Wow. Diamond solo que. Get out of here.
Diamond what?
Alright. Diamond III. We can't all be casters buddy.
-Some of us gotta do real work. -Hey, but I mean Phreak is around Diamond III so...
Yeah, I know. Okay, alright, alright, alright.
So, I mean, the headline change, right, is the Juggernaut updates.
Like, we have four: we have Garen, Skarner, Darius, Mordekaiser
We don't have to go super deep into each of them, right?
But we do have you here, James
to tell us exactly why you were doing it, so
I guess, I don't know, start us off. What's going on?
Yeah, I mean, honestly we
we really wanted to take a look at characters
who we feel haven't found their home
in League of Legends in a long time
and we kind of like, dubbed them the Juggernauts.
Right. And the Juggernauts we think are guys that are like
really slow moving, really tanky
do crazy damage if you get near them
or if they get near you somehow.
And so, we were looking at a bunch of them
and we basically found some
pretty cool things that we could add to them
to make them much more unique and attractive to a team.
Kiwi, so tell me. How do you feel about these guys
because we were all in a playtest yesterday
things got a little out of hand
but give me your preview and how you feel
like the Juggernauts might impact the game.
Well, it was pretty interesting playing with
like, four big ol' meatballs.
They're just like, you know, kind of crashing into their team
and I played support and I had, you know
like all the four Juggernauts scattered across, like all the lanes
and I was like, what's a big... most effective way to like
get this to work and, of course, like I think Righteous Glory
anything that speeds up the team, I was playing support Blitz
and, you know, any hook was kind of almost devastating
because you never really want to be drawn
into like, a big pack of like, burly dudes and
Yeah. There's a...
I feel like we should change their names from Juggernauts to
Yeah, the burly dudes.
No, or burly dudes, but I think meatballs was
Yeah, oh yeah the meatballs. Yeah, this is the meatball update.
Yeah, so... I think of the problems we ran into before
with these guys was, they honestly didn't do
a whole lot of damage, because their damage would just
scale off, like they would just have to start building like
tank items just to survive in a fight, because they're not
going to get to a target very fast, so they have to like
wade through all this AOE damage
or whatever else is coming in, and so
they would just end up doing like, no damage
and so a lot of our focus in this update was like
"Hey, get these guys to deal damage late game." Honestly.
Like, Garen's spin, like I don't even know
but it seems a little crazy, but we definitely want his E
his spin, to just like be really devastating
even in the later parts of the game, which is something
I don't think has ever really happened in the game
unless you build like six Infinity Edges, but that's like
that's not a real build is it?
Is Jungle Garen... is that going to be the new meta?
No. Well... He was fun but, I mean I had a blast playing him
but he is still very mindless, very kiteable
like that's the big weakness of Juggernauts right?
They're kiteable, but if they reach you
they are going to destroy you
but when they get tools to reach you
then you have a really fun game.
- Right. - I definitely want to talk a little bit more
on a specific person: Mordekaiser
because this guy just has a mechanic that nobody else has had.
The experience splitting and now we've added more to him
so Mordekaiser is very scary right now, at least for my...
what I see happening in competitive.
Mordekaiser is very scary.
-If you take nothing else away from this discussion -I think he's...
He's extremely scary. His wave clear is really good
he can do all these things in lane that haven't been done before.
- He can steal a dragon. - Right, he enslaves the Dragon.
And used it to tank Baron right afterwards.
He's just, he's incredibly scary, but not just for like
competitive. What the normal player sees in that role
is usually a ranged archer, so this is a paradigm shift
for just a single champion at the moment
where people are going to be like, "Alright
if there's a Mordekaiser in my game
I have to play differently as a support
and you played around it as well. Yeah.
So... You use the word scary, but I use the word exciting.
I think the possibilities are open, I mean
we call him dual lane Morde honestly
that's the thing we more prefer to call him
because he's obviously not going to be a marksmen - He's not an AD carry
He's not going to shoot at you from...
Though, if you want to build Bloodthirster on him
follow your dreams, you know. We're not going to judge you. - Yeah, that's just, that's pretty much
how attached we are to that idea of AD carry bot lane, right?
AD carry bot lane. Marksmen bot lane.
Nobody even used marksmen as the term.
Right. Well, it's funny, I mean it's funny if someone
would say, "Oh, I'm a top laner." "I'm a mid laner."
"I'm an AD carry." Right? You're like, "What?"
Yes. That's kind of limiting, right? Yeah.
But yeah, I mean it's really something
that we haven't seen before and I kind of want to know
how it felt like playing with it, because it's definitely
a different thing and whether or not you have these
like giant Juggernaut comps or not, it seems like
there are going to be a lot of options
to where you put your AD carry
especially because we see like, Varus and Ezreal like
being played in mid lane currently, Kog'Maw as well
like, you have a lot of tower pushing potential as well
Yeah. Well it was really fun playing with him
and actually reminded me of when I first started and
you know, like you would have duo lanes top.
- That's right. With Garen. - Back in the day.
It was so fun, it was just... I remember just like
there was no meta, because you know
I was just level 10, play Annie anywhere or
you know? Like, play Alistar anywhere.
I just had a blast.
Skarner, I did not respect the crystal zones at first
I'm not going to lie. I was like, "Oh, this seems like a gimmick.
I'm just not going to capture these things."
And Skarner wrecked my face off
- Yeah. - With, I think it's like 150 percent attack speed
or like something bananas.
We went really hard on making sure that
Skarner's was extremely powerful in these zones.
The idea being, you know... and they are placed
in places that are hopefully relevant, like Dragon,
Baron, the buffs. Yeah a lot of neutral objectives
are around where he is. Right, and so hopefully like...
Honestly like, when people realize how strong they are
Level 1 gets all crazy, because everyone's like rushing
to these points and it kind of feels like
old school when we didn't know what we were doing at level 1
you know? It's pretty wild. It's pretty fun and
hopefully that, you know, gives everybody
a great feeling when Skarner's in the game
like, "Oh God. This guy has a big presence in the game."
Like, you can't just ignore him. He's not someone
that you can just be like, "Oh he's just another
generic melee guy running at me."
I can tell where he was though.
When he was in our jungle and capping them
I'm like, "That one's changing."
-It gives a lot of vision information -Let's go. -Yeah.
Both team. Both teams get a lot of vision information.
I actually don't know how it will play out, it seems really...
Yeah, it seems really like, interesting and really cool
because there's so many mind games that you can play
like, yesterday I was even thinking about...
Oh the Baron, the next level Baron bait.
Yeah, like, there's a Skarner point they had captured
and Skarner was on the other team
so I was like, "Hey, just don't capture this point.
Let's just do Baron, you know?"
There's stuff like that, seems so interesting.
Oh, but that's so risky, because if
he comes he's going to crush you. - Because if he comes... if he comes, we team fight
So, you know, it's kind of a gamble.
- It's the dumbest smart idea. - It's also... exactly.
I know Skarner players are probably a little nervous
about the fact that these crystals now hold so much of his power
and, you know, hopefully the recent changes we made
he can actually proc the crystal effect
outside of the crystals now. Yeah.
Not all the time, but you know, in certain situations
hopefully that helps him, you know, still have a place
outside of them, especially if he's falling behind
or if his team's not helping him capture all the crystals.
I do want us to get through the item changes
because we do have a lot of those that are happening.
Specifically we have three new items that have been added.
We've kind of been calling them the Juggernaut items
because we wanted to ship them together, which is
Titanic Hydra, Sterak's Gage and Dead Man's Plate
which is actually on live already, but we just kind of
put it on there and didn't really tell anyone about it.
-We're like, "There it is. Shhh." - Yeah, it came on at like 1 am.
and I saw someone buy it in my game.
I'm like, "What? Is he cheating!?"
-What? Yeah. -You're like, "Did I accidentally queue for Black Market Brawlers?" -Yeah, I was like, "What is this?"
But then we also have a lot of normalization
of, kind of our defensive item system across the board, right?
There's a lot of buffs to MR, there's a lot of nerfs to armor, right?
So, I don't know, let's talk about that for a sec.
How's that going to shake out in terms of
how people are going to play?
I think Titanic Hydra is an excellent alternative
just an excellent addition in general to the items.
Like the build pass for like Renekton
even anybody you want to play tanky top
be like, you know, Lee's usually go kind of glass cannon top
but hey, if you are kind of feeling it and you play jungle Lee
you can go top and you can go in that Tiamat tanky
into like the Titanic Hydra, instead of just automatically
revolving around the Ravenous Hydra.
Overall, we are hoping to just increase diversity of
defensive item options in general and...
but our general strategy is one to make the current
I want to call them just like generically efficient defensive items
a little bit more narrow in their power
like, oh you know, now Randuin's is going to be strong
against characters who are critically striking you.
Yeah. Like you build Randuin's against an Ezreal
you're probably not going to have a good time
because he's probably not going to heal you all that much.
No, but there are some items that we're nerfing this patch
that like... Frozen Heart's gold efficiency, like I don't even know
how that item's real. It's like that item is pretty crazy and
we have these things that in a six item build
can make like assassins and AD carries feel like
I can't ever hit them. I can't do anything and so it feels like
the sixth item of a tank is going down
but you have these items like any of the ones
that we are talking about, like kind of the Juggernaut ones
or like Randuin's that can situationally be super good
against people, right? So, I like it, because it seems like a buff
to assassins, to me.
Also like, the E just changed. We're taking five magic resist
off the aura to everybody and we're taking the health regen off.
- Health regen, yeah. - Or it's completely gone.
Shifting like all the power into the active
so it's a more interactive item
I think the E is just a little cheaper. - Yeah.
- Like, Locket is what I am talking about. Sorry. - Shout out to supports.
That item is 1600 gold now.
Yeah. You guys are getting discounts galore.
-Yeah, I can't wait to buy that. -Banner of Command is 250
gold less. You have to steal one less kill
and you're still good.
-Righteous Glory is cheaper too. -That's like a whole kill there.
The whole kill or assist. Sometimes the assists
just give you so much and, you know
it's that faster lens upgrade can just actually
decide the whole game. Like, maybe you need that
to turn like, a Dragon fight.
Just... everything helps and we really appreciate it.
-On behalf of supports. -Yeah, I... so...
On behalf of supports everywhere.
So I think its important to note though that this is
this is not like the AP item refactor, right?
Where that was like we just want to make mages'
items pretty much better across the board, right?
Yeah. Like Liandry's is an option, Rylai's is an option
This is... like it does have nerfs. Like it is not going to be
exactly perfect for you
but if you are these kind of fighter type characters
whether you're diving or brawling in the back lines
you have a more complete build that's going to be able to
balance that defensive aspect, it's going to be able to balance
kind of the offensive aspect with things like Hydra. - Yeah.
Hopefully the overall effect of the defensive item changes
is that now you can... you probably have to put a little
bit more thought into what you're buying, because you can't...
it's not just, hopefully, mathematical...
I have choices. I have choices now.
Hopefully you could specialize against what you think
is going to help you win this game, rather than every game.
Yeah. Like when I look at Dead Man's Plate I'm like
"Oh, it's the selfish Randuin's." Right?
Because Randuin's Omen has a slow on it
whereas this is like
-Okay, it only helps me get it. -This is like the item Singed
I want to get into their team and then
you lose the move speed after that, but
a lot of those characters, all they want to do is get in one time
and then they don't really care what happens to them afterwards.
But then Randuins got pushed in a different direction too
where it reduces crits, so now you have more meaningful
choices where you have to look at what the other people
are building and it's not just, it's not just
"Oh, they have AP damage for... and like physical damage."
- So I need some MR or I need some armor, right? - Yeah.
Now it's like, "Do they have a crit-based Champion?
Do they have these guys that can get away from me
that I have to slow?" So I like the fact that I'm getting
more choices as this type of player. - Yeah.
What about the rest of the patch?
We have like, something like 25 odd champion changes
-Anything in there you guys want to talk about? -Yeah, it's pretty big.
Lee Sin is somebody that, these changes
actually make me a better Lee Sin player
and I'm a terrible Lee Sin player
because I sit there in the jungle going
"Okay. Q, 1, 2. Q, 1, 2. E, 1, 2."
And then when I get in team fights I'm just like
"Hit Everything!"
Because I can't manage my energy worth a damn at all.
So now I can't insec so now I just kick the tank back
and now there's more health items and stuff
so that's going to do more damage if the big fat guy
goes flying into the AD carry. Yeah.
So like, these are fun things for Lee Sin
and I think front-loading it is actually a buff
to bad Lee Sin players, but I also think it's a buff to
regular Lee Sin players too and people who have played him a lot.
Well, I think it's more about providing options at least
it feels like there are a lot of times where
you know, some of us mortals lack the ability
to do the crazy, like Giga twist around kick back
at your AD carry into the team.
- Typhoon kick! - Yeah, like spinning roundhouse
you know, shenanigans, but there are a lot of times
where you'll see a tanky guy leading the charge
and in my caveman brain, I'm like
"Oh, I don't even think this is that good
but I want to kick through the whole team
because I want to see all the knock-ups
and now we're living in a world where like
the Cho'Gath or the Sion getting bowled
through their team actually does
a pretty good amount of damage.
I think the Kassadin change is actually
pretty deceptively strong. Yeah.
You read the patch notes it'll be like
0.1 AP and... - There's a .2 extra on it.
-Yeah, there's .2 on it all the time and .1 percent after that. -Exactly, my point is like
you read it and you're like, "What?"
And then play it and you're like, "Oh, whoa."
-No
Tell me, why no?
-Are you sad about Kassadin? -I don't want to retire yet. -I think Kassadin kills supports.
[laughter]
That's the... Kassadin is going to force you into...
This champion has always been a problem and
he still can get really out of hand in competitive
and I understand why he is so bad in
you know, ranked or normals, it's because
nobody on your team, when you play Kassadin
is patient enough for you to grow.
It's because people keep fighting and you don't spike
until maybe, at least two items and
you'll, oh no, your team's down already 0-10
and you kind of just get pushed in and lose, because
you don't really have wave clear, like
you don't want to plan to lose that early to have to max E
because you usually want to get Q so you can like
you know, fight your mid laner, but... - Right.
Now you don't have wave clear, now your team is dying
and fighting, so yeah, of course the number's...
I feel like the loss rates will be really high
but, you know, in competitive even without this
Riftwalk change, he will still... can be really gruesome if
the team knew how to play him well.
So I have to ask the question, "Why are we doing this now?"
Everybody know Worlds is, you know, a month and a half away
because these are a lot of changes.
One of our biggest philosophies of working
on League of Legends is we want to keep the game fresh
we want to keep the game changing
we want to make sure that everyone still
finds the game very exciting to play at all times.
Like we've been saying, adaptability is a key skill
in being good at League of Legends
and we think that's wholeheartedly true.
What it comes down to is, we think two patches is
hopefully enough time for pro players to adjust
to the game and we need to front-load these changes now
because if we wait any longer then you know
we're risking even getting even closer to Worlds
one patch away. The patch of Worlds. - Yeah.
So, the idea is hopefully 5.17 and 5.18 will be
much more toned down, just reacting
making sure that we tweak everything into the right balance
and 5.16 is our time to, you know, really do the final changes
significant changes, before Worlds.
I think just increasing diversity of the game
and just, more viable champions is really
it's just really good for the game and... It's healthy, yeah.
And of course like, sure, maybe the next month...
and if the next month is kind of like League of meatballs
then you can just, there's still two patches to tone it down.
Well it might not be League of meatballs
because they might all four just be banned every game
which would be pretty funny.
- Well then I get my junglers finally. - I know.
- There's like four or five junglers banned every game. - So you kind of have to choose like...
If you could change one champion into a Juggernaut
next patch, who would it be?
Draven.
-The thing is I can do that. -What?
You can do that, don't spoil it.
Why?
Can you not imagine like, super hulk Draven like
bouncing maces off of people? Is that not...?
You'd just turn into melee.
He'd just be like...
Yeah, okay. I could see that.