Red Post Collection: Mid-Patch Updates, Quick Gameplay Thoughts for July 18th, August Sales Schedule & More!

Continue reading for more info!

• Red Post Collection: Mid Patch Updates, Quick Gameplay Thoughts for 7/14, Kayn AMA & more
• 7/14 PBE Update: Omega Squad Login Theme, Continued Urgot Work & More!

• Champion & Skin Sale 7/18 - 7/21
• Free Champion Rotation, Week of July 18th
• 7/17 PBE Update: Urgot Login Theme & More Tentative Balance Changes
• New Chroma Now Available - Pool Party Lulu, Graves, and Fiora

• 7/18 PBE Update: Pentakill Olaf Texture Update & More Tentative Balance Changes

Table of Contents

• Mid-Patch Updates 
• August sales schedule 
• Quick Gameplay Thoughts: July 18
• Champion Roadmap Blog post Coming Tomorrow
• 7/19 Ranked Disabled - Probably when you’re asleep 
• Quick Hits
• Reminders

Mid-Patch Updates 

A new set of mid patch updates were sent out to live on 7/17 and 7/18, with a hotfix on Duskblade's damage, as well as a bugfix on Kayn:

"7/17/2017 Balance Update 

Duskblade of Draktharr 

While we wanted to make Duskblade a better purchase, we definitely went overboard. Reining in Nightstalker's damage spike is a quick fix to curb the mid-game dominance its users are enjoying; further changes will likely follow in 7.15 as well. 

• NIGHTSTALKER DAMAGE 105-360 (at levels 1-18) ⇒ 55-360 (at levels 1-18)

7/18/2017 Bugfixes 

Kayn

• BUGFIX Fixed a bug causing Kayn's UI to break, sometimes preventing him from transforming altogether
• BUGFIX Kled no longer ends up in a weird spot if Kayn uses R - Umbral Trespass on him to avoid the targeted dash at the end of R - Chaaaaaaaarge!!!"

August sales schedule 

As August rushes toward us, the new August sales schedule is now available:

"Check out all the champs and skins on sale this July! Like previous sales schedules, we’re not posting the exact dates for each champ and skin, but they’ll all be on sale sometime next month. 

Just a heads up – since we’re publishing these in advance, we won’t offer partial refunds on champs and skins purchased before they go on sale.

Quick Gameplay Thoughts: July 18

Here's Meddler with his Quick Gameplay Thoughts for July 18, covering Duskblade, Kayn, and more late cycle balance changes:

"Hi folks, 

Usual Disclaimers 

These posts will often contain talk about future work we're doing, or planning to do, that isn't yet guaranteed to ship. The nature of the work could change or, depending on what we discover, projects mentioned may get put delayed or even stopped.
If you'd like to see a Tweet whenever a new one of these posts goes up: https://twitter.com/RiotMeddler 

Duskblade 

Context in a previous post for anyone that missed it about how we'll be hotfixing more often now: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/qXAN1k8U-quick-gameplay-thoughts-july-14 

We put out a hotfix to Duskblade yesterday, taking some damage off it. Compared to champion balance it tends to be harder to get a quick read on things with a more systemic effect like items, hence this balance hotfix being quite a bit after the patch compared to what you'd expect for an individual character (needed the extra time over the weekend to make a better assessment). We'll be continuing to work on Duskblade in 7.15 at least as well, with the damage nerf not expected to be a final solve but instead just taking the edge off. Making the slow melee only's the likely first step, we're also considering lowering the damage again for ranged at least as well. Call on that will depend in part on how the somewhat nerfed version now on live performs. 

The intent with that ranged damage nerf wouldn't be to make Duskblade unusable on ranged champions, but instead to make it appropriately powerful on them. Items like Duskblade should be reasonable fits on ranged AD caster champs, not just AD melee, so the issue is we believe not that they're using it in the first place, but that it's too effective on them comparatively. 

Kayn 

Still watching Kayn, doesn't look like he'll need any balance changes in 7.15. Player performance on him continues to improve as people get more experience, with a lot of the early failures starting to disappear now. We'll take another look in 7.16, looking in particular to see if things have stabilized enough to give a better read on assassin performance versus darkin performance (assassin's been lower, but we believe has been climbing more, so want to see how each form levels out, not just their comparative starting points). 7.15 will contain a number of bug fixes though for various bits and pieces on him. 

Additional 7.15 balance changes 

Looking at how the jungle meta's changed/champs have performed we've got a few late changes coming in for 7.15: 

• Cho - Now too strong (buffs went too far). We'll be cutting some of the flat damage and % damage off E as a result (current numbers in testing: 20-60 and 3% instead of 20-80 and 4%). We did consider hotfix nerfing Cho along with Singed and Nunu, but concluded his state wasn't getting out of line as quickly and his counters were clearer.
• Lee Sin/RekSai - We'll be pulling the nerfs to these two we've had in testing, at least from 7.15. Goal with them was to open up jungle options more, we're already seeing shifts more towards tank junglers (in part driven by Cinderhulk changes) so belief is these nerfs made sense in the previous context but arguably don't at present. Will revisit after seeing where 7.15 lands.

Meddler provided some context on Udyr's reverts for this cycle:

"Quote:

@Meddler, why were Udyr changes fully reverted for the second time? will he be receiving different updates?
and will Wukong receive any number changes/ passive update or rework in the near future?

We don't yet have enough confidence in the Udyr direction, in particular how much he should/shouldn't be split pushed focused. Needs more discussion and testing, particularly if it's to be released in this period. 

Nothing currently planned for Wukong. Would like to do some work on him at some point, not a current priority versus some other champions though."

On Twitter, ricklessabandon gave more info on the Udyr reverts this cycle:

[1] sorry -- i was quiet this past cycle the udyr changes on the pbe last cycle were in need of iteration, validation, etc and didn't get it

[2] i was planning on doing a least a few new iterations, but timeline was looking too tight so i pushed to move him to a 'slow cook' instead

[3] udyr changes should be getting legit iterations (and actual explicit context) in the near future, but we're not in a rush

Meddler commented on reverts we saw on the PBE for Malphite and Yorick:

"Malph - Doubt the changes would accomplish their goal of seeing Malph get niche pro play as a counter to a couple of champs (Jax/Irelia, who aren't played much either), while potentially being inappropriate for regular play. 

Yorick - Want more time to see how the previous changes impact him. Slow probably too large a buff as well. Some return of similar changes at some point likely. 

Karthus - Would like to see him in organized play, can't afford to buff him given his strength in regular play however."

When asked for his thoughts on Rengar, Meddler replied:

"Quote:

do you think rengar will be one of the junglers to receive small buffs towards next weeks patch? Seems much weaker even with lethality buffs after all the nerfs.

Unlikely, he's risky to buff at his current strength and 7.14 lethality item changes have likely been good to him."

On Manamune, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

Dear Meddler,
I have a concern about manamune. After the rework of Yorick, Urgot, the champions that use this item and its upgrade have significantly decreased. The only examples I can think of right now is Ezreal and Jayce. Please we need an update for this item (not necessarily a removal) or at least new champions that benefit from it.
Thanks,

Seems worth some work at some point, don't think it's terrible if it remains fairly niche provided it's got some core users it has interesting, healthy impacts on."

On Azir, Meddler replied:

"Quote:

Im curious about azir, have you already chosen a direction for him?

We're testing a reduced ranges but same skills kit at present, with some compensatory buffs given range reduction's a sizeable power hit otherwise. Showing some promise, uncertain if it goes far enough is the risk (so better game health wise, but is it better enough?)."

Meddler also commented on the state of Bramble Vest:

"Internal opinion's split between right ballpark and too strong. Unlikely we'll change it in 7.15, high on our watch list for 7.16 though."

When asked about goals for Lissandra's changes this cycle, Meddler commented:

"The teams goals with the current changes were to buff her CSing, her AA harass in lanes where that's relevant and to give her a bit more mana in later game teamfights. That translated into base AD and mana/level. 

No work currently being done on her passive. We'll take another swing at it someday, working on other champs now instead however."

When asked about Thornmail changes and how they effected attack speed building champions, Meddler replied:

"Quote:

Hey Meddler, speaking of item changes: 

Has there been any noticable improvments for AS champs after Thornmail gor altered? 

Is there a reason that Thornmail now has Cold Steel, besides the fact it builds out of Warden's Mail? Cold Steel is somewhat counter-productive to the item, though I understand that punishing AS focus is no longer the item's intent.

Cold Steel's on there so that combining Thormail with other items with that passive's less optimal. 

As above no current reaction plans to Thornmail/its impacts in 7.15, but plans to watch it closely in 7.16."

When asked about the previously mentioned icon updates, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

Hey, did you ever get a word on what was holding up the Ahri/Amumu icons?

Artist working on them's on some other work that's higher priority. Icon updates slower than expected as a result. Possible we don't do Ahri's in the end (debated benefit versus live ones), with Amumu, Renekton and Mundo looking like most likely upcoming icon improvements."

Meddler continued:

"Quote:

don't discard the Ahri icons pls, also what happened to Nunu?

I'll pass on the feedback, this one's an artist call rather than a game design one though, so I'm more playing messenger here. Nunu still likely, forgot about him, but have seen some draft icons that were being worked on."

When asked about goals for the Dr. Mundo changes, Meddler replied:

"Primary goal is to try and give more of a niche by doubling down on his role as a tanky dude who's good into heavy magic damage teams."

On a final note, Meddler commented on upcoming Kayn Shadow assassin form buffs:

"Quick update: We got some more in depth analysis back on Kayn sooner than predicted which is showing a bigger performance difference between Assassin and Darkin than we'd like. We'll be buffing Assassin a bit after all in 7.15 as a result (higher AD ratio on the R)."

Champion Roadmap Blog post Coming Tomorrow

Meddler confirmed we would see the next Champion Roadmap post coming tomorrow at 11am PST:

"Quote:

Wasn't there going to be some sort of post talking about upcoming reworks this week?

Should be out tomorrow around 11am PST."

In a separate thread on the Champion Roadmap post, Reav3 teased about what would be in it:

"I know I am!! On top of talking about the next VGU I will be also going over some details about the next new champion! 

There are some really cool teaser art pieces in it as well."

Reav3 also commented that there were no set dates for them in the future:

"Quote:

ok thanks!! so every 20th there's a roadmap. nice!!

Nope. They will not be on specific dates. 

They will likely be after every 2-3 months depending on champion release cadence. Kayn and Urgot came out in back to back patches so this Champion Roadmap is coming out much sooner then most. "

7/19 Ranked Disabled - Probably when you’re asleep 

A notice was posted on the boards for NA, on some small network changes they will be doing. Due to this, ranked will be offline during the night:

"Hey all, 

Riot is doing its best Santa Claus cosplay and giving gifts of new software to our back-end infrastructure. On Wednesday, July 19th we’re going to turn ranked off at 1:30am PDT and then from around 3am PDT till 8am PDT perform some proactive software upgrades to our network routers. As with any software upgrade, this will add various software optimizations, enhancements, etc. to make it easier to support and maintain the routers in the pursuit of keeping a stable service. 

While everything sounds good so far, there is a slight catch: updating routers means that some players might be bumped on their current path to our servers and re-routed, which might cause some brief disconnects (Which is why we’re disabling ranked, just in case). We’ll keep a close eye on the maintenance, and if things get too out of hand, we’ll react quickly. 

We will make sure to update this thread with any updates on the maintenance or when it’s completed!"

Quick Hits

1) Squad5, the designer of Ivern, commented on twitter that the next champion would be one he designed:

"Next new champ is mine!"

2) Riot Games Merch provided some concept art for the Bard figurine:

"Lifting the cosmic veil so all may look upon the first early sketch concepts of the Bard figure!"

 3) Super League Gaming is holding their City Champs Season 2 tournament. Check out this link for more details!