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Quick Gameplay Thoughts: March 14 

Meddler's back with another round of quick gameplay thoughts, including Quinn, previously mentioned changes for struggling junglers, and more!

"Hey all, 

Some stuff on our minds today below! 

Quinn 

We're testing some changes to Quinn at the moment. Goal there's about counterplay primarily, not power. Quinn's assassination pattern's pretty non-interactive for how repeatable it is. Given her ult's low CD she's not windowed in the same way other champs with similar kill potential and target access tend to be. We're exploring changes that shift her towards more sustained damage as a result (less AD ratio on R, more attack speed 

Graves 

We'll be looking at Graves in 7.7. Starting belief is that he's too general a pick. First change we'll be testing is removing the MR from True Grit, making him a significantly less attractive pick against Magic Damage heavy teams. Very possible we make other changes in addition, or instead, of that though. 

Changes to struggling junglers 

Looks like those changes will be split across at least a couple of patches. We'll have buffs to Fiddle in 7.6, along with Red Brambleback getting less MR (makes it easier for magic damage dealing junglers to take it). 7.7 will then almost certainly have Amumu stuff in it, with Nunu and J4 likely though not guaranteed. Nid changes previously mentioned are unlikely at least in the short time. Volibear a possibility in 7.7 or later, though nothing proven good yet. 

Unanimous surrender at 15 minutes testing 

We've had the early surrender option available for testing on OCE for a little bit now and are starting to get a decent amount of data to analyze as a result. More details about at thoughts there to follow at some point. So far it does look like one of the main trends is a similar surrender rate (in terms of proportion of games that end in a surrender) but with some of those surrenders now happening earlier. That's a hopeful sign all else being equal (the earlier option isn't causing more people to give up if so, but instead letting people get out of games they'd be leaving as a group anyway a bit earlier). 

Scuttle Crab and Honeyfruit 

Scuttle Crab's been trying to steal Honeyfruit for a few patches now and we figured it was a good time to look at how often that happens. Big question there is, as an easter egg with low gameplay significance, it's cooler if it only happens occasionally, rather than whenever Scuttle gets near fruit on the ground (rare = bit more amusing/special?). We'll likely play around with some different tuning's on the PBE at least for that, feedback on the concept in general now that we've all had some time to play with it much appreciated too."

When asked about thoughts on recent community discussions around Support Nunu/Singed Smite Support, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

What was the conclusion at Riot surrounding the Nunu/Singed Smite Support cases? I may have missed it, or has no definitive stance been reached?

Still working on it, update as soon as we can."

As for additional support oriented changes, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

A few Quick Gameplay posts back, there was a brief discussion about supports. Was it only the underdog xp changes or is there more consideration being done (and if so, what?)? Thank you very much, and have a nice day!

We'll definitely have more changes targeted at supports this year. I'm hoping some of the stuff we're trying for mid-season will work out, can't say for certain yet though."

When asked about the Cassiopeia tail animation that was on PBE but didn't hit live, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

What's going on with Cassiopeia's tail animation? It's a small thing, but it's been on the PBE for a long while and it's making that playerbase feel very forgotten.

It still needs a bit more polish before we ship it live. That's likely to happen in the next couple of weeks I gather. We incorrectly included mention of it in earlier patch notes when it wasn't ready to be shipped.

Meddler also commented that Lissandra changes are planned but not in 7.6:

"Quote:

You guys haven't forgotten about Lissandra right? She's sitting at a 46% winrate in a meta with plenty of assassins. I just want to verify that the changes are still happening, us Lissandra mains feel really neglected currently and would love just some sorta confirmation we're being heard!

Changes still planned, nothing solid enough to PBE yet. Won't be 7.6 as a result."

Meddler noted they are also still looking into Udyr changes:

"Quote:

Wasn't Udyr among one of the struggling Junglers that were meant to be buffed? Is he still on track for those changes?

We're still looking at Udyr changes, when they'll be ready's going to be unclear until we've found something appropriate though."

When asked about plans for Gnar, Meddler noted some small changes are planned for 7.6

"Quote:

Hi Meddler any plans for Gnar, he seems rather weak, even with the tanks that show up on toplane that he is suposed to be good agains

We've got a couple of small Gnar buffs in 7.6. Looks like those might not have been datamined given his passive and base stats are set up in an unusual way. Short version is more HP regen for Mini Gnar, somewhat less for Mega Gnar, which should overall be a laning phase buff, especially when Gnar's behind. Spell queueing mid Crunch should also work properly too now, rather than requiring a cast after landing."

When asked about thoughts on Aatrox following last week's hot fix, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

How's live balance team feeling about aatrox atm? His hot fix buff is noticeable and has saved him from a >40% winrate but I've talked to a number of aatrox players and would be aatrox players and without going into detail there's some real pain points like: 

-passive doesn't do anything building up to becoming hellbent
-hellbent is very difficult to maintain when the enemy disengage from you
-his base AD amplifier is difficult to really capitalize on when his main offensive abilities scale with bonus AD
-His ult maintaining an AP ratio when his E lost it just seems strange 

Where's our demon swordsman rough rider at in you guys mind?

We're still evaluating the impact of the hotfix. Looks like it's had around the desired power impact overall at least. That probably means more Aatrox buffs in 7.7. Not sure on details beyond that or specific problems we'd target yet sorry."

Context on Shen PBE Reverts

When asked about the recently reverted Shen PBE changes, wav3break explained:

"Hey guys, wanted to update you all: 

We are pulling the nerfs to Shen for 7.6. Thank you guys for the feedback. It's apparent that larger scope changes are required to address the pain points you guys have brought up. Future large-scope work on Shen will most likely be in the direction of re-shaping his holistic kit to lessen the discrepancy of performance between live ranked and pro play. 

Things like Shadow Dash width/range are on the table for exploration as well in that world. 

If we need to make buff/nerfs to him before a larger set of changes can ship, we will strive to select changes that will push Shen towards the direction that manifests the strengths and weaknesses we intended for him. When champions require larger scope work to solve, we try to make sure that necessary short term changes provide a better foundation for future work."