Join Xypherous as he discusses the changes that are currently on the PBE server and lends his opinion on Galio, LeBlanc, Nunu, Nami, Warwick, Quinn, Caitlyn, Lux, Diana, Olaf, Rammus and more! Learn about the problems with balancing Melee Carries, the future of Rengar and the mysterious templar who’s been stalking on the forums!

> Xypherous on Patch 3.7
> Q&A Session
> Melee AD Discussed
> Rengar buffs soon!
> Potential champion concept leaked!>

Xypherous on Patch 3.7

Xypherous discusses the changes that will be coming in the next patch, some of which you’ve already seen in the latest PBE updates.

Catch up:

• PBE Champion Update
• PBE Zed & Item Update

Xypherous: Hey guys, I’m going to be talking a little bit about some of the more subtle things that are in Patch 3.07 that we’ve been tentatively working on – as well as hopefully stir some conversation up over the changes that should be in the PBE patch, depending on when that gets deployed.

Note that this isn’t a full list of changes, only ones I have sufficient context to talk to you about or are things that are hard to notice, and they reflect the content in the next PBE build, so certain things like the minion damage reduction isn’t currently on this version of the PBE patch – but will be in a few days.

Minion Damage Reduction?

Minion Damage Reduction

* Ranged Minion Damage goes from starting at 23 –> 22.

Spell dominated top-laners are currently problematic right now in top lane, forcing a wide variety of heavy sustain starts in order for proper play to exist against them on anyone but other spell dominated top-laners.

Rumble and Renekton, for example – are both problematic spell based top-laners. They both benefit from having a harassment pattern that frequently doesn’t draw minion aggression, leaving more traditional auto-attack centric harassers behind.

We’re well aware of the dominance of certain traditional AP or AD ability based bruisers but the disparity of performance between melee basic attack centric top-laners and spell based top-laners was becoming increasingly obvious that if we balanced around the current damage disparity, we’d have to significantly overshoot or undershoot the power level of the top-laners involved.

Akali

* Twilight Shroud now grants vision around the area of effect.
* Essence of Shadow charge time reduced to 30/22.5/15 seconds from 35/25/15

We hit Akali’s lane dominance in the last patch – but we’re still unhappy with how Akali feels like her defensive options are limited to basically overpowering her opponents.

With the following two changes in concert – this gives Akali the ability to perform some interesting jungle and lane jukes by first casting twilight shroud to gain vision of a jungle monster, and then using shadow dash as an escape tool. While we don’t think this will dramatically increase her power – it should be a new cool neat little trick that Akali can do.

Nunu

* Consume now heals for less (roughly 75%) – both base and AP ratio.
* Consume now deals more damage with a slightly longer cooldown
* Consume now gives bonuses depending on if he used Consume on a Monster for 2-4 minutes
* Lizard Type monsters (Red Lizard / Dragons / Nashor / Mini Lizard) grant Nunu’s attacks and spells bonus magic damage equal to 1% of his max health
* Golem Type monsters (Blue Golem / Golem / Mini Golem) grants Nunu increased size and 10% maximum Health
* Wolf and Wraith type monsters grant Nunu “After he kills a unit, he gains a 15% MS buff for 3 seconds”

This is undoubtedly a nerf to lane Nunu, whose effectiveness is questionable for the majority of our playerbase – in many ways Lane Nunu simply won his lane and lost the game, while being annoying and frustrating along the way. This wasn’t the greatest of patterns – especially while Jungle Nunu sits there on the sidelines where the cool objective control and gank patterns are being unused.

Above all, we want Consume to be a cool spell. Consume has traditionally languished as being kind of useless late game, for everything besides objective control and making Consume an attractive spell by adding this level, I feel, better fulfills the fun part of the spell (big Yeti running around eating tasty things) and gives Consume a strong rank-up incentive.

This is also a test to see if players would like to see more of these Jungle monster type interactions – if people find them cool, it opens up space for us in two ways: We’ve introduced this mechanic as a precedent and it allows us to play around in this design space.

Warwick

* Infinite Duress channel time reduced to 1.5 from 2.1 (total Suppression duration unchanged at 1.8)
* Infinite Duress now places Warwick in front of the target, rather than at a random spot around him

Just QoL stuff for Warwick. It’s a little silly given the current speed of the game for Warwick to be channeling longer than his opponent is suppressed. The positional change is mostly such that if Warwick is trying to stop a fleeing opponent, he directly bodyblocks his opponent but is in a riskier position – but if Warwick is trying to stop a charging opponent, he remains closer and out of risk of being interrupted by the enemy team.

Caitlyn / TF / Varus / Zed / Zac / Rumble

I’m not really qualified to talk about nerfs or buffs, other than – we’re kind of iterating on what we’d like these nerfs to be overall – but regardless these characters need to be tuned down as they are all slightly too dominant at the moment.

Diana / Lux

* Shield values generally nerfed across the board
* Shields stack now instead of refresh

We’ve been unhappy with the power level of these shields, mostly because their maximum effectiveness case is both swingy and out of the control of the user a large portion of the time.

We’re trying out a stacking system rather than a refreshing system to see whether or not these shields can still fulfill the multi-hit scenario without necessarily being randomly excessively powerful based on what/when they refreshed.

Cassieopeia

* Twin Fang is now classified as a single-target spell for the purposes of item effects

And I am terrified – but it should give Cassieopeia builds more flexibility, something that she has traditionally found hard to access and made worse by the fact that Cassieopeia play tends to be demanding and damage-focused.

What this allows her access to is Rylai’s Crystal Scepter, Muramana and Furor Boots – all of which actually kind of make sense in her arsenal.

Galio

* Changes reverted

First, let me get this out of the way, Galio is not intended to be an AP mage that simply destroys other AP mages because he scales off Magic Resistance.

As for the changes, we were experimenting with Galio to give him lower cooldowns for the later game – allowing him to more freely use his Resolute Smite ability as a consistent peeling / initiating ability for later game team fights. However, the net results of this change seemed weird in isolation – as the rest of his kit doesn’t feel quite right in the support tank role. While Bulwark and Wind Tunnel seem to work currently, they both seem to be lacking somewhat in the support tank role. We’re going to continue looking at Galio so that we can bring him more in line with his role / intent.

Items

Mana Manipualtor

* Recipe is now: Faerie Charm + 120 Gold = 300 Total Gold
* MP/5 Aura reduced to 5 from 6

* Shard of True Ice total cost reduced by 100 gold due to this change.

Third time’s the charm – Let’s see if Mana Manipulator can feel good as a starting item before we work on upgrades for it.

As an aside, I really wanted to improve Shard of True Ice – before realizing that no matter how good I make Shard of True Ice, getting Mana Manipulator always feels narrow and constraining at the moment.

Mikael’s Crucible

* Recipe is now: Philosopher’s Stone + Chalice of Harmony + 920 Gold = 2500 Total Gold
* 300 Mana –> 0 Mana
* 0 HP/5 –> 7 HP/5
* 9 MP/5 –> 18 MP/5

* Active now changed to heal 10% of the target’s maximum health instead of 15% of their missing health.
* Missile speed is now fixed at 0.2 seconds, from variable depending on distance to target.

Internally, Mikael’s Crucible was a very different item until the very last moment, when it got changed from healing the target based on your current mana to a combination heal and cleanse effect.

We’ve seen some players use it well – and it generally hasn’t been too toxic to the game to allow supports access to it, so we’re going to adjust it to be slightly more usable with more synergistic statistics (high MP/5 + Chalice passive) and slightly less target constrained (Not caring about missing health). We don’t want Mikael’s Crucible to be a mainstay to any build – but it should be a valid tool in the support arsenal.

Q&A Session

Champion Balance

Will Nunu be able to keep more than one buff up?

Xypherous: He will be able to have all 3 of them up at once.

They also persist through death – as it might be slightly annoying to recollect all the buffs every time you die.

What are the reasons behind the Galio changes?

Xypherous: As I said originally, the intent was so that Galio could have a spammy CC spell on a super short cooldown with higher CC uptime.

Galio has trouble peeling or initiating consistently a lot of the time, because he only has one true CC spell – the intent was to lower the cooldown of the spell considerably such that Galio could grab picks and targets much more frequently.

We’ve since reverted that change because it felt weird in isolation. His kit just doesn’t quite work as a support tank overall without some more changes.

Why are you shifting Galio to a support tank role?

Xypherous: An AP mage that destroys other AP mages because he’s immune to their damage is way more fun than most characters. It’s also something that can never be competitively viable, because on a strategic level – it just means that Galio shouldn’t exist.

A champion who auto-wins lane is obviously fun – it’s also not something that actually belongs in this game where we kind of assume players can do meaningful things against each other in lane.

What are your thoughts on Caitlyn?

Xypherous: The essential problem with Caitlyn is that for a large porportion of our audience, they can’t fully utilize Caitlyn’s ranged strength.

Range tends to be the most powerful statistic in the hands of competitive play – but using above average range to its maximum potential is always going to be something that it only going to be seen in the highest tiers of play.

Unfortunately, it’s just kind of a truism that when different champions have different strengths, they’re going to be vastly more powerful or less powerful for different audiences. That’s basically Caitlyn in a nutshell – vast power – but terribly hard to appreciate strengths.

Although to be fair, I believe the changes we’re doing now is making it so Headshot doesn’t stack on towers and adjustments to her attack speed scaling with items (I.E. slightly less base attack speed, slightly more attack speed per level) – essentially nerfing the super heavy push Caitlyn strategy that is seen in high level play.

Why did you give Quinn such poor range?

Xypherous: Range is a double edged sword. It’s the most powerful statistic in the game – but also one of the hardest to use well when it is above average, which makes it so that the character’s true strengths are only seen in competitive play a lot of the time.

As for Quinn specifically, I believe Volty’s design intent was to create the most melee centric ADC that still had a ranged autoattack in lane. And the strengths of the rest of her kit are pretty damn overpowering to make up for it.

Can you clarify on the Lux/Diana shield changes?

Xypherous: It is an intended nerf for these characters. The correct number was actually pretty hard to assess for Diana – because often in lane the shield is popped early without incoming damage from the opponent, simply due to the fact that Diana has dived in the enemy minion line – so the average case in lane has typically stayed the same or gone up except for her tower dive case, which is lower overall.

Do you consider Rammus a viable pick?

Xypherous: Overall, Rammus is very effective – but he’s not seen a lot. However, if you pick Rammus, you’ll win far more games than you’ll lose – right now I think of him as a sleeper, perhaps lacking in a bit of competitive viability due to the current push based meta – but very effective if people remember his strengths.

What are the problems with Warwick?

Xypherous: The issue right now with Warwick is that he’s still a sustain/safety jungler – but almost every other jungler duels better than he does early. It’s a tricky problem.

He’s billed as a jungler – but jungler strengths have increased around him such that his current kit, while effective, isn’t really what you want in a jungler. His power level is really high – but he doesn’t bring a whole lot of strategic utility that the other junglers do.

Why is Olaf being neglected?

Xypherous: Olaf’s strengths tends to be competitively oriented.

He’s also a simpler character archetype which, oddly enough, means you need a high degree of mastery over every other aspect of the game to take advantage of his strengths.

In short, yeah – we’d want to make Olaf better – but with his current kit design, he tends to be a very volatile force in high tier play. Essentially, Olaf’s power is too inacessible and often only good against players who are very skilled – and thus any changes to Olaf either has to be reorienting his power or making his power more relevant to a wider range of opponents.

Can you fix Leblanc’s powerlevel curve?

Xypherous: Right, Leblanc fits in the same profile of assassin who brute forces her way to effectiveness – rather than outplaying her opponent.

Roku actually really wants to take a step back and look at augmenting Leblanc so that you can have more clever plays – but thus far, none of the mimic experimentation seems to be doing that well, unfortunately.

What about making Nami’s passive scale with level?

Xypherous: Making Nami’s passive scale with character level might be a decent idea – I’ll pitch it to Statikk when I get a chance.

Minion damage & PBE Community Website

Why are you reducing minion damage?

Xypherous: In Season 2, top laners reduced minion damage by 4 through masteries – 2 from minion block, 2 from damage block. This made them effectively immune to minion damage a lot of the time, as it was post-mitigation.

While this probably isn’t going to make a huuge difference overall, it certainly helps us to not having to make bigger changes to characters than needed. Consider how many 6 second engagements there are in a typical lane scenario – and then think about us having to adjust someone’s health or damage by 18-20 per engagement. It adds up.

Will the minion damage reduction mastery return?

Xypherous: It might be a good idea to introduce this as a defensive mastery – but generally, it becomes a “must-pick” to survive in lane kind of mastery. It’s a hard rope to walk on.

Why doesn’t Riot post patch notes on the PBE?

Xypherous: Because our patches are often in a severe state of flux over the days. We push / test / pull / etc. extremely quickly in our environment.

Everything that we’re currently working on and playtesting, you are almost seeing the exact things on a day by day basis. We are actually incredibly transparent about what is our build and what is going out – it just makes the exact book-keeping of all these changes incredibly hard to manage.

For example, whenever I do a thread like this, it generally consumes 2 or 3 hours of my time. If I were to do that on a consistent basis, I would talk more about the patch than actually work on stuff in the patch.

There’s also things like translations / localization / etc – that we simply don’t have time to do on the schedule we operate on. Stack that on top of the fact that we ship the last known good build to PBE means that daily patch notes is actually incredibly time consuming. Apologies – but the gains here aren’t worth the significant time investment we’d have to sink in.

Melee AD Discussed

If you recall from a previous article I posted, Fiora, Master Yi and Tryndamere are currently being looked at for future improvements.

What’s the current state of Melee Carries and how will you change them?

Xypherous: The actual win rates for the vast majority of melee carries is actually hovers around 48 to 51% in the vast majority of solo games.

Does this mean they are competitively viable? Probably not.
Does this mean they are strategically viable? Probably not.

They’re hardly in the dust, however. They’re actually doing well in most games. If you play these characters, you will win roughly half your games.

The problem with Melee Carries is:

1. People expect to be able to build glass and accomplish what a Ranged AD carry does. This will simply never be true, due to the nature of the game.
2. People expect Melee Carries to be consistently performing, rather than wildly swingy. This is something that won’t be true, due to the nature of their kits (Fiora or Yi, for example.)
3. These characters do not have a proper strategic role to fulfill – therefore they are not viable in competitive games as they cannot be cornerstone strategic pieces.

These all point to these problems being kit-centric rather than item-centric – and the win rate data suggests that it’s not a effectiveness criterion that’s lacking either.

It’s something more intrinsic to how we’ve designed these characters from a base.

The question is: Are these characters worth protecting like a carry? Can these characters output significant team fight contribution if they are protected? Right now, the answer is ‘No’ to both of these.

However, silly changes like buffing their damage or their health doesn’t actually make them into better examples of the melee carry role. It just makes them more effective at whatever they’re doing now – but what the vast majority of them are now are either fighters or assassins.

Rengar buffs soon!

You’re probably aware of Morello‘s recent announcement to work on our forgotten Pridestalker. Well, now we finally have news and it’s from non other than designer Classick!

Classick: I may not be Morello, but figured I can provide some insight on the Rengar changes for you guys .

The main point to emphasize is that we’re not trying to change Rengar’s feel at all. What we do want to change is some of the not so appreciated components of Rengar that make him difficult to balance.

One of these problems is the fact that his Ferocity effects are more powerful based on the rank of the spell. As seen since Rengar’s release, builds that capitalize on double casting the ability you’re maxing has been problematic (early double Q all-in builds/Tank splitpush double W build). The current solution for this problem is scaling his Ferocity effects with his level across the board (like his heal currently does).

This will make the Ferocity effects equal in power regardless of what you are maxing, allowing you to choose the Ferocity effect that is best suited for the situation you are in instead of being obligated to use whatever spell you have the most points in. This will also allow us to put more power into his base stats and base abilities which should help with his jungle clear.

Another change we’re currently looking at is tweaking how his ultimate works. Currently Rengar jumps at you out of no where and it’s very hard to react to him because there’s not much information being conveyed to the opponent. Now when Rengar activates his ultimate all enemies that Rengar sees will be made aware that he’s in the area. What this does is gives the opponent more information so that they can react to the situation.

With this change it allows us to put a lot more power into the ultimate, increasing the duration and speed. While Rengar may lose the ability to jump on an unsuspecting enemy, it enables him to create really cool mind games and toy with his opponents which we’ve seen from internal testing. On top of that Rengar can get to a location much quicker and stay in stealth much longer retaining the feel of hunting down wounded opponents or scouting an area for priority targets.

Nothing here is set in stone but it’s currently the direction we’re going, hopefully that helps shed some light on the upcoming Rengar changes.

Edit: While Rengar may lose the ability to jump on an unsuspecting enemy is getting misinterpreted as his leap is being removed from his ultimate. Should have described this in another way , he still will keep his leap while the ultimate is active.

How do you plan on buffing Rengar?

Classick: The current idea is adjusting the values of the Ferocity effects to scale with his level, so similar to the heal on his W the damage for the Ferocity abilities will scale with his level. We can also use other tools such as AD scaling for Ferocity Q which scales with the game as you get more items, but leveling up Q will not affect the damage of your Ferocity Q. This will give the Ferocity effects a smoother curve throughout the game.

Will you change how Rengar feels?

Classick: From internal testing most of the feedback has actually been that his ultimate feels much better than what it currently is on live. We were able to put a lot more power into it which made it feel much more ultimate, and allowing new strategies now that he has the ability to play mind games and create a large presence in team fights.

What will his role be in the end?

Classick: The goal is to be able to choose which path you want to go based on what you rank / choose to use for Ferocity / items built. With these changes where we can achieve a better balance for Rengar we can make his assassin build more viable as it won’t create nearly as toxic of an experience.

What are you changing to Rengar’s taunt during ultimate?

Classick: It will now play for anyone who is within his vision range during the ultimate, including enemies in FOW.

Potential champion concept leaked!

Here is an interesting piece of art by Eoin Colgan, a fantasy artist who has previously worked for Riot.

He is referred to as Lucian, the Gun Templar. Note that this picture is a leak, meaning it’s unconfirmed. Buut, given how the industry works, leaks like this tend to be legitimate. =P

If you enjoy Eoin’s work, I urge you to visit his art blog.

The Hunt will soon be on!

More PBE Balance changes introduced! Rioters discuss Lux and Diana’s shields changes, Udyr stealth nerf, preview of the legendary Blackfrost Anivia, a Freljord mini-website and the next Champion/Skin Sale announced!

I’ve organized the content in the following categories:

PBE: Balance Changes
Lux/Diana
Udyr’s Tiger Nerf!
Explore the beauty of the Freljord
Freljord Summoner Icons – here’s how!
Blackfrost Anivia
Champion/Skin Sale – May 3rd – 6th

PBE: Balance Changes

     Diana

Pale Cascade ( W )

• Damage readjusted from 20/35/50/65/80 to 22/34/46/58/70
• Shield lowered from 55/80/105/130/155 + 0.45 AP to 40/55/70/85/100 + 0.3 AP
• The second shield now stacks with the first, instead of replacing it

Read CertainlyT‘s comment on the matter below.

      Elise

Spider form ( R )

• No longer grants bonus armor or magic resist.

      Galio

Resolute Smite ( Q )

• Damage lowered from 80/135/190/245/300 + 0.6 AP to 80/125/170/215/260 + 0.5 AP
• Mana cost lowered from 60/65/70/75/80 to 60 flat
• Cooldown lowered from 7 flat to 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 seconds
• Movement speed reduction now only lasts for 2 seconds down from 2.5

        Lux

Prismatic Barrier ( W )

• Shield lowered from 80/105/130/155/180 + 0.35 AP to 50/65/80/95/110 + 0.25 AP
• The second shield now stacks with the first, instead of replacing it

Read CertainlyT‘s comment on the matter below.

Miss Fortune

Impure Shots ( W )

• Damage lowered from 6/8/10/12/14 to 4/6/8/12
• Number of stacks increased from 4 to 5
• Tooltip updated to state maximum damage from stacks as 20/30/40/50/60 + 0.25 AP

      Nami

Aqua Prison ( Q )

• Stun duration increased from 1.3 to 1.5 seconds

     Nunu

Consume ( Q )

• Now gains bonuses for 120/150/180/210/240 seconds based on the type of creep he has consumed.

• Golem – 10% maximum health and 10% increased model size

• Lizard – Your attack deal an additional 1% of your maximum health as magic damage.

• Wolf / Wraith – 15% bonus movement speed on kill for 3 seconds.

• Damage increased from 500/600/700/800/900 to 600/700/800/900/1000
• Heal decreased from 125/180/235/290/345 + 1.0 AP to 90/130/170/210/250 + 0.75 AP
• Cooldown increased from 16/14/12/10/8 to 17/15/13/11/9

   Rumble

Electro Harpoon ( E )

• Damage lowered from 55/85/115/145/175 + 0.5 AP to 45/70/95/120/145 + 0.4 AP
• Bonus damage from Danger zone increased from 25% to 50%

   Shyvana

Flame Breath ( E )

• Damage lowered from 80/125/170/215/260 to 80/110/140/170/200
• Tooltip now applies a DoT called Cinders for 5 seconds.
• 15% Armor Penetration buff removed
• This effect is applied to all enemies if cast during Dragon Form

Dragon’s Descent ( R )

• Now brings enemy champions along the path with her

     Varus

Piercing Arrow ( Q )

• Minimum damage increased from 10/43/77/110/143 to 10/47/83/120/157
• Maximum damage increased from 15/65/115/165/215 to 15/70/125/180/235

Hail of Arrows ( E )

• Damage lowered from 65/105/145/185/225 to 65/100/135/170/205

        Zac

Elastic Slingshot ( E )

• Damage lowered from 80/130/180/230/280 to 80/125/170/215/260

Let’s Bounce! ( R )

• Tenacity lowered from 75% to 50%
• Damage per bounce decreased from 160/240/320 to 100/150/200
• Tooltip no longer states that enemies hit more than once half damage.

Lux/Diana

Read below to discover the reasoning behind the Diana/Lux changes, as well as insight on Udyr’s live stealth nerf!

On the changes to Lux and Diana

 CertainlyT: These data mined “patch notes” often completely miss the boat, since they are just grabbing numbers without context into associated mechanics changes. We should probably develop a better system for communicating PBE changes to players as we put them on that environment. We just need a way of doing so without making speculative efforts seem like certainties.

The change to Diana/Lux that is on PBE for testing is that their shields have lower values, but if the second trigger is met (3 orbs broken and boomerang double hitting respectively), the shields will stack instead of renew. Volty feels this opens up new opportunities for premeditated gameplay (like stacking a monster Lux shield on your team as you engage), while making aggressive counterplay more rewarding since hitting a Lux shield with the projectile still airborne can feel like an exercise in futility.

Udyr’s Tiger Nerf!

      Udyr

Tiger Stance ( Q )

• The damage on-hit can only be procced within the first 5 seconds of activation
• Damage on-hit is lost when swapping stances

Why does Udyr’s proc on-hit disappear when I switch stances?

 Pabro: This is intended. The temporary attack speed from Tiger Stance lasts 5 seconds, swap stance or not, but the first attack bonus can only be applied if you are still in Tiger Stance. Upcoming changes to the tooltips and buffs will make this more clear.

Is this change game-breaking? To an extent yes, you lose a 1.5 AD Scaling Spell if your target slips away and you have to switch back to Bear Stance. It basically ruins Udyr’s already limited combo.

But wait, there’s more! Statikk is here to present a far more detailed explanation on the matter:

 Statikk: Sorry guys, I’d like to start by apologizing because we definitely screwed up here both in terms of what we put into the game and what we failed to communicate out to you guys, but let me clarify what is and what is not intended with Udyr’s Tiger Stance.

What Is Intended:
- Udyr can “prime” Tiger Stance’s damage-over-time proc indefinitely as long as he remains in Tiger Stance
- Tiger Stance’s Attack Speed bonus carries over into other Stances

What Is Not Intended:
- Udyr should not be able to use Tiger Stance’s damage-over-time proc while in other Stances

With the new patch, we removed his ability to get the Tiger first hit proc unless he used it within the first 5 seconds of being in Tiger Stance. This is not intended. Udyr’s first hit after switching into Tiger Stance should proc the DoT regardless of how long he has been in Tiger Stance, but the instant he switches out of it he will not be able to proc it.

I know removing the ability to proc the Tiger DoT while in other stances is a nerf, but it is intended. Frankly, it doesn’t make sense for him to apply his Tiger hit in other Stances from several perspectives (gameplay, visuals, or thematics). Tiger’s proc, Bear’s stun, and Phoenix’s Flame Breath are all intended to be local to those stances. At the end of the day, if the only reason to use Tiger is to switch into it and then immediately switch out of it…that seems to point to a core problem that Tiger Stance is simply not attractive enough on its own. So we’ll deal with that if that’s an issue.

TL;DR
We will be giving Udyr back the ability to prime his DoT indefinitely as long as he remains in Tiger Stance. Removing the ability to proc the Tiger DoT while in a different Stance is an intended change.

Explore the beauty of the Freljord

A spectacular mini-website has been released to honor Freljord’s champions!

Scroll sideways to see all the artwork and click on the blue crystals to reveal hidden lore pieces!

Freljord Summoner Icons – here’s how!

Remember these three?

Here’s how to get them!

Choose your tribe

 Pabro: Welcome to the frozen North – a windswept and war-torn region home to some of the most resilient people in all of Runeterra. Here, three great tribes vie for control of their icy homeland. The Avarosan, led by Ashe, strive to unite the Freljord under a banner of peace. The Winter’s Claw, boldest and most warlike of the three, follow Sejuani on her campaign of conquest. And the Frostguard, secluded and mysterious, bide their time haunting ancient ruins alongside Lissandra, the Ice Witch. As they prepare for war, something ancient and sinister stirs deep beneath the earth, threatening to corrupt the land itself.

Click here to explore the Freljord

Choose your tribe

You can join the battle for the Freljord by declaring your allegiance to Ashe, Sejuani or Lissandra. At the start of the event, you’ll be able to choose from the following three summoner icons:

Frostguard

Choose the tribe you want to support by selecting their banner as your summoner icon. Win 10 games without changing your icon, and you’ll unlock it permanently. Win a game with a different tribal icon and you’ll have to start over, so choose wisely!

Choose your tribe FAQ

 Pabro: During the Freljord event you’ll have the opportunity to permanently unlock a summoner icon featuring the emblem of your favorite tribe. At the start of the event, all three tribes will have icons available. Winning games wearing the icon associated with your favorite will earn you points toward unlocking it permanently.

How do I unlock a tribe’s icon?

After accruing ten wins with a tribal icon, you’ll permanently unlock an upgraded version. This upgraded icon is a badge of honor reserved only for loyal members of the tribe.

Which game types count toward my wins?

All matchmade games against human opponents count toward unlocking the banner of your chosen tribe. This includes all normal and ranked games on Summoner’s Rift, the Crystal Scar, the Twisted Treeline and the Howling Abyss.

Custom game or co-op vs. AI wins won’t help you join a tribe.

How long do I have to unlock my chosen icon?

The Freljord event will run until 5/14. Victories within this time period will count towards joining a tribe.

Temporary icons won’t be available once the event’s over, so be sure to join a tribe before time runs out.

What happens if I change my icon while accruing my 10 wins?

Playing a game with the icon of a new tribe will reset any progress you made toward unlocking any of the others. Non-Freljord icons have no effect on your progress toward joining a tribe.

How long after I complete my 10th win will I receive my icon?

It can take up to 48 hours for you to receive the icon of your chosen tribe. You’ll know you’ve successfully completed the process when you find an upgraded version of the tribe’s icon available in-client.

Can I unlock more than one icon?

No. You can only join one Freljord tribe, so choose your allegiance wisely.

You can switch tribes over the course of the event by winning 10 games with a new icon. At that point you’ll gain your new tribe’s icon, but lose your previous tribe’s icon.

I’m still confused. Can you give some examples?

Sure. Here are a few examples for the sake of clarity.

Example 1:

• Morello wins seven games for the Winter’s Claw, then changes his mind and wins one game for the Avarosan.
• Result – Morello currently holds one win toward unlocking the Avarosan icon. He needs nine more wins to join the tribe. If he switches back to the Winter’s Claw banner, he needs 10 wins to join them.

Example 2:

• Phreak wins 10 games for the Frostguard, successful joining the tribe. He then wins nine games under the Avarosan banner.
• Result – Phreak is still a member of the Frostguard, but he has nine wins toward unlocking the Avarosan icon. If he wins another game for the Avarosan, he’ll join that tribe and replace his Frostguard icon.

Example 3:

• ByronicHero racks up 100 wins in a row, but changes his icon to a different tribe every time.
• Result – ByronicHero doesn’t unlock any icons, because no tribe wants to be associated with a dirty, noncommittal flip-flopper like him. Don’t be like ByronicHero – join a tribe so you don’t get left out in the cold!

What do these icons represent?

 RiotVox: Crown + arrow = The Avarosan (Ashe’s tribe), axes = The Winter’s Claw (Sejuani’s Tribe), and the dark sinister looking eye = The Frostguard (Lissandra’s Tribe). We’re working on getting this reflected in the post better, stand by!

Do I have to play that champ or just use the icon?

 RiotVox: Just use the icon . Once you pick it in the client, just play 10 normal or ranked games with that icon selected to unlock the icon. Co-op VS. AI games do not count toward your 10 played games.

Does dominion count?

 RiotVox: Yes, every map counts.

Blackfrost Anivia

Join the Dark Side with Anivia. Her Blackfrost remake is available for 1820 RP at the store (Legendary skin)

Splash Art

Model

Flash Frost (Q)

Flash Frost (Q) Explosion

Crystallize (W)

Frostbite (E)

Glacial Storm (R)

Recall Animation – Part 1

Recall Animation – Part 2

Rebirth (Passive)

 Champion/Skin Sale – May 3rd – 6th

For the next three days, you can pick up the following champions and skins at half price:

Champions

• Fiddlesticks – 292 RP
• Morgana – 292 RP
• Xerath – 487 RP

Skins

Infernal Alistar – 487 RP

Galactic Renekton – 260 RP

Shadow Prince Malzahar – 260 RP

Go forth and win ‘dem Summoner Icons!

A new PBE Website has been released! Also, word of future buffs to Shyvana and the Melee Carry Team!

PBE Site Released!

 Riot Pwyff: Hey Summoners!

Today we’re going to be soft launching a replacement for the PBE forums with a more community-driven content system. With this new forum, we want to promote high quality comments and content while also raising visibility on popular topics. For the PBE community specifically, this also means more pressing feedback will rise to the top, allowing us to react quicker to make those changes. While functionality may be minimal right now (we want to make sure everything’s stable first!), there will be more features to come as we go down the line.

For a quick rundown on how to use the new forums: players and Rioters can submit new discussions to the forums, where anyone with a PBE account can “upvote” or “downvote” a post (or comment) to indicate the quality of the discussion. Higher voted posts and feedback will rise quicker (and will have more visibility) while lower rated posts deemed nonconstructive by the community will fall lower down the page. So… without further ado, we hope you get to posting and discussing on our new PBE community!

The new PBE website is more organized than the standard forums. Red posts in a thread are marked by Riot’s fist logo. Users can sort threads and comments by order of time posted or how well-received they are. Upvotes and downvotes are neatly handled- just press the corresponding arrow next to a comment or a topic! One great benefit from this new community website is that bug reports and feedback from players are much more easily sorted. If you have a PBE account and wish to join the new site, simply follow the link below:

PBE Community Website

Upcoming Shyvana buffs

Shyvana’s been having a rough time fitting into Season 3′s meta- the reason being she lacks the CC and damage mitigation needed to shine among other fighters. If you’re concerned with the dragon lady’s future, you’ll be pleased to know that Riot is actively working on improvements! Scarizard brings you the juicy details:

What changes are you considering for Shyvana?

 Scarizard: Shyvana is currently a very dominant early/mid-game jungler who’s having a hard time transitioning late-game. Without going deeply into details on the changes we’re discussing, a lot of our changes will be focused on Flame Breath and Dragon’s Descent being more iconic and functional.

We’ll talk more later on down the patch cycle – I won’t lock Live Design down for a release of these buffs (Based on testing, the scope of this could potentially increase and require more testing coverage) but it’s a priority. I’m confident we can get her to a good state without just ‘BUFF ALL THE NUMBERS!’ – she’s not the best, but she’s by no means in a terrible state.

tl;dr: Soon, not soonTM.

Early jungling is not the problem

 Scarizard: Running 9/21 or 2/7/21 with Lifesteal Quints, AD Reds, Armor Yellows and MR Blues i’m consistently returning to my wraiths for a 2nd pass by 3:15-3:20. While this slows me to hitting Level 4 by needing to run to Wolves (the only camp available at this point), i’m still able to at -least- get to another wraith clear due to Burnout’s insane wraith control and base/get Razor. It only gets sillier from there as you twin bite + razor proc the large monsters and burnout finishes the rest, making your jungling from that point forward a breeze. I’d say she’s still on the upper-end of clears.

When i say early/mid, i’m specifically referring to the pre-25m point in the game. While the changes i’m referring to are designed to smooth the transition into the later game, they still reinforce her strong jungling capacity. Shyvana’s identity is that of a potent mixed-damage fighter with a strength in farming the jungle – both hers and her opponents. Part of this identity is that she manages to do it without built-in sustain or CC, which actually means (compared to some of our other fighters) it’s much easier to toss in more damage/speed and make you feel like a speed-tanky-mega-punchin’ dragon-lady.

tl;dr: Jungle clear getting tangentally buffed, but changes targeted at late-game transitioning. I think you guys will like the change to her ult ;D

Summary & Thoughts

Judging from these posts, Shyvana won’t just be getting buffs to her stats, but rather improvements to her kit which will hopefully bring her in line with Season 3′s top-tier fighters. Though her jungling could use some tweaks, Riot agrees that’s not where the issues lie. These changes will impact mostly her late game, meaning we should expect better scaling on her abilities or even some crowd control added somewhere. Shyvana’s E and R are being given a more in-depth rework, so perhaps new mechanics will be added to fill the gaps in her skillset.

From my personal experience playing her, I’d say Shyvana is heavily dependent on her team in the late game. She’s a good follow-up to the initiator and can take some beating while in Dragon form. Shyvana needs to get a good farming edge and lots of items before she can go to town on the enemy carry and, even then, stuns and slows cripple her severely. I would love some Tenacity or a slow/immobilize thrown in somewhere so catching up to a kiting carry doesn’t feel so impossible. Flame Breath seems like the best ability to include additional mechanics – it’s a hard skillshot to land and it doesn’t feel nearly as rewarding as it should.

Why Melee Carries feel underwhelming

The next topic touches on the troublesome squishy trio (Fiora, Tryndamere, Yi). Obviously these champions are in need of help, and who better to discuss buffs than Morello!

Why are you not buffing melee carries?

 Morello: “We can’t just buff an ADC that is melee because they’re binary in their success/failure; either too strong or UP.”

Fixing these characters, including Fiora, is something we’re working on, but is longer-term, not just a numbers-fix.

Would buffing signature skills such as Riposte help?

Personal Opinion

I’m a huge fan of Fiora, which is why I dedicated an extensive guide to her. The primary issue with her and other melee carries (Yi, Tryndamere) is that they need to get in close, at which point they can easily be nuked and CC-ed by the enemy. If you think about it, these champions sacrifice range (an invaluable mechanic for a carry) to get better DPS, but in any serious match-up that extra damage never shines. I understand why the balance team is weary of buffing such cases, as they can easily dominate games if made too strong. However, there are currently so many ways to shut down an AD carry that the only way for said carry to do its job is to constantly stay at a safe distance, something that’s hard to pull off if a sword is your weapon of choice. Any peeling support or tank with Exhaust turns the melee carry’s job of decimating the enemy team into a nightmare.

I’ll point to DotA as an example of a MOBA game where melee carries thrive. Champions there are more than likely to win a prolonged matchup, despite being melee. This is due to a couple factors- DotA’s so called “hyper-carries” scale extremely hard, to the point they can take on multiple people at a time if properly farmed. They also get additional defense bonuses, such as Evasion (same as Dodge, which was removed) and Armor, both of which can be acquired without losing out on too much damage. Probably most important however, is the existence of the so-called Black King Bar, an item that grants temporary magic immunity, meaning that the wielder cannot be CC-ed or targeted by magical spells (with a few exceptions). Obviously an exact replica of this idea won’t work for LoL as mages in DotA turn into support characters in the late game and most of them cannot carry. A BKB would spell doom for most common mid-picks and would completely destroy their viability. However, some form of short invulnerability to CC should be introduced, as melee carries are completely shutdown by it, no matter how fed.

Currently we have Cleanse and Zephyr as our only saving graces should we choose the rough path of the melee carry. It’s a class that’s mostly forgotten in the League and is generally frowned upon. I really hope there comes a time when champions such as Fiora and Tryndamere rival ranged carries on the competitive scene. It seems an insurmountable challenge to bring these outcasts into the spotlight, but maybe Riot can pull it off!

Good luck on the Fields of Justice!

Major buffs to Quinn, Runaan’s Hurricane and Tiamat, Lissandra’s bloody incarnation, changes to the League Tutorial and a few announcements – all in today’s article!

Champion Changes

      Lulu

Glitterlance ( Q )

• Mana cost increased from 40/50/60/70/80 to 60/65/70/75/80

• Mana cost decreased from 90/100/110/120/130 to 90/95/100/105/110

 

 

     Quinn

 

Heightened Senses ( W )

• Now also grants a 20/30/40/50/60% Movement Speed increase when attacking a vulnerable target as Quinn and 40/50/60/70/80% as Valor.

 

Vault ( E )

• Now also stuns the target briefly upon impact

 

Tag Team ( R )

• Bonus Movement Speed when activated increased from 80% to 80/90/100% when out of combat and 20/30/40% in combat from 20% at all ranks.

 

 

    Sejuani

Frozen Domain ( W )

• Duration increased from 6 seconds to 8 seconds
• Mana cost increased from 50 to 60
• Cooldown changed from 16/15/14/13/12 seconds to 15 seconds

 

 

 

Item Changes

 

 

Boots of Swiftness 

• Recipe Cost decreased from 650 to 550 gold

 

 

 

Ionian Boots of Lucidity 

• Recipe Cost decreased from 700 to 650 gold

 

 

 

Runaan’s Hurricane

• Recipe Cost decreased from 1000 to 700 gold

 

 

 

Tiamat

• Recipe Cost decreased from 665 to 265 gold
• AD decreased from 50 to 40

 

 

 

 

Bloodstone Lissandra

 

 (Click on the pictures for sweet full resolution!)

 

 

Model

Ice Shard (Q)

Ring of Frost (W)

Glacial Path (E) First Cast

Glacial Path (E) Second Cast

Frozen Tomb(R)

 

 

New Tutorial

 

The Howling Abyss map has currently replaced the Proving Grounds as the Tutorial map on the PBE. Check out a preview below:

(Inb4 terrible Ashe players building Thornmail)

 

 

The Loading Screen

Welcome to the League of Freljord!

Garen’s 2D Origins

Not for chatting!

Boom.

A bigger boom!

 

 

New Free Champion Rotation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week’s free list includes:

• Ashe
• Karma
• Karthus
• Lee Sin
• Maokai
• Morgana
• Teemo
• Wukong
• Zac
• Zyra

 

Champion and Skin Sale (April 16-19)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Champions:

• Galio
• Blitzcrank
• Volibear

 

Skins:

• Northern Front Swain
• Hyena Warwick
• Gothic Orianna

 

 Cross- Atlantic Server Transfer available!

Lastly, Community Coordinator RiotYmir shared this exciting news on the forum for all American players wishing to switch to European servers and vice versa:

 RiotYmir: Starting today, players will be able to skip over the Atlantic and transfer between the North America and EUW or EUNE servers. This upgrade has been a long time coming and we’re stoked that players now have more flexibility to choose where they play!

To purchase a transfer, head to the in-game store and click on the Other tab. Intercontinental transfers are one-way and run 2600RP, so always double check you’re heading to the right server. Additionally, European players who joined the North American server prior to June 1st 2010 and weren’t able to move to the European platform when it opened will receive a free one time transfer token.

For the full scoop on eligibility, transfer options and more, check out this page on our Knowledge Base.

If you do not meet the criteria below we will be unable to merge your account!

 RiotYmir: A small number of you have asked if you can merge your NA account with your EU account. Unfortunately, that’s a very time-consuming process that we really can’t offer on a broad scale. Some veteran EU players, however, have accounts that pre-date the launch of the European service. Since these players didn’t have the option to create their first (primary) account on home soil, we’re offering them a very special, one-time opportunity to merge their two accounts into one account on the EU server.

Merging’s very labor-intensive and requires special attention from the Player Support team. For that reason, we can only offer mergers under special circumstances.

Here’s how to qualify for a merger:

• You need to have created your account before June 1, 2010
• Most of your games need to be from a European IP
• You need to verify ownership over the two accounts you’re merging

Unfortunately, because this process is so laborious, we’re going to be buzz-kill sticklers about the rules. No exceptions! Also, this is an extremely slow process, so – while we will answer all eligible requests – it might take several weeks to complete your merger.

We can only transfer certain data to your EU account, so please read carefully before you apply. Here’s what we can merge:

• Your summoner level
• Your purchased content
  • You’ll be compensated for content you unlocked on both accounts
• Your IP and RP totals
• Your competitive season rewards

The following aspects of your NA account will be lost during the merger process:

• Your stats
• Your MMR
• Your rune and mastery presets
• Your honor score
• Previous and unused referrals
• Your justice review rating
• Your friends list

Once the process is complete you can’t use refund tokens on content you merged from another account, and your NA account can’t be recovered. So make sure you’ve bid fond farewell to your summoner on this side of the pond prior to requesting the merge!

If you’re interested in merging your NA and EU accounts, meet the criteria and have read through the process, please a send us a ticket with the subject “Account Merge Request”. Also, if you meet the requirements and you’d rather just move your NA account to EU without merging, you can use your free transfer token in the store right now.

We want to thank all the seasoned vets who waited so long for this option, and we hope we can make your merger as painless as possible. If you have any more questions, ask them in this thread!

What if my EU and NA account names match?

 Iniquitee: If you attempt to transfer you will be prompted to change your username if it is occupied on the server you are trying to go to. The messaging that says you cannot is incorrect and will be updated shortly.

Will I get to keep my Summoner icons?

 Iniquitee: Yes, you will keep your summoner icons.

As far as free transfer tokens go – we just finished distributing them to eligible players. Please check the store again!

Good luck on the Fields of Justice!

Check out the latest champion coming to the league, Lissandra, as well as the long- awaited reworks of Trundle and Sejuan and the newest frosty skins for Shyvana and Volibear!

 Lissandra

Model

Iceborn (Passive)

Every 18 seconds Lissandra’s next ability costs no mana. Iceborn’s cooldown is reduced by 1 second whenever Lissandra impairs an enemy’s movement with an ability (does not apply to movement-impairing effects from items).

Ice Shard (Q)

Range: 725 || Cooldown: 6 / 5.5 / 5 / 4.5 / 4 || Cost: 85 mana

Throws a spear of ice that travels in a line and shatters when it hits an enemy, dealing  75 / 110 / 145 / 180 / 215 (+ 65% AP) magic damage and slowing its Movement Speed by 16% / 19% / 22% / 25% / 28% for 1.5 seconds. Shards then pass through the target, dealing the same damage to other enemies hit (but not slowing them).

Ice Shard (Q)

Ice Shard (Q) Impact

Ring of Frost (W)

Cooldown: 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 / 10 || Cost: 70 mana

Freezes an area around Lissandra, dealing  70 / 110 / 150 / 190 / 230 (+ 60% AP) magic damage to nearby enemies and rooting them for 1.1/ 1.2 / 1.3 / 1.4 / 1.5 secs.

Ring of Frost (W)

Glacial Path (E)

Range: 1050 || Cooldown: 24 / 21 / 18 / 15 / 12 || Cost: 80 / 85 / 90 / 95 / 100 mana

Casts a claw of ice that moves forward in a line, dealing 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+ 60% AP) magic damage to all enemies hit. Reactivating this ability transports Lissandra to the claw’s current location.

Glacial Path (E)

Frozen Tomb (R) 

Cooldown: 130 / 105 / 80 || Cost: 100 mana

On enemy: Freezes target champion solid, stunning it for 1.5 seconds.

On self: Lissandra encases herself in dark ice for 1.5 seconds, becoming untargetable and invulnerable but unable to take any actions.

Dark ice then emanates from Lissandra’s target dealing 150 / 300 / 450 (+ 70% AP) magic damage to enemies. The ice lasts for 3 seconds and slows enemy Movement Speed by 20%.

Frozen Tomb (R)

Lissandra’s Death Animation

Trundle Rework

Model

King’s Tribute (Passive)

Whenever an enemy unit near Trundle dies, he heals for 2% of their maximum Health.

Chomp (Q)

Cooldown: 4 seconds || Cost: 30 mana

Trundle’s next attack lunges at his opponent, dealing 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 (+ 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 / 120% AD) physical damage. This attack increases Trundle’s attack damage by 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 for 8 seconds, with his opponent losing half of this amount for the same duration.

Chomp (Q) Cast Animation

Chomp (Q) Bonus Damage Buff

Frozen Domain (W)

Cooldown: 15 || Cost: 60 mana

Trundle coats target location with ice for 8 seconds, gaining 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% Movement Speed, 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 / 80% Attack Speed and gains 8/11/14/17/20% increased healing and regeneration from all sources.

Frozen Domain (W) Active Area

Pillar of Ice (E)

Range: 1000 || Cooldown: 23 / 20 / 17 / 14 / 11 || Cost: 60 mana

Trundle creates an icy beacon at target location for 6 seconds, becoming impassable terrain and slowing all nearby enemy units by 25/30/35/40/45%.

Pillar of Ice (E) Skillshot

Pillar of Ice (E)

Subjugate (R)

Range: 700 || Cooldown: 80 / 70 / 60 || Cost: 75 mana

Trundle immediately drains an enemy champion of 20% of their maximum Health and 40% of their Armor and Magic Resist, then drains them again for the total of these amounts over the next 5 seconds. Lost resistances slowly return over 5 seconds after the drain effect ends.

Trundle gains these stats for himself while the target is being drained and slowly loses them after the drain ends.

Subjugate (R)

Trundle also visibly grows during the duration of the spell:

Subjugate (R) Growth Effect

 Sejuani Rework

Frost Armor (Passive)

Damaging enemies with an ability or basic attack now grants 10/15/20/25 Armor and reduces movement-slowing effects on Sejuani by 10/15/20/25%  for 2 seconds. If she already has Frost Armor,  damaging an enemy increases its duration by 2 seconds.

Frost Armor (Passive)

Arctic Assault (Q)

Range: 700 || Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11 || Cost: 80/85/90/95/100 mana

Charges forward, knocking enemies into the air and dealing damage equal to 40/80/120/160/200 ( +.4 AP ) plus 4/5/6/7/8% of target’s Maximum health. The charge stops after knocking an enemy champion into the air.

Arctic Assault (Q)

Flail of the Northern Winds (W)

Range: 350 || Cooldown: 10 || Cost: 40 mana

Sejuani’s next basic attack deals 40/60/80/100/120 ( +.3 AP ) bonus magic damage to the target and enemies near it. She then swings her flail, dealing 80/120/160/200/240 ( +16% bonus HP) (+.6 AP ) magic damage to nearby enemies over 4 seconds.

Flail of the Northern Winds (W)

Permafrost (E)

Range: 1000 || Cooldown: 11 || Cost: 55 mana

Passive: Abilities and basic attacks apply Frost to enemies for 4 seconds.

Active: All nearby enemies with Frost take  60 / 110 / 160 / 210 / 260 (+ .5 AP) magic damage and are slowed by 50/55/60/65/70% for 2/2.3/2.5/2.8/3.

Permafrost (E)

Glacial Prison (R)

Range: 1150 || Cooldown: 130 / 115 / 100 || Cost: 100 mana

Throws a frost-forged bola in a line. If the bola hits an enemy champion, it shatters, stunning the target and nearby enemies for 1.5/1.8/2 seconds. If the bola reaches its maximum range it shatters and slows enemies by 90% for 1 second instead.

All enemies in the shatter area take 150 / 250 / 350(+ .8 AP) magic damage.

Glacial Prison (R)

 Runeguard Volibear

Model

Rolling Thunder (Q)

Frenzy (W)

Majestic Roar (E)

Thunder Claws (R)

 Ice Drake Shyvana

Model

Twin Bite (Q)

Burnout (W)

Flame Breath (E)

Flame Breath (E) Mark

Dragon’s Descent (R)

Enjoy this Freljord Special!

Big changes to skin prices, balance updates, limit on how many health potions you can start with, map – specific champion tweaks and the end of the Freljord journey – all in one!

We’ll start with something that will please everyone- cheaper skins! 79, to be precise. To balance that out, 18 skins will be going up in price. In addition, a new 750 RP pricing tier is being introduced.

Skin Prices

 Hippalus: As you’ve probably noticed, the quality of champion skins has increased dramatically since we started creating them way back in the day. This upward trend in quality is something that we’re always looking to advance while continuing to provide good value and affordable prices to players. With that in mind, we felt it was time to revisit RP skin pricing and come up with improvements for 2013 and beyond.

975 RP has become an extremely broad tier, encompassing skins of wildly differing production quality. We wanted to better define the value of your purchase, and will soon implement a couple of big pricing changes as we move skins into more clearly defined RP tiers and establish two new tiers at 750 and 1350 RP. By positioning skins into tiers based on their features, you’ll have a better idea of what you’re getting for your RP and be able to make more informed purchase decisions.

Here’s a breakdown of the new skin prices with what features you can expect for each skin:

390/520 RP skins

• These are outdated tiers used for skins that only featured texture changes, a new splash image, and at times slight model changes.
• 36 skins in the store at the 975 RP tier will have their prices lowered to 520 RP
• No new skins will be created for these tiers, but existing skins in the store are eligible to be put on sale.
• Example: Loch Ness Cho’Gath, Aviator Irelia

750 RP – New tier

• Skins in the new 750 RP tier feature new texture and model work as well as a new splash image; and some skins in this tier will feature new animations.
• 40 skins from the current 975 RP tier will have their prices lowered to 750 RP
• We expect that 10-20% of skins in 2013 will be released at 750 RP, and they will be eligible to be put on sale.
• Examples: Little Knight Amumu, Explorer Ezreal

975 RP

• 975 RP skins feature a new model, textures and splash image; some skins in this tier will feature new animations, visual effects and sounds where appropriate for the theme of the skin.
• We expect that 50-75% of skins released in 2013 will be 975 RP, and they are eligible to be put on sale.
• Examples: Haunted Maokai, Jade Dragon Wukong

1350 RP

• Skins in the 1350 RP tier will feature a new model, textures, splash image, animations, visual effects and sounds. In some cases, these skins will also have processed voice overs.
• This tier is intended for skins that go above and beyond the quality of 975 RP skins but don’t quite reach legendary status.
• 3 skins from the current 1820 Legendary tier will have their prices lowered to 1350 RP
• 18 17 skins from the current 975 RP tier will be moved to the 1350 RP tier
• We expect that 7-15% of skins released in 2013 will be 1350 RP, and they are eligible to be put on sale
• Examples: Blackthorn Morgana, Arcade Sona

1820 RP – Legendary skins

• A legendary skin completely changes the look and feel of a champion.
• These skins feature a new model, textures and splash image as well as completely new animations, visuals, voice over and sounds.
• We expect that 6-10% of skins released in 2013 will be Legendaries, and they will not be put on sale.
• Examples: Battlecast Prime Cho’Gath, Brolaf

3250 RP – Ultimate skins

• An ultimate skin is a complete reimagining of a champion that includes an evolving model and additional features and bonuses, such as summoner icons.
• 3250 RP skins feature a new model that evolves into different forms, textures, splash image, animations, visuals, voice over and sounds, as well as additional content.
• We expect that 2-4% of skins released in 2013 will be Ultimates. They may have initial promotions or discounts, but will not be put on sale.
• Examples: Pulsefire Ezreal

The price changes will all go into effect at 9am PST on April 25th, so there is plenty of time to plan any purchases of skins that are impacted. Partial refunds will be automatically granted for all past purchases of the three legendary skins (Astronaut Teemo, Lion Dance Kog’Maw, and Piltover Customs Blitzcrank) that are decreasing in price, as that is a price-protected skin tier. No other refunds will be granted in relation to these changes.

That’s it for now! All of the skins that will be changing in price are listed below. Let us know your thoughts in the comments – we’ll do our best to address your questions.

PBE Update

There have been a number of changes, including a wider shop interface, limit to how many health potions you can buy and a bunch of champion tweaks.

Balance changes:

      Nasus

Wither (W)

• The Attack Speed reduction debuff is now equal to half the % MS slow instead of being a flat 35%

      Quinn

Blinding Assault (Q)

• Now scales additionally with AP (0.5 ratio)

Tag Team (R)

• Coldown reduced from 140/120/100 to 140/110/80

     Sejuani

Arctic Assault (Q)

• Mana cost changed from 70/80/90/100/110 to 80/85/90/95/100

   Trundle

Subjugate (R)

• Armor and Magic Resist drain increased from 20% to 40%. Also drains 20% of target’s maximum HP

      Udyr

Tiger Stance (Q)

• Damage dealt reduced from 60/115/170/225/280 to 30/80/130/180/230

Limit to Health Potions bought

Currently on the PBE, a player can buy a maximum of five potions at the start.

If this change seems ambiguous to you, Communications Coordinator Riot Pwyff is here with a helpful explanation:

 Riot Pwyff: Hey all, I just wanted to talk about the changes we’re making to limit health potion stacks. While this is the PBE and things are subject to change, I’d still like to give some context behind this particular change.

At the moment, we are planning to limit the maximum number of health potions you can hold at any time to five. This change was intended to combat super high sustain starts, where champions (particularly those going top and mid lane) would buy as many health potions as possible (and a ward or two) in order to sustain in lane forever. The problem is that this really destroys any incentives players have to interact. Resourceless champions in particular benefited from these starts and, for champions with mana pools, we’ve actually seen that some literally do not have enough mana to burn through that much sustained HP.

On that note, we arrived at the hard limit of five health potions because this should have the least impact on standard starting builds while still targeting the high sustain problem.

Hope this gives some insight into our approach to these changes.

What about champions with a weak early game? Have they lost their viability because of this change?

 Riot Pwyff: Some champions do have a deliberately weak early game, so that’s a weakness that the team would like to bake in. For example, Nasus has a very bad laning phase because he – technically speaking – scales to infinite and beyond.

That being said, if the 1350 HP sustain start was the only thing that kept a champion from being complete rubbish, then I think attacking super sustain will expose that imbalance and will let the team address that down the line. Super sustain just has a lot of innate problems.

Shop Interface tweaked

 The end of Quinn and Val’s journey

We have the final diary entry from Quinn! At last she can return to Jarvan to… discuss her findings. Here’s a short, but sweet lore piece:

Southern Freljord

 We’re finally heading home. It’s been a long journey, and I’ll be happy to see Demacia again.

I’ve begun preparing my report for Jarvan on the state of tensions in the Freljord. I believe he’ll be surprised with the results. There is much more to the Freljord than Demacia assumed, and the threat of war is very real. Ashe has a strong vision, but not all of the Freljord’s tribes are willing to unify under her leadership. Some have left her to ally with Sejuani, a warrior whose ferocity and strength are legendary in this land. I can’t prove it, but Lissandra may be a third force to consider. The Frostguard are mysterious and isolated, and they clearly have their own agenda. A united Freljord led by Sejuani or Lissandra could pose a true threat to Demacia—perhaps all of Valoran.

What happens next might be the spark that lights the fire of war. Knowing what I’ve learned, I think it’s safe to say that we will be watching.

In case you’ve missed any of the previous lore entries: 

• Journey Into The Freljord I: The Avarosan
• Journey Into The Freljord II: The Winter’s Claw
• Journey Into The Freljord III: The Troll King
• Journey Into The Freljord IV: The Frostguard
• Journey Into The Freljord V: The Ice Witch

Good luck on the Fields of Justice!

 A moment of silence for the fallen Achievements tab…

This update sees a shift in the powerlevel of Akali and Udyr, with the intention being to highlight their carry potential, not their early game pub-stomping. Also many somewhat forgotten picks such as Morgana, Nami, Nunu and Nautilus are getting a healthy decrease of mana costs and cooldowns on their abilities. And Sejuani is getting a whole bucket of changes.

Of course, the star of the show is the option for players to tailor their Recommended Items to their own liking, but first…

 Balance Changes:

      Akali

Mark of the Assassin ( Q ):

• Damage lowered to 35/55/75/95/115 from 45/70/95/120/145.
• AP ratio increased to from 0.4 to 0.55

A higher scaling to compensate for a weaker start is Riot’s answer to balance Akali during all stages of the game.

      Corki

Missile Barrage ( R )

• The Big One missile now activates after every third hit, down from every fourth.

Dark Binding ( Q )

   Nautilus 

Trundle Visual Remake

Quinn and Valor bring exciting news from their journey through the Freljord!

Shatterfrost camp, Eastern Freljord

We traveled east, putting Sejuani’s territory further behind us. For many days of the journey, I couldn’t be certain we’d find anyone or anything alive out here. The Freljord is so sparse and so empty. It’s no wonder the tribes fight for every scrap of fertile ground.

The people of the Shatterfrost, a small tribe fiercely loyal to Ashe, took us in. They offered us what spare rations they could, which wasn’t much at all. They seemed ashamed they couldn’t give more. They told me that trolls had been raiding their camps and villages, stealing supplies and murdering their hunters. While trolls are usually seen as foolish brutes who travel in small packs, these attacks seem organized. One tribesman claims that a new leader, a troll king, is rallying his kin to war.

But there’s a deeper threat, one that the people of the Shatterfrost seem afraid to speak of. Rumors of the legendary Ice Witch of Freljord have these people terrified. She has attacked travelers and small hunting bands, leaving her victims impaled on jagged shards of black ice. They say no one has ever seen her face and lived.

Eastern Freljord

We left the Shatterfrost behind us to seek more of Ashe’s eastern allies and soon found ourselves in a deep and heavy blizzard. I couldn’t see much through the snowfall. Val saw the danger ahead before I did, but I still heard the sounds of battle on the wind.

Trolls (hulking, awful brutes) sacked a small village in the distance and smashed everything they couldn’t take. I couldn’t save the tribesmen—they were already dead. I got as close as I could. One of the trolls barked orders at the others (who clumsily tried to obey). This troll leader carried a massive club that seemed to be carved from the ice itself. It glowed with power even in the dark of the growing snowstorm. Is this the Troll King?

Val snatched a banner from the wreckage – this tribe had been loyal to the Avarosan, but not a soul came to their aid. Eastern Freljord is not secure. Ashe won’t be able to call on reinforcements from these distant tribes if she needs them.

Still, the Frostguard to the north are said to be Ashe’s most powerful ally. The Frostguard have pledged since ancient times to stand watch over this land, and the name of their leader, Lissandra, is spoken in reverence throughout the Freljord. The trolls, the Winter’s Claw, and the Ice Witch—together, can Lissandra and Ashe hold them back?

Confused by the latest lore sketch? Don’t be! Morello was quick to spill the beans:

Morello: What’s this…? Is this… a troll?

What’s a troll doing in the Freljord? Are we… trolling you?

On a more serious note, some of you will probably guess that if there’s a troll and he’s wielding a club… it’s Trundle! So we wanted to give you a taste of what’s to come, namely Trundle’s relaunch and his re-imagining in the icy north.

While old Trundle certainly had a unique narrative and visual design, we always felt he was disconnected from the rest of the world. This inhibited the number of stories we could tell with Trundle and, well, we want to tell stories about him. Trundle’s upcoming changes include a gameplay update (more of a quality improvement than a rework – similar in scope to our Taric changes in 3.03), a new ice-themed aesthetic (if you couldn’t guess), and a new story that ties Trundle to the brewing conflict in the Freljord.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks, because we’ve got plans for Trundle – not to mention that Trundle has plans of his own!

You’ll have to wait to hear more, but here’s something to tide you over. As with Karma’s relaunch, anyone who owns Trundle before his relaunch will get this Traditional Trundle (has a nice ring to it) skin for free:

And here is the splash art for the new and much-improved Trundle!

Senior Character Artist Grumpy Monkey has answered some of the community’s concerns with the remake:

What’s with the goofy expression?

Grumpy Monkey: Let me clear that up, in that .gif he is doing the “troll dance” in the animations the animators distorted his face for comic effect. I assure you he doesnt look like that when he is running around (on all threes, yes he still has the trundle run ) bashing dudes with his club.

You’ve ruined his personality!

 To be fair, we don’t know exactly what kind off buff ice troll he is.

They did kind of get rid of anything and everything that made him what he was before though, and that sets kind of a scary precedent for future art reworks.

It doesn’t matter if somehow, you’re able to measure that the new Trundle is objectively better than old Trundle, it’s really weird and disconcerting that you would completely annihilate a champion’s personality and lore because a year or so later, you decide it’s not what you wanted and they didn’t sell well enough.

Grumpy Monkey: “So this is something we addressed with Karma’s relaunch and maybe we ca do better job messaging this, but there are different tiers of reworks.
There are visual upgrades like nidalee, soraka, Annie, where only art assets are changed.
Then there are reworks like twisted fate where we change the look and the lore, but gameplay is largely unaffected.

Then there are relaunches, where the character can be evolved from all aspects, lore gameplay and art. Karma was our first. Trundle is qualifying as a relaunch since his new base is different enough from his old base to warrant the “traditional” skin.”

What about his skins?

If i can intercept you for 1 second, I’d like to ask you a couple of questions 

1) Are trundle skins gonna get the “new” face/body or the “old” one? I simply love the new Trundle design, and I would like to play THAT face with my Lil’s Slugger, not the rotten old troll!

2) Are the names of his skills all gonna change to reflect his new ice-related personality? A pillar of ice is awesome, but i don’t believe his other skills are gonna relate very much with a Freljiord theme (except the terrain buff, ice would work nicely there….sliiiiiiiiiide!).

Grumpy Monkey:  We always update the skins.

And probably. I dont know the final names. You will have to wait for the final reveal for that info.

Following this frosty remake, Rioter Ranson was quick to tease us with further discoveries to be made by Quinn and Valor:

Suppose you’ve seen enough tentacles to know where this is going.

Splash Art

Model & Abilities

Model

Cell Division (Passive) – Health Chunk

Cell Division (Passive) – Revival

Stretching Strike ( Q )

Unstable Matter ( W )

Elastic Slingshot ( E )

Let’s Bounce ( R )

Special Weapon Zac will be available for your standard 975 Riot Points, probably next week.

Good luck on the Fields of Justice!

Upcoming Changes to Udyr

Monkey’s Agility ( Passive )

• Grants 5 Movement Speed instead of 4% Armor and Magic resist per stack

Tiger Stance (Q)

• Bonus damage from active proc changed from magical to physical;
• Mana cost reduced from 55/50/45/40/35  to 50/46/42/38/34

Turtle Stance (W)

• Shield value increased from 60/95/130/165/200 to 60/100/140/180/220
• No longer restores mana per hit
• Udyr can now crit while in Turtle Stance
• Mana cost reduced from 55/50/45/40/35 to 50/46/42/38/34

Bear Stance (E)

• Movement speed boost increased from 15/18/21/24/27 to 15/20/25/30/35
• Movement speed boost duration decreased from 2/2.5/3/3.5/4 to 2/2.3/2.5/2.8/3
• Mana cost reduced to 50/46/42/38/34 from 55/50/45/40/35

Phoenix Stance (R)

• Bonus damage is dealt on the first attack after activating, as well as on every third consecutive
• Mana cost reduced to 50/46/42/38/34 from 55/50/45/40/35.
• Passive AP ratio increased from 0.25 to 0.45
• Active AP ratio reduced from 0.25 to 0.2
• No longer grants bonus AD and AP

Buffs, Nerfs, what do they mean?

Udyr’s primary weakness is his lack of a gap-closer to catch squishy carries. Although his new passive doesn’t completely alleviate this issue, it will at least be of some help while chasing. So what about his stances? Here’s an overview:

Tiger Stance is now more linear in terms of countering, but on the same note it makes Udyr’s late game damage significantly higher.

Turtle Stance is being stripped of its mana-return component, something that the new and lower mana costs mostly balance out. Having a higher shield and the ability to crit are a godsend if you’ve reached the point where you have to carry your team.

Bear Stance will now be a much more effective short-distance rush mechanism, while losing out in prolonged chase scenarios.

Phoenix Stance (inb4 AP Udyrs) might encourage hybrid builds in the future; overall it’s becoming more of a burst tool than a sustained damage tool after a Tiger Stance proc.

Lower mana costs and higher movement speed at the cost of some early game power and mana-return; an interesting concoction of changes, indeed.

Udyr can dash!… wait, what?!

Currently on the PBE server, when Udyr reaches his target with Bear Stance and stuns him, he kinda leaps towards his enemy when he starts moving again. Xypherous has written a very neat explanation on this change:

Xypherous: It’s a little bit of tuning that we’ve been adding to some auto-attack enhancers where it makes sense – Garen’s ‘Q’ has a similar mechanic when opponents are running from him, for example.

Basically, while Bear Stance’s movement speed is up, Udyr will track his opponent’s movement during his autoattack. This is a similar mechanic to how Garen’s Decisive Strike works currently, in that during the autoattack animation his empowered strike, he will track his opponent’s movements.

The net result of this is that if the opponent is moving, you are mostly guaranteed to be in autoattack range after your autoattack – in contrast to the stutter attack / step that basic attacks follow. It doesn’t give Udyr any additional range or gap closing presence – but it means that if Udyr has caught up to you - he is now guaranteed to stick on you for at least one or two more autoattacks.

Following the upcoming update, Udyr’s ganks will look a lot more like this.

Buffs to Zac!

 Unstable Matter (W)

• Base damage lowered from 40/60/80/100/120 to 40/55/70/85/100
• Bonus % Maximum HP damage increased from 4/4.5/5/5.5/6 to 4/5/6/7/8%

Let’s Bounce! (R)

What do you think of the upcoming changes to Zac and Udyr? Share in the comments below!

Good luck on the Fields of Justice!