Red Post Collection: Hextech Crafting on EUW & EUNE, Context on Corki & Poppy PBE Changes, No Taric Update in 6.7, & more

Posted on at 3:19 AM by Moobeat
[UPDATE: Crafting now live on EUW, EUNE, BR, LAN, LAS, OCE, and RU! Enjoy!]

This morning's red post collection includes a heads up that Hextech Crafting has launched on EUNE and EUW, Meddler with context on the recent Corki and Poppy PBE changes, confirmation Taric's champion update will not be in 6.7, and more!
Continue reading for more information!



Table of Contents


March 23rd Patch Update

The official 6.6 patch notes have been updated to reflect a small fix that went out for Custom Game invite and Twisted Fate!
"3/23/2016 
Custom Game Invites 
  • WE SAID WE'D DO IT - Fixed the bug mentioned below where the invite button sometimes didn't appear when creating a custom game lobby 
Twisted Fate 
  • WILD WHAT? - High Noon Twisted Fate's Q - Wild Cards visual effects have been restored"


Hextech Crafting Live in EUW & EUNE

Following a launch on NA last week, Hextech Crafting is now live on EUNE and EUW!

At the time of posting, EUNE, EUW, NA, and TR servers all have Hextech Crafting available, with planned releases on other regions (except Korea) later this week!

For a break down on how the new crafting system works, check out the Riot Support guide!

Taric Champion Update will not be in 6.7

Over in a boards thread asking if players can expect the long awaited high scope Taric champion update in patch 6.7, Meddler commented he would not be in the next patch:
"Taric won't be in patch 6.7 sorry."
When asked for estimate on when he'll be ready, Meddler replied:
"Quote:
Well shoot.
Is there a deadline or expected release time?
We've got a target we're aiming for, until the final work's finished and confirmed to hit the required standards it's still going to have to be described as 'soon' though."
As for why, Meddler noted:
"Quote:
Why? :(
Because his rework's not finished yet."
Over on reddit, Riot Repertoir added:
If Taric was finished, you guys would have him already. I'd dare say the wait is killing me as much, or even more, than the rest of you.

Poppy PBE Nerf Context

The 3/23 PBE Update includes a string of tentative nerfs for Poppy, including lowering her Q damage, passive range, and E range. Over on the boards, Meddler explained:
"Yes, we believe she's one of the strongest champions in the game at present when mastered. In particular she's got a combination of fighter strengths and tank strengths. We're looking to focus her a bit more on her more unique aspects, the middle of the fight disruptive approach in particular. As a result we're testing changes that reduce her back line access somewhat (and just cut a bit of raw power from her in her Q damage)."
Scarizard added:
"These changes aren't about making her laning phase more balanced, but dramatically reducing her effectiveness as tank with backline access. Poppy's niche is as a 'mid-line tank', disrupting enemies that want to get through and peeling allies in need of help (she has 3 ways to stop dashes on her kit) - we're trying to balance her around that output and limit her effectiveness as a pure diving fighter."

Corki Passive PBE Nerf Context

In the 3/22 PBE update, Corki's passive was nerfed to no longer increase his autoattack damage by 10%. Over on the boards, Meddler offered up a bit of context on the tentative change:
:We're like Corki's niche as the really high magic damage marksman. At present though he's got strong burst, strong AAs, good safety, good poke and a bit of utility. He's got a clear niche, but he's also just good at too many different things. We're looking to reduce one or two of those strengths, keep power concentrated. Reducing the power of his AAs is a likely direction for that.:
When asked about Corki's presence in mid and in the bot lane, Meddler continued:
"We're happy seeing him flex between positions. We also think he's too strong as a duo laner though hence this nerf to him regardless of where/how he's being played."

Meddler on Class Updates

When asked if the team plans to do another champion update after the much discussed mid year mage update, Meddler commented:
"Our expectation is that we'll do another class update at the end of the year in the preseason. Tentative thinking is we'll continue with them next year as well, though that's a long way off and could change of course. Assassins are a likely class at some point, though diving fighters and initiator tanks also have some strong arguments in their favour."
When asked if they will take the time to define what these classes and sub classes are in the future, Meddler commented:
"Yes. We've got a blog being worked on at the moment that outlines the different subclasses we've identified, so in the same way that some fighters are juggernauts mages have different subcatgories too (e.g. artillery's a subclass with extremely long range and weakness in most other areas that contains champions like Ziggs, Jayce and Xerath)."

Hextech Crafting Discussion - Staggered Release & Key Drop Rates

In addition to the new regional launches mentioned earlier in the post, we also have a bit of discussion on the Hextech Crafting system!

When asked to explain why they are doing a staggered release for the Hextech crafting system, Chager explained:
"Quote:
So if you are releasing it now with the intent of catching and fixing bugs, in what world does it make sense to release it to only a portion of the community, when you could have had millions of other players searching and discovering bugs.
We've already been able to catch several major bugs both in Turkey and NA that we were able to fix so the rest of the regions don't have to experience it. Releasing to 1-2 regions of different sizes and player behaviors helps us catch those bugs so when we do go live across all the regions we've got increased confidence. 
A lot of it comes down to containing player pain and making sure we've got a high degree of confidence before we turn something on to millions of players, especially when it is a brand new system that's interwoven with so many other systems. We're trying to be cautious so we can deliver the best experience possible when we do go wide with the feature. 
Hopefully that gives you a bit more context on the whys behind how we went about releasing hextech crafting."
When asked about specifics on key fragment drop rates, Wingfield explained they key drop rates are not linear and the rates reset each month:
"Hey all, 
Just want to help clarify some things about key drop rates: 
Key drop rates are NOT linear and only wins have a chance of dropping a key. So you will earn key fragments much faster in your earlier wins than you will in your later wins. Or said another way, each incremental key fragment drop is harder than the last (on average... there is variance). This resets on a monthly basis for each player individually. 
The goal is to create a nice ebb and flow. 
Grade does NOT impact key drop chance. 
Premades DO increase drop chance. 
Hope that helps clarify "
Wingfield continued:
I tried to clarify my wording later on in the thread, but will include below: 
Key fragments earn rates are not linear, meaning that later keys take more wins to get than earlier keys. So within a month, key fragments get rarer. However, there is a monthly reset, so key fragments do not infinitely get rarer and rarer. Thus, over the course of a year, keys fragment earn rates will cyclically be faster and slower.
The design decision here was to accelerate early key fragment earn rates (relative to linear progression) so that news players or players who only had a little bit of time to play in a month could still progress towards unlocking chests.

By way of example:

Let's say you can earn 6 fragments. We could either do it 1 fragment every 10 games (linear). Or we could have a player earn 1 fragment every 3 games for the first 9 games and then 1 fragment every 19 for the remaining 51 games (in the spirit of the our current system). Both worlds take 60 games to get all 6 fragments. The second system allows new players and players with the time to play 10 per month the ability to still get 3 fragments, whereas the linear system would only give them 1 fragment.
With crafting putting a greater influence on mastery scores, Socrates also replied to a request to add champion mastery scores to the match history page:
"This is something we've wanted to do for a while but the team that did Champ Mastery was focused on Loot. It might be something we target in the future given that the value of grades is much higher now."

Patch Chat with Playtest - Comet Dragon 

With patch 6.6 out on live, the playtest team is back on the boards with more gameplay discussion!
"Hey all, 
Welcome back to Patch Chat! We’re Riot’s Playtest Team, a group of high ranking League players whose job it is to play the hell out of things (lane tests, competitive testing, etc) and give actionable, objective feedback to designers. 
Every two weeks (concurrent with the release of patch notes), we’re going to be hosting a discussion here on the state of balance on the current patch. Take this opportunity to ask us any questions about the state of the game. 
Today, we’re here with Miles “Daydreamin” Hoard, to talk about playing a roaming mid, and Ben “Cezium” Burkhardt, our resident Aurelion Sol expert. 
Miles, roaming mids like Twisted Fate find consistently higher success as the level play goes up. What do you think players need to know to decide to roam instead of staying in lane? 
> It’s all about risk assessment. Can you leave lane without losing out on too much CS or do you risk the enemy mid taking your turret? You just have to identify windows of opportunity.
>
> If you have pressure in your lane, you need to shove out your wave before roaming. Set up vision denial with pinks on the sides of mid. That way you can see if your path to another lane is clear, and you know you won’t be spotted the moment you leave mid. 
What do you look for in a champion when deciding whether to roam or not? 
> Any high mobility kits are great for roaming. By the time they spot you, you should be able to close the distance and force a fight. Your ideal roam champion will also have CC, but mobility is the more important of the two, as lanes you roam to often have CC as well.
>
> That being said, there aren’t any “roam only champions” other than maybe Quinn or Twisted Fate, so you don’t really play any differently. Exert as much map pressure as you can when you can, but don’t force yourself into it.
>
> It’s a very high-risk, high-reward playstyle, and if you fall behind in lane, you become a liability since you will have less farm. 
Ben, you probably have the most Comet Dragon games of any LoL player in the world for now. What unique strengths does he bring to the game? 
> First and foremost is his ability to roam from level 4 onward, thanks to the high move speed and the ability to use flight to gank from awkward positions and creative angles. He is able to apply pressure to other lanes earlier than just about any other roaming mid.
>
> He also brings early wave clear with his W, which allows him to roam without losing too much farm. 
Let’s say being a giant flying dragon isn’t your thing; what weaknesses does Comet Dragon have to exploit? 
> Aurelion Sol is defined by the low - and relatively static - range of his W orbit. Anything that can dash in close will perform well against him. As well, anything that can reposition him (knockbacks) removes the consistency of his damage. Aurelion Sol wants to keep his opponents at a specific range; if they can reposition quickly - or force him to - you lose a lot of your damage output and have to use your mobility to regain it.
>
> Lee Sin absolutely gave me in fits in playtests because his high mobility allowed him to avoid my damage, and the ult knockback destroyed my hard-earned positioning. 
How do you prep for a roam on Aurelion Sol? 
> When roaming, I’ll usually do a quick waveclear, hitting both the melee and caster minions with my W. It shouldn’t take more than 2-3 passes early on. After that, I head down the river towards a lane, and halfway there decide what I want to do. If they’re pushed up, it’s time to activate Flight and ruin somebody’s day. Otherwise, you can just turn around and use the movespeed buildup to get back to lane quickly.
> 
How do you decide which lane to gank? 
> Usually bot (insert 4-man bot joke here), but it’s really just a question of which lane is most likely to help your team. Immobile champions are the best to gank, but other games I might roam onto a mobile top laner like Renekton because I know my top Nautilus can set me up with his CC. Keeping your options open and looking for the optimal play before committing is the most important thing.
> 
Do you have any cool tips and tricks about playing Aurelion Sol that you’ve picked up over time? 
> I like to come in through lane because of how easily I can use flight + Q to land a big stun. Plus, because I’m already flying in the direction they’ll have to run, at worst I’ll end up close to them.
>
> I prefer the skill order W -> E -> Q. The W gives all the damage you need, while the E brings the mobility you need to make plays around the map. Rylai’s is my favorite item because it allows you to kite melee champions for days, or keep them from escaping. The more move speed you get the more reliable you become, so Luden’s Echo is a fantastic early buy on him if you’re snowballing. Add Boots of Swiftness on top of that and nobody is escaping the dragon.
>
> Finally, don’t be afraid to use the ult pretty liberally. It may seem a little underwhelming on paper, but it actually does a little bit of everything. Peel? Check. Chase? Check. Damage? Check. Utility? Check. It’ll knock enemies into your orbs for damage, keep them away from you for survivability, and slow them from a distance so you can close the gap and whittle them down. 
Do you have any questions about what it’s like to work as a Riot playtester? As usual, feel free to ask any questions about balance or what exactly our job is! We will be around for the next few hours and will try to answer as many questions as possible. 
Adam "Afic" Cohen
Ben “Cezium” Burkhardt
Isaac “Azael” Cummings-Bentley
Shawn “I Am The IRS” Currie
Miles “Daydreamin” Hoard
Scott “Sickoscott” Hong
Mattias “Gentleman Gustaf” Lehman
Nicholas “Drecker” Shapiro
Nicholas “Nickwu” Smith
Blake “Ex Shepherd” Soberanis
Trevor “ThEntropist” Thernes"
Check out the boards thread for more discussion!

‘Legend of the Poro King’ game mode live on PBE for Rotating Game Mode queue testing

Following up on the Rotating Game Mode queue announcement, L4T3NCY has popped on the PBE boards to share that Legend of the Poro King has returned to the PBE to help test the upcoming queue:
"Heya guys, in line with our QA roadmap to roll out the Rotating Game Mode queue, the "Legend of the Poro King" game mode is now active on PBE. Further details on the other modes available in the queue and the exact release date to come at a later time. For now, we need some help testing out the Poro King! 
Updates:
-- The Poro King is now pingable, for easy co-ordination of Poro King focus fire. 
Known bugs:
-- No champ mastery points are being awarded yet. We need to let the mode soak and populate data over the weekend, you'll see another post RE this next week probably. 
Please report any bugs you find in here, we'll be keeping an eye on this thread. We're specifically interested in new champion interactions since the last time Poro King was live. IE: Jhin & Aurelion Sol. As always, thanks for helping us test guys, you usually catch a few edge case bugs to make each mode better for everyone else! ^.^b 
-- L4T3NCY "
Be sure to check out the original announcement for the upcoming rotating game mode queue here!

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