Revelation VR: Red Post Collection: Quick Gameplay Thoughts: October 3rd, Ask Riot: 100th Edition & More

Today's red post collection includes Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for October 3rd, the 100th edition of Ask Riot and a special video version in celebration, and more!

Continue reading for more information!

Champion & Skin Sale 10/5 - 10/8

Quick Gameplay Thoughts: October 3rd

Here's Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for October 3rd, including context on balance this cycle and more:

"Hi folks,

Usual Disclaimers

These posts will often contain talk about future work we're doing, or planning to do, that isn't yet guaranteed to ship. The nature of the work could change or, depending on what we discover, projects mentioned may get delayed or even stopped. If you'd like to see a Tweet whenever a new one of these posts goes up: https://twitter.com/RiotMeddler

Some things we've been trying on Karma

For anyone that missed it Neurocat posted a piece on the NA dev corner earlier this week talking through some of the changes we've been trying for Karma. We wanted to see if the clothesline gameplay that Karma used to have years ago (tether to an ally, then hit enemies with the tether to CC them) could potentially be brought back. It was really distinct and could be pretty cool to play with. Conclusion we came to was that, unfortunately, while it's a cool sort of spell, it doesn't fit with a squishy caster who wants to be at a distance from he enemy team. Would be a good skill to put on someone who goes into the enemy team more (e.g. diving fighter or initiating tank) and we'll keep an eye out for a fit somewhere on a new or updated kit. Run through on the different major versions we tried below.

Longer version:
https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/KaRmzNlN-clothesline-karma-mini-retrospective

Ranked Skin reward if you don't own the champ in question

Since it's the time of year this question crops up a fair bit: If you don't own the champion that gets a Victorious skin, but you do qualify for the skin by being Gold+ in ranked, then you'll get given both the skin and the champion themselves. So, for example, last year, if you were Gold at the end of the ranked season, but didn't own Graves, you were given both Graves and Victorious Graves.

Some context on 8.20 balance changes

We're still more focused on preseason than the next couple of patches. 8.20 will have some balance work in it though. Thoughts on changes on the PBE, or probably on it soon, below. As usual some of this stuff will likely change as it gets tested.

Nerfs:

DH - Too strong early for a scaling rune. Looking at cutting early base damage as a result, Electrocute should have a longer period where it's the stronger pick. Also seeing it put out a bit much ranged harass for low risk early too, possibly ranged and melee values get adjusted differently. Scaling will likely remain the same.

Ahri - Rank 1 and 2 ult CD up, reducing her ability to snowball early and general safety. Same ult CD at max rank.

Graves - Looking at his AA AD ratio, with thinking being his scaling doesn't need to be as good as it currently is given he's strong early. Not concerned about nerfing him and Dark Harvest in the same patch given his performance with other keystones is also strong.

Nami - Currently looking at the degree to which her healing later in the laning phase can be pretty dominant, having a chilling effect on interaction. Testing a lower heal rank up on the W as a result (damage unchanged)

Sion - His recent W buff to permanent HP gained effectively also increased his regen, given the extra health acquired adds to current health as well as max. Likely cutting his HP5 down a bit to compensate (goal was to buff his HP stacking, not his laning sustainability)

Evelynn - Looking at reducing her ability to kill squishies without using her charm when she isn't pretty fed. Possible target as a result is R base damage. As with Graves not worried about hitting her and DH at the same time, given she also does well with other keystones.

Jhin - His best builds at present are both the fastest and some of the hardest hitting. Looking at a lower AS to damage ratio as a result, with some compensation elsewhere to make it so there's more of a trade off between mobility and damage.

Buff:

Corki - Aiming to get some changes in to help him out, though moderately likely those take a bit longer and end up in 8.21 instead. Possible directions we'll test include buffs to the Package and to his ult, though unlikely we do both at the same time."

Meddler added:

"One update since time of writing - we're probably moving towards just nerfing Graves's starting AD instead of scaling. Looking into it more he's already falling off pretty significantly, so we're just targeting general power instead."

On Pyke, Meddler commented:

"Probably in 8.21 instead, didn't make the cut for 8.20 (nerfing tank builds while keeping AD builds around current power level)."

As for Corki, Meddler replied:

"Yeah, putting power out of the equation, he's a champ you'd expect to get less play than many, given his theme's a more niche one and his art/VO are older. In the same way we see some champs that have really broadly appealing themes maintain high play rates even when weak."

When asked about the Dark Harvest changes testing on the PBE, as well as future changes, Riot Rovient commented:

"We're looking at ways of delivering a satisfying 'stacking' experience with offensive output, without delivering a tonne of damage in a single basic attack. This type of almost unavoidable delivery is even less healthy than the pre-nerf electrocute and can hit far greater numbers depending on the bloodiness of the game."

When asked about more VFX updates like we saw with Veigar, Lee Sin, and others in patch 8.19, Meddler commented:

"I expect we'll get some more in every so often. Work like that's often slotted in where an artist or two have time between larger champion projects (they're ahead of schedule and waiting on the rest of the team to catch up, things like that). Makes it harder to predict well in advance what will get done when."

Ask Riot: 100th Edition

This week's Ask Riot is the 100th edition of the series! Check out the special edition video:

"League’s development leads answer your most pressing and… intriguing questions."

Quick Hits

Xenogenic noted some bugfixes coming for Nunu & Willump in 8.21:

"We're on track to ship a large care-package to Nunu & Willump in 8.21. It's focused around fixing some new and old bugs and improving the quality of life for players playing them. Most of the items on this list, for example have been taken care of: List of All Nunu Bugs & Clunkiness"

Riot SapMagic posted the final sneak peeks of the new tier emblems, as well as a followup to the feedback received:

[1] Hello! Today we're doing a sneak peek of the new Grandmaster rank emblem. Just a daily reminder that we're still working on refining and polishing these, but we'd love your feedback. There's one more tomorrow; can you guess what it is? ;)

[2] Hello, summoners! Here's the sneak peek of the new Challenger emblem—we're still iterating/polishing, but please share your feedback! I also went ahead and updated the side-by-side with the latest art based on the feedback we got so far.

[3] Thanks again everyone for all the feedback you've shared. We're going to keep working on these to get them ready for prime time, but I also wanted to take a chance to talk about how we're going to act on your feedback.

[4] 1. Improve lighting/materials to match other art (Gold/Diamond and others)
2. Create a focal point (gemstone/center of emblem?)
3. Add more shine and vibrant qualities (similar to current emblems)
4. Increase contrast/add a secondary material in some cases

[5] We're not going to make any major design changes to the shape or silhouette of the emblems, but we'll look to improve the inside for more clarity and to make the progression more obvious.