@Riot, can you give us a hint as to which champions will receive a huge lore development next?

ChunLii·Dec 1, 2017·5 votes·533 views

I never cared about Varus. I mean his old lore too, he was always just there for me. However, you guys did a fantastic job with the music video. I really enjoyed that even if I don’t care about Varus. I loved the music and the visuals so good <3.

Is it possible to give us tiny teeny hint as to the next lore development? Pleeeeeeeeeease

Reading the Zed timeline made me so excited for future developments.

13 Comments

ShnauzDec 1, 20174 votes

I think if Riot hinted at a Varus Lore update the amount of bitching would've been increased tenfold.

"Don't touch my **cking Varus, Riot!", followed by even more bitching when Riot releases it anyways; possibly enough to warrant the individuals leaving League over Riot "Not listening to the ~~Varus mains~~" people who care deeply for Varus's unnamed wife and child.

Dynamic, spontaneous releases really are the only way they can go to reduce crying from the children as well as surprise and delight the rest of the community.

iLBGAMingDec 1, 20173 votes

{quoted}

I think if Riot hinted at a Varus Lore update the amount of bitching would've been increased tenfold. "Don't touch my **cking Varus, Riot!", followed by even more bitching when Riot releases it anyways; possibly enough to warrant the individuals leaving League over Riot "Not listening to the Varus mains". Dynamic, spontaneous releases really are the only way they can go to reduce crying from the children as well as surprise and delight the rest of the community.

"Varus mains" Lol where? I barely ever and I actually mean it, I barely come across ANY Varus players. (BTW I am a old Varus main myself, since the beginning of Season 5)

ShnauzDec 1, 20173 votes

Yeah, absolutely, Varus has a pretty awkward kit tbh. Based on yesterday's Lore fiasco, a lot of "People who care deeply for Varus's unnamed wife and child" got extremely upset. Not necessarily the Varus Mains.

QuephaDec 1, 20171 votes

In my experience, fair warning about champion reworks and lore updates work much better at reducing negative reactions. The most negative reactions have always come from 'Surprise!' moments.

ShnauzDec 1, 20172 votes

I respect your opinion. Any examples?

QuephaDec 1, 20173 votes

Cassiopeia's Shurima rework: Surprise! We changed her power curve and distributions completely with no warning, aren't you excited that your ratios are shackled while you complete annoying cs minigames? "Killing" Gangplank for a few days before his rework: Surprise! Your champion is disabled for story reasons, and possibly even deleted permanently! You don't know what's happening! Fiora's splash and model update: Surprise! This beautiful champion who we've capitalized on by selling 'sexy' skins for has a horse-face!

Compare to things like the Poppy or Sion reworks which people knew were coming for months or even years. There were some people disappointed with the loss of the old champion, but most people had time to prepare themselves and understand the necessity of the changes.

ShnauzDec 1, 20171 votes

That's fair, but in almost all of these examples the champs were completely busted, broken, or garbage.

GP was point and click money-making ulti-whiffing trash. Everyone wanted to see this guy changed, maybe not to the degree riot took him, but I personally still appreciate the higher skill cap and tighter lane dynamics.

Sion was literally a meme with an accent. Point and click skills and a shield that scaled with AP. Absolutely atrocious. Literally everyone wanted to see this changed to literally anything else.

Poppy is pretty much in the same boat as Sion in terms of being a fucking meme. R the adc, run in with ghost and triforce, and murder him. There was no counterplay for the enemy adc. Trust me. I was there.

Cass I wasn't so sure of, so I had to check with ma boi Phreak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neQNvEyuhPU

This Cass is garbage,

You probably meant the rework after this one with the stacking minigame that gave bonus buffs depending on her stack count: "Cassiopeia gains 1 per 6 seconds and 1 per second an enemy is poisoned, with a proposed cap of 500. At certain benchmarks, currently 75, 200, and then 400, she gains bonuses to her AP and buffs to her abilities." I remember this one too. I also remember people really hating the stacking due to the far too unnoticeable power spikes and her already being an oppressive lane bully.

Fiora was point and click insta-pentakill ultimate. Gained stacking health regen from hitting enemy champions. Q was a targeted 600 range dash that could be casted twice. Theres literally no counterplay if you picked the wrong champion. Definitely had to be changed.

In all of these situations, the reworks or changes were a necessity; the only difference was the way Riot implemented it. I personally remember the Gangplank death really well. I was super hyped with how they handled it. They wrote a great story that ending with his possible death with his ship exploding and then we turns up alive along with his rework. That shit was fuckn sick.

I had to search up "Fiora face"... ...that's a fair point.

QuephaDec 1, 20172 votes

But the Poppy and Sion reworks were scheduled things that Riot mentioned ahead of time and were generally well-received.

Cassiopeia had pretty mich no warning until it hit the PBE and Riot said they thought people would be excited about the surprise. The polar opposite happened.

ShnauzDec 1, 20171 votes

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/n7lt68uM-mid-year-mage-updates-cassiopeia-direction

This post is where they talk about the direction they are thinking of taking Cass, and gaggles of people hated the direction they were talking about. However, gameplay boards (especially from the PBE) are a fucking zoo of unranked monkeys trying to justify their precious opinions.

Around the same time:

https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/4byi37/cassiopeia_update_news/ 281 upvotes - Well read post

"I like how you're trying to incorporate the fact that she's a snake so she doesn't "need" boots in her kit. Kind of funny, but also make sense because she is supposed to be an immobile mage. And then you have the poppy-like spell that removes enemy mobility to put enemies on a level playing field... I really love it when you try to push what makes a champion unique into overdrive."

You're gonna get extensive bitching and admiration either way, I personally find that the "rip the band- aid off" approach is ultimately the more mature and least divisive measure to ensure _player stability _ and Rioter sanity.

QuephaDec 1, 20172 votes

I wasn't talking about the Mage update rework, I was talking about the Shurima rework aka the Stashu rework.

The Mage update was announced ahead of schedule, involved a lot of feedback and reworking, it was a slow process that eventually churned out something people liked.

ShnauzDec 1, 20171 votes

Ahh, you mean this post? https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/zuL472BJ-cassiopeia-plans

Looking back at Stachu's history: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/player/NA/Riot%20Stashu

He acknowledges that his changes maybe were a bit ambitious:

"In any case, I found this post to be incredibly helpful. You've taken what a lot of people were feeling and really dove deeply into to, explaining and clarifying much of where it was coming from, and beyond that outlined a good path/direction to take moving forward. Not that I think you speak for everybody, but I believe you captured why many people have been disappointed with the passive.

I deeply appreciate all the time you spent here, and it will certainly affect the way I think about these problems moving forward." (3 years ago in > @RiotStashu: I think I know how Cass's passive can work. @Everyone else: Hear me out.)

This example from you is great, but I think Stachu and Riot have learned from their past transgressions. A balance has to be made between sudden ambitious changes that completely 180 a champion's coregameplay and letting every single opinion affect their decision making.

QuephaDec 1, 20172 votes