1/23 PBE Update: Swain Update, new Icons, and more!

[Recent News: Quick Gameplay Thoughts: January 24]

"Strength is the only teacher." - The PBE has been updated! As we kick off the 8.3 PBE cycle, today's patch includes the Swain Champion Update and updated skins, a new summoner icon, tentative balance changes for Master Yi, Rengar, & Tryndamere,  and more!
Continue reading for more information!

Table of Contents

• Swain Champion Update
• Swain the Noxian Grand General
• Stats & Abilities
• Voiceover
• Lore
• Updated Skins
• Northern Front Swain
• Bilgewater Swain
• Tyrant Swain
• New and Tweaked Summoner Icons
• Cho'Gath Visual Effects Update
• Miscellaneous
• Balance Changes
• Champions
• Runes
• Context & Notes

Swain Champion Update

Before we get into the full details, here's Riot Szymba with a bug thread for Swain:

"Hello, everybody! 

With today's PBE deploy, we've enabled Swain's update on the PBE for testing and feedback! We've been working on bugs on this guy for a while, but we know a few still exist. If you happen to come across something odd during your time playing as, with, or against Swain on the PBE, please let us know through the Report a Bug tool with a description of what happened and whatever other information you can provide. 

I'll be looking through this thread and the reports from the tool for the rest of the 8.3 cycle and beyond. Hope you all enjoy Swain :) 

-Szymba"

Swain, the Noxian Grand General

Stats & Abilities

Stats:

• Base HP: 525
• HP Growth: 90
• HP Regen: 7
• HP Regen Growth: 0.65
• Base AD: 58
• AD Growth: 2.7
• Base Mana: 374
• Mana Growth: 57
• Armor: 23
• Armor Growth: 4
• Magic Resist: 30
• Auto Attack Range: 550
• Movement Speed: 335

Ravenous Flock (Passive)

Ravenous: Swain can right-click an immobilized enemy champion to pull them towards him, ripping out a Soul Fragment and dealing [20-105 based on level] (+30% AP) magic damage (12-6 second cooldown)

 Flock: Enemy champion deaths create a Soul Fragment that Swain can collect to restore [~4%-7% total health] health 

Swain can store up to 5 Soul Fragments. 

• Base damage, cooldown, and health restore based on level.
• At level 1, restore is 4% total health. This scales up to 7% based on level.

Death's Hand (Q):

Cost: 65/70/75/80/85 Mana
Cooldown:  7.5/6.25/5/3.75/2.5

Swain unleashes FIVE bolts of eldritch power that strike the first enemy they hit and pierce through enemies they kill. Enemies hit take 70/90/110/130/150 (+40% AP) magic damage, plus 15/20/25/30/35% per additional bolt. Max Damage: X. 

Each unit killed by Death's Hand restores X Mana (3% max mana).

Vision of Empire (W):

Cost: 90/100/110/120/130 Mana
Cooldown: 22/21/20/19/18

Swain opens a demon eye up to 3500 range away that deals 50/75/100/125/150 (+35% AP) magic damage and slows for 25/35/45/55/65% for 2.5 seconds. 

Champions hit take double damage, grant Swain a Soul Fragment and are revealed for 4/5/6/7/8 seconds.

Nevermove (E):

Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 Mana
Cooldown:   13/12/11/10/9

Swain launches a wave of demonic power, dealing 35/70/105/140/175 (+25% AP) magic damage to enemies it passes through. 

Swain then commands the wave to return, detonating it on the first enemy hit. Enemies hit take 35/45/55/65/75 (+25% AP) magic damage and are rooted for 1.5 seconds.

Demonic Ascension (R):

Cost: All Soul Fragments
Cooldown: 120

Swain frees the demon within for 12 seconds, gaining 150/275/400 health. Every second, he drains the 3 closest enemy champions for 35/50/65 (+14% AP) magic damage, healing him for 20/35/50 (+17.5% AP) health. After draining 150/300/450 health (based on level), Swain gains the ability to cast Demonflare. 

Demonflare: Swain unleashes a nova of soulfire dealing magic damage and ending his transformation. Damage per Soul Fragments: 45/60/75 (+22.5% AP). 

Current Damage: X
Max Damage: X

Swain drains minions if no champions are nearby but heals for 70% less.

Voiceover

Here is Swain's complete updated voiceover, clocking in at over 18 minutes of Noxian glory:

As heard in the VO, here's a closer look at Swain's various in-game special interactions:

Lore

(NOTE: Currently on PBE, Swain's short form in-client bio has been changed vs live and is displaying  a much older version lore entry - screenshot.)

Updated Skins

New and Tweaked Summoner Icons

A new summoner icon is now on the PBE!  This appears to be related to the Swain champion update but no availability details yet.

and three Esports icons from last cycle received tweaks (Previous versions here, here and here):

Cho'Gath Visual Effects Update

As mentioned in a recent gameplay thoughts post, Cho'Gath has a new set of visual effects on the PBE!

Aatrox

• HP regen lowered from 1.318 to 1.3

Ahri

• HP Regen lowered from 1.3016 to 1.3

Akali

• HP regen increased from 1.6684 to 1.7

Alistar

• HP regen lowered from 1.7356 to 1.7

Amumu

• HP regen increased from 1.7756 to 1.8

Anivia

• HP regen lowered from 1.1148 to 1.1

Annie

• HP regen increased from 1.0848 to 1.1

Ashe

• HP regen increased from 1.0848 to 1.1

Azir

• HP regen increased from 1.38 to 1.4

Blitzcrank

• HP regen lowered from 1.702 to 1.7

Brand

• HP regen increased from 1.0848 to 1.1

Braum

• HP regen lowered from 1.636 to 1.6

Caitlyn

• HP regen lowered from 1.13 to 1.1

Cassiopeia

• HP regen lowered from 1.138 to 1.1

Cho'Gath

• HP regen increased from 1.7856 to 1.8

Corki

• HP regen increased from 1.0848 to 1.1

Darius

• HP regen increased from 1.9692 to 2

Diana

• HP regen increased from 1.4856 to 1.5

Draven

• HP regen lowered from 1.2352 to 1.2

Dr. Mundo

• HP regen increased from 1.552 to 1.6

Elise

• HP regen lowered from 1.1416 to 1.1

Ezreal

• HP regen increased from 1.2848 to 1.3

Fiddlesticks

• HP regen lowered from 1.1216 to 1.1

Fiora

• HP regen increased from 1.65 to 1.7 

Fizz

• HP regen lowered from 1.6352 to 1.6

Garen

• HP regen increased from 1.568 to 1.6

Irelia

• HP regen lowered from 1.7184 to 1.7

Jinx 

• HP regen increased from 1.168 to 1.2

Karma

• HP regen lowered from 1.1248 to 1.1

Karthus

• HP regen increased from 1.2848 to 1.3

Kassadin

• HP regen increased from 1.558 to 1.6

Katarina

• Voracity (Passive) - damage on dagger picked up changed from [75-287 based on level] to [65-220 based on level]

Kayle

• HP regen increased from 1.652 to 1.7

Kennen

• HP regen lowered from 1.1184 to 1.1

Kha'Zix

• HP regen lowered from 1.502 to 1.5

Kog'Maw

• HP regen increased from 1.1848 to 1.2

LeBlanc

• HP regen increased from 1.48 to 1.5 

Lee Sin

• HP regen increased from 1.4852 to 1.5

Leona

• HP regen increased from 1.6856 to 1.7

Lissandra

• HP regen increased from 1.3848 to 1.4

Lucian

• HP regen lowered from 1.2384 to 1.2 

Lulu

• HP regen lowered from 1.2016 to 1.2

Lux

• HP regen increased from 1.08 to 1.1

Master Yi
[Context]

• HP regen lowered from 1.5184 to 1.5
• Alpha Strike (Q) cost lowered from 70/80/90/100/110 to 70/75/80/85/90

• Meditate (W)
• Cooldown lowered from 35 to 25
• Healing per second lowered from 30/50/70/90/110 to [20 - 80]
• [Removed] No longer amplifies healing based on missing health
• [New Effect] If full channel succeeds, next 3 attacks restore [30 - 50 (+20% bonus AD)] health and reduce the remaining cooldown of his other abilities by 1 second

Context & Notes

1) ricklessabandon provided changelists for his upcoming Master Yi and Tryndamere changes for the 8.3 PBE cycle:

[1] "i think pbe updates for 8.3 are coming soon, so i'll share a quick early preview of where the yi and trynd changes are starting at

[2] trynd stuff is about as straightforward as it comes — hoping to generally increase his output across game time"

[3]" master yi changes aren't as simple, but hopeful that something along these lines can feel natural and help him out a bit"

[4] "and again, these are both starting places — will iterate as needed once we get to play around a bit with them"

[5] "currently the duration is 'infinite' and tbh i don't know that it needs to have a timer/window think the effect as pitched is an example of something that's fine to 'prime' — as long as it feels more like yi is meditating to prepare for combat instead of a chore, it's okay by me "

[6] "they should be included in the first 8.3 update on the pbe which i -believe- is tomorrow (otherwise, soon™) if they show up tomorrow, fair warning that the current pass is -bare bones- so there won't be any visual effects or buff bar icons (apologies in advance)"

[7] "heads up: if master yi ends up on the pbe today, meditate's channeled healing and damage reduction are bugged — hope to have this fixed along with a few other improvements in the -next- update"

2) Riot August provided a context and changelist feedback thread for Rengar:

"We’ve got some Rengar changes coming to the PBE at some point this week and this is the thread to give feedback on them. Target ship date is 8.4 (about 4 weeks from now) 

First, a disclaimer: THESE CHANGES ARE EXPERIMENTAL. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOME OF THEM DO NOT SHIP. IT IS POSSIBLE WE CHANGE OTHER THINGS. THE SHIP DATE COULD BE PUSHED BACK. ITERATION IS ONGOING. 

So what are we trying to achieve here? The overall goal is to change Rengar in a way that makes him more fun to play for Rengar players while retaining the game health gains that he received during the assassin update. I guarantee that we’re not going to give everyone everything that they want (be it Rengar mains or their victims), but the hope is that we can get him into a place that is a net improvement from what is currently on live. 

With that in mind, we’re focusing on the Q and R. We’re reverting the Q to the old AA enhancement spell and testing some changes on the ult that allow Rengar to be sneakier while using it (should be better for dodging wards and ganking solitary targets). 

A secondary goal is to open up some off-builds for him. Currently testing changes for 4 possible builds. There’s a strong possibility that a few of these have game health risks and will need to be iterated away from: 

1. Crit (Phantom Dancer + Infinity Edge) (Critgar) - Rengar with sustained damage, less good at the one shots, more good at murdering the whole team should he figure out how to survive in melee range. Given he now has a cleanse, it may be unreasonable to let him battle tanks.
2. Bruiser (Trinity Force + Tiamat) (Trygar) - An unburstable Rengar that knows how to survive in a fight. Way less damage, way more bolas. Maknoon once showed us why versions of this build are risky.
3. AP (Lichbane + Rabadon's Deathcap) (Cat-in-the-Deathcap) - A spell focused Rengar that wants to hit you with dat DOUBLE ROAR. There’s a question as to whether or not AP Rango is different enough from Lethality to be worth making viable. Not good if it's just an arms race for which build one-shots better.
4. Lethality (Draktharr's Duskblade + Youmuu's Ghostblade) (Stabby Tabby) - Classic knifecat, stack pen, burst squishies. With this one we need to be extra careful with how much burst can be loaded onto that initial leap attack. 

Please GO PLAY HIM and then leave feedback here! Would love to hear your thoughts on the changes. Anything you particularly enjoy? Something you dislike? Favorite build? Is there a tweak you’d like to see that we don’t have in yet? Tell us about it. 

Here’s the current changelist (I’ll edit this block as updates go to the PBE to reflect his current state) 

Base stats
Base AD:: 68+1.5 AD/lvl >>> 65 + 3 AD/lvl 

P changes
Bonetooth buff:: 1/3/7/13/20 flat AD and % bonus AD >>> 1/4/9/16/25% bonus AD and AP
Leap distance from target on landing:: 100 >>> 50 

Savagery - Q Revert (do the backstroke)
Base - Rengar’s next attack deals 10/45/80/115/150 (+1.1 TAD) damage
Empowered - Rengar’s next attack deals 30-240 (+1.3 TAD) damage and grants + 50-101% AS for 5 seconds.
Q grants ferocity and Attack Speed vs. towers, but does not deal bonus damage.
Particles and sounds have been added/re-added to support the old Q animation and buffs. This includes stuff for skins.
Old icon is back. 

Thrill of the Hunt - R Changes
Range at which enemies can sense Rengar:: 2000/3000/4000 >>> 1600
Range at which Rengar can track the nearest enemy:: 2000/3000/4000 >>> 2500/3000/3500
Movement Speed:: 40% >>> 40/50/60%
Closest enemy leap bonus:: Crit >>> 150/250/350 (+.8 bonus AD, +.8 AP) physical damage. 

Haha I'm OP, something something adapt - A lame bug 

Haha ur dead - Rengar"