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Red Post Collection : Midseason Durability Discussion, Karma Legacy Skins & Bundle, and more!

This morning's red post collection includes Riot Repertoir with discussion on upcoming Midseason durability changes, Karma's legacy skins and a bundle in shop through April 12th, Normal Draft returning to LAN/LAS for testing, Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for April 4th, and more! 
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Table of Contents


Karma splash renewed - Legacy skins & Bundle available

With Patch 7.7 on live, Karma skin splashes have been updated! In celebration, we have  a limited time bundle and her three legacy skins (including the rare Traditional Karma) in shop through April 12th:
"We’ve been struck by a new wave of inspiration and updated Sakura, Sun Goddess, and Traditional Karma’s splashes. In celebration, all of the Enlightened One’s skins are now available in the League store. 
Protect the peace with Legacy skins Sun Goddess Karma (750 RP), Winter Wonder Karma (1350 RP), and Traditional Karma (975 RP), or own the skin bundle before they leave this realm on April 12, 2017 at 23:59 PT. 
Renewed Mantra Bundle - 30% off at 3723 RP (4276 RP if you need the champion) 
Available until April 12, 2017 at 23:59 PT
  • Karma
  • Traditional Karma (Legacy)
  • Sun Goddess Karma (Legacy)
  • Winter Wonder Karma (Legacy)
  • Order of the Lotus Karma
  • Sakura Karma
  • Warden Karma"
In case you missed them in the patch notes, here are the three brand new splash arts for Traditional, Sun Goddess, and Sakura Karma introduced in 7.7:

Midseason Durability - Goals and Direction 


With the mid season and tank update around the corner in 7.9, RiotRepertoir jumped on the boards to host a goals and direction thread for the midseason durability changes - including itemization, base stats, and more:
"Hi everyone, 
In the near future, some changes to durability in League are going to hit the PBE in anticipation of the upcoming midseason patch. Before that happens, I wanted to give some brief info on what kinds of things you can expect to see, as well as why we wanted to work on these things. Please note that this post in particular will be more about goals and direction than specific changes, so take numbers with a grain of salt, and know that things are still subject to change pending feedback/tuning. With that brief intro out of the way, let’s get right into it. 
MR/lvl for all 
Since this is pretty straightforward, we’ll get it out of the way first. Every champion that has no MR/lvl is planned to gain a small amount. This change will probably go mostly unfelt, but should help to curb some especially crazy burst damage cases on squishy champions, and though we have no current plans, it puts us in a better position to do things like use MR/lvl as a tuning level in the future, similar to how we do for Armor/lvl already. 
Tank Item Stat Rebalance 
Many of the game’s end-tier tank items have approximately half of their gold value in Health and half of it in Armor or MR. With the midseason coming, we’re looking to change some of those proportions slightly so that the items have more of their gold budget in the Armor or MR stat on them. The goal of this change is reduce how spiky first and second item purchases on tanks tend to be, while simultaneously increasing their ability to grow their builds satisfyingly throughout the game. 
For an example, Sunfire Cape currently gives a good amount of Health and a good amount of Armor, and with these changes, we’re aiming for it to have slightly less Health and slightly more Armor. By doing these changes, a tank rushing an Armor item like Sunfire Cape will be less effective defensively against the opposing team’s magic damage dealers until they manage to round out their defenses through other items. So in this case, Sunfire Cape has 75 less Health but 10 more Armor. 
Tank Item Unique Effect Sharpening 
While working on the tank item side of durability, we wanted to increase the excitement of items by making them a bit more about their unique effects. Throughout the items changes, you’ll see small changes to items’ uniques that aim to make them more effective at their intended purpose (and sometimes less effective at more general purposes). For instance, we have some changes that make Dead Man’s Plate deal no bonus damage except at max stacks, and also lose some stacks when basic attacking without max stacks. However, it also stacks up more quickly and its slow no longer decays, both of which help the item better perform its main purposes. 
New Defensive Items 
In addition to changing some existing items’ effects in the shop, we’re also looking to add a couple new ones. These primarily aim to add a few options that tanks can opt into to protect themselves against common threats they need to deal with. As an example, we’ll be putting a new Armor/MR item on the PBE that is statistically very inefficient, but doubles its Armor/MR when around enemy champions. This positions it as a great choice when you know you need to get in the middle of the enemy team regularly, but not so attractive if splitpushing is a core part of your strategy. 
Repurposed Items 
Some items in the game have stats and unique effects that conflict with each other. To this end, you’ll be seeing some changes aimed at reimagining existing items to either have new stat lines and build paths, or that simply have their effects swapped with other existing items that we felt would be more fitting. To speak to one of them, Guardian Angel can often not feel like a particularly helpful item. Its stats are attractive to tanks, but its unique effect isn’t very fun for the game on tanks. Its unique effect would be a welcome addition to some damage dealers, but its build path usually feels far too inaccessible or inconvenient to get to. As such, there are some tentative changes on the way for Guardian Angel, as well as a few other items in similar positions. 
Closing 
Again, things that end up on PBE will be subject to change and/or removal before shipping for midseason. One final thing to note is that, following these change, there will still be some items that aren’t in great shape and are going unchanged for at least the time being. However, our hope is that we’re setting up a good framework around which we can work on individual items in the future and find them good homes in the item shop. 
That about does it for the precursor to the midseason durability changes. I probably won’t go into too much detail on individual changes here, but if there are questions about goals and direction that were unclear or that you’d just like some more info on, I’ll try to answer some comments. 
Thanks,
Repertoir"

When asked about mid-season and the tank updates,  Repertoir commented:
"Quote:
So will the the midseason basically be connected to/focused on the tank rework or no? Sorta like the assassin rework how we got new changes and all that.
This portion of the midseason will be largely connected to the tank updates. However, this should feel different from other recent class updates in that it won't be only the targeted class of champions getting new items to play with."

When asked about health being reduced on items and champions with health scaling, Repertoir commented:

"Health scaling champions will be affected somewhat negatively as a result of this particular change, however with the introduction of some new items and the fact that a couple primary Health items are going unchanged (or even getting buffed), they seem to be in a pretty good spot."
As for any changes to Cinderhulk, Repertoir commented:
"Cinderhulk isn't currently planned to get any changes to its Health values or its passive bonus Health since junglers tend to operate on lower economy already."

Repertoir also replied to a group of questions, noting:
"Quote:
What is your goal on tank scaling?
Early lane largely unchanged (except for possible changes to Doran's Shield). Mid game slightly weaker against mixed damage, slightly stronger against singular damage threats. 
Late game probably comes out a bit stronger overall due to the addition of some new options in the shop. That said, there are some small measures taken in the changes that reduce tank damage from items as part of a general push toward making tanks be a little tankier but deal a little bit less damage later in the game. These types of changes will be clearer in the first PBE build.
How does this interact with penetration items?
The value of penetration items would increase slightly, and the value of %HP items like BotRK would decrease slightly most likely, but there are also some small changes planned to keep penetration in check that will hopefully hit PBE soon as well.
Will tanks be getting a new Hp/Armor/CD item to reflect the Spirit visage for MR?
This specifically is not planned, but we have given consideration to tank builds so that they can effectively include CDR in them, and based on those considerations, there will be some simple (but notable) stat line changes, at least in the first PBE push."
Repertoir  added:
"Quote:
Ok, so new items will give more MR/Armor which will make rushing early void staff/last whisper twice as efficient. 
And late game ADC with lord dominiks melts tanks like nothing.
And 1 thing bothers me even more that when i perform well on tanks i still do not feel any impact in the game because my ADC/APC feeds.
If i would pick vlad or any other carry i have a chance of winning vs enemy fed carries, while as tank i just can't do a thing because ADC fed melts me, fed Ziggs melts me. 
I do not ask what should i do when enemy ADC/APC is fed, i ask how will you make tanks more impactful so that even from behind they can carry.If i am not mistaken tanks purpose is to soak damage and provide CC so that your carry can deal damage and etc., what if your carry can't do anything?
Mentioned this in a response above already, but we're giving a look to penetration items as well."
As for thoughts on Warmogs, Repertoir explained:
"Quote:
Warmogs is definitely an avenue of curiosity. It does have some differences from Visage, but Visage appears to overshadow it, especially now since BortK is in full force and Liandry's is as strong as ever. There are so many times playing Garen that I've wanted to build warmogs, but I feel like if I haven't build Visage first then I skip it.
Warmogs currently has some small buffs planned for it (reduced Health threshold for the passive, stronger passive, reduced passive CD against minions/monsters, I believe) while maintaining its current stats, so it should be a decent outlet for people looking for a big Health item. 
Again, that's subject to change, but this is currently what's in testing."
When asked if we are still likely to see Doran's Shield changes, Repertoir noted:
"Doran's Shield is likely getting some change that make it more agnostic to the user's base stats."
Repertoir continued:
"Quote:
Keep up the great work. I really hope you guys find suitable change for Doran's Shield because I'm climbing in D4 with Garen using CORRUPTING POTION. That's right, a champ with zero mana. I used to love Doran's shield but I feel like it's utility for toughing out lanes is so inferior to an item that can just give me 375 health in 36 seconds and refills, plus gives combat stats.
There's some DShield stuff that should at least make its way to PBE for testing. Riot Axes has been working that particular change, but it at least looks good on paper?"

When asked about Thornmail, RiotRepertoir remarked:
"Quote:
What's happening to Thornmail?
Thornmail needs some attention in the future, but we didn't get a singular good direction on it, so it will mostly remain as niche (unappealing?) as it is now for the time being. Moving forward, however, we hope that with the defensive item side of the shop being in a generally good spot, we can tackle a project like Thornmail in a single patch cycle."
On Blade of the Ruined King, he commented:
"Quote:
As long as BotRK is such a strong earl, mid, late game item - even good against anyone that doesn't build HP - for every ADC and other AA based champ, pure HP items will never make any sense. You need the Armor and other sources of dmg reduction to protect your HP pretty early and so a warmogs would only make sense as one of your last 2 items but then the pure HP items are already mostly useless still and all the armor and/or HP gets countered by 2 items.
Even without any change to BotRK itself, it takes some amount of hit from these changes due to resists going up a bit and Health pools going down a bit.
That said, should probably have more info on this soon, but we are also looking at a slight cost increase to BotRK (power down) and a slight cost decrease to crit, likely IE (power up)."
On tanks vs fighters, Riot Repertoir commented:
"Quote:
Fighters tend to die way too quickly after entering a teamfight. They're CC'd and focused down and in many cases are killed before they can even do a single spell rotation. As a result they're almost always forced into a splitpush situation and gain advantages through their 1v1 strength. On the flipside tanks are great in teamfights but get absolutely dicked in 1v1s by fighters. 
This creates a situation where, in a fighter vs tank matchup, if the fighter gets slightly ahead they can force a spitpush game and the tank is worthless or the tank gets ahead force a teamfight game where the fighter is worthless.
Are there going to be any changes to increase the overall durability of fighters and increase the dueling potential of tanks?
We're probably unlikely to increase the dueling potential of tanks, because the game state turns pretty questionable when we turn up their damage in the late game especially (very hard to do without also just making them do more ambient teamfight damage as well).
Fighters should have at least one new option in the shop that gives them some more teamfight potential, though it willgenerally be better on pure tanks, and probably more situational for teamfighting fighters."
On new defensive items, RiotRepertoir added:
"Quote:
Doubling resistances when around allies? I can't wait to build it on Poppy.
Specifically that item's resists"
On armor for AD champs, RiotRepertoir remarked:
"Quote:
Will we have Armor Item for AD Champions?
AP Champion have both Armor and MR items
Hopefully. Still in testing, but should at least make it to PBE."
On Righteous Glory, RiotRepertoir added:
"Quote:
Any work planned on Righteous Glory? It's supposed to be a great items for vanguards, but it's rarely used
Isn't planned for any direct changes, but its high Health will be somewhat more attractive since it isn't getting changed."
For more on the upcoming mid-season tank updates, check out these links:

Quick Gameplay Thoughts April 4th

Here's Meddler with quick gameplay thoughts for April 4th, including a few comments on changes we can expect for 7.8 including Ivern, Heimerdinger,  Shen, ARAM, and more.
"Morning all! 
Exciting day today, we finally get to put our latest champions onto the PBE and have you folks see them in action. More on them from the champion team to come very shortly, thoughts from me on some other stuff below.  
Twisted Treeline 
Nothing guaranteed yet, but we'll be trying to get a bit of work on TT in during the 7.8 cycle if possible. We prioritize SR balance over TT work, given mid-season's coming up quickly though there's less value in hitting balance on some champs that are going to be meaningfully affected the patch after anyway. Possible we might have some time to hit some stuff on TT as a result.  
Ivern 
Speaking of treelines we'll be taking a pass at Ivern in 7.8. Love the dude, but he's a bit too good at some things which makes it tough for enemies to interact with him/his team. Things we're testing include: 
  • Slightly longer passive application channel duration 
  • Created brushes not hidding epic monsters within them (too much objective control power, though you can still create a wall of brush blocking them off of course and hide vision of them that way) 
  • Shorter cast range on created brush (it's 1600 at present, which is a bit nuts) 
  • Higher E CD (whoops, typo'd this the first time)  
Mid-Season Approaching 
Couple of weeks now until mid-season stuff hits PBE. I'm not certain on exact timelines but we'll be talking at least slightly before that about the changes, what our goals are etc. Some of the crit changes we were hoping to ship didn't work out alas, so we'll have some changes to other AD items but not those. Will certainly take the time to talk through what we were going for, why we concluded we shouldn't ship the changes and whether we might go back to them at some point though. 
Stretch goal for 7.8: Heimer 
No details yet on possible changes and there probably won't be anything on PBE for a little bit at least, we're hoping we'll be able to put a bit of time into Heimer though. 
Shen 
We've got some changes for Shen in testing that we think we'll be shipping some for of in the next patch. Goal there's to reduce the discrepancy in effectiveness between organized play on really low latency environments and regular play, reduce situations where Shen's strong in one context while ok or even weak in the other. As a result we'll be looking at things like:  
  • Ult shield strength scaling with the allied target's missing health, lower base health values. Organized play tends to use offensive ults on really healthy allies a lot more, regular play more defensive clutch saves. 
  • Increased E width. The difference in reliability between very low and normal latency circumstances looks to be too high and we think that width's part of the reason. Current width also creates some situations where it looks like it hit but didn't, so this potentially of double value as a change. 
  • Removing bonus damage to non champions on the Q. Organized play gets a lot more value from wave pushing power throughout the game. Hitting this looks like a good place to remove power from that context as a result, potentially allowing it to be reinvested elsewhere.  
Whoops, forgot something. We've also got ARAM changes coming in 7.8 
ARAM's intended to be a notably faster game mode than SR, some (not all) games can really stall out though. We've got some ARAM changes on the way as a result aimed to improving those stalled out games, with changes to stuff like super minion stats, slightly more cannon minions, slightly faster spawning waves etc. Those should be hitting PBE today too, feedback on them much appreciated!"
When asked for more on the Shen's R shield change, Meddler commented:
"Quote:
So his new shield will scale off missing health. Will its strength still be comparable to live if used that way, or slightly stronger/weaker?
We're testing comparable to live at 40% allied health (doesn't increase further beyond that). Numbers aren't final yet though of course."
Meddler continued:
"Quote:
Hey Meddler! Not a big Shen player here, but I know whenever I pick him up the bonus damage on his Q is really good for last hitting when Shen gets shoved in. Since he has no wave clear it is pretty easy to just push him into tower. Nerfing the bonus damage to non-champions will take away that extra safety net, so do you plan on making it an intended weakness of Shen to nerf his already low wave clear power early game (since sunfire helps a lot mid-late) and allow him to struggle under tower?
A weak lane's intended for Shen yeah. We might add a little bit of extra base magic damage to all targets on the Q though to help out with cases like that/avoid hitting overall power too much."
On the reveal of our two newest champions, Rakan and Xayah, Meddler commented:
"Quote:
Did I catch you say "Champions" plural?
0_0
Yep! 
I'm sure most of you will have figured this out already but this double release is the reason for such a long gap between new champs after Camille. We didn't have to cancel a champ, but were instead getting two ready at the same time."
On Redemption and Locket of the Iron Solari's use on supports, Meddler commented:
"Quote:
Redemption + Locket seem to dominate support builds, is this on RIOT's radar or do you think the problem lies somewhere else? 
EDIT: If it is on your radar, what sorts of ideas are you considering to address it?
They too look too mandatory on a number of champs, though in terms of plays they enable and power they give champs buying them current thinking is they're not all that far off. Might take a pass on them post mid-season, do need to see how a few changes in there impact things. Some of the issue's also going to be Knight's Vow isn't hitting the mark, which should be good option for a number of champs."
On the MR changes he mentioned in an earlier patch, Meddler said:
"Quote:
When will the mr/level changes to champions who currently lack any come to live? I asked this before but how come Kassadin and Yasuo are only receiving .5 MR/level for testing (and eventually live) rather than 1.25 MR/level that other melee champions possess?
Midseason (7.9). 
We've been testing Yasuo/Kass still having ranged champ MR/level so far because we haven't wanted to buff them as much as giving them the melee MR/level values would do."
When asked about the Amumu passive changes in patch 7.7, Meddler commented:
"Quote:
Uh, Meddler, do you think we could talk about the Amumu buffs that are set to go live tomorrow? 
Because the numbers are making me very, very worried. 
And I think it's going to take him from kind of mediocre and not played much into another monster that you're going to have to nerf down immediately.
Ah, yeah, we've got a bit of internal confusion over mechanics going on there. It's currently set up as 15% bonus true damage post mitigation, which therefore isn't actually true damage but just increased magic damage in the wrong color. We'll be fixing that, the solution as you point out though almost certainly won't be to go with 15% bonus true damage though. Might be a lower amount of true damage pre mitigation, might be % increased magic damage in some way still, might be something else again, not sure yet."
On which patch would be the MSI patch, Meddler confirmed 7.8:
"Quote:
What will be the patch for MSI?
7.8"

PBE Livestream: Xayah and Rakan 

Now that our newest champions, Rakan and Xayah, have been revealed and are on the PBE for testing, the designers of each took to Twitch to show off their gameplay:
"Join designers Beat PunchBeef and EndlessPillows at 2 PM Pacific on April 4, 2017 as they answer your questions about Xayah and Rakan, the Rebel and the Charmer, and show off their PBE gameplay!

You can also watch the stream directly or check out past VODs on the League Twitch channel

[Click here for VOD]


Patch Chat with the Playtest Team - 7.7 

As with every new patch, the Playtest team took to the boards to have their bi-weekly Patch chat about all the latest changes.

Here's Riot King Cobra with the intro post:
"Hey, everyone! I'm Riot King Cobra and I'll be hosting this week's (and future) Patch Chats! These threads serve as opportunity for us to talk about the patches that come out every two weeks. You can find the most recent patch by following this link: Patch 7.7 Notes. 
I'm on Riot's Playtest Team, a group of high elo players who play with the new champions, reworks, balance tweaks, items, and map updates before they are released. It's our job to the test the changes that our designers come up with and ensure that we're introducing positive changes to League in terms of both balance and fun. Feel free to ask us questions - we'll try to answer as many as we can! 
Patch 7.7 has a number of buffs/nerfs to different champions such as Amumu, Bard, Graves, and Kassadin along with a number of other changes. I would definitely recommend checking them out! 
All of us on the Playtest Team are avid gamers so feel free to talk to us as fellow LoL players! 
  • Ben “Cezium” Burkhardt
  • Don “Aesah” Ding
  • Nicolas “Gleeb” Haddad
  • Dan “penguin” Hardison
  • Robert “ROBERTxLEE” Lee
  • Rob "King Cobra" Rosa
  • Nicholas “Nickwu” Smith
  • Blake “S0be” Soberanis
  • Trevor “ThEntropist” Thernes 
  • Arnor "TheLastAirbender" Halldorsson"

Quick Hits - LAN/LAS Normal Draft, Sakura Icons, & more

[Quick Hits is our own collection within a red post collection, often including easy to digest stories, specialized information, and/or repeat info you may have missed in other posts!]

1) Following the removal last year, Normal Draft will soon be returning to the LAN and LAS servers for testing!  See these post for more information (posts in Spanish!):

2) For those waiting for the two Sakura icons seen during the 7.6 PBE cycle, WookieeCookie noted they will eventually be available for other regions:
"Checked with the e-commerce team today and the plan is that these icons will make their way to regions outside of Japan "soon" (FORGIVE ME). 
I have no context on pricing or a specific launch date though."

3) At the request of a player, WAAARGHbobo shared extensive details on the language Illaoi uses over on the boards!

4) For those following the recent situation surrounding the OCE organization Tainted Minds, LoL Esports tweeted the following updates on their investivation:
[1] "We are finalizing our investigation into the allegations regarding Tainted Minds in OPL." 
[2] "Due to the volume and complexity of materials released we've taken additional time in order to investigate them thoroughly. "
[3] "All players have been removed by the team from Riot's Global Contract Database. "
[4] "We will conclude our investigation and present our findings next week." 

5) NA LCS Spring Playoffs: Champions Start Here (2017) 
"Don't miss any of the action as the top 6 North American teams battle for a chance to be crowned Spring Champions in Vancouver. Quarterfinals begin Saturday, April 8 at 12PM PDT with Phoenix1 vs. Team Dignitas then, Counter Logic Gaming vs FlyQuest will face-off on Sunday, April 9 at 12PM PDT."


Reminders

Last up, a few reminders on promotions and sales ending soon!
  • As mentioned in the 7.7 patch notes, All Random Summoner's Rift returns to the rotating game mode queue 4/7/17  - 4/11/17  and 4/14/17  - 4/18/17.
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