Red Post Collection: Riot Pls: 2017 Development, 3/10 Mid-Patch Update, , Meddler Gameplay Thoughts 3/10, Ascension, & more!

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• EU LCS Spring Split Week 7 [Mar 9th - Mar 12th]
• Champion & Skin Sale 3/10 - 3/13
• Rise of the Dragons: Dragon Sorceress Zyra, Dragonslayer Xin Zhao, and more now available! 

• Red Post Collection: Meddler gameplay thoughts 7th / 9th, Ask Riot, Aatrox in 7.5, Sion Q Hotfix, and more!

Table of Contents

• March 10th Mid-Patch Update
• Riot Pls: 2017 Development
• Quick Gameplay Thoughts, March 10
• Reminders

March 10th Mid-Patch Update

The official 7.5 patch notes have been updated with the 3/10 mid-patch update, including several buffs for Aatrox and bug fixes that went out on March 10th.

"Mid-Patch Updates

Aatrox Balance Update

While there's always a re-learning process when we make substantial changes to a champion, Aatrox is suffering more than usual, regardless of whether he's in jungle or top lane. We're giving the Darkin Blade a better shot at stacking Blood Well without dying in the process and upping his payoff when he commits to a fight.

Base stats

• HEALTH -  537.8 ⇒ 580

Q - Dark Flight

• COOLDOWN -  16/15/14/13/12 seconds ⇒ 13/12.5/12/11.5/11 seconds

W - Blood Price

• BASE DAMAGE -  30/60/90/120/150 ⇒ 45/80/115/150/185

3/10/2017 

Lucian

• BUGFIX - Fixed a bug causing Q - Piercing Light's cooldown to be refunded if its primary target died during the cast time (allowing for double-Q shenanigans)

Varus

• BUGFIX - Varus's Q - Piercing Arrow cooldown refund against Blighted targets now properly applies at Piercing Arrow's max distance

Sion

• AXE TOO HEAVY - Fixed a bug that caused Sion to stand still for a brief moment after casting Q - Decimating Smash

Taliyah

• VISUAL BUG - Fixed a bug causing Q - Threaded Volley's Worked Ground visual indicator to last past the duration of the effect for enemies"

Riot Pls: 2017 Development

A new Riot Pls is up featuring New001 discussing things in the works for 2017!  In the video, he discusses the League Client update, an upcoming rework to Honor system, Runes and Masteries, Team competition, and fulfilling player requests.

"New001 talks about some of the projects the League development team is working on this year."

Topics

• League Client Update  - :31
• Honor Rework - 1:22

• Runes and Masteries - 2:28
• Team Competition - 3:25
• Fulfilling Player Requests - 4:47

On the talk of LCU low performance focused improvements, SapMagic added:

"We absolutely care about performance for more than just players on lower-spec machines. In some situations, we're making more dramatic changes under the hood that will affect performance for all players. Players on low spec machines are suffering the hardest right now, so we want to make sure we're looking at optimization through that lens. 

Going forward, we're thinking about how we can design the actual EXPERIENCE in a way that will be more likely to perform well. For example, we know that layers of full-screen animations tend to be rough (probably not a surprise), so we're taking that into consideration as we work on things like bringing 10 bans to regular play."

Quick Gameplay Thoughts: March 10 

Meddler is back with another set of quick gameplay thoughts for March 10th, this time focusing on upcoming Aatrox hotfix, timing of Rek'sai's small update, mid season in 7.9, unintentional Knight's Vow changes on PBE, and more!

"Hey all, 

Happy Friday! Few short notes below. 

Aatrox hotfix 

All going according to plan we should be putting out a balance hotfix for Aatrox today. We concluded he was definitely in too poor a state to leave until the next regular patch and wasn't likely to recover enough just based off relearning. Changes include increased starting health (580, was 537 and had been kept low historically because of the impact of the previous revive in lane), Q CD down (13-11, was 16-12) and W damage up (45-185, was 30-150). Suspect it's likely we'll also make Aatrox changes in 7.6, though we'll need to see where these put him first of course. 

Rek'Sai Timing 

It looks like the Rek'Sai small update's going to be after mid-season at this point (we won't have the artist time needed available until then). 

Mid-season 

Speaking of which it's very likely mid-season will be patch 7.9. That could still change of course, but that's what we're shooting for. 

Next new champ 

The next new champ will be coming out before the next VGU. Once they're out we'll also share some details for anyone curious as to why the longer than usual gap between new champ releases and whether the circumstances that caused it are likely to crop up again or not. 

Knight's Vow on PBE 

We saw some reports yesterday that Knight's Vow had been reverted to its older stats and build path on the PBE yesterday. Going to be looking into that today, it's not an intended change so it's either a datamining error or we've accidentally stomped the newer version with an old file somehow."

"Personal opinion (haven't talked with the Live Gameplay team about those two specifically recently) is that Graves is too universally good a pick and probably too strong. Less sure on Rumble, though seems very worth watching. 

Agree timing on next new champ's still vague. I don't want to undercut the release process the team working on that character have planned though, so that's about all I can offer as a result."

When asked about Aurelion Sol and recent Exhaust changes, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

Hey meddler, 

Ever since you teased about Aurelion Sol's need for changes, I've been a bit anxious about them. Does the team have any concrete plans for him already? 

Also, what about exhaust's current state? Do you think the nerfs were fair?

Nothing concrete on Aurelion Sol, very unlikely we'll make any major changes at least though, direction we were exploring didn't work out as hoped. 

Too early to say much on Exhaust, no major concerns yet at least though."

As for the previously mentioned changes for Azir, Meddler noted:

"This year yes, early part of it no."

Meddler also commented on recent interest in Ninja Tabi, explaining:

"Quote:

Why the sudden interest in ninja tabi use?

We're more interested in Ninja Tabi because Ninja Tabi are much more common. That's generally a sign something's worth paying attention to. So far it looks like Ninja Tabi are an appropriate response to multiple physical damage based enemies using flat pen (Lethality) which is strongly countered by additional armor.

When asked about  the upcoming splash art updates for Karma's skins, Meddler noted:

"Quote:

What is happeneing with the Karma splash updates? 

You've mentioned Maokai and Sejuani a lot at this point. 

Are the Karma ones still happening?

Karma splash updates are still happening, not sure on timing though (that's more of a question for Reav3, though I'd imagine the answer will have to be 'when they're ready')"

 As for  the Warlord's Bloodlust changes on the PBE, Meddler noted:

"Quote:

Do you expect the PBE Warlord's Changes to go live? Are the changes supposed to just make it terrible on bruisers while keeping it good for Crit ADCs and Jhin?

A modified version's likely to go live. Main goal is to smooth out some of the extremes that using Lifesteal directly favors (e.g. how much a Caitlyn Headshot on a minion heals).

Reminders

To round out this red post collection, here are reminders on current promotions or limited time events!

• Two limited time Ocean Week summoner icons are available through 3/17/2017 at 23:59 PT!