8-23 PBE Update: Gragas Nerf and New Option

Posted on at 11:05 PM by Moobeat
A small PBE patch was deployed tonight. While there are still no new splash arts and Syndra is still not available for play, the patch did contain an increase to the cooldown of Gragas's ult, a new "Suppress Public Notifications" option, a cool down display for Sheen/other items, and the return of the PC Bang rewards.

( disclaimer: remember PBE information is TENTATIVE, these changes might not hit live )

Balance wise, the only thing difference between this patch and last night's massive patch is the cool down of Gragas's ult. They bumped it from 90/75/60 seconds to 100/90/80 seconds.
PBE: 100/90/80 second cool down. | Current / live: 90/75/60 seconds
Another small change that made it into this PBE build is the option to ignore Public Notifications, such as when a player declines the matchmaking ready check or when a player leaves champion select.

Items with internal cool downs on their activations, such as Sheen, Trinity Force, Manamune, Arch Angel's Staff, and Tear of the Goddess, now have a display to show you when they are ready to be activated again.
Props to the loyal fan who sent this one in!


Lastly, the Korea-specific PC Bang rewards feature, which unlocks all champions and offers a 20% boost to IP gain, was re-enabled for additional testing.
Awwww Yeaaaaahh, an international QA Analyst, commented on the feature's reemergence, saying:
"...We will be testing this feature pretty regularly during the PBE cycle for each patch."

29 comments

  1. I KNEW IT! I was expecting the nerf on the gragas ult. They still need to nerf his ratio (1.0 is too much for a long range ult with so much utility)

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    1. I think that dmg is fine, i would decrease the knock back distance (as was made with Jannas ult recently).

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    2. Actually, IF the damage is a problem, what they could potentially do is make it sort of like Ziggs's ult, where full damage (The current amount) is done in the center of the spell, while the outer radius of the explosion does less damage. Just an idea.

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    3. Gragas wasn't seen that often till the regionals and after that it was like a gragas invasion so of course they end up balancing it, they will probably lower the ratio on ultimate like they did with Orianna, Ziggs, Zyra and all other ultimates that have a high utility.

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    4. They didn't nerf the ratio on Zyra's ult, just the range. As far as I can recall, the ratio is unchanged from when she was first released on the PBE.

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    5. They should keep the 1.0 ratio and make it true damage.

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    6. ^ CertainlyT pls! ^^

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  2. Gragas still need to get nerfed, his bodyslam and his ult make way too much damages.

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    1. If he builds damage then he's a bit too squishy to use his bodyslam in team fights much of the time.

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    2. He can ulti and bodyslam a target in teamfights, allowing the gang bang to commence by the entirety of your team on that puny little target.

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    3. And he can be just stunlocked and melted in 2 seconds. Everything depends on positioning.

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    4. Thinking back the time around christmas.... I saw so many Gragas supports... Harrassing you under the tower from the bush (!) and killing you when under halve health at 6+

      Given his range with an escape I still think he has too much dmg - don't start with his poor manapool there are enough items with extra mana or mp5. I never see a Gragas autoattacking much anyway, caster minions die around what, rank3 Q with dorans?

      Spoiler: Yes I really hate that char - one of the really few ones so I AM biased ofc.

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  3. I see a small typo right under the picture Moobeat :p regarding the cd times ^^

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  4. Not sure why they nerf every spell Gragas has. Gragas is too strong at the moment because DFG is completely overpowered and works way too well with his kit.

    Gragas sucks without DFG, let's face it.

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    1. I don't build DFG on Gragas and still do great. I can see how it would be a great item on him though. Next time I get the chance I'll have to get an early kages.

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    2. I'd say DFG is a bit strong on all casters except a few (fiddle, ryze, galio, ...) - Definitly a good point you raise there.

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    3. I used to play him without and tbh since it was reworked, DFG is core on practically anyone especially burst mages like Gragas who can force a carry out of a fight by simply using DFG + R on a full HP squishy.

      DFG is crazy strong right now, I've even seen champions such as Rumble and Vladimir build it while they're more like sustained damage mages (arguably bruisers for those two).

      There were very few APs that didn't build DFG at gamescom, the only champion I think I haven't seen build it is Orianna. I also believe that Alex Ich built DFG on Ryze.

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    4. you know that DFG got nerfed some time ago?

      and you really think its overpowered?

      with the old DFG i could easily destroy every tank (amount of mr is just not important) and on squishies it was just overkilling them

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    5. That's wrong, new DFG has a much better scaling with AP, and also gives more useful stats (they took away mregen and either gave cdr or more ap, can't remember).

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  5. why nerf gragas :( he is not op nerf darius,akali,le blank.But gragas is a normal champion not op.Dont nerf him

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    1. Gragas can dominate anyone on mid, even Leblanc, he wasn't balanced, if you watched the regionals you would have seen that picking gragas for mid was almost like an instant win.

      He aint getting nerfed, just balanced, in my opinion.

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    2. He can be counterpicked (Swain being the best counterpick to Gragas), but he can still roam and that's what makes him so powerful, not his laning which can be hard against some champions (Swain/Orianna/Ahri/Cassiopeia/Ryze can hurt him especially), but his roaming/ganking ability makes him really strong especially in solo queue.

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    3. Swain isn't the counterpick if Gragas stacks mr.

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  6. I love how nobody even cared about Gragas up until he was picked in a tourny and now all of a sudden he's a problem. Really starting to hate all of the balancing based on e-sports.

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    1. Yeah, that's just shit... Tell me a reason for nerfing Shyvana for example, without saying the word "M5". Also, Mundo and Naut got nerfed the same way, for example.

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    2. still no champ spotlight for him

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  7. item internal cool down display me gusta

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