Red Post Collection: More Update on Rengar, Morello on Poppy and Pantheon, Baron Debuff Changes on PBE

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Continue reading for another update on Rengar's future changes and Morello talking about briefly touching on Poppy and Pantheon!

More on Rengar Updates

Wav3Break popped in with another update on the Rengar situation, sharing more on the "Q-train" style of spaming Savagery and more ideas on Bonetooth Necklace:

"Hey everyone, I just wanted to update you guys with my findings in implementing and initial testing the iteration with the Q train/Empowered Savagery generating/refunding 3 ferocity points on hit.  

There is still some mixed internal feedback with how the overall play pattern feels but I think it is generally trending towards a positive direction. As you guys can probably discern, since Empowered Savagery is giving you so much ferocity as a means for you to start up another combo chain of Empowered Savagery(s) or accessing your other empowered abilities, the natural damage of Rengar's Empowered Savagery has gone down by quite a bit. In return, the sheer amount of Empowered Savagery casts you can throw out within a limited amount of time has sky rocketed. #KnifeCatBaby.  

In order to supplement this play style, I've added a mechanic such that multiple Empowered Savagery casts on the same target will mark the target as "Rengar's Chosen Prey" and amp the damage of consecutive Empowered Savagery casts on them. Currently this debuff caps at 2 stacks and it will give Rengar a more fighter based play pattern because in drawn out fights the Rengar player will have to manage this debuff as well as make on the fly decision making of whether or not he should break out of his combo to access his Empowered Battle Roar or Empowered Bola Strike.  

Despite this change supplementing a more Fighter-ish Rengar, he is still able to dish out a lot of damage on enemy squishies in a very short time period, preserving his assassin feel. What I am hoping this change does (and I'll be able to confidently say if it does with more testing) is that Rengar can still be opportunistic and try to assassinate enemy squishies, but instead of all his damage being dished out in a 1-2 second window, it will happen in a 3-4 second window where the initial burst is around 70-80% of what his kill combo looks like and his second wave of burst comes a tad bit after. 

Additionally, due to this triple ferocity gain on Empowered Savagery, I had to tune some of his other numbers around with Battle Roar and Bola Strike. These numbers are still very subject to change but I want to let you guys know that they will definitely change to reflect this system. Regarding my questions on Bola Strike last post: it feels like it will still remain a targeted ability for now. 

I'll be doing more work on polishing the rest of his changes over the weekend and will hopefully be able to give you guys a confident answer with Scarizard as to whether or not triple Ferocity gaining on Empowered Savagery tested well sometime next week! 

P.S. An update on Bone Tooth Necklace - I've been reading a lot of the suggestions and they have all been very inspiring. I just want to reiterate the direction we are going with this item: it is an item that Rengar should not feel pressured to buy in every game, but rather an item that gives Rengar players who want to consciously play the "mega-hunter-jungle-knife-cat" play style a means of being even more "mega-hunter-jungle-knife-cat." That being said, some ideas surrounding Bone Tooth Necklace giving team utility on empowered abilities or team utility in general sound interesting since your team helps you stack it anyways. Now instead of being a solo hunter your team can also be part of the hunting pack :D? 

Anyways, awesome ideas guys, keep them coming! Remember things are still subject to change."

Morello on Poppy and Pantheon
As for what to do with Poppy, Morello had a few things to share:

"I'd like an entire rework, though with the scope, I'd like to wait until the art pipeline catches it. It's my prediction that, gameplay wise, Poppy is next "new Eve" after Heimer.

We won't remove the wall slam. Too cool to scrap."

When asked if keeping the wall slam also meant fixing it ( as it is nortiously buggy ), he noted:

"We could fix a lot about the wall thing if we recoded the skill (in a relaunch, we need to anyhow) since we have better tech today."

I'm afraid the news isn't so good for keeping her current ultimate, Diplomatic Immunity, though.

"That skill is first on the chopping block. I'd RATHER make it Kayle ult - at least it'd be understandable."

Morello also mentioned Pantheon could use some love, saying:

"Agreed Panth needs work, though likely after worlds. I might do a thread when we're ready to get some work done here and get thoughts."

Xypherous on Baron's Debuff
Over on the PBE, Baron's attack damage reduction debuff has been changed to lowering all physical and magical damage!

Here's Xypherous with the details:

"Very perceptive. You're correct that. Baron no longer shreds attack damage but instead lowers the physical / magical damage that the target deals to Baron by 50%. This is a recent change. 

The purpose of the Attack Damage was to encourage rotation based play and tank based play but the game has changed and now we have powerful sustained magic damage dealers that can both tank and deal damage.. so... it made sense to update to all damage types rather than just shredding Attack Damage.

There's a little bit of a gameplay difference with regards to what happens when you get ambushed at Baron - but Baron doesn't necessarily need to be more swingy when you get ambushed."