Red Post Collection: Trials Update: Week One, Return of the Rainbow Fluft Icon, & More

DEEP IN THE BANDLEWOOD 

While there are portals whose positions can shift over time, there are many that stay rooted in a single location. The magic of the spirit realm occasionally ebbs back and forth around such places—known as bandlewoods—and affects the local flora and fauna in strange, unpredictable ways.

Zac changes coming to PBE for 9.11

"Hello friends! 

We’ve been following some excellent conversations regarding where Zac landed after his rework in 2017. After assessing players' feedback, we ultimately decided that we went too far in pulling damage out of him in our quest for a more CC-laden tank. We agree that part of Zac’s pattern of diving the back line and doing damage is core to who he is as a champion and unfortunately, Zac players felt that after diving in, he wasn't able to accomplish anything more than just knocking people around. With that in mind, we're reverting his reworked ultimate and W. 

Full Changelist:
Q - Stretching Strikes
COOLDOWN :: 13-9 seconds >>> 15-9 seconds 

W - Unstable Matter
Now does 2% of a target's max health per 100 ability power as magic damage 

R - Let's Bounce
REMOVING OLD ULTIMATE
NEW ULTIMATE :: Zac bounces 4 times gaining 20-50% movement speed over the duration, but is unable to use Q or E and can't attack. The first bounce deals 140/210/280 (+40% AP) damage on a target, reduced by 50% for subsequent bounces on the same target. The first bounce on a given target knocks them back for 1 second, and all bounces on the same target slow by 20% 

The ultimate is a straight revert to what it was before we changed Zac-- four AoEs, each 1 second after the last that do damage and knock up once per cast. The W is another revert, where we basically just added in the AP ratio we took out. Q is not being changed, but the cooldown is a little longer to pull more power out of Zac’s CC and into his damage. This should open up build paths for AP bruiser Zac again, although we expect full tank to still be the default build. 

These changes should be on PBE soon for testing/feedback, with a tentative plan to ship the final changelist in 9.11. We hope to generate some conversation on what y’alls opinions on this list are and go from there."

Prototype Wukong Changes on PBE Context

Hey folks, 

Whole bunch of details here on some Wukong changes we’re going to be testing on the PBE for a while. First off, some context around them: 

• These changes won't be shipping for at least awhile . We're using art that’s borrowed from other champs/items because we haven’t committed to these specific changes yet. So even if the gameplay were to test really well, there’d still be some delay before we shipped them since we'd need to get the art revised.
• There are some known bugs present in the modified abilities. Nothing that should have a meaningful effect on testing, but stuff that will feel a bit buggier than normal. Smaller stuff like this we don’t put time into fixing until a set of changes have been committed to either.
• These changes haven’t been through a rigorous balance pass, so numbers won’t necessarily be representative of what they’d need to be for ship. The mechanics themselves are intended to be representative (e.g. Wukong’s Q heals him), so the specific numbers on the heal by contrast might be about right or might be meaningfully too high or too low. We’ve done enough testing to have confidence they’re not ludicrously off, but haven’t put them through a full balance assessment.
• In addition to PBE testing, we’re also going to be running this changelist past some players onsite at some of our offices. That will give a more controlled environment than PBE can offer (more even and competitive games for example) and generates different feedback as a result.
• Finally, this is a gameplay focused update. Things like changing VO, model, full animation update, etc. aren’t on the table at this time. We think that sort of work’s really important, but our docket’s currently full with other champions for it. Some art/audio adjustments are likely, but just those needed to accommodate the gameplay changes. 

Ok, that’s a lot of context that isn’t all that interesting to most readers. Apologies, still important to share it though! Next up, goals of this work: 

• Add a few points of extra mastery to Wukong for those who want to take advantage of it
• Make a bit more use of the trickster elements of Wukong’s theme
• Improve ability satisfaction a bit
• Avoid fundamental changes to things like ability targeting types (as to avoid a significantly more difficult skill floor for new players or large relearning period for existing players)
• Improve Wukong’s counterplay, both laning pattern, and reliance on bursting targets
• Focus on Wukong players, past and present, more than potential Wukong players 

Ok, getting past the context setting which I’m sure a lot of you skimmed past anyway and into the changelist. Again, numbers haven’t necessarily been balanced, so this is much more about the direction of how the abilities work than what a particular number is. 

Passive - Strength of Stone (was Stone Skin) 

Part 1 Crushing Blows - New 

Whenever Wukong or one of his clones damages an enemy champion, they apply a stack of Crushing Blows to that target. Targets take 4% increased damage from Wukong and his clones for each stack of Crushing blows (max 5). 

VFX start small at one stack and get larger with each additional stack applied. 

Part 2 Stone Skin - Redesigned 

When 3+ enemy champions are visible within 1400 units, Wukong gains Armor and MR equal to 20 + 2 per level + 0.2*his bonus Armor/MR respectively. Bonuses last for 6s and renews if enemies remain near. Currently uses the Gargoyle's Stoneplate activation VFX when up. 

Why these changes? 

Wukong’s live passive is functional (gives him power, influences his itemization), but real low on satisfaction. Would like to keep the teamfight survivability aspect though. Trying a double passive, where both parts hopefully have better appreciability and neither needs to be as relevant in all contexts for the passive as a whole to feel better. For the defensive bit, giving him Armor/MR ratios to make mixing in more defensive itemization, if desired, a more sensible choice. For the offensive part, looking to shift some power on the kit away from a team amp to a personal amp and allow magic damage output, whether from Wukong’s kit or elsewhere, to also feel better. 

Q - Golden Magical Staff (was Crushing Blow) 

Now has a passive where Wukong gets 125 range on his next AA after he casts any spell (not just Q). 

Now deals 20-100 bonus magic damage instead of 10-130 (+0.4 AD) bonus physical damage. Now heals for 20-60 (+0.25 AD) health (halved on minions) instead of shredding the target's Armor. 

Why these changes? 

Trying to give him more frequent access to increased range as a way to allow a combat pattern that's both a bit more varied (especially in lane) and doesn't necessarily have to be as bursty. Laning pattern also hopefully helped a bit by some sustain on the kit. Expectation is that basic effectiveness will be pretty easy to access, but extra range will allow a lot of optimizations, especially when combined with other parts of the kit. 

W - Warrior Trickster (was Decoy) 

Clone created now attacks nearby enemies dealing 50% of Wukong's damage instead of exploding for magic damage at the end of its life. 

Clone lifespan increased to 2.5-5.0s (invisibility duration for Wukong himself unchanged). 

Wukong creating a clone and Wukong pushing 'S' to stop moving will now look identical to enemy players (can bait them into believing you've cast W when all you've done is stopped moving). 

Wukong's dash range when casting W increased to 200 units (was 100). 

CD reduced to 16-8s from 18-10s. 

CD now starts on clone death, not on clone creation (clone uptime, especially with CDR, becomes too high otherwise, CD reduced so that non-CDR builds aren’t too punished). 

Why these changes? 

Getting a bit more trickery in and exploring a combative clone as a fantasy win. Increased dash range pairs well with increased AA range passive from Q. Clone damage output being more relevant and increased potential for trickery hopefully gives some interesting optimizations. 

E - Nimbus Strike 

Other images of Wukong are now interactable clones that look just like Wukong and can be interacted with like any other unit. That means enemies won't be certain which exact target Wukong himself is going to until he gets there. Clones can also block skillshots. 

AD ratio to 0.5 (was 0.8) 

Now checks for secondary targets in a much larger area around the primary target. 

Why these changes? 

Primarily, we want to enable more trickery and again, add some mastery points for those who wish to to optimize around. Reducing AD ratio both to decouple Wukong a bit from such AD-bound builds and as a result of adding power elsewhere. AD builds should still be decent, but not to the extent most other builds aren’t worth considering. 

R - Cyclone 

Other spells are no longer locked out while you're using R. If you cast another spell, it will immediately cancel the ult in progress. Makes it easier to chain spells together basically if you want to end the ult early. 

Why these changes? 

Wukong's ult is pretty well liked and short of making really major changes, wasn’t finding any better and strong directions here. Just a small useability adjustment as a result. Considered increasing the damage tick rate, given that’s a common player request. Concluded it wasn’t the right call though, given that both binds him more to Black Cleaver and pushes him back towards burstier damage with his new passive. The knockup by contrast already checks for targets much more often than the damage is dealt, so there aren’t responsiveness gains to be had there. 

Things feedback would be particularly appreciated on 

If you’re playing as Wukong:

• How much Wukong have you previously played?
• Do you feel these changes result in you playing in somewhat different ways?
• If so, do you enjoy that?
• What builds would you be inclined to use with this kit?

If you’re playing against Wukong:

• Is it clear what’s happening in game and how you should play against this version of the kit?
• How frustrating do you find trickery from this kit relative to trickery from other champions in LoL?"

Small Diana Gameplay changes coming to PBE

"Hey there! This is a follow-up to My last thread on the PBE boards about testing a series of changes to Diana Q. I’ve gotten a bunch of feedback and data on it and it mirrors Live Q’s behavior in almost all cases, but should feel faster and more accurate to cast. 

In the meantime I’ve also been thinking about ways to add small improvements to Diana's kit to make her more enjoyable overall to play as and play against. Patch 7.14 had significant changes to Diana that brought her closer to being a very single-purpose AP assassin, while also gating her attack speed behind spellcasts. I want to try bringing her attack speed back to a more normal baseline and reducing her reliance on AP to succeed. 

And thus I’d like to propose a small list of gameplay changes that I want to test on PBE starting next deploy: 

These changes aren't going live with 9.11 but if anything that just gives us more time to workshop together :) 

Goals with those changes are the following:
-Increase Diana’s Time to Kill by a small amount
-Revert the “spell weaving” paradigm that was introduced in 7.14
-Give her a little more mobility in fights and skirmishes 

Here’s the changelist that I’ll be testing initially:

• Base Mana: 372 (+20) => 335 (+45)
• Attack Speed: 0.625 => 0.725
• Attack Speed per level: 2.25 => 2.30

P

• Cleave Ap Ratio: 0.8>0.6
• NEW: Grants 20% Movement Speed on proc
• REMOVED: 30-90% Attack Speed after casting a spell
• REMOVED: 15% of AP as mana on proc

Q

• Still has all of the previous changes to it in testing.
• QoL: Reveals FoW on missile tip

E

• Cooldown: 26>18 => 20>12

R

• Reset time: 0.5 => 1.0 

Last thing: The current iteration still has the R>Q reset removed. I’m hoping that, combined with her changes above, R>Q near-guaranteeing Q's damage is enough of a strength that Diana still sometimes opts into this combo without needing the gamble of a potential reset as additional incentive. 

Note that none of this is final, so please share suggestions and ideas. The main consideration is that this work needs to stay low-scope, so we can't include any VFX changes or significant mechanic updates. This should also stay as close to power-neutral as possible since our focus is on making Diana feel better to play more than anything else."

9.11 Continued Malphite Changes Testing

"Hi everyone! Appreciate the continued discussion around Malphite; clearly he holds a special place in a lot of people's hearts as one of the first Champions they ever played. I have a small update with where we're at: 

1. We're effectively mechanics-locked as of the latest iteration, and have entered the tuning/number tweaking phase
2. To that end, yesterday I did some bug fixes and am currently testing a minor Base Stat clean-up. Those should be on the PBE today
3. Riot Beardilocks did an amazing job on updating Malphite's VFX across all his skins- check them out if you haven't had the chance!
4. Since this is an opportunistic change list, we still don't have a specific release patch in mind. Stay tuned! 

While not exhaustive, here's a breakdown of some of the major revisions I've made since posting the original change list. Still seeing a lot of people talking about outdated values and mechanics, so I'd like to dispel some of that now. 

Passive- Granite Shield

• Size scaling has been refactored to account for the massive Armor values Malphite can get through his W. His growth spurt now caps out at ~700 Armor 

Q- Seismic Shard

• AP ratio reverted to LIVE value
• Cast time reverted to LIVE value
• Q now checks if "stealing" move speed would result in a faster Malphite, and uses that value in the rare cases when it does

W- Thunderclap

• The much beloved 3x Armor multiplier has been retained
• Mana cost increased to 30 from 25
• W's sustained damage and dueling potential was listed as a major red flag during internal testing, so it's seen a number of nerfs over the last two weeks

E- Ground Slam

• Mana cost decreased by 10 at all ranks

Base Stats 

Here's the Base Stat clean-up I'm trying; definitely no promises that these will all make it through, as they're almost all buffs and we're worried this update is already pushing Malphite pretty far. Goal was to further solidify Malphite as the definitive anti-AD tank while indirectly nerfing his late-game AA damage potential, which was getting pretty nuts when building Triforce + Wit's End.

• Attack Speed growth reduced to 3 from 3.4
• Base Armor increased to 40 from 37
• Armor growth increased to 4 from 3.75
• HP rounded up to 575 from 574.2

-Lutz"

Miscellaneous

• Check out these articles and video content from Riot Esports:
• Represent: LEC | 2019 Mid-Season Invitational
• MSI Group Stage Kicks Off in Vietnam | 2019 Mid-Season Invitational Groups Opening Tease
• The Gatekeepers (IG Rookie vs SKT Faker) | 2019 Mid-Season Invitational Groups Day 2 Tease
• Go Crazy, Go Stupid
• Represent: LPL | 2019 Mid-Season Invitational
• Invictus Gaming's TheShy Goes In | 2019 Mid-Season Invitational Groups Day 4 Tease
• Who will advance to the Knockout Stage? | 2019 Mid-Season Invitational Groups Day 5 Tease

Reminders

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

• MSI 2019 is happening and the Mid Season Trials event is in full swing! Now through June 2, you can choose your house, complete missions and earn rewards for your team! Check out out post for more details!