User blog comment:TheGreatClockwyrm/Kubri, the Last Hearth/@comment-35930747-20190818213626/@comment-7709681-20190825230528

> General number work includes increased mana costs and lower base damage on Q. Did some QoL stuff clarifying how hearthstones work and how much total healing you can get from a Hearth.

Q's problem wasn't the damage or the cost, was that the CC it provides its oppressive on top of the additional damage. Sure, tanks nowadays are designed with percentile damage to keep themselves relevant damage-wise, but the amount here is high for what's done on top of it. Choose either bonus damage or bonus CC, but not both, and if it's CC, consider removing either the increased Slow or the Ground, but don't have them together.

> Reduced range of as well as removed heal over time from ult and simply added a heal based on the current rank of Hearths to preserve thematic.

But why have a heal on the first place? The ability is already a huge team deterrent that make up as an initiation or nullifies teamfights best-case scenarios. That's strong in on itself, the heal is still too strong as the nerf is minuscule (big buff vs. min old heal, slight nerf vs. max old heal)

> True sight duration reduced on E.

Reduced by one second, that does not compensate the extra information the summon provides as well as the potential buffs to allies or Hearths.

> 'Hide' duration on Hearths now scales up with rank.

> Comparisons to Rek'sai tunnels seem appropriate, although her tunnels are over twice as long and cannot be destroyed at range. Hearths are rather easily destroyed, as they in no way deter enemies from approaching them.

Also noticed you added a max. cap to them, which is good, but the Hearths still do too much. You mention your reasoning behind why their counterplay is fair versus Rek'Sai's tunnels, and if the only significant difference is that they can be destroyed from afar and have half the Tunnels' dash range, then that ain't enough. Yours provides a bigger heal, give mobility to your team, turns allied champions untargetable and Kubri can move across any two points up to semi-global range, versus the Tunnels that work only on Rek'Sai, the heal requires build-up and is limited to pairs with limited range.

> They also have a long on-target cooldown, much longer than tunnels (I also remind you that only Kubri and Kubri alone may fast travel with Hearths, which destroys his entry hearth in the process, potentially screwing over a nearby fleeing ally).

Considering the abilitty has two separate global on-target cooldowns, a sole teammate using it screws the rest globally, works on a charge system (i.e.: Two separate cooldowns, cast and recharge, and two separate resources, mana and charges) and its based on destructable units, you have to consider the fairness of the ability's success for how much gating it requires to have some semblance of fairness to work properly. This is something I mentioned before: There are times where counterplay doesn't exist to add fairness to gameplay but to attempt justifying questionable designs.

> I feel as though these changes would meaningfully incentivize hypothetical Kubri players to choose which ability to max, because he doesn't really have a 'weak' ability that he in every situation wants to give up points in, and all have effectiveness that is really dependent on levels.

Unfortunately they won't, that normally happens when values shift between scaling and not scaling, and/or scaling per rank/level and scaling per statistic or every amount of an statistic. At most was changing Hearth's visibility duration, and that does not alter them enough functionally to change ability's maxxing paradigm.

And indeed, none of the abilities ain't weak, so much that most values are based on-ranks. If so, then making something else scale too per rank when almost everything else does won't change a thing, rather makes ranking options too difficult, narrowed to which ability is currently the strongest and/or most reliable of the kit.

> To point towards a few of your more specific criticisms - hearthstone only works on unempowered recalls, although I apologize for not initially clarifying that as well as I could have.

That's good to hear, but that brings me to an aforementioned point: Baron buff already exists, so even if the empowerments do not stack they still represent a redundancy. Why add up to a kit a gameplay element that's already present in-game by other means? Considering the kit's overload, is it really worth it?

> I think I may have misworded my statement. Certainly I'm using the LoL Wiki for my designs and should be constrained by a lot of rules League has set out for design, given that they are the largest and most successful MOBA as well as home to lots of cool and creative designs. What I mean is that my designs are not necessarily designed wholly with League in mind. I see them all constituting a diverse pantheon of characters that could perhaps exist in another game together with different systems of play.

You're contradicting yourself here. You cannot abide to LoL's gameplay design patterns while your design mindset is admittedly not made for LoL in mind, moreso if your designs are intended for an hypothetic game that isn't LoL. That's dissociating on purpose.

> That being said, I of course try to maintain counterplay and workability in a LoL environment. I try and consider things that would break League and work around things to make them healthier or more intuitive, for instance, the Hearthstone mechanic and how it interacts with Baron recall.

How does the Hearthstones make healthier gameplay versus Baron's/Herald's empowered recall? Thankfully doesn't stack with the latter, but remains still a huge team advantage you're providing to your team from the start by just playing the game, with little constraints around it (for a single teammate upon recalling) and, most importantly, much before the in-game empowered recall buffs, which are intended to become available mid-game precisely for how much of a power-spike they potentially represent, they're not without decent constraints.