More Interesting Info from the @Ezreal post.

Posted on at 1:45 AM by Moobeat
If you are a frequent visitor of Riot's Dev Tracker, you may have stumbled across the ponderous "@Ezreal" thread at one point or another. This bad boy, originally created in 2010, is currently weighing in at over 600 pages long and features over 300 responses from Ezreal, one of the game designers over at Riot games.  Periodically, Ezreal will sit down and submit some massive posts filled with answers to any game related questions summoners may have for him.

Colt 'Ezreal' Hallam has had a hand in creating over a third of the champions in League of Legends, as well as doing extensive work on Dominion.
I was certainly glad to find out that he posted three big replies today, chocked full of good information. I've picked out the more informative or interesting posts from those replies and clumped the similar questions together to make a bit easier to digest.

Let's start off with a bit about some of the champions that are coming down the pipeline...
From the Yorick teaser, this is one of the only images showing the bleak and mysterious Shadow Isles.
On the subject of upcoming and future champions hailing from places other than Valoran, Ezreal said:
"We absolutely love the Void, and to a slightly lesser extent the Shadow Isles. So the likelihood that more Void and SI characters will come out in the future is high. In fact, I would say that the time of humans with 'no features' is pretty much over. The line up for the rest of the year blows away everything we have done so far =-D! I'll put my Ezreal seal of approval on that!"
More Shadow Islands ( Mordekaiser, Yorick )and Void ( Cho'Gath, Kog'Maw ) champions? Don't mind if I do!

 This, of course, begs the question about Kassadin's daughter, who is presently sealed in the void, as a potential champion. There was a lot of build up that she was going to be The Dark Sovereign but now that we know Syndra and Kassadin's daughter are not the same people, do we have something to look forward to? Luckily Ezreal fielded a question about this very subject...

"Well, we still haven't found the perfect champion to be Kassadin's Daughter (though I have a solid idea for the future). That being said, we will not release a 'lore' champion unless we believe they add to the game more than just a nice tie in from a bio."
... and so the wait begins!  

Speaking of waiting, Ezreal also answered a question about the champion that has been in development for the longest amount of time. I would have thought the notorious Lee Sin would hold this coveted title but it seems there is another! He says,
"One of our upcoming characters has been in development for years..."
 How intriguing! Just who could this be?! Maybe a previously cancelled champion like Spider Queen? Or even a long lost, lore based champion? Heck, it's probably something we haven't even thought up yet. Either way, I'm definitely interested to see who this turns out to be.

Keeping up with the future champions bit, someone mentioned it would be nice to see more assassin archetypes on the Fields of Justice. Ezreal responded with another tease of an answer, saying:
"Hopefully Rengar slated that thirst, and if not we have another...REALLY AWESOME...assassin coming out soon."
Stepping away from specific champions, he also mentioned plan of attack the designers use when approaching the creation a new champion. He states,
"There are a number of goals we keep in mind from the inception of a character. For example, a ranged carry that requires 0 CS is simply a no no. After we get past those simple requirements we tend to let the designer go crazy for a long time. Then, as we start finalizing the kit we do a serious balance dive into the character to ensure that they are viable to some portion of the playerbase. That being said, new champions are not 'required' to be competitively viable, though we would like them to be."
Switching gears from future champions to possible future mechanics, Ezreal mentioned a little something something about an previously concepted skill that had the ability to bounce off terrain, saying:
"We have also tried the 'ricochet off of terrain' ability, albeit only internally. It ran into a number of problems... First off, it was really difficult to make it understandable to the player (i.e. where the shot is going to go). It also had the problem requiring an extended range after bouncing off of terrain, lest it bounce off a piece of terrain, travel 200 units and putter out. We also found a cooler way to do an ability like this, we just haven't found a character that it would fit on well yet."
You might recognize this as a map of Dominion, our last new map to enter the fray. Unfortunately Riot is not currently working on another map or game mode at this time.
Speaking about way-way off plans for future maps, particularly those with a maximum of more than five players per team, Ezreal gave us a blanket response and a brief history lesson:
"No plans currently.

Also, just to give you a history lesson on LoL, we actually started out as a 6v6 map in pre alpha. It sounded like a cool idea, every lane could have 2 champions (no jungler at the time) so no one complained about getting the solo lane. Unfortunately we encountered a major problem...teamfights were FUBAR. There were too many particles going on, too many moving characters, and most of all...too much damage. Players simply died before being able to do anything. Imagine adding one more AoE ultimate to that AoE Ult meta, it was the straw that broke the camel's back."
An example of NA Artwork that has recently been replaced by Chinese artwork.
Ezreal also responded to a question about the recent influx of Chinese artwork making it's way into the NA/EU clients. He said,
"We always want to improve the overall artwork of league of legends. Put yourself in our shoes. We don't have enough time to go back and improve the splashes of all of our old characters, and skins. And we have these amazing pieces of art that we are basically sitting on for those characters (calling them generic anime pics is just silly, imo they are superior to a lot of our own work from over the years). So we can either sit on a free improvement and keep the old janky artwork, or we can make our game look better. Perhaps the better question is whether we should go back and make new splashes when we do have the time."

Ezreal spoke a little bit more about the upcoming Heimerdinger remake, saying:
"I can tell you that Heimer will become one of my mains once we get enough resources to update his particles! I can also say that the number of rockets that he shoots now will be put to shame...TO SHAME!!!"
Hrm, a lot of rockets you say? I've heard about that one before...

Anywho, he also mentioned Sejuani was slated for a little bit a love.
"She is getting looked at currently, though no idea on when that will come out."
He mentioned Sejuani again in a response to a question regarding champions who may have deviated from their original designs or "failed to launch successfully", saying:
"Absolutely, we want to go back and improve all of the champions that we feel have not hit their full potential. Yorick and Sejuani in particular require a good once over."

Some pretty cool stuff hidden in this massive wall of text! Good thing Ezreal always treats us right.

85 comments

  1. I just wonder why they are looking at Yorick. He is played a lot and seems balanced atm. Just make a new necromancing champ whit those changes plannend for him?

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    1. Cho is the only champ atm that can beat Yorick, I see Yorick dominate everything in ranked and is usually one of the top picks.

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    2. Cho doesn't beat yorick at all, neither keep a safe lane, if that happends that means yorick is really really bad.
      The only "Counter" if we can call that is jayce, Awesome burst damage and awesome ability to harass and don't get harassed back.

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    3. If you want to counter yorick, all you have to do is one thing.

      Send trundle top against him.

      Yorick's ghouls heal trundle for a direct portion of yorick's maximum HP due to trundle's passive, so trundle just sustains and shrugs off the continual poking. Combine that with him being a pain to gank, and being an amazing duelist and you have a perfectly good top who beats yorick, and simply has the weakness of no gap closer.

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    4. There are few champions that can deal with Yorick (Irelia/Riven mainly, Olaf gets tough post six especially since they fixed Yorick's passive to not work on true damage anymore), but they really dislike the idea of a champion having one big strength : being able to zone people out, denying them farm.

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    5. This is a common mistake I see. Relying on that one little sustain of Trundle's passive is suboptimal. And Yorrick's sustain is still a lot higher. And when 3 ghouls are out, you won't deal dmg to him as you have almost no damaging abilities while he has 3, 15% reduced dmg taken and even a clone of his to smack you. Your auto attacks, q and r won't help you to survive this.

      I suggest that you try out Kayle. You slow him, speed/heal you up, you AoE range spam him and his ghouls. A lot better if you ask me.

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    6. Trundle does NOT have a chance vs yorick. The amount of heal he gets from the ghouls is so minimal it's no where near enough to survive. Cho's sustain on the other hand is much better than trundle's when vs yorick and even then it's not enough.

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    7. Everyone's saying that only 1-2 people counter Yorick, but none of these people can agree. Also, Mazen Jamal has probably never even played Trundle.

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    8. IMO - Rumble is very good against Yorick.

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    9. I play a lot of Yorick, especially in ranked, and I have completely lost very few lanes. However, Jax is the best counter for Yorick, he is the only champ I consistently lose to.

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    10. Getting additional farm on Nasus siphoning strike from ghouls is always fun too

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    11. From what i've experiences the new xin zhao is actually a really good counter to yorick. Pretty much anyone with a gap closer does well against yorick.

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    12. Sorry, but the healing from Trundle's passive isn't enough to guarantee that you'll be in any way effective against Yorick.

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    13. The other problem with "counters" to Yorick, (nervous main here.) is that few of them can be as relevant late game. Even if I've managed to play like shit and feed Cho or Trundle or whoever, they aren't going to be able to do as much with all of their money as I can by pressing R on our AD in teamfights.

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    14. HOW TO BEAT YORICK TUTORIAL:
      Step 1: Pick UDYR
      Step 2: Max. turtle over tiger/ use turtle for ghouls
      Step 3: Buy early Chalice for endless mana and resist

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    15. Cho gath, udyr, irelia

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    16. Well actually the 2 hardest counters against Yorick aren't played often. Nasus and Trundle. Nasus can get stacks off his ghouls, and Trundle passively heals from dying ghouls. Problem is no one like Nasus or Trundle enough to play them competitively.

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    17. Competitive strength isnt about like or dislike the two champs just underperform their not worth playing competitively, nasus has poor matchups, poor lane control, and is highly farm dependant. Trundle has an AWEFUL animation on his Q, and he has trouble sticking to carries hes diving or peeling for his own carry. Trundle also has poor lane matchups top and poor ganking from jungle.

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    18. You want a counter? Have Malzahar top. E all day every day. Solved.

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    19. Wanna hear a joke. Yorick walks into a bar. There is no counter.

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    20. """Cho is the only champ atm that can beat Yorick, I see Yorick dominate everything in ranked and is usually one of the top picks."""


      Trundle Beats him Hard,Also like Chauster said run alot of HP5 and start with regrowth if you wanna beat yorick.He's not OP he's just matches up well vs almost everyone but he also falls off late game.

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    21. Good to see they are looking at sej!Reason cause her ult is a weaker and shorter version of ashe's ult!And Artic Assult is a shorter version as one of shen's abilities.She has a shyvanna type of ability to and a twitch ability!

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    22. Just play malphite, nothing counters malphite...

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    23. "Just play malphite, nothing counters malphite..."
      and swain

      imo yorick can be beaten by xin as well

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    24. Yorick is uncounterable, and Mazen Jamal is right! Trundle don't stand a chance because his damage = 0. Trundle is hella fun champ, I've played him several times and saying that Trundle counters Yorick is bullshit.
      I think that wise Kayle and Jayce players can own him, no other champions stand a chance, even this pesky Irelia... Irelia is very easy to own. WHy I know it? Because Yorick is my main champion, and I know what can own me, and what can't. Cho'gath is kinda annoying to play against, but it's still not a counter at all. You just say that Malhpite, Xin, Vlad, Malzahar, Udyr, Rumble can beat him... hahahaha, funny. ;)

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    25. Beat numerous Yoricks as Cho'gath, Trundle, Riven and Nasus. They all have mechanics that render Yorick's ghoul spam useless at a certain point of the game. Jayce and Teemo can also win a Yorick lane. Don't say he's uncounterable, because that just shows your limitations.

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    26. i recently beat a yorick with wukong, all i needed was one good gank and i was home free with my sheen >:D

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    27. Yorick isn't that hard in lane. Of what I have seen in my own top lane games (no Yorick, however, still haven't bought him), Riven just needs to farm until he has no mana and then can kill him in just one burst (Yorick is really squishy early game, only his huge sustain is what makes him impossible to kill, which is also why his early game in ARAM is a lot weaker). With Jayce, I needed one gank, then just EQ combo him, and kill after 2-3 times. I had more damage than he had sustain, so I didn't even have to wait until he was out of mana. Jayce is just OP in the right hands.

      Other champions I don't know (haven't won that many lanes vs Yorick), but I think Olaf, Nasus and Trundle might indeed have a chance. They all got sustain, and where Irelia's sustain isn't enough to make up for her weak early, Nasus sustain IS enough to make up for his weak early. And, indeed, Q THE GHOULS!!!

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    28. Why the fuck are you arguing over who counters him? Saying "X" champion beats him means nothing. Saying "X" champion loses means nothing. You aren't taking into fact peoples skill level, jungle support for top, itemization, runes, masteries, ability leveling, frame-rate, and latency amongst many other things. Just because YOU beat "X" champion doesn't mean that everyone who plays the same matchup will duplicate your results.

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  2. Great job Moobeat! That's a big chunk of news you got there ;)
    But really, a new assasin? Don't we have Lots of them already? ;S
    And one more thing, where is Syndra?! ;D

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    1. idk, I was surprised we didn't see a Live or , at least, a PBE update tonight.

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  3. :D If this means the heimerdinger rework leak is actually true, I'm going to be extremely happy.

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    Replies
    1. It probably isn't too accurate any more but a few of the concepts may have remained intact.

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  4. Changes for Yorick? He seems really strong in the early-to-mid game, and falls off like a rock in the late game and at that point he's usually only good for making two ADCs (which might be what they're looking into; they usually want champs to stay strong all game long).

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  5. Oh nice, 3 of my questions got featured :D

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  6. Great post btw but srsly they are replacing old splashes for chinese. I saw all chinese art and i have to say that they are picking the worst chinese art that they can possibly pick! There is so much better chinese art that they can use. Just look at the Ezreal's new art.

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    1. THANK YOU! I understand wanting to update art but some of the trash they are picking...I'd rather go back to the original!

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  7. Good stuff... looking forward to them fulfilling these "claims"...

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  8. came here from reddit. good stuff.

    http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/z0fnr/a_recap_of_interesting_info_to_come_out_of_the/

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  9. Hecarim also hails from the Shadow Isles :O
    :D

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    1. ye about hecarim he could use some work to his skill set is awesome but he is not really strong compared to any other junglers/tops... Also that aoe should get a rework to if the found Varus his ult hard to see :D

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    2. I can pubstomp pretty handily with Hecarim. I think a lot of people have difficulty building him properly though (CDR is underappreciated on him I feel). His W gives great sustain, he has a pretty quick jungle, and he can actually get to be so fast that you can gank a lane while running straight up the lane.

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    3. Hecarim is perfect as it is, a little op since he is just like amumu (many months ago) meaning you can feed hard with him but after getting 2 key items u're rocking like you were owning the whole game.

      He maybe needs more balance but he ain't weak at all, you just need a little practice.

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    4. Hecarim is very steong but his problem is his early game is too weak, for team lineups mid and jungle DOMINATE early game, hecarim gets super tanky + aoe spam mid to late game, but his early control and ganks leave much to be desired. If his lanes get behind he struggles to help them, i he gets invade hell have trouble defending. That bein said fee jubglers snowball harder every game ive pkayed with hecarim i managed to finish mercury treads, shurelias, hog, trinity force, aegis, and just hard carry/ steamrolled the enemy team from successful ganks in the mid game.

      Junglers like maokai, mundo, and nunu are popular because their 1-5 is astounding, and their late game is still very solid.

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    5. Every champion has a weakness else they would be all undefeatable. Hecarim doesn't really have a weak early, I would rather say medium since his jungle goes great(life-steal+spamming youre Q I think) and ganks go way too easy when he reaches 6.

      Once you pass the early game, he's even better.

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  10. "Speaking about way-way off plans for future maps, particularly those with a maximum of more than five players..." All of the maps have more than 5 players... Even twisted tree line has 6 (3 per team).

    I know what you meant, but I just thought that I would point that out...

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  11. Im more interested in seeing Katarinas father in the League rather than Kassadins daughter.

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  12. Who cares about Kassas Daughter i want to see Mordekaisers Leader oder Kog Maws Dad!!!

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  13. Kats father, Irelias brother, Kassadins daughter.

    *Waits*

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  14. I hope the Long Development Champion is General Du Couteau

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    Replies
    1. Hmmm, I, on the other hand, hope it's gonna be something fresh - a new path in the LoL lore. Seeing too many characters connected to just one branch/one family would be boring IN MY OPINION... ;)

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    2. I honestly think that the long development champ is Omen, the void champ they set to the side. He fits the bill of a void/monster champ, and has been stuck in development hell for a while. I can only hope...

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  15. TRUNDLE NEEDS A LITTLE LOVE TOO!
    Give him a new skin for example!!
    There IS Trundle players still!

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  16. "... new champions are not 'required' to be competitively viable, though we would like them to be."

    This makes me a little sad considering that I absolutely adore some of the newer champions that have come out (ie Diana, Zyra, Darius, Jayce) and I'm sick and tired of seeing the same champions over and over again in tournament play (Ezreal, Corki, Alistair, Lee Sin, Janna among others). However I understand that it's incredibly difficult to balance over 100 champions to where all of them are viable. At least they're being realistic about it.

    On his 6v6 comment, why not make TT 6v6? It seems to be popular enough and the map is short enough to get away with super fast deaths.

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    1. I wonder how that would affect Twisted Treeline game-length.

      Ever play a 3-hour TT? I have... it was terrible. I hate that map with a passion. There is no telling how long the game is going to be.

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    2. I don't why you guys are so into having bigger maps, just like Ez said, you really have to think about the aoe, particles and how that will generate tons of laggs.

      We have aram and we go all mid(Proving Grounds), many times you don't even get the chance to cast a single spell or a single normal attack and you're dead, just think about how it will be when you will have 6 players or more against a single person(focusing a single person).

      I think 5v5 is great, more people wont make it fun, less always welcomed.

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    3. They should make a 4v4 mode on Summoner's Rift. 3 solo lanes, 1 jungler and no support!

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    4. they need a 2v2v2 or 3v3v3 map with roaming neutrals!

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    5. 2v2v2/3v3v3...ive had experience on that.
      people tend to gang up on a team(useually the host, since its a popular WarIII map), and that makes for a very frustrating game for the victim...
      There is fun in KSing other teams kills, but clever players just wait for the other two teams to start fighting(following the "only last hits count"philosophy), then go in for the easy kills. that map discourages aggressive gameplay. Unless a teams so powerful that you can take on one team and with the CD gone and chunks of health missing take on a second enemy team(had another 3v3v3map that I know how to snowball, this is easily possible, but then my team got too OP from 6 kills every fight and people ragequit a lot)

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  17. I personally hope that they stop importing all of those Chinese artworks. It's not because I 'hate' the Chinese artworks but because we're getting to the point where loading screens just look sloppy. The two different art styles are noticeable and it looks bad. Not to mention that you have Old NA art style on the original 40 champions, and a new NA art style and now they're both mixed in with some Chinese art styles.

    In my opinion, I think the new NA splash art style used for skins like Samurai Shen, Temple Jax, Dragonblade Talon & Dark Crystal Ryze (to name a few) are far superior to the Chinese art styles.

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    1. Also, I'm hoping that champion that has been in development for years is Tempus ^_^.

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    2. any updated art is better for most champs. and the idea is to over time get rid of that sloppiness, theyre releasing new splashes pretty regularly.

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    3. I like Old NA style more...more natural(as opposed to unnatural)
      Chinese got a sharpishness to it...

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  18. Im wonder what they are looking at yorick for hes realy strong in korean and NA teams and is picked occassionaly in eu lineups as well.

    Most times they only change people if their either

    A. Difficult to balance properly, kit is too useful
    B. too strong in tournament play and platnum elo
    C. Too weak at all levels of play, kit is too situational.
    D. Pub stomps low elo but is undersirable at high elo
    E. clunky or dated mrchanics, effecting play

    I wouldnt say yorick has any of these problems.

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    Replies
    1. I honestly think sometimes they see the problems in the wrong places if you get what I mean. I don't really see why Yorick would need some changes, he is strong but not too strong, he has counters and it's not that hard to own him top.... he is pretty balanced in my opinion

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  19. Sejuani is my main champ, can't wait to see a rework of her(Or at least a proper buff).

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    Replies
    1. She is one of my favorite junglers, so.... I hope the improvements will come soon.

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  20. PBE is getting patched right now, i don't know what to think.

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    1. They added Syndra's ability icons... the most notable thing.

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  21. Old Cass splash looks a ton better than generic new Cass splash

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