Red Post Collection: February Bundles, Ask Riot - Where is 'My Shop', Quick Gameplay Thoughts with Meddler, & more!

• /DEV: On The Champions of 2016

• Red Post Collection: Mid Season Tank Update & Sejuani Info, New Support Champ in 2017, Deconstructing Chronobreak, & more!
• Champion & Skin Sale 2/17 - 2/20
• EU LCS Spring Split Week 5 [Feb 16th - Feb 18th]
• 2/16 PBE Update: Tentative Corki Changes

Table of Contents

• It's Time for February Bundles
• Ask Riot: Where is 'My Shop'? 
• Quick Gameplay Thoughts: Feb 16 
• February Monthly Ghostcrawler Q&A
• REMINDERS

It's Time for February Bundles

Several limited time February champion and skin bundles are available in the shop through February 23rd!

"Grab these limited-time bundles now through 2/23/17 at 23:59 PT.

Summoned Summoners Bundle - 50% off at 2623 RP (4585 RP if you need the champions)

Skins included:

• Astronaut Teemo
• Overlord Malzahar
• Pentakill Yorick
• Hazmat Heimerdinger
• Masked Shaco

Champions included:

• Teemo
• Malzahar
• Yorick
• Heimerdinger
• Shaco

Heal Shells Peel Spells Bundle - 50% off at 2887 RP (4631 RP if you need the champions)

Skins included:

• Deep Sea Nami
• Reaper Soraka (Legacy)
• Dragon Trainer Lulu
• Warden Karma
• Hextech Janna

Champions included:

• Nami
• Soraka
• Lulu
• Karma
• Janna

Tank and Flank Bundle - 50% off at 2399 RP (4188 RP if you need the champions)

Skins included:

• El Macho Mundo
• Sir Kled
• Subterranean Nautilus
• Goalkeeper Maokai
• Black Scourge Singed

Champions included:

• Mundo
• Kled
• Nautilus
• Maokai
• Singed

Watch Where You Step Bundle - 50% off at 2775 RP (4977 RP if you need the champions)

Skins included:

• Arcade Corki
• Spirit Fire Brand
• Pool Party Ziggs
• Definitely Not Vel’Koz
• Northern Front Swain

Champions included:

• Corki
• Brand
• Ziggs
• Vel’Koz
• Swain"

Ask Riot: Where is 'My Shop'? 

A new Ask Riot is up, including questions on the missing "my shop" promotion from Snowdown and Lunar Revel, the unlocked accounts pro players use, and tips for getting an art job at Riot Games.

"Welcome to Ask Riot! 

This week, it’s “My Shop,” unlocked pro accounts, and tips for getting an art job at Riot. 

Will “My Shop” ever return?

Yes! “My Shop” wasn’t available during this year’s Lunar Revel because the updated client doesn’t currently support it, but we plan to make it available on the new client in the near future. Right now, we’re focusing on client stability and performance, particularly on low-spec machines. Once we feel like the updated client is running smoothly, we’ll continue to focus on adding additional features like “My Shop.” 

BUBOBUBO, Revenue Lead 

Why do pro players get unlocked accounts? Doesn’t this make the game pay to win, on some level?

We think the experience is best for esports viewers if pros can choose any champion to play. Having a lot of champions is a core part of League and we think esports is a great way to showcase them. If you’re a fan, you want to see the greatest amount of variety, skill and mastery on the pro stage. 

While your choice of champion definitely has an effect on your success in game, we try hard to keep League from being won or lost at champion select. The decisions you make in game should have a much greater impact on whether you win or lose than which champion you choose. It’s also still important to the design of League that you can earn champions without spending RP. 

Being able to succeed in League regardless of what you spend is a core value for our ecommerce team. Champions we think are okay for now — we’re less satisfied with the current implementation of runes, and are currently investigating ways to make this system better. 

GHOSTCRAWLER, Game Design Director 

How can I get a job as an artist at Riot? What do you look for?

There’s no “one” thing we look for in an artist, but here are some general tips! 

First, tailor your reel/portfolio to the studio you’re applying at. For an example, a VFX artist should be sending us a reel of VFX that they can see us implementing into League. It wouldn’t make sense to send us a reel with photorealistic VFX. Second, apply to as many studios as you can — even if you have your eye on one in particular. There’s no downside to getting experience in communicating with recruiters and interviewing; this experience might even help you nail it when you finally interview with your dream studio. Third, keep a positive attitude. Even if you don’t get your dream job on your first try, getting experience at a different studio can boost your chances next time around. The door is never closed, so keep a good attitude and work hard and you never know where you’ll end up. 

Finally, remember that art is a wide field, with lots of specialities (check out our job listings for artists to see this in action). Finding the area of expertise that feels best to you is probably a good first step! 

OBIWUNKENOBI, Art Operations Director

Have a question? Head over to Ask Riot and sign into your League account. Check out the Dos and Don’ts, then ask away. 

We promise to read every question, but we can’t guarantee they’ll all get answers. Some questions may already be answered elsewhere, and some won’t be right for Ask Riot. This isn’t the best place to announce new features, for example, and we might skip conversations on issues we’ve talked about in depth before (though we can clarify individual points). 

We are listening, though, so keep asking. We’ll make sure your questions are heard by the Rioters working on the stuff you’re curious about."

Quick Gameplay Thoughts: Feb 16 

Meddler stopped by the dev corner to share a quick set of gameplay thoughts, looking at a few changes and things in testing with 7.5 PBE right around the corner!

"Hi folks, 

Figured I'd try something different for the next week or so and, when I've got a bit of forum time, spend a chunk of it putting together a quick post about some of the things we're currently thinking about or working on. These posts won't be comprehensive, or go into all the details, but are instead an experiment in getting quick updates out regularly. Feedback on the format appreciated. 

So, some thoughts for today:

7.5 

• We've been doing some balance planning for patch 7.5 in the last couple of days. Particularly noteworthy targets include likely nerfs to Edge of Night and Varus and continuation of work on Fizz and Blade of the Ruined King that wasn't ready in time for 7.4. 

Practice Tool

• In addition to its other benefits practice tool has also resulted in some really comprehensive bug reports from some players which is highly appreciated. Player investigation into an MF bug that cropped up in ESports recently for example made getting a fix in for that much quicker and smoother than it would otherwise have been (we didn't have to spend anywhere near as much time digging into exactly what was going on and could get to finding a solution quicker). 

Defensive Items 

• We're currently testing taking a moderate amount of power amount out of defensive stats on items (Health, MR, Armor) and adding some of that to base stats on Vanguards, Wardens and Juggernauts at least (possibly some others if testing goes well, to be determined). Goal there is to make it so those classes that need to be a certain level of tankiness to function in the first place get to that point more consistently, while also not becoming close to immortal if they get too large a lead. Showing some promise and some potential problems, but definitely looks worth further testing as a possible mid-season change. 

Non gameplay: Zaun stories

• I'm a bit behind, but finally got round to reading through a bunch of the Zaun stories that went up on the Universe site recently. For anyone interested in that side of things I'd particularly recommend checking out the Mundo piece, really enjoyed that one despite a lack of previous interest in Mundo thematically: http://universe.leagueoflegends.com/en_PH/story/drmundo-color-story/"

When asked about thoughts on current state of Miss Fortune following Lethality buffs, Meddler noted:

"Quote:

Glad to hear that edge of night is going to be looked at, and varus as well. How do you guys feel about Miss Fortune's state right now? She seems extremely strong with lethality.

Potentially too strong, or at least too much power focused specifically in Q2. Unsure if we'll make changes, she's on a list of champs to be assessed during 7.5. development though."

When asked about the tank itemization changes, Meddler added:

"Quote:

Is the intention to just hit pure tank items on their stats or are all items with any defensive component going to get nailed?

Unsure, this is still early and quite experimental work. Most likely all items with defensive stats, possible some exceptions, or different changes, for items intended to be defensive choices on characters otherwise going mainly offense or utility."

Meddler also commented on % armor penetration items, noting:

"Quote:

I honestly think % Pen is an issue currently. 

It's current state results in Tanks feeling overwhelming to face during the midgame, but once folks get to buy their % pen items, Tanks (And JuggerNoots) will feel underwhelming to play. 

Is this something you guys are looking into for the mid season update?

Generally with you on the contrast between mid game and late game being too large, and both sometimes feeling out of line (in opposite ways). Talking about options there, nothing concrete enough to share though."

When asked about a potential future Dr. Mundo update and his zany story, Meddler commented

"Quote:

When you guys do get to Mundo will you guys make him more goofy to coincide with new Mundo lore

We haven't talked about what an eventual Mundo VGU might look like someday, I'd certainly expect us to embrace his updated personality and backstory wholeheartedly though."

February Monthly Ghostcrawler Q&A

Ghostcrawler and Gustaf jumped on the League of Legends Twitch for Ghostcrawler's monthly Q&A stream - answering player questions on design, balance, and everything in between!

The Breakdown with Jatt: C9 vs FLY Team Fight (NA LCS Spring Week 4)

"This week on The Breakdown, we're looking at the deciding team fight in Game One between FlyQuest and Cloud9 from Week 4 of the 2017 North American LCS Spring Split. In this fight, C9 made great use of their initiation and defensive tools to push FLY away from an ideal strategy."