Red Post Collection: Quick LoL Thoughts: January 31, True Damage & Valentines Day 2020 Merch, and More

Today's red post collection includes Meddler with some quick LoL thoughts for January 31st, a look at new limited edition True Damage shirts, Valentines Day 2020 Merch, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

• Free Champion Rotation, Week of January 28th
• 1/28 PBE Update: Skin Tweaks & Tentative Balance Changes!
• 1/29 PBE Update : Tentative Balance Changes
• Dragonslayer Skins & Chroma Now Available!

Table of Contents

• Quick LoL Thoughts: January 31st
• Miscellaneous 
• Reminders

Quick LoL Thoughts: January 31st

As we round out January, here's Meddler with a Quick LoL Thoughts post for January 31st, including details on Clash improvements, toplane impact, and TFT changes:

"Hi folks, 

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 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 

Clash Improvements 

We've got the full launch of Clash coming fairly soon and should have details about when that will be to share next week. Before that though I wanted to cover a few improvements to Clash we've been working on based off player feedback from the beta tests in December. These changes should all be in for the full launch.

• All teams play three matches

Previously teams that lost their first two matches wouldn't play any further. That led to both a shorter than expected/desired Clash experience for players and left exact placings a little unclear for rewards purposes. We're moving to 3 games regardless as a result.

• Presenting info about Clash more clearly

We're working on surfacing various bits of info about Clash functionality a bit better. The most useful of those is likely to be the timer that shows the maximum time you'll need to wait until your next match could occur, based off how far through their game your opponents are. Then there are also some smaller things like distinguishing more clearly between different types of entry tickets, clarifying that all champs are unlocked for Clash etc.

• Helping players give Clash a try

Some players are interested in Clash but hesitant to give it a try, have trouble finding a team, aren't sure when it will be etc. We're looking to use things like a mission that gives you a free Clash ticket for your first event, clearer notifications Clash is coming etc to help with that. 

Our plan is to continue to improve Clash throughout the year. Feedback on things you'd like to see improved much appreciated, whether you’ve played in previous tests or have been following progress about Clash but haven’t yet had the chance to play it yourself. Our plan is to run Clash regularly. We're still figuring out the exact cadence we want to go with though. We want to ensure gaps between Clash weekends don't feel too long. We also want to avoid running tournaments so frequently that the potential player base is split over too many different days (leads to weaker competition and lower significance per tournament). 

Longer term once we've got Clash in the right state for SR, we also want to look at whether it's worth trying Clash in any other contexts (e.g. event game modes, TFT etc). That's still a pretty speculative topic, but something that I wanted to mention is on our minds too, given it's been a question that's cropped up a number of times. 

Top Lane Impact 

Top lane’s a position that’s got very varied popularity, depending on the MMR and region you look at, ranging from most popular role in some contexts to least in others.
Position selection rates by region and MMR 12/28/2019 - 1/28/2020

Our belief going into preseason was that in high MMR and pro play top lane did not have sufficient impact on the outcome of the game, based off both position selection rates and degree to which a lead in top lane affects a team’s likelihood of winning. One of our goals with preseason as a result was to give top lane increased impact, with increases to solo lane XP, Rift Herald respawning and lower jungle/duo lane XP as levers for that. 

Those changes have now been out for a while and they haven’t had as much effect as we’d hoped. We’re taking another look at top lane influence as a result right now, with a focus on influence in high skill games specifically. Details we’re considering to follow once we’ve got some potential changes to share.Timeline on work shipping is likely fairly soon but not in the next patch at least. 

TFT during February 

Now that Rise of the Elements has been out for quite a while we’re entering a period where changes to it for the rest of the set will be fairly light. We’ve got some smaller balance adjustments and polish planned for upcoming patches, like a bit of a nerf to Light and potentially a buff to Glacial 6 at least. We’ll also be experimenting with Spatula presence on the carousel, starting with a patch without any Spatulas at all there. 

Overall though we think the set’s in a good state and have shifted most of our focus onto getting the next set and mobile client ready for their March release. That includes incorporating a range of lessons we’ve learned about set design from seeing how Rise of the Elements has played out, including:  

• Making sure we’re rewarding players enough for going deep on a particular trait (6+ shouldn’t be a trap)
• Being cognizant of how large numbers of summoned units can make fights much harder to follow
• The degree to which lots of early regen and armor can slow game pacing down
• The importance of having enough traits/spells that bring spectacle in addition to interesting gameplay"

On the recent Sylas changes, Meddler commented:

"Multiple auto resets is a pattern we've seen lead to balanceability problems a lot of times in the past, especially when they're not a clear focus of the character like on Riven. Nidalee before she had a lot of resets stripped was a good example of that, with a lot more burst than intended, given her poke, mobility and healing. Completely agree with losing them from a kit feeling poor once you're used to them, and it's something we'd prefer to avoid whenever possible, so would ideally either find other solutions or avoid putting them on the kit in the first palce. We do think it was the right call for Sylas however."

When asked if Teleport would be something they would look at with toplane changes, Meddler noted:

"I expect TP adjustments will be one of the options we look at next week. Can't guarantee anything about what will ship yet though, we don't know that yet."

He continued:

"Yeah, straight TP buffs would almost certainly be problematic so would want something more tailored to TP from top specifically. Hypothetical example of how that could be done - HP/Armor/something item aimed at tanks/fighters that reduces TP CD. Could be made appealing to some types of champ without making TP more accessible to everyone easily."

On midlane, Meddler commented:

"Mid's the most popular role certainly. Most of our measures suggest it's also the most influential role. We do feel it's appropriate that mid generally be the most influential, given the combination of solo lane XP, central location to roam from and that mid laners have to be visible to farm unlike junglers so strength there's a bit easier to respond to. Under discussion though whether it's appropriately strong, or a bit too strong however."

On spell targeting in TFT, Meddler replied:

"Spell and auto attack targeting is something we talk regularly about. For spells specifically we believe a case by case assessment of targeting type is the way to go (nearest, random, lowest health, furthest, most items etc). 

One thing we do want to maintain is tension and unpredictability in TFT fights. Giving too many units really reliable targeting leads to much more deterministic fights with fewer upsets and tension. Certainly feels bad to lose to a unit deciding to target a random minion, we believe there's value from that happening sometimes though because of the other things it results in."

Miscellaneous 

• Riot Scruffy provided a changelist for balance this cycle:

[1] "10.3 Patch Preview with changes. Mostly done, there may be a few more tweaks before this goes live."