Surrender at 20: 10/24 PBE Update: Preseason Back on PBE, Ahri splash revert

The PBE has been updated! The experimental preseason changes are back with a few tweaks, Ahri's new splash art has been reverted, and we have tentative balance changes for Janna, Lucian, and Quinn!

Continue reading for more information!

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

Preseason Changes back on PBE

The wealth of experimental preseason changes ]are now back on the PBE for additional testing! This includes significant changes to the jungle, jungle itemization, objectives, and lots more.

Before we get too far, here's Ypherion with a bit of information on this testing window and a note on the Scuttle Crab camp:

"Hi all,

The experimental preseason changes should be back on PBE from now until early next week then they will be off until the end of this patch cycle.

The Scuttle Crab (new River monster) isn't on PBE right now. This is NOT because we've removed him from our preseason plans, but instead because he was getting delusions of grandeur and spawning endlessly, filling the map with Scuttle Crabs (read: there's a bug :P). We'll get him fixed over the weekend and hopefully have the Scuttle Crab back on PBE on Monday."

Without further ado, here is what is new with the preseason changes, relative to what we saw during the first wave of preseason changes added on October 9th then removed on October 13th.

For context on the new changes, check out these with these threads but be warned they mightbe a bit dated. I'll also try to include brief summaries of each change below:

Gameplay Changes

Smite Rewards

The "killing monster after you use smite on it " rewards for each camp has been changed to a charge system. Each camp now "sparkles" when it has a charge of it's buff and smiting it will now give it's bonus instead of having to specifically kill it after using smite. Each camp can only give the reward once per spawn.

The large monsters in each camp now glow to let you know they have their bonus:

Here's a brief demo of the obtaining the smite rewards:

Krug's on smite bonus has also been changed from an execution bonus to stun for monsters and minions and bonus true damage to a tower.

Dragon Slayer buff
The new Dragon Slayer buff, a stacking and persisting through death buff that is now awarded for each dragon kill instead of gold, has also received significant changes to each of it's stat bonuses.

[For a comparison the OLD STAT BONUSES from Dragon slayer can be found here]

There are also new visual effects associated with the Dragon Slayer buff as well as an animation that plays when you obtain a stack.

At one stack you champion has a very faint fiery glow.

The effect grows stronger every stack you receive and at five stacks your champion has a bright fiery glow and, as noted above, burns enemies you damage.

Here's a video preview of the Dragon Slaying buff at five stacks and the animation when you receive a stack.

Item Changes

[Note: All item comparisons are vs the original set of preseason changes implemented in the 10/9 PBE patch. Check out these rough patch notes for more information and be aware that minor recipe or combine cost changes may not be listed. ]

The new "Jungler" passive on the four Hunter's Machete upgrades - Stalker's Blade, Skirmisher's Sabre, Ranger's Trailblazer, and Poacher's Knife - has had it's mana regen increased to 4 per second up from 3 per second.

Stalker's Blade

Unique Passive - Devastating Smite has been changed to "Upgrades Smite to Devastating Smite, which can be cast on enemy champions, dealing true damage and reducing their movement speed by 50% for 2 seconds.

Killing Large monsters increases the damage of your next Devastating Smite cast on a champion, up to a maximum of three large monster kills."

[Name is bugged, it is not "Quick Smite" and is intended to be "Devastating Smite"]

Each of the four new jungle based item enchants have all been buffed. To brush up, remember that these are a is a new system! Enchants are applied to each of the four new Hunter's Machete items and Hunter's Machete now requires a player to be using the summoner spell smite to purchase.

Enchantment: Juggernaut

Health increased to 500 from 450
Now has +25 Armor
No longer has 10% CDR
No longer has 5% movement speed
Now has Unique Passive - Tenacity

Enchantment: Magus

Ability power increased to 90 from 80
Now gives 10 Magic Penetration

Enchantment: Warrior

Attack damage increased to 60 from 45
Lifesteal increased to 10% from 8%

Enchantment : Devourer

Renamed to "Devourer" from "Stalker"
Attack speed increased to 50% from 40%
Now deals 40 magic damage on hit.
No longer gives 10% CDR
Passive reworked to "Devouring - Killing large monsters increases the Magic Damage of this item by 1 and Champion Kills or Assists increase magic damage by 2" from "Basic attacks grant +6% attack speed for 8 seconds (stacks up to 4 times) and deal 24 bonus magic damage"

Athene's Unholy Grail

Unique Passive - Mana Font changed to "Now restores 1.5% of missing mana every 5 seconds" from "increases mana regen by 1% per 1% of mana missing"

Chain Vest

Now Builds out of one Cloth armor + 450g instead of two cloth armors + 200g
Total price lowered to 750g from 800g

Chalice of Harmony

Unique Passive - Mana Font changed to "Now restores 1.5% of missing mana every 5 seconds" from "increases mana regen by 1% per 1% of mana missing"

Doran's Shield

Now reads "Blocks 8 damage from single target attacks and spells from champions" from "Blocks 8 damage from champion basic attacks"

Seeker's Armguard

Now builds out of Cloth Armor + Amp Tome + 475g

New Item

There is also a new Soul Sickle item included in this patch. It is 1400g and doesn't currently build into anything but it very much seems like the Essence Reaver component item Meddler was recently talking about testing.

Other

Nunu's Consume (Q) tool tip has been updated to reflect the new mobs on the Summoner's Rift update.

To help remember which items are new or significantly change, there is the "riot-Season2015items" tab in the shop.

Ahri Splash Reverted to Live

Ahri's new splash art, that first hit the PBE in the 10/13 update, has been removed from the PBE and reverted back to her current live splash.

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

[All]

As a part of the preseason changes, all champions have received changes to their base damage, HP, Mana, Armor, MR, and HP / Mana regen

Janna

Zephyr (W) cooldown increased to 12 at all ranks from 12/11/10/9/8

Lucian

Ardent Blaze (W) movement speed increased to 40/45/50/55/60 from 40 at all ranks
Ardent Blaze (W) bonus attack damage ratio (.3 bonus AD) removed.

The Culling (R) cooldown increased to 110/100/90 from 100/75/50
The Culling (R) damage per shot increased to 45/55/65 from 40/50/60

Quinn

Attack range increased to 550 from 525.
Movement Speed lowered to 330 from 335.

[Context: We saw these changes added and removed in an earlier update. It is worth noting that no other champions have attack range or movement speed changes as part of the preseason stuff]

Miss out on previous updates from this PBE cycle? Check out THIS PAGE for a comprehensive list of the new content in this PBE cycle or catch up with the links below !