Red Post Collection: Quick Gameplay Thoughts June 6th, 10 Bans live in ranked on NA, Rotating Gamemode Brain Dump, & more

Posted on at 9:03 PM by Aznbeat
Tonight's red post collection includes Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for June 6th, 10 bans now live in Ranked on NA, L4T3NCY with a rotating game mode brain dump, and more!
Continue reading for more information!




Table of Contents


Quick Gameplay Thoughts, June 6th

Here's Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for 6/6, including mention of several tentative changes on the PBE and in development:
"Morning all, 
Usual Disclaimers 
These posts will often contain talk about future work we're doing, or planning to do, that isn't yet guaranteed to ship. The nature of the work could change or, depending on what we discover, projects mentioned may get put delayed or even stopped.
If you'd like to see a Tweet whenever a new one of these posts goes up: https://twitter.com/RiotMeddler 

Azir 
We've been talking about a small ish Azir update for a long time. We think he's a really cool champ, but he's been very hard to keep balanced due to a lack of sufficient weaknesses in his kit. We've recently started exploring possible approaches in game on him, with best guess being an update around the scale of Rek'Sai's recent one. That'll likely involve reducing his mobility, range or burst and then adding power in somewhere else. It'll also likely be at least a few months off, so possible other small updates come out first. Mentioning it nonetheless since it's one we've talked about in the past as needed but haven't been able to offer anything more concrete previously than 'someday' 
Tournament Draft available in custom games 
For anyone interested we recently (last week I think?) made it so you can select the LCS style pick/ban in custom games. Thinking there was that that would be useful for people wanting to run their own tournaments using it, teams who want to scrim using it etc. Mentioning it here since while it's already out we didn't say much about it at the time so I figure there are probably a few people who'd like to know about it and missed it. 
7.11 followup 
Looking at the 7.11 changes now that they've been out for nearly a week there are a few things we'll probably followup on in 7.12. These are guaranteed changes yet, since we're still watching how players adapt 
Kindred - Are probably too weak. We're testing buffs to base AD (54 -> 57), Q ratio (0.65 -> 0.75), W wolf speed (1200 -> 1400), a slightly increased W duration and a cheaper cost on E (70 -> 50). 
Rek'Sai - Also looking weak. Testing base AD buff (55.6 -> 57.5), Armor per level (3.4 -> 3.75), unborrow AD ratio (0.4 -> 0.8), R reliability improvements (should be much harder to avoid the damage). 
Malz - Directionally is looking better (healthier playstyle). Not certain, but suspect he may now be too strong in solo lanes. Talking today about whether to do anything for 7.12 or wait and consider again for 7.13. Would involve trimming a bit of power (probably added a bit too much, so toning that back a bit). 
Rakan bugfix 
We've been testing a reduced CD on Rakan's E based off the belief that he's underperforming a bit at present. We noticed a bug with his passive this week however where it wasn't getting benefit from Healing/Shielding increasing effects. We're removing the E buff, at least for now, until we've seen what impact that bugfix, since we weren't looking to add a major amount of power to Rakan. 
More new runes 
We'll probably talk about a few more new runes early next week. Let us know if there are particular sorts of effects you're interested in hearing about. Can't make any promises those will necessarily be the ones far enough along to talk about, will see what we can do though."

When asked again about plans for compensation in the new Runes Reforged, Meddler responded:
"We've been talking a lot about different approaches to runes, IP etc. That's a subject we can't talk details on though until we've figured out what we think makes sense. Definitely feel you on the awkwardness of this intermediate period, and will share details as soon as we've got em."
Meddler continued, elaborating a bit more on the future system:
"Quote:
meddler do you think you can help fill me in with the runes and such? I'm kind of confused on how you guys explain it. what I got is the different paths but how do you get the mega runes and such like that? do you need to buy them or earn them from games?
Every player will have access to all the runes. We'll be limiting your ability to customize them at really early levels while players are still learning the basics of the game, no planned restrictions other than that though. A level 5 player might pick from preset pages for example, rather than customizing each rune individually. They'll still have the power of a full set of runes, but won't be exposed to the complexity of the system until they've played a bit more LoL and have a better handle on what stuff does. Full customization would then open up at a higher level (still figuring out exactly when, pretty early on though)."

On maybe getting a champion based on Azir's old sand mage kit, Meddler replied:
"Quote:
Meddler, 
Read the Azir: Origins post went up on the Nexus, and the sand mage idea seems incredibly cool! Now that League has had some time to grow and more VFX are possible, any chance of revisiting the idea with another champion? I imagine all of the Gaara (from Naruto) fans would love a champion that plays on the sand-control fantasy.
Possible at some point, though can't make any promises. I doubt we'll revisit the specific concept of covering large chunks of the map in sand though, that also just consumed such enormous amounts of visual real estate it was hard to see other things going on.
Meddler continued:
"Quote:
wait so you will make Seth out of Azir?
No, Azir's got his own distinct identity and theme. We're not going to replace that with a different sand mage. 
It's possible, though far from guaranteed, that we explore another character who manipulates sand though someday. "
On Zac and nerfs for next patch, Meddler responded:
"Quote:
What are the current thoughts on Zac? He's dominating the jungle in many games and is also banned almost every game I'm in. Is he not thought to be too strong atm?
Looking at him, damage nerfs to W and E possible in 7.12, though still confirming that."


10 Bans live in Ranked on NA - Other Regions soon.

10 Bans in ranked now live in the NA servers. 10 Bans is testing in the NA region before being enabled globally later in the 7.11.  More information available in [this previous article].

Prior to the launch of 10 bans in ranked this morning,  Riot Draggles tweeted:
[1] "5 minute warning, North America, 10 bans will be enabled in Ranked at 10am PST!"
[2] "Barring any issues, we hope to activate 10 bans globally (in both Normal Draft and Ranked) later this week - likely Thursday morning local"
In the associated reddit thread, Sapmagic and others hung around to answer questions!

SapMagic reiterated on reddit that the 10 bans would be out globally soon:
"Quote:
Great, now that you're done using NA as a beta test, bring it to EUW :)
It's on the way shortly. Within the next couple days is our current plan!"
On whether it would take longer to come to ranked, SapMagic  confirmed:
"Quote:
Will it come directly to ranked or is there also a one week phase in normals first?
It will come to all queues at the same time as we launch in other regions."

On why they started with normal draft on NA only, SapMagic replied:
"Quote:
Cool, thanks for the update. I don't get it though. You wanna make sure there are no major issues before you pull the trigger, but you do decide to roll it out on ranked.
Essentially, we wanted to activate the feature in Normal Draft first for at least one region so we could monitor things like dodge rate, ban rates, feedback, etc. 
Now that we've done that, we're comfortable activating the feature in all queues, starting with the remaining queues in NA."
As for when we should expect 10 to roll out globally following NA, SapMagic repeated:
"Quote:
over what period of time? i really dont wanna queue up for rankeds right now because it just takes so long to find a game, get through the draft only to have someone dodge and repeat the hole crap...
Assuming all goes well, regions will probably be getting it Thursday morning local time. Could be earlier or slightly later than that."

Challenger rewards update 

Challenger reward jackets and medallions will be shipping out soon! Here's Riot Riscx with more information, including a look at a exclusive upcoming recall visual effect for Challenger players!
"Last year at the end of the season we announced brand new physical rewards for Challenger players and teams in the 2016 ranked season - in that time we’ve been hard at work designing and crafting the thousands of jackets and medallions that Challengers earned in that time. 
After a couple of delays, we’re now shipping jackets in most regions! Challenger Elite medallions will soon follow, so don’t panic if you qualified for a medallion and didn’t receive it in your first shipment. We’re working to ship all items in the coming weeks. 
We’ve had a lot of time to think about rewards while waiting for the jackets to ship out. When we reached out to some of the highest-level players regarding end-of-season rewards, a young up-and-coming North American player called Meteos had an idea: Riot should add something in-game like unique Recall effects for Challengers. 
Well, alright. 
The Challenger Recall appears anytime the normal blue Recall would play, but does not override Baron-buffed Recalls, nor the blue effect on the minimap, to preserve gameplay readability. This will be going live in a future patch, but we wanted to give you a quick preview:
You can get this effect by being Challenger Tier in the current season (this will update daily). 
We hope Challengers and Challenjours alike enjoy this feature - and we’ll have an update on the physical rewards program later this year. In the meantime, let us know what you think!"

RGM brain dump June 

Here's L4T3NCY with a brain dump on all things rotating game mode. June's post includes discussion on the recent return of Doom Bots, RGMQ games in customs, and more!
"Heya guys ^.^/ It's been a while since we did one of these, so the time feels right. :D We want to keep you guys in the loop on general RGM stuff, where we're at with converting old modes to the new client and what's on the horizon for new modes. As always, I'll be around in the comments for the next while to answer any other questions too. 
Is it my imagination or Brand + some zombie champs (Sion, Karthus) are nerfed in the current Doom Bots Lv100? 
No no, it's not your imagination, we did nerf them for this round. Unfortunately, all 3 of these champions were trivialising what was meant to be a "challenge mode" with the Lv100 Doom Bots, so we had to give them a tweak. 
Brand was actually so OP the first time around on Doom Bots, we straight up disabled him. :/ Pre-disable last time, Brand was doing anywhere from 2x to TONS more damage than every other character (one game we saw 60x damage o.O). We capped his passive damage and lowered the radius, so he should be more reasonable now, but not outright break the mode with crazy MaxHP% damage numbers. 
The zombie characters (Sion + Karthus) were essentially exploiting a bug with the AI logic and how they react (or don't) to zombie states. We're all for finding creative ways to complete challenge modes, but this was basically cheapening the experience for players who defeated Lv100 the hard way (Urgot go go). We investigated options to reach in and edit bot AI logic, but that was a rabbit-hole that wouldn't have led to a feasible solution in the time we had. We're not super happy with the nerf to be honest (we lowered their zombie-state damage), as it feels like a trap to let you play the champ in Lv100 then 'discover' they're nerfed. Will be reconsidering for next time. :/ 
Why do you release certain modes so often? 
We still aim to build new modes and release them as often as we can to you guys (we just released Blood Moon and Dark Star modes this year). Unfortunately, we can't build a whole Dark Star mode every month though. In between, rather than have nothing at all on the weekends, we bring back some reliable favourites (EG: Ascension & Poro King), so there's still something fun to play when you want a break from the regular game. We feel like this is better than the alternative of nothing at all to play in between each new big mode. For those of you who remember, we actually used to run game modes that way pre-RGM, and it felt pretty quiet for the long stretch between each mode (~3 months at a time). This way, there's still some fun stuff around on the weekends to play with, even if it is something that's been seen before. 
Where are the older RGM modes? 
We've been steadily building new client compatibility for the more successful older RGM modes (One For All, Hexakill), but #gamedev means it's slow going sometimes. We're also doing this in parallel with building our new modes (EG: Blood Moon & Dark Star). The good news is, we just got the Doom Bots of Doom stood up in new client for patch 7.11! Newer modes are also freebies being built in the new client from scratch, so they are much easier to bring back (Blood Moon is already on PBE right now for 7.12). 
On the flipside, there's some older modes we've actually decided not to bring back for various reasons. You can see some below details for why: 
probably won't bring back Snowdown Showdownprobably won't bring back Black Market Brawlers  
Custom Games in RGM modes where? 
Custom Games haven't intentionally been disabled for RGM modes, they're just unfortunately not yet enabled in the new client. :( We want Custom Games for RGM modes too, and we're working to get them enabled as soon as we can alongside our other conversion work for older modes. The sooner we get Custom Games back, we can do our Community vs Rioter showdowns on Fridays again. :D 
-- L4T3NCY"

When asked about having all gamemodes available in custom games, L4T3NCY responded:
"Quote:
What are your thoughts on possibly leaving all game modes available in custom games?
Also could we please have regular urf back? I would rather have the choice to pick what I want to play than leaving it up to whoever gets randomed the better champ. Maybe we could have both urf and arurf at the same time as a solution.
RE: Leaving all modes available in customs: 
This would actually be a huge amount of ongoing maintenance to do (we wouldn't even be able to make new modes anymore it would take so much time). Each time a mode comes back, we have to QA it against the current patch, bugfix, update for any new changes, champion reworks, new champs, item tweaks, etc. LoL updating every 2 weeks is great for being able to constantly update and balance the game, but it means the burden of maintaining content is quite high, so we have to be super intentional about what to bring back. 
RE: URF vs ARURF: 
One of the problems with URF was stagnant champion diversity. We would see the same champs over and over in URF games, and players rightly got fatigued of it (Zed vs Fizz anyone?). ARURF doesn't have this downside anymore. Other players mentioned that they enjoyed being able to pick their champion in URF as a chance to "practice their favourite champs", but we also now have the Practice Tool as an even more robust solution than the old URF mode. "
 
On the delectable difficulty levels removed from Doom Bots of Doom, L4T3NCY replied:
"Quote:
For Doom Bots of Doom: 
Are we unable to select the level of doom or did I just not know how?
What level of doom is the teemoing?
We removed the function to 'select' your difficulty in the Gauntlet, as it turns out the overwhelming majority of people were just in their to try their luck at Lv100. We also changed the queue name to reflect this. 
The Teemoing is roughly equivalent to Lv25"

L4T3NCY continued:
"Quote:
I feel like you guys lowered their damage too much though.
That might be true this time around, but they're both tough "feast or famine" balancing acts. If we err too far on the famine side, they feel kinda bad to play. However the way bot AI logic ignores them, means if they are of any consequence at all, they become a 'must pick'. Then players aren't really picking them to "have fun playing Sion", they're doing it to exploit a bug and trivialise Lv100. :( 
I agree though, I'm not sure it feels great to die, become a zombie, then do pretty much nothing. We might pull this for the next time round on Doom Bots and explore another solution that doesn't feel like a "trap" to play."

On timing of having from 1 gamemode a week vs 1 every 2 weeks, L4T3NCY  responded:
"Quote:
How do you feel about going back to changing the gamemode every week instead of 2 weeks? I don't actually know if that's the more popular view or not, but I'd certainly enjoy more rotation
Until very recently, we used to do this weekly instead of bi-weekly. It ended up being wa~ay more maintenance than we anticipated though, as it meant getting 2 modes active for each patch. The current cadence of 1 per patch is slightly less variety for you guys, but means we have the time to make other cool new things behind the scenes to release earlier (ala Bloodmoon & Dark Star)."
As for thoughts on Definitely not Dominion, L4T3NCY replied:
"Quote:
When it comes to modes like Definitely not Dominion, is it just a thing of it not being built for the new client for it not being back in the rotation yet or was that mode considered a failure in playrate?
Definitely Not Dominion is a tough one. Because of the map it uses, there's some unique snowflake maintenance to stand it up again, and it didn't exactly rock the boat the way DarK Star did. I realise it's not the most satisfying answer, but it's tough to say "Yay" or "Nay" to this one yet, before we stand up other modes.
When asked about Twisted Treeline Hexakill, L4T3NCY responded:
"Quote:
Not sure if it was a popular mode or not, but I really miss TTL Hexakill, the mayhem was just fantastic!
We miss that one too. It's on our list for conversion to the new client!"
On if they would use the items from Black Market Brawlers in the future, L4T3NCY responded:
"Quote:
Hey L4T3NCY can I ask for your thoughts on what might happen to the items from BMB if you guys don't want to bring it back in its existing iteration according to the last Ask Riot, cuz i really liked Staff of Flowing Water
The "Staff of Flowing Water" huh? Not the BMB item I would have expected someone to be still excited about lol. :D 
The items for now are living in #gamedev entropy. If we did an "item focused mode" we could always reuse them. They're not going anywhere (for now). I doubt it will show up in SR proper though, as the Systems team who makes the items would have made a move by now (been 2 years?) if they thought it was a good addition. 

Quick Hits

[Quick Hits is our own collection within a red post collection, often including easy to digest stories, specialized information, and/or repeat info you may have missed in other posts!]

1)  phroxz0n jumped on reddit to share comments on the tentative Rumble changes in testing on the PBE.


2) Ricklessabandon commented on reddit regarding the Abyssal Mask revert, implying the changes, including building from Catalyst, would likely return for more PBE testing in a future patch cycle:
"wanted to wait a patch -- got started on it a bit too late in the cycle" 

Reminders

Last up, a few reminders on upcoming and ending soon promotions and sales!
  • YOUR SHOP is up on the client through June 6th!  
  • As mentioned in 7.11 notes, Doom Bots of Doom returns to the RGMQ 6/9 - 6/13.

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