Catching Up with Riot 2-8

Looks like we had quite a few posts from Riot yesterday. Between a mini patch, a new initiative to reward low level summoners, a new skin, AND some information on upcoming buffs and nerfs we are in for quite the news treat!

1) 2/8 Mini Patch


A mini patch was deployed to the serves yesterday. While the official patch notes only state "Fixed a bug where AI Bots were causing some games to crash", it seem there were a few other small changes and additions. The above splash art for the upcoming Iron Solari Leona skin was added to the game and it appears the mini map icons for Ashe, Ziggs, and Ezreal's ult have been removed; these abilities do still grant vision as they fly across the map, they just no long display an icon as they fly.

2-10 Edit: Looks like removing those icons on the mini map wasn't intended and will be fixed soon, along with also having new icons. Code name "super awesome" Leona skin is now available as well!

2) New Rewards for New Summoners

Following with their initiative from last December, Riot is planning to reward new players to the game and give them a taste of some delicious Riot Points. According to Moneypenny, the 400 riot point reward is going to be distributed to all future players upon reaching summoner level 3 as well being retroactively awarded to all players who have hit level 3 between December's event and now.

On a more personal note, it seems the community is a bit peeved that Riot wants to reward new players instead of veteran players. I hate the mob mentality that sparks up every time something happens to a portion of the community and not the other. All of the wonderful level 30 summoners got a nice reward around Christmas time, yet quite a few of them are getting upset about Riot trying to "hook" a new audience with free in game currency. Everyone needs to cool it on the entitlement and appreciate the wonderful game Riot provides for us free of charge.


3) Kayle's Quality of Life 


It's no shocker that Kayle isn't a very popular champion; rarely do I see someone playing her outside of Dominion. Riot mentioned a while ago they had plans to try to bring Kayle back in to favor, but it seems like Coronach, Game Designer, wouldn't mind giving her some quality of life in the interim. In a thread about our armored angel, he states "I'll speak to the live team about this tomorrow, I agree that there is no reason not to receive some QoL buffs while any further changes are deliberated upon. In particular, Divine Blessing could use some number tweaks to make it a better spell."

4) Soraka Changes for Next Patch


Here we have a small "not revealing as I wish it was" quip from Morello about Soraka. In a thread questioning her ludicrious amount of sustain in lane, Morello responded with "You'll see in the next patch - I think you hit it on the head. Her lack of mana reliance in lane pushes her over the top. We found a new opportunity to ramp up a couple things on her and fix the problems. It should provide a better lane experience (and more interesting choices) generally."

5) Headhunter Master Yi now available!


The new Headhunter Master Yi skin is now available for purchase! Featuring new effects on Alpha Strike and Wuju Style, he is available for 975 Riot Points.

6) Tenative Date for Warwick Changes


Finally, we a small update about those Warwick changes Morello was discussing a few days ago. In a follow up, he stated "Unless an emergency occurs, we expect it next patch."





edit: If anyone is wondering why Yorick and Mordekaiser are disabled, check out this status thread. Turns out their ghosts are back to crashing games again.