The Trinity Force Podcast With Guest GHOSTCRAWLER - Lead Designer at Riot Games The Trinity Force Network

Ghostcrawler joins the full TForce crew to discuss – you guessed it – League of Legends. Among other things, we talk about fighter design philosophy, itemization goals and the significance of roles during the design and balance process.

TOPICS OF DISCUSSION:

2:00 First of all, for those that might not know who you are and what you have done, can you tell the people listening a little bit about yourself and your job with Riot games?

4:00 Much of the community recognizes your name from World of Warcraft. Once you became a public figure and received the accompanying scrutiny, did you need or receive any formal public relations training? Were there any moments where you sat down with another human and discussed how you would present yourself on the forums and in interviews?

6:00 Fighter kits have long been a problem: most fighters either turn into tank-type champions or assassins. We know that creating a true sustained melee carry is a big project, but we’re curious about the gains you’ve made on this front thanks to recent champion developments and releases. For example, Gnar and Azir have introduced some very interesting concepts to the game.

11:25 When considering changes to the fighter class as a whole, do next season’s mastery changes play a big role into today’s decision-making?

13:50(Meta) 15:00 (New champ)- When designing champions or reworking items, do you take the current meta into account? Do you ever develop champions with the intention of changing the meta slightly in one way or another?

17:00 When you look at fighter adjustments, do you consider what we call the “three-hit rule”? To clarify, we’ve found that any fighter with decent attack speed - and with equal equipment to their opponent - can only hit its target three times before it’s forced to take defensive action.

21:40 What do you want to see in fighter kits? It seems like gap-closers are preferred to sticking mechanisms.


26:10- Caster-type marksmen were hit particularly hard during the AD itemization rework – Varus, Sivir and Graves in particular feel a bit less impactful because their itemization doesn’t really emphasize their strengths.

29:00 Seriously, will you just remove Frozen Mallet from the game already?

32:00 Reworks and unexpected item synergies/effects/pickups.

42:20- New players

43:50- Skill floor vs. Skill Cap

48:30- LCS vs. Solo Queue

50:40- Majority Ban vs Actual OP (I.e. Amumu in Bronze/Silver)

52:00- Game length and faster paced game modes

56:30- Bug or new feature?

58:30- Flash

1:02:25- Season 5 Focus

1:03:45- When designing mages for mid, how do you take into account the support factor? It seems like any mage with CC will inevitably find his, her or its way into the bot lane. For example, Vel’koz and the changes being considered for him.

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The Trinity Force Podcast With Guest GHOSTCRAWLER - Lead Designer at Riot Games
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Gaming	Upload TimePublished on 25 Sep 2014