A post from RiotChris today indicates that we are getting pretty close a release-ready Mac client for League of Legends. Chris asked for players willing to test the Mac client to post in his thread in general discussion. You can bet your sweet ass I signed up.

I’ve been pining after a Mac client ever since I started playing LoL. It would be great to take on the road, and I know a few people who would likely get into the game if it worked on a Macbook.

If you’re interested in testing, be sure to post in the thread. Chris said the pool would be limited, but who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky.

On a side note, I get full service internet back tomorrow, so we’ll be back to full service Fearless Gamer as well. I’m pumped. I hope you are, too.

A few days ago I made a post regarding the recent instability issues with Riot servers, a post that seemed to resonate with a lot of you. In case you missed it, RiotChris dropped by this very blog to respond to some of those concerns, and he was followed shortly by Marc Merrill, the president of Riot Games, who linked his own response to the situation from the League of Legends forums.

Here’s what RiotChris (who is Chris Enock, the company’s Director of Marketing) had to say:

We are sorry that we have been having server stability issues and growing pains recently. Fixing them and making a better player experience is our company’s top priority.

We are as frustrated by the server issues, and we will be taking time to bring everyone up to speed on what we are doing to make the issues better. I know it doesn’t help you play the game, but I can tell you that all the problems are due to the growth – if it was just a matter of buying more servers we would do so instantly – and the cause of the problem is rarely the same issue twice because we fix the problems. Of course none of that makes LoL available to play, but our top men are also working on improving the server stability night and day.

- RiotChris

First of all, I want offer my thanks for your response, Chris. On the official forums it’s one thing – players either go there or they don’t, and it doesn’t exactly feel personal when that’s the only place we see an official response. You guys (meaning the readers, not Riot) have chosen this blog and continually choose to come back, which has made the time I spend writing here infinitely worthwhile and interesting, and the fact that Chris not only reads here, but decided to comment does feel personal, sounds informed, and seems empathetic. Despite a few blunders, I do think Riot is among best developers around in terms of community involvement and outreach, and anyone who has spent time in the customer service industry knows what a horrible, mad bitch of a task it is to keep people happy.

President Marc Merrill’s response further edified the good vibrations RiotChris delivered with a detailed look at the source of the recent issues and the efforts currently underway to resolve those issues (make sure you read his post as well as the service post he links). I had a good feeling that LoL was growing fast. I had no idea it was more than doubling the game’s audience every three months (which could mean a lot of things, but empirically means the game is exploding). That kind of growth would be hard for any young developer to keep up with, and it would be unfair to Riot to not bear in mind the company’s youth.

The takeaway message here is “stick with it.” I think we can all agree that the game is a lot of fun – it’s complex, exhilarating, and interesting enough that I can write about it every single day, and often in a positive light. Though the current stability issues are frustrating, even infuriating at times, there are “top men” working on them, and those top men really are invested and interested in what we, as a community, have to say.

N.B. – I’m really sorry about the delays on posts this past week. Moving in North Carolina in late August is horrible, but it will be done by the middle of next week. Things will return to normal. I will be my typically witty, charming, and timely self, soon.

Yesterday afternoon we lost servers for a brief restart period, which is kind of expected after a decent patch day. Tonight, though, they’re down again, and I don’t know how you feel about it, but I’m fed up.

One of the most infuriating pieces of the server instability is Riot’s constant crowing about the quality of the free game they provide. For me, the game isn’t free – I’ve paid more than retail price for an average game for skins over the past nine months – and it’s a big slap in the face to say that the game is good for being free. It’s also frustrating that there’s been no word about the leaves people get from server disconnects. On a macro level, I think it’s safe to say most players don’t experience those problems. On an individual level, though, I think Riot isn’t delivering a quality experience. For every five players with a fine experience I’d bet you can find one with a terrible experience at some point during a given week.

The worst part of it all, of course, is that Riot has made a great game. It’s so good that it will likely continue to grow at the pace that’s causing the problems – it’s just more players than the servers can handle. For now, I’m here to stay. It would actually take a lot to pull me away from a game I enjoy so immensely when it’s working. For a lot of players, though, I can see the downtime and Riot’s attitude regarding it as the final straw.

The latest PTR update patch notes are out and hold some interesting info for some of the lesser played characters. It looks like Kennen will be getting a buff, as will Malphite, and Kog’Maw is getting some work that should make him a little more viable.

For Kennen:

Electrical Surge
Ability Power ratio increased to 0.55 from 0.45.

Lightning Rush
Energy cost reduced to 100 from 110.
Can no longer be slowed during Lightning Rush.
Now provides 10/20/30/40/50 Magic Resistance and Armor for 4 seconds.

Slicing Maelstrom
Ability Power ratio increased to 0.4 from 0.33.
Number of bolts increased to 6/10/15 from 6/8/10 (still retains the cap of 3 hits per target).
Removed the cap of applying only 1 Mark of The Storm per target.

Have fun laning against him. I’ve maintained since the beginning that Kennen is one of the strongest laning toons in the game with great teamfighting capabilities. His ultimate was a little underpowered in some situations, but it most cases I thought it got the job done. Now that Surge hits harder, he can’t be slowed in Rush, and his ult hits harder, you will be very hard pressed to outplay him in the laning phase. That ultimate will also devastate team fights. For the mathematically challenged among you, 15 hits at rank three means the entire enemy team is stunned if they stay in for two ticks – yes, two, because of Surge. Granted, that won’t always happen, but it also increases the likelihood that you’ll catch and kill two players, and still have plenty of ticks to chain stun another opponent if he steps in halfway through the ult.

Malphite:

Seismic Shard
Reduced the cooldown to 10 seconds from 12 seconds.
Reduced the duration of the slow to 4 seconds from 5 seconds.
Reduced the mana cost to 70/75/80/85/90 from 80/90/100/110/120.

Brutal Strikes
Changed the active effect to increase Malphite’s armor and damage by 20/25/30/35/40% instead of increasing his damage by 30/40/50/60/70%.
Reduced the cooldown to 16 seconds from 20 seconds.
Fixed a bug where the cleave percent would double dip on bonus attack damage.
Increased the passive cleave percent to 30/38/46/54/62% from 30/35/40/45/50%.
The cleave passive will no longer proc while hitting towers.

Ground Slam
Reduced the mana cost at all ranks to 60 from 60/70/80/90/100.
Updated the tooltip to display how much bonus damage Ground Slam gains from armor.

Unstoppable Force
Malphite should no longer be subject to CC’s while charging with his ultimate.

Granite Shield
The shield now recharges after 8 seconds instead of 10 seconds.
The shield will now automatically restore to full after 8 seconds of not being hit. Previously it would not replenish until a new shield activated.
Fixed a bug where the particle would not appear for a second after the shield activated.
Fixed a bug where the shield strength would not update after buying a health item until a new shield activated.

This is exactly what Malphite needs to make him more fun. Shorter cooldowns, lower mana cost, and a little better synergy between Brutal Strikes and Ground Slam. I also love the cleave removal during tower attacks, as you won’t pick up aggro just from trying to down a turret.

Kog’Maw:

Caustic Spittle
Spell Remade. Now grants:
Passive: Increase Attack Speed by 10/15/20/25/30%.
Active: Deals 60/110/160/210/260 damage and reduces the target’s armor by 5/10/15/20/25 for 4 seconds.’

Bio-Arcane Barrage
Cooldown reduced to 15 from 20.
AP ratio removed.

Void Ooze
Cooldown reduced to 12 from 13.

Living Artillery
Now has a 0.5 AD ratio in addition to the AP ratio.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. It’s obviously tilting him toward AD build, or at least Maldred’s with the passive attack speed buff. I think his real problem, though, was high mana costs, extremely low survivability, and one of the longest attack animations in the game. It forced you to blow skills to last hit creeps, if only because the delay between your attack command and the projectile landing was so damn long.

Riot has been pretty good about leaving vastly overpowered tweaks on the TR until they seem balanced, despite the release of some seriously OP toons recently. I wouldn’t be surprised if we only get one or two of these in the next patch. Personally, I’m hoping for Kennen.

I don’t think I’ve read better news today (granted, most of my reading to this point has been focused on either games or gadgetry, so it kinda makes sense). I found a thread in which Zileas said he would be adding feeder/carry consideration to the ELO calculations at the end of games.

This. Is. Huge. This is at least a step toward addressing the individual performance in a team setting and the penalties/benefits some players reap as a result. As a for instance, I had a game today in which I played Shaco. I got a slow start, mostly because I was on the phone and not focused on my jungling, so I didn’t gank much early. I did try for one big gank on our 1v2 lane and sent them back to base, so it wasn’t a horrible early game. Well, not to me anyway.

My teammates, on the other hand, would not stop berating me for being a terrible Shaco and a waste of a team slot and on and on. Our Olaf kept insisting I was going to be useless late game because I hadn’t ganked. As it turned out, I went 11-2-15 with two tower kills before the other team surrendered. Regardless of what my team thought was going on, I was largely the reason behind the victory, or at least the very heavy piece of leaden straw that broke the camel’s back. Our Olaf slightly below 1.00 in his K/D ratio and our Mordekaiser was 1-9. For the other team, that can be an extremely frustrating loss. They likely could have beat our team with a different player. My understanding, then, is that their ELO will not be as negatively effected because we had a strong carry. Likewise, my own ELO should receive a slight bonus for carrying.

On the flipside, if Kaiser had somehow lost us the game (which he almost did), we likely wouldn’t be as penalized because we had a heavy feeder on our team. No word on when these changes will come out, but I’m really excited about them.

I decided today that I’m willing to trade the minimal amount of time I spend on the Test Realm to instead leak the “confidential” information contained therein to the users here. I do think it’s important to get information on skills into the hands of players sooner rather than later so hopefully we can offer the kind of feedback that helps bring champions in line with where they should be.

So without further ado, here’s the Galio ability list!
Runic Skin (Passive)- Galio converts 60% of his total Magic Resistance into Ability Power.

Bulwark (Q) – Galio shields a friendly champion, reducing all damage suffered by that unit and converting a portion of the damage into health for himself.

Idol Of Durand (W) – Galio assumes the form of a statue, taunting nearby enemies and storing concussive energy as they attack him. Galio then bursts from his statue shell, releasing the stored energy to damage surrounding foes.

Resolute Smite (E) – Galio fires a concussive blast from his eyes, slowing and dealing damage to enemies caught near the impact point.

Righteous Gust (R) – Galio claps his wings, unleashing a gust of concussive wind that damages enemies and leaves a directional draft in its wake that increases ally movement speed.

Rammus players will either rejoice or revolt at this list. You’ll notice he gets a taunt, a nice damage reduction skill, a slow, and what could be a really fun ultimate. He’s basically Rammus 2.0 without a powerball. His passive functions similar to Rammus, though it gives him a much more usable AP stack rather than the AD Rammus gets. An AOE taunt could put this guy on par with Shen for tanking. It really just depends how well his shield works and how easy it is to land a slow -> taunt/shield combo.

As you can see from his model, he is prime fodder for the recolor skins that plague new champions. Hopefully Riot will give him some cool model effects to make skins worth the cost.

A few months back, Riot announced that it was developing a Mac OS X client for League of Legends. Why don’t we have it yet?

This isn’t a, “why are you ruining my life, Riot?” post, but rather a “please, please, please make this a reality,” post. I committed to avoid buying a gaming laptop some time ago, mostly because it isn’t truly a laptop. I don’t want a 17-inch screen, I don’t want it to weigh 11 pounds. I want portability and functionality without egregious size. That said, LoL isn’t exactly a taxing game, and it would be nice to log in when the night is winding down and try to pick up a quick game with the new champions and features when I’m not at my home machine.

I’m guessing it will come some time in late fall, though it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see it pushed to the holiday season.

Amidst the tumultuous Season One release, Riot is still sticking to its frequent roll-out of new champion ideas and designs. The latest is Vladimir, the long-rumored vampire champion.

Here’s the official word from ByronicHero:

If you’re like me and you’ve ever gone through one of those dark, goth phases at some point in your life, you’ll probably relate to this next champion at least a little bit. Meet Vladimir, the Crimson Reaper. This champion combines the epic power of fueling his magic with the blood of his enemies with the style and flair of Transylvanian count. You know the type of count we’re talking about… the type that has a lifetime supply of liquid black eyeliner sitting in his medicine cabinet. So dust off that copy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula that you’ve got sitting on your nightstand. If you start reading now, you should be super excited by the prospect of getting your hands on Vladimir by the time you finish.

I could be crazy, but it sounds an awful lot like Vladimir could be using yet another new resource system. Will we be seeing a range of vampiric toons, similar to the trio of ninjas?

There are a lot of “pending” skins ready for a variety of champions that have not yet made an appearance in the LoL store. Skins like Woad Ashe, Frosted Ezreal, and the much anticipated Riot Singed have been teasing me since the launch of Season One and then, just the other day, I saw one in game.

No, they aren’t yet available, and it wasn’t a special release. Apparently for some players there is a client bug that allows early access to the skin. As far as I can tell, you pick a champion for whom you already own a skin, select that skin, and don’t lock in. You then choose a champion with an unreleased skin, like Singed for instance, and allow the timer to count all the way down. For whatever reason you’ll be given a random, non-standard skin from the champion you choose.

Personally, I’ve not been able to replicate this feat, but it seems a good number of other players have. Have you been playing the unreleased skins? I would love to get pics up but the LoL forums have been running insanely slow today.

This post isn’t only about Shaco, but about the ban process in general. While by and large I think bans are good and that draft mode is a big improvement for the game, I do wonder what Riot will do about champions that are getting banned in most every game.

Your experience may differ from mine, but nearly every game has Heimer/Shaco/Shen banned and then either Soraka, Xin Zhao, or Taric. For now this has encouraged much more variety in champion selection, but even now I see a few champions popping up more than I think is reasonable. Ashe, for one, is in just about every game – I mean like 90 percent. So what can Riot do to make sure the ban system continues to encourage variety, both in bans and the champions played?

One solution is obviously nerfs, and I think Heimerdinger is a great candidate. He is still too strong a lane presence for most characters to be successful against, and in solo queue that’s a big problem. Players are largely focused on picking a team with synergy, and not necessarily a team that can play against the opponents.

Another solution would be buffing the marginalized toons. I haven’t seen Kog’Maw once in draft mode other than a game in which I picked him. I haven’t seen Kennen. I don’t see Karthus or, much as it pains me to say it, Eve. Give those characters the tools to be successful in a draft setting and maybe we’ll get more variety.

I also wonder if Riot would ever consider global bans – toons that change from week to week that are unplayable, just as some champs are free each week. Part of being a good player, in my mind, is knowing a wide variety of toons. It seems pretty important to the competitive environment, then, that the best players know how to play more than a handful of champions. In most cases I think that’s already true, but it would encourage a breadth of knowledge that could help every player improve.