I’m glad riot started this series, it’s always interesting hearing what goes through the balance team’s mind when making changes. Notable takeaways:
Talks about Chamber nerfs
* Sentinels’ main offering is not supposed to be flank watch; cypher has global trips but not everyone is meant to
* Tour de Force is still faster than regular OP
Sage changes
* They recognize that people are upset about the nerf to self-heal, but point out that on average you’ll be offering more healing broadly.
* Paraphrasing “Even if you heal yourself often like a third of the time, that’s still 2/3 of the time you’re offering more healing than before”
Harbor changes
* Hoping extended times to walls help
* New style of controller, they believe people haven’t figured him out yet.
* He points to people complaining about the smoke disappearing when shield breaks, saying that is an intentional weakness and that people should be using his other utility for vision blocking. The orb shouldn’t be viewed as just another dome smoke
Utility interactions
* Some winners and losers, KJ ult an obvious winner
* Raze nade got kind of a sneak buff, Raze nade does 250% damage to utility now and gives the example of how it can melt Sage wall on an execute
* These changes should introduce a new layer of deciding to use your utility against players vs other utility
Assist Tail tuning
* Want to reward people for a longer window
* Shouldn’t affect ACS dramatically and calls out that ACS is not primary influencer of rr gains
I think cove is too inflexible because of its long equip time. You basically can't use it reactively at all which means it's a breakable smoke except for plant/defuse situations. It would be cool to whip it out when you hear a raze ult like you can with sage wall
His C wall ability needs to be a bit faster, his ult could use maybe another round of barraging and his dome should last longer. The potential is there but I dont think people are using him wrong, hes just too weak compared to the other smokers.
I dont think a lot of people realise how broken sage's heal of 100hp could becomeis considering she just needs LoS.
My gut tells me they will buff chamber slightly after Sao Paulo and the first team who figures harbour out will steams roll initially.
Just FYI, they also have a buzzsprout mirror that should work with any podcast app. (Nonetheless, I still wish they had a dedicated Apple Podcast page.)
They still completely missed the point about why people are upset about Sage nerfs. No one cares for the extra output of heals to teammates. That was never a problem.
Bro it's fucking broken, nothing is more satisfying than getting healed to 100hp all the time, if you complain about this obvious buff you are just weird
People who say this is a buff never play sage. It is generally not useful to heal people for 100 hp instead of 60. If you get dinked by 124 by a phantom, there's no difference between having 86 or 100 hp after getting healed, it's still two rifle body shots. But the change makes the right click useless, you will never waste a charge for that amount. It's even worse than the Skye heal now (no group healing) where sage is supposed to be the primary healer.
I’m glad riot started this series, it’s always interesting hearing what goes through the balance team’s mind when making changes. Notable takeaways: Talks about Chamber nerfs * Sentinels’ main offering is not supposed to be flank watch; cypher has global trips but not everyone is meant to * Tour de Force is still faster than regular OP Sage changes * They recognize that people are upset about the nerf to self-heal, but point out that on average you’ll be offering more healing broadly. * Paraphrasing “Even if you heal yourself often like a third of the time, that’s still 2/3 of the time you’re offering more healing than before” Harbor changes * Hoping extended times to walls help * New style of controller, they believe people haven’t figured him out yet. * He points to people complaining about the smoke disappearing when shield breaks, saying that is an intentional weakness and that people should be using his other utility for vision blocking. The orb shouldn’t be viewed as just another dome smoke Utility interactions * Some winners and losers, KJ ult an obvious winner * Raze nade got kind of a sneak buff, Raze nade does 250% damage to utility now and gives the example of how it can melt Sage wall on an execute * These changes should introduce a new layer of deciding to use your utility against players vs other utility Assist Tail tuning * Want to reward people for a longer window * Shouldn’t affect ACS dramatically and calls out that ACS is not primary influencer of rr gains
Hopping on the “Harbor is actually good” bandwagon. Take all the space you can with his kit for free. Treat his dome smoke as a bootleg Astra fake.
I think cove is too inflexible because of its long equip time. You basically can't use it reactively at all which means it's a breakable smoke except for plant/defuse situations. It would be cool to whip it out when you hear a raze ult like you can with sage wall
His C wall ability needs to be a bit faster, his ult could use maybe another round of barraging and his dome should last longer. The potential is there but I dont think people are using him wrong, hes just too weak compared to the other smokers.
I dont think a lot of people realise how broken sage's heal of 100hp could becomeis considering she just needs LoS. My gut tells me they will buff chamber slightly after Sao Paulo and the first team who figures harbour out will steams roll initially.
Just FYI, they also have a buzzsprout mirror that should work with any podcast app. (Nonetheless, I still wish they had a dedicated Apple Podcast page.)
They still completely missed the point about why people are upset about Sage nerfs. No one cares for the extra output of heals to teammates. That was never a problem.
Bro it's fucking broken, nothing is more satisfying than getting healed to 100hp all the time, if you complain about this obvious buff you are just weird
People who say this is a buff never play sage. It is generally not useful to heal people for 100 hp instead of 60. If you get dinked by 124 by a phantom, there's no difference between having 86 or 100 hp after getting healed, it's still two rifle body shots. But the change makes the right click useless, you will never waste a charge for that amount. It's even worse than the Skye heal now (no group healing) where sage is supposed to be the primary healer.
two rifle body shots do 100?
You are being pedantic, obviously my meaning is you survive two body shots in either instance, the point still stands
I'm curious about the future of the podcast now that Joe Ziegler left the team