Red Post Collection: LeBlanc Update Direction, Ask Riot - Chroma & Champ Up, LCU Alpha Patch .07 & Feedback, & more

Posted on at 5:34 AM by Moobeat
This morning's red post collection includes 20thCenturyFaux with a large post on LeBlanc's assassin update direction, a new ASK RIOT on chroma and champion updates, LCU Alpha changelog and a look at how player feedback is shaping the new client,  Ascension returning in RGMQ this weekend, a look at oodles of PROJECT community creations, and more! 
Continue reading for more information!




Table of Contents 


Assassin Roster Update - LeBlanc Direction

Following the Rengar and Talon threads, 20thCenturyFaux has stepped up with a thread on the direction for Leblanc's assassin roster update!
"Hello world! 
Next up in the assassin roster update is LeBlanc, the Deceiver. She’s a tricky arcane assassin who promises to misdirect and outmaneuver, but all too often throws her face at you with W->RW+Q from afar. The strength of that damage usually forces LeBlanc to give up cool tricks in favor of hitting stuff with her body; being hit with W as LeBlanc instantly snaps back leaves you unable to react. We want her trickery to have time to shine, and if she can keep a step ahead during that window, her brute force can be the coup de grace. 
That’s the plan -- double down on the deception, preserve the mobility, and make sure you have time to play too. These goals work together very nicely. To be deceived, you have to have enough time to understand what’s happening and be wrong about it. To exist in harm’s way for longer, LeBlanc needs a way to live, and what better way than deception? LeBlanc’s signature double snapback serves as escape--any self-respecting mastermind keeps a little something up her sleeve--but using it means giving up her position and her kill. Even if she intends to snap back instantly, going in to poke with W/RW should give the opponent time to retaliate with an ability. A Zed-style tiny delay between W dash end and W snapback enabled is pretty likely to show up. 
In doing that plan, we’ve been mainly exploring active deception abilities for LeBlanc. If we do it right, her deception arsenal should be a versatile enough to help her team in addition to her role as an assassin. Like so many other assassins, LeBlanc is valued mainly as an unusually safe way to pick off squishy targets. We’d like to add a dimension of strategic trickery to that. 
Gameplay goals:   
  • Extend LeBlanc’s burst window enough that enemies can keep playing after she dashes in. She already has some of this in E, and the idea of Q implies a delay even if it’s often popped instantly. Success here lets us preserve LeBlanc’s powerful damage while giving her awesome in-combat deception tools--so long as opponents can react before their trip to the fountain. 
  • Give LeBlanc active deception tools. LeBlanc’s tricky nature has lots of opportunity for really cool plays, and while her passive is awesome it’s also automatic and unreliable. We’re trying things like concealing information about LeBlanc or giving false information about her to the enemy. It should also allow her to specifically make plays centered around it -- whether using it to cover herself as she assassinates a target or the threat of assassination as a bluff. 
  • Ensure LeBlanc brings unique strengths to her team. LeBlanc should be able to use deception to keep her enemies guessing while she assassinates her target, which is something other assassins can’t easily do--there’s some of this on Zed and Shaco, but LeBlanc can go much further with it. A powerful and versatile deception tool would also have many uses outside teamfights, especially if the deception can occur without LeBlanc’s presence...  
That’s where our thoughts have lead us for LeBlanc! Comments, questions and suggestions are all welcome. 
Good hunting, 
20thCenturyFaux"
Reav3 and 20thCenturyFaux hung around the comment section to


When asked if they consider this LeBlanc update to be in the "big four" assassin class updates, Reav3  noted:
"Quote:
Is Leblanc one of the big 4 reworks? Like Rengar/Talon tier? Or more akin to Annie/Swain from last roster update?
She is one of the big 4"

As for the remaining big 4 update that has yet to be revealed, Reav3 noted:
"Quote:
Can you give us a similar hint as to who's up next?
I'll give a small hint. The 4th one is a AP Assassin as well ;)"

When asked about the scope of this update, Reav3 noted:
"Quote: 
At first I was a bit surprised that LeBlanc is one of the "Big 4", but I guess it makes sense if Shaco, Evelynn and Akali rather will be future VGU projects. 
Would you guess she might end up the champion with the lowest scope among the four? I get the feeling that might be the case somehow.
All of the big 4 will be fairly large is scope"
20thCenturyFaux  added:
"Quote:
At first I was a bit surprised that LeBlanc is one of the "Big 4", but I guess it makes sense if Shaco, Evelynn and Akali rather will be future VGU projects.
Would you guess she might end up the champion with the lowest scope among the four? I get the feeling that might be the case somehow.
Actually it looks like she'll be pretty average scope -- she's probably going to get new VFX on her base skin's spells whether or not we change them."
Reav3 added:
"Quote:
Are you planning on giving LB a makeover? I feel like her model is so outdated . . . . and she has so much potential . . .
I also would love to see a trickster glass like passive on her. :D It is so much fun.
We currently aren't planning any model changes, but she will be getting some pretty cool new VFX!"

When asked about shifting her power away from W a bit, 20thCenturyFaux  noted:
"Quote:
Will you guys shift her power budget around so her W doesn't consume most of it since its a double gap closer, her primary burst tool and wave clear spell
Yeah, I think that's pretty likely. Not sure exactly how, but there's a lot of eggs in that basket currently. If Q or E could help with waveclear somehow it'd make life a lot easier."
When asked if they will be replacing any ability completely, 20thCenturyFaux  commented:
"Quote
are you going to replace any spell completely?
I don't think so, but it's hard to say for sure. We're more likely to move some secondary elements around, Q mark for example."
20thCenturyFaux  continued:
"Quote:
Please preserve the high skill cap and flashy plays/jukes. I love playing and seeing high elo players (FAKER) Play and wreck using LB. 
I'm up for making her kit more confusing/complicated. 
However please dont remeve her damage. I'm having a bad feeling that you're gonna replace her e with a clone creating ability (NOVA E). 
LB is fun because she is pretty high skilled, and does fine in most matchups. She sucks late game, so maby with some added utlity she'll become better in that area. 
Good luck, I'm looking forward to this one the most (Since I actually play LB, not so much TALON or RENGAR). 
I dont like when anyone gets deleted in a second, through talon, rengar or LB. But I think combos are still important to assassins. Ensure that all of them actually become MORE interesting to play (not just cram their kits full of bullshit).
Agreed with most of this, we want to keep her skillcap high and the odds are good we'll end up raising it. The damage needs to stay so she can get that awesome "push em through the moon door" moment of visceral triumph, it's just not all going to be in the first fraction of a second. And we're definitely not replacing the E, that spell is actually pretty neat xD"


As for potential W changes, 20thCenturyFaux  noted:
"Quote:
Hello, a fellow LeBlanc main here. 
I'm mainly concerned about her identity, especially her dualism (all of her abilities consist of two parts, including her passive). 
My main question is: Will you change her Distortion (W) drastically? I think her mobility and ability to deceive the opponent is one of the cores of her identity.
We agree. The only thing we're thinking about changing on Distortion is adding a tiny delay before you can snap back after dashing."
20thCenturyFaux  continued:
"The ability to dash in for damage, then instantly snap out just isn't fair. There's a reason these assassin updates are including more time for the opponent to act. Going from being able to totally negate the enemy's action to the enemy being able to cast one spell is a change you'll be able to feel, but it's absolutely necessary for the health of these characters. Awesome mindgames shouldn't come at the price of an unfair regular game. 
As you said, we can always adjust it -- if LeBlanc isn't good enough at high elo, we can reduce the delay easily. There's also the new deception tool -- whatever it will be, it's meant to help LeBlanc survive during this period and it needs to be able to do that job -- and LeBlanc's cast times will often cover up the delay anyway (contrasted to Zed's instant E) so it's unlikely to be felt as keenly as Zed's. 
For your last question, we're definitely going to give LeBlanc more ways to actively deceive her opponents ^^" 

On her R, Statikk  added:
"Quote:
I came in here expecting to be terrified but honestly your guy's vision for her is pretty similar to mine. This rework set is scary because I love LB and Kat. 
Anyway, I think the emphasis on deception is a great direction for her, as I too found it peculiar how her theme is illusionist, yet her main tactic was to throw herself at you. 
That said, I really hope you guys keep her ult, or at least the spirit of her ult, as having a low cool down double cast on any ability can lead to such cool combos, and is what makes her a complex and hard to play champion. If her ult is removed, I feel like Leblanc won't really be Leblanc (or is that the point?)
We're definitely keeping the idea of Mimic, but we're giving it a little twist that will make her combos more flexible."
20thCenturyFaux  also commented on LeBlanc's passive and Q, noting:
"Quote:
How about making lb able to use her clone more? Just imagine the trickery one could pull off if her clone could use the w ability ( which would cause no dmg ofc) 
Also, what about a nice silence on her q? ;)
We're definitely exploring more clone mechanics for LeBlanc, they're pretty fun and very LeBlanc-y. 
We're very unlikely to do silence on Q -- one of the main aims of the project is to make sure opponents of assassins have time to play too, preventing them from casting spells is a bit counter-productive xD"

When asked about LeBlanc's counterplay, 20thCenturyFaux  noted:
"Quote:
The most frustrating thing about Le Blanc is her Q being a point-and-click nuke IMO. Many times when laning as Quinn I have managed to interrupt her dash with my Vault to find out she still one-shots me with Q+RQ anyways and making my attempts at outplaying her feel completely pointless. I feel like if I manage to dodge/interrupt her "main" spell I should be rewarded somehow, yet this is not the case presently. 
How does Riot feel about this? Are you looking to change her Q in any way?
Yeah, it's pretty lame -- we think the big problem there is how much of LeBlanc's damage comes out in the first 0.5s~ of the fight. We don't think it's likely we'll make Q a skillshot -- LB has to dash in and around creeps a lot and her E already does that. We're mainly looking at ways to delay LeBlanc's damage a bit so you have a little time to do your own stuff."

As for the W delay, 20thCenturyFaux added:
"Quote:
Not quite sure how I feel about this... I mean the adjustments to the passive sound nice, concealing or giving false information to the enemy. But the changes to the W dont sound too great. I get you're trying to give the enemy more time to react to assasins burst combos, but her snapback is just simply her. However, you guys haven't let me down with reworks lately, so I'll trust and wait. 
I do feel she should receive some better waveclear as well though.
We're also talking about a tiny amount of time -- this change is mainly aimed at high diamond players and above. Most folks will probably notice it when waveclearing but never feel it in a fight. 
And agreed, W+RW having to carry all the waveclear burden is pretty weird."

When asked about the largest changes for "new LeBlanc" from an experienced player, 20thCenturyFaux  noted:
"Quote:
which is nice - but how much has an already experienced LeBlanc player to learn if he is trying to play the "new" LeBlanc?
Mainly just handling having more combo options (which she has now -- muahahaha) plus whatever learning the deception tool requires."
20thCenturyFaux  also noted adding a range indicator for LeBlanc's E:
"Quote:
Could you also give it a range indicator for how far away you need to be to break it? Like with Morg ult?
Ayep, already done ^^"
As for if Ekko will get any work in the assassin update, Reav3  noted:
"Quote:
Nice to see a riot team member answering some questions. It's refreshing to see the company interacting with players. Any word on anything happening with Ekko soon? I know he just got a skin but I was curious if there was any changes or nerfs/buffs anytime soon?
We are looking into doing small work to Ekko for the Assassin update. It's not 100% certain at this point but is very likely."

Reav3  also noted that Fizz will likely get some amount of work in the assassin update:
"Quote:
Will Fizz be seeing any changes during the assassin rework? He's by far one of the most infuriating champions League has ever produced and his ability to dash in, throw his ult mid-dash, and then troll pole makes it impossible to fight back.
It is highly likely that Fizz will get some amount of work for the Assassin update."

Ask Riot: Chromas and ChampUp 

Next up is a new edition of ASK RIOT, covering questions on champion updates and the upcoming changes to Chroma!
"Welcome to Ask Riot, where we focus on your questions and give you answers. 
This week, we talk about the future of chromas and deciding which champs to update. 
Have a question (or two...hundred) yourself? Head over to Ask Riot and sign into your League account. Check out the Do’s, the Don'ts, and then ask us something. We’ll archive the answers once we’ve accumulated a few of them. One thing to note: Asking the same question over and over again won’t help your cause. 
ASK RIOT 
We’re committed to reading every question but can’t guarantee we’ll answer them all. 
“Okay, why not?” 
Some questions may already be answered elsewhere or won’t be right for Ask Riot. This isn’t the best place to announce new products or features here and we might skip conversations on issues which we’ve already gone into more depth elsewhere (but we can clarify individual points!). Even if your question isn’t the one being answered, we’re listening, and we’ll be sharing your questions with the Rioters who are working directly on the things you’re curious about. 
How do we select which Champions get full Visual & Gameplay Updates (VGUs)? 
There are a bunch of factors we have to consider when selecting our candidates for a VGU, so I’ll go over both the biggest reasons behind our choice of update projects and a few of the smaller ones. Usually, the selection is based on a combination of everything below and where we think we can get the most value across the board. 
The Big 4
  1. Player Request - This is arguably the most weighted of all the reasons. We’re regularly sending surveys to League players across the globe - some of you have probably filled them out! One of the things we ask players is whether they think particular champions need an update or rework. We’ll use the data from these surveys – as well as other sources – and build a list of the champions most players are eager to see updated. We usually look at the top 10-15 on this list when considering new update projects.
  2. Overall Design / Art / Theme Level - We keep internal ratings that describe how well we think potential update candidates are hitting various quality bars - generally design, art and theme. A low design score might indicate a champion with an unhealthy or dated kit. Art issues include problems like an older model / FX. Theme rating might be low for champions with a theme that doesn’t really resonant with most players (Galio) or champions with thematic mismatches (Poppy looking like a Tank but playing like an Assassin).
  3. Potential of a Champion's Archetype - This relates to when a champion has a super strong theme but it isn’t really being executed on well. Pre-update Fiora was a good example of a champion that wasn’t particularly “low quality,” but to us she seemed full of opportunity to better execute a “Fencing Duelist” that would be super resonant with players. Essentially, we’re looking out for champions who we think have a ton of untapped potential we can unlock by executing on them today. Someone like Irelia, for example, is high on our list for this reason – it’s pretty clear that the idea of a champion using levitating blades is really freaking cool, but right now you could replace Irelia’s weapon with almost anything and the kit would still work. The idea of a cutting-edge execution on a champion with levitating blades is super exciting for the Champion Update team! If you look at our recent and upcoming reworks you can see they each fall into a different category. Ryze was selected largely for game health concerns (#2), Yorick is one the most requested by players (#1), and Warwick is a champion we feel has huge potential given a modern execution (#3). Those aren't the only three reasons though, which brings me to the fourth, and least common, reason.
  4. Other Events / Projects going on around Riot - This usually isn’t a factor, but sometimes there are events or projects being worked on by other teams around Riot that lead us to prioritize an update for a specific champion. The Gangplank VGU for the Bilgewater Event is a great example of this kind of decision. 
Other Reasons 
So those are the big reasons, but there are a bunch of smaller ones that can also impact our decisions. The reasons below would never single-handedly cause us to choose a champion for an update, but if we are torn between several different champions that fulfill the criteria above, then some of the reasons below could be the deciding factor. 
Team Excitement - When we’re deciding which champions to get to work on next, we also send a survey out to the Champion Update team to see which champions they’re most excited to work on. Again, this won’t determine anything by itself, but if we have two potential updates that we feel represent equal player value, then team excitement for one of the projects could sway the decision. Also, sometimes one of our designers or artists might have a particularly strong pitch for one of the projects we’re considering, which could make the difference in what we choose to do. 
Champion Diversity - Long-term, we attempt to work on a range of different champions for our VGUs. For example, we try to avoid doing too many dark characters or too many light characters back to back, or sequentially updating two champions from the same faction. We also try to hit a number of different classes - we probably wouldn’t want to do two assassins in a row, for example. 
--- 
Everything above factors into which champions we decide to explore next, but it’s important to note that not all champions we explore end up going into production. We usually have 2-3 champions in early exploration at a time, and it's only when we land on an awesome design, narrative, and art direction for them that we go into production (at which point they get put on the Champion Update Schedule). Sometimes we ultimately don’t find something cool enough to go into production, so we put them down temporarily and move on to other champions on the list. 
Hopefully this clarifies how and why we select particular champions for VGUs, but I’ll be sticking around in this thread for awhile to answer any more questions you might have! 
– Reav3, Lead for Champ Update Team 
What happened with Chromas? 
In an earlier Ask Riot, we answered why there haven’t been any Chromas lately, and now we’re happy to share another update. 
As part of our process to improve chromas, our first move was to go back to the basics. We wanted to make sure we really answered the following question: “Why would I, as a player, want Chromas?” 
Here’s the thing. I love skins and have a lot of them. But there are certain skins I always go back to. Arcade Miss Fortune is one of my favorite skins, and looking at what you guys are playing, it’s one of your favorites, too. And if I can play her in a rainbow of options, that sounds pretty cool to me. Chromas are meant to deepen your experience with a piece of content you already own, love, and play the shit out of. It’s that simple. 
Next, how do we address your feedback? Player reactions towards chromas centered around bundling, aesthetics, and pricing, so that’s where we put the majority of our focus:
  • We unpacked chromas so you can buy them individually, while still allowing you to buy them in bundles for a discount.
  • We revamped color schemes and added patterns and textures.
  • We priced chromas at 290 RP each, and we’re also introducing recurring IP sales that will take place twice a year. The first IP sale goes from August 25, 2016 to September 8, 2016 and includes all chromas launched before August 2016.
  • Chromas will be sold individually for 2000 IP. 
We’re excited about these changes and are set on continually improving chromas and making them a fun feature for your favorite skins. We’re excited to hear what you think about these latest updates in the comments. 
– SuperCakes, Lead for Personalization (Skins) Team"

Reav3 hung around the thread to answer a few more questions on the champion update side of things:

When asked when we can expect Yorick's champion update, Reav3  noted:
"Quote:
So, when is Yorick  getting that rework that was so long ago? Any rioters that can drop some hints?
Soon! Yorick will be sometime between now and the next new champion."
When asked about the next champion who Yorick's team will move to after they finish his large scope champion update, Reav3  noted:
"Quote:
Do Yorick team already know what they will work at after Yorick?
We are getting pretty close on locking down a direction for the champion that is next for that team. If things go well we should be ready to talk about whats next for that team soon."
When asked about Evelynn getting a champion update, Reav3 noted:
"Quote:
When will my baby evelynn get a rework? She still hasn't fully recovered from her huge nerf she got so long ago.
I would be very surprised if we got through 2017 without a Evelynn VGU. She is actually sitting at #2 on the most requested for a VGU list."

As for who else might be on that list, Reav3 added:
"Quote:
Speaking of which, you mentioned Eve is the #2 requested update. Would Urgot be number 1?
Well #1 is technically Yorick but I didn't include him since we are already working on him. The current list looks like this
  1. Yorick
  2. Galio
  3. Evelynn
  4. Urgot
Its funny because Urgot was above Evelynn 6 months ago and Evelynn was like #6, but recently Evelynn has been rising higher and higher on the list."
He added:
"Quote:
Warwick's already on the list, and the article says it's because they found a theme for him. 
I would figure Urgot, Evelynn and Galio as the top three, but I'd like to hear something directly from Reav3.
Urgot, Evelynn & Galio are all high priority for us. It really just depends if we find a really solid direction for them. If we were to find a really solid direction for any of those 3 champions we would 100% go into full production on them."

When asked where Teemo might fall on the list for champion updates, Reav3 noted:
"Teemo isn't super high on our list right now, but I can see us giving the little guy a full VGU one day!"
and Kennen:
"Quote:
Reav3,
Do you see Kennen ever getting a VGU? Or is his kit pretty solid? What are thoughts on his model?
He's on our list to get to one day!"
and Pantheon:
"Quote:
How about Pantheon? I think he fits factor number 3.
Yup, Pantheon is on the list! We think he has so much potential as well , and it would also be great to make him feel Targonian rather then just a generic spartan."
and Morgana & Kayle:
Yeah I actually think it would be really cool to do a duel update to Morgana  & Kayle  one day. Give Kayle a full VGU and then Morgana a matching VU and maybe small gameplay update (if that's even needed.) I think it would be impossible to update one without the other. They could also have a bunch of intertwining VO interactions.

[LCU] Your Feedback in Action: Profile & Collection 

With the LEAGUE CLIENT UPDATE ALPHA contiuing to get new features over the last few weeks, here's Cactopus with a run down of how player feedback is shaping the alpha: 
"It's that time again! If you're an alpha tester, your feedback goes straight to the League client dev team and informs our iteration on the alpha client. We're here to talk about some of the biggest issues y'all have found while testing the Profile and Collection sections of the client. 
Now that we've made more progress on the alpha, we intend to commit to a "polish phase" toward the end of the alpha where we'll address some of the non-critical visual issues that players have pointed out. You'll see a few issues below get relegated to the polish phase; that just means that it'll come after we've finish the client's core features. 
Testers have submitted literally thousands of incredibly detailed, useful bug reports. And although we can't act on every request testers have—especially if it doesn't jive with our design values—we're making tons of changes based on your feedback. This post doesn't cover all the bugs that players are reporting, just the big stuff. 
UPDATES ON EXISTING ISSUES 
We called out dozens of known issues in the last round of Your Feedback in Action. Here's a quick update on some of the most persistent topics.
LOBBY AND MAP/MODE SELECT 
Our most significant feedback-driven redesigns happened in the lobby and the map/mode select flow.
NOT YET The lobby's background animations should look better Specifically, the flags should be more wavy/patriotically flappy. These sorts of aesthetic issues (like "flags not flappy enough") aren't vital to our ultimate mission of launching the client update as a replacement to the current client, but we'll get around to it during the polish phase. 
FIXED The process for choosing map and mode is confusing and difficult We've redesigned the buttons in the map/mode selection flow to address this, and feedback so far has been positive.
FIXED Lobby chat isn't visually distinct from private messages You guys were totally right about this one. In the end, we just put it back into the lobby, the way Nagakaborous intended it. 
FIXED Players can't find ARAM because the Howling Abyss map doesn't say "ARAM" in the description Yeah… this one was easy to solve.
CHAMP SELECT AND THE END-OF-GAME SCREEN
Bugs and laggy UI in champ select have been giving us grief. We've already shipped some fixes, but it's gonna be an ongoing process.
NOT YET The end-of-game screen is lackluster and would benefit from more animations We still intend to cook up some purty-lookin' new moving pictures for the EoG screen, but that'll most likely happen during the aforementioned "polish phase" at the end of the alpha. 
FIXED Chat in Champ Select and the end-of-game lobby is too small We've been making some tweaks here, including both boosting the font size of the chat and changing the color to make it more readable. 
FIXED Advanced stats should be viewable without having to go to the web Boom. Done.
IN PROGRESS UI elements in Champ Select are laggy/slow to respond to inputs We've shipped a number of changes to address this problem, but we know we'll have to keep optimizing things throughout the alpha. We'll just keep playing whack-a-mole with these UI lag issues until all the moles are dead. 
IN PROGRESS Loading into champ select is often laggy and can cause the client to crash We've made progress here, but it's another one of those things that'll require vigilance on our part. That said, we're focused on resolving all these sorts of issues before we get around to adding ranked queues to the alpha. 
OTHER 
NOT YET You can't resize the client You can do this in the legacy client, so we expect to add resizing in the future, but we have to admit that it's not top priority at the moment. Hit us up in the comments about this one if there's some specific reason we haven't considered that makes this feature a must-have. We'll talk it out. 
IN PROGRESS You can't adjust sound and music volumes separately This is coming, but it may take us a few more patches. 
NOT YET Some players want to be able to turn off the client's background animations for performance reasons When we last checked in on this request, we said we were thinking about how to handle this. So here's the update: Our new strategy is to optimize the client update to the point that no current League player would *need* to turn off animations, because this updated client uses far fewer resources than the legacy client. Basically, we want to tune it around the same hardware expectations that the game on its minimum graphics setting requires. We'll try other solutions if necessary, but ultimately we want the visual hotness to work for everyone without breaking anything. 
IN PROGRESS You can't see messages, invites, or friend requests when the client is minimized This is a missing feature that we're aware of. We're still working on it, but no word yet on when this fix will ship. 
IN PROGRESS When editing masteries, it's hard to tell how many points you have in each We still need to make some tweaks to address this. It's coming, but it has gotten knocked back to the bottom of our priority list a few times due to other more urgent issues emerging. 
EMERGING ISSUES 
Now serving up the hottest, juiciest bugs. These are generally issues that we're battling right now. 
PROFILE AND COLLECTION 
With the introduction of Collection and reworked Profiles came loads of little weird bumps and bugs. A few of these issues will require somewhat costly design work to fully resolve, so although that stuff is on the schedule, it's not higher priority than many other more critical changes we have to make. 
UNRESOLVED "Win of the Day" isn't visually prominent enough and requires a mouse hover to reveal the timer We agree that it's not great in its current state, but this is also not at the top of our priority list since it works well enough at the moment. Another team at Riot (the "meta games systems" team) has plans for revamping the Profile with new/better features, so we may leave this one to sit until they can tackle it and bring it into line with their vision. 
IN PROGRESS Collection pages load slowly We've actually already shipped some performance improvements here, but there are opportunities for us to do more. Some of those changes will ship in future patches. 
IN PROGRESS Players want their sorting preference on the champs page to be saved This is straight-up a bug. We'll fix it. 
IN PROGRESS Players want to be able to sort their champs by "owned" or "unowned" status Totes. We'll deliver it. 
IN PROGRESS Champ mastery points are inaccurate Yeah, another bug. It's on our kill-list. 
NOT YET Players want to see cooldown info on spells in the client This is a known issue. It's apparently a bit of a charlie foxtrot to try to pull that data directly from the game files (which we would want to do so the client doesn't get outdated if we change the cooldowns). But we'll solve it when we can. 
NOT YET Players want a separate "skins" tab within Collection that displays all their owned skins in one place So, this is one that we didn't necessarily understand at first—after all, you can just see your skins whenever you click on the champion details page, right? But after hearing more feedback, we've come around on this one. The promise of the Collection page is that it's a gallery where you can see all the stuff you've unlocked during your journey through League, and skins are some of the most valuable unlockable content in the game. We even give out special skins every year to players who've performed valiantly in ranked! So, we get it, and so we're committed to deliver this feature. It won't happen during the alpha, because we've got to focus on other, higher priorities on our list, but it will happen after we've focused down the bigger issues. 
RUNES AND MASTERIES 
Folks aren't totally satisfied with the look of the new runes page, and there are some bizarre issues occurring when you try to edit masteries. 
NOT YET You have to use the scroll wheel to allocate individual mastery points If only you could see the looks of agony on the faces of the League client update dev team when this bug gets brought up. It's apparently far more complicated than it seems, but current thinking is that we probably will just make it work like it does in the current client (where, by the way, mastery point allocation is also pretty confusing). We'll have an update for you on this one during the next roundup. 
NOT YET The icons on rune pages are confusing, and players want a text breakdown of the stats We're pretty on board with giving players a text breakdown of the stats gleaned from runes. It's just a matter of designing it and implementing it. This will probably happen during the polish phase. 
IN PROGRESS Rune pages are too dark, especially when empty Our visual designers have some good ideas about how to fix this issue. We're working on it right now. 
OTHER 
FIXED Players felt that the patcher scanning progress meter was inaccurate We've made it more accurate! Hooray! 
IN PROGRESS It's difficult to tell whether XP/IP boosts are active because of the color We'll fix this one for sure. The active and not-active states of the boosts should look visually distinct, and right now they don't. 
Thanks for all the feedback so far! Keep that good stuff coming, and make sure to watch out for future changelogs to see the changes we’re making based off your feedback. Check back after the next major release for another of these breakdowns."

[LCU] Alpha client patch .07 changelog

Speaking of the live LCU Alpha, patch .07 has been pushed and the changelog has been updated!

Here's the introduction from Cactopus, full notes available here. 
"Oh it's time. 
Time for MINOR CHANGES. Try not to get too excited, friends. We're gonna need you to keep your composure while giving us more of that juicy, delicious feedback. 
Please take any surveys that pop up as you continue to twist treelines, randomly storm down the murder bridge, and pick blindly in normal SR games. Or, for extra gold stars, submit your feedback and bug reports any time via the alpha homepage in the client. If you're feeling chatty, drop by the alpha discussion board to catch up with your fellow testers and the client dev team. Your feedback is helping make the client update great. 
If you haven’t yet signed up for the alpha, do that. We need your help!"

RGMQ - Ascension this weekend & Updated Schedule

With several changes in 6.16, Ascension returns this week in the rotating game mode queue! Look for things to kick off around noon server time Friday and last through Monday evening!

The RGMQ schedule has also been updated to include Nemesis Draft from August 19th - 22nd, Hexakill: TT from August 26th through 29th, and Nexus Siege added on for September 2nd through 5th!
As always, we keep an up to date RGM schedule on the right hand sidebar!

EDIT: Live! Here's the post:
"It’s about time we did an Ascension update! 
Each week we’ve noticed that as players get better at Ascension, taking Xerath feels more and more like a trap. You engage him first, do all the hard work and then some Lux snipes him from across the Scar and you wonder why you ever bothered at all. Well, NOT ANYMORE! 
Ascended Xerath 
"Ascended Xerath has felt like a trap for a while. It didn’t feel good to do all the work and have the enemy team snipe him at the end. He now drops an Ascended relic you must be present to collect and Ascend. "
Relic Ascendent 
  • Upon death, Ascended Xerath now drops an ascended relic after 3 seconds. The champion who stands unopposed on the relic will Ascend!
  • Enemies can body-block and steal the Ascension, so clear them all off the ascended platform beforehand to be safe.
  • In the event of allied champions squabbling over the ancient power, priority is given to the player who killed Xerath.
Ascension is now available and lasts through the evening on Monday (we’ll shut it down very early Tuesday morning--usually between 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM). 
If you need to catch up on the rules for any game mode, check back at leagueoflegends.com each Friday, and we’ll give you the lowdown in a quick post like this one. 
As part of our ongoing commitment to refreshing the RGM modes, we’ve started with Ascension this week and the Ascended Xerath change. Hopefully now you can engage him guilt-free and become the Ascended god-beast-man-creature you always knew you could be. Go forth. FOR SHURIMA!"

Axes on Aurelion Sol

When asked if they had any plans to work on Aurelion Sol, Riot Axes  explained:

"We are considering some changes for later in the year, but I wouldn't characterize them as "back to the drawing board" by any means. We'd target making him more accessible (though I imagine he'll always have a significant learning curve), plus opportunistic gains where we can get them. 
If we could make a spell or two more satisfying to use or make his matchups less about hard counters, we'd be pretty happy about that. It's hard to predict exactly what will be possible until we actually get to that work, though."

Twisted Fate Disabled on live

Due to a bug with his Pick a Card ability, Twisted Fate has been temporarily disabled on live!
Here's Meddler  with more information:
"We're seeing some weird interactions with Pick a Card and certain items, plus Pick a Card empowered attacks occasionally vanishing while putting the spell on CD. Currently working on a fix with the goal of getting that out as soon as it's ready and tested."

[VOD]  Live Q&A + Games w/ Kled's designer, Harrow!

The League Design livestream is back this week with Scarizard and Harrow hosting a Q&A and discussing the newly released Kled!


Kled Pricing Error

Right on release, Sir Kled's price was erroneously set to 1350 RP instead of 975 RP
Here's RiotBlueFire with more information: 
"tl;dr: Both the skin and bundle were overpriced by 375 RP for a few hours before we caught the mistake so we've given that RP back worldwide. 
Saw a few posts about this so just wanted to quickly clear the air. We accidentally priced the skin at 1350 instead of 975. Due to that, the bundle price was also incorrectly calculated to be 1837 instead of 1462. After spotting it we immediately corrected the price in the store and began collecting the information to give those affected the appropriate amount back. If you see the wrong price in your transaction history but don't have the RP try relogging to see if the balance corrects itself. We also corrected it for gifts. If not you can always reach out to our support athttps://support.riotgames.com. Sorry for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused about the actual price."

Jayce Price Reduction

With Kled's release, Jayce has his IP/RP price permanently reduced!
  • Jayce reduced to 880 RP / 4800 IP from  975 RP / 6300 IP

Platform migration to Europe! 

Here's Riot TMX with more info on some changes coming to EUNE Servers:
"Greetings Players, 
Some time ago we expressed our need to find a new home for the EUNE platform services. This includes login, personal stats and settings, matchmaking, champion selection, store, chat, etc - pretty much everything outside of the actual game. In the announcement released back then, we clarified that the EUNE platform is still partially located in the same North American data center where we initially launched it back in 2010. Lots of things have happened since then, new technologies have been created, older solutions were sunset, and many seasons of League have been played. It took us a while to finalize the blueprint, but we’re ready to confirm that the EUNE platform migration to Europe will be completed this month! 
If everything goes according to schedule we plan to launch the new EUNE platform in a week, on the 18th of August. 
What does it mean for an EUNE player? First of all, all services will be re-created from scratch using our most up-to-date standards. EUNE’s blueprint inherits a lot from the EUW one used for the Amsterdam launch in 2014, but also adds some new fancy solutions we’ve been working on since then. This altogether will ensure higher stability, enhanced scalability, better redundancy and improved security. 
The EUNE platform will be located in Frankfurt, Germany, which is where the game servers are currently hosted from. This is much closer to the playerbase and as such should significantly decrease the latency of all the platform services. You should notice better responsiveness of platform calls, and this can translate to a smoother experience in champ select, chat, store, login, and all the other services that are in use outside of the game itself. 
Most importantly though, we’re getting rid of the long transatlantic line connecting our existing platform with the game servers. EUNE has recently been impacted by a number of serious incidents, and most of them were due to this fragile and non-redundant connection. We were prone to the recurring issues affecting our IP transit partners and in turn we were impacted by their maintenances and external attacks that didn’t even target League of Legends services directly. Now all the servers will be super close to each other and this completely removes that third party dependency. 
Finally, up until now, EUNE platform was deployed at the data center that shares infrastructure with various other League of Legends environments. We were constantly removing these dependencies, but there were some incidents affecting the European playerbase that were triggered by the problems with our NA shard. EUNE’s new home will be free of any of these older connections, and this isolation is what we’re always aiming for to get you the smoothest experience. 
It’s important to understand that this change has nothing to do with your in-game latency. But, there is also another great piece of news we have to share today. Simultaneously with the platform migration we’re working on the Riot backbone extension to Central and Eastern Europe. New Points of Presence centres will be located in Poland, Bulgaria and Turkey, which ensures that the entire region benefits from the European backbone of Riot Direct. We’re currently working on all three new locations and this cool project definitely deserves a separate devblog entry, so expect some more news about it in the upcoming weeks. 
That’s it for now, we will keep you updated about our platform launch date and the expected maintenance downtime."

PROJECT: Community creations

Next we have Riot Jynx with a PROJECT community creation roundup! 
"With the release of the new PROJECT skins, we’re celebrating more amazing fan art and community creations! Browse the thumbnails below, and click the artists’ names to see more of their work. 
ACCESS GRANTED //
     

     

     
     
Calisto / Photo: Cuerography and Carris Cosplay / Photo: EllyChan 
     
     
     
     
     
     
Poke and ShiNaa 
     
     
     
       
DrAssenov

iAmRedTed

Phamtaro Cosplay / Video: mamuro5254

Share more of your favorite pieces in the comments below, and check out the previous community PROJECT spotlight here."

[REMINDERS]

Last up for today's red post collection we have a few reminders on current promotions and events!

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