If you've experienced heavy direct damage to your Nexus recently or had essential cards stolen from your deck, you might have some feelings about today's watchlist. Riot has shared in the 1.2 Patch Notes everything that they are keeping an eye on since Rising Tides released.
These are the four card callouts that Riot has made with today's patch notes.
- Karma has received some changes with this patch though will remain on the list.
- Ezreal has seen a drop in winrate when Rising Tides launched, though will be monitored if things change.
- Unyielding Spirit is being considered for a non-numbers adjustment. They don't want to push it out of play.
- Pilfered Goods is being investigated to see if the pain of the mechanic can be eased.
Here's everything Riot has to say about the current watch list. For the full patch notes, which include details on all the card balance, check them out here.
Quote From Riot Unyielding Spirit
Unyielding Spirit has been among the more contentious cards in Rising Tides due to its powerful Burst speed effect and ability to circumvent opponents’ interaction. This card offers some unique challenges in adjusting, as a quick numbers change is more likely to just push the card out of playability rather than addressing any core issues, so for now we’re watchlisting it while considering adjustments.
Pilfered Goods & Card Stealing
Losing against your own cards when an opponent draws from your deck can be a frustrating experience, especially if you’re playing with deck-buffing Freljord effects. Pilfered Goods is a particular culprit as its power level is rather high, and drawing multiple cards is more likely to create “stole the perfect card” situations. We’re investigating possible adjustments that can ease some of the pain surrounding the mechanic.
Nexus Damage in Rising Tides
Rising Tides thematics and mechanics (pirates, Plunder, Noxian siege weapons, etc.) have significantly increased the amount of direct nexus damage available to players. We’ve seen some problematic, potentially overloaded nexus damage decks arise as a result, and have made some targeted adjustments in this patch aimed at making early damage more preventable. Access to healing is another potential lever for the regions that boast it, and we’ve adjusted a few cards to provide better options. The scope of this issue is rather large, so we’ll continue to monitor it (and the effect of the changes in this patch) over time.
Karma and Ezreal
We shared some thoughts on these two towards the end of beta, detailing some of our problems with their existing designs. We’ve adjusted Karma in this patch, and Ezreal has seen a drop in win rate since the release of Rising Tides, so at the moment we’re just continuing to monitor both champions.
Comments
If we are talking about aggro Noxus - then imo there is no problem. If we kill that deck there will be no aggro at all.
I don't have an opinion on [Hearthstone Card (Pilfered Goods) Not Found] per se, but I am surprised that a card-stealing mechanic might be considered OP. Its analogue in Hearthstone has been so lackluster that I simply assumed that the mechanic is inherently sub-optimal. I hope Blizzard will one day rework those cards so that Thief Priests aren't just fodder for Trolden videos.
People do get irrationally angry about getting beaten with "their own cards." I used to be a person like that. But then I played Eternal for the last 2.5 years, where stealing cards, playing cards from the graveyard, messing with the player's hand, forcing the other player to discard - these all happen quite regularly. So, you either get over it, or you have a rotten experience. I got over it. But most of the LoR playerbase is not coming from that kind of background, so they are still going to be in the phase of being irrationally angry about their cards getting stolen.
The difference between the LoR version and the Hearthstone version is that in HS, all cards that "take" from your opponent's decks only add copies of the cards to your hand, and the cards themselves remain in their deck. LoR's mechanic literally takes the card from the opponent's deck, completely removing it from their pool and adding it to yours, so its inherently stronger than the HS system.
I think that drawing from opponent's deck is not that good too, actually i believe most people don't think is overpowered.
From what i've seen people are just annoyed by the mechanic which is considered not fun, personally i'm not but i can see their point of view. I'm slightly annoyed by the RNG of the mechanic tho.
What i'd really like is the possibility to see which cards your opponent has stolen, i'd be perfectly ok with the mechanic in that case (i think this should be expanded to random generated cards too, even in hearthstone i'd love a change like that)
Personally I think 20 Nexus HP is appropriate but that they should make healing more accessible. It's pretty nutty that right now if you want to make a control deck, you pretty much have to include either Ionia or Shadow Isles to reduce your opponents' reach.
instead of nerfing fan fav cards like Ez they could just ya know, bump up the nexus health to 25
I do feel the health is a bit too low personally. Especially given the fact that you can't heal over the starting amount so you have to often hold back your cards in burn heavy match ups.