After the patch launched I was really bummed out that the Harrowing map was gone. The art team did an amazing job with it, and it seemed a shame to let it disappear after just a few short weeks in rotation.

Well thankfully, it’s coming back. The map will be in rotation in place of the winter map until this year’s Snowdown Showdown. It’s not back yet, but it should be soon enough.

Many of you have probably seen the issue of PC Gamer where this was all debuted, but in case you haven’t, Riot’s posted the news to the Announcement forums for your perusal. The biggest news for what’s on the horizon is, yes, finally, a new map.

For my part, I’m not all that excited. I really don’t mind that there’s only one 5v5 map right now. There are so many different champion and build combinations that the variety doesn’t have to come from different settings, it comes from the way the games play out. In fact, I don’t really like the last new map Riot put together. It snowballs way too hard and allows for very limited character selection. At the onset, I’m worried that the new map will suffer the same problems, or different problems that are similar. If Miss Fortune taught me one thing, it’s that Riot is willing to release mechanics that are at conflict with the fundamentals of the game. Miss Fortune virtually breaks the laning phase for most characters, and I don’t want to see another map that breaks 60-70 percent of the available champions’ ability to contribute.

But enough of my fears and worries. They won’t do any more than give me Nostradamus-style credibility (which is to say, none) if things do indeed go wrong.

The new map is called The Magma Chamber, and promises to the “premier arena for [League] use.” You have to wonder what that means, but let’s cover the rest of the details first.

Deep within the obsidian mountain from which the Institute of War is sculpted lies the League’s most intense Field of Justice to date – the Magma Chamber. Before the time of the League, the Chamber was the heart of a powerful, but now dormant, volcano. Ancient magma flows cut out a gigantic cavernous room that the League has reshaped for its own purposes. This battle arena was built specifically to address the increasing number of disputes between Demacia and Noxus. It is one of the largest Fields of Justice found anywhere on Valoran. To that end, teleporting platforms provide champions with the ability to rapidly relocate to strategic points in the arena. The magic-infused stone and cooled magma that dominates the structure of the arena will force champions to work together more closely in pushing toward the enemy’s nexus. It will be harder for a champion to rely on their summoner to traverse hazards and obstacles. The League is preparing this Field of Justice to be the premier arena for its use; as such, a slew of new monsters and minions await champions in what will surely be their greatest challenge yet.

Things we know:
1. It’s hot
2. It’s really hot
3. You can teleport around
4. You might only be able to teleport around
5. It’s really big

From the sound of things, there’s no jumping over walls, no Body Slamming off the little ledges into hot magma. Of course, that could be totally wrong. “It will be harder for a champion to rely on their summoner to traverse hazards and obstacles” is so vague there isn’t really a way to know what that means, but my guess is you don’t have lane-jumping capability. That’s something Riot has hinted at for some time.

We also know it’s going to be big – one of the biggest in Valoran which makes it…bigger than Summoner’s Rift? Maybe. The good news is that there is a plan (I hope) for the rest of Valoran’s Fields of Justice. That’s good news.

What I’m most interested to see, though, is the teleportation system. Is there a delay? Is it instantaneous? Can you use it in combat? Do you have vision at the destination point? We won’t know any of this, obviously, until the map’s out in practice games for widespread playtesting.

On the whole, I’m anxious for The Magma Chamber’s release. Anxious, because I really want it, but I really want it to be good. If it’s not good, then I definitely don’t want it.

Alongside the double IP weekend, Riot has released the Winter Games map to celebrate this year’s winter olympics. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s like a flag monster went and puked all over Summoner’s Rift. It’s actually pretty cool – I like to see developers constantly updating their games to fit the times.

The official Riot post for the maps also reminded me that you can actually get quadruple IP this weekend if you’re willing to part with a few of those Riot points. The company is offering its IP boosts for 20% off this weekend, and since the double IP is done passively, you can apply an additional boost for 4x the IP. For those of you keeping track at home, that’s like 500 IP per game. Time to get those rune pages going.

Source: Official Forums

We’ve all been on the receiving end of a good old-fashioned beat down at one time or another. The other team bangs out a couple early kills and suddenly you and your teammates are stuck 3 levels down and your towers are getting steamrolled.

This situation happens frequently enough that Riot is looking at ways to change it. According to a post from Zileas, they’re trying to discourage the 5-man roam that has become so popular. Here’s his post:

Our philosophy on this issue is that individual snowballing is good, and team snowballing is bad. Right now, team snowballing occurs too much — one super carry twitch is a lot easier to handle than 5 guys who are 3 levels higher than each of you.

We are going to make some experience table tweaks to reduce team snowballing without hurting individual snowballing much. We are also going to make a new 3 lane map that is larger, has less cross-map connectivity (so that there is higher cost to 5 man roam, and less shutdown of the farming/laning phase via the first tower being down), etc.

We probably will nerf flash.

We wont be nerfing snowball items. Emotional highs from the game you super carried make this genre sticky. We removed it too much in the beta, and it cost us. Sorry, but being super carry annie or super carry corki once in a while gets a player through the 8 defeat in a row streak they hit the next day.

I’m on the fence about early gold for kills. It’s been something we have been talking about, for the reason you cite. OF course, an early kill is also harder than a late kill.

I can appreciate the thought behind this, though I worry about the pace of the game. The roaming gank squad has already taken its toll on pace. I’ve had a number of games recently where safe play from both sides led to more than 20 minutes without a death. Discouraging ganking seems like it will just make the laning phase that much longer and more painful. There are plenty of games in which I feel like losing my outer turret is the best thing that could happen because it breaks me out of the laning mentality. I realize that this is the point – to keep people from leaving lane – but that’s where the fun of the game is.

If anything, I think the best solution is the 3-lane map with less interconnectivity. That at least gives you the option to farm a lane once the tower is down with some potential for intra-lane ganking so long as there are enough hiding spots.

What do you think? Are there too many games in which snowballing is a serious problem or are you okay with the 5-man roam?