Legends of Runeterra - Card game by Riot Games

I find it odd also, and to some extent concerning that it doesn't seem to be picking up any steam, quite the contrary. Used to get 15K or so on twitch a few weeks ago, and it's rarely getting above 7K now.

There doesn't seem to have much support beside a few sites, no active forums anywhere that I've seen,

That said, it has more viewers than MTG:A on twitch and that game is doing well. Hearthstone is just a monster in the genre right now.

It's also still in beta, some people don't play beta games, mobile client isn't out yet, and has been announced so I'm sure some people are just waiting for it.

It doesn't have a competitive scene yet. I'm sure when Riot decides to organize a few tournaments and throw big cash prize that the pro scene will take a look at it, especially with how little RNG there is in the game, it means most games are decided by skills which I think will be good for the competitive scene.

While I like the business model personally, I don't think streamers do, not the big ones anyways. They would most likely prefer to throw money at the game, and be able to play lots of different decks which is probably better for their viewership.

I haven't seen a big marketing push yet either. We'll see how Riot handle stuff when it comes out of beta, and they are ready to get a competitive scene going.

I said before I hope it does well, because I'm totally enjoying the game. There's still a bit of the game being new, but I feel it's just a solid game that has addressed my issues with HS, while still keeping the fast pace.

This sucks, I was in an expedition, had just lost a game, I was easily winning the one after so I would continue, game froze, and I had to shut it down. Came to almost no life and my turn ending, lost on the next round...ended my expedition at 4.

Finished Freljord xp path.

Starting Piltover & Zaun for now, I already have 3 Ezreal, 3 Jinx and 1 Teemo, I need more Teemos and Heimerdingers as both are fun to play with.

I wanted to try that deck but I’m missing a few cards, namely 2 Yasuo. Actually a lot of decks I want to try. I do have 6 champion Wildcards so I can do a few things. I’m going to wait till the balance patch just in case something major happens.. I doubt it, and I doubt it will affect the decks I want to try...Yasuo, Teemo and Heimerdinger in particular. Everyone seems to think, elusive and shadow isles are going to receive some nerfs. I’m more curious to see how Riot will act as it will give us an idea of their philosophy on game balance.

We will get the patch notes today at 11PST I think, so we will know soon enough how Riot will do things. As I said before I’m more curious to see how Riot will handle balance than the actual nerfs/buffs themselves.

Ravishing , I tried watching that video earlier and couldn’t make it through, that guys is painful to listen too.

i doubt we’ll see buff also, because I think right now there are some issues with elusive, shadow isles and to some extent buff cards that are slightly overturned making champions who benefit less from those kinda u. If those get some nerfs, I think we might see the other champions more.

In general i think the balance is pretty good in the game. There is a few deck type that are too strong, and seen too often but once you get past those there’s a lot of stuff that’s viable or would be if those strong decks were a bit weaker.

I wonder how future expansion will affect their balance philosophy also. They mentioned already that they had 2 or 3 set already in testing basically waiting for art. For all we know, first expansion might have a keyword on units that allow them to block elusive without being elusive themselves solving the elusive issue, and any nerfs now would totally break elusive when that set comes out for example....but then do you allow something broken in the game now because you know the fix is coming later on.

Interesting changes, and I think a good insight on Riot's philosophy on balance.

I like this section:

1. New set of cards released.
2. First balance patch: mostly “medium”-sized number changes based on our early sense of outliers.
3. Second balance patch: Significant updates to underutilized cards, and the main patch where you can expect any major champion updates.
4. Third balance patch: Limited number changes to stabilize any meta issues.
5. Next set of cards released.

Click to expand...

It seems we will see some fairly regular decent size balance patches, which should keep the game interesting.

On the changes for this patch. I think they went after what the issues seems to be with a decent amount of changes, some that could have pretty big impact.

Elusive has been hit pretty hard. I love why they nerfed those decks because when it's going well, it's fairly non-interactive which was probably my biggest gripe against it, especially in this game where much of the game is based on board interaction.

The nerfs to Shadow Isles are not necessarily huge on their own, but will add up I think. The raised cost of Rhasa and Ledros will slow down their decks quite a bit, and make them less flexible, that's 2 key cards that will come in a turn later, also leaves less mana to do something else at the same time. I think Shadow Isles will remain strong though.

Deny was predictable, although I don't think there was anything wrong with the card before. This will weaken it quite a bit though, since having to keep 1 regular mana on top of 3 spell mana will make a significant difference.

Inspiring Mentor nerf is probably the biggest nerf of this patch, and it's what affects elusive the most. Elusive having a lot of health was one of the issue with those decks. Inspiring Mentor with Navori Conspirator recalling him and replaying was a core strategy of a lot of elusive decks, it will also affect other decks too since he was a popular 1 drop in many decks.

Kinkou Lifeblade nerf in combination with the nerf to Inspiring Mentor will make it much easier to remove. He often came in at 3/4 which puts him out of range of a lot of removal that do 3 or less like Black Spear, Mystic Shot, Get Excited, Avalanche, The Box, Shunpo, Augmented Experimenter, Trueshot Barrage, and out of range of a lot of challengers that could not deal with him at 3 or 4 health but now can deal with him at 2 health like Fleetfeather Tracker, Stalking Wolf, Fiora, Laurent Protege, Rimefang Wolf, Laurent Chevalier, Silverwing Vanguard. So his nerf in combination with Inspiring Mentor, and the nerf to Deny to protect them .

I'm not sure what to make of the buff to Lux, not sure it really makes her that much more playable.

No major surprises really, every one expected Elusive and Shadow Isles and Deny to be nerfed, and that's what we got. What will be interesting to see, is what will become more competitive now that Elusive are much weaker, and Shadow Isle a bit weaker, but still pretty strong I think.

Well this was a rewarding afternoon.

I had 2 Dailies that give 1500XP each. Did an expedition that got 5 wins, so decent XP along the way. But more fun, got 2 champions from the expedition, and got 2 more from the Piltover and Zaun reward path. So 4 champions for about 2 hours of play, pretty satisfying.

So after my great day of getting Champions, I've looked at what I was missing for a few decks I wanted and crafted a bunch of stuff.

So my champions now:

Teemo: 3
Elise: 3
Lucian: 1
Braum: 3
Draven: 3
Ezreal: 3
Fiora: 1
Kalista: 1
Katarina: 1
Zed: 2
Ashe: 3
Jinx: 3
Shen: 0
Yasuo: 3
Garen: 1
Heimerdinger: 3
Karma: 2
Thresh: 1
Vladimir: 3
Darius: 2
Hecarim: 0
Lux: 2
Anivia: 2
Tryndamere: 3

So I have 49 Champions, and missing 23. Not too bad if I do say so myself.

I have 9 decks that I play, after going through all of them. Only 2 have cards that have been nerfed. One only has Commander Ledros in it and the second one has 3 Inspiring Mentor and 3 Deny, so that one might need a look at. I also have 1 deck using 2 Lux so that might be a bit better. All in all, I did pretty good with this first balance patch, I guess it pays off to not play the meta....of course my rank sucks. I don't think I played a single ranked game this week, so not sure why I am making all these decks.

Edit: Oh with the nerfs to expedition XP, I might switch to just 1 expedition a week and more Ranked play, so I guess I will make use of these decks after all.