Red Post Collection: QGT: August 30, 9.17 TFT Patch Notes, & More

Today's red post collection includes Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for August 30, TFT patch notes for 9.17, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

• Red Post Collection: QGT: August 23, /Dev: Changes to Eternals, & More
• Star Guardian Splash Art
• Patch 9.17 Notes
• 8/27 PBE Update: Star Guardian Skins, Icons, Emotes & More!
• 8/28 PBE Update: Chromas, Skin Bios, & More
• Elderwood Skins now Available!
• 8/29 PBE Update: TFT Changes, Star Guardian Little Legends, and more!
• 8/30 PBE Update: Tentative Balance Changes

Table of Contents

• Quick Gameplay Thoughts: August 30
• Teamfight Tactics patch 9.17 notes 
• 9.17: Lore Update 
• Miscellaneous
• Reminders

Quick Gameplay Thoughts: August 30

Check out Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for August 30th:

"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 

Clash 

We've now run tests of the new Clash system in Turkey, Latam South and, just this last weekend, NA. They've gone really well overall. In the NA test we did see some significant lag spikes in a few games, digging into it those were caused by some new server hardware that needed to be configured slightly differently than the existing hardware. We've corrected that so, fingers crossed, shouldn't be seeing that issue again. 

Looking to the future we'll have some more details about next tests in other regions in an Ask Riot post next week. Assuming those go well we'll then be looking at a global beta in every region. 

Teemo changes in 9.18 

We've got some Teemo changes coming in 9.18. They're based in part off some of the larger Teemo work we explored earlier in the year. Focus here however is more on useability/clarity and fixing some points of unneeded frustration, rather than attempting to reshape his strengths and weaknesses a bit as well. Details: 

Q

• Blinded enemies now have a light green tint on their screen to make it clearer they're blinded 

W

• Now has a clearer timer for remaining duration of the buff 

R

• Shrooms now check for nearby enemies more frequently. They should feel a bit more responsive in general. Also ensures enemies moving really quickly can't pass through some of their area without triggering them.
• Shrooms no longer detonate on Scuttlecrabs who aren't in combat. Makes keeping shrooms in the river much more practical.
• Shrooms can bounce off other shrooms multiple times, letting you deploy them a bit further away in some circumstances.
• Max ammo's now 3/4/5, increasing late game relevance a bit 

Initial thoughts on 9.17 balance 

Early days, a few initial thoughts though: 

• Panth seems to be performing pretty solidly now post buffs. No plans to add further power to him right now as a result, keeping an eye too to make sure we haven't now made him too strong.
• Ryze currently seems to be doing quite well in solo queue, especially compared to his historical average. Feeling really glad we went with only one of the buffs we were testing during 9.17 development as a result.
• Aurelion Sol and Kayle are both looking a bit weaker statistically. Both have had moderate changes to how they're optimized though and are getting a lot more play than previously. Giving them some time to settle as a result. Wouldn't be at all surprised if they're stronger on 9.17 than before even if it takes a bit more time for that to become really clear. 

TFT AI bugs 

We fixed some TFT AI bugs in 9.17 that should address at least a fair number of cases of units freezing up in the middle of combat. We're still looking into some other possible issues, including around melee unit pathing. If you're still seeing units freeze feedback/details much appreciated, getting those issues addressed is one of our priorities for TFT."

Teamfight Tactics patch 9.17 notes 

Here's Riot Beernana with the 9.17 TFT Patch notes:

"Hey Tacticians, welcome to the Teamfight Tactics patch 9.17 notes. 

This week, Pantheon crashes into the Convergence as the newest champion to join the roster. We also have a series of changes that culminate in giving some consistency to a few traits: Assassins are getting a mini-rework that adds critical strike chance to their kit at the expense of some damage. Rangers have an increased chance to proc their Attack Speed bonus, Shapeshifters should transform faster, and Yordles will dodge more. 

Take this portal if you're looking for League's patch notes! 

Now, let's get into it. 

Blake "Riot Beernana" Edwards

Mid-Patch Updates 

8/29/19 Pantheon Balance Change 

Pantheon 

He's a bit too strong.

• Starting/Total Mana: 100/150 ⇒ 150/200
• Armor: 100 ⇒ 80
• Ability Damage: 15%/30%/45% maximum Health ⇒ 10%/20%/30% maximum Health
• Stun Duration: 4/6/8 ⇒ 2/2/2

Guardian 

Related to our new friend.

• Bonus Armor: 50 ⇒ 35

New Champion 

Pantheon

• Cost: 5 Gold
• Origin: Dragon
• Class: Guardian
• Grand Starfall: Pantheon leaps in the air, crashing down towards the farthest enemy, stunning them for 4/6/8 seconds. Enemies in Pantheon's path take 15%/30%/45% of their Maximum Health as Magic Damage. They then burn for an additional 20% of their Maximum Health as TAria Damage over 10 seconds. Applies Grievous Wounds. Note: the in-game tooltip is lagging behind and will be updated to reflect this in patch 9.18. 

Systems 

• The first carousel now has all 2 cost units.
• Ghost armies now benefit from Trait bonuses. They’re actually spooky now!
• Attack Speed cap has been increased from 2.5 to 5.0. So fast.
• Tooltips have been updated to be more clear, and numbers scale with Ability Power. 

Traits 

Assassin 

Reworked to add a bit more consistency.

• Increased the delay before Assassins jump so they can access the backline more often.
• (3) Trait Bonus: 125% Crit Damage ⇒ 75% Crit Damage & 10% Crit Chance
• (6) Trait Bonus: 350% Crit Damage ⇒ 150% Crit Damage & 25% Crit Chance

Hextech

• Item disable duration: 8 seconds ⇒ 7 seconds

Noble 

Tapping down their power a little bit.

• Armor & Magic Resist: 60 ⇒ 50
• Healing: 35 ⇒ 25

Ranger 

Making Rangers more consistent.

• Double Attack Speed chance: 25%/65% ⇒ 30% /70%

Shapeshifter 

We're making it a little easier for Shapeshifters to transform.

• Nidalee Total Mana: 100 ⇒ 85
• Jayce Armor: 30 ⇒ 35
• Jayce will now transform at max mana, even if there is no one in range to knock away.
• Shyvana Total Mana: 100 ⇒ 85
• Gnar Total Mana: 125 ⇒ 100

Yordle 

Sticking with our consistency theme here.

• Dodge chance: 30%/55% ⇒ 35%/60%

Champions 

Graves

• Adjusted his interaction with Rapidfire Cannon. He maintains the range bonus but it now narrows his bullet spread, like a shotgun choke.

Warwick

• Health: 600 ⇒ 650

Lissandra

• Health: 450 ⇒ 500
• Starting Mana/Total Mana: 50/125 ⇒ 0/85
• Ability Damage: 150/275/400 ⇒ 175/325/475

Lucian

• Relentless Pursuit's second shot now scales with Lucian's attack speed.

Gangplank

• Ability Damage: 200/325/450 ⇒ 150/250/350

Leona

• Stun Duration: 5/8/11 seconds ⇒ 5/7/9 seconds

Healing Changes 

Healing effects were tuned around Grievous Wounds, completely turning them off. Since we're reducing Grievous Wounds' effect, we're also reducing the effectiveness of other healing effects to keep them from becoming too strong. 

• Grievous Wounds Healing Reduction: 100% ⇒ 80%
• The Bloodthirster Healing: 50% of Damage ⇒ 40% of Damage
• Hextech Gunblade Healing: 33% of Damage ⇒ 25% of Damage
• Swain Demonflare Healing: 50/90/130 ⇒ 40/70/100
• Redemption Healing: 1500 ⇒ 1200

Bugfixes 

• Hextech: Fixed a disabled Infinity Edge losing more crit damage than it should
• Hextech: Fixed a disabled Ionic Spark not re-enabling its effect.
• Hextech: Fixed a disabled Zeke Herald not re-enabling its effect.
• Hextech: Fixed disabled Locket of the Iron Solari not re-enabling its effect.
• Improved Shyvana’s ability logic. She now looks for spots to jump to that are far away from her target.
• Fixed Rek’Sai not properly knocking up her target at longer distances.
• Fixed Warwick spawning a new Warwick if he dies mid-leap.
• Fixed Warwick's Ability Damage scaling with his bonus Attack Damage.
• Ahri will no longer cast her ability at an enemy not in range.
• Lucian now correctly triggers launch attack effects (Statikk Shiv, Runaan’s Hurricane) on his first auto after his dash.
• Fixed Luden’s not triggering if the target of the spell died.
• Fixed Vi ult sometimes chain hitting the same enemy.
• Little Legends that get inside the initial shared draft barrier before it comes down are now booted out.

Miscellaneous 

• Updated Dragon and Elder Dragon fireball VFX.
• You can now mute player emotes + pings through the scoreboard.
• Added new visual effects to show off your win streak on scoreboard."

Riot Maple Nectar noted TFT patches would be slowing down:

"Hey folks!  

It's Friday, so wanted to talk briefly about a few changes for TFT ya'll should be aware of.  

1. No Weekly patch next week. We want to start slowing down to let the meta develop, and also feel like there isn't anything too pressing that needs immediate attention. 

2. Sparring glove items are delayed until 9.19 and will NOT be shipping in 9.18. We're really happy with their designs, but want to take more time to resolve some of the gnarly bugs with them. The item drop changes will still be going out in 9.18 

In the meantime, what are the big features ya'll want us to add to TFT? We're working on things like spectate and match history, but what else are you excited to see?"