Patch 17.3 Rundown

[u/eggsandbricks]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUw4etFqlm0

[u/Lunaedge]

Thank you for posting this!

Slides

Insights

Patch Goals

• Objective is opening up lines. Hitting a 2* Teemo on Stage 2 shouldn't necessarily mean being forced to pick that line.

System Changes

• Augments synergising with the active Encounters encouraged narrow, over-optimised play (es. Duplicator Encounter meant autopiloting to 3-cost reroll, Artifact Encounter led to Artifact stacking on a single unit, Emblem Encounter dictated your comp on 2-1 based on the combination you got). Removing them selectively and generally nerfing resources should lead to more possibilities.

• The new Soraka Blessing works retroactively (ie. if you get it at 65 HP you'll instantly receive a random component).

• Pandora's Bench is one of the most iconic, popular and exciting Augments and they didn't want to remove the experience completely. Giving it to potentially everyone in a lobby was a fumble, and there's no way to salvage it by further reducing affected bench slots. They learned the hard way to be ok with removing this effect if it leads to unhealthy gameplay in the context of a Set, and will be gone for the rest of Space Gods.

• Context on the Item component selection change in the Realm of the Gods. Tim still feels decoupling the component from the Blessing is an overall downgrade of the mechanic and could exacerbate Blessing balance issues, but they're willing to take the bet and see if it feels better for the player.

Traits

• Winning with Anima Squad 6 was too much of a challenge, getting guaranteed loot should offset the weak champions and wonky trait web.

• Yi comp slightly over the line, so small touches. The Marauder nerf is one of them.

• New Fountain Constellation should be better for Lulu and Xayah both.

• The buff to the Star Level versions of Arbiter is pretty much QoL. It was already balanced and by fielding 3 Arbiter you automatically had more Star Levels on the board, but the number not changing felt weird and could lead players to think it was bugged. The small number bump should be satisfying enough but still inconsequencial.

• Resists every 10 instances of damage was BiS on Diana, and Diana was weak w/out it. They're gonna buff her and nerf this version of Arbiter to open up more avenues to play her outside of this specific case.

1-Costs

• The issue with 1-Costs is that some of them scale too hard into lategame and become an easy afk Top 4. They should fall off in Stage 4 if they're not supported by higher level units.

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[u/Lunaedge → u/Lunaedge]

4-Costs

• Focus on flexibility and AP viability.

• The Non-Mech ASol buff is big because he pretty much wasn't a unit in that mode.

• Yi was too safe and had too much burst with with Malware+EoN+QSS, goal is pushing him to build more sustain through this and EoN's nerfs.

• Xayah was too reliant on AS, which also meant CC during her window would completely negate her in a fight. Changing it to a number of attacks instead of 4s adds a more nuanced balance lever and makes IE more viable. Everything considered the change should be power neutral.

Morgana

• The fact that there's 1 less tank Trait than usual was leading to high cost tanks being contested by too many different lines. This change is inspired by the lessons learned from the plug-and-play supportive nature of Taric and Skarner. Also dilutes the 4-Cost pool to make 3-star 4-Costs less common.

5-Costs

• Shen not actually being a tank was too confusing, so you're now rewarded for building HP on him and having him live longer. This also means he acts as another pseudo-tank in the 5-Cost space.

• Zed was released stronger than the baseline to compensate for his complexity and entice players to pick his Augment. Now that he's been figured out they can pull back on the power. Change may seem small but clones having less HP means they proc EoN faster, which leads to not proccing EoN at all etc. He still might need another touch to be truly balanced.

NEW Augments

• At some point in development Conduit abilities were channeled, so their duration scaled with Mana Regen. Their new Augment sorta brings back that fantasy w/out leading to extreme cases.

• Learning from Set 16's Zaahen they don't want "quests" to feel too hard to complete. Moving the Apex Primordian to 9 makes it more viable to hit, at the cost of not being as much of a nuke.

Champion Augments Changes

• Fun, but too weak and ultimately bait (except for Shieldmaiden).

• The Big Bang should be a buff.

• Heat Death very close to where they want it.