Grâce à mes contacts, j'ai pu obtenir une interview exclusive de RiotRatatosk, concernant le kit et les mécaniques de jeu associés à un champion actuellement en développement, que Riot compte implanter très bientôt™.

Inside a developer's mind : Exclusive interview of RiotRatatosk.


Darkgwenny (famous reporter for Gwenny Gazette) : Hello RiotRatatosk ! I'm a great fan of your work. First of all, let me dissipate the mistery about the topic that has made every LoL player wonder for several months now : who is this champion Riot has been developping in secret, and what is his kit ? Can I have an autograph pl0x ?

RiotRatatosk : You're welcome, good sir. Without further adue, I'll now proudly present to you ;

Ratatosk, the Nut Swindler

Passive "Radib bite" : every hit by Ratatosk, the Nut Swindler, will cause true damage over time (3/7/12 every second) until death. Going back to the fountain will dispell the Rabit Bite debuff. Quintuple damage against neutral monsters.

Q "Stasis of the Elder Rodents" : Ratatosk calls upon his ancestors to stun all enemy champions on the map for 4 seconds. Also, deals 50/100/150/200/250 + (5/10/15/20/25% of maximum health). CD : 10/9/8/7/6 sec

W "Hidden Forest Path" : (toggle) Ratatosk can hop in a tree, becoming untargetable and gaining stealth as long as he remains in trees. Additionally, he can travel through near trees with increased speed and leap from one tree to another, deploying his wings. Movement speed increase : 30/45/60/75/90 %. Leap Range : 500/650/800/950/1100.

E "Holy Nut Grenade" : Ratatosk fires an explosive and disruptive Nut of Doom from afar, targeting a large area. When it lands, the Nut deals 100/200/300/400/500 + (2.5 AP) + (1.5 AD) magic damage and slows enemies caught in the radius for 20/30/40/50/60%. Range : 5000. Radius Range : 700/850/1000/1150/1300. CD : 8/7/6/5/4 sec

R "Walhalla Intervention" : Ratatosk's divine accointance, Odin, grants him the power of twisting the flow of time. For 10/20/30 seconds, every champion on the map but him (including his teammates) is suppressed. Ratatosk gains 40% cdr and 2.5 attack speed for the whole duration


Official Screen Login Music for Ratatosk : [url=http://www.youtubedoubler.com/?video1=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DB9kvpvisjf8&start1=&video2=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DbaHbJCX1OO0&start2=0&authorName=Ratatosk+Screen+Login+Music]

*Trundle Q has been renamed to "Rabid Tickle" in order not to confuse players with Ratatosk's passive

D : Wow that sounds great ! Could you enlighten us on what role do you think suits Ratatosk best ? Also, what do you advise building on him ?

RR : I play Ratatosk as a jungler.
At level 1, I put one point in W, auto-attack one time every neutral monster in my jungle then head to gank lanes fast travelling through trees. I try to hit every enemy champion at least once to proc my passive and use W to hide in a tree if I'm in trouble.
As I level up, I put one point in Q for the utility : if I see a clutch fight in one of my lanes, a 4 sec golbal stun can come in handy.
Then I max E for farming from afar, everywhere on the map and preferrably in the enemy jungle.
Of course you should use your ultimate each time it is on cooldown and you can secure an objective or kill an enemy champion.

As for itemization, I really think building Ratatosk properly will separate good Ratatosk players from exceptional Ratatosk players.
If you want to focus on tankiness and utility, you can stack health and resistances since your ultimate gives you free cdr and you can still be a threat thanks to the true damages on your Q.
If you want a more carry-oriented dps kind of build, you can buy 4 or 5 bloodthirsters because you won't need attack speed thanks to your ultimate.
If you want to be a secondary source of magic damage you also can because his E scales decently well with AP. Liandry can also stack with your passive for some good DoTs (DoTs applied by Ratatosk during Walhalla's Intervention continue to proc, so that his kit has good synergy)
Mejai and Sword of the Occult also are decent items on him because 2 of your spells are global and you can rack up assists pretty easily. The AD and AP boost both make your E hit a little bit harder.

D : A very in-depth analysis indeed. But don't you think that the lack of built-in sustain or healing spell on Ratatosk could make him underpowered ?

RR : We are very well aware of Ratatosk's weaknesses, but we designed him as a very high-skilled champion to play with a huge learning curve, rewarding players with flawless mechanics, so we are ok with that.

D : Fair enough. A few players have been complaining a bit recently about balance with the release of Pingu, but I see you guys actually pay a lot of attention about balancing new champions. On a related note, do you think that Pingu, the Artic Penguin, can counter Ratatosk, the Nut Swindler ?

RR : Well, this is an interesting question for we do have a plan about Pingu and Ratatosk. These two champions have indeed a very subtle hidden interaction in game ; if they are on the same team, the Victory screen appears at 1:30 and you can launch another game. However, if they are on opposite teams, everyone loses the game at 1:30 except for both Pingu and Ratatosk players. This way, we develop new incentive to play Pingu and Ratatosk, because we know casual players are reluctant to play them due to their really high skillcap.
Another interesting point is that, during ban selection, Ratatosk will be playing hide-n-seek ; you can only ban him if you ban heimerdinger, urgot and karma first, so that competitive play could become more interesting, unlocking more OP heroes if players really want to ban out Ratatosk.

D : I'm glad you guys continue to make such efforts to make your game more enjoyable ! Also, I'd like to thank you for this interview, as I said I'm your greatest fan. If you want more of those, please subscribe to this topic and tune in for the next episode !