Matt Leung-Harrison, Lead Designer on Summoner’s Rift, recently tweeted a pretty long list of changes coming with League of Legends patch 12.14. He seems to be primarily aimed at reducing the effectiveness of runes and healing items, while greatly increasing the effect of dragon buffs, especially on soul.
These changes will cause a huge shift in the orientation of the bottom of the map, and dragons will become even more valuable than before; leaving the top lane on an even smaller island than it was before, loveless and unnoticed.
Heal burst nerfs, gore changes, GP nerfs for better weapons, and our usual balance changes (with a focus on the pro meta) are all moving closer to 12.14.
This will be the last set of major imbalance changes in the world and we will stabilize the rest + move everyone to preseason. pic.twitter.com/daWFAhETzh
—Matt Leung-Harrison (@RiotPhroxzon) July 16, 2022
The potential patch will also increase the cooldown of the summoner’s primary spell, teleport. Add to that declining health and you leave the top lane with little identity and even less room to maneuver. Fewer teleportation spells on the map means fewer 5v5 teamfights, and with the split meta a distant memory, it’s hard to tell where the top net leaves off.
Naturally, there were plenty of responses to Matt’s tweet, mostly people expressing concern that Riot is targeting the top 1% of competitors rather than the general player base. This could lead to more champions with built-in support (we’re thinking Darius), and those without heals on their team will fall further behind.
Beora, LCS Analyst for Evil Geniuses, responded to the original tweet: “I don’t agree with this direction for the game, I end up putting top lane in an even worse position where they are essentially useless as a role, the only solution is a retreat. it fixes like the hull breaker”
Matt replied, “As Dragon Reward gets stronger, we also increase the required time that must be spent, which should increase the ability of teams to successfully compete or trade sides and get Herald Dive/Trade -> diving.” .
As the dragon bounty improves, we’ve also increased the time required, which should increase the ability of teams to successfully fight each other or switch sides and do the immersion/herald -> immersion switch. Ready to listen to suggestions for alternative solutions
—Matt Leung-Harrison (@RiotPhroxzon) July 16, 2022
Beora then investigated the math behind this proposed change and found that the time difference to capture a dragon would be 5.8 seconds. It doesn’t take an expert to realize that while a 5-second boost can make all the difference in a professional game, it means nothing to the vast majority of people.
A bit of time calculation: https://t.co/4kZ6dVTHPv
Capture a dragon in 11 minutes: 4570 hp, kill in 14 seconds
(New HP / (Old HP / KTime)) – Ktime = KTime Diff
(3450+380*8) / ((2650+240*8)/14) – 14 = 5.8s
Therefore, this dragon’s rotation time difference is 5.8s.
Changing HP won’t be enough
—Beora (@_Beora) July 16, 2022
On the other hand, perhaps a little less rational of the speech, was the popular YouTuber Khashinshin (pardon the capital letters): “GOD, IF THE KING LOVES TO PLAY IN TOP LANE, NOTHING WILL BE BUT THE SPEED OF KNOWLEDGE EVERY TIME YOUR ROLE REMOVED DOWNWARDS. EVEN MORE”
GOD I LOVE TO FUCK PLAY TOP LANE THERE IS NOTHING BUT SPEED TO KNOW EVERY TIME YOUR ROLE IS GOING BIG DOWN
— Hashinshin (@Hashinshin) July 16, 2022
The patch will be out in a few weeks and the official notes have yet to be confirmed. It will be interesting to see how this affects the pro scene as they are already past some of their summer streak before the World Cup.
Source : PC Gamesn
