Reign of Gaming

Update for Champion Update Schedule

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

Just like the title says, can the list be updated so we can keep track of what Riot currently has cooking in its champion update oven.

Things that we are currently working on:

 

-Ryze (duh)
-Ashe (small scope)
-Gangplank
-Poppy
-Taric
-Urgot
-Fiora
-Shen
-Yorick (just started, so a ways off)

 

This doesn't mean 100% expect to see these in the next year, sometimes things get modified or put on hold. Not every one of these projects is like Sion in size and scope as well, the update is meant to fit the needs of the champ. Also, don't have a lot of details to share on the specifics of these, but info will come in time.

Hope that answers your question.

what scale changes are you planning for with shen. Please keep him pretty much the same hes one of my favorites

Shen is definitely not a full reboot like sion. There are some core abilities and things that he does that are really unique and we want to support:

 

-Split push join team with ult, awesome and unique for team strategies

 

-Ninja tank! Even though this isn't the first thing you think of when you look at a martial fighter like shen, it allows him to differentiate himself in both how he is durable (possibly more dodging/blocking than pure meatshield) and how he targets and disables his opponents.

 

-Shadow dash is a pretty cool high moment, want to build up and around this rather than scrap.

 

Some of the things that we think can be improved:

 

-His laning and play pattern can be made more interesting and interactive for both shen and his opponent. We know that we can do better with top lane gameplay than marking your enemy and trading autos with them. His current pattern leads to a "stat check" win loss condition more than we would like.

 

-Overall we can deliver a more clear and satisfying kit for him that focuses his power into more discrete moments that fit shen's character

 

This is just my very rough thoughts, but hopefully it makes sense and doesn't seem totally off base.

I'm so happy to hear Shen is getting his rework he is one of my favorite tops. Any plans for a VU for him anytime soon and is ZenontheStoic still working on Warwick's rework or did his idea get scrapped?

ZenontheStoic's working on a new champion at present. We'll definitely draw on the rework he was working on whenever we go back to do work on Warwick though.

So Veigar is done and no longer being worked on past number tweaks?
I would love to see him get an actual rework and not the band-aid solution of a skillshot Q and delayed E.

Veigar was never a champion update project. I know that the live balance team that did his original changes are going to continue to make sure that he gets to a viable and fun state.

 

Definitely he could probably use some bigger updates in the future, but he's not currently on our plate.

If I may ask,does this list include gameplay &/or visual updates?

Gameplay and some visual in all of the above. Varying sizes.

this is the speed at which these updates are moving, how long do you think it will be until every champion reaches parity? In terms of visuals, gameplay, etc. (even just mentioning those, champs like Nunu, Morde, Corki, Evelynn, Xin, Panth, etc. kind of blush in embarrassment at 2015's standards, yet they probably won't see this list for quite some time), there are a lot of champions that are left wanting, and the bar is constantly raised as technology improves and as the design team learns more and more from their previous successes and failures.

 

There was a Red comment earlier, mentioning that, while new champions/skins/events get login screens and accompanying musical themes, older ones will probably get such treatment unless they get a rework on the level of Sion, Poppy, or Taric--so that leaves the question of, is 50%+ of the roster going to get left in the dust? That's the same feeling I have with these reworks. Except in the case of these reworks, they aren't simply a luxury, but something that's needed to preserve the lifespan of League of Legends as a competitive game.

 

But then that brings up the question, of how many champions are going to get left in the dust? How many will look or feel outdated and unloved? If this was a game with no competitors and an infinite lifespan, I'd personally love to see everything improve and grow gradually over time, but the reality of the constant influx of competing MOBAs (even now, Heroes of the Storm and Gigantic are on the horizon--with one offering gameplay experiences with already beloved characters, and the other offering a faster-paced and more condensed MOBA experience) and of the limited life span of competitive games should be taken into account. [...]

This is a good question and there is a lot going on here. In theory we will never reach the day where we can say "OK we're done updating champions!" Every time we learn and improve our craft the bar gets raised so even after we have done a pass on every champion in the game we will look back and see ways to improve the ones we did early on.

Increasing the rate of releases is always something we want to keep pushing for but we are focused on delivering good quality first and foremost. A great update can last forever even if it took a little longer to make

 

As far as champions left in the dust, we don't have this mindset at all. All of those champs listed (nunu, morde etc) are ones that we want to improve on too.

"In theory we will never reach the day where we can say "OK we're done updating champions!" "

I remember a Lucas quote about you never really finish what you are working on, you just learn to get it to the point you can live with it. Is that partly what you are hinting at? You can live with a change now and as you learn more and get to the right point, you go back again?

 

Also as a question to one of your other responses, what's the biggest difference between the live balance team tweaking a champ like Veigar and what the update team does?

That's actually very true (the lucas quote). We would say something like "after the update, Sion is good enough for a while" but he is really never perfect.

The live balance team tweaks champs for both balance (number tuning patch to patch) and solving relatively small or urgent gameplay problems. We get to take a full top to bottom look at an older champion and build them from the ground up. In the end it's mostly a matter of time and scope, they work on something for a few weeks and we work on something for a few months.

Is this [list] given in chronological order? c:

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"sometimes things get modified or put on hold." - Even if it was in chrono-order things get put on hold so i would just say no

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Yeah, I guess that was a dumb question. I was just excited to see Ashe rework being right behind Ryze >.<

 

Now that I look at it, it seems to be in alphabetical order, except it's split into 3 sections:

We really cant give timelines for most of them, but as you are interested in Ashe I can say that it is one of the closest to done.

Does this mean that Yorick is the last champion on the list to be reworked? If so... are we looking at 2017 for a projected release?

 

If this is the case, I cannot express my disappointment enough. Yorick is the company's least promoted champion, has been waiting nearly 4 years for a skin since launch and no skin likely forthcoming, has not been put on free week rotation in over two years and has been called "Riot's biggest mistake" by some employees.

 

Why isn't he higher on the priority list?

The work Xelnath was doing on Yorick a while back was put down when he moved to other projects. Since then we have just been busy with the other projects that we had already started on.

 

As some design and other resources opened up recently, we assessed which champs are the highest on our priority list and Yorick was a landslide winner. So this is why he is back on track and the whole team is committed to making him really great. Expect that this will take time though, because doing it right isn't the same thing as doing it fast.

 

PS - Your passion for getting Yorick fixed isn't misplaced, that guy has so much room to be better.

About the size of his update, would it be Sion/Poppy/Urgot-size? Also, what will be the scope of his visual changes (If he's getting any)? Complete VU with redesign or a MTU?

For Yorick? Definitely Sion level. He will need full gameplay, visuals, sounds.

When talking Sion levels,are you guys also including lore update/rewrite along with gameplay,visual & sounds?

Definitely.

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Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

Any chance you guys are going to look back at the post-Sion redesigns while you're at it? Karma may have finally become viable but she lost literally everything thematic about her kit in her redesign, mantra is just a binary DPS steroid, you use it whenever it is up to deal your max damage. The whole theme of duality between yin and yang, offense and defense, war and peace were all just flat out removed for yet another poke/zone/utility sparkflinger kit that lends nothing to the characters identity.

The possibility of taking a look at champs that we have already reworked in the past is there for sure. Most likely it won't be for a while as there are some other champions with much bigger problems that we hope to solve first.

What level of rework is Gangplank's?

 

Is it Ryze level where you change a few skills?
Is it Karma level where you change the way almost all skills work but same concept?
Is it Sion level where the thematic stays the same but nothing else really remains?

It's somewhere between Ryze and Sion I'd say. There are some iconic abilities that we wanted to preserve on GP's kit so it's not quite as big of a change as Sion. Not much concrete info to give out right now but look forward to it, it's gonna be really fun.

As long as he can still go CritPlank I will love whatever you guys do with him. I feel like if anything that is the most iconic aspect of him. [...]

You can sleep easy, critplank will still be a thing.

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Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

More Garen Buffs Hinted?

At some point we'd like to do some more work on Garen, in particular give him some more options so he's not so dependent on 'run at a dude and use everything' in a teamfight. Just to keep expectations appropriate odds are that will involve some mixture of functionality adjustments, buffs and nerfs to different parts of his kit.

 

Timing on that's uncertain, though not for a while at least, hence these changes to put him in a better spot in the meantime.

And let me guess, one of these changes would involve removing his silencing ability from his Q Decisive Strike there right?

Not 100% sure, given we haven't done the work yet, but gut reaction is it's probably ok. Garen doesn't have much mobility or range, so enemies have plenty of ways to play around him, unlike other champions we've had to remove silences from. He also doesn't regularly burst targets down within a second, again unlike those that have lost their silences, so being unable to cast for a while's much less of a problem.

The Ultra Rapid Fire Is Winding Down

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

 

There’s only a few days left to embrace your inner Teemo and terrorize the URF battlefields. Ultra Rapid Fire returns to the Featured Game Mode workshop on April 13 at 2 AM PDT, so if you’re still looking to grab the Thinking Manatee Icon for finishing a game of URF or you want to try out your favorite champ in the hyperactive maelstrom of mayhem, the time is now!

 

Remember that while the finisher icons themselves are permanent additions to your icon arsenal, you’ll only be able to use the finisher animations in Ultra Rapid Fire mode until it ends. Don’t forget to pick up the Urf Triumphant ward skin or the 99,999 RP Icon if you were looking to add those to your collection, as well. If you’re looking to nab that suite of silly skins, you’re in the clear: they’re not legacy, so they’ll be available year-round.

 

A lot of stuff to get through, but we know it’s easy to get distracted by all the insanity of URF, so thanks for taking this quick break with us, and we’ll see you on the battlefield!

Champion Update: Ryze Heads To PBE

Since the article hit after PBE update, i didn't posted it up. Includes all info Riot shared about Ryze's update.

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

 

One of League’s original 40 champions, Ryze’s gameplay has been largely left alone over the last five and a bit years. Welp, time to change “has” to “had”, because the champion update crew just finished creating a Rogue Mage fit for 2015’s champion aficionados. Alongside his new ability and sound effects, a couple of Ryze’s abilities have undergone some pretty hefty changes. But before we get into how new Ryze plays, here’s a quick look at his shiny new kit:

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Passive: Arcane Mastery

 

Ryze builds up stacks of Arcane Mastery as he casts his abilities. After reaching max stacks, Ryze becomes temporarily supercharged and gains a couple of powerful buffs: casting an ability significantly reduces the cooldown of his other abilities. Ryze also gains a shield based on his max mana.

Ryze’s damage dealing abilities scale in part with his maximum mana.

Q: Overload

 

 Ryze fires a ball of rune energy out in a target direction, damaging the first enemy struck.

W: Rune Prison

 

Ryze traps a targeted enemy, damaging them and rooting them for a short duration.

E: Spell Flux

Ryze targets an enemy unit, blasting them with a slow-moving ball of energy that, after striking the target, splits to damage all nearby enemies before returning to Ryze’s original target, dealing increasing damage based on the number of bolts.

R: Desperate Power

 

Passive: Ryze passively gains cooldown reduction.

Active: Ryze channels immense power, gaining significant spell vamp and movement speed and turning all of his abilities into area of effect abilities.

While Ryze’s general role has stayed consistent (he still absolutely has the potential to be a late game powerhouse), our update brings both the blue man and his opponents sizeable windows of power to play around. It’s a term we introduced with Gnar, and basically means that, where old Ryze was largely consistent with his damage output, new Ryze alternates between moments of relative weakness and power. For both Ryze and his opponents, learning to play around Arcane Mastery is crucial: Ryze’s power spike is colossal as soon as it’s triggered, so he’ll likely start to move in to engage as his passive stacks near completion. Once Arcane Mastery kicks in, Ryze can quickly cycle through abilities which, in turn, help reset the cooldown of the spells he's already slung. Provided he has the mana - and this is important - Ryze will at least win the trade, and at best, utterly destroy his target.

Aside from his passive, some of the biggest changes have hit Overload and Spell Flux. Overload is no longer targeted, so while there are benefits to his new Q (its new range is much longer, for example), it’s much harder to land against targets who sit within or behind their minion wave. On the other hand, Spell Flux now works best on targets who’ve buried themselves amongst friends. Essentially, Ryze’s opponents now have to decide if they’re best off hiding behind their minions and dealing with Spell Flux’s potentially brutal damage, or moving off to the side and hoping they can dance around multiple Overloads.

 

Champion Insights

Ryze, gameplay by RiotRepertoir

Old Ryze had a number of problems, but first and foremost, he just wasn’t all that interesting. His damage output was predictable and his damage windows were pretty much always open. He’d build a tear and catalyst as early as he could, then pretty much sit back and hope to reach his final late game hypercarry form. This turned him into an all or nothing champion in competitive play - he was either 100% pick/ban or never seen at all depending on where his numbers were - and while consistency isn't usually a bad thing, Ryze just ended up flat and predictable. Changes were needed.

Which brings us to the update. As we mentioned earlier, the update revolves around the notion of windows of power. When his passive is down, Ryze will actually be notably weaker than old Ryze, but by giving him that period of weakness, we’re able to really amp up his power when his passive triggers. These windows give both Ryze and his lane opponent(s) a bunch more to think about, and can even dictate the outcome of entire late game teamfights. We still want Ryze to get into the thick of things and melt faces from his limited range, but now he has to judge his timing and make sure his team fights when he’s good and ready to ramp up.

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Ryze will hit PBE soon, so give the new blue man a spin and let us know your thoughts!

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Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

A big thing that the old Ryze had going is consistency. It looks like even lategame Ryze will have to deal with resource management just like everybody else; Now to get access to his passive he needs to cast a full rotation of spells plus one. This may be a good thing for counterplay, but it may severely weaken Ryze while roaming if he hasn't saved up his stacks.

I understand why Ryze's q is a skillshot, his old kit just projected a zone control all around him that made most top laner's lives hell

One thing we've done already to accompany Ryze's reduced reliability and reliance on charging his passive is to reduce the cost of his Q and increased his Mana Regen per level. These changes should actually be a net buff to Ryze overall, so if it seems like they just make him worse, we will have to adjust upward. With a long duration on his passive stacks (12 seconds currently), he can roam to mid from top, or bot from mid, spamming a few Qs along the way, and have his passive ready to go when he gets there. Until very recently, these stacks were infinite duration (Annie/Malz style), and he would just sit on them forever and people could never approach him. I still want him to be able to threaten opponents by sitting on high stacks for awhile, just not forever.

I noticed most of his hp and armor went down
is that so he's less durable when the shield isn't up?
Windows of opportunity?

Ryze might not be such a hardcore bully anymore, now I'll only have to worry about Quinn and Lissandra
But he still seems like he'll scale hard like he used to

Yep, he's intended to be a bit tankier with passive up, and a bit squishier without it up. If he gets on you during his passive, prepare to feel bullied. If not, try to push him around.

Liking the new FX and kit :] but...
... STOP RIGHT HERE.
Could we at least get a rework like Alistars and Kassadins? Pizza feet are still there and his animations are still 2009 class and wonky.
Is there a chance we can delay this and get him atleast a new model and new animations?
Honestly Morgana deserved a full VU but if not that she could have gotten one similar to Kass and Ali.
or is this not getting in the way for a VU...?

He won't be getting a VU at this time, but is still pretty high on the priority list for one.

Wait, if his passive reduces cooldowns by the cooldown of his Q, does that mean his Q never goes on cooldown? O.o

Or does it not affect the skill cast to trigger the effect?

It means that while he is supercharged from his passive, casting a spell will basically reset his Q, so you can perfectly Q every other spell.

But he cant spam Q infinitely, correct? Only casting other spells will reset his Q cooldown?

Correct. It's like the old passive, but an amped up version.

 

Q reduces W/E/R
W reduces Q/E/R
E reduces Q/W/R
R reduces Q/W/E

We are trying to make Frozen Heart somewhat less attractive, yes. We like Tear+RoA as core items on Ryze, but with having a third core item in Frozen Heart, he really had very little build flexibility whatsoever. This gives him a bit more build flexibility to build things like Zhonya's, Abyssal, Luden's Echo, GA, etc. without just spamming the same three items for his first ~9k gold.

If he's supercharged don't you think he should get a speed boost or would that be too OP with the shield?

He gets Movement Speed during the ultimate, which shares its duration with the passive throughout the game, so we didn't really think it necessary to give him Movement Speed during the passive as well. The speedy element he gets during the passive is the machine gun spellslinging.

Why would you give him free cdr on his ultimate which in turn makes his passive less effective in the lategame due to the cooldowns not being reduced as much, since the cd of his q is lower (I realise he would have his passive up more but I don't understand the thinking behind a champion getting weaker as the game progresses). And how is the spell vamp going to apply to his ultimate? As soon as it is activated it becomes 1/3rd as effective as his abilities become aoe (just wondering). Plus the cd of his w seems very long, added to the damage nerfs to it, both base and scaling, and the shortening of the root late game. Obviously we needs some hands on, but I am a bit sceptical of the numbers atm.

Try not to think of it as the passive becoming less effective with CDR, and try to think of it this way...

During your passive regardless of your current CDR value:

Q's cooldown gets reduced by 100% when it gets reduced by other spellcasts
W's cooldown gets reduced by ~20% when it gets reduced by other spellcasts
E's cooldown gets reduced by ~50% when it gets reduced by other spellcasts
R's cooldown gets reduced by ~5/7/10% (based on spell rank, since its cooldown goes down with rank) when it gets reduced by other spellcasts

 

If the amount the cooldowns got reduced was unaffected by CDR, W's base cooldown would have to be something like 25 seconds so that W's weren't overlapping, Q's cooldown would have to be closer to 6 seconds, etc.

Why does his passive reduce his cooldowns by a minimum of .25 seconds when it's impossible even in URF mode to get his Q cooldown that low?

This part of the tooltip just means that if Q has 3 seconds of cooldown left on it, and it would get reduced by 3.5 because of the passive, it will instead only get reduced by 2.75 (down to 0.25 seconds) so that he still has small periods during which he can move during the passive.

I feel like since his q is his main source of damage,not hitting it will decide the outcome of the fight so if it isn't going to be click to win, then you guys should at least make it aoe because the is a very big chunk of damage thrown away.He can't go tanky anymore or even build spell vamp because of the spell vamp item dedicated to ap's has cdr

Well it is AoE during the ultimate. This isn't intended to be a nerf to Ryze. If data suggests it's heading in that direction following the changes, we'll bump him up.

I feel like maxing E is a viable strategy since the damage is basically doubled if you fight with minions. And if you ult it completely decimates anyone who stands in the area, Orianna+Ryze becomes godly this way.

Maxing E is probably a bit of a gamble because of the 60/70/80/90/100 Mana cost on it, as well as the fact that Q's base damage and Mana ratio both increase with rank in it. That said, if the opponent wants to stand in the middle of the minions and eat multi-hit E's, it's probably an effective strategy.

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Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

Scruffy, do you know if the proposed change to make rune prison stop dashes mid flight went through, like with veigar? Meddler mentioned they were thinking of adding it in a) it's not mentioned in the ability description and b) it seems pretty powerful for a point and click ability to have.

In the end we didn't keep it. Because W has a .25s cast time, combined with the actual time it takes someone to react to seeing a dash, it was really never possible to stop a dash reactively.

That said the stop dash idea was a good one and it is something that we hope to incorporate into a better skill/champ fit sometime in the future.

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Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

We hope to hit model and animations at a later time, but due to some unforeseen issues, we couldn't yet do them, and we didn't want to hold the VFX/SFX/Gameplay until whenever that might be.

ARAM Improvements Incoming!

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

Hey all!

 

As we continue to polish and update Summoner’s Rift, we found a cool opportunity to make some improvements to Howling Abyss and ARAM. Without any further ado, let’s break the ice and get things rolling – here is the list of changes coming to the PBE today:

 

Gameplay Changes; My Mind is Telling Me No:
New Summoner Spell on ARAM: Mark/Dash
After analyzing the results of Legend of the Poro King, we realized that Poro Toss gave an across-the-board bump in viability to some historically unpopular picks and helped balance the playing field. After careful consideration and some tweaks we’re bringing this back to ARAM as an optional new summoner spell called Mark/Dash.

 

 

Mark allows you toss a projectile at an enemy unit, you can then follow up on a Marked unit with Dash to quickly travel to the Marked target.

Go forth and tower dive, but remember, it’s only worth it if you say so in chat.

 

Item Changes; Out With the New, In With the Old:
Bloodthirster added
With the recent rework of Bloodthirster, it made sense to re-introduce the SR favorite to ARAM to help out champions that rely on high AD to be more successful on the map. The passive doesn’t hurt either - shields up!

 

Sanguine Blade removed
10 out of 10 ADCs agree that Bloodthirster is bigger, better and bloodier than Sanguine Blade. We can't argue with that, so we’ll be retiring it from ARAM.

 

Warmogs added
Ever shed a tear after purchasing Giant’s Belt on ARAM only to remember you can’t build Warmogs? We’re bringing the HP behemoth to ARAM to give tanks a little love and to help them survive poke long enough to initiate at the right time. Note that we’ll be keeping a close eye on this one to make sure tanks don’t become too overpowering.

 

Skin Boosts; Turning the Random Dial to 11:
After flicking some switches and fiddling with a couple of dials, we've successfully added Skin Boosts to our ARAM update! Throw down 95RP and you'll give everyone on your team a one-time random skin for the champ they're using that game. You'll also earn yourself 200IP while giving your teammates 100IP.

 

Map & Art Changes; No More Nexus Gnomes:
We’ve skinned some of the art from Summoner’s Rift to match the Howling Abyss theme and bring some consistency between the maps. We also took this opportunity to do some general art polish, make some performance improvements and fix an issue that caused champion spells to sometimes be clipped when drawing on the ground. Check out these screenshots for more details.

Reskinned Nexuses (Nexi?)

 

Reskinned Minions

New Loading Screen

If you discover any bugs, please post them here!

~Riot JxE

Will The Twisted Treeline be getting any improvements any time soon? The towers are tiny and the minions are just an eyesore.

Minions are an easy win and something we should be able to easily bring to the other maps. We're going to see what other improvements we can make if time permits :)

I don't mind the addition of the Mark/Dash thing, just make it way more visually obvious, it was hard to see in the fray in the Legend of the Poro King.

We've changed the visuals since Poro King so are very interested to hear feedback from you guys regarding that. Are the snowballs obvious enough (trail, model, hitbox, etc)? Was it easy to understand when someone dashed to you? Etc.

I've personally been looking forward to this change very much. We saw good trends in Legend of the Poro King making certain traditionally 'lame duck' Howling Abyss champions quite viable. It turns out all you need to smash a Sona is some extra hard engage. :)

Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to give the purple/red side the red side style crystal? The bulkier stag theme works for the horned GREGOR/Freljord side of the bridge, but the watcher side is more pointed and sleek. It's just odd because you can see the stags on the nexus design and it's a tad conflicting.

We thought about doing this, but the ice theme and colors on Howling Abyss were designed around the purple/blue colors. Adding red to the map was too overpowering and really threw off the theme/design of it. It's not ideal for us to use the stag themed assets, but it looked better than what was there before and it leveled up the art on Howling Abyss overall in a way that allowed us to get a quick win.

If Riot is balancing ARAM, check the traps system, Make a Hextech Sweeper also for AP champs...cause some teams dont buy neither or
and for me ( an for ALL ) doesnt benefit from Hextech Sweeper or Lightbringer [...]

One more thing,we need there an AD for with warmog...

Alt map version of Twin shadows is being added.

As for an AD version of Morellonicon, not this patch. If we see a need for it develop in the future then we'll definitely explore creating one.

[...] Might be slightly off-topic, but how do you feel about the current situation of Elixir of Wrath in ARAM? At the moment it's extremely cost effective for AD champions because it can be kept up almost indefinitely due to the constant kills and assists.

What about minions in HA? They still have armor and MR. Do you intend to change them to be like the ones in SR (more health but no resistances)?

We haven't had any concerns about the elixir up to this point, but that may change with this patch. We'll keep an eye on it and address it if needed.

Minion stats will be updated. Should be on PBE today or tomorrow.

Also, some minor questions:
1: Will the minions receive the same spawn sfx/vfx as on SRU?
2: Will the Nexus towers recieve lasers?
3: Will the turrets recieve the SRU shield buff as well?
4: Also, in case you replace the old Nexus explosion, will you add the corresponding Victory/defeat animation as well?

Can't speak for the art stuff, but:

2/3. Not at this time. These are both mechanics that serve a specific function for SR. It's possible we could tweak them to for HA, but it isn't something we've explored yet.

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1/4 yes to both, it may not make it in right away, but it will eventually :)

Riot on Skillshots and Simple Design

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

I'm going to assume the discussion here is really about Ryze and not Annie.

 

Skillshots are certainly a common way to add a little more depth and opportunity for mastery for a champion, and I think it's fair criticism that we go to that particular tool in our toolbox a little too readily. We've tried other approaches with mixed success. The updated Sona for example was designed with the intent that you can try and stick near your allies to let them share your auras, but only when it was relatively safe from enemy area attacks to do so. There are movement and positioning minigames to play with champs that aren't all skillshots.

 

In terms of why do we feel the need to back off of having targeted attacks, it's a more nuanced topic. I am not a fan personally of having easy-to-play / easy-to-master champions that are doomed to a lower win rate at higher tiers of play. (Because why would anyone gravitate towards learning the nuance of harder-to-master champions if it didn't pay any dividends for them in the end?) But that's also a controversial topic and I know there are Rioters who disagree with that philosophy, so it's the kind of discussion on which we would love to hear more from you guys.

 

In the longer term, we'll try to come up with opportunities for instilling mastery in our new champions and updates without always relying on skillshots. Though skillshots are cool too and we aren't about to eliminate them.

 

On the other hand, if you really did want to talk about Annie, carry on. :)

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Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

It's okay to have simple champions [...]

I totally agree. Some of the best designs are the simplest. A lot of rich decision making and very complex play can come from something as simple as Singed Q. I hope that rather than try to add more mechanics we can improve our designs in the future by getting more value from less ("elegance" in a nutshell).

 

This will be especially key on some of our historically simple mechanic champions (Taric for example). We are making it a goal to add more depth and interest to his play without over complicating the kit or increasing the mechanical floor.

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2015 World Championship Venues

Originally Posted by Riot (View Original Source)

We’ve been counting the days until we could share final details of our stops on the path to the final. The venues are locked in and we’re hyped to confirm our full line-up of host cities for this season’s grand finale!

 

This fall, we’re bringing Worlds through Paris, London, and Brussels for group, quarters and semifinals before landing in Berlin where the two remaining teams will battle it out at the World Championship Final.

 

We’ll be starting our journey with Group Stage games spread over two weeks in Paris at Le Dock Pullman. Along with the qualifying teams, next we’ll jump on the Eurostar to London for Quarterfinals, where we’ll be making our return to Wembley Arena, home of our 2014 LCS event. Once the top four teams emerge, we’ll head over to Brussels for the Semifinals at the Brussels Expo before hosting the Final clash for the cup in the home city of the EU LCS, Berlin, at the Mercedes-Benz Arena (currently the O2 World - Berlin).

 

Choosing locations for the 2015 World Championship was a complex and time-intensive process. We began our search in earnest over a year ago, looking for venues and cities that gave us enough flexibility to customize live esports experiences for fans in the seats, as well as creating entertaining backdrops for players watching along at home. In the case of Paris and London, we’re thrilled to return to the major metropolitan cities that helped us blow the roof off 2014’s All-Star Game and LCS. We’re also looking forward to bringing high-level international play to Brussels for the first time, and reaching a new group of fans with live esports action within easy access of fans throughout Western Europe.

 

Berlin has been an amazing home for the 2015 EU LCS, and we’ve chosen a World Finals location that celebrates this unique city and its esports fan community. We’re looking forward to welcoming fans from throughout EU and beyond to this final show, and can’t wait to unveil a finale to the 2015 Season that celebrates the dedication and skill of pros and teams throughout the year.

 

We know we won’t have hit every city that fans were hoping we’d include in our journey. We count ourselves incredibly lucky that so many fans throughout Europe were passionate about us visiting their city - and we look forward to bringing live action to more fans with our EU Spring Finals in Madrid and another Summer Finals event to cap off the LCS season.

 

Here’s the full list of dates and venues. We’ll be announcing ticket information within the next few weeks, so keep an eye on Lolesports for information on how to be a part of Worlds live later this year!

 

Group Stages: October 1-4 and October 8-11 - Le Dock Pullman, Paris

 

Quarterfinals: October 15-18 - SSE Arena Wembley, London

 

Semifinals: October 24-25 - Brussels Expo, Brussels

 

Finals: October 31 - Mercedes-Benz Arena (currently O2 World - Berlin)

 

Halloween costume optional.

 

See you in Europe!

Champion and Skin Sale: 04.10 - 04.13

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:

Rune Wars Renekton 975 487 RP
Little Knight Amumu 750 375 RP
Uncle Ryze 520 260 RP

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Champion Sales

Add these champions to your roster:

Yasuo 975 487 RP	Rumble 880 440 RP	Mordekaiser 790 395 RP

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