Important:.Unofficial PBE Patch Notes for 6/17/2013
Important:.Woad King Darius Available Now
Important:.Free Champion Rotation

Hotfix Tonight - Name Cleanup Delayed One Day

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

2AM on 6/19 is the scheduled time.

We are delaying the name cleanse for NA by one day and shifting the date to Wednesday, 6/19, at 2am PDT. We are rolling out 3 hotfixes tonight for NA, and other regions. To be safe, we are not going to do all of these things at once, and that is why we are pushing the name cleanse to Wednesday.

Here is a list of the fixes we are pushing out tonight:

1. Nashor's Tooth crashing the game when using smart cast
2. Spells cancelled by going out of range are still going on cool down
3. Various localization fixes

Kassadin/Dominion Changes on PBE by Friday

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

RCIX, you've been nothing but negative despite all my best efforts. If you have nothing constructive to post, stop posting.

Changes will hopefully be on PBE by Friday.

Woad King Darius Available Now

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

Woad King Darius leads his people by the might of his axe, imposing his will and cleaving those who dare cross him. The war-painted Woad King charges into the fray bearing the storied symbols of his power. His ascent to the throne began when he single-handedly slew the beast whose head now adorns his battle armor. The axe, armor and face-paint are rounded out by new particle effects and a unique recall animation.

Woad King Darius is available now for 975 RP.

This week's free champion rotation has been posted. These champions will become free to play starting tomorrow June 18th

IronStylus on Nidalee's Splash Art

Originally Posted by Riot (View Reddit Source)

This is something I just spoke to the splash team about yesterday. RiotTeaTime is helping to re-prioritize Nidalee's splashes amongst the other splash reworks we're doing. Splash has done a crazy amount of catching up recently and the pipeline is stabilizing. We're taking some time to do our due diligence in finding what splashes hold the most player value in terms of reworked splashes. Nidalee's have been deemed as a high priority.

In the recent past, we've generally tried to up the quality of splashes across the board, as you may have noticed. However, it hasn't necessarily been completely synced up to what Relaunch team has planned or is doing. Therefore, we might get new splashes for characters which might get changed fairly soon(tm) in terms of VU. Now we're de-slotting some splashes where we know we're going to have a relaunch, as to have the work on a new splash coincide with any new Relaunch VU.

So, stuff is going to get fixed :)

Massive Update on Xerath

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

So what's happening with Xerath?

• Basic VFX direction is solid
• Design direction is complete
• Ability design is basically locked in
• Balancing phase is starting

We almost cut the auto-attack replacer, but after several playtests where playtesters insisted it was the most fun thing on his kit, we decided to keep it.

What is Xerath now?

Q)

Xerath's Q is still a line-nuke which instantly deals damage along the entire length.

W)

Live Xerath only has 2 spells with an obvious flow. E->Q. W->Q. Then his ultimate combo E - R - Q - R - R. To resolve this, we "split" Locus of Power's play pattern into two parts.

• The W -> Q poke combo has been baked into "Q". Arcanopulse (Q) can be charged, charging the attack takes slightly longer than W-Q, but you can move while charging.
• The W -> R total annihilation combo has been moved into the new "R". Read down to see more.

New W)

We've given Xerath a new basic spell, name TBD, which works like 1 pulse of Arcane Barrage with a mild slow on a short cooldown. However, it has a "bullseye" effect in the center which deals bonus damage.

E)

The new "E" has all of the old range W gave to Mage Chains baked in baseline, plus its now a skillshot missile that stuns, making Xerath's targeting paradigms line up smoothly.

R)

During the new Locus of Power, you are immobilized and your spells are free, but you drain mana over time. You can remain in R as long as your mana lasts. Your spell ranges increase dramatically.

Instead of 3 huge pulses, you have a very large number of smaller attacks that bombard the target location with aoe explosions. R has a reasonable, but high cooldown.

Passive

Xerath's passive provides early game mana regen, plus bonus spell penetration as he purchases mana items. This gives him early game sustain, allowing him to farm into a large-game mage hypercarry if left unchecked.

Problem we've run into and their solutions:

1. Major Mindshare during ultimate is insane
2. Major 3000 range with nearly unlimited duration is overwhelming.
3. Major Xerath is regularly unaware when he is under attack in locus.
4. Minor Xerath E isn't reading naturally as a stun.
5. Minor Xerath ultimate auto-attack replacer was impossible to land.

1) Mindshare

Old Xerath has 2 spells, plus a bursty moment when R was up. New Xerath (Xerath 2.0) has enough spells to keep him busy. So much so that during his ultimate, getting a free 5th spell has proven almost overwhelming.

One option was to cut the auto-attack replacer completely, but it was so consistently positively reviewed that we instead decided to make it cost additional mana during Locus of Power. This means that casting your spells is your primary task, but if you need to finish someone off, you can drain your mana pool to fire a rapid sequence of small attacks to finish them off.

2) 3000 range with unlimited duration is overwhelming.

When we made Xerath's R duration limited by his mana pool, it meant that the length of time he could remain in Locus was much, much higher, based on build. So to counter it, we are allowing Xerath to be knocked out of locus of power when stunned.

During Locus of Power, Xerath is immune to knockups/knockbacks and pulls. However, they will cause him to be stunned briefly and end Locus of Power. This gives enemy teams a strong objective. Get to Xerath and stop his ultimate!

His max rank range has been slightly reduced so that seeing Xerath attack you means you can reasonably reach him.

3) When Xerath is under attack during R, he doesn't notice.

We're hoping that by allowing opponents to stop locus, it makes the moments where you need to turn and fight the guy attacking you more clear.

4) Xerath E isn't reading as a stun.

We're going to make the new effect more lightning "shocky" feel and perhaps steal some visual queues from Syndra.

5) Xerath's R is too hard to hit.

As an auto-attack replacement, Xerath's R attack was too hard to consistently time and land. We've since removed the effect from his auto-attack timing. Instead, during Locus of Power (R), he cannot auto-attack, but his right and left clicks will trigger a missile under his cursor every 0.5 seconds.

These attacks can be queued up by dragging your cursor across the screen while holding down right click.

tl;dr

I'm feeling *very* positive about this direction. His R feels like the same "blow up the world" feel, but less toxic and frustrating than his old R. It brings area domination on a good cooldown. His new "W" gives him a fun core experience without his ultimate. His new passive, while needing good tuning, makes him feel like the same strong late-game character.

Important: 6/14/2013 Context Post - PBE for Patch 3.09 [Update on Oracle Elixir, make sure to check at bottom again]
Important: Unofficial PBE Patch Notes for 6/14/2013 - League of Draven
Importamt: Ghost Bride Morgana Available Now

Xypherous on the Buff/Nerf Cycle

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

Power creep comes from a wide variety of sources - some of which are unrelated to champions nerfs or buffs.

For example, let's say we made 5 exact copies of Amumu. This is a form of power creep due to the fact that what once was restrained in terms of power due to limited availability is now widely available - AoE CC, as a whole, is a lot more powerful because now a chain case exists where it didn't before. A more recent example would be Thresh - who has enabled a lot of other characters to do more powerful actions. The existence of Thresh grants other characters access to powers that were limited or had to be champion specific before.

The power level of support characters and their direct impact on other characters also shifts the power level of the game - Lulu as a mainstream support radically increases the power level of most Fighters in the game due to her synergies with them.

You can also point to the gold income streams of the game - there is, on average, much more gold available in the game than there has been historically. This is a form of power creep as every champion scales with gold to a certain degree.

Other forms of power creep comes in the availability of items that can augment your strengths or mitigate your weaknesses. Liandry's Torment, for example, vastly increases the power of damage over time champions or control champions. Boot enchantments have increased the mobility potential of various champions.

Getting down to the meat of the issue though, is that generally, most people feel nerfs a lot harder than they appreciate buffs. Nerfs to your characters are a direct hit to your power level and your impact as a player. Buffs to other characters are also a direct hit to your power level and your impact as a player. Only buffs to your character makes you feel stronger - and thus it's very easy to feel like everything you care about continuously gets nerfed - even as the power level of the game rises above you.

6/14/2013 Context Post - PBE for Patch 3.09

Here is Riot going over every change we posted about yesterday, and a few more!

[New information about Oracle Elixir posted at the bottom!]

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

Hey Summoners,

As you know, we use the PBE servers as a testing ground for a lot of our experimental changes, but we’ve run into situations where sometimes a change requires a bit more nuance to understand. As a result, we’ll be driving these PBE context posts when we can offer some more context.

Also note that these changes are tentative, like anything else on the PBE, so they are all very subject to change.

Brand
Pillar of Flame

• Mana cost reduced at later ranks from 70/80/90/100/110
• Delay normalized from 0.5s ~ 0.75s

Conflagation

• Mana cost increased from 60/65/70/75/80

Pyroclasm

• Mana cost reduced at later ranks from 100/150/200

Draven
We wanted to lower Draven’s high early game damage output from his passive, as it was not adding much in terms of real gameplay. Unfortunately, to get the numbers right we realized we would need to reduce his passive damage to a point where it would be even more unsatisfying. We instead opted to rework Draven’s passive into something that reinforces his current gameplay and can be appreciated by both him and his opponents. Welcome to the League of Draven.
League of Draven (New Passive)

• Draven gains a stack of Adoration when he catches a Spinning Axe or kills a minion or monster. When Draven kills an enemy champion, he cashes in half of his Adoration stacks, gaining gold per stack consumed. Draven loses up to a certain amount of stacks of Adoration upon death.

Elise
Spider Form / Human Form

• No longer counts as a spellcast for the purposes of items like Tears of the Goddess, Sheen, etc.

Jayce
Transform: Mercury Hammer / Mercury Cannon

• No longer counts as a spellcast for the purposes of items like Tears of the Goddess, Sheen, etc.

Kennen
We’ve tuned down some of Kennen’s early game lane harass, especially given how much teamfight potential he has.

• Base Attack Damage at level 1 reduced from 54.6
• Attack Damage gained per level increased from 3.3

Mark of the Storm

• Mark duration reduced from 8 seconds

Leblanc
Leblanc's Mimic was less a decision point and more of a tool to one-shot someone with Sigil of Silence. These changes are aimed at improving the patterns and decisions around using Mimic. Our most obvious adjustment is the fact that mimicked abilities will now deal their own base damage instead of amplifying the base spell. This means players will be able to use Mimic in more creative ways at level 6, rather than holding it for Sigil of Silence. Additionally, Sigil of Silence will now deal less damage up front but more damage on detonation in order to better promote LeBlanc’s multi-skill interaction.
Mirror Image

• The Mirror Image will now attempt to run instead of standing still

Sigil of Silence

• Mana Cost reduced from 70/75/80/85/90
• Impact Damage decreased from 70/110/150/190/230
• Impact AP Ratio decreased from 0.6
• Mark Damage increased from 20/40/60/80/100
• Mark AP Ratio increased from 0.3
• Silence duration reduced from 2 seconds

Distortion

• Cooldown now starts on cast rather than after returning to your Distortion

Ethereal Chains

• Slow duration (and time until root) reduced from 2 seconds
• Root duration standardized across all ranks from 1/1.3/1.6/1.9/2.2
• Cooldown increased at earlier ranks from 10/10/10/10/10

Mimic

• Mana Cost decreased at early levels
• All mimicked abilities now deal their own base damage instead of amplifying the base spell. In all cases, the mimicked spell will deal higher damage than the base spell (due to higher base damage or higher AP ratios).

Leona
Solar Flare

• Delay normalized from 0.5s~0.75s

Nidalee
Aspect of the Cougar

• No longer counts as a spellcast for the purposes of items like Tears of the Goddess, Sheen, etc.

Shyvana
We’re repositioning Flame Breath as a core tool for objective control and faster jungle clear while also emphasizing its use as a “burn down” ability to be followed up with auto attacks against more tanky fighters. We’ve also increased Shyvana’s Fury gain at higher levels of Dragon’s Descent to help her engage in team fights more consistently at late game. Lastly, we’ve moved Shyvana’s old passive effects to the actual ability tooltips to help centralize information.
Fury of the Dragonborn

• Remade. All Fury of the Dragonborn effects are now located on the ability tooltip rather than the passive.

*NEW PASSIVE*: Dragonborn

• Gains bonus Armor and Magic resistance. This bonus is increased per level. These bonuses are doubled in Dragon Form.

Flame Breath

• No longer reduces Armor by 15%
• Now passes through all units hit instead of stopping at the first
• Debuff duration increased from 4 seconds
• Damage decreased at higher levels from 80/125/170/215/260
• On-hit magic damage to debuffed targets changed to a % of the target's Maximum Health from 15% of Flame Breath's damage.

Dragon's Descent

• Passive Armor/Magic Resistance component removed
• Fury Gain per hit increased at later ranks from 2/2/2
• Passive Fury Gain increased at later ranks from 1/1/1 per 1.5 seconds

Swain
Nevermove

• Delay normalized from 0.75s~1s

Veigar
Dark Matter

• Delay normalized from 1.2s~1.5s

Ziggs
We wanted to make it easier and more rewarding for Ziggs to use Satchel Charge offensively, whether he’s detonating it immediately or leaving it down on the battlefield to zone. We also wanted to make Satchel Charge noticeably easier to use for players with a moderate or higher amount of latency.
Satchel Charge

• Can now be reactivated while in flight, causing the Satchel Charge to detonate on landing
• Missile speed increased from 1600
• Increased knockback distance from 350
• Cooldown now starts when spell is cast, not when Satchel Charge detonates

Items
Wards
We’ve changed the reward structure for killing wards to alleviate the gold pressure that can accumulate on supports as they push for vision dominance around key locations. With Oracle’s Elixir already on a timed duration, no longer making it expire on death means players can be more aggressive with oracles, rather than passively clearing warded areas they know to be safe. We want the focus of Oracle’s Elixir to be more of an opportunity cost rather than a safety liability for the Oracle user.

• Vision and Sight Ward are now worth slightly more gold, up from 25
• Wriggle's Lantern Ward is now worth slightly more gold, up from 15
• Reward structure for killing wards has been changed to the following:
  The killer of the ward gains 50% of the ward's base gold value
  Nearby allied champions with Oracle Elixir or allied champions that have placed Vision Wards nearby split 50% of the ward's base gold value

Oracle’s Elixir

• No longer expires on death

• Sightstone and Ruby Sightstone now display the number of placed Ghost Wards in their inventory tooltips

Tear of the Goddess
We feel like players were able to build tear items up too quickly, especially in the case of Manamune with its fairly cheap cost.

• Mana gain per spell cast or Mana expenditure reduced to 3 from 4

Manamune

• Mana gain per basic attack, spell cast, or Mana expenditure reduced to 3 from 4

Black Cleaver
Previously, characters like Jarvan who applied multiple physical damage sources on a single attack could apply multiple stacks of Black Cleaver's shred. We're cleaning up the item to make it more understandable. Character's like Shyvana or Renekton that apply more than one basic attack at the same time will still stack up multiple shreds as normal.

• Can no longer apply more than one stack of Armor Shred per basic attack.

Maw of Malmortius
We’ve made Maw of Malmortius’ passive bonus easier to understand at a glance. Now Maw will grant its maximum AD when the shield procs, so players will know exactly when they’re at their peak power.

• Now grants 60 Attack Damage up from 55
• Now grants 40 Magic Resistance up from 36
• Passive now grants 1 Attack Damage for every 2% Health you are missing, up from 2.5%
• Passive now capped at 35 Attack Damage, down from 40

---------------------
UPDATE
---------------------
Just updated the Oracle elixir stuff with the secondary set of changes

Oracle Elixir
* Now persists through death
* Reveal Radius reduced to 600 from 750
* Duration reduced to 4 minutes from 5 minutes
* Now has a particle denoting the radius of effect

We are aware that making Oracle's elixir persist through death decreases the risk involved in the item and reduces the overall skill in using Oracle's.

The question is whether or not the skill involved in using Oracle's is the right skill we want to encourage for the game - the answer right now seems to be no: It promotes camping the Oracle's wielder and oracle users not participating in team fights. It also funnels the responsibility of Oracles only in champions that either cannot die or do not fight.

We also wanted to stop the snowball factor from influencing Oracle's as much because frequently Oracle's is only an option for champions who were not at risk of dying - something that is much more likely for the winning team than the losing team. While the counterplay to the current Oracle's is clear - it is not actually doable in most settings when Oracle Elixir is in play - we want the decision points around Oracle to be 'How do I use this effectively? When do I use this?' rather than 'Man - How can I avoid participating in anything that might murder me for the next 4 minutes?'

Note: I just put in these changes now, so they won't be reflected on the PBE build over the weekend - but will happen with the next PBE build.

Ghost Bride Morgana Available Now

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

 

The beautiful terror of Ghost Bride Morgana haunts the battlefield. Inspired by the tale of La Llorona that's told across Latin America, she's the territory's launch skin. New particles lend her attacks a spectral quality, chaining her foes to the ground before sending them from this world to the next. When she heads back to base with the spoils of battle, her horrifying new recall animation gives voice to the Ghost Bride's lament.

Ghost Bride Morgana is available now for 975 RP.

 Important: Aatrox Login Screen and Music

Update to 6/13 PBE Patch - More on LeBlanc Changes

First if you missed today's PBE patch, you can find it here. Keep in mind, as it says at the top, the following patch is ONLY on the air client (and there was no game client patch). This means not all ratios show (hints why it only has a + for the number). However Roku was kind enough to fill in the gaps, as well as give some background info on this change.

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

Am I flat out wrong? An idiot? A genius? Are you scared? Excited? Felt like crunching the numbers to a greater degree than I did? By all means, comment and give some feedback! If a Red would like to offer his insight on these changes, that would be much appreciated as well (*cough*Morellogetoverhere*cough*)

Hey Age of Oblivion, I can comment a little bit!

As a reminder, these are on PBE, subject to change and still tuning. Also, the posted changelist doesn't encompass the full set of changes. A couple not listed:

- Distortion's cooldown now starts on cast rather than when you return
- Sigil of Silence's mark detonation has its own AP ratio, which was increased to match the damage as well (to .5 from .3)

Overall, the changes intend to increase Leblanc's versatility (make her less binary, more viable throughout the game rather than just in the first 20 mins), reduce the frustration that Leblanc puts on her opponent, and encourage her to make slippery and opportunistic plays. Distortion should be a core decision point in how you land your other abilities, how much risk you're taking, or how much risk you're averting.

Putting the damage more on the detonation of Sigil of Silence encourages you to use your other abilities (which have more gameplay within them) to gain an advantage, rather than just spamming a targeted spell.

As for the CC nerfs, Leblanc doesn't need long duration CC in order to accomplish her goals. Shortening these reduces some of the frustration opponents experience and potentially allows the opponent to respond after Leblanc's 'turn' is over. This allows us to encourage the damage and mobility aspects of her instead.

so what about her passive? its almost close to useless

The changes I talked about before (making it move rather than just stand still) have tested really well. There are a few of these 'under the hood' changes in testing that won't quite be noticeable until she's on PBE and people play with her.

Aatrox, the Darkin Blade, now available

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

Aatrox, the Darkin Blade has arrived on the battlefield, leaving only desolation in his wake.

Justicar Aatrox bundle available

Aatrox haunts the annals of Valoran's military history, appearing only when a war reaches its most critical point. Across the continent, records show this mysterious being interceding on either side to disastrous effect. Aatrox's Justicar skin reimagines the Darkin Blade through the eyes of the faction he saved.

Turn the tide with Aatrox and his Justicar skin for 1462 RP (normally 1950 RP) through the end of the weekend.

 

Learn more about Aatrox in these features:

• Aatrox, The Darkin Blade revealed
• Champion Spotlight: Aatrox, the Darkin Blade

Name Cleansing Update: Downtime scheduled for early AM 6/18

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

Hi everyone,

We had an issue during the downtime where our cleansing script reported success on North America, although the script didn't actually cleanse the names.

Because this cleanse script requires a downtime, we'll be running the name cleanse in its own separate downtime on Tuesday morning early AM on June 18th.

We know that we've really dropped the ball on this one; we are going to be investigating some alternate solutions to these mass cleanses to make it easier for active players claim desirable names. There isn't any timeline for these changes, but we'll share more info once we are closer to a sustainable solution.

The name sale will stay active until 6/25 at 11:59PM PST.

As always, thanks for your patience.

-Udyr

Meddler on Tear Mechanics Change - Not in 3.8

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

sorry. I should've been more specific. He was talking specifically about SR. He said something along the line of 'tear won't charge with form changes (re: jayce). Anyone confirm?

It's something we're testing internally, it's not part of 3.8 (the current live patch) though.

Morello on Fiora

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

We don't have specific plans right now, but only due to workload. Some of our work on Yi will likely inform our work on Fiora (plus I still want something sexy for Riposte), but it's not our top priority currently.

Fair enough. Not that I'm necessarily qualified for ideas behind adjusting her, but I do have suggestions if you're interested.

A lot of it really is about Melee ADC qualities overall, which is a hard conversation to have as its little to do with her current stuff and more to do with "how do we make this work"?

She'd have the same skills, but power budget would be modified. Again, I do want to make Riposte way better.

It's not that she's bad, she just has a very small niche right now due to the meta and her high skill floor.

Yep. It's more noise tan truth that Fiora's bad. If you're sub-plat, play Fiora and win all you'd like.

This is more about improving the character, not buffing it. There's different levels of depth to the work and design for those.

Hoping the Heimerdinger rework is a top priority now, would be great to finally have him usable again!

As far as design-driven total reworks, yes he is.

Important: Patch 3.8 Official Patch Notes
Important: Free Champion Rotation

Morello on Rengar

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

They are not - we're testing them for balance currently, but it was definitely not balanced before 3.8 was locked

Could you at least buff his stats a little bit. *COUGH*HEALTH REGEN*COUGH*.
So the wait isn't as painful....

Sorry, no. We want to fix the problem, not just make Rengar strong.

RiotAether on Ashe's 3.8 Passive

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

Instead of building up increasing amounts of bonus crit chance, Focus now 'charges up' to a guaranteed crit. On their own, Focus stacks do absolutely nothing, but they can't be wasted the way live Ashe can burn, say, 20 stacks but not get a crit. If Ashe engages while Focus is charging, it just freezes until she leaves the skirmish.

The other big change is that when consumed, Focus won't reset to 0; it'll reset to whatever Ashe's Critical Strike Chance is. With the 55% Crit Chance from Infinity Edge and Phantom Dancer, for example, Focus will reset to 55, meaning it only needs 45 more stacks for the next guaranteed crit. Late-game at 6 Focus per second this means she'll have a guaranteed crit after 11 seconds, or as a more delicious scenario, after four shorter breaks between poking.

::edit:: It looks like there might be something happening during the 3-second pause, invalidating the exact numbers I mentioned above. I'll let someone on the PBE confirm or deny this. Just watch for the precise value of Ashe's starting Focus after a guaranteed crit.

Patch 3.8 Official Patch Notes

Riot Pwyff also had this to say - "While the patch notes and patch preview are up for your viewing today, we will not be officially deploying the patch until later this week. Thanks for your patience!"

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

Champions

Aatrox

Aatrox, the Darkin Blade is in this build but will be turned on at a later date.

---

Annie

We've made some changes to Tibbers to make him a tankier and more threatening presence in late game team fights beyond his initial burst damage.

Summon: Tibbers

• Tibbers' Health increased to 1200/2100/3000 from 1200/1600/2000
• Tibbers' Magic Resist increased to 30/50/70 from 25/45/65
• Mana cost reduced to 100 at all ranks from 125/175/225

---

Ashe

This change allows Ashe players to use her passive in more strategic ways beyond a level one poke or incidental crit.

Focus

• Ashe now gains 3/4/5/6 Focus stacks every second while not attacking instead of gaining Critical Strike Chance
• Ashe will critically strike on her next basic attack when she reaches 100 Focus stacks
• Initial Focus stacks are equal to Ashe's Critical Strike Chance

---

Corki

Missile Barrage

• Fixed a bug where Missile Barrage would sometimes fail to deal damage

---

Hecarim

As a strong sustain fighter, Hecarim was blowing up squishy targets with Onslaught of Shadows' high damage and on-impact fear. To balance the ability out, we've taken away the landing damage and shifted it to the riders that travel with Hecarim.

The Devastating Charge buff should let Hecarim jump over small walls and ledges to his opponents when he dashes to them. Keep in mind that when we say small ledges, there are only a few in the game like the river ramp ledges and very thin jungle walls.

Devastating Charge

• If Hecarim's target is beyond narrow terrain, Hecarim will now leap over the terrain to the target

Onslaught of Shadows

• No longer deals damage at the end location
• Rider damage increased to 150/250/350 (+1.0 Ability Power) from 100/200/300 (+0.4 Ability Power)

---

Karma

Focused Resolve was impractical because whenever players wanted to use it, they needed the healing up front, not over time. This change still emphasizes the "leash break" gameplay, but now appropriately rewards Karma for using Mantra on her W and keeping her enemies close.

Inner Flame

• Mana Cost reduced to 50/55/60/65/70
• Explosion radius increased to 250 from 230

Focused Resolve

• Now correctly gives vision of the unit while rooted
• Mantra Bonus - Renewal
  • No longer heals over time for 25% Missing Health
  • Now heals Karma for 20% (+1% per 100 Ability Power) of missing Health immediately upon casting and another 20% (+1% per 100 Ability Power) of missing Health if the leash is not broken

Inspire

• Mantra Bonus - Defiance
  • Fixed a bug where Defiance's mini-shields weren't applying the Ability Power ratio

---

Kha'Zix

The changes to Kha'Zix are ultimately about giving him more viable choices when picking evolutions. Evolving Void Spikes granted such huge damage, high poke, and great utility that it was crowding out his other evolutions. Now Void Spikes gets a slow as part of the base skill, so its utility is there even at level one. Taste Their Fear's evolution was previously reliant on having targets isolated. Now it works whether they are isolated or not, but does more damage against isolated targets, making it a more reliable choice. We also increased Void Assault's damage reduction while in stealth to make it a slightly more enticing choice and to remind players of its additional utility.

Taste Their Fear

• Isolation bonus now increases damage by 45%
• Evolution adds 8% missing Health damage (Can be further increased by Isolation)

Void Spikes

• Now slows targets hit by 20% for 2 seconds
• Mana cost reduced to 55/60/65/70/75 from 60/70/80/90/100
• Bonus Attack Damage ratio increased to 1.0 from 0.9
• Evolution no longer consumes passive to apply effects--instead triples shot
• Can no longer be cast during Leap

Void Assault

• Damage reduction while in stealth increased to 50% from 40%

---

Kog'Maw

Void Ooze

• Fixed a bug where the slow wasn't reduced by tenacity

---

Lissandra

For a control mage with the kit she has, Lissandra was throwing out a lot of front-loaded damage. The intention of these changes was not only to lower her damage, but to also better highlight her in-fight control as her core strength.

Ring of Frost

• Cooldown reduced to 14/13/12/11/10 seconds from 18/16/14/12/10
• Mana cost reduced to 50 from 70
• Fixed a bug where the root failed to apply if Lissandra died

Glacial Path

• Cooldown now begins upon initial cast rather than upon recativation or at the end of the missile

Frozen Tomb

• Self-cast duration increased to 2.5 seconds from 1.5
• Slow increased to 20/30/40% from 20/20/20%
• Damage reduced to 150/250/350 from 150/300/450

---

Nautilus

If Nautilus gets ahead in levels, he ends up with both high damage and high tankiness when leveling Titan's Wrath first. As a strong initiator tank with high crowd control, we've reduced some of that mid-game damage output so he's less overwhelming when he snowballs.

Titan's Wrath

• Damage changed to 40/55/70/85/100 from 30/55/80/105/130
• Fixed a bug where the Ability Power ratio on hits was lower than intended

---

Poppy

Heroic Charge

• Spell has been refactored to better detect terrain

---

Sejuani

Sejuani's rework left her incredibly powerful in terms of overall damage and crowd control potential. We've tuned back some of those strengths to bring her more in line with other initiator tanks.

Northern Winds

• Bonus maximum Health ratio reduced to 10% from 16%

Permafrost

• Reduced slow duration to 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds from 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3

Glacial Prison

• Reduced stun and slow duration to 1.25/1.5/1.75 seconds from 1.5/1.75/2

---

Sona

Sona is a consistently strong support, so after we fixed a long-standing bug with Power Chord: Diminuendo we felt she would be a dominant pick without additional balancing. On that note, we've reverted some of our older changes to Sona. These changes are designed to maintain her parity with other supports by lowering her early game burst and her late game durability while making her a little more forgiving in the early game.

• Base Health increased to 450 from 410
• Base Armor increased to 11.3 from 9.3

Power Chord

• Base Power Chord damage changed to 13/20/27/35/43/52/62/72/82/92/102/112/122/132/147/162/177/192 from 8 + (10 x level)

Aria of Perseverance

• Fixed a bug where Aria of Perseverance's Power Chord: Diminuendo was not decreasing damage dealt
• Lowered the duration of Aria of Perseverance's Power Chord: Diminuendo to 3 seconds from 4
• Bonus Armor and Magic Resistance to self and healed ally reduced to 6/7/8/9/10 from 8/11/14/17/20
• Changed aura bonus Armor and Magic Resistance to 6/7/8/9/10 from 3/6/9/12/15

---

Thresh

Death Sentence

• Fixed a bug where Thresh could cast Flash while casting Death Sentence

---

Varus

Piercing Arrow

• Fixed a bug where casting Piercing Arrow while targeting an enemy would cause Varus to stop moving

---

Vi

Blast Shield

• Fixed a bug where Blast Shield's cooldown at higher levels was 1 second longer than intended

Vault Breaker

• Fixed a bug where casting Vault Breaker while targeting an enemy would cause Vi to stop moving.

---

General Champion Notes

• Targeted wall-jump abilities now check both sides of the wall for the closest location of the cursor, so players don't fail-jump into a wall, when the other side was clearly in range.
• We've added new targeting indicators to show how far the target is knocked back for the following abilities:
  • Alistar's Headbutt
  • Lee Sin's Dragon's Rage
  • Poppy's Heroic Charge
  • Vayne's Condemn
• We've improved consistency for abilities that behaved inconsistently when the targeted enemy uses Flash. We're cleaning up these interactions so that either the ability won't cast or Flash won't be used up (it will be one or the other, never both).
  • Jayce's Thundering Blow
  • Singed's Fling
  • Skarner's Impale
  • Volibear's Rolling Thunder

---

Changes to Slow Zones

All slow zones now update on a quarter-second interval, meaning when you move out of a slow field, the slow will wear off almost immediately unless you're hit by an ability that applies an individual slow (like Kog'Maw's Void Ooze). What this means: your champion's movement speed will be restored more quickly when leaving a slow field, but the slow within the fields have not been changed.

This change should make interacting with slow zones more intuitive while rewarding players who react quickly (as stepping out of a slow field will reward you faster). This is a small nerf to most of the champions affected, but we will be closely monitoring champions affected by these changes.

• The following abilities have had their slow refresh rate reduced to 0.25 seconds:
  • Singed's Mega Adhesive
  • Lux's Lucent Singularity
  • Gangplank's Cannon Barrage
  • Lulu's Wild Growth
  • Miss Fortune's Make It Rain
  • Trundle's Pillar of Ice
  • Varus' Hail of Arrows
  • Viktor's Gravity Field
  • Vladimir's Sanguine Pool
• Lux's Lucent Singularity also applies a 0.25 second slow to targets hit by the detonation
• Kog'Maw's Void Ooze missile also applies a 1 second slow to targets struck

---

Items

We've lowered the price on a number of starting items to give players more options with consumables and general builds.

---

Boots of Speed

• Cost reduced to 325 from 350
• Items that build out of Boots of Speed have had their recipe costs increased by 25

---

Doran's Ring

• Cost reduced to 400 from 475
• Health reduced to 60 from 80
• Mana restore on kill reduced to 4 from 5

---

Doran's Shield

• Cost reduced to 440 from 475
• Armor reduced to 0 from 5
• Health Regen increased to 10 from 8
• UNIQUE Passive now blocks 8 damage from champion basic attacks from 6

---

We've removed the randomness on Madred's and Wriggle's to increase consistency while allowing players to plan out their jungle routes better. Wriggle's wasn't very enticing so we've tuned up its stats to be worthy of a slot later in the game for those who can take advantage of it.

• All instances of Rend as a passive have been changed to Maim
• Maim is now the passive that refers to dealing bonus magic damage to monsters with every basic attack
• Butcher is the passive that refers to dealing percent bonus damage to monsters from all sources

---

Hunter's Machete

• UNIQUE Passive - Rend changed to UNIQUE Passive - Maim
  • Now deals 10 bonus magic damage to monsters with every basic attack

---

Spirit Stone

• UNIQUE Passive - Rend changed to UNIQUE Passive - Maim
  • Now deals 10 bonus magic damage to monsters with every basic attack

---

Madred's Razors

• UNIQUE Passive - Maim
  • Now deals 60 bonus magic damage to monsters with every basic attack
  • No longer deals bonus damage to minions

---

Wriggle's Lantern

• UNIQUE Passive - Maim
  • Now deals 100 bonus magic damage to monsters with every basic attack
  • No longer deals bonus damage to minions
• UNIQUE Active
  • Ward duration reduced to 90 seconds from 180
  • Cooldown reduced to 90 seconds from 180
• Attack Damage increased to 25 from 15
• Life Steal increased to 15% from 10%
• Armor reduced to 25 from 30
• Combine cost increased to 500 gold from 100 (total cost increased to 2000 gold from 1600)

---

A few patches back we buffed a number of jungle items to make them more enticing for junglers. The changes, however, made these items so efficient that even lane champions were buying them with no regard for the Butcher passive. We still want lane champions to consider these in strategies that center on poaching jungle camps or helping with map objectives, but we ultimately want these to feel like the optimal choice for junglers first.

---

Spirit of the Ancient Golem

• UNIQUE Passive - Butcher
  • Damage bonus to monsters increased to 30% from 25%

---

Spirit of the Elder Lizard

• Attack Damage reduced to 35 from 45
• UNIQUE Passive - Butcher
  • Damage bonus to monsters increased to 30% from 25%

---

Spirit of the Spectral Wraith

• Ability Power reduced to 40 from 50
• UNIQUE Passive - Butcher
  • Damage bonus to monsters increased to 30% from 25%

---

We've moved Malady's passives to the two other Attack Speed on-hit items to further solidify Nashor's Tooth's niche role as an Ability Power focused auto-attacker item, while moving the magic shred onto Wit's End to better synergize with magic damage based fighters (Sunfire Cape combines quite well with Wit's End even for champions that don't deal magic damage). Malady has been removed as it has been a poor fit in the current space that it was in.

---

Recurve Bow

• Cost reduced to 900 gold from 950

---

Malady

• Removed from the game

---

Nashor's Tooth

• Combine cost increased to 920 from 500
• Ability Power reduced to 60 from 65
• Additional Passive - Basic attacks deal 15 (+15% of Ability Power) as bonus magic damage on hit

---

Wit's End

• New Recipe: Recurve Bow + Null Magic Mantle + Dagger + 700 gold = 2400 gold
• Attack Speed increased to 42% from 40%
• Revised Passive - Basic attacks steal 5 Magic Resist from the target, stacks up to 5 times

---

Maps

Summoner's Rift

We've increased the initial spawn times of jungle creeps to get rid of the frustrating experience advantage players could get by killing certain jungle camps before laning phase. This was a much requested change from a lot of pro teams around the world, as the only real counter was to switch lanes or to try to prevent it altogether.

The other changes are to reassure junglers since they won't be able to start wolves or wraiths before heading to their buffs. Faster spawns will also help some champions who have exceptionally high clear times and want to just stay in the jungle. Overall, this will be a buff for junglers across the board as we've opened up additional jungle route options for them.

On that note, junglers traditionally have high impact in the early game, so there is some concern that these changes may be making them too strong in that area. We will be closely monitoring the situation to see if we need to balance further.

• Jungle
  • Wolves
    • Initial spawn time increased to 1:55 from 1:40
    • Respawn time reduced to 50 seconds from 60
  • Wraiths
    • Initial spawn time increased to 1:55 from 1:40
  • Golems
    • Initial spawn time increased to 1:55 from 1:40
    • Respawn time reduced to 50 seconds from 60
  • Ancient Golem
    • Base Experience granted increased to 340 from 220
    • Now plays a particle effect to show who the buff transferred to
  • Lizard Elder
    • Base Experience granted increased to 340 from 220
    • Now plays a particle effect to show who the buff transferred to
  • Young Lizard
    • Base Experience granted reduced to 10 from 40

---

Twisted Treeline

• Enabled several items
  • Hunter's Machete
  • Spirit Stone
  • Spirit of the Ancient Golem
  • Spirit of the Elder Lizard
  • Spirit of the Spectral Wraith

---

Crystal Scar

• Added Dominion variants of several items
  • Tear of the Goddess (Crystal Scar)
    • Mana per charge increased to 5 from 4
  • Manamune (Crystal Scar)
    • Mana per charge increased to 8 from 4
  • Archangel's Staff (Crystal Scar)
    • Mana per charge increased to 10 from 6
  • Rod of Ages (Crystal Scar)
    • Now gains stacks every 40 seconds, down from 60 seconds

---

Howling Abyss

• Enabled several items
  • Hunter's Machete
  • Spirit Stone
  • Spirit of the Ancient Golem
  • Spirit of the Elder Lizard
  • Spirit of the Spectral Wraith
• Shop close distance is now calculated from the spawn, not the shop
• Shop close distance increased to 1600 from 1400
• Fixed a bug causing players to become stuck if they wiggled behind blue laser turret
• Poros have gone through an 80s action movie training montage and now have some resistance to lasers

---

Game Interface

Minimap & HUD

• The Player's nameplate will now always be drawn last, causing it to always appear over ally and enemy health plates.

---

Item Shop

• The search terms "Spooky Ghosts", "Bork", "Botrk", "AA", "NLR", "SOTO", "SOTD", "dshield", "dblade", and "dring" have been added to the in-game item shop.

---

Custom Item Sets

• Item sets will no longer be lost when a player changes their Summoner name.

---

Game Menus

• The Key Binding page has been reorganized to be easier to use

---

Gifting Animation 

• Gifting animation has been updated

---

Custom Game Mini-maps

• Custom Game Mini maps updated to include unique mini maps for each map

---

League System

• Added the ability to spectate players and teams in challenger tier via an option in the leagues menu.
• Added notifications to inform players when they are close to hitting LP decay for inactivity in ranked queues.

---

Player Behavior

Behavior Alerts

The PVP.net client will display new warning alerts for players with spikes of negative activity, in order to help course-correct them as soon as possible with quick and direct feedback.

• Players with recently detected unsportsmanlike behavior will see a warning after the End of Game screen.
• Alerts will not follow every player report; alerts are targeted toward players that exhibit uncharacteristic spikes of highly negative behavior. 

---

General

• The Loading Screen no longer appears off-center in your monitor after Champ Select, when in Borderless or Windowed mode.
• Included a possible fix for an issue that would cause LoL to open in the bottom right of the screen on computers under heavy load
• Logitech monochrome keyboards should no longer clear their display when the last two heads-up buttons are pressed.
• Logitech keyboards should no longer change their brightness when your champion is dead.

This week's free champion rotation has been posted. These champions will become free to play starting tomorrow 6/11.

Update on Viktor's Augments - The Proposed Iteration Needs tech That Would Not Be Ready Till S4 - New Idea Proposed

Solcrushed says in the thread he would honestly rather wait till the tech is there for the original idea and asks for player feedback. Make sure to reply in the thread! 

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

Bad news guys

The tech we need for the proposed iteration of Viktor will not be available for a long time (Think like S4)

While I liked the direction, I do not want to delay this for that long and will be exploring other directions. I'll make another post later in the day about an iteration I am considering. Sorry guys

TL; DR: I suck

Isn't "merging the objects together" merely a recipe using all three? I don't get the lack of tech in that. Care to explain?

It is different because Viktor will not have the recipes.

i.e. Power upgrades into PowerGravity, Gravity upgrades into PowerGravity. But in either case, Viktor does not actually have the other Augment nor can he buy them.

This in the current store will require 2 separate items for the same one. Then multiply that by 3 for all the tier 2s and add another 3 for the tier 3 and you are looking at 10+ items for viktor alone, with half of them being duplicates.

So the iteration I'm tossing around in my head right now is something like this.

1st tier: Similar to how it currently works on live (with some effects moved around etc.)

2nd tier: Grants a flagship unique item passive (that will not stack with said item in question) among those that are currently in the item shop, while increasing stats.

For example.
Power: Liandry's
Gravity: Rylai's
Death: Lich Bane

This takes Viktor in a different direction from the previous iteration (where he became PERFECT) to more of a item master, more in the scientist-ish I would think. (The coolness factor being that Viktor will be the only one to have the passive with a unique mix of stats, for example he can have rylai's effect with CDR) What do you guys think?

p.s.: "I would prefer the previous iteration even with the wait" is also a great answer, please say so if you are more inclined in that way.

There we go. This is epic. What do you mean by "that will not stack with said item in question"?

It means you can't do double your AP damage on autos if you have AugDeath2 and Lichbane

Those effects don't quite seem to match what the augments already do though. Rylai's on gravity I can kinda see, but how often is a viktor maxing/augmenting E going to be in range to chuck autos. Someone going Q is going to get much more use out of that since they're goign to be kiting with the speed boost but shorter range on Q. But that means moving the liandry's on E but that makes it kinda bland because t1 is burn and t2 is burn + more burn.
I could also see maybe rylai's on Q, making it more of a literal power transfer. He's not just stealing HP to make a shield anymore he's making you slower while he gets faster, effectively transferring movement speed which I would think works thematically with him. I don't how how powerful that would be balance wise though (especially if he went furor boots) and I wouldn't' know what to put on W as a replacement since tacking damage effects on gravity would feel weird. These are all sort of initial thought i had, I quite like the idea and it might actually make his passive worth an item slot.

Good point, I haven't thought through this completely and Liandry's makes more sense on pokes. I was going to test an iteration for T1 where instead of the burn, the laser sweeps back (retracing its steps). If that works out Liandry's would make a lot of sense on E2

Alright, seems like the idea passes the laugh test, will be trying it out. After all it's not like the previous iteration is going anywhere!

It also sounds incredibly overpowered, just sayin'. I mean, it's like... two lasers in one. I can literally oneshot ALL the squishies with a double laser.

Oh it will have to deal reduced damage if a target gets hit twice The number I was going to try out was 50% if the target had already been hit with Dray

 Important: EdWard is now playing as support for curse.

3.8 Will not be This Week

The last PBE patch had no changes. This makes me think the possible connection/high ping issues atm made the patch be held off till next week.

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

I can't comment on when it will be available. I will say that it won't be tonight or this weekend. Enjoy your Friday, folks

Big Hints on the Ultimate Skin

Morello gives some hints for who the next skin is for - With these hints, he may have just given it away!

• Within the spirit of openness, I'll tell you this: This champion is a melee champion.
• The fourth letter of one of his spells is "E"
• Both of these combined point to Spirit summoner Udyr (but by no means confirmed, and could be a misdirect by morello )
•  Madballa007 points out Mordekaise also fits with the spell with an E and "spirit"

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

What's the fourth letter of one of the champion's spells?

E

Within the spirit of openness, I'll tell you this:

This champion is a melee champion.

Dragon Master Swain Still a little while Away

• Title pretty much says it. He will still be made, just not any time soon.

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

Has our time finally come!?!??!
Most upvoted/viewed thread atm and has Riot finally listened after almost 3 years of fans desperately waiting?
Also, I cant find that original dragon master swain skin thread when i searched for it this time. Can anyone else find it for me or tell me what happened to it?

Not yet. It'll be a bit still, we'll make it, it will just be awhile.

Note: Xypherous posted at 2:23am EST about "Spellvamp Item for AD Casters" Check it out, will include it in tomorrows roundup.

Ultimate Skin Tease - 1950 RP First Few Days

• Morello teases about the next Ultimate skin by saying "we'll be keeping you in the dark because it's cooler"
• Skin will be on sale - " The next Ultimate skin will be 1950 RP for the first few days as a reward to the players who are active at the time of its release. After that it will not be discounted."

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

There's a reason we're being quiet on this (partially bug burndown and the ?? of that), but partially because the surprises are worth it imo.

In this case, we'll be keeping you in the dark because it's cooler :P

There's a reason we're being quiet on this (partially bug burndown and the ?? of that), but partially because the surprises are worth it imo.
In this case, we'll be keeping you in the dark because it's cooler :P

The next ultimate skin is.... Morello's.

Wait, wait, no. no. That's not it.

Just no way it will be as cool as the last Anivia skin. Just sayin. :>

I see what you did there.

Additionally, all ultimates will feel like this in terms of wHERE?!. Ultimate skins are more effort than even a new champion, and take a lot of time. Since the response to PFE was so positive, we think you guys have basically told us it's worth it

Release week discount or full blown 3200 cost, that's an important detail.

I think the discount was only for PFE since he was kind of the introduction to that tier. I don't feel bad about 3200 with the quality of these things, especially considering the time and effort they take.

the release week discount was an important factor.

Well all players would like lower prices on everything, sure :P. It has to be balanced, and with the effort, we either make these for a premium, or we don't make them.

I tend to prefer the former, and I think players do too. I think of these as "extreme" luxury, though Hippalus actually gets this better than I do.

I think the discount was only for PFE since he was kind of the introduction to that tier. I don't feel bad about 3200 with the quality of these things, especially considering the time and effort they take.

Wrong on that one Morello. The next Ultimate skin will be 1950 RP for the first few days as a reward to the players who are active at the time of its release. After that it will not be discounted.

  Volty on the Sona Changes

• These changes are on the PBE and have been in our notes, for those that missed them the basic rundown:
• Fixed a bug with Diminuendo that was not lowering damage dealt (also lowered its duration)
• Changes to base power chord damage (lowered early and mid game)
• Changes to Bonus AR and MR of Aria of Perseverance (lowered)
• Base health and armor increased
• Volty says she was too strong early game, these changes will make her early game a little weaker without effecting her late game drastically. 

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

We have a number of tweaks coming for Sona in the next patch, as a consequence of this change:

- Fixed a bug where Power Chord: Diminuendo was not decreasing damage dealt

Yup, that's right. Power Chord: Diminuendo hasn't been reducing the damage dealt by its target. This bug has been particularly tricky to detect because it was reducing the damage numbers displayed, just not the actual damage inflicted.

So after fixing this, we took a step back and asked, what will this do to Sona's balance? Given that Sona is already borderline "always pick" we were quite worried that she'd gain must-pick status after this fix. We asked what we could do to Sona to make her less powerful at high Elo and competitive play, where she is already most dangerous and the fix to Diminuendo is likely to have the largest impact. We also wanted to not hurt Sona's performance too much for other players, and she's not as relatively strong there (but still strong).

Looking at what makes Sona strong in competitive play, we identified that her early game burst is a major source of power, especially for competitive play. While it's important for champions to have comparative strengths and weaknesses, Sona is a bit too strong in this dimension, even beyond providing a unique strategic niche for her compared to other supports. In short, we think we can make some reductions here while preserving her unique strategic niche and playstyle. Here is the changelist:

- Base Power Chord damage changed to 13/20/27/35/43/52/62/72/82/92/102/112/122/132/147/162/177/192 from 8 + (10 x level)

(This refers to the base, which is still doubled by Power Chord: Staccato.)

These numbers were chosen to hit her early game the hardest, and only provide minor reductions during other parts of the game.

We also identified that late game Sona can become really quite durable, more so than we would like. So we also targeted this as an area to remove power. This was where feedback from players was most valuable to informing our decision, as I asked for and specifically received a lot of input on which durability mechanics on Sona were most important to / noticed by players. Keep in mind though, that reductions here are largely offset by the bug we're fixing, so the overall reduction in durability isn't that big.

Aria of Perseverance
- Bonus Armor and Magic Resistance to self and healed ally reduced to 6/7/8/9/10 from 8/11/14/17/20
- Changed aura bonus Armor and Magic Resistance to 6/7/8/9/10 from 3/6/9/12/15

We wanted to compensate for some of these reductions by increasing Sona's early game durability, which is comically low on live.

- Base Health increased to 450 from 410
- Base Armor increased to 11.3 from 9.3

These are reverts of an earlier nerf we did to Sona's durability in lane, which we no longer feel is necessary.

After testing, we were finding that we hadn't actually lowered Sona's late-game durability perceptibly, between these changes and the bug fix, so we also added this:

- Lowered the duration of Power Chord: Diminuendo to 3 seconds from 4

4 seconds is just a really long time for most debuffs, and we didn't feel that this needed to actually last that long to still have a major impact.

We've been giving Sona a lot of attention in playtests and will of course be watching her performance closely following the patch. I personally really enjoy playing Sona and I'm pretty confident that the last thing that these changes will do is make her unpickable. Ok, I hope this provides some context for upcoming changes, thanks for reading!

 Unofficial PBE Changes for 6/5 - Jungle Changes

More small patches hit the server today. This time with three key changes. Don't forget the jungle spawn times have changed. If you forgot about this, you can read more about it in the first 3.8 PBE patch.

• ancient golem: Now gives 340 (up from 275) base xp on death (220 live)

• lizard: Now gives 340 (up from 275) base xp on death (220 live)

• young lizard: Now gives 10 (down from 40) base xp on death

Sona Info on the Way

If you missed it, Sona has had a few changes on the PBE:
[Sona base stats and W change] [Sona Passive and another W changed] 

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

Yes they are, though I think with some reversions on older nerfs. I'll have Volty swing by.

 Information on Miss Fortune's Double Up

Reddit user yourfriendlane posted an informative post about Miss Fortune's Double Up ability. However Riot had a little more to add on the subject!

Originally Posted by Riot (View Reddit Source)

This is some very impressive detective work right there!

It just so happens I analyzed double up recently for work on a similar spell (which has since been scrapped; it was sort of a hybrid between double up and light binding and it was awful). You're very close with your cones. What we actually have are overlapping circles. Open this picture in a new tab and follow me on a magical ride through the logic of double up!

http://tinypic.com/r/97scao/5

1 is the position of the enemy you clicked on. This is your primary target. At the time of impact (so NOT when you fire), the following happens:

• 1) Draw a 500 unit radius circle around Target 1 (your primary target)
• 2) All units within this circle and behind the target are marked as primary targets.
• 3) Find a point 500 units left of Target 1. Call this point Target 2. Draw a 450 units radius circle around Target 2. Remove the primary target mark from all units in this circle who have it and instead give them thesecondary target mark.
• 4) Find a point 500 units right of Target 1. This is Target 3. Do to Target 3 what you did to Target 2.
• 5) Primary targets are now marked red, secondaries yellow.
• 6) Pick one random primary target and fire the second shot at it.
• 7) Did we fire a second shot? If so, cool, we're done. If not:
• 8) Pick one random secondary target and fire the second shot at it.

So you were basically right. As for your questions:

• 1) Targets are picked at impact time.
• 2) Only the primary target and the secondary target take any damage. The bullet passes through everything in between harmlessly (like your auto attack does)

Any more questions?

Solcrushed on Viktor Update

He also teases about some new champions!

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

Slight update: Unfortunately not much since there hasn't been too much progress.

Prototype is finished thanks to the Pony, but we need store-related tech to be able to fully realize some of the things we want to do. Playtesting time has been crunched due to Aatrox and some other characters-that-shall-not-be-named.

We will go into small scale testing soon, hopefully there will be more info to give out in a few days.

Statikk on Akali

Originally Posted by Riot (View RedTracker Source)

Hey Sayath,

Once again I'll start with, thanks for the massively detailed and well thought-out analyses.

Unfortunately I do have to be brutally honest here though, Akali certainly isn't in an ideal spot, but to be realistic with you there are a ton of champions who are worse off. Champions like Rengar, Heimer, Olaf, Sion, and Alistar for example are all champions I feel are simply in a worse spot than she currently is and should be prioritized as so. This doesn't mean all these champions will receive changes before Akali does since some projects are bigger in scope than others, but it does mean that the team will at least be exploring the needs of those champions first before investing time elsewhere.

As much as I'd love to just sit down and hack away at her design, Akali is but 1 of our 100+ current champions and it doesn't seem right to give her special focus simply because there is a strong presence on these forums. Once again, I do appreciate the thought and effort being put in here, it's actually very impressive, but all of the above still stands.

The Shadow Dance turning into a skillshot is quite intriguing (essentially multi-target Lee Sin Q) and seems like a great direction on paper. I do have a few questions though:

1) Do you think Akali will be able to function without a guaranteed targeted dash? Would other changes to the kit be needed to support this change?

2) Do you think such radical changes to Shadow Dance (and whatever else we would need to tweak to make this work) is something that will ruin the current feel of Akali and possibly push away current Akali players? Changes like these typically come at a high cost especially when considering that Akali is still a fairly popular champion.

3) What do you think of this version of her R that is similar to what you suggested except when she dashes to a marked target it only removes the mark on THAT target (note: this would potentially have to be coupled with other change such as now being cooldown based instead of ammo and the cooldown resetting on kills/assists)? I think there's some interesting possibilities here.