Red Post Grab Bag: Where's patch 3.8?, Update on Dominion Support, Sona and LeBlanc Discussion, and big hints on next Ultimate skin.

Where is the promised Dominion Developer Support?
When asked when we'll see more support, that is more attention from the developers, for Dominion, Morello commented:

"Very soon. Nome's been hard at work on making this a reality. I appreciate your patience, and we're just about there!"

After coming under fire that 3 patches isn't "very soon", Morello defended himself by saying:

"Three patches is soon :x I mean I guess I can say "indeterminate" if that's the case."

When asked WHY we can't see this in the next patch or even in recent patches, he replied:

"Because things aren't magical and instantaneous. It's like people have to do work to make things happen :P

It's not a "flip of the switch," or a "5-minute job". It's a new technology that allows other maps to refer to alternate files that determine different numbers only for that map.

And the performance and server implications...

And the code being made, tested, debugged...."

More on patch 3.8's Sona Changes 
Turns out that summoners are still upset over the upcoming Sona changes / major bug fixes, Here is Morello, again, explaining that the bug fix on her W power chord is a buff and she needs to be balanced back to with that fact in mind.

"Because giving a character a new skill that gives 20% damage reduction is a major buff. To add that to Sona, you have to take it away unless your intent is to buff her hard.
The difference between... 

* Fixed a bug that caused Sona's damage reduction to not function
and

* Diminuendo: now grants 20% damage reduction to enemies hit

...is only one thing; intent. It's a bug because it was supposed to be doing that prior. Since we've done Sona balance without her having this mechanic, and she's already strong, she cannot be balanced the same by adding a new mechanic."

When questioned if Riot has known about this bug the whole time, he replied:

"No, we just learned about it. That's why we're fixing it.

It was especially nasty because the UI and damage text reported reduced damage, but it didn't actually occur."

He also spelled out why Sona is receiving nerfs in light of this bug fix.

"We balanced her as if she had this mechanic, but she didn't. People reported it not being very effective in playtests, so we assumed that the other powercords outperformed it. That is the case when the W Powercord was totally ineffective :)

Additionally, we did undo some of the nerfs to her toughness because we think with the powercord damage nerfs, those are less needed."

Where is Patch 3.8 / Aatrox ?
Not that it's a big revelation or anything but Damiya did note that, as usual, we shouldn't expected patch 3.8 to be deployed this weekend.

"I can't comment on when it will be available. I will say that it won't be tonight or this weekend. Enjoy your Friday, folks :)"

Similarly, Morello reminded us that it's not all content that goes into patching

" ... there's some big things going on with the operations side of that patch that's making us need to do more clean up. Content-wise we're good, but there's a lot of things that make a patch a reality!"

Commentary on Le Blanc
 In a thread attempting to bait Morello into a discussion about LeBlanc, Roku stepped up the plate to discuss the history behind LeBlanc's changes and shared a few of his thoughts on what direction she is heading in.

"I'm not Morello nor technically a game designer, but I've been looking at and working on Leblanc a bit recently so I can fill in some insight. 

Leblanc is a champ that we haven't tweaked in a while because of some fundamental quirks with her playstyle and her balance. How her Mimic currently works forces her to use it with the spell she's maxing first, and that synergizes best with her highest damage ability - Sigil of Silence. This makes it so that her early and mid game spike up super high, and because of so much of that is on Sigil of Silence, your opponent doesn't have much of an option other than stacking Magic Resist and hoping to survive. We'd like to make changes to push emphasis away from her Q, and instead on to her other abilities. 

For instance: If Mimic has its own damage independent from her base abilities, then that opens up the ability to use Mimic Distortion for clearing minions, or Mimic: Ethereal Chains for additional control without losing a huge chunk of your damage.

Looking to improve her overall quality of life as well with small things like making her passive move around instead of just standing still. On that note: are there any oddities or general frustrations when playing LeBlanc that could be cleaned up?"

After a boat load of community discussion, he replied:

"A recurring theme seems to be the passive. 

One of the things we're trying on that front is making it so that when the passive procs, instead of the clone standing around awaiting a command, it will try to run instead. It is still fully controllable, but until you give it an order it will just try and run away. This has tested pretty well and especially in more chaotic team fights allows the passive to have an effect even if you don't instantly react and micro it.

I'll try to see if we can get some of the other bugs fixed as well. Thanks everyone!"

More on the Next Ultimate Skin
A curious summoner asked if Dragon Master Swain, a very popular community generated skin, was the next ultimate skin, Morello commented:

"It is not. Not this one :)"

As a follow up, someone else asked if Dragon Master Swain was still on the table or if he was to be released soon-ish. Morello replied:

"Not yet. It'll be a bit still, we'll make it, it will just be awhile."

In more tangible news, Morello also dropped some big hints about the upcoming ultimate tier skin saying both that the fourth letter of one of the champion's abilities is an E and :

"Within the spirit of openness, I'll tell you this:

This champion is a melee champion."

Odds and Ends
Morello also dropped off a tid-bit about Jayce's balance

"We're looking at Jayce right now - we agree he's a bit much."