Red Post Collection: Jungle Tank Buffs Coming Soon, Next Champion does not have a Knock Up, and much more!

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• Red Post Collection: Dragonslayer Poro Ward Now Available, New AP Item on PBE soon, Nemesis Draft Q&A, and more!
• 2/18 PBE Update: Item 3285 up for testing, Katarina and Kayle splash tweaks, redesigned Nemesis Draft summoner icon, and more

Table of Contents

Jungle Tank Buffs Coming Soon

In a post asking about plans for the tanks and the jungle, Meddler commented they are looking to buff jungle tanks in the near future.

"We're aiming to buff a number of tanks in the jungle in patch 5.5 and/or patch 5.6 (5.3's the current live patch, design work on 5.4's just finished for context). To start with that'll involve looking at tanks that are struggling a bit (definitely Zac, potentially Nautilus, Nunu etc)."

When asked specifically about Rammus and Amumu, Meddler continued:

"Rammus and Amumu will both be looked at to see what they need, though potentially as part of a second set (whether in the same patch cycle or a later one) depending on how long work on the first set takes."

Riot Axes also chopped into the thread to comment on a question regarding plans for Ranger's Trailblazer, explaining:

"So, just for some context here, the item sustain has been tuned around jungle goals and not the other way around. That is, taking camps is supposed to cost some of your resources and the items aren't supposed to be able to shortcut that too much.

We are definitely looking at the jungle items, with Skirmisher's Sabre and Poacher's Knife up for fairly significant changes, though maybe not on the same cadence that Meddler mentioned (those changes are targeted more at making sure the whole set ends up in a good place, not specifically at making particular junglers feel good). 

We're also looking at the enchantments - no details right now, but Juggernaut is on our hit list both in final item and build path, with the goal of making it actually work for jungle tanks. There are a few other things in progress right now, and we'll see where they land. 

Tl;dr: Trailblazer itself is unlikely to receive buffs, but we hear you on jungle tanks and we are working on it. We want those champs to feel good to play."

Next Champion does not have a Knock Up

In a reddit thread speculating on what the next champion will be, Meddler dropped in to tease that it would not have any knock up effects:

"I would like to take you up on that bet for enormous amounts of money. 

Or, to be even blunter about it - no, no knock up on the next champ. Probably none on the next couple of champs either, though that's not completely certain yet."

Working on Azir Buffs

Meddler also commented that they are currently working on a few Azir buffs following his recent nerfs inpatch 5.3:

"We're working on some Azir buffs at the moment, the recent nerfs hit him harder than intended. It's very likely, though not guaranteed yet, that those changes will include adding at least some range back onto his W. 

Odds are high those buffs will be in the 5.5 patch (5.4's already locked so we can't do the next patch, we would like to get these out as soon as feasible though)."

Veigar changes "locked" for 5.4

In a thread voicing concern regarding the upcoming Veigar changes that have been testing on the PBE, Meddler commented they are locked for 5.4 but are open to changes if they prove problematic:

"The Veigar changes for 5.4 are locked. Directionally we believe a delay on Veigar's E is essential to making Veigar healthy (so that we can be happy if he's strong and popular, rather than definitely having to nerf him if that happens). If that delay does prove to be too long we'll reduce it, given it's much harder to shut Veigar's laning down given the extra range and shorter CD on his Q however that delay's our best estimate on appropriate for the upcoming patch."

More details and context on the upcoming changes can be found in SmashGizmo's PBE thread. 

IronStylus on Irelia's Eventual Redesign

When asked about his thoughts on Irelia and what visual updates for her might entail, IronStylus commented:

"A lot of what she'll be depends a whole hell of a lot on a gameplay overhaul. She's currently viewed as a larger scope project, but if gameplay is able to ship something first, we might scale back the scope. I don't think that they have a kit currently however. She's technically in the "high-opportunity" bucket, but chances are she'd need a whole lot of support from all three disciplines.

Personally, I like to design around story and gameplay. I can work with her being an Ionian general wielding unobtainium soul-blades. That's cool to build off of. However if we overhaul her narrative aspects, some things might change, but I don't see her main reads as changing. She's not going to turn into a magic wand user or anything.

The version I have currently sort of looks like a blend of some internal Ionian exploration we've worked on as well as some hints of Yasuo's armor plates and Karma's clothing style. I riffed off of Yasuo to give her a fuller set of armor that sort of follows the plating of his armored arm. Sort of like.. what would the military version of that look like, and how does it's general sensibilities work as a whole costume?

Aside from that, that's all I really have. It'll be a good jumping off point for us when the discussion comes around though.

I'm really excited for her whenever we do decide to start pre-production on her!"

[Postponed] Mandrake Ward Discussion

In case you missed it, a new and tentative"Mandrake Ward" item iswas put on the PBE earlier this week but has not yet  been fully implemented for testing.

Here's Xypherous with a context thread on the experimental new item, which has been updated to indicate the item's testing has been postponed until next patch:

"Note: The following item is highly experimental and probably won't ship any time soon, if at all. All assets are temporary and are absolutely not final. 

Hey guys.
I'm putting up some experimental content for exploration. 

Mandrake Ward
50 35G

Click to Consume: Places an invisible blind sentry in a brush for 5 minutes. The plant will ping the map if a visible or invisible enemy enemy is within 900 range. 

(Counts as a Stealth Ward)
(May only carry 3 Stealth Wards at a time.)  

This is intended to be an early game ward to protect the lane against the jungle without revealing a jungler's prospective health or directional pathing. It's also an answer to early game stealth for lane protections now that pinks are fairly woefully inequipped at dealing with the task. There's some neat tricks (it can sense over walls) that it has currently - but it still needs a ton of iteration to feel usable personally.  

Will be doing some polish work over the next couple days trying to get it in a cleaner state - last I checked, I missed a file somewhere and it's probably super bugged on PBE - also need to think about ping throttling the thing in terms of sounds and motion. 

Eventually it'll require a custom ping sound and error handling - but for now, everything is highly temp and experimental. 

1. I'm curious to see whether or not people feel like the item's purpose is clear.
2. The item hopefully doesn't feel like it's worth a slot end-game and make end-game consumable purchase cycles even worse.

Edit: Testing this will be postponed. Looks like I've actually put this up at a really poor time. They're going to be using the PBE to sweep the outgoing patch - so this won't be in the build for a while until we get the next outgoing patch ready."

When asked if the ward has unique ping sounds, he reiterated:

"Not at the moment - if we like it enough to go ahead - it's on the to do list of polish points."

As for the wards extended duration of 5 minutes vs a the 3 minute duration of normal wards, Xypherous noted:

"The initial reasoning that it provides you much less information than a sight ward does. 

For example, you don't get the items of the champion you detected (because you never saw him). 

You don't know the champion's health status or direction (because the ping is centered on the mandrake). 

You're not sure if he's passing through or if he's actually aggressing on the lane.
You're not even really sure which champion it was - but you can probably do that by process of elimination. 

It might be a total mistake to have it at 5 minutes as it feels like an eternity - but that's another one of the things that I'd want to feel out in testing."

As for a potentially increasing the detection range as a way to nerf the item, Xypherous agreed:

"Increasing the range to nerf is a pretty good suggestion for a lever and one I'll toy around with when I need to adjust power."

Xypherous also answered a question regarding Mandrake Ward and it's interaction with Evelynn:

"Quote

Wouldn't this kind of item just gut Eve even farther? It seems like its 100% aimed at making her already terrible early game in this jungle that much more miserable.

Yes and no. There's multiple ways of looking at it. 

• In a world where Eve is a primary jungler and there are no way of mitigating the effects of her game other than complete passivity - Evelynn will probably never be good. 

So you get to a point where either 

• Eve can't be a jungler

-OR-

• There needs to be a way to mitigate the effects of her stealth somehow in order for her to be good. 

When you introduce the item to mitigate the effect of long term stealth - for the short term, absolutely it will make her power level holistically lower. However - this is the only possibility space in which Eve could be powerful in the future."

Xypherous continued, answering several quick questions on the experimental item:

[1]"

Question here is how often will it ping? Does it ping only once when you enter the vicinity, making you wait patiently till the enemy feels somewhat safe?

One ping. Currently it'll reping if they're still there in the area after 10 seconds but I'll probably be adjusting this rule.

Where does it ping? Does it ping where the ward was placed sort of like an alarm system or does it ping where the enemy breach occurred?

Currently it pings at where the breach occurs - but given that it's a mini-map ping, you're not really going to catch any difference - though you're right that it should probably ping itself rather than the point location.

Somewhat redundant but does leaving and re-entering the vicinity re-activate the ping?

Yes - at the moment. I'll need to put some sound throttling here for testing purposes."

[2]"

Does it currently ping for each enemy that enters? ( jungle and mid ganking bot equaling two pings when the enter the area) 

Yes.

Can it get swept? 

Yes - it has 1 hp.

Will there be a trinket version implemented? 

I don't really plan on it initially because that means there's end-game implications for the item that I'm trying to avoid."