Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

The Projects For Every Designer on the Champions Team for 2018 so far

Spideraxe··29 votes·6,798 views

Disclaimer, this is is a word for word repost of my Reddit post and since I can't be bothered to learn boards formatting I cant do any fancy word links like on Reddit please keep that in mind

Hi I'm /u/spideraxe30 and I usually create the posts telling which designers are working on the next new champion but today I'd like to share my knowledge on who's currently working on what for the champions team, the champions team is the team handles designing new champions as well as the big reworks otherwise known as VGUs and the occasional rework like Xin and Aatrox, in 2018.

At the time of me posting there are 9 designers on the champions team: /u/RiotSolCrushed, Riot /u/wav3break, /u/RiotSquad5, /u/EndlessPillows, /u/RiotXenogenic, /u/RiotJag, /u/CertainlyT, and /u/RiotAugust joining relatively recently. /u/RiotScruffy is the lead designer on the team and /u/Reav3 is the producer who sets the high level goal for each project. Each designer has one or more projects as they start exploration on their next whenever the next goes into production.

Currently these are the designers what their working on:

/u/wav3break is currently working on Swain, he took over the project from /u/20thCenturyFaux. In the past he has done the Shyvana, Azir and Kindred reworks.

/u/RiotJag is working on the next new champion as well as the Aatrox rework. In the past he was the designer of Camille.

/u/RiotSolCrushed is working on the Irelia VGU and in the past he did the Viktor, Gragas, Poppy, Galio, Yorick, and the most recent Sejuani reworks. He is also doing ideation on a new champion

/u/EndlessPillows is working on the following champion. This will be his second champion as his first was Xayah.

/u/CertainlyT will be working on another VGU. In the past he was the designer of Zoe, Yasuo, Thresh, Kalista, Darius and Zyra and responsible for the reworks of Mordekaiser, Caitlyn, Graves and Warwick.

/u/RiotSquad5 is working on a new champion. He was the designer of Ornn and Ivern and did some work on Vi, Jinx, Jhin and Azir and the keystone masteries systems.

/u/RiotAugust having recently returned to the champions team is working on another VGU. In the past he was the designer behind Vi, Jinx, Ekko, Gnar, and Jhin and some of the keystone masteries.

And lastly /u/RiotXenogenic is working on a VGU. This will be his first major rework but he was the designer of Xin Zhao's rework.

Also /u/RiotWrekz who is returning from Systems is doing exploration on a VGU. He was the lead on Runes Reforged, Kindred and Braum.

So at the moment there are around 10 different projects for the champions team as a whole.

Edit:I'll be around to chat further about what i know

Edit 2: Edited some stuff from /u/Reav3

Btw Reav3 confirmed that this was all true https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/7kxiic/all_projects_for_the_champions_team_in_2018/dri0i5a/?context=3

71 Comments

Ralanr9 votes

Can’t wait to see which VGU’s are next.

Blood Magicks8 votes

I predict Rammus. Pantheon got a skin too recently (Sep 2016) and it's a bit inefficient for the VGU team to redo the model already.

EDIT: Forgot to say the clue we got was that the post-Irelia VGU would be a jungle/top

ModKnightsKemplar3 votes

Nunu

Blood Magicks1 votes

Nunu is getting a skin soon according to the leaks.

This might be wrong but so far it's proven on point-ish.

ModKnightsKemplar3 votes

Fair.

If so, that does provide decent evidence that it's not Nunu. If it's not...

HOW LONG MUST WE WAIT RITO?!?! Seriously, Nunu is just in the worst spot. The worst.

Velzard of Koz1 votes

They usually push VGUs official once they get the idea what they want with them. So they may work on him in terms of discussions and realize his bad spot, it's just that they didn't yet find the idea what way they want him to go. In the blog that announced Evelynn, it was said something along the lines that they now feel confident announcing her as they know what they want to do with her.

Naalith2 votes

I shit on Nunu and Morde whenever I have the chance, even got a response from Meddler a few months ago when they announced the Irelia rework that a couple sites picked up. Morde has like 200 bugs depending on the patch and Nunu is the least fun champion in the game to play as and against as well as the most binary (either really stupidly good or a trash can). Honest to god I think they should've been the first two major VGUs, even though Sion and Poppy were entirely useless and fundamentally flawed I think Nunu and Morde are just that bad. This makes a single tear role down my face too because Mordekaiser thematically and lorewise is one of the absolute coolest champions in the game, and I just wish he was that dank. I also hope they give him some of his magey feel back that he had before his season 5 butchering.

Pls rito. Swain, Irelia, and all the thicc succubi and large stone men before them needed an update, but my god these two champs make me want to remove my eyes with a particularly firm Papa John's pizza crust.

Chembaron Yamada2 votes

Absolutely nothing was beating Urgot as being top priority for a VGU. Riot themselves stated even that he was the biggest offender of all, just that they didn't figure out what to do with him for a long time.

GreenLore5 votes

Well said skin was over a year ago and Pantheon would likely not get his VGU before may 2018,so I wouldn't be too sure if that really counts as too soon for him(and overall I think his basic shape will mostly stay,so the skin can likely remain the same with just some slight adjustments)

Blood Magicks1 votes

All the VGUs to this date except for MF (who only had polycount raised mind you) have had the respective champs wait upwards of 2 yeards between last skin and VGU.

I'll be disappointed if the shape stays, art dept can do way better.

GreenLore1 votes

Well the next VGU after Irelia should have went into full production sometime around Zoes release,so they had plenty of time to work on the update

Also going by Pantheons new lore,he is likely going to stay a guy in spartan armor,with a helmet,a cape and a spear. Sure he'll get a cooler looking helmet and cape,but the basic body shape is unlikely to change drastically.

And you forgot about Ryze who did a skin ~half a year before his VGU and in his case they actually used the same technique,where they just adjusted the skin to his new model.

Blood Magicks3 votes

Ryze is a special case with being the CEO's champ and all. I wouldn't expect him to obey normal champion laws.

Sure he'll get a cooler looking helmet and cape,but the basic body shape is unlikely to change drastically.

I dunno, the proportions still look weird to me. Guy needs a new rig, you can only trim pizza hands and feet so much.

GreenLore1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Blood Magicks,realm=EUW,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=ViujrdbX,comment-id=000000000001000000000000,timestamp=2017-12-20T22:52:06.620+0000)

Ryze is a special case with being the CEO's champ and all. I wouldn't expect him to obey normal champion laws.

I just looked it up and Ryze was a special case(his VGU was originally supposed to come before the skin,but they cut the visual update and only gave him a GU,then they later decided to give him another GU and this time finish the VGU as well)

However I really wouldn't try to interpret this stuff as some kind of solid rule,especially since the panth VGU wouldn't come out before may(~1 and a 3/4 after the skin). It happens far too often that people assume that some kind of rule exists(like all heartseeker skins belong to ADCs),when it really doesn't

I dunno, the proportions still look weird to me. Guy needs a new rig, you can only trim pizza hands and feet so much.

I never said he wouldn't get a new rig,just that they'd adjust the model to his new rig,like they did with Ryze whitebeard or steel legion garen.

Chembaron Yamada1 votes

I think it is Rammus, too. Made a thread about it, there are so many reasons why he is likely to come out soon.

  • Ornn introducing demigods (he would fit perfectly as a Shuriman demigod)
  • new gameplay mechanics fitting his kit and theme (Warwick and the MS scaling in general for his rolling, AD shield from Camille for his anti AD theme)
  • had no new skins and doesn't have a single one above 975 RP
  • fits the friendly and lighthearted theme which they want to mix in between all the dark stuff

And some more. I really hope he is the next rework to be announced.

4th3t0s1 votes

Pretty sure Swain is at the top right now, Morde and Nunu are likely right behind him

GreenLore1 votes

Irelia is right behind him. We don't know what is coming after her though.

However we do know that there is appearantly another VGU in the works besides Swain and Irelia.

AirKingNeo2 votes

I bet Aatrox's will fail just like last time if the same person (a tank main) does it.

Ralanr4 votes

"Look at life through a negative lens and you will never be disappointed."

Who hurt you and what will it take for you to get better?

AirKingNeo2 votes

Riot's balance team by making league extremely unfun to play, and then acting like it's perfectly fine.

Fixing it would make it better. No band-aids either. Full on surgery of the game to fix it.

Ralanr2 votes

That begs the question though, and don’t take it the wrong way.

How do you know the best direction to fix it?

AirKingNeo1 votes

I don't know the 'best' direction exactly, but I can tell what's the wrong direction. It's very easy to tell when something is going wrong than it is to figure out if something is going right or what the right direction exactly is. I don't expect perfection, but I do expect something that isn't in the almost exact opposite direction.

Right now Sorcery is very overpowered and Miss Fortune is pitted as the scapegoat and being nerfed, despite anyone with a shred of common sense knowing Miss Fortune can't be the issue because Miss Fortune wasn't even the slightest bit overpowered before, but I will agree that her Q half healthing people is poor design. Sorcery is ruining top lane, but Riot isn't doing anything about it at all. 1/5th to 1/4th of the champions in the game don't have a keystone and a lot of the keystones are terrible design, and many of them are trash too. A lot of runes suck too, but there's been almost no effort to fix that.

Here's my basic, vague 'fix list': Miss Fortune loses some Q damage (either in base or ratio, but hopefully a fix, but her Make it Rain gain's more damage. Xayah's R places down 4 feathers, E crit ratio cut in half, and W's bonus damage effect doesn't boost critical damage (and instead only boosts 20% based on initial AD damage) or is nerfed to 10%. Shiv no longer stacks with RFC. Duskblade loses ward clearing and it's bonus damage passive gets a cooldown instead. Kha'zix also gets a small Q nerf and gets his R buff reverted. Akali, Pantheon, Teemo, Kennen, Gnar, Jayce, Heimerdinger, etc murdered to Quinn levels of viability until Riot figures out how to not make them cancerous and more interactive. Sorcery: Arcane Comet and Scorch nerfed. Phase Rush changed to start at 20% MS and scale up faster, slow resist for ranged reduced to 30% or so; maybe give +10% more MS if melee. Precision: Press the Attack gives 5-50 more damage if melee on third hit. Lethal Tempo removed and replaced with Fervor of Battle. Fleet Footwork changed to have much better base healing (at middle and high ranks), lesser scalings, scalings no longer 'Adaptive' and stack faster if melee. Triumph bonus gold removed, healing reverted to 15%, healing now reduces by 3% for each consecutive takedown (within 10 seconds). Legend: Tenacity changed to give 8% starting tenacity plus 4% per Legend stack. Legend Bloodline now gives starting 2% lifesteal. Coup de Grace, Cut Down, and Last Stance all changed to be more diverse and have meaningful choices. Domination: Dark Harvest replaced with literally anything better. Whatever healing rune increased to have better base healing at middle/later ranks. Zombie Ward removes or halves duration for its effect that replaces your wards when they time out. Active item cooldown reduction and out of combat MS changed out for something that actually matters, spellvamp rune changed to be halved for AoE damage (or at least AoE physical damage). Resolve: Grasp and Aftershock nerfed. Armor and MR runes changed to trigger their percent bonus effects whenever you heal (except from fountain) with a 20 second cooldown on this effect. Second Wind nerfed for ranged champions. Inspiration: Glacial Augment replaced or buffed, but not cancerous against melee. Klepto nerfed. Magical Footwear changed to always be at 10 minutes (no takedown reduction) and doesn't reduce upgrade cost by 50 gold. Future's Market intial debt doubled and debt limit over time doubled to tripled and no longer puts you 50 extra gold in debt every time you go in debt beyond the first. Stopwatch rune gives Stopwatch at level 8 and only contributes 200 gold towards upgrades (from 300). Make other stuff less shit. Runes overall: After picking second tree, you can choose which bonus stats you get based both trees rather than based on the primary. Example: Taking Precision + Domination means you can get attack speed, adaptive ad/ap, or a mix of both. 50% of titanic hydra's bonus damage and all of Sterak's base AD counts towards AD scalings for runes. This solves a lot of issues for bruisers. Baron recall now reduced by 2 seconds instead of 5, gives half less bonus movement. Jungle camps made harder and longer to clear, but respawn faster, and gain slightly less stats per level. Recurve bow cost reduced by 50 gold, Bloodrazor now builds into from an extra Dagger (Smite Enchant + Recurve Bow + Dagger) and costs 100 less gold. First turret blood removed. Fortification added back to bot lane turret. Fortification extended to 7 minutes and reduced to 50% for all turrets except bot lane turret (stays at technical current 75%). Turrets now gets some extra building up bonus armor pen. Minion damage to turrets reverted to 50%. Maokai, Ornn, and Cho'Gath nerfed. BoRK changed to be not shit on melee champions. Aatrox given literally any tank killing mechanic and slightly better base stats. Bramble Vest and Thornmail removed.

Might not be all of it, but it sure is a vast majority of it.

Ralanr2 votes

I don't believe grasp and aftershock need nerfs, or heavy ones at least. Are you also suggesting conditioning be triggered only by healing.

As for turrets: Tanks are supposed to be strong against turrets. If anything they should be made more durable and do more flat damage.

AirKingNeo1 votes

Aftershock and Grasp are literally all that's played top that's strong right now besides Comet. Grasp got tripled buffed compared to last season. Grasp is good enough to outtrade Press the Attack pre-nerf as well, despite bruisers being the early game champions.

Not Conditioning, the things next to it.

I don't think Maokai and Naut need to tank over 23 nexus turret shots without a dent. Increasing flat damage would ruin diving for most bruisers/assassins. If Elise is the concern, then nerf Elise.

Ralanr2 votes

Considering bruisers and assassins are supposed to be at risk when diving towers I don’t see that as a bad thing.

I don’t see why Riot doesn’t just buff press the attack for Melee champions.

AirKingNeo1 votes

Because bruisers and assasins are already at risk from turrets. They don't need more risk.

Because even pre-nerf Press the Attack loses to Grasp. Buffing PtA back to prenerf for melees still leaves you with the same issue. Aftershock is breaking bot lane with supports right now too.

Ralanr4 votes

{quoted}

Because bruisers and assasins are already at risk from turrets. They don't need more risk.

I disagree here. Assassins and divers have enough mobility to get out of turret aggro before death. It’s meant to discourage them from diving too long. Tanks and bruisers who build defensively are supposed to be able to take a bunch of tower shots.

Because even pre-nerf Press the Attack loses to Grasp. Buffing PtA back to prenerf for melees still leaves you with the same issue. Aftershock is breaking bot lane with supports right now too.

I meant to being better than prenerf for melees.

So far the only bot lane Support getting broken by it is Leona from my understanding. It’s strong, I won’t deny that, but it’s also a more intuitive option than guardian so I can understand why it’s picked often there.

Velzard of Koz1 votes

I mean, If it's true Camille's designer will handle that then fears are quite justified.

Shadow Hazard4 votes

Actually I think it is a valid saying. I learned it from my mother just a littler different. "Set your standards low, and you will never be disappointed but can always be impressed."

Ralanr1 votes

There is truth to the saying but it’s still a depressive outlook.

ªTeemo9 votes

CertainlyT working on a vgu, oh boi

50ShadesOfÀDC1 votes

We are so doomed. I wonder if its Wukong or Mundo rework

big boi edri1 votes

Prob Volibear

Blood Magicks48 votes

Stop it now. Warwick was well done.

Skorch3 votes

And people give a lot of shit to Graves and Morde but IMO they are also really well reworks that accomplished what they wanted. Cait though... (Personally i like shes is a pretty polarizing rework.)

junglerboy169 votes

Mordekaiser was and still is a failure in regards to what they wanted. He exists right now as a downgrade of his former self and failed at fulfilling their "melee bot carry" goal. Not to say he's not doing ok balance-wise, but he didn't succeed as a rework. They went out on a limb with it (props for that) but didn't hit the mark.

Cait, however polarizing, was a resounding success in comparison because they actually succeeded in distinguishing her from all the other right click to win ADCs with her reworked headshot mechanics.

Snowplosion4 votes

Morde was the biggest experiment League has ever tried. Call the experiment a failure cause it sure as hell was. But nevertheless it was an experiment more than anything.

P0IS0N IVY4 votes

Just remember that ALL of his champions were problematic at one point or another in terms of balancing.

Papa Andrei12 votes

Just remember, ALL champions were problematic at one point or another in terms of balancing.

RainbowIcee2 votes

except Quinn , she's never had the top spotlight. Or Velkoz , i don't remember him being in a balance patch.

Spideraxe1 votes

Quinn was fairly strong as a top laner shortly after her rework and the introduction of Serrated Dirk and TLD, but she her strength was short lived

P0IS0N IVY2 votes

Ok I'll correct myself. The majority of his champions have been a source of hate and frustration for a large part of the community starting from their release, not because some item change or whatever made them OP. His champion's kits are unique and too difficult to balance and results in a lot of hate for him because we don't have enough bans to ban all his champions.

ªTeemo5 votes

So just because Warwick turned out well we forget everything else, right?

Ralanr5 votes

All in all, despite the frustration his designs bring, CertainlyT is a great developer because of the overall mechanical impact his creations have on the game. Some of which are so simple but people still haven’t understood how to beat (Yasuo’s wall for example).

When creating new champions I understand the worry. But so far, Warwick was his first real rework. Mordekaiser was part of a juggernaut update, which gave less time and less room to work with than Warwick.

Seeing him turn a champion who needs a VGU into a full blown better champion is exciting.

ChompyWulf1 votes

SolCrushed, who has delivered several quality VGUs, is a great designer. Making champs who are near impossible to balance or rule a lane until a new champ is made as a counter isn't great. Does it make an impact? Sure. So does mixing two 1000 piece puzzles into one box, but it's not a positive experience.

GreenLore5 votes

So the big projects for the first half of 2018 are Swain VGU summoner 12 New Champ Irelia VGU summoner 12 new champ summoner 1 new VGU

with Aatrox being somewhere in between those.

And additionally summoner 12 1 champ summoner 1 3VGUs

However I think they mentioned having 5 projects in ideation phase at almost all times,so I guess a second champion ideation project,so I guess they'll have another champ in ideation soon.

Overall this sounds like we'll get 6 VGUs next year,which would be amazing [sg-lux] (or we get 5 VGUs next year and a Kayle/Morgana VGU at the start of 2019,because that dual VGU will definitely take longer than a single one)

ModCaptainMårvelous3 votes

That reddit crosspost.

DariusDemiurge2 votes

Mandatory, hope one of those VGUs is the Kayle+Morgana combo pack, want my disappointment sated already and to start the road of coping with the likely dramatic loss of the two.

Chembaron Yamada1 votes

Honestly, from all the champs in the tier 1 list, I see them as kinda low priority. And Pentakill Kayle made me think that their rework might be at the very end of that list.

Forhonor3211 votes

As much as I know CertainlyT gets a lot of flak for his work, I'm kinda curious to see what his VGU is on considering his last update was Warwick and he so far seems to be the most balanced champ in the game so far with no buffs or nerfs to him since being reworked.

Still waiting to see what the Swain rework looks like though!

More from Story, Art, & Sound

Petition to keep the Bilgewater ARAM map in circulation
Story, Art, & Sound154 comments
1,161
votes
[SUPER IMPORTANT PETITION] Change Sion's ban quote...
Story, Art, & Sound54 comments
597
votes
Can we get an Honor animation?! 4 ways to insult an opponent but none to congratulate them.
Story, Art, & Sound202 comments
578
votes
Petition to make Rengar wiggle his butt when there's a pounce-able target near his bush
Story, Art, & Sound140 comments
476
votes
About this years harrowing...
Story, Art, & Sound357 comments
459
votes
RIOT, please postpone Blood Moon Diana and make it into a Legendary skin.
Story, Art, & Sound236 comments
423
votes

More by Spideraxe

Pyke Bandanna tweak on PBE
Story, Art, & Sound54 comments
119
votes
Riot August is designing champions again
Gameplay152 comments
113
votes
The real Evelynn splash art from Riot FeralPony
Story, Art, & Sound26 comments
107
votes
New Teasers on the Demacia Universe site
Story, Art, & Sound102 comments
39
votes
Void region update
Story, Art, & Sound220 comments
38
votes
Aatrox's WIP banner wings from the AMA
Story, Art, & Sound63 comments
36
votes