Hey Summoners,
It's time for a new patch! We don't have a ton of changes today, but we're hitting a few high priority targets that are having a heavy impact on the health of the game. As an example, we're still concerned with high-damage junglers who are entering the mid-game with more gold and more experience than even the solo laners who had to scrap out their gains against another opponent. We're still exploring the possibilities here, but for now we're going to be reducing some of the power of Feral Flare so that it remains a unique item build without being a dominant strategy.
So what else can you expect in this patch? We've got a few rework follow-ups in the form of Gragas and Kassadin, and we've been experimenting with Skarner on the interim. We know we mentioned Skarner in the 4.6 foreword, but we've got a stronger idea of where we can give back some of his old identity so we're making sure we get it right this time.
We're also following up with our promised top lane buffs for Jarvan IV and Malphite. We're already seeing more diversity in top lane beyond Renekton, but we'll be keeping an eye on future candidates as the changes shake out.
Finally, we're making some changes specifically targeted at competitive play in the form of reduced trinket start cooldowns, increased gold rewards for the Dragon, and additional tradeoffs for fast-push strategies. We don't expect these changes to have too much of an impact on regular play, but we're hoping to hit some dominant strategies we're seeing in the high-level competitive scene.
And that's about it! On a closing note, you may notice this patch is a bit bigger than usual - we're shipping out files for a new audio engine in manageable chunks over the next several releases. We'll have more information to share with you closer to the end of the process, but you shouldn't notice any changes to the game until the new engine launches.
You can check out the full scope of the patch below. See you next time!
Pwyff
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Champions
Braum
Braum, the Heart of the Freljord, will be released a bit later during Patch 4.7.
Gragas
Graggy and his barrels have hit the gym. Barrel Roll grants vision (don't ask how that relates to going to the gym), and Gragas can throw his Explosive Cask further.
Pre-update, Gragas liked his R and Q more for their target erasing potential than their utility and displacement. Now that Graggy isn't one-shotting entire teams with barrels, we can buff up his other strengths to emphasize his barrel-throwing play-making power.
Q - Barrel Roll
NEWUTILITY Grants vision after it reaches its destination
CLARITY Reduced size of cast indicator to better represent the actual radius
W - Drunken Rage
BUGFIX Buff no longer consumed on hitting a ward
R - Explosive Cask
RANGE 1050 ? 1150
CLARITY Reduced size of cast indicator to better represent the actual radius
Jarvan IV
Martial Cadence now deals more damage, but the cooldown starts out higher and scales down over time. Golden Aegis costs less mana and is a flat cost across all ranks.
In the foreword of patch 4.6 we spoke about the challenges of creating a healthy top lane, and one option we're pursuing is to make teamplay-oriented champions more competitive in the current landscape. Specifically for Jarvan IV: even if he's behind he can still provide a lot of value via Cataclysm, and this gives him more incentive to help out in fights rather than farming minions in isolation. These changes are to give him that extra bump he needs in the early game to keep up.
Passive - Martial Cadence
DAMAGE 6/8/10% (at levels 1/7/13) ? 10% at all levels
SAME-TARGET COOLDOWN 6 seconds at all levels ? 10/8/6 seconds (at levels 1/7/13)
W - Golden Aegis
COST 45/50/55/60/65 mana ? 30 mana at all ranks
Kassadin
Up front: We overshot the Kassadin buffs last patch. Specifically, making Kassadin's magic shield stronger ended up making him a little too stifling against a majority of mid lane champions which, in turn, amps up his already strong snowballing power. On that note, while the concept of a magic shield has a strong connection to Kassadin's thematic and strategic niche, we're still examining a way to balance between thematic cohesion and raw champion strength.
Q - Null Sphere
MAGIC SHIELD 40/80/120/160/200 (+0.8 ability power) ? 40/70/100/130/160 (+0.3 ability power)
Kha'Zix
Targets now need to be further away from each other to be considered 'isolated' for Kha'Zix's damage amplification. Turrets now count as friendlies when it comes to preventing isolation. Kha'Zix now needs to wait a bit longer before re-entering stealth via his R.
As an assassin, Kha'Zix should be looking for windows of opportunity (or should be relying on his teammates to create those windows) to engage. Instead, Kha'Zix has so much raw power that he's simply forcing engagements and kills on his own. When assassins can start and end a fight without support, that typically points to an overall lack of tactical weaknesses (which champions need to have in order to maintain meaningful counterplay). These changes are to offer more windows of opportunity against Kha'Zix and should make him think twice before going all-in, but this will be an ongoing project as we examine Kha'Zix's core role and strengths.
Q - Taste Their Fear / Evolved Enlarged Claws
ISOLATION RADIUS 350 units from nearest ally ? 500 units from nearest ally
NEWGAMEPLAY Turrets now count as allies when determining whether a target is isolated
R - Void Assault / Evolved Active Camouflage
STEALTH RECAST 1 second between stealth casts ? 2 seconds between stealth casts
Lissandra
For Lissandra's birthday, we're giving her a more reliable Frozen Tomb!
R - Frozen Tomb
NEWUTILITY Now stops enemy champion's movement immediately on application of stun (dashes, jumps, etc will be halted)
BUGFIX Now goes on cooldown when it finishes casting, instead of when it begins casting
Malphite
Granite Shield now recharges faster at later levels, and Brutal Strikes costs a low amount of mana at all levels.
We like how Malphite's Granite Shield works for the early laning phase, but it has trouble scaling into the rest of the game. Brutal Strikes was designed to help Malphite trade damage when he's in someone's face, but its higher mana costs weren't allowing it. Similar to Jarvan, Malphite offers a lot of unique team-focused wombo combo power even when he's behind, so we're also giving him some help to compete.
Passive - Granite Shield
RECHARGE RATE 10 seconds at all levels ? 10/8/6 seconds (at levels 1/7/13)
W - Brutal Strikes
COST 50/55/60/65/70 mana ? 25 mana
Miss Fortune
More like Mage Fortune amirite?
We saw a unique opportunity to support Miss Fortune's off-builds without impacting her game health and play patterns. This is a fancy way of saying we added AP ratios to Double Up.
Q - Double Up
NEWAP RATIO ON 1ST TARGET HIT 0.35
NEWAP RATIO ON 2ND TARGET HIT 0.50
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Minor Changes & Bug Fixes
General
BUGFIX Fixed a number of graphical issues affecting older video cards
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where ward-jumping abilities (ex. Lee Sin's Safeguard) would sometimes go on cooldown when attempting (and failing) to jump over walls to wards outside the ability's max range
Fizz
E - Playful / Trickster
BUGFIX Fixed some cases where Fizz could be stunned or rooted while on his troll pole
Kog'Maw
R - Living Artillery
NEWUTILITY Mana cost is now displayed on the cast icon (similar to Kassadin's Rift Walk)
BUGFIX Tooltip corrected to display the actual range (1400/1700/2000 ? 1200/1500/1800)
Nautilus
Passive - Staggering Blow
BUGFIX Tooltip corrected to display the actual time between roots on the same target (12 seconds ? 9 seconds)
Rengar
Passive - Unseen Predator
BUGFIX Using an empowered ability immediately after leveling the base ability for the first time no longer triggers the base ability's cooldown
Q - Savagery / Empowered Savagery
BUGFIX The bonus damage now applies lifesteal
Bonetooth Necklace
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where stack bonuses were being lost upon switching trinkets
Shen
R - Stand United
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where Stand United would occasionally cancel itself
Twitch
We're ironing out some minor issues in the wake of Twitch's VU. We're also reviewing Rat-a-tat-tat's interaction with structures as we work on its inability to target Inhibitors or the Nexus.
General
RECOMMENDED ITEMS Now includes a trinket
AUDIO Fixed a few bugs preventing several VO interactions from working
Q - Ambush
BUGFIX Fixed a display bug where Ambush's cooldown would appear to start when Twitch entered stealth but reset to its actual cooldown once the stealth effect ended.
R - Rat-Ta-Tat-Tat
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where Rat-Ta-Tat-Tat could sometimes critically strike towers
Vladimir
W - Sanguine Pool
BUGFIX Fixed some cases where Vladimir could be stunned or rooted while in his troll pool
BUGFIX Tooltip corrected to indicate the actual heal amount (12.5% ? 15%)
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Summoner Spells
Heal
When we added more utility to Heal, our focus was to create a spell that added depth to the summoner spell pool while also giving heal-focused supports an ability that let them remain effective against Ignite. On live, however, this wasn't the case as it was primarily being picked up by solo laners to circumvent burst-heavy aggressive play (particularly for champions whose abilities were affected by Grievous Wounds).
REMOVEDGRIEVOUS WOUND CLEANSE Removes Grievous Wounds
Graphical Updates
We're continuing along our goal of making gameplay more readable, satisfying, and visceral. Also awesome. And pretty.
Flash particles updated
Clarity particles and sound effect updated
Cleanse particles and sound effect updated
Exhaust particles and sound effect updated
Revive particles and sound effect updated
Screenshots in the spells tab of your profile have been updated according to recent changes
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Items
Feral Flare line
When we designed Feral Flare, we looked at 'carry' junglers who picked up Wriggle's Lantern and looked for ways to support that playstyle. Then we released Feral Flare and realized we may have gone too far.
While Feral Flare does deliver on its core goal of supporting carry junglers, it's also doing it at the expense of potentially several other players on the map. Because Feral Flare's power is essentially tied to how long junglers can ignore their team, the optimal strategy has been to hide away for as long as possible before making a first appearance as the strongest champion on the map - even in comparison to solo laners who have to scrap out their gold against equally matched opponents (we mentioned this in the foreword, but it's worth repeating here). Long-term, we still like the concept of 'carry' style junglers, but we're currently exploring ways to support them in a way that's healthy for the game.
Madred's Razors
MAIM PASSIVE +60 damage against monsters ? +50 damage against monsters
Wriggle's Lantern
NEWUTILITY Kills and Assists now count toward transforming into Feral Flare
MAIM PASSIVE +100 damage against monsters ? +75 damage against monsters
Feral Flare
MAIM PASSIVE +100 damage against monsters ? +75 damage against monsters
REMOVEDHEAL SCALING Basic attack heal increases with stacks
REMOVEDTRANSFORM STAT BONUS Gains Attack Damage + Attack Speed when transformed from Wriggle's Lantern
ATTACK DAMAGE +15 ? +12
ATTACK SPEED +35% ? +30%
Sunfire Cape
Sunfire Cape is an AoE damage aura item, but its current effect looks most like a a debuff on the wearer, even to the point of being confused with Red Buff's or Ignite's effects. This rework more clearly lines up Sunfire's visual with its gameplay.
VISUALS Particles updated
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Aggro Display
To improve aggro awareness and reduce visual noise, we've removed all aggro outlines and added an animated icon above the health bars of minions and neutral monsters. Targeting an enemy or neutral should now be much clearer as an outline around a unit now only means you're targeting it. This approach more closely lines with the intent of the aggro indicator feature, which is to convey game mechanics, not player behavior. Time to work on that combat awareness!
MINION & MONSTER AGGRO DISPLAY Orange outline ? Animated HP bar icon
REMOVEDCHAMPION AGGRO DISPLAY Orange outline
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Summoner's Rift
The below changes are aimed specifically at competitive play, and we can talk about them in that light. With the trinket change, we initially went with a longer starting cooldown so trinkets wouldn't have an impact on early game invades, but quickly saw the optimal strategy was to just all-in invade before swinging up (or down) to take out a few towers. Reducing the Trinket cooldown means they'll be incorporated into early game strategies and we're hoping they still allow for aggressive strategies to exist in the pre-laning phase. For the Dragon and Turret changes, we saw very few strategic tradeoffs when it came to fast-pushing lanes with multiple champions, so we're aiming to introduce some in the form of slightly higher rewards for Dragon and slightly higher penalties for teams trying to fast-push lanes. This also let us bring parity back to objectives across Summoner's Rift, as all outer towers now have the same Fortification buff. We'll be keeping a close eye on the fallout of these changes (particularly in competitive play).
Trinkets
STARTING COOLDOWN 120 seconds ? 30 seconds
Dragon
GLOBAL GOLD REWARD 125 gold ? 145 gold
Turrets
NEWFORTIFICATION All outer turrets now have Fortification (added to Bottom lane)
FORTIFICATION DAMAGE REDUCTION -20 ? -30
FORTIFICATION DURATION 480 seconds ? 420 seconds
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Summoner's Rift & Twisted Treeline
Jungle
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where abilities that dealt damage based on maximum monster health were being calculated on base health instead of actual max health (this is a mid-lategame buff in all affected cases)
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Crystal Scar
Thresh
We gave Thresh some love on this map and it's helped him see more play (and a lot more success), but now he's just crazy. Like 400 armor Thresh with no armor items crazy.
Passive - Damnation
SOUL STACKS 4 souls per unit ? 2 souls per unit
Kassadin
This change is aimed at bringing the new Kassadin rework a little more in line with other maps.
R - Riftwalk
COOLDOWN 9/8/7 seconds ? 9/7/5 seconds
NEWSoul Anchor (Trinket)
It's finally here! With Revive being such a dominant Summoner Spell on Dominion, we realized we could take advantage of the unused Trinket slot to create more diversity while also balancing its use case.
CHARGE RATE +1 at levels 1/9/14
CHARGE CAP 2 (level 14 charge will disappear if unstorable)
UTILITY Grants a short burst of Movement speed on revive
CATS Soul Anchor version of Rengar's Bonetooth Necklace added
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Bots
We're continuing to update our AI features! Specifically, players have been asking for more Bot options in Custom Games, as well as bots that can Flash, so we addressed that.
Intermediate bots can now be added to custom games
All bots are available on Beginner difficulty in custom games
To maintain game-to-game consistency for newer players, the Co-op vs. AI Beginner roster is unchanged
Intermediate bots will now use Flash both offensively and defensively
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LoL Client
Ignore feature
We've added a few safeguards to prevent players from accidentally ignoring their friends (so if your friend says this, it's now an excuse).
The end-of-game screen "Ignore User" button has been removed. Players can still ignore offensive individuals by right-clicking their summoner name and selecting "Ignore User" from the menu.
Added a confirmation prompt when ignoring players from the air client
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Team Builder
Solo players can now see which role/position combinations are in high demand when deciding their spec
Estimated wait times for solo players are now more accurate
Team Builder matchmaking has been improved
"Play Again" has been added to the post-game screen, allowing Captains to automatically invite their friends from the same match to a new Team Builder lobby.
Team Builder invites are now labeled as "Team Builder" instead of "Classic"
