Riot’s lead gameplay designer Mark “Scruffy” Yetter gave an update last night on the upcoming Grievous Wounds rework intended for the preseason of League of Legends.
The simple healing debuff will no longer be the same, according to the latest direction that Riot is taking.
Riot is taking a “two state approach” to the new Grievous Wounds with “an optimization for each class.” There will be a small debuff of 40 percent reduced healing that’s applied with ease by each class and it can be ramped up to 60 percent by doing class-specific tasks. The classes are split into four categories: marksmen, mage/assassins, tanks/enchanters, and fighters—but the last one is still a work in progress.
ADCs will easily proc the small 40-percent debuff via auto attacks, with three auto attacks upgrading the debuff to 60 percent. Mages will proc it via damage with the debuff ramping up to 60 percent once the enemy’s health is low. Tanks will proc it via damage or Thornmail for the 40-percent debuff and ramp it up to 60 percent by using crowd control.
With healing becoming “more prevalent over the last few years,” it’s natural that its only counter would need to be adjusted, Riot said a couple of weeks ago in its preseason developer update. Instead of being a contextual choice, Grievous Wounds became mandatory due to the amount of healing in the game from runes, items, and champion kits.
These changes should give more counterplay to the amount of healing in the game. But they aren’t final and could be altered going into the preseason, which usually begins each November.
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