Red Post Collection: Resistance Illaoi: Nearly Ready, 8.4 AP Item PBE changes, Swain AMA, & More

Posted on at 11:30 AM by Aznbeat
[UPDATE: Added in PhRoXzOn's post on tentative 8.4 PBE AP Itemization changes, as well as Swain AMA question roundup!]

Today's red post collection includes an update on the fan-voted Illaoi skin, now known as Resistance Illaoi, a look at tentative AP itemization changes hitting the PBE soon, a reminder of an upcoming Swain AMA on Reddit, & More!
Continue reading for more information!


Table of Contents


Resistance Illaoi: Nearly Ready

Here's Nerp1186, Riot Zimberfly, and Carnival Knights with a big update on the fan-voted Illaoi skin, now known as Resistance Illaoi:
"It’s getting close to the end of production for the fan-voted Illaoi skin, which means there’s only one update left on the skin’s development. Catch up on the previous posts here. 
We finally have a name! Introducing: Resistance Illaoi. 
The name Resistance Illaoi was based on a couple things. First, she isn’t a full Battlecast robot—she is part robot and destroys other robots. Like Blade, except instead of slinging hot vampire-themed one liners, she smashes stuff with glowing robot octopus tentacles. Basically the same thing. 
Second, as part of the update to the skin collections, we’re starting to get a better feel for which skins belong in which alternate League fantasies and what factions live in each world. We know there’s a human-led resistance in the Battlecast universe and that Illaoi isn’t a robot, so it felt natural that a part-robot-robot-hunter would best fit in there. 
That decision left another skin in a sort of “skin-limbo,” which I will call skimbo: Resistance Caitlyn. She has a cool beret and a couple of visual elements that gel with the idea of a guerilla fighting force, but she has no skin line attached to her or presence in the wider League universe. In the end it made sense to kill two birds with one stone—found the Resistance with Resistance Illaoi and officially give Resistance Caitlyn a home in the Battlecast universe. 
SPLASH! 
Splash art can takes months to complete. Early in development, the illustrator often starts brainstorming poses, a general theme, and the look of the champion, but as you’ve seen, the skin goes through many iterations before we have a final concept locked. 
The above GIF is a timelapse showing each iteration of the splash. The artist continuously made adjustments as developers honed in on the skin’s design, until the finished version was finally ready:
Unless there are major changes to the skin, this will be the final splash for Resistance Illaoi. 
BUILDING OUT THE SOUND EFFECTS 
When creating new audio for a skin, the sound designer has the unique responsibility of protecting the crucial gameplay elements from the base skin, even while redesigning a new fantasy. There are both challenges and opportunities when creating a skin’s audio, including: 
  • What important audio reads do you want to maintain from the base?
  • Are there places in the skin where it’s okay to break those rules? If so, where?
  • What does the frequency content of base skin communicate? Do the abilities sound dark and bassy or bright and sizzling?
  • Does the reverb feel “wet,” as if coming to your ears through a long hallway, or “dry,” like it’s so close you feel like you could touch it. 
The goal is to inject the awesome uniqueness of the skin’s aesthetic into the kit that will make people say, “That sounds totally different and awesome, but I still recognize it as Illaoi’s E.” 
Check out these side-by-side audio examples of the original Illaoi that we all know and love and her Resistance counterpart: 
Click to check out sounds in the full article! 
THE COLORS OF RESISTANCE 
We had a lot of questions about Chromas, and we can finally confirm that yes, Resistance Illaoi is getting Chromas! 
While these are still works in progress, these are the ones we know we’ll be shipping with the skin. We’re considering other colors, so if you have any thoughts, let us know. 
WHAT’S NEXT 
The final update on Resistance Illaoi will cover polishing her VFX and playtesting the skin to get rid of all (okay most) of those pesky bugs. Then she’ll hit PBE and will hopefully be released sometime in patch 8.5!"

8.4 PBE AP Itemization

Here's PhRoXz0n with a context thread on the "AP Itemization on PBE (8.4)"
"Hi folks, 
Wanted to drop a quick Dev Corner post to accompany the PBE drop. 
TLDR:
The changelist you will see today is as follows: 
  • New item!!
  • Not on PBE today as production and tweaks are still finishing up.
  • Lost Chapter costs 1100 gold and has additional CDR (to increase the number of failed laning phases).
  • Lost Chapter upgrades into three 20% CDR, Mana, AP items; Hextech GLP (catch), Ludens (poke) and Archangel's Staff (scaling).
  • Haunting Guise no longer has Flat Penetration and instead has a passive effect that synergizes with damage over time patterns (this carries over to Liandry's).
  • Morellonomicon has been renamed to Morello's Cursed Tome (AP/HP/Flat Pen/Grievous Wounds), has a mid-tier item Orb of Shadows that is the same as the old Haunting Guise (AP/HP/Flat Pen).
Longer Post
Problem Statement: 
Mage itemization is very straightforwards for most mana mages. You know what you're buying first item, second item is usually Liandries and third item is probably Void Staff. Put as a goal statement, make the AP item shop more rich and exciting for all users (including supports and manaless users). 
Tactics: 
First Item: 
  • The earlier we can get branching choices, the greater the decision making tree becomes due to its multiplicative nature.
  • At the same time, we don't want to be overwhelming players with too many choices or it becomes paralysing; focused items aid decision making in this case (one of the reasons I split out Liandry's, more on this later).
  • If the first 2900 gold of yours is static (4000 if you include boots), 15 minutes is already spent making no decisions regarding itemisation.
  • What is important for this structure?
  • Designing this choice structure is somewhat aided by the relational depth of lane matchups. Even the worst laners can have some good matchups (if they are against an even worse champion) and some different win conditions.
  • Let's say I'm playing Lux mid, I can have good, bad, farm matchups just within my lane, let alone if I factor in the jungler.
    • Maybe against Galio, since it's unlikely I'll one shot him, I could opt for the scaling Archangel's build.
    • Maybe against Annie, I want poke damage from Luden's because I outrange her.
    • Maybe against Xerath, I want to hit confirm my skills so I opt into GLP to catch him in a binding and land my full combo.
    • Maybe if you have a bad back, you want to go for a fallback Tear of the Goddess that you otherwise might not have considered.
  • Soft synergies with this approach are also of benefit; the more base damage you have (from Luden's or GLP), the more attractive Flat Pen options become. If you are planning on getting an early Deathcap, maybe Archangels is better (because you will have more AP), maybe you might consider a second mana item to boost your Archangel's mana ratio.
  • Ultimately, we decided on GLP (catch), Ludens (poke) and Archangel's Staff (scaling) for first item options (with ROA still as an option of course).
Second Item onwards (First item for non-mana users): 
Spellbound Orb (Pure offense/greed slot) New item?!!?!/!/1!:

  • Moving Luden's away to first item leaves us with a hole in the pure offense/greed slot.
  • Wanted to find an item that is functional, but also fun and exciting.
  • I wanted an item that gets more value when fighting a lot/being in bloody games as opposed to when the game is relatively slow/split out.
Mana Items Second:
  • Loosening the restrictions on stacking mana items, we arrived on a system that gives you most of the benefits of going two 20% CDR items without being broken together. This is to gain 10% CDR from any additional Lost Chapter items (the haste passive).
  • Should you want to have infinite mana or to round out 30% with Transcendence/Lucidity, then maybe this is a good option.
Liandry's Identity:
  • Liandry's has a split identity on Live, it is both about the Flat Pen and the % Current HP tank busting profile.
  • This makes it generally good against all targets (live state) OR underpowered.
  • As a result, we wanted to split out the Flat Pen from the burn that Liandry's is associated with, this made sense to put on Morellos.
  • This meant we needed to find a passive that makes sense for these types of patterns (a passive that synergizes with DoT champs).
Morello's Cursed Tome:
  • We knew this item item needed to have GW (better nerf Irelia).
  • Putting Flat Pen on this item is a signal to the player that the Grievous Wounds is to be used against more squishy champions (as opposed to if there's a Maokai).
  • Of course, it's still useful against Maokai or Mundo, but maybe Executioner's Calling is better for that.
  • The GW effect can be far more powerful on this item if it's not seen every game like Morellonomicon was (still a working assumption to be borne out, maybe it's too much for healers to deal with).
  • Having GW on this item allows manaless champs to consider it on first buy, especially with the attractive Flat Pen.

Twin Shadows:
  • With more income from not having to buy Sightstone, we are marketing Twin Shadows as an attractive option for supports looking to hunt down their targets.
  • This item fights against Flat Pen, Liandries, Rylais and other items.
  • Of course, maybe champs that really like roaming and hunting from mid occasionally look at this too, but that's less of a desired goal.
  • We tried a 20% CDR, AP, Mana version of this on mid lane (for quite a while) to fill a roaming niche, but concerns of 6 of these in a game at once from Mid/Jg/Supp on both teams was quite hosing for all the junglers and for certain types of champions (eg. Akali).
Small Tweaks: 
Void Staff
  • 80 AP >>> 70 AP
  • Void staff is just generally too efficient against all targets, rather against the ones stacking MR.

Rylai's
  • 75 AP >>> 85 AP
  • We nerfed Rylais in previous patches, and left it in a relatively underpowered state since then.
  • Given how much perma slows tend to invalidate melee champions, being careful with this one (but the slow is nowhere as strong as it was before).

Deathcap
  • AP Amp 35% >>> 40%
  • The item was just not living up to its late game fantasy.
  • Maybe some champs consider it 3rd sometimes (or even second), especially when going heavy AP builds."

See the boards thread for more!

Swain AMA Coming Soon 


Here's Riot Aether with a notice that there will be a swain AMA held on Feb 6th:
"Gather additional intel on the Noxian Grand General during our live Q&A session on Reddit. The AMA will run on Reddit from 2 PM to 4 PM PT on Feb 6. 
More Swain news:
[New as of 6PM PT] Now that the AMA has concluded, here's community member Spideraxe with a compiled list of answers from the designers:

[Swain AMA Coverage]



Reminders

To round out this red post collection, here are a few reminders on current promotions or limited time events!

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