9/12 PBE Update: New skins for Fiora, Yi, Janna, Singed, Yorick, new ward skin, and more!

New Skins

Eternal Sword Yi

"Introducing Eternal Sword Yi to the Immortal Journey universe! 

"A true master is an eternal student." 

Leaping upon the wind, Eternal Sword Yi masterfully wields his magical blade to cut down his foes. 

Eternal Explanations

• All new model: Yi finally takes off his mask!
• All new animations: Harnesses the power of the wind to fly during Highlander.
• All new VFX: Swords, swords, and… even more swords!
• All new SFX: The sounds of enchanted wind and blades. 

We always love hearing your feedback and feelings! All bug reports and thoughts help us make these skins even more awesome, so please keep 'em coming! 

Thanks, cuties! <3"

Sacred Sword Janna

"Introducing Sacred Sword Janna to the Immortal Journey universe!

"For tranquility." 

Called upon to protect her weapon, Sacred Sword Janna utilizes the blade’s powerful magic (and her enchanted koi fish) to protect all that need her. 

Fishy Features 

• All new model: Fashioned with flowing cloth and a koi companion.
• All new animations: Unleashes the power contained in her sacred sword.
• All new VFX: Harnesses magic to blow away enemies in a flurry of water, wind, and peach blossoms.
• All new SFX: Serene and powerful magic. 

We always love hearing your feedback and feelings! All bug reports and thoughts help us make these skins even more awesome, so please keep 'em coming! 

Thanks, cuties! <3"

Beekeeper Singed

Balance Changes

• Conquering Sands (Q)
• AP ratio lowered from 50% to 30%
• Cast range lowered from 875 to 720
• Hit box increased to be ~70 units longer.
• Cooldown changed from 10/9/8/7/6 to 11/9.5/8/6.5/5
• Base Damage increased from 65/85/105/125/145 to 70/100/130/160/190

• Arise! (W)
• Base STAB damage changed - increased at all levels but slightly reduced at level 18.
• New values: 60/62/64/66/68/75/80/85/95/105/115/125/135/145/155/165/175/185
• Per Level Soldier Stab Damage scaling - increased
• Recharge time lowered from 10/9/8/7/6 to 8/7.5/7/6.5/6
• Cast range increased from 450 to 500
• Soldier duration increased from 9s to 10s
• Azir Basic Attack Command - "cast time reduced from 0.5s to 0.35s"
• Soldier Deactivation Range - "decreased from 800 to 660"
• Soldiers can no longer attack wards or trinkets.
• [new effect] grants Azir an additional 20/30/40/50/60% attack speed for 5 seconds whenever he summons or has 3 or more soldiers out on the field

• Shifting Sands (E)
• Shield now has a 70% AP Ratio
• Azir's E now grants him a shield immediately.
• Shield duration has been lowered from 4 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
• Dash Speed has been reduced from 1700 to 1400.
• [new effect] if Azir hits an enemy champions, he halts his dash and instantly prepares a new Sand Soldier (W)

• Tumble (Q) 
• Bonus damage increased from 30/35/40/45/50% tAD to 50/55/60/65/70% tAD
• Q bonus damage no longer able to crit**

• New Ability Icons

• Attack speed per level increased from 2.6 to 3.5

• Three Talon Strike (Q):
• Damage per strike changed from 15/30/45/60/75 (20% AD) to 15/20/25/30/35 (40% bAD)
• Extra Flat Damage per hit lowered from 15/30/45/60/75 to 15/20/25/30/35
• AD scaling per hit changed from 20% AD to 40% bonus AD

• [NEW] Wind Becomes Lightning (W)

45 Mana
12/11/10/9/8 sec Cooldown

Xin Zhao slashes in front of himself with his spear, then thrusts it forward. 

Slash: 30/40/50/60/70 (+30% tAD)
Thrust: 40/75/110/145/180 (+90% tAD) damage and slows by 50% for 1.5 seconds. 

Deals 50% less damage to minions.
Lifesteal is 33% effective on both attacks.
Extends the current duration of Xin Zhao's other abilities by 0.6 seconds.p

• Audacious Charge (E)
• Magic damage lowered from 70/110/150/190/230 to 50/75/100/125/150.
• Slow increased from 25/30/35/40/45% to 50% at all rank.
• Slow duration lowered from 2 seconds to .5 seconds.
• [New Effect] "Charging grants Xin Zhao 40/45/50/55/60% attack speed for 5 seconds."

• Crescent Guard (R)
• Renamed from Crescent Sweep to Crescent Guard
• Cooldown lowered from 120/110/100 to 100 at all ranks.
• [New Effect] "For 3 seconds after casting this ability, Xin Zhao has increased Awareness and will completely block damage from enemies that are far away. Xin Zhao's attacks and spell casts increase the duration of Awareness by 0.3 seconds each

Zeke's Convergence

• Total cost lowered from 2400 to 2200
• (Combine cost lowered from 400 to 200)

"“Here’s a [Xin Zhao update], and [the reasons] behind it!” - Not Xin Zhao 

Hey, folks! I’m Xenogenic, the designer that’s been working on the update for our favorite spear wielding duelist: Xin Zhao. Before he hits PBE tomorrow, we wanted to explain our goals for this update and give you an idea of what changes you will see. 

Goals for the Update 

First and foremost, we recognized that a lot of players enjoy playing Xin Zhao, so it was important for us to identify and preserve the mechanics that his current players love. To that end, we’ve largely left his Q and E abilities alone. We felt it was important to satisfy our other design goals without hurting what makes Xin Zhao feel like Xin Zhao. 

The primary improvements we wanted to make to Xin’s kit from there included: 

Give Xin Zhao players more meaningful and interesting decisionsOther than understanding when to engage as a melee, there weren’t a lot of decisions to be made. Having more opportunities to make the right decisions (and therefore, more opportunities to win because of making the right decisions) ultimately makes champions more fun to play. This is because those moments give more chances for what we’d refer to as “skill expression” - demonstrating one’s skill or mastery of a champion or the game as a whole. We felt Xin Zhao was lacking in opportunities for skill expression, so adding these decision making opportunities was one way to improve that. 

Give Xin Zhao a unique identity within League of Legends
Xin Zhao’s fantasy of being a master spear fighter and duelist wasn’t conveyed very well in his mechanics, so he didn’t feel like a champion that stood out enough in our roster. We decided to address this by giving him a new ability that provides a spear attack with considerable range, as well as modifying his ultimate to help him create the fantasy of engaging in a 1v1 duel, even during teamfights. 

Make Xin Zhao flexible
This means giving XZ the ability to contribute both early and late game. Also we want him to have tools that he can use when playing from behind. 

Give Xin Zhao a more meaningful place in teamfights
His success when diving the backline is mostly dependent on his relative stats, and if the opponent has the proper CC tools to peel him. Thus, we aimed to give Xin Zhao players more choices than just diving on the backline and better tools to create his own successes. As games evolve, so can their preferred targets and approaches to team fights so they can continue being a strong contributor to their team. 

Summary of changes 

New Passive - Determination

• The passive portion of Battlecry (every third hit deals bonus damage and heals Xin) was transferred to the overall passive for his kit. 

New W - “Wind Becomes Lightning”

• This is a 2 part flowing attack with his spear that includes a sweeping slash in front of Xin, followed by a long-range thrust.
• Slash - deals damage in a cone in front of Xin.
• Thrust - deals higher damage at long range and slows targets hit for 1.5 seconds. 

E modified

• The attack speed steroid that Battlecry provided is now rewarded after dashing to targets with E (Audacious Charge) 

R modified- now called “Crescent Guard”

• Xin Zhao’s ultimate is still an instant cast sweeping circle that knocks enemies back and deals damage. The knockback still excludes the last target he dashed to or attacked.
• NEW: For 3 seconds after casting Crescent Guard, Xin Zhao creates a zone around himself and will block damage dealt to him from champions outside of his guard area. The duration of this stance is extended slightly every time Xin Zhao attacks an enemy champion. 

The overall goal of this change was to allow Xin Zhao to knock enemies back (besides his primary target) and become immune to damage from anyone outside of the circle attacking him so he can have his 1v1 with his primary target - at least until enemies walk back into the circle to attack him. 

And lastly, it’s worth noting that he’s received a number of new animations, sound effects, visual effects, and even icons. The overall scope of this update wasn’t the same as a full-blown VGU like Warwick, for example, but we did take this opportunity to improve the quality of a lot of his visuals and sounds. 

Thanks for taking the time to catch up on the upcoming Xin Zhao changes. We’d be happy to answer any questions you might have about the update and look forward to your feedback! 

“To triumph!” - Xin Zhao"