Obviously Viego is out now, and he doesn't use mana. Aside from the ninja champs, who all use energy, the manaless champs cover a pretty wide range. I'm curious if making a champ without mana is something decided early on or later in the development process. Anyone have ideas?
External link →We decided to make Viego manaless somewhat early in his development process since we found there was a lot of confusion around mana when you entered/exited bodies.
Should new body champion abilities cost mana? Should they use his mana or their mana? If it uses theirs, how much mana will Viego have when he exits (does he gain PoM and passive mana regen from his pool, or is it static the whole time)? Should his ult have a mana cost (reset ability)?
Felt it would add sadge QoL issues around his fantasy/high point.
If I recall, Viego is manaless for similar reasons as Yasuo and Yone. The fact that by default, they’re spamming out a really weak ability (their Q) that scales moderately well with stats. And since Viego’s Q is his only form of sustain, even more reason for him to be manaless.
At least, that’s what I recall August saying whenever he was asked. But it’s been a couple weeks since that stream, so I’m not 100% sure if I’m remembering right.
Edit I’ll emphasize that I’m not entirely sure the reasons I gave are the correct ones. I do remember Riot August being asked why Viego was manaless during a stream, and I think he said it was a similar enough reason as to why Yasuo and Yone are both manaless. But I’m not entirely sure if my memory is correct.
I replied with another large reason, but this is also another important point. Good call out!
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