Red Post Collection: 5.16 Patch Rundown, The Tahm Kench Cookbook, new /ALL Chat, and more!

"Scarizard, Zirene, Statikk and Dignitas’ KiWiKiD tackle 5.16’s biggest changes in today’s rundown. Tune in to learn about the incoming juggernauts, items for these beefy dudes, and a slew of tweaks hitting Kassadin and Lee Sin."

Essence Reaver Changes in Preseason

When asked if they have any plans to spruce up Essence Reaver, Meddler commented:

"We'll likely make changes to it in the Preseason patch, completely agree it's not a good choice 99% of the time at present."

Meddler also replied to a question concerning Pantheon & Essence Reaver:

"We don't currently have any changes planned for Pantheon in 5.17 or, to the best of my knowledge 5.18. He's a much more mobile fighter than the juggernauts we've been working on, with some assassin lke qualities, so he wasn't a character we considered for this bundle of work. 

Essence Reaver we'll almost certainly change come preseason, still figuring out how however."

Riot Repertoir also added:

"I've heard it mentioned as something to check out for preseason, but I don't know or have any details on what any changes may be. 

Anything you guys would like to see in particular from the item?"

Reinboom also popped in to ask:

"Slightly different question for you all on this thread: 

What is the core concept you would attach most to Essence Reaver? This could be anything from intended user to "80 AD" to it's mana gain on hit.
Regardless of if Essence Reaver is serving those concepts well. 

Then, to what extent do you believe the rest of the item can change around the core concept you chose? (From not at all, suggesting no changes just numbers increase to everything)"

The Tahm Kench Cookbook

Next up we have Glyceroll with a set of Tahm Kench inspired recipes!

"When it comes to culinary gems, Tahm Kench is League's forefront connoisseur. Straight from Kench's kitchen - here's a few League themed recipes to impress your friends and family!

Made in collaboration with community artist Knockwurst and Bioluminescence.

Dare to try one of Tahm’s sinister recipes? Let us know what you think below!"

Glyceroll also shared pictures of the meal after creating them:

"Ask and ye shall recieve! (Super super poorly done pictures, pls don't judge too hard!) 

Here's a picture of Amumoodles:

and here's a picture of Krugettes:"

2015 World Championship Format

The format for the 2015 World Championship has been revealed, including  several improvements over last world championship, a live group draw, and more!

Check out the full lolesports article for more information!

"With teams on the brink of qualifying for the 2015 World Championship, here’s a comprehensive overview of the tournament structure. In this article, we’ll be summarizing the 2015 Worlds format and explaining our process for determining team placements during the main stages of the tournament."

Ghostcrawler ASK.FM Roundup

Here's a look at some of the more interesting responses from Ghostcrawler's ASK.FM over the past day:

[Link] What's your position on have 5 bans, maybe even 1 for each player? Its kind of frustrating to have none of your own input when 1 of 5 random people gets to ban 3. Also I think the champion pool is big enough to justify more bans.‎ 

"Timely question. We have had a few meetings on this topic lately. Would be interested in community feedback right now on what problems you think the existing system has and your opinions about the right way to fix. 

(Also specify if you're talking about pro play or non-pro ranked play. We don't strictly have to use the same system for both.)"

[Link] Was the Abyssal scepter rework dropped? What happened with that? 

"It is officially on ice. 

You can read a little more context here. Nothing has really changed since that post. 

http://boards.pbe.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/champions-gameplay-feedback/Xkgj0mMM-abyssal-scepter-context"

[Link] I wonder will something happen to runes, there are Energy runes that noone uses. Will they be removed and replaced with something better or not. And the runes are kinda too expensive to buy and it is problem when you are new player, will that be fixed? And will rune page action (2 for price of 1) TY 

"Long term, the system needs some work and we have some ambitious ideas. We agree that lack of choice / the system being solved is the main design problem.

Short term, we made the early tier runes super cheap so that they were no longer a noob trap, and we are (assuming no unforseen circumstances arise) going to implement a rune bundle option as was suggested by players on Reddit a few weeks ago."

To build on to the last comment about rune bundles, Meddler added:

These rune bundles would be purchased with IP.

Meddler on Singed & Cho'Gath - Are they Juggernauts?

When asked if the team had plans for Singed or Cho'Gath as part of their current focus on Juggernauts, Meddler noted:

"No current plans to rework either of them. Balance changes always a possibility, though nothing immediately on the radar.

As far as what roles we see them as we feel Singed is more of a tank than a juggernaut. He's a pretty mobile champ and doesn't generally want to stand still next to you murdering you, neither of which are juggernaut traits. He's also sometimes a pretty solid initiator if he can catch a good target out of position and fling them.

Cho's more of a mage/tank hybrid. He does have proximity threat like juggernauts do, with his sustained E damage and R spike damage. His Q and W though are very mage or tank like tools, and the E and R also match fairly well with those roles."

As for Yorick's large scale rework leaving him as a Juggernaut, Meddler noted:

"Juggernaut's a strong possibility, not certain yet though."

Meddler on Zyra

When asked about his previous comments on experimenting with an new Zyra passive, Meddler popped back up to comment:

"Quote:

Hey, I know this is completely off-topic. But can you give us an update on how the Zyra passive went?

We kicked various versions of it around, didn't hit on one we had confidence in overall though. I'd still like to investigate it further, others understandably concerned about the amount of power it might add. That makes it a better candidate for a high disruption time of the year (preseason possibly), rather than right now. 

We do have other plans we're going to investigate for Zyra though, she could do with a bit of help. First step's going to be looking at her plant AI, see what improvements we can make there to determine how much of her struggling a little is raw power versus ability to consistently apply that power. That exploration will likely happen during the next patch or so, though too early to say yet if it'll hit the mark and be shipped or if we'll need to look at something else instead (or in addition)."

The Problem with Attack Range Increasing Items

When asked why no items in LoL increase a champion's attack range, Xypherous commented:

"Quote:

Wouldn't that make for some interesting new ad items?
For example, one item might give ad and crit chance, with an active that increases your crit chance for 6 seconds while reducing your range by 100.
It just seems weird that there is one stat in the game that doesn't interact with items at all.

"Attack range is a major part of combat feel and zone of control feel.

A lot of champion's feel 'wrong' or 'off' subtly when their zones of control don't line up - and so things that alter ranges (especially dramatically in an instant) usually feel incredibly off-putting.

We do have range modifiers - but they're usually gradual (Tristana) - or in the case of Kog'maw, it simply syncs his attack range with his other zone of control (Q/R/E) low-range.

Think about it like this:

When you have a shotgun and a chainsaw - you know what you're good at - and what you aren't. You have excellent zone of control in short proximity.

When you have a sniper rifle and a rocket launcher - it's similar, you know how you should fight and what feels natural. You have excellent zone of control in mid-range.

Now imagine a character with a shotgun and a sniper rifle. Your combat ranges aren't sync'ed and so your positioning often feels kind of off. Now imagine if those ranges changed - but not enough to sync. Where you should stand and who you should hit just gets this muddy weird feeling because you don't know whether to move forward or backward."

Xypherous continued:

">>but having multiple engagement ranges isn't a bad idea. 

Completely agree with you that having multiple engagement ranges can work and can be fun to pull off. Apologies if my post was unclear about that point. 

I was going from a state where things are in sync to more and more rapidly desync'ed - as I understand the suggestion was a short term desync of combat range for a brief period that is wide-spread - rather than one that is tuned around matching other engagement ranges that the character would innately have. 

The effect that was described originally - however - is a short term range change that has no guarantee to sync with one of the player's other combat ranges.

>>I've personally really liked playing Sniper & Shotty in the past, particularly in Halo. I don't think that's necessarily an indication that it would work well in League, but having multiple engagement ranges isn't a bad idea. 

When I've tried to figure out what makes Sniper/Shotty work and to replicate it - what I found was two things were really important to it. 

• Dead Zone between the ranges.
• Clip Sizes / Swap Speed between forms. 

Had a hard time replicating both of these facets - the major limitation being screen space. :x"

When asked about how Jinx factors in to this discussion, Xypherous commented:

"I believe Jinx actually has two combat ranges - similar to the Kog'maw example I mentioned. 

One is tuned around Zap! and her Rocket launcher / ultimate. 

The other one is tuned around Mines and her mini-gun. 

Their weapon swaps basically sync their AA to their other combat range. (Okay, Rockets are weird in that you have to level them for a bit before they sync.)
Sniper / Shotty was an extreme example because you have a dead zone between your far range and your near range where you're mostly ineffective - instead of one that blends into another fighting style. 

My major issue with the pattern that the original commentator described is that the short duration range reduction pretty much has no chance of sync'ing up with some alternative combat pattern you have - which has a really high chance of making that pattern feel fairly terrible. 

Although... actually.. maybe a short term range increaser would sidestep a lot of these - as you don't really have to give up your positioning - it simply augments the power of your current positioning. That's a pattern that actually works for a lot of our next-hit abilities - and so might actually work well in item form perhaps. The trouble, however, is that range increase is just about the most powerful thing you can give - and so what kind of hoop can you force someone to go through to benefit from it."

Xypherous on Itemization & Build Paths

In a reddit thread discussing the recent removal of the "Valor's Reward" passive from Righteous Glory even thought it still builds out of Catalyst, Xypherous and the community launched into a lengthy discussion on the "rule" of  upgrading items and keeping their benefits:

"Quote:

Yeah I don't know what to think of this change. There's an implicit rule in League, that if you upgrade an item, you will keep all the benefits. The only exception I know off the top of my head is Avarice Blade, with its gold income passives. It's weird that RG should be exempt from this rule.

This rule has actually strangled us from actually making items that feel decently unique - as it guarantees that 50 to 70% of an item's identity will be its build path rather than what it does, unfortunately. 

Because every effect accumulates - the tier 3 upgrade doesn't actually get to be anything other than the sum of its parts - which results in the vast majority of our items doing mostly similar things because items build from one another. 

Since components naturally don't have flashy power intrinsically (due to being cheap and other reasons) - it naturally pushes final items to be... less about the final item and more about the fact that it's a Giant's Belt glued to a Resistance item. :/"

When asked about applying this "rule break" more often, Xypherous  commented:

"Quote: 

So why not break the rules a little more often? It could add another layer of strategy by allowing builds other than just completing highest-tier items, which are always the most efficient. Perhaps mid-game oriented unique passives and actives like Catalyst could be an efficient way to create meaningful choices and item diversity in an otherwise bland part of the game. 

ADCs in particular could benefit from utility providing mid-game items that could later become flat DPS items, while losing their utility components. They'd have to decide when the right time is to upgrade.

Yeah - it's something I'm trying to get people to look at for the preseason."

As for the type of item he would like to see if they subverted this "rule" more often, Xypherous noted:

"I think the style of items would be somewhat lane-centric or short term power kind of passives. 

For example, a mid-tier item with a single-use active. 

Alternatively, converting a mid-tier item's passive to a negative version of the same effect. For a thematic example - imagine if Abyssal Scepter was actually 'Corrupted Aegis' - which flipped the MR aura. 

Such an item would have an interesting path as you'd build it to counter the enemy mages - but if you felt that your team no longer needed the aura (or if someone else wanted to be Aegis holder) you would flip the aura - which would make Aegis have an interesting decision fork for an aggressive support mage."

He continued:

"Quote:

So basically, let them commit to the item beforehand with a much weaker item that gives a loosely similar passive or ability. The item I mentioned before could maybe upgrade into a different item that slows the enemy and then deals damage based on how far they moved, but then also upgrade into an item that lets you speed one ally with a different condition.

What I've discovered with this approach is basically that you end up with two items that are, more or less, functionally identical. Spirit Visage and Banshee's Veil come to the forefront for me on this - where essentially, the purchase rates of these items are contingent - not on champion diversity or champion synergies - but just whichever one happens to be more powerful at the time. 

Because the divergence happens so late and is so little - the items don't really get a chance to stand apart from one another. :x"

He continued:

"Quote

In all seriousness, is this something you plan to do with more items in the future, and if so, isn't there a risk that'd be confusing for new players (serious question, not memeing).

I agree that it'd be confusing - we'd have to think pretty carefully about either ways to theme it - or make up short term passives that people don't mind losing. 

Seeker's Armguard, for me, while boring - is an example of a style of passive that I'd like to be able to make much more interesting. The Tiamat --> Titanic Hydra shift is something that I'll be excited to see if people can get a good handle on."

As for the suggestion of peeling away stats in favor of more  actives / passives, Xypherous noted:

"Quote

In my opinion, if you get it to balance the item so that it is not a default item to go (maybe by heavily reducing its tanking stats) and make this a situational item (which is not so true currently), then you'd have every champion being allowed to make this very situational move.

If you nerf the item's innate statistical power - what you've essentially done is constrain the item to people who don't need the item's innate statistical power. While there's problem some sort of shady grey area in which this item could be balanced - the item basically feels like a sucker punch because your character never synergizes with the item - they're just less bad with the item that someone who scales. 

This relegates it to pretty much either supports -or- characters that don't scale with stats... which I guess is just supports again. 

While every champion could buy this strategic item - since the baseline power is so weak, they'd essentially be just buying an active. However - there's an entire position that can just buy an active / item slots are precious / a champion's core functions are enhanced by buying statistics - so in the end - what I've usually discovered with this approach is that you either end up with an item no one wants to buy - or it becomes a support pickup and they're forced to buy it if the active is desirable."

As for Banshee's Veil and Spirit Visage, Xypherous also commented:

"While it's interesting from a design perspective - in actual practice - BV and SV aren't really all that different from each other - and the usage rates kind of confirm that they don't really have their own intrinsic identity."

He continued:

"Quote:

Well they did until Veil's mana and catalyst regen were removed.

Mistakes were made. :p 

Not that I'd revert it at this point though. :x"

Xypherous also replied to someone asking about Righteous Glory feeling like a poor buy on champions who do not need the mana:

"Quote

In addition, this prevents other champions that fit this theme such as Gnar, Kennen, Shen, etc from using this item and thus further diversifying the game.

I strongly disagree that allowing every type of champion to use the item would diversify the game. What this effect typically does it ensure that no champion actually has items that feel like it belongs or is beneficial on him. 

The analogy to think of in this case would be think about Magic the Gathering or balanced CCG. Now imagine if every card was now colorless - but still had the same mana cost. 

Is the game actually more diverse? Not particularly. Because there's no tradeoffs to picking effects - you've reduced the selection to cherry picking the best effects.
Because there are no inherent tradeoffs (or synergies) to the cost of the card and you've made the card as generically powerful as can be - your choices actually collapse because there is never any downside -nor- is there any special synergy that you have with a power or effect. 

The net result of making RG generically available would mostly likely result in it either being generically overpowered and basically being the de facto health/cdr item (most likely killing either SV or others) -or- it would basically be balanced around manaless tanks or low-mana using tanks and therefore mana or mana-reliant characters would be shut out of the game due to not being able to have access to said effect. 

There's an intrinsic advantage to being manaless or not needing mana. You don't need mana. RG's build path in no way prohibits someone who doesn't need a ton of Mana from building said item - it forces you to take an actual tradeoff in purchasing the item - and therefore it means that you likely will build a different set of items - thus marking a clear difference in how manaless tanks build vs. mana-heavy tanks."

/ALL CHAT | Are You Bad At League?

Last up we have a new episode of /ALL CHAT with guest star Professor Milk!

"This week’s ALL Chat features beautiful Zyra cosplay, Pulsefire Ezreal comes to life on stage, the hosts discuss some polarizing personality types you might encounter online, and Professor Milk teaches us how to not be bad at League. James does not officially endorse any gameplay advice given. 

Let us know what you think!"