

Here we go with another red post collection!

Continue reading for an update on Dominion support, an update on where patch 3.8 is, more on the upcoming Sona changes in 3.8, some BIG hints on the next ultimate skin, commentary on LeBlanc , and more!

Where is the promised Dominion Developer Support?

Morello

"Very soon. Nome's been hard at work on making this a reality. I appreciate your patience, and we're just about there!"

"Three patches is soon :x I mean I guess I can say "indeterminate" if that's the case."

"Because things aren't magical and instantaneous. It's like people have to do work to make things happen :P



It's not a "flip of the switch," or a "5-minute job". It's a new technology that allows other maps to refer to alternate files that determine different numbers only for that map.



And the performance and server implications...



And the code being made, tested, debugged...."





More on patch 3.8's Sona Changes

Morello

"Because giving a character a new skill that gives 20% damage reduction is a major buff. To add that to Sona, you have to take it away unless your intent is to buff her hard.

The difference between...

* Fixed a bug that caused Sona's damage reduction to not function

and



* Diminuendo: now grants 20% damage reduction to enemies hit



...is only one thing; intent. It's a bug because it was supposed to be doing that prior. Since we've done Sona balance without her having this mechanic, and she's already strong, she cannot be balanced the same by adding a new mechanic."

"No, we just learned about it. That's why we're fixing it.



It was especially nasty because the UI and damage text reported reduced damage, but it didn't actually occur."

"We balanced her as if she had this mechanic, but she didn't. People reported it not being very effective in playtests, so we assumed that the other powercords outperformed it. That is the case when the W Powercord was totally ineffective :)



Additionally, we did undo some of the nerfs to her toughness because we think with the powercord damage nerfs, those are less needed."

Where is Patch 3.8 / Aatrox ?

Damiya

"I can't comment on when it will be available. I will say that it won't be tonight or this weekend. Enjoy your Friday, folks :)"

Morello

" ... there's some big things going on with the operations side of that patch that's making us need to do more clean up. Content-wise we're good, but there's a lot of things that make a patch a reality!"





Commentary on Le Blanc

Morello

Roku

"I'm not Morello nor technically a game designer, but I've been looking at and working on Leblanc a bit recently so I can fill in some insight.

Leblanc is a champ that we haven't tweaked in a while because of some fundamental quirks with her playstyle and her balance. How her Mimic currently works forces her to use it with the spell she's maxing first, and that synergizes best with her highest damage ability - Sigil of Silence. This makes it so that her early and mid game spike up super high, and because of so much of that is on Sigil of Silence, your opponent doesn't have much of an option other than stacking Magic Resist and hoping to survive. We'd like to make changes to push emphasis away from her Q, and instead on to her other abilities.

For instance: If Mimic has its own damage independent from her base abilities, then that opens up the ability to use Mimic Distortion for clearing minions, or Mimic: Ethereal Chains for additional control without losing a huge chunk of your damage.



Looking to improve her overall quality of life as well with small things like making her passive move around instead of just standing still. On that note: are there any oddities or general frustrations when playing LeBlanc that could be cleaned up?"

"A recurring theme seems to be the passive.

One of the things we're trying on that front is making it so that when the passive procs, instead of the clone standing around awaiting a command, it will try to run instead. It is still fully controllable, but until you give it an order it will just try and run away. This has tested pretty well and especially in more chaotic team fights allows the passive to have an effect even if you don't instantly react and micro it.



I'll try to see if we can get some of the other bugs fixed as well. Thanks everyone!"





More on the Next Ultimate Skin

Morello

"It is not. Not this one :)"

Morello

"Not yet. It'll be a bit still, we'll make it, it will just be awhile."

Morello

"Within the spirit of openness, I'll tell you this:



This champion is a melee champion."

( Editor's note: As I've noted before, It's likely Udyr :p )

Odds and Ends

Morello

"We're looking at Jayce right now - we agree he's a bit much."

When asked when we'll see more support, that is more attention from the developers, for Dominion,After coming under fire that 3 patches isn't "very soon", Morello defended himself by saying:When asked WHY we can't see this in the next patch or even in recent patches, he replied Turns out that summoners are still upset over the upcoming changes / major bug fixes, Here is, again, explaining that the bug fix on her W power chorda buff and she needs to be balanced back to with that fact in mind.When questioned if Riot has known about this bug the whole time, he replied He also spelled out whyis receiving nerfs in light of this bug fix.Not that it's a big revelation or anything butdid note that, as usual, we shouldn't expected patch 3.8 to be deployed this weekend.Similarly, reminded us that it's not all content that goes into patchingIn a thread attempting to baitinto a discussion about LeBlanc,stepped up the plate to discuss the history behindchanges and shared a few of his thoughts on what direction she is heading in.After a boat load of community discussion, he replied A curious summoner asked if, a very popular community generated skin, was the next ultimate skin,As a follow up, someone else asked if Dragon Master Swain was still on the table or if he was to be released soon-ish.In more tangible news,also dropped some big hints about the upcoming ultimate tier skin saying both that the fourth letter of one of the champion's abilities is an E and also dropped off a tid-bit aboutbalance