Red Post Collection : Nome on Dom/TTL Kassadin/Singed changes, Grumpy Monkey's Art Thread, and more!

Continue reading for Nome's commentary on the map specific champ balance changes that popped up on the PBE earlier today ( including that Blackfire Torch will be remade within next two patches ), a look at some cool concept art from Grumpy Monkey, and more!

Nome's commentary on the map specific champ balance changes
As you may have already read, the first batch of map specific champion balance changes are currently up on the PBE and are slated to go out in the next patch. Check this post for more info but the changes come as Dominion nerfs for Kassadin and Twisted Treeline nerfs for Singed.

On the Singed armor per level and insanity potion nerfs for Twisted Treeline, Super Nomegeta commented:

"Blackfire Torch is going to be remade within the next two patches. The Singed nerfs are a first step to gauge reception and impact; we'll likely make additional changes in the future."

As for Kassadin's Riftwalk cooldown and range nerfs for Crystal Scar, Super Nomegeta commented:

"That's certainly a very valid concern, and I agree with you for the most part. When we make these changes, we're putting them through a lot of considerations as to how they'll affect the champion's play pattern and experience. 

With Kassadin, we know that hitting Riftwalk's range and cooldown dramatically change his play pattern. However, his play balance on the Crystal Scar is at a point where it hinges specifically on his mobility; this becomes more apparent the higher skill the players are, to the point where he's autobanned at the competitive level. The reason we didn't touch his stack durations is a bit of a concession; while it does take away a piece of functionality, increasing stack duration to 9 or 10 elevates the changes to a very different level than what we're prepared to address for this first iteration.

Do keep in mind that Kassadin is a very poor indicator of the level of changes overall; however, because his Riftwalk numbers are so integral to his power level on the map, we decided to hit him first. We don't anticipate we'll be modifying other champions nearly as much."

When asked if Teemo will be getting similar map specific nerfs,  Nome commented:

"We'll probably hit his mushrooms for 3.10."

Grumpy Monkey's Art Thread
Grumpy Monkey, one of the senior character artists at Riot, has been posting up several awesome things in his "Grumpy Monkey's Art Thread" over on the Art and Audio Feedback forums.

He kicked his thread off by sharing a 3d turnaround of the sculpt that Master Yi's new model is based on.

"Hey guys, I have a lot of art that I have done for League and I wanted to share it with the community. I started this thread as a way to show some of the 3d models and concept art that I or other rioters have done. Many times you guys only get to see the splash and final in game art, as I get permission I would like to start even posting old production art so you guys can see some of the process. Keep in mind that most of this stuff is old and/or is already out in the wild, that being said I would love to hear your thoughts or questions about the process of making art. :)

So Since Master Yi was just announced, here is a 3d turnaround of his High Res sculpt that I made to be used in the making his in-game model. 

https://vimeo.com/68653110
More to come..."

He continued, linking a few more cool concept arts and what not

"As promised here is some more stuff. Some of this you may have already seen, but Im going to put it up here for posterity.

Here is an image I made during the Soraka Rework, when we where discussing Her hooves and possible alternate horn options:"

"And here is a render of Jayce. Used it to learn some shader stuff and rendering in Mental Ray."

"Here are some early explorations of Vi. I had this idea of making her a roller derby chick, with a really tough girl attitude. That element I think got carried through to the final character. The second image is from a discussion in which I was asked to make Vi a bit younger, like a street urchin of Piltover, who found these gloves and became a badass. The final direction that is in the game now is the best incarnation imo. But it's fun to look back sometimes."

He commented on these two Vi concept arts, saying:

" I think it fought with the main theme of Vi which is the attitude and the gloves. That is a thematic package that is easy to wrap heads around. Attitude, Gloves, and Roller Skates? Not so much. The roller skates are a bit superfluous. In my opinion, good character design is very minimalist. Sure you can add a few things here and there to add depth to the character, but for video games, each character is basically the avatar or symbol of a specific power type or combat style. We want that power and ability read to be very clear and understood to the players. Adding roller skates to Vi's design added a layer of complexity that wasn't really needed. Plus it also gives us the intellectual space to make a dedicated Roller Skate Champion someday."

Morello on Champion Tags
Morello took time to comment on the tag system, as seen classifing champions with tags such as "melee", "tank", etc on the champion pages in client.

"I actually agree that our current tagging is, well, bad. While I never want to get too specific on what champions should be and should not be, champ tags and classifications should at least help answer, broadly, what this character can do.

I'm going to have a bigger article on this subject coming out pretty soon to explain how we see it, as well as providing some definitions to this stuff. More importantly, I want to also show the difference between role and position - something I think is commonly confused."