4/10 PBE Update: Xayah and Rakan Bio + Pick/Ban and More Tentative balance changes

Posted on at 1:43 PM by Moobeat
The PBE has been updated! As we continue the 7.8 PBE cycle, today's post includes short form bios + champion select pick/ban quotes for Rakan and Xayah, additional tentative balance changes, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

(Warning: PBE Content is tentative and subject to change - what you see below may not reflect what eventually gets pushed to live servers at the end of the cycle! Manage your expectations accordingly.)

Table of Contents


Rakan and Xayah continued testing - Short Bio & Quotes

Our two new champions Rakan and Xayah continue to test on the PBE! While this new couple tests on the PBE, you can report to the below threads with comments, questions, and concerns of the heart:

Short form lore entires added - expect longer from versions to hit the universe page in future!

Rakan:
As mercurial as he is charming, Rakan is an infamous vastayan troublemaker and the greatest battle-dancer in Lhotlan tribal history. To the humans of the Ionian highlands, his name has long been synonymous with wild festivals, uncontrollable parties, and anarchic music. Few would suspect this energetic, traveling showman is also partner to the rebel Xayah, and is dedicated to her cause. 
“I got freedom. I got a lady. I got a cause I'd die for.”

Xayah:
Deadly and precise, Xayah is a vastayan revolutionary waging a personal war to save her people. She uses her speed, guile, and razor-sharp feather blades to cut down anyone who stands in her way. Xayah fights alongside her partner and lover, Rakan, to protect their dwindling tribe, and restore their race to her vision of its former glory 
“Ever been stabbed by a feather?”

While we already heard Rakan's select quote in an earlier patch, Xayah's champion select and ban quote + Rakan's ban quote are now on the PBE:

Xayah champ select quote:
"I can never resist an invitation to dance."

Xayah Ban Quote:
"Fine, Ill just be over here... sharpening my feathers."

Rakan Ban Quote:
"Seriously? Seriously? Lame."

Midseason AD Itemization Changes

Here's Riot Axes with context & discussionon several of midseason AD itemization changes that hit PBE today:

"Hi folks, 
We’ve got some tuning-level changes to AD itemization coming in Midseason. I wanted to give some context on those changes, since they’ve hit PBE today. 
All changes are currently tentative and there’s a good chance you’ll see further tuning before they go live in the Midseason patch. 
Armor Penetration 
There’s more armor penetration/shred in the system than really ought to exist - 52% armor pen is a pretty common stopping point these days, and many champions add a Black Cleaver and/or some Lethality to that. With so much armor penetration in the system, defensive items have to be tuned to be pretty crazy before they’re worth buying at all. 
We’ll be reducing the overall amount of armor that can be ignored through item purchases, and putting that power into other sources like Critical Strike itemization, the Giant Slayer effect, and big AD purchases. 
Life Steal Items 
Looking to balance out the Life Steal items against each other. Our assessment is that Blade of the Ruined King is a bit more powerful than an item should really be, so we’ll be trimming that a bit. At the same time, we don’t want to just balance it down to be equal with the other Life Steal items, which are likely weaker than they ought to be given the way the game is shifting. We’re looking to land all the items somewhere in the middle ground. 
Look for a small nerf to Blade of the Ruined King and small buffs to Bloodthirster, Death’s Dance, and Ravenous Hydra (which has sadly fallen a bit behind its Titanic cousin :/ ). 
Early Marksman Build Path 
We’re testing buffs to Zeal and Infinity Edge aimed at smoothing out the first two purchases for critical strike users. We’re targeting a reasonable 1-and-a-half item spike into a fairly strong 2 item spike. This will likely just be cost adjustments to Zeal itself and to Infinity Edge, making it easier to get to IE + Zeal as a power spike than before. 
Zeal Upgrade Tuning 
We’re taking this opportunity to tune the four Zeal items – Runaan’s Hurricane, Phantom Dancer, Statikk Shiv, and Rapid Firecannon. The goal here will be both balancing them against each other and making their unique identities more clear and better differentiated.
On live, Runaan’s Hurricane is the best AOE damage option, has the best build path, and is often the best single target sustained damage option of the four thanks to its on hit damage. Look for a new build path more in line with the other items, plus the loss of on-hit damage in favor of a higher AD ratio on the secondary bolts - Hurricane will still be a powerful sustained AOE damage tool. 
We’re currently exploring some changes to Rapid Firecannon and Statikk Shiv to sharpen their identities and to make the combination of the two more compelling – Rapid Firecannon charges Energized effects (itself, Shiv, and Warlord’s Bloodlust) faster but deals less burst damage, increasing its usefulness in long range engagements, while Statikk Shiv deals considerably increased burst damage to champions. 
Phantom Dancer’s already meeting its goals pretty well, so no changes planned (except making it cost the same amount of gold as the other three.) 
Executioner’s Calling 
Current assessment is that Executioner’s is too powerful as a lane counter to certain champions, but the passive is an important release valve against sustain-based champions later in the game. We’re exploring ways of making it more costly to access that power early in the game, either with a direct cost increase or by making it less reliable."

Balance Changes

* Remember *: The PBE is a testing grounds for new, tentative, and sometimes radical or experimental changes. Be aware that what you see below may be lacking context or other changes that didn't make it in or were implemented in an earlier patch this cycle! These are not official notes.

Champions
Amumu
[Context]
  • Cursed Touch (Passive) 
    • Effect lowered from 15% to 8%
    • Effect changed - no longer reduced by resistances.
      • TL;DR: "Amumu passive tuning for 7.8! The 15% true damage was reduced by resistances before, now it isn't. Nerfed down to 8% to keep it fair.."

Lissandra
[context via twitter - 1/2/3/4]
  • Iceborn (Passive)
    • Cooldown changed from 18 at all ranks to 18/15/12/9
    • "Fixed a bug that caused Iceborn's cooldown to not be reduced when Ring of Frost killed a unit"
  • Ice Shard (Q) AP ratio increased from 65% to 70%

Nautilus
[note: Nautilus currently has a E mana cost nerf also on pbe]
  • Mana regen growth lowered from 0.14 per sec to 0.10. 
  • Riptide (E) Damage reverted from 40/70/100/130/160 to  55/85/115/145/175. Back to live value.

Xayah
  • Clean Cuts (Passive)  feather duration lowered from 8 to 6 seconds.

Items
(**An extensive set of tentative midseason durability and item changes are currently testing on the PBE. Many of the below change are relative to that package of changes - which will not ship in 7.8)

(* Several midseason AD itemization changes have also hit the PBE for early testing! These will not 


Adaptive Helm (new) **
  • Total cost lowered from 2800 to 2650g.
  • Magic resist lowered from 70 to 55
  • Unique Passive effect increased from 15% to 20%
  • Unique Passive effect duration lowered from 5 seconds to 3 seconds

Banshee's Veil (experimental) **
  • Magic resist lowered from 60 to 45
  • Ability power increased from 60 to 70
  • Total cost lowered from 2900 to 2700
  • Effect refresh changed from [44-8 seconds based on level] to 40 seconds. 

Cinderhulk **
  • [note: only one of the jungle variations changed to sunfire's new 11 + 1 per level damage but other versions aren't yet - I assume this is just an error for now]

Death's Dance*
  • Attack damage increased from 75 to 80
  • Unique Passive - changed from 15% to 30% of damage taken is dealt as a Bleed over 3 seconds instead. 

Executioner's Calling*
  • Price increased from 800g to 1000g

Infinity Edge*
  • Total cost lowered from 3600 to 3400

Kircheis Shard*
  • Total price increased from 750g to 800g. 
  • Energized strike damage increased from 40 to 50 bonus magic damage.

Last Whisper*
  • Armor Penetration changed from 45% to 35%
Lord Dominik's Regards*
  • Total cost lowered from 2700 to 2600. 
  • Giant Slayer - effect increased from [up to 15%] to [up to  20%]
  • Armor Penetration changed from 45% to 35%
Mortal Reminder*
  • Total cost lowered from 2700g to 2600g. 
  • Armor Penetration changed from 45% to 35%

Phantom Dancer*
  • Total cost increased from 2550g to 2600g

Randuin's Omen**
  • Unique Passive - Cold Steel attack speed reduction increased from 15% to 20%

Rapid Firecannon*
  • Damage on energized attack changed from [50-160] to [50-120]
  • [new effect] Attacks become Energized 25% faster. 
    • "Energized is a single effect, so anything that modifies it modifies it for all sources. So Rapid Firecannon + Statikk Shiv gives you 25% faster energized procs which hit extra hard, can crit, deals bonus damage to minions, can damage structures, have extra range, and chain lightning." -src. 

Ravenous Hydra*
  • Attack damage increased from 75 to 80

Runaan's Hurricane*
  • Build path changed from [Recurve Bow + Zeal + 300g] to  [Dagger + Zeal + Dagger + 800g]
  • Bolt damage increased from 25% attack damage to 40% attack damage.
  • [removed] UNIQUE Passive: Basic attacks deal an additional 15 physical damage on hit.

Statikk Shiv*
  • Total cost unchanged.
    • Recipe cost adjusted due to Zeal/Shard price changes.
  • Energized Attacks damage changed from 50-120 to 60-160
  • Bonus damage to minions lowered from 120% to 65%

Sunfire Cape**
  • AoE damage changed from [7 + 2 per level] to [11 + 1 per level]
  • Bonus damage to minions and monsters increased from 100% to 200%
The Black Cleaver*
  • Unique Passive's armor reduction per stack lowed from 5% to 4%
The Blood Thirster*
  • AD increased from 75 to80.

Zeal*
  • Total cost lowered from 1300 to 1200. 

Context & Notes

Below you'll find context and notes for several recent PBE changes:

1) ricklessabandon on Lissandra PBE changes in today's update:
[1] "okay, quick lissandra update before i leave the office for the weekend!"
[2] "didn't quite get to a new passive i felt was -great- and didn't want to rush it, so going to fall back to a simpler changelist for 7.8"
[3] "not quite a 'perfect is the enemy of good' though it might feel that way -- would rather leave the option available than rush a replacement" 
[4] anyway, on to the part lissandra players care most about, here's what we're currently looking to ship in 7.8 (will tune as needed next week)
2) Wav3break on Amumu changes in today's PBE:
"Hey wanted to provide some detailed context for this change! 
The current live version of Amumu's bonus true damage passive doesn't actually penetrate through resistances. This patch we are making it behave like true damage is expected to, but found that 15% proved to be too powerful. We are tuning it down to 8% as a result."
Additional information here .

On twitter he simplified as:
"Amumu passive tuning for 7.8! The 15% true damage was reduced by resistances before, now it isn't. Nerfed down to 8% to keep it fair."
3) In the event you missed it higher in the post, Riot Axes posted an extensive boards thread discussing the PBE's midseason AD itemization changes,.

4) Rakan and Xayah shared interactions:

Individual special interactions: Rakan and Xayah.

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