AMA with the Kai'Sa team! (x-post from r/leagueoflegends)

RiotDyQuill·3/8/2018, 8:48:31 PM·11 votes·6,401 views

We're the team that created Kai'Sa. Ask us anything! * r/leagueoflegends

THE AMA HAS OFFICIALLY ENDED (as of 3:00pm PST). As always, a few Rioters will stick around as time allows. Thanks, everyone!

There's a Kai'Sa AMA is happening right over on reddit from 12:00pm PST to 3:00pm PST

But we're gonna hang out here as well!

We've got writers, artists, designers, engineers, and more who worked on Kai'Sa and want to tell you all about it. So what do you wanna know?

CATCH UP ON KAI'SA

Comic - Breach: https://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/featured/kaisa-comic

Kai'Sa Champion Reveal: https://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/featured/champion-reveal-kaisa

Kai'Sa Champion Spotlight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLNMZt3FvFo

Champ Bio: https://universe.leagueoflegends.com/en_US/story/champion/kaisa/

51 Comments

HalcyonDweller3/8/2018, 8:50:29 PM10 votes

With Kai'Sa being released, we have run into an age old problem again. Players are banning the champion in ranked to not have to play with teammates who don't know what they are doing on her yet, and then the players who wanted to play her are trolling their teammates in revenge.

Please for the love of god, why are new releases enabled in ranked during the first week?

Hellioning3/8/2018, 9:04:40 PM5 votes

Why the cleavage?

GinoSoldier3/8/2018, 10:37:25 PM4 votes

I'd like to know more about the one thing that matters the most pertaining to Kai'sa's lore.

How did she meet/come across her second skin, what was it really, and why hasn't it devoured her alive yet? She may be a champion, but 10-years old Kaisa wasn't actually one at that absolutely crucial point in time. Telling us 'she's unique' just sounds like a convenient excuse without any meat to it, to be honest.

We've had some rather shorthanded answers from Rioters that all failed to actually answer this in detail. To exemplify how frustrating this is; Imagine you released Varus' lore update without ever confirming that Varus was a Darkin, or Quinn and Valor without telling us how they came to be a team.

Axxuka3/8/2018, 9:32:59 PM3 votes

Why did you choose to make HER Kassadin daughter ? From early concepts I understand it was a marksman that became the monster he hunted (With the symbiosis, it still sticks closely to early concepts)

Wasn't there an heavy risk in making her Kassadin's daughter since there was probably high expectations and anticipation ?

Also you did tease her with Swain new VO, is it a future trend for new champions or reworks ? (He also teases Irelia's lore)

Zullar3/8/2018, 8:57:49 PM3 votes

I think it's interesting to see a champ like Kai'Sa that can be built a lot of different ways.

What are the general builds you envision for her and in what situations do you think players should choose to build that way (AP, AD, on-hit, mixed, tanky?, etc.)

Athenes Lulu3/8/2018, 10:53:14 PM3 votes

I don't know if designy questions can go here, and that if I'm already too late to the questions, but...

How come Kai'Sa still looks "pretty" under that suit? Isn't the Void supposed to be some kind of "hell" that turn people into monsters in just two weeks (like Rasho in Nami's comic)?

People seem to not be impressed by the fact that the locals saw her as a monster, and that a lot of us couldn't see why. What's Riot's stance on that?

HalcyonDweller3/8/2018, 8:58:02 PM3 votes

On a more champion related note: What are your favorite builds to use as her?

LostFr0st3/8/2018, 9:05:53 PM3 votes

Not exactly a question, but her waveclear 'combo' looks stunning in-game.

Also it does double dmg to minions that are below 35% so it gets pretty nutty in the proper hands^^"

Overall GJ on her Q.

CleverCactus3/8/2018, 10:25:47 PM2 votes

Was there a point in development where you decided she was going to look more human? Some of her concept art had her looking more like a half-voidling, with organic guns instead of arms and a more jagged void suit.

RedPannda3/8/2018, 9:53:02 PM2 votes

Did you design her with the idea that she would achieve all of her evolutions in a game or for a more pick and choose one or two at most?

If it becomes obvious that AD or AP are much stronger than her would you want to balance her out so she will always benefit from a mix of the two?

What do you think about the confusion of where she belongs? She is labeled as an adc and most of the promotion targets her towards bot lane. But she has no tools to survive in that lane and most talk sees her going into the jungle which has proven to be the place oddball adc's go to die. In the future do you think you would tinker her to give her a more obvious lane choice?

ModThe Djinn3/8/2018, 10:46:34 PM2 votes

{quoted}We've got writers, artists, designers, engineers, and more who worked on Kai'Sa and want to tell you all about it. So what do you wanna know?

A question for the designers and playtesters:

Given the rather large differences in her damage potential with upgraded Q between 1 shot landing and 12 shots landing, at any point did you consider leaving on a permanent, Evelynn-like AoE around her for her Q range, or a particle effect on all current targets that gives some estimate of your impact to each? I've found it rather difficult in practice to determine exactly how much of my damage will go to any one given target (or how many will hit my primary target in the case of multiple enemies), which is frustrating when using her ult to finish off someone with a dive-- something that feels intended by her design, but often ruined by Q suddenly fragmenting into a minion wave. The difference between a step in one direction or a step in the other is an enormous damage loss against a specific target, and I'm wondering if this is something you found decreases significantly as the player's familiarity with her kit increases.

I had assumed, from the spotlight, that I could select a rough target area for the missiles, but with it being a full circle around her it's very difficult to accurately determine my damage output.

Líthillya3/9/2018, 1:44:29 AM1 votes

Was Kai'sa's void skin inspired by the Dune franchise? More precisely, Leto II's sandtrout skin. Seems very similar in many ways, especially how it can cover her face when need be, or well, just everything about it. Aside from the shoulder cannons. Leto didn't have those.

Kaìju3/8/2018, 10:19:58 PM1 votes

Everything is inspired by something. Was there any characters or anything in other media that inspired you when coming up with her design? Did you guys have a dart board with all sorts of things and you played a round and ended on "sexy, venom, lasers, and sand" or what?

WarWork3/8/2018, 11:02:13 PM1 votes

Hope I didn't miss this, but first question we multiple pieces of lore about Kai'sa, but when boiled down to the bare essentials, it tells us the same thing, the void consumes and people are afraid of her. I see that as a huge missed opportunity. Kaisa's lore is more about the void than it is about herself. Why couldn't we get something telling us more about the suit, what did she eat, why her personality is the way it is, what does she think about her parents? This hurts even more because we aren't gonna get these answers till like two years from now.

And 2 what makes the void different from the mist? They seem pretty similar