4/2 PBE Update: Skin Tweaks, TFT Player Damage & Streak Adjustments & More

Table of Contents

• Skin Tweaks
• 10.8 Player Damage and Streak Adjustments coming to PBE!
• Miscellaneous
• Balance Changes
• Context & Notes

Skin Tweaks

10.8 Player Damage and Streak Adjustments coming to PBE!

"Hi friends, 

Wanted to get ahead of the ball here since y'all will be seeing the changes on PBE tomorrow. After monitoring and playing 10.6, we definitely agreed that there were some tunings that were off with these 2 systems changes that we introduced with Galaxies. So let me list out the problems and approach we're taking to hopefully resolve it. 

Problems 

1) Late / end-game compositions are too consistently attainable without enough risk 

Although several of the 5 cost units were indeed too strong in 10.6, both the amount of gold we injected into the game economy combined with the player damage adjustments were strong contributors to the "Rebel" meta we saw in 10.6. Specifically, greedily loss-streaking is paying out too well while not being nearly as risky as it ought to be. 

2) The game flow of TFT has become a bit too predictable 

Because the player damage contribution had been shifted largely into the Base Damage per Stage, it has made it very predictable when the first player will be eliminated and when the final Top 2 fight will generally end. This isn't all bad - we think the general flow and overall game time are in a good spot, but it's definitely not perfect. We want more room for games to sometimes end faster than usual due to a strong hyperroll player taking over the game, and also on the other end of the spectrum 2 late-game titans duking it out for a good amount of rounds before one comes out the victor. 

Changes 

1) We are moving more of the Player Damage back into the Surviving Units of a combat. 

Player Damage

• Base Damage per Stage: 0/3/4/5/10/15/20 >>> 0/1/1/2/5/10/15
• Damage from Surviving Units: 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10... >>> 2/4/6/8/10/11/12/13/14/15... 

This should ideally make it more punishing for players who are purposely loss-streaking / open-forting as they risk being eliminated before 4-7. Loss-streaking should still be a strategy and especially a fallback for players who get unlucky early shop rolls or are struggling to settle on a composition, but players in this scenario should be actively trying to lose by small margins rather than happily full-on open-forting. 

2) Streaks gold values are being reduced 

Streaks

• Old
• 2 wins = +1g
• 3 wins = +2g
• 4+ wins = +3g
• New
• 2-3 wins = +1g
• 4 wins = +2g
• 5+ wins = +3g 

Though we do like that players are now strategizing around streaks much more closely (especially relative to Interest), it has injected a lot into the economy and also leaves players who are ping-ponging between wins and losses a bit too far behind the curve. We're being cautious here because we still want everyone to care about streaks, because they should matter. If there continues to be too much gold in the system, we will likely look to drain either more from here or even other sources of income. 

All of the above numbers are obviously subject to change, especially as we head into the PBE testing phase. Let me know your thoughts on this, and hopefully will see some of you on PBE to play some games on 10.8!"

Miscellaneous 

• Coven Zyra icon tweaked very slightly (around earring/jaw):

Balance Changes

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

TFT

New Unit: Xerath

• Tier 5
• Dark Star, Sorcerer
• Ability: Abyssal Bombardment
• "Xerath transforms, summoning meteors to strike random foes in place of his normal attacks for 6/8/45 seconds. Meteors deal 350/450/2500 magic damage upon impact and if they kill their target, all adjacent enemies take [50% base] magic damage and are stunned for 1.5 seconds."

Context & Notes

Coven Leblanc

"Changelist

• Toning down the red on LeBlanc's model.
• Adding green to LeBlanc's feathers on her model.
• Colorblind concerns with LeBlanc's ulted vs normal spell VFX.

(Many are still in progress, will be implemented by the end of the 10.8 PBE cycle!)"

Coven Zyra 

"Changelist:

• Amped up flowers and smoke on R to make it feel less empty. Her E shares the same child particle, so her E is also getting some flowers! :)
• Added flowers to Zyra's Q.
• Note: We are pretty locked on keeping Zyra's plant models as is, per design requests. We went through several iterations to keep them looking different enough in both shape and color (and to be visible for colorblind players) and after 2-3 tries, received design sign off."

"Changelist and Notes: 

• Adding a more platinum blonde hue to Morgana's hair.
• Evaluating VFX to be added to Q projectile and hit.
• Unfortunately we will not be extending the duration of the ult form due to scope and gameplay concerns.
• Addressed some minor clipping issues.

(Many are still in progress, will be implemented by the end of the 10.8 PBE cycle!)"

• 3/31 PBE Update: Coven Skins, Chromas, Icons, & Much More
• 4/1 PBE Update: Coven Zyra Prestige Edition Splash Art & More