Red Post Collection: Quick Gameplay Thoughts, 10/13, Ask Riot: Gaining Honor and Elo, & more

Today's red post collection includes Meddler's gameplay thoughts for October 13, covering health bar improvements, items changes, and more, a Champion Insights article for Evelynn, as well as a new Ask Riot covering Honor and gaining Elo, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

• Red Post Collection: Gameplay Thoughts: 10/11, Emotes are Live, Yasuo Premium Hoodie, & More
• Dreadnova Gangplank and Dragonblade Talon Chroma now Available!
• Worlds 2017 Group Stage, Week 2 [October 11 - October 14]
• 10/11 PBE Update: New Summoner Icon and Emote, Skin Tweaks, Continued Rune Testing & More
• Champion & Skin Sale 10/13 - 10/16
• Beekeeper Singed Now Available!

• 10/12 PBE Update: Emote Tweaks, PBE Signups Open, Continued Rune Testing & More

Table of Contents

• Quick Gameplay Thoughts: October 13 
• Evelynn Champion Insights
• Ask Riot: Gaining Honor and Elo 
• Quick Hits
• Reminders

Quick Gameplay Thoughts: October 13 

Here's Meddler with his quick gameplay thoughts for October 13, including health bar inprovements, some item tweaks in preseason, 7.21 being a light patch, and more:

"Hi all, 

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 

Health Bar Improvements 

We've got some health bar improvements coming to the PBE in the next week or two. Some of the changes will be more subtle stuff like making it a bit easier to tell how much damage you just took/dealt based off how the bar updates. Other changes will be more explicit like adding a clearer visualization for champs with resurrection effects available (Zac, Anivia, GA etc) so that figuring out whether someone will respawn or not doesn't have to involve digging through a bunch of icons on the buffbar.\ 

A lot more details about those changes to come from the team working on them once they're on PBE. We'll be continuing to work on them while they're on PBE, so feedback once they're there would be highly appreciated. 

Item Tweaking in Pre-Season 

In addition to base stat and ability adjustments we're trying out some item changes to also adjust for the impact of runes. We're buffing a range of items, primarily those that offer magic pen or lethality, to compensate for damage their users have otherwise lost. The particular items in question were chosen because they both generally offer anti champion power (what was lost, and we don't want to increase waveclear unnecessarily) and because they're pretty closely tied to champs who need a bit more help in the new runes world. We're still planning to look at AP items as well sometime early next year, it's likely a change or two we'd originally been considering for that package of work gets pulled forwards and done here though. 

7.21 will be a really light patch 

Just a quick reminder that there won't be much in 7.21 given there's so much coming in 7.22. A few small balance adjustments, but nothing too major. Most of it's on the PBE already, possible we get one or two more things depending on what time permits though (chance of Udyr buffs, Locket adjustments)."

Evelynn Champion Insights 

Here's BananaBandit with a new champion insights article for our most recently updated champion, Evelynn:

"Evelynn’s old identity was… a bit confusing. She was a badass shadow assassin who’d slit your throat and disappear before the blood dripped but was also inexplicably blue and quite scantily clad for a professional hitwoman. Plus, she might’ve been an assassin in the world of Runeterra, but in reality (or at least in-game) she didn’t always play like one. 

New Eve is still a shadow assassin, but she’s also a demon. A succubus demon. Who wants to make you very, very happy… before tearing your flesh off. 

BORN OF A THOUSAND SCREAMS 

Evelynn doesn’t want the quick and easy target. For her, the real enjoyment comes from luring in unsuspecting prey, getting their hopes up, and then replacing their exhilaration with torment. “She’s messed up,” says narrative writer John “JohnODyin” O’Bryan. “Evelynn feeds on happy people because she thinks they have more to give.” If someone is already at the bottom, there’s no room to fall, and where’s the fun in that?

A quick and simple death is never enough, though. Evelynn attracts her target with the promise of physical pleasure, striving to elevate them to their absolute pinnacle of happiness, before revealing her true intentions. It’s about seeing the hope in their eyes fade into fear and turning their anticipation into agony. 

“Pain for her isn’t as delicious if it’s just physical,” says concept artist Gem “Lonewingy” Lim. “It’s much more satisfying when it’s also mental and emotional.” 

Evelynn s l o w l y tortures her prey until there’s nothing left for her to take. But even the sweetest kill isn’t enough to sate her hunger, and as soon as the warmth leaves their body, she’s already looking for the next target. 

Evelynn Concept Art

She’ll stalk them in the darkness, waiting for the moment when they’re most vulnerable before using her command of the shadows to once again take a human-like form. Evelynn’s perfected her female facade over centuries, honing her seductive skills victim by victim. 

Where does a demon like this come from? “We knew Evelynn had acquired a taste for inflicting pain,” says JohnODyin. “So I asked myself, ‘What’s the point in Runeterra’s history where there was so much suffering, it could’ve created a demon like that?’” The answer was clear: Evelynn was born from the amount of agony present in the most recent Rune War. The Runeterrans’ colossal loss and suffering nourished the young demon, and she’s been chasing that feeling ever since, one victim at a time. 

STALK AND SEDUCE 

Evelynn’s livelihood hinges on her ability to attract prey and make them feel excited and hopeful, so she’s deliberately shaped her human appearance to do just that. “If Miss Fortune is a 10/10 on the sexy scale, Evelynn needed to be an 11/10. It’s what her character deserves,” says Lonewingy. Exaggerated proportions, dramatic poses, running in high heels—Evelynn’s not constrained by biological limitations. 

Evelynn Early Concept Art

From the beginning stages of conception, Evelynn never had clothes… well, she never had human clothes. For one, Evelynn isn’t human. She’s a demon imitating a human form, so she uses shadows to mimic clothes rather than dealing with the inconvenience of a physical closet. And two, having Evelynn wear human clothes would make her seem more like a generic girl in a bikini rather than the powerful demon sadist she really is. Eve’s attractive appearance is a weapon—not a fashion choice. 

The biggest challenge of redesigning Evelynn was finding a way to communicate her stealth that wasn’t just “let’s make her model semi-transparent for 75% of the game.” Lonewingy went hard in the creepy, horror-inducing designs at first: Spider legs, cracked porcelain skin with shadows pushing their way out, the cavity of a missing eye you could peer into and see three eyes within. “Then the team and I were like, ‘Alright, let’s hold back a bit so players still feel like they’re playing an attractive succubus,’” says Lonewingy. 

Evelynn Early Exploration

Evelynn’s stealthed (or demon shade) form is kind of how she really looks, but not exactly. It is the form she takes while stalking her soon-to-be toy from the shadows. There’s no need for Eve to hide her demonic lashers or horns in the darkness—she’s free to stalk as she pleases, waiting until her target is most vulnerable before revealing herself as a beautiful woman. “My goal for Eve’s demon shade form was for it to feel like you are the shadow stalker hunting down your prey,” says Lonewingy. 

Demon Shade Concept Art

MY PLEASURE, YOUR PAIN 

Possibly the most iconic part of Eve’s kit is her high-uptime stealth. This mechanic was pretty fair in most situations, but it proved to be so frustrating on a jungler that Evelynn was tuned out of the jungle for everyone else’s sake. Still, permastealth was so attractive to junglers and Evelynn fans that they’d always find a way to make it work (Smite+Revive, anyone?), and it became clear that Evelynn was going to stay in the jungle no matter how weak or strong she was. “We knew this was something players really wanted, so we committed to finding a way to implement it that feels good for everyone,” says game designer Stash “RiotStashu” Chelluck. 

The main problem with permastealth in the jungle is that it becomes very difficult to track the jungler’s location. Early iterations of Evelynn’s stealth revolved around giving some type of information to her enemies. For example, one iteration was a cloud that covered about ¼ of the map. It moved along a predetermined path throughout the game, and everyone could see it on their minimaps. If Evelynn was in the clouded area, she’d be invisible, but if she was somewhere else, she wasn’t. “These types of mechanics ended up feeling very chore-like for the Evelynn player,” says RiotStashu. “It was a lot to play around but didn’t have a very satisfying payoff.” 

Evelynn Animation Study

Instead of playing the information game, Evelynn’s stealth was delayed until level six. This gives laners time to set up vision defenses, farm, and play aggressively without the paranoia of having an invisible Eve in their lane at level two. But once Evelynn hits six, no jungler (or carry) is safe from her demonic shadow stalking. 

The rest of her kit was designed to balance the innate strength of being an assassin who also has a high-uptime stealth, while still giving her the tools to kill people. For example, Eve’s W marks a target, giving them a heads up she’s somewhere nearby, but if they don’t gtfo in 2.5 seconds, they’ll be charmed when she strikes. Plus, the whole thing feels very… Evelynn. Your screen turns pink as she whispers into your ear, and then you wonder if she’s coming from the river, or the brush. 

Or perhaps, she’s already right behind you."

Ask Riot: Gaining Honor and Elo 

This week's new Ask Riot is here, covering Honor, Star Giardian Invasion mode's return, and more:

"This week, it’s how to regain honor levels, an update on Invasion, and tips on escaping Diamond 5 (or any other Elo hell).

Hey riot i was wondering how to get back my honor because at the moment I’m unhonorable although I’ve been doing well at keeping my behaviour to a minimum. So I just wanna know how many honors will i need before I can get level 1 honor back again.

Good to hear you’ve turned over a new leaf! Your level in the Honor system is a marker of your consistency of sportsmanship—when you showed dishonorable behavior, you broke that streak of good play. So, in order to get to the next Honor level, it’s not about collecting a specific number of Honors to proceed, but about displaying a trend of consistent sportsmanship in your games. If you happen to lapse with regularity, you probably will be hard-stuck at dishonorable status—in this case, I’d suggest taking a long look at your game behavior and identifying some better ways to communicate with your team. But, if you continue to play games with a sportsmanlike attitude, you’ll find yourself making progress in the Honor system soon enough. 

SIMURGH

Design, Player Behavior

Will the Star Guardian “Invasion” mode ever return?

Our team was thrilled by the incredible response about the Invasion game mode. The world over, players banded together with the power of friendship to stomp some seriously evil space alien baddies. 

While we haven’t settled on the exact patch yet, Invasion will be joining the RGMQ and will be returning soon™. 

Thanks to all in the community who played the mode, and especially to those of you who gave us feedback and posted your reactions. 

This year we’ve been doing a fair amount of experimentation in game modes and with Summoner’s Rift—from the frigid cold of Winter SR, to the frenetic melee of Hunt of the Blood Moon, to the almost-creepy sci-fi of Dark Star: Singularity, to defeating the magical monsters in Invasion. While there are plenty of moments we can look back on as “lessons of things to do better,” all in all, our team has felt super fortunate to have gotten to deliver experiences across a bunch of League’s alternate universes…and there’s only more to come! 

RIOT AEON

Product Lead, Maps and Modes Team 

How do I get out of being hard-stuck in low Diamond (Vayne main, btw)?

There are a few areas you can look at to improve your play! 

Individual Performance: 

Watch a few replays of your games and look for obvious areas of improvement. How’s your cs per wave? You play a lot of Vayne, so how well are you positioning yourself in lane? Are you constantly being harassed by anyone with range (which is basically everyone who’s ranged)? How strong is your ward game? Are you buying a pink every time you go back to ensure some area near your lane is protected? Take some time to objectively look at how your laning phase goes, where your weaknesses and strengths are. Then try to keep some of those in mind as you lane, perhaps leaving open a word doc on a second monitor with things to do or a sticky note on your monitor. 

Duo Performance: 

Are there supports you do well with in lane and some you don’t do so hot with? You could be great with Nami, and rather crappy with Thresh (Yeah, we all know Thresh is always good. It’s just an example). Working around your support’s play pattern and selection can also help influence the style you have to play in lane. And don’t forget, you can always ask in champion select if they’re good at a certain champ that you find you work best with. 

Team Performance: 

As for team performance, how do you approach team fights/how does your team approach them? Is it typical yolo queue and Vayne is left to fight the darkness alone while the rest of your team dives their back line? Does your team create a tight defensive ball that leaves your Vayne overheating by the protective shell they’ve formed around her? Is someone always over extended or pushing without vision? Take some time to look at the big sweeping things your team does and how objectives are played. Perhaps you can figure out better times to play for baron or dragon and when to defensively ward. 

Bonus Comment: Avoiding Tilt 

Tilt happens in many ways. A support who constantly takes cs or a kill, a fail flash over a wall, getting crit several times in a row by someone with 10% crit chance. One of the biggest things to focus on is your fortitude. Win streaks, loss streaks, having to play off your main, an enemy living with 10 hp, all can help make you think an impulsive risky play is the proper one every time. Also, when I lose two games in a row, I take a few minutes to grab a snack or get a drink, browse Reddit. I learned long ago to not keep playing on a losing streak after my college rule of ‘never end on a loss’ meant me and my roomie started at 9 PM and ended at 5 AM…Find a way to curb playing on tilt and you’ll go far. 

MORGAGEDDON

Live Ops Specialist

Thanks for reading this week’s Ask Riot. Have a question? 

Head over to Ask Riot and sign into your League account. Check out the Pro Tips, 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 Hits

• The PBE signups are now open! Head over to this thread for more information, or sign up here! For any further questions, check out the PBE FAQ!

• Here's is a small note from Tryndamere and Ryze on their roles in Riot:

Hey Everyone, 

We wanted to share an exciting piece of news with you all: the two of us are actively changing our roles to be much more focused on games again. 

When we founded Riot eleven years ago, we spent virtually every waking hour of the day (and night!) thinking about how to make League of Legends as great of an experience as possible. As League started having success however, Riot Games grew from those humble beginnings where we could feed the whole team with a handful of pizzas to now having over 2,500 Rioters across 20 offices around the world. This growth has lots of benefits: our capabilities improved, our reach broadened, and we could deliver League of Legends and esports to more players than ever before. But this growth also meant that the majority of our time is allocated to “managing” the company rather than focusing on creating incredible experiences for players, which is what we really love to do. 

We haven’t been on this journey alone of course, and have been lucky to assemble a very capable and driven leadership team of gamers over time who believe in our mission just as much as we do. In our new roles we’re going back to focusing on what is ultimately the most important thing we do: making great games. Dylan Jadeja (CFO), Scott Gelb (CTO), and Nicolo Laurent (President) will tank company operations; all three are longtime Rioters who have been integral to shaping our company’s vision, strategy, and culture over the last decade. We are thrilled to be able to have a great team of such capable leaders and look forward to working with them to finally put the “s” in Riot Games. 

We’re incredibly excited to jump back into the trenches for this next chapter and look forward to sharing what we’re up to along the way. Thanks to all of you for continuing to make our dream jobs possible. 

Tryndamere & Ryze"

Reminders