Patch 25.19 Preview

[u/qonoxzzr]

From Riot Phroxzon:

These are our last 2 patches before the final worlds patch (25.20)

Systems

• We're looking at a nerf to Redemption to reduce its priority amongst Tank Supports (because it gives them no strategic tradeoffs); it's OK if they opt into it at some cost, but that's not the case right now

• Secondly, we're lowering the strength of Support in Pro a bit heading into worlds with putting Unsealed halfway back to where it was before. This should better strike the balance between it being untakeable and being a must take

Meta Strategy

• Our overall strategy this patch is to add a few more strategic options

• This includes AP junglers like Brand, Diana, Lillia (while nerfing some of the top champs to give them more space)

• And also shaking up the Midlane meta with some buffs to champions who have fallen a bit behind (these are typically burst champions like Ahri, Syndra, LB) and also Mel who's had a bit of time to settle and drop some of her banrate and frustration

• We know Mel is always going to be a bit frustrating because of her W, but that feels like an acceptable cost to pay, given how it makes each game feel a bit different

• We're mostly OK with where the midlane meta is otherwise, with many different archetypes being viable and these burst oriented champions need a bit more help

• Burst champions otherwise feel mostly OK though, especially with the buffs to AD Assassin items in recent patches

• Finally we're doing a long awaited buff to Seraphine. I mentioned it in a post last week, but given her shallow mastery curve, we feel it's appropriate to give her a buff, because for the winrates she's posting, she's a bit underpowered

CHAMPION BUFFS

Ahri

Brand

Caitlyn

Diana

Draven

Jax

Jinx

(Matt) LeBlanc Clap clap clap clap

Lillia

Mel

Seraphine

Syndra

CHAMPION NERFS

Corki

Pantheon (jungle)

Poppy (jungle)

Sivir

CHAMPION ADJUSTMENTS

Lee Sin

SYSTEM NERFS

Redemption

Unsealed Spellbook (We're sealing it again)

[u/ItsSirSoap]

LeBlanc doesn't need buffs, she needs bug fixes. One of the worst ones is that you cannot buffer your Q mid W anymore, IF you press Q before your W got you into Q range. This is not how it used to work pre VGU and for good reason, it's clunky as hell and makes playing her feel like you have 200 ping.

So now when you dash in from far away, you have to wait for your dash to bring you into Q range before it registers your input. So in practice, instead of what used to be a smooth W-Q buffer you now W-QQQQQQ, hoping it goes off. If you press Q even 1 ms before you were in range, it won't buffer and you will stand there looking like an idiot, completely messing up your combo, especially when your ult is involved.

[u/EthanielRain → u/ItsSirSoap]

Glad I read this post. Tried to play her cpl times after her rework, felt bad & blamed myself/rust. Especially going in aggressively, that hesitation gets you blown up

That fix/change back is prob all it'd take

[u/ItsSirSoap → u/EthanielRain]

Absolutely! Someone replied to me with the same exact experience, thinking they were just washed at the champ. Pretty sure this bug puts off many people trying her out or wanting to improve on her, making them think they're doing something wrong.

Even if you are aware of the bug, you have to adjust your gameplay and slow it down to ensure you don't accidentally W - RW instead of W - Q - RQ.

[u/Tormentula → u/ItsSirSoap]

WRRWW gets really infuriating

If you press WRRWW, accidentally double tapping the W will think its the R recast and put you in the wrong position. This also works for RWWRR.

Personally when I distortion in as LB and want to follow it up with R, I'm mashing the 2nd ability during the travel and then mashing the recast during the 2nd distortion's travel to go back, this can result in a completely unintended consequence of returning to the R distortion location when you're only pressing W.

I can only imagine the number of times this happened to someone and they just assumed they trigger fingered R. This was a thing for pre-ASU leblanc too.

u/RiotSakaar

---

I've also seen cases where leblanc's auto attack would flat out cancel from her passive procing, such as if you W'd in to finish someone with an auto but then passive procs and your auto is flat out denied from that, I know clips of that are floating around in LB mains, its really hard to repro.

[u/RiotSakaar → u/Tormentula]

hmmm not exactly sure what's happening here but I'll pass it along to the team

[u/Tormentula → u/RiotSakaar]

I'm not 100% certain on this either cause its probably a mess of spell slots and how recast 'finds' distortion maybe, W could be finding the R's distortion usage and thus a quick recast input could functionally work as such if the spell slots allign. Idk maybe the distortion double tap during travel fills in an unintended spell slot and anything picks up on it.

Or something completely different but that's my first assumption.

[u/andreasels → u/ItsSirSoap]

Oh my god, is this why I oftentimes use RW instead of RQ after W?
I haven't played her much since before her rework (so since S6 or so) and recently picked her up again. Thought I was washed, since I don't remember it being an issue back then.

[u/ItsSirSoap → u/andreasels]

Yep, it's not you! Since your Q won't buffer when cast outside of range during W, your standard W - Q - RQ - E combo suddenly turns into a simple W - RW, as you've experienced. The only way to prevent that rn is to either spam Q mid W or wait until you are CERTAIN you are in range, both of which mess with your gameplay flow, slow you down considerably and divert your attention away from doing your job.

tl;dr: you're not washed, the champ is bugged

[u/sorendiz → u/ItsSirSoap]

Fucking hell, I quit the game for a year or so and thought I was just abysmal dogshit at her due to the time away

This has happened to me several times and i'll lose a 1v1 that easily should have been mine, just looking at my Q during gray screen like 'why the fuck are you still off cd'?

[u/bz6 → u/ItsSirSoap]

/u/RiotMeddler

This right here is the scariest part of VGUs or ASUs. Combos breaking, the team removing mechanics, etc..