Today's red post collection includes Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for October 10th and 12th, a /Dev update on Nexus Blitz, a new Ask Riot answering ranked questions, and much more!

Table of Contents





Quick Gameplay Thoughts: October 10

Meddler's

Hi folks,

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 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

Removal of the jungle funneling penalty

As mentioned when it was introduced one of our goals for preseason is to remove the jungle funneling penalty (Monster Hunter). That penalty was added to discourage funneling both jungle and lane farm onto one champion without interacting much in either position with the enemy.

Our current belief is that two of the preseason changes should reduce the appeal of funneling enough we can remove Monster Hunter without an explicit replacement:

Bounty scaling - Bounties will now be scaling somewhat off minions/monsters killed, not only off champions killed. That means that focusing farm so heavily on one champ becomes a bigger risk, with greater payout for the enemy if they can shut them down, given better options against funnel strats.

Barricade (temp name) gold - Being able to gain rewards from pushing on a tower even if you can't take it down entirely makes leaving a lane uncontested a higher price to pay. That also reduces the appeal of funneling play in most circumstances.

We're still testing whether the combination of those two things should be enough. Looks hopeful so far though.

How popular are the different queues?

Something I thought it would be good to share was a look at how popular the different queue types in LoL are, both from an overall perspective and looking at how they vary region to region. Chart below showing a % breakdown (hours played in each mode) in early September for a few regions with different habits.

Looking at the regions shown:

Overall - None of the regions, whether those shown here or the others not listed, is highly representative of the overall average. Every region has at least one queue in which they're noticeably divergent from average play rates.

Korea - Korean players like solo queue a lot more than those from other regions, with low play in normals as a result. They play average amounts of ARAM, but have low interest in other modes compared to players elsewhere (e.g. Nexus Blitz or most RGMs we've run in the past).

NA - NA Players play less Flex than almost every other region. They're bigger fans of non SR modes, with the most Nexus Blitz play of any region and nearly the most TT play (EUW has slightly more TT games).

Brazil - Brazil's a newer region and so players there follow a couple of trends we see on newer servers, with more normal play and Co-op versus AI than average and less ARAM.

Some small item/rune changes in 8.21

We’ve got some small adjustments to a few items in 8.21, bit of context:

Essence Reaver - Cutting 200g off the cost as short term help. Might have something larger for it later in the year, want to make it a better regardless now though.

Edge of Night - Cost reduction by 200g as well. No current plans for changing its functionality, think we’ve definitely got it overpriced though.

Time Warp Tonic - We’re looking at different possible ways to nerf TWT, given the amount of health/mana restoration it’s offering is excessive. Current version in testing is a change where instead of offering increased duration and MS during the duration it instead gives some restoration up front, doesn’t change duration at all and still gives the movement speed."

Meddler

"Changes we were testing a few patches back haven't worked out overall, pulling back on those. Will be looking at some simpler changes potentially in the next patch or two, can't make any promises about what or if something will ship though yet."

Meddler

"Depends enormously on the region. NA from memory for example has a even (ish) split, while some regions have much more play in blind. Tends to be somewhat associated with amount of play in flex queue too, with regions with higher flex play rates generally showing lower normal draft, suggesting the two are heavily overlapped in terms of how many players tend to view them."

Meddler

"We had a chat recently about our different queues. Issue of whether we should replace TT with something else did get raised, given its play rate ranges from extremely low in regions like NA and EU to effectively non existent in most other regions. We concluded we should still keep it despite that, though I expect we'd want to revisit that if things changed (e.g. if it's play rate declines further).

For reference, Dominion was substantially lower in play rate again than current TT when we made the call to remove it."

Meddler

"Theme and gameplay are distinct, though also quite niche in their appeal. Wouldn't look to substantially change either though. Counterplay can be a bit limited at times, but not critically so.

Visually he holds up ok. Showing his age a bit, pardon the phrase, but not to the same degree as other older champs.

Wouldn't prioritize any major work for him as a result."

Quick Gameplay Thoughts: October 12

Meddler's

"Hi folks,

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 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

MF VO

Back when we were recording the VO for Gun Goddess MF we also looked at a VO update for MF's base VO, given we had voice actresses for all the required languages in the studio already. As you'll have noticed we didn't end up going through with that though. Wanted to share some details as to what happened there.

We recorded a lot of lines for a new MF VO set and put them into internal testing. Reaction was unexpectedly poor to it. To get a wider read we then reached out to Rioters who've played a lot of MF (mains or former mains generally) to get their thoughts.

Feedback was really split, with different people having different takes on who MF is. We then put that new VO into research labs with a number of regular players who came in to visit our campus, some of whom were MF mains, some of whom weren't. Once again we saw some really contrasting feedback, in particular the distinction between "spunky, playful" versus "bad ass, bounty hunter". We believe that reflects in significant part that our portrayal of MF has changed over the years. Her presentation in some of the newer stories for example is more the bad ass version. Her current VO, given its age however is more the flirty, fun earlier take on the character.

Between that disconnect over who MF is, and some sadness at moving to a new voice actress from some play testers we concluded it didn't make sense to use the new VO. That was a disappointment, given it felt like a great opportunity to update a well loved champ with a very limited set of lines. It was a case where the downside felt larger than the upside though. We'll hopefully take another swing at updating MF's voice at some point, starting with a better definition for MF's identity to base a script and performance off.

Couple of notable bug fixes in 8.21

I normally avoid talking about specific bug fixes given there are a lot in any given patch. Wanted to touch on a couple today though, given they're topics I've seen a number of questions on, the Zyra one especially.

Zyra - Got a fix for an issue where plants would get stuck trying to attack untargetable non champion enemies (e.g. Azir Soldiers or Orianna ball) and therefore be unresponsive when it came to attacking actual targetable enemies nearby.

Yorick - A bug fix for the Maiden to address cases where, while she's still following Yorick, she wouldn't always recall when he did. Mainly an issue in the jungle. Doesn't affect cases where the Maiden's no longer following Yorick."

Meddler

"Yeah, been working on some clarity and relevance issues this week. Been testing some changes as a result. Fairly confident they've addressed those problems while keeping the whole freeze your enemies on kill so they slow then explode thing."

Meddler

"Preseason, so 8.23 in November."

Meddler

"Not sure yet. We won't always do each event every year, want to give room to both try new types of event and let events breath a bit so they feel fresher when they come back (e.g. Pool Party skipping a year).

When we do do versus it's likely it'll always be with champs that have some reason to be rivals. That could mean in lore rivals like Yasuo/Riven or Rengar/Kha'Zix as you call out. Or it could be rivalries playing on other themes. Things like fire versus ice with Brand/Anivia, light versus darkness with Nocturne/Lux, small versus large with some Yordle and Cho'Gath etc (these are just examples, not promises)."

Meddler

"Balance is reasonable, gameplay is fairly healthy (though does suppress immobile melee a bit much, resulting in a mobility versus slows arms race).

Appearance and audio are pretty middle of the pack IMO, so certainly wouldn't take time off champs showing their age a lot to work on Ashe instead."

/Dev: Up Next for Nexus Blitz





"It’s been about a month since the last time you catapulted from base into a surprisingly rowdy scuttle crab race during the live alpha test of Nexus Blitz, our first experimental game mode.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been poring through all your feedback and analyzing data from every region with playrate graphs that look like abstract impressionism. We’re no art critics, but the interpretation is pretty clear: Nexus Blitz showed some promise, so we’re bringing it back for a second test run, targeted for patch 8.24! We’re here today to talk about the common themes we saw in your feedback and chat about what we’re looking to change for round two.

But I thought Nexus Blitz was gonna be permanent?

Nexus Blitz was a smash hit for some players, which is a great sign. On the flip side, there were some clear shortcomings in the mode that meant we didn’t end up seeing the sustained levels of engagement that would’ve moved Nexus Blitz directly into becoming a permanent feature. Fortunately, we’ve identified a few focus areas where we can make some significant improvements based on alpha feedback. The purpose of this second test is to see if our updates hit the mark for players who decided the first version wasn’t their cup of tea, as well as for players who never took the mode out for a spin during alpha.

Speaking of those things we want to update…

YOU SAID: “THIS MAP LOOKS LIKE JANK.”

The idea behind experimental game modes is to get a design we think might have potential in front of players as soon as possible, which means limiting how much polish we put into the visuals. However, we heard from many of you that the map wasn’t just a work-in-progress—it was a distraction. We don’t want your eyes to fight with the map to figure out what’s going on, so we will:

Clean up some of the roughest visuals. The edges of the map and the base area are some of the biggest offenders here.

The edges of the map and the base area are some of the biggest offenders here. Improve clarity in areas you where spend the most time. Improving the quality of the map in high-traffic areas, like the base, should make it easier to tell at a glance exactly where you are and what important map elements and objectives are nearby.

As we’ve mentioned before, if Nexus Blitz is fully launched after this test, we won’t just refine the map—we’ll give it a new, unique visual and thematic identity!

YOU SAID: “AAAAAAAHHH WTF IS GOING ON?”

A big part of Nexus Blitz’s appeal is that it has much faster-paced gameplay in comparison to League’s current permanent modes. But when you combine that with the aforementioned unpolished art and less-than-ideal clarity around events, it sometimes felt unclear what you were supposed to be doing. We think we can retain Nexus Blitz’s high-octane gameplay while giving you a clearer path to success if we:

Build in relatively calm periods. We aren’t adding SR’s laning phase, but we want teams to have somewhat-lower-intensity periods to take stock of the game state. We think getting a chance to plan your next move will help the 5v5 mosh pit that follows have a clearer purpose.

Improve event clarity. We’re exploring ways to make it clearer which event is happening and what you should be doing to win it. Improvements here could be anything from tooltips to HUD elements to audio cues.

Improve map clarity. The clean-up mentioned in the previous section should help here too.

YOU SAID: “SOME PARTS OF NEXUS BLITZ ARE FRUSTRATING OR NOT ALL THAT FUN”

Less frustration, more fun. Got it. Here’s our not-exhaustive to-do list:

Add new events and rewards! Because variety is the spice of life and Nexus Blitz is a spicy mode.

Because variety is the spice of life and Nexus Blitz is a spicy mode. Change or remove frustrating, boring, or unbalanced events and rewards. You’ll probably always have favorites based on the champion you’re playing, team comp, or personal definition of fun, but no option should feel consistently bad to encounter. We’ll also continue tuning event spawn locations, and we also want to make the system a bit smarter in terms of which events and rewards are active at different points in the game.

You’ll probably always have favorites based on the champion you’re playing, team comp, or personal definition of fun, but no option should feel consistently bad to encounter. We’ll also continue tuning event spawn locations, and we also want to make the system a bit smarter in terms of which events and rewards are active at different points in the game. Keep working on balance. Nexus Blitz alpha launched with a preemptive balance sweep, and we shipped a bunch of balance hotfixes throughout the four-week test. Going back over the numbers, balance was actually quite solid for our first run out of the gate—there were champs across all classes worth taking, and the vast majority of champions were able to jungle with a synergistic partner. We’ll have another balance pass ready to go for our second test, informed by alpha test data and supported by the pacing and event work we mentioned earlier.

Nexus Blitz alpha launched with a preemptive balance sweep, and we shipped a bunch of balance hotfixes throughout the four-week test. Going back over the numbers, balance was actually quite solid for our first run out of the gate—there were champs across all classes worth taking, and the vast majority of champions were able to jungle with a synergistic partner. We’ll have another balance pass ready to go for our second test, informed by alpha test data and supported by the pacing and event work we mentioned earlier. Improve matchmaking, especially for the first few games. We’ll be able to start players off closer to the MMR they’re likely to settle at after many games of Nexus Blitz. This should reduce the number of blowout games for new entrants as well as players who are hovering around the average MMR level.

YOU SAID: “GIVE US BANS!”

Nexus Blitz was designed for non-competitive fun, and being able to play whatever you want is a big part of that. That said, we get it’s not super fun to run into the same champs over and over, or to constantly deal with a champ that’s frustrating to play against. We tested bans in OCE for one weekend at the end of alpha to observe what would happen and are exploring other potential ways to solve the staleness/frustration problems. We haven’t made a final call yet, so the answer to the bans question is a noncommittal “maybe” for now.

YOU SAID: “I DON’T HAVE ANYTHING TO WORK TOWARD ACROSS LOTS OF GAMES.”

Well, you actually said “Give us ranked.” Unfortunately, ranked is about as far in the opposite direction as a feature can go, relative to Nexus Blitz’s goal of being a fun-first, lower-stress mode. On the other hand, ranked isn’t the only way we can give you stuff to do across multiple games, and we’re looking into what we can pull together in time for test two.

Longer term, we think there’s lots of space for progression and recognition systems that don’t currently exist, whether in Nexus Blitz or another Experimental Mode entirely. Like map theming, though, those ideas will take a ton of time to build out, so we want to make sure we’ve got a real winner on our hands before we dive in.

YOU SAID: (NOTHING, BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT NEXUS BLITZ OR WHY YOU SHOULD PLAY IT).

Your chance is coming! We hope you’ll give the new and improved mode a try when it returns in patch 8.24 at the end of the year (and tell your friends if you think they should check it out)."

Ask Riot: Ranked Edition

Continue reading for more information!Here's quick gameplay thoughts for October 10th, with thoughts on removing the Jungle funneling penalty, popularity of different queues, and more:When asked about the state ofWhen asked about how blind pick and draft pick compared,When asked for his thoughts on the popularity of Twisted Treeline,When asked for his thoughts onHere's quick gameplay thoughts for October 12th, including thoughts on a scrapped update for Miss Fortune's VO, and some 8.21 bugfixes: provided an update onpassive: noted when Preseason changes would hit the PBE:When asked whether we would see a VS. event next year,When asked about the state ofCheck out this new /Dev blog on Nexus Blitz - "Nexus Blitz is coming back for a 2nd test with new events, improved visuals, and—as always—mayhem."Check out this week's new Ask Riot - "Wood tier, position ranks, placements, resets, and AFK players."