[Patch 5.2] RIP DFG General Discussion

Deathfire Grasp

Is gone

Our initial goal with Deathfire Grasp was to make a "tank-busting" item that could do exactly that: bust down tanks when they're knocking on the front door. After the introduction of Liandry's Torment, however, tank-busting was replaced with tank-burning and, instead, Deathfire Grasp became the item for assassins to stack another nuke spell on top of their already burst-heavy kits. While we like to keep itemization options available for those who want it, the sheer existence of Deathfire Grasp has given us a few headaches in the past and present:


1.) Adding Deathfire Grasp to a bursty kit really amps up that "woah what happened to me" moment when someone nukes you from orbit. In the past, when we see mages pick up a DFG to double-down on their burst, we've had to balance around that champion which, in turn, makes them even more reliant on DFG to blow people up (or they get changed so much they find an alternative playstyle). Vicious cycle.


2.) Deathfire Grasp also adds a lot more reliability to a mage's assassination attempts, which means they need to commit less for them. If, for example, Ahri only needs to use one charge of Spirit Rush to nuke her target (with DFG + Q + W), she frees herself to use her other two charges to get back to safety. If we accept this will always happen with DFG, Ahri ends up without a lot of extra 'power budget' to do other cool mage-y things like sustained damage or kiting.


As we mentioned in the foreword, we're looking into champions who will be heavily impacted, but some of our larger projects (Veigar, Katarina, Mordekaiser) have to wait until 5.3. There were also a few mages we haven't given sorry-we-removed-DFG-changes to, specifically because we examined them and realized they either needed the power reduction that comes with losing DFG or they have access to alternative item paths and won't be as affected.


Final note, we're also going to be looking into itemization opportunities for late-game mages, so stay tuned for that in 5.3!

Tristana

Tristana has been updated! Check out the article if you want the full story, or just below if you want the specifics.

General

Passive - Draw a Bead

Q - Rapid Fire

W - Rocket Jump

new E - Explosive Charge

R - Buster Shot

Ahri

Ahri gets a huge movement speed bonus when she throws out her Q. Fox-Fire's been tuned up a bit and deals more damage. Charm no longer amps damage on the target but deals slightly more damage and scales better with ability power.

Fantastic Ms. Ahri's success as a support-killing, pick-making assassin has always been tied very closely with Deathfire Grasp. With the item gone, however, it became obvious that Ahri's unique role in the game was losing focus, so we set out with the goal of moving her back to her original vision as an ultra-mobile kite mage. Technical improvements and updates to Fox-Fire and Spirit Rush should make her feel smoother to play, while Orb of Deception's new mobility effect allows her to both outwit opponents in close duels or remain elusive as she repositions in a fight.

General

Q - Orb of Deception

W - Fox-Fire

E - Charm

R - Spirit Rush

Akali

Crescent Slash no longer procs Q, and R's range has been reduced.

We're going to be blunt: Akali is a prime example of an assassin with low counterplay, largely due to her reliability and target selection. While Akali's ability to blow up highly mobile targets is valuable, it also means that once she gets even slightly ahead, she's got all the tools to smash her way to a victory. With these changes, Akali will have to be a little more clever with her use of Twilight Shroud to proc Mark of the Assassin, opening up more difficult matchups against melee champions that she previously dominated. Or, as Akali would say, "As balance dictates."


Sorry, had to.

E - Crescent Slash

R - Shadow Dance

Annie

TIBBERS GETS MOLTEN SHIELD WHEN ANNIE DOES AND RUNS SUPER FAST.

Though Annie is definitely less powerful in a world without Deathfire Grasp, she's still one of the strongest burst-initiators in the game and can still one-shot squishies even with different items. Still, we wanted to give some love to the cutest pyromaniac in League (sorry Brand) and Molten Shield felt like the right place (as it's also her least-interesting ability). Ultimately these changes help push Annie closer to her unique identity as a teddy bear-centric mage (that's a thing).

E - Molten Shield

R - Summon: Tibbers

Azir

Just a small fix for consistency, but we wanted to really highlight that Q range. Initially it wasn't actually displaying the full range, so we changed it to do so. This way, when we reduce some power y'all really know what we've had to balance with. This bears repeating: that's a hiiiiiiigh range on Q.

Q - Conquering Sands

Cassiopeia

Q and E have higher mana costs.

As a lane bully, one wrong move against Cassiopeia can lose you a ton of HP and send you ducking for cover beneath your tower (or just packing your bags and going home). While it's not impossible to fight back, Aspect of the Serpent's healing just reinforces this non-stop lane bully tactic without much in terms of tradeoffs (thanks to Twin Fang's mana recovery). Increasing Cass's mana costs on Q and E should make it more of a calculated decision to harass or sustain, giving savvy opponents more time to formulate a counter-attack (or at least walk back to lane).

Q - Noxious Blast

E - Twin Fang

Fizz

Fizz's damage against an opponent tagged with R is increased by +20%. Q's damage has been significantly reduced in base damage and scaling, W no longer applies Grievious Wounds, deals missing health damage on active, and deals less passive damage over time.

When talking about flashy assassins, it's never long before Fizz comes up. Always a crowd-pleaser, this playful trickster can devastate teams lacking lockdown with a few troll-poles and a well-placed shark. These days however, Urchin Strike + Seastone Trident's active end up doing most of the work, often leaving Chum the Waters either irrelevant or overkill. Pulling power from Fizz's basic spells and loading them into his ultimate makes sure skilled Fizz players can still slip in and take out priority targets, but now gives some room to breathe when he doesn't line up his shark-bait just right.


Second thing: back in 5.1 we made a change to Fizz's Urchin Strike where if you flashed before he physically hit with his Q, you could dodge the damage completely. A: our bad for not documenting the change. B: this is definitely a power nerf to Fizz, but it's one we're intentionally committing to, if just to give a slight amount more 'reaction potential' for his fishy victims. Not a whole lot, but it's something. We may examine other champions with abilities like this in the future - for the sake of consistency - but it'll definitely be something we weigh on a case by case basis in relation to their entire kit.

Q - Urchin Strike

W - Seastone Trident

R - Chum the Waters

Kha'Zix

Not much to see here - discovered a bug with the bug (heh) where the cooldown for Kha'Zix's leap was 2 seconds shorter than intended. That said, this thing's been live for over a year and Kha'Zix is in a decent place, so we're erring on his side. Actual value unaffected.

E - Leap/Evolved Wings

Nidalee

Nidalee can Hunt (proper noun) neutral monsters. She could always hunt them, but now she can apply her debuff to them. Sorry, we're trying to be clever.

Allowing Nidalee to Hunt neutral monsters not only opens up a viable fallback pattern and alternate gold stream for cats finding themselves behind in a game, but also supports the interesting options she can bring to teams as a jungler. There's a new knife-cat in town. Spear-cat? Spearcat. Stabby spearcat.

General

Passive - Prowl

Rek'Sai

Q's unburrowed damage is slightly lower, W's burrowed (technically unburrowing, given its use) damage has been reduced.

The league's latest addition is still Rek'ing more than she should in the early-game. Lowering her bases should help keep her from tunneling too hard onto your carries, while increasing the number of knock-ups she gets in a fight allows her to aggressively re-engage against fleeing opponents or defensively peel when on the back foot (Claw? Tendril? Whatever the Xer'Sai have as appendages).

Q - Queen's Wrath

W - Unburrow

Sejuani

We don't think anyone picked Sejuani for her top-tier structure destruction capabilities, so we're fixing a bug she had there.

W - Flail of the Northern Winds

Syndra

Simple changes here - as a lot of you Syndra mains have noticed, Scattering the Weak felt a little off in 5.1. Attempting to make Syndra's stun match her visuals worked a little too well, leaving the skill underperforming in a lot of cases. We've toned it back to what feels like a 'happy-medium.'

E - Scatter the Weak

Zed

Less attack speed all around.

In the 5.1 notes, we mentioned Zed as a good example of what we refer to as a "Healthy Assassin" - but that doesn't come without its own set of balancing woes. To help bring Zed in line with other champions while preserving his power as a competitive option, we've looked toward his strengths outside of pure assassination - in this case, attacking his ability to split-push by lowering his attack speed.


Zed's pattern of poking from a distance and waiting for the moment to strike is layered with counterplay and complexity. That is, up until his AD items remove the need for his spells, allowing just a few auto-attacks to seal your fate. With a base and scaling attack speed rivaling that of Xin Zhao and Tryndamere, Zed's auto-attacks were as much a menace to champions as they were to towers. He'll still be effective in a side-lane due to his strengths in 1-v-1 duels, but taking power here allows us to keep his damage output focused in landing spells and using combos effectively.

General

Aether Wisp

100 GOLD CHEAPER. Item builds have been expensified by 100 gold to accomodate. Expensified is now a word.

As a mid-game component pickup, Aether Wisp is doing pretty well but it doesn't feel very good to buy early in lane. A price drop should help out when you gotta move fast.

Blackfire Torch

Has followed her big brother to the item graveyard.

See our context on Deathfire Grasp for the full rundown!

Elixir of Iron

Better nerf...

Giant's Belt

Now builds out of Ruby Crystal! Total cost remains the same.

As many of you pointed out with the patch 4.20 defensive changes, buying a Ruby Crystal versus a Giant's Belt still technically 'locks' you into pursuing either Magic Resistance or Armor, respectively. As we still want to support reactionary purchases with defense, this change goes right along with that!

Hextech Gunblade

More ability power, slightly less attack damage and lifesteal.

After losing out on Deathfire Grasp, some champions might be looking for healthier alternatives (speaking from a holistic game perspective), and Gunblade makes sense for a few of them so... here we are. Yep.

Rod of Ages

IT'S HAPPENING!

That second change is pretty good for all you tragic misclickers out there.

Stealth Ward

Zz'rot Portal

It looks like a lot of changes, but the short of it is that Zz'Rot Portals are now treated as, for all intents and purposes, structures (ie: Towers / Inhibitors). Also Voidspawn now have less magic resistances and deal less damage to structures, but deal more damage to minions in the early game. Also the first and every fourth Voidspawn now get the bonus damage from defensive stats.

As the designer puts it, "Complex items means complex bugs." We've gone in and shuffled around Zz'Rot's coding to cement it as a structure in terms of its interactions with the game (and how it's interacted with). We also made some extra changes to help this thing settle in both its current use and potential counters.

Bugfixes

Portal Mechanics

Voidspawn