img/champion/Sion.png

Posts are displayed here in chronological (time, oldest first, newest last) order, like a regular web forum.

Crashyy (EUW)
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20InchDarkinDong (EUNE)
Any news on Aatrox? There was a mechanical change promised for him, since the start of Worlds, and its nowhere to be seen. He feels really lackluster to feel rn because of the Waveclear nerfs, that are obviously not reverted. Can you guys at least give a stance on him or something?

KingPulse (EUW)
Hi, what about Fiddlesticks?

Crashyy (EUW)
Hi, can we get more choose-able stats on the runes? I miss the health regen runes. They where 3x better than Second Wind. Like with the old Runes and Masteries I could receive approx +4hp per sec regeneration at lv 1 and stay in lane longer so I can farm up. Now I regenerate nothing compared to before.

Infernape (EUW)
I mean don't you guys think the problem with Sylas is in his itemisation itself? He's a AP fighter without the itemisation to exist, meaning he's forced to have ridiculous amounts of shielding and healing in his kit and be stuck in a limbo where he builds AP and durability and deals peanut damage, or builds flat AP and pen and explodes because he needs to be in the thick of a fight to work.

Small Boobs Ahri (EUW)
Nothing again about for Mage ? He hasn't had anything new in a long time. :(

MarryUs (EUW)
Any plans for Taliyah?

Valentin888 (EUW)
Dear riot team I would like to know if there are any plans on buffing Irelia?A few months ago Reav3 promised it and said on Reddit :,,There is definitely some room for Irelia buffs“.Now the champion is sitting on a below 45% win rate in master + and I would like to know if there is something you want to do in order to adjust one the most famous champions in lol?

Alter (EUNE)
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Kampsycho (NA)
Any Splitpush itemization in the works for 2020 or naw? Bump

WILLOFEMPEROR (EUNE)
hi any plan about azir buff that was mentioned last week?

Zoli Ben (EUNE)
Can {{champion:6}} get some compensete buffs for Conqueror ranged champion nerf? Today I got beat by a Nasus who simply outhealed himself no matter how much life steal and amplifier I had, I was even fed mostly but the fact he outheals me so much is just too bad IMO. {{item:3075}} was useless there. https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/2wjE4Iqs-quick-gameplay-thoughts-september-22 This was promised over 2 years ago and it was not implamented still.

Gonzo Uzumaki (EUW)
Any plans on buffing ezreal? he seems pretty underpower compared to any other adc {{sticker:sg-soraka}}

Zero Skill Tank (EUNE)
Hi Scruffy, I see no note on jungle XP follow-up that Meddler wrote about in his previous post. Could I ask for 2 words about that?

RavenHusky (NA)
How much impact has Lux's VFX update had on her winrate so far, and are there any buffs in the works for her?

World Ender (NA)
Anything to say about Aatrox? He had really low presence in pro since his latest nerfs, is it possible he could get some power back now?

PrettyPinkPutin (EUW)
Surprising to see another post pop up! Now that the patch and conqueror nerfs hit, how are Ezreal and Urgot faring? They were contenders for potential fixes with the conqueror changes as it would hit them primarily since it's their primary keystone instead of a flex choice like Cassio and Ryze, Urgot especially interests me since he feels kinda weird to play for a while since some time where his early especially was impacted leading to a great disparity between low and high mmr.

Dotty LB (NA)
After killing Yuumi's Gameplay and reducing her to an item with heals ill be honest with you, not very hopeful for the Sylas changes.

BenpaiWright (NA)
I don't think sylas has much lane control in the early game, but I am hopeful that he will come back into viability in the solo lanes.

AIQ (NA)
Is the jungle between levels 7-10 going as intended or is there any talk about buffing the EXP during this window? Laners can be up 3 levels and Duos = or higher than a jungler that decides to do some objectives or ganks during this delicate time. Is there any work to be done to the Jungle? Is there any compensation for what is ultimately a nerf to {{champion:102}} already weak passive? Now she can only have 4 Dragons so buffing the 5 to 10 can at least return her to pre-rework numbers with no fear of over powering her. Or were you going to allow her to stack with elders? Multiple champions get low benefit from cloud dragon. (IE. Jayce Nid Udyr etc..) Some get 0 benefit, like Quinn and Shyvana. Is there any compensation for those champions or are they just screwed? For instance a solution for Shyvana could be, +10 fury when reverting to human. Also Akalis Shroud follows into Mordes Shadow Realm... so that's a thing I'm pretty sure is not supposed to be a thing.

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