[UPDATED] Red Post Collection: Initial Juggernaut Thoughts, PROJECT skins to have individual splashes, Pixel Art SR, & more!

Posted on at 10:40 AM by Moobeat
[UPDATE #2: In addition to Lyte's clarification on ranked & restrictions, post has been updated with a list of upcoing Darius hot fix changes and additional comments on initial juggernaut thoughts.]

Today's red post collection includes Meddler with the teams initial thoughts on the 5.16 Juggernaut reworks, Galetta noting the PROJECT skins will have individual splash arts, WizardCrab confirming Jaximus will not be leaving the shop due to his legacy, Lyte on 2015 ranked rewards and restrictions, a pixel art version of Summoner's Rift, and more!
Continue reading for more information!



Table of Contents


[Updated] Lyte on 2015 Season Rewards & Restrictions


[UPDATE] Lyte has clarified this to say that folks who do not have a restriction at the end of the season will get rewards, players who have been banned for 7-14 days will not.
[1] "Players that have reformed and DO NOT HAVE Chat or Ranked Restrictions by Season end will still get Ranked Rewards. However, (1/2)"

[2] "Players that have been game banned for 7-14 days for excessive toxicity at any point during the 2015 Season will not get rewards (2/2)"

Over on his ask.fm account, Lyte has commented that players who have been chat restricted, ranked restricted, or banned will not be eligible for 2015 season ranked rewards but details are not finalized.
[source] so from what i heard if u get a any kind of ban in any part of season u will not get Season 5 Ranked Rewards is that correct sir ? thanks in advance. 
We are still working on the details for the 2015 Season, but the current plan is that players who have been Chat Restricted, Ranked Restricted or Game Banned during the 2015 Season will not receive Season Rewards in Ranked. Players who have had Low Priority Queues won't be affected unless they have had 20 min Low Priority Queues. Emails and Player Support sites will be updated with this new info when we finalize the details.
He continued:
"I made a huge blunder earlier, then was on a flight so didn't have a chance to correct the post earlier. 
In the last season of Leagues play, we excluded some of the Ranked Rewards from players that were excessively toxic (so, exhibited severe offensive behaviors such as racism and sexism) or were persistently toxic (so, exhibited moderately offensive behaviors in a large number of games). We're going to continue this policy this year; however, there are some slight changes: 
One, we always want to encourage reform, and celebrate players that successfully reform by the end of the season. So, players that got a Chat or Ranked Restriction during the season, but manage to reform and DO NOT HAVE active Chat or Ranked Restrictions by the season end cutoff will still get their Ranked Rewards. Players that still have active Chat or Ranked Restrictions by the season end cutoff will not be eligible. 
Two, players that have received a few Low Priority Queues will still be eligible for Ranked Rewards because we do not want to punish players who may have gotten a few queues due to ISP or hardware issues; however, extremely chronic leavers that have left a huge fraction of their games or hundreds and hundreds of games will not receive Ranked Rewards. These are players that have ruined hundreds of thousands of games, and have had multiple 20 minute Low Priority Queues. 
Three, players that have received escalated bans (so 7-day or 14-day bans) for excessive toxicity at any point during the 2015 Season will not receive Ranked Rewards. Players that have received these types of bans have shown some of the most egregious behaviors in the game, and we have a zero tolerance policy against things like racism, sexism, homophobia and other kinds of hate speech. These players WILL be eligible for Ranked Rewards in future seasons if they reform and are not flagged for excessive behaviors in future seasons.

Hope this clarifies a few things and sorry for the mashing of sentences in the earlier post. Good luck on the rest of the season!"

[Updated] Initial Juggernaut Thoughts

[UPDATE]

Meddler popped back in to post an update:
"As a quick update it's looking like we'll also make some hot fix changes to Garen and Darius early next week. In Garen's case we're now fairly sure he's too strong, and are thinking about reducing his mobility a bit (-5 base MS, -5% on Q's movement speed bonus). For Darius we're looking at higher Q damage, possibly plus something else. 
For 5.17 we're also looking at whether Darius's E is now too unreliable, given the change to only pull enemies that are in the cone at cast completion."
With the 5.16 Darius, Garen, Mordekaiser, and Skarner reworks out on live, Meddler jumped on the boards to offer the team's initial thoughts on the set of Juggernauts:
"Hey all, 
Wanted to share our initial reactions to how the reworked juggernauts are doing so far, give you folks a bit of context into what we're thinking/planning:
  • Darius: Looks like he's potentially a bit on the weak side. Investigating possible buffs (most likely laning focused) should that prove to be true. 
  • Garen: Potentially a bit strong, might be in an ok spot though, still assessing. 
  • Mordekaiser: Too early to say. Seems to be at least in the right ballpark, since we're seeing a roughly appropriate mixture of success and failure. Lot of people relearning how to play as and against though, so can't judge usefully yet. 
  • Skarner: Way too strong. We'll likely hotfix nerf as a result (start of next week is what we're looking at, which would be the earliest available opportunity)"

In response to a comment asking for more threads like this in the future, Meddler noted:
"Noted, will try to do so more often. A lot of the time though first day reactions won't be so useful (much harder to gauge smaller balance changes off one day's play for example), so might be more 'thoughts after a week' sort of stuff instead."

As for the origin of the initial thoughts thread and why something like "hotfix nerfs" wasn't done for Ryze following his update, Meddler commented:
"Given the size of the changes in 5.16, and the risk that one or more of the juggernauts would be significantly off balance wise (whether weak or strong) we prearranged a hot fix window so we could respond to issues like this one quicker than usual. 
As far as Ryze goes I do think we should have reacted quicker when he was effectively chain rooting people. Cases like that or Kass/Veigar being extremely weak earlier in the year, have led us to investigate using balance hotfixes recently for stuff like Fiora or Skarner. Hotfixes aren't appropriate tools for regular balance changes, we're trialing whether they're an appropriate tool in cases where a champion's extremely out of line however."

When asked what sort of nerfs they are looking at for Skarner, Meddler noted:
"Not certain yet, though rank 1 W % and E damage are the most likely starting points."

As for an idea of other Juggernauts they'd like to work on in the future, Meddler repeated:
"We'll look at Olaf and Shyvana at some point, see if they're good fits for similar work. That won't be for a while though."

[Updated] 5.16 Darius Balance Feedback thread

Following the above, Statikk also posted a standalone thread for players to leave their feedback on the 5.16 Darius changes:
"Hey guys, 
Now that Darius is released, I'd like to follow up and continue to monitor him with you guys. 
Please leave feedback on what you guys feel is working well and what isn't going so hot.
Thanks!"

Statikk also replied to a common point of feedback regarding his attack speed feeling low:
"Seems like something people are echoing a decent amount. Will look into the AS as a possibility."
[UPDATE]

Statikk returned to the thread to share a set of buffs that will soon be hotfixed for Darius:
"Hey guys, 
Dropping by to give you all an update on our current thoughts / plans.
We are planning to hotfix some buffs out for Darius in the near future. The changes revolve largely around making Q much more rewarding to land. 
Here's the proposed changelist: 
Darius 
Decimate (Q)
  • Base Damage increased to 40/70/100/130/160 from 20/40/60/80/100
  • Missing heal increased to 15% from 10% per champion hit (max still 30%) 
Also planning on looking at other potential changes for W and E for the upcoming patches and seeing if we can do some tweaks to make them more impactful again. 
Really do apologize to the Darius players who have to tough this out, we definitely undershot on him but we're trying to move as quickly as we can to correct it."

Upcoming PROJECT skins to have individual splashes 

With recent group skin releases sharing a splash art, Riot Galetta confirmed that the five upcoming PROJECT skins will each have their own splash:
"All of the project skins have their own splash images, so no shared splash this time. :D"

[Updated] Meddler & ricklessabandon on PBE Syndra changes

[UPDATE]

ricklessabandon has tweeted out they are going to hold off on the changes, likely to start back up for 5.18:
[1] re: syndra changes—looks likely that we'll be holding off a bit longer on pushing these out. not enough time to wrap them up fully for 5.17

[2] tl;dr - still want to explore effects for the passive and make sure tuning is good.

[3] do think she still could benefit and use the attention though. hope to start up again on the pbe cycles for 5.18
In a boards thread regarding the recent Syndra passive PBE changes (making Q's bonus true damage and doubling E's effect), Meddler commented they are still looking for a W change:
"We're still looking for a good change to the W upgrade, with you that it's neither a satisfying upgrade nor a good option to max until you have to. The challenge has been finding an appropriate effect that:
  • Feels at least somewhat noticeable at level 13 or 18 (assuming W still won't be a good choice to max first)
  • Augments Force of Will's existing functionality, rather than adding something completely new to master (should feel like an upgraded version of the spell, not a replacement)
  • Has a clear niche compared to the Q and E (so not raw damage or improved multi target peel)
  • Isn't way too strong (we did try putting the knockup that was there prerelease back on, felt great as the Syndra player but adding another hard CC wasn't appropriate).
Suggestions much appreciated! We'd rather ship improvements to the Q and E than delay them until we find a good W change, given Syndra could do with a bit of power at present. Would certainly be nice to bundle a W change in as well if something that ticked all the boxes could be found though."
He continued:
"I'd like to avoid anything that really changes the feel of the cast like missile speed, since that then forces you to relearn timings etc partway through the game, often for only a brief period (ranked 2nd or 3rd). 
As above mana reduction's something I've been hesitant about, but very interested in other people's takes on. 
W pick up range increase is an interesting one actually. Does have a bit of scaryness in terms of red/blue steals, other than that though might be appropriate. Now that I think about it red/blue might also just end up immediately turning around and leashing back if pulled much further. 
I'm personally a bit stumped on this one. Was originally hoping that putting the knockup back on would be appropriate given other changes to Syndra and the game since we removed it. None of the other stuff I've looked into's hit the mark though, hence suggestions particularly welcomed."
In response to someone suggesting a .5 second silence, he noted:
"I'd be hesitant about a silence, suspect the main thing it would do is increase the window in which other casters can't respond to her after getting stunned, which I don't think's where she needs the help. Silences that short also tend to be pretty unsatisfying for the user, whilst feeling more like unresponsiveness than genuine CC to the victim (see: Blitz ult)."

As for a mana refund of some kind for W's improvement, he noted:
"Really curious as to more people's thoughts on some form of mana refund or discount. It's something I'd shied away from, on the belief that by the time it's available you've already had to commit to mana items anyway, so it wouldn't help much. Would love to hear other opinions on that though."

Juggernauts vs Tanks

When asked what the difference between a Juggernaut and a Tank is, Scruffy explained:
"The main difference between a juggernaut (say garen) and a tank (like sion) is that juggernauts bring primarily damage output to their team while tanks bring initiation power and lots of CC. 
So to properly fill their role throughout the game juggernauts will have much better damage scaling, while tanks will scale way better with CDR and defensive items by simply living longer and providing more lockdown."
He continued:
"Quote
Fair enough, that makes sense. I'm not asking for tanks to do 1vs1 damage on par with juggernauts. I'd just want the late game tank items to be similarly top tier in a full build even if I have to pay more.
Totally agree, tanks need to have legit relevance and scaling into the late game like all other LoL classes. The Jugg stuff this patch is only the start, we want to make all classes have relevance to the game, diverse champ designs, and satisfying item choices."

Jaximus not leaving shop

Over on reddit, WizardCrab scuttled in to say Jaximus won't be leaving the shop as part of the 21 retiring legacy skins due to it's connection with Joe's legacy:
"Quote
I was talking with some friends when we saw that Jaximus was headed into the legacy vault. This seems like a strange decision to me, as Jaximus is edited (given the quote "Here's to you, kid") in order to honor the memory of a guy named Joe from the Make a Wish foundation who passed away some time after visiting Riot HQ. Shouldn't it remain readily available in order to continue to honor his memory? 
Source on Joe and Riot: [link]
Fair enough. The connection hadn't occurred to me when I put the list together, and I apologize. I'll make sure he doesn't leave the store. 
A thought occurs to me though. What if we still tag him as Legacy, but he never leaves the store? This way, most of the year when there are no other Legacy skins available, he'll be the only skin that shows up under the 'Limited Availability' tag in the store, prompting people to ask their friends why. This way more League players will hear about Joe. 
Is that stupid? Is it just confusing? I'm just thinking out loud here."

Moving Items in the shop

In a thread inquiring why you can't rearrange your inventory in the shop menu, Chager explained:
"Quote: 
I keep trying to do this in game before realizing it doesn't work, the store window has a grid with your current items that matches the normal hud grid but stays the same size even if you scale down the hud, so it would be much easier and more convenient to be able to move them from here while buying than needing to close the shop and move items around while getting to lane using a smaller part of the interface
Totally agree with you. The main issue is that the HUD and the store are built in entirely different code bases, and because of that we don't have a bridge that connects the two and allows functionality to mirror item shifts from one to the other. 
The new HUD was built from the ground up on a new code base, and the store/options menus haven't been converted yet. No ETA on when we'll get to them either, but we do have it on our radar as an issue we want to resolve.

Pixel art Summoner's Rift wallpaper

Last up, here's Rocket Baby Doll with a pixel art version of Summoner's Rift by Megaport.ru! 
"The arcade is open! To celebrate the release of the latest retro arcade skins, Arcade Riven and Battle Boss Blitzcrank, we worked together with artist Megapont.ru to bring you something a little bit new and special. Welcome to 8-bit Summoner's Rift! 
When we think back to 80s and 90s gaming, we think secret levels, Easter eggs and fun hidden all over the place, so that's what we wanted in an 8-bit Summoner's Rift. Scratch the surface and you'll see adorable pixel minions traipse up and down the lanes among giant retro towers. Raptors, Krugs and Bramblebacks are all gloriously stylised. Even the dragon and Baron Nashor are getting in on the action. (We suspect the artist may have a preference for the former, since he's huge and has a giant lightning bolt shooting out of his face.) Keep an eye out for more secrets hidden around the map. 
Like the look of it? Then good news, because we have high-resolution versions available to download so you can scrutinise every pixel at your leisure. Once you're done with that, they make excellent desktop backgrounds. 
In fact, we've got resolutions to fit all your favourite screens. Such as: 
Once you've decked out your computer, tablet and Palm Pilot (keeping it retro) with whichever flavour fits your device best, make sure you take a screenshot or photo and show us! We're eager to see just how much cooler your tablet looks now it's covered in a pixelated Baron Nashor rather than a photo of a family member or pet or whatever (you can always switch back next time they visit)."

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