Riot Games has had some public relations problems in the past related to how much their staff communicates with the community. Sometimes they’ve said some things they shouldn’t have, but by and large it does wonders to keep people feeling like they’re being paid attention to and gives the players little hints of things to look forward to.
Today’s Forecast
RiotEzrael is a member of the League of Legends team who regularly speaks on the forums and answers questions players ask him. His most recent slew of questions brought up some very interesting future possibilities.
While Riot Games has considered selling new voices for the announcer, they are not currently working on any such thing.
When asked if champions would be reworked due to being un-fun to play against, he confirmed that yes, that is one of the primary criteria determining if they rework a champion. The three League of Legends champions that were specifically mentioned were Darius, Yorick, and Teemo, but none of those three were specifically addressed by RiotEzrael.
For our first hints of what’s to come to really get excited about, someone mentioned wanting a female ranged AD champion and a new ice-based mage (as they don’t like Anivia). Ezrael’s response? “2013 will be a good year for you…”
While he gave no confirmation of it, Ezrael did state that he’d be pleased to see Viktor’s unique item being given a second tier of upgrade to be more viable late-game.
Next major hint came with someone asking about when we can expect our next support champion. RiotEzrael confirmed that they tend to work on champions up to eight months in advance and that there is not only a support within that time period but that said support is a male champion.
The idea of a directional damage reduction shield was put forward (sort of the reverse of Shaco doing more damage with back-strikes) and Ezrael stated clearly that he fully expects to see exactly such a mechanic in the future.
A Jungler, By Riot
Also recently did Riot Games give their definition of what it is that actually makes a champion into a jungler, rather than simply a champion who is capable of jungling.
Their definition was fairly fluid. Most people look at a combination of jungle clear times and jungle sustainability coupled with dueling capability and ganking strength. Riot looks at much the same, but seems to have a notably different priority, using Rengar as an example. On release week, Rengar was almost immediately widely agreed as not being a viable jungler because his jungle clear time was too low, while Riot did still consider him a jungler due to the possibilities of his ganking potential.
Hints of champions to come, design explanations, and definitive clarifications. All in a day’s work for Riot Games. Keep gaming, summoners.
