Red Post Collection: June Bundles, Zeke's Herald Update on PBE, Pool Party Community Creations, & More

Roit Axes also chimed in on why such a significant change was needed for Zeke's Herald:

"Just wanted to chip in some context on why Zeke's needed this style of update. 

Basically, live Zeke's requires all of the following to be true in a given game in order to be an efficient item: 

• Your team must have multiple high-scaling AD auto attackers 
• You must be a peel support located near them and able to sacrifice an item slot to help them 
• Your opponents must be doing something (typically multiple Thornmails and minimal/no wombo combo) to increase the value of lifesteal 

Add this to a bunch of clarity and satisfaction issues (invisible auras are always undervalued relative to their power level), plus an "ADC slave" element where you don't get to feel good about your own item purchase (unless you're support Gangplank), and you have an item which, even if balanced to actually be strong, very few players will ever buy or appreciate. The only way to get players to value it would be to make it egregiously overpowered. 

One thing I want to call out, by the way:

The Live version of the item is expensive thus difficult to obtain for a support, making it a balanced and an aware, niche purchase. 

You're getting at a really important concept - that the ability to understand itemization at a level where you can adapt within a game is a valued skill. That's a skill I'd really like to see more of - but with fully supported, valuable items that do broadly different things, rather than extremely niche items. In this case, it's very unlikely that you'll be able to fit both new Zeke's and Mikael's in a single build (not impossible, but you'll be sacrificing other stuff) - understanding when one or the other is more likely to help win the game is both an important decision and a nuanced decision, assuming we hit a good state balance-wise. 

tl;dr: Old Zeke's was too specific to realistically be able to support and barely purchased; new Zeke's is a very different item but also an item that can be supported more broadly; we believe new Zeke's does offer interesting and nuanced decision-making in the support itemization space."

Meddler on Elise & Potential Buffs in 5.14

When asked about patch 5.12's effect on Elise and if we can expect any form of follow up changes or buffs for her, Meddler shared the balance team's current thoughts:

"Current thoughts on Elise:

• 5.13 contains both a significant Runeglaive buff and adjustments to a number of items Elise tends to build. It's debateable whether Runeglaive's the correct jungle purchase on her, but it is getting bought a significant amount given it's new and she's just been changed.
• Elise's play rate has shot up a lot given the changes to her in 5.12 and the addition of Runeglaive. That's resulted in a lot of struggling players which has depressed her average performance.
• Given that combination of factors we're holding off on Elise changes for 5.13 and instead taking another patch cycle to assess her state.
• We will however be buffing Elise in 5.14 unless we start seeing her perform significantly better in 5.13 than in 5.12."

He continued:

"Quote:

Thank you Meddler! When you return, perhaps we can discuss further, depending on what's brought up.

Some things I'd like to know from the balance side are: 

1.) We know that Elise is in a not-so-good place. Has the Balance team identified the why of her current state? Not necessarily "well we nerfed her a lot in the past"; rather, "these are the factors we feel are making Elise very weak right now". 

2.) Is she so far gone that she will need a Gameplay Update in the future? 

3.) Is the Balance team dedicated to keeping Elise as a jungler and shoving down her solo lane potential, or are they attempting to preserve a jungle/solo lane potential with her?

Elise's power curve's been one of the big issues. Her E rank up's always been weak, which has led to a weak late game. Combine that with a really strong level 3 (something we see consistently from form swappers as a side note) and she can be extremely dominant early while falling off very sharply late. 

Another issue is that her ability to provide pick potential from the jungle, without having put herself at risk (Cocoon), tends to be much more valuable in co-ordinated play than solo queue. That's made it hard in the past to find a balance point where she's 'viable' in solo queue without being oppressive in organized play. 

Some form of gameplay update's certainly conceivable at some point, Elise does have some issues that it's proven difficult to address purely through balance changes. Very unlikely that'd be this year though even if we did conclude that was the appropriate course. 

We feel Elise's kit's a natural fit for the jungle, so balancing around her presence there's the starting point. Wouldn't be opposed to seeing her in lane again if that both resulted in healthy play (so not just human Q spam) and didn't require she be massively overtuned as a jungler in order to be viable in a laning position."

Ocean Week Reef Status

At the beginning of 2015, the OCE server had an Ocean Week event where they pooled points to earn unlock various rewards. The final reward tier was that Riot would create a champion-themed artificial reef to drop into the ocean. The community reached this goal and voted on a reef themed around Nautilus.

Here's CptStupendous with an update on the project now that a suitable site has been located:

"Hey everyone, 

I want to provide an update on the Artificial Reef project as well as give you all an idea of what the road to completion looks like. I’m going to leave this stickied until the next update, so everyone has a clear understanding of how the reef is progressing. 

The graphic below outlines the broad steps we need to go through before the reef is ready. It’s impossible to commit to time frames, because a lot depends on iteration and working with various partners including government agencies.

The good news is, we’ve found a suitable site! We’re not ready to talk about where it is just yet, because we need to check a few permit boxes first. The site meets all the criteria though, so fingers crossed! 

We’re not sure exactly how long the permit process will take. It’s super important we make sure your efforts have a positive impact on the environment, and that will take time. Once we’re done with the permits we’ll design the reef, then work with our partners to build it, then deploy it to its permanent home. 

If you have any questions about the process then let us know in the comments below!"

Check out the OCE boards for more information & discussion!

As a small bonus CptStupendous also commented on the long awaited OCE server release skin -

"Understandable comment but unfortunately with the skin, effort isn't the only factor, we need to work with other teams and guidelines. Between everyone in the team I couldn't even begin to count the hours we've spent working on the the skin. But we haven't given up, and are planning an update shortly!"

Pool Party fan art!

"Summer’s here, so beat the heat and make a splash with these awesome Pool Party community creations!

AninhaT-T and Cosbunny

Share more of your favorite Pool Party creations in the comments below!"