Red Post Collection: Morgana's PBE changes, Notes on Sivir's weapon and Exterminator Twitch, Battle Cast discussion. and more!

Here's a short and sweet red post collection to start off the day! Topics include Morgana's PBE changes, discussion on the Battlecast skin line, IronStylus with comments on Exterminator Twitch and Sivir's weapon, and a small note on the recent hacking of Tryndamere's personal twitter account.
Continue reading for more information!

Morgana PBE Changes discussion

If you've been following our PBE coverage or read over the 3.13 PBE discussion, you have likely noticed that Morgana is tentatively set to receive a few changes to her W - including the removal of the MR reduction and the inclusion of % damage based on the enemies missing HP.

Here's Phreak responding to feedback that the changes seem like a substantial nerf:

"I know the goal with Morgana changes are not nerf. They are a shift in abilities. 

Auto-farming basically for free (get two Doran's Rings or something) is really non-interactive and just not great gameplay. Our goal is to give her extra kill potential (get hit with a Q, get dunked by missing health W) and late-game scaling (health scales with the game, so does W). 

If the changes are not enough to compensate for the loss in farm power, then that's something we're happy to change. 

But to your point, Lux's E does much less damage than Tormented Soil. Tormented Soil deals some ridic damage.

Edit: And to be perfectly clear, to my knowledge Morgana is the only champion who can kill the back minion line with one ability at champion level 5. Max Force Pulse has a base damage of 280. Rake deals 260. Tormented Soil deals 425. At rank 3 it deals 275 wither a higher AP ratio than Force Pulse. Bit of a difference there :)"

Ricklessabandon also reminded everyone:

"just so we're clear here (because there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding), i put these changes on the pbe for testing and i'm paying very close attention to what happens with her wave clear in lane."

Ricklessabandon continued, noting he'll have a full explanation and discussion on the changes up later today.

"yeah, of course—i've been really busy handling ahri stuff and some things for another project so i haven't had as much pbe forum time for morgana as i'd like. to be honest though, i kind of intentionally wanted to have little explanation at first to see how morgana players perceived the changes and what their expectations were when playing with them.

now that the first wave of playtesting with her has happened, i'll have something up this evening before i leave the office. thanks for all the testing and feedback, all!'

As for a complete Morgana rework, he noted:

"regarding rework-level changes to one or more abilities: there are a lot of cool/fun things we could do with her kit, and in all honesty we probably should do a deep dive at some point to see what that would look like, but it's hard to me to comment offhand since i'm super biased when it comes to morgana—i started playing her like, 3 years ago and played her hundreds of times getting to level 30 and beyond—so unless i spend a lot of time thinking about it i'll likely be overly conservative. >_<"

Where's ExterminatorTwitch?

Over on the forums, one savvy community platform user is very curious on where Exterminator Twitch - an old, unreleased skin that first popped up on the PBE in early 2012 - is and if we'll ever see it again.

IronStylus responded, saying:

"Currently, Exterminator Twitch isn't viable due to Twitch's massively outdated rig. We'd have to do a VU on him to do that skin. 

...and we'd very much like to do that skin ;)"

Sivir's weapon and her Spell Shield

Responding to feedback that there isn't a good connection between Sivir's weapon and her spell shield ability, IronStylus commented that there might be more to her weapon than we currently see:

"Good question. Some things indeed change and I think the goal to get the spell shield more thematically appropriate to her weapon wasn't as achievable as I would have liked in a heavy visual way due to how fast the cast time is. 

That being said, there's more story behind Sivir and her weapon that isn't evident at the moment and might come to light at a later point, stay tuned for that ;)"

Battlecast Skin Discussion

The Bravo Ray returned to discussing the Battlecast Skin line today, this time talking about the tech level and the armor plating of the skins!

"Let's talk about the key components of the BC line visuals; it's Tech level. When we say "Tech Level," we mean how technologically advanced the design theme. 

Tech Level guild line 

For all intents and purposes, the Battle Cast is a robot themed skin line. While being robotic in nature, this does not mean it needs to present a futuristic feel. That is why you can see complex mechanical parts underneath the thick plating(wires, actuators, bolts, and exhaust).  

This design angle helps the in game visuals reduce the tech level from a futurist feel and brings it into the steam punk, or apocalyptic realm. Another thing to note on the tech level, is the source of the BC power operation or engine. For Urgot, we created a combustion style engine as his power source. Two large exhaust pipes exit out his back; shaking, and emitting smoke. Keeping true to the theme of the crude power delivery. There is nothing complex or refined, just a huge motor to do the job. Remember "Function over Form".  

Some guidelines do not have to be carried over to all the BC when it comes to the tech level. Cho'Gath Prime, is an example.  

For Cho, we wanted to elude that he was the prime example of Viktor's designs. He runs a furnace style power system, like a coal powered locomotive. The more he consumes, the hotter and larger he gets. So, in his full stacked form, his plates would fan out to let the piping, hot gas escape. 

These are some of the ways we take a robotic theme and keep the tech level down. 

Armor Plating 

The biggest defining thing about the line, is the armor plating. It is very thick, hard, and rough around the edges. Matte painted, dented, worn, and distressed. This helps keep it from looking like a futuristic robot; which would be slick, stream lined, and polished. BC plates are slightly curved or bent to cover sensitive systems components. Usually, the armor plating is designed to be forward facing to block incoming damage. It needed to appear heavy and awkward, like a tank would. This is why some of the BC seem bigger than their bases(but we try to make sure they fit their hit boxes). 

Feel free to continue to post and ask questions. We really love a lot of the creative ideas posted so far."

Tryndamere's Twitter Account hacked

Earlier today, Marc "Tryndamere" Merrill's, President and Co-founder of Riot Games, personal twitter account was hacked by someone claiming to have insider information on upcoming League of Legends products. The culprit shared several screenshots he claimed to be a TCG based expansion to the League of legends worlds.

After regaining access to his account, Tryndamere replied to all this by saying:

"This is the real Marc. Account's back in my hands. Protip: use login verification on Twitter, don't be me and use a super old password."

"Yup, someone got onto my Twitter account. Yup, someone shared some old screens from one of the many prototypes we've experimented with."

"We're always working on a variety of new ideas for League & beyond. Lots of experimentation that may never see the light of day :)"

"But lots more that does: Jinx video, Lucien login screen, CHEW, Udyr Comic, Cinematics, etc :)"

There is a serious need to curb expectations and not encourage this sort of powertripping, malicious behavior so I won't be sharing the rest of it here. Sorry. If you want to learn more about the situation, there information is freely accessible on places like reddit.