Hello everyone! It’s Hyjacked back once again for another PBE roundup, this time for patch 4.5. There’s some cool stuff coming this time around, including reworks for Miss Fortune, Rengar and Gragas and some updates for Items, Runes and Summoner Spells. This patch may hit next week or it may take a little longer, but here’s what’s gone on the PBE so far for this cycle. Keep in mind, as always, that PBE content is tentative and must always be taken with a grain of salt.
Balance Changes
Champion Balance
All Champions
Base armour increased by 4
Every champion in the game has had their base armour increased by four. This is mainly to compensate for the nerf to armour seals (yellow runes) that are coming in this patch.
Fiddlesticks
Dread ( Passive ) debuff no longer applies to enemies who can’t see Fiddlesticks
This is a small quality of life change for Fiddlesticks. It used to be that even if Fiddles was trying to ambush you, you could tell he was there because his passive debuff would show up on your bar. This should help the Harbinger of Doom be a little more sneaky.
Gragas (reworked)
Base movement speed decreased to 330 from 340
Damage per level increased to 3.5 from 3.375
Base damage decreased to 55.5 from 55.78
Magic Resist Per Level increased to 1.25 from 0
Happy Hour (Passive)
Now instantly restore 4% of max health on ability use instead of 2% of maximum health over 4 seconds.
Can now only trigger every 8 seconds.
Barrel Roll (Q)
Mana cost reduced to 60/65/70/75/80 from 80/90/100/110/120
11/10/9/8/7 sec Cooldown ( same as live )
Damage lowered to 80/120/160/200/240 ( +.6 AP ) from 85/135/185/225/285 (+.9 AP )
No longer slows attack speed by 20/25/30/35/40%, for 3 seconds, instead now slows movement speed by 30/35/40/45/50% for 2 seconds.
The barrel’s damage and slow now increase the longer the barrel waits before detonation, up to 150% after 2 seconds.
Explode time reduced to 4 seconds from 5 seconds
Reduced Range
Drunken Rage (W)
Cooldown lowered to 8/7.5/7/6.5/6 sec from 25 seconds.
Now castable while moving
No longer restores mana
No longer grants 30/40/50/60/70 bonus AD for 20 seconds on use, instead after finishing his channel Gragas’s next basic attack deals 20/50/80/110/140 (+.3 AP ) plus 8/9/10/11/12% of the targets max health as bonus magic damage
Damage reduction now lasts for 3 seconds instead of 20 seconds
Body Slam (E)
Mana cost reduced to 50 at all ranks from 75 at all ranks
Cooldown changed to 16/15/14/13/12 sec from 12 at all ranks
Damage changed to 80/130/180/230/280 ( +.6 AP ) from 80/120/160/200/240 ( +.6 AP ) ( + 30/40/50/60/70% AD )
No longer slows for 35% for 2 seconds when hit, instead now knocks back and stuns for 1 second on collision.
If Body Slam hits an enemy, cooldown is now lowered by 3 seconds instead of half
Explosive Cask (R)
100 Mana at all ranks ( same as live )
100/90/80 sec Cooldown ( same as live )
Damage lowered to 200/300/400 ( +.7 AP ) from 200/325/450 ( + .9 AP )
Hoo, boy. The fat man has been put through the blender in this patch. This post by Solcrushed is a good explanation of their motivations for this comprehensive list of changes, but here’s a tl;dr: Basically, Gragas on live right now is a champion who fills two different roles at the same time. He is a sniping burst mage capable of doing massive damage to the back line from a safe distance, but also up close he’s a brawler and a tank who’s capable of taking quite a few hits and regenning health quickly. This creates a problem from a game design standpoint, as these are two fairly conflicting goals. This kind of design makes a champion who, if they’re good at what they do, is unbalanced because they don’t have any real disadvantages (such as Gragas), or if they’re bad at what they do, is unviable because they’re not better than anybody at anything (such as, say, Sion).
Due to this split in Gragas’ role, Riot pretty much had to get rid of his conflicting design and rework him with one clear role in mind. When faced with the choice between sniper mage and AP bruiser, they picked bruiser because of community preference and because it’s more consistent with his design as a drunken fatass. These changes are aimed at making him more of a fighter and less of a burst mage. Overall, his damage has been reduced but his durability and utility have been increased in the form of crowd control.
My opinion on this is kind of split. On one hand, I hate Gragas’ current state on live because he’s so tough to deal with because usually he has more damage than you and is tankier than you anyway. Overall, I think they made a good decision picking a more consistent theme for him, and brawler was definitely the right choice given his design. However, many people loved the bursty sniper that he’s usually played as, and will be sad to see him go. I understand this, but I think all in all, the changes are better for the game.
Graves
Quickdraw ( E ) mana cost reduced to 40 at all ranks from 50
Collateral Damage ( R ) explosion damage increased to 200/280/360 from 140/250/360
People have been awaiting Graves changes for quite a while now. There’s not a whole lot here, but it’s at least a step in the right direction. His steroid costs less mana and is therefore more sustainable, and his ult does a lot more damage at rank 1 and 2 than it used to. This is a nice buff, but not a very big change. I expect to see a little more for Graves in the future.
Heimerdinger
H-28G Evolution Turret (Q) :
Health increased to .55 AP from .5 AP
Attack – Cannon: Damage changed to 12/18/23/29/34 ( .15 AP) from 15/22/29/36/42 ( .125 AP )
Attack – Beam damage changed to 40/60/80/105/130 (.55 AP ) from 50/75/100/125/150 (.5 AP)
UPGRADE!!! (R) :
H-28Q Apex Turret ( R+Q ) cannon AP ratio reduced to .3 from .33.
H-28Q Apex Turret ( R+Q ) beam reduced to 200/270/340 ( .7 ) from 225/300/375 (.8 )
The Donger got some changes in the last patch that made his turrets do a lot more damage. As such, he’s become a pretty powerful pick in the top lane. These changes are probably aimed at toning down a little of the power that he received last patch. His turrets’ cannon is getting a nerf to base damage but a buff to scaling, where the beam is getting the opposite. His super-turret is being directly nerfed.
Leona
Base HP Regen lowered from 1.8 per second to 1.4 per second
Eclipse ( W ) bonus armor and magic resist reduced to 20/30/40/50/60 from 25/35/45/55/65
Leona’s been a dominant pick in the bottom lane for a while now. These nerfs are aimed at making her a little bit less indomitable and possibly make a bit of room for other tanky supports. Just don’t tell IronStylus about the nerf.
Lee Sin
Safeguard (W)
Cooldown increased to 14 seconds at all ranks from 9 seconds at all ranks
Shield duration lowered to 4 seconds from 5 seconds.
No longer grants a shield if he dashes to a non-champion unit.
Cooldown is reduced by 50% ( to 7.5 from 14 ) if cast on ally or self
Iron Will (2nd W) bonus lifesteal and spell vamp duration reduced to 4 seconds from 5 seconds.
There have been some controversial changes to the Blind Monk in the works for a little while now. Overall, Riot seems to want to nerf Lee’s early game and buff his late game, but the list of total changes caused quite a stir in the forums. While more comprehensive changes are still planned, the balance team has settled with doing smaller changes one at a time in hopes of communicating better with the players. Statikk’s Post has more details about their thoughts on the matter.
This patch, we’re seeing a nerf to Lee’s W, Safeguard. The duration is going down, the cooldown is going up if cast on wards, but down if cast on allies, and ward-jumping no longer grants a shield. These changes were mainly aimed at making him a little less slippery. Admittedly, he is very difficult to catch, especially with the warding trinket. I’m curious to see what will be done with his other moves. Many of the proposed changes to his attacks seemed a little too harsh to my eyes. Props to Riot on making sure to discuss this a lot with the community, though.
Lulu
Help Pix! (E)
Damage on enemy cast reduced to 80/110/140/170/200 from 80/130/180/230/280
Enemy cast vision duration reduced to 4 seconds from 6 seconds
Ally cast Pix follow reduced to 5 seconds from 6 seconds
Lulu is getting a pretty hard smack to the base damage and utility on her E. She’s been a strong mid-lane pick for a while now, and these changes might help reduce her power a little bit. I think she’ll still be viable as a caster and a poking support, though, so I don’t think the changes will ruin her; just bring her a little more in line.
Miss Fortune (reworked)
Strut (Passive)
Movement speed increased each second lowered to 8 from 9
Now displays Movement Speed bonus on its buff icon
Double Up (Q)
Mana Cost reduced to 43/46/49/52/55 (from 70/75/80/85/90)
Cooldown reduced to 7/6/5/4/3 (from 9/8/7/6/5)
Damage to 1st target changed to 20/35/50/65/80 [+85% Total AD] (from 25/60/95/130/165 [+75% Total AD])
Damage to 2nd target changed to 40/70/100/130/160 [+100% Total AD] (from 30/72/114/156/198 [+ 90% Total AD])
Target selection for 2nd target updated
Impure Shots (W)
Mana Cost reduced to 30/35/40/45/50 (from 50 at all ranks)
Passive’s bonus damage changed to [6% Total AD] per stack (from 4/6/8/10/12 [+5% AP])
Attack Speed changed to 20/30/40/50/60% (from 30/35/40/45/50%)
Grievous Wounds duration reduced to 2 seconds (from 3 seconds)
Make it Rain (E)
Cooldown reduced to 14/13/12/11/10 (from 15 at all ranks)
Duration increased to 3 seconds (from 2 seconds)
Slow changed to 25/35/45/55/65% (from 20/28/36/44/52%)
Vision granted by Make It Rain now more closely matches its area of effect
Bullet Time (R)
Now applies stacks of Impure Shots (does include bonus magic damage from passive; does not include grievous wounds from active)
New passive effect: increases the stack cap of Impure Shots to 6/7/8
Damage reduced to 50/75/125 [+20% AP] (from 65/95/125 [+35% Bonus AD][+20% AP])
Miss Fortune has been a pretty marginalised marksman for a while now. She went from being Queen Snowballer of the bottom lane to seldom being picked at all. These changes are aimed at bringing her back to a position where she’s a good pick, but not so good that she crowds out other carries. Her Q is being changed to do less base damage but scale better with total AD. Her W now scales off AD instead of AP (though it still does magic damage) and the steroid is being decreased early but increased late. Her E is now more effective overall. Her ultimate has had its overall damage reduced, but it now applies stacks of Impure Shots, making MF’s autoattacks do more damage to targets that she’s hit with her ultimate. I think the changes will make MF much more consistent as a carry, making her less reliant on her ultimate to wipe out the enemy team and overall better at doing consistent damage.
Renekton
Dominus ( R ) bonus health changed to 200/400/800 from 300/450/600
Dominus ( R ) damage per second changed to 30/60/120 from 40/70/100
Renekton’s quite a lane bully at the moment, and is very, very good at winning the early game. His ultimate, Dominus, is getting nerfed in the early stages to make it easier to deal with, but buffed later to make him more effective in late-game teamfights.
Rengar (reworked)
Unseen Predator (Passive)
While in brush or stealth, Rengar will leap at the target when using his basic attack (reworded from live)
Rengar builds 1 point of ferocity with each ability he uses on enemies. When reaching 5 points of Ferocity, Rengar’s next ability becomes empowered (unchanged from live, now explicitly listed in tooltip)
Savagery (Q)
Cooldown decreased to 6/5.5/5/4.5/4 from 8/7.5/7/6.5/6
Buff time increased to 3 seconds from 2
Damage changed to 100/105/110/115/120% of Total AD plus 20/40/60/80/100 extra physical damage from 30/60/90/120/150 extra physical damage
No longer grants attack speed without ferocity bonus
Ferocity effect: Now does 150% of total AD plus X physical damage and grants X% attack speed and 10% AD for 5 seconds from 30/60/90/120/150(+ 100% AD) and 60/70/80/90/100% attack speed.
Ferocity effect: Damage and attack speed now scale with Rengar’s level.
Damage: 20/30/40/50/60/70/80/90/100/115/130/145/160/175/190/205/220/235 AD
Attack Speed: 50/53/56/59/62/65/68/71/74/77/80/83/86/89/92/95/98/101%
Battle Roar (W)
Cooldown changed to 12 at all ranks from 15/14/13/12/11
Armour and Magic Resistance decreased to 10/15/20/25/30 from 15/22/29/36/43
Armour and Magic Resistance now increased by 50% for each enemy champion or large monster hit
Ferocity effect: Does X damage
Ferocity effect: Heals Rengar for between X and Y health based on Rengar’s missing health.
Ferocity effect: Healing and Damage now scale with Rengar’s level
Damage: 40/55/70/85/100/115/130/150/160/170/180/190/200/210/220/230/240
Minimum Heal: 12/16/20/24/28/32/36/40/44/48/52/56/60/64/68/72/76/80
Maximum Heal: 75/100/125/150/175/200/225/250/275/300/325/350/375/400/425/450/475/500
Bola Strike (E)
Now a skillshot with 1000-unit range
Cooldown changed to 10 from 12/11/10/9/8
Base damage changed to 50/100/150/200/250 from 60/105/150/195/240
Slow amount increased to 60/65/70/75/80% from 50/55/60/65/70%.
Ferocity effect: deals X ( + .7 bonus AD ) (at level 1 ) physical damage and roots the target for 1.75 seconds on top of the normal slow
Ferocity effect: damage scales with Rengar’s level
Damage: 50/75/100/125/150/175/200/225/250/260/270/280/290/300/310/320/330/340
Thrill of the Hunt (R)
Cooldown reduced to 120/95/70 from 140/105/70.
No longer grants base movement speed or ferocity stacks during stealth
After breaking stealth, Rengar gains 25/35/45% movement speed and generates 5 ferocity over 5 seconds.
Now grants 15% movement speed when moving toward enemy champions while stealthed.
Bonetooth Necklace (Rengar’s personal item)
Bonetooth Necklace is now a trinket. There are three versions to buy, each matching one of the standard trinkets. Rather than upgrading when Rengar hits level 9 and then again for 475 gold, the trinket upgrades based on how many trophies have been collected. The first upgrade happens at 6 trophies; the second at 20. A fourth version of the trinket is in the shop on Twisted Treeline, Howling Abyss and Crystal Scar (where normal trinkets don’t exist).
No longer grants any AD (flat or per level)
No longer loses trophies on death
Trophy rewards changed:
3 Trophies: Rengar gains 25 movement speed while out of combat or in brush.
6 Trophies: Increases the range of Rengar’s leap by 125.
12 Trophies: Thrill of the Hunt’s duration is increased by 5 seconds.
20 Trophies: Thrill of the Hunt’s Movement Speed while stealthed is doubled.
Rengar is the third of the reworks on the PBE right now. Scruffy’s Post discusses some of the philosophy behind the changes. Here’s a tl;dr: Rengar’s Ferocity mechanic still empowers his attacks at 5 stacks like it used to, but the empowerment is based on his character level rather than the level of the skill, so using Ferocity stacks on a move you haven’t maxed out is still worth it. His Q has a lower cooldown and does more damage, but no longer grants attack speed without ferocity. His W gives him less resistances, but the resistances are increased based on how many enemies he hits. His E is now a skillshot that slows more and has longer range. His ultimate no longer makes him faster during stealth unless he’s moving towards an enemy, but after stealth gives him a lot of bonus movement speed. His unique item, Bonetooth Necklace, is now a trinket that comes in three flavours to match the normal trinkets.
This rework will hopefully make Rengar a lot less feast-or-famine. His performance in top lane and in the jungle are both still fine, and he’s a little bit less devastating when he gets too far ahead but less useless if he doesn’t.
Wukong
Crushing Blow ( Q ) armor reduction lowered to 10/15/20/25/30% from 30% at all ranks
Cyclone ( R ) AD ratio reduced to 1.1 total AD from 1.2 total AD
Wukong can be pretty devastating all game long at the moment. These changes look to nerf his early game a bit.
Ziggs
Base Attack Range reduced to 550 from 575
Ziggs was nerfed recently, but Riot is apparently not quite satisfied. This change will reduce his safety zone a little bit and make him get closer to farm and poke.
Item Balance
Patch 4.5 is seeing a lot of item changes. FeralPony’s post on the forums has a lot more detail about their direction, so be sure to check it out. Keep in mind that while some of these changes may look like nerfs, the item itself is getting buffed due to a drastic reduction in cost.
New Items:
Aether Wisp
Total cost: 950g
Recipe: Amp Tome ( 435g ) + 365g
Builds into: Lich Bane and Twin Shadows
+30 Ability Power
Unique Passive: +5% Movement Speed
Forbidden Idol
Total Cost : 750g
Recipe: Faerie Charm ( 180g ) + Faerie Charm ( 180g ) + 390g
Builds into: Morellonomicon and Talisman of Ascension
+ 8 mana Regen per 5
Unique Passive +10% cooldown reduction
Aether Wisp and Forbidden Idol are two new items meant to be an intermediary stage in building towards some of the late-game caster items. Aether Wisp is there for movement speed and Forbidden Idol is there for CDR. These items will both be nice early-game stepping stones on the way to better items.
Existing Items:
Aegis of the Legion
Now builds out of Negatron Cloak + Ruby Crystal + Rejuvenation Bead + 600g = 1900g
Total cost lowered to 1900g from 1950g
Armor reduced to 0 from 20
Magic resist increased to 20 from 0 (total of 40 MR including aura)
Aegis and Talisman are being changed to be predominantly MR items instead of trying to be catch-alls. This is pretty nice, as it makes the items better overall and also gives us another option for MR itemisation, which is something the current game is lacking.
Face of the Mountain
Total cost increased to 2200 from 2000
Recipe cost increased to 385 from 185
Health Regeneration per 5 decreased to 20 from 25
Health increased to 500 from 375
All of the support gold income items are having their prices increased to 2200 and their stats buffed up to try and reflect the change. Face of the Mountain got a small buff overall in terms of gold efficiency.
Scrying Orb / Greater Orb / Farsight Orb
Scrying Orb (tier 1)- reveal range increased to 2500 from 1500
Greater Orb (tier 2)- reveal range increased to 3500 from 2500
Farsight Orb (tier 3)- reveal range increased to 4000 from 3000
The oft-forgotten blue trinket is still very rarely picked up. Maybe if we buff it enough, people will want to buy it.
Feral Flare, Wriggle’s Lantern
Feral Flare is back in the game! It hasn’t actually been changed since pre-patch 4.4, so hopefully it will be on live this patch. Have a look at my last article for analysis and stats, if you haven’t seen them already.
Frost Queen’s Claim
Total cost increased to 2200 from 2000
Recipe cost increased to 515 from 315
Ability power increased to 50 from 40
Given the cost increase, this is a pretty neutral change.
Frozen Heart
Total cost lowered to 2600g from 2900g ( due to Glacial Shroud Change )
Recipe cost increased to 650 from 550.
Armor increased to 100 from 95
Aura Attack Speed reduction lowered to -15% from -20%
Frozen heart is getting a pretty nice buff. This is great, in my opinion, as it’s a great item, but often hard to pick up because it doesn’t offer any HP, and its high cost make it tough to build anything else. Hopefully this will make it more available to a wider range of champions.
Iceborn Gauntlet
Total cost lowered to 2900 from 3300 ( due to Glacial Shroud Change )
Recipe cost lowered to 750 from 1100
Armor reduced to 60 from 70
This is another one that might look like a nerf but is actually a buff. IG is a very expensive item, so it’s nice to see it get a bit cheaper.
Glacial Shroud
Now builds out of Cloth Armor + Sapphire Crystal + 250g = 950g
Total cost lowered to 950g from 1350g
Armor reduced to 20 from 45
Mana reduced to 250 from 300
Glacial Shroud is being reworked a bit to be easier to get earlier in the game. This should really help out some of the more mana-dependant tanks, as they can get their hands on Glacial Shroud’s 10% CDR and improved stats a lot sooner.
Lich Bane
Now builds out of Sheen + Aether Wisp ( new item ) + 1000 Gold.
Total costs lowered to 2900g from 3000g
Locket of the Iron Solari
Now builds out of Kindlegem + Aegis of the Legion + 50 gold = 2800 gold
Total cost increased to 2800 gold from 2550g
Health increased to 400 from 300
Armor reduced to 0 from 20
Magic resist increased to 20 from 0.
Morellonomicon
Now builds out of Fiendish Codex + Forbidden Idol ( new item ) + 630g.
Total cost still 2200g
Spirit of the Elder Lizard
Butcher – monster damage bonus reduced to 20% from 30%
Lizard is season 4′s golem, it seems. It’s strong enough that most current junglers will pick it up. This will nerf the clear speed from it a little bit, and maybe also make junglers like Kha’zix and Vi a little less strong at taking barons and dragons.
Talisman of Ascension
Now builds out of Nomad’s Medallion + Forbidden Idol ( new item )
Total cost increased to 2200 from 2000
Mana regen per 5 increased to 15 from 10
Once again, the change to Talisman is pretty neutral. The build path is much nicer though, as the Forbidden Idol gives 10% CDR early on.
Twin Shadows
Now Builds out of Aether Wisp ( new item ) + Fiendish Codex + 780 gold
Total cost still 2400 gold
Ability power increased to 80 from 50
Magic resistance reduced to 0 from 40
Now Grants 10% Cooldown reduction
New effect: If a ghost cannot find a target, it tries to return to the caster. Ghosts that successfully return in this way reduce the item’s cooldown by 40 seconds ( 120 second cooldown )
Twin Shadows is no longer defensive in any respect. Instead, it does its job of catching enemies better. The increased AP and newfound CDR will be nice to have, and the build path includes Aether Wisp, so 5% movespeed is gained early on. The new behaviour of the ghosts is nice as well, since a failed use of TS won’t be nearly as punishing.
Warden’s Mail
Now builds out of Chain Vest + 280g
Recipe cost lowered to 280 from 400
Total cost still 1000g
This is mostly a response to the Glacial Shroud changes. While its total cost is unchanged, the fact that Warden’s Mail builds out of a chain vest makes it so that the armour builds up a little bit smoother.
Will of the Ancients
Now Builds out of Hextech Revolver + Fiendish Codex + 480 gold = 2500 total gold.
Total cost increased to 2500g from 2000g.
Ability power increased to 80 from 50.
Mana regeneration per 5 lowered to 0 from 10
Vladimir players rejoice! WotA is being brought back to its roots as a caster item for champions that may or may not have mana instead of the useless quasi-support item that it’s been for the last few months.
Boot Enchantments:
All of the boot enchantments are getting changed around in an effort to make the ones that aren’t homeguard a bit more interesting. Overall, I like the direction that the enchantments are headed in. I’ve always found them interesting, but never quite felt like they were worth the gold investment until the very end of the game (besides homeguard). We don’t think that these changes will actually be in patch 4.5, so we may have to wait on these for a bit longer. Here’s a post by Xypherous explaining the changes.
Alacrity
Movement speed increased to +20 from +15
Captain
Movement speed bonus to nearby approaching allied champions increased to 10% from 8%
Price decreased to 600 from 750
Distortion
Teleport, Flash, Ghost cooldown reduction lowered to 20% from 25%
Now adds extra effects to summoner spells:
Ghost – grants 40% movement speed from 27%
Flash – 20% movement speed bonus for 1 second
Teleport: 30% movement speed bonus for 3 seconds after use.
Furor
Price reduced to 475g from 650g
Homeguard
No longer fully renegerates you upon activation and instead now restores 35% of missing health and mana per second while at fountain
Other Balance
Dragon
Damage reduced to 110 from 145.
Debuff from attacks no longer slows attack speed, now reduces healing.
These changes were on the PBE before patch 4.4, but weren’t included in the patch.
Vision Bugfixes
Apparently, some bug fixes are in place to fix issues where blind spots would occur in some bushes. I hope they work, I hate that bug.
Masteries
Feast
Health restore from killing a unit increased to 3 from 2
This change is merely to compensate for the nerf to lifesteal runes.
Runes
Greater Seal of Armor
Armor Reduced to 1 armor from 1.41 armor
Greater Seal of Scaling Armor
Armor at level 18 increased to 3 from 2.7
Greater Seal of Health
Health increased to 8 from 5.35
Greater Seal of Scaling Health
Health increased to 24 at 18 from 19.44
Greater Seal of Health Regeneration
HP5 increased to .56 f rom .43
Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction
CDR increased to 1.67 at 18 from 1.11
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
MR increased to 3.0 at 18 from 2.7
Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration
Mp5 increased to .33 from .31
Greater Glyph of Scaling Mana Regeneration
Mp5 increased to 1.20 at level 18 from .99
Greater Quintessence of Cooldown Reduction
CDR increased to 2.5% from 1.67%
Greater Quintessence of Scaling Cooldown Reduction
CDR increased to 5% at 18 from 2.5%
Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed
Attack Speed increased to 4.5% from 3.4%
Greater Quintessence of Life Steal
Life steal reduced to 1.5 from 2%
Rather than tackle this myself, I’m going to refer you guys to Fridgecake’s article on the rune changes. Check it out if you have time.
Summoner Spells
Xypherous’ post that I linked earlier also gives some rationale behind the changes to summoner spells.
Exhaust
Movement Speed Reduction: 30% –> 25%
Damage Reduction: 30% –> 50%
Cast Range: 550 –> 650
Exhaust should now be more easily castable at the champions you want to exhaust; namely, marksmen hanging out at the back of the teamfight. This will probably make Exhaust a bit more of a viable spell and maybe see it crowded out a bit less by ignite in the bottom lane.
Heal
Targets Affected: 5 –> 2. Cooldown: 300 –> 240
Now only affects you and the target nearest your cursor (within 700 range).
If it can’t find anything near your cursor, it’ll affect the most wounded nearby allied champion instead.
Heal Amount: 90-345 –> 90-495 (Scales non-linearly with level, more at higher levels)
Additional Effect: After healing the target, it then removes any healing reduction effects the target suffers.
Additional Effect: Targets healed also gains 30% Movement Speed for 2 seconds.
Heal is being reworked to only be a two-target spell rather than a full-team spell. This makes it a lot more balancable around the bottom lane without having to worry about late-game teamfight impact being too high. The movement speed buff and increased healing in late-game is making it a more attractive option for late-game peeling and initiating assistance.
Ignite
Additional Effect: Now also grants vision of the target over the duration (Non-Stealth only)
This is a small change aimed at focusing ignite’s purpose onto being a kill-securing spell.
Cosmetic Changes
Atlantean Syndra
Syndra is getting an awesome new aquatic skin, but it’s been pulled from the PBE for more work.
Night Hunter Rengar
Rengar is getting a new skin, too, which is reminiscent of a certain superhero. The skin looked great, but has been pulled for more work after people suggested that Rengar put up his hood when he uses his ultimate. Good job listening to your players, Riot. Now if only I could convince them to make it go “Bamf!” when he stealths…
Super Galaxy Rumble
Rumble is getting one hell of a skin this time around. I wish they’d give him a few buffs to go with it, though. Check out Moobeat’s post for a better list of pictures.
Void Fizz
Who knew Fizz could look so evil? I especially love the ultimate for this skin. Here’s the report over at surrender@20.
Malphite Splash Art
This new splash looks so much better than the one on live. I especially love the archers getting wrecked in the corner.
Riot Logo Ward Skin
The latest ward skin is coming to LoL, this one based off the fist in Riot’s company logo.
Floating Combat Text
The floating text animations for gold and critical damage are getting updated. The gold one shows a coin and the crit one shows an impact graphic.
Gragas Animations
Gragas has received a host of new animations for his reworked attacks. More bubbles!
Barrier
Barrier has been recoloured to be white following criticism that it looked too much like Kayle’s ultimate. Hopefully it’s a bit easier to tell apart now.
That’s all for now, everyone. Check back in a few weeks for more PBE coverage! As always, thanks very much to Moobeat over at Surrender@20 for his excellent patch notes, images and video footage from the PBE.
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