- This Week in Esports - Post 2015 WC Group Stages
- Champion & Skin Sale 10/13 - 10/16
- Free Champion Rotation, Week of October 13th
- 5.20 Sever Maintenance Announced
Table of Contents
- New Zilean passive, Q feel & responsiveness tuning, rec item pages for each role
- Cosmic Reaver Kassadin coming in 5.20
- Jareden with more Lore Discussion
- Sterak's Gage & increasing Base Attack Damage
- Worlds Pick'em - Knockout Stage predictions open!
- Championship Thresh figure restock
New Zilean passive, Q feel & responsiveness tuning, rec item pages for each role
"It's time for time!
Zilean's passive has been a weak point for a while now, and his Q had numerous little things that felt "off" about it. Those are past-tense sentiments. When the PBE updates, the new stuff will be in! This update is all about visceral satisfaction. The Q should feel better to use and the passive gives allies XP in a much more hands-on way. If any of you fine folks have the chance to check it out on the PBE, I'd love to hear what you think!
For Time Bomb, we've updated the attach logic, tweaked the animation timing, given it a new attach particle, fixed a bug where it would appear to 'flicker' on landing, and generally made the way it interacts with the game world more consistent and satisfying. None of these changes by themselves are likely to stand out, but taken together they should improve the experience of using Time Bomb significantly.
For the passive, it's new! Behold!
Time in a Bottle
Zilean stores time as Experience at a rate of X per 5 seconds.
When he has enough Experience to finish an ally's level, he can right-click them to impart it. Zilean receives as much Experience as he gives. Cannot be used in combat.Does what it says on the tin. While the passive is off cooldown, Zilean sees indicators letting him know how much more XP he needs to finish someone's level; when he has enough, there's a line indicator to show him he can activate it. Hi-five a level into your buddies! Zilean gains the same XP as he gives and banks XP faster the higher level he is, so he wants to use it as often as he can. By being higher level mid lane he has slightly more XP to hand out, by being with an ADC bot lane he has persistent access to an ally. At level 18 Zilean no longer needs any XP for himself so the amount he gifts his allies effectively doubles.
These changes help establish Zilean's identity, both thematically and in gameplay. Thematically, Zilean's typically had a lot of interesting and unique elements, but has fallen short of the epic power expressive of time magic. Some of his spells do reach that height--Chronoshift, the Time Bomb stun, and to a lesser extent the 99% value on Time Warp. By giving him direct, visceral control over one of the fundamental forces of the game, he solidifies the stature that befits him as a time mage.
In gameplay, Zilean's support side excels against assassins/divers and in a protect the carry role; in this, he is typically overshadowed by Lulu, who shares his solo/bot switch capability and who can defend her ADC without the dps interruption that Chronoshift's revive brings. His utility mage side often overlaps with Orianna, a perennial generalist who can provide utility from a carry role and who also capitalizes on melee teammates. Between these two, Zilean's unique elements are his superior synergy with juggernauts via Time Warp, his amazing lategame control scaling, his massive zone control (compared to Lulu), and his mid-game roaming (compared to Orianna).
Time in a Bottle gives him a capability that's totally unique in its own right and further accents the things that separate him from other champs. Juggernauts typically care about levels much more than ADCs and the passive rewards him for roaming. It won't solve all of Zilean's challenges, but it helps the time mage float in the right direction.
Lastly, we've added a rec item page for mid; players can toggle between the mid and support rec items by clicking the down arrow on the tab title. The mid page displays by default--generally, the newer players are the ones who use rec items and mid lane is a much more forgiving place to play the Zilsta.
Foxy grandpa indeed. All this stuff will be on the PBE soon, I'm especially eager to hear how the changes feel in live games!"When asked about the passive not being able to be used in combat, he clarified:
"It only counts whether Zilean is in combat, and combat with minions doesn't count."
Cosmic Reaver Kassadin coming in 5.20
The upcoming 5.20 patch will include the Cosmic Reaver Kassadin skin! As previously mentioned, this is the regionally inspired skin for OCE and the OCE server will have an exclusive sale for the first two weeks with the revenue earned going to a charity the community voted on!Here's a look at the upcoming skin in an OCE exclusive announcement, including it's inspirations, and details on the release sale for OCE:
"Under the twinkle of the Southern Cross, Cosmic Reaver Kassadin rises to bring balance to the cosmos. With astral blade in hand, channel the power of the stars as you serve cosmic justice to your opponents.
Inspired by Oceania
Cosmic Reaver Kassadin’s astral appearance is inspired by the Southern Cross, the smallest constellation in the night sky. Communities all across Oceania treat the Cross with special reverence -- from the folk tales of the Maori to the symbolism of Australian Aboriginal astronomy, the constellation holds different meanings in various Oceanic countries.
The Southern Cross features most prominently in Cosmic Reaver Kassadin's Recall animation, in which he traces the shape of the constellation after opening a rift into space. His new weapon also takes on the shape of the Cross, being outlined in stars.
Cosmic Reaver Kassadin will launch at half price in Oceania for two weeks, dropping the price from 1350 RP to 675 RP. During this period, Kassadin’s RP price will also be halved from 790 RP to 395 RP.
Charity Information
All revenue earned from the sale of Cosmic Reaver Kassadin in Oceania during the launch sale will be donated to charity. The Medical Services/Research category won the server vote so the donation will go to a cause in that field.
More updates will be posted on boards as this progresses.
Cosmic Reaver Kassadin will Riftwalkinto the store during Patch 5.20."
As mentioned above, the Cosmic Reaver Kassadin skin will be available on all servers during 5.20! While OCE will have a 675 RP sale exclusive to their region, all other servers will have the standard 975 RP sale all 1350 RP skins have for the first few days of release.
Check out our 5.20 PBE cycle coverage for a better look at this upcoming skin!
Jareden with more Lore Discussion
Following the release of the updated Fiora and Kindred champion introductions, Jaredan popped up on the boards for more lore discussion!Before we start check the updated Fiora introduction and the new Kindred introduction!
When asked if this is the format we can expect for champion introductions & backgrounds moving forward, Jaredan noted:
"It'll vary a little, but essentially this is the planned format moving forward for every Champion, including all currently existing ones. It'll take us some time, but we'll get there."When asked if we'll see new champion lore individually or only as part of reworks or events, Jaredan noted:
"It won't be limited to events like Bilgewater."
He continued:
"Each new champ will be getting one on (or very near) release. Separate teams are developing the longer character intros. Narrative folks embedded on the product teams Champ and ChampUp will work on longer intros for the champ they are focused on, another team is working purely on small edits (removing mentions of IoW. for example) and also writing full pieces such as we did for Bilgewater. The discipline (Narrative) makes sure we've got good communication on how those different endeavors are working together."
When asked about the status of the new and up to date Runeterra world map, Jaredan noted:
"We don't have anything ready to show other than the two artifacts we have so far. It is being worked on though, I checked in with Ant in Oz about it this week."
As for a unified timeline, he noted:
"A timeline is something being worked on by the Foundations team. There's a lot of work to go into that though."
When asked about Mt. Targon and finally getting a better look, Jaredan commented:
"It's high on the list alright. That was not a pun. The Foundations team is working hard on Mount Targon, among others regions."
As for other regions such as Ionia and Freljord, he noted:
"Quote:
How do you feel about Ionia in general? Visually, it seems to offer a lot of artistic diversity, but have you ever thought about a more unified culture? I don't personally want that, but I'm curious as to your views? Beyond its war with Noxus, there's not much history.
The Freljord hasn't had much development regarding its present. We have the sister tribes, barbarians, and whatever it is Nunu is supposed to belong to.
I think it will be the exact opposite of a unified culture. Ionia isn't a small island, it's pretty huge. There will necessarily be a lot of diversity due to landmass—it's not as big as Valoran, but there's plenty of room for different landscapes and people.
You're spot on about the lack of history beyond the Noxian war. A few of us were speaking about this very topic yesterday. That's something we know we need to develop.
The Freljord's past, present, and future is very much on our minds. You'll see development on that, just not right now."
When asked when we can expect an updated Karthus introduction, Jaredan noted
"Quote
Yes, yes, adorable, Lamb is Bae, Wolf is charming, however...
Where is the Karthus lore?
THE SKELEPOPE DEMANDS LOREIt's behind you!
(A few weeks behind you)."He continued, commenting on Mordekaiser:
"We're doing a lot of thinking around Mordekaiser. He's going to be rather important, don't worry. That importance might not be completely apparent right away, but it will be. Oh yes, it will be...
This cryptic tease was brought to you by Poro Snax. Poro Snax. Now only 97% poro."
Sterak's Gage & increasing Base Attack Damage
"Base AD being significantly more appealing on some types of champion than others is something we're trying out as a lever for better item design. Something we've struggled with in the past is creating items to help out some classes or positions because of the way other classes/positions would take better advantage of them (a pain some junglers for example probably recall well, given some past uses of jungle items by laners before the need to at least take Smite to do so). In this particular case base AD/total AD ratios are things we're looking to focus on juggernauts much more than mobile melee."He continued:
"If items like Sterak's become problems on characters like Irelia and Riven we'll look at whether we can shift them to bonus scaling instead of total, rather than necessarily having to nerf the items in question. Bonus versus total AD is a tool we're looking to use as a way to distinguish different classes somewhat, rather than an old way versus new way thing."
Worlds Pick'em - Knockout Stage predictions open!
With the 2015 World Championship group stages wrapped up, the Worlds Pick'em for the Knockout Stage is now available! Head on over to the the Pick'em website site and lock in your picks by the 15th to participate!
Simply participating in the pick'em event will earn you the icon on the RIGHT in the image below, while obtaining a total of 34 points during the event (between Group Stage & Knock out stage) will get yo the icon on the LEFT in the image below. More information on how to play can be found here.
Looking for more information on the Knockout stage? Check out the LoL esports primer!
Championship Thresh figure restock
Here's Riot Bradmore with an update on twitter:
"Restock Update: The Champ Thresh Figure will return to the merch store at 9:00am PST on 10/15. GLHF!"
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