2/27 PBE Update: New Summoner Icon & Tentative Balance Changes

The PBE has been updated! As we continue the 8.5 PBE cycle, today's patch includes a new summoner icon and a heap of tentative balance changes for Quinn, Rengar, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

Table of Contents

• New Summoner Icon
• Cooldown Reset Flair
• Miscellaneous
• Balance Changes
• Context & Notes

New Summoner Icon

A new summoner icon has appeared on the PBE!

Cooldown Reset Flair

Here's EdwinMols with a new feature testing on the PBE, which will flare certain abilities when you get the reset:

"Hey guys, 

We added a small aesthetic flair to the ability bar that's on PBE right now - it plays whenever the cooldown on a champion's ability is fully reset (will not play on partial resets). In the example gif, Draven's W is reset every time he catches an axe. The goal for this is to make ability resets feel more satisfying and be a little more noticeable. 

If you see it in game and have any feedback, please respond here! Here are the full list of champions that we've put this on now: 

• Diana (R)
• Darius (R)
• Draven (W)
• Irelia (Q)
• Evelynn (E)
• Kalista (E)
• Katarina (Q, W, E, R)
• Kha’Zix (E)
• Mastery Yi (Q, W, E)
• Olaf (Q)
• Ryze (Q)
• Tristana (W)
• Twitch (Q)
• Zilean (Q, E) 

Cheers!"

Miscellaneous 

Riot Sparkle noted some context on the change:

"Yep, we're revising our thinking on what kinds of runes should get buff bar icons after listening to you guys. :) 

Originally the thinking for buff bar icons was "only keystones" but we'll be doing more evaluation on a rune by rune basis going forward to communicate on the channels that make the most sense for the rune."

Context & Notes

1) Riot August posted on the PBE boards regarding 8.4 Rengar follow up that is hitting the PBE in the 2/27 update.

"More PBE changes coming at you for tomorrow (2/27) 

Buffs + a METRIC TON of feel improvements and bug fixes. 

Specific callout to the change that makes the Q attack able to be canceled. PLEASE GO TEST AND TELL ME HOW IT FEELS. 

Buffs: 

P
Ferocity falloff timer:: 6 >>> 8 

Q
Q damage:: 20/50/80/110/140 (+1.1 TAD) >>> 30/60/90/120/150 (+1/1.05/1.1/1.15/1.2 TAD)
Emp Q ratio:: 1.3 TAD >>> 1.4 TAD 

R
Rengar's true vision now linger for .5 seconds after the spell ends. 

Bug fixes and feel improvements:
Lockout duration on gaining full ferocity for E and Q reduced to .1 seconds (from .25)
Only the spell used to gain full ferocity is locked out 

Q attacks can now be canceled (like a normal basic attack) 

If Rengar presses Q or W during the E cast time he will now buffer those spells and cast them when the E completes.
---------Previously movement orders would eat the input and you'd have to press Q and W again. This should make his Leap - E - W - Q combo feel a lot smoother. 

Fixed a bug where tiamat could sometimes cause Rengar's basic attacks to become the Q animation
Fixed a bug where Emp Q's attack frame was slightly faster than base Q 

Still hunting down the bug where he sometimes drops aggro on his target when casting E and W. We think we have a fix, but we're not sure. It's weird...

Thoughts: 

Overall Rango is looking to be a tad weak on live so we're throwing in some buffs. The Q changes I made pre-release seemed good to go back on. Guess is that his overall damage is simply too low at the moment. Additionally, increased the time Rengar has before losing ferocity out of combat to compensate for the fact that the new Q makes it harder to generate and keep up ferocity. Finally, letting the truesight on R linger a bit after he leaps in. Was weird to see an enemy over a wall, right click on them to jump, and then lose vision the second you start your leap. Should now lose vision a tad after the leap ends. 

I expect he may need even more after this, but I'm staying on the conservative side due to the multitude of feel improvements that we're also trying to ship out (they should raise his power in more subtle ways). 

If he remains weak after 8.5 we'll give him another bump in 8.6 (with special consideration for the possible dusk blade nerfs). 

On the bug fixing/feel side, you guys were right. The ferocity lockout felt bad, especially with new Q, so we're reducing it/removing it as much as possible. It's still important to have a brief lockout on the spell you used to get to max to prevent double casts, but that doesn't mean the other spells need to be locked out as well. 

Letting people cancel the Q animation for maximum BM. Expect this makes him feel smoother and have less instances of getting accidentally locked into attacking something you didn't want to. It's also a smol nerf however, as making the attack cancelable means enemies that flash out of vision will cause it to not complete. 

I think one of the many reasons Rengar players seem to dislike the E cast time is that it can cause you to lose your inputs on W and Q if cast during the E. Creates a feeling of "wait I thought I pushed that button." Added some spell buffering to help remedy this, now W and Q should cast automatically at the end of E should you push the buttons during its cast time (provided you aren't CC'd of course). 

Can't repro the de-aggro bug on internal environments, which makes me hope that we fixed it...If anyone has reliable repro steps pls let me know. 

Thanks a ton, feedback appreciated.

Bonus point:
If you play Gragas, we noticed that he had a similar bug to Rengar, where attacking with his W just as the buff expired would cause it to fizzle. Should be fixed now on PBE."

2) Riot Scruffy noted a Sion bugfix coming this cycle:

"PSA - fixing a bug with his E for 8.5 that made it significantly wider hit box than it is intended to be."

3) Regarding the 2/26 PBE Zoe changes,  Repertoir noted the base AP ratio was bugged and will be fixed soon.

"It's bugged on the PBE. There was a conflict between the late 8.4 change and the new 8.5 change. Should be correct at 60%-150% in tomorrow's PBE build."

4) Riot Xenogenic is here with a changelist and context on Quinn changes coming to the PBE soon. These changes are slated for 8.6. Here are the full details:

"Hey folks! As Meddler mentioned, we’ve been looking at ways to improve Quinn in the short-term, so this post is going to outline some changes we’ve been testing and are coming to PBE next week. The changes are not currently targeted for 8.5, but we’d love to get your feedback as soon as possible. 

So, with that said, here are the goals for our changelist: 

• Increase her overall power, particularly by late game, without increasing her ability to bully in lane
• Improve the quality of life for Quinn players by fixing a number of bugs, especially with her ultimate
• Reduce the number of rules and exceptions around Quinn’s ult so it’s more fun to use
• Shift a little of her early game power into late game power 

And here are the changes we’ve been testing: 

Passive - Harrier - Quality of life improvement and power increase

• Auto-attacks that are already in-flight will now trigger and consume the Harrier mark

Base Stats - Shift some of her early game power into late game power

• Starting AD reduced: 62 >>> 59
• AD per level increased : 2.4 >>> 3 (AD at 18: 103 >>> 110)

R - Behind Enemy Lines - Bug fixes, quality of life improvements, and teamfight usability improvement

• Fixed a bug that would sometimes prevent Skystrike from firing
• Skystrike now applies her Harrier mark to all enemy champions hit
• Fixed a bug where Skystrike would deal double damage if fired by re-activating her R
• Channeling no longer breaks when taking damage
• Removed the in-combat state that would refresh R’s cooldown every time combat was entered
• Taking damage from non-minions while channeling or while Behind Enemy Lines is active no longer breaks the channel or form. Instead, the movement speed bonus is removed for 2 seconds. Taking damage from minions no longer has any effect. 
• Fixed a bug causing Behind Enemy Lines to immediately end when used while attacking a turret
• Fixed a bug that would cause movement orders to be removed or ignored while casting Behind Enemy Lines
• Returning to the fountain now automatically casts Behind Enemy Lines if it has been learned

As I said above, this is not currently slated for 8.5, so we have some time to discuss it and test it on PBE. Please let us know what you think. Thanks! 

“Sometimes I swear that bird is just showing off.” - Quinn"

5) ricklessabandon noted the Ahri changes would be coming in the 8.6 PBE cycle:

[1] "yeah, sorry for the delay on getting something onto the pbe — ahri's changes ended up being a bit more than i thought (and it took a bit longer than expected to pick a direction), so she's slated for an 8.6 release she'll hit pbe on the 1st day of the 8.6 cycle (i.e., next week)"

[2] "i'll likely tease/preview something well before then though, so the wait for more information shouldn't be quite that long"

Check out [THIS PAGE] for a comprehensive list of the new content & changes currently on the PBE as a part of this cycle or catch up with the individual update links below !

• 2/21 PBE Update: Kai'Sa, Daughter of the Void + New Skins, Chroma, & More
• 2/22 PBE Update: New  Premade Voice in Testing, New Emotes, & Tentative Balance Changes
• 2/23 PBE Update: Tentative Balance Changes
• 2/26 PBE Update: Kai'Sa Login Theme & Tentative Balance Changes