Red Post Collection: QGT: 5/6, Challenges Walkthrough & More

Posted on at 6:09 PM by Aznbeat
[Recent News: TFT Dev Drop: May 2022]

Today's red post collection includes this week's QGT post on upcoming Durability changes, a walkthrough on Challenges, retrospectives on TFT Gizmos & Gadgets, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

Table of Contents


Quick Gameplay Thoughts: 5/6

Here's the latest QGT post from the Summoner's Rift Team on durability changes - "A look into what you can expect with the Champion Durability Update in patch 12.10!"
"In patch 12.10, we will be introducing some changes to increase the durability of every champion on the roster to reduce the overall amount of damage in League. We’re looking to accomplish this by increasing the following stats: 
  • Base Health
  • Health per Level
  • Armor per Level
  • Magic Resist per Level
This increase in durability also necessitates some adjustments to the surrounding systems of the rift to make sure they are correctly tuned, relative to the increased durability. These include nerfs to sustain, and buffs to Baron, Turrets, and mana regeneration. Now, before we dive deeper into what to expect with this update, let’s look at how we got here and why we believe higher durability is good for the game. 
Why more durability? 
Devs and players agree—there is currently too much damage in League. While tons of damage can be fun and exciting, we believe that increasing champions’ defensive stats will be beneficial for letting players showcase their skill by giving them more opportunities for counterplay and to live out their high moments. 
Before talking about the changes themselves, we want to reassure you that we aren’t trying to create a meta where there are no kills by 15 minutes into the game. There are actually quite a few things we like in the current state of League. Some pros of lower survivability include: A sizable amount of players enjoy high-kill games, it leads to more exciting pro metas, and it rewards good play with kills which is much more satisfying than just forcing someone to recall. That said, lower survivability also has downsides which outweigh these positives. 
Lower survivability leads to game states where squishy carries and supports in particular struggle to have an impact in the game due to being one-shot with low counterplay in too many situations. When you’re dying so fast that it’s difficult to tell what killed you, game clarity takes a hit which leads to frustrating experiences. 
On Live, combat can sometimes be overly rewarding when high threat champions only need to use a portion of their kit to secure a kill. Ideally, players should have to play around their champion’s key skill test to hit those satisfying combos (eg. Zed’s triple shuriken). Long term, we think poor skill tests make playing your favorite champions a lot less satisfying. 
Another issue we’ve noticed with lower survivability is that it creates abrupt and confusing teamfights and skirmishes when champions die so quickly. Shorter teamfights are hard to follow, limit the opportunities players have to make smart decisions/showcase their skills, and ultimately aren’t living up to the epic clash of legends fantasy team fights should be delivering on. Since teamfights are one of the most enjoyable parts of League, we want to create more opportunities for players to engage in those high energy, game-changing 5v5’s. 
Patch 12.10–What to Expect 
We still think that League is at its best with fast-paced, high intensity combat; but now that it’s gone too far in that direction we need to rein it back a bit. We don’t think any particular champions, items, or systems are out of line (even if they may have contributed to the root cause), which is why we’re increasing durability across the board, rather than removing or toning down specific offensive sources. 
Here is a TLDR of what you can expect in your games with the Champion Durability Update: 
  • Players will feel that their champions are dealing and taking less damage
  • Burst champions must commit more resources or be further ahead to get quick kills
  • Bigger windows of opportunity for counterplay
  • Skirmishes and teamfights will last longer
Champion durability isn’t the only thing we’ll be adjusting. Increasing overall durability has a lot of knock-on effects. Notably, sustain becomes more powerful in preventing champions from reaching burst thresholds, so we are reducing sustain across the board. Other side-effects we're looking at include map elements (Baron and Turrets) doing less damage, champions running out of mana more frequently, and scaling champions staying alive more often to reach their win conditions. We’ve proactively adjusted some of the more well-known variables over the past few patches and will continue to do so post-launch as they emerge. 
One subset of champions that will certainly be affected are burst damage dealers (not necessarily just assassins). We believe that champions should still be able to be burst killed, especially when out of position or playing poorly. High burst champions doing reasonably well should still be able to 100-0 squishy champions with their full kit if they succeeded in passing their core skill test. If these champions are extremely ahead (multiple levels and/or thousands of gold), then we think it is reasonable for them to kill a champion with only part of their kit, only because they have passed their core skill test many times. For any given amount of lead, burst champs will have to press one or two more buttons than before in order to secure 100-0 kills. Our intent with this update isn’t to overnerf burst champions, so we’ll be keeping an eye on them to make sure they land in a healthy spot. 
Monitoring the Launch 
With these sweeping durability changes coming to the rift, we’ll be keeping a very close eye on how they play out. We don’t want to move to a meta where tanks become unkillable, burst champions are rendered obsolete, or where Pro Play becomes a snoozefest, so we’ll be monitoring role and champion balance extra carefully over the next few weeks. Our goal is to hit a sweet spot where all classes are viable, tactical combat has good pacing allowing for moments of skill expression, and the balance of snowballing and scaling are in healthy states. 
We’re excited to launch these changes in patch 12.10 and looking forward to seeing them come to life. Thanks for continuing to play with us and raising your concerns. Looking forward to seeing you on the rift!"

Riot Phroxzon added:


Challenges Walkthrough

Check out this walkthrough from BarackProbama & Riot Aether on challenges, launching soon - "Build your League legacy by ranking up across more than 300 Challenges!"
"Challenges are designed to provide meaningful progression to all League players—so not just Ranked ravagers, but ARAM aficionados, Clash contenders, and cosmetic collectors too. You can level up individual challenges from Iron all the way to Master. And if that’s not enough, once you’ve hit Master, many challenges also have their own Grandmaster and Challenger tiers. Just like Ranked, only a certain number of players per region can be in these tiers at any given time. If you’ve ever wanted to be known as the person with the most pentakills on the server this is your chance. 
We’re launching with over 300 challenges, and there'll be more to come as League continues to evolve. Here's what you need to know about how Challenges work. 
The Challenges Tab
Challenges have their own tab within your profile. The big crystal on the left tracks your overall progression through the system. Every challenge you rank up increases your overall score, and over time, your crystal evolves from—you guessed it—Iron to Challenger. 
The five bars beneath your crystal represent the five* categories of challenges. Categories are a middle ground between your overall progress and individual challenges, letting you track your growth along particular aspects of the game. And (surprise!) they rank up as well. 
  • Imagination: Modes and innovative plays make this category the home for those who dare to dream
    • Bad Medicine: Kill enemies recently healed by a heal pack in ARAM
    • Wave Goodbye: Kill 20 minions within 3 Seconds
  • Expertise: Skillfully crushing your opponents is the way to earn big in this category
    • Unkillable Demon King: Win games without dying
    • Flame Horizon: Win games with 100 or more CS than your opponent
  • Teamwork & Strategy: Working together with your team to dominate the Rift is the focus here
    • Soul Sweep: Claim Dragon Souls 4 - 0
    • Team Diff: Score aces between minion spawn and 15 minutes
  • Veterancy: Putting up big lifetime numbers in kills, gold earned, and other stats will help boost this bucket
    • PENTAKIIIIIIIIL!!: Get Pentakills
    • Multi-Weapon Master: Win with different Mythic Items
  • Collection: It's in the name. Collecting cosmetics and engaging in loot fills the bars here
    • Icon of the Rift: Obtain Summoner Icons
    • Spice of Life: Obtain Champions
  • *Legacy: Time-limited challenges live in this category to commemorate season-based accomplishments and past achievements others can no longer obtain. They don't contribute to your overall progress, nor can you level up Legacy as a category.
There's a search bar in the Challenges tab that'll let you find any challenge by its name or the criteria it tracks. You can also filter challenges within each category by group (ex. ARAM within Imagination), most recently ranked up, or current tier. 
Challenge Cards
Front and center to every challenge is its Token, a unique icon that represents that challenge, as well as its current rank. Below the Token is the challenge's name ("Gets The Wurm"), and below that is its criteria (Take Barons before 21 minutes). 
The upper left-hand corner shows you how many points a challenge is contributing toward your overall Challenges score. The upper right-hand corner shows you which modes a challenge can be earned in. 
Finally, the bottom of the card shows the next major reward you'll receive for leveling the challenge up to a given tier. In this example, you'll earn the title “Early Bird” once you hit Gold. 
Wait, titles? 
Lobby
Let's talk about titles, Tokens, and all the places where Challenges shows up outside of your profile. For starters, we've updated lobbies to make space for everything Challenges provides. 
Your Summoner Icon is still the centerpiece of your identity. We’ve also added the Challenge Crystal right below your Summoner Icon. Hovering over a player's Summoner Icon will display a tooltip showing current and past rank, Summoner Icon info, and detailed Challenges information including their rank for each of the five categories. 
Summoner names are still in the same spot, but they have a new friend right underneath them: Titles. 
Titles ("Dragonmaster") are earned by leveling certain challenges to specific tiers, and you can freely choose between any title you've unlocked. 
Beneath titles are the Challenge Tokens, which you also saw earlier in the Challenges tab. You can equip up to three to show off. Wherever a Token appears, you'll be able to hover over it to see its associated challenge and Tier. 
Identity Menu
The Identity menu has been expanded to additionally support your Challenge Token and Title selections. Easy peasy. 
Loading Screen
The loading screen has also gotten a facelift! Player cards now have three sides. (Don't ask about the physics. They're Hextech.) 
  • Game information: Champion/Skin, Ranked Border, First Strike Border, Summoner Name, Title & Icon, Summoner Spells, Runes, and Honor
  • Champion information: Champion Mastery and Eternals
  • (NEW) Player information: Rank, Challenge Crystal, Challenge Tokens
We also added a Quick Switcher™ that cycles all ten players' cards to the same tab to cut down on clicks. 
End of Game 
End of Game has also gotten a pretty hefty overhaul. We’ve split it into two screens: One for your personal progression and one for the game’s scoreboard.
The Progression Page still displays all the things you’re used to: Ranked progress, Champion Mastery, and Summoner Level on the left; Honor received in the lower right. The big change is the progression carousel, which shows you the challenges and Eternals you leveled up, brought close to leveling up, or had a standout performance on.
The scoreboard has a new look and feel but remains very similar to the one you see today. We couldn’t resist making a few changes though:
  • Added lane position (in modes that have it)
  • Added K/DA
  • Added a column that toggles between damage dealt to champions, damage taken from champions, healing/shielding done, and CC score
  • The gold earned column toggles to minions killed
  • Added a column to show which challenge each player progressed the most
  • Honor also shows up here, since teammates may honor you after you've already moved over from the Progression tab
Social Comparison
As mentioned, you can hover over Challenge Tokens wherever they appear. Once you've ranked a challenge up to Master or above, hovering over it will also display a leaderboard showing you where you stack up against the rest of your server. 
When you hover over another player's Token (or the Challenge Card in their profile), you'll also see how your progress stacks up against theirs, including their server rank if they're on that challenge's leaderboard. 
Looking Forward 
Even though Challenges have launched, we're not done working on them! As one notable callout, we're working on a new lobby customization feature, tentatively named Banner Skins, that’ll come out after the initial Challenges launch. Among other things, Banner Skins will give you the option to more prominently feature your past rank. 
We'll be on the lookout for usability and polish improvement opportunities as you all jump into the system, and we'll have more Challenges to come as League keeps evolving."

TFT Corner

Here's the latest from the TFT arena:
"Wow, this set went by fast! And with Gizmos & Gadgets coming to a close, it’s time for the ol’ Learnings article where we look back on what we promised we’d improve upon with Gizmos & Gadgets and then we discuss what can go better with Dragonlands, our next set! 
Tl;DR 
This article is long and we are going to dive deep into some pretty specific game design elements. If you are looking for just the high-level overview of how we think Gizmos and Gadgets went, give the outline below a read. 
Looking Back 
  • Mechanic Complexity: After coming off the complex Shadow and Radiant items, Augments have been a huge success providing clear power and strategic decision making moments and in game variance. They’ve been so successful that we’re even bringing them into Dragonlands.
  • Balance Thrashing: During Reckoning there were many patches that made previously powerful comps completely irrelevant. In Gizmos & Gadgets, there was significantly less of this due to our new balance philosophy of lighter adjustments.
  • Unique Traits: In Reckoning, many of our traits just gave combat stats in different ways. With G&G, we set out to change this by introducing some of our wildest traits to date, however when Neon Nights rolled along we learned we need to keep pushing innovative traits come the mid-set.
  • 5-cost Excitement: The 5 to 3, carry to utility unit ratio that worked so well during Fates for 5-costs has worked well in G&G, but in the future we want those 5 carries to be splashable in more late game comps.
  • The Ranked Climb: As we promised in our last Learnings article, we got rid of Ranked demotions—and (almost) everyone loved it. We’re still working on ways to tinker with LP gains to make the climb feel smoother, but overall we’re counting this as a win!
  • Hyper Roll: Hyper Roll will continue to stay available throughout Dragonlands for most regions, but in the future, Hyper Roll is likely to be replaced by a game mode that improves upon our goals with Hyper Roll.
Looking Forward 
  • Variance and Novelty: Augments did a lot for G&G by adding more possibilities and combinations to the game, but reprinted units and traits did the opposite. Expect us to add more ways to create new and varied experiences in the future—one such way is less reprints.
  • Item Systems Pain Points: One of the biggest pains in our item system is when you get dead components for the composition you are running in the Stage 4-7 PVE (Raptors) round. We’re not letting this issue drag on and will be directly fixing it next set.
  • Spatulas and Emblems: During G&G many of our Emblems didn’t deliver on the exciting moments that past Emblems have. So moving forward we’re going to be focused on making sure a few of our Emblems are very transformative!
  • Augments: Augments are tons of fun, but G&G was just our first time with them. Now that we’ve learned a whole lot about Augments, expect us to dramatically improve the power balance, the distribution rules, and introduce ways to make your Augment choices more consistent!"

[Full article here!]

Gizmos & Gadgets has been one of our most well-loved sets to date, and not just cause we really like it—we do. Digging through the data (still getting the numbers out from under my nails), folks that played G&G were FOUR TIMES more likely to keep playing through the set. Jhin would be so proud—and so am I. So, as we approach our second to last patch of G&G (patch 12.9), we wanted to share some announcements to give this set the send off it deserves...with a sale (and some announcements). 
Gizmos & Gadgets Chibi Sale 
To celebrate all that Arcane-inspired goodness, we're throwing a Chibi sale for our Piltover and Zaun Chibi Champions for the duration of patch 12.9! Pickup Chibi Ekko, Chibi Jinx, and Chibi Vi for 1380 RP/TC. They’ll still come equipped with their signature boom, it’s just a sweet sale for a sweet you <3!
Ranked Rewards 

Oooh free stuff—now that’s what I’m tocking about! If you made it to Gold or higher in either half of Gizmos & Gadgets, then you’ll be getting a free Victorious Tocker come the release of our next set, Dragonlands, during patch 12.11.
And if you made it to Gold or higher in BOTH halves of Gizmos & Gadgets then you’re not only pretty darn good at TFT, but you’re also about to be the proud owner of both Victorious Tocker AND Triumphant Tocker!
Grinding those Ranked ladders means you’re probably pretty far in that Gizmos & Gadgets II Pass. If you are, then be sure to claim all those sweet rewards. You can upgrade to the Pass+ at any time and retroactively collect any rewards you’ve already earned! And remember, this Pass+ has our first ever Tier 3 Arena as the final reward, so take advantage of the remaining Neon Nights before our next set, Dragonlands, hatches!
Ruined Pengu Bundle 
Haven’t hit gold yet? Don’t worry, Ruined Pengu doesn’t care about your rank—just as long as you’re willing to join their ranks!

Pick up Ruined Pengu in a bundle of joy ruination for 650 RP/TC. The bundle includes Ruined Pengu, 1 Magical Misfits Egg, 1 Fearless Fellowship Egg, and 1 Ingenious Inventors Egg! Evil has never been so cost-efficient!
That’s a Wrap 
Before we depart I’ll leave you with some fun stats from TFT (stats from Garena and Riot regions). 
Neon Nights brought our very first unit from outside League of Legends, Silco, who ended up 1st place in our hearts, but also in 9,428,701 games as of patch 12.7! 
With every first, there’s a last, and there’s also a trait that likes to play first, or last; Mercenary players took 8th in over 12,586,502 games from set start to patch 12.7—rough. 
First, eighth, and everything in between brought us to over 2,481,000,000 hours of play time across G&G, with three patches to go in the set upon calculating. And judging by how far you’ve gotten in this article, I’m willing to bet you were a couple of those hours, so on behalf of the entire team, thanks for being a part of Gizmos & Gadgets. And remember to keep an eye to the skies for more information about our next set, Dragonlands, and good luck climbing the Ranked ladder for G&G’s final two patches!"


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