Red Post Collection: Scarizard with more on Rengar, More Garen VU talk, Xerath updates hopefully in 3.13, and SO MUCH MORE.

Posted on at 8:14 PM by Moobeat
This evenings red post collection is a doozy - featuring more discussion on Rengar, IronStylus chattin' more about the Garen VU and a few things being done to address player concerns, Rayven with a comment on being able to change settings outside of game, Xelnath noting that his Xerath updates will hopefully pop up in the 3.13 PBE cycle, RiotTiza with comments on breaking into eSports, and ohmikegoodness with another awesome animation reference!
Continue reading for more information!

Scarizard, The Rengar Whisperer
( Note: This is an on-going discussion on future Rengar changes. Be sure to read up on the previous comments here: 1,2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11, 12 )

Scarizard leaped back on the forums to chat about the progress of his Rengar updates more,  discussing a few more changes he's made recently and explaining why he hasn't shared many numbers.
"Yeah, i'll do that soon. I just wrote up a big changelist with items and everything internally and am editing it based on changes (Today i buffed Q's cooldown back to 6 at all ranks and gave his bola a 1.0 bonus ad ratio :D)

Still unlikely to show numbers until he's in a PBE state - while i can always post anecdotes, it's more that i don't want to get people hyped about OH MAN LOOK AT THE COOLDOWNS AND DAMAGES! and then have to take them away at a moment's notice due to some imbalance - in the past, this has led some people to be like 'wtf why didn't you ship -that- version?'

This is also why we don't talk about numbers in our PBE context threads, since a lot of that stuff can and will change up to the night before a patch locks.

I know it's difficult, but i appreciate you guys sticking with it. I sat down with Classick today and talked over the changelist and he thinks it's an overall buff (with obvious nerfs to what we've talked about/deemed abusive) and that the general playerbase should see better results with Rengar across the board.

tl;dr - i'm at home now, but when i get in to the office tomorrow i can update the main post with a skeleton of the one i wrote up earlier today.

Stay bloodthirsty, my friends."

 He thundered on, discussion the most recent iteration and dealing with Rengar in general.
"No worries, dude. I actually main assassins and fighters, so Rengar has always been a really attractive champion to me - i just appreciate that assassins are a class that requires finesse and nuance, as well as a good sense of game knowledge, situational awareness, and the ability to be opportunistic. Things like this draw me to the Class as a whole, and things like Rengar's 500% AD triple-q-in-less-than-a-second doesn't make me feel clever, or like i'm outplaying anyone - it just makes me feel like i'm subverting gameplay in a way that makes our game more dry as a whole. 
Naturally i'm giga-biased, but this version of Rengar makes me feel like i have options and real choices, and that when i pull off stealth ganks in a lane or shrouding mid-fight and surprising people i've gotten a high degree of satisfaction and feel really accomplished. Even the Q-Train (Q2 giving 3 Ferocity) makes me feel like i have a planned 'combo' similar to Ryze (Which spell do i begin with and then end with to get the most Ferocity Spells?) that i think is fun and lets me press a bunch of buttons. :D
tl;dr Assassin Rengar being 'unviable' was never a goal, just the way that he was executing his play felt unfair and unfulfilling.

BONUS ROUND: 
So, i'm redoing the numbers on Bonetooth atm. Thinking of adding a secondary passive to make it more attractive to Rengar players in lane, while also having synergy with Jungle. 
How does this sound? 
PASSIVE: Heals X amount on kill. On champion or significant minion/monster, the Heal is multiplied (by maybe 3 or 5, whichever makes sense and is significant.) 
So i don't know what the number would be, but the idea is that it gives him a minor level of sustain that synergizes with last-hitting (minion kills could give you a small amount of sustain, with Siege Minions giving you the Significant bonus, ala Thresh/Nasus/Veigar collection games) while also being a useful mitigation in the jungle - esp on camps like Wraiths where you'd likely outheal the little guys. 
Thoughts?"
He continued, elaborating on some ideas about the heal numbers:
"Quote:
Originally Posted by Zerglinator

I'm picturing the sweet plays you could make by jumping in, stealing Dragon, and regaining enough HP from it to escape or get a kill. I like it. I think, to fit with Rengar's theme, it should gain something like 1x on minions and small monsters, 3x on Big Monsters, and 5x on Champions and Epic Monsters (Dragon, Baron, and Vilemaw). 
Unlikely that the heal will ever be -that- big, my target strength to have this be similar to a Doran's passive (Like 5 on kill, 50 on Significant) may be a possibility. While it's something that -could- make him more snowbally, it seems less snowbally to me than say Vampiric Scepter on dudes with AA steroids or Doran's Blades. However, getting a toplaner interested in something at an 800g cost when you could just get Doran's + Boots or Vamp scepter makes it a hard sell @_@ 
Possible we could do +100 HP on champions, but my gut says that's unlikely. I wouldn't want to give out +100 on significant monsters/minions, and i also wouldn't want to create more than two points of healing (like Small, Medium and Large heal).

Haven't put it in yet, but i'm thinking somewhere around 5-8 per kill and somewhere between 50-65 on big kill."
As for Empowered Bola changes, he noted:
"Deals damage that scales with Champion Level (as do all 5-points now) and the root duration is extended.

Preeeeeeeety extended."
More Garen VU discussion
Continuing from yesterday, IronStylus had a few more comments concerning the Garen VU and player feedback.

Staving off the idea that Riot doesn't read feedback, he responded to a disgruntled poster saying:
"We read, we take feedback, we make changes where we feel there is actionable feedback.

Silence on our side doesn't mean we're not listening, it usually means we're trying to make the adjustments we can."
Addressing concerns about Rugged Garen specifcally, he noted:
"Right next to me, Grumpy Monkey is making adjustments to his shoulder pad. There needs to be a "shoulder pad" of some sort due to weighting issues and some model deformation during certain movements. But the current pad is being downsized and recolored to match the jacket. Like a leather pad."

When asked why they chose not to recolor the particles on the various updated Garen skins, he remarked:
"I'm not sure. It's a DudeBro question. However, there's a bit of a policy not to overdo particle effects on certain old recolors due to feature creep. We could go nuts, but that might devalue or inflate value of already static stuff. The technicalities and economics are way beyond my knowledge in terms of specifics, but we generally don't like to go too banana's with particle effects in older skins.

Again, general rule, rule of thumb, it can change depending on skins but that's our general sentiment."

He wrapped up by saying:
"I will maintain that this VU has been executed masterfully, and when you get your hands on him, you'll feel how much more substantial he is, and how better he feels in terms of being integrated into the game's evolving style. 
Big choices were made. Stylistic changes happened, but we feel this is in-line. Why? Not because we're building it and plugging it in, it's because teams of people have developed these characters and experienced them full hand as we're creating them. 
They've been a part of this evolution. Everyone at Riot has a hand in creation. We're players, we have the minds of players, we act upon what we, as players, would want to see.

When we create, teams at large have access to the playtests, the assets, art, etc. Visibility is key at Riot. We would not feel confident about these choices if those around us felt otherwise."

Bonus: It's not a related to Garen, but IronStylus also had a few comments on an Ezreal VU, should it ever come up.
"He's nowhere on the list, but he's fairly simple in certain regards. Would be a lot of particle support right now, and it'd be cool if he felt a little more Piltover, but he's not on the priority list."

Ability to change Game Settings from AIR Client?
After seeing the improved game options menu, many summoner's are poking around on the forum asking if we will ever have the option to alter these settings without actually being IN GAME.

Rayven, a UI designer, replied, saying:
"Not with this release, but we know that players want to set their options outside of the game. With this set of improvements, we wanted to focus on speeding up the in-game options experience.

Please test the menu out for yourself and let us know if we've improved it for you!"
Xerath Updates in the ( hopefully ) in the 3.13 PBE
Xelnath posted earlier saying that his tentative Xerath changes didn't make it in time for the 3.12 PBE ( the cycle currently testing ) and would likely show up in the 3.13 cycle.
"Yep. I missed the cut-off for 3.12 PBE.

Will be shooting for 3.13 PBE as the start of testing."
For the latest update on these changes, check out Xelnath's post from late August.

How to break into eSports
While it may not be news, RiotTiza took a few minutes to share some advice on how to get involved in the growing field of eSports!
"One of the characteristics of the esports scene is that there's way more demand than supply, mostly because of the explosive growth in the community in the last few years. As such, esports is pretty unforgiving to people who try to work their way through other organizations. Even Riot's esports team, despite growing fast, is still pretty small. A career in esports is nearly as difficult to obtain as a career as a pro player, so make sure you keep you backup plan rolling (which you're doing by obtaining a business degree). 
The best way to "get involved" is to do it yourself. With so many people wanting to play and get involved, it's surprising easy to start from scratch. For me, I started hosting local events. Running a bare-bones esports tournament is pretty simple. Get signups, set basic rules, make sure the games start at the right time, and update the brackets. You'll know you can do better and do more... so you will for the next one. Start streaming. Advertise. Get casters. Get bigger prizes. Go regional or go online and start bringing in more attention. Up your quality bar and keep going. 
If you're looking to focus on team management, tryhard players that want to be on a team are a dime a dozen. Pick 5-7 of them that you think can click well and just start going. You already have some experience, so use that to try and get a better collection of players that will mesh well and try hard. Set a practice schedule, and stick to it. Communicate expectations so everybody's on the same page and ready to listen to you. Find teams to scrim, or run two teams to scrim in-house. Find tournaments to enter - Go4LoLs are every weekend. 
This is kind of rambly, so I'll stop here.

tl;dr There is no defined path, but there's tons of opportunity. Take what you know and strike off in a direction."


Ohmikegoodness is also Demonblade Tryndamere
Just as he's been doing for a few weeks now, ohmikegoodness has jumped on the forums to share an animation reference video - this time for Demonblade Tryndamere's taunt!
"Happy Friday Summoners! I've got an oldie but goodie for you! Demonblade Tryndamere's taunt reference! Animations of this sort are challenging because of the complicated weight shifts and full body twists involved! That's why we take reference, creating this stuff freehand is VERY difficult! However Shoquistador hit it out of the park!

I hope you enjoy!"

When asked if this is how animations are normally cooked up, he responded:
"Usually we try to brainstorm ideas before we do any work. First we'll get the team together and brainstorm cool moves that would fit the character. Once we think something is cool, we'll act it out, and if that looks good, we'll record it! Once we have that recorded, we use it for reference while animating! We try to take the poses and timing of the video and exaggerate them. If we didn't exaggerate, it would look really boring!"

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