Hey everyone! Welcome to the official thread for Patch Rundown Preseason Discussion. For next week’s Rundown, we'll be doing an in-depth examination of all the biggest changes you'll see in the Preseason, and we'd love your input!
If you have any questions or comments you’d like to us to address on the show, please leave a note below. I'll be lurking here till Nov 11th to gather your feedback for the next episode so please don't hesitate to reach out :)
k wìx19 votesHey MsPudding As a support main, I am very happy with your changes for supports in S4 - Do you have any big changes for Supports planned down the road? Are you guys happy with how they work currently? Thanks!
Michicha2 votesI think the largest change I saw was moving banner of command to the aegis branch. I believe you can chose whether to get the locket or the banner now. Omwrecker has also been changed significantly. The mana stat changes should be felt in the support role as well. The bot lane river crab should also warp some things.
Lwnt4 votesThose are great changes in itemization for tanky supports who build mostly tanky. Now there are more tanky items that have cool actives but I see no help for ap utility supports like sona, Janna, lulu, Nami and soraka when it comes to itemization. there are few support items to pick from that have ap and a active well actually just two Frost Queen claim and Twin shadow. And for support items that have ap and a passive are ardent censar and morrellonomicon. These are support items because they are cheap for a support income. I wish their are more variety of items to choose from especially items with Ability power because I want to scale the utility of those supports.
Also I believe lulu early game is going to hurt the most out of the changes. Lulu mana regen is one of the lowest in the game and now that it is based on a percentage of it, lulu is going to have even more of a mana problem. I hope they will look at her and increase it.
GhostStalker15 votesI'm really focused on how Tank Junglers will do. They feel neglected, and removing Ancient Golem isn't helping. Losing that ward and the massive mana regen on it really hurts.
Go Anan15 votesI have few questions. First, why did the team choose to add the little wandering crab? Obviously, the vision and speed buff it grants is a nice little touch, but the inclusion seems a bit unusual. Also the fact that it is hard to kill and wanders around. There is also that the vision circle is visible to both teams. I have my suspicions, but why did they choose to actually add it in its current form?
Second, how did you guys try to balance the different smite buffs granted from smiting the different camps? Does it have to do with how easy the camps are to do without the use of smite? Is that why the Razorbeak smite buff is so good? Is the wolf camp smite buff supposed to have a real use? Are they meant to be balanced across the board or are they balanced against their relative positions on the map and the relative difficulty of the camps themselves?
Lastly, I have a question about the various smites themselves. Do you guys feel that in their current iteration on the PBE that they are all useful in some way? I feel that Quick Smite and the now-improved Desolating Smite have their uses, and I suppose the version of smite that does true damage might have some uses as well, but between that and Challenging Smite, I feel that there is a bit of an imbalance. In the same way that through most of season 3, Ancient Golem was too strong as to push other jungle items aside and how through most of season 4, Elder Lizard was a bit too dominant, I feel that there exists a hierarchy of usefulness in the current iterations of smite upgrades. Are you guys looking towards more sweeping changes to balance this out or are the differences themselves meant to be balanced through diversity? Meaning, is the ability to choose different types of smites for different uses enough that maybe the overall power level difference between them slightly less meaningful since the roles would value them differently?
Sir ArmaMalum14 votesPersonally I would love multiple videos for the rundown. There are just so many changes, getting them all into a single video and giving a decent description would either make the video really long or not give enough detail to these changes, imho.
RiotMsPudding9 votesThanks for the input! You're correct there are indeed a ton of topics and we're considering doing multiple parts if the episode runs long enough. If you've got something pressing you'd really like to know more about though, definitely poke here!
Sir ArmaMalum5 votesPersonally I would love to know more about the visibility pick-up, jungle spawn time changes and what will happen to nexus turrets now that all their cousins are getting major upgrades.
Michicha5 votesWell, the Jungle spawn time changes are currently reverted to live values on the PBE as of the Kalista patch yesterday, but those are likely to change. It seems Riot wants to enhance decision making in the game by adding interesting non-pvp interactions that provide huge things like vision. Since they moved away from vision being placed upon the support totally, they've been looking into ways to further emphasize the team effort of providing vision. They didn't want to implement another "click to place" vision option, but something that creates good decision making and improves the games fun qualities. Nexus turrets currently have the same laser as inhib turrets on the PBE
Michicha8 votesIs there any ETA on the top laner/bruiser reworks that were mentioned? Have they been halted or are they just in heavy iteration?
Danlong2103 votesWhen will we Can have a New Server for NA :P no Rush but I live EST and I get 115 MS/Ping and I have 78download and 80Upload
XVI Jake IVX11 votesYou know lolreplay? Make it where can review games on the client. Maybe make your goal for 2016? :P Good luck anyways. I hope riot is even considering this. It would definitely make me want to stay on league of legends.
Reasons:
Please let there be 1 rioter person not to let me down or any others. Sorry for any bad grammar.
EDITED 11-10-14 Riot please respond. Please? ... :( EDITED 11-11-14 Riot stop being a silent observer I know I am not the only one who wants this. EDITED 11-12-14 Of course you ignore this comment riot. MsPudding: " I'll be lurking here till Nov 11th to gather your feedback for the next episode so please don't hesitate to reach out :)" Respond its past November 11th...
I just want to review my games or know if this will ever come out.
Hexten9 votesAre there plans to modify the state of Gunblade? It soley exists as a clutch for Akali, only because of her passive. Because of this, it makes Akali really feast/famine, as she cannot build reactively due to this clutch existing to give the power spike she needs.
Basically, will we see the end of Gunblade which will mean Akali will finally get a new passive that still provides spellvamp but doesn't relies on Gunblade to achieve that?
SonicÐeHedgedawg7 voteswill slower, tankier jungles like Sejuani 
be viable again PLEASE?
lightdragoon885 votes
caryomarker2 votesMaoki was op for a bit
Derangeddeer2 votesMoaki is still strong... Not sure why you say a bit.
Michicha2 votesHe's strong, just like you said, not as broken op as he was. That why he said a bit.
lightdragoon886 votesWhich part of these changes were the most difficult part for you guys?
The new Baron buff? The New Dragon buffs? The smite bonuses? etc?
Michicha4 votesThat depends on what you mean by difficult and to which Rioters you refer it to. On a design perspective, it may have been much more difficult coming up with a valid solution then coding it to operate as such. There can be some complicated technical issues that while a concept sounds simple on paper, it becomes much more difficult in the coding route.
lightdragoon882 votesThe question was pretty much for anyone.
TenSpeed6 votesMsPudding <3
That is all.
Michicha2 votesIsn't she wonderful? Though the thread has gone a bit silent, hope she doesn't forget about it!
RiotMsPudding14 votesNeverrrrrr!! :) I'm being a silent observer for now. Some really great questions in this thread--I'm trying to see which ones people gravitate to as well. Make sure to upvote people who've asked about things you'd also like to hear more about!
Mârty6 votesIn Season 4, traditional supports were given utility scaling on their kits - this was an awesome change!
Unfortunately, supports have to choose between stacking AP to scale their utility, or purchasing utility-oriented items. The only attempt to combine the two since last year has been the Ardent Censer, which doesn't offer very much AP.
Will there be changes to support build paths this season, or at least a minor focus on improving their options?
Challengur Smerf5 votesWhen is new summoners rift?
Fahrside5 votesMore info on ZZ'rots Portal, pleaaaaaaaaaaase!?!?
Nahath5 votesTwisted Treeline. What changes will be made here. Specifically:
Jungle changes? Will Vilemaw's buff be more like Dragon's, Baron's or something else? Will the tower behavior change like on SR, and if so, are the non-base towers inner or outer?
What Is Smite4 votesOk so I'm confused a bit on how the regen system works now since it was swapped from "x"/per 5 to now %base regen increase, does this mean that the % stacks (ie grab 4 items that increase base % regen by 100%) or do they amplify the % from base and each item that increases base regens after the first one bought amplifies the effects of the previous item (like diminishing returns on %base regen increase so start at 25% 1st item, next item bought will have you at 37.5% base regen, etc.) I am sorry if I didn't write it clearly enough but as confusing as it is to me it was pretty difficult for me to word it correctly if at all
Wheatloaf4 votesI'd like to see what thoughts you guys have on how this preseason will affect champion diversity beyond just the jungle. I know that opening up the jungle to different roles will free up some of the other lanes as well, but it's always nice to hear the opinions of some professionals :^)
xOps4 votesI have to agree with my fellow East Coasters... I've been playing since like May of 2010 and I've always wanted to play on an East Coast server. Obviously, Riot has made a lot of money throughout the years and created a lot of servers all over the world, but like most, we've been wanting an East Coast server for a while. It would really be nice to have like 20-35ms in game!
That said, League of Legends is an awesome game, and I've enjoyed it for many years now!
Michicha2 votesOne of the main problems with an East Coast server isn't implementation, but the drastic Queue time imbalances that would come with it. Cutting the server population in half would theoretically double the Queue times in both regions, and practically eliminate the less popular Queues like Dominion and Twisted Treeline. Friends on these two servers will be split apart from any division, including Rioters ability to play with the east coasters. Furthermore, It has been mentioned that moving the servers to the middle of the country has been brought up in internal discussion and more news on this was supposed to come some time in November (YAY soon hopefully). This solution would keep the population of the server intact while improving server efficiency and performance because a move would imply creating a custom coded data center like the one recently created in Amsterdam, where both EUW and EUNE are to be run in. (BTW EUW and EUNE get separate servers due to their languages being fairly different as well as server size as a factor)
Ripsen4 votesWill there be any changes to vision in the upcoming preseason/season 5? At the beginning the 3 wards per champion limit seemed like a good idea of overall team contribution. But as the season went on, it was discovered that only higher tier players such as Plat+ were shown to buy wards even when they weren't support. It's still put onto the support and jungle to buy wards especially mid-game. Using your statistics on the new Match History it was shown that other players that aren't map controlling oriented (mid, Top, adc) only place an average of 5 wards each, which is usually just the trinket ward (this subject pool have been from my games and games of friends). The old vision system allowed for teams that are behind to come back thanks to a lot of warding from support and jungle as carries are too focused on getting their items. So I believe a change in vision system should be implemented. Again, will there be any changes in the upcoming preseason patch?
ArcadeMo3 votesHi, I can't wait for the changes but aren't most of the changes jungle based (new jungle camps, new items, overall a stronger jungler). I'm afraid that no one would want to play any other role in solo queue because its the most changed, fun, and easier to carry from with the dragon buffs and etc.
TerraRising3 votesI'm curious as to the state of Spell Vamp in the upcoming season. I'd like to know if it's going away in Season 5 or if it will remain the same.
There was also some minor discussion of having an AD version of Spell Vamp for non-AA champs, but I can't recall where I saw it.
BigHairyMan3 votesWE WANT FORCE OF NATURE!! FORCE OF NATURE OR RIOT!! 
Solidair33 votesI know the rundown is for the really basic stuff, but it would be nice to see an explanation about how the new jungle items are intended to be used. And maybe talk a little about how tank junglers might not be awful anymore!
warpenguin5553 votesWhy do the Tower icons look like cupcakes now?
AnsonniChu3 votesI know this has probably already been discussed in the past but will we be able to finally see a change in the HUD placement for purple side. I mean even as a player that uses the unlocked camera I find it would still be beneficial to place the HUD to the top when on purple side for the added vision especially when we need to [spacebar] back to our character to do a sudden dodge or otherwise engage. It just doesn't seem fair for champions that are skill shot oriented, it's like adding a default handicap to purple side.
Godly Pro2 votesWhat changes if any are going to happen with Ques? most importantly normals, It seems frustrating as a Gold player to be teamed up with 3 bronze and silver while playing against a plat5 2 gold 5s and a siver 2. Is there a reason this happens? and is there any changes coming into s5 (i.e is this even something you guys have planned to work on?)
Michicha3 votesMost of this comes from MMR. Normal games also have a type of MMR that matches you with players according to raw skill and less based off of ranked stats.
EDIT: "Raw skill" was bad word choice, I cite a post acknowledging the existence and function of hidden Normal MMR and explain in general how it works. This is all in a post below.
EDIT2: Re-posting my below explanation in case any confirmation/criticism is in order.
http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=27113153#27113153%3Cbr%20/%3E (Scroll down a little bit so see the red response, it doesnt address the issue directly, but proves normal mmr exists)
Raw skill was probably a bad way to word my answer and I apologize. I will supply you with a post about MMR scaling, but it does not directly answer, your question, i need to search deeper for that post. I believe Zileas replies to a summoners concerns over why Normal MMR is hidden, which pertains to the topic of why your are teamed up with such varying players due to the fact it acknowledges Normal MMR and its function. Your awkward placement seems to stem from the hidden Normal MMR. This MMR calculates like ranked MMR, but for many summoners who play mostly ranked and only on occasion play normals, there are large gaps between ranks and match placement. For example, lets assume I am a diamond player who only plays normals once a week. If I tend to lay back and play loosely, trying new champs and build or just plain out trolling, my MMR will be low naturally. Some players don't like the stress brought upon by ranked and dont play it, but do fabulously in normal games. These players can have a bronze ranking but high MMR in normal due to their preformance
Godly Pro1 votesMost of this comes from MMR. Normal games also have a type of MMR that matches you with players according to raw skill and less based off of ranked stats.
Please don't answer questions you don't have answer too.(I.e you don't work for riot). I'd prefer a Red to answer my concern, not some randy.
Michicha4 votesJust because I don't work for Riot doesn't mean I haven't read their responses to the exact questions your asking. Seeing as there's a good chance no Rioter will respond to you, I decided maybe I could shed some light on the situation. As it seems, apparently you don't acknowledge any opinion other than Riots direct word. I'm not answering as a Rioter, I'm answering as an informed player, and I find it sad that this sort of elitism comes from the community.
Hot Toddy2 votesI find you really helpful! If that makes a difference
Ps what is your main?
Mines 
AlofTwilight2 votesWell, this explains why I get matched with Golds and Plats in Team Builder and sometimes Diamonds in Dominion. Feels weird to play with so many being Silver/unranked (was unranked during season 3). Thx for the info
Gorging Gulpin2 votesWill you be updating or adding any new items for the support role, and are you going to find a way to bring the squishy supports back into the meta because the tanks outclass them by so many miles?
Derion2 votesWith all the spawning animation for the jungle monsters, why isn't there an animation for minions when they are spawn? A simple one would do.
logique2 votesOne of the topics is opening up strategic items. I used to very much enjoy the older incarnation of Talisman as a Leona support for example. I had the utility of disengaging and engaging with it and it felt very useful. It was subsequently toned down and reworked that it became untenable to pick it up over Face of the Mountain. I'd like to have that kind of strategic choice back for supports and the items they pick.
bringtharain1 votesplease bug fix quinn b4 you do any major changes to her !
Michicha2 votesIt's implied any bugs they find on here during internal testing will probably be crushed.