Red Post Collection: SR Open Beta Roll-Out continues, Meddler on Gnar/Rammus/Sona changes in 4.20, and more!

[NOTE #2: The SR Open Beta is now up in every queue, including rank!]

[NOTE: NA will be going down at 12:01 AM PST on November 19th for a scheduled hardware maintenance. This means NA will be unavailable for up to twelve hours, at which point you won't be able to play or log into NA. This is NOT maintenance for 4.20, which will be at a later time.]]

This morning's red post collection is short and sweet! It features a heads up that the Summoner's Rift open beta is continuing to roll out and is now available in NORMAL queues, Meddler offering up context on patch 4.20's changes for Gnar, Rammus, & Sona, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

• Champion and Skin Sale 11/18 - 11/21
• Free Champion Rotation, Week of November 18th
• 11/17 PBE Update: Safecracker Evelynn, Pickpocket Twitch, Captain Volibear, and Constable Trundle splash art

Summoner's Rift Open Beta Roll-Out continues

Continuing with their roll-out plan, the updated Summoner's Rift open beta is now available on normal queues! This includes both blind & draft pick and you can also earn the new icons by playing in normal queues.

The official announcement has been updated with the following information:

"The update to Summoner’s Rift is live in Normals, Customs, Team Builder, and bot modes. 

We’re also commemorating the launch of the update to Summoner’s Rift with two exclusive new icons.

You can earn each icon by winning a game on each side of the map in Normals or Team Builder. Win once on red side? Earn the red side icon. Win a game as the blue team? The blue side icon is yours. Win as red and blue both? You’re the new owner of two nifty icons. Do it at the same time somehow? You’ve broken the internet and your prize is the singularity. The icons will be available for the next several weeks and may take a few days to show up on your account. 

Baron Nashor and friends await, so why are you still reading this? Log in and throw down on the Rift’s updated look!"

The server status page has also been updated to the following message:

"The update to Summoner’s Rift is live in Normal, Custom, Team Builder, and bot modes! Once these modes test well, we'll be enabling the update on Ranked queues at a later time. Thanks for participating in the updated Summoner's Rift rollout!"

Context on upcoming Gnar, Rammus, & Sona balance changes 

When asked about the current PBE changes for Gnar, Rammus, and Sona, Meddler popped in to give a bit of context on each of the upcoming champion changes for patch 4.20:

"Gnar - main focus of the changes is to reduce his lane bully potential a bit (we feel he's just too dominant in many match ups), while leaving his late game power intact.

Sona - looking to lower her sustain a bit overall, particularly in cases where a lot of damage has been traded on both sides and Sona/her allies recovery's a bit faster than we think's appropriate

Rammus - Reducing early ganking/dueling power a bit basically. This one especially we'll want to monitor closely, keep an eye on how Rammus does once the new jungle changes roll out."

He continued, elaborating on the Sona Changes:

"Our feeling is that Sona's currently pretty under the radar power wise and is actually really strong at the moment. That's not indicative of the rework failing though. Reworks are done to fix fundamental problems with how a champion plays (e.g. lack of counterplay or insufficient distinguishing features from other champions of the the same role). Power by contrast's adjustable with simpler numbers changes, and isn't inherently linked with how healthy for the game a champion is (it's possible to have a really unhealthy champion that has well balanced numbers or a very healthy champion with unbalanced numbers)."

Heal over time effects vs Direct Healing

Meddler also jumped in to thread discussing the  sparse use of healing over time effects vs the  use of direct healing effects:

"Heals over time are sometimes the right option if :

- You want heals that can't really be used for clutch saves and are intended primarily as long term sustain tools (e.g. health pots) 

- You want heals that are really powerful where you want some telegraph to give the enemy a chance to burst the target down (Mundo ult) 

- You're working on a game with long combat times where healing's a minigame of its own with a number of tools to juggle (e.g. MMO boss fights). LoL's combat times aren't a good fit with HoTs for that reason. 

Other wise however immediate heals offer a lot of benefits, since they lead to skilled clutch plays, are easier to read for all players (clarity benefits of applying the effect all at once) and therefore have higher satisfaction versus power (easier to read = feels better)."