Horusisalreadychosen

I play both these champions more than any other and while Akali finally seems like she might be fine (still fun to play even if she's harder to win with than most), Irelia feels really bad right now.

I can't think of another champion who I can have a three kill lead on, double the cs of my lane opponent, and still get easily solo killed in lane by my opponent.

Sad to hear she's not in line for a bit of a change given how low her pro play presence and solo queue winrate is. (She's still playable but she doesn't feel like she has the x factor Akali has that makes you feel like you can win if you get ahead.)

If her pro play presence remains very low we will likely have room for some small buffs. We will keep an eye on it

tundranocaps

Zoe's appearance and theming seems based off Neil Gaiman's Sandman's Delirium, is that correct?

It wasn't. Zoe's theme was inpsired by the anime magical girl archetype. We saw how popular the Star Guardian skinline was with players, which made us realize how resonate the magical girl archetype was with our players. We didn't really have that archetype in the game as a Champion yet, so it was something we wanted to explore and we felt it worked really well with Zoe's opportunity space

Ultrapower

Oh shit thats hype building for the next couple champs q: ima be sad if you end up not releasing it now

Be sure to check out the Champ Roadmap tomorrow :P

Zoli_Ben

Can you please share nicher champ breadth and depths like Nunu, Swain, Urgot?

Sure

Urgot https://imgur.com/a/4BwJ6A1 Nunu/Swain https://imgur.com/a/zo5MTAQ

Azramy

ooh, glad to hear about it, maybe it is the champ that will make me play as ADC. Hope to see it soon

The Champ she is working on is not a ADC, I will talk about that Champ in the Roadmap tomorrow though

Soxviper

So you define gameplay hooks by the opponent's experience? Rather than how the player themselves play (or input) the champion?

We define them by both, but it is much harder to create a unique output, which is why we generally build kits around that. The designers on Champions team generally don't find it difficult to come up with exciting and unique inputs. Its required for a champion to have one, but it's not essential to green lighting a champion

Soxviper

): It's a shame, he's one of the most brilliant minds at your studio. Does he have any proteges, or people he's made a big influence on? I really liked DZK's designs, even though he ended up being fired.

I think he has had a strong effect on most all the designers he has worked with on Champions Team

Moonboy65

/u/Reav3 What champions would you consider for an Ezreal size update other than Kennen, Jax, Blitzcrank and Jarvan IV?

Malphite probably

HandsomeTaco

Do you have any plans to improve on the gameplay of some of the more niche champions who fail at breadth and depth of play or don't hit thematic goals in their kit? Champions like Aurelion Sol or Kindred for example are oftentimes considered "wasted potential" even if everything but their gameplay is good, if not great for some.

In short, how willing/likely is Riot to do purely gameplay overhauls to some of these picks that the community believes aren't living up to their potential?

You mean like bigger changes then the recent Ivern/Asol changes we did?

MansDemiGod

Any fiddlesticks and/or volibear rework updates?

I will have a update on them in the Champion Roadmap tomorrow

Soxviper

I don't understand. Stealing copies of summoner spells sounds unique enough on its own, no?

Sure, but it doesn't effect they way other players in the game play that much, it's mostly isolated to Zoe (which is what we call a unique input) Gameplay hooks are usually unique outputs, which mean they cause the other players in the game to play differently. For example, Yuumi's Q is very unique is that it follows your mouse, this feels very unique for Yuumi since no other Champion can do this, but playing with or against it doesn't feel to different then most skill shots. Yuumis Attach mechanic on the other hand makes the players in game playing with and against Yuumi think about the game different and play different, which makes it a unique output. Unique outputs are good because that is what causes gameplay variation from game to game, and keeps LoL from becoming boring, since u have to think about the game differently depending on which Champs are in the game. We generally want every Champion to have a unique input and output it gives game variety (due to the output) but also m...

Azramy

oh i see, sorry for the misunderstanding, now i must say thanks to both for the amazing job :)

Ill let them know! The next Champ coming out that LoneWingy did Concept art for is one of my personal favorites yet!

Zoli_Ben

Players in Surveys and Playrate jump. Curious to see who are the highest up there (and also for my favourite champ, Urgot)

I think Poppy was the highest we have ever done in survey scores. Akali and Irelia were extremely high as well, as they were really resonate and loved at launch, most of the concerns came later once we had to nerf them a lot.

As far as playrate jumps Mordekaiser and Aatrox were the 2 highest jumps, but both of them had a lot of room to grow. Irelia and Akali are the 2 most popular VGUS we have ever done, both of which have had very high playates, despite the nerfs, since there launch. There jumps weren't as high because neither started from as low as a playrate as many other VGUs.

As a bonus here is the Urgot playrate jump, which was also very big

https://imgur.com/a/4BwJ6A1

helicopterspies

I get what you're saying about the play rate numbers, but what the squiggly heck am I looking at with this chart?

I posted a comment in the top of this chat that explains how to read the chart. Each point on the graph is a patch, the thicker the bar the more recent the patch. X axis is total games the Champion gets played in a patch and Y axis is the amount of times the same Champion gets played by the same player

Magnusbijacz

/u/Reav3 and /u/RiotScruffy , any possibility for some Sylas love? Also don't you think that Jungle sylas (and balancing him around it) would be much healthier than midlaner? What happened to the changes to his AS from before 9.19? are they scrapped or just moved to other patch after Worlds?

Yeah it looks like Sylas was overnerfed, we will msot likely look into some small buffs to him at some point soon

Soxviper

Was there a specific reason he got kicked off the team?

He didnt get kicked off the team. He was part of the core team that did early exploration into TFT, and then when it was greenlit for production he stayed with that team and worked on the item system and carousal. I still feel that was 100% the right decision as TFT has had a much larger impact the a individual Champion in LoL, even if he makes some of the best ones. He did so well at that, that LoL leadership felt it was better for him to go to RnD to explore new things for now

Soxviper

But didn't Stashu change it in the end?

I mean Stashu made small changes, the kinds of changes every Champion goes through when we they go into production, but most of the kit stayed intact, and the high level concept, which is very ambitious still remains

cammysensualcombo

every champion that is busted has a high pickrate tho

This is not true at all. There are many busted Champs with very low pickrates, for example, here is the historical playrate of Taliyah and Kayn. Kayn has never really been busted since his release, where as Taliyah was for awhile a extremely strong mid laner.

https://imgur.com/a/C5cVbRO

Or even Aatrox when we nerfed him to a point he was basically unplayable in SoloQ and competitive had a higher playrate then pre-VGU Aatrox which u can see here

https://imgur.com/a/TCWGAp3

SturmiLol

My rework idea would be to actually make him evolve to some void thingy (like a butterfly), as it would also drive his story forward. (and most importent, make him stay cute x) )

edit: pls give me some kogmaw icon/emote to show my suppot for vomiting caterpillars ^{^}

Yeah I think making him more "Cute" would certainly make him more appealing which would help a lot in getting him played more. I also think some kind of evolving thing would work well for him

RenegadeExiled

I really just want to know, because I'll keep playing ASol even if he hits a 30% winrate: will we be getting a skin that is actually good? And will it be some time within the next couple years, at least?

Mecha was just so bland and disappointing. It honestly hurts to know that we're stuck with that when we saw those amazing Coven skins immediately after. And we know that you can design a robotic skin that works well with the Praetorian line. Theres been so many fantastic ideas, like Gravelord, Dark Star, Ao Shin that were thrown around for ASol. Yet it feels like if a concept is ever discussed, it immediately gets thrown out, and wont ever see production.

And, side note: what the actual fuck was that Ivern skin, man

Sorry I don't work on skins team