3/19 PBE Update: New Skins, Chroma, and more!

The PBE has been updated! As we start the 9.7 PBE cycle, today's patch includes new skins for Ivern and Jarvan IV, new chroma, emotes, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

Table of Contents

• Champion Skins
• Dunkmaster Ivern
• Hextech Jarvan IV
• Chromas
• Emotes
• /Dev: More Experimental ARAM changes 
• Miscellaneous
• Balance Changes
• Context & Notes

Champion Skins

Two new skins hit the PBE this cycle - Dunkmaster Ivern and Hextech Jarvan IV!

Dunkmaster Ivern

Here's Riot grymbojr with a bugs and feedback thread for Dunkmaster Ivern:

"Ivern jukes past Darius. Gets the ball from Daisy. Takes it to the paint. He shoots! HE SCORES!!!

Dunkmaster Ivern is dunking his way onto the Rift, featuring: 

• New model and texture! - Featuring brand new kicks and hair to boot. Daisy has a new outfit too!
• New particles! - BASKETBALLS! FOAM FINGERS!
• New SFX: - Hear the cheer of the crowd! The blow of the whistle! The buzz… of the buzzer!!!
• New recall animation! - Practice makes perfect. 

Dunkmaster Ivern is ready to shoot some hoops on the PBE! If you’ve got feedback, we’d love to hear it. Bugs? Send them our way and we’ll take care of them. We’ll do our best to answer your questions! 

Dunkmaster Ivern is set to be 1350 RP. 

*Prices on PBE are subject to change.

Hextech Jarvan IV

Here's Riot KateyKhaos with a bugs & feedback thread for Hextech Jarvan IV:

"The Exemplar of Demacia has a new suit of armor! 

Hextech Jarvan IV includes:

• New model and textures: A new hextech look!
• All-new VFX: Hextech-infused magic!
• All-new SFX: Wispy magic and Hextech power!
• All-new recall animation: Jarvan’s spawning portals with Hextech runes!

Hextech Jarvan IV is set to be available for 10 gemstones and via loot.
*Prices are subject to change. 

Hextech Jarvan IV is available to play now on the PBE! As always, we’d love to hear your feedback, so drop it in the thread below! If you have questions, feel free to ask ‘em here, and we’ll do our best to answer them! GLHF! :)"

Chromas

Eight chroma were added for Dunkmaster Ivern:

Here's Riot Orphyre with a Bugs and Feedback thread: Dunkmaster Ivern Chromas:

"Hey everyone! 

We’ve got some new Chromas coming up for Dunkmaster Ivern!

Dunkmaster Ivern:

• New textures:
• Dunkmaster Ivern (Ruby)
• Dunkmaster Ivern (Peridot)
• Dunkmaster Ivern (Rose Quartz)
• Dunkmaster Ivern (Catseye)
• Dunkmaster Ivern (Aquamarine)
• Dunkmaster Ivern (Amethyst)
• Dunkmaster Ivern (Obsidian)
• Dunkmaster Ivern (Pearl) 

The Chroma sets are now available on PBE! We hope you all will enjoy the new sets; as usual, we’re looking forward to hearing your constructive feedback. I’ll do my best to answer and reply to your questions and feedback!
Thanks!

Riot Orphyre"

Emotes

Split 2 ranked reward emotes added:

/Dev: More Experimental ARAM changes 

Here's Riot Mort with details on ARAM changes that are now testing on the PBE - "Bans, balance, and more are heading to the Howling Abyss for a limited time.":

"Over the past few months, the Modes team has been testing out some ideas in our experimental game modes like Nexus Blitz and ARURF+. While the modes themselves are experiments, we’ve also been testing specific things within the modes, like methods of adjusting and balancing runes and champions. Now that we’ve concluded these tests, we’re taking what we’ve learned and applying it to one of our permanent modes: ARAM. 

In patch 9.7 we’re going to run a mini-ARAM event with a bunch of changes to try out and a few small missions to complete. After 9.7, we will evaluate how those changes did and decide which ones to apply to the mode permanently. 

Let’s take a look at what’s coming to the Abyss. 

Butcher’s Bridge is Back

As promised, the Slaughter Docks are back! We figured this event would be the perfect time to revive the map for old fans and those who never got to try it. However, while we are testing a lot of changes that could be made permanent, the map will not be up for consideration at this time. 

Have fun with the pirate-y version of the game mode! Yaaaarrrrrr! 

Ban Your Troubles Away 

During this event, we’ll be testing the effects of bans: How does it feel to be able to remove that troublesome champ you just don’t like facing up against… in ARAM? Now you can find out! Banning works just like it does on Summoner’s Rift. Once each player locks in their ban, the random champions will be assigned. Banned champs won’t show up in rerolls for that game either. 

Fewer Decided Games & Fewer Drawn-Out Games 

While the average ARAM game time is sitting at a nice and healthy 19 minutes, games can often go longer which can feel really rough if you were expecting something shorter than a Summoner’s Rift game. Even just the risk of a game going 30+ minutes might make it so you don’t have time to play at all, so we’re removing that risk. 

We discussed having the two Nexuses get up and fight each other, but we’ve opted for a different solution:

• From game start to 15:00, minion waves spawn every 25 seconds as normal. At 15:00, spawn rate begins increasing at a linear rate, capping at 25:00 when they’ll spawn every 15 seconds.
• From game start to 15:00, minions have 325 movement speed as normal. At 15:00, they start gaining movement speed every minute until 20:00 when they’ll have 425 movement speed.
• From game start to 15:00, champions deal 10% more damage to structures. At 15:00, that value increases linearly until 25:00 when they’ll deal 30% bonus damage to structures. 

Extra minions provide more gold and experience to help get to the end-game more quickly, and players will be able to push more aggressively after winning a teamfight with help from minions that now keep up. 

Built-In Poke Reduction 

Long-range poke on ARAM is extremely powerful and can be frustrating to face since there isn’t really a counter to it other than dodging. We’re looking to bring down the power of those long-range poke champions so that they’re still an option, but not one that feels so oppressive in an unlucky matchup.

• Damage from champions further than 900 units away is reduced by 15% (this excludes ultimates and damage over time abilities)
• There will be a small visual indicator when this triggers:

New Summoner Spell: Backtrack 

The summoner spell Barrier has been replaced by Backtrack. When activated, Backtrack gives you a small blue shield (less powerful than Barrier) and then 3 seconds later zooms you back towards your Fountain.

The distance you travel is pretty long if you’re a melee champion, but much shorter if you’re a ranged champion.

We’re hoping champs like LeBlanc, Talon, and Evelynn can use Backtrack to engage fights, do some big damage, and then get out safely. (And yes, Skarner can do fun things with it as well.) We’re excited to see all your big Backtrack plays! 

Item Updates 

NEW ITEM: MARINER’S VENGEANCE (ARAM’S GUARDIAN ANGEL)
This new item has the same build path and stats as Guardian Angel, but a very different unique passive. 

Instead of reviving after four seconds with 50% base health and 30% max mana when killed, you instead become invulnerable, cleanse all CC, and refresh your basic abilities cooldowns at the time of death. However, four seconds later, you still die. 

GHOSTWALKERS
These melee-only, Kayn-imitation sneakers are back with some slight adjustments. You can no longer use them if you’ve taken damage in the last 3 seconds, but once you’re in the wall, you will gain an extra 250 movement speed. A really powerful flanking engage option, Ghostwalkers are no longer the “cowards’ boots!”

WARMOG’S ARMOR 

Last time we tested some ARAM changes, we tried removing Warmog’s completely, but it didn’t really have a positive effect on the game mode. So instead of trying to do that again, we’re toning down its power while still allowing it to serve a similar purpose: get back some health after a fight. The passive has been changed from restoring 5% of max HP per second to 5% of missing HP per second. This means it will get you your health back, but not quite top you off. 

Runes Adjustment 

As we did with Nexus Blitz and ARURF+, we’ve adjusted some of the numbers on various runes. Since ARAM is a shorter game mode, certain runes like Gathering Storm were just really bad choices, but now they should be viable options. In addition, there were a few runes that were really powerful in ARAM, so we’ve tuned them down. They should still be good options, but hopefully not always must-picks. 

PRECISION

• Triumph: Restore 6% (from 12%) of your missing HP and grant 10 (from 20) gold
• Presence of Mind: Restore 10% (from 20%) of your max mana and 6% (from 10%) of your ult cooldown

DOMINATION

• Electrocute: Cooldown 15-10 seconds (from 25-20 seconds)
• Predator: Cooldown 100-80 seconds (from 150-100 seconds)
• Taste of Blood: Cooldown 15 seconds (from 20 seconds)
• Ghost Poro: Cooldown 25 seconds (from 60 seconds)

SORCERY

• Nullifying Orb: Cooldown 30 seconds (from 60 seconds)
• Nimbus Cloak: Cooldown 30 seconds (from 60 seconds)
• Gathering Storm: Every 7 minutes (from 10 minutes)

RESOLVE

• Grasp of the Undying: Permanent health gained is 10 (from 5) for melee, 6 (from 3) for ranged
• Conditioning: Activates at 8 minutes (from 10 minutes)
• Overgrowth: Gain 5 health (from 3) for every 8 monsters absorbed; at 80 monsters (from 120) gain additional 2.5% HP

INSPIRATION

• Magical Footwear: Gives at 8 minutes (from 10 minutes)
• Perfect Timing: Activates at 4 minutes (from 10 minutes)
• Minion Dematerializer: Initial cooldown of 2 minutes (from 4 minutes)

Champion Balance 

And finally, let’s talk champion balance. With very few exceptions (ex: Shyvana’s passive) we’ve never really committed the resources to balancing ARAM because we believe champions should behave similarly on both SR and ARAM, so players don’t have to re-learn their picks on different maps. But we tested some low-complexity approaches to balance in both Nexus Blitz and ARURF+ and found them to be quite successful in making the majority of champions viable in those modes. So we’re going to apply that learning to ARAM. 

Our goal is not to completely shuffle the tier list, but simply to narrow the gap between the top and the bottom. Ziggs and Sona should still be strong picks, just not “makes you want to surrender when you’re matched up against them” strong! Here’s the full list of nerfs and buffs: 

NERFS:

• Ashe: -5% damage dealt
• Illaoi: +5% damage taken
• Janna: +5% damage taken
• Jhin: -5% damage dealt
• Jinx: -5% damage dealt
• Kog’maw: -8% damage dealt
• Lux: -8% damage dealt
• Maokai: -8% damage dealt & +5% damage taken
• Miss Fortune: -5% damage dealt
• Nasus: -5% damage dealt
• Sion: +5% damage taken
• Sivir: -8% damage dealt
• Sona: -10% damage dealt & -25% healing done
• Teemo: -8% damage dealt
• Veigar: +5% damage taken
• Vel’Koz: -5% damage dealt
• Yorick: +8% damage taken (doesn’t apply to Maiden of the Mist)
• Ziggs: -15% damage dealt

BUFFS:

• Akali: +12% damage dealt & -8% damage taken
• Bard: +8% damage dealt & -5% damage taken
• Evelynn: +12% damage dealt & -5% damage taken
• Hecarim: -10% damage taken
• Kindred: +10% damage dealt
• Khazix: -10% damage taken
• LeBlanc: +12% damage dealt
• Lee Sin: +8% damage dealt & -10% damage taken
• Nidalee: +15% damage dealt
• Nocturne: +5% damage dealt & -10% damage taken
• Rek’sai: +10% damage dealt & -10% damage taken
• Rengar: -10% damage taken
• Ryze: +8% damage dealt & -5% damage taken
• Sejuani: -10% damage taken
• Tryndamere: +10% damage dealt & -10% damage taken
• Warwick: -8% damage taken 

These balance changes are up for evaluation just like the other tests during this 9.7 mini-event, so these exact numbers might not last. Based on the results during 9.7 and feedback from you, we’ll be making adjustments as necessary. 

Next Steps 

As we mentioned at the top, at the end of Patch 9.7, we are going to take a look at all these changes (minus the Butcher’s Bridge map) and evaluate which ones will stay as permanent parts of the mode based on your feedback, so please share your thoughts with us! 

Players have been sharing a lot of ideas on how to improve ARAM, and we heard them. While we weren’t able to do all of them for this iteration, that doesn’t mean we’re done. We’ll keep working on even more improvements over time to bring you an exciting, shorter-length game mode that’s fun every time! Thanks and have fun on the Bridge!"

Riot Mort also posted a feedback thread over on the boards, and Riot Aotus posted a thread to post about any bugs you find!

Blitzcrank
[Context / Changelist - Testing this cycle, not expected to go to live in 9.7!]

• Mana Barrier (Passive)
• Shield Strength changed from [50% of current mana] to [30% of Max Mana]

• Static Field (R)
• [New Passive] "While Static Field is active, lightning charges Blitzcrank’s fists, marking enemies he attacks. After 1 second, marked enemies take 50/100/150 + 30% AP magic damage. "

Context & Notes

1) Here's Riot Maxw3ll with details on changes now in testing on the PBE for Blitzcrank:

"Heyo party people! Riot Maxw3ll here with my first Red Post of all time. I joined the Champions team about six months ago after seven-ish years’ experience in the industry. I’ve worked at a couple places, most recently being Blizzard, and had a background focusing on Collectible Card Games. 

So, as a show of good faith, I figured my first act as a Champion Designer should be that of removing some old RNG from the game. I’ve got some Blitzcrank changes I’ve been working on that I’d love to get some feedback from y’all on. These should be pushed to PBE later today. 

Just a disclaimer up front: I’m not planning on shipping these changes to live with 9.7. I want to get a temperature read on these changes in PBE to make sure we’re heading in the right direction with Blitz before we pull any triggers. 

Goals:

1. Make the Passive more consistent and not discouraging you to cast spells.
2. Reduce frustration around Blitz’s ult passive and widen its uses in team fights. 

Passive: Mana Barrier
Shield Strength: 50% of current mana -> 30% of Max Mana 

Ultimate: Static Field
Passive: When Static Field is active while in combat, Blitzcrank randomly shocks a nearby enemy every 2.5 seconds (removed) 

New Passive: While Static Field is active, lightning charges Blitzcrank’s fists, marking enemies he attacks. After 1 second, marked enemies take 50/100/150 + 30%AP magic damage. 

Just to clarify, a second auto attack will not refresh the mark, nor interrupt it. If you attack again during the mark, nothing extra happens, and if you attack after the mark, you’ll apply a new one. Blitz can mark any number of targets, limited by his access to them and his attack speed. 

Again, just as fair warning, I don’t expect to ship these changes this patch, but I will be listening and responding to feedback where I can."