Red Post Collection: Follow Up on Pathing Changes + Revert in 5.24, Ask.fm roundups, Illaoi Community creations, and more!

"This is correct. :) 

There's a couple reasons we chose EUW and not NA, LAS, RU, etc.:

1. NA had recently gotten its own share of targeted testing (minion pushing). Repeat testing on the same server isn't ideal.
2. Communication barrier. This specific change is something that's not easy to track in a very data centric fashion and instead it's more "ear to the ground" community style tracking and discussing. Due to the limited time we have on this, a large English speaking community is easier to work with in this specific case (though when we have more time we try to reach out more broadly).
3. Timing. When we switch things on and off like this we like to do so "off peak", when the server generally has the fewest players in the day, so that in omg disaster cases it minimizes how many people's games are hurt. EUW was entering this time."

We did test it, actually. Rather extensively even. For ~5 months. On the PBE for that whole time. PBE noise on the issue was... pretty quiet. 

Internally, the overall feel was "better in some areas, worse in others". We didn't have isolatable "that right there, that's a problem" issues en masse until live. More so, we didn't have player expectation (within the confines of minion block still existing) well enough judged out. Some players try active weaving, some do not. Some players picked up on how to path around the new waves, some did not. 

I believe compounding the issue is the secondary call for help ring. This is what's causing more aggro on ranged characters than before, and internally we had months to adapt to it. Everyone on live didn't, so there's a lot of misdirection from that to this.

The Arsenal: Forging Poppy’s Hammer 

"Reworking Poppy was a chance to tune up her biggest, baddest character elements while giving her completely new play patterns. We knew the hammer, her signature weapon, would be critical in solidifying her refreshed identity; like Jinx’s rocket launcher, Nautilus’ anchor, or Riven’s sword, Poppy’s hammer is an integral part of both her kit and her personality. We had to get it right for both to ring true. 

In short, it was hammer time. 

Small character; big impact 

Poppy’s original hammer and shield were designed to fit her small stature. “Before, Poppy had a Yordle hammer and a Yordle shield,” explains concept artist Gem Lim. “But we wanted to do more with it.” The team realized that by choosing one primary item for Poppy to wield and over-emphasizing it, they could create a champion with a silhouette and style different from any other champion in League. “Instead of equal attention for the hammer and shield, we toned the shield down and made the hammer ginormous,” says Gem. “What struck me the most about Poppy was this sense of disproportionate power. She’s a small character who does big things. The hammer should communicate that.”

ChampUp played with several hammer designs while working on the Poppy update

Poppy’s new champion-smasher wasn’t custom-made to fit her; it’s a regular-sized hammer she wields with incredible power. “The new hammer is more than a weapon,” Gem says. “Its humongous size contributes to her silhouette and her movement. No champion moves like her. When you see her swing that hammer, it’s so different from Sion with his axe or Garen with his sword.” Senior narrative writer John O’Bryan adds, “It’s almost like she puts all of herself into every swing.” The new hammer design contributed to Poppy’s new ult and each of her re-tuned abilities. 

 " When others run away, Poppy runs forward. She’s indomitable. "

Gem emphasizes the idea of a tiny character packing a big punch: “We want people to feel that crazy disproportionate power. Like, ‘Oh, look at the cute little—ouch!' It’s over-the-top and unexpected.” 

A hero’s journey 

Poppy’s hammer is an important part of her personal journey. “A Hero’s Call,” which offers players a glimpse into Poppy’s world, is centered on the hammer and what it means to her. O’Bryan elaborates, “Even she doesn’t think it’s hers. She thinks it’s a tool for someone else.” Scaling the hammer to make it a normal hammer size helps emphasise the idea that Poppy doesn’t necessarily believe the hammer is hers to wield, that somewhere in the world is a hero meant to carry it. The hammer existed long before Poppy took possession of it. 

Poppy’s hammer has hints of Demacia and a human-sized scale

Though she’s been carrying the hammer for a long, long time, Poppy hasn’t yet realized that she’s what gives the hammer its strength. O’Bryan explains, “If you were to ask Poppy, she would probably think she’s nothing special. Everything she’s doing is because of this hammer she’s carrying around. But really, it’s all coming from her.” Players know one thing Poppy doesn’t: The hammer is right where it needs to be. 

The immovable object 

Poppy’s new weapon is meant to emphasise core elements of her personality. “She’s purposeful,” says O’Bryan. “Nothing can stop her; if you knock her down, she’s going to keep getting back up.” The team behind the Poppy update wanted to give a sense of solidity to Poppy, the idea that to get to Poppy’s team, enemies have to go through her. “When others run away, Poppy runs forward,” says Gem. “She’s indomitable.” 

The hammer is a symbol of Poppy’s strength, her unflinching dedication to her task, and her world view. “Poppy doesn’t think of herself as a small character,” O’Bryan says, “because she really isn’t.” Gem says, “She’s the pebble you thought you could kick, but couldn’t. There’s no one like her.”"

• Champion Update: Poppy, Keeper of the Hammer
• Poppy Champion Update on the PBE
• Champion Insights: Poppy, Keeper of the Hammer

Poppy Q&A coming on December 3

"Hammer-wielding Rioters are preparing for some questions to nail about Poppy’s champ update. So head over to the Poppy Q&A at 11AM PST on December 3 for more info on the tiny yordle packing perhaps League’s mightiest punch. 

First time you’re hearing about a Poppy update? Learn more about the Keeper of the Hammer below: 

• Poppy’s champ update smashes onto PBE
• Champion Insights: Poppy, Keeper of the Hammer"

Security Reminder: Beware of scams this Snowdown!

"Hey y'all! 

It’s that time of year again -- scams, scams everywhere! 

Any promotions or events ran will be announced and confirmed by Riot -- www.riotgames.com, www.leagueoflegends.com, or www.lolesports.com. 

General Questions:
Q: I was sent a suspicious link from a friend I trust but I don’t recognize it, what should I do? 

A: USE CAUTION! If it’s not hosted on one of the websites above, we cannot ensure your computer’s security if you visit them. Remember, facechecking the web is dangerous, so use your best judgement. Be sure to have your antivirus programs up-to-date. 

Q: But I entered my username and password into this website! Should I change my password? 

A: YES! Please change your password immediately. You can change your password by logging into your account management and clicking on change password. 

Q: Is there any harm going to these free skin/RP generator websites but not doing anything? 

A: YES! You never know what scripts are running in the background. If you’ve visited any suspicious websites, I would strongly suggest you go ahead and scan your computer with your preferred antivirus program. 

If you cannot log into your account at all, you can recover your password by using the password recovery here. Still having issues? Please contact player support. 

We also have an extensive Knowledge Base article available with additional tips and tricks on what you can do to ensure your account is secure: [link] – Please give this a thorough read if you have a chance! 

Happy Snowdown! May your aim ever be true!"

Meddler Grab Bag - Shen, Talon, Immobile Mages

"The plan is to keep Shen as a tank, though we'll be trying to find ways to have that make at least a little more sense thematically (so potentially a bit more evasion instead of just soaking/shielding damage)."

"Shen will be a gameplay update, with some visual adjustments to support that. We won't be doing a full visual update or audio update for him at this time though."

"Mages, immobile ones especially, are probably the class we'll look at next. That'll be a while off though, preseason's currently our biggest priority and then there's also some disruption during the holiday period in December. I'd imagine a PBE date 2-3 months into 2016's the sort of timeframe we might be looking at, that's very much a guess though and depends on how many champions we end up tackling at once (small batch could come slightly earlier, broader changes like with Marksmen would be much later). 

In terms of AP items that's not something we've talked about much yet. I'd imagine we'd look at itemization if doing mages of course, almost certainly a much smaller set of changes than those to marksmen/general AD itemization though (AP's in a better starting point, especially after the 5.13 changes)."

Context on PBE changes to Veteran's Scars

"Yo, I've been working on the changes to masteries with Squad5 and Stashu so thought I'd pop in and give some context. 

There are 2 goals with the Veteran's scars changes this patch: 

1) lower the degree to which tanks are hyperscaling with items.
2) As Repertoir mentioned, make the tier 2 resolve tree more attractive to other classes who don't buy tons of health. 

--- If you look at a list of the top junglers right now they're all champs who build tanky: Mundo, Skarner, Rammus, Nunu, Volibear, Amumu. While some of this rise in power for individual champs is to be expected (Rammus wrecks ADC's and Trundle is strong whenever super tanks are strong), when a class as whole is standing out above their peers it's probably a good idea to look at the underlying power from systems that support that class. In this case we feel the Resolve tree is offering too much multiplicative scaling to tanks in too many different places. 

We feel that Veteran's scars is a great candidate for conversion to flat as it reduces the crazy item scaling tanks are getting right now, opens up the tree to more characters, and creates an easier to grok choice vs. the %healing and shield mastery. 

---Final note, some of you may be asking: "Why not just nerf Mundo? He's the real problem!" If it was just Mundo that's exactly what we'd do, but right now we're seeing immense strength across the whole class of characters so feel it's better to nerf a few masteries than hit 6 champs. If this leaves some of the already weaker tanks in a bind we're likely to buff them up. We had a similar thought process when we hotfixed Warlord's Bloodlust. You can hit Yasuo, Trynd, and other early crit users, or you can look at the thing that they all have in common: crazy synergy with Warlord's."

ZenonTheStoic Ask.fm Roundup

[Link] Hey Zenon, huge Tahm Kench fan here! I know he's been on the radar concerning some possible balance changes at some points. I was wondering:will you continue to support his viability in the top lane? that's where I have the most fun and would be very sad to see him forced as a support :( 

Currently, top lane is his strongest position! Not sure if that is because new players will play him support and so top lane Tahms tend to be more experienced or what.
Yes, I'd love for him to retain his multi-role aspect. Long as support is the main thing he does, I'm super happy if he can top and jungle too.

[Link] Are you working on the last 2015 champion ?

I am not. Making a champion takes about 10 months. Tahm shipped in July. You do the math! :)

[Link] What was your favourite "AHA!" moment designing one of your champions (or any champion)?

When Roku (a QA lead) played Azir's kit where soldiers attacked whatever target Azir attacked after his basic attack landed, and he said "I think I kind of wanted just the soldier attack, all the time", and a light went on in my head.

[Link] Hi Daniel! as a game design student and an aspiring game designer, what tips can you give me when it comes to designing a character to make him/her feel unique in terms of game play mechanics? 

Alright! We ready for a bunch of uncomfortable truths, gang? I'm sure we are!
You're not designing a champion. You may be thinking about a champion, writing down abilities or drawing diagrams, but unless at the end of the day you have an interactive, playable champion that you regular test in 5v5 playtests, you're not designing nothing.
I could give you tips that have worked for me, but they'd be utterly useless for you. Unless you're ACTIVELY DESIGNING a thing, these tips mean nothing. 

I don't mean to be rude! There's a lot of value in thinking about games, but marry that thinking to doing. Break down games you play anatomically and think about why you like them, what you don't like, why the designers still might have made those decisions for good reasons, etc. Then make something! Make a shitty little Twine game (or a glorious, magnificent Twine game. Either way!) Mod a game you like! Engage in *active* game design and give it to a third party to play in a realistic setting. Anything short of that? You're talking about music, but there's no song.


[Link] Did you ever saw a champion spell by another designer and wished you've thought of that first? 

Uhhh, yes? On every single one of my champions? ;) We steal from each other all the time! We're very collaborative and giving. We toss each other spells all the time. That's our secret sauce, I think: a very strong design team with great feedback culture that feels deeply invested in the success of everyone else on the team.


[Link] Zenon, is it possible to know why sometimes you(or the balancing/champUp? team) don't take suggestions in the boards/reddit about ways to change the abilities of the champion? with this i mean ie: if you haven't read it, the "17 color coded pages about shaco rework" left me hoping it was legit!‎ 

I'll answer this a little more broadly: 

Player feedback is great for us when it comes to what works or what doesn't work. What frustrates you, how does a certain spell make you feel, etc. When it comes to suggestions for what should be done, in 99% of cases we don't really look at them. Sorry if this comes across as mean, but we have designers with years and years of experience who'll still come up with the wrong solutions half the time. Our design process is highly iterative. Identify a problem, form a hypothesis, attempt to prove or disprove the hypothesis through playtesting, adjust your solution, rinse and repeat. A single "solution" presented in a vacuum does us no good at all.

[Link] What do you think about older champions? A lot of these newer champions have crazy kits that put a lot of dimensions into the mix (Tahm Kench, Bard, etc.) that have all these different variables. Champions like Taric and Galio feel very one-dimensional to play and feel ignored by Riot. Any plans? 

Some of our older champions REALLY need an update, and both Taric and Galio are on that list (Galio some day--Taric pretty soon).
Some of them hold up surprisingly well, though! Morgana has barely been touched since release and I think she's still one of our cooler mage supports.

[Link] funny thing i noticed: the four latest champion releases (Bard, Ekko, Kench and Kindred) all have some way to make people (whether it's themselves or others) immune to damage for a brief time. have you got any thoughts about why this might be, or is it just a funny coincidence? 

Partly coincidence, partly the fact we constantly talk and influence each other. Four different designers worked on those four champions (and you may as well add rework Fiora in with her new Riposte). We notice these patterns and correct for them (it's unlikely there'll be another ability like this any time soon), but if it fits the kit, it fits the kit.

[Link] Before you talked about short duration effects and silences are unhealthy. Blitz has both in his ult, it silences for a extremely short window. What is your opinion on him? I think it would be better if his ult was like Diana's e and caused a short disruption followed by a short slow. Thoughts?

Blitz has a great, sharp identity amongst supports, but yes, his ult could use some love. Not so much because of the short duration silence (although, in my humble opinion, fuck silence) but just because it's kind of meh. The fantasy of a steampunk robot golem could do much better than "shock everyone around me for a bunch of damage and a silence". It's functional, though, so I wouldn't say changes are urgent.

[Link] Do you think Suppression/knockup still has a place in the game next to regular stun, or do you think that your designs are less like one-trick ponies now, not really needing their hard CC to be of consistent duration to that extent? Might we see Tenacity affecting CC more consistently in the future? 

I think knockup is a fine thing to have in the game. Suppression is a harder question. Malzahar / Warwick / Urgot would probably need some degree of changes to survive in a world without suppression. They're all likely candidates to receive some changes at some point. My guess is WW/Urgot are headed for Sion level reworks *eventually* (definitely not any time soon) and Malzahar may get some light work done as part of the immobile mage update that Roster team is working on.

[Link] Are champions without "proper" ultimates more difficult to design and balance? Champions like Jayce and Nidalee, or Rek'Sai and Corki.

There's three issues here: transform champions, low cooldown ults, and non-combat ults.
Transform champs: August "gypsylord" Browning said everything you need to know about those in his design insights for Gnar:http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/champion-reveal/gnar-the-missing-link (scroll down to "champion insights") 

Low cooldown ults: I feel those are okay to balance, actually! Corki's long range poke turns on at six. He's just not a particularly windowed champion, but I feel that's okay for ADCs. Their ults tend to fill roles outside their core combat pattern (Jinx: low health execution / fight finisher. Ashe: global initiation. Lucian: single target pick / chase down etc). There are some non-ADCs with low cooldown combat ults (LeBlanc comes to mind), but generally these are okay to balance. 

Non-combat ults: Oy vey, these are a pain. Champions have power curves, and 90% of our roster has this bump at level 6. Hitting level 6 first is important, seeing whether a champ is pre or post 6 is important for judging ganks and skirmishes, etc. If you have a non-combat ult, you tend to take the power of that bump and spread it out evenly amongst the rest of his abilities, which leads to a very lanebully-esque feeling (because they just get more and more non-windowed power over you, so if you fail to do something useful with your big windowed ability, you just lose).
We often reproduce the bump they'd get from an ACTIVE ult by giving them passive power in the ult slot. Rek'Sai gets her attack speed from the ult, Tahm Kench gets his health scaling, etc.

[Link] Why do you think CertainlyT gets so much hate? Is it just a scapegoat thing, is there something about his champions that angers people more than usual, or is he secretly designing champions to annoy people on the forums? It's the last one, isn't it?‎ 

(bit of an old question, but the subject warrants discussion) 

I'll state upfront that I'm a huge fan of CertainlyT's work and as such am probably super biased. 

Brad (I'll call him that; it's weird to think of him as CertainlyT) sees the game very, very differently from many other designers. Most of us see what is and what was; Brad sees what could be, almost instinctively. Sure he's been wrong many times (Kalista's passive, if I remember correctly, was born out of a desire to teach new ADC players how to kite. That's not what it's doing ;P) and he's pushed certain ideas until they broke, but our game would be infinitely duller if not for him. 

Brad thinks about the game in a way that is liberating to me as a designer. There are no "we can't do this!" areas to him. When I was designing Lucian, my passive for the longest time was "killing a unit resets your auto attack timer", to get that double gun feeling. It didn't work very well and I was distraught. I really wanted Lucian to feel like a GREAT double gun champion (MF at the time wasn't it; Love Tap may actually have gotten her there, I've yet to play the new MF, but I have high hopes). So I talk to a bunch of designers and they suggest reasonable ideas, until I talk to Brad and he's like: 

So why don't you give each gun its own attack timer? 

My first reaction, I think, was to say "is that even legal?" Joking aside: it does feel like we're all working within a certain framework and Brad sees right through it. There were issues with the independent timers (Xypherous and Brad helped me set the passive up in like a day. There was some black magic involved), mostly in that it felt much more like a shotgun dude (you went BAM! BAM! rapidly and then waited for both timers to come back). After getting strong feedback that this felt LESS nimble, LESS like a dual gun character we scrapped it and came up with lightslinger, but guess what, Brad found a home for a very similar version of that passive: Graves. 

Brad has always fought tooth and nail for skills he knew needed to be in the game. I remember heated conversations about Windwall; the idea that we could just "destroy any enemy missile" seemed outlandish, impossible; now it's just a part of the game that everyone plays around. Just yesterday I saw qtpie on stream play Graves vs a good Yasuo, constantly following Yasuo's E dashes through the wall before attacking. The sign of awesome design: both sides get play around the mechanic. 

Saying that something feels like a CertainlyT ability has become shorthand for something incredibly gamebreaking with awesome potential. Of course he misses sometimes: Mordekaiser's "get full XP where other champions would share" was maybe a little heavyhanded, but overall he drives game design as a discipline forward. For every incredible ability he ships, he influences or straight-up donates another ability on someone else's product. 

Why does this draw hate? Because new is scary.

Lyte Ask.Fm Round Up

[Link] Happy Thanksgiving! Can the new Champion Select come soon? Sitting in Normal Draft over here. I have had 4 dodges because someone didn't like their role, or their champ got banned, etc etc. Person in my team has experienced 5 in a row. #notfunforanyone Pretty please.‎ 

#LeagueOfLegends
We're trying to get the new Champ Select out ASAP, but are dealing with some last minute snags and bugs. Because we're trying to replace current Champ Selects, we really need to make sure the experience is not only awesome, but stable.

[Link] Have you ever thought about making an automatic loss forgive mechanic for games where someone DC's for most of the game/the entire game or never connected? 

#LeagueOfLegends
We have a few changes we'd like to make to the Surrender System in 2016, including a mechanic that allows players to reset the game with no penalties (except for the player that DC'd) if a player fails to connect to the match. More details in 2016.

[Link] For the new champ select, can't you sort the champions by favorites or mastery? Is really a hassle to look 130 champs when being in doubt, really. It would be a really nice thing 

#LeagueOfLegends
We have something in the works to help filter the Champion grid, but first and foremost we're trying to get the current feature set into a shippable, stable setate. We definitely have designs for a "Recently Played" filter, and popular champs in each role (Mage, Tank, etc).

[Link] Hey MASSIVE Fan HERE! ALSO keep up the amazing work ur cool :) Have you guys done any research on tilt? If someone is tilting what is the BEST way to help them? I'm guessing compliment ,and being friendly to them. Is there scientific studies on how to deal with someone who is on tilt? 

#LeagueOfLegends
Not sure about any scientific studies on the effects of tilt, but something that might work is just giving them some space to calm down, then complimenting them after a good play. Tilt is one of those weird phenomenons where if a player is tilting, they are *aware* they are playing poorly or have made mistakes, so being overly positive or complimentary might not help, and being critical will definitely result in mutual destruction. Giving them some space with a simple, "No worries, we'll get it back" is probably your best bet, followed by a "gj" or "good play" if they make a good play a few minutes later.

[Link] I recently got a promo series, and it said I had a free win. Does that have more to do with MMR, good behavior, or the fact that I lost my 2 promos previously? I am curious, but it was super awesome! 

#LeagueOfLegends
This is a new feature in Ranked Mode where players get a free win in their Promo Series if they have failed some promos previously.

[Link] I don't really see you talk about the social contract when it comes to League, even though this is a major part of playing games (or other social interactions) with other people. Do you think explicitly talking about/explaining it might help people understand the context of what you do? 

#LeagueOfLegends
This is a great question, and we're working on a First Time Warning / Agreement feature where players that get their first infraction instead get a brief version of a new, brief Summoner's Code and basically see the social contract they must adhere to when playing as a member of this community. This helps new players understand the rules set forth by the community in a pretty explicit way to encourage awareness.

[Link] Another question. You said in the past that you don't publish more article because you prefer developing new feature. Don't you think helping other dev by publishing your result would lead to a general improvement of the standard around the whole community who would make your job easier? 

#LeagueOfLegends
We agree, which is why we've started collaborating with universities so they can publish work on League of Legends even if we don't have time to. You should start seeing peer-reviewed papers as early as 2016.

[Link] So many people are getting permanently banned those days, don't you think the new system is too severe ? 

#LeagueOfLegends
Last we checked, less than 1% of active players were receiving game bans/permanent bans these days, so it's probably not likely that the system is more severe. It might be that more recently, more players are posting about it or talking about it, so it seems more frequent.

[Link] Are you guys able to tell false reports from legitimate ones? A lot of players don't seem to be able to tell the difference between simply having a bad game/getting outplayed/making a mistake, and intentionally throwing the enemy team as many kills as possible. 

#LeagueOfLegends

Yes! The Report system can assess the quality of reports and determine whether a report is accurate or false. Players who repeatedly file false reports may end up losing all of the "value" of their reports, and potentially could get harsher penalties like a game ban.

[Link] i know it's being worked on for the PBE, but any idea roughly when the new ranked team builder will be released to everyone not on the PBE? just curious 

#LeagueOfLegends

Not sure, we'd like to do another PBE test to get some more info on the 1 bug we've been squashing, and ultimately want to bring the system into Normal Draft on a server or two before Ranked 2016 Season launch.

[Link] How will voice chat improve the experience between premades? I mean; they are premades. They may just go on teamspeak or skype if they want to. The real cause of voice chat is to talk with strangers not friends. 

#LeagueOfLegends

A lot of friends do use 3rd party tools to voice chat; however, we're more talking about the literal definition of "premades" which is anyone you queue up with. So, imagine friends of friends, or someone in your group inviting someone else to the game. Low barrier of entry voice chat integration would make it easier to chat in those experiences, and that would improve the experience.

[Link] The main thing I stand against about voice chat is not having options to permanently disable it. I play games like TF2, CS:S, CS:GO and whatnot, along with other games on console. As you might imagine, I've had more than enough of kids and incomprehensible people yelling into my ear to know it sucks 

#LeagueOfLegends
We're not actively working on voice chat for League, but it's something we're interested in one day. We agree with you though, we'd want to implement some new designs that mitigated some of the traditional frustrations with voice chat while keeping most of the benefit.

Community Mixtape vol. 6 | Gweedo

"Gweedo tells jokes and spotlights five creators you should give some love. The result is... just ok. 

Got your own favorites to shout out? Give them some love in the comments, and let us know who you’d like to do a Mixtape next. 

Gweedo: [yt][twitter] 

Professor Milk (UNGGGGGGGH): [yt][twitter] 

Trinimmortal: [yt][twitter] 

Teemo VS All: [yt][twitter] 

Trinity Force Podcast: [yt] 

SpooksOP: [yt][twitter] 

**Created in collaboration with Riot Games**"