Runes Corner: Meteor Sneak Peek

Riotgregab·Jul 12, 2017·1 votes·140,527 views

Hello! And welcome to another Runes Corner. I’m Riot Gregab from the team working on Runes Reforged and this week we’ve got a sneak peek of a new keystone we’re working on tentatively called Meteor. Check it out and let us know what you think down below!

http://i.imgur.com/HvXteg0.png

Meteor Damaging a champion with an ability hurls a meteor at their location. If the meteor hits them it deals bonus damage [40-100, based on your level +0.2AP and 0.2 bonus AD] Cooldown: 20 - 8 seconds

_(Note: all the specific numbers here are tentative and are likely to go through significant changes before launch.) _

Here’s what Meteor currently looks like in action:

http://i.imgur.com/3ugxkVY.gif

(Note, as usual, that these are temp vfx and not what it’ll look like at ship.)

When Syndra’s Dark Sphere hits Cassiopeia, the meteor fires off from Syndra’s position aimed at the spot where the sphere hit Cassio. Note the red circle that shows up on the ground after Dark Sphere hits.That’s an indicator showing where the meteor’s going to land, giving opponents an opportunity to dodge it. Plus, note the small orange sphere orbiting Syndra before she casts Dark Sphere. It indicates that Meteor is off cooldown and will fire with her next ability. Despite these warnings, Cassio stands still, allowing the meteor to hit her. If she’d walked away before it arrived she could have avoided its damage.

One excellent way to prevent your targets from walking out of the meteor’s path is to stop them from being able to move at all. This gives Meteor excellent synergy with CC abilities like Lux’s Light Binding.

http://i.imgur.com/3ePDVQ7.gif

Like Perxie, which we showed off before, Meteor is a Sorcery keystone. We’ll have more to say about the identities of the individual styles soon, but here’s the short version: Sorcery serves champions who want to enhance ability-based damage, especially AoE spells. Our motto for it is “unleash destruction”.

Let’s take a look at some similarities and differences between these two keystones to get a better idea how you might decide when to take one over the other. The first obvious difference is that Meteor does significantly more damage when it hits (40-100 based on level vs Perxie’s 10-40, plus lower AP and AD scaling ratios). That’s because Perxie is more consistent. It always hits its target while Meteor can be dodged. Also, Perxie sacrifices some raw damage for versatility. When you shield an ally with it, you give up its bonus damage until the pet returns. Whereas Meteor, on the other hand, is all damage.

One similarity between the two keystones it that they both play off of your positioning relative to enemies. However, each rune requires very different positioning to get the most out of them. Perxie asks you to move towards your target to get the pet back sooner and shorten the cooldown. When Perxie’s available it automatically hits enemies you damage, but to land Meteor, you have to position your spells with it in mind, placing them so it’s hard to dodge the flaming rock from the sky that follows.

I hope this quick post gave you a clearer idea of what a keystone can be and got you excited to try out Meteor. We’re looking forward to hearing your reactions. Who would you take this on? What cool synergies can you think of with it?

We’ll stick around in the comments to nerd out with you and answer any questions you might have. Thanks for reading!

For previous Rune’s Corner posts, check out: Rune’s Corner: Content Development Peek.

275 Comments

BerserknurpleJul 12, 201790 votes

I really like the concept, I'm just not sure how I feel about the visual of a big fireball. In my opinion at least, I'd prefer if rune effects didn't look so much like actual spells. Maybe if it was something more toned down but still visible, since I imagine you want clarity. Or maybe it could even be some kind of "eruption" ability, where it works exactly the same, just fire erupts from the ground after a delay rather than a projectile. To me that would be less clutter while still being clear.

But don't get me wrong I really love the way you guys are going about all the new runes. Huge step up from old system

RiotgregabJul 12, 201736 votes

Totally with you. As mentioned in the post the current fireball effect is very much temporary. It's just a placeholder put in by a designer to make it so we could playtest the rune internally (we've jokingly been referring to it as the "meatball" around the team). If and when Meteor's released it would have much more appropriate effects made by a real vfx artist.

VerrenosJul 15, 20174 votes

"Meatball" you say? Should we be expecting Invoker to make an appearance on the Rift then? :P

TormentulaJul 12, 201773 votes

Ziggs : BOMBS AWAY!

https://i.giphy.com/media/12KiGLydHEdak8/giphy.gif

Caitlyn : 12HP Caitlyn : Hah! still al-

https://i.giphy.com/media/zjVqOBGqBv4bK/giphy.gif

KallipolisJul 12, 201767 votes

Personally, I'm not such a fan of ideas like these and Perxie. I think that's because I like to feel like the things I'm doing ingame are stemming directly from the champion I'm playing. That's cool to me, because each champion has distinct lore, visuals and gameplay, and I play champions that I like for those things. If a significant portion of your power and gameplay comes from something that isn't unique in that way, I feel it detracts from champion identity. If every champion midlaner is lobbing meteors, then it isn't special or unique or cool at all. And I'll be less interested in the choice between playing, say, Lux or Syndra, because whichever I pick I'll just be throwing the exact same meteor at people. This is doubly true for stuff like this that has a major visual effect, since inevitably they won't fit in with most champions' aesthetics, making the game seem more disjointed and discordant visually. Of course, this is already the case to some extent for summoner spells and keystone masteries, but I don't mind them too much because they have very long cooldowns (in the former case) and limited impact (in the latter case).

I have to say, I particularly dislike Perxie, mostly because of the way it seems mostly intended for supports. When I'm playing support, I usually feel like the champion I'm playing just isn't as awesome as all the other champions in the game, because I don't have nearly as much power and gameplay impact. In part, that's because a big element of playing support is warding and vision, and that doesn't really feel all that cool and doesn't make you feel like you're fulfilling some kind of champion fantasy. No-one's champion fantasy is buying a sightstone and throwing down wards, and no-one's fantasy can be that because all supports do that. I think this is part of why support is an unpopular position. For me, Perxie would make this even worse because I would feel like as a support, my job is to carry around wards and play taxi service for a magic cat, with my champion starting to feel secondary to that.

DeadUnbornJul 12, 201713 votes

I agree with this. For people that are thematically driven to play champions it doesn't make a lot of sense to have shared identities through the rune system.

SeriouszombieJul 12, 20176 votes

That doesn't make sense, people are going to have to share Runes, that's how the system works. It should be totally possible to see people in game sharing at least one Rune.

Thematics matter when it comes to a champion and its kit, but Runes are designed to be used by multiple champions. They can't be one-size-fits-all without looking generic. If it isn't a fireball, it'd be a lightening bolt or an explosion or a spout of water, it'd have to be something eventually and it'll never fit every champ perfectly.

DeadUnbornJul 13, 201714 votes

You misunderstand. Is am complaining about the vfx side of the runes, not the gameplay mechanics. I do not mind titanic hydra, runans hurricane or thunderlords because they are very mild effects that do not take away thematically how a champion feels. Having thresh with a cutsie little furby hovering next to him is very distrating and thematically clashing. If I buy, for example, omega squad teemo skin is because the thematics of the skin spoke to me, and meshing fire breathing or flying unicorn special effects over my character while I am playing that skin takes away from it in my opinion.

For example, if the rune "Meteor" was a surge of energy that erupted from the ground and had effects similar to thunderlords, that would be a lot less distracting/thematically diluted than a meteor being chucked from your character (I know they are placeholder vfx, but I don't knwo what rout they want to take things)

More concretely, Helpsy or whatever his name is as an Sakura Card Captor animal is very dissonant with dark characters. however is the vfx for Helpsy, for example, an orb or a minute totem or something like that, then it wouldn't so heavily clash with champion mechanics, because its look would be more "neutral".

That being said, I'm not sure runes that give champion "mini games" would be fun, since they would maybe sinergize extremly well with some and very poorly with others, but I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt until I have my hands on them

RiotgregabJul 13, 201716 votes

I hear you about the thematic concerns. As mentioned in the post this is nowhere near the final vfx. These vfx were made by a game designer in order to make the rune legible in our internal playtests. And they were made using bits of existing vfx that were already in the game. That's something we do often for prototyping. Once a real vfx artist has worked on this it'll get much less noisy and fall into line much more closely with the level of the other vfx in the game. Also, we haven't finished theming it. So it may not end up as a literal "meteor" at all.

Hyrum GraffJul 14, 20173 votes

{quoted}

I hear you about the thematic concerns. As mentioned in the post this is nowhere near the final vfx. These vfx were made by a game designer in order to make the rune legible in our internal playtests. And they were made using bits of existing vfx that were already in the game. That's something we do often for prototyping. Once a real vfx artist has worked on this it'll get much less noisy and fall into line much more closely with the level of the other vfx in the game. Also, we haven't finished theming it. So it may not end up as a literal "meteor" at all.

It'd be cool if runes didn't have to look the same for all champs. Eg, some can have a Cutesy Perxie while others get Evil Perxie. I think it should still be ok for clarity as long as they don't change too much.

Arny PalmyJul 13, 20178 votes

You make a really good point about the thematic.

However, I want to chime in to say that I love roaming the map as Bard and warding - it really DOES feel like part of his fantasy. Also, it seems like you aren't a support player... I think anyone who doesn't enjoy the support playstyle isn't going to enjoy a Rune designed for supports.

Also, "no-one's fantasy can be that because all supports do that" - this is incorrect reasoning. Items are shared across league by many champions, which don't seem to detract from their theme. Redemption's active doesn't fit with a bunch of supports themetically, but I think most supports were happy with its inclusion.

DeadUnbornJul 12, 201735 votes

Honestly, I'm not particulary fond of these types of runes. The thematic disconect is too high for me. Why would, say, Thresh - a tormented spirit who wants to hurt people- have a cute little sidekick by his side? why would lux throw meteors? I understand from a gameplay mechanic perspective how the runes add value, but without the ability to add cosmetic changes to runes like this I would dislike how the may not adhere to a champion's thematic, even if the gameplay value of the rune is sound

AtanchanJul 13, 20171 votes

I suppose you have problems with items that have their own visual effects as well?

Zatch NakarieJul 13, 20176 votes

I think your generalizing too much. This meteor and Perxie are more game play impactful and visually clashing than other effects.

Take the keystones, obvious visual effects that have an okay impact but aren't that graphically intense or thematically clashing. Thunderlords is a flash of lighting that can easily be missed, Grasp of the Undying is an obvious heal graphic that doesn't detract from the champs that use it.

Perxie though is a 'rune' with a whole model that is constantly there. Similarly there is Pix, which is unique and part of the theme of lulu. Cute, minor, helpful. Adding that element to any champ you want can have thematic consequences. Thresh is the go to example in this thread for some reason, dark, deadly, haunting. Those themes don't exactly mesh well with Perxie.

Then there are minor effects of items; Ruannes, Liandrys, Ludens, etc. Most of these don't add anything passively to the champion with the exception of Ruannes which gives a small orb where the bolts come out. But even that orb doesn't have a personality or theme to it, its just a ball. All these effects are minor, don't add a passive effect that clashes with the champion theme or provide a visual that overshadows normal abilities or summoner spells.

warpenguin555Jul 12, 201711 votes

Malzahar ult and meteor throw.

"It can miss" XD

Bootleg GayJul 12, 201710 votes

Are you afraid that with Sorcery runes, you may end up cluttering the visuals of the game even more? In this type of game, a lot can happen in a span of half a second, and all the abilities flying around combined with the new special effect runes, especially ones with big visual effects like these, might really hinder the ability to read a teamfight or the like? Any concerns on clarity with these, or other runes?

RiotSparkleJul 12, 201716 votes

Hi, it's me your person who is very, very concerned with clarity. I totally agree that it's really important that we don't add a ton of additional visual noise to the game with a buncha giant meatballs flyin' everywhere.

This particular temporary particle is WAY too loud, we all agree. Something like the Sorcery keystone Perxie we showed (which also has temporary particles rn) is also above the noise level we want to hit on for when the rune actually comes out in the game.

We usually wait until we've tested out the gameplay to a level we're confident in before getting an artist to spend time making real VFX (we don't wanna waste their time on something we're probably going to throw away by getting art too early!). Full disclosure, Meteor is actually in the process of getting real VFX at this very moment. The gameplay part is far enough to both share with you guys and start VFX art with, but that also means we're sharing before the art is done (which we don't do very often). :O

TL;DR We wanted to share with you guys some of our cool stuff that's not completely done right now, and Meteor is an example of a Keystone that is not at the quality & clarity bar VFX-wise for release yet.

VekknaJul 13, 20173 votes

I vastly prefer flashier particle effects, and I feel like there's too much concern over "visual noise." Every clarity issue I experience is because of too little visual information, not too much visual information.

For example, I always know when I'm hit by Protobelt or GLP, but Gunblade in melee range is basically not visible. Ditto Shiv's audio and visual compared to RFC.

I question Riot's stated concern about clarity considering that Riven exists. Why is there any concern about obscuring particles when she single-handedly proves that it doesn't matter if an enemy can see or hear what's actually happening? You could stack ults from Zyra, Kindred, Amumu, and Nunu, and you still have more visual clarity than you get from literally any interaction with a good Riven.

So....just make the effects pretty because visual noise is not league's problem.

La BelloJul 12, 201710 votes

honestly this is getting to be kinda immersion ruining ( Nami the water enchanter throwing fireballs at me when a bubble lands on me? ).

Like I can understand the more sensical bonuses like "bloodlust to heal off kills" and "going berserk for extra as" and the other hiddenstat boost like storm raiders but all these other SFX going off is getting really distracting

Soraka sending some little minion to attach to my model, Lux is going to be hurling meteors at me while Syndra shocks me with thunder? Whats next? Am I going to have to worry about Yasuo summoning a Tidal wave on me or Blitzcrank calling in a AC-130 strike on me from across the lane because thats a Keystone rune he took?

These abiltiies look to be way too confusing and seems too overwhelming to be going off in a chaotic teamfight. Honestly not a fan of this and would instead like to see more visually toned down runes like the ones we currently have . particles have much less visual noise and are easy to identify at a glance whos affected by what whereas whats being shown here looks like an entirely separate ability tacked onto models..

I understand you guys really want runes to stand out compared to the old runes and be impactful but I think theres a careful line between using runes to amplify your champion and using runes to upgrade your champion into something else entirely . Also as a side note this doesnt really seem to "augment" my champion in any way. Its just Thunderlordss all over again but with some counterplay tacked on.

I thought we were trying to move away from just "more damage" abilities and instead make abilities that really reward particular playstyles or out of the box strategies and thinking instead.

InfernoKoalaJul 12, 20174 votes

How would this ability synergize with Karthus ulti? Would it fire on the nearest enemy? Does it fire on all the enemies? I guess this question applies with any AoE effect, but Karthus in particular interests me because the targets can be so far apart.

BleKzJul 13, 20174 votes

Holly shit, sorry but it looks horrible...

mr Boombastic787Jul 13, 20174 votes

I like it, it will be doing the same kind of work as ludens echo so that would be a strong synergy. If you play some poke and burst Mage like Xerath it would be really nice.

My concern is that compared to a keystone as Beserk it will be really underpowered unless you give it a ton more damage. Berserk is not such an interactive keystone as this but still just gives so much power it makes this feel less awesome. Just my thought on it.

Also a sidenote I would like you to make the Ruined kings keystone function more like Grasp since it don't feel as tactical and interactive as Grasp

Great job on the runes reformed! I am soooo exited for preseason 8! :D

MetallmeisterJul 12, 20173 votes

[deleted]

RiotSparkleJul 12, 201712 votes

We've seen this one proc'd with all kinds of creative abilities - for Jinx & Ashe ult it works like you think it would. There are a lot of cool ways we've seen it used by someone going "Do you think....?"

EDIT: Pretty sure Heimer turrets don't work but there's another Yordle I've seen that makes good use of it. :)

Sahn UzalJul 12, 20177 votes

... Are you telling me my Cannon Barrage can send a little meteor to Botlane? That's amazing. Is it a set Travel Time or does the Travel time increase with distance?

RiotSparkleJul 12, 201720 votes

Yes.

It's a fixed travel time - it gets speedier if you're super far away.

Cyber HeroXLJul 12, 20179 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Sparkle,realm=NA,application-id=A7LBtoKc,discussion-id=nVHz5tjE,comment-id=0002000000000000,timestamp=2017-07-12T22:02:56.956+0000)

Yes.

It's a fixed travel time - it gets speedier if you're super far away.

so what your saying is i should build rageblade/gunblade on ashe for those ubercharged ults [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

RiotSparkleJul 12, 201712 votes

Are you my cousin Evan? STOP TRYING TO MAKE AP ASHE WORK EVAN. :P

(Just kidding, follow ur dreams :D)

SpideraxeJul 12, 20175 votes

Which target gets priority if Karthus ults, is it like Ludens

RiotSparkleJul 13, 20179 votes

Yes

BreakstarJul 13, 20172 votes

Currently Luden's is proximity-based according to my testing (it hits the closest damaged champion to Karthus). Can we assume this is both intended, and how Meteor will work?

GRIMThousandEyesJul 13, 20174 votes

My experience is that it hits the person on the top of the scoreboard

jmp231Jul 12, 20171 votes

Wait so if jinx hit some one across the map with her ult would the meteor fly all the ways cross the map?

RiotgregabJul 13, 20177 votes

Yup.

HelmightJul 12, 20173 votes

Is there any concern about having this many unique effects cluttering up teamfights? I can see teams with a couple of Meteors, a Perixie, and possibly another high-visual noise mastery really makings things hard to read.

RiotgregabJul 13, 20175 votes

We're definitely keeping a close eye on the amount of visuals that runes add to the game, especially in team fights. As mentioned in the post, these effects are very much temporary. They were made by a game designer out of cannibalized pieces of things that are already in the game just to get the rune to the point where we could playtest it. Before we get anywhere near launching this a real vfx artist will work on it and make it both much better and much less loud.

Angularsole6Jul 13, 20173 votes

Really not a fan of where the game is going with these new runes. It's too much, just give me my AD quints or whatever and call it a day, obviously riot doesn't care about fan feedback, they always do what they want regardless of how many players express concerns to changes. But whatever, I'll just take another 6 month hiatus until the game is fixed again.

The Last BalladJul 14, 20176 votes

2 things.

Just because they are not listening to you, or only to the negative reactions does not mean they are not listening to the fan feedback. Plenty of people love the new direction of these and can't wait for it to be released. Others have been posting concerns about the new system, some of which Riot has been addressing(part of the reason they have opened the discussion this far from the preseason changes). Pretty much the only replies I have seen them ignore completely is ones like these, who are not posting constructive criticisms and just demanding the game to be stagnant. Stagnation of the games systems is not an improvement, and things cannot change for the better if they never change at all.

I'll just take another 6 month hiatus until the game is fixed again.

? After that 6 month hiatus it will be January, and the rune system will be implemented while you missed out on the last few pre-runes-rework months left(and none of your feedback submitted if you also take a hiatus from the boards). Or it will be April-May and the runes will be even more settled in(unless that is what you meant).

TormentulaJul 12, 20172 votes

Karthus

Please tell me it interacts the way we're both thinking.

RiotSparkleJul 12, 20176 votes

Yep - it works with Karthus for sure

QuephaJul 13, 20174 votes

so is it going to target based on the order of your tab menu?

Ozzie StormJul 12, 20172 votes

What happens if you hit multiple enemies at different locations simultaniously with let's say a Lux ult, what enemy get's prioritied to get meteoried and based on what?

RiotSparkleJul 12, 20175 votes

One of them will definitely get Meteor'd

Impish YordleJul 13, 20171 votes

But which enemy hit by the aoe spell gets prioritized by meteor? Let's say Lux hits 3 people with ult which are in a line and each hit champion is 1000 unit away from the other. On which one's position would the meteor home in? Does it work like Ludens proc in that regard?

RiotSparkleJul 13, 20175 votes

Yes, it works like Ludens in that regard.

AbyssphereJul 12, 20171 votes

Is this the Thunderlord's replacement? If so, what led you to favour this design over that of TLD?

RiotSparkleJul 12, 20173 votes

No, this is not related to TLD.

Overlord ForteJul 12, 20174 votes

If TLD and Meteor exist in the same system, TLD's entire sub-mastery route is going to have to be absolutely awful for mages, or they'll always grab it. The reliability issues of Meteor is a sharp downgrade.

Giani GeorgianJul 13, 20171 votes

First of all, could you use this keystone rune's icon (I know is tentative) to replace Miss Fortune's current E icon ? Looks clean and would definitely fit to her kit.

Secondly, the way this keystone rune works seems ok. Hope we'll see some of the old masteries and ketstones ported to the new rune system, examples: Thunderlord, Grasp of the Undying, Windspeaker (instead of Perxie, does what it currently does to allies, but deals bonus damage to enemies with a certain CD - 30 seconds to 12, based on level), Warlord and many more.

RiotRiot HoneyTowerJul 18, 20174 votes

This placeholder icon is actually MF ultimate rotated by 90 degrees <3 :).