Red Post Collection: Soraka Rework Discussion, Gnar PBE changelist, Darius Rework "De-prioritized"

This morning's red post collection includes more discussion on Soraka's rework (and a recap of what we know so far!), Morello noting Darius's rework is currently "De-Prioritized", and Gypsylord with a changelist for Gnar since he's been on the PBE!
Continue reading for more information!



[Continued] Soraka Rework Discussion

[ Be sure to read up on Vesh's earlier Soraka Rework discussion : 1 / 2 / 3 ]

Continuing the trend from the last few days, Vesh was back on the forums today talking more about Soraka's future rework.

When asked how Soraka will be able to "donate health" to allies and still remain healthy herself, he commented:
"Part of the engine will be something Soraka can do to regenerate her own health. It won't be her "heal" spell exactly though... 
Remember when I said Q would allow her to heal more? :)"

In response to this hint, a summoner commented that something like Spirit Visage and Warmogs would be a powerful build. Vesh replied:
"Your heals will be crazy expensive for the (flat) amount they will heal."
He also hinted that Soraka's heal would cost a % of max health, replying to a summoner guessing that Soraka will now "donate" health to her allies to heal them.
"A percent max health cost would be a pretty good way to solve that ;)"

He continued, elaborating that his earlier comment about her having a flat amount of healing.
"Flat as in it doesn't scale with a % of your health or anything like that. % cost for flat gains generally means build AP. 
This doesn't mean health is a useless stat on her because you still need to be somewhat durable, but it will definitely be less efficient than resists and AP.

I'm actually putting GA as a core item for her with this rework because it feels realllly good."
Just to catch us up from all this discussion over the last few days, Vesh has mentioned that:
  • To summarize the goal of the rework: " We really wanted to capture the feeling of a healer who is constantly managing their resources and attention to keep their teammates alive. We want the core button you're pressing in a fight to be a heal, not spamming a pbAoE spell constantly." and "I will say this though, a champion whose core strength is healing allies will probably not be very good by herself, since the majority of her power budget is dedicated to being the best healer in the game."
  • Soraka's Passive is "different and quite cool"
  • Soraka's Q will be changed significantly. Likely changed to some sort of regen ability
  • Magic Resist Shred will no longer be a part of Soraka's kit.
  • Soraka's Heaal will now ( likely ) cost a % of Soraka's Maximum Health to heal her allies. Think of it as Soraka "donating" healing to heal.
  • Her Mana restore is "probably going to remain, but the spell as a whole will have a much longer cooldown".
  • Her Silence  is "getting some more changes that will make it more impactful"
  • Soraka's R will remain mostly the same, heals more for lower health targets and heals less for for high HP targets
  • No ETA.
Remember that this is also all tentative discussion on a future rework! 

Darius Rework De-prioritized


With all the talk of reworks for Fiora, Soraka, Viktor, and more, Morello also noted that the Darius rework is "de-prioritized":
"De-prioritized, but still "a thing we'll do." Might need QoLs while we wait."

Gnar Discussion

With Gnar being, Gypsylord hopped back on the forums to talk about our next champion!

First up, Gypsylord shared the internal changelist for everything he's done to Gnar since he first debuted on the PBE ( which also syncs up perfectly with our day to day PBE changes! )
"Quickly going to drop some of my internal patch notes here about the nerfs we've done to Gnar over the last week so you guys can see where we're heading with him. General thing we're going for with this guy is trying to play up his weaknesses and strengths in each form and make sure the transition moment is unreliable but still achievable over a the course of a fight. 
V3 IS MOST RECENT, V1 CAME OUT SHORTLY AFTER HE ENTERED PBE.
V3 - 8/5 - Changes are focused on slightly toning down some abuse cases (little form training you) and playing up some weaknesses 
Base stats
AS/lvl reduced to .5% from 1% 
P
Mini AS/lvl increased to 5.5% from 5%
Mini Gnar base MS now caps at 350@lvl18 from 360@lvl 18
Mini Gnar range/lvl reduced to 5 (485 @ 18) from 6 (502@18)
Big Gnar HP/5 reduced to 2/lvl from 3/lvl 
W
Wallop base damage reduced to 25/45/65/85/105 (from 25/50/75/100/125) 
E
Fixed a bug where Gnar could cast other spells in the air during Super Crunch 
R
Bonus AD ratio reduced to .2 from .3 
V2 - 8/1 - Have a set of bug fixes worth mentioning as they are likely to impact Gnar's power 
P
Fixed a bug where Gnar would gain free rage whenever he received an AS buff 
Q
Fixed a bug where Gnar would get the CD reduction on his boomerang if he didn't catch it but the end point was near a unit. 
E
AS buff now applies on the 1st attack after jumping instead of the 2nd
Gnar can no longer use summoner spells or items while casting Crunch. 
R
Fixed a bug where Gnar would apply his CDR to the current cooldown of his ultimate whenever he transformed from big to little (made the cooldown scale down insanely with even a small amount of CDR) 
V1 - 7/30 - Gnar's ult's effectiveness is too high and he's in the right form at the right time too frequently 
P
Tired debuff (where he can't gain rage) duration increased to 13 seconds from 10. 
R
Slow reduced to 45% from 60%
CC duration reduced to 1.25/1.5/1.75 from 1.5/1.75/2
Bonus AD ratio reduced to .3 from .5"

Gypsylord also handed out answers to a few common questions / concerns he's been seeing on the PBE forums:
"Hey folks. 
Popping in again to say thanks for all the feedback. I'm crazy busy getting this guy touched up for live so don't have much time to respond but know that I AM READING THIS STUFF. 
Some quick points:
  • The stats on Gnar's passive look crazy but you need to keep in mind that MANY OF HIS BASE STATS ARE THE LOWEST IN THE GAME (or close to it). For example, Gnar has 1600 HP @ 18. A number of our tanky guys get to around 2100 HP. I'm not saying he's perfect, for all I know we may need to tune some passive number down in the future, but it's important to know that a portion of his "free stats" are there purely to compensate for what he's losing in bases due the form change. 
  • To respond to the comments on his rage bar being uncontrollable I'll refer you to something I wrote in the AMA tha I think does a good job of capturing my opinion on the mechanic:
1) We wanted to provide a new gameplay experience. Similar to how Draven mains feel amazing for being AXE CATCHING GODS, we want the people who master Gnar to feel like they're CRAZY RAGE BEASTS who've learned to master their anger and transformations and bend them to their will. Honestly, some players won't like Rage Gene's uncontrollable nature. 
--------You're going to be running Kog'Maw down in Mini form, have him one hit from death, and then transform into Mega Gnar, miss your boulder, and helplessly try to trundle away as he kills you from 700 range. Some of you will come out of that game not wanting to play Gnar again because WTF I SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN A KILL BUT MY TRANSFORM KILLED ME. That's okay.  
---------Hopefully if you stick with him you'll then run into the game where you bounce off the enemy tank into the fight as Mini Gnar, assassinate the ADC, get brought down to 5 HP, TRANSFORM JUST IN TIME, hurl the rest of the enemy team into a wall, and watch in satisfaction as your team collapses on and eliminates them (try /dancing). It's all about those high intensity transform moments and the feeling of trying to wrest control of this epic transition out of the hands of the game. Sometimes it screws you, sometimes it wins you the game. The uncontrollable mechanic is not going to be for everyone, but I feel that it will FEEL GREAT for those who do want to engage with it. 
2) We wanted to finally make a transformation character who felt good in both forms. Historically we've had problems with achieving this as our other transform chars (Elise, Old Nid, Jayce) can transform at will. Because of this we can't give the forms meaningful weaknesses (you can just swap out) and instead have to balance the character around whatever form is their best case. When Old Nid's cougar form was strong human form was a glorified heal and scouting tool and when Old Nid's spear throwing form was strong Cougar form was a 3 second CD dash. She never got to feel great about both forms at the same time and building to the strengths of one made the other suffer immensely. We hope that by not allowing Gnar to swap when he wants to we can truly give both forms meaningful weaknesses that players can exploit in the moment. This means we can also make their strengths REALLY strong. Human form Nidalee isn't a problem in isolation. You jump on her and kill her. It's when she gets to turn into a cat for free and pounce away that she becomes an evil spear monster that can't be dealt with."
Out of space, will post notes in post after this."

When asked if two Gnar's are able to catch each others boomerangs in flight, he noted:
"Quote:

A Gnar would rarely catch their own boomerang in a mirror matchup since it would be so insanely easy for the other Gnar to catch it if it hit them. 
Pretty much this. I wanted to let this happen but your boomerang would always just end up next to the other Gnar. You'd never be able to catch it yourself :(

What CAN happen is two Gnar's fighting over a jungle monster can steal each others' W procs. Example: GnarA puts 2 stacks on dragon, if GnarB hits it he can add a 3rd stack, get the proc's damage, and steal the dragon if this kills it."

Can't get enough Gnar? Check out our PBE coverage for more on our upcoming prehistoric yordle!

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