One of the game’s main developers, Riot Games’ August, believes LoL is in a less than ideal state for the current meta in League of Legends heavily favors Corki and Tristana in the mid lane for various reasons.

During a Twitch stream on June 6, August delved into the details of the current state of League, focusing particularly on the mid lane dominance of Tristana and Corki. He expressed concerns about the impact these two champions are having on the game. Although he believes they will likely be nerfed, he is not convinced that this will fully address the issue.

“Personally, I agree with you that Corki and Trist being in the meta is probably pretty rough and I don’t think the game looks like it’s in a great spot when those two AD Carries that are really safe are the ones you should be playing in mid lane,” 

While acknowledging that Corki and Tristana are not “optimal” for the current state of League, August also pointed out the difficulties in balancing the current meta due to other gameplay dynamics.

Like, AP junglers are currently very strong and popular, which August sees as positive for League. However, this popularity has increased the demand for AD-based mid laners to ensure teams have a diversified damage. Currently, Corki and Tristana are the best options.

August further explained that other mid laners, such as assassins, are not picked in the current meta because they are weaker and less suitable. He suggested that Corki and Tristana might simply be overpowered and in need of nerfs. However, he also proposed that making other AD champions viable could be a better solution.

“They might just need nerfs. But in a meta where you need to run a physical damage mid laner to account for your magic damage jungle, if there’s only two physical damage mid laners you can run, that’s going to look like these two characters are completely broken, “

Currently, both Tristana and Corki are extremely popular in high-ranked solo queue. In the 2024 LPL Summer Split so far, they have a 100% pick and ban rate, according to Oracle’s Elixir.

Fortunately for those tired of the current state of the mid lane, significant changes appear to be on the horizon. Riot Phroxzon has hinted at major adjustments for both Tristana and Corki, possibly coming as early as Patch 14.14.

Smolder’s original design in League of Legends

On April 28, Spideraxe took to Twitter to unveil insights into Smolder’s abandoned design, shedding light on a concept vastly different from what players currently know. These revelations stemmed from earlier disclosures by Riot’s August Browning.

According to Riot August, the initial plan for Smolder involved an automatic transformation, making him “the offspring” of the Rift’s elemental dragons, each imbuing him with a unique advantage accessible via his Q ability.

Although August didn’t explain the full extent of these effects, he did mention that his Infernal form would offer exploration capabilities, while his Ocean form would inflict slowing effects on enemies, and his Chemtech form would apply poisonous debuffs. In some experimental iterations, Smolder’s Super Scorcher Breath even demonstrated the ability to damage turrets with true damage.

Despite this version, it ultimately never saw the light of day on the live servers. The primary reasons cited were the extensive art resources required for implementation and the unpredictability it would introduce into gameplay.

With Smolder’s identity tied to the RNG selection of the Rift’s dragon, players would be left guessing each match, leading to potential frustration. Maintaining a clear understanding and mastery of a champion’s kit is paramount in League of Legends, and introducing such chance elements could disrupt this fundamental aspect of gameplay.

“Imagine playing Smolder and playing 3 games back to back with something like Wind Dragon for something like a Q that gives bonus movement vs poison, slow, or bigger aoe Qs,”

While the scrapped iteration of Smolder undoubtedly piques interest, it’s a relief that Riot opted for a different direction. League of Legends already presents a myriad of uncontrollable variables, from the Rift Herald to minion experience, team compositions, and adversaries.

Adding additional randomness into the one element would likely detract from the overall enjoyment of the game. Riot’s decision-making process in champion design must strike a balance between accessibility and excitement.

Riot Games, known for its mix of characters in League of Legends, invests considerable effort in crafting unique champions with distinct gameplay mechanics and visual designs. Ekko stands out as one of the game’s most ambitious creations, wielding the power to manipulate time itself through his Z-Drive.

August, a prominent lead designer at Riot Games, spearheaded Ekko’s development, pushing the boundaries of what a champion could achieve. Among the myriad ideas explored during Ekko’s conceptualization phase was an audacious ultimate ability that promised to rewind the entire match by a staggering 8 seconds, as disclosed by Riot August.

“The way it worked was Ekko would hit his ultimate and throw the entire map into the timestream for 8 seconds. We grab all the relevant statistics about them, their health, their cooldowns, their position on the map and we’d save it.”

This revolutionary concept involved Ekko triggering his ultimate, plunging the entire battlefield into the timestream for a brief interval. During this temporal time, crucial game data such as champion health, cooldowns, and positional information would be meticulously recorded and then reset after the designated duration.

In theory, this ultimate ability held the potential to redefine the very fabric of League of Legends gameplay, allowing for unprecedented strategic depth and exhilarating moments.

Riot August elaborated on the gameplay dynamics, describing team fights where players would unleash their abilities with reckless abandon, knowing they would soon regain their potency.

However, despite its awe-inspiring potential, the proposed ultimate faced numerous challenges and gameplay implications that ultimately led to its demise. August highlighted the disruptive nature of rewinding the entire map, which could confound player expectations and create disorienting experiences.

Moreover, concerns about the ultimate’s impact on game balance and player enjoyment surfaced during internal testing, prompting a QA tester to issue a stern warning of potential permabans for Ekko.

Faced with these critical evaluations and recognizing the need to preserve the integrity of the game’s core experience, August made the difficult decision to abandon the ambitious ultimate concept in favor of the more refined Chronobreak ability seen in Ekko’s current form.

While the scrapped ultimate may remain a tantalizing glimpse into the game’s developmental history, its legacy serves as a testament to Riot Games’ unwavering commitment to innovation and the relentless pursuit of excellence in champion design.

Riot August on why this keystone rune is intentionally underpowered

In the vast landscape of customization options that League of Legends offers to players, various avenues exist for tailoring one’s gameplay. While metas inevitably emerge in online games, League stands out for rewarding players who explore diverse builds, incorporating creative items and runes into their strategies.

Among the runes available to players, keystone runes hold an important position, offering a substantial power capable of shaping a champion’s playstyle.

Nevertheless, one keystone has consistently lingered in a perceived state of weakness compared to its counterparts. Riot August has recently taken the opportunity to elucidate the rationale behind this deliberate decision.

Predator, a keystone rune once favored by junglers for its significant power during ganks, has found itself weak in recent times, receiving little to no attention in the current meta. Riot August, during a streaming session, disclosed the reasons for retaining Predator in its seemingly underpowered state.

“Honestly we deliberately want that rune to be bad. We think it’s really bad for the game, so we make it deliberately bad. Like sometimes it’s better to have something be really bad just to be there.”

“It’s like a thing where sometimes the illusion of choice is better than no choice at all.”

“It’s like if we delete something for a lot of players who will be mentally attached to that thing, they’ll be like ‘Riot, how dare you delete this thing?’”

Originally valued for the immense strength it bestowed upon junglers in ganking situations, Predator has fallen out of favor in the evolving landscape of League of Legends.

Riot’s apparent preference for Predator’s presence suggests a strategic decision to shift the game’s dynamics away from its previous dominance.

As players navigate the dynamic landscape of League, the deliberate choice to keep Predator in its underpowered state adds an intriguing layer to the ongoing evolution of runes and strategies within the game.

Zed is kept weak and Riot August explains why

The reasoning behind this decision by the balance team revolves around Zed’s capacity to induce frustration among players and the significant number of bans he draws.

Rather than offering hope to Zed players about the champion’s potential in the metagame, Riot August dealt a disheartening blow by acknowledging that Zed’s intentional weakness might persist indefinitely as part of Riot’s strategic approach.

A pivotal factor that influenced Riot’s decision was Zed’s ban rate, currently standing at approximately 22.8% across all ranks, according to League statistics op.gg. Although not the highest ban rate in the game, this underscores the substantial impact Zed continues to wield, leading Riot to maintain caution in elevating his power level.

The ban rate, however, is not the sole consideration. Riot August emphasized repeatedly that Zed is regarded as “the most frustrating champion in League of Legends,” a sentiment echoed by the community. This perception of frustration further contributed to the decision to keep Zed intentionally weakened.

Since his release in late 2012, Zed has solidified his status as an iconic assassin in League of Legends. Over the past years, every player has some of his highlights, whether it involves being outplayed or witnessing a flashy combo. Zed’s impact extends beyond individual gameplay, with some of the most memorable esports plays in League of Legends history attributed to this champion.

As the community awaits the potential evolution of Riot’s stance on Zed’s place in the metagame, uncertainty looms over whether the intentional restraint on Zed will persist. For now, players of the Master of Shadows should brace themselves for the likelihood of continued neglect in terms of power adjustments.

League of Legends Champion Insight: Briar

In a recently published developer blog, several Riot Games developers delved into the genesis of Briar’s character, her initial prototypes, their preliminary forays into her lore and champion blueprint, and even some discarded concepts for abilities.

As an instance, Briar’s original ultimate power possessed a passive facet enabling her self-revival, like Aatrox’s former design. In this iteration, she would absorb vitality from surrounding enemies, ultimately reviving herself with a substantial amount of health.

“At one point she had a revive, similar to old Aatrox,”

However, the ability featured an added active component: Briar would inflict an astounding one million units of true damage upon herself, leading to her death, consequently triggering the revival passive, and sapping health from nearby enemies.

This configuration resulted in an exceedingly overpowered “suicide-self-revive-wombo-combo,” particularly when coupled with her formidable Blood Frenzy state. Consequently, developers recognized the necessity of altering or altogether discarding this ultimate ability.

Even in her existing ultimate state, Riot’s developers acknowledged the need to eliminate its genuine global range. This was due to the potential for Briar players to launch the projectile into the opponent’s base, forcing the champion to meet their end within the adversary’s fountain.

This adaptation ensures that her new ultimate still offers unique engagement opportunities from virtually any location on the map, while safeguarding the players from self-inflicted harm.

Interestingly enough, August Browning, Riot Games’ champion designer, also unveiled that Briar’s insatiable nature would drive her to even attack her own teammates. One of her abilities, Blood Frenzy, compels her to relinquish control and assail the nearest foe unrelentingly—an unprecedented effect among champions.

In her old design, she posed a greater challenge to balance, as her Blood Frenzy would indiscriminately impact allied champions, permitting her to initiate killing sprees among any player.

Swiftly, developers realized that while this concept held intrigue, it could foster more vexation than opportunities for showcasing skill. Consequently, they opted to mitigate her potency by reshaping the ability to solely target enemy champions.

In conclusion, the League community has largely embraced the arrival of the new champion, Briar, on her first day of reveal. Her distinct abilities truly set her apart from the rest of the roster. Hopefully, things will turn out well when the champion goes live.

“Players don’t read” – according to Riot Phreak

On August 23, when previewing Patch 13.17 and remarking on what Riot Games is attempting to achieve with the updates, David “Riot Phreak” Turley disclosed an intriguing fact: most League players do not read.

Phreak used Zeri and Patch 13.12 as an example in the YouTube video, which completely deleted her connection with Sheen and Spellblade. However, more than half of the players were still playing Trinity Force on this champion on the day the patch was released.

“We saw from Zeri that on day 1 more than half of Zeri players build Trinity Force as first item. So, we know players don’t read. A lot of them do—the behavior shifted over time,”

On August 23, the players instantly replied, stating that champions like as Zeri might change substantially from patch to patch, making it difficult to adjust so rapidly.

Riot August entered the conversation, stating that while developing a champion, they must constantly keep in mind that many players do not read tooltips.

“If a champ has a mechanic that can only be learned by reading a tooltip, it is likely that a good chunk of players will not know it exists,”

The general consensus is that half of the community delves into patch notes, while the other half glosses over or ignores them entirely.

Some players simply read patch notes in part, only looking at the changes that affect them and their role—a dangerous practise, especially since you need every edge you can get in League of Legends.

Most League of Legends champions can compete in early-game circumstances. Kayle stands out since she has absolutely no redeeming traits at the beginning of the game. She relies heavily on levels and items to be useful, but her late game is lethal. Kayle is one of the most difficult carry champions to choose.

With that said, the devs are looking in ways to buff her ult so that she can slide her way back in the meta.

Riot August, lead champion designer, has demonstrated several unique buffs that would significantly increase her power level in the late game.

Unlike the other patch previews provided by Rioters in advance of major changes, these buffs have been presented as exclusive. While there is a chance they may not be implemented, the Kayle buffs August is suggesting would drastically affect the way the champion is played.

Her ultimate currently does not allow her to continue auto-attacking when she is invulnerable. This means that a Kayle player cannot continue to generate DPS while using the ability to stay alive.

The size of her ult AoE damage is also being increased to sync with her auto-attack range. These buffs would completely eliminate that trade-off, making Kayle invulnerable while still doing massive late-game damage. Regardless, she will be vulnerable to CC for the duration.

Because the VFX on her ability would take time to develop, it may be a long before we see these modifications impact live servers.  The champion, on the other hand, is likely to get buffs in the near future.

The mid-scope update to Jax in League of Legends did not meet the expectations of the fan base. Following the update’s release last week, Jax was instantly harmed when several of his skins were modified to lose some of their aesthetic and graphical features.

Jax’s aesthetics on some skins now fail to convey his strength, with the animations for his hard-hitting passive feeling slower than normal and his ultimate, Grandmaster’s Might, no longer having a VFX tied to its shield component.

League dev admit they actually missed something with the Mid-scope update

On behalf of the dev team, lead champion designer August Browning acknowledged for mistakenly eliminating some of his visual effects and outlined what the team is working to rectify the matter. Jax will receive a handful of graphic improvements and animation tweaks in Patch 13.2 in an attempt to restore some of the champion’s power.

“This was partially due to some bugs that slipped in, but also because we straight up missed a few things. Sorry about that.”

Riot will be reverting accidental modifications to Jax’s animations in Patch 13.2, including a tweak that restores his ultimate’s shield animation and a fix that adjusts the timing behind his ult’s auto-attack SFX. 

According to Riot, one problem caused certain noises to “not play at all,” but it has been resolved for Patch 13.2. Skins like Mecha Kingdoms, God Staff, and Nemesis Jax have received new visual effects that make him appears more menacing and should meet to his mid-scope updates fantasy.

While Jax may appear weaker in the current patch, there’s no doubt that the mid-scope update made him a much better champion with more dynamic builds overall. With the improvements on the table, it’s probable that in Patch 13.2, The Grandmaster at Arms will return to appearing a fearful toplaner.

After her release, most fans referred to Seraphine as Sona 2.0, claiming that her abilities and kit should have been utilized as a Sona rework.

Now, she has recently emerged as one of the game’s top champions. However, she did not resemble her current condition in her early development. Riot August, the League of Legends team’s lead champion designer, recently spoke about Seraphine and how she intended to have a completely different ultimate at first.

Seraphine’s ultimate back then

Originally, the champion appeared to be planning to incorporate a brand-new, never-before-seen mechanism in her kit.

Former Riot employee and champions team leader Jeevun Sidhu said that during early development, the team considered giving her a ‘mesmerize’ ult.

Originally, Serpahine was going to channel her ult on one champion and enchant them with her skills. Sidhu stated that she will be performing on her platform during this channel. She would then be able to manipulate the champion’s thoughts and make them fight their allies.

Riot appears to be reusing ideas from an old ability for new ones, since this ultimately becomes Reneta Glasc’s ultimate. While Renata’s ability is more intense because it affects every champion who are affected by it, the concept is similar.

According to Sidhu, this version of Seraphine’s ultimate was part of her early exploration four years ago, which indicates that there might be a slew of new powers and effects in the works right now that we, as fans, are unaware of.