Red Post Collection: Upcoming Miss Fortune PBE Changes, Scarizard on Graves, HEXAKILL, and more!

This morning's red post collection is a doozy! It features a preview of the Miss Fortune changes ricklessabandon will be testing out on the PBE, info on the new HEXAKILL featured gameplay mode, Scarizard sharing this thoughts on Graves, a small update on the Rengar rework,  Bitsplosion chatting about the new Kassadin particles on the PBE, a heads up on the next Team Builder testing window, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

Recent News

• Embrace the Truth As Lunar Goddess Diana

• 1/23 PBE Update: New Kassadin Particles, New Summoner Icons, New Soraka Ability Icons, and more!
• 1/24 PBE Update: Hexakill , New Thornmail Particles, and Tentative Balance Changes

Upcoming Miss Fortune PBE Changes

ricklessabandon has returned to the forums to share info the Miss Fortune changes he will soon be testing on the PBE:

"no complications with the changes, just the 'work i need to get done before working on mf' took much longer than i would have liked. i'll probably finish her up over the weekend (i'll have lol on my mind all weekend thanks to the ogn finals starting in less than an hour). sadly, no one will get to play with her over the weekend, but i can at least post some numbers to sate your curiosity during the interim. 

caveats:

• miss fortune changes aren't expected to ship live with 4.2, so these changes will have plenty of time for iteration while on the pbe (i.e., no rush on these)
• the list i'm going to type out is of course subject to change before hitting the pbe, and will still be subject to change for the entire time it is on the pbe (i.e., don't get attached to anything or panic about anything)
• i just recently woke up from sleeping, like, almost a full day. i'm still kind of groggy, so please forgive any typos and anything else that might be erroneous—i'll correct as needed :3

Miss Fortune 

Double Up

• Mana Cost reduced to 55 (from 70/75/80/85/90)
• Cooldown changed to 7/6/5/4/3 (from 9/8/7/6/5)
• Damage to 1st target changed to 110% AD (from 25/60/95/130/165 +75% AD)
• Damage to 2nd target changed to 120/130/140/150/160% AD (from 30/72/114/156/198 +90% AD)
• Criteria for 2nd target selection reworked*

Impure Shots

• Mana Cost reduced to 30 (from 50)
• Cooldown changed to 15/14/13/12/11 (from 16)
• Passive's damage changed to 6% AD per stack (from 4/6/8/10/12 damage per stack)
• Active's Attack Speed buff changed to 20/30/40/50/60% (from 30/35/40/45/50%)
• Grievous Wounds duration reduced to 2 (from 3)

Bullet Time

• Damage reduced to 45/75/105 (from 65/95/125)
• Bonus AD ratio reduced to 30% (from 35%)
• Now applies stacks of Impure Shots (does include bonus magic damage; does not include Grievous Wounds)

*This will be a fairly significant change—details will accompany the PBE post. 

so, yeah, there's some info to digest for a bit. i probably won't get too deep into discussion until she's playable, but that's where i want to start with her."

New Featured Gameplay mode: Hexakill

HEXAKILL , a new 6v6 featured gameplay mode, is now up on the PBE for testing!

For those who might need a refresher, featured gameplay modes are limited time, alternate queue types such as One for All ( five of the same champion vs 5 of another champion ) or Showdown ( 1v1 or 2v2 ).

Here's BuffMePlz with more info:

"Hey guys!

The new Featured Gameplay Mode, Hexakill, is now enabled on PBE! Hexakill is a 6v6 game mode played on Summoner's Rift, with the classic ruleset that we're all familiar with. We’re excited to see what new meta and team comps you guys come up with 

Please let us know if you encounter any issues, particularly around champion selection and player invitation when getting into the game. 

Current known issues:
-The end of game screen may not properly handle all twelve players currently - this should be fixed in a later deploy 

As always, let us know what you think!"

On the technical side of things, Riot Feithen commented :

"I've disabled the afk/decline penalty system to ensure this doesn't cause any problems over the weekend. While you will still see bugs (and we'd love to hear the details), nobody will get temp bans or any other kind of penalty. 

You may also notice the "old school" confirmation window is back, rather than the typical Accept/Decline. We believe this was related to some of the queue problems."

Scarizard on Graves

In a recent reddit thread discussing if Graves should be changed to do more damage to closer enemies, Scarizard has unloaded a wealth of posts concerning his thoughts on Graves, his playstyle, and where he fits into the game.

"Reserving this space to comment on this later in the evening. I've been planning on some small Graves changes i'd like to experiment with, and can probably give you some context on our thinking around him. 

(I like the idea you've presented, but i think we can still capture the 'essence' of him doing more damage to closer targets without having to force it mechanically moreso than at present [Ex. Buckshot]) 

EDIT BECAUSE I'M BACK NOW. Disclaimer - none of this has been implemented/tested yet, so while feedback is most certainly appreciated nothing i'm mentioning is set in stone. 

While i think it's cool for Graves' playstyle to be more about being up close and personal, i don't see this necessarily as risk vs reward. I think we can accentuate his weakness in range (even potentially lowering his basic attack range further) but make his strength about those skirmishies and brawls. Are you an ADC main that sees a bunch of diving bruisers on the enemy team and gets sad? Graves should be the guy you call in for that situation, imo. 

Some (but certainly not all) things i've been considering - Range Down, Base AS% Up, Passive scaling to higher values and/or faster with game length, %Bonus Armor Pen (Yasuo R) added to Quick Draw, Collateral Damage no longer falls off in damage beyond first target hit 

I think Graves' mobility being gated by auto-attacks actually feels really appropriate, and as a Graves player myself is one of my favorite things about his playstyle. Lowering the range at which he operates but increasing his ability to be effective/mobile within that range (Faster AS% = More dashes while dealing with frontlines/divers, %Bonus Pen tied to Quick Draw makes 'keeping it up' by resetting QD a core part of his loop while maintaining Q/R's relevance throughout a game) is something that can definitely set him apart from other champions. 

[Example - Do i 'all in' Quick Draw forward, attempting to Q/R a squishy target (simultaneously hurting my position/ability to 'reset'), or do i instead take fights as they come, juggling my AS/Arpen buff from Quick Draw and really burn through the juggernauts? This is the type of nuance/decisionmaking i'd like to try and interject even a little bit into Graves instead of current 'I DID MY SPELLS DID THEY DIE Y/N'] 

I think at a very high level (a term we use when we're about to make sweeping, ideal statements) - Graves should be stronger vs fighters and tanks (champs who seek to scrap and dive), and actually weaker vs mages and carries (champs that seek to out-range, poke/siege/control). So, at the end of the day i think any changes we make would put him further into that territory."

He continued, replying to comments that Sivir's rework has proven there is a place for low-range ADCs:

"This line of thinking is exactly why (with the exception of Base AS%, but that assertion is definitely tentative) i'm so hesitant to buff him along the same lines that we nerfed him. Graves, Ezreal and Corki were a trio of champions that in addition to overwhelming similarities at the time possessed a lot of Strengths, but very few weaknesses. Moving backwards only takes us closer to those days, and could lead to issues should Graves ever become popular again. 

At the time, we had pretty good ideas for how the champions would be separated in identities, but i'll admit i don't think we ever truly 'nailed' it. I think Corki (minus some usability on Q) is actually in a really good spot comparatively, but turning Graves into the 'Renekton' of AD's with a strong early game but weak lategame was a little short-sighted for a role that is so heavily reliant on that specific window of performance. 

Ideally, we should be deciding less 'when' these champions get to be strong (I don't believe in Strong->->->->Weak or vice-versa power curves) but rather 'how' these champions get to be strong. What hurdles must these champions overcome, or what rules must they adhere to in order to access their particular brand of power? Jinx is a great example - she is a scaling monstrosity and has a lot of tools for control and cleanup, but possesses a core weakness (lack of on-demand mobility/saftey) that both the player and team can build/play around from minute 1."

Scarizard also commented on one summoner's concerns about Graves remaining a niche pick if his AA range was reduced:

"Sivir to me has proven that a champion can have 500 range and still find ways to fight the other AD's in the game. I'd love to give Graves tools to do the same. As for your comments about Graves being 'niche', i'm totally okay with that (As long as we both agree that niche in this context means 'there are very clear situations i will want to use this champion') 

I think niche champions are good, and make the game more interesting. When things boil down to 'different-flavors-of-the-same', that's when we enter things like 'Mundo-Shy-Renekton toplane territory' or 'Graves-Ezreal-Corki Holy Trinity Territory'."

In response to someone suggesting that Graves' ult could bonus armor pen ( like Yasuo ) over increased AoE damage, Scarizard commented:

"Agreed. I'd just be interested in seeing this version of the ult simply because i rarely ever have heard anyone say 'That reduced damage i dealt with my collateral damage really felt great!' In my personal opinion, i think it'd be cool if it just dealt the damage to everyone but perhaps had a shorter cone - so aiming it on the first target is more important, but you have a higher chance of really bursting people caught in the blast more effectively. 

You're totally right though, and i don't consider it a thing that would -have- to change for Graves to receive anything. Would totally be on the block to try tho!"

Scarizard also replied to someone asking about changes for smokescreen, worried about the idea of a range decrease, the concept of ArPen added to Graves' quick draw, and Graves' passive.

"I have some plans for Smokescreen, but not necessarily ready to talk about them here :) 

To your first point - Sivir can fight these AD's and seems to not have any issues. While you may argue she has tools Graves doesn't, i'd remind you that bottom lane is a two-person lane. Drop a leona/annie stun on someone's face and somehow that AA range change doesn't feel as impactful. Testing will see what's appropriate, but i feel strongly that if we're gonna let the man pick up his shotgun and emphasize his short/close ranged gameplay, we're going to have to go all the way. 

On your point about Quick Draw - it's certainly a possibility. However, -Bonus- Armor Penetration (as in, will only ever allow him to ignore a percentage of the Armor from items/runes/masteries) seems to be working pretty well for Yasuo, and would very likely be tied to the AS% Buff. Again, time will tell if this would be too much but i think if any marksman is ever going to get Bonus ArPen, Graves is the most likely candidate. 

As for True Grit, i think the fact that it stacks up over the course of the engagment works quite well for graves - allowing him to just get the drop on you and have already built enough Armor and MR for you to counter-attack seems a little unfair. I don't feel strongly on this however, and it's worth thinking about for sure. Thanks for the feedback, friend."

Scarizard on Twisted Fate

Scarizard also chatted a bit about the current state of Twisted Fate, saying:

"So while i certainly don't disagree with the previous rounds of changes made to TF, you seem to be asserting that he's in a really weak place. We may disagree on exactly 'how weak' he is, but i'll bite and say that he certainly doesn't seem to be having a ton of fun against the lineup of current midlaners. 

I'll talk with some team members and see what people think can/should be done to him. Even as-is, Twisted Fate is one of the more oppressive champions to fight when he is doing well in a game. Changes to Pick-A-Card added much more maneuverability with this (If he comes out of port with a Gold Card, avoid him for 3-4 seconds and then you can fight him vs the previous 'I lock Gold Card and can hold it for 7-9s on average) - but his strengths in this regard have not changed that much, which leads me to believe that if he truly -is- underperforming, laning phase and any shortcomings that may stem from it seem to be the cause.

I can't promise you that me visiting this thread will lead directly to Twisted Fate changes, but i can promise you i'll put some more work/analysis into what's going on there and see if something can't be done about the stages in which he is most volatile."

Updates on Rengar Rework

Here's Riot Scruffy with a small update on how Rengar Rework is doing in internal testing and a few additional changes:

"Update time!

First off, the new Rengar kit is really fun and still feels like the Rengar we love. Both Scarizard and I have played some games on him and we are testing him evenly in top and jungle. Here are a few updates from our tests and your feedback:

-The second roar on W ended up feeling kinda clunky and messed up the flow of his play so we are now trying a version where W only does 1 roar but we are lowering the cooldown to let him get ferocity at a faster pace in long fights 

-The passive now only decays when out of combat for 10 seconds instead of 10 seconds after an ability has been used. This helps him a lot in the jungle in keeping his stacks up going from camp to camp. It also just makes a bunch more sense as a player."

As for the claims that this rework is pushing back things like Sion's rework, Riot Scruffy commented:

"To clarify, Rengar is not getting priority over Sion right now. I am personally working on Rengar, but there are two (yes two) other designers working on Sion as we speak. Sion is a big deal for us and we really want to give him the upgrade he deserves. Rengar may release before Sion, but that is not something that we know for sure yet."

On the PBE Kassadin Particles

As you may have noticed in our coverage of the 1/23 PBE update, Kassadin has a new set of particles on the PBE

Here's Bitsplosion with discussing those tentative changes and, specifically, Kassadin's Q no longer being a sphere.

"Hey ladies and bros! 

So I'm the guy working on Kassadin's updated particles, and wanted to offer up some context on how I got things where they are and where they might go from here. 

Most of the feedback on Null Sphere seems to be centered on attachment to the shape, like in this thread. Understandable; It's called Null SPHERE, no brainer, right? My goals in changing this were to allow the projectile to show directionality, and have the spell look a bit more like the icon and match its tooltip description of a 'void bolt' (Because on a totally personal note, I think 'bolt' style VFX look really cool, so I wanted to give it a try for this spell and see how it went). On the other hand, you could argue that the spherical shape is an iconic Kassadin thing and that the ability name should trump icon and description, which are fair points. 

In that respect, I did make an effort to preserve the spherical theme in the hit effect, so even if a Null Sphere isn't what is literally fired, it can still be what happens to the target. When the bolt hits, it bubbles out into a ball and then implodes, but it's probably too quick right now. I'm going to try and play that aspect up in the impact effect so it lasts longer/has a glow and becomes easier to see. After all, putting someone in a space-bubble makes sense in the context of a silence, right? 

Long story short, we're keeping an eye on the feedback. While internally we like the style, directional communication and dynamic look of the new Q projectile, I'll bump up the spherical flavor of the impact effect a bit, for a start!

Thanks as always for the feedback as we iterate, guys. :]"

Next Team Builder PBE Testing Window on Jan 27th and 28th.

The Team Builder will return for more PBE testing next Monday ( Jan 28th ) and Tuesday ( Jan 28th ) between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM PST.

See this post for more information, including recent changes and bug fixes.