2/22 PBE Update: Splash and Skin Tweaks

Posted on at 1:51 PM by Aznbeat
The PBE has been updated! As we continue the 9.5 PBE cycle, today's patch includes tweaks to K/DA Ahri Prestige Edition's splash art, small tweaks to base Kayle and Riot Kayle, balance, 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


Splash Tweaks

To go along with the changes to K/DA Ahri Prestige Edition, her splash art has been updated:

Skin Tweaks

As mentioned by Riot August, Kayle's base texture was tweaked to give more of an appearance of armor:
[Old]

Riot Kayle's post level 11 colors have also been tweaked, and the recall VFX has been updated:
[Old]

[Old]

Finally, as noted by Riot Stellari, K/DA Ahri Prestige Edition has been tweaked, changing her orb to gold and adding more small details:
[Old]

Teemo changes temporarily on PBE for early feedback 

Here's Riot Jag with a look at tentative Teemo changes testing on the PBE:
"Hey mains, Riot Jag here with a set of experimental changes for League’s cutest demon. The stuff I’ll talk about here will be on PBE for early feedback, but it’ll disappear for a couple of months after that while we work on updated VFX to go with the gameplay changes. In the meantime, we’d absolutely love for you all to scout ahead how it all feels on PBE. 
To start, here are our goals:
Give Teemo players MORE TEEMO (more poisoning, more sneaking!)
Resolve some play-against issues (mostly around Blind and Mushrooms)
Make him a bit better at high MMR and less of a monster in low MMR 
Let’s start with the fun stuff. The Tl;DR:
Toxic Shot moved to Passive, and now has synergy with other poison
Guerrilla Warfare is now Camouflage instead of Invisibility, and moved to E slot
Blind is way more fun (and clear!)
More mushrooms! 
Poison synergy!
Toxic Shot is now Teemo’s passive. It will scale with Teemo’s level, and additionally will deal more damage whenever there are other Poison effects on the target. To support this, Blinding Dart now also counts as a Poison effect (in addition to his Mushrooms, which always have). You can even run Support Teemo with Cassiopeia or Twitch to really double down on the big Toxic Shot damage bonuses! 
Stealth while moving!
Since Guerrilla Warfare is now Teemo’s E, he can enter stealth while moving, and can even move out of brush while stealthed for a limited period of time! Caveat: this is now Camouflage, instead of Invisibility (refer to our Patch 6.22 Notes). Would love everyone’s feedback on this one, but do me a favor and play it first! 
Sweet new Blind trolling!
Blinded opponent’s basic attack missiles will fly by harmlessly (they won’t hit Teemo's allies next to him either), landing in the dirt, and melee champions will foolishly swing at air! Pictures are better than words though: 
Ranged opponent 
Melee opponent 
More mushrooms!
Mushrooms actually gain health with ability rank, making them less trivial to clear when the enemy support is paying attention to you! Additionally, we’re thinking of ways to buff the amount of mushrooms you have late game - in this iteration, Teemo actually can hold up to 3/4/5 shrooms at once. 
Now, let’s talk about what Teemo is giving up. If the buffs above are changes that Teemo players would welcome, then the hard part is figuring out what we’d be willing to give up. Here’s the first take. 
Camouflage instead of invisibility
Now that Teemo can move during stealth (even out of brush), it was pretty unfair for him to fully disappear without any opponent response. 
Blinding Dart damage down
This version of Teemo has much better access to priority targets with his ability to move while stealthed. Consequently, his burst shouldn't come out quite as quickly. 
Mushroom damage down
Teemo taking off more than half of a squishy champ's health from across the map with a shroom has been something we’ve been uncomfortable with for a long time, but it was his primary late game contribution so we left it alone. Given the rest of the buffs, this is worth addressing now, so we’re reducing the damage some. The upside - Teemo can actually do more damage if he’s near an enemy that trips over a mushroom, since it will amp his Toxic Shot now. 
Guerrilla Warfare AS scales with E rank instead of level
Now that his stealth is on the E ability, it just made sense that he got AS as a level-up here. Consequently, he won’t get AS for free when leveling up (you can get it by putting points into E though). 
Finally, regarding High MMR/organized play. We believe that between the much higher agency Teemo's new E offers him and the fact that mushrooms are harder for organized opponents to kill, he’ll probably be just better in organized play. We’re not trying to go too hard here, but these are just light bumps to make sure he can stay competitive with the rest of the cast. 
So, that’s most of it. I’ll put all the specific lines below, but please hit me up with any and all feedback. Thanks! 
Base Stats
-Base Mana Regen 1.92 >>> 2.5
-Mana Regen per level 0.09 >>> 0.15
-Mana/lvl up 20 >>> 25 
P
-Teemo’s basic attacks now deal 10-50 bonus magic damage and leave a Poison DoT that deals 24-192 magic damage over 4 seconds.
-Toxic Shot damage (both the on-hit and the DoT) is amped by 50% whenever there are other Poison debuffs on the target 
Q
-Base damage down 80/125/170/215/260 >>> 80/115/150/185/220
-AP Ratio down 0.8 -> 0.6
-Now is a Poison Debuff 
W
-No longer breaks stealth 
E
-New Active: After a 1 second delay, Teemo enters Camouflage for 3-5 seconds. Teemo is slowed by 25/22.5/20/17.5/15% during this effect, and gains 20/30/40/50/60% Attack Speed for 3 seconds when it ends. Camouflage does not tick down while Teemo is in a brush or is standing still. 
R
-Base Damage down 200/325/450 >>> 150/250/350
-AP ratio down 0.5 >>> 0.4
-Mushrooms health up from 6 at all ranks to 6/8/10
-Mushroom max ammo count up from 3 at all ranks to 3/4/5"

Balance Changes

* NOTE*: The PBE is a testing grounds for new, tentative, & experimental changes. Be aware that what you see below may be relative to other changes earlier this cycle! These are not official notes.

Champions
Akali
[Changelist - these changes are versus LIVE values!]
  • Assassin's Mark (Passive)
    • MS gained away from enemies toward outer ring extended to be half the duration of the ring itself (2 seconds)
    • MS toward enemies after crossing the ring extended to be half the duration of the passive buff itself. (2 seconds) 
  • Twilight Shroud (W)
    • Akali is now only revealed by towers if she is within the attack range of the tower, rather than the turret's sight range.
    • Akali now only needs to exit and re-enter the shroud once to extend the shroud's duration by 3 seconds. (Rather than up to 6 times.)
  • Shuriken Flip (E)
    • E1 damage increased from 60/90/120/150/180 to 70/105/140/175/210 
  • Perfect Execution (R)
    • Cooldown lowered from 120/100/80 to 100/90/80 

Kayle
[Changelist - Kayle's champion update is testing on the PBE!]

  • AD increased from 50 to 52
  • Divine Ascent (Passive)
    • Exalted Duration increased from 3 to 5 
    • Exalted buff is now refreshed when attacking towers (like Ashe Q) 
  • Celestial Blessing (W)
    • Cast range increased from 700 to 900 
    • Mana Cost lowered from 80/85/90/95/100 to 70/75/80/85/90
    • When used to target an ally that is out of range, will attempt to walk up and cast on them (instead of just autocasting) 
  • Divine Judgment (R) Cast range lowered from 1100 to 900 


Skarner
[Changelist]
  • Spires no longer appear on minimap (enemies can't tell when you capture them)
  • Spire Radius increased from 1150 to 1600
  • Red-side spire moved (now in range of Krugs and Raptors)

Sylas
[Sylas has other changes in testing on the PBE!]
  • Chain Lash (Q) First hit damage AP ratio reverted from 70% to 60%
  • Kingslayer (W)
    • damage reverted from 60/100/40/180/220 to 60/90/120/150/180
    • damage AP ratio increased from 55% to 65%

Teemo
[Changelist / Context - Early exploration, expect these to test for a short time!]
  • Base Mana Regen increased from 1.92 to 2.5
  • Mana Regen per level increased from 0.09 to 0.15
  • Mana/lvl up increased from 20 to 25
  • Toxic Shot (Passive)
    • Teemo’s basic attacks now deal 10-50 bonus magic damage and leave a Poison DoT that deals 24-192 magic damage over 4 seconds.
    • Toxic Shot damage (both the on-hit and the DoT) is amped by 50% whenever there are other Poison debuffs on the target
  • Blinding Dart (Q)
    • Base damage lowered from 80/125/170/215/260 to 80/115/150/185/220
    • AP Ratio lowered from 0.8 to 0.6
    • Now is a Poison Debuff
  • Move Quick (W)
    • No longer breaks stealth
  • Guerilla Warfare (E)
    • [New Active] After a 1 second delay, Teemo enters Camouflage for 3-5 seconds. Teemo is slowed by 25/22.5/20/17.5/15% during this effect, and gains 20/30/40/50/60% Attack Speed for 3 seconds when it ends. Camouflage does not tick down while Teemo is in a brush or is standing still.
  • Noxious Trap (R)
    • Base Damage lowered from 200/325/450 to 150/250/350
    • AP ratio lowered from 0.5 to 0.4
    • Mushrooms health increased from from [6 at all ranks] to [6/8/10]
    • Mushroom max ammo count up from [3 at all ranks] to [3/4/5]

Runes
Cut Down (P4)
  • Damage increased from [4% to 10%] to [5% to 12%]

Context & Notes

1) Squad5 provided a changelist for potential Akali changes this cycle:
"Putting in some Akali buffs for 9.5 (gonna be helping out on the balance team for a little while). Context is I'm looking for power increases that also feel like QoL improvements to make her mechanics more accessible for everyone. Hopefully she has to work less hard for results."
2) Riot Jag provided a changelist for Skarner this cycle:
"SR team let me work on some little QoL buffs for Skarner in 9.5
-Spires no longer appear on minimap (enemies can't tell when you capture them)
-Spire Radius 1150 >>> 1600
-Red-side spire moved (now in range of Krugs and Raptors)"
3) Riot August provided a changelist for Kayle changes in today's update:
"Shipping Kayle adjustments to PBE tomorrow.
Passive duration means it should be much easier to keep passive stacked in lane + early fights.
Adjusting W + R to match ranges players are used to from live.
W costs less and should feel easier to cast on allies out of range"

4) Here's Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for February 22nd:
"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 
9.5 a simpler patch 
9.5 is likely to be a fairly straightforward, and probably comparatively small patch. It'll have a range of champion balance changes in it, current expectation is it won't have any larger changes to game systems though (things like the crit item changes recently for example). We've got work on bounty system improvements underway, those will likely be in 9.6 though. 
Some early observations on 9.4 
Note, these are being written just hours after the patch went out, so possible a few things have become clearer in the day or so since.
  • Azir and Rek'Sai - both have comparatively small play rates, so it's harder to get a quick read on how they're doing post changes. Looking like both got noteworthy power increases, too early to say much beyond that though.
  • Kai'Sa - Is performing noticeably better post patch even though the only change for her was an update to her recommended items. Good reminder for us when we're assessing balance that a character's potential performance and how they're on average being played can be pretty different. Important to account for what effective playstyles/builds can yield and/or help players intuitively identify such builds as a result.
  • Urgot - Lost a meaningful amount of power as expected. We're still planning on letting him settle for a patch. Likely result after that is we put some power back into him in 9.6 in different places than where it was taken out. Depends on how he performs between now and then though of course.
  • Conqueror - Again, hard to assess off just part of a day of play on the new patch. Some of its users are almost certainly performing quite a bit better with it than before (e.g. Riven, Olaf and Irelia). Early indications suggest others are potentially neutral or a bit worse (e.g. Trynd, Darius and Yi). We're expecting we'll have a much clearer read on its power later today and should then be able to make calls on what sort of follow up is or isn't needed. Most likely target if it's too strong is reducing the amount of Adaptive Force each stack gives, though it would of course depend on in what ways its users were out of line. Not clear yet if any AP champs are effective, or even overpowered, users of it, given not enough people have tried it out yet on champs who weren't good users of the old version. Similarly not yet clear whether there are marksmen for whom it's a great choice, though expect we'll get a clear read on that too soon."

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 !

No comments

Post a Comment