Red Post Collection: Champion Update Discussion, New Jungle Summoner Icons now available, Legends Rising Trailer, & more

[ Remember, the list is neither in order not does it offer a definitive timeline - we've seen some entries sit on the list for quite sometime before hitting the PBE or receiving follow up announcements!]

Following the page update, Scruffy hoped on twitter to answer several questions:

On Shen:

When asked about the type of kit changes to expect, Scruffy noted:

[x] "Yes - P, Q, W are new. Though they still feel like they serve a similar purpose to the old skills but in a more interesting way."

[x] "Ult and E are staying nearly exactly the same."

[x] "Yea we're supporting AD shen -> a ninja striking with swords seems pretty physical. Still retaining the magical elements tho."

[x] "I think so. We're smoking his ability to protect his bros in some interesting ways."

As for the goals for Shen's Changes:

[x] "+interactivity in his laning and +satisfaction/coolness on his signature stuff."

While the update schedule only says "gameplay" changes, he noted plans for a light VU:

[x] "The current plan is to give him a light VU like alistar/maokai."

Meddler added in:

"Our current expectation is that there'll be some visual changes to support the changes being made to his kit, plus potentially some small other visual improvements. Overall though Shen will be primarily a gameplay update."

On Marksmen

When asked about the scope of the various Marksman changes, Scruffy noted:

[x] "Like juggernauts, a bunch of champ changes and a bunch of item changes."

[x] "Mostly focused on making each ADC have a unique role/playstyle. Also making ADC item choices not so lame."

[x] "Yea a bunch of them will get new skills or mechanics."

[x] "More details soon, don't want to over promise anything that's still WIP."

As for items, he noted:

[x] "Yes, we hope for a nearly full overhaul. Some old ones modified some new ones."

[x] "Yes, we're trying to set up multiple items that will compete for a slot so there aren't situations like Bloodthirster OP or IE OP"

[x] "Yea runaans is getting updated. So yes."

[x] "yea crit items and effects will be updated."

To add on to this, Meddler popped on the boards to note:

"Just to keep expectations appropriate we're not going to be changing every ADC. We'll be doing work on a number of them, but a lot of them won't get touched apart from possibly some stat or low scope number adjustments."

Riot Repertoir also added:

"I'll be doing some small scope change to Kog for the marksman pass."

On Taric:

 As for Taric's larger scope rework, Scruffy noted:

[x] "Yea, keeping him in the realm of off tank support with some heals and aggro cc play. New unique surprises I wont spoil here."

[x] "Heal is staying ya."

[x] "There is some stat buffing "aura" like stuff but it's definitely more interesting than a pure passive."

[x] "Taric will get new voice over and a bunch of new champ interactions."

Miscellaneous

[x] "Yea, we hope to get to all classes in the future, one at a time. Mages in the future for sure."

Poppy & Others 

While Scruffy didn't tweet much about Poppy, Ququroon swung by reddit to discuss her upcoming update and comment on a few others:

"Extremely active development. Barring some explosion, she'll be the next large update we ship. She took longer to get out of PreProduction than we anticipated, but we're really happy with the direction we have for her. 

Characters move up and down on the schedule based on timing, available resources, event opportunities, or problems in development. Poppy has had a few of those happen to her, but her moment in the sun is coming up."

He continued:

"The reduced amount of conversation and transparency is our bad. We got a bit too heads down on our work in the middle of the year. Trying to bring the bar back up. 

As for why certain characters seem to come out of nowhere, well... That's because larger projects take a drastically larger amount of time due to the amount of moving parts. Something like Juggernauts is able to be agile because of lower scope."

When asked about the scope of Poppy's rework relative to Sion's from last year, Ququroon commented:

"Closest level, not completely the same. She's just under his tier."

When asked about Yorick, Ququroon noted:

"He's in PreProduction. Finding what we want to do. A lot of designers have attempted to touch him, only to be left as withering corpses. 

He's been in and out of the icebox a few times, he's currently out of it. I would really like to update him next year."

He continued:

"It's not that no ideas stuck, just might necessarily have not been fun, not have worked with other ideas, or just not fulfilled the Yorick that people would want."

ZenonTheStoic added:

"To be fair, he has one of the hardest fantasy to deliver on. "Raises army of the undead" sounds fun until you start thinking through what this can mean in a PVP game and you're left with disappointingly little. Trust me, we've tried MANY things. Some of our best and brightest designers have tried their hand at Yorick. 

Like Ququ says, he's in preprod. That's where we try to figure out if we have something that allows us to enter production. Don't want to talk about the things we're trying out at the moment because they may very well not work out at all, but it's the kit I have the highest hopes for. I'm saying this as a designer--as a player, I'm just not interested in Yorick's fantasy, and whatever we end up doing you can bet good money he'll remain a niche pick, but I'm hopeful with current direction he could become a good, fun niche pick."

As for if Swain is on the list anywhere, Ququroon noted;

"Swain is being thought about from both Gameplay and Visuals. He'll likely require a good amount of work, so unfortunately there are several people ahead of him in line."

New Jungle Summoner icons now available

The four new jungle camp based summoner icons - Rift Scuttler, Crimson Raptor, Murk Wolf, and Ancient Krug - are now available for 250 RP each.
[Updated] Here's the official release announcement - "Jungle icons invade the store":

"Baron? Dragon? Sure, those dudes are big and brutal. But what about the unsung heroes of the jungle? Those silent sleepers who, if underestimated, will break any jungler foolish enough to step on their doormat with low health and no Smite? We’re talking jungle monsters: Murkwolves, Raptors, Krugs, and the dreaded Rift Scuttler. 

They may not be as flashy or valuable as their bigger bros, but we’ll be damned if they’re not at least kind-of-pretty-big-deals sometimes. So when the chips are down, and it’s time to let your jungle flag fly, pick up a new jungle monster icon (250 RP each) and (metaphorically) raise a glass for the little guys."

More In-Depth Champion Intros next Month

When asked about more longer form champion bios, Jaredan noted we'll see more coming next month!

"A team has been put together to work on all of the bios for current Champs. They are working to add a more in-depth introduction along the lines of those for Miss Fortune, TF, Graves and Gangplank. You will see more examples in the month ahead."

To catch up on the new intros from Burning Tides, check out these links:

• Gangplank
• Graves
• Miss Fortune
• Twisted Fate

Kindred PBE Feedback Discussion

With Kindred wrapping up PBE testing and prepping for release in patch 5.19,  Wrekz jumped on the PBE boards to comment on a few feel changes he's made to Kindred and address feedback:

"This response will not begin to cover all of the feedback you have posted. Please know that I read it, and that I have been reading all of the feedback in this thread, but have been very low on time to respond. 

Regarding Q, I have actually put in a number of feel things without posting about them to see how people react to the changes in-game without any biasing. I increased the range on the arrows fired at the end of it to make it easier to use and more useful for kiting (within reason) and increased the movement speed on it in the late-game so that you can reposition faster to get back to dpsing. 

These changes are subtle. Why? Because it is important not to buff all the weaknesses out of a character for the sake of ease-of-use. Using the Q SHOULD stop you from putting out optimal DPS, it is a very low cooldown mobility tool. A core fundamental of most AD Carries is that the more time you can be autoattacking over other things the more damage you will do. For a character that is hybridized between two roles, I want to keep a lot of the fundamentals true. 

Regarding base stats (AD/MS etc), they are VERY low for a reason. Kindred NEEDS to stack the passive to be successful, that is the goal. You have a lot of tools that make you very powerful when you get the combat stats to fight people, and as a result you have to work for those combat stats. This isn't a character where staying in the jungle and farming safely should be an option, it isn't a character where farming safely in a lane should be much of an option. You need to be proactively making plays, doing risky things, and collecting passive stacks to access your damage. In general, you have enough mobility (even with average marksman movespeed) due to the Q, that you can invade the enemy jungle pretty safely. You can't fight them heads up if they catch you, but it is highly likely you get away. 

Thank you very much for commenting, I really do appreciate you taking the time to write out how you felt learning the character."

He continued, noting the removal of Kindred's button below the passive in favor of an auto hide/show:

"Cooldowns are now implemented!!! They show how long it will be before you can hunt an enemy champion again after killing them. 

Also, the passive button has been removed, the frame now automatically opens and closes. It closes and locks when you enter combat with an enemy champion (take damage from them or deal damage to them). 

Thanks very much for the feedback!"

A Good Death 1920 x 1080 Wallpapers

Speaking of Kindred, Radioblur has put out a set of 1920x1080 wallpapers of the art from the "A Good Death" short story!
An IMGUR mirror of these wallpapers can be found here.

No Current Plans for Olaf

When asked if they have any immediate buffs or nerfs plans for Olaf, Meddler noted:

"No current plans for Olaf, he seems to be in an okay spot for now at least (though I'm still personally a little suspicious still that the new juggernaut items might be a bit strong on him). As a side note the balance team operates independently of skin releases and free rotations, those aren't factors they take into account when considering which champions need work each patch."

Morello on his R&D Work