On the Recent Draven and LeBlanc PBE changes

Continue reading for some commentary on both the change to Draven's passive and all of the LeBlanc changes.

Draven's new Passive
In the 6/13 PBE patch, Draven received a new passive: "Draven gains his fans' Adoration when he catches a Spinning Axe or kills a minion or monster. Killing enemy champions grants Draven bonus gold based on how much Adoration he has."

Here is Phreak with a bit of commentary on the change:

"Statikk is the real guy to talk about this, but here's what I've gleaned from talking him to about this: 

Draven's laning phase is stupid OP, but his late game is pretty rough. Spinning Axe is really fun and awesome and we always want that to feel good. However, the extra damage he's getting from the bleed is fairly underappreciated and doesn't really scale all that great into the lategame. We looked at the numbers and said two things: 

1. We don't want to touch Spinning Axe.
2. It's hard to find numbers on the bleed that look even remotely good for Draven players while simultaneously having a meaningful impact on his early laning. 

So we want with a fun mini-game where Draven farms up stacks and then has to cash them in by executing someone. We want the overall changes to be a net nerf (he's OP), but not much. There is a lot of power lost by simply ripping the passive out. We want this passive to be meaningful and have impact for Draven. 

For example numbers, Statikk got Adoration up to 100 in just 5 minutes of laning from last hitting and Spinning Axe catches, and he's not even an expert Draven. This number is going to get high."

He continued, noting that things are still up in the air a bit:

"Lot of details are being worked on.

Plan I last heard about was you consumed partial stack on kill, lost all stacks on death. Adds some tension when you build them up, makes you want to go kill someone so you can cash in and go big!"

LeBlanc changes
Roku, who has previously commented on LeBlanc, popped on the forums to give some context on the tentative LeBlanc changes uncovered in the 6/13 PBE patch.

"As a reminder, these are on PBE, subject to change and still tuning. Also, the posted changelist doesn't encompass the full set of changes. A couple not listed: 

- Distortion's cooldown now starts on cast rather than when you return
- Sigil of Silence's mark detonation has its own AP ratio, which was increased to match the damage as well (to .5 from .3) 

Overall, the changes intend to increase Leblanc's versatility (make her less binary, more viable throughout the game rather than just in the first 20 mins), reduce the frustration that Leblanc puts on her opponent, and encourage her to make slippery and opportunistic plays. Distortion should be a core decision point in how you land your other abilities, how much risk you're taking, or how much risk you're averting.

Putting the damage more on the detonation of Sigil of Silence encourages you to use your other abilities (which have more gameplay within them) to gain an advantage, rather than just spamming a targeted spell.

As for the CC nerfs, Leblanc doesn't need long duration CC in order to accomplish her goals. Shortening these reduces some of the frustration opponents experience and potentially allows the opponent to respond after Leblanc's 'turn' is over. This allows us to encourage the damage and mobility aspects of her instead."

He continued:

"The changes I talked about before (making it move rather than just stand still) have tested really well. There are a few of these 'under the hood' changes in testing that won't quite be noticeable until she's on PBE and people play with her."