4/10 PBE Update: More Tentative Balance Changes

The PBE has been updated! As we continue the 8.8 PBE cycle, today's patch includes more tentative balance changes for Graves, Irelia, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

Table of Contents

• Miscellaneous
• Balance Changes
• Context & Notes

Galio

• HP per level lowered from 112 to 98

Graves

• Collateral Damage (R) cooldown lowered from 120/100/80 to 110/85/60

Context & Notes

1) Here's Riot Maple with thoughts on Irelia balance, as well as a changelist for today's PBE update:

"Hey folks! 

I'm seeing a lot of conversation around Irelia post hotifx (rightfully so) and wanted to give a little bit of context as to our thinking with why we went so hard, and what our plan is going forward. Brief disclaimer - I'm not the designer of Irelia, I'm the producer on the balance team, so I probably won't be able to provide a super satisfying answer for in depth design questions. 

Why did we ship a hotfix as large as we did, and why did we do it so quickly? 

To answer the first part of that question, within 12 hours of her release Irelia had hit a ~54.5% winrate at high mmr (plat+), and for new champions and VGUs that's usually just the starting point. We refer to this as the "Day 0" winrate, and is usually a really good indicator of general power before we start to get more nuanced data in. Typically within days of new champs and VGUs we'll see champions climb as much as 4%-5% in terms of winrate, which - if that happened - would have landed us in some pretty hot water with Irelia and perception around her power (because she was likely to be styling on folks). A Day 0 winrate greater than 50% is often already a big red flag for us, let alone hitting the mid 50s. Given where she was sitting only 12 hours into her release, we opted to err on the side of go harder on the nerfs, so that we wouldn't find ourselves in a "ship a few nerfs...shit not enough...ship a few more...shit not enough...ship a few more...oh crap too far...etc" over the following patches. We wanted to aim for one definitive swing, see how she performs over the following days, and then give her back power if her natural growth didn't land her in a good spot. 

So what are our plans? 

Nothing concrete yet, but looking at data yesterday it's clear that her lane phase is likely just too soft, yet she still scales incredibly well into the mid/late game, matching or even outperforming some of the other top laners that are considered stable. As a result, it's highly unlikely we can just revert some of the nerfs and call it a day since that would most likely just lead to her being the most dominant champ in mid and late game. What this means is there's probably going to be some power curve adjustments being made (give her more power early, but take out some late), so that she doesn't just fall over like a house of cards in lane phase, but also so she doesn't just take over games single handedly. I don't have concrete details on what any of those changes might look like yet, but the designer of Irelia was looking into possible directions yesterday. 

So....are you going to buff her or what? 

On Monday we're going to see how she's doing after the hotfix looking at power over game length, item build performance and all that jazz, and will make a call on what the path forward is. If she's seen reasonable growth it's likely that buffs will wait until the 8.8 patch, if she hasn't really moved at all we can talk about a hotfix buff. As we know more I'll try to swing back here and let you guys know what's going on if no one else has already. At this point consider nothing is set in stone, but do know that we're looking very closely at her right now and you're not going to be waiting 3 months for us to revisit Irelia. 

Touching back a bit on the "why so fast and why so hard" topic, one of the things we're actively looking to avoid is situations like with Ornn and Zoe from this year, where we take small taps in either direction, leaving mains of their champs in constant flux or fear of us going to far in one way or another. We're committing ourselves to getting new champs/VGUs stable as quickly as we can, so you can learn, play, and enjoy your champ without fear of showing up in the next patch note yet again. 

Please let me know if a context post like this outlining the plan helps relieve some of the anxiety or frustration you're feeling, if it does I may look to do it with other champs in the future so that mains of the champions we work on are at least up to speed with where our heads are at. 

Thanks for your time,
Maple 

MONDAY UPDATE: These changes are likely to hit the PBE tomorrow, but going to drop them here in case they don't.

• Base Armor: 31 >>> 34
• Q: Damage to minions: 60%>>>70%
• E: Bugfix - no longer credits Irelia for several minion kills.
• R:CD 120/105/90 >>> 140/120/100
• Damage (missile): 150/275/400 >>> 150/250/350
• Damage (wall) : 125/200/275 >>> 75/125/175 

There might still be some tweaks made to the current list, but the designer from Live Gameplay, Solcrushed, and the playtester are still mulling things over. There's a small chance that she doesn't get buffed in 8.8 and instead does in 8.9 based on how she's grown over the weekend, but we're still talking about it."

2) Squad5 noted possible buffs for Ivern in 8.9:

"Just to update on the Ivern buffs I was talking about - aiming right now for them in 8.9 (not this coming patch but next). The changes last patch I don't consider a true buff even though they technically buffed him. Still similar goals but trying not to make him crazy."

Check out [THIS PAGE] for a comprehensive list of the new content & changes currently on the PBE as a part of this cycle or catch up with the individual update links below !

• 4/3 PBE Update: Conqueror Varus, New DM Swain & BB Rumble Chroma, New Summoner Icons, Ward skin, and more!
• 4/4 PBE Update: Tentative Balance Changes
• 4/5 PBE Update: Conqueror Varus Splash
• 4/6 PBE Update: MSI 2018 Summoner Icons
• 4/9 PBE Update: MSI 2018 Login and Emotes