Surrender at 20

Red Post Collection: Quick Gameplay Thoughts: 9/13, 9.18 TFT Patch Notes & more

Today's red post collection includes Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for September 13, TFT patch notes for 9.18, a /Dev on Narrative in 2019, and more!
Continue reading for more information!


Table of Contents


Quick Gameplay Thoughts: September 13 

Check out Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for September 13th:
"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 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 
Clash 
The recent test in Korea went well. Still on track as hoped towards the Global Beta later in the year as a result. Next up we've got some testing in a couple of regular sized regions, with EU West as a bit of a pre global beta miniboss to beat on the horizon. 
State of the Pro Meta going into Worlds 
The next patch (9.19) is the one Worlds will be using. We'll be making some individual champ adjustments to outliers in it but aren't going to be doing anything that should majorly shake things up. We believe the pro meta's in a really good state overall, including state of game pacing and early conflict. Very excited to see what the clash of different regions in Worlds brings as a result. 
Some possible champs for small scale balance changes in 9.19 below. This isn't a list of champs definitely getting buffed or nerfed it's a list of champs we're currently assessing. Likely some get removed, possibly one or two get added. 
Buffs: Ashe, Blitzcrank, Cassiopeia, Fiora, Graves, Heimerdinger, Mordekaiser, Orianna, Ornn, Rek'Sai, Riven, Sion, Twisted Fate, Vayne, Veigar, Xin Zhao, Zac 
Nerfs: Gragas, Karma, Sejuani, Sylas, Tahm Kench, Yuumi 
TFT PVE Drops 
So far we think the revised PVE drop system in TFT is showing good promise but also needs some polishing. We believe it's doing a good job of reducing unfairness (mainly) while keeping a lot of variance of game experience. We're looking at adjustments to things like Spatula drop rate, how early players can get 4 cost units, whether we're now injecting a bit too much gold into the system, where on the battlefield drops fall etc. Expect to see changes to address a range of issues in 9.19 as a result. If there are particular issues you're feeling with the changes now's the ideal time to talk about them in terms of our ability to implement and test changes for the next patch."

Riot Scruffy provided a preview for 9.19 balance changes:
"9.19 Patch Preview - Worlds Patch! 
Changes here are current and will be testing. Not yet final, feedback is welcome."

Teamfight Tactics patch 9.18 notes 

Here's Riot Beernana with the TFT 9.18 patch notes:
"Hey Tacticians, welcome to the Teamfight Tactics patch 9.18 notes. 
This week our focus is on a few of TFT's core systems. First, we're reworking the item distribution system with the goal of increasing the variety of experiences from game to game while providing a more fair experience over the course of a single game. We also made changes to XP breakpoints, champion pool amounts and champion drop rates. Last but certainly not least, Neeko's Help should...help you complete those 2-stars and chase after the 3-stars and is the first consumable item in the mode. 
Outside of gameplay, keep your eyes open for three new Little Legends of the Star Guardian variety later in the week. Also, Keep your ears open as well for a new soundtrack. 
Take this portal if you're looking for League's patch notes! 
Now, let's get into it"
Blake "Riot Beernana" Edwards
Mid-Patch Updates 
9/11/2019 Hotfix 
Bugs and Spatulas
  • Fixed a bug where you were charged too much gold when buying a unit, which also allowed your gold to go into negatives but display as 0.
  • Removed Spatulas from Uncommon boxes as intended.
  • Lowered the drop rate of Spatulas from Rare boxes.
New Stuff 
Mystery Box System 
We’ve changed how items are distributed in PVE rounds. The goal is to keep a variety of experiences across many games, but also to make the game more fair over the course of a single game. 
  • Common boxes contain: gold, champions, or Neeko's Help
  • Uncommon Boxes contain item components, gold, champions, or Neeko's Help
  • Rare boxes contain: Spatulas, full items, gold, champions, or Neeko's Help
  • Every player gets approximately the same number of boxes across a single game.
  • Every player gets approximately the same number of item components across a single game.
Neeko's Help
  • Place on a champion to create a 1-star copy of that champion and add it to your bench. Doing so consumes Neeko's Help. 
Systems 
XP Adjustments 
Due to the slightly inflated gold from the new loot system, we’ve made some adjustments to how much XP it takes to level.
  • Level 5: 10xp ⇒ 12xp
  • Level 6: 18xp ⇒ 20xp
  • Level 7: 30xp ⇒ 32xp
  • Level 8: 46xp ⇒ 50xp
  • Level 9: 64xp ⇒ 70xp
Champion Tier Drop Rates 
We’ve made some minor adjustments to how likely which tier champions will appear at a few different levels. We’re hoping these make clearer early, mid, and late game phases. 
  • Level 3 by Tier: 65%/ 30%/ 5%/ 0%/ 0% ⇒
  • 70%/ 25%/ 5%/ 0%/ 0%
  • Level 5 by Tier: 37%/ 35%/ 25%/ 3%/ 0% ⇒
  • 35%/ 35%/ 25%/ 5%/ 0%
  • Level 6 by Tier: 24.5%/ 35%/ 30%/ 10%/ 0.5% ⇒
  • 25%/ 35%/ 30%/ 10%/ 0%
  • Level 9 by Tier: 10%/ 15%/ 35%/ 30%/ 10% ⇒
  • 10%/ 15%/ 33%/ 30%/ 12%
  • All other levels remain the same.
Champion Pool Sizes 
It’s proven a bit too consistent to get 2 star tier 3 champions, so we’re shrinking the bag size to reward players who build the path less taken. 
  • Tier 3 champions in pool: 21 ⇒ 18 
Item Stacking and Clarity 
We took a pass at all the items to ensure that they stack in a sensible way, and that we’re informing you when they don’t. Adding copies of items that do not stack will now cause them to bounce off any champion they are placed on. Unique items will be labelled as such in their tooltips. All items listed below are not intended to stack. 
  • Youmuu’s Ghostblade
  • Knight’s Vow
  • Frozen Mallet
  • Yuumi
  • Blade of the Ruined King
  • Darkin
  • Phantom Dancer
  • Morellonomicon
  • Red Buff 
Traits 
New Nine Piece Bonuses 
We’re adding new nine piece chase options for some of the traits that can be completed with Spatula items. These are not teasers for new champs this time! But we like the high end chase options so we wanted to explore a few more. 
  • Assassin 9 piece: Grants 225% crit damage and 40% crit chance
  • Sorcerer 9 piece: Grants 175% spell power 
Wild 
We’ve added some extra power to four piece wild so that the four wild units actually get a benefit from four wild. We think it’s going to be wild. 
  • Wild (4): All your allies gain 12% AS per attack (up to 5 stacks) AND their basic attacks can’t miss. 
General Trait Adjustments
  • Elementalist Golem's Armor: 20 ⇒ 40
  • Knight Damage Reduction: 15/30/55 ⇒ 15/35/65
  • Assassin jump delay: 0.325sec ⇒ 0.395sec 
Champions 
Tier 1
  • Camille Attack Damage: 50 ⇒ 55
  • Elise Spiderling Attack Damage: 50 ⇒ 60
  • Graves Armor: 20 ⇒ 30
  • Kassadin Attack Damage: 55 ⇒ 50
  • Kha'zix Starting/Total Mana: 0/50 ⇒ 0/65
Tier 2
  • Pyke Starting Mana: 75 ⇒ 50
  • Twisted Fate Health: 450 ⇒ 500
  • Twisted Fate Blue Card Mana: 20/35/50 ⇒ 30/50/70
Tier 3
  • Evelynn execute threshold: 65% ⇒ 50%
  • Evelynn execute multiplier: 3/5/7 ⇒ 3/4/5
  • Katarina Mana: 0/100 ⇒ 0/85
Tier 4
  • Akali Ability Damage: 150/275/400 ⇒ 200/350/500
Tier 5
  • Anivia Ability Duration: 800 damage over 8sec ⇒ 800 damage over 6sec
  • Pantheon Health: 1000 ⇒ 850
  • Pantheon Attack Damage: 80 ⇒ 75 
Items 
  • BF Sword Attack Damage: 20 ⇒ 15
  • Frozen Heart debuff duration: 2.875sec ⇒ 4sec
  • Locket of the Iron Solari shield amount: 250 for 6 seconds ⇒ 300 for 7 seconds
  • Swordbreaker chance to disarm: 25% chance to disarm for 4 seconds ⇒ 33% chance to disarm for 3 seconds
  • Zephyr banish duration: 5 seconds ⇒ 6 seconds

Bugfixes 
  • Morgana's ability will now work consistently on isolated summoned minions and neutral monsters.
  • Zeke’s Herald and Locket of the Iron Solari will no longer give their buffs to enemy team units if re-enabled after Hextech.
  • Khazix’s ability now always deals true damage if 3 Void is active.
  • Luden’s Echo now properly hits the main target of an ability.
  • Camille Ability: Evelynn will no longer be able to escape the root using her ability.
  • Camille Ability: Shyvana will now dash in place rather than lose all of her mana without transforming.
  • Camille Ability: Pantheon and Vi will not cast their abilities while rooted.
  • Frozen Mallet’s tooltip now properly reflects the extra health it grants.
  • Darkin’s tooltip now properly reflects the extra mana it grants.
  • Grievous Wounds tooltips now properly state that they reduce healing by 80% rather than 100%.
  • Demons will not gain mana through their trait if mana locked.
  • Brand’s ability was bouncing two more times than intended. It now bounces the appropriate amount of times.
  • Fixed a bug where Rek’Sai was healing for half the intended amount.  
Music 
New Soundtrack 
Teamfight Tactic's new music will change based on what phase of the game you're in. For instance, during shopping phase the music is calmer and less busy, but as battle phase starts the music transitions into a more energetic combat driven style. There are also 3 different “chapters” of music: the first chapter goes from the beginning of the game to when first player is knocked out. The second is from that point until there are only 3 players left. Then the final chapter brings us home."

/Dev: Narrative in 2019 

Here's Thermal Kitten with a /Dev on Narrative in 2019 - "Weaving together the shiny stories and characters of Runeterra."
"Hello narrative friends. 
The wheel of the year has brought us quickly to autumn (or spring depending on which part of the globe you’re from). Our focus this year has been on developing and delivering more stories about the people and places of Runeterra. Now that one of those projects is about to hit shelves (more on that later, I promise), it feels like a good time to talk about what has been guiding our narrative approach lately. 
If 2018 was focused on understanding the physical relationship of locations within Runeterra with the introduction of the map, 2019 has been about building on those relationships through characters and connection. Though these examples are from core Runeterra lore, this approach applies equally to how we think about our alternate universes as well (which has been especially top of mind for me personally with Star Guardians…). 
Start with the Sparkle 
As some of you may remember, narrative folk love a good hook like a raven loves a shiny bit of tin foil. A small snippet of dialogue, a brief description of something in between action moments, or a subtle “what if” are all treasured gateways to rich story lands of possibility. Truth be told, we often build them into our stories as a way to be kind to our future selves. When we’re staring at the infernally blinking cursor in the vast white space of an empty text file, those shiny bits can be a lifeline. 
Even though Runeterra is a fantasy world, we want that world to feel as deep and believable as our “real” one. The roster of champions is always growing, and for 2019 we focused our storytelling towards expanding on some of those questions we’d left open in previous years while giving homes to our new or recently refreshed champions. 
The Places In Between 
Often times the sparkly question to explore exists between two previously defined narrative points. Earlier this year, we were asked to help define a new region in the world, and we found it physically sat in one of those in-between places in Runeterra. When we charted out the map of Runeterra, we chose to concentrate on the continents of Valoran, Shurima, and Ionia. We purposefully left unclaimed territories between regions so that we could expand and build on them later. 
In the south-eastern half of the Shuriman continent lies one of those unclaimed territories, and we knew there were a few champions who could call that region home. The development of the interactive map coincided with the development of Ezreal, Neeko, and Qiyana, all who came to that unclaimed space with different points of view that helped shape and define that area into the region now known as Ixtal. 
Brimming with an explorer’s curiosity, Ezreal became our proxy, giving voice to the questions that bridged our at-the-time understanding of Runeterra with this unknown land. Who lived there? Where did they come from? What did they know? Bordered by Shurima, the Shadow Isles, and Icathia, this land had weathered magical destruction, and yet remained lush and green. Why? Through Neeko’s wide eyes and chameleon-like ability to take on the form of another, we were able to explore the present-day people of known regions trying to make a home here. However, it was through Qiyana’s development that we got to live within the culture that had outlasted Azir’s empire. Her point of view gave us the pride of a people who had helped shape the sun discs, witnessed the fall of the Blessed Isles, and survived the ravages of both the Void and the darkin. 
Someone Old, Something New 
When working on a full visual-gameplay update for a champion, we often decide to reinterpret that champion’s narrative. Our goal is to bring them more in-line with our modern understanding of Runeterra and offer connections to champions who might not have existed at the time of their launch. In those situations, the shiny narrative questions we gravitate toward are often focused on how we can best interpret the emotional meta of a character—in other words, what about this character is important to those who engage deeply with them. 
However, with last year’s update of Akali, we had a chance to dig into a modern understanding of Akali within the Kinkou. Instead of taking Akali down to a blank slate and starting over, we were able to preserve who she was and move her forward in her story. Her core as a Kinkou assassin served as a stable base to build on, allowing us to move both her and the Kinkou forward as they question what is to become of Ionia in the aftermath of the Noxian invasion. 
We found a similar opportunity with Pantheon this year. 
Before the update we had told a story around Atreus, the man whose mortal body had been taken over by the Aspect of War. Many who read the story of Atreus’ struggle were conflicted. A supreme celestial entity could now walk the earth to fight darkness, but what happened to the man inside—what happened to Atreus? This is a very sparkly question and ended up driving a very different redevelopment for Pantheon. Instead of reinventing the character inside with a new incarnation of the Aspect, Pantheon’s rework doubled down on the qualities that are truly worthy of god-like power in the first place. The resiliency and grit that pushed Atreus to the top of Mount Targon is the same quality that allows him to stand back up after the celestial within was defeated. 
Picking Up Threads 
Sometimes building the world is not about continuing one person’s story, but weaving several people’s stories together. During the early development of Sylas, we knew we wanted to expand our understanding of Demacia into a more three-dimensional place. For many years in Runeterra’s development, Demacia had often been oversimplified as the morally “good” region to Noxus’ “bad.” Through Swain’s rework in early 2018, we know Noxus to be much more complex than that. We hoped that through Sylas, we could similarly add more nuance to Demacia. 
Sylas as a character built on the question of what could happen when a culture oppresses a naturally occurring part of itself. These sparkly questions about Demacia’s complicated relationship to magic reverberated not only in The Unshackled’s development, but also in Kayle’s and Morgana’s reworks. These shiny bits also served to light up the development of one of our ongoing out-of-game story mediums. The Lux comic series braided many of these character threads together, tied off one thread in particular with the concrete death of Jarvan III, and sparked a new short story about Xin Zhao. We’re hoping Zed and our future comic series will provide similar runway for more connected stories across different mediums. 
Questions Still on the Shelf 
Within narrative, we constantly bring up and debate the little shiny bits of our world and characters. These often present as stories we’d like to tell about Runeterra, but have a hard time connecting to the more focused opportunities surrounding a specific champion launch. Also, while we’re surrounded by the digital versions of Runeterra’s stories and images on Universe, we wanted a way to hold it in our hands. Maybe I’m old school, but there’s nothing like getting lost between pages. Thankfully we’ve found a particularly sparkly solution to address both of these desires. Details on how to acquire this beautiful bundle of lore goodness will be coming very soon. 
I hope this has shed a little light on how we approach and progress narrative work. We’re going to continue on this path of connecting characters to the world through story for the rest of 2019 (and beyond!). If there are any specific questions or shiny story hooks you think we should dig into, please be sure to let us know in the comments section below. 
As always, thank you for spending some of your story time with us!"

Miscellaneous

  • Lux Issue #5 is now available! -"As all mages are hunted down by Prince Jarvan IV and forces led by Garen, Lux must make her ultimate decision!"
 
 
 

Reminders

To round out this red post collection, here are a few reminders on current promotions or limited time events!
  • The Star Guardians are back in their fight against the darkness! Join Star Guardian Neeko and her Prestige Edition battling against Star Guardian Zoe, Rakan & Xayah, new chromas, summoner icons, and much more now available!

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