Tentative PBE Changes & Discussion (3.13)

Update: Added in several red posts! Check them out at the bottom of the post!

Note: Most of these changes are already on the PBE - check it out in the 10/10 Update

Riot Pwyff has posted up a context thread for the tentative changes currently up or coming to the PBE for patch 3.13!

Continue reading for the full set of tentative changes!

"NUMERICAL VALUES ARE EXCLUDED FROM PBE PATCH NOTES DUE TO THE NATURE OF THE PBE (IT CHANGES!).

We are always trying to improve clarity of the Patch Notes and would appreciate feedback on their format if you feel you can add anything. Except asking for numerical values. Quit it!

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 more information.

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

General

Screen Tint for Stealth

- We've added a self-only screen tint when your champion is in stealth for Akali, Kha'Zix, Le Blanc, Shaco, Talon, Teemo, Twitch, Vayne and Wukong.

Attack Speed Slows

Summary: Unless an attack speed slow was attached to a movement impairing effect (IE: Nasus' Wither), it was immune to cleanse or other forms of debuff removal. Now all attack speed slows can be cleansed and are treated like movement speed slows.
Context: Attack speed slows have been updated in order to have more consistent counterplay when it comes to their removal and application. Essentially we're looking to treat all slows the same, whether they're movement or attack speed based.

Affected Champions:
- Malphite - Ground Slam
- Gragas - Barrel Roll
Affected Items:
- Warden's Mail
- Randiun's Omen

Champions with CC-discarding ultimates

Summary: The following champions will now be affected by crowd control abilities after they complete their dashes, where previously they discarded all forms of crowd control at the end. Their spells will still be unstoppable, but any crowd control abilities landed throughout will be applied after the spell completes. CC duration will tick down while a champion is mid-dash.

Context: We're adding more counterplay for champions who have long-range dashes tied to their ultimates by making them succeptible to certain forms of crowd control after they complete a dash - like snares or stuns. Now if a teammate lands a snare in the middle of a champion's dash, the ulting champion will complete the ability, but they'll be snared at the end.

Affected Champions:
- Jarvan IV's cataclysm
- Nocturne's Paranoia
- Vi's Assault and Battery
- Malphite's Unstoppable Force
- Hecarim's Onslaught of Shadows

Champions

Ahri

Summary: Charm has had its mana cost changed to a flat amount at all levels (higher at lower levels, lower at max level), but now increases the magic damage Ahri deals to the target. Essence Theft now heals her for a specific amount based on the number of enemies she hits with her passive-enhanced spell, as opposed to getting straight spell vamp. Fox Fire now deals less damage when every wisp hits the same target, and now counts as an area-of-effect damage source for the purposes of Spell Vamp and Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Spirit Rush's base damage and AP ratios have been reduced in addition to having its use time limit reduced.

Context: Ahri is a champion with a lot of strengths and few weaknesses - given her high versatility and reliability, she can regularly apply a lot of general pressure upon her opponents from relative safety. Ahri’s strengths should be much better defined than they currently are. These changes give Ahri players (and her opponents) clear areas of mastery that differentiate the good Ahris from the great Ahris (heh). Our core focuses are:

• Make Ahri’s default lane patterns more clear, so both Ahri and her opponents can make plays around them.
• Make Ahri’s “all in” gameplay more closely tied with landing Charm to establish Charm as Ahri’s “kiss of death” that needs to be avoided, as well as lower her threat/presence while Charm is on cooldown.
• Keep Ahri’s core gameplay intact while trimming away strength from the low-gameplay patterns that don’t feel cunning.

Essence Theft
- Now heals Ahri for a specific amount (scales with AP and champion level) each time her passive-enhanced spells hit an enemy

Fox-Fire
- Diminishing returns effect on same-target hits increased
- Fixed a bug which caused Fox-Fire to sometimes deal reduced damage to a target which should receive the standard damage amount
- Now counts as an AoE damage source for the purposes of Spell Vamp and Rylai’s Crystal Scepter

Charm
- Mana cost changed to a flat amount at all levels (higher at lower levels, lower at max level)
- Now increases the magic damage Ahri deals to the target by a percentage for a few seconds

Spirit Rush
- Base damage reduced
- AP ratio reduced
- Spirit Rush time limit decreased

Corki:
Summary: Corki's base attack speed has been reduced. Additionally, Missile Barrage's base damage has been reduced at earlier ranks while the cooldown between missile shots has been increased. The cooldown between missile shots can no longer be reduced by cooldown reduction, but CDR will still affect how quickly you can gain missile ammo.
Context: Overall, we like the direction we pushed Corki toward with Trinity Force, but he's now too overwhelming to play against. Here we're reducing excess power in a few areas: by reducing his base attack speed, this puts him more in line with other similar spell-based ADCs. Reducing Missile Barrage's base damage at early levels will help tone down Corki's currently overwhelming level 6 power spike. Finally, the increase of the cooldown between missile shots ensures Missile Barrage is a powerful sustained damage tool, rather than a burst damage source.

General
- Base Attack Speed reduced

Missile Barrage
- Base damage reduced at earlier ranks
- Cooldown between missile shots increased
- Cooldown between missile shots can no longer be reduced by Cooldown Reduction (Cooldown Reduction still affects how quickly you gain missile ammo)

Jarvan IV:
Context: This change forces Jarvan to be more accurate with his Demacian Standard / Dragon Strike combo while giving opponents some breathing room when trying to dodge it.

Dragon Strike / Demacian Standard
- Moderately reduced Jarvan's knockup collision radius

Leona:
Context: Similar to the mana cost changes we've made to other higher skill ultimates, Leona's next in line.

Solar Flare
- Mana cost reduced to a flat amount at all levels (significantly lower than max level mana costs)

Master Yi:
Context: Our original reasons for having Meditate's mana cost scale so high no longer exist anymore, as they more specifically referred to AP Yi bullying lanes, or meditate refreshing multiple times in a fight.

Meditate
- Mana cost reduced to a flat amount at all levels (significantly lower than max level mana costs)

Morgana:
Summary: Tormaneted Soil no longer reduces magic resistance per tick, instead it deals additional damage based on an enemy's missing health. Morgana should deal roughly the same amount of overall damage, although there will be variations due to how her new Tormented Soil works.
Context: This change is more of a modernization for Morgana's Tormented Soil by rewarding her for being continuously aggressive with landing her Dark Bindings. Specifically we wanted to to reinforce Morgana's standard damage combo of Dark Binding to Tormented Soil, rather than the "ideal" combo of using Tormented Soil's magic resistance reduction to make Dark Binding deal more damage.

Tormented Soil
- No longer applies a Magic Resist reduction debuff
- Base damage per second decreased slightly (to accomodate other changes)
- Additionally deals a percentage of an enemy's missing Health as magic damage every second (capped at a flat amount versus minions and monsters)
- Damage application cadence increased

Rengar
Context: Rengar's leap out of stealth has insufficient warning for his target, so we changed him to destealth at the beginning of his leap instead of throughout its duration in order to give his target a fighting chance.

Thrill of the hunt
- Rengar now de-stealths at the beginning of his leap when attacking a target from out of invisibility.

Shen
Context: Shadow Dash has had a fairly large start and end radius to make the spell more forgiving to land. We no longer believe this is necessary as it makes Shadow Dash a bit too easy to land in those situations.

Shadow Dash
- Collision radius has been reduced at the start and end points of the dash

Soraka
Context: Similar to the Leona change which is similar to the previous mana cost changes. At this point I may just say Wish's mana cost is too damn high.

Wish
- Mana cost reduced to a flat amount at all levels (significantly lower than max level mana costs)

Swain
Summary: Carrion Renewal now restores a percentage of Swain's maximum mana on champion kill/assist rather than a flat amount. This will allow him to keep up his mana pools in lategame team fights.
Context: Despite being a champion that's hard to stop when ahead, Swain players often find themselves failing endgame in a situation where they would otherwise succeed due to the unforgivable nature of Ravenous Flock's mana ramp. We saw Carrion Renewal as a place to add strength without significantly impacting the phases of the game where Swain already excels. With this change, it's possible for Swain players that focus on mana and durability to 'off-tank' during team-fights, utilizing the significant mana return from champion kills/assists to stay in engagements longer.

Carrion Renewal
- Now additionally restores a percentage of Swain's maximum mana on Champion Kill/Assist

Syndra
Summary: Syndra has had a number of useability improvements made to her abilities, where Scatter the Weak now indicates where a Dark Sphere will travel, and Unleashed Power will indicate how many Dark Spheres will be fired.

Scatter the Weak
- Range minorly increased
- Dark Spheres now have arrow indicators to show the direction they will travel if hit by Scatter the Weak
Unleashed Power
- Now has a counter over the icon that tracks the number of Dark Spheres that will be fired.

Teemo

Noxious Trap
- Fixed a bug where Noxious Traps gave experience on death

Tryndamere
Context: we are trying to reduce the mobility of Tryndamere so he can't just safely split push all day. We did, however, want to keep his mobility high in team fights, so we made Spinning Slash only reduce in cooldown when he critically strikes champions.

Spinning slash
- Now only reduces Cooldown if Tryndamere critically strikes champions

Viktor
Context: Similar to the Soraka change, which was similar to the Leona change, which was similar to the...

Chaos Storm
- Mana cost reduced to a flat amount at all levels (significantly lower than max level mana costs)

Vladimir

Hemoplague
- Fixed a bug where this ability sometimes prevented casting of Transfusion and Tides of Blood for longer than the spell's 0.5 second cast animation.

Ziggs
Summary: Short Fuse has had its damage increased slightly. Bouncing Bomb can be cast at targets outside of max range but will only travel the set distance. Satchel Charge's radius has been increased. Hexplosive Minefield and Mega Inferno Bomb are both more effective against minions, with Minefield not dealing decreased damage on multiple hits to minions and Mega Inferno Bomb dealing double damage to minions.
Context: We've improved Ziggs in terms of general utility while also trying to carve out his niche as a pushing / counterpushing champion more effectively. In this regard a lot of our changes are focused on the damage he deals to minions, but we've made some general damage buffs overall.

Short Fuse
- Max damage increased
Bouncing Bomb
- Bouncing Bomb can now be cast at targets outside of 850 range
- When cast outside of max range will fire in the direction but only travel 850 range
Satchel Charge
- Radius increased
Hexplosive Minefield
- Does not do decreased damage on multiple hits to minions
- Damage radius per mine increased
Mega Inferno Bomb
- Now deals double damage to minions

Zyra
Summary: Deadly Bloom's damage has been reduced but her AP ratio has been increased. Rampant Growth's passive cooldown reduction and early damage has been reduced, but its damage at later levels and range has been increased. We've also improved Zyra's overall useability with enraging plants / transforming seeds into plants by spells.
Context: Our overall strategy here was to tone down Zyra's early level poke damage and, while we are reducing some of her overall power, we also wanted to improve her ability to fluidly combo cast with seeds. Additionally, reducing the base damage of her spells while increasing the AP ratios are aimed at reducing her power as a support without hurting her capabilities as a mage.

Deadly Bloom
- Range minorly reduced
- Damage reduced
- AP ratio increased
Rampant Growth
- Passive cooldown reduced
- Plant base damage reduced at lower levels and increased at higher levels
- Reduced the delay before seeds can be stepped on by enemies
- Range minorly increased
- Fixed a bug where seeds would very sometimes not be turned into plants by spells
Stranglethorns
- Stun no longer persists for some duration after the knockup ends.
- Now properly enrages plants created within the bramble zone after Stranglethorns has been cast

---

Crystal Scar

Map-Specific Changes: Self Healing Penalty
Context: Dominion has evolved in such a way that this healing restriction no longer serves its original intent of preventing turtling. Instead, it's only hurting champions that rely on regen or healing to be effective. We've since reverted it.

- The -20% self-healing penalty has been removed from the Crystal Scar aura

Map-Specific Changes: Speed Shrine Buffs
Context: The previous version of speed shrine buff allowed for people ganking bot lane to come in at basically Ghost movement speeds, with the gankee having very little reaction time on a wardless map. This change is meant to alleviate some of the pressure to bot lane while making teams invest more if they want to continually pressure the lane.

- The speed shine buff now decays over its buff duration

Crystal Scar and Twisted Treeline
Items

Grez's Spectral Lantern
Context: This item was too cost effective for what it offered and these changes are to bring it more in line with other vision items in terms of cost and utility.

- Cost increased
- Damage slightly reduced

The Lightbringer
Context: Lightbringer is a niche item and will still be a niche item, but this build change will open it up to more champions.

- Cost reduced
- Now requires a Ruby Crystal instead of a Pickaxe
- Armor increased
- Lifesteal increased
- Gains 200 HP (from the Ruby Crystal)
- Damage reduced (from the removal of Pickaxe)

Twin Shadows
Context: Twin Shadows is a great item on wardless maps, but the cooldown was too long to really make use of it. It's been made cheaper to increase accessbility, while the stats have been reduced to reflect the new cost.

- Cost reduced
- AP reduced
- MR reduced
- Active cooldown significantly reduced
- Wraiths are now affected by speed shrines

Hextech Sweeper
Context: Hextech Sweeper is a staple item on Twisted Treeline / Dominion and we don't want to change that, but we're making it a little less universally appealing by reducing the stats and removing the movement speed bonus. We're also giving it a cooldown reduction boost to help out with some AP itemization issues.

- Cost increased
- Fiendish Codex is replacing both Amplifying Tomes in the build
- HP reduced
- AP reduced
- Movement Speed has been removed
- Cooldown reduction increased and is no longer unique

Blackfire Torch
Context: Blackfire Torch is gaining the movement speed bonus that Hextech Sweeper had because not everyone that uses AP should get that free movement speed boost. AP casters however, should get it.

- Gains bonus movement speed"

================= End Notes ============================


As for the change to attack speed slows, he commented:

"It's creating consistency with slows in general"

When asked if this means you could cleanse slows from something like Frozen heart, he noted:

"I'm assuming that aura slows operate on a consistently "rebuffing" mechanism, so maybe you can cleanse Frozen Heart's AS debuff, but it'd get immediately reapplied. It's not like FH applies debuffs only once as you get into aura range. "

When asked about Evelynn not getting one of these cool screen dims when she's stealth, he commented:

"I've been told no because Stealth is actually her natural state, and introducing a screen tint for that would make for a very odd experience (not to mention she has a number of indicators when she is out of stealth / in stealth). So we left her alone."

When asked about Jungle Tryndamere being nerfed as a result of his E changes:

" Jungle Tryndamere I'll ask about."

When asked about more Shyvana changes, Pwyff noted:

"Shyvana's a product of her environment changing drastically and in ways that almost always support her. On that note I think we're holding off for now on Shyvana changes, but can't really commit to aaaanything yet."