Red Post Collection: Mid-Patch Updates, Quick Gameplay Thoughts: December 13, & More

Posted on at 8:19 AM by Aznbeat
Today's red post collection includes mid-patch updates for Patch 9.24, a quick gameplay thoughts for December 13 from Riot Scruffy, a community collab comic about the Poro King, Zed comic issue #2 up on universe, and more!
Continue reading for more information!


Table of Contents


Mid-Patch Updates

Several mid-patch updates have rolled out so far in 9.24, check out the latest details below including the  12/17 update with Aphelios nerfs and Diana + Elder Dragon Bugfixes:
"12/17/2019 Aphelios Nerf, Diana and Elder Dragon Bugfixes 
Aphelios 
We're still giving Aphelios time to settle in before deciding on any bigger changes, but it's clear that some things landed a little too strong. In particular, his Infernum-empowered ultimate is too easily attainable (and a bit too strong when attained!) and Calibrum-empowered marks are a bit too punishing for how reliable they can be, so we're going to pull back on those for now. 
  • CALIBRUM BUGFIX Attacks that consume Calibrum marks no longer apply on-hit effects an additional time
  • CALIBRUM MARK DAMAGE RATIO 0.4 bonus attack damage ⇒ 0.3 bonus attack damage
  • INFERNUM-EMPOWERED ULTIMATE DAMAGE RATIO 0.4 bonus attack damage ⇒ 0.3 bonus attack damage
  • INFERNUM-EMPOWERED ULTIMATE EXPLOSION RADIUS 500 range ⇒ 400 range
Diana 
  • CONQUEROR BUGFIX Diana's basic attacks now gives her the proper amount of Conqueror stacks right after she casts R - Lunar Rush
Elder Dragon 
  • DEATH'S DANCE BUGFIX Aspect of the Dragon's burn damage no longer lasts longer than it should for enemies with Death's Dance equipped 
12/13/2019 Yuumi Bugfixes 
Yuumi 
  • W - YOU AND ME! COOLDOWN Yuumi's W no longer goes on cooldown when Yuumi or her ally attacks a Blast Plant that then knocks Yuumi off her ally
  • W - YOU AND ME! RESOURCE BAR Yuumi's secondary resource bar that indicates the duration of lockout on her W no longer displays incorrectly 
12/12/2019 Trinket Changes and Bugfixes 
Trinkets 
This change already went live with 9.24, but we didn't include them in the original patch notes (as some of you may have noticed). Explaining the mechanic and subsequent change below since it could be a little bit confusing! 
  • BANK ACCOUNT When you swap trinkets, the new cooldown is based on time since you last used any trinket. Any remaining Warding Totem ammo is converted into its value in cooldown for these purposes. 
Bugfixes 
  • PRESTIGE PULSEFIRE THRESH Pulsefire Thresh Prestige Edition now properly ends his channel animation after teleporting with Hexflash 
  • PRESENCE OF MIND MANA Now properly increases your maximum mana up to 500 or your energy to 50 in ARAM and Poro King"

UPDATE: Looks like 9.24b is out on live! Looking ahead, Riot Scruffy also recently tweeted a significant set of upcoming changes in a 9.24b patch preview. He also noted that the below updates should hit live sometime 'roughly mid next week':

Quick Gameplay Thoughts: December 13 

Here's Riot Scruffy with a quick gameplay thoughts post, covering patch 9.24b, preseason followup, champion release pace, and more:
"Hey all, 
It’s Riot Scruffy here and with Meddler out, I’m subbing in for some quick gameplay thoughts. With the holidays, this will probably be the last post of 2019, so we hope you all get some rest and stay cozy someplace warm. See you all in January. 
Patch 9.24b 
The end of year always presents some unique challenges with our patch schedule winding down and us wanting to get in as many tweaks as we can to tune preseason. Patch 9.24 is our last full patch of the year and just went live this week. We are planning to do a follow up “mini patch” next week with more champion and systems balance (but no major features or mechanics changes). 
Dragon Souls and Elder 
We’ve had enough time and data to do analysis on the impacts of dragon soul and elder dragon buff as end game objective rewards. In general both dragon souls and elder buff are stronger than we think they should be, but some individual buffs are more than others. Our plans for 9.24b are: 
  • Ocean Soul - big nerf
  • Infernal Soul - moderate nerf
  • Mountain Soul - moderate nerf
  • Elder buff - moderate nerf
  • Cloud Soul - no change 
Lethality items follow up 
Overall we’re seeing the updated Lethality items as a bit underpowered across the board. Our current approach is that we want to buff Serrated Dirk by 5 AD to make the build path a bit more powerful and create some more early threat. Additionally we also want to buff Edge of Night by that same 5 AD, so that buying it in the right games (mage / CC heavy) has a slightly higher payoff. Aside from that, the individual items are filling a unique set of contexts and roles well, so assassins now have a few more choices around how they want to focus their builds. 
Support items follow up 
The core concept of only having to buy the support once, and then immediately transitioning into the main item system has landed really well we think. It’s leading to more flexible build options for supports that feel more tailored to the champ you're playing. Another positive effect we’re seeing is a few more viable champs to the support role that would rather not have spent a lot of gold on the old items. 
We do however have two areas that we want to improve for 10.1. One is differentiating the stat lines more between the aggressive and defensive options. Relic Shield and Steel Shoulderguard will have some of their offensive stats pushed into health regen and Spectral Sickle and Spellthief’s Edge will have some of their health converted to mana regen for a more glass cannon build. Overall we think that by giving these items more defined stat profiles we can give the users a bit more of what they need. The second change we’re making for 10.1 is increasing the tier 3 quest goal so that we can remove the farming penalty once you reach tier 3. 
Sylas Mechanics Changes 
We have some Sylas work coming to PBE for patch 10.1. The core goal here is to shift his mechanics in a way that open up some weaknesses for him in very high level play while making him a viable champ for the majority of players (it’s a buff overall). We’re combining a set of strategies that we think will lead to this outcome: 
  • Less lane control, but significantly stronger late - having a safe, strong lane leads to being a strong option in all possible matchups. To counterbalance we’re buffing his late game across multiple axes (damage, tankiness, cooldowns)
  • Mid viability over jungle - Juggling multiple roles lead to an additional strength as a flex pick. We think we can get him to a healthier spot for mid lane if we don’t allow him to be a strong flex pick in jungle
  • Remove tools - E shield. Having a tool for every situation is something that can lead to this problem so we are going to remove the shield on E and give back the power in other places on the kit.
  • Lowering skill floor on passive and W - We want to soften a few of the optimizations that many players are struggling to access without pulling out the decisions and skills of experienced players entirely. 
New Champion Release Pace 
The end of this year leading into next year will have a flurry of new champions (Senna, Aphelios, Sett). We are as excited as you about this, but our current goal is not to speed up the pace of new champions and VGUs. The way that we develop focuses on getting it right over hitting perfect deadlines, so sometimes projects can cluster together like these three. Expect things to slow down a bit and 2020 should be fairly similar to 2019 in terms of champion releases. 
A related note is that Senna -> Aphelios -> Sett I think are a good representation of our overall approach to champion complexity and difficulty going forward. We want to have a wide range of simple, complex, accessible, and difficult offerings for players of all types so we’re aiming to balance that throughout our new champions and VGUs in 2020. 
-Scruffy"

Community Collab: The Tale of the Poro King

A new community collab comic is up on the Nexus! Check out an interview with one of the artists and head to the article to see the full comic!
" League of Legends fanartist extraordinaire SuperRisu got together with a bunch of other League fanartists to create “The Tale of the Poro King,” a fun, silly illustrated story all about one small poro’s journey from zero to hero! We talked to her about how, she brought this project to life.
A cute story focused on Runeterra’s favorite fluff balls is such a fun idea! What inspired you to tell this specific tale? 
Risu: I wanted to write a story that everyone could enjoy no matter what faction or champion was your favourite. Everyone had pitched some ideas but I knew what I wanted most was an exploration of Runeterra. We all agreed on a heroic poro (who would become the poro king) going on a journey as the final idea because they’re fairly neutral to all of the politics of the world and also well… poros are just so gosh darn cute! 
And this is a collab between a bunch of artists right? How’d you pull everyone together? 
Risu: Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE comics and I love telling stories. I wanted to put together an animatic at first but it made more sense in the end to create a storybook. After I wrote the tale, everyone who was interested got to pick a scene from the story that they wanted to draw and they were off! 
What the one thing you’re most proud of in “Tale of the Poro King”? 
Risu: Honestly I’m so proud of all of the artists who worked on the drawings, so much talent! It was really fun to see someone else’s interpretation of a scene that maybe I would’ve done differently if I had drawn this myself. It just goes to show there are so many different ways to tell a story. Thank you everyone for your hard work!"

[Check out the full Comic here!] 


Miscellaneous


  • The previously released Aphelios color story "You Are the Weapon" had a new art piece added!
  • Riot August noted a 10.1 Vi change and provided some details on Senna's winrate at the moment:
[1] "For patch 10.1, Vi will be unstoppable during the entire animation of her ultimate. (On live you can displace her during the uppercut animation)." 
[2] "This patch's Senna nerfs are trending as hoped. She's down ~3% as a support and ~5% as an ADC, putting both roles in the 49-50% winrate range in high and low MMR. Her ban rate is much lower and continues to decrease over time."
"We have a couple follow up plans for Aphelios in 10.1 and beyond: 
1. Infernum R multi hits will do 100 -> 75% damage lowering the 5 hit best case 
2. Clarity - not 100% locked down but we're exploring showing both guns to enemies and sniper Q / R readability improvements"
    "In order to survive, Zed will be forced to confront his past sins and seek the aid of his most bitter enemy--the Eye of Twilight, Shen!"
  • Riot Mort recently tweeted a set of ARAM stats following the 9.24 changes:
[1] ARAM - Looking at the results of 9.24 Changes and we seem to be in a pretty good spot. 57% to 42% range, every Nerfed champ is still above 50.5%, and every buffed champ is still below 49.5%. There are some small single champs I'd change, but overall quite good! Stats thread: 
[2] Top & Bottom Champs at all Elos:
1.) Teemo
2.) Maokai
3.) Caitlyn
4.) Swain
5.) Ziggs 
144.) Aatrox
145.) Kindred
146.) Rek'Sai
147.) Bard
148.) Azir 
[3] Top & Bottom Champs at high Elos:
1.) Maokai
2.) Janna
3.) Singed
4.) Volibear
5.) Trundle 
144.) Warwick
145.) Nocturne
146.) Tryndamere
147.) Vi
148.) Shyvana 
[4] Biggest Skill Gaps between Elos
1.) Rek'sai (+9.0%)
2.) Kha'Zix (+7.8%)
3.) Skarner (+6.3%)
4.) Ryze (+5.9%)
5.) Ivern (+5.4%) 
144.) Miss Fortune (-5.0%)
145.) Warwick (-7.7%)
146.) Teemo (-8.7%)
147.) Vi (-9.7%)
148.) Shyvana (-10.1%) 
[5] This will likely be my last ARAM update. It's been a fun year and I hope the mode feels better after these changes. I will likely be handing the mode off to the official Modes team next year!
"I have more news that should make collectors like you happy for next year’s Prestige borders: if you get a 2020 Event Prestige skin via a re-roll or drop WHILE THE EVENT IS LIVE, you will also get the icon and border for the Prestige skin. You won’t need to get tokens."
"Your semi-weekly dose of server problem-os, NA League news, and other! 
Clash was here, and there it went! End of the year patch is incoming, the pre-season is shaking out (for better or worse) and All-Stars is over. Also here’s some problems that happened… 
Follow-Ups:
  • Mac voice still not working properly Bug grouped with other Mac bugs. More .plist fun (I personally know nothing about Macs, so basically Greek to me).
Ongoing
  • None
Server Stuff:
  • Riot Direct router reboots(12/2, ~10 minutes) Automated alerting notifies the NOC that there are a lot of game alerts going off for no discernable reason. Several minutes later, the network recovers without external influences. Post-problem investigation finds that a router decided to reboot (not the TV show, which was cool back in the day) on its own.
  • Core service flatlines, causing problems(12/2, ~66 minutes) Automated alerts notifies the NOC that a core service is reporting 0 processing power. The noc escalates to the on-call LP as Compensation mode is enabled. Engineers restart the affected service and verify the correct processing power is allocated to it after the reboot. Comp mode is then disabled as the service stabilizes.
  • All-Star page not loading in LCU(12/4, ~42 minutes) A Rioter reports to the NOC that the All-Stars tab within the client isn’t loading. NOC verifies they can’t open it either, and pings the proper team. Before the team gets knee-deep in coding a fix, the problem disappears as all affected parties are able to access the tab without issue.
  • Preferences not resetting(12/7, ~4 hours) Automated alerting notifies the NOC that one core process isn’t completing a self-loop properly. Escalation and investigation shows that one of two core machines are causing the overall problems. Engineers reboot both machines and watch to see if the self-loop finishes properly (which it eventually does).
  • Disabled Practice Tool(12/7, ~205 minutes) NOC is notified by automated alerting that CPU usage across game servers is approaching warning limits. To ensure the limit isn’t exceeded, the NOC disables practice tool games briefly, alleviating the load slightly. Once the CPU usage falls back to normal levels, the NOC re-enables practice tool and removes all ticker updates.
  • Loot Outage(12/7, ~222 minutes) Automated alerting notifies the NOC of a possible problem with Loot. Engineers report there are issues with Loot, and the NOC disables the service so it can be triaged. Investigation leads to a failure to properly load balance. Future load balancing is added to a post-mortem, and Loot is re-enabled. Engineers verify all pending Loot was delivered properly.
  • Loot Outage(12/8, ~3 hours) See above
  • Loot Delay(12/13, ~5 minutes) See above
  • Custom Player game minimum set to 5(12/7, ~201 minutes) NOC is notified by automated alerting that CPU usage across game servers is approaching warning limits. To ensure the limit isn’t exceeded, the NOC sets custom games to a minimum of 5 players, alleviating the load slightly. Once the CPU usage falls back to normal levels, the NOC re-enables practice tool and removes all ticker updates.
  • CPU Mitigation Steps(12/8, ~2 hours) Reports filter in that the CPU usage is above the ideal threshold. In response, the NOC disables the practice tool, sets minimum custom players to 10 per game, and starts throttling non-ranked queues. Once the CPU usage falls below the red line, the NOC returns all queues to normal.
  • CPU Mitigation Steps(12/8, ~2 hours) See above
  • Club Tag and Chat not loading(11/27, ~7 hours) Rioter reports filter into the NOC about chat/club tags not loading properly. NOC escalates to the appropriate Riot team while also setting up tickers across Riot Regions. A Rioter discovers a certificate expired, causing the problems. The suspect certificate is updated, fixing the problem.
  • Match History is down(12/10, ~25 minutes) The NOC is notified by Rioters that Match History isn’t populating properly. Investigation shows a config update caused the core service to fail to update. After flipping a specific switch, Match History starts working again.
  • Aphelios’ ability videos in LCU not working(12/11, ~22 hours) Player Support notifies the NOC that various Aphelios abilities are not working inside of the LCU. NOC starts to troubleshoot, eventually escalating to appropriate Riot teams. Investigation shows that because Aphelios has no E, there’s no E video, leading to problems with displaying the R video. Look at him go, confusing people in AND out of game. Future fix to be deployed with 10.1 patch.
  • LCU Home tab failing to load(12/12, ~65 minutes) An update pushed to the client, propagates and contains incorrect info in header. This incorrect info causes the Home tab within the LCU to break. Investigation and escalation leads to the discovery of the owner and code causing the problem. Reverting the update fixes the issue, and a future update will not include the incorrect code.
Game Stuff:
  • Legend of Poro King not granting Event points(12/12, ~9 hours) NOC activates the Night & Dawn event pass, as well as enabling Legend of the Poro King. Reports filter in that the Legend of the Poro King mode is granting no event points to Event pass owners. Investigation shows a single variable has been subbed out incorrectly within a config setting. A micropatch rolls out to fix the variable, which will grant Event points for playing Legend of the Poro King.
Morgageddon"

Reminders

To round out this red post collection, here are a few reminders on current promotions or limited time events!
  • The Night & Dawn event is running now through January 13th, including a new event pass and missions, Night & Dawn and Sugar Rush skins, chroma, icons, ward, and much more!

[Back to Top]

No comments

Post a Comment