Surrender at 20: 5.21 PBE Cycle

This mega post was last Updated on 10/21 with the 10/21 PBE Update

( With the release of patch 5.20 to live on October 14th, we started the new 5.21 PBE cycle )

Previous PBE Cycles in 2015

[5.1] [5.2] [5.3] [5.4] [5.5] [5.6] [5.7] [5.8] [5.9] [5.10] [5.11] [5.12] [5.13] [5.14] [5.15] [5.16] [5.17] [5.18] [5.19] [5.20]

Below you will find a comprehensive list of new content, balance changes, and whatever else is included in the current PBE cycle! Be aware that these changes are extremely tentative, there is a possibility that things you see below will be changed or even reverted prior to the live patch.

( Note: As the cycle continues, some images may be outdated! )

(Warning: PBE Content is tentative and iterative - what you see may not reflect what eventually gets pushed to live servers! Manage your expectations accordingly. )

New Skins

New Skins

The 5.21 PBE cycle includes THREE new skins - Slayer Jinx, Zombie Nunu, and Slayer Pantheon!

Slayer Jinx

1350 RP

Here's Riot KateyKhaos with a bugs & feedback thread for Slayer Jinx:

"Zombies don't stand a chance against Slayer Jinx! Lookin' at you, Zombie Brand. ;)

Slayer Jinx will be 1350 RP* and includes:

New model and textures for Jinx, Pow-Pow, Fishbones, Flame Chompers and Super Mega Death Rocket!

New particles for Switcheroo! (Molotov cocktails!), Zap!, Flame Chompers and Super Mega Death Rocket!

New sound effects for Switcheroo!, Zap! and recall animation!

New recall animation where she fights off zombies!

Slayer Jinx is now available to play on PBE! Please note that PBE content is still a work in progress! We always find bug reports and feedback super helpful, as well as constructive feedback, so feel free to comment in the thread below! Likewise, if you've got any questions, post 'em here, and we'll do our best to answer them.

*Prices on PBE subject to change."

Zombie Nunu

1350 RP

[Click here to listen to the unique ZOMBIE NUNU voiceover!]

Here's Galetta with a bugs & feedback thread for Zombie Nunu:

"Zombie Nunu and Willump are on a virus spreading rampage across summoners rift....will the Slayers be enough to stop this un-dead duo? This skin includes:

New model and textures!

Several new animations!

Base Run

Zombie run on Blood Boil activation

(Q) and (R)

Recall

New particles!

New VO and SFX!

This skin will be 1350RP. (pricing on PBE is subject to change)

Your feedback and bug reports are extremely helpful to us, so please check out Zombie Nunu and let us know what you think! Feel free to drop any bugs you find in this thread as well!

See you on the Rift!"

Slayer Pantheon

975 RP

Here's Nurse Flan with a bugs & feedback thread for Slayer Pantheon:

"Zombies don't wait around for you to find some fancy weapons. You gotta grab whatever's around and make it work!

Slayer Pantheon's picked up some pipes and a chainsaw to make his all-important spearsaw. He's got a spiked sewer cover and a Do Not Enter sign as his shield, with some fire extinguishers strapped onto his backpack to fly over those pesky zombies!

Completely new model (so post-apocalyptic!)

Mostly new particles on abilities!

New recall! (his spearsaw cuts a thing!)

Lots of new audio (chainsaw revving!)

*975RP (subject to change)

As players who get the first look at this in-progress skin, it would be wonderful to hear your thoughts and feelings on Slayer Pantheon! 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!"

New Summoner Icons

We have a total of six new summoner icons added in the 5.21 PBE cycle, although we do not have availability details yet!

First up are Zombie Brand and Slayer Pantheon themed icons.

We also have four new summoner icons for the four teams headed into the 2015 World Championship semifinals.

[NOTE: Remember, according to this post: "Players who own the 2015 World Champions’ team icon before the start of Finals will be rewarded with a bonus winner’s icon after Worlds is over." -perhaps these are for that as 5.21 will be the last patch to live before Worlds ends.]

This cycle includes two new login screens - one for the upcoming Zombie & Slayer skins and a second login for the World Championship!

Zombie Slayer Login

To go along with the upcoming Slayer and Zombie skins, we have a ghoulish new login!

[Download the music here]

Here's the still image for the Zombie Slayer login:

Worlds Login

We also have another WORLDS login, this time with a blue color scheme and the summoner's cup prominently displayed!

[Download the music here]

Here's the still image for the new World Championship login:

"Illaoi" Champion Select Quote File

A champion select quote for a new "Illaoi" champion popped up during the 5.21 PBE cycle was was quickly removed. Unfortunately, there wasonly a single Portuguese sound clip available and no other files.

[Direct Link]

[ FAN TRANSLATION: "I'm not a fan of (giving) lectures, broken bones are a better teacher"]

We saw something similar happen earlier this year when Ekko's champion select quotes were added erroneously to the PBE prior to his actual reveal.

Ranked Reward Borders

Updated test versions of the load screen borders have been added in today's update, including the new division markers to show which division in each tier players ended the season at.

NOTE: Socrates has mentioned on reddit that "These are placeholder assets to test reward distribution on pbe and not final art."

LEFT to RIGHT: No Rank Blue Side + Red Side, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, Challenger.

More information on these and other rewards for the 2015 ranked season can be found here.

Champion Lore Updates

[UPDATE: Full length lore entries can be found here]

Several Shadow Isles champions have received new in-game short form lore entries. As we've recently seen with Fiora and Kindred, ~~these will be expanded into longer introductions & backgrounds in the future.~~ UPDATE: Full length lore entries can be found here]

Mordekaiser

''All things must die... and yet I live on.''

The baleful revenant Mordekaiser is among the most terrifying and hateful spirits haunting the Shadow Isles. He has existed for countless centuries, shielded from true death by necromantic sorcery and the force of his own dark will. Those who dare face Mordekaiser in battle risk a horrific curse: he enslaves his victims' souls to become instruments of destruction.

Mordekaiser's title is now "the Iron Revenant" rather than "The Master of Metal".

Hecarim

"Break their ranks and ride them down without mercy. Crush the living and feast on their terror.''

Hecarim is an armored colossus who charges from the Shadow Isles at the head of a deathly host of spectral horsemen to hunt the living. A monstrous fusion of man and beast, cursed to ride for eternity, Hecarim revels in slaughter and crushing souls beneath his armored hooves

Kalista

''When wronged, we seek justice. When hurt, we strike back. When betrayed, the Spear of Vengeance strikes!''

A specter of wrath and retribution, Kalista is the undying spirit of vengeance, an armored nightmare summoned from the Shadow Isles to hunt deceivers and traitors. The betrayed may cry out in blood to be avenged, but Kalista only answers those whose cause she deems worthy of her skills. Woe betide those who become the focus of Kalista's wrath, for any pact sealed with this grim hunter can only end on the cold fire of her soul-spears."

Karthus

"'Death is not the end of the journey, it is just the beginning...''

The harbinger of oblivion, Karthus is an undying spirit whose haunting songs are a prelude to the horror of his nightmarish appearance. The living fear the eternity of undeath, but Karthus sees only beauty and purity in its embrace, a perfect union of life and death. When Karthus emerges from the Shadow Isles, it is to bring the joy of death to mortals as an apostle of the unliving.

Thresh

''The mind is a wondrous thing to tear apart."

Sadistic and cunning, Thresh is a restless spirit who prides himself on tormenting mortals and breaking them with slow, excruciating inventiveness. His victims suffer far beyond the point of death, for Thresh wreaks agony upon their souls, imprisoning them in his lantern to torture for all eternity."

Kha'Zix Isolation indicators added.

Kha'Zix's has received a new isolation indicator - the symbol on the actual champion who is isolated - on both his base and Guardian of the Sands skin to better match that of his Mecha Kha'Zix skin.

Here's Riot Fearless with context on the new indicators.

"Hey all!

We recently found a few moments to update a few Kha’zix skins to have targeting indicators more in line with those on the Mecha Kha’zix skin. We felt like the skin provided a much clearer experience over other skins. We saw a window to fix this in a way that makes players using Kha’zix’s base or other skins much happier about the game, without sacrificing the awesomeness of Mecha (Beep, Boop)."

[For reference, here is the same indicator on Mecha Kha'Zix which has not been changed.]

Updated Reports

Here's NeuroCat with a look at the updated report system that is NOW on the PBE for testing!

"Hey everyone,

Last month, we debuted upgrades to the Instant Feedback system (reform cards, improved chat restrictions and intentional feeding bans). Now, we’re continuing the overhaul by pushing out some improvements to the report system. We made two major changes to how you report someone:

1) The old system had a lot of categories, some of which were redundant, not useful, or simply out-of-date. After analyzing old report data and listening to community feedback, we winnowed the list down to seven types of behavior:

2) Sometimes a player might display multiple offensive behaviors in game - in the old system, it wasn't possible to report them for more than one reason. With these upgrades, we’re allowing up to 3 categories to be selected when reporting a player. Keep in mind, selecting multiple categories doesn’t increase the severity of a report, so only select the offenses that happened in the game. In the future, players who falsely report others may face penalties. The more accurate the report, the better we can help players reform their behavior.
This should be hitting the PBE shortly. Please leave a comment if you have any questions."

Party Chat

Looks like there is some sort of new option to talk to your "party" in in-game chat.

"Send a message to your party by typing /party [your message here], then press enter to send."

Currently typing /party in the chat when you are not in a party just returns:

"ERROR - You are not currently in a party."

SPECULATION: Presumably this feature will allow you to talk only to those you have queued with in-game rather than needing to use whispers.

New Masteries Assets

While nothing in-game to mess around with yet, today's update includes a new Mastery related file called "keystoneMasteriesView"! This new file contains several new masteries page assets, including a set of background panels.

Here's the rest of the assets, which also includes a few variations of frames for each part of the tree.

At the moment, these new assets are not observable in the client. With preseason right around the corner, wouldn't be surprising if these were a part of that set of changes!

Centered Splash Art Assets

Over 500 "Centered splash art" assets have been added to the PBE. These arts are zoomed in versions of the original splash with a focus on the middle rather than the right as we see in the champion pages. Here are two examples with Koi Nami and Nasus base.

They are not replacements for the normal splashes but a new asset. There were also few Chinese arts or outdated art (such as Gangplank or Fiora) sprinkled in.

Click the galleries below to preview each image:

(NOTE: Several are outdated or alternative arts and even more totally missing. NOT EVERYONE HAS ONE ATM. Don't panic! LOOK I PUT THIS NOTE TWICE READ IT. )

Perhaps more interesting, there was what appears to be a new Swain base splash art in the mix! Please note that Swain's actual splash has not been updated yet, all we have is this "centered splash" asset showing a unique art.

Miscellaneous

Strings added referring to a new copy of the SR map for testing- "WIP map for updates to Summoner's Rift" & "Summoner's Rift WIP".

[UPDATE: Confirmation from Reinboom - "This isn't a Sandbox mode. This is development map. It's SR with some map rules changes. Nothing more."

Reinboom has commented on SR vision changes testing on PBE to fix issues like this & brush warding problems. This change will not go to live before 5.23 though.

Balance Changes

* Remember *: The PBE is a testing grounds for new, tentative, and sometimes radical changes. The changes you see below may be lacking context or other accompanying changes that didn't make it in - don't freak out! These are not official notes.

Champions

Cho'Gath

Few Changes Cho'Gath's Feast (R) -

New Effect: Enemy champion kills with R give 2 stacks
New Effect: if he kills an enemy unit with feast when he is already at max stacks feast will heal (equal to a stack growth amount) him instead - double heal for enemy champion.

"Ravenously feed on an enemy unit, dealing 300 true damage to champions or 1000 to minions and monsters . If Feast deals a killing blow, Cho'Gath gains a stack of Feast, which causes him to grow in size and gain 90/120/150 maximum health, as well as a bonus effect based on the target.

Bonus from champions: gain an additional stack of Feast.

Bonus from minions and monsters: refund 50% of Feast's cooldown and cost.

Cho'Gath cannot have more than 6 stacks of Feast at once and loses half of his stacks upon dying."

Gangplank

Base HP reduced to 580 from 631
HP per level growth increased to 82 from 79
Parrrley (Q) mana cost reduced to 40 from 50.
Parrrley (Q) no longer refunds 50% of mana cost (25 mana) on kill.

Kassadin

Netherblade (W) active AP ratio increased to .7 from .6
Netherblade (W) cooldown lowered to 7 seconds from 9 seconds.

Mordekaiser

Harvesters of Sorrow (W) passive now grants [bonus experience equal to 50% of the experience lost from sharing] down from granting Mordekasier full experience.

Riven

Blade of the Exile (R) cooldown increased to 130/95/60 from 110/85/50

Veigar

Baleful Strike (Q) damage reduced to 70/110/150/190/230 from 80/125/170/215/260
Dark Matter (W) damage reduced to 100/150/200/250/300 from 120/170/220/270/320.

Zilean

[Context on new passive, Q feel & response tuning, and such available here from 20thCenturyFaux]
Zilean now has a recommended item page for both support and for mid lane.
NEW PASSIVE - Time In a Bottle (Passive) -

"Time in a Bottle

Zilean stores time as Experience at a rate of [2/3.5/5/6/12 at levels 1/6/11/16/18 based on level] per 5 seconds.

When he has enough Experience to finish an ally's level, he can right-click them to impart it. Zilean receives as much Experience as he gives. 120 second cooldown. Cannot be used in combat.

Total awarded: X Experience "

This effect has a 120 second cooldown between uses.
The amount of currently stored xp is shown on bar. You start gaining experience 120 seconds into the game.