Red Post Collection: Pre-Season Masteries, Katarina Pre-season Spotlight, 2016 All-Star Voting, and more!

Continue reading for more information!

• Red Post Collection: Ask Riot on LCU & Death Recap, Doom Bots in RGMQ,  LoL FB Stickers, Pre-Season Stealth Changes, & more! 
• Champion & Skin Sale 11/1 - 11/4
• Free Champion Rotation, Week of November 1st
• Winter Summoner's Rift teaser

• 10/31 PBE Update: Twitch Skin Splash Arts, RPG splash arts, Winter Summoner's Rift assets, and more! 

• 11/1 PBE Update: More Tentative Balance Changes

Table of Contents

• Road to Pre-Season: Mastery Updates 
• Katarina Preseason Spotlight | Gameplay
• 2016 All-Star Voting
• Ivern buffs on PBE
• Doom Bots of Doom Re-Enabled until 11/3! 
• 11/1 - Update on Clubs Outage
• /ALL chat - Badmin is back! | Summoner Showcase
• REMINDERS

Road to Pre-Season: Mastery Updates 

With pre-season headed to live in 6.22 next week, here's Riot Aether with an overview of the Mastery changes coming in preseasonas well as context on some of the swaps, removals, and additions.

"When we launched the 2017 Season Update site, we previewed just one Mastery change: swapping out Strength of the Ages for Courage of the Colossus, a new keystone mastery in the Resolve tree. This came down to having a billion things to talk about—between Assassins, Replays, and everything else, lower mastery tier changes had a hard time competing for space. So today we’ll be giving masteries their very own article, giving you an idea of what to expect in pre-season. 

The 2017 mastery trees (icons in progress)

Before we begin, it’s worth mentioning that mastery trees share a general framework. As you progress down a tree, masteries become more targeted toward individual playstyles, both in terms of the benefits they grant and the requirements to access those benefits. Earlier masteries are often also geared toward laning phase or jungle clearing, whereas later masteries scale better with game time. 

These ideas in mind, let’s jump into the changes!  

Ferocity  

The Ferocity tree caters to champions who prefer lengthier fights to quickly bursting opponents down. We’re adding a few new ways for them to customize how their fights play out.  

Tier 2 

Double-Edged Sword 

Per the framework we just talked about, Double-Edged Sword’s nature as a scaling mastery makes it a bad fit for Tier 2’s early-game focus when compared to Feast. We’re moving it to Tier 4.  

• Moved to Tier 4  

NEW Fresh Blood 

For those who aren’t content to sit back and farm in lane. 

• Your first basic attack against a champion deals an additional 10 (+1 per level) damage (9 second cooldown)  

Tier 4 

Double-Edged Sword 

Tier 4’s a better fit for Double-Edged Sword, making it the risk-reward option among three different forms of damage scaling. We’re amping the numbers up to give it appropriate impact for its new position in the tree. 

• Deal 5% additional damage and take 2.5% additional damage  

REMOVED Oppressor
Champions either have crowd control abilities or they don’t, making Oppressor a pretty ‘yes or no’ mastery. How you play your champion makes little difference when the only question is whether you can do something or not, so we’re removing Oppressor in favor of something more flexible. 

• Removed  

NEW Battle Trance 

Safer than Double-Edged Sword, but takes time to ramp up. 

• Gain up to 5% increased damage over 5 seconds when in combat with enemy champions  

Bounty Hunter 

This is a straight-up buff! 

• Deal 1.5% increased damage for each unique enemy champion you have killed  

Keystone 

UPDATED Fervor of Battle 

Fervor of Battle has been an on-again, off-again balance challenge for us throughout 2016, mostly due to on-hit effects only working when attack speed and basic attacking are prioritized above all else. Many Fervor users might prefer to focus on crit chance for harder-hitting attacks or cooldown reduction for more spellcasting, but they can’t because neither approach optimizes on-hit damage. In other words, Fervor doesn’t just support the attack speed playstyle, it suppresses everything else in the ‘sustained physical damage’ space. 

We’re switching Fervor’s bonus to raw attack damage, a stat that fits in multiple approaches toward extended fighting. If we’re being direct, this is a power-down for on-hit builds, but overall, that puts all flavors of Fervor users back on an even playing field.  

• Hitting champions with basic attacks and abilities generates a Fervor stack (2 for melee attacks, 2 second cooldown for abilities). Stacks of Fervor last 4 seconds (max 10 stacks) and increase your attack damage by 1-6 for each stack.  

Cunning 

Cunning’s in a reasonably stable place, offering choices for champs who favor burst or utility—in some cases both, such as Stormraider’s Surge. We’re filling the last gap in the tree. 

Tier 4 

NEW Greenfather's Gift 

Extra oomph for champions who duck in and out of brush between combat. 

• Stepping into brush causes your next damaging attack or ability to deal 3% of your target's current health as bonus magic damage (9 second cooldown)  

Tier 5 

Precision 

Just keeping this mastery consistent with the removal of flat armor penetration. 

• Gain 1.7 lethality and 0.6 (+0.06 per level) magic penetration per point. (At 5 points, gain 8.5 lethality and 3 (+0.3 per level) magic penetration.)  

Resolve 

The Resolve tree provides some solid options to make champions tankier, but ironically falls a bit flat in supporting the tank playstyle. We’re adding choices that reward tanks for actively doing their job rather than continuing to make them passively stronger. 

Tier 2 

NEW Siegemaster 

If you spend the early game sitting under tower, Siegemaster helps you survive poke and live through dive attempts. 

• Gain 8 armor and magic resist when near an allied turret 

Tier 4 

NEW Fearless 

Extra mitigation at the start of a fight. 

• Gain 10% bonus armor and magic resist (+2 flat armor and magic resist per level) when damaged by an enemy champion for 2 seconds (9 second cooldown) 

Keystone 

REMOVED Strength of the Ages  

Strength of the Ages is the only keystone that’s become almost mandatory for an entire position, regardless of playstyle: the jungle. Health is useful for every class, so it stands to reason that champions who wouldn’t otherwise take Strength would still pick it in the jungle, where it can be stacked faster than any other position. The problem: most junglers now end up with 300 extra health, plus other survivability bonuses from the Resolve tree. This works for tanks, but when damage threats find success with defensive setups, opponents aren’t left with ways to fight back. We’re retiring Strength of the Ages so junglers gravitate toward keystones that enhance their playstyle, not their position—ensuring that damage dealers play like damage dealers, and tanks play like tanks. 

Note: We know that Strength of the Ages was genuinely a good fit for some junglers. Removing it will be a hit to these core users, but with other pre-season changes taken into consideration, we don’t think anyone will be left without a keystone that fits their playstyle. Once the dust has settled, we’ll take a look and see if there are champs who’ve fallen far enough to warrant follow-up work.

• Removed   

NEW Courage of the Colossus 

Giving initiators a survivability tool in the moment they need it most: diving into the enemy team. 

• Gain a shield for 7% (+7% for each nearby enemy champion) of your maximum health for 4 seconds after hitting an enemy champion with hard crowd control (30 second cooldown) 

As with all our pre-season changes, masteries are subject to change while we continue testing on the PBE. Let us know what you think!"

[Regarding the last line - at time of publish both Courage of the Colossus and  Fearless have slightly different numbers testing on the PBE.]

When asked about Hard CC vs Soft CC, RiotPhillyBrew  explained:

"Quote:

Where can I look what exactly is hard cc? Stuns and roots come to mind but what else?

Anything that stops you from moving is hard CC. 

Hard CC: Stuns, snares, knockups, charms, fears, flees, suppressions, taunts, knockbacks 

Soft CC: Slows, silences, stat modifiers, polymorphs, blinds 

k double checked with a gameplay dude, now the list is updated and accurate"

When asked about junglers like Shyvana who mage good use of the old keystone, wav3break noted:

"Quote:

Shyvana lost both of her keystones and has no reliable way to proc the new tank one, what should she use now? 

It seems like, to quote the article, she is "left without a keystone that fits her playstyle" 

Also fun fact today is her 5th birthday 

edit: To clarify, she lost Fervor and SotA. SotA was removed, and new Fervor does less damage onhit, and less damage on her Q because Q does onhits twice, and she doesn't have the ad ratios anywhere else to compensate

We are looking to give her a few changes in the upcoming patches that should help her land into this new season with some extra fire power :)"

You can also find full coverage of the 6.22 / Pre-season PBE -> [here].

Katarina Preseason Spotlight | Gameplay

With Katarina receiving a gameplay update in 6.22's Assassin Update, here's an updated champion spotlight showing off her kit changes, new combos, and more:

"The Sinister Blade has always been a feast-or-famine champ—when she goes in she either gets a penta or fails and gets blown up. Her update is all about giving her more ways to stay mobile, so she can impact fights without risking everything."

On what you can riotscarizard permalink

"Can't jump to wards. Can jump to allies, enemies, and daggers. As per the video, Shunpo now targets an area around the target (so you can choose to be on whichever side of Allies/Enemies/Daggers that you'd like to)"

More on Katarina and the other assassin updates available the 6.22 / Pre-season PBE Cycle coverage.

2016 All-Star Voting

"2016 ALL-STAR VOTING 

At the 2016 All-Star Event, pro players from around the globe will meet in Barcelona, Spain for regional matches, the 1v1 tournament, fun game modes, and a few surprises. It’s up to you to decide which pros are worthy of the ‘All-Star’ title. 

Cast your vote before November 8th, and prepare yourself: There will be mayhem. 

PICK YOUR ALL-STARS"

Be sure to lock in your vote by NOVEMBER 8th! You'll also earn a free SUMMONER ICON just for voting!

Ivern buffs on PBE

As you may have noticed, the 11/1 PBE update included several Ivern buffs! Over on twitter,  Squad5   shared that these changes also include several changes to Daisy's (R) AI!

[1] "Daisy fixes as well as Ivern buffs on the PBE right now. We also submitted some last patch that didn't get in the patch notes accidentally."

[2] "She should generally be more responsive, not drop commands while auto attacking, and hopefully wont teleport around randomly."

[3] "Oh, also added in Ivern being able to reactivate his Q with a button press for himself by popular demand."

Doom Bots of Doom Re-Enabled until 11/3! 

After being disabled early accidently, Riot has extended the DOOM BOTS OF DOOM through November 3rd - this gives you extra time to score the Doom Bots icon for defeating Teemo!

 Here's Riot Stephiroth with more information:

"Happy Spook-o-ween, Summoners! 

Due to an error, we erroneously disabled Doom Bots of Doom: The Teemoing, and The Gauntlet earlier than intended. 

We've gone ahead and re-enabled the mode, and will extend it up until end of the day on 11/3, and the disable will follow the schedule that the Rotating Game Modes normally do (4am on 11/4, local time for most regions). 

Sorry for the inconvenience! 

Go forth, and vanquish many Doom Bots!"

Don't forget that THE TEEMOING is almost over! Be sure to pick up any of the three new skins or returning Halloween seasonal legacy skins through November 3rd!

11/1 - Update on Clubs Outage

Following up on the recent October Clubs outage thread, Riot Marlet has posted a brief update to let folks know they are still experiencing issues

"UPDATE 11/1 

We know some of you are seeing continued issues with club membership and tags. Currently, we are tracking down 2 main issues: 

• Some owners not being able to see the club they own
• Clubs appear as not having any owner 

Once we get some further info, we'll make sure to update everyone!"

Badmin is back! | Summoner Showcase /ALL chat [League of Legends]

Next up we have a new /ALL Chat Summoner Showcase! 

"On this episode of Summoner Showcase, Josh and Sam bring you more Star Guardian art because you asked for it! Last episode was a bit Jinx-heavy… Plus, more Ivern art than you can shake a stick at, and Badministrator is back with a brand new Vi rap! If you’ve got a favorite piece of fanart you’d like to see featured on the show, send it to the hosts on Twitter or leave a comment below!"

/ALL Chat will return Friday then go on break for a week! More information on this plus links to the artists and such featured in the show available in the youtube comment section.