Analyzing Reav3's indications on future VGUs

Zahtar·Dec 5, 2018·6 votes·4,332 views

Hi everyone ! Last night I tried to get into Reav3’s head by gathering all the infos he’d put on the forums about upcoming champion updates. I ended up making predictions for the order in which the next 20 champion updates are about to take place.

At the end of this, I give you my final prediction for the 2019’s champion roadmap, which I think is quite accurate, due to the amount of sources that I’ve gathered.

For my classification, I prioritized the most recent sources (HPT > V > explicit quotes > CP > * ). The older ones date back to 2 years ago, and it’s actually fun to see the developers seem to have shifted from a “Tiers” system to a more linear “priorities” one.

There are two lists, the first one for full VGUs, and the second for smaller VgUs or only VUs (in the vein of Ezreal’s and Morgana’s ones, even though Morgana is according to Reav3 still getting a "full VGU", probably because her lore and theme are also updated). Btw, I didn’t include Morgana and Kayle in my lists, since we already know they are set to get reworked early 2019.

HPT "High priority target" CP "Current pool after Alkali/Irelia” ***** "Tier 1 candidates” V "Small gameplay tweaks, major VU"

Full VGUs

HPT CP Mordekaiser “very high on our priority list” *****
HPT CP Fiddlesticks “definitely high on our priority list”
HPT CP Mundo “high on our priority list” *****
HPT CP Pantheon *****
HPT CP Nocturne “pretty high on our list”
HPT CP Rammus *****
HPT CP Volibear *****
HPT CP Corki “whenever we get to them”
HPT Amumu
CP Skarner “definitely”
CP Udyr “at some point”
CP Kog’Maw “whenever we get to them”
CP Cho'gath “isn't super urgent atm” *****
CP Shaco *****
Xin Zhao "at least 1.5 years away [i.e min 2019]" *****
Malphite “definitely borderline Tier 1”

VgUs/VUs

V Jax "if the Ezreal VgU proves to be a successful product", “Tier 2"
V CP Kennen
V Blitzcrank
Veigar VU “talked about”

At this point I looked at the last 2 years to try and guess how many of each will come out in 2019.

2018 : VGUs = Akali, Aatrox, Irelia, Nunu, Swain / New champs = Pyke, Kai’sa / V(g)U = Ezreal 2017 : VGUs = Warwick, Galio, Evelynn, Urgot / New champs = Zoe, Kayn, Ornn, Xayah&Rakan

Then, following these indications from Reav3 : “Next year will likely be more of a 50/50 split like 2017” (between VGUs and new champs) “currently we have Ezreal, Kayle, Morgana and 3 other VGUs in early discovery phases"

My FINAL PREDICTIONS FOR 2019 are : 4 new champions 3-4 VGUs : > > and/or 2 V(g)Us : > or

The most likely imo is to get Kayle, Morgana, Mordekaiser (pretty much confirmed) and Fiddlesticks (because Mundo just got his animations updated) in 2019 and I’d say a Jax VU (because his current in-game model is worse than Kennen’s one imo). Followed in 2020 by a January/February Mundo update, and a March/April or update (the latter Reav3 seems very eager to rework due to his strong theme, even though he said 2 weeks ago that Panth was more likely than Noc being heavily reworked soon).

Thanks for reading Please be constructive in the comments and hf :)

21 Comments

MordepoolDec 5, 20187 votes

Mordekaiser i have been patient if a tad annoyed

ZahtarDec 5, 20181 votes

I'm positive he's being updated in 2019

Malicious MetalDec 5, 20181 votes

Soon.

AlzonDec 5, 20181 votes

Very 🥄

LyasoDec 5, 20185 votes

I would say that Pantheon and Nocturne are coming before DrMundo and Fiddlesticks . Since and DrMundo got both recently skins. Two weeks ago there was a youtube video from wired where Ghostcrawler and Meddler talked about all champions. They mentioned particularly that Mordekaiser and Volibear were needing updates.

QMightyDec 5, 20181 votes

Yeah I was thinking that too. Morde and Panth seem pretty likely and there's been a lot of demand for Voli lately, and Noc has always been someone that Reav3 was really interested in getting to so I could totally see them being the ones we get next year.

ZahtarDec 5, 20181 votes

Might well be the case ! Actually, in my classification I focused solely on Reav3's comments, and there were very few concerning Pantheon, except for the fact he'd probably get reworked before Nocturne. I don't see both of them being updated in 2019 tho. So I'd say for 2019, leaving Fiddlesticks DrMundo for 2020.

ZyraniumDec 5, 20182 votes

I think at some point they also talked about Quinn Shyvana & also Diana

ZahtarDec 5, 20182 votes

Indeed, but in Reav3's words it felt to me like they would come later down the line ! The three of them have better arts and in-game models than most of the ones I've listed and Quinn is in a decent place gameplay-wise (even though Reav3 seems to want to explore her theme better).

On Quinn : "Quinn core theme is basically a ranger/hawk master not a knight. I would rather try to make the best version of a ranger with a bad ass pet hawk, because that would feel way more true to Quinn"

On Diana : "We definitely care about Diana. We have actually tried doing a mini-rework on her internally twice, but both got scrapped because we couldn't find something that we thought would be good enough. We wan't to do something with her, but we want to make sure it's good. We could also wait a little longer and get through some higher priority VGUs and then do a Diana/Leona VGU like we are doing with K&M, where we do bigger kit stuff to Diana and a smaller mostly VU to Leona. That could be pretty cool as well. Time will tell."

Linna ExcelDec 5, 20181 votes

Shyvana probably needs a GU. I don't think she fits in with riot's intended direction for the jungle heading on and they took away too much of her dueling and invading power for her to be relevant.

TomekszDec 5, 20181 votes

Fiddle just got a skin about a month ago so I'd say he is very unlikely to get a VGU in 2019. RiotAugust, Xenogenic, RiotAxes, Reinboom are all the designers that are working on VGU's for the next year, none of their projects will be small like Ezreal except for Morgana.

ZahtarDec 5, 20181 votes

Interesting. Actually, Reav3's quote about Fiddle was in response to a question about Gameplay updates, but I was finding it hard to imagine Riot would update Fiddle without giving him a new model... since he's really looking bad atm. Didn't think about his new skin tho, so you make a point.

Yet I think Reav3's words are meaningful. As a matter of fact, every champion he had previously said to be "high" (or so) in their priority list has gotten a full VGU in the past year. Plus Mundo is also getting a new skin, but still a HPT for a VGU... not really sure what to think about that after all.

For the designers working on the VGUs : maybe you're right, idk. Maybe other designers will end up working on smaller projects that aren't fully fleshed out yet.

OleandervineDec 5, 20183 votes

{quoted}

Interesting. Actually, Reav3's quote about Fiddle was in response to a question about Gameplay updates, but I was finding it hard to imagine Riot would update Fiddle without giving him a new model... since he's really looking bad atm. Didn't think about his new skin tho, so you make a point.

Yet I think Reav3's words are meaningful. As a matter of fact, every champion he had previously said to be "high" (or so) in their priority list has gotten a full VGU in the past year. Plus Mundo is also getting a new skin, but still a HPT for a VGU... not really sure what to think about that after all.

For the designers working on the VGUs : maybe you're right, idk. Maybe other designers will end up working on smaller projects that aren't fully fleshed out yet.

A few things actually - in 2016, when asked about Evelynn, Reav3 stated "I'd be surprised if she didn't get a VGU next year" -> 2017, Evelynn VGU. This year, he stated almost the same thing verbatim about Mordekaiser, so to me that may indicate Mordekaiser may get a VGU sooner.

That said, Riot's also indicated that 2017 was a weirdly high volume year for VGUs, and that 2019 would simmer down on them. I personally hope they continue the focus on VGUs, because I find it an affront to modern gaming to have low quality characters like Mundo and Udyr running around in 2018-19, when they're operating on visuals from 10 years ago.

ZahtarDec 5, 20182 votes

Totally agree. I also wish Malphite was higher on their priority list (Reav3 hasn't mentioned him for a while), since he feels SO outdated to me.

Moody PDec 5, 20181 votes

Voli doesn't need a rework

OleandervineDec 5, 20183 votes

[{quoted}](name=Moody P,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=icZJZpEO,comment-id=0003,timestamp=2018-12-05T14:29:22.114+0000)

Voli doesn't need a rework

Reav3 does not agree with at sentiment, nor does a lot of people. He's a giant ball of stats that barrels at you. If he has more stats, you die. If you have more stats, he dies. The skill expression in his kit is non-existent, aside from maybe flipping someone into your team, but outside of that, he's got nothing but hope that he has more damage and HP to kill someone than they do.

Moody PDec 5, 20181 votes

ball of stats

false

Volibear takes more skill to play successfully at high ELO than almost anyone else and sees play even as a support in Korea challenger top 100

OleandervineDec 5, 20183 votes

[{quoted}](name=Moody P,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=icZJZpEO,comment-id=000300000000,timestamp=2018-12-05T14:38:07.835+0000)

false

Volibear takes more skill to play successfully at high ELO than almost anyone else and sees play even as a support in Korea challenger top 100

He's not? Because every one of his abilities, except for his roar, just grants him more stats so he can do things. That's not skill expression. When you press buttons for no purpose other than to boost your stats, that makes you a ball of stats.

Moody PDec 5, 20181 votes

Volibear has tons of skill expression in his 2 disruption spells and the correct usage of his E vs champions who have fast dashes can make him win or lose the lane entirely

once again you completely fail to identify correctly the problems that make Volibear needing help because you and riot are so caught up in the skill expression meme desperate to pretend that LOL is mechanically intensive that anything that doesn't have tons of skill shots or dog shit worthless gimmicks is bad despite patch notes routinely proving the opposite - and the fact that of Volibear got reworked in any way you would actually approve of you would come back to boards and whine that he's overloaded and unfair despite having all that skill expression you love to harp on about

you and the rest of boards are clueless and it isn't worth the discussion when your entire philosophy is terrible to begin with

Jackom1Dec 5, 20181 votes

Not too sure about DrMundo since he just recieved new VFX for his spells. He stil is a stat check champion, so some degree of work is to be expected.

Fiddlesticks is definitely high on Rito's "to do" list, though I hope they get to Malphite and Chogath first. Their Models are even more outdated, and their kits need to be reworked from the ground up. That said, if they managed to nail down a fiddle rework already, then he's coming next year for sure.