Red Post Collection: More from Meddler Q&A, Context on Alistar W PBE Change, Underworld Poro Ward, and more!

Posted on at 11:30 PM by Moobeat
Tonight's red post collection includes more several new posts from Meddler's Q&A, Pwyff and CertainlyT commenting on the unintentional Alistar change from the 1/20 PBE update, a look at the Underworld Poro Ward  that available through January 30th, and more!
Continue reading for more information!



Table of Contents


More from Meddler Q&A

Meddler returned to the OCE boards today to answer more questions from yesterday's Champion Design Q&A!


To kick things back off, Meddler shared his thoughts on Gnar and another transformation champion down the road:
"With Gnar we wanted a transformation that felt really different to other form swapping characters, partly out of your control, with playing around that being one of the key skills to learn on him. I think a balanced Gnar does have a home in competitive play (if you've got a team that can set up his transforms well, or if the enemy has a team that isn't well suited to dealing with them), I don't think he should be as universal a pick as he can be at the moment though.

Another champion with a partially controlled, or even uncontrolled but predictable,
transform's something we'd be open to someday. No current plans for one though."
When asked about his previous comments on attempting to rework Lissandra's passive to include a shield of some sort, Meddler replied:
"Quote
Any new breakthroughs on Lissandra's passive rework? Personally I think it's pretty alright as it is, but the shield idea sounded interesting
Couldn't find a way to do the shield that gave interesting gameplay without adding significant power to her. Given her current popularity and effectiveness that doesn't seem appropriate, so no current plans. Will reassess if that changes or if we feel we need to take power out of her somewhere else."

Meddler also shared his thoughts on Quinn's ultimate, noting:
"Quote
You've worked in the devolopment of two champs that can change form, ¿could you say what are your thoughts about Quinn? ¿Any ideas about reworking her kit ?
I think she'd benefit a lot from her ultimate having a clearer purpose. At the moment it's a combination of mobility over a period of time, melee damage and an execute. Picking one or two of those to really focus power in could give her a much clearer niche in the game."

When asked about the patch 5.1 nerf to Syndra's Q damage and her orbs not properly connecting for a stun, Meddler noted:
"We've been talking about that today. Bigger nerf than desired's the initial reaction, and spheres clearly going through a target that then isn't stunned isn't intended. We'll follow up on that."


Meddler also commented on more abilities that have conditions to cast, such as Yasuo's R needing enemies to be airborne:
"Abilities with conditions to cast are something we're planning to explore more. We've currently got a kit in testing for example that includes an ability that can only be cast on crowd controlled allies (not a cleanse, but something else that lets you help out). That particular ability might not make the cut, the direction's something that seems pretty interesting though."

During the Q&A yesterday, Meddler commented on Ao Shin. - the elemental dragon concept that was previewed but was constantly delayed afterwards::

"Someday, yes. Soon, no. One of the big problems we hit and need to solve was how we'd animate his long, serpentine body and how that would be treated in gameplay (how does it act when he turns, which bits are targetable etc)."
When asked if this means he is ready "asset wise", Meddler explained:
"Not at all ready asset wise - issues like this tend to crop up in the proof of concept stage where you're experimenting with how to do something, rather than actually making it. There were some thematic and gameplay things we needed to answer as well, animation/model questions were some of the biggest ones though."

[PBE] "Alistar's W is now a skill shot" clarification

As you may have noticed in the 1/20 PBE Update, Alistar's W had suddenly become a skill shot!
Don't get too attached though, Pwyff confirmed on Twitter that this is an experimental change that was unintentionally pushed to the PBE!
"RE: Alistar's "Headbutt is a skillshot" on the PBE. 'Twas an accident with a random experiment. PBE'S FOR FUN RIGHT? http://www.reddit.com/r/leag...."
In the reddit thread, he explained:
Talked to the designer - this was an issue with a random experiment that accidentally shipped and didn't get reverted before the PBE push. Is not intended and will not ship currently (actually it should be super broken, given how it's coded).
CertainlyT elaborated on this, explaining:
"My B. 
Tested a version of Headbutt where it was a skillshot that could only be cast in a cone directionally toward an enemy unit for giggles since I had MLK day off. Accidentally submitted half of the change along with a bug fix to Kalista. <-- Irony. 
A lot of you have noted how slow and clunky the ability feels. Interestingly, this is how most abilities feel during our early testing when we lack proper art support. Part of the challenge of the job is imagining what the ability will feel like when our talented animators, particle artists and sound designers do their work."

CrossPvP discontuned; Riot using as technical reference.

While we've known a new League of Legends client has been in the works for a while now, Riot Boompje tweeted out earlier today saying that his pre-Riot third party pvp.net client project "CrossPvP" is no longer being worked on as Riot has reached out to the devs about it as a technical reference for their own new client:
"Update! http://CrossPvP.com : We’re no longer working on CrossPvP, Riot reached out :) and yes, Riot is working on a new League client."
Riot Triggs also added:
".@Koen_Hendrix confirms CrossPvP was cool and Riot liked it (duh)/New client incoming. | http://redd.it/2t3omx | #LeagueOfLegends"

When asked if the new client will include the aesthetics or features included in the CrossPvP mock-ups, Riot Boompje clarified they will not:
"CrossPvP will be used as a technical reference for the new client; so you won't be able to see any remains from it :)
EDIT: For clarity: I'm not on the Client team! Apologies if it came accross like that"
He continued:
"EDIT: Be aware that I am not working on client side of things here at Riot (obviously I'm very interested in what they're doing!). CrossPvP is being used as a technical reference, not as a design template or the like :) 
For reference, big kudos to the other dudes that did all the engineering work on CrossPvP: 
/u/BurningMind

/u/railorsi

(some more dudes without a reddit account)
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/eric-daniels/15/b80/746 is one of em :)"

Riot Boompje continued:
"The pics on CrossPvP.com were our own .. mock-ups. The actual LoL client looks very different and will evolve in a different path than how CrossPvP looked. From what I know, we want to give you guys more and more icons to identify and express yourself with. What do you mean login through a social site? E.g. Facebook or twitter log on?"

As for an ETA, Riot Boompje noted:
"Can't say anything about ETAs and timings (frankly, I don't actually know). The League Client team will make an update when they're ready for that :)"
and
"Our Client team will come with an announcement when they're ready for it :)"

When asked if that means Riot will be moving towards a non- Adobe Air client, Riot Boompje replied:
"I think it's safe to say that: yes."

As for when Riot Boompje joined Riot, he noted:
"I joined Riot in May of 2014, really enjoying it... I need more NERF bullets..."

Scare Away Ganks with the Underworld Poro Ward

While it was originally made available late last week, DontHassleDaHoff has posted up a release announcement for the legacy Underworld Poro Ward - available through January 30th!
"The scariest - yet possibly most adorable - Poro Ward Skin is here for a limited time. 
Available from now until 23:59 GMT on January 30th, unlock the Underworld Poro Ward Skin and distract would-be gankers with conflicting emotions of adoration and horror!"
Here's a full preview of this terrifyingly cute ward skin:

Underworld Poro Ward

640 RP


2015 Ranked Season Starting Soon

The 2015 ranked season is starting very soon! As mentioned earlier, expect the a ranked queue downtime followed by the start of the new 2015 season kicks off on Wednesday, January 21st!

When asked for the approximate time of the ranked reset for NA, Triggs noted
[This was posted on January 20th]"Barring unforeseen delays, ranked queues will come down at 9 AM PDT tomorrow for ~2-3 hours to complete the ranked reset on NA."
Other servers have either completed their maintenance already or can track it's progress by checking our their specific service status page:

NA, EUW, EUNE, BR, TR, LAS, LAN, RU, OCE

More information on the new season, including how seeding and placement matches will be handled, is available here and over on the Riot Support entry for  2015 Season Ranked Play.

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