What's up guys it's me Jeremy!
With all the reworks going on and being released, players generally have a good idea of which
champions are on the production timeline.
Although Riot have announced a lot of upcoming full scale reworks like Evelynn and Swain,
alongside mini-updates for champions like Xin zhao and Azir, there are also a ton of
other champions that have gone unmentioned in official updates - but have still been
mentioned by Rioters themselves.
Today we'll be talking about some of those champions that Rioters have expressed a desire
to rework.
The first champion we want to talk about today is Mordekaiser.
He went through a pretty big rework when Riot decided to turn him into this marksman-alternative
duo bot laner, which was a pretty interesting direction for him.
Of course, there's probably not an old-Mordekaiser main alive that was happy with that new direction,
and he doesn't really see much play anymore unless he's having a particularly strong
patch and can abuse his dragon-controlling Ultimate.
Most people remember Mordekaiser as being one of the rare tanky mage characters, and
he specialised in getting up close and personal while trying to balance his health and shield.
Although the old Mordekaiser definitely had issues and was in need of a rework, most people
seem to be in agreement that the last rework was a fail and he needs a fresh start.
Riot Meddler commented that Morde is indeed a high priority target for a full update - and
he also confirmed that a new model would be in the works alongside a gameplay update.
So far we can't really say what Riot will do with Mordekaiser, but it seems like the
community wants him to be more similar to his previous solo-laner style, just with some
modernizations thrown in.
Next up is Nunu, a champion that according to Meddler is around the same priority level
as Morde.
Riot Reav3 mentioned that it's unlikely he'll show up particularly soon because
Riot doesn't like releasing 2 champion in the same role back to back, and right now
Evelynn is a higher priority.
That being said, Nunu has been around a long time with few little in the way of gameplay
updates, so we're expecting his rework to be on a pretty massive scale.
Nunu was always the go-to counter-jungler in the old days, and it's still a role he
handles well.
The issue is that more recent champions can equal his counter-jungling ability while also
offering other advantages to the team, really it just comes down to the fact that his kit
is super outdated and doesn't have much to offer to make him stand out from other
junglers.
We expect a rework to push his counter-jungling identity even further, although it will be
up to Riot to decide whether they want to add a useful secondary function to Nunu, or
if they should just double down and make him by far the most effective counter jungler.
There's no concrete information available about what kind of changes they plan to make,
but Rioters have confirmed in the past that they want to improve the synergy between his
abilities and make them more useful, so it's more likely they'll go the route of giving
him a secondary function.
The release of Ivern could suggest that Nunu will also head more in the 'support-jungler'
direction - he's always been torn between those two roles so it would make sense to
push that because it will be familiar to most players.
Ezreal is the next champions that Riot has shown an interest in reworking, although he's
a lower priority than some of the other champions on today's list.
He's a bit of an interesting case, because his kit has such a reliance on mechanical
skill that he doesn't often seem as outdated as he is.
He's had a pretty turbulent history too - from memes about him dealing no damage,
to being a killing machine in the hands of Koreans, to breaking items never meant for
him when played AP in the mid lane or with the first iteration of jungle-specific items.
Ezreal's rework will be a really interesting one to look out for because Riot will have
to make him feel more functional while also maintaining the high skill ceiling, which
is definitely a challenge.
Reav3 confirmed Ezreal's eventual rework would likely be a visual and gameplay update
too, although he also noted the scale would be similar to Tristana.
That means you can basically expect Riot to breath some new life into his kit by improving
his lackluster W, and then just give his visuals an overhaul to bring him up to modern champion
standards.
Next up is a champion we mentioned at the start would be receiving a mini-rework - Xin
Zhao.
Interestingly, it seems like the mini-rework is intended to keep him playable for the next
year or two, because Riot seems to have plans to give him a full blown VGU one day.
Meddler admitted that he's low priority - probably at least 1.5 years away - but we
can expect to see a big Xin Zhao update in a future season.
The mini-rework makes sense because they can improve him while staying within the constraints
of his current kit, so assuming it doesn't take much time out of their production schedule,
they can put him in a better place that will hopefully be sufficient until they can give
him a more developed identity.
It's so far away that there is no information available for what his rework will look like,
but it goes to show that Riot really does care about keeping their game fresh and keeping
the community happy.
A lot of game developers would just leave a character alone if they had bigger plans
years down the line, but by issuing a mini-rework Riot are going to make sure that he's not
just a dead champion until the VGU releases.
When it comes to high priority reworks, one you may not have considered so far is Malphite.
There are two big failings that Riot have when it comes to Malphite - he doesn't deliver
on his archetype as a living mountain or massive rock elemental type thing, and his gameplay
is really crappy outside of his Ultimate - the only thing he's picked for most of the time.
Malphite as a champion definitely has a niche to serve - he's an amazing initiator and
awesome against AD-heavy compositions, but that makes him more of a champion you'd
pick in a specific situation rather than a champion you'd pick because you actually
like him or resonate with his character.
This makes him a great VGU candidate because Riot can tackle the dull gameplay and disappointing
visuals in the same update.
Reav3 noted that Malphite is either borderline Tier 1 or a true T1 priority, so we imagine
it won't be that long before we see an update for the big guy - probably sometime next year.
As far as the gameplay direction goes, we don't expect him to change much, but hopefully
he'll actually start acting more like terrain since he's meant to be a pretty epic rock
creature, and currently his 'Impassable Terrain' can be bypassed by almost every
champion with a mobility spell.
We've got two champions in one next - Annie and Karthus.
Riot Reav3 replied to a poster on the official League boards, agreeing that both Annie and
Karthus would really benefit from full visual and gameplay updates.
Between the two, Karthus would benefit the most from the update because his kit is a
lot more complex, with a lot more potential for changes.
Annie on the other hand is a very beginner friendly champion, and Riot likes to have
entry points to each role - something that Annie does incredibly well for the mid lane.
On top of that, Annie also has a very dedicated player base and her own defining characteristics,
so it's more important that she gets some updates to her visuals than her actual gameplay.
Karthus could also definitely benefit from visual improvements, but Riot will likely
wait for a time where they can implement those changes alongside gameplay updates.
The last champion we want to talk about today is Shaco - and we can imagine Riot is really
nervous about this one.
Riot Meddler commented that there are no current
plans for Shaco's VGU, but we expect it'll take a long time with a lot of VGUs happening
before it.
The problem is that Shaco has a very specific identity - he's an assassin at his core,
but he's also meant to be a very deceptive trickster, and designing kits that match that
identity is a very difficult task.
On top of that, Shaco has one of the most dedicated player bases - so any screw up on
his kit is unlikely to go down well.
It's a good job that Riot has other, higher priority champions to cover, because that
gives them a lot of time to throw ideas around the office and brainstorm about changes that
could benefit Shaco in the long-term.
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