8.2 PBE Cycle

Previous PBE Cycles in 2018

[7.24] [8.1]

Table of Contents

1350 RP (set for 8.2 release)

Here's Riot LoveStrut with a bugs & feedback thread for Arctic Ops Gragas:

"https://imgur.com/PucSDJV 

As part of an elite task force, Arctic Ops Gragas emerges from his trusty submarine to body slam through any mission. 

Frigid Features 

• All-new model: Geared up and ready for arctic operations.
• All-new animation(s): Radios in his submarine for a quick recall.
• All-new VFX: Volatile, subzero chemicals swirl within his barrel.
• All-new SFX: Icy and explosive audio with processed VO. 

We always love hearing your feedback and feelings! All bug reports and thoughts help us make these skins even more awesome, so please keep 'em coming! 

Thanks, cuties! <3" 

Sweetheart Rakan

"https://imgur.com/Tn5QK6E 

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Xayah, my love,
I’ll protect you. 

Fall in love with the love bird, Sweetheart Rakan! 

• New model and textures: A charming new look for the Charmer himself!
• New VFX: Pretty in pink!
• New SFX: Magical harp sound effects!
• New animations : A new recall in typical Rakan style and duo recall with his other half! 

A bit of context as to why Sweetheart Xayah/Rakan don't have 1:1 making color schemes: As with their base skins, Rakan is meant to be the flashy one (lighter/brighter), and Xayah is a darker tone. With their similar silhouettes (capes), it's important we differentiate w. color. 

Sweetheart Rakan 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! ^-^ 

Sweetheart Rakan is set to be 1350 RP.
*Prices are subject to change"

Sweetheart Xayah

"https://imgur.com/9HcNQ3M 

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Don’t be mad at me
‘Cause you’re 0/2. 

Fall in love with the love bird, Sweetheart Xayah! 

• New model and textures - A new Valentine’s Day look for the Rift Rebel!
• New VFX: Pink, purple, and glittery gold feathers, and a new, less aggressive taunt decal. <3
• New SFX: Melodic harp sound effects!
• New animations - A new recall with some forest friends and a duo recall with her other half! 

A bit of context as to why Sweetheart Xayah/Rakan don't have 1:1 making color schemes: As with their base skins, Rakan is meant to be the flashy one (lighter/brighter), and Xayah is a darker tone. With their similar silhouettes (capes), it's important we differentiate w. color. 

Sweetheart Xayah 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! ^-^ 

Sweetheart Xayah is set to be 1350 RP.
*Prices are subject to change" 

Lunar Guardian Nasus

"https://imgur.com/k355TC1 

Lunar Guardian Nasus Solemn and quietly powerful, he annihilates all who threaten the kingdom with: 

• New model and textures: Adorned in golden armor, with an even more regal ultimate form.
• New VFX: Beautiful jades and golds!
• New SFX: Shimmery, metallic sound effects, perfect for a stoic guardian!
• New animations: A new recall for the stalwart protector. 

Lunar Guardian Nasus 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! ^-^ 

Lunar Guardian Nasus is set to be 1350 RP.
Prices are subject to change"

Lunar Guardian Warwick

"https://imgur.com/lNqLsz9 

Lunar Guardian Warwick relentlessly pursues the darkness to the ends of the world. He brings: 

• New model and textures: With armor as ferocious as it is ornate!
• New VFX: A new kit full of wild jades and golds!
• New SFX: Shimmery, metallic sound effects befitting a beastly demigod!
• New animations: A new recall for a ferocious guardian. 

Lunar Guardian Warwick 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! ^-^ 

Lunar Guardian Warwick is set to be 1350 RP.
* Prices are subject to change"

Lunar Empress Lux

Groomed from a young age to guard the immortal realm from darkness, the Lunar Empress and her companions are said to stand watch over the world. Lux, though a powerful demigod in her own right, draws aid from the ever-faithful Warwick and Nasus.

"https://imgur.com/oVaMIhO 

Don’t underestimate the power of Lunar Goddess Lux . She shines brighter than ever with:

• New model and textures: Complete with a golden staff and stylish outfit~
• New VFX: A new kit full of bright oranges and gold with hints of jade!
• New SFX: Magic and metal mix to form a harmonious sound!
• New animations: A new recall—Lux is protected by her pups! 

Lunar Goddess Lux 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! ^-^ 

Lunar Goddess Lux is set to be 1350 RP.
*Prices are subject to change"

New Chroma

Nineteen new chroma have been added for both upcoming Lunar Revel 2018 skins and several previously released skins! General chroma pricing information available here.


Here's Riot Orphyre with the bugs & feedback thread for the Lunar Revel chroma:

"Hey everyone! 

Sorry for the wait! To make it up to all of you, we’ve got a bunch of Chromas coming out this patch! We’ll have Chromas coming out for Lunar Empress Lux, Lunar Guardian Nasus, Lunar Guardian Warwick, as well as a set of Golden Chromas for previous Lunar Revel skins (incl. Guqin Sona, Warring Kingdoms Garen, Lunar Wraith Caitlyn, Warring Kingdoms Katarina, Dragonwing Corki, and Dragonblade Riven. Whew!) 

Lunar Empress Lux Chromas:

• New textures: “Shine bright!”
• Ruby - A little red for good luck
• Peridot - I’m not jaded at all~
• Rose Quartz - Peachy as ever
• Amethyst - The lotus blooms pure and untainted
• Turquoise - For a vivid new year

Lunar Guardian Nasus Chromas:

• New textures: “The cycle of life and death continues. We will live, they will die.”
• Ruby - My infernal brother’s going to be jealous
• Meteorite - “The sky was naught but dying stars”
• Pearl - True ascension has never felt better
• Turquoise - “More souls for the pyre”

Lunar Guardian Warwick Chromas:

• New textures: “You hurt them, I hurt you.”
• Ruby - “Blood brings rage”
• Meteorite - The darkness consumes, the monster emerges
• Pearl - Such extravagance... delicious
• Turquoise - A new year, a new beast

Golden Chromas: Will be available through loot

• New textures: From rags to riches!
• Guqin Sona - Listen Summoner, to my new etwahl
• Warring Kingdoms Garen - For glory and Demacia!
• Lunar Wraith Caitlyn - The golden gun
• Warring Kingdoms Katarina - Let’s get these gold daggers dirty
• Dragonwing Corki - Ever ride a gold dragon before?
• Dragonblade Riven - Just wait till you see my golden blade reforged!

The Chroma sets are now available on PBE! However, there are currently a few notes: 

• Final Names: The names in-game are not up to date, the final names are the ones you see above
• Legacy: These Chromas will be Legacy skins, meaning they will, at some point in time, become unavailable for purchase

We hope you all will enjoy the new sets, but we’re also looking forward to hearing your constructive feedback. I’ll do my best to answer and reply to your questions and feedback! 

Thanks!

Riot Orphyre"

Riot Mort also noted that it would not require a pass to be able to get the Golden Chroma during the event:

"I can confirm these are not through a pass. I can also confirm they are not random, and you will be able to pick the one you want if you get one. 

Also while passes aren't in this event, I wouldn't say they are off the table in the future. If we find a more satisfying way to do them, they may return."

They also confirmed you should be able to get all six chroma:

"It will be possible to get all 6."

New Summoner Icons

In addition to the new skin sets, a slew of new Lunar Revel and Valentine's Day summoner icons have hit the PBE!


Two other summoner icons were added to the PBE, but no details on what they are for just yet!

New Esports Summoner Icons

Forty-six new Esports themed summoner icons are now on the PBE! These join seventy-two other icons seen in the 8.1 PBE cycle:

New Ward Skins

Three new ward skins are now on the PBE: Warwick Puppy Ward, Nasus Puppy Ward, and the Lovebirds Ward!

Warwick Puppy Ward

Nasus Puppy Ward

Lovebirds Ward

New Emotes

A plethora of new emotes have hit the PBE, including eight Lunar Revel and eight Valentine's Day themed emotes, as well as Leveling reward emotes for level 200 and beyond:


Four new leveling reward emotes were added to the PBE; these are noted in the files as "Legend 8" for level 200, "Legend 9" for level 225, "Legend 10" for level 250, and "Legend 11" for level 275.

Lunar Revel Map Accents and Baron Skin

The 8.2 PBE cycle brings us some Lunar Revel map accents, including Baron Nashor all dressed up for the event!

Updated Miss Fortune Splashes

The wait is over! Six of Miss Fortune's skin splash arts have been updated on the PBE!

Cowgirl Miss Fortune

Waterloo Miss Fortune

Secret Agent Miss Fortune

Candy Cane Miss Fortune

Road Warrior Miss Fortune

Mafia Miss Fortune

[Patched to Live] 2018 Season Login Themes

Two new login themes are now on the PBE, celebrating the 2018 season! The files names are noted as "season2018-pre" and "season2018-post". These logins were patched to live as of 1/12!

Changes to Sightstone/Support Items coming to PBE 

Here's ItsLowbo with changes for sightstone/support items this patch:

"Hello! I’m Lowbo, a systems designer on the Game Systems team, and I’m here to talk to you about changes to Sightstone and the core support items!
The requirement to buy Sightstone has long existed as a tax on the support position, and while vision is an important element of the game, the way it delivers this has been a drain on satisfaction for a long time. We’d like to lift the obligation while still empowering Supports to be heavy participants in the vision game. 

Quick explanation of change

• Sightstone and all of its upgrades will be removed from the store.
• Support items will gain Sightstone’s active as their quest reward.
• Support Tier 3 items now build out of Tier 2 and a Ruby Crystal, and give you the same stats as their respective line’s “Eye of the __” upgraded Sightstone on live.
• For more context, read below. I’ll go through the goals and reasons behind these changes, and then give the complete changelist.
• NOTE: Current names and icons for Tier 3 are temporary. We’ll have new names and icons for all three lines for Tier 2 after quest completion, and Tier 3 both pre and post quest completion. 

Goals of Change  

• The main drive behind these changes is that we want supports to be more free to pursue their own build paths. Without a mandatory 800 gold purchase in the early game, Supports will be able to make more choices and have more agency over how their power is expressed. We will try to keep Sightstone timings and general support economy to be close to their live values.
• One thing we’ve learned from Ardent Censer over the summer is that Support players greatly appreciated the ability to rush impactful items - they were able to feel like a bigger participant in the game. We’ve also learned that the game still functions well without a Sightstone rush - in other words, the game doesn’t break down from a lack of early vision.
• We would still like Sightstone times to be a reflection of the support player’s skill, so we are putting it on the quest reward rather than just giving it out at a specific game time. We found that for most players, the existing quest rewards were very low satisfaction relative to their power level. We hope that gaining this active is a much more noticeable and satisfying reward.
• Unfortunately, having an active as the quest reward requires us to remove the active branches of the item chains - Frost Queen’s Claim, Face of the Mountain, and Talisman of Ascension. Some of the actives provided important options, and so we’ll be looking at ways to bring Frost Queen’s Claim and Talisman of Ascension back in modified forms. Face of the Mountain’s active will likely not return in the immediate future. 

More Detailed Changelist:  

• Sightstone and Ruby Sightstone have been removed from the store.
• The quest reward from all three gold income item lines is changed to grant Sightstone’s active.
• You will still be required to upgrade to Tier 2 to finish your quest.
• Quest reward thresholds are reduced to 500 gold.
• Your Tier 3 item will build out of your Tier 2 item and a Ruby Crystal, and will give you the same stats as an upgraded Sightstone on live. There is no longer a branching path to Tier 3 - the active variants of the items have been removed.
• Upon quest completion, your Tier 2 item will have a maximum of 3 wards between trips to the store. Upgrading to Tier 3 will give you a maximum of 4 wards stored. 

Timing and Future Work 

• We expect these changes will go out in 8.2, but they might be delayed a patch or two if we hit bugs or snags with implementation..
• We’re still going to be ironing out some details - whether you have to return to the store to stock up on your first ward charges, around what time do we want the rewards to activate, whether this makes Spellthief’s line too risky (as you can get locked out of income generation if laning phase ends early), things like that. We will also be closely monitoring poaching by other laners and junglers. 

Thanks for reading! I’ll be around to answer questions."

Lowbo provided a bugs and feedback thread for the Sightstone changes:

"Sightstone and all of its upgrades will be removed from the store.
Support items will gain Sightstone’s active as their quest reward.
Support Tier 3 items now build out of Tier 2 and a Ruby Crystal, and give you the same stats as their respective line’s “Eye of the __” upgraded Sightstone on live. 

NOTE: Current names and icons for Tier 3 are temporary. We’ll have new names and icons for all three lines for Tier 2 after quest completion, and Tier 3 both pre and post quest completion. 

Please send any feedback and bugs you may have noticed playing with these changes on the PBE!"

Check out the balance changes below for more details!

PBE Bugs & Feedback Thread: Ally Skin Previews in Champion Select

Here's Riot SapMagic with a look at the new ally skin preview in champion select:

"Hey friends! 

Later today we'll be activating Ally Skin Previews in Champion Select on PBE. The name pretty much says it all - starting patch 8.2, you'll be able to see which skins your teammates have selected. Now you can set up that sick Championship Thresh / Kalista bot lane or that all-Star Guardian team. 

The Details

• Previews work in any matchmade game
• Previews are only visible in Finalization Phase
• Previews for other players are throttled slightly to avoid spamming, which can have negative impacts on performance
• Previews only appear for skins you own 

Hit us with that sweet, sweet feedback and feel free to report any bugs you see as well." 

Skin Collections Tab: Skin Descriptions Feature Feedback

The Skins Collection tab is being updated with short and sweet skin descriptions.

Here's an example using the recently released Snow Fawn Poppy.

"The Poro King's right hand and loyal shield, Poppy enforces her furry liege's decrees and protects him from all harm. She also enjoys Snowdown festivities, a holiday she discovered on one of her many colorful adventures."

Here's Riot Stellari with more:

"Hey all!

We’re really excited to announce that starting in patch 8.2 we’ll be rolling out Skin Descriptions for the Skins Collection Tab.

When we set out to make a new skin, we think a lot about how it fits into the skin’s alt-universe, what the champion’s background might be, and who the champion is in this universe. These conversations and character building inform everything about a skin, from the VFX, SFX, the recall, and of course the splash.

Sometimes we’ve shown you these stories through animations, comics, or short stories, etc… but a lot of times that background story remains head-canon and never leaves our brains...which is a shame. We want to start showing you more skin related ‘lore’ and background information, and adding descriptions to skins is one step in doing that.

We DO try to surface these background snippets in the splash or in-game elements and sometimes we succeed (Omega Squad skins). A lot of ya’ll picked up on the backstory of how Omega Squad Teemo lost his mentors and became the battle hardened Yordle psycho we know.

But sometimes we fail, like with the Immortal Journey skins. Did you know that Eternal Sword Master Yi was in love with an ascended being who guarded the Sacred Sword (cough Janna not Shen)? No? Well, if you did it was probably because you followed me on Twitter or saw my responses here. We didn’t do a very good job of telling that background story, unfortunately.

We hope with this small addition to the Skin Collection tab we’re able to give players who love skins a little bit more into the world they live in. In the future, we’ll also be adding the ability to sort by Skin Universe (did you know Project and Program share the same universe?)

As we have close to 1,000 skins in the game, categorizing and ordering them is going to be an ongoing process. Sometimes we have to go deep into the past: what was the backstory with Dark Candy Fiddlesticks? Did one exist? So this will take some time. But with each patch we’ll be adding a few more until we’re all caught up. With this initial batch, we focused on our biggest thematic sets, but you’ll be seeing a lot more shortly.

Do you have thoughts or feedback on the Skins Collection Tab? Let Riot Jedahs (Skin Collection Tab producer) and me (Skins producer) know! :)"

Miscellaneous 

• Start of 2018 Season messaging now is now on PBE, you should see these when you first log on:

Brand 

• Blaze (Passive) changed from "When Blaze reaches max stacks on a Champion or monster" to "When Blaze reaches max stacks on a Champion or large monster"

Evelynn
[Context][note: empowered E tooltip bugged in current build, normal E tooltip displays correct numbers]

• Whiplash (E)
• Unempowered damage changed from [4% max health (+2.5% per 100 AP)] to [3% max health (+1.5% per 100 AP)]

• Empowered damage changed from [6% max health (+3.5 per 100 AP)] to [4% max health (+2.5% per 100 AP)]

Ezreal

• Mystic Shot (Q) damage changed from 35/55/75/95/115 to 15/40/65/90/115

Jinx
[Context]

• Base AD lowered from 63 to 61
• AD growth increased from 2.5 to 2.7
• Get Excited (Passive)
• Attack speed no longer stacks
• Attack Speed uncaps when Jinx is excited

• Switcheroo! (Q)
• bonus attack speed increased from 30/40/50/60/70% to 30/55/80/105/130%
• Minigun attack speed no longer scales with Jinx's level
• "Jinx's first attack after switching from rockets to minigun comes out within .4 seconds of swapping (instead of waiting for her full attack timer).
• "Updated Rocket attack animations to feel snappier."