14.23 PBE Preview: Bounties, Aurora, Rell, Smolder | League of Legends

0:00 - Intro
0:44 - Ambessa
14:22 - Bounties
27:37 - Aurora
35:08 - Rell, part 1
37:54 - Rell, part 2
50:06 - Rell, part 3
54:38 - Smolder

[Raiko]

Damn im an aurora hater but you didnt have to nuke her like that. Please allow some champions to be high skill floor.

[actular]

What even is Aurora’s identity now, she’s not fast, she can’t skirmish, she doesn’t hop like a bunny. Now it seems like the only thing she has is a little bit of healing, which you are now incentivized to not even use with loner range and less movement.. she currently is almost a really cool laning version of Lilia but she sounds like an echo version of Neeko now.
Edit: I will add, the ult not trapping people is fine, it would be cool if it kept something like a stun (like veigar) or just stun when dashing through, forcing people to walk out then dash (more like Taliyah)

[DDPMonster]

So your plan is to remove 3 unique mechanics from Aurora and replace it with a cooldown reduction and range... I couldn't imagine a faster way to kill champion identity. Let's cut all the things that make her interesting and on to of that remedy her unique weekness in the mage category of a short range. What is her fantasy supposed to be? I think the R change is fine but I would rather you nerf her ap ratios in half than make the rest of these changes.

[fakeperson]

Phreak please listen to the community, please don't change Arouras kit entirely like this, no one wants this change. If you change her ult to a slow only that will remove a lot of her pro play viability without changing her unique gameplay with resetting w stealth and low range high ms/ mobility.

If you look at games in pro where Aroura is picked, a lot of her power in these games comes from her trapping mechanic. If removing this isn't enough then please just nerf her, instead of completely changing her playstyle like this.

This champion is so fun and unique with it's playstyle, it would be really sad to lose that for the sake of her low elo win-rate %, especially before ult changes and number nerfs have been explored.

[solibus]

Thoughts on Aurora changes
I love the R changes it was her main issue but being able to use the cool part of her champion for a longer period of time is fun
Q and E range changes dont go well together with the R duration since its a confined space I think she should be a short range mage (im aware this is meant to balance her for mid but the main point of her being mid is that she can roam with R but your nerfing her R engage)
W and passive ms changes dont go well with R duration change because shes just to vulnerable and does not have much options while being a mage in a confined space that is her R (not having a reset completly guts interactions within her R in teamfights even when shes being givin a CD reduction to her W which 22 seconds to 18 does not help in this case)
these changes imo clashes with not only each other but with her identity

In my head it feels like the champion is ruined for me and is meant to be played differently
in short awesome R change but it doesnt go well with the other changes and she should be kept as a short range mage that has the kit to get in close and scrap
i do not mind if shes nerfed to the ground but please keep her identity

[miss-windsong]

I really dislike the aurora changes here. Aurora is one of the only AP characters in the game with the ability to get movespeed from champion combat, as well as one of the only characters in the game with a kill reset ability that doesn't deal damage (which I think is a really interesting niche!). Removing both of those things from her kit and replacing them with damage feels like neutering her character fantasy while inflating her winrate. I think some of these changes are good (Changing the function of R, autocast on Q) but this is a fundamentally different character now than she was before. I would much prefer pushing her in the opposite direction, towards being a flighty kiting bunny mage, rather than making her just another AP nuker. Please reconsider this, the look of these changes is making me completely lose interest in playing the character.

Edit: The wording of this change as "removing unneeded mechanics" feels like it's missing the point. Aurora might not "need" her passive movespeed or W reset to function as a champion designed to kill other champions in the midlane, but I'd like to argue that she does "need" those things to be Aurora, the Witch Between Worlds. She is one of the most unique mages in the game (including characters like Hwei, who have uniquely structured kits but fundamentally play very similarly to others of their class). The short-range kiting bunnymage is an incredible piece of ludonarrative design that leads to one of the most enjoyable and immersive experiences playing an AP character in the game, and I am very afraid of that changing. I (and by the looks of this comment section, many other Aurora players as well) would vastly prefer a change to the unfair feel of her damage breakdown as opposed to a change in her play pattern.

Also, as a minor side note, Aurora is one of the few mages in the game who still seems to be capable of running out of mana as a result of regular play. While there seems to be a trend towards lowering the importance of mana across the board (not something I would complain about), it was a very compelling puzzle to solve. Her W being a high cost, often spammed ability in teamfights led to really interesting situations later into a prolonged fight that rewarded thoughtful use of her buttons. I can understand if this was an unintended part of her design, and maybe it adds too much complexity to an already complex character's kit, but I found it extremely compelling and something that is otherwise extremely difficult to find in league of legends. Please, please do not send these passive and W changes through.

[kevinmiskiewicz]

These Aurora changes completly change her gameplay. Fun fast and jumpy champion turns into bad design

[icarogodoi]

But why does she NEEDS to be a "medium difficulty" champion? Her kit is one of the most unique of the game, the R change is very understandable, but the rest take away so much of the fun of playing with her and her identity as well.

[duraznit]

Do not change Aurora please, just stop, you release genuinely fun champions to then stroke them down to being boring and simple when there is already so many champions like that, leave her like she is, just please.

[lenkagamine]

I have been coming back to League from a very long pause because i really loved everything about Aurora. To see her core of being a rabbit and running and jumping around being staight up removed from the game really deters me from playing the game again, even right now before the changes

[hoyahead]

Removing auroras W reset is so annoying man. She was SO much fun as a battle mage/skirmisher hybird. Moving in and out of invisbility during a chaotic teamfight was peak aurora gameplay. Man ill miss it

[lolcosmic]

Just started picking up Aurora and ended up enjoying her. The changes do not sound that great for me tbh. The high mobility lockdown was the selling point for me, but now the champ feels like its going to be another generic ap burst mage...

[game_case]

Goodbye aurora. You were fun while you lasted. The MS feels core to the gameplay for me. Being able to chase down enemies after hitting passive multiple times. That was the fun part of the kit for me. There aren't many control mages that have good chase down. Viktor with evolved q basically is the only one.

[Senyuno]

Make knock-ups/knock-backs etc. an across-the-board number; e.g., 0.5 seconds. So Ornn knock-up, Vi knock-back, Rell knock-up, etc., all has a consistent value that nothing in the game can affect. And then have an additional component that is a stun, that varies between these champs, that can be affected by tenacity, and be adjusted for balance (and just say they represent the disabling of a Champion from the "fall-down", w/e). So you have a definition for this unique mechanic that everybody kinda hates, that is "technically" not affected by Tenacity, but player sense is still in the right to think, "multiple CC champs = buy Tenacity", because indirectly there still is an affect. And in fact you can play with that hard-coded value to be a small effect to the game or a large one (preferably small, so that you find a sweet spot baseline CC from every knock-up, and every subsequent Stun is affected by Tenacity, can be Cleanse'd, etc.). You can have your cake and eat it, too.

[Zip_Zap_Zoom]

Hey there! I’d just like to say that as an Aurora fan, i’m not sure about the aurora changes, i really like her ult and the skill expression she has in her kit. I really hope if these changes go through they will be well thought out and still represent the champion.

[ciriousjoker]

About Aurora:
imo q2 shouldn't be automatic. Now you can't prevent further damage to the wave if you didn't hit the enemy champ. If you can't remember to recast your abilities, maybe some champions just aren't for you.

[xthluckfgodx]

Riot be like. "Here is a fun to play champ with a unique kit"

Phreak be like "so we are gutting everything unique about this champ to make them just like every other champ in their class"

[Masakurodaa]

Man that Aurora changes brokes my heart...

[pamellaluv]

There are so few characters who fit the low-range high-mobility hit-and-run gameplay style, why shift Aurora away from that and towards being a more stereotypical mage (which there are already a lot of?) I think it’s disappointing and a waste…

[GlitchBoogeyman]

Not even been 5 months and Aurora(most enjoyable mage ever) turned into a ordinary boring ass mage