Reign of Gaming

Unveiling the Future of League of Legends

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

 

Almost one year ago, we debuted a new way to play League of Legends in a silly, fun game mode that turned competitive balance on its head in celebration of the yearly troll-fest known as April Fools. While we were ultimately kidding, many of our designers saw the opportunity to work on a true evolution of League gameplay inspired by URF. After reviewing player feedback and hammering out brass tacks, we felt confident we created the most refined gameplay experience League has inspired yet, all in time to iterate in preparation of the next competitive season.

What we’re calling New Ultra Rapid Fire raises the stakes by delivering a slow, sophisticated, and stoic strategic showcase that tests teams’ abilities in new and dynamic ways while not restricting the highest tier of play to those with sub-millisecond response times.

 

Normally, a League match is a fast-paced slugfest that ranges from top to bottom lane and across Summoner’s Rift. We want to broaden the pool of high-level talent to include expert tacticians previously excluded by something so trivial as the necessity of hyper-twitch reflexes.

 

There’s a lot to talk about, but with the entirely accidental leaks of some New Ultra Rapid Fire assets, we thought it’d be better to just show you. Tomorrow, we’ll release the proverbial kraken known as New Ultra Rapid Fire to live servers.

 

Here’s a preview of some of the gameplay refinements coming tomorrow night when New Ultra Rapid Fire debuts:

 

• +100% mana and energy cost on all abilities
• +200% cooldown inflation on abilities, items and summoner spells
• +225 movement speed reduction
• +200% delay between basic attacks
• Critical strikes deal 50% of base AD
• Units critically strike on 150% of attacks

Will the upper limit of the potential for human competition skyrocket with the introduction of New Ultra Rapid Fire? Can you rise to the resulting challenge? Can a mere man defeat a manatee? When it comes to League of Legends, that last answer is indubitably yes, but no matter. The gauntlet is thrown. Hoist it at thine own risk.

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Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

You’re Cordially Invited to a Soirée!

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

 

For the past year, you've reminded us over and over (and over) of something we once released. You bombarded everything from Twitter to telegraphs and overwhelmed computer repair shops with shattered caps lock keys.

 

The time has come. This March 32nd, we're releasing a suite of silly skins. Dress up with Nasus, Udyr, Soraka, and Nami for a party of the ages!

Archduke Nasus

One can survive everything nowadays, except a shoddy tailor.

Definitely Not Udyr

Turtle, tiger, or bear… oh my! Parrot!

Order of the Banana Soraka

The enlightened embrace banana hats.

Urf the Nami-tee

Even sea cows can be stylish.

Meddler on Bard and Few Reworks

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

I think the biggest problem with Bard is clearly his lack of damage. [...]

We'd like to keep Bard's ult damage free, since putting a damaging effect on it leads to some conflicting uses and muddies it's purpose (keep dudes out of a fight, whether allies safe or enemies unable to contribute).

We definitely agree Bard needs some buffs though. We held off from doing substantially changes in patch 5.6 since by the time the patch changes locked Bard had only been out for 6 days. That's not enough time to see how people adapt to and learn a new champ, and we've sometimes buffed champs unnecessarily in the past when we've reacted too quickly, so we decided to give it a bit more time. At this point we're confident he does need some more significant buffs though, and have a better idea of where to test out more power. You should see some buffs on the PBE in the next couple of days at a guess, with a focus on base stats, amount of mana restored per chime and faster Meep respawn. We're also planning to test a little tweaking to Chime spawn locations, though that's more speculative and might be more of a feel change than a power one, not sure yet.

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Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

@Meddler Shaco Rework Still on the Backburner?

The Shaco rework we talked about a little a while back got shelved. It had some interesting ideas in it, but after testing we weren't confident it was the right solution in terms of fixing problems while maintaining Shaco's identity. Possible we'll give it another shot at some point, no immediate plans to though.

This makes it sound like the Riot approach to project management is, "Work on whatever you feel like, if it turns out well we'll use it. If it turns out poorly, scrap it and go do something else". Most companies go, "Here's the new project. Complete it and do a good job, then we will move on to the next project". What are the advantages to the way you all do it?

Some reworks are need driven (Sion for example). We also try out some opportunistic reworks in testing, if we've got strong ideas for ways to make a champion better despite them not being one of our highest priorities. The Shaco rework was an example of that, with a bunch of stuff that sounded hopeful on paper. When tested in game though, we weren't as happy as we needed to be to ship changes. Some of Shaco's issues were addressed, there was a fair bit of 'this doesn't feel like Shaco anymore' feedback as well, plus some of the new spells didn't hit the mark satisfaction wise.

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Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

@meddler When is riot going to start talking about the Poppy update

It's still too early to talk about all the specifics of the Poppy rework. It's pretty safe to say though that her passive and ult will be replaced and that she'll be keeping her current E.

Thematically I'd agree Dwarven warrior's a pretty good comparison point

is there a chance that you put some wall creation in her kit (to allow her to make her own play with t§he E without the need of ennemy being near structure)

A mix of anivia W and vel'koz Q should be pretty fun (first damage, then wall when it split)

We did test that out a little while back. Conclusion was that it took the E from a skill that generated a lot of interesting play for Poppy and her opponents around where everyone stood relative to terrain and changed it into a spell that just got used anywhere whenever Poppy wanted to jump on someone and stun them. More powerful and less interesting, which isn't a good combination.

Can i please ask just one tiny lil question? will her voice get changed into ANYTHING cuter? [...]

I assume we'll get new voicework for her, she's an old champion with a pretty limited number of lines. Not sure myself yet if the team working on her's thinking of taking her voice in a different direction or not though.

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Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

Meddler or whoever is on the rework team, what are the odds of Darius rework this season?

And not only Darius, but GP as well, they were both talked about in 2014 as being "hot" and worked on, but right now they are both deprioritized.

It's likely (though as with anything, never 100% certain of course) that Gangplank and Poppy will get their reworks this season. Darius is most likely to get additional smaller adjustments (like the ones currently on PBE), rather than a full rework.

Can you speak on Guinsoo's Fiora project?

Guinsoo ended up getting pulled onto something else. We've got someone else taking over on Fiora as a result.

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Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

Riots Next Unique Champion Idea?

We just had Bard released specifically for roaming. Is the next one that is being released specifically for Proxying?

No current plans to, but it's an interesting idea. I'd be pretty cautious of making too proxy focused a champion however, since it's a playstyle that's got quite low engagement with other players.

Might be some room to make a champion that's got abilities targeted at situational proxying though. Having said that I can also see an argument that Singed's already a really good take on that concept.

Riot on Ultimate Timers

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

Hrm, imo, that information would be too busy on the party frames.

 

Totally agree that the information should be allied only.

 

Might work on the Scorescreen (Tab).

 

Would help Solo Q game coordination by quite a bit honestly.

 

Will pass it along to the UX guys, who are looking into a HUD rework (and a sexy one at that).

Champion and Skin Sale: 03.31 - 04.03

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

 

Grab these champions and skins on sale for 50% off for a limited time:

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Skin Sales

Give your champions a new look with these skins:

Sandscourge Skarner 975 487 RP
Battlecast Vel'Koz 1350 675 RP
Prestigious LeBlanc 520 260 RP

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Champion Sales

Add these champions to your roster:

Nautilus 975 487 RP	Riven 880 440 RP	Nidalee 790 395 RP

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