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Preseason 2015 Q&A [Completed]

RiotYpherion·11/5/2014, 9:20:10 PM·63 votes·480,536 views

Hello!

We've been sharing a lot of thoughts and goals around Preseason 2015 over the past week (you can find the Dev Blogs here).

For the next few hours we'll be around to answer questions you have. We're going to leave some time for questions to be put into this thread and get voted up or down, so we'll start answering around 2pm PST.

If you have any more questions, feel free to head over to the Patch Rundown discussion where we're looking for your input on discussion topics!

Looking forward to it!

  • Ypherion (and the Game Systems team)

1,325 Comments

Konidias11/5/2014, 9:52:14 PM526 votes

Will we ever see purple side with the same camera as blue side? This would be a huge benefit to balancing purple side with blue since there is definitely an advantage to being able to see more of your screen (bottom UI takes up a lot of real estate) and also the camera is angled in a way that benefits targeting a champion from below.

Will we see this in season 5 along with the new rift?

Nixtarma11/5/2014, 10:12:14 PM100 votes

Is there anything being done to allows the Jungle to be accessible to new players without full runes, masteries, or experience?

Nausicäa 11/5/2014, 10:03:00 PM93 votes

I personally very much dislike the new Dragon changes and would prefer that they be scrapped altogether. I see 3 main problems with the current PBE implementation.

  1. There is basically no reason to fight over and contest early dragons. The first 2 buffs are pretty trivial and dont have much of a game impact. Why bother contesting a Dragon when you can take a turret instead to get global gold and map control which is substantially better than -8 damage from single target spells and attacks or whatever the number maybe be. I feel these changes will remove any incentives to fight over early game dragons. I know your answer will probably be something like ' you should contest early dragons to prevent the enemy team from getting to the later stages of the buffs'. But if you concentrate on snowballing your lead and take more important objectives rather than Dragon, whats to stop the opposing team from just closing out the game before the Dragon buff becomes relevant?

  2. It takes away the ability to use dragon to come back from a gold deficit. With the current implementation if you're losing a game its possible to sneak or take a dragon and potentially catch up to an enemy team with a gold advantage. With the proposed implementation, im not sure how the first 2 buffs will do much to help a team that is behind as both are pretty trivial.

  3. It basically requires the game to last for 40+ minutes to get any real benefit from these changes.

What are your thoughts on these points?

Aside from these points i hate the idea of non item permanent buffs.

SnowFall11/5/2014, 9:30:19 PM79 votes

Will you implement a system that detects 4v5 in ranked and gives "Loss Forgiven" to 4 man team?

Edit: At least for the cases where a player is AFK from the start of the game till the end.

RiotRiot Draggles11/5/2014, 10:01:53 PM64 votes

When tackling large changes like preseason, do you guys have an inkling as to which champions are going to be in the meta or FOTMs, or is this generally something that gets discovered over a period of time? Like, you don't have to reveal who, but do you have a suspicion that say, Skarner will be really strong with the new changes?

ProfDrDeath11/5/2014, 9:21:39 PM48 votes

  1. What's the deal with the on and off Quinn changes on the PBE? Everytime you put up the preseason changes, they come up, but get taken away again when the changes are taken off.

  2. Do you think that that the river camp's buff being uncounterable will make Dragon and Baron contests too risky for the team not controlling the speed shrine?

  3. Is it just me, or do the the towers feel kind of squishy, especially when there are big minion waves? I played some solo games on the PBE to test the new jungle, and the minions always seemed to be much faster in taking the towers down.

patmax1711/5/2014, 9:45:34 PM36 votes

Are there any plans for Marksmen? ADCs are the class with the least variety of builds and strategy, given the most significant part of their kits is the autoattack, which can't really be varied much apon...

gloomyMoron11/5/2014, 9:58:10 PM25 votes

  1. Back at the start of Preseason 4, mention was made of plans to do something with Runes/the Rune system. As far as I'm aware, nothing really came from that. Have those plans, whatever they were, been scrapped or moved to sometime Season 5?

  2. With the game moving to Enchantments for Jungle items, any plans to add enchantments for other roles to augment and diversify builds? Things like Supports getting enchants for Sightstone instead of the kind of lackluster Ruby Sightstone, certain ADC items being able to enchant based on the type playstyle/type of ADC you want to play (auto-attacker vs caster and so on), and such.

  3. Certain unique items seem cool in concept, but get almost no play and just aren't viable in most cases. can anything be done about this? I'm talking about like items like Ohmwrecker and Banner of Command. Items with novel abilities and actives, but lacking focus and usefulness in most builds.

Sailor Mint11/5/2014, 10:09:46 PM25 votes

This is mostly about supports and mana regen changes.

  1. Will casters with lower than average mana regen get adjusted? (i.e.: Lulu, Lissandra).

  2. Is Mana Font (Chalice passive) intended to be weak on non-mana stackers? On a level 18 Ahri (1184 Mana), the passive is worth a modest 4.5/9/13.5/18 MP5 at 75%/50%/25/0% mana.

  3. Athene's Unholy Grail looks extremely weak compared to similar options, is it intended? item 3174 Athene's Unholy Grail (2700g) 60AP, 50% Base Mana Regen, 20% CDR, 25MR. Mana Font. Mana restore on kills and assists. item 3222Mikael's Crucible (2450g) 100% Base Mana Regen, 10% CDR, 40MR. Mana Font, Cleanse Active. item 3165 Morellonomicon (2100g)
    80AP, 100% Base Mana Regen, 20% CDR, Grievous Wounds.

  4. With the non-linear base stats scaling only breaking even around level 15, doesn't the new stat progression end up hurting lower level champions (i.e.: Supports) more so than other classes?

  5. Would it be possible to tone down the visual effect for low game play effects? (i.e.: auras). I personally think the new Dragonslayer buff is way too noisy past 2 stacks. I can understand the max stack version having a cool visual, it's not necessary before that.

  6. Any plans to change some text strings in the floating combat text (i.e.: Stunned!) to localization independent icons? Playing with a Kalista today "kill secured" popping around constantly looked really silly.

Maeolan11/5/2014, 10:44:19 PM19 votes

Will smite deal extra damage to teemo?Teemo item 3070

Lordxx11/5/2014, 9:29:56 PM18 votes

1- With the dragon stacks . Those that mean dragon will be more valuable to kill then baron ? That fifth stack is pretty strong compared to baron minions and recall .

2- The third tower laser beam (IMA FIRA MA LAZAAA) Will you be able to solo that tower with only one wave of minion ? (Like most split pushers can ATM).

lostbob11711/5/2014, 9:50:35 PM16 votes

Will there be new Masteries and some changes to Runes?

Moobeat11/5/2014, 9:48:30 PM15 votes

Can we get another set of "rough notes" on the PBE boards :) ?

Vinoval11/5/2014, 10:58:56 PM15 votes
  1. about what time is the pre-season 5 patch going to be released?
  2. with the champion changes etc., will the runes also be balanced? is there gonna be a rune sale sometime in the future?
  3. the top and bot lane river had a relic buff that grants vision over walls and extra movement when out of combat. is it still on pbe?
Drunk Rummate11/5/2014, 9:31:34 PM14 votes

Do you have any updates on improving connection stability and moving the servers to a more central location so that all players can play at a similar, lower ping?

Sozan511/5/2014, 9:31:13 PM12 votes

Aren't you worried that in S5 jungle objectives will completely outshine turrets and even inhibs? Also, I am afraid that 2-3x smite might become a thing too. And with the new baron buff I presume that splitpushing will be extremely effective (imagine a Tryndamere with those buffed minions pushing top, while the rest of his team is applying pressure elsewhere).

AnomalousChimera11/5/2014, 9:27:31 PM11 votes

Is there a reason why the proposed changes to hp and mana regenerationon items favor the hp regen items? And also, why does Riot even want those things to scale? It just seems like a completely arbitrary decision that as far as I can tell, doesn't actually improve diversity (and quite possibly decreases it). I can see how the jungle changes will improve diversity, but I think the regen changes seem to favour the most powerful and viable picks (in the sense that the changes affect them least because many of those champions don't use mana, have lower mana costs in comparison to the rest of the roster, have high base mana regeneration or high base health regeneratuion) in high level ELO matches/competitive play.

innervation11/5/2014, 9:57:32 PM10 votes

What levers do you have to pull if you’re not seeing strategic diversity? Both in team composition and in the jungle? You’ve mentioned a few of them in the dev blogs, but which ones do you think are most impactful, or, which lever will you look to pull first, as opposed to your more ‘last resort’ type changes?

If itemization is going to be crucial to countering emergent strategy at the team comp level, are you willing to be aggressive and create new items midseason if needed?

What are the limits to the Scuttle Crab’s AI and run distance?

I feel like these changes (the Scuttle Crab and more valuable dragon) make warding even MORE important than it already is. Any plans to give players more access to wards, either through a larger placement cap, or additional items like wriggles that are power/stat items with a bonus ward slot?

Is the ‘first time smite is used on the camp’ buff a one-off thing, or will this refresh on camp spawn? While I’m (kind of) excited that counter jungling will be more meaningful, will this be overkill? How is a jungler supposed to overcome losing the camp gold AND a valuable buff (which the enemy jungler probably just used to get even FARTHER ahead of you)?

Really excited about the jungle item changes and think they’re brilliant in terms of solving diversity problems. Any more info to share on these?

Any early ideas on how the aggregate of these changes will affect total average team gold gain?

sorry for long questions and ty for ama

Jackofheartz11/5/2014, 9:37:27 PM9 votes

With the new jungle items, are you expecting more diversity in terms of who jungles? If so, will you foster newly viable junglers or will you try to restrict non-traditional junglers to lanes?

IKibouI11/5/2014, 11:41:09 PM8 votes

  1. When is the next jungler going to come out? The last jungle we got was Zac which is least to say, easily forgettable when compared to a tank like Amumu and either don't hold up as well as Vi or LeeSin .

  2. Whats up with the jungle? The new changes seem really weird. To start with, the crabs. They give vision of what camp/monster they are in front of If I want vision I would much rather get a item 2043 or use item 3340 and the speed shrine seems forgettable when there are so many ways to travel the map already. Also, every single camp giving a buff? Personally, I think this is pretty over excessive. The dragon buffs seem pretty much unnecessary as each game, there are about 2-3 dragons (Rough Guess) much really again, can be very forgettable?

I'm interested to hear back to you guys, and share your thoughts. And I think I speak for almost all of us when I say, We're excited to see the new map and please keep up the good work!

Eotw11/5/2014, 9:27:51 PM6 votes

Is the intention of the new baron buff (buffing minions) to encourage split pushing after acquiring it?

Serpents Embrace11/6/2014, 12:25:25 AM4 votes

Will pre-season changes interfere with ongoing projects, like fixing the mess that was made of Cassiopeia? Getting ignored for over a month because World's was happening wasn't particularly fun to wait through, will pre-season be just as disappointing for her fan base?