his first champion was Yuumi
his last champion was K'Sante
but I know better than to complain about these champs now, lest I face the same fate Ovilee suffered haha
his first champion was Yuumi
his last champion was K'Sante
but I know better than to complain about these champs now, lest I face the same fate Ovilee suffered haha
Tread carefully
Let’s goooooooo
In Dan we trust
He's apparently on the Modes team rn so good for him! (and players)
Unfortunately there’s onnnnnnne more in the pipe for later this year >:D
Walter White vibes.
We do love to cook here at Riot
Do you ever see yourself coming back to Champions? Or like is there a scenario where this “emergency” modes team staffing from the champions team might be slowly reversed?
for the foreseeable future, League is heavy on modes, so I don't think that's getting reversed anytime soon. I loved working on champs, probably the most fun I've had as a game designer, but it's also good to let others get a crack doing it while I help out where I can
In Dan we trust
Prayge
Jokes aside, what you think about how community ended up with K'sante? Dude is Hella fun to play, but have some... Balance issues. Any plans for him?
He definitely did what he was supposed to do: make tank gameplay in pro more fun to watch. He definitely is too prevalent in pro and likely needs to be addressed although I'm not a part of the team that's going to do that work.
I think overall he's a little too pro skewed, but he's definitely a real hard champ to learn and rewards the time you put in. I have a lot of faith in the balance team sorting him out eventually.
Noooooooooooo jk I legit enjoy playing Lillia, Gwen and K'Sante so thank you for designing them! Is your next champion Briar or the midlaner?
Midlaner.
I'm kinda curious about this. Are there any failed/never-will-be-seen champion designs that you might be allowed to tell us? Or, maybe some cool tidbits of prior iterations of champions before they became what they were at release?
I had a pass at a jungler that constructed pylons across the map. Pylons that were close to eachother linked up and he could grind on the links like rails. It was super fun building your own network, but you just built your network on one lane and then turbo ganked it. I don't think that can work without a lot of iteration.
"for the foreseeable future, League is heavy on modes"
from an outsiders perspective one could deduce that Summoners Rift is falling in priority, is that a fair statement to make?
No, not really. League is going through a refocusing right now. SR is getting a lot of support coming up. New champions are being scaled back to accommodate for the increased focus on modes, but the Summoner's Rift team has been hard at work on a bunch of cool stuff for SR that isn't quite ready for show time.
im sorry i ever bad mouthed yuumi please maxwell spare me
*thumb moves to down position*
Lmfao Dan.
100%
Exactly
Kinda curious, which champion have you enjoyed working on the most?
Lillia was probably the most stressful because we had to pivot her kit super late in dev, but I’m the happiest with where she ended up. Simple abilities but a ton of depth.
FWIW as a random Plat ADC main, K'sante made me love playing tanks for the first real time. He's so much fun.
Mission accomplished! That’s great to hear, thank you!
Lmfao Dan.
Oops I’m on Reddit mom
What was the reason for the pivot, if you can share?
She used to be a jungler that had two forms that swapped on a bespoke timer. The Costco of having two forms meant both kits had to be simple, but player labs showed us the audience didn’t want that. We didn’t want to make her super complex, so we pivoted off the two forms and had to find a new kit
make tank gameplay in pro more fun to watch
What are your thoughts about how some people view Ksante as not really being a tank? I've seen some complaints that a new tank champ wasn't actually made and that K'sante "makes tanks more fun" by making him not a tank so they deserve to have a new "actual" tank release.
Ksante needs to play most fights as a tank in order to succeed. I think that’s where newer or lower elo players misread him. You give up a ton if you just ult at the start of a fight and shred your health to try and one v one someone.
The gameplay before you ult doesn’t feel like any other tank, but the outputs are all very tank focused. Q is a heavy slow, w is a stun and displacement, e is a shield. The passive attacks sub in for the percent health damage that most tanks have in their abilities. They’re low cooldown and he feels very flighty, but his output is squarely on protecting his team and tying up the enemy.
I think it’s a misnomer that tanks can’t do damage. Tanks absolutely can (and should, I argue) kill you if they get to stick to a squishy target for long periods of time. Ksante just has a mode that lets him play a different role briefly.
But K'sante was only made by Azubk no? afaik AzuBK made Kante alone
AzuBK started Ksante and came up with the core design of a warden that becomes a skirmisher when he ults. I came in after and figured out the spell designs. One of our newer designs actually took him over the finish line doing polish and tuning.
The inkmage will be a harder champ right? Can I draw yuumi and throw her at my enemies
Will be a more complicated champ (go figure). Not going to talk about mechanics though.
Oops I’m on Reddit mom
You never wanna be on Reddit.