Red Post Collection: Clarification on Soraka rework, Context on Nocturne R PBE change, Arcade community creations roundup, and more!

This afternoon's red post collection features Vesh clarifying how Soraka's tentative rework passive works, Meddler discussing the Nocturne R changes that are currently on the PBE, the community's Arcade themed creations, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

• Red Post Collection: Viktor Gameplay Update details, Urgot and GP Discussion, LCS expanding to 10 teams,  and more!
• [Updated] Red Post Collection: Soraka Rework preview and discussion
• 8/29 PBE Update: Three Ward skins coming soon, lore changes, JF Cassiopeia update, and more!

Clarification on tentative Soraka rework

Following his post detailing Soraka's upcoming rework, Vesh returned to clear up a misunderstanding regarding her tentative new passive:

"No, it's a conversion and probably one of the biggest points of misunderstanding in my post. I apologize for that, should have been more clear. Original post is updated to reflect this.

Soraka gets 80% of the value from the MR/Armor and then gets the other 20% as AP. It's like buying her own special versions of the items."

He also updated the main post to read:

"EDIT: If it wasn't clear from the tooltip, this is a literal conversion of MR/Armor into AP. She does not get AP as a bonus on top of the MR/Armor. Frozen Heart will give 80% of its normal armor value to her, but she gets the other 20% in AP and still gets the passive effect."

You can find more details and discussion over here in our dedicated Soraka rework post, which has been updated with a ton of additional red posts over the past day!

Nocturne R Changes on PBE

As you may have noticed in the 8/29 PBE update, Riot is testing out reducing the cooldown time on Nocturne's ultimate if he DOESN'T reactive it to zoom to an enemy.

Meddler commented on this tentative change, saying:

Those are generally the sort of plays we're hoping this change enables. It's still pretty experimental, but it's potentially a way to amplify one of Nocturne's unique points. That way the choice between him and other junglers is less dependent on damage, clear speed and early ganks and more on what distinctive impacts each champ brings. That's something we're trying to bring out more on champs in general so if you've got other ideas for Nocturne, or any champ, would love to hear them.

[Continued] Design Q&A with Meddler

Meddler popped back on the forum to continue answering summoner's questions regarding champion design!

When asked about critical strikes as a mechanic and what they bring to the game, Meddler noted:

"One of their big uses is that they add some unpredictability to fights. That creates moments of reactive play (quick, the unexpected's happened, what do you do?) from a type of champion that's often more predictable than others (ranged ADCs tend to have more predictable positioning and other actions than many champs due to their squishiness, sustained damage output and status as target takers, not target choosers). Crits add a bit of risk to otherwise safer encounters - if the enemy ADC is massively behind but has a bit of crit you'll need to treat them with caution, just in case they get on a lucky streak. Similarly if they're massively ahead there's a chance they'll get few crits and their output will be low, meaning even against a fed character with reliable damage there's potential reward for good plays that wouldn't be achievable if they had a perfectly even level of damage."

As for if Azir was the evolution of the sandmage concept he has discussed in the past, Meddler commented:

"Azir is what the sandmage concept became. We concluded that the character we wanted to make was a leader, an emperor in fact, with dreams of empire again. Using that theme as the basis for his kit made a lot of sense as a result, with sand as a supporting element/tool not his definition."

As for the value and future of runes and masteries, he commented:

"Runes and masteries primarily impact the balancing part of a champion's development since they're generally pretty straightforward stat effects that affect most of the champs of a given role equally. Long term (really long term, not this coming pre-season) that's something we might investigate, see if there's value in making their impacts more varied, that's very much a hypothetical at this point though."

In response to the suggestion of giving Varus mana return based on the amount of W stacks he "pops", Meddler noted:

"Could be something along that line potentially. Depends on whether mana's what he most needs (not just wants) to better realize that late game poke contribution and whether it should be a restore that requires he get into auto attack range or not though."

Volunteer Groups Forums

Tamat also briefly mentioned interest in supporting more volunteer based player groups for the forums, such as the wrench and huntsmen:

"Volunteer groups like Emissaries haven't been supported very well. Our only active volunteer program that is still ongoing is the Wrenchmen & Huntsmen, and we want to do a lot more to support them in the Boards. Having said that, I've been working on a smaller scale plan to introduce some new programs for the Boards. Ideally, these programs would exist to represent or serve the community, and will be full of players that are elected by you guys in the Boards. Nothing official yet, just sharing some stuff floating around in my head."

Arcade community creations roundup

 Following the release of Arcade Miss Fortune and Final Boss Veigar, Riot Jynx has posted up an awesome set of  community arcade creations!

"Dust off your cartridges and power up your zap guns—Miss Fortune and Veigar have joined Hecarim and Sona in the Arcade lineup! In honor of their retro debut, we’re featuring some awesomely stunning Arcade cosplay, crafts, and art!

Still putting the finishing touches on your Arcade creations? Post a link in the comments when your masterpiece is ready! We’ll feature some of the best on our Summoner Showcase Tumblr next week."