Red Post Collection: Quick Gameplay Thoughts October 18, Evelynn AMA, League of Legends Live! & more

[UPDATED with Meddler QGT for 10/18!]

Tonight's small red post collection includes a look at the Evelynn AMA on Reddit, League of Legends Live, a concert experience, and more!
Continue reading for more info!

• Red Post Collection: Quick Gameplay Thoughts, 10/13, Ask Riot: Gaining Honor and Elo, & more
• 10/13 PBE Update; Skin Tweaks, Continued Runes Testing, & More Tentative Balance Changes
• Champion & Skin Sale 10/17 - 10/20
• Free Champion Rotation, Week of October 17th
• 10/16 PBE Update: Continued Runes Reforged Testing & More Tentative Balance Changes
• Super Galaxy Skins Now Available!

• Champion Roadmap: October 2017

Table of Contents

• [NEW] Quick Gameplay Thoughts: October 18
• Evelynn AMA on Reddit
• League of Legends Live!
• Quick Hits
• Reminders

Quick Gameplay Thoughts: October 18

Here's Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for 10/18, including thoughts on Ornn, Evelynn, and the PBE signups being open:

"Hi all, 

Usual Disclaimers 

These posts will often contain talk about future work we're doing, or planning to do, that isn't yet guaranteed to ship. The nature of the work could change or, depending on what we discover, projects mentioned may get put delayed or even stopped. 

If you'd like to see a Tweet whenever a new one of these posts goes up: https://twitter.com/RiotMeddler 

PBE Sign Ups 

First off, for anyone that missed it, PBE sign ups are open again:
https://support.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/201751904 

Second, for anyone testing on PBE, feedback on the PBE Boards is particularly appreciated.
https://boards.pbe.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/general-pbe-feedback 

Feedback anywhere's good of course, the PBE Boards themselves get a lot of attention from developers working on stuff currently on PBE though, so visibility there tends to be quite high, especially given it's not too busy a forum. It's also a place where we can be sure whoever's offering feedback at least has a PBE account, so it's much more likely feedback being offered is from in game experience, not just reading about changes. 

In terms of type of feedback how things feel/useability is particularly helpful from PBE play, as are bug reports. Balance feedback doesn't tend to be very useful, given so many games have people not trying or large skill discrepancies in them there. Feel feedback on the other hand can be really good even in those circumstances (e.g. how smooth spells are to use, whether a Rune tooltip is intuitive, how easy or difficult a missile is to see etc). 

Evelynn 

We're still watching Evelynn. She's performing better as people get more experience on her, and we believe she'll be stronger on Runes Reforged than current runes/masteries. She's still underperforming a bit relative to how we'd expect her to be doing at this point though. We'll likely be going with some light buffs in 7.21 as a result, aimed at things that we're confident are good changes regardless of her current power level (good feels impacts that aren't things we'd nerf if she later ended up too strong). 

That currently looks like: 

• Passive not put on CD when hit by minions
• Q CD down, refund on jungle monsters down significantly, damage up slightly (bit of extra performance in lane, bit less frantic button mashing needed in general)
• E gets a minimum amount of damage on % health damage (ensures E kills mini Krugs in particular) 

We've also been testing some flat damage buffs to E, still considering pulling those though, since as above we're not looking to buff too much and those are just power, rather than a feel improvement as well. 

Ornn 

We had some more buffs for Ornn in 7.20, given he's struggled more than we've expected despite repeated buffs. We think we've got him to about the right point finally so don't have plans for any further balance changes beyond whatever, like other champs, he will or won't need post pre-season. We've been worried about overbuffing him for a while, but haven't yet at least seen indications that that's happened. 

Locket 

We're also looking at some nerfs to Locket, though uncertain whether those will ship in 7.21 yet or not. Big concern is about how much Locket shuts down burst champs that have to commit to a fight (assassins and divers mainly). By itself Locket's not so much of a problem, when stacked with other ally defending effects however it can make otherwise vulnerable targets excessively hard to kill. One of the directions we're looking at as a result is pushing it so it's still a strong option on tanks but isn't nearly as effective on enchanters."

When asked about midseason changes and supports, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

Did the midseason changes make support more desirable to play or do most players still want nothing to do with it?

Desire to play support has increased meaningfully yeah, which then reduces the frequency at which we have to autofill people to support, or put people with support listed as secondary there instead of their primary. Some of that increase is likely dependent on some things that aren't sustainable long term (e.g. Censer having been very strong and recognized as such) so possible we lose some of it again."

On Ryze, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

A while back you mentioned Ryze changes aimed at lowering his pro play presence and strengthening him for solo queue. The Galio buffs that hit PBE recently really seem to hit that niche, and I was wondering if it's practical to get the same designer on Ryze? I don't think increasing the AP ratio on his root was enough to make his kit buffable in other areas. Especially considering he's a champion that doesn't build that much AP.

We've still got that Ryze stuff on a slow boil, main thing that's delayed it is that the Live Gameplay team's been helping out a lot with Runes polish and balancing. A similar approach to Galio's what's on our minds too, the W ratio buff a little while back was a stopgap."

When asked about the difference between Divers and Assassins, Meddler replied:

"Quote:

What is the big difference between Divers and Assassins? Some divers feel like better assassins, some assassins are better judged as divers.
Do you think the armor and MR on jungle monsters needs to be adjusted alongside the changes to runes? AP junglers feel a little weak in the jungle on PBE at the moment (except Diana. Dear Lord, Diana.)

Generalizations: 

Divers - more likely to just approach a fight head on, tankier naturally, usually a mixture of offensive/defensive itemization, stay in the fight to brawl after using CDs, less burst, more CC. 

Assassins - more likely to flank, squishier naturally, generally very offensive itemization, often exit a fight after CD/kills, more burst, less CC. 

The line can be pretty blurry at times between the two though certainly and at end of day they both have the same core (anti-carry). 

For jungle monsters we've been erring on making up needed power for junglers through base stats and/or starting item changes generally. Base stats on monsters could be a good lever though too if those don't go far enough. AP junglers are one of the things the team's potentially looking at in the next couple of weeks."

On Irelia, Meddler commented:

"A lot of it was that the team had really strong concepts for how to make Irelia better that they were really excited to work on. Some of it's also that while how bad a state a champion is in is a major driving factor in selecting VGUs the number of people we can make happy and excited with one's also relevent. Irelia ranked really highly in that regard, in terms of untapped potential and player attachment. 

Don't get me wrong, Nunu and Morde are both really close to the top of our list of VGU candidates too though."

When asked about nerfs for Ardent Censer, Meddler replied:

"Quote:

Is the Ardent Censer on the radar for further nerfs? I'd like to be able to build other items first as applicable supports, or not be harassed by my team for picking a non-ardent support.

We're testing some Ardent nerfs at present. Big point of discussion for us is whether to put it at balanced, which is probably close ish to its current (not Worlds, but live) state, or nerf it hard enough it's just a really poor first item so people re-evaluate it and its impact. Normally we'd want to try and go for balanced, with pre-season coming up and many players still treating it/talking about it like the 7.18 version getting pro play still there's a stronger argument for just hitting it hard enough it's just not very relevant and then adjusting it after the balance state resets in pre-season anyway."

On Jungle camp changes in preseason, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

So no changes to jungle timers/camp base stats/experience?

As previously mentioned we'll be making some adjustments to gold and XP income in pre-season. Details on those next week probably."

On Zeke's, Meddler commented:

"Quote:

How do you feel about Zeke's? I have a hard time seeing its impact as opposed to locket.
Also for the locket Nerf, will you be nerfing the base health of the shield and increase the ratios, or Nerf resistances. I ask because enchanters (soraka) can rack up a lot of health while having their ardent censor, and I feel like locket shouldn't be a go to option for all supports unless the situation calls for it.

I think Zeke's is hard to evaluate/feel, something that's also been true of Ardent historically true. In Zeke's case though it's sufficiently windowed I suspect it's on the weak side however. It's also going to get overshadowed if other support items are strong.
For locket one of the paths we're looking at is making it more dependent on building really tanky. That might mean less base/more HP ratio, could also mean things like an Armor/MR ratio instead however. We've also been considering other approaches to make it somewhat situational too, like a magic damage only shield. More details to come once we've got both some further testing in and discussed it a bit more."

Evelynn AMA on Reddit

After Evelynn's recent update in patch 7.20, the team who came together to recreate her ran an AMA on Reddit, answering questions about her design, gameplay, and much more!

Community user Stukov has again put together all the best answers for easy viewing:

[Evelynn AMA Roundup]

League of Legends Live!

Here's Riot Eroica with more on League of Legends Live:

"Soaring scores and victorious anthems are an integral part of the League of the Legends universe, and we're bringing them to China to celebrate the 2017 World Championship. League of Legends Live is a concert experience featuring international artists and League of Legends community musicians taking place on the eve of the 2017 World Championship Finals. The event will be broadcast live from the Beijing National Aquatics Center (Water Cube) on November 3 @ 7:30 PM local time in Beijing (GMT+8) / November 3 at 4:30 AM PST. 

Performers include:

• Alan Walker
• Mako
• Pentakill
• The Crystal Method
• Yundi
• PG One
• Nicki Taylor
• Lunity
• Albert Chang of sleightlymusical
• TJ Brown
• Rainbow Chamber Singers
• DJ Xu Meng Yuan
• The Hollywood Chamber Orchestra
• and more…

The show will feature performances of a wide variety of music from League of Legends, including Get Jinxed, hits from Pentakill, DJ Sona, Warsongs, Star Guardian, The Curse Of The Sad Mummy, medleys of a wide variety of Worlds and Champion themes, and many other tracks over the course of the 90-minute show. 

We expect that the majority of attendees will be local fans and due to limited seating, we will not be offering tickets outside of China, but you can experience League of Legends Live on Lolesports (http://watch.na.lolesports.com) as well as live via Facebook.com/leagueoflegends! If you miss the live broadcast, we will be re-airing on Lolesports several times leading into Finals."

Quick Hits

• Check out the most recent page of Punches and Plants: A Piltover Police Story, which updates every Tuesday!

• Eyes on Worlds: Episode 2

"Eyes on Worlds is a four-part series that follows the best teams in the world at the 2017 World Championship in China. In Episode 2, we follow Rekkles through Fnatic’s miraculous run in the Group Stage."

•  Flashback: Group Stage Eliminations (Worlds 2017)

"Only eight teams can leave groups and move on to the Quarterfinals. Whose Worlds dreams are being kept alive? Find out with Flashback."

• The Penta: Worlds 2017 Group Stage Week 2

"Check out the top 5 plays from the second week of the Group Stage of the 2017 World Championship in this week's episode of The Penta."

• The Dive: Group Stage Recap and Quarterfinals Preview (Season 1, Episode 28)

"This week on The Dive the gang are joined by Deficio to wrap up all the action from the Group Stage and previewing Quarterfinals."

Reminders