Continue reading for the full set of notes, including a run down of the Kassadin rework! Also be sure to check out the bottom of the post for additional information on some of the visual changes mentioned in the patch notes!
Here's Pwyff with the full notes:
Welcome to the 4.4 patch notes! Last patch, we hinted at long-term changes hitting the lab while we tackled the largest outliers in competitive play. This patch, you'll see the first results of that labor as we bring out a healthier (and hopefully less banned) rework Kassadin who still embodies the theme of a mobile anti-magic assassin.
Our other big change is to Lich Bane, as it was skewing a lot of champion power in unhealthy ways. Specifically, there are champions who have a lot of their power tied to Lich Bane - we balanced them to compensate for the changes - and then there are champions who like Lich Bane for its high burst, low cooldown properties. High burst isn't unhealthy if it's timed and executed properly, but Lich Bane was just a pile of damage for something you're already doing, and it came up much, much faster than other burst damage focused items like Deathfire Grasp. Hitting Lich Bane means we can revisit certain champions in the future and maybe buff them up. We've already begun this process for a few of them as you'll see in this patch.
Statikk, one of our designers, is going to go in-depth on power curves (as in when a champ is the strongest or weakest in the game) later on to help explain some of our changes to champs like Kassadin and Elise, so stay tuned for that. The run-down here is that when champion power curves become too extreme, the champs selected decide the outcome of the game rather than the players themselves. Success in League of Legends should always be a combination of pre-game decisions and in-game execution. We want all players to have the opportunity to meaningfully outplay their opponents at each and every phase of the game - even if there are disadvantages - and champions who automatically win those phases just by showing up negates that philosophy.
Now, less philosophy talk, more patch notes talk! Where there's more philosophy talk! Excellent! Exclamation points!
PwyffLoL Client
Continuing the work we did in patch 4.3, we've got some general cleanup and bug fixes.
- Game owners are now labeled as “Owner” in the lobby invites panel
- Players can no longer accept invites while in a matchmaking queue
- Fixed an issue where players who relogged with an on-hold invite (the lobby entered champion select) experienced various issues preventing them from entering games
- Fixed an issue where the invite system counted spectators when determining whether a custom lobby was full
- Fixed a reconnect issue where players who restarted the client while spectating a custom game were stuck on a blank landing page upon relogging
Reworks
Kassadin
Old Kassadin's combination of high mobility, strong disables and high burst damage left his victims with very few to no options against him (other than banning him in every single ranked game), especially when he snowballed ahead. Our focus here is to introduce more counterplay to Kassadin's kit, something we couldn't do with number tweaks alone. For example, lowering Kass's damage doesn't make for an interesting gameplay interaction (it just means you can turn around and smash him in the face if you survive the burst), while increasing his cooldowns means he just needs to wait longer before blowing somebody up.
In the end, we opted for a full-on kit rework to reinforce his core theme as an anti-magic assassin with unrivaled mobility. These changes mean Kassadin must rely on his mobility to pick fights while finding opportunities to dive in and out of combat to take out targets. It's worth stressing: these changes are to make Kassadin less of a "blow someone up when you can" champion and more of a mobile attacker who wants to get in to fight while using Riftwalk to stay safe. Obviously, this is a significant change, so we'll be watching his performance very closely.
We've increased Kassadin's attack range and changed his passive so it no longer grants attack speed but avoids unit collision. We reduced Null Sphere's damage and pulled off the silence, although it will still interrupt channeled abilities. Instead, Null Sphere now grants Kassadin a shield on use. Nether Blade now passively deals bonus magic damage per autoattack and, when activated, deals higher bonus magic damage as well as restoring some of Kassadin's missing mana. No big changes to Force Pulse though we did reduce its damage a bit. Riftwalk, on the other hand, has a lot of changes. We've reduced its cooldown and it now scales with max mana instead of AP. Each stack now doubles the mana cost of the next Riftwalk but we reduced the mana cost and the number of max stacks to compensate. It also no longer refunds mana on hitting enemy champs.
General
VISUALSKassadin's particles have been updated!
ATTACK RANGE125 ⇒ 150
Passive - Void Stone
NEWUTILITYKassadin now additionally ignores unit collision
ATTACK SPEED BONUSBonus attack speed per magic damage reduced ⇒ No longer grants attack speed
Q - Null Sphere
NEWUTILITYNow additionally grants Kassadin a shield for 1.5 seconds that 40/70/100/130/160(+0.3 Ability Power) magic damage
NEWUTILITYSilences the target ⇒ No longer silences, instead it interrupts channel spells
DAMAGE80/110/140/170/200 (+0.7 ability power) ⇒ 80/105/130/155/180 (+0.7 ability power)
NEWW - Nether Blade
PASSIVEKassadin's basic attacks draw energy from the void, dealing 20 (+0.1 ability power) bonus magic damage.
ACTIVEKassadin charges his Nether Blade, causing his next basic attack to deal 40/65/90/115/140 (+0.6 ability power) bonus magic damage and restore 4/5/6/7/8% of his missing mana (increases to 20/25/30/35/40% against champions).
COOLDOWN6 seconds
MANA COSTNo cost
UTILITYResets Kassadin's basic attack timer on activation
E - Force Pulse
DAMAGE80/120/160/200/240 (+0.7 ability power) ⇒ 80/105/130/155/180 (+0.7 ability power)
R - Riftwalk
NEWDAMAGE80/100/120 (+0.8 ability power) ⇒ 80/100/120 (+2% maximum mana)
NEWSTACKING DAMAGE50/55/60 (+0.1 ability power) per stack ⇒ 40/50/60 (+1% maximum mana) per stack
NEWRIFTWALK STACKSCosts +100 mana per stack ⇒ Now doubles its mana cost per stack
NEWUTILITYRefunds mana on hitting enemy champions ⇒ No longer refunds mana on hitting enemy champions
COOLDOWN7/6/5 seconds ⇒ 7/5/3 seconds
MANA COST100 ⇒ 75
MAXIMUM STACKS10 ⇒ 4
STACK DURATION8 seconds ⇒ 12 seconds
Champions
Annie
We like Annie's versatility, but some of her base damage is too high for how she's currently being used. Our goal is to introduce more interesting choices in Annie's kit (particularly on that Disintegrate buff) as we looked for ways to buff her late game scaling when she builds more traditional AP items.
We've reduced Disintegrate's cooldown by half on any kill (champion or minion). We've also fiddled with Incinerate and Tibbers so they do less base damage but scale better with AP.
Q - Disintegrate
NEWUTILITYReduces cooldown by half on all kills (champion or minion)
BASE DAMAGE85/125/165/205/245 ⇒ 80/115/150/185/220
ABILITY POWER RATIO0.7 ⇒ 0.8
W - Incinerate
BASE DAMAGE80/130/180/230/280 ⇒ 70/115/160/205/250
ABILITY POWER RATIO0.75 ⇒ 0.85
R - Summon: Tibbers
BASE DAMAGE200/325/450 ⇒ 175/300/425
ABILITY POWER RATIO0.7 ⇒ 0.8
Diana
The Lich Bane changes affect Diana pretty hard, so we're tweaking her numbers a little to make sure she still packs a punch.
Passive - Moonsilver Blade
ABILITY POWER RATIO0.6 ⇒ 0.8
Elise
Reiterating what was mentioned in the foreword of the patch notes, we like champions that have different strengths and weaknesses at various points in the game, but jungle Elise was an extreme outlier with her super strong spider-of-all-trades early game. This is definitely a nerf, but we'll keep an eye on Elise as she adjusts.
We lowered Neurotoxin/Venomous Bite's damage versus monsters while making Cocoon's stun shorter at early levels and higher at later levels. We also shortened the cooldown of Rappel and lowered spiderling health at early levels but raised it at higher levels.
Q - Neurotoxin
BASE DAMAGE40/80/120/160/200 ⇒ 40/75/110/145/180
MAXIMUM % HEALTH DAMAGE VS. MONSTERS60/120/180/240/300 ⇒50/75/100/125/150
Q - Venomous Bite
BASE DAMAGE60/110/160/210/260 ⇒ 60/100/140/180/220
MAXIMUM % HEALTH DAMAGE VS. MONSTERS60/120/180/240/300 ⇒50/75/100/125/150
E - Cocoon
STUN DURATION1.5 seconds ⇒ 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds
E - Rappel
COOLDOWN26/24/22/20/18 seconds ⇒ 26/23/20/17/14 seconds
R - Spider Form
SPIDERLING HEALTH (ROUGH VALUES)90~260 ⇒ 85~390
SPIDERLING HEALTH (REAL VALUES)
90/100/110/120/130/140/150/160/170/180/190/200/210/ 220/230/240/250/260 ⇒85/95/105/115/125/135/145/160/175/190/210/230/250/ 275/300/325/355/390
90/100/110/120/130/140/150/160/170/180/190/200/210/ 220/230/240/250/260 ⇒85/95/105/115/125/135/145/160/175/190/210/230/250/ 275/300/325/355/390
Ezreal
We saw the Lich Bane changes as an easy opportunity to preserve the AP Ezreal off-build without jeopardizing the health / balance of his primary build.
Q - Mystic Shot
ABILITY POWER RATIO0.20 ⇒ 0.40
Fizz
Lich Bane's a pretty key item for Fizz, so we're giving the little fish dude a buff to compensate for the item change.
W - Seastone Trident
ACTIVE ABILITY POWER RATIO0.15 ⇒ 0.25
Heimerdinger
We've been paying close attention to Heimerdinger since his kit rework and felt he could use a little more late game help. Turret basic attacks deal a hell of a lot more damage than people realize, so we're tying their power in with the “flashier” big sister: The Beam. This way, Heimerdinger must position his turrets for maximum effectiveness on both attacks (basics and beams).
Heimer's got a visual update! We bumped up Heimer's move speed and made some changes to his turrets. Turret health now scales with AP and champion levels, and turret basic attacks now reduce the cooldown of turret beams instead of CDR. Also, turrets are now a little worse at last hitting minions unless Heimer orders them to attack specific ones.
General
Heimerdinger has received a visual update, including one hell of a haircut! Check out the full details here.
BASE MOVEMENT SPEED335 ⇒ 340
Q - H-28G Evolution Turret
NEWUTILITYHeimerdinger now spawns with maximum ammo count
NEWUTILITYTurret Health now scales with Ability Power at a ratio based on level (flat 0.05 Ability Power ratio from levels 1-8, increases by 0.035 per level from levels 9-18 ending at 0.40 at level 18)
NEWUTILITYTurret basic attacks now restore 1/2/3/4/5% Beam charge
NEWUTILITYCooldown reduction modifies beam cooldown ⇒ Cooldown reduction no longer modifies Beam cooldown
SMARTSTurret AI is less reliable at last-hitting minions unless Heimer himself has ordered the Turret by attacking that minion
Kog'Maw
Late game, Caustic Spittle's lower cast range often clashed with Kog's Bio-Arcane Barrage empowered attack range, so we're clarifying Kog'Maw's role as an artillery-lobbing, tank-shredding, spittle-spitting, purple people-eating, puppy-monster… thing.
Caustic Spittle is now a straight line skill shot with a longer range. It has a higher base damage and now shreds the target's armor and magic resistance.
Q - Caustic Spittle
NEWUTILITYTargeted ability ⇒ Now a straight line skill shot
NEWARMOR AND MAGIC RESISTANCE SHREDFlat 5/10/15/20/25 ⇒20/22/24/26/28%
RANGE625 ⇒ 1000
BASE DAMAGE60/110/160/210/260 ⇒ 80/130/180/230/280
ABILITY POWER RATIO0.7 ⇒ 0.5
W - Bio-Arcane Barrage
NEWMANA COST50 ⇒ Now has no mana cost
R - Living Artillery
BUGFIXFixed tooltip to reflect that only the base damage is amplified versus champions
Nautilus
We're giving Nautilus some love so he can be a little safer in the jungle while scaling better into the late game (particularly with his slow early game).
W - Titan's Wrath
COOLDOWN22/21/20/19/18 seconds ⇒ 18 seconds at all ranks
BONUS HEALTH RATIO10% ⇒ 15%
Sivir
Continuing our Sivir watch since her rework. These nerfs mean Sivir can't create an unhealthy lane by auto-pushing her opponents to the tower without interacting with them. The higher mana costs combined with a buffed mana restore on Spell Shield means Sivir needs to take more risks to keep using her abilities.
Q - Boomerang Blade
DAMAGE LOSS PER ENEMY HIT10% ⇒ 15% (still a minimum of 40% damage)
W - Ricochet
MANA COST40 ⇒ 60
E - Spell Shield
MANA RESTORE60/75/90/105/120 ⇒ 80/95/110/125/140
Skarner
We said we'd monitor Skarner after his changes, and we're continuing to do so. The buffs in patch 4.3 were a good direction but it looks like Skarner could use a little more reliability.
E - Fracture
MISSILE WIDTH60 ⇒ 70
MISSILE SPEED1400 ⇒ 1500
Thresh
8 seconds is really all the time a soul needs before it realizes it can escape from Thresh. The shorter window to pick up souls means Thresh will have to take more risks as he tries to collect distant souls.
Passive - Damnation
SOUL DESPAWN RATE15 seconds ⇒ 8 seconds
Tristana
Using Rapid Fire is about timing and opportunity (not mana costs!), so we're clarifying its use.
Q - Rapid Fire
NEWMANA COST50 ⇒ Now has no mana cost
Twisted Fate
Twisted Fate was another Lich Bane fan who relied on its extra damage to stay strong. Now that we've knocked Lich Bane down a few notches, we're giving the Card Master a couple buffs to keep him happy.
W - Pick A Card
ABILITY POWER RATIO0.4 ⇒ 0.5
E - Stacked Deck
ABILITY POWER RATIO0.4 ⇒ 0.5
Vi
Vi deals a lot of damage when building tanky and we want to incentivize her to go back to what she does best: punching things. The change to Assault and Battery gives a little more breathing room for her opponents between her oppressive early ganks while also giving foes more opportunities to capitalize on poorly planned ults.
Vault Breaker has a lower base damage now but scales better with AD. We also raised Assault and Battery's cooldown at early ranks and reduced the knockback duration and distance to secondary targets.
Q - Vault Breaker
MINIMUM DAMAGE50/80/110/140/170 (+.7 Bonus Attack Damage) ⇒50/75/100/125/150 (+.8 Bonus Attack Damage)
MAXIMUM DAMAGE100/160/220/280/340 (+1.4 Bonus Attack Damage) ⇒100/150/200/250/300 (+1.6 Bonus Attack Damage)
R - Assault and Battery
COOLDOWN130/105/80 seconds ⇒ 150/115/80 seconds
KNOCKBACK DURATION ON SECONDARY TARGETS0.5 seconds ⇒ 0.25 seconds
KNOCKBACK DISTANCE ON SECONDARY TARGETS350 ⇒ 250
Minor Changes & Bug Fixes
Fiora
R - Blade Waltz
BUGFIXFixed a bug where Fiora would occasionally be locked out of using Flash if Blade Waltz was interrupted
Karthus
We fixed a bug that caused Karthus to lose certain item buffs for varying amounts of time when he became a spirit. We'll keep an eye on Karthus after this patch as this fix is a significant buff to his damage while in his undead-er form.
Passive - Death Defied
BUGFIXFixed a bug that was causing Karthus to lose the multipliers on Deathcap, Last Whisper, and Void Staff for varying amounts of time after becoming a zombie
LeBlanc
E - Ethereal Chains
BUGFIXFixed a bug where Ethereal Chains could still root an enemy even if LeBlanc was out of range when the secondary effect procced
Lux
We're updating Final Spark's targeting indicator so players who use quick cast can see the range of the spell easier.
R - Final Spark
NEWUTILITYNow displays a targeting circle when highlighting the ability
Quinn
With this change you'll still have to figure out what Valor likes to do, but at least you'll know when he's taking a break and won't help you out on his own.
Passive - Harrier
UTILITYNow displays as 'on cooldown' when Valor is unable to mark a target on his own due to recently marking a target
Udyr
E - Bear Stance
BUGFIXFixed a tooltip bug to reflect that Udyr can stun the same target once every 5 seconds, not 6
Yorick
We fixed a bug that caused Yorick's Omen of Death'd target (well that's awkward to write) to lose certain item buffs for varying amounts of time when they became a zombie. We'll be watching Yorick after this patch as this fix is a significant buff to Omen of Death.
Q - Omen of War
BUGFIXFixed a bug where Yorick could permanently ignore unit collision after casting Omen of War.
R - Omen of Death
BUGFIXFixed a bug that was causing Omen of Death's target to lose the multipliers on Deathcap, Last Whisper, and Void Staff for varying amounts of time after becoming a zombie.
Items
Lich Bane
Historically we've run into a lot of problems with champions who use Lich Bane because of its high-power AP burst, so we're taking a look at the item itself. Lich Bane is designed to be a damage supplement for AP champs that incorporate basic attacks into their spell rotations, unlike Deathfire Grasp which is for champions who want to optimize their burst damage. This adjustment lets us take a look at champions who traditionally depend on Lich Bane for their damage output. We've given a bit of power back to Diana, Ezreal, Fizz and Twisted Fate for now and we'll keep a close eye on the state of the game after this change to see if we need to help out anyone else.
We're lowering Lich Bane's damage.
EMPOWERED DAMAGEDeals 50 (+0.75 ability power) magic damage ⇒ Deals 75% Base AD (+0.5 Ability Power) magic damage
Trinkets (Warding Totem, Sweeping Lens, Scrying Orb)
A lot of players were relying on the early Warding Totem to protect standard invade paths, which ended up preventing meaningful aggression. We like that invading can be a team strategy, so we're hoping this helps out. Plus, lowering the swap cooldown for trinkets should allow for more flexibility.
START COOLDOWN (FOR ALL TRINKETS)90 seconds ⇒ 120 seconds
SWAP COOLDOWN (FOR ALL TRINKETS)180 seconds ⇒ 120 seconds
Wriggle's Line
We're currently working on the Wriggle's line of items and, in patch 4.5, we'll be introducing an "evolution" to Wriggle's Lantern where it transforms into a more powerful item called Feral Flare when you accumulate a large number of monster kills. Once again, that item will hit in 4.5 but you can play with the minor Madred's and Wriggle's changes for now.
The specific goal here is to fill in the “missing link” of jungle items for basic attack reliant champions. We really want to give 'carry' junglers an item that focuses on a weaker early game for mid to late game payoffs.
Madred's Razors now gives attack speed rather than armor. Wriggle's Lantern now gives attack damage and a little more attack speed rather than armor and attack speed.
Madred's Razors
NEWRECIPECloth Armor + Hunter's Machete + 100 gold (total cost 700g) ⇒Dagger + Hunter's Machete + 50g (total cost 750g)
NEWATTACK SPEED+15% Attack Speed
ARMOR+20 Armor ⇒ Removed
PASSIVE MAIMBasic attacks deal 60 bonus magic damage and restore 5 health on hit versus monsters ⇒ Basic attacks deal 60 bonus magic damage and restore 8 health on hit versus monsters
Wriggle's Lantern
NEWRECIPEMadred's Razors + Dagger + Dagger + 150 gold (total cost 1650 gold) ⇒ Madred's Razors + Long Sword + Dagger + 140 gold (total cost 1650 gold)
NEWATTACK DAMAGE+12 attack damage
ATTACK SPEED25% ⇒ 30%
ARMOR+20 Armor ⇒ Removed
PASSIVE GOLD BONUS40% increased gold from monsters ⇒ 30% increased gold from monsters
PASSIVE MAIM(Unchanged) Basic attacks against monsters deal 100 bonus magic damage and restore 10 health.
ACTIVE(Unchanged) Places a stealth ward that lasts 180 seconds (cooldown: 180 seconds)
Summoner Spells
Teleport
We like the offensive pressure that comes from taking Teleport, but its defensive use (ie: lane recovery or base protection) could use some love.
NEWUTILITYTeleporting to an allied turret reduces the cooldown of Teleport by 100 seconds (total 200 second cooldown. 300 seconds if Teleport is used on an object.).
CANCELLATION PENALTYCancelling a Teleport in progress reduces the cooldown of Teleport to 150 seconds ⇒ 200 seconds
Graphical Updates
We're continuing along our goal of making gameplay more readable, satisfying, and visceral. Also pretty.
- Barrier particles and sound effects updated
- Heal particles and sound effects updated
- Teleport particles and sound effects updated
- Ignite particles updated
- Ghost sound effects updated
- Screenshots in the spells tab of your profile have been updated according to recent changes.
Twisted Treeline
Renekton
The crocodile can be pretty overwhelming in a 3s match, so we're taking a little power off.
R - Dominus
BONUS HEALTH300/450/600 ⇒ 200/350/500
DAMAGE PER SECOND40/70/100 ⇒ 30/60/90
Syndra
As a zone control mage, Syndra was designed and balanced to fend off 5 attackers, but she can be oppressive in 3v3 matches.
E - Scatter the Weak
COOLDOWN18/16.5/15/13.5/12 seconds ⇒ 20/18.5/17/15.5/14
R - Unleashed Power
COOLDOWN100/90/80 seconds ⇒ 120/105/90
Crystal Scar
Talon
Talon's invisibility is really strong on wardless maps, so we're upping the cooldown a bit to compensate. We're also lowering his mid/late game burst because really, it's too damn high.
Q - Noxian Diplomacy
BASE DAMAGE30/60/90/120/150 ⇒ 30/55/80/105/130
R - Shadow Assault
COOLDOWN75/65/55 seconds ⇒ 85/75/65 seconds
Thresh
Thresh's soul pickup rate on Dominion is pretty low in comparison to SR, which leaves him lackluster in the stats department. So, we're giving him some help to hit parity with other tanks and supports.
Passive - Damnation
GAINS PER SOUL COLLECTED1 soul = 1 stack ⇒ 1 soul = 4 stacks
R - The Box
COOLDOWN150/140/130 seconds ⇒ 120/110/100
New Visual Points of Interest in 4.4
Here's a look at a few of the new visual changes mentioned in the above patch notes![ Warning: These were taken on the lastest PBE build and may not reflect exactly what he's pushed to live.]
Heimerdinger VU
As usual, I'll have a dedicated post covering the Heimerdinger VU when the the patch a little later when the patch has been pushed to live.For the time being, feel free to check him out in our PBE coverage!
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Vel'Koz Texture Tweaks
Thank you for your contribution."
Thank you for your contribution."
New Kog'Maw Q
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Updated Kassadin VFX
All of Kassadin's abilities have new VFX!
Summoner Spell VFX
Barrier
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Heal
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Ignite
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Teleport
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