5/19 PBE Update: Missions testing and Balance Changes

[UPDATE: Missions are now on the PBE for testing!]

The PBE has been updated! As we continue the 7.11 PBE cycle, tonight's update includes the new missions system up for testing and a slew of various tentative balance changes.
Continue reading for more information!

Table of Contents

• Missions now available for testing
• Balance Changes
• Context & Notes

Missions now available for testing 

Kindred
[Reminder: Kindred currently has a big set of changes testing on the PBE! Below is relative to those but not a complete list.]

• Attack growth increased from 1.7 to 2.26 (*!)
• Dance of Arrows (Q) Bonus attack speed duration increased from 4 seconds to 4/4.5/5/5.5/6

Lucian
[context]

• Piercing Light (Q) mana cost increased from 50/55/60/65/70 to 60/70/80/90/100 (*!)

Malzahar
[Changelist]

• [changes don't seem to actually be in-game but full list can be found here or below.] (*!)

Yasuo
[Context]

• Sweeping Blade (E) - [previous nerf reverted - returning to 0.5/0.4/0.3/0.2/0.1 cd] (*!)

Guardian Angel

• Previous changes reverted - back to live functionality.  Changes may return in future cycle. (*!)

Eye of the Oasis -[pic]

• Total Cost lowered from 1925 to 1900

Talisman of Ascension -[pic]

• Total Cost lowered from 2425 to 2400

Nomad's Medallion -[pic]

• Total Cost lowered from 875 to 850
• Combine cost lowered from 375 to 350

Context & Notes

the wipst there is, there wipst there will be, and the wipst there ever was.

1) Ricklessabandon tweeted a changelist for Malzahar's PBE changes:

"okay, the next pbe update (should be tomorrow) will have the full set of malzahar changes that will ship in the 7.11 patch"

2) Meddler with Quick Gameplay Thoughts for 5/19:

"Morning all, 

Smaller bits and pieces today. We should be in a spot where we can start talking about some of our plans for the rest of the year soon, for now we're still in mid-season followup time though. 

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 put 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 

Zac 

Looks like we definitely overbuffed Zac in 7.10. We're looking at the best way to tone his power down at present, and figuring out just how out of line he is or isn't. Possible that happens in a hotfix, more likely 7.11 changes though unless we get a clear read on what exactly the biggest issue is and it looks urgent enough to not wait.  

Guardian Angel 

We've been testing a nerf to GA on the PBE, exploring a approach where it's less effective on champions doing really well already (higher CD, CD reduced if you're dying repeatedly, thereby bringing the total number of 'deaths' it procs on somewhat closer for winning/losing teams). That's shown some promise, we're going to hold off on shipping it or other changes for now though. It's not clear enough GA's a problem, rather than just really popular but overrated. Planning to reassess for the next patch. 

Icon Updates 

Should be a few more of these coming soon. Up next, Amumu and then, if memory serves Ahri. 

Yasuo 

Mid-season was kind to Yasuo, leaving him noticeably stronger. We're taking some power out in 7.11 as a result, reducing the duration he can hold his Q buff after hitting a target (both the initial buildup buff and the knockup buff). Some of that's reducing the duration Yasuo can threaten with the Q3. It's also intended to make Yasuo more dependent on allied knockups, making him a more or less attractive pick based off team comps. That's likely a direction we'll continue to investigate in future as well. 

Le Blanc 

We got back to looking at LB this patch. LB definitely needs work, she's been a problem since her update in pre-season. The changes we've been testing aren't hitting the mark at present however. We'll be looking at possible directions again next week. Apologies for ongoing lack of details on this one. 

15 minute unanimous surrender 

The early surrender option went out a few days ago in 7.10. We're seeing a bit of early friction around it in some games, based off the earlier test we ran in Oceania for a couple of months that's not unexpected. What we saw there was, after a settling down period, surrender rates before and after the introduction of the earlier option were unchanged. Effectively some games that would have been surrenders at 20 became surrenders at 15 instead. Other things we were measuring (afk rates, number of reports per game etc) didn't meaningfully change. We expect we'll see a similar trend in other regions, going to be keeping an eye on that though. If that's not the case would certainly be worth discussing adjustments (is this a feature that's a good fit for some regions but not others? Is 15 mins the correct time? Etc)."

On Lucian, Meddler responded:

"We'll be nerfing Lucian a bit. We think it's appropriate that BotRK is a strong item on some ADCs and that was one of its original intended goals that the recent changes to it were meant to reinforce. 

We'll probably be increasing Lucian's Q mana cost, reduce his power across the game a bit that way, especially for non ER builds (when ER's in a decent spot Lucian should want to consider it). Might also reduce his ult range slightly, further reinforce the shorter range marksmen identity (less sure on that bit for now though)."

3) Ricklessabandon on changes missing from PBE / the mismatch in builds:

[1] "just looked into it, and it looks like the game client content didn't pull changes from most of yesterday ; _ ;"

[2] "will get resolved whenever we deploy next (which will likely be monday). so, i get to be sad about it for a while, haha."