7/18 PBE Update: Continued Akali Testing, Pool Party 2018 Map Accents, & More

[Recent News: Quick Gameplay Thoughts: July 18 / Urf Extravaganza Merch Drop]

The PBE has been updated! As we continue the 8.15 PBE cycle, today's patch includes continued Akali Champion Update testing, a new Pool Party 2018 map accent, balance changes, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

Table of Contents

• Continued Akali Champion Update Testing
• Miscellaneous
• Balance Changes
• Context & Notes

Continued Akali Champion Update Testing

As Akali's champion update continues testing on the PBE, todays update brings us her in-client bio! We previously saw her full bio released on her Universe page as well.

"Abandoning the Kinkou Order and her title of the Fist of Shadow, Akali now strikes alone, ready to be the deadly weapon her people need. Though she holds onto all she learned from her master Shen, she has pledged to defend Ionia from its enemies, one kill at a time. Akali may strike in silence, but her message will be heard loud and clear: fear the assassin with no master."

Akali Gameplay Feedback Mega-Thread by CertainlyT also up on PBE boards:

"gameplay testing. The worst issues (for example, her Q sometimes reverted to rank 1 for the entire game) should be fixed as of now. 

So let's talk about how we intend Akali to function in game. 

-- She remains an assassin -- burst damage and target access are her strengths.
-- In lane, she moves between a calculated, attritional laning phase and a brutal rushdown when her R is available.
- Be aware that her R cooldown is long, so if you don't make those ults count, you'll probably end up behind.
-- Many of her lane matchups are even to challenging pre-6 (a nod to Live Akali), but her skirmishing in 2v2s with the jungler is excellent. Indeed, Akali excels in small group PvP throughout the game.
- We think she is an effective midlaner into most matchups and a situational pick top/bot, depending on lane matchup.
- We have not had success jungling her (at least not building AP) due to her low sustained damage output and are happy with this, as Twilight Shroud requires enemies be able to predict when Akali might dive them.
- As a snowball dependent champ, she is a poor support.
-- As the game progresses, we tend to play her flexibly.
- Against teams without top-tier duelists, she is an excellent split pusher, threatening to kill a lone defender even under the safety of their own tower.
- Where that isn't possible, she can control team fights with Twilight Shroud and capitalize quickly on even brief ally CC to secure kills for her team.
- She's uniquely capable of creating a deep, sustained zone of threat against the enemy backline in group fights, keeping them from rushing past into her own back line.

As a starting point for feedback, I'd love to hear from those who play her today and onward whether you feel these statements are accurate and desirable. Beyond that, I'm happy to answer and questions you have about the gameplay of her update and will be reading your thoughts on it closely over the coming two weeks.

Thanks for your playtesting time. I know it can be time consuming to provide feedback, but it makes a big difference in the quality of the final product. So get out there, play some Akali and let me know how she feels."

Miscellaneous 

• As part of the Pool Party 2018 map accents, a new crab image was has been added in the mid lane!

• Pool Party Gangplank's shop assets slices are in! Colors in order are Obsidian, Amethyst, Ruby, Citrine, Rose Quartz, and Pearl:

• Pool Party Gangplank chroma preview video - six total. 

Irelia
[Passive Context]

• Ionian Fervor (Passive) per stack bonus AD ratio reverted from 16% to 4%

Context & Notes

1) Check out Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for July 18th, including thought on the funneling strat on Twisted Treeline, Syndra, the Rune UI, and more:

"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 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  

Twisted Treeline 

8.14 has nerfs to gold funneling on SR. We kept those nerfs out of TT however for that patch since we didn't want to add it last minute without enough consideration and at least some TT specific bug testing. 8.15's a possibility however, and to help us understand whether we should add the gold funneling penalty would be great to get a bunch of feedback from you folks. 

What would be particularly helpful here: 

• A clear for or against position on the gold funneling penalty on TT
• Some context on how much TT you've played and when (links to match history, boards posts with longer thoughts as potential examples) 

To explain the second point one concern we've got is that when we talk about gold funneling on TT a lot of voices in the discussion seem to be well meaning people who don't actually play TT. Intent there seems to be good, but we're particularly looking for feedback from people with a lot of experience on the map since their experience will change the most with any changes we make. 

Syndra 

We'll be looking at some possible Syndra buffs in 8.15. She was one of the mages we considered in 8.14, but come patch lock we didn't have changes we were happy with. We think she's a bit weak in normal play, not particularly weak in pro, so want to add power in ways that pro is less sensitive to if possible, avoid pushing her back to pick/ban there. Options we're currently considering are increased Q damage at max rank from her passive (trying to avoid adding too much early power) or improved base stats. 

Adding Color to the Rune UI 

As mentioned a little while back we're working on some small stuff with the Runes selection UI to make it a bit smoother. First piece of that's adding color to the rune tree symbols as below to make it a bit easier to navigate between trees really quickly.

More work on stuff like this to come. Let us know if you've got ideas for similar changes that would be helpful and something we might be able to get in pretty quickly."

2) PBE bug & feedback thread is up for the Pool Party Caitlyn, Gangplank, Zoe, Rek'Sai, and Taric and Headhunter Akali chroma sets from the 7/17 PBE update.
3) Meddler confirmed the increase to Irelia's passive scaling  in 7/17 update (from 4% per stack to 16% ) was a bug.

"Yep, just confirmed, just a tooltip bug. Passive ratio isn't changing."

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 !

• 7/17 PBE Update: Akali Update, Pool Party Caitlyn, Gangplank, & Zoe, New Icons, New Chroma, and more!