12/12 PBE Update: More Tentative Balance Changes

The PBE has been updated! As we continue the 9.1 PBE cycle, today's patch includes more tentative balance changes!
Continue reading for more information!

Table of Contents

• Balance Changes
• Context & Notes

Akali

• Twilight Shroud (W) base duration increased from 4/4.5/5/5.5/6 to 5/5.5/6/6.5/7

Alistar

• Trample (E)
• total damage lowered from 100/125/150/175/200 to 80/110/140/170/200
• Basic attack damage at 5 Trample stacks lowered from [40 + 15 per level] to [20 + 15 per level]

Aurelion Sol
[Changelist]

• Starsurge (Q) minimum re-cast time lowered from .65s to .25s

Cassiopeia

• Noxious Blast (Q)
• Mana cost increased from 50/55/60/65/70 to 50/60/70/80/90
• total damage lowered from 75/125/175/225/275 to 75/120/165/210/255

Ezreal
[Changes intended for Nexus Blitz per Riot August]

• Mana regen increased from 1.6184 to 2.4
• Base AD increased from 60 to 63
• AD per level increased from 2.5 to 3
• Attack speed per level increased from 1.5 to 2.5

Kassadin

• Base HP regen lowered from 1.6 to 1.2

Neeko

• Blooming Burst (Q) 
• base damage lowered from 80/125/170/215/260 to 70/115/160/205/250
• secondary damage lowered from 40/60/80/100/120 to 35/55/75/95/115

Ornn

Pyke

• Death From Below (R) execute threshold damage lowered from [250 - 605] to [250-550]
• Full values [starting from level 6]: 250/290/330/370/400/430/450/470/490/510/530/540/550

Tristana

• Explosive Charge (E) 
• minimum damage increased from 60/70/80/90/100 to 70/80/90/100/110
• minimum bonus AD increased from 50/65/80/95/110% to 50/70/90/110/130%

Varus

• Blighted Quiver (W)
• Active min damage increased from [(6/7/8/9/10% at 1/4/7/10/13) of target's missing health] to [(6/8/10/12/14/16% at 1/4/7/10/13/16) of target's missing health]
• Active max damage increased from [(9/10.5/12/13.5/15% at 1/4/7/10/13) of target's missing health] to [(9/12/15/18/21/24% at 1/4/7/10/13/16) of target's missing health]

• Chain of Corruption (R) damage increased from 100/175/250 to 150/200/250

Context & Notes

1) Riot Scruffy noted some Akali changes that should be testing on the PBE this cycle:

"Testing some changes to akali shroud to give opponents more options to retaliate against her: 

-Slightly longer time delay before she stealths 

-Spells partially through their cast time will complete instead of cancel 

-Akali shows a "shimmer" of herself briefly after stealthing"

2) Riot MapleNectar noted a change for Aurelion Sol, slated for Patch 9.1:

"Heads up Starforgers. This is the buff we're planning for your dragon, but we had to push it from 8.24b."

3) Riot August noted the Ezreal changes in today's PBE update were for Nexus Blitz:

"Those Ezreal buffs are intended for Nexus Blitz. Gotcha! 

TFW you change the wrong file OwO"

4) Here's Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for December 12th, including details on patch 8.24B, champion mastery curves after reworks, 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 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 

Mastery curves for recent updates 

Last time we looked at some mastery curves we were too close to the release of various updates to compare how the champions performed pre and post update. It's been a while since then though, so wanted to take a look at how Akali, Aatrox and Nunu compare before and after. 

Post explaining Mastery curves for anyone who missed it:
https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/1czrgEgw-quick-gameplay-thoughts-february-21 

And another with some additional curves in it:
https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/635MVdLk-quick-gameplay-thoughts-august-24 

Aatrox, Akali and Nunu pre update

Aatrox, Akali and Nunu/Willump post update

Aatrox - Ends up with more climb in the later parts of his curve, suggesting players are getting more benefit from their ongoing learnings with him between games 30 and 50. Trend suggests there's likely ongoing performance gain beyond 50 games, whereas old Aatrox had mainly flattened off by that point. Mechanical mastery seems a likely cause. 

Akali - Very similar curve overall. 

Nunu and Willump - Had a steeper curve than you might expect pre update, I'd imagine given how his approach to jungling/counterjungling was actually pretty distinct, even if not mechanically demanding. Curve is steeper now, likely reflecting both the kits previous skill tests and some new execution ones introduced with the update (E and W use). 

For anyone wondering, no, we don't have enough data to look at Neeko yet. Will get that into a post sometime next year though! 

Working on some ranked irregularities before season starts 

We've been seeing a few issues with where some accounts are placed in the new ranked system. More details on that and how we're addressing it to come soon. TLDR for now though is:

• We want to put genuinely new accounts into Iron because it's a better experience both for those new players and others who previously got matched with them in what ended up being really uneven games
• Smurfs are currently getting put into Iron but then not climbing really rapidly as intended, so their MMR and rank get desynched pretty badly at times
• Returning players should be placed based on their MMR, but are currently getting put into Iron sometimes.
• We're working on a bunch of fixes for the above, plus some other polish, at present. 

What's likely in 8.24b 

Patch 8.24b, our final balance changes of the year, will be out next week. Run down below of what's likely in it. Anything not listed that you're seeing on the PBE is almost certainly a 9.1 change or later. Given this patch will be live for longer than usual and our ability to respond to balance issues is extremely limited during the holiday period we're being careful not to swing too hard on any particular thing, hence a larger number of small to moderate sized changes. 

Buffs:

• Aurelion Sol
• Caitlyn
• Corki
• Singed
• Varus
• Vayne
• Volibear
• Warwick
• Outer Turret MR/Armor post 14 min (40 instead of 0)
• Forbidden Idol based item buffs (details TBD at time of writing)  

Nerfs:

• Akali (possible changes move to 9.1, targeting 8.24b for now though)
• Alistar
• Cassiopeia
• Kassadin
• Pyke (focused on mid Pyke)
• Tiamat
• Zeke's 

Likely 9.1 buffs

• Ashe
• Jinx
• Kalista
• Nasus
• Sejuani
• Xayah

Some other future work:

• We'll be working on crit items early next year, not sure on exact patch though yet.
• For Irelia we'll be looking at mechanics changes as follow up to recent balance adjustments, probably in 9.2.
• We're still discussing Trist and whether to do something for her in 8.24b, something in 9.1/9.2 or if we should wait crit item changes, given she's probably the champ who rises or falls the most based off changes to crit.
• Buffs to some enchanters are likely at some point early next year. Would like to get a bit of peel back into the game, though don't want to swing too hard and over correct either, so probably will separate champ changes from Forbidden Idol item buffs."

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 !

• 12/4 PBE Update: New Blood Moon Skins, Chroma, Icons, Ward & much more! 
• 12/5 PBE Update: Snowdown 2018 Login Theme
• 12/6 PBE Update: Summoner Icon & Tentative Balance Changes
• 12/7 PBE Update: New Emotes, Loot Assets, & Tentative Balance Changes
• 12/10 PBE Update: Skin Bio & Tentative Balance Changes
• 12/11 PBE Update: Tentative Balance Changes