Boards›Gameplay

Have You Noticed the Pattern?

Takran·11/26/2014, 3:30:55 PM·328 votes·65,551 views

I can't believe it took me until now to notice, but the last four champions added to the game have serious implications for League as we know it.

http://i.imgur.com/hoCDCW6.jpg

Gnar, Azir, Kalista, and now Rek'Sai each break some sort of design principal that developers have insisted we would never see under any circumstance, ever.

Mechanics that we were told would break the game. Aesthetics that would drive away customers. Concepts that didn't belong in the game that league wanted to be. Look at this:

Gnar - The champion's entire identity centers on a mechanic that is completely out of the player's control. Sure, they have input, and there is enough telegraph to call it random, but there is no direct control over his transformation. Getting poked while small, now you change. Taking CS for a while, now you change. Interacting with almost anything for some duration of time, you will change at some point, willing or not. In the past, Riot has said that random chance, even with some mild influence is an unhealthy mechanic. Some people find this infuriating, but others love it. It adds an interesting new option for gameplay that is fun and refreshing that makes Gnar unique.

Azir - Azir has to micro manage more than one unit and one pet. He can control the battlefield by simultaneously controlling himself and up to three soldiers. His entire kit rotates around this principal. Riot has stated that such a champion would be too confusing and too much like DotA to consider adding to the game. Azir is here now, and has a Shurima sized army of fans.

Kalista - Riot has stated that they would never release a champion that could directly interact with another teammate's champion in a way that takes control from one player's hand. Kalista can grab an ally and take them with her at the push of a button, regardless of what that ally wants. There will be troll Kalistas out there, but the ones who take the champ seriously can make some of the most incredible plays I've ever seen. There is so much potential in this champion for greatness - just wait for competitive matches. Kalista will blow minds in the professional field, and be amazingly fun in the casual play when taken seriously.

Rek'Sai - I'm sure everyone remembers Omen. This champ was scrapped before Riven's release for being too unrelatable, too generic, too strange, and overall too inhuman. The community at large begged Riot to reconsider scrapping Omen. The champion looked like the monster everyone wanted for so long, and was being deleted for being so. Fast forward to Zyra. Everyone was hyped for a female monster champion, and were greeted with a scantly clad women with a few leaves covering key points. While Zyra is a cool and interesting champion, people were outraged that male monsters could look as crazy as Cho'Gath, but female ones had to keep a human form. Riot placed the same argument as with Omen, and left it at that. Now though? Now we have a female monster that is as far as human as it can get. It doesn't speak...it growls. It doesn't have eyes. It's mouth can't make expressions. It's body looks so streamlined to kill, it can barely gesture. It is the most monster-y champion EVER, and it is a she. How cool is that!? It blows my mind, and I love every part of it.

So what does this all mean? Riot is finally becoming open minded to more interesting champion design. With well over 100 champions now that follow the "easy to learn, hard to master" gameplay, and "relatable humanoid" aesthetic, they are finally branching out and making more interesting characters. Characters that are hard to pick up on your first attempt. Characters that you don't understand their entirety at a glance. Characters that aren't typical shapes and sizes.

This is the best thing to happen to league in ages.

Almost every fundamental design rule Riot has set up has been broken. The only one I can think of is "no invoker style champions that fuze abilities", and at the rate that rules are being broken, this could happen VERY soon. This means that old precedents are gone. The sky is the limit. anything is possible. This has been what I have dreamed about for league since season one, and it is finally happening.

Riot, I just have to say: Well done. Your champ designers have been on point lately. This is what the game needed, and I look forward to seeing where things go from here.

EDIT: I've been away a while, and am surprised and happy to see this is still going. Tham Krench really impressed me with an ability that interacted directly with allies the way it does! Plus all the wonderful shenanigans with Gangplank's rework were phenomenal. Riot is still rocking, and I am still thoroughly impressed!

324 Comments

Visys11/26/2014, 3:40:30 PM203 votes

For some reason I expected this to be a complaint thread..

Glad I was wrong.

Volt Cruelerz11/26/2014, 3:36:46 PM41 votes

Well, yes, with the exception of Kalista. The others if nothing else provide unique things that other champions didn't have before. League is now at the point where more unique champions can be made.

Kalista's passive really should allow another player the choice to say no though, if nothing else, because it could get them talking about strategy.

RiotMorello11/27/2014, 2:22:55 AM38 votes

<3

We've learned a lot on HOW to deliver these kinds of things. We believe we'd thrown the baby out with the bathwater in the oldschool design paradigm we had - instead, we want champions that evolve and change the game.

We take this quite seriously now, and can still include things like good counterplay, interesting decisions, and not having you lose at champion select. We still value that stuff, but I think now that we understand how to optimize for it, we can do things that are crazy and allow for that. Omen was a good example in yours - Omen kind of sucks overall (still) as an execution on the voiceless monster. Rek'Sai fucking KILLS it (and is a lady monster which makes me happy!)

Thanks for this post, I'm glad it's not going unnoticed. This will have a dark side on the Champion Reworks front as we'll want to apply some of this to older champions where appropriate as well.

Narasimha11/26/2014, 4:24:16 PM29 votes

Azir - Azir has to micro manage more than one unit and one pet.

You sir, have no idea what micromanaging is.

MrBuffington11/26/2014, 4:33:08 PM19 votes

It's reassuring that at a time where most games would be dying down or have been long ditched in favor of a sequel or successor, League seems like it's really starting to hit its stride, with all the new updates and, as you said, groundbreaking new mechanics. It's an exciting time to be a Summoner (inb4 QQ retcon)

Grand Eleven11/26/2014, 5:27:51 PM15 votes

While Zyra is a cool and interesting champion, people were outraged that male monsters could look as crazy as Cho'Gath, but female ones had to keep a human form.

Some people maybe ... sexy monster girls are my achilles heel, so I was rather pleased. Elise less so because they missed out on a glorious opportunity to make a true spider girl ... but still.

What I find funny about Rek'Sai is this is Excatly what I felt should have been done with Kha'Zix: they could have easily called Kha female with no other alteration and it would have worked out fine.

I like monsters. I like monster girls. No way I'm outraged at either.

Canastus11/26/2014, 10:39:17 PM13 votes

Riot, I just have to say: Well done. Your champ designers have been on point lately. This is what the game needed, and I look forward to seeing where things go from here.

Meanwhile at Riot's rework office.Cassiopeia

No, seriously. I wish they'd have the same kind of minds working on poor Cassiopeia.

Karn Bishop11/26/2014, 8:36:41 PM8 votes

I agree with all of the above, though on the pbe there are people trying to get riot to add actual words to her dialog, I hope riot stands firm and says no this is the theme we are designing for her and if you don't like her you don't have to play her, just like if you don't like how we built gnar you don't have to play him.

A Slime Appears11/26/2014, 11:14:44 PM8 votes

Everyone jizzing their pants over a female monster make me sick. Go outside and get some sun, hopefully the perspective gained from going outside for once will make such trivial shit seem...trivial.

SecretAgentHulk11/27/2014, 1:59:27 AM3 votes

It also speaks to the fact that Riot is becoming more creative. All of these were things they said they wouldn't do because they thought they couldn't be done. Instead, they found a way to do them, and that's awesome.

(Also re: Gnar, uncontrollable is not the same as random chance, but that's a niggle. Great post!)

Fed by Snu Snu11/26/2014, 5:56:17 PM3 votes

So the game is learning from dota.

Hardcore fan-boys kept on going about how they sticked to league because it isn't dota.

Now that lol is learning from them, the same hardcore fan-boys are saying it's the best things that happened.

You know, that's why I consider some people unworthy of even trying to converse with.

Rebonack11/27/2014, 2:50:42 AM3 votes

Hey Morello!

Have you guys considered using some new forms of isolation mechanics like, say, something that removes a champion from allied/minion vision and makes it so they can't send pings for a few seconds? Basically, you drop this debuff on someone who's alone and their team probably won't notice that they're getting ganked until it is too late.

Cuix11/27/2014, 2:27:14 AM1 votes

The only one I can think of is "no invoker style champions that fuze abilities", and at the rate that rules are being broken, this could happen VERY soon.

That's going to be the next release, in the form of our Dancer champion.