With the new VU policy will we EVER see a Mordekaiser Visual Update?

Malicious Metal·Feb 9, 2016·21 votes·22,952 views

Riot has recently stated that they try to focus more on giving Champions getting Gameplay updates their needed VU's rather than giving them to older champions.

Mordekaiser is one of the more iconic older champions and with Taric's update drawing closer by the day he'll be the last Champion with Pizza feet. And as opposed to full relaunches Mordekaiser does have a core thematic going for him, which could be enhanced and pushed to the limit without meddling with his design too heavily.

He was featured in a lot of the older promotional art, depicting him how he SHOULD look. So, are we ever going to get some love for the Metal Man?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zqR1xP5_ZPM/U333vBpi9yI/AAAAAAAAU44/b7zop6Y2RDE/s1600/League-of-Legends-Team-Wallpaper-full-HD-1.jpg

74 Comments

GapyboFeb 9, 20162 votes

With their current VU policy and schedule he is years away from getting a VU. I guess you can hope they change their approach and give champions updates bigger priority to update faster.

RiotReav3Feb 9, 201617 votes

The champion update team IS bigger then it was before. I think that you will find the time between Poppy & Taric to be much less of a gap then previous VGUs. Mordekaiser will most likely require a full VGU in the future, though there a few champions that probably need it more at the moment, like Taric & Yorick for example.

Malicious MetalFeb 9, 20163 votes

Question! Would it be possible to give him a simple fix and make his iron boots a bit less pizza-like but similar to his Pentakill/King of Clubs feet?

RendarkanFeb 10, 20161 votes

OR... give him a Pizza delivery skin as a goof.

And he can smack people with a Pizza paddle.

RiotReav3Feb 10, 20163 votes

Sadly this most likely won't happen anytime soon. The champ up character art team is hard at work on Taric & Yorick! While these changes would be relatively small is scope, we want to deliver the big VGU's at a much quicker rate then in the past, so want to prioritize those for now.

Makuta TeridaxFeb 10, 20163 votes

{quoted}

Sadly this most likely won't happen anytime soon. The champ up character art team is hard at work on Taric & Yorick! While these changes would be relatively small is scope, we want to deliver the big VGU's at a much quicker rate then in the past, so want to prioritize those for now.

I'm happy to hear that the team is full at work on those two, but this answer worries me in the sense that I've got the feeling we should not expect new "surprise" reworks like Fiora or Gangplank were last year. Which makes me sad since a few characters could use the VU treatment and all that (Akali, Kennen, Wukong...).

Baron Von BanginFeb 10, 20162 votes

Shen literally just happened.

RiotReav3Feb 10, 20162 votes

Gangplank was actually a full VGU. Her just needed less changed on his kit the other VGUs.

RalanrFeb 9, 20163 votes

what about Pantheon ?

RiotReav3Feb 9, 201612 votes

Pantheon is a interesting case. While I can see him getting a full VGU in the future, at the moment he is probably a really good candidate for a roster project whenever we get around to updating Divers.

RalanrFeb 9, 20162 votes

That's honestly what I was afraid of. But I thank you for your response.

My Waifu VanillaFeb 9, 20164 votes

I would also like to see Irelia looked at because Ms. Octopus Hair looks pretty bad compared to a lot of the roster nowadays (not old Poppy/Sion bad, but the age is showing).

Also, I cannot take someone seriously when their line is, "Who wants a piece of the champ?" and they are like 3 feet tall. Like any piece I take of you will probably fit in my coat pocket.

RiotReav3Feb 9, 20166 votes

I think in a couple years champions like Irelia/Pantheon will probably be in the same boat as champions like Yorick/Taric are now. We aren't quite there yet though as there are other champions that need it more right now.

RalanrFeb 9, 201610 votes

By same boat do you mean not touched for several years and becoming an in joke with the community?

"They will know war."

"The fuck is a war?"

RiotReav3Feb 10, 20167 votes

By same boat, I mean that in the state of the game 2 years from now, they will look/play more dated then they do currently.

That's why I mentioned that he could be a good candidate for a roster project right now. But that depends on when we get to Divers. If we don't get to Divers soon then he might be closer to needing a VGU at which point we would pass on a roster update for him. Even if we do Divers it isn't guaranteed that he would be chosen, just that he would be on the table.

We passed on Swain for the Mage update specifically because he needs a full VGU rather then a roster update.

captainkaigerFeb 10, 20161 votes

Hey Reav3, who all do you consider divers? I'm definitely thinking a number of the junglers (Sejauani, Vi, possibly Rammoose, and Naut with his dive suit) but to me it isn't super clear as a whole.

RalanrFeb 10, 20161 votes

Aatrox has been described as a diver. So champions like Irelia and Pantheon seem to be what they mean by divers.

captainkaigerFeb 10, 20161 votes

So by loose definition, a champ with a gapclose/cc ability?

Photos of GhostsFeb 10, 20161 votes

AD. there's then AP divers like Diana, Elise, Gragas... support hybrids like Leona and Thresh...

DeathBurstFeb 10, 20161 votes

Leona/Thresh are probably more classified as Tanks than Divers, because their damage output is too low.

Photos of GhostsFeb 10, 20161 votes

If you build them full tank. And that for Leona, cause Thresh remains above full tank damage output average. Thresh's problem is solo laning.

DeathBurstFeb 10, 20161 votes

More precisely a champ that is able to "dive" the enemy backline and eliminate/disrupt a priority target rather quickly. Kind of a slightly less bursty but slightly more tanky Assassin.

RiotReav3Feb 10, 20166 votes

Correct, these are all Divers. Xin Zhao and Diana as well. I realize this is a bit confusing at the moment. Statikk will be releasing a blog sometime before the Mage update going into detail about what all the subclasses are and what there functions are.

RalanrFeb 10, 20161 votes

That will be greatly appreciated.

Makuta TeridaxFeb 10, 20161 votes

I'm truly hoping that this will bring us some better insight into them as well as setting the ground as to what our expectations should be when those get tuned too. Aatrox can be a monster if he snowballs but otherwise he just falls so, SO short :/

SolideusFeb 10, 20161 votes

Really looking forward to it!!

DeathBurstFeb 10, 20161 votes

I'm suddenly a bit worried. Last time we heard about this blog, it was to be released "soon". Now it's "some time before the Mage update".

Has time begun to flow in reverse, or did I play too many Zilean? x)

RiotReav3Feb 10, 20163 votes

It is still pretty soon. I was just saying it would be sometime between now and the mage update. Hopefully much sooner then the mage update :)

DeathBurstFeb 10, 20161 votes

Oh, cool :)

Thanks for the heads-up.

ExecutorDillFeb 10, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Correct, these are all Divers. Xin Zhao and Diana as well. I realize this is a bit confusing at the moment. Statikk will be releasing a blog sometime before the Mage update going into detail about what all the subclasses are and what there functions are.

So what is a peeler?

RebonackFeb 10, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Correct, these are all Divers. Xin Zhao and Diana as well. I realize this is a bit confusing at the moment. Statikk will be releasing a blog sometime before the Mage update going into detail about what all the subclasses are and what there functions are.

And Jax. And Jman.

Divers are All-In Fighters. Beefy champs with strong to moderate CC that leap into the middle of the enemy team and cause as much disruption as possible. Juggernauts tend to have less mobility and CC, but more damage and defense. Tanks tend to have less damage, but stronger CC.

Photos of GhostsFeb 10, 20161 votes

Not Rammus as he has no dashes except his flash. I mean, he's a hybrid since he gets to run fast past his team, but it's still running like a Juggie, not dashing through the frontline like a diver. Sejuani is an AP diver / zone control (hence caster, hence AP) tank hybrid. Same for Gragas, Amumu, Malph, Nauti... Vi, Aatrox, Irelia, Panth, J4, Nocturne, Heca, Jax, hammer form Jayce, Lee, Poppy, Rek'sai, Renekton, Wukong, Xin are classic divers.

Photos of GhostsFeb 10, 20161 votes

Why aren't mages being subcategorised for the update, like Juggernauts were taken out of bruisers? Basically AP contains its own version of all the classes that exist in AD, be it DPS, assassin, poker/sniper, zone controller, burst, diver, juggernaut, tank... Why are we treating in the "big six" a sniper (vel), a juggermage (vlad), two dps/zoners (zyra and malz), a burst / zoner (brand), and a full dps (cassio), instead of all of a single class?

RiotReav3Feb 10, 20162 votes

For Mages we felt that the champions that needed updating were specifically low mobility Mages. Low mobility Mages fall into many different classes, which is why there are Mages from multiple classes. The roster projects don't need to target specific sub-classes even though they usually do.

This has digressed a bit form the topic of the thread so I probably won't be answering any more class specific questions. As I mentioned above there should a a blog released soon that goes into classes in more detail.

RendarkanFeb 10, 20161 votes

We expect Baker Pantheon Legendary skin before then though.

Karma DeifiedFeb 10, 20162 votes

Shameless insert here.

Still waiting for Udyr, The Spirit ~~Guard~~ Walker's ~~compensation for the slap in the face ultimate skin~~ visual update.

Darlantan12Feb 11, 20161 votes

what about Chogath ?

Over InnsmouthFeb 10, 20161 votes

Any chance for some of the mid-year Mage Update 6'ers (particularly Vladimir and Malzahar )?

RiotReav3Feb 10, 20161 votes

We aren't planning on doing VU's for the roster projects. We want to hit a large amount of champions at once and VU's take a significant amount of time and resources. There will be new FX and anims for some abilities though, but no model updates.

Over InnsmouthFeb 10, 20162 votes

Thanks so much for replying! It's great to at least know I don't need to hold out hope for the mid-year.

Any chance that you might start dropping VU's on their own without being part of GU's? I'm sure there's a large chunk of the community (myself included) that would welcome model updates to their out-dated looking but otherwise fine favourites.

UltîmaFeb 10, 20164 votes

What about characters that have solid gameplay but extremely dated models and particles? Ezreal Anivia Corki come to mind. Their models, animations, and particles are all in need of some serious love. Why aren't small-scope updates like Kassadin Karthus Nasus being considered? These champions are not likely to get any significant reworks for years.

RiotReav3Feb 10, 20165 votes

This answer may be a bit long so bear with me.

I wouldn't say that we will NEVER do VUs again, we may still squeeze a few in here and there where appropriate.

The reason we have decided to do less of these is that we have gotten very positive player feedback from our large VGU's (Sion/Poppy level.) In the past we have been pretty slow at delivering these. We have decided to dedicate a large majority of our art resources on Champion Update to VGU's going forward. Any time spent of the smaller VU's would delay are large VGUs.

We have also decided not to do the medium scope projects like Fiora/Shen in favor of our large VGUs. This is why the roster projects won't have any model changes, since our character art team will primarily be focused on big VGUs. We want to get these big VGU's out at a much quicker pace then in the past. There are still a lot of champions that don't need big VGU's and those will probably show up in roster projects.

TL;DR: Less VU's and GU's and more VGU's, Small GP updates will be in roster projects

Baron Von BanginFeb 10, 201620 votes

That's a bad idea. A full VGU is fine once in awhile. But at the cost of almost all VUs for what... a couple VGUs a year? We'll NEVER see the likes of Pantheon, Mordekaiser, Zilean, Cho'Gath, Morgana and many other champions get the full attention they deserve because resources are going to trapped making VGUs which take a MASSIVE amount of time.

I've also noticed a disturbing lack of new lines and animations for many more recent VUs and that's a pretty disheartening trend since those champions are likely never to be looked at EVER again.

Makuta TeridaxFeb 10, 20162 votes

[{quoted}](name=Baron Von Bangin,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=26r1Lsu0,comment-id=0004000000030000000200000000,timestamp=2016-02-10T18:11:31.782+0000)

That's a bad idea. A full VGU if fine once in awhile. But at the cost of almost all VU for what... a couple VGUs a year? We'll NEVER see the likes of Pantheon, Mordekaiser, Zilean, Cho'Gath, Morgana and many other champions get the full attention they deserve because resources are going to trapped making VGUs which take a MASSIVE amount of time.

I've also noticed a disturbing lack of new lines and animations for many more recent VUs and that's a pretty disheartening trend since those champions are likely never to be looked at EVER again.

The last paragraph man. I love the potential Shen has, now more than ever with Zed and Jhin in the game, but we'll have to wait for a 1820RP tier skin for him for a good fully fledged artistic experience.

There's also poor Renekton in this category, he has not even a recall animation ;_;

I just hope there's a chance for Riot to try to get those as completely back in line with the rest of the newer cast when able.

Darlantan12Feb 11, 20161 votes

you have the only truth

Jeddy017Feb 10, 20161 votes

On the bright side,no more skipping VO (voice over) updates on champs.

DemiluniSFeb 10, 20162 votes

You realize that this is the complete opposite of what was said a year ago when Riot stated that they really like those lower scope VU's because it allows them to give some love to a bigger number of champions. And it's not like now you're going to do 5 Big scope projects during the year, we're still going to get 2-3 at max. so focusing all your resources on those 2-3 champions kinda feels like a slap in the face to the rest of the community who want their champions to get some love.

RiotReav3Feb 10, 20164 votes

Sorry if this was unclear. We are still doing many low scope projects. They are just being rolled into the roster projects now. In the roster projects we aim to update between 5-7 champions each. Marksmen had 7 champions updated for it's roster project. I was saying we are doings less VU's next year, in order to do more VGU's. But we will still be updating MANY champions through VGU and Roster combined.

We will also probably still do some lower scope VU's, just not as many.

I pity the foolsFeb 11, 20161 votes

Just fix Ahri 's tails and all is well :P

ClôudeFeb 12, 20161 votes

What are we looking at with the Yordle VUs? Several of these little guys need very little in the way of gameplay changes (unless you disagree with that) but really need to be brought in line with the current lore design of their race.