Red Post Collection: May Sales Schedule, Rakan & Xayah Launch Icons, [NA] Legacy Client Retires April 24, & more!

Continue reading for more information!

• Red Post Collection: Gameplay Thoughts 4/14, Designing The God Fist, Client Beta Update #3, ARSR in RGMQ, & more! 
• Champion & Skin Sale 4/18 - 4/21
• Free Champion Rotation, Week of April 18th
• Dark Star Game Mode & Skins Teaser

• Patch 7.8 Server Maintenance
• Rakan and Xayah Champion Spotlights
• PBE Preview: Dark Star Orianna and Kha'Zix

Table of Contents

• May Sales Schedule
• Get special Xayah and Rakan Icons when they Launch
• Quick Gameplay Thoughts: April 18
• Midseason Support Item Update
• Midseason Rift Herald Update 
• Midseason Update - Utility Contribution
• [NA] Legacy Client Officially Retires April 24 
• Updated Client Switchover: Out with the Old, In with the New 
• Ezreal Nendoroid revealed on Riot Games Merch FB

May Sales Schedule

With April half way over, the May champion and skin sales schedule has been posted! Take a look to see what's coming up for sale next month:

"Check out all the champs and skins on sale this May! Like previous sales schedules, we’re not posting the exact dates for each champ and skin, but they’ll all be on sale sometime next month. 

Just a heads up – since we’re publishing these in advance, we won’t offer partial refunds on champs and skins purchased before they go on sale."

Get special Xayah and Rakan Icons when they Launch

As a special gift during the release of Xayah and Rakan, two new summoner icons will be available to unlock, they will both be available for IP gifting, and we'll be having a DOUBLE IP weekend!

 Here's Cactopus with more:

"Here's a quick heads up that we'll be running a DOUBLE IP WEEKEND from midnight April 21 to 11:59 PM April 23 Pacific time. We've also created two unique summoner icons which will only be unlockable for the first week after the vastayan duo hits the Rift.

Gift of Magic Icon

Unlike other champs, Xayah and Rakan can be gifted using IP between April 19-26! Gift Xayah or Rakan to a friend for just 6300 IP (normally 7800 IP) and unlock an exclusive Summoner Icon for yourself (also works if you gift using RP). 

Blazing Feathers Icon

Earn a special summoner icon by bringing Xayah and Rakan together on the Rift. To qualify, play two games as Xayah with Rakan on your team, or as Rakan with Xayah on your team. Any completed normal, ranked, or bot game mode will count (custom games excluded).

NOTE: Both unlockable Summoner Icons can only be earned between 8:00 am April 19 and 11:59 pm April 26 Pacific time. The icons will be granted within two weeks after the promotion ends."

Rakan and Xayah champion spotlights can be found here. More info from 7.8 PBE here. This post implies they will be released APRIL 19th! 

Quick Gameplay Thoughts: April 18

Meddler is back with his gameplay thoughts for April 18th, covering the start of the 7.9 PBE cycle later today:

"Hey all, 

Mid-season stuff should hit PBE today! Really looking forward to seeing everyone's thoughts after it does. Some bits and pieces below in the meantime. 

Support Basic Attacks 

As part of our ongoing work on the support position we've got a mixture of both large and small changes planned. We've talked about the revised support starting items already, which is the largest support focused piece in mid-season. As a smaller change though we've also got some feel improvements to the basic attacks of various champions often played as support too. Those are generally champs who aren't very auto attack based. On one hand that means having a good feeling auto attack isn't as critical as it is on say a marksmen. On the other hand it's also tended to mean their attacks haven't received the same attention in past, so there's a lot of room for improvement. We've got some tweaks coming to Sona, Morg, Annie, Janna, Nami and Soraka in 7.9. 

Ancient Coin 

The ancient coin line changes will hopefully be one of the more interesting things hitting PBE today, at least for bot lane players. For anyone wanting to do a bit of early theorycrafting the stats we're currently testing on Coin at 22g at Tier 1 and 32g at Tiers 2 and 3 on gold coins, with 8% missing mana restored on mana coins. More details on our goals with those items to follow later today, we're hoping amongst other things to make Coin a more interesting and appealing choice on a wider range of champions. 

10 Bans in Ranked and Draft 

We haven't talked about ban changes for a bit, they're certainly not forgotten though. Should be able to get back to some details about that after mid-season, with work on the new client coming along well getting some needed pre-requisites out of the way. 

Poacher's Dirk 

We're also testing out some small tweaks to Poacher's Dirk in 7.9. It's an item that's under performed since its introduction that we've hesitated to buff because some of its likely potential users have been challenging to balance. We're at the point though where we think we can make at least some changes to make it a bit more attractive versus just buying a couple of long swords to upgrade later. We're looking at a lower cost and CD, paired with a bit less AD, as a result."

On Spellthief's Edge, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

Spellthief would certainly be better in an all in situation, but before purchasing extra mana regen or against a lane with sustain it is easy to find yourself mana starved on supports who currently take spellthief. Allowing even one more cast in a 30-40 second time span would more then outweigh the damage boost, so if it is reasonable restoration and reasonably easy to access the coins I would expect a switch. On the other hand though lots of the supports who take coin currently do it because it is lower risk then spellthief, so making it appropriate risk/reward for the former group is likely to make it poor for the latter. 

I have not tried it on the pbe yet mind, and given the ping playing from europe is not practical, so there is a decent chance I am wrong, but from just hearing about the mechanics I'm not enthusiastic.

There's certainly some risk on the mana side yeah, though so far it's tested pretty reasonably in that regard. We have seen less damage focused but still aggressive mana hungry champs do quite well with it though at least (e.g. Blitz if he's willing to give up the healing/tankiness on Targon's)."

On why coin drops will rely on allies killing minions, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

One more thing, regarding Ancient Coin: Why are the drops reliant on allies killing the minions? This pretty much goes against the whole idea of allowing supports to have more agency. I'm a support main playing in silver, and I really don't like the thought of my own income being tied directly to my carry's ability to farm. Why not just make the drops come from minions who simply aren't killed by the carrier of the coin? 

Or am I just misreading "killed by anyone other than you"?

Coin can work on any enemy minion that dies you didn't personally kill. Your ADC's ability to last hit shouldn't matter in that regard as a result." 

When asked about the upcoming Urgot rework, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

Hi Meddler,
When we can expect Urgot rework? Patch 6.13? 6.15?

He'll be the next major update, can't say much more beyond that yet. 

Though can assure you we won't travel back in time to last year to release him (6.13 and 6.15 happened in 2016)."

When asked about the time the new coins last, Meddler answered:

"Quote:

Do you know about how long the coins will remain on the field? 

Do you think the incentives are sufficient at this point? It does seem a bit undertuned to me; gold gain seems equivalent or even less than the live Coin, and especially with the auto attack changes, I can easily see myself moving to spellthief's on supports that are generally a bit more passive, especially Soraka with her longer AA range and Q harass. 

Thanks

15s at present. 

Rewards per coin have seemed solid so far, still testing though."

After probing on whether we would see animation updated and bugfixes today, Meddler had this to say:

"Quote:

So far I'm excited for the changes, though I play all the supports having AA changes so I'm mildly concerned what's gonna happen. If it's number changes I will worry to no end. If it's animation updates and bug fixes I'm a happy camper.

You'll be a happy camper then."

When asked about Nami changes, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

As an ADC player, Nami already has a super sexy auto-attack animation, and it flows well into her spell rotation. I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little worried ya'll are gonna break it by poking something that doesn't need fixing. 

Take a Nami main's word before mine, of course - but I know I'm not alone in thinking fishtits is an excellent auto-attacker as is.

Yeah, Nami's in a pretty good place. What we've currently got in for her is making it so her E triggers her crit if self cast and timing changes to her crit anim to make it line up correctly with missile launch. We'd also like to get some better hit VFX and sound timing polish in for her too, though those aren't in yet." 

Midseason Support Item Update - Live on PBE!

Here's Limely and Riot Colin on the changes to the starting support items we will be seeing later today on the PBE:

"Hey, Guys! 

Limely and Riot Colin here to talk about the recent changes we’ve made to the Support starting items: adding Quests and Rewards, and reworking the Ancient Coin line. 

TL;DR - We want the Support player’s laning actions to be more interactive, meaningful, and drive towards a feeling of progressing through the game without simply piling on more gold, as it’s very easy to do more harm than good that way. There is still a lot more to do for Supports to catch them up to the other positions; adding quests and their rewards is just one of several steps towards improving the Support experience. 

Problem Statement / Solution Space 

Supports tend to lack meaningful points of comparison - they can’t compare scores like CS, and let’s be honest - “Wards Placed” is not necessarily indicative of good vision play. :P It’s even harder to compare performance when a subset of Support champions are played with an item that allows them to opt out of interacting with the lane if they so choose. 

To combat this we have added milestone quests to the starting gold items to allow the player to measure their success during the laning phase, with an impactful reward on hitting a goal - if you can get your reward before your opponent, how will you use that advantage? 

We’ve also made changes to the Ancient Coin passive in order to enable meaningful quest progression and encourage lane interaction. Our goal here is to add a pattern that allows opportunities for a higher payout, at a higher risk. 

Quest Details 

Once you have earned a certain amount of gold with your choice of starting item, the item’s quest is replaced with a unique passive.  

• Ancient Coin line: Gain an elixir that instantly grants a skill point when consumed. Takedowns on enemy champions spawn gold and mana coins. 

• You still have a max of 18 skill points per game - you’ll finish leveling your abilities at level 17 

• If your inventory is full, the elixir is automatically consumed (and you can choose a skill) 

• Relic Shield line: Gain a shield that regenerates out of combat. Executing minions accelerates the regeneration. 

• Spellthief’s Edge line: Tribute procs grant a short burst of movement speed. 

Ancient Coin Line Rework 

The old Ancient Coin passive created very stagnant gameplay, and limited our ability to tune its primary users as well as the player’s ability to excel in lane. Whether you were losing or winning lane, there was very little to no impact on your gold income. Here’s how we’re changing that: 

• When minions die near the player (but not due to the player), they sometimes drop a gold or mana coin for the player to pick up 

• Not Yet Implemented for PBE: Cannon minions always drop coins for a little more reliability 

• Mana coins restore % missing mana with a flat floor of mana restored 

• Ancient Coin items now have base ambient gold in line with the other two starting items 

There are still some clarity issues around having two Coin players in the game, as well as balance on the risk vs. reward of grabbing those coins, so if you have a chance to play around with it on PBE we would love your feedback to help us fine tune the experience. 

Anti-Poaching 

We understand that giving the Support starting items special power upon quest completion has the risk of making them more appealing to non-support players. We want to avoid poaching on these items - we want the rewards to be impactful, but if it becomes ideal to buy an item whose mini-game you don’t actually plan on actively participating in just to get the reward late game at minimal investment, it cheapens the experience for those who are opting into the gameplay. To limit the item to those who are interested in investing in the item for the item’s sake, the quest cannot be completed unless you have at least the second tier of the item (Nomad’s Medallion, Targon’s Brace, or Frostfang). 

Additionally, we changed the timing of spending charges on the Spellthief’s Edge line:  

• The cooldown on spending charges after a minion kill has been decreased from 12 seconds to 8 seconds, but this is now per minion kill. This means if you are Sona and your Q accidentally takes a minion you are punished less, but if you clear a whole wave, don’t expect to be using any of your charges any time soon. :P 

• Frost Queen’s Claim and Eye of the Watcher are unchanged as the restriction is lifted. 

• There is now a delay after a Tribute charge is spent before the same spell can spend another. This means that abilities such as Morgana’s W and Miss Fortune’s E don’t 100% guarantee three stacks of damage/gold if your opponent moves out of the spell area. 

We know there are still a lot of improvements we could make to the Support position to make it more compelling and balanced with the other positions. There are some pain points that haven’t been addressed with these changes, but we plan to continue working on ways to give Supports more control over their own destinies. :3 

Please let us know what you think! We’ll be around to answer questions for a bit. 

Supporting Supports,
Limely & Riot Colin"

On the Tribute changes, Limely commented:

"Quote:

I'm wondering if proccing multiple Tribute charges will add, stack, overlap, or simply refresh the movement speed burst.

It will combine the duration of each stack. So the movement speed stays the same, but the duration increases."

When faced with concerns on the new support items, Limely reassured:

"Quote:

Good idea, good implementation. As far as addressing the problems it wanted to, this project seems pretty good. Things that are left untouched, however: 

• Later in the game Relic Shield/FotM procs are hard to achieve, as your teammates clear the waves in one sweep and don't let you have any fun.
• Could the Spoils of War passive change once you finish the quest? Same probably goes for Ancient Coin.
• I feel like Ancient Coin is still going to remain useless on shielders like Janna, Lulu and Karma, appealing to maybe healers like Soraka and Nami, with champions like Sona having both options viable but still opting for Spellthief for dem damages. With Talisman having armor it's a basically an alternative tank support item, and tank supports aren't even all the craze right now.
• Stuff like Zeke's Herald remains unchanged and I don't know how I feel about it. This build path is a pain.
• You could strip the damage portion off Redemption and it would still be a top-tier item. If leaving the damage, I'd go as far as making it the Rabadon of support items, adding a third AP component (Wisp/Codex) and making this a dilemma between finishing a "broken" expensive all-purpose item and rushing a completed specialized one.

Re: Targon's Stacks
We did try a version of the starting items that removed the laning pattern but got a lot of feedback that it was missed. This was a surprisingly strong reaction in Targon users, as they liked having the ability to interact with the wave. We are looking at ways to mitigate the late game execution issues, however, as that remains a pain point. 

Re: Ancient Coin
Lulu, and Karma (to a lesser extent Janna) still have the option of Spell Thief's, but we feel that Coin can still be a viable option for them - the coins when "dropped" do pop towards the champion, and have a set follow/pickup speed, so those are all levers we can use to tune the risk. 

Re: Zeke's Herald & Redemption
For Midseason we mostly focused on Support starting items since we were adding a new component to them. The other support items will probably need a more holistic look to make sure we know what our goals are in terms of item coverage and that each item fits into that picture."

On the support gold/xp problem, Limely commented:

"Quote:

One random thought I've just had on the whole Support gold/XP problem is a small gold/XP "reward" when placing wards using Sightstone/its upgrades on something like a 60 second cooldown. 

It's more of an incentive to buy the item whatever champ you're playing in the role and encourages you to actively use it, plus considering the item takes up a slot all game it would be helpful in pushing you towards later purchases.

We've talked a lot about vision, it's place in our game, who should be responsible for it, how do we judge the quality of vision provided, etc., and we don't have all the answers to all those questions - it's still up for debate. 

For example, some support players resent being expected to be the sole provider for vision, but at the same time other support players resented having more control taken away when we limited how many wards each player could have out. I myself used to scatter wards around like birdseed. :3 

All that being said, we're reluctant to further reinforce vision as core support interaction, and would like to find ways to encourage effective vision play across the board (an example being to find ways to detect how much information has your ward provided vs. how many wards have you placed)."

On poaching on the new Spellthief's, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

Gut instnct tells me Spelltheif's will be bad on Morgana now. 

But midlane Ahri, Karma, and Taliyah probably like the tribute proc speed boost. 

As much as you don't want it poached, I don't see how it won't be unless you completely dumpster the stats on it.

Our first step if poaching becomes a problem will likely be to increase the lockout time per CS taken, make it much more of a trade off to build while also trying to farm."

On what happens when you buy another Ancient coin after completing its quest, Limely commented:

"Quote:

what if they then buy another coin?

The quest progress does not reset between purchases, so you would not get another elixir."

On how the gold rewards from Ancient Coin lined up against the other support items, Limely answered:

"Quote:

In testing, how feasible was it for a coin support who had successfully bullied their lane opponent under tower to grab coins under tower, and vice versa? 

Also how does the gold rewards of the coin line compare to the others?

In most cases we have seen supports successfully and safely collecting coins under tower. We did have one test where a player chose to try playing aggressively risky with Coin, and did end up with, shall we say, less than ideal results. :3 That seems to be the exception to the rule, however. 

Collecting coins under your own tower when losing lane is not difficult, but depending on the enemy comp you will run the same risk as usual for an enemy dive happening. You'll still pick up the coins while you run around your tower trying not to die to the dive though. ;) 

All joking aside, we are prepared to tune the risk under turrets should it be a larger problem than what we've seen in our internal playtests. 

As far gold generation, the Coin Line is tuned to have rough parity with the other two, excluding the coins generated by takedowns."

On the elixir from Ancient Coin and how it acted with a level 18 character, Limely commented:

"Quote:

If hypothetically someone was already level 18 when they finished their coin quest, would the elixir just do nothing? 

Is someone completing the coin quest, and then replacing their coin item with spellthiefs/relic shield lines to complete that quest later in the game something reasonably viable, or are the quests intended to take long enough to make that impractical? 

How long is the spellthiefs delay? Will brand passive still result in reliable stacks?

The quests are intended to take long enough that it's impractical (and not gold efficient) to try to replace coin, but not tuned in such a way that you would hit level 18 before finishing the coin quest. That being said, if you ARE level 18, the elixir does do nothing.
Re: Spellthief's delay, currently it is 1.25 seconds, so Brand passive can still use stacks, but stationary pools will only be able to get all of them if there are multiple people in the pool or if a single target stays in the pool."

Midseason Rift Herald Update 

Riot Sotere hit the boards with a context and discussion thread on the Rift Herald Changes we will be seeing in the 7.9 / midseason PBE cycle:

"Hi all, 

In the SUPER near future we’ll be releasing an updated version of the Rift Herald to PBE. For the last year and a half she has been relegated to an afterthought in terms of objective importance. Her reward, while powerful and purposefully niche, didn’t encourage many teams to opt into the high risk of combating her. 

In revisiting the Rift Herald, we reaffirmed that there is value in having an objective on the top side of the map that is worth pursuing for players. We want the individuals and teams who devote their resources to capture her to feel well rewarded and empowered to take further action. In short, we want the Rift Herald to be an objective worth considering in the average game, and we want the slaying of this epic monster to have an epic feeling reward. 

I’ll get more tactical as to what we’re actually doing but will first throw out the usual caveat that much of this is subject to change and we’ll be closely monitoring PBE and player feedback. We’re treading in somewhat unknown waters, so we expect that even after launch, there will be substantial tuning and potentially large transitions to make. Now, to what’s changing: 

Art! 

It’s long been a goal to update Rift Herald’s visuals and polish her sounds so she feels like a natural inhabitant of the Summoner’s Rift (void corruption notwithstanding). The most immediately noticeable and probably most important change to the Rift Herald this midseason is her substantial makeover. New fancy lady: 

Still photographs hardly do the new version justice. She also has a set of brand new animations, particles, and sound effects as well. Check her out on the Rift to see her full new ensemble. 

The Encounter 

The Rift Herald on Live we’ve grown to know and love had some challenges with the encounter: 

• It’s super punishing. If you opt into the fight at a bad time, or alone, you’re probably going to die.
• There are significant restrictions: outside very rare exceptions, you needed two people to beat the encounter.
• Learnability of some of the mechanics wasn’t incredibly high. Eye-hitting was only discoverable with multiple people, and though we encouraged swapping aggro her leashing was pretty punishing. 

We approached these issues with some hesitance. Can we support a Herald who doesn’t chunk you down really fast? Can she be soloable? To increase the potential she’ll be viewed as a real objective, we’re answering in the affirmative to both of those questions. 

While duoing her should still be the best plan of action for ease and speed, lone champions will now have the opportunity to kill her. Her attacks are more plodding, giving a solo artist the capability to sneak around her and land attacks on her achilles heel (or eye). She doesn’t punish players quite as much if they start opportunistic attempts at her. Generally, if you die from the encounter now it will be due to the enemy team swooping in. We’ve also made her quite a bit more patient with enemy aggro swapping, so she won’t leash outside exceptionally gamey circumstances. 

We also wanted to play up her epicness: Dragons, Baron, and even Scuttle Crab have some variation to their combat pattern outside of throwing autoattacks and running away. We wanted to infuse her with a little more spirit and life. She’ll now charge at the first enemy who angers her, significantly damaging and knocking away anyone who dares get in her way. At certain health thresholds she’ll also get enraged and launch a larger conal swipe attack. Both additional attacks are threatening, avoidable, and should help opponents discover the effectiveness of bopping her in the eye. 

The Reward 

Anyone on the team who slays the Herald can collect the Eye of the Herald when she is captured. This item will allow the champion to summon her within a short timeframe to have the Herald do their team’s bidding. While the summoning ceremony takes time, the results of a good use are devastating. 

She hates turrets. No one knows why. There are stories (that I just made up) that the turrets on the Rift memorialize the visage of the Herald’s enemies from the Void. Perhaps they just look like tasty treats, a nice fit for her high sodium diet. Regardless of why, once she’s set to do a team’s bidding, she’ll barrel down a lane, knocking aside enemy minions and charging at turrets as soon as she gets in range. That’s where the real fun and destruction begins. 

While Herald can do decently pushing on her own, she is even more susceptible than she was in the pit. Hits to her eye do more damage, she can be stunned, and she’s generally not as tanky. If she is not protected by a squad of champions, the enemy will likely make quick work of her. But a team that picks their timing carefully and is dedicated to protecting the Herald could siege down multiple turrets. Importantly, the Herald mercenary does damage based on her current health. The more damage enemies do to her, the less she’ll do in return to enemy turrets. 

In Closing 

The version that first hits PBE will not be set in stone. We’ll be polishing her up over the course of the next few weeks and paying attention to any negative fallout that might happen. We do believe that this new reward will generate interesting gameplay and we are devoted to making sure it feels like an appropriate and epic reward. Let us know what you think!"

On Rift Herald's range, Meddler replied:

"Quote:

Does her attacks outrange towers?

No, she's melee."

Riot Sotere also replied:

"Quote:

Sounds cool! I'm assuming she only spawns once per game, similar to the current rift herald? Also is there a current value for the timeframe you need to summon her? It sounds like, because you get the empowered recall, that you're supposed to recall after taking her and immediately summon her down a lane? It sounds like, like most things, she'll be used to much greater effect in coordinated play, since you have to coordinate taking the herald with another lane's push.

Yup! Still just one chance to get here. 

After you collect the Eye of the Herald you have 4 minutes (subject to change, of course) to summon the mercenary. We've found this to be a decently long time to create an advantageous situation. 

Coordination will definitely allow a team to get a lot more value out of her. On the other side of the coin, appropriate rotations do a decent job of shutting her down and those tend to be better at higher levels of play, too."

Riot Sotere added:

"Quote:

Will be really cool to try out in-game! I'm curious where she will start at when deployed, at her team's outermost turret perhaps? Can she be spawned top, mid and bottom?

The holder of the eye can spawn her wherever they like. She'll head to the nearest lane from which she is deployed."

Riot Sotere continued:

"Quote:

What happens if the holder of the Eye doesn't use it in time? Does it just get lost forever?
Also, given her dashing new look, is it implied that she's a void-mutated scuttlecrab?

It does get lost forever. We'll be monitoring whether we need a better fallback. In testing, the duration of the buff and the warnings we have in encourage people to use the summon in time. 

And yes to the void-mutated crab."

When asked about Syndra's interactions with Rift Herald, Riot Sotere replied:

"Quote:

Will Syndra be able to use Force of Will on the lane pushing Herald, since she is not CC immune? She could end up disproportionately powerful against her by slamming the Herald onto an invulnerable turret that she isn't smart enough to walk away from.

She retains some of her epic monster qualities. One of which is being invulnerable to Syndra's Force of Will. So Syndra won't be hyper effective against her but the consistent damage she puts out will put a crimp in Herald's sieging style."

On her actions when no turret is around , Django UnJaned commented:

"Quote:

Out of curiosity, what happens when you summon her when there's no enemy turrets left? Does she bumrush the nexus or walk away sadly?

She'll bumrush the nexus and then do a happy little dance if she destroys it :3"

When asked about the snowbally effects of destroying towers, Riot Sotere reasoned:

"Quote:

Do you think that adding more tower destroying mechanisms over time increases map pressure snowball as towers are still very weak? It seems like towers get easier to take down every season with reworks, objectives, items, etc. Sure it speeds up the game but it also speeds up snowballing

I think it's a good thing to keep track of. We'll be watching the pacing changes and Herald's effectiveness in terms of how many turrets she kills on average and how bloody fights get around her location. 

Towers are a bit smarter than they were at the same time last year, but we have increased the number of ways to chunk them down. We're not preemptively modifying them but will make sure they still provide a decent amount of safety and last long enough to provide a meaningful laning phase."

Riot Sotere also mentioned she'll have new portrait art:

"Quote:

Will the art team give the rift herald a new splash art? She currently does not have any. Will her mugshot icon (not sure what the official term is) be updated also?

Mugshot yes. No plans for a splash art that I'm aware of, unfortunately."

When asked if Rift Herald benefits from earth dragon buff,  Riot Sotere commented:

"Quote:

I like the mercenary camp approach to Rift Herald, these seems similar to the ones in HotS. Is Rift herald going to interact with our Earth Dragon buffs

Hmm. She doesn't currently. Earth dragon just applies to champion's damage IIRC. Herald is doing her own work, and wouldn't get the buff (not being a champion and all) even if she happened to be on your team when you take Earth Dragon. That would be a neat consideration though, if her value more directly increased post Earth dragon. It already is increased somewhat meaningfully, because Herald allows your champions to get more hits on turrets, as well. 

Thanks for the question. :)"

On the summon item, Riot Sotere noted:

"Quote:

How does one actually summon the herald? Is it an icon you click in the HUD? A new spot/icon that only appears when you have the buff? Or does it replace your trinket?
Also what does the rift herald like to eat?

Replaces the trinket slot. 

She prefers turrets. Minions work into her diet, too. Currently ignores honeyfruit but we may have to do something about that."

When asked if the new Rift Herald would attack inhibitors, Riot Sotere confirmed:

"Quote:

So does she also attack inhibitors in order to always have target?

Oh yes. She also charges at inhibitors and the nexus. Rare for her to get that far, but she'll go at them."

He continued, confirming there was a global sound on summon:

"Quote:

Will there be a global sound when a player begins summoning her? For example if your jungler has her item drop and you don't know when/where to expect her push.

There's a global sound on summon and a ping in that direction. Looking into ways to increase clarity on that, too."

Ont he possibility of a summoned Rift Herald and Baron-empowered minions being up at the same time, Riot Sotere commented:

"Quote:

So it's possible to kill the herald, kill baron when it spawns and then go siege with both Siege-Herald and baron minions? 

By the way, will the herald attack enemy champions and minions if they get in the way? 

Looking forward to that Yorick+Mordekaiser+Heimer(+Annie+Ivern) comp with full ZZrot banner build and rushing Herald.

That is possible! She'll stop to attack minions in her way, not champions."

He went on, extolling on her power:

"Quote:

I'm looking foreward to see this lady on the Rift, she looks gorgeous! 

Can we have a bit of context on the choice of reducing her damage based on her health? What problem does it solve? 

To me it sounds like after some point her damage becomes ignorance and she just tanks tower shots? 

Also, questions:
1. How effective is she if left pushing alone without being stopped? Compared to Yorick's maiden?
2. Do tower shots increase damage against her like against champions? Do towers priorize her above minions? Super minions? Champs? 

Thanks!

Heyas. Thanks for a nice set of questions. 

Her damage reduces based on her health so she doesn't have incredibly powerful long sieges. They're already really good, but we wanted to limit the top end potential while making sure she hit a baseline of effectiveness. This way we can establish that at full health, she's going to chunk turrets down and always feel good for the team that captured her. Then as the siege goes on, there's more of an opportunity to counter her. 

1) Substantially more powerful on her own. Her upfront damage is significant. 

2) Nope, no heating up mechanic on her. They prioritize her over minions and super minions. Over champions until they aggro the turret. Similar rules to Daisy/Tibbers."

On whether she still did a happy dance, Riot Sotere confirmed:

"Quote:

Most Important Question that'll probably define all of League of Legends for the remaining years beyond this Mid-Season update:
Does she still dance?

Our animators and sound designers have a nice treat in store for you. It's kind of epic."

On her recoil damage, Riot Sotere explained:

"Quote:

Just saw a preview video on the rift herald and I noticed that when she first attacks a turret she charges and rams at it dealing true damage but taking recoil damage in return. How much is the recoil damage and was that intentional to have it on her? I do find it interesting that she also has an execute attack on low health turrets (similar to ziggs w).

Heyas. Currently it's equal to the damage she deals, which is 25% of her current health +150. The recoil damage is certainly intended. She hates turrets so much that she is willing to throw her body against them with such force that she takes damage, too."

Midseason Update - Utility Contribution

Here's Ququroon with a post on the Midseason Update - Utility Contribution:

"Hey all! 

In the Intro to Midseason we talked about highlighting the contribution of non-carry roles in League. This is the first step of many towards this goal, and it’s aimed at making supports and tankier champions feel more rewarded and recognized for their actions. It also comes with the added benefit of improving tactical clarity for both players and viewers. 

In this thread, we are looking for your feedback (as well as any bugs you may find) on these features and your thoughts on future additions, especially with regards to tracking additional stats. 

Crowd Control Name Display:

By giving CC states a more in-your-face treatment, we hope that players and viewers will be better able to track the flow of a fight and help teammates figure out when to follow up or turn tail. While CC is already appreciated when noticed, this new display works to improve that feedback loop so everyone can bask in the light of a 5 man Leona ult. 

The system follows a strict prioritization to deal with situations where multiple CC types are applied to a champion - after all, if you’re airborne or suppressed, being blinded as well is the least of your problems. 

As with many features of this kind, we found some inconsistencies as we worked on this, and while we hit most of them, there may be a few that still look a little off. Please keep an eye out for them, and let us know any you encounter. 

End of Game Stats: 

We’re getting more relevant stats onto the End of Game screen! Again, this is only our first offering - expect more in the future.

• Crowd Control Score, a sum of all the CC effects applied to champions during the game - hard cc is weighted higher than soft cc.
• Vision Score, a calculation of contributed vision over the course of the game - further details to come.
• Damage Dealt to Structures, the amount of damage dealt to towers/inhibitors/nexus.
• Damage Mitigated on Self, the amount of damage a champion reduced or blocked, through abilities or shields 

Please note that these stats are still in process of being implemented, as will have more updates as the PBE cycle continues. 

Better Item Feedback: 

Have you ever found yourself wishing how much damage you’ve blocked with your Locket? This change will add more of these stats onto active items, so you can better evaluate how well you’re using them. 

Please note this feature will not be showing on PBE for a couple of days, as we put in the remaining work to get it ready. 

Spell Attribution:

Have you ever been drive-by ignited, or you think you heard your lane opponent pop heal, but you’re not sure? We’re adding a new VFX trail from caster to target on most summoner spells and active items to make those moments clearer. There’s a visual for both enemies and allies, so it should be easier to discern who cast what in a skirmish. 

Death VFX: 

Our old death VFX (for those who noticed it), was slow and subtle. We are updating the effect for both enemies and allies to be snappy and more noticeable so the flow of a fight is more clearly communicated. 

Active Item HUD: 

Active items often contain a lot of power and gold-efficiency of an item, which is great when you remember to cast it, and awful when you don’t. This change adds a thicker and more prominent border to our major activatables, separate from consumables and trinkets."

[NA] Legacy Client Officially Retires April 24 

The time is has come! The Legacy client will officially retire on April 24th in the North American region, with other regions to follow shortly after Here's Cactopus with more information:

"We've had good times with the legacy client. 

The little blue box carried us from 2009 to 2017, but it's finally time to say goodbye. Beginning April 24, the legacy client will officially be retired in NA. All other regions can expect to get the update within the coming weeks. 

We’ve put together an FAQ to address some questions you may have: 

What’s the big deal about the new client anyway?

The updated client has been built from the ground up to use newer technology that allows us to develop features faster. Most importantly, it gives League a strong foundation it can stand on for many years to come—because we will support League for a LONG time. Since the beginning of open beta, we've shipped two big new features on the updated client: Practice Tool and Replays. 

There are also a slew of quality-of-life improvements: 

• Pop out the message window, move it around wherever you want, and resize it freely
• Automatically hide mobile or offline friends in a group on your friends list
• Drag'n'drop to rearrange rune and mastery pages
• Shift click to assign 9 runes at once
• Ability to change in-game settings from the client
• More control on sound settings tunings than in legacy 

The work on the client’s not done yet. We’re hard at working on performance and stability improvements as well as new features. When we’re confident that it offers a better experience than the legacy client, we’ll upgrade all players to use the new client. 

Check out our previous beta update to learn more about why we're replacing the legacy client and our future plans for rolling it out. 

There are some other things I don't like about the new client. Why replace it now?

We'd be bullshitting you if we said we think the new client is 100% perfect. It's not. We've been listening to players' complaints and concerns throughout the process, and we're going to keep improving the new client after the legacy client is gone. 

Here's a few concerns that we've heard from players which we'll be mindful of going forward: 

• The current design of our drop-down menus makes editing masteries take more clicks (and scrolling) when compared to legacy client. We'll think about how to solve the UX issues they've been causing. 

• The chat module covers up vital parts of the client, including the "confirm" button which lets players get into game. This can be solved by popping out the chat module and moving it wherever the player wants, but further work could probably be done here 

• Players are forced to wait until pick phase is over to choose their skin. This was not the case with the legacy client. 

• Champ search could be improved in a few different ways to let players sort the list how they want. 

• Profile is missing many of the "career stats" which were available in the legacy client. We've actually committed to rebuilding more stats into the client during upcoming work on the profile page. 

• Players dislike being unable to close or minimize the friends list. This could potentially be solved by allowing players to cover that area with other content. 

• The "first win of the day" timer should show the countdown down to the minute or second rather than just the hour. 

We've heard this feedback (and more), and we take it very seriously. While we can't solve this stuff before we retire the legacy client, we will continue to improve the new client and take this feedback into consideration. 

Who will be upgraded?

Everyone. You’ll see a new screen that will highlight the upgrade process the next time you launch League. Once the upgrade process is complete, when you click on “LAUNCH," you’ll launch into the new client.. 

Can I go back to using the legacy client after April 24?

No, the goal of the client rollout is to replace the legacy client. To learn more about why we're replacing the legacy client, check here. 

I gave it a try before and it was too laggy / slow, why should I try it again?

Performance and stability has come a long way since the beginning of the year. We’ve also introduced a Low-Spec mode that automatically detects your specs and defaults to recommended settings to ensure a smooth experience. If you had trouble before, we're confident you'll have a better experience with our latest patch. 

I liked item sets—why isn’t the item set creator tool in the new client yet?

Initially, due to the low use of item sets, we hadn’t planned to bring it back with the new client and focus on making other areas better instead. However we’ve heard a lot of feedback and reconsidered our decision. We now intend to rebuild the item set creator tool, but haven't yet started development work on it, so it could take quite some time even after we replace the legacy client. Of course, replacing the legacy client still comes first. In the meantime we still totally support item sets in-game (you don't lose your existing item sets when you update your client).

I have feedback to share, how do I submit them to Riot?

There are two ways to share your feedback with us:

• Client Discussion boards.

If you run into technical issues / bugs, please use the icon at the bottom right of the client to submit a bug report.

What’s next?

We will continue rolling out the updated client to more and more regions while keeping you updated of our plans as we move forward."

Updated Client Switchover: Out with the Old, In with the New 

dArtagnan also posted on the boards with a small FAQ for issues on the client update and a strong suggestion to try to download and update the client early:

Hey everyone, 

Let's cut right to the chase, the AIR client (more recently called the legacy or old client) will officially be disabled and turned off on April 24th. For more information on what the updated client offers and why we’re making this change, check out this article. This means that if you try to launch the old client on the 24th, you will immediately be prompted to switch over to the new Updated Client. You’ll get a notification that looks like this:

We’ve been preparing for this on the backend for a long time, so there shouldn’t be too much you need to download when the switchover happens. Once everything is set, you should be able to login normally. We strongly encourage you to switch over starting now! That way if you do hit a problem we can get it resolved while the AIR client is still there as a back-up! 

We know that with any change there is always a risk of some unforeseen bugs and errors that may crop up. The following issues are some of the most common that pop-up with their solutions: 

NOTE: You may want to temporarily disabling your Firewall before switching over to the Updated Client, and re-enabling it the moment its finished. This should help the switchover go smoothly. 

“I’ve tried the Updated Client before, and it was sooooo laggy”

We've made some massive changes to the Updated Client make it run as smoothly as possible, even on the proudest of potatoes. Enable Low Spec Mode if it isn’t on already. You can find out by clicking the gear in the upper right hand corner of the Updated Client and then click "Enable Low Spec Mode" 

"Patching Failed and we're not sure why Error: 004" 

This error usually occurs when Operating System Permissions isn't set properly. Essentially, the patcher is trying to access files found on your hard drive, but it is being denied from doing so. Follow the steps in this guide to get this resolved! 

"Something's up with our servers and it's preventing you from patching" Error: 003 

Occurs when the patcher isn't able to maintain a stable connection with our Patcher Servers. If the patcher loses connection to the server to get the necessary files, it will simply stop working. To get this resolved, make sure to complete all of the solutions in this guide.  

The “Play” button appears Grey in the Client 

We are still trying to nail down exactly why this happens for some players. If you experience it, make sure to follow the steps found here which should provide a temporary work-around! 

If you have a problem that isn’t here or those solutions aren’t working, drop a comment below and we’ll be sure to respond and help you out! ^.^"

When asked about the future changes to add 10 bans, Riot Cactopus clarified:

"This isn't actually correct. 10 bans are coming to all draft modes in the client—it just won't work the same way as in the pro scene 

EDIT: I love you Broporo. Thank you so much for helping answer player questions here"

Questions? Comments? Check out the boards thread for more information!

Ezreal Nendoroid revealed on Riot Games Merch FB

Over on the Riot Games Merch Facebook page, it was confirmed that the Ezreal Nendoroid that has been floating around WILL be available globally after a debut release in Korea.

"Just confirming for everyone on this channel that YES the Ezreal Nendoroid is a thing! This new figure is premiering in Korea at the end of the month and is slated for a global release in May/June of this year. More info and photos to come!"