Tonight's red post collection includes the mid-patch 6.24 balance update, a look at the new 2016 Season in Review page, a /DEV article on Smite Rewards, Elementalist Lux cosplay showcase, & more!
Continue reading for more information!
- Champion & Skin Sale 12/13 - 12/16
- Free Champion Rotation, Week of December 13th
- Camille, the Steel Shadow, now available!
- 12/12 PBE Update: 2017 Esports team icons, Ascension back on PBE for RGMQ testing, WK Vi tweaks, and more!
- Red Post Collection: Camille Dev podcast, E. Lux Border/Icon Ending Soon, Diana/Galio price reduction, & more!
- IEM Gyeonggi [12/13 - 12/17]
- 12/13 PBE Update: Valentine's Day icons, Kalista changes, & more!
Table of Contents
Camille Nerfs Pushed to Live
"Small nerfs to Camille should have just hit now. Base AD down from 62 to 60, and early level Q2 True Damage down."
Mid-patch 6.24 balance update
The official 6.24 patch notes have been updated to reflect the Mid-Patch 6.24 balance update that is headed out to live, including balance changes previously seen on the PBE for Azir, Ivern, LeBlanc, Rengar, Shaco, and Taliyah.
"Since 6.24 will be the patch we’re playing on into the new year, we’re shipping some quick follow-up to smooth out a few wrinkles. This is also that really big pre-patch for the client update we told you about.
PS - as with past balance updates, tooltips are occasionally wonky until our next big patch. Sorry!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Azir
"Azir’s buffs this patch were outweighed by how hard he was hit by the Rylai’s changes. We’re giving his soldier damage a mid-game boost to help mitigate that loss of strength."
- W - Arise!
- SOLDIER STAB DAMAGE, LV 1-8: 50~66 (unchanged)
- SOLDIER STAB DAMAGE, LV 9-15:
69/72/75/85/95/110/125⇒70/80/90/100/110/120/130- SOLDIER STAB DAMAGE, LV 16-18: 140~170 (unchanged)
Ivern
"Triggerseed maxes are still pretty dominant. We’re following up with a more substantial cut to Triggerseed’s power at all ranks, especially as the game goes on."
- E - Triggerseed
- SHIELD
80/120/160/200/240⇒ 70/100/130/160/190- SLOW DURATION
3 seconds⇒ 2 seconds
LeBlanc
"For somebody with a lot of roaming tools and dueling potential, LeBlanc’s wave clear doesn’t leave opponents with many options to deal with her. We want LeBlanc’s opponents to feel more rewarded for pushing her in."
- Q - Shatter Orb
- BOUNCE DAMAGE VS MINIONS
80%⇒ 40%
- W - Distortion
- DAMAGE
85/125/165/205/245⇒ 85/120/155/190/225
Rengar
"Rengar is having a bit too much success at starting the snowball, so his base damages need to take a hit."
- Q - Savagery
- DAMAGE PER STRIKE:
40/60/80/100/120⇒ 35/55/75/95/115
- E - Bola Strike
- DAMAGE:
50/100/150/200/250⇒ 50/95/140/185/230
Shaco
"Shaco’s burst damage is too high - especially AP Shaco's. It’s one thing to have a high-damage combo, but Shaco’s ability to murder from stealth doesn’t give opponents enough time to react."
- Q - Deceive
- RATIO:
0.5 ability power⇒ 0.4 ability power
- E - Two-Shiv Poison
- ABILITY POWER RATIO:
0.9 ability power⇒ 0.75 ability power- ATTACK DAMAGE RATIO:
0.85 bonus attack damage⇒ 0.75 bonus attack damage
- R - Hallucinate
- CLONE EXPLOSION DAMAGE:
300/450/600⇒ 200/300/400
Taliyah
"These changes boost Threaded Volley’s damage no matter how many rocks she lands (except in rare cases where Taliyah gets crazy amounts of ability power), but they’re especially focused on the first few hits. This makes Taliyah’s damage more reliable, even when she doesn’t have the perfect 5-rock setup."
- Q - Threaded Volley
- DAMAGE:
60/80/100/120/140⇒ 70/95/120/145/170
- RATIO:
0.4 ability power⇒ 0.45 ability power
- DAMAGE FALLOFF: Rocks after the first deal
50% damage⇒ 40% damage
Teemo
"This one’s just a bugfix."
- E - Toxic Shot
- BUGFIX Fixed a bug causing Toxic Shot’s poison to count as ability hits for the purposes of effects like Thunderlord’s Decree
Smite
"Pre-season’s changes have given junglers too much early-game power. We’ll continue investigating early clears as we move into the new year, but for the moment, Smite’s sustain is going down so junglers can’t convert their early advantage into lane pressure so efficiently. "
- HEALTH RESTORE:
100 + 10% maximum health⇒ 70 + 10% maximum health"
"We'll be doing a balance hotfix this week, probably sooner than later. Balance hotfixes are something we normally try and avoid given the risk hotfixing creates of server disruption and bugs, given 6.24's going to be the live patch for a much longer than normal period though we felt it was needed for some champions.
Things we'll be hitting:
- Azir - Got hit hard by the Rylai's changes. Buffs to soldier damage between levels 9-15.
- Ivern - Way too strong, E max builds in particular. Nerfs to shield strength and slow duration.
- Le Blanc - Has too much wave clear. Nerfs to Q bounce damage to minions and W damage.
- Rengar - Too much base damage which gets him snowballing too reliably. Lower base damage on Q and E.
- Shaco - Too bursty, AP builds primarily, especially given the other tools on his kit (stealth, blink, traps, clone). Lower AP ratios.
- Taliyah - The other champ that got really hard by the Rylai's change. Q buffs.
- Smite - Too much early game sustain leading to increased gank pressure and jungle impact. Lowering flat heal.
We've got a number of other changes also being worked on for 7.1. The changes above are the ones we felt were urgent enough that it wasn't appropriate to wait until after the holidays. Additionally at present it doesn't look like Camille will need any hotfix adjustments, still watching her really closely as a new release though so possible that could change."
Meddler added:
"Correct, AA damage from soldiers summoned by W.
No other changes to Azir currently planned in the short term, we'll see how he does though."
2016 Season in Review
"Take a data-filled journey through your year of League!"
You can also click the links at the bottom of your page to share your stats with friends (or enemies!)
/DEV: On Smite Reward
Here's Riot Fearless with a /DEV article on the recent removal of Smite rewards in the 2017 preseason! |
| Battle for Blue |
"Why did Riot remove Smite rewards in Season 2017?
More than a few folks have asked us about why we removed Smite rewards for Season 2017. Since it keeps coming up, I feel like now’s a good time to share some of the design philosophy behind the change.
First, let’s start with the goals we have for the jungle:
- All classes and positions should have interesting problems to solve in the early game.
- When the only choice for a jungler is “Where can I gank?” the result is a small pool of junglers and a very repetitive experience for the jungler and laners.
- The early game Jungle is healthiest when players must balance the strengths and weaknesses of their champion against the challenges of the jungle in order to exert pressure on lanes.
What does this mean for Smite rewards?
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SMITE REWARDS
Smite rewards were initially built in the 2015 season to give junglers new ways to survive a vastly more difficult jungle without worrying about laners poaching those tools for themselves. We assumed Smite rewards would give us balance levers to manage the increased challenges junglers faced, but once they hit live, they quickly became problematic. The amount of power granted by these clear-based rewards was extremely disparate from champion to champion. This forced us to weaken both the camps and the rewards over the course of the season to prevent the junglers who used Smite bonuses most efficiently from fully crowding out everyone else. As we settled on versions of the Smite rewards that could be balanced, it became clear that these versions also got less and less exciting for all users.
 |
| Blue Buff |
We originally built Smite rewards with the intention that we’d change them, rotate the available options, and expand the system over time. The reality was that (1) the power budget they occupied was small, left little room for design expansion, (2) the usage rate of Smite rewards was much lower than intended at nearly every level below pro play, and (3) when buffed to solve problems, they overly influenced the champions picked for the jungle.
TLDR: We had a system that had little impact on the game and required knowledge of crazy arcane secrets to use well, with no clear way to make it better or expand it.
JUNGLE IN FLUX
While the problems with Smite rewards were ever-present, the jungle they were built into was stable for quite a while. We’ve historically struggled to define what we prioritize most with the jungle; the Season 2015 jungle attempted to improve champion diversity, but did so through a large increase to monster gold and experience rewards. This was very clear in competitive play, where multiple strategies were built around poaching that forced us to do more and more to cordon off the jungle. Each time we had to change the jungle, we attempted to use Smite rewards as a tool to solve the problem, and found them insufficient. Each time, we found that direct changes to the camps were much more effective and understandable.
 |
| Red Buff |
Partway through the 2016 season, we made the internal decision to remove Smite rewards. From there, we looked for the correct window to make the change. Due to the fact that it would require a full jungle rebalance, we waited until pre-season, where we would also have time to build back in some of the positive effects that Smite Rewards have always targeted. We believe most of the value from Smite rewards was absorbed by other changes to the jungle this season. For example:
- Route differentiation: Individual Smite rewards were meant to provide tools that each jungler would value differently in order to create route diversity based on jungle champion. They fell flat here, with the only points of differentiation coming from very large categories, like reliance of spells vs. autos for clearing. We believe that the camp changes in Season 2017 actually provide a greater array of questions that have more variety from champion to champion. We also believe that these camps have a few more levers for us to pull when it comes to balance, which should mean we can fix edge cases more easily without hitting average cases so hard.
- Jungle Uptime: Smiting the red buff had been a very powerful tool to get to enough health to gank for many junglers. We moved some health return onto Smite itself to maintain this option and ensure we still had Smite as a tool for junglers to pull some tricks in a duel. We’ll be watching junglers with less sustain to make sure they still have windows to impact the game.
- Vision tools: Raptor and Wolf Smites both provided vision tools that junglers had come to rely on, with some classes being more dependant than others. Assassins now have access to the sneaky clearing of Duskblade, while Control wards and Scryer’s Blooms allow for area and objective control.
As Smite rewards (re)proved, the jungle is a very finicky place to inject difference and sustainable checks and balances on champion power. We’ll be watching as players adapt to the new jungle and start figuring out new strategies and optimizations, ready to fix any exploits that hurt the game, but also embrace the new and exciting evolutions.
See you on the rift!"
Monthly Q&A with Ghostcrawler on December 14th
Ghostcrawler's monthly Q&A stream will go up on December 14th at 4:30 PM Pacific time!
"Join us on Twitch tomorrow (12/14/2016) at 4:30 PM Pacific for our monthly Livestream Q&A with Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street, Game Design Director for League of Legends! We’ll be taking questions live from Twitch chat or you can leave your question here in the comments below."Be sure to tune into the LoL Twitch channel for more!
Elementalist Lux cosplay showcase
Here's Popstar Urf with the Elementalist Lux cosplay showcase featuring artists from around the world!
"With Elementalist Lux gracing Summoner’s Rift in ten dazzling forms, a cosplay call was heard around the world. The elements beckoned to several talented cosplayers, who teamed up from across the globe to bring you this stunning showcase, featuring all ten of Elementalist Lux’s fetching (and formidable) forms.
Check it out below!
The light will find you
Cosplayer: Setsuna from HAGANE Cosplay / Country/Region: Turkey
Cosplayer:小圆脸雪雪 / Country/Region: China (CN)
Cosplayer: [Alishiera Cosplay] / Photographer: [SFXImages] / Country: [Oceania]
Cosplayer: [Anne Clara Priscille] / Photographer: [Hazmi Iskandar] / Country: [Indonesia]
Ready to get burned?
Cosplayer: Susana Cosplay / Photographer: Booki / Country/Region: Latin America South
Still waters run deep
Cosplayer: Ribbons Cosplay / Photographer: Catberry Photography / Country/Region: United Kingdom
Throw caution to the wind
Cosplayer: Angela Bermúdez / Photographer: Andrés Herrera / Country/Region: Costa Rica
We are all roots of a single tree
Cosplayer: [Alishiera Cosplay] / Photographer: [SFXImages] / Country: [Oceania]
Magma is the earth’s blood
Cosplayer: Gorvenna.the Siren 古薰娜 / Photographer: 倩影 / Country/Region: Hong Kong
Dark clouds on the horizon
Cosplayer: Danielle Beaulieu / Photographer: Nick Poulos / Country/Region: North America
Do you believe in magic?
Cosplayer: Alodia Gosiengfiao / Photographer: Jionor Verona / Country/Region: Philippines
Winter is coming
Cosplayer: [AZA (2AO)] / Photographer: [HYUNG AH] / Country: [KR]
Everyone has a dark side
Cosplayer: Mirai from HAGANE Cosplay / Country/Region: Turkey
Cosplayer: Onnies / Photographer: ButterFile Artist / Country/Region: Thailand
Don’t forget to check out each cosplayer’s page for more photos, and let us know in the comments which Element is your favourite!"
Quick Hits: Meddler on Nidalee & early LotPK on OCE
[Quick hits is our own mini news collection inside a red post collection, often including shorter or easy to digest stories and repeat information you may have missed in other posts!]- Meddler commented briefly on the boards that they are tentatively looking into Nidalee buffs for early next year.
"We'll be looking at possible Nid buffs, aimed at improving both jungle and lane Nid like the recent base AD change, early next year. Whether or not we do those, or what specifically they are, is going to depend on how Nid performs over the rest of 6.24 and 7.1."
- Legend of the Poro King (including 6.24's Snax changes) has been enabled much earlier than expected on the OCE server. LotPK was set to return ~Friday in the RGMQ. As of time of posting, there is no related announcement. (With related changes in 6.24,perhaps this is a nudge towards Snowdown starting soon! Maybe it's just an error. Who knows~)
REMINDERS
To round out this red post collection, here are a few reminders on current promotions or limited time events!
- 2016 All-Star in-game content such as summoner icons, ward skin, and more are available through December 14th! A general 2016 ASE Icon is in shop for 1 IP as well!
- Camille & PROGRAM Camille release bundle available for 1837 for the first few days following her release. More info on Camille available [here].
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