Red Post Collection: Harrowing Legacy content returning soon, Creating Shadow and Fortune, and more!

Posted on at 7:49 AM by Moobeat
This morning's red post collection includes a look at the new 2015 Worlds Winners' bundle, Calisker sharing the zombie & slayer skins plus the Harrowing legacy content will be released later this week, a dev blog on the recent Shadow and Fortune Harrowing story,  Meddler & Ququroon on the champion size pass, Reinboom on Call for Help changes in the preseason, and more!
Continue reading for more information!



Table of Contents


2015 Worlds Winners’ Bundle 

To celebrate SKT T1 as our 2015 World Champions, a five championo & five skin bundle is now available through November 10th.
"We’re celebrating the conclusion of the 2015 League of Legends World Championship with a limited-time bundle until November 10:
2015 Worlds Winners’ Bundle - 50% at 2323 RP (3849 RP if you need the champions)
These are the champions of the World. This bundle is inspired by the team comp used in the Finals by our 2015 World Champions, SKTelecom T1. 
Skins included:
  • Gentleman Gnar
  • Blood Moon Elise
  • Dark Crystal Ryze
  • Warden Sivir
  • Matador Alistar (Legacy)
Champions included:
Likewise, the bonus winners icon for SKT T1 is going out! This icon is obtained by having purchased the original 2015 World Championship SKT T1 icon that was made available prior to the start of the championship!

About the Harrowing 

In response to all the questions about the Harrowing and when the new Zombie & Slayer skins plus the returning seasonal content will return, Calisker posted a thread noting content will be available this week: 
"Hey everyone! 
Some of you have questions around the Harrowing this year, and we wanted to give you a quick update: 
In October, we shared that the Harrowing (and other seasonal events) are changing. You can check out the PBE Boards post here (sorry we didn’t post it to the main Boards as well, our bad). 
In short: We’re releasing Legacy skins from past Harrowing events later this week. Zombie / Slayer skins are also rolling out soon, so get those chainsaws ready. We wanted to get you in the mood with a dark and terrifying tale of the unliving, “Shadow and Fortune: A Harrowing Story,” as well as updated biographies for some of our Shadow Isles champions. 
And if you’re wondering about Snowdown, we have some great stuff in our bag of goodies that’ll look a little different from what you’ve previously seen. So hold on for info on that, we’ll share more once we have all the details sorted out."
calisker continued:

"We messed up by not sharing the PBE post elsewhere, specifically over the holiday weekend. And while we communicated directly with players in that post, we should have done it again on the main boards before Halloween. 
We’re not going to ignore seasonal moments, but The Harrowing is a little tricky, as its changed often over the years. Skins like “Officer Vi” were part of former Harrowing releases but for this year, we released “Shadow and Fortune: The Harrowing Story,” and new champion bios dug deeper into some of the Shadow Isles champs. (Dark stuff if you haven’t read it yet, much recommend.)"
If you are itching for previews up the upcoming Zombie Nunu and Slayer Pantheon & Slayer Jinx, check out this post!

Into the Mists: Creating Shadow and Fortune 

Next up we have an article on the creation of SHADOW AND FORTUNE, the 2015 Harrowing story!
"Heads-up: This article deep-dives the creation of the Shadow and Fortune novella, which itself is a continuation of the events that occurred during the Bilgewater: Burning Tides event. Readers who have yet to experience both stories may find certain plot elements revealed in the text below.

TL;DR: Spoiler alert! 
A city in chaos 
By the end of the Bilgewater: Burning Tides event, much had changed for the titular portside trading hub. Twisted Fate and Graves settled their differences and set off for new adventures. Sarah Fortune deposed Gangplank in a hailstorm of cannon fire. And the city itself grew from a piratey theme park ride into a realistic, dangerous place packed with compelling characters. 
Unfortunately for Miss Fortune, Bilgewater didn’t take the change of management in its stride. Gangplank was a ruthless leader, but his grim dedication to the role was all that kept Bilgewater from tearing itself apart. It is in the midst of this post-Plank chaos that the Black Mist of the Harrowing again sweeps over Bilgewater and leaves Miss Fortune with a choice: Step up and lead, or watch as the unliving decimate a city weakened by the very chaos she created. 
Shadow and Fortune is the story of that choice. It’s also the story of where League’s narrative compass is pointed. 
A world that moves 
“We wanted to show that the world is a living, breathing thing,” explains senior narrative writer Graham McNeill. “Actions have consequences.” Shadow and Fortune is part of a broader effort by League of Legends storytellers to build a world where places grow along with the characters who inhabit them. By picking up the thread of an existing story, League’s narrative writers are building a sense of continuity and establishing arcs that extend beyond one-off tales of derring-do. 
It’s a natural evolution from previous storytelling efforts. “It’s been quite some time since we’ve done any ongoing, continuing storytelling,” says lead Foundations writer Ant Reynolds. “It’s definitely something we want to do more—this is just the start.” Burning Tides: The Reckoning helped establish who Miss Fortune is, what she’s doing, and what she’s all about. “But at the end, she gets what she wants. So what happens next?” The Harrowing, a staple of League lore and a familiar danger for citizens of Bilgewater, was the perfect mechanism for pushing Miss Fortune’s character, and the city, to new places. 
“Tales of the Shadow Isles spread through the world, but not every Runeterra resident will believe them.” 
Reynolds explains, “For the arc of Miss Fortune, she needs that external threat. That’s what makes her go, ‘Right, we all need to come together to fight this thing.’” Knocking out Gangplank is one thing; taking responsibility for the aftermath is another. “She figured that killing Gangplank would transform Bilgewater into this wonderful utopia, free of the oppressor’s boot,” adds McNeill, “but that’s not how it happened at all.” Rising to meet the challenge of the Harrowing and taking responsibility for Bilgewater’s residents helps shape who Miss Fortune is, and who she will grow to become. 
Characters gathered 
Miss Fortune isn’t the only champion getting attention in Shadow and Fortune. Lucian, Thresh, Olaf, and Hecarim all make appearances. Plotting out multi-character stories gives depth to the champions League players love, but also poses some risks for the teams involved. “You don’t want to cram too many champions into a story; it makes the world feel small,” McNeill contends. “It shouldn’t seem like every champ knows every other champ and they’re crossing paths every week.” Runeterra is meant to be a massive world, a world where the average Bilgewater resident might have heard of Demacia, but has never met anyone who’s been there. “Tales of the Shadow Isles spread through the world,” he adds, “but not every Runeterra resident will believe them.” 
Characters also need room to grow within a given story. “Players need to recognize Miss Fortune or Lucian or Olaf in the way they behave, but the characters shouldn’t be limited by those expectations,” notes McNeill. “They should get to do cool, unexpected stuff that maybe surprises a player, but leaves that player thinking, ‘That feels like the right thing for that champion to do, like a natural evolution of their character.’” Dropping characters into a story for the sake of having them show up isn’t enough. McNeill continues, “If you’re bringing a champion into a story and he or she doesn’t have a moment of awesome, why even have them?” Reynolds echoes the thought: “Players love these champions. They don’t want to see their favorite champ in a story and go, ‘Oh, he’s lame.’” 
Riot’s storytellers are dedicated to creating tales that help move characters along larger arcs, and focusing on a few characters at a time is a deliberate strategy for doing just that. Attempting to tell everyone’s story at once would rob characters of an opportunity to grow into something more. “This story follows up on Burning Tides, but it doesn’t continue all the arcs,” says Reynolds. “And this is only one small part of the world. The story doesn’t touch on what might be happening in Demacia, or Noxus, or Zaun.” In other words, there are many stories happening across League’s universe; Burning Tides: The Reckoning and Shadow and Fortune are just scratching the surface. Even Gangplank, one of the main characters of The Reckoning, is nowhere to be found in Shadow and Fortune. McNeill explains: “Gangplank’s potential return to Bilgewater is a big, important moment. Players know he’s alive, but the characters don’t. Him coming back needs to be a real ‘Holy shit’ moment – bringing him into this story wouldn’t do him justice.” 
Twisted Fate, Graves, and Gangplank will have their time in the spotlight again, but Shadow and Fortune is Miss Fortune’s story, not theirs. 
True terror 
Shadow and Fortune has a secondary aim: to convey the real horror behind the Harrowing and to establish context for the event within the world of Runeterra. “It’s not just a tale to scare young children,” says McNeill. “It’s a real, nasty, horrible thing where you lock your doors, scrawl runes on the windows, and hunker down under the kitchen table, hoping it won’t come knocking.” McNeill likens Bilgewater to a city on the slope of a volcano, explaining, “It might be worth the risk for the time you can eke out, but the danger can come at any moment.” 
The Harrowing also isn’t a once-a-year event tied to a calendar day, but an omnipresent threat. McNeill elaborates, “You can’t just say, ‘Hey, it’s coming up on Harrowing time, let’s go to the country house in Demacia for a few days.’ Everyone in Bilgewater wakes up every day worried that the Harrowing could come.” The constant threat of the Black Mist is one reason for Bilgewater’s vertical construction; it’s a way for the rich and powerful protect themselves from the terrors that sweep across Bilgewater when the Harrowing occurs. “You want to live as high as you can,” says Reynolds, “so you can stay above the Black Mist.” 
Telling a Harrowing story adds depth to some of the Shadow Isles champions and extends the narrative reach beyond Bilgewater proper. “We don’t want any character to be one-note,” says McNeill. “The unliving need their own motivations and reasons for doing the things they do.” Putting Lucian in Bilgewater during the Harrowing helps move Miss Fortune’s story along; it also fleshes out the relationship he has with Thresh and opens up future storytelling opportunities. Each character in Shadow and Fortune adds a layer to the story, but also provides greater insight into the world as a whole. Even Olaf, who mainly provides levity in what is otherwise an extremely dark story, is helping players understand more about the places and people of League. 
Like Burning Tides: The Reckoning, Shadow and Fortune is meant to serve as a stepping-stone toward a vibrant, living universe populated by League’s characters. The teams involved in its creation are working to build story arcs that take characters on memorable, meaningful journeys that deepen the connection between those characters and the players who love them. There are infinite stories to tell, and infinite ways to tell them. “There are humor stories and romance stories and pure fun stories—it’s all on the table. We know players want lore and stories, and we’re trying to live up to that, one tale at a time,” says McNeill. 
Most importantly, McNeill concludes, “We’re not just throwing stories out into the wild and forgetting about them. The world, and its characters, are changing through these stories. They matter, and we hope that will resonate for players.”
When asked about the art featured in the post and if it may be a hint towards the next champion, Ant in Oz noted:
"No. This is concept art done as part of Foundations, to help us work out what the Shadow Isles is like, what the spirits that dwell there are like, etc. It's world building stuff done to help us explore and define Runeterra, its cultures and its denizens. 
Cheers!"

Meddler and Ququroon on Champion Size Pass

When asked about the previously discussed project to resize various champions, Meddler noted:
"Won't be in 5.22 at the very least. Hoping we might be able to get changes out later this year, lot of other stuff underway though so possible that work ends up getting delayed.
In terms of scope of work we'll probably be looking at small, to somewhat small, changes to the sizes of around 30 champs, plus some individual skins that don't match their base well (e.g. Battlecast Kog's huge, Marquis Vlad's tiny). Changes should be noticeable when compared side by side, but certainly won't completely redefine a champion's perceived size (Malphite's will probably get noticeably bigger for example, but he's not going to be rivalling the biggest champs in the game)."
Meddler continued, explaining the goal of size = tankiness,
"We want really enormous size to be linked with high innate tankiness. That's why our biggest champs are all really tanky when they're that large (Cho'gath with a lot of stacks, Mega Gnar). Tanks in general should be large (hence increasing Malph's size somewhat), but we want extreme size to convey some additional information as well. It's not a perfect correlation of course (a Rammus with a full tank build might be much tankier than an AP stacking Cho for example), but it's a useful means of gameplay communication."
He continued:
"Quote:
That seems... really limiting, thematically, but I guess it makes some sense.
It's a deliberate choice to favor gameplay over thematics certainly, in the same way that some champions are larger than they'd be if we were set on going for a more realistic look. Compare Annie's size to other normal human characters for example, she'd be much smaller, and therefore harder to select or hit with spells, if she was a more realistic height. LoL's a moderately stylized game though, so that sort of discrepancy's not too jarring generally thankfully."
Ququroon later popped in to share they will be doing Tristana's resize for 5.22:
"It's coming when it's ready, which maaaay be sooner than later. Trying for before the end of the year. 
The actual work itself is just changing a few numbers around (and maybe doing a little art polish), but developing averages and standards takes a bit longer. How big is too big, how small is too small, etc? How relative should characters be to their 'actual' size (spoilers: in-game comes first)? How much should in-game durability relate to character size? 
We've made really good progress on these questions, so I want to get them to you as soon as possible. If this tides you over at all, here's an example of one of the more requested size changes. As a small test run, she'll be going out in 5.22."
When asked how this will affect hitboxes, he noted:
"Clickboxes/Hitboxes are affected to a small degree, but nothing that should be horribly noticeable with the amount characters are being affected. 
Aside from Malphite. His should be pretty clear."

Reinboom on Call for Help changes in Preseason

In a board thread expressing concern over melee champions vs ranged champions in the context of a few of the preseason PBE changes, Reinboom stepped in to comment:
"Quote:
With, 
the nerfs to TP coming
the MASSIVE base AD buffs to ranged ADs
the inability to do a camp for level 2 on PBE now 
How does Riot expect melee champs to be able to deal with ranged champions in lane now? Cheese like Quinn and Vayne were already unbearable in solo lanes even with TP, now there's no hope of dealing with them unless Riot massive buffs Doran's shield with a ranged AA specifically passive (yea right)
First up, Base AD: 
The base AD changes are a slight power curve shift (note: there's an eventual base AD loss). 
These were mostly done because last hitting felt bad due to the change in masteries (loss of flat AD). This was felt most by ranged AD characters. 
5 AD is potentially too much but it's a starting point. Marksman AD can be dropped further from there. 
Second up, and much more applicable:
Isolating some changes without calling out the other systemic changes on big patches such as these is very misleading. 
For example, this topic does not mention that we changed "call for help" at all in favor of melee in lanes. There's now a second response ring wrapped centered on the attacker that causes your minions to actually respond (notably to ranged attackers) when they've shoved you off minions hard"
Riot Reinboom continued:
"Quote:
I don't quite understand what this means, and haven't seen any mention to it so far. Could you please elaborate?
EDIT: If it means that ranged characters are more likely to attract minion aggro, does it also affect mages and supports attempting to poke?
Sure. 
What is Call for Help: 
If a champion auto attacks another champion, then find all allied minions and turrets in a "large" ring centered on the champion being attacked. Those minions and turrets found in that ring then check if the attacking champion is within their auto attack range (+ a rather significant search area increase of 400 units if the responder is a minion). 
Here's an example of the ring: 
That part isn't changing. 
What's changing is that there is now a second ring. 
In addition to searching for allied minions and turrets around the champion being attacked, there's a second search around the champions that's attacking. This search is the same size, but only affects minions (not turrets). Minions responding to the second ring don't search beyond their attack radius though. They respond only if they could naturally attack the attacker. 
This looks like:
(red is the current ring, blue is the new secondary ring) 
Also in the prior image, you'll notice the ranged minions have aggro'd on Caitlyn. This would not have happened in the current game because those minions are outside the red ring."
she continued:
"Quote: 
Thanks! 
From testing so far, would you say this might limit the early game aggression from mid lane or champions relying more on their poke than their farm? I'm asking this mostly with poke supports in mind (Sona, Lulu, Nami)
It shouldn't limit mid lane too much, simply because of the length of the lane is too short. 
Also mind that Call for Help explicitly only responds to basic attacks. Spells do not trigger it. 
In my testing, Annie was impacted a bit (thanks to her rather long auto attack range, as well as it being okay enough early to use). Anivia and Zyra may also be impacted in the same way. I tend to play defensively on Anivia early so I didn't feel it on her (your mileage might vary). 
For supports, if you're actively zoning your opponents out of lane it will impact you."

Blind, Block, and Dodge changes on the PBE

As you may have read in the 11/2 PBE post, Scarizard has jumped on reddit to confirm there are changes in testing for how Jax's dodge, Pantheon's block, and Teemo's blind interact with on-hits and spell-attacks:
"This is a new change being made in tandem with preseason. Jax's Counterstrike, Pantheon's Aegis of Zeonia and Teemo's Blinding Dart (the only moves that cause basic attacks to 'miss') will interact differently with many of the games' on-hit and spell-attacks. 
There's a huge list I'll have for you when the patch notes go live, but expect about 30+ abilities to be affected (Leona's Shield of Daybreak, Garen's Decisive Strike and Udyr's Bear Stance being among the most noteworthy)"

When asked if this means those abilities can now block Nasus Q, he noted:
"After 5.22, Nasus Q will be blocked by teemo/pantheon/jax."
Meddler also added in:
"It's a change that will be in the patch notes for 5.22. We haven't released any official notes yet and it's not the sort of change that's easily picked up by data mining PBE builds. 
This change also applies to Blinds, so Teemo will be able to negate CCs with Blinding Dart (though the timing on that's much harder than on Counterstrike of course). Similarly Panth's block also stops effects attached to the auto attack blocked. Additionally various attacks that previously hit through blind/dodge/block will now be negated as you'd expect. There are a couple of exceptions however, in cases where an ability that's more spell than auto attack (as opposed to auto attack with added effect) uses right click as a means of triggering (Volibear Q and Hecarim E being the only two from memory)."
As for if this change means blind, block, or dodge will st op Tahm Kench from applying stacks, he confirmed:
"That's Correct."
When asked if these changes will include any other balance changes for the trio, Meddler noted:
"Gut reaction is there's a notable amount of power in this change. We'll follow up on Jax/Teemo/Panth in a later patch if needed, though don't feel we need to make any preemptive changes to compensate."

Meddler on what is after marksman updates

When asked what project the team will move on to next following the Juggernauts and the upcoming Marksman reworks + itemization changes, Meddler noted:
"We haven't decided yet which class of characters/set of items we might tackle once Marksmen are done. Some form of caster's definitely got some appeal, since we've done a couple of auto attacking/AD using classes in juggernauts and marksmen. There's also some good arguments for a subset of tanks or supports too though, since the two classes we've worked on have both been primary damage dealers, so hitting a more utility focused class would offer some good contrast. Finally there's also some appeal in tackling a class that's been hard to balance and itemize for historically, so assassins for example would also have a fair bit of merit as a choice. 
As far as quality of choices go I'm with you that the new AD itemization's a big step up. Personally it feels more like AD itemization (for some characters at least) is catching up to where AP itemization's generally been though, rather than eclipsing it."

2015 World Championship: Moments and Memories

While the 2015 World Championship concluded over the weekend and SKT T1 were crowned the 2015 World Champions, check out this Moments and Memories from the event!

"Relive the epic journey of the 2015 World Championship!"

There is also a 2015 World Championship hub up, which includes a look back at each stage of the event, fan art, vines, and more!

Chat with Bioluminescence on 11/4! 

Last up we have a heads up that senior level designer Bioluminescence will be hosting a Q&A on November 4th!
"Join us tomorrow for the latest installment of Between Two Turrets, a Q&A series through which we connect you with various Rioters to chat about League, life, and anything in between. You can expect an installment every couple weeks or so, with Rioters from all over jumping in to spend some time with you on the Boards. 
This week, we’ve got Senior Level Designer (and League story enthusiast) Amanda “Bioluminescence” Jeffrey - come chat with her on the Boards November 4 starting at 1 PM PDT!"

[UPDATE: Q&A NOW UP!]

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