Inside Midseason Magic with the designers

Riot·4/19/2016, 5:11:16 PM·7 votes·20,981 views

Welcome to the latest installment of the League Podcast, a series in which we take you behind-the-scenes with the people who help make League possible. Expect new guests and new stories every couple of weeks or so, and make sure to hit us with those sweet comments and ratings so we can keep striving toward a Challenger tier podcast.

This week, Chris “Pwyff” Tom and Patrick “Scarizard” Scarborough chat with designers James “Statikk” Bach and Jo “Fearless” Graylock to get the scoop on Midseason Magic.

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124 Comments

LadyRenly4/19/2016, 7:11:56 PM34 votes

i hate the new athenes. its not a support item. its the best mana regen item which supports love which is why it was bought so you can actually keep supporting and keep up with the likes of yasuo who can lane indefinitely.

and the new catalyst is horrible, principle wise. i dont care how good it is, you should NEVER be incentivized for taking damage, the whole point of the game is to AVOID it (unless you are rammus or something) I feel like a filthy masochist, begging for a beating so I can recover some mana

Berry Dragon4/19/2016, 6:18:00 PM20 votes

why did you suck the fun out of this game

Flier4/19/2016, 7:54:35 PM16 votes

sometimes i wonder if the game designers play the game, or . passed basic math for that reason.

GwingMaster4/19/2016, 7:55:21 PM10 votes

Can somebody explain what happened to Vel' Koz? To be clear - I never really thought he needed all that much in the way of changes to begin with. When he was announced as one of the big updates, tho, there was a lot interesting conversation about things that could be changed to emphasize his thematic and play niche. Looking at the microsite, it seems like all you did was tweak the way his ult interacts with his passive. While I'm sure it makes his ult way more powerful, I really don't see how that in any way solves the problems you guys outlined with him at the start of this process. Seems like you could've used that "big update" spot on somebody else if this is all you were gonna do

Woodyharris4/19/2016, 6:20:40 PM9 votes

fellas bring back patch rundown

Magister Ragun4/19/2016, 9:23:56 PM9 votes

Why are you adding significant RNG elements to a mostly deterministic skill based game?

Strompest4/21/2016, 7:13:30 AM8 votes

Hi, Rank 146 Challenger here. Riot I beg you: Please stop adding stupid changes to the game, such as the Elemental dragons. I understand that you want to create "innovation" or bring something new to the game. Fine, I get it, you want to change things up to keep us interested, but don't bring change at the cost of ruining the game, which actually ironically drives us away. The specific changes I'm referring to are the dragon changes. The dragons are too based on RNG and in the first place, and the stats they give completely ruin the current game dynamics. Water Dragon = people that actually win and dominate their lane get punished. Fire Dragon = Welcome to the league of Jhin and Veigar. Both I and various challenger players agree that the dragon rework is literally the stupidest thing introduced as of yet. If you're down dragons, especially those that are important in achieving objectives or winning teamfights such as the Earth or Fire dragon, it is basically impossible to win the game while playing from behind. As someone that is literally in the top 150 of players that play the game in NA as well as someone that genuinely loves League, I can guarantee that if you keep adding unnecessary and game-breaking changes like this, the game will die. There will be no future for League of Legends. Please, hire an actual balance team that knows how to realistically develop and balance the game rather than creative developers that wanna get their ideas out at the cost of the game's enjoyability factor.

0blivion4/20/2016, 1:24:56 AM7 votes

This conversation makes me extremely nervous for the future of League.

Hellioning4/19/2016, 7:58:12 PM6 votes

I, too, will enjoy needing a shotcaller in solo queue.

Oh wait, there is no solo queue.

I see your genius plan, Rito.

Bloodborne 24/19/2016, 6:20:48 PM6 votes

yall talking about shit that we havent even seen yet. the microsite aint even out yet

RawManNoodles4/19/2016, 9:16:59 PM4 votes

Lot's of hard work obiviously went into all of this! I love listening to these podcasts while I go on runs; Lots to be entertained by and learn! Keep up the great work friends :)

ScreamThePrayer4/19/2016, 7:06:39 PM4 votes

I like the new items but it feels like the main champions didn't get a lot of loving. Most of them were very minute things, but loved all of them. The Many More Section of the mages was fantastic because it stated what was just changed. I'm an anivia main and love her new ult ability. With these changes tho will this cause ratios to spiral down?

Also does Fiddlesticks need more loving? Malz changes were because he didn't feel that useful without his ult. That is the definition of Fiddle especially since fear makes targets crawl away from him. Well we see any changes in the future to help him out? The passive seems like a good start.

Runearis4/19/2016, 7:09:50 PM4 votes

Define some Brawling Mages for me.... Melee Range mages? Mages who auto? I am confused by that term.....

Only VelKoz4/19/2016, 8:02:11 PM4 votes

Lack of numbers aside, the change on Vel ult looks cool. Should correct the inconsistency felt when trying to get multiple deconstruction procs on targets while ulting.

PSOCALY4/19/2016, 8:27:01 PM4 votes

I was expecting more from Zyra

She's going to feel like Illaoi in a way, like how plants are going to randomly appear around her

I thought you guys were going to add another type of plant to her kit, that you guys were getting rid of her useless passive and her NOT useless W, and give her a new type of plant, that would've been awesome in my opinion, but we will have to see, her plants and model look better now, I'm excited about that

Hopefully Zyra's rework makes her gameplay 10 times better than it already is

(Kind of upset that Vayne is going to be the only champion with her title in one of her abilities RIP Rise of Thorns)

InfantFetus4/21/2016, 5:17:52 AM4 votes

You guys should polish up your resumes. After these mid season patches riot is going to clean house when all of its player base formally backlashes against the bullshit that you turned s6 into. Thanks for ruining a beloved game of mine for the last 6 years.

Sincerely, the LOL community

Sneaky20084/20/2016, 5:38:13 AM3 votes

Could you guys post a video of you guys sensually eating strawberries? Thanks

Mazariamonti4/21/2016, 3:25:56 AM2 votes

I don't want to be the guy that acts like these designers have no idea what they're talking about, and I know they do, but I swear these guys just have no idea how to relate to these problems that they are attempting to fix.

Derêk4/20/2016, 12:06:18 AM2 votes

Is that the young Jim Gaffigan??