2/6 PBE Update: Dragon Master Swain, Dark Star Jarvan IV, Updated Xin Zhao Splash, & More

The PBE has been updated! As we start the 8.4 PBE cycle, today's patch includes Dragon Master Swain. Dark Star Jarvan IV, updated base splash art for Xin Zhao, and many tentative balance changes!
Continue reading for more information!

Table of Contents

• New Champion Skins
• Dragon Master Swain
• Dark Star Jarvan IV
• Xin Zhao Splash Art Update
• Miscellaneous
• Balance Changes
• Champions
• Items
• AP Items
• Context & Notes

New Champion Skins

Dragon Master Swain and a Dark Star Jarvan IV are now testing on the PBE! Look for these to release in 8.4.


Here's KateyKhaos with a bugs & feedback thread for Dragon Master Swain:

"Skin will be unlocked shortly after PBE comes back up!

“I fought the dragons once. Now, I have become one.” 

• New model and textures The dragon master becomes the dragon! Swain’s map birds have also been replaced with more dragon-like creatures!
• New VFX for all spells, featuring lots of fire and smoke!
• New SFX for all spells, complete with dragon roars!
• Several new animations including recall and ultimate transformation.
• Updated VO! His VO is now processed, and all ‘bird’ themed lines have been removed and replaced with more thematically appropriate ones.

Dragon Master Swain is now available to play on PBE! As players who experience this content firsthand, your constructive feedback is appreciated. Feel free to leave it in the comments below! If you have any questions, you can also drop them below and I'll do my best to answer them! ^-^ 

Dragon Master Swain is set to be 1350 RP. 

Prices are subject to change"

Here's Nurse Flan with a bugs & feedback thread for Dark Star Jarvan IV:

• New model and textures! Black holes and stars of daaaaarkness!
• New VFX for all spells, featuring the darkness of the staaaars!
• New SFX for all spells! The reverberating emptiness of spaaaaace!
• New animations including recall.* He won't be taken in by the void!
• VO is now processed! 

As players who get the first look at this in-progress skin, it would be wonderful to hear your constructive thoughts and feelings on the new Dark Star skin! The feedback and bugs you leave here will help us get a better idea of things we may still have to take a look at. :]
See you on the Rift! 

Dark Star Jarvan IV is set to be 1350 RP.
Prices are subject to change

Xin Zhao Splash Art Update

Xin Zhao has a new base splash art on the PBE:

• This placeholder Swain asset has found it's way to the PBE. 

Evelynn

• Whiplash (E)
• Damage increased from 40/55/70/85/100 to 65/80/95/110/125
• Empowered damage increased from 70/90/110/130/150 to 105/125/145/165/185

Context & Notes

1) Here's PhRoXz0n with a context thread and changelist on the "AP Itemization on PBE (8.4)"

"Hi folks, 

Wanted to drop a quick Dev Corner post to accompany the PBE drop. 

TLDR:
The changelist you will see today is as follows: 

• New item!!

• Not on PBE today as production and tweaks are still finishing up.
• Lost Chapter costs 1100 gold and has additional CDR (to increase the number of failed laning phases).

• Lost Chapter upgrades into three 20% CDR, Mana, AP items; Hextech GLP (catch), Ludens (poke) and Archangel's Staff (scaling).

• Haunting Guise no longer has Flat Penetration and instead has a passive effect that synergizes with damage over time patterns (this carries over to Liandry's).

• Morellonomicon has been renamed to Morello's Cursed Tome (AP/HP/Flat Pen/Grievous Wounds), has a mid-tier item Orb of Shadows that is the same as the old Haunting Guise (AP/HP/Flat Pen).

Longer Post
Problem Statement: 

Mage itemization is very straightforwards for most mana mages. You know what you're buying first item, second item is usually Liandries and third item is probably Void Staff. Put as a goal statement, make the AP item shop more rich and exciting for all users (including supports and manaless users). 

Tactics: 

First Item: 

• The earlier we can get branching choices, the greater the decision making tree becomes due to its multiplicative nature.
• At the same time, we don't want to be overwhelming players with too many choices or it becomes paralysing; focused items aid decision making in this case (one of the reasons I split out Liandry's, more on this later).
• If the first 2900 gold of yours is static (4000 if you include boots), 15 minutes is already spent making no decisions regarding itemisation.
• What is important for this structure?
• Designing this choice structure is somewhat aided by the relational depth of lane matchups. Even the worst laners can have some good matchups (if they are against an even worse champion) and some different win conditions.
• Let's say I'm playing Lux mid, I can have good, bad, farm matchups just within my lane, let alone if I factor in the jungler.
• Maybe against Galio, since it's unlikely I'll one shot him, I could opt for the scaling Archangel's build.
• Maybe against Annie, I want poke damage from Luden's because I outrange her.
• Maybe against Xerath, I want to hit confirm my skills so I opt into GLP to catch him in a binding and land my full combo.
• Maybe if you have a bad back, you want to go for a fallback Tear of the Goddess that you otherwise might not have considered.
• Soft synergies with this approach are also of benefit; the more base damage you have (from Luden's or GLP), the more attractive Flat Pen options become. If you are planning on getting an early Deathcap, maybe Archangels is better (because you will have more AP), maybe you might consider a second mana item to boost your Archangel's mana ratio.
• Ultimately, we decided on GLP (catch), Ludens (poke) and Archangel's Staff (scaling) for first item options (with ROA still as an option of course).

Second Item onwards (First item for non-mana users): 

Spellbound Orb (Pure offense/greed slot) New item?!!?!/!/1!:

• Moving Luden's away to first item leaves us with a hole in the pure offense/greed slot.
• Wanted to find an item that is functional, but also fun and exciting.
• I wanted an item that gets more value when fighting a lot/being in bloody games as opposed to when the game is relatively slow/split out.

Mana Items Second:

• Loosening the restrictions on stacking mana items, we arrived on a system that gives you most of the benefits of going two 20% CDR items without being broken together. This is to gain 10% CDR from any additional Lost Chapter items (the haste passive).
• Should you want to have infinite mana or to round out 30% with Transcendence/Lucidity, then maybe this is a good option.

Liandry's Identity:

• Liandry's has a split identity on Live, it is both about the Flat Pen and the % Current HP tank busting profile.
• This makes it generally good against all targets (live state) OR underpowered.
• As a result, we wanted to split out the Flat Pen from the burn that Liandry's is associated with, this made sense to put on Morellos.
• This meant we needed to find a passive that makes sense for these types of patterns (a passive that synergizes with DoT champs).

Morello's Cursed Tome:

• We knew this item item needed to have GW (better nerf Irelia).
• Putting Flat Pen on this item is a signal to the player that the Grievous Wounds is to be used against more squishy champions (as opposed to if there's a Maokai).
• Of course, it's still useful against Maokai or Mundo, but maybe Executioner's Calling is better for that.
• The GW effect can be far more powerful on this item if it's not seen every game like Morellonomicon was (still a working assumption to be borne out, maybe it's too much for healers to deal with).
• Having GW on this item allows manaless champs to consider it on first buy, especially with the attractive Flat Pen.

Twin Shadows:

• With more income from not having to buy Sightstone, we are marketing Twin Shadows as an attractive option for supports looking to hunt down their targets.
• This item fights against Flat Pen, Liandries, Rylais and other items.
• Of course, maybe champs that really like roaming and hunting from mid occasionally look at this too, but that's less of a desired goal.
• We tried a 20% CDR, AP, Mana version of this on mid lane (for quite a while) to fill a roaming niche, but concerns of 6 of these in a game at once from Mid/Jg/Supp on both teams was quite hosing for all the junglers and for certain types of champions (eg. Akali).

Small Tweaks: 

Void Staff

• 80 AP >>> 70 AP
• Void staff is just generally too efficient against all targets, rather against the ones stacking MR.

Rylai's

• 75 AP >>> 85 AP
• We nerfed Rylais in previous patches, and left it in a relatively underpowered state since then.
• Given how much perma slows tend to invalidate melee champions, being careful with this one (but the slow is nowhere as strong as it was before).

Deathcap

• AP Amp 35% >>> 40%
• The item was just not living up to its late game fantasy.
• Maybe some champs consider it 3rd sometimes (or even second), especially when going heavy AP builds."

2) Here's Riot Wittrock with a changelist for Volibear in today's PBE update:

"LOL the unexpected Veggietales reference. 

Here's what we're testing on PBE today for the bear:

• (Q) Rolling Thunder
• Bonus Movement Speed Maximum :: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50% (Scaling with rank) >>> 30-60% (Scaling with character level) [Gains 2% per level, stops at level 16]
• Bonus Movement Speed Minimum :: 15% (Doesn't scale) >>> 15-30% (Scaling with character level) [Gains 1% per level, stops at level 16]
• NEW :: Transitioning from the Movement Speed Maximum to the Movement Speed Minimum now decays over 1 second rather than falling off immediately.
• (W) Frenzy
• NEW :: Frenzy's cooldown is halved if it is used on a minion or monster (previously only monster)
• (E) Majestic Roar
• NEW :: Slightly knocks back enemies
• NEW :: Enemies who are dashing or airborne are dealt 40/60/80/100/120 (+0.3 AP) bonus magic damage."

3) Here's Riot August with a Rengar changelist for today's PBE:

"Hi friends, today (2/6) Rengar makes his glorious return to PBE. Oh boy. 

Here's what's changed since we last saw him (more to come over the next few days as we finish bug sweeps and iterate on art). 

As mentioned earlier, removed the AP buffs due to game health worries for that build (we're already buffing it with Q lich bane synergy) 

Felt like overall damage was too low compared to live with the removal of upfront damage on ult so increasing Q scaling. 

Experimenting with W buffs to give a healthier jungle clear and faster ferocity generation. Some concerns that this makes top-lane bruiser Rengar too strong so may need to revert. 

Target ship date is 8.4, so we've got one last week to iterate on feedback. Thanks for all your help!

P -
Bonetooth no longer increases AP 

Q -
Damage:: 10/45/80/115/150 (+1.1 TAD) >>> 30/60/90/120/150 (+1/1.05/1.1/1.15/1.2 TAD)
Emp Q Ratio:: 1.3 TAD >>> 1.35 TAD 

W-
Damage:: 50/80/110/140/170 >>> 60/90/120/150/180
Cooldown:: 20/18/16/14/12 >>> 16/14.5/13/11.5/10 

R -
Removed AP ratio"

4) Here's ricklessabandon with context on changes to Talon, Zed, and Ancient Coin in today's PBE update:

"oh, pbe time already? quick list of stuff that i think is in today: 

talon: experimenting with changes to help him out a lot in mid 

zed: feel like he needs attention, and later ult cooldown seems appropriate and easy 

coin: follow-up from quest removal 

i think that's it for now"

When asked about the jungle item changes, he noted:

"yeah, intended — @LoLSotere is doing explorations"

5) Here's Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for February 2nd, covering tentative 8.4 balance, rune pages, Zoe, and more:

"Hey all, 

Usual Disclaimers 

These posts will often contain talk about future work we're doing, or planning to do, that isn't yet guaranteed to ship. The nature of the work could change or, depending on what we discover, projects mentioned may get put delayed or even stopped. If you'd like to see a Tweet whenever a new one of these posts goes up: https://twitter.com/RiotMeddler 

Patch 8.4 

Number of things going into patch 8.4 below. There'll likely be a bit more to follow too, and as usual some of this stuff might not ship or will likely change. 

Runes Changes:

• Fleetwork Footwork/Press the Attack - We'll likely be buffing PTA and/or nerfing FF. Recent changes to FF make it too dominant a choice in Precision at this point, still debating though whether that means we should bring PTA up and/or FF down though. Lethal Tempo by contrast needs bigger work (thoughts on that once we're starting on it, not as urgent as other Runes work though).
• Resolve non keystones - Likely replacing a rune or two and moving some runes around to make the second slot especially more interesting and appealing.
• Precision Stat Bonus - Splitting with other trees like Resolve does (e.g. Precision+Domination = AS and AD).  

Item Changes: 

• Tracker's Knife - Investigating (might not change) whether this is just too dominant a choice at this point, which also leads to excessive vision especially in organized play.
• Hunter's Talisman versus Hunter's Machete - Tweaking stats a bit to make Talisman a better choice on champs it should be strong on.
• Jungle items generally - Potentially increasing mana regen to open up the jungle more (mana gating keeps quite a few champs from clearing effectively early relative to less mana hungry junglers)
• Ancient Coin - Looks too weak, even on champions it fits best on (Janna, Soraka, Rakan). Smallish, simple buffs likely as a result.
• Wit's End - Buffing slightly in general and a bit more for melee champs (they'll steal MR faster than ranged). 

Edit: AP item changes will also be in 8.4, forgot to include those somehow when writing this originally despite the fact we've been looking at them a lot this week. 

Objectives: 

• We'll be taking a look at Baron Buff and Elder Dragon buff. At present their impact in really long games seems to fall off too much, which means you don't pay enough of a penalty for playing safe and not trying to contest them. That can lead to drawn out, unresolved games without much happening. In Elder Dragon's case it also means the value of contesting early dragons, regardless of element, isn't as high as it should be either. 

Champ Nerfs:

• Ornn - Looking at what enemies should be able to do to respond to him in lane. Details to be determined.
• Gnar - Needs clearer weaknesses enemies can play around, particularly in lane. Details also TBD.
• Kalista - We're still working on pulling power out of Kalista for pro play without hitting her hard in regular play. 

Champ Buffs:

• Evelynn - Previous nerfs were harder than intended. Looking to give a bit of power back in a straightforward way.
• Volibear - Fingers crossed will finally get changes in 8.4. We've been testing a range of things in addition to the previously mentioned brief displacement on champs on E. That knockback's still testing well so that's almost certainly happening. Probably a secondary buff as well (e.g. might have Q MS not fall off so aggressively when briefly facing away from enemy champs to move around skillshots or whatever).
• Fiddlesticks - Is struggling quite a bit in the jungle. Buffing as a result, not sure exactly how yet.
• Talon - Struggling in both mid and top. We'd previously been avoiding giving him power because he was doing well in top lane, he's just weak all round at this point though. Likely fairly straight forward numbers buffs. 

Other Champion Changes: 

• Rengar - Reversion of Q to an on next hit ability will happen in 8.4, along with some smaller changes to other parts of the kit. 

Saved Rune Pages 

For cases like 8.4 where we're changing non keystone Runes (replacing some or swapping positions of others) we'll be automatically updating saved Rune pages so that they're still valid. First goal is to avoid forcing people to remake entire rune pages when the system has only changed slightly. Sonc goal is to make sure everyone still loads into game with a full set of at least ok Runes even if they haven't yet edited their pages since the changes. We'll be doing some call outs in the game client as well when stuff changes for people who want to update their pages themselves, getting some defaults in as a fallback too though. 

Zoe 

Thoughts on Zoe next week. Was going to get some thoughts on how we see her and what our plans are for this post, would like to take a bit more time to talk through issues and approach with the team first though. 

LeBlanc 

After Rengar ships in 8.4 we'll be looking at LeBlanc. Current plan is for a similar level of change to Rengar's, likely including some degree of moving back to things about old LeBlanc that worked well (both for LeBlanc players and for game health). Not certain on timing of when that work would ship, goal would be to get it onto PBE fairly quickly and, as with Rengar, work on it for multiple patches while getting feedback on it."

6) afic is on the PBE boards looking for players to assit tacking down a bug with leveling up abilities.

"Hey all, 

The team I am on is currently trying to track down a bug that happens pretty infrequently. Basically, if you try to level up an ability, sometimes the ability point will be used, but you won't have access to the ability (ex: you can be level 1 with no skills). When you level up again, you will have access to 2 ability points (so basically the ability point is wasted for an entire level). 

If you encounter this issue, any information you provide can be useful (what was happening when you tried to spend the skill point, did you press the hotkey or click the skill icon to level up, what champion were you playing, etc.) 

I will be checking this thread frequently and likely reach out to anyone who encounters this bug. Thanks for any help you are able to provide!"