Just dropping the official Leona art spotlight for anyone who may have missed it.

I absolutely can not wait for Leona! It is a shame she has heels on though; those things look hard to fight in.

Here are two quick scans of the PC Gamer article, out of the August 2011 issue, that preview the new graphical overhaul coming to League of Legends. Project Shiny has been in the works since 2010 and appears to finally be shaping up into something presentable.

I know most of you frequent the North American server, but I have to post some news that is going to be drastically affecting the EU servers in the coming months. The EU server is going to be split into two separate servers; EU West and EU Nordic & East. You can read a lot about the switch over, as well as pick up some key answers to important questions, by checking out the EU Platform Split FAQ.

Below is the official announcement on the NA forums. I should warn you to steer clear of the EU boards for a few days as it is currently engulfed by heated, and increasingly vulgar, discussions regarding the process.

 Over the last couple of months we’ve been working on an action plan to drastically reduce the amount of service impacting issues affecting our European platform. We’re finally at a point that we can share our plans to bring more stability to Europe. 

Presently, the PvP.net service in Europe is supporting hundreds of thousands summoners playing League of Legends at any given time – orders of magnitude bigger than what a typical massively multiplayer environment supports! And while we’re extremely excited by the enthusiasm and passion that you have all shown for the game, it has presented complications that we have been trying to resolve. Specifically, we want to reduce lengthy login queues at peak hours, eliminate our reliance on New York based overflow servers, and drastically reduce the number of unexpected server outages.

For these reasons, we have been making preparations to split our European service onto two new platforms: EU West and EU Nordic & East. Once this split is complete, your summoner will only be accessible on the platform that you’ve landed on. Each of these platforms will be able to support the same number of players as the current European environment, dramatically increasing our service quality and paving the way for future growth. 

That being said, switching over to our new, dual platform setup will be quite the logistical feat. In the coming weeks we will be assigning players to their new platform. We did our best to avoid separating groups of friends, but if you should find yourself unsatisfied with your destination platform, we will be facilitating one free transfer between the two platforms following shortly after the split. In the meantime, we’re putting restrictions in place to improve stability for those already in-game. 

If you have a specific question about the split that hasn’t been answered here, please visit our European Platform Split FAQ. After a visit there, if you still find that your question wasn’t answered, please ask us in this thread.

It’s been quite a journey, summoners of Europe, and we’re excited to be able to bring you a service upgrade that should bring about a lasting resolution to your concerns! Thanks for your patience, and thank you for playing League of Legends.

- Pendragon, Director of Community Relations, via the official forums.

We have more information about the Kayle remake!

Whether or not you are dedicated to following the extraneous amount of information following out from Shurelia about the remake, you have to give her props for engaging the community so thoroughly with this remake.

Kayle Update: Hi guys! Regretfully I have somewhat bad news: The Kayle remake has been delayed another patch, we really want to make sure its in tip-top shape before we release it. I feel we owe it to you guys to let you know as soon as we find out something like this happens.

However, I can update some information about the Kayle remake. The new passive is currently a percent armor/mr shred on hit (stacking) that really helps her out against tanks, especially since her itemization route really makes it hard for her to build penetration.

Weaknesses: Kayle's main weakness will be her downtime on her E. Enemies will be able to exploit this weakness early game, while her late game weakness is her squishiness if she is caught out of position. Her other weakness is that at equivalent stat values, she has less singe-target DPS than straight ranged carries (about 10% less than Miss Fortune).

Strengths: Kayle will have exceptional carry power that puts out hybrid-type damage (which is difficult to defend against), in addition to being able to itemize hybrid-items due to her dual-scalings. Hybrid items have a stronger stat:gold value than their pure counterparts. In addition, her reliance on farm has been reduced. Her other strengths include: High amounts of damage synergy-

* Reckoning: Grants percentage bonus damage.
* Righteous Fury: Grants splash and bonus flat magic damage
* Passive: Percentage Shred

as well as the fact that she has very strong supportive abilities/effects while being able to fulfill a ranged carry role.

I've seen Classick crush pretty hard using proc-hit items. = )

I'll continue to visit the 'KayleHotfix' channel in the League of Legends client, and I'll try to address your concerns and questions. 

Again I apologize for the wait, we'll make it worth it!

-Shurelia

Original Thread: http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board...d.php?t=882592

- Shurelia, Associate Game Designer, via the official forums.

Riot has announced another official mini contest! This one is simple; print out the picture of Explorer Ezreal and grab a snap shot of him in a unique location. Prizes include numerous 4 Win IP Boosts and a handful of Explorer Ezreal skins!


Check out the official post for more information.

When he’s not being summoned to the Fields of Justice, grandmaster Explorer Ezreal is on the lookout for the newest dangerous destination. Where do you think he’ll be next? 

In the spirit of exploration, we’d like you to show us where Ezreal has been lately by taking pictures of him around your house, where you play League of Legends, or other unexpected places! Just print and cut out the template below (or draw your own Ezreal if you don’t have a printer!) and show us where you found him. Get creative! For the next three days we’ll be awarding some 4-win IP boosts and 3 Explorer Ezreal skins per day to the submissions we feel best personify Ezreal’s insatiable urge for danger and discovery. 

• Nothing rude, lewd, or inappropriate please! Let’s be reasonable.
• Though you can draw your own Ezreal, you have to take a picture of him out in the “real world.” No photo editing and no drawing scenery!
• Don’t steal anyone else’s pictures. This is YOUR picture.
• Be mindful of what you take pictures of! Personal information can sneak its way into pictures very easily.

Submit your pictures as a reply to this thread for your chance to win!

- Riot Romulus, Community Assistant, via the official forums.

As some of you might remember, Riot held a contest to determine the next in game dance for the champion Kayle. Today we have the winners of the contest! You might notice a familiar name near the bottom of the list.

Summoners!

The results for the Dancing on Air contest are in! Below you'll find a full list of the community members whose submissions were picked.

Grand Prize Winner (Kayle + Your Choice of Kayle Skin) 
Relleke : http://youtu.be/BWiqnPIxIdM

4 Win IP Boost Winners 
Dangarembga : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHAnOWRZ9uk
Fuqer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X85Sp-tv7E
Tenebraex3 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijRw-wNA-Jc
BetongApe : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQEKxlH2-GY
Atresha : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx_nxtpH7ig
Spielzeugauto : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR_VhfxAnXU
Yamamoto22 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX6e7sO1ss0
Joksas : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAXQ-YCYdsw
Wingash : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suvkz2y4wgQ
Kennykimi : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdRBWPKF1-A
MrSocky13 : http://youtu.be/tpFKPM8vkQM
FatherKong : http://youtu.be/Tm7hDLj-tKs
James Gravy : http://youtu.be/5L1tr0PIx20
Miotas : http://youtu.be/ugfB7UYiGNI
Loxley : http://youtu.be/zlfKdbWwruY
FabulousJeremy : http://youtu.be/TRBLmogRL4c
Waytobenoob : http://youtu.be/SreFIhPeKcw
Gunmist : http://youtu.be/uMlzv9Tr_HM
ApacheTomCat : http://youtu.be/4m1EFMoRFvY
Lgv : http://youtu.be/TRBLmogRL4c 
RikezOr : http://youtu.be/zS1cLOIxsQ8
funnyzomby : http://youtu.be/oLnhSH-6HOQ
Eudaemons : http://youtu.be/YgD3OpkChf8
League Of Lux : http://youtu.be/q_RPZcSZWJo
Jiro : http://youtu.be/KQ6zr6kCPj8
Mattarias : http://youtu.be/Nll9Xr7Ks0Y
Magepie : http://youtu.be/IFabjc6mFk4
shufflestomper : http://youtu.be/-Q-nMvBsDCk
Hummin : http://youtu.be/Gn_wGtphizI
RocketSlug : http://youtu.be/Ch7iAWG6RCQ
Nagmolada : http://youtu.be/kdxIAWk7bog
Reepo : http://youtu.be/CE-EyKodD60
ArtifactMind : http://youtu.be/CS9OO0S5w2k
Moobeat : http://youtu.be/4JipHEz53sU
Fangy : http://youtu.be/GHBLQage_AA

- RiotRomulus, Community Assistant, via the official forums.

We are starting to get information trickling in about Leona,The Radiant Dawn. This female tank will be the next champion to enter the League of Legends and marks two things thing most fans have been waiting for; a sword and shield champion and a female tank.

Check out the post below to see a mechanics preview for Leona.

We wanted to give you a glimmer of insight into the mechanics of our newest champion, Leona, the Radiant Dawn.

Leona is a bit special because she’s our answer to a pretty popular fan request; a female tank! I think a good place to start is to answer “what exactly does ‘tank’ mean to us at Riot?”

· Starts and initiates teamfights (usually via CC).
· Soaks up damage.
· May peel dangerous attackers off other vulnerable team mates.
· Presents itself as an attractive target by causing long-term “threat” as the fight continues.

Leona does this by providing a low-cooldown, low-duration, single-target stun with a skillshot gap-closer to start. After she closes the gap to the enemy, she’ll be performing regular single-target stuns that really disrupt the fight or peel off a target from an ally once a fight has begun. Additionally, she has a defensive stance that allows her to soak up punishment pretty effectively and also discharges a wave of sunlight outward that causes significant damage. This mechanic acts as a sort of “soft taunt” that causes her to have some threat when she’s about to unleash a big chunk of damage, and makes her an attractive target. 

Finally, her passive, Sunlight, causes all of Leona’s spells to debuff the target, causing the next attack from an ally to do additional damage. This really encourages Leona to mark high-priority targets and let her set up opportunities for her teammates. Her power increases with the length of the fight, a common tank trait (like Singed’s Poison Trail or Amumu’s Despair, for example).

We’re excited to be able to deliver something we’re really proud of to meet our players’ requests and expectations. Keep letting us know what you want – we do take your feedback seriously.

- Morello, Lead Champion Designer, via the official forums.

The two new skins added in the Yorick patch have been made available for purchase.

By the medium of an extremely long post, Shurelia has introduced us to a bit more information regarding the long postponed Kayle Remake.

Shurelia breaks down each skill, point for point, and discusses and explains the intended changes it is going to under go. The newest chunk of information to mine out of the post is that the currently slated new passive for Kayle is a stacking Magic Pen / Armor  Pen Buff that she can temporarily transfer this buff to an ally.

Keep in mind that all of this information is subject to change, but what do you think of how the new Judicator is shaping up?

"Hi Warbear,

I'm really sorry you feel that way, I can understand people being upset from the changes as they appear to be very thoughtless and un-impactful. I really want to take the time explain the changes and intent behind them which should provide some better context to why those decisions were made, and hopefully that'll help with the perception.

Holy Fervor

Holy Fervor is a problematic spell from a design standpoint since it grants a player a large amount of selfish, bonus gold. While it may not seem problematic at the surface, this causes the character to have to be intentionally a lot weaker in the early stages of the game and incentivizes hard farm to the point that the character's gold bonus causes them to quickly snowball out of control. We see the same problem with Jax who becomes intentionally weak early with the exception of stacking runes of the free-gold type. Overall we would like to remove these types of passives from the game whenever possible.

Reckoning

Reckoning was an ability intended to help Kayle sustain DPS onto a target, however since the missile speed was incredibly slow, the effect had some trouble kicking in when you really wanted it to. Because of this we increased the missile speed by about 30%, in addition the increased slow amount should help contribute more to "supportive type" players.

Divine Blessing 

This change reflects the direction we would like to take support-type characters in. Our intention is for all support-characters to have dual-type builds based on purchased items. The base values of Divine Blessing increasing, will greatly help supportive characters (who want to not compete for farm with their teammates), and lowering the AP ratios in compensation enables support-types to purchase more team-centric items (which we intend on introducing more of).

The increase in mana cost also creates a heavier attrition state in the early game, meaning that player cannot simply spam to stay in lane. Doing so should run the player out of mana which forces them back. (We have the same intent towards all other types of this as well). So while this IS a nerf for offensive type characters support power, we are compensating with reduced costs to their offensive types abilities, which we DO want people to spam. Since supportive-types can also itemize regen heavily, this will be less detrimental to them. I can write a whole article on this so I'll leave it at that for now.

The movement speed was also changed to a long duration MS buff to a burst MS buff, which feels a lot more clutch in a defensive sense and is much stronger for engaging a fight as well.

Righteous Fury

The cooldown was reduced drastically on this spell to help with its total uptime. This will really help Kayle in the early laning phase. In addition, the mana cost was also reduced so you should never feel bad about using it!

The intent of the spell is for Kayle to be much more powerful than a standard carry (early) in combat power with the spell active in addition to using Reckoning, but weaker without it. The counter-gameplay is to try to bait the Kayle's Righteous Fury. 

With the cooldown reductions and 40% CDR (Which is core.) The spell should have 100% uptime, which will greatly contribute to teamfights. 

The damage was also increased and the range, to really give it that "ranged carry power" that it deserves.

She still benefits from hybrid items here, since she gains damage from both AP/AD and hybrid items have superior gold efficiency due to the odd stat combinations. (not to mention more damage on your Qs)

Intervention 

No changes here, with the exception of a possible mana cost reduction. The spell should function as a team utility-saver for support-types, and a Tryndamere-esque ulti for attacker-types.

New Passive 

Currently Kayle's new passive gives her a rageblade style armor/magic pen buff. This should greatly help out Kayle since its difficult for her to itemize penetration with her optimized build paths for hybrid items. In addition, for a supportive twist, anytime she casts a spell on an ally she "throws" the buff onto them as well, temporarily granting her targeted ally her passive.

This is of course still in testing, so the numbers and exact mechanics aren't set into stone.


I hope this helps with understanding, and I really encourage you guys to continue to be critical of our changes. Overall it leads to a more fun game for everyone. = )"

- Shurelia, Associate Game Designer, via the official forums.

Contrary to the original announcement hailing Viking Tryndamere as " a very special limited edition skin for everyone’s favorite Barbarian King", the new Viking Tryndamere skin is NOT a limited edition skin. It is now, and will remain, available via the in game store for a mere 975 Riot Points.

"Not limited. Sorry for the confusion."

- RiotTobster, Marketing Associate, via the official forums.

Riot Games has put out a good will post to apologize for extraneous amounts of downtime and connection issues that have been plaguing the European servers for several weeks. In light of all the problems, Riot hopes to ease the burden of the situation by compensating EU players with a few perks. First off, all EU players who logged on between June 1st and June 23rd will receive 550 free Riot Points ( roughly a $5 USD value ). Secondly, all in-game leaves, which once accumulated to a certain point are punishable by suspension or ban, from June 1st on are forgiven from players records due to the high likely hood that the server instability was to blame. Check out the official statement from Riot Games President Mark 'Tryndamere' Merrill.

"Riot’s mission is to be the most player-focused company in the world. League of Legends has grown from an idea to a worldwide phenomenon at a pace that’s both thrilling and humbling. Our player base is now several million strong and spans over a dozen countries. Unfortunately, this has garnered us some extra attention from cyber bullies. Some of which has been detrimental to your gaming experience.

You’ve probably heard rumors of the DDoS attacks that we’ve been experiencing. Unfortunately, these rumors have been a reality, and are a big part of why our service has been suffering. We’ve been working around the clock to maintain stability, but the malicious nature of our internet assailants have made that difficult.

In any case, we understand that the service that we’ve been providing you has been unacceptable and we will not rest until we provide the phenomenal service that you all deserve. So to thank you for your patience during this period, we’re happy to provide the following:

• 550 RP to every summoner who has logged in between 12:00 a.m. CEST on June 1st, 2011 and 11:59 p.m. CEST on June 23rd, 2011
• Leaver amnesty from games going back to June 1st. Many disconnections weren’t your fault, and we don’t want unintended leaves to reflect negatively on you.

We know that the best form of compensation we could provide you with is consistently stable access to League of Legends, but as we strive to make that a reality, we want to give you this as a token of our appreciation for your patience and support. Also know that a long-term fix to these stability issues is on the horizon, and we’ll have more information regarding these coming changes in the near term.

In the meantime, thank you for your support, your passion, and your patience.

Edit: We will begin distributing the 550 RP on June 24th and we currently anticipate all RP to be distributed by July 1st."

- Tryndamere, President, via the official EU forums.

The Yorick Champion Spotlight has finally been released several days after he was made available on live servers. This delay stems from minor skill changes and what not that were implemented post Riot leaving for Dreamhack leaving Phreak, who normally guides the masses in these videos, without the proper tools to complete it for a timely release. Check it out below.

Speaking of Yorick, many players are finding our new gravedigger rather lack luster. Riot has already confirmed buffs for him in the next patch in a thread entitled "Yorick will get buffed next patch". Sort of cut and dry there.

My experiences with Yorick lead me to believe a duration increase on his ultimate ( I feel the decay on resurrection is a fun mechanic to play with ) and some toned down mana costs would lead me to enjoy him a bit better. I feel like 90% of team fights end up with my ghouls just getting destroyed and me not being able to keep up in the mana department long enough to put out consistent damage;=an ill fated glance in the direction of the ghouls crumple them into uselessness.

"Things we're looking at: This means we may do one, some, all, or none of these. These are just current possibilities.

Base stats
Mana costs
Ghoul durability vs AoE specifically
Ultimate duration / durability (considering removing the -10% per sec portion of it)
Damage output of various abilities "

- Phreak, Community Coordinator, via the official forums.

The fourteenth episode of IP BOOST, a podcast dedicated to the wonderful game League of Legends, has been released.  After a week break due to the overwhelmingly busy life of Neil and the painstaking removal of my wisdom, we are back for nearly an hour of recapping all the great news that has graced us in the passing weeks.

Click to Listen or Right Click and Save As to download.

Episode 14 is set up a little different than all of the previous IP BOOSTs. In light of all the great news we need to catch up on, we decided to skip over the normal CHAMPION SPOTLIGHT, RAGE QUIT, and NOOB CORNER sections and focus straight on the news. So, we present you with a podcast chocked full of NEWS about E3, Dreamhack, Yorick, and the massive Patch v.1.0.0.120! Couple all this "timely" coverage with a few listener mails in our U MAD BRO section and you have yourself a nice little podcast.

Head on over to the IP BOOST blog to check out the show notes and listen to the show. Alternatively, you can listen to us on iTunes by simply searching for "IP Boost" in the iTunes store. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns of the heart, shoot an email to ipboostpodcast@gmail.com.

Don't forget! If you have anything you'd like answered on U MAD BRO, our section dedicated to listener questions, make sure to email it to ipboostpodcast@gmail.com  and we will try to get it on the air!