5/6 PBE Update: Skin Tweaks, Tentative Balance Changes, & More

Posted on at 2:08 PM by Aznbeat
The PBE has been updated! As we continue the 9.10 PBE cycle, today's patch includes skin tweaks, shop assets updates, and more tentative balance changes!
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


Skin Tweaks

Tweaks to skins testing this cycle are now on the PBE:

Battle Academia Lux Prestige Edition (gold colors changed slightly)
[Old]

Battle Academia Katarina (pinks added to Q and R - Context)
[Old]
[Old]

Miscellaneous 

  • Store images for some of the Battle Academia chroma updated:
Battle Professor Graves
       
Battle Academia Jayce

 Battle Principal Yuumi

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
Master Yi
[Master Yi has other changes in testing on the PBE!]
  • Highlander (R)
    • duration reverted from 9 to 7
    • duration extension reverted from 5 to 7
    • movement speed reverted from [40/50/60% bonus] to [25/35/45% multiplicative] 

Malphite
[Context/Changelist - Malphite has other changes in testing on the PBE!]
  • Seismic Shard (Q)
    • AP reverted from 40% to 60%
    • Cast time increased from 0.25 seconds to 0.4 seconds
  • Thunderclap (W)
    • [Returned] Malphite gains 3x his bonus armor while his shield holds
    • Initial hit AP ratio lowered from 40% to 30%
    • Initial hit armor ratio lowered from 20% to 15%
  • VFX Updates:

Xin Zhao
  • Three Talon Strike (Q) 
    • AD increased from 40% to 50%
    • cooldown lowered from 9/8/7/6/5 to 7/6.5/6/5.5/5

Items
Essence Reaver
  • AD increased from 65 to 70

Runic Echoes
  • Total cost lowered from 2625 to 2500
    • Combine cost lowered from 375 to 250

Runes
Conqueror (Precision Keystone)
  • full stack damage converted to healing & true damage lowered from 10% to 8%

Context & Notes

1) Here's Riot Lutzburg with an update on Malphite changes testing this cycle:
"Hey gang! Thanks again for all the kind words, support and insightful conversations based around these changes. As we always try to mention, the PBE is often used for experimental stuff that we want the community's feedback on. You all made a few things VERY clear today and I'm super appreciative and receptive to your concerns. 
As a result, I'm happy to share a new iteration of Malphite, which should be hitting PBE around Monday midday (PST). Sadly it can't be sooner, as we don't push things to PBE over the weekend. 
Revisions:
  • Q- AP scaling reverted to .6 from .4
  • Q- fixed a typo regarding the cast time (was written as .5, is actually .4)
  • Q- adjusted the animation considerably to look/feel less clunky
  • W- 3x Armor multiplier when Granite Shield is active has been REINSTATED
  • W- the bonus damage on the initial Thunderclap hit has had its ratios reduced to compensate (.3 AP from .4) and (.15 Armor from .2)
  • VFX updates on Passive shield regeneration, Q missile/trench, W up-time/impact, E and R (BASE SKIN ONLY FOR NOW)
Context: 
Q- Believe it or not, these changes were specifically designed not to nerf AP burst mage builds. We felt like the combination of extra Q range and bonus AP scaling on W would be perceived as a win here. Since that wasn't the case, I'm reverting the AP scaling on Q but nerfing the new W's ratio to compensate. 
And while I personally do think that Q spam is a little unhealthy, those who came before me were smart enough to gate it behind a high mana cost. I still think this is an elegant solution because the ability is most oppressive in the early game, and its gating mechanism slowly evaporates as Malphite levels up and purchases a mana item. Hopefully this will satiate all the cheese wheelers out there without frustrating your opponents too much. :) 
W- We underestimated how attached players would be to the 3x Armor multiplier. As a designer, it felt a little tacked on, and granted power in fairly obscure ways. However, there's no denying that preserving Malphite's niche as THE anti-AD tank is important to all of you. It's clearly a resonate fantasy and one I'm happy to bring back. 
Clear-Ups 
A few common questions/concerns have come up, so let's address them here!
  • Malphite's abilities won't gain range based on his size- sorry! I wanted to do this, but it was OP OP
  • The initial AA reset from Thunderclap triggers an Aftershock. This means it deals three instances of damage simultaneously; the AA, Thunderclap bonus damage, and Aftershock AoE damage. The result is a pretty meaty burst of damage!
  • The new speed differential between Malphite and his target are significantly buffed. Assuming you Q a target with 400 MS on LIVE, the delta between you would be ~225. In this iteration, that delta explodes to 350+ once you get some boots. The combination of a longer range Q, easier target accessibility, and improved burst damage from W should allow Malphite to participate in skirmishes and team fights without always relying on his R.
  • Scope for this project was super limited, and for good reason. I'm still new, I'm learning the tools, and bandwidth from art/tech was already accounted for in our project pipeline. Maybe Malphite will get a full VGU in the future, and maybe I'll be the one to do it, but that's currently not in our slate. ...Get it? Slate? Cuz he's a-- nevermind. 
Next Steps:
  • Next week I'd like to add a check to Q that uses your target's move speed if the amount you'd steal from them would make you faster than the base values. This preserves my goal of making Q consistently good, while retaining the playmaking potential of stealing from a particularly fast foe
  • We'll also be monitoring Malphite's overall damage output/power. I'm happy to reinstate the things you guys said were important to you, but that likely means that Malphite is now overtuned. Please keep in mind that we'll likely have to trim power from somewhere. 
Keep the discussion going! I'll be active here and on Twitter over the weekend. 
-Lutz"
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 !

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