How do you like your Zac? Sunny side up or scrambled?

Artist: Kaleta

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Writer: Digiwombat

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This patch will include:

• Zac, Riot’s latest champion
• The long- anticipated Karma rework
• Numerous changes to Udyr
• The Champion Select AFK System

as well as several balance tweaks, item changes and numerous bug fixes!

New Champion: Zac, The Secret Weapon

        Zac

 (Passive) Cell Division

Each time Zac hits an enemy with an ability, he sheds a chunk of himself that can be reabsorbed to restore 4% of his maximum health.

Upon taking fatal damage, Zac splits into 4 bloblets that attempt to recombine.
If any bloblets remains after 6 seconds, he will revive with 10-50% health depending on the health of the surviving bloblets. Each bloblet has 10% of Zac’s maximum health, and 50% of his Armor and Magic Resistance. This ability has a 5 minute cooldown.

( Q ) Stretching Strike 

Smacks enemies, dealing 70/110/150/190/230 (+0.5) Magic Damage and slowing them for 20%/25/30/35/40 for 2 seconds.

Cost: 6% of current health
Cooldown: 9/8.5/8/7.5/7

( W ) Unstable Matter

Zac’s body erupts, dealing 40/60/80/100/120 Magic Damage + 4/4.5/5/5.5/6 (+.02 AP)% of the enemy’s maximum Health as Magic Damage to all nearby enemies (Max: 200 damage against minions and monsters).

Cost: 4% of current health
Cooldown: 4/4/4/4/4 seconds

 ( E ) Elastic Slingshot

Zac charges up over 1 second in the direction the ability was cast. Activating the ability again will launch him towards his target, dealing 80/130/180/230/280 (+0.7 AP) Magic Damage to all enemies hit and knocking them back for 0.5 seconds. Can be cancelled while moving.

Cost: 12% of current health
Cooldown: 24/21/18/15/12 seconds

( R ) Let’s Bounce

Zac bounces 4 times, knocking up and slowing enemies.
Each bounce deals 160/240/320 (+0.25 AP) Magic Damage to nearby enemies, knocks them up for 1 second, and slows them by 20% for 1 second. Enemies hit more than once take half damage and are not knocked up or slowed. Zac gains an accelerating movement speed buff (20-50%) while active. Zac can right-click to move while in the air.

Cost: No cost
Cooldown: 130/115/100 seconds

Balance Changes:

Karma has been relaunched with updates to her model, her kit and her story. If you would like more information, you can read more here.

Gathering Fire (Passive): Reduce’s Mantra’s cooldown every time Karma damages an enemy with one of her abilities (Half-effect for Karma’s basic-attacks).

Inner Flame (Q): Fires a blast of energy that explodes upon enemy contact, dealing magic damage and slowing all enemies in the area.

Mantra Bonus – Soulflare (R+Q): Deals additional magic damage and leaves a circle of flame at the impact area (or upon reaching maximum range), heavily slowing all enemies inside the circle. After a brief delay the circle erupts, dealing heavy magic damage to all enemies in the area.

Focused Resolve (W): Links Karma to target enemy champion, revealing them and dealing magic damage over 2 seconds. If the link is not broken, the enemy is rooted.

Mantra Bonus – Renewal (R+W): Focused Resolve deals bonus magic damage over time and heals Karma for a percent of her missing health while linked to her target.

Inspire (E): Target ally gains a shield, granting movement speed for a brief duration and absorbing damage.

Mantra Bonus – Defiance (R+E): The shield overflows with energy, dealing magic damage to all enemies around the shielded unit. Allied champions near the shielded unit gain half of that amount as a shield and are hasted.

Mantra (R): Karma empowers her next ability within 8 seconds for an additional effect.

   Hecarim

Spirit of Dread (W): 

• Cooldown increased to 22/21/20/19/18 seconds from 18/17/16/15/14

The previous version of Spirit of Dread did not offer enough opportunities for tactical decision-making. With higher cooldowns, our goal is to reintroduce strategic choices other than merely activating the ability whenever it is available.

    Rumble

The Equalizer (R)

• No longer deals initial impact damage but the area burn damage now starts immediately instead of after a 0.5 second delay
• Burn damage per second increased to 130/185/240 (+0.3 Ability Power) from 100/140/180 (+0.2 Ability Power) (total damage unchanged)

Rumble’s ultimate was intended to be an area control effect but, with the large upfront damage it deals, it tends to be used more as a long-range nuke instead. With this patch we’re adjusting The Equalizer to better match its original intent.

      Udyr

• Mana cost of all stances decreased to 47/44/41/38/35 from 55/50/45/40/35

Monkey’s Agility (Passive)

• Now grants 5 Movement Speed per stack instead of 4% bonus Armor and Magic Resistance

Turtle Stance (W)

• No longer returns mana when dealing damage
• Shield increased to 60/100/140/180/220 from 60/95/130/165/200
• Udyr can now critically strike in Turtle Stance

Bear Stance (E)

• Udyr now ignores unit collision while the movement speed bonus is active
• Udyr now performs a slight dash toward his target on stunning attacks while the movement speed is active
• Bear stance attacks can no longer be self-interrupted mid-attack
• Movement speed increased to 15/20/25/30/35% from 15/18/21/24/27%
• Movement speed duration reduced to 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3 seconds from 2/2.5/3/3.5/4

Phoenix Stance (R)

• First attack after activating Phoenix Stance now immediately procs the fire cone in addition to every 3rd attack
• No longer grants bonus Ability Power and Attack Damage when activated
• Ability Power ratio on the fire cone increased to 0.45 from 0.15
• Updated the fire cone’s spell effect to be more visible

In this patch, we’ve made some substantial changes to Udyr. Our goals were to make changing stances feel more impactful, transfer power from passive stats to actual noticeable effects and reduce problematic lane issues. For example, Turtle Stance currently allows Udyr to become an immovable object in lane once he gets ahead, and we want to address that.

Quality of Life Changes & Bug Fixes

    Akali

Twilight Shroud (W)

• Akali is now immediately stealthed/revealed upon entering/leaving the Shroud zone
• Akali is now immediately stealthed when casting Twilight Shroud directly on herself
• Akali is now revealed from stealth upon casting a spell or beginning an attack rather than upon dealing damage
• Delay on re-stealthing increased by 0.15 seconds

Akali’s Twilight Shroud was behaving inconsistently before this patch, so we’ve adjusted it to better match its visual and theme, and to provide greater opportunity for counterplay.

   Anivia

Crystalize (W):

• Fixed a bug where Crystallize could stop uninterruptible movement abilities such as Malphite’s Unstoppable Force

       Ashe

 Focus (Passive):

• Now displays the Critical Strike chance bonus on the buff bar

    Draven

Spinning Axe (Q): 

• Now leads Draven more accurately when he is benefiting from Movement Speed increases
• Axe drop location will no longer be placed partially inside walls / terrain

 Master Yi

 Double Strike (Passive):

• Double Strike swing time now scales with Master Yi’s Attack Speed instead of being fixed at 0.6 seconds
• Fixed a bug where the second strike of Double Strike could critically hit turrets

      Riven

Wind Slash (R): 

• Fixed a bug where Riven could cast Wind Slash a second time after using Zhonya’s Hourglass

   Rumble

Electro-Harpoon (E):

• Fixed a bug where the visual effect would disappear before the actual end of the projectile

    Trundle

Pillar of Filth (E)

•  Fixed a bug where Pillar of Filth could stop uninterruptible movement abilities such as Malphite’s Unstoppable Force

   Warwick

Hunter’s Call (W)

• Now displays range indicator on mouseover

Blood Scent (E)

• Now displays range indicator on minimap on mouseover

         Zed

Living Shadow (W)

• Fixed a bug where Living Shadow would sometimes cast in a random direction

Items

Nashor’s Tooth 

• Combine cost increased to 430 gold from 200 (total cost increased to 2500 gold from 2270)

Spirit of the Elder Lizard

• UNIQUE Passive damage reduced to 6-40 over 3 seconds from 14-50

Maw of Malmortius

• Fixed a bug where the Lifeline shield was lasting for 3 seconds instead of 5

Champion Select AFK Detection

• When any player in a match-made game fails to select a champion before their timer expires, the game is terminated.
• A player who fails to select a champion is given a queue dodge penalty. The dodge penalty functions exactly the same as if the player closed their PVP.net client.
• Solo players who succeed in selecting a champion are returned to the front of the matchmaking queue.
• Arranged teams whose members all succeed in selecting a champion are returned to the front of the matchmaking queue.
• Arranged teams with one or more members who fail to select a champion are returned to the arranged team lobby.
• Draft mode is handled on a pick-by-pick basis. If a player fails to pick a champion during their turn, the game is terminated immediately. Players later in the draft order, who did not have an opportunity to pick a champion, are given the benefit of the doubt and not assigned a dodge penalty.
• This feature currently only applies to match made games. Custom games still assign a random champion if one is not selected.

General

• Turrets

In Season 3, we made a few changes that made turrets feel less like a safe haven for defenders – especially in the early parts of the game. Specifically, with turrets attacking minions in a set order and some champions itemizing for health earlier on, it’s become easier for teams to push aggressively and even dive turrets with low risk. These changes should give defending players more of a fighting chance when under their own turret.

• Turrets now deal 105% damage to champions for the first attack, increased from 94.5%
• Turrets now deal 25% additional damage for consecutive attacks on the same champion (max 225%), increased from 20% (max 210%)

• Siege Minions

• Siege Minions now take 70% damage from Turrets, increased from 50% damage
• Siege Minions now deal 150% damage to Turrets, reduced from 200% damage

• Super Minions

• Super Minions now take 70% damage from Turrets, increased from 50% damage

• Teleport

We are fixing a bug with Teleport where its visual effect would disappear if cast on an expiring temporary unit. Teleport should always be visible to opponents who have vision of the area, much like how casting it on a non-revealed ward still displays a visual effect.

• Fixed a bug where Teleport’s “incoming” visual effect on the target unit would disappear if cast on an expiring temporary unit, such as Jarvan’s Standard or Thresh’s Lantern

• Fixed a bug where new players could not be invited to Matchmaking lobbies after teammates miss a ready check
• Smart casting with charge-up abilities should be more responsive now

The highlight of this patch is definitely the Zac release, followed by Karma’s rework and the changes to Udyr. If you’d like to read more on these updates, please follow the links below.

Zac preview article

Karma’s Rework article

PBE: Udyr changes article

Have any gripes or praises for the new patch? Share below!

Good luck on the Fields of Justice!

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!

 

Splash Art

 Abilities

 (Passive ) Cell Division - Each time Zac hits an enemy with an ability, he sheds a chunk of himself that can be reabsorbed to restore 4% of his maximum health.

Upon taking fatal damage, Zac splits into 4 bloblets that attempt to recombine.
If any bloblets remains after 6 seconds, he will revive with 10-50% health depending on the health of the surviving bloblets. Each bloblet has 10% of Zac’s maximum health, and 50% of his Armor and Magic Resistance. This ability has a 5 minute cooldown.

• When Zac uses an ability, a green blob drops on the ground, much like Thresh’s souls, after which he can walk over it to regain some of your health. This doesn’t have a cooldown.
• The healing blobs fall randomly around Zac’s current position, like Draven’s Spinning Axes.
• When Zac dies, four green blobs drop on the ground in a cross-position relative to his corpse. Then they start crawling towards his death-spot. If they are not killed by the time they reach it, Zac revives.
• Much like Anivia’s Egg or Karthus’s passive, Zac’s death is only announced once the blobs have been dealt with.
• Dying near neutral minions will reset their aggro, meaning they will not target the smaller blobs.
• The person receiving the kill is the one who killed Zac himself, not his blobs. (this may not be intentional)

( Q ) Stretching Strike - Smacks enemies, dealing 70/110/150/190/230 (+0.5) Magic Damage and slowing them for 20%/25/30/35/40 for 2 seconds.

Cost: 6% of current health
Cooldown: 9/8.5/8/7.5/7

• The actual hitbox seems a bit longer than what’s shown without smartcast.
• The ability passes through minions.

( W ) Unstable Matter - Zac’s body erupts, dealing 40/60/80/100/120 Magic Damage +4/4.5/5/5.5/6 (+.02 AP)% of the enemy’s maximum Health as Magic Damage to all nearby enemies (Max: 200 damage against minions and monsters).

Cost: 4% of current health
Cooldown: 4/4/4/4/4 seconds

 ( E ) Elastic Slingshot - Zac charges up over 1 second in the direction the ability was cast. Activating the ability again will launch him towards his target, dealing 80/130/180/230/280 (+0.7 AP) Magic Damage to all enemies hit and knocking them back for 0.5 seconds. Can be cancelled while moving.

Cost: 12% of current health
Cooldown: 24/21/18/15/12 seconds

• The ability roots Zac in place for its duration.
• The longer the spell is charged, the farther Zac will be able to jump.
• Ability can be interrupted mid-air.
• The knockback direction depends on where Zac lands in relation to his target, much like Orianna’s ultimate.

( R ) Let’s Bounce - Zac bounces 4 times, knocking up and slowing enemies.
Each bounce deals 160/240/320 (+0.25 AP) Magic Damage to nearby enemies, knocks them up for 1 second, and slows them by 20% for 1 second. Enemies hit more than once take half damage and are not knocked up or slowed. Zac gains an accelerating movement speed buff (20-50%) while active. Zac can right-click to move while in the air.

Cost: No cost
Cooldown: 130/115/100 seconds

• While using your ultimate, you cannot control when you’ll fall down on the ground, only where.
• Zac gains speed for every second he’s using “Let’s Bounce”, like Wukong’s ultimate.
•  Unlike Fiora’s ultimate, Zac can be targeted while bouncing around.

Model

(Passive ) Cell Division – Upon Death

(Passive ) Cell Division – Revival

( Q ) Stretching Strike Skillshot

( Q ) Stretching Strike – Activation

( Q ) Stretching Strike Ending Animation

( W ) Unstable Matter – Activation

( W ) Unstable Matter – Explosion

( W ) Unstable Matter – Ending Animation

( E ) Elastic Slingshot – Skillshot

( E ) Elastic Slingshot – Activation

( E ) Elastic Slingshot – Landing

( R ) Let’s Bounce – Bounce Up

( R ) Let’s Bounce – Bounce Down

Recommended Items

Personal Thoughts on Zac’s potential

Zac is definitely an amazing jungler with lots of AoE and ganking potential. His Elastic Slingshot may feel a little underwhelming at first, with the chargeup and all, but the actual hitbox is pretty massive. He has a plethora of hard and soft CC, which is sure to make him a high threat in the jungle.

Now for top lane, I’m a bit suspicious. On the one hand his two primary damage dealing skills are on a very low cooldown – couple that with his passive and you have a champion that can trade quite efficiently. However, his spells are actually rather expensive, meaning you’re burning a lot of health while the enemy has only mana to worry about. In that sense, it is more restrictive than simply having mana. I believe he works better in gank scenarios, as his damage isn’t exactly mind-blowing.

What I’d like to explore further is his potential on mid. Due to his Q going through minions, Zac actually has a somewhat potent poke tool. His wave clearing is top-notch and he definitely has the strengths to be a top – tier roamer. Although his sustain only shines when he’s low on life, he can still outlast mids with his health resource mechanic. Like I said, his spells take a heavy toll on his HP pool, so he definitely won’t be an optimal pick against nukers. He is, however, a worthy opponent of the more passive farmers. This is just a concept of mine and likely one that won’t see much popularity, but it’s worth experimenting with.

If you wish to bounce around with the new champion, he’s available on the PBE for testing right now! Otherwise he most likely will be available come next week, on Thursday, for 975 RP or 7800 IP, which will later be reduced to 6300.

Good luck on the Fields of Justice!

Riot are not being stingy with the news today! ZAC’s skills just got spilled.

Passive:

Cell Division: When any of Zac’s abilities hit an enemy, a piece of him falls to the ground. Zac can pick up fallen pieces to recover health. When Zac dies he splits into four blobs. These fragments will attempt to reform over a short duration. If any survive, Zac revives with a percentage of his maximum health based on the number of remaining blobs.

Q:

Stretching Strike: Zac throws a two-handed punch that deals damage and slows targets in a line.

W:

Unstable Matter: Zac’s body explodes outward, dealing flat damage to surrounding enemies. Enemies struck also take damage based on their maximum health.

E:

Elastic Slingshot: Zac is immobilized as he charges up a dash toward the target location. The range of Elastic Slingshot increases up to a cap as Zac charges the ability. Zac then fires himself towards the target location, damaging and stunning all nearby enemies upon landing.

R:

Let’s Bounce: Zac bounces into the air, immediately knocking up, slowing and damaging nearby enemies. Once airborne, he bounces three times, dealing damage with each impact.

ZAC looks like he might well be the most fun champion to come out this year! You can read all the other details, including role tips, over here

Laboratory Security Breach – Development Log 003

Zaun Morphous Combatant (his name is ZAC) exhibits strong emotional response to captivity: alternates between non-responsiveness and extreme agitation. Project leads have requested time for specimen outside growth chamber. Request denied.

He just wants to be FREE

Incident recorded in which test subject generated sufficient kinetic force to surpass safety tolerances of the growth chamber. Structural reinforcement under ???

If we don’t get him out of there, he’s going to hurt himself

Force Authorization

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY

Growth chamber breached. Test subject and project leads currently missing.

Project placed on hiatus. Cost of generating a new specimen considered prohibitive. Current priority is locating specimen and concluding experimental trials. All personnel have been reassigned, effective immediately.

Revenue loss from project (estimated?) to be significant. Reacquire leads (on experiment?) and specimen at any cost. Use of (deadly) force is authorized.

 Community Feedback

Naturally, ZAC’s reveal caused a bit of stir, which Rioters were quick to respond to:

I’ll be honest, I was kind of hoping for a half-blob creature that was almost a slime pile with limbs extended out all over. I’m happy this isn’t super cute ZAC, but I’ll wait to see in-game/splash.

subninja: Oh don’t worry, you’ll be seeing quite a few splashes with Zac.

Something tells me this humanoid model will be more amorphous than people realize. He’s either going to begin amorphous and eventually evolve into the humanoid form, OR he’s going to break his humanoid form during his abilities to stretch limbs, or even his whole body. I highly doubt it’s going to be as simple as watching a blobman running around smacking things with his bare hands.

Morello: Exactly. If he’s a blob-man, he needs to do blob-man things.

You guys will be pleased with this

 

Please make me happy, Morello; I got really excited just to be let down. I really enjoy your non-humanoid champions and it was disappointing to see this for several reasons.

A- Design doesn’t seem too clever from this first appearance. Sorry, but it is just a jelly man. I hope your final product has been altered, or he doesn’t always look like this in the model. But, well, everyone has different taste in design..
B- The story you showed us doesn’t match up with this whatsoever. He likes candy. He has ‘parents’. Don’t you think he should be more adorable and less evil like the other champions you have (besides yordles, because obviously a yordle /has/ to be cute in Riot’s terms)? We have a lot of evil champions.
C- The four images to his left just give off a ‘I’m angry and I will get revenge’ vibe. Please don’t make revenge the central point to his lore. I’d be more impressed and inspired if I saw otherwise from you all. It is just very overdone by several other artists already.

This is just my two cents. I’m getting ZAC regardless, because I adore Zaun Lab Bot and all of the spoilers you have given us. I know Riot is smart enough to make this an appealing champion. But I’m just a bit dumbfounded by this last picture is all.

Morello: There’s more than meets the eye. Can’t have a juxtaposition without an original position.

Think about Annie. If she were an adult, shed’ be a bit lame. If she were a kid that was sweet, she’d be too expected. The Juxtaposition between little girl and pyromaniac make Annie much more cool overall – dramatic irony to a big extent.

subninja: Yeah “more than meets the eye” is appropriate here. This guy looks pretty innocuous when he’s standing still, but in game, he can do a lot of really cool things. We pulled from quite a few different blob-like tropes when figuring out his abilities. I think you’ll dig it.

And in terms of personality, even though he may look like a big scary monster man, he might not be such a bad guy on the inside…

Is he similar to Cho?

subninja: A bit, but that’s more flavor than core to his kit.

I was kind of hoping for the adorable little blob in the second image Zaun Lab Bot gave us.

He still looks good though, just not as cute. ^.^

subninja: There still is one part of his kit that’s kinda adorable.

Ransom: I personally predict incoming plushies.

Fear not!

One thing that the community agrees on is that ZAC should be different from the typical “escaped lab experiment” stereotype. Seeking revenge or being a big bad monster doesn’t quite cut it in terms of originality. But, according to Riot, there really is more to our blob friend than meets the eye. They mention the possibility of him transforming into other… less menacing shapes, as well as an intricate back-story to his arrival and purpose.

So ZAC may yet be a cute blob creature in one of his forms! Although we’re still not aware of his abilities, Rioters have teased numerous skills that Zaun’s experiment may possess. One thing we’re certain of – he’ll be changing shapes quite often! Hopefully the League’s newest champion will deliver on its enormous hype!

If you haven’t caught up yet on the whole train of teasers, here’s a quick recap:

Development Log 001

Development Log 002

Development Log 003

Development Log 004

News of Legends Preview with Thoughts

Stay tuned for more exciting news regarding ZAC!