Surrender at 20: Patch 4.20 Notes

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Patch 4.20 is on the way and the official patch notes have been posted!

Continue reading for the full set of patch notes, including a look at all the preseason changes, Kalista's upcoming release, several new skins, and more!

Here's the full patch notes, this time with an introduction by Pwyff:

"Hey Summoners,

Welcome to patch 4.20, the first patch of the 2015 preseason and one of our biggest updates for League of Legends to date. Whew.

The big theme of the 2015 preseason (and boy will you hear this a lot) is Strategic Diversity. That sounds like a vague concept (does anyone remember "End-game Fantasy" from the 2014 preseason?), but our high-level philosophy is we want to offer you more paths to victory so that your in-game decisions matter just as much as the champions you pick. In previous years, we've lacked the proper systems and levers to balance different strategies against each other, so when teams would discover unique ways to win, we'd either have to watch Ziggs bomb the stuffing out of people in stall / poke compositions, or we'd just have to tackle the manic yordle on a personal level. This year, rather than trying to 'fix' tactical problems from the previous season, we're instead introducing a metric tonne of changes to map-wide objectives, a complete rehaul of the jungle and jungle itemization, and a number of strategic item additions / modifications. With these new paths in place, how you strive for victory will vary with each individual game and our hope is that all of this adds up to more far more strategic diversity and experimentation in League.

To be blunt, we were dubious about the idea of introducing so much change to the game, but then we realized that preseason is high-time for refining, polishing, and evolving, so we went for some ambitious goals this year. It's also worth noting that this is just the beginning. There are... a lot of changes here and, with so many variables at play, we're expecting the game to be disrupted, imperfect, and requiring even more work over time. That said, we're confident with the direction this preseason is headed, and we're more than happy to course correct as things play out. There's no comparison for our months of internal tests against millions of your own, so we're excited (and a little scared) to see what you have up your sleeves.

Anyway, there's a whole lot of information to be found on the preseason, including the 2015 Preseason Spotlight and the very pretty 2015 Preseason Microsite. Be sure to check those out if you want some high-level introductions to our changes, as we're going to be going verydeep on the philosophy in these notes. Expect to hear from us throughout!

P.S. We visually updated everyone's favorite tree! Play tree every day."

Chris "Pwyff" Tom

Champions

General Context

While we're aiming to improve the quality of life for many junglers in the preseason, the truth is some junglers are going to get more mileage out of these changes than others. While it might be weird to get "pre-emptive" nerfs based on systems that haven't been publically tested, these guys and gals (and mummies and rammii) just keep coming up in our internal playtests, and we don't want to be responsible for Amumu (just an example) becoming more of a solo-queue star than he currently is.

Second note - you're going to see a stat called "growth stat" in these champion patch notes rather than "per-level" stats. The reason is due to some complicated math we're rolling out regarding base stats and stats per level, all of which you can read about here..

Recommended Items

HELPS MORE THAN YOU THINKRecommended items for all champions have been updated

WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGYRecommended items now detect if you have Smite or not and change accordingly

Stats Gained Per Level

Stat advantages through levels have been smoothed out. Honestly speaking, Leona + Graves will still beat the stuffing out of you at level 2, but level advantages should be more focused on ability ranks than raw stat gains. Mana regeneration has been normalized across mages and supports to account for the new mana regeneration item changes.

Basically we're trying to smooth out level advantages through stat gains. Given how strong basic attacks and ability levels are during the early game, flat stat per-level advantages only magnify early game snowballing - especially that level 2 power spike that laners use to punch their opponents in the face.

For the attack damage change, we saw an opportunity to lightly address the minor imbalance between ranged and melee in the solo lane, so ranged champions (and Jayce / Kayle) won't have their base AD modified by the base stat buff (which rounds out to +2 AD for melee champions). There's something to be said about loss aversion, but let's not go into that.

HOW DID WE ARRIVE AT 168%All champions have had their base stats raised by 168% of their old per-level statistic (except attack speed)

NO SUCH THING AS LOSS AVERSIONAll ranged champions (and Kayle / Jayce) have opted out of having their attack damage increased by 2 via the above +168% base stat buff

STATISTICAL RENAMING"Per level" statistics have been renamed "growth" statistics to better reflect what's going on - see below for more information

STATS GAINED PER LEVELNo longer linear. Instead, stats follow the following formula:

Level 1: Immediately gain 0% of your growth statistic. All of your 'base stats' will be calculated off of this
Level 2: Gain +72% of your growth statistic
Level 3: Gain +75.5% of your growth statistic
Level 4: Gain +79% of your growth statistic
... Gain +((Level*3.5 - 7) + 72)% of your growth statistic
Level 18: Gain +128% of your growth statistic

TOO LONG, DIDN'T READAt level 18, you've gained +1700% of your growth statistic (this is slightly more than the old formula)

Champion Mana Regeneration Changes

These mana regen changes are less related to stat gains and more to do with our modifications to mana regeneration items (specifically how they're now based off base stats rather than being flat values). There's a lot of math behind the curtain, but this also sets the foundation for any future work we do on differentiating champions through on mana regeneration. In other words: before this patch, mana regeneration was a little arbitrary, with each champion roughly balanced off their closest counterparts. Now if we do change champion base mana regen, it'll be for a very deliberate reason and you'll see clear groups of champs affected differently by mana regeneration items.

The following mages / tank supports are being changed to have 6 base mana regeneration (mp5) and +0.8 mana regeneration (mp5) growth stat:

Ahri, Alistar, Anivia, Annie, Azir, Blitzcrank, Braum, Cassiopeia, Diana, Elise, Fiddlesticks, Fizz, Galio, Gragas, Heimerdinger, Jayce, Karma, Karthus, Kassadin, Kayle, LeBlanc, Leona, Lulu, Lux, Malzahar, Morgana, Nidalee, Orianna, Ryze, Swain, Syndra, Taric, Thresh, Twisted Fate, Veigar, Vel'koz, Viktor, Xerath, Ziggs, Zilean, Zyra

The following traditional supports are being changed to have 9 base mana regeneration (mp5) and +0.4 mana regeneration (mp5) growth stat:

Janna, Nami, Sona, Soraka

Kalista

Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance, will be released with Patch 4.20!

Maokai

Maokai has been updated! Check out the article if you want the full story, or below if you just want the specifics.

General

VISUALSUpdated model and textures for base, Charred, Totemic and Festive skins. Haunted Maokai has received a texture update and Goalkeeper Maokai is unchanged.

VISUALSUpdated VFX for base and all skins

ICONSNew ability icons

SPLASHNew base splash

Azir

Big early game buffs to Q and E, small late game nerf to W's AP ratio.

We think Azir's pretty close from a power-level perspective, so we're re-balancing his numbers to smooth out his curve. Early buffs to Q and E should help him take flight, while a nerf to his late-game soldiers should clip his wings before he flies too high.

Q - Conquering Sands

BASE MAGICAL DAMAGE60/90/120/150/180 ⇒ 75/105/135/165/195

W - Arise!

RATIO0.7 ability power ⇒ 0.6 ability power (for both the stab and turret damage)

E - Shifting Sands

BASE SHIELD AMOUNT60/100/140/180/220 ⇒ 80/120/160/200/240

Amumu

Less base armor, reduced W damage at early ranks.

With beefed-up health pools across the jungle and this little mummy dealing area-effect % health damage, Amumu's going to be a big beneficiary of the 2015 preseason jungle changes. We're taking preemptive measures to pull his clear speeds back in line, but we still expect him to be one of the stronger champions heading into this preseason.

General

ARMOR27 ⇒ 23

W - Despair

ADDITIONAL DAMAGE PER SECOND1.5/1.8/2.1/2.4/2.7% of enemies' maximum health ⇒ 1/1.5/2/2.5/3% of enemies' maximum health

Evelynn

Buffing Evelynn's base armor to survive in the new jungle.

Though Eve spends less time power-jungling and more time making your opponents rage-quit, we found she was having too much trouble with the jungle's new difficulty. A tune-up to her base stats should make sure Evelynn doesn't stay perma-stealthed in champ select.

General

BASE ARMOR22.72 ⇒ 26.5

ARMOR GROWTH STAT4 ⇒ 3.8

Fiora

Changing the way Blade Waltz does damage. It'll do the same to a single target, but less AoE with Tiamat / Ravenous Hydra.

While it's a little weird to have to nerf a champion due to their overwhelming synergy with a core item (Tiamat / Ravenous Hydra in this case), Fiora's a more unique case as Tiamat lets her turn an already low-counterplay ability (Blade Waltz) into a high-damage area-effect low-counterplay ability. Additionally, some of our predictive models show that Fiora will probably benefit from the 2015 preseason changes, so we wanted to make some low-scope preliminary changes. This is a long context to say that we're re-emphasizing Fiora's duelist capabilities so she needs to be more opportunistic when looking for a dance.

R - Blade Waltz

BASE PHYSICAL DAMAGE160/330/500 ⇒ 125/255/385

TECHNICALLY A BUGFIXSort of fixed a bug where Blade Waltz' AD ratio was displaying as 1.2 when it's actually 1.15. This is technically a bugfix because...

RATIO1.2 bonus attack damage ⇒ 0.9 bonus attack damage

SAME TARGET DAMAGE25% ⇒ 40%

Gnar

Lots of complicated math means that Mega Gnar gets less stats early on but more later. Boomerang and Boulder Toss are getting their damage shifted into the AD ratio. Hyper's damage is going down in the early game and Wallop's cooldown is going up.

Gnar's become quite the handful when it comes to his bullying potential. Sweeping changes to his early-game bases should give him a bit of a time out (heh, get it?) during the laning phase, while buffs to Mega Gnar's late-game scaling means you probably still wouldn't like him when he's angry.

General

BASE HEALTH REGENERATION5 ⇒ 2.125

Passive - Rage Gene

MINI GNAR MOVEMENT SPEED+10-25 (9 + (+1 per level from 1-14 / +0.5 per level at 15-18)) ⇒ +10-30 (9 + (+1 per level from 1-15 / +2 per level at 16-18))

MINI GNAR ATTACK SPEEDDue to the 2015 preseason changes to base stats, Mini Gnar's attack speed bonus has been folded into his base attack speed and converted to a growth stat. Mini Gnar now has an attack speed growth stat of 6. This should have no functional impact on Gnar.

THIS GETS COMPLICATEDWith the 2015 preseason changes to base stats, Mega Gnar had some of his bonuses shifted around so he wouldn't break the system. In addition to reverting Mega Gnar's bonuses into base growth stats, we've done two things to affect Mega Gnar - his early attack damage and health are lower in the early game, but higher at later levels. The math behind this change (especially as it converts from per-level stats to growth stats) gets very complicated, but the raw difference is that, at level 1, Mega Gnar will lose about 30 health and 4 attack damage compared to he would have had. Mega Gnar's new growth stats are listed below:

ATTACK DAMAGE GROWTH STAT5.5

HEALTH GROWTH STAT108

HEALTH REGENERATION GROWTH STAT+3 health per 5 seconds

ARMOR GROWTH STAT4.5

MAGIC RESISTANCE GROWTH STAT2

Q - Boomerang Throw

BOOMERANG DAMAGE10/45/80/115/150 (+1.0 total attack damage) ⇒5/35/65/95/125 (+1.15 total attack damage)

BOOMERANG WIDTH60 ⇒ 55

Q - Boulder Toss

BOULDER DAMAGE10/50/90/130/170 (+1.15 total attack damage) ⇒5/45/85/125/165 (+1.2 total attack damage)

W - Hyper

BASE DAMAGE25/30/35/40/45 ⇒ 10/20/30/40/50

MAX MAGIC DAMAGE VERSUS MONSTERS75/125/175/225/275 ⇒100/150/200/250/300

W - Wallop

COOLDOWN12/11/10/9/8 seconds ⇒ 15/13/11/9/7 seconds

Heimerdinger

We're giving Heimerdinger some health regen so he won't get messed up by the 2015 preseason base stat migration.

Previously, the Dinger got all of his health regen stat from his passive in lieu of having a base health regen stat. Now that health regeneration scales from your base, we thought it was important that he be able to regenerate health.

General

BASE HEALTH REGENERATION+0 health per 5 seconds ⇒ +11 health per 5 seconds

HEALTH REGENERATION GROWTH STAT+0.6 health per 5 seconds ⇒ +1.75 health per 5 seconds

Passive - Techmaturgical Repair Bots

REMOVEDFOR MATH REASONSHeimerdinger is no longer affected by his own passive so he can actually scale with health regeneration items

Katarina

Death Lotus has a higher cooldown and lower damage at ranks 1 and 2, but normalizes back its old values at rank 3.

Katarina's been on a tear recently, rising to near-permanent-ban status across various regions. With shifts in the game landscape alongside various preseason changes (chief among them the lowered regeneration across the board), Katarina may very well be one of the strongest beneficiaries post 4.20. We're keeping an eye on her but, in the meantime, taking some of the Death out of Death Lotus to make sure Kat doesn't Shunpo her way to a top spot.

R - Death Lotus

COOLDOWN60/52.5/45 seconds ⇒ 90/60/45 seconds

MAGIC DAMAGE400/575/750 ⇒ 350/550/750

Kha'Zix

Void Spike's cooldown is higher. By 2 seconds. Excellent summary.

Though Kha'Zix has been at the forefront of bottle-necking competitive diversity for a while now, we're content with giving him a slap on the wrist due to the massive shifts the upcoming season will bring. The increased cooldown to Void Spikes should see this jumping and slashing jungle-bug rely a little less on poking from afar and more on what he's really about: jumping and slashing (and jungle-bugging).

W - Void Spike / Evolved Spike Racks

COOLDOWN8 seconds ⇒ 10 seconds

Lee Sin

Base armor and base health regeneration are going down slightly.

We've made enough jokes throughout the patch notes at the expense of Lee Sin's constant dominant power, but we're making some small pre-emptive modifications just in case. Aside from Kha'Zix (for which we have changes), Lee is still a jungler who has the potential to be very oppressive in the early game, so we're tuning up his weaknesses by a small amount.

General

BASE ARMOR26 ⇒ 24

BASE HEALTH REGENERATION+9.4 health per 5 seconds ⇒ +7.4 health per 5 seconds

Rammus

Q's cooldown is much higher at early levels, and E's armor shred has been reduced.

Rammus's uptime between ganks have made him quite the monster, and we're not even talking about what happens when he finishes his Homeguards. Scaling the cooldown on Rammus' Powerball should give opponents better windows to react to his ganking cadence, while lowering E's shred makes him less of a duelist (how is Rammus dueling!?).

That said, we're not quite sure how Rammus will be affected in the preseason. If the Armordillo's eating a healthy portion of struggle salad in 2015, we'll double back to make sure he's staying healthy.

Q - Powerball

COOLDOWN10/10/10/10/10 seconds ⇒ 16/14.5/13/11.5/10 seconds

E - Puncturing Taunt

ARMOR SHRED10/15/20/25/30 ⇒ 5/10/15/20/25

Sion

Glory in Death's health drain has been lowered for higher levels and Sion's health regeneration growth stat has been lowered a bit.

Sion's been climbing the ranks towards Mundo-hood when it comes to overall longevity and, couple that with the 2015 changes to regeneration, we have a real monster on our hands. In light of that, we're mainly re-mathing out Sion's passive to favor the juggernaut's beefier builds.

General

HEALTH REGENERATION GROWTH STAT+1 health per 5 seconds ⇒ +0.8 health per 5 seconds

Passive - Glory in Death

HEALTH DECAY2 x level ⇒ 1 + (1 x level)

HEALTH DECAY GROWTH1.4 x level ⇒ 0.7 + (0.7 x level)

Sona

Sona's overall sustain should be lower, especially in cases where significant lane trades have been made.

Sona's been on the rise due to her ability to turn almost any extended fight in her favor. While we like the Maven getting some recognition, we're looking to reduce her raw trading power so that the great Sonas will need to tightly manage their shields and auras rather than spamming W (that's a tactic for the 'good' Sonas).

Q - Hymn of Valor

ON-HIT MAGIC DAMAGE AURA RATIO0.25 ability power ⇒ 0.2 ability power

W - Aria of Perseverance

MISSING HEALTH RATIO+1% healing increase per 1% health missing ⇒+0.5% healing increase per 1% health missing

BASE HEAL25/45/65/85/105 ⇒ 30/50/70/90/110

MANA COST70/75/80/85/90 ⇒ 80/85/90/95/100

Soraka

Base AD went down, E cooldown increased, W cast range increased.

When deciding to retune League's Premier Healer, we were very conscious of how much interaction she should have with her enemies - as it stands, we may have gone a little too far. Soraka's losing some attack damage and uptime on her E to curb her offensive capabilities, but gaining range on Astral Blessing to keep her true to her roots: Healing. Premier Healing.

Incidentally, before this change, Soraka was tied with Tryndamere, Irelia, and Hecarim for having the 9th highest base AD in the game. That's like throwing banana-swords. Banana-halberds.

General

BASE ATTACK DAMAGE56 ⇒ 50

W - Astral Infusion

CAST RANGE450 ⇒ 550

E - Equinox

COOLDOWN18/17/16/15/14 seconds ⇒ 24/22/20/18/16 seconds

Warwick

R has a higher cooldown at early ranks.

In 2015, our focus for bringing Strategic Diversity (still a better phrase than end-game fantasy) to the jungle comes down to ironing out a set of strengths and weaknesses for each champion. Previously, Warwick's strength (sustain / safety) was undervalued due to the piles of sustainall junglers had access to; post-preseason however, Warwick's going to be the cool kid on the block. Where his jungling friends might now find themselves chugging pots to stay healthy in the jungle, Warwick now surpasses almost all of them due to his speed, safety, and consistency.

While we don't want to take away Warwick's new-found status as a power-pick, lowering the frequency of his Infinite Duress ganks (which, when executed well, mean kills for his laning friends) will help cement a weakness (low-utility ganks without R) into what is an already well-rounded werewolf.

R - Infinite Duress

COOLDOWN90/80/70 seconds ⇒ 110/90/70 seconds

Mass Texture Rebalance (Part 3)

After a brief intermission last patch, we're continuing our comprehensive pass at the game's older character textures. Our goal is to improve parity with newer releases and make sure everybody looks at home on the newly-updated Rift.

TEXTURESThe following textures have been updated:

Amumu

Base, Almost Prom King, Emumu, Little Knight, Pharaoh, Re-Gifted, Vancouver

Caitlyn

Base, Arctic Warfare, Officer, Resistance, Safari, Sheriff

Ezreal

Base, Explorer, Frosted, Nottingham, Striker

Fizz

Base, Atlantean, Fisherman, Tundra, Void

Gragas

Base, Gragas Esq., Hillbilly, Santa, Scuba

Jax

Base, Angler, Jaximus, PAX, The Mighty Jax

Kog'Maw

Base, Caterpillar, Deep Sea, Jurassic, Monarch, Reindeer, Sonoran

Mordekaiser

Base, Dragon Knight (for now)

Riven

Base, Battle Bunny, Crimson Elite, Redeemed

Talon

Base, Crimson Elite, Dragonblade, Renegade

Udyr

Base, Black Belt, Primal

Urgot

Base, Battlecast, Butcher, Giant Enemy Crabgot

Vladimir

Base, Blood Lord, Count, Marquis, Nosferatu, Vandal

Zilean

Base, Groovy, Old Saint, Shurima Desert, Time Machine

Global Changes to Summoner's Rift Gameplay

Early Game Kill & Assist Bonuses

Don't feel so bad about getting those early kills. Unless you're getting assists. But then maybe you should have just stolen the kill.

With the above growth stat changes to address early snowball advantages, we decided to revert the unpopular early game gold reductions we made in the 2014 preseason. Just try not to feed two kills to Lee Sin before the laning phase even begins...

KILL GOLD75% of base reward for 2 minutes, scaling up to 100% at 4 minutes ⇒100% value at all times

ASSIST BONUS50% of kill reward ⇒25% of kill reward until 90 seconds, then increasing by roughly 0.2% per second for 210 seconds to 50% of kill reward at 5 minutes

Fountain Regeneration

It's scientifically proven that a more responsive fountain heal leads to higher overall champion happiness. It's just science, man.

FOUNTAIN HEALING RATE8.5% of maximum health and mana per 1 second ⇒2.1% of maximum health and mana per 0.25 seconds

Death Timers

This change isn't extremely noticeable in real-time application, but we wanted to create more opportunities for teams who are behind to fight back. The math here gets complicated.

COMPLICATED MATH BEHIND THISDeath timers now start scaling with time at 25 minutes⇒35 minutes

TIME SCALES FOR EVERYONEDeath timers now scale up at 2% every minute to a cap of 150% at 50 minutes ⇒2% every 30 seconds to a cap of 150% at 47:30

Objectives, Minions & Global Buffs

General Context

With strategic diversity being our big goal for the 2015 preseason, there are a number of ways we're tackling the challenge. In the case of objectives, we wanted to create incomparable rewards to better differentiate between map objectives.

So... what's that mean?

Basically with each map objective on Summoner's Rift becoming more unique (both in terms of the rewards they give and how you take them), we can make it so that every path to victory in League can be uniquely different as well. So rather than most strategies boiling down to who can get the most gold (which is important, don't get us wrong), we wanted to amp up the number of interesting and meaningful choices a team can make throughout a game. Should we be prioritizing dragon buffs? What if we just fast push to the nexus? Can we do that with proper map rotations? IS THAT A LASER!?

All very pertinent questions for the 2015 preseason.

Inhibitor & Nexus Turrets

Maybe think twice before diving that dude under the turret. All base turrets now fire lasers that ramp up in damage while also slowing movement speed and reducing the damage you deal. Seriously though, they hurt.

I'm sure we've all had the unfortunate task of trying to single-handedly stop a split-pushing Jax (or Tryndamere, or Zed, or... you get the point), only to get murdered under an inhibitor tower we thought was safe. These changes are focused on creating "generalized defenses" against split-pushing - they're not direct counters (because really, if that Jax is fed enough and he wants to kill you, he's gonna do it) but are more like basic deterrents to help out in close games. This way, teams that didn't pick a strong duelist to counteract an enemy split-pusher aren't completely out of luck when that champ gets even slightly ahead.

COMPLICATED TURRET MATHInhibitor and Nexus turrets are much stronger in comparison to their previous versions. Sorry we can't be more specific in terms of direct comparisons (lots of complicated math) - we can say the new turrets are roughly 1.5x or 2x stronger.

HEALTH REGENERATION15 health per 5 seconds ⇒5 health per 5 seconds

ATTACK SPEED0.83 ⇒4.0

WHAT ARMOR?Ignores 82.5% of the target's armor

DAMAGE REDUCTIONReduces target's damage dealt by 15%

MOVEMENT SLOWSlows target's movement speed by 10%

HEATING UPWith every hit, the beam gains 6 heat until 120 heat is reached. When the beam switches targets, heat is reset.

I'M FIRING MY LASERS!Gains +0.0105% damage per point of heat, up to a maximum of +125% extra damage

Inner Turrets

Taking an inner turret usually requires: a) precise movement (rotations!), b) strategically risky turret dives, or c) a poke-heavy team that whittles down their opponents before clamping down from all angles like a Yordle Snap Trap. In the case of situations a and b, there are clear strategic counters available to all teams, but situation c is pretty much decided at champ select. Either you have a team that can counter a poke team, or you don't. While we're also looking to create offensive answers like Righteous Glory, these regenerating turret shields once again fall into the "generalized defenses" category, where the shield makes it a little easier to withstand (and combat) poke compositions without completely invalidating their strengths.

SHIELDS FOR ALLInner turrets now have regenerating shields that affect both themselves and nearby allied champions. Additionally, all allied champions within 1100 range gain a growing shield over time, scaling to a maximum of a 200 health shield.

PROTECT THAT TURRETThe turret's shield stops regenerating shields if it has taken damage within 30 seconds

Inhibitor Respawn Time

At the beginning of the 2014 season we shortened the respawn time of inhibitors. Now, with our LASER-BUFFED BASE TURRETS (shouting is mandatory here), we can put inhibitor respawns back to their original timing so that attacking teams have a better window to capitalize on their achievements.

INHIBITOR RESPAWN TIME4 minutes ⇒ 5 minutes

Turret & Minion Defense Adjustments

Not the most exciting patch note, but we're making some standardized changes to streamline and clarify how minions / turrets scale in the game. If you like clarity, these will be exciting. We like clarity.

TURRETSTurret defenses have been adjusted:

Turrets no longer gain armor or magic resistance over time
Turret armor / magic resistance has been standardized to +100 armor / magic resistance (50% damage reduction)
Turret backdoor defense bonuses have been increased to +200 armor / magic resistance (75% damage reduction)

STANDARDIZED HEALTHTurret health has been adjusted:

Outer Turrets: 2000
Inner Turrets: 2000
Inhibitor Turrets: 2500
Nexus Turrets: 2500

MINIONSMinion defensive stats have been adjusted:

Minions no longer gain armor or magic resistance over time
Cannon minions no longer have base armor
All minion health gain over time has been increased to be roughly as durable as when they had resistances

Cannon Minions

MORE CANNON MINIONS! EARLIER!

When we looked at how games were progressing, we realized cannon minion spawns weren't keeping up with the cadence of a normal game, so we cranked up the cannon-minion-making-machines.

MORE CANNON MINIONSCannon minions now start spawning every two waves at 35 minutes ⇒ 20 minutes

YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANYCannon minions now start spawning every wave at 35 minutes

Baron Spawn Timer

Baron wanted a later call-time.

With Baron appearing at the same time cannon minions ramp up their spawn times (or vice-versa), we can create more consistency around what 'mid-game' looks like for game pacing.

SPAWN TIME15 minutes ⇒ 20 minutes

Baron Rewards

Baron buff no longer gives regeneration to the buffed team, but provides a minion promote aura that amps up sieging power. By a lot.

Baron buff was always intended to be the siege-breaker; the ultimate answer to a team turtling and refusing to die. That's not to say that the present day Baron buff doesn't accomplish this goal, but it currently does so in a low-impact swirl of purple stats (and not much else). As such, our objective with the 2015 Baron buff is to trim power that doesn't feel impactful while adding it back in a way that says, "GO FORTH AND BUST DOWN THEIR WALLS." Hopefully that is now all you hear when you take down Baron.

NO FACTIONS HEREKilling Baron Nashor grants a buff called Exalted with Baron Nashor⇒ Hand of Baron

COMBAT BUFFSGrants up to 40 attack power and ability power (scaling with game time)

NEW MINION PROMOTE AURAHand of Baron grants an aura that empowers nearby minions:

All Minions:

Now match 90% of average movement speed of nearby champions, up to a limit of 500 movement speed
Are resistant to slow effects
Non-super minions have 75% damage reduction versus area of effect, damage over time, and persistent effects

Melee Minions:

Gain +50% movement speed when within 800 units of enemy minions or turrets
Size is increased
+75 attack range
75% damage reduction versus champions and minions
30% damage reduction versus turrets (similar to cannon minions)

Ranged Minions:

+20 attack damage
+50% missile speed
+100 attack range

Cannon Minions:

+600 Attack Range
+50 Attack Damage, but Attack Speed is halved
Attacks are now Area of Effect (200 range) and deal 2x damage to Turrets.

Super Minions:

+25% Attack Speed.
Gain +50% Movement Speed when within 800 units of enemy minion or Turret.

NEW EMPOWERED RECALLHand of Baron augments your Recall with new effects:

Baron buff reduces recall channel by 4 seconds.
A successful recall heals 50% a champion's maximum health / mana
A successful recall grants +50% movement speed for 8 seconds

Dragon Rewards

Dragon's global gold and experience have been transformed into a series of stacking "Dragon Slayer" buffs. Each time your team takes down Dragon, they get a permanent stacking buff. At 5 stacks, your team gets super-bonuses for 180 seconds.

In the 2014 season, it was tough to tell the difference between taking down Dragon or a turret - at least if you were only looking at rewards. Granted, downing a turretdoes open up the map for your team, but unless you're constantly taking advantage of that opening, the gains from taking multiple Dragons or turrets just means one team has more gold / experience in a fight.

So.

In line with our philosophy of incomparable objective rewards, Dragon poses a much larger late-game threat for teams that take the time to invest in his stacking buffs. This means players will grow to understand the tradeoffs they're making as they ponder whether it's worth giving the enemy team a fourth Dragon in exchange for the top inner turret. And unless the plan is to never lose a Dragon again, there are very real risks associated with making that decision. Look at these meaningful choices!

NEW DRAGON SLAYERKilling Dragon now gives your team a permanent stacking buff called "Dragon Slayer":

Dragon's Might (1 stack): +8% total attack damage and ability power
Dragon's Dominance (2 stacks): +15% damage to minions and monsters
Dragon's Flight (3 stacks): +5% movement speed
Dragon's Wrath (4 stacks): +15% damage to turrets and buildings
Aspect of the Dragon (5 stacks, repeatable): Triples all other bonuses and your attacks burn enemies for 150 true damage over 5 seconds. Lasts 180 seconds.

REMOVED NO MORE DRAGON BOUNTIESDragon no longer gives global gold but still awards experience and a small amount of gold to the slayer

EXPERIENCEThe experience Dragon grants to the killing team has been reduced by 50%

Crest of Cinders

While blue buff is pretty broad in the power it gives (sustain, wave clear, siege power, etc), red buff has always been focused on its in-combat strengths. We wanted to shift a bit of that to extended sieges so we can give more rewards for controlling the map before a siege.

NEW HEALTHY BUFFSCrest of Cinders now heals its buffed target by +1% of their maximum health per 5 seconds

DURATION150 seconds ⇒ 120 seconds

BURN PASSIVE10-44 damage over 3 seconds ⇒ 5-56 damage over 3 seconds

SLOW8%-15% ⇒ 5%-10%

Crest of Insight

When a blue buff is picked up early on - especially when two people on the same team have it - things can lead to some pretty obnoxious siege scenarios. Rather than reducing the power of blue buff, we felt we could just reduce its duration to shorten the oppressiveness of extended sieges.

DURATION150 seconds ⇒ 120 seconds

2015 Jungle Adjustments

General Context

In older iterations of the jungle, we've always reacted to the problems of the previous season, which ends up leaving us on the back foot for the year of Lee Sins to come (it's like the joke writes itself). This preseason, rather than trying to kick the best champions back in line, we instead focused on taking bigger steps to bring strategic diversity back to the jungle. If we can build a jungle that empowers and reacts to the many different actions junglers can take, then we can create an ecosystem where it's almost impossible to distill an "optimal" jungler at any point. That's a bit of a muddy concept, so we'll explain: in the 2014 season, the jungle was a fairly 'solved' position, where optimal routes were established, sustain was easy to come by, and monsters were just piles of gold waiting to be picked up. Because of this, the 'best' junglers were quickly discovered to be those who could heavily influence lanes while still keeping up in their farm; in other words, gank / damage focused champs (oh, hello Lee) who don't make many tradeoffs for their superior dueling strengths.

This season we're introducing a lot more decision points to the jungle - more than can be made in any single game! By introducing so many variables, jungling becomes a combination of adaptation and preference rather than just making small optimizations as one Kha'Zix among many. This also gives us far more 'tuning levers' (aka things to balance) within the jungle, rather than just going after that single dominant jungler. If slow, safe junglers start getting crushed by the Evelynns, Kha'Zii, Elises, and Lee Sins of the world, then we have more to investigate rather than constantly whittling down their strength.

Ultimately, you can think of this new jungle as more of a chess match between you and the enemy jungler. How do you react to your enemies' actions? When will you need the right jungle buff? Should you invest in a more aggressive Smite or do you think a farm-centric approach would be better in this game?

Whatever your answer, be sure to Smite Teemo whenever you can.

Rift Scuttler (NEW)

A new crabby objective that offers a unique reward in the form of vision and a speed shrine for movement through the river.

Last year we introduced a new jungle camp (the Gromp now!) because we wanted to balance out neutral camps on both sides of the map. This year, our goal with the Rift Scuttler is to create a new objective that not only behaves differently but also rewards players in new and unique ways. So rather than being another Gromp for the river, this scuttling crustacean offers a lot of strategic choice for junglers and their teammates. Take out the crab before your opponents show up for Dragon, and you'll have guaranteed vision to poke them out. Alternatively, if your mid lane wants to push and roam in the early to mid game, it might be worth securing the crab to further augment their ganks. There are a lot of different ways to leverage - and waste! - the Rift Scuttler's reward, so we'll be watching closely to see how he plays into the 2015 preseason.

RESPAWN TIME3 minutes

REWARDGrants vision and a speed boost in front of either Dragon Pit or Baron Pit for 75 seconds upon death

SCUTTLE CRABAlways runs away when attacked

Smite Rewards

Smite a camp, get a reward. Simple!

Smite is a pretty unique resource for a jungler, but the choices they make with this spell are pretty basic ("is it off cooldown?"). By giving camps unique rewards, we can offer more ways for a jungler to react to a situation while giving great junglers the chance to differentiate themselves from the good junglers. Sorry, I'll rephrase that: "we can separate the good junglers from the great junglers."

KRUGSSmiting the Krug grants Gift of Heavy Hands - stuns minions and monsters every 1st and 5th hit. Your first attack against a turret deals 50 (+15 per level) true damage but consumes this buff. Lasts 90 seconds.

RAPTORSSmiting the Raptor grants Razor Sharp - gives you a warning and magical sight for 10 seconds when an enemy ward spots you. Lasts 90 seconds, with 1 charge.

MURKWOLVESSmiting the Murkwolf creates a Rift Spirit - summons a Rift Spirit that watches over a portion of the jungle. Lasts 90 seconds, but that timer goes down when the spirit chases enemies.

GROMPSmiting the Gromp grants Gift of the Toadstool - attackers are poisoned for 6 (+ 6 per level) magic damage over 3 seconds. Lasts 90 seconds.

RED BRAMBLEBACKRestores 20% of maximum health

BLUE SENTINELRestores 25% of maimum mana

Monster Stat & Reward Changes

The jungle is harder, but rewards have been increased as well. Just don't die to the Brambleback.

The 2014 jungle was just too soft. 5 minutes into a game, sustain no longer became an issue as junglers mauled their way through camps while recovering via Spirit Stone's recovery mechanic. This meant that junglers who specialized in sustain got overshadowed by junglers who could clear faster because, really, there's no way you can sustain past full health. This bears repeating: as a result of sustain being so easy to access, 'optimal' junglers become ones who can hit that low sustain cap while doubling up on their gank power (Lee Sin, Kha'Zix, Elise, Evelynn, or Rengar come to mind).

Part of our big answer for this preseason is to increase the difficulty of the jungle. By doing so, we can better differentiate between the junglers who clear fast versus those who can stay healthy. This puts a higher premium on that mitigation-focused jungler who can still gank after clearing a camp, while a high-damage jungler might be more effective at ganking but will have a tougher time keeping up. Combine these changes with our below jungle itemization changes (and Smite reward changes above!), and you've got a pretty diverse jungle that caters to a number of different styles.

SMALL CAMPSSmall camps have hit the jungle gym (this line was blatantly stolen from someone else)

Small jungle camps now respawn every 50 seconds ⇒ 100 seconds
Base health, attack damage, gold, and experience of small jungle camps have been increased by 20%
Greatly increased the attack damage scaling of small jungle camps throughout the game
Increased the health scaling of small jungle camps up to level 12

RAPTORSRaptors have been further re-tuned to be equal to other camps:

Large Raptor

EXPERIENCE120 ⇒ 140
DAMAGE40 ⇒ 55
MOVEMENT SPEED320 ⇒ 350

Small Raptor

EXPERIENCE10 ⇒ 20
DAMAGE14 ⇒ 20
MOVEMENT SPEED320 ⇒ 350

BLUE SENTINELBlue Sentinel is scarier

BASE HEALTH1500 ⇒ 2000
DAMAGE60 ⇒ 73

RED BRAMBLEBACKRed Brambleback is also scarier

BASE HEALTH1500 ⇒ 1800
DAMAGE60 ⇒ 80

Blue Sentinel / Red Brambleback Camp Rewards

We're trying to make it a little less painful to "donate" buffs to allies.

Remember to thank your jungler for the help when he or she donates their buff to you. Some of you might argue that blue / red buff is a "team" thing and therefore you don't need to thank anyone, but that's not a very collaborative mindset.

Lessons on manners aside, this change means junglers have more control over how much experience / gold they give up when they donate their buffs to a friendly ally.

Blue Sentinel & Red Brambleback

EXPERIENCE260 ⇒ 100
GOLD60 ⇒ 42

Small Monsters

EXPERIENCE20 ⇒ 50
GOLD7 ⇒ 22

Jungle Experience Pacing

This is just a small tuning change we're adding, as junglers who just sit and powerfarm in the jungle all day can potentially run rampant over the map. Sometimes you need to get out of the jungle. Go see your friends. Catch up over coffee and a gank.

GO GET SOME SUNSHINEChampions gain 10% less experience for each level they are above the camp they are killing. This penalty caps at 50%.

Embarrassing Deaths in the Jungle

Less embarrassing.

Dying to a jungle camp is pretty embarrassing, but it's even more embarrassing when you realize how hard it is to come back without your red or blue buff. Then you fall further behind and you don't want to admit that it's because you accidentally died to the red buff and things just go downhill from there. Hopefully this change mitigates that by a bit.

EVEN THE PROS DO ITRed and Blue buffs no longer fall off when a champion is executed by a jungle camp

Jungle Items

General Context

Customize your Smite...

High-level philosophy: previous iterations of jungle items just reinforced the jungle hierarchy. When items were focused on specific jungle roles or archetypes, the best junglers ended up directly tied to the best performing items on the market. We saw this really flare up with our mid-season changes to Wriggle's Lantern (which we subsequently nerfed) and the brief, meteoric rise of the farm-carry jungler. Creating new jungle items lets us re-focus their benefits on diversity of jungler action (I bet you thought I was going to say strategy) rather than jungler stats. By doing so, junglers can react more fluidly to the state of the game (rather than racing to whoever can finish their item first) and we have the balancing points to support a wide array of jungler strategies (there it is).

Hunter's Machete

COST325 gold ⇒ 400 gold

REMOVEDSTATS+10 attack damage vs. monsters / +5 damage reduction vs. monsters

NEWPASSIVE - JUNGLERDeal 30 magic damage on hit to monsters over 2 seconds and gain 7 health and 3 mana per second while in combat with monsters

NEWOH THANK GOODNESSHunter's Machete can now only be purchased if you have Smite as a summoner spell

Poacher's Knife (NEW)

RECIPEHunter's Machete + 350 gold

PASSIVE - SCAVENGING SMITEWhen you Smite and kill a large monster in the enemy jungle, the cooldown of Smite is halved, you gain +20 bonus gold, and you gain 175% increased Movement Speed decaying over 2 seconds

PASSIVE - JUNGLERDeal 45 magic damage on hit to monsters over 2 seconds and gain 10 health and 5 mana per second while in combat with monsters

Ranger's Trailblazer (NEW)

RECIPEHunter's Machete + 350 gold

PASSIVE - BLASTING SMITEThe cooldown of Smite is reduced by 15 seconds. Smite also deals half damage to all monsters and enemy minions near the target and stuns them for 1.5 seconds. Casting Smite on a monster restores 15% of missing health and mana.

PASSIVE - JUNGLERDeal 45 magic damage on hit to monsters over 2 seconds and gain 10 health and 5 mana per second while in combat with monsters

Skirmisher's Sabre (NEW)

RECIPEHunter's Machete + 350 gold

PASSIVE - CHALLENGING SMITESmite can be cast on enemy champions, marking them for 6 seconds. While marked, you deal 18-69 bonus true damage to them on hit, have vision of them, and reduce their damage to you by 20%.

PASSIVE - JUNGLERDeal 45 magic damage on hit to monsters over 2 seconds and gain 10 health and 5 mana per second while in combat with monsters

Stalker's Blade (NEW)

RECIPEHunter's Machete + 350 gold

PASSIVE - CHILLING SMITESmite can be cast on enemy champions, dealing 28-164 true damage and reducing their movement speed by 50% for 2 seconds

PASSIVE - JUNGLERDeal 45 magic damage on hit to monsters over 2 seconds and gain 10 health and 5 mana per second while in combat with monsters

Jungle Item Enchantments

General Context

... then customize your Machete. Fulfill your end-game machete fantasy.

Enchantments provide a consistent set of bonus stats, regardless of which jungle item you choose. This way, junglers can focus on the play patterns they opted into (through their upgraded Hunter's Machete) rather than being forced into the item that best fits their end-game build.

Enchantment - Devourer (NEW)

RECIPEDagger + Dagger + any upgraded Hunter's Machete + 600 gold

TOTAL COST2250 gold

ATTACK SPEED+50%

MAGIC DAMAGE ON HIT+40

PASSIVE - DEVOURINGKilling large monsters increases the magic damage of this item by +1. Champion kills or assists increase the magic damage of this item by +2.

Enchantment - Juggernaut (NEW)

RECIPEKindlegem + Ruby Crystal + any upgraded Hunter's Machete + 250 gold

TOTAL COST2250 gold

HEALTH500

COOLDOWN REDUCTION10%

TENACITY35%

Enchantment - Magus (NEW)

RECIPEFiendish Codex + any upgraded Hunter's Machete + 680 gold

TOTAL COST2250 gold

ABILITY POWER80

COOLDOWN REDUCTION20%

Enchantment - Warrior (NEW)

RECIPEBrutalizer + any upgraded Hunter's Machete + 163 gold

TOTAL COST2250 gold

ATTACK DAMAGE45

COOLDOWN REDUCTION10%

ARMOR PENETRATION10

Elixirs

General Context

Elixirs + Strategic Value = 2015 Preseason! Old elixirs have been replaced with 4 new (more expensive) elixirs that are focused on enabling plays rather than giving tons of stats (although they still give a ton of stats...). You're restricted to one elixir at a time (but they can overwrite each other), so don't try to stack them up!

Our current elixirs are good for a late game power boost, but they don't actually enable you to make "serious plays" when you need to (as opposed to the less serious play of "buy an elixir, beat people up"). These new 2015 preseason elixirs were designed with a heavier focus on the strategic powers you need to win - especially in the late game.

DON'T MIX YOUR ELIXIRSYou can only have one Elixir active at any point in time

LEGAL DRINKING LEVELElixirs cannot be purchased before level 9

Elixir of Iron (NEW)

COST400 gold

DRINK ME FOR+25% increased size, +25% slow resistance, +25% tenacity, and the Path of Iron buff for 3 minutes

PATH OF IRONMoving leaves a path behind that boosts allied champion's movement speed by 15%

Elixir of Ruin (NEW)

COST400 gold

DRINK ME FOR+250 health, +15 bonus true damage to turrets, and theSiege Commander buff for 3 minutes

SIEGE COMMANDERNearby minions gain +15% bonus damage to turrets and gain movement speed based on your movement speed.

Elixir of Sorcery (NEW)

COST400 gold

DRINK ME FOR+40 ability power, +15 mana regeneration per 5 seconds, and the Sorcery buff for 3 minutes

SORCERYDamaging a champion or turret deals 25 bonus true damage. This effect has a 5 second cooldown versus champions but no cooldown versus turrets.

Elixir of Wrath (NEW)

COST400 gold

DRINK ME FORBLOODLUST!!!! +25 attack damage and the Bloodlust buff for 3 minutes

SORCERYDealing physical damage to champions heals for +10% of the damage dealt. Scoring a kill or assist extends the duration of this Flask by 30 seconds.

Regeneration Items

General Context

Regeneration items are now based off of your base health regeneration stat.

Flat regeneration has always been a difficult stat to balance, as it tends to fall into one of two categories: balanced in the early game, or balanced in the late game. There is no way to have both. Either an item is useful and impactful in the early game but then becomes unnoticeable in the late game (when health pools are 3x-4x what they were), or an item is impactful in the late game but super obnoxious as a first item in the early to mid game. The goal of our changes are to create scaling, meaningful benefits for regeneration at all stages of the game while also being able to tune regeneration more effectively on a champion-by-champion basis. A Mundo who picks up tons of health regeneration will benefit very differently than, say... Riven (she gets a low-cooldown shield, c'mon).

Rejuvenation Bead

HEALTH REGENERATION+5 health per 5 seconds ⇒ +50% base health regeneration

Faerie Charm

MANA REGENERATION+3 mana per 5 seconds ⇒ +25% base mana regeneration

Crystalline Bracer (NEW)

RECIPERuby Crystal + Rejuvenation Bead + 20 gold

TOTAL COST600 gold

HEALTH200

HEALTH REGENERATION+50% base health regeneration

Forbidden Idol

TOTAL COST700 gold ⇒ 600 gold (combine cost reduced by 100 gold)

MANA REGENERATION+8 mana per 5 seconds ⇒ +60% base mana regeneration

COOLDOWN REDUCTION10% (unchanged)

Tear of the Goddess

TOTAL COST700 gold ⇒ 720 gold (combine cost increased by 20 gold)

MANA REGENERATION+6 mana per 5 seconds ⇒ +25% base mana regeneration

UNIQUE PASSIVEMana Charge - Grants +4 maximum mana on spell cast or mana expenditure (up to 2 times per 8 seconds). Grants +1 maximum mana per 8 seconds. Caps at+750 mana. (Unchanged)

NO INFLATION HEREAll items building out of Tear of the Goddess have had their combine cost reduced by 20 gold to preserve their total cost

Chalice of Harmony & Friends

General Context

WARNING: This is going to get complicated.

Unlike Tear of the Goddess, Chalice 'turns on' (ie: accesses a majority of its power) very early as a purchase, giving both defensive stats and piles of mana regeneration to safely push / farm. As a result, most mid-laners who don't want to deal with mana problems (or interacting with their opponent) can just rush a Chalice before figuring out the rest of their items. While these changes are definitely a nerf to Chalice (particularly when it's rushed), our goal is to reduce its value as a "one-stop shop" for mana regeneration while also increasing the amount of time it takes for a player to fully tap its strength.

Chalice of Harmony

TOTAL COST880 gold ⇒ 1000 gold (combine cost increased by 20 gold, inherits Null Magic Mantle's 100 gold cost increase - see below)

MANA REGENERATION+7 mana per 5 seconds ⇒ +50% base mana regeneration

MAGIC RESISTANCE20 ⇒ 25

UNIQUE PASSIVEMana Font Increases mana regeneration by 1% per 1% of missing mana ⇒ Restores 1.5% of missing mana every 5 seconds

Athene's Unholy Grail

TOTAL COST2600 gold ⇒ 2700 gold (combine cost decreased by 20 gold, inherits Chalice of Harmony's 120 gold cost increase)

MANA REGENERATION+10 mana per 5 seconds ⇒ +50% base mana regeneration

UNIQUE PASSIVEMana Font Increases mana regeneration by 1% per 1% of missing mana ⇒ Restores 1.5% of missing mana every 5 seconds

Mikael's Crucible

TOTAL COSTUnchanged (combine cost decreased by 20 gold, inherits Chalice of Harmony's 120 gold cost increase and Forbidden Idol's 100 gold cost decrease)

MANA REGENERATION+20 mana per 5 seconds ⇒ +100% base mana regeneration

UNIQUE PASSIVEMana Font Increases mana regeneration by 1% per 1% of missing mana ⇒ Restores 1.5% of missing mana every 5 seconds

Strategic Items

General Context

Our objective with items is the same as our overarching 2015 preseason goal: strategic diversity. Is it possible - through items - for your team to be able to opt into different strategies? Could we do it in a way that makes these strategies accessible for all teams, and not just the ones with the right champions? These were the questions that lead us to focus on macro-level items (like pre-fight, out of combat, or strategic purchases) over creating new micro-level items (tactical combat stats, etc). It's not to say we don't like items that give passive stats, just that we didn't we have a large suite of strategic level items so that was a logical place to start. In short, our aim is to provide the right tools for strategic innovation to prosper in League of Legends.

... we use the term "strategic" or some variation of it 6 times in the previous paragraph. That's how you know we're serious.

Greater Lens

Feedback loop.

This is technically a strategic item, but we have nowhere else to put it anyway.

LEGITIMATE BUGThe visual indicator for the area-of-effect of Greater Lens no longer reverts to the smaller indicator for Sweeping Lens after dying and respawning (actual range was unaffected)

Righteous Glory (NEW)

Chase down those pesky disengage comps! Righteous Glory is a new item that gives a lot of health, mana, regeneration, and an active that gives movement speed to its user and allies when moving toward the enemy or enemy turrets. After a few seconds, it sends out a large slowing shockwave.

We don't have many items that enable teams to capitalize on strategic initiations, which means if a team doesn't have initiation baked into their composition, they're usually in for a frustrating time. Given that one of our big goals this season was to offer strategic opportunities for teams beyond champ select, it seemed natural to create a strong initiation item. This allows teams to react more fluidly against disengage comps while also enabling hard engagement strategies without being forced to bring Malphite along for the ride (not that we have anything against Malphite).

RECIPECatalyst the Protector + Crystalline Bracer + 700 gold

TOTAL COST2500 gold

HEALTH500

HEALTH REGENERATION+100% base health regeneration

UNIQUE PASSIVEValor's Reward - Upon leveling up, restores 150 health and 200 mana over 8 seconds

UNIQUE ACTIVEGrants +60% Movement Speed to nearby allies when moving towards enemies or enemy turrets for 3 seconds. After 3 seconds, a shockwave is emitted, slowing nearby enemy champion Movement Speed by 80% for 1 second. This effect may be reactivated early to instantly release the shockwave.

Warmog's Armor

Warmog’s has had its max health reduced, but it restores a lot more health if you haven’t been in combat after 8 seconds.

Rather than just giving a ton of health and regeneration, we really wanted to push Warmog’s Armor as an anti-siege item, allowing tanky dudes to stay healthy under high-pressure scenarios. Unless they can’t dodge the poke.

RECIPEGiant's Belt + Ruby Crystal + Rejuvenation Bead + Rejuvenation Bead + 1070 gold ⇒ Giant's Belt + Crystalline Bracer + Crystalline Bracer + 300 gold

TOTAL COST2830 gold ⇒ 2500 gold

HEALTH1000 ⇒ 800

UNIQUE PASSIVERestores 1% of maximum health every 5 seconds ⇒Restores 1% of maximum health every 5 seconds. Health restore increases to 3% of maximum health if damage hasn't been taken within 8 seconds.

Banner of Command now builds out of Aegis and a Fiendish Codex, providing team-wide siege stats along with a super magic-immune minion active buff.

We’ve always wanted Banner of Command to be a siege / push item in terms of its strategic niche, but couldn't find the right mix of stats to make it situationally viable without being super-strong (or just unused). This will be our third attempt, and there's not much else to say beyond that. Did we mention that Banner's promote active makes a minionimmune to magic damage!?

RECIPEFiendish Codex + Blasting Wand + 720 gold ⇒ Aegis of the Legion + Fiendish Codex + 280 gold

TOTAL COST2400 gold ⇒ 3000 gold

NEWMAGIC RESISTANCE20

NEWHEALTH200

ABILITY POWER80 ⇒ 60

COOLDOWN REDUCTION20% ⇒ 10%

REMOVEDVALORLESSNo longer has the Valor aura

NEWUNIQUE AURALegion - Grants nearby allies +20 magic resist and +75% base health regeneration

NEWUNIQUE ACTIVEPromote - Greatly increases the power of a lane minion and grants it immunity to magic damage (120 second cooldown)

Cannon Minions: Damage: +100; Health + 600; Armor: +100; Magic resist:+100; Size: INCREASED
Melee Minions: Damage: +50; Bonus attack speed +90%; Health: +600; Armor: +40; Magic resist: +40; Size: INCREASED
Range Minions: Damage: +75; Bonus attack speed +30%; Health: +400; Armor: +40; Magic resist: +40; Size: INCREASED

Raptor Cloak (NEW)

Build up speed near your turret. Or their turret. Or a dead turret. Or when moving between turrets. The possibilities are endless (or only slightly more than what's listed in this summary).

Raptor's Cloak is a stepping stone toward Ohmwrecker, but on its own it provides some neat movement-oriented bonuses for players looking to do some turret diving (or to come barreling down the lane!).

RECIPECloth Armor + Rejuvenation Bead + 520 gold

TOTAL COST1000 gold

ARMOR30

HEALTH REGENERATION+100% base health regeneration

UNIQUE PASSIVEPoint Runner - Builds up to +30% Movement Speed over 2 seconds while near turrets

Ohmwrecker

Ohmwrecker's undergone its seasonal rework. This time it gives health, base health regeneration, cooldown reduction, the previously highlighted Point Runner passive (build up +30% movement speed when near any turret, alive or dead), and the Ohmwrecker turret disabling active.

Fourth time's the charm. Similar to Banner of Command, Ohmwrecker's always kind of had a known identity, but we could never find the right statistical combination to make it work (or when we did we got really scared, as it ran the risk of Ohmwrecker becoming ohm-erpowered). With such an influx of strategically-oriented items, however, we think it's time for Ohmwrecker to shine (at least occasionally). Combine that Point Runner passive with Ohmwrecker's turret timeout active, and you've got a hard-initiate turret-diving item that'll be perfect for the aspirational tank in all of us.

RECIPERuby Crystal + Blasting Wand + 740 gold ⇒ Raptor's Cloak + Kindlegem + 750 gold

TOTAL COST2000 gold ⇒ 2600 gold

REMOVEDABILITY POWER50 ⇒ 0

HEALTH350 ⇒ 300

NEWHEALTH REGENERATION+100% base health regeneration

NEWCOOLDOWN REDUCTION10%

NEWUNIQUE PASSIVEPoint Runner - Builds up to +30% Movement Speed over 2 seconds while near turrets

TURRET TIMEOUTPrevents nearby enemy turrets from attacking for 2.5 seconds ⇒ 3 seconds

I THINK WE WANTED A ROUND NUMBERMultiple Ohmwreckers cannot be used on the same turret for 7.5 seconds ⇒ 8 seconds

Armor Build Paths

General Context

Chain Vest builds out of Cloth Armor.

We want basic defensive items to be about reacting to the situation, which means streamlining those purchases down to their basic components (as opposed to getting accidentally 'trapped' when buying the wrong item). Now if you need defensive armor or magic resistance, buying a basic item is never a "wrong" choice.

Chain Vest

RECIPENone ⇒ Cloth Armor + 450 gold

TOTAL COST720 gold ⇒ 750 gold (The total cost of items that build out of Chain Vest remains the same, except where noted)

Thornmail

TOTAL COST2200 gold ⇒ 2100 gold (combine cost decreased by 130 gold, inherits Chain Vest's 30 gold cost increase)

Sunfire Cape

TOTAL COST2650 gold ⇒ 2600 gold (combine cost decreased by 80 gold, inherits Chain Vest's 30 gold cost increase)

Warden's Mail

RECIPEChain Vest + 280 gold ⇒ Cloth Armor + Cloth Armor + 450 gold

TOTAL COST1000 gold ⇒ 1050 gold

ARMOR50 ⇒ 45

Randuin's Omen

TOTAL COST3000 gold ⇒ 2850 gold (combine cost decreased by 200 gold, inherits Warden's Mail's 50 gold cost decrease)

Magic Resistance Build Paths

General Context

Negatron Cloak has been removed. All items that used Negatron Cloak now use Null-Magic Mantle.

Copying from above:

We want basic defensive items to be about reacting to the situation, which means streamlining those purchases down to their basic components (as opposed to getting accidentally 'trapped' when buying the wrong item). Now if you need defensive armor or magic resistance, buying a basic item is never a "wrong" choice.

Null-Magic Mantle

COST400 gold ⇒ 500 gold

MAGIC RESISTANCE20 ⇒ 25

Negatron Cloak (REMOVED)

IT'S LIKE THE ITEM DIDN'T EXISTAll items that built from a Negatron Cloak now have a Null-Magic Mantle component instead

ALL HAIL THE MANTLEThe total cost of items that used to build out of Negatron Cloak remains the same, except where noted

Abyssal Scepter

RECIPEBlasting Wand + Negatron Cloak + 980 gold ⇒ Blasting Wand + Null-Magic Mantle + Null-Magic Mantle + 580 gold

TOTAL COST2560 gold ⇒ 2440 gold

MAGIC RESISTANCE45 ⇒ 50

Spectre's Cowl

RECIPENegatron Cloak + Ruby Crystal + 275 gold ⇒ Null-Magic Mantle + Ruby Crystal + 300 gold

TOTAL COST1400 gold ⇒ 1200 gold

MAGIC RESISTANCE45 ⇒ 35

Quicksilver Sash

RECIPENegatron Cloak + 830 gold ⇒ Null-Magic Mantle + 750 gold

TOTAL COST1550 gold ⇒ 1250 gold

MAGIC RESISTANCE45 ⇒ 30

Mercurial Scimitar

TOTAL COST3800 gold ⇒ 3700 (combine cost increased by 200 gold, inherits Quicksilver Sash's 300 gold cost decrease)

MAGIC RESISTANCE45 ⇒ 35

Stacking Items

General Context

For the gambler in all of us. The two snowballing items now start with 5 stacks, but lose halftheir stacks when killed.

We see Mejai's Soulstealer and Sword of the Occult as high-stakes gambling items. By upgrading into them, you're throwing away a substantial amount of gold (and thus advantage) with the hopes of 'doubling down' on your control of the game. Go big or go home.

Mejai's Soulstealer

TOTAL COST1235 gold ⇒ 1400 gold (combine cost increased by 165 gold)

NEWPRE-STACKEDMejai's Soulstealer now starts with 5 stacks!

NEWGO BIG OR GO HOMEMejai's Soulstealer now loses 1/3 of its stacks when killed ⇒ 1/2 of its stacks when killed

Sword of the Occult

TOTAL COST1200 gold ⇒ 1400 gold (combine cost increased by 200 gold)

NEWPRE-STACKEDSword of the Occult now starts with 5 stacks!

NEWGO BIG OR GO HOMESword of the Occult now loses 1/3 of its stacks when killed ⇒ 1/2 of its stacks when killed

NEWMORE THINGS YOU WON'T GETAt 20 stacks, grants +20% bonus attack speed

REMOVEDSLOOOOW DOWN!No longer grants +15% movement speed at 20 stacks

Removed Items

We've set some items free.

We realized in the case of each of these items that 'supporting' them or allowing them to continue to exist would simply cause more harm for game health than actual benefits. Either being abusable in edge cases (hello Sword of the Divine Rengar), or being 'trap' items that are rarely (if ever) the correct strategic purchase. Some may return at a later date!

REMOVEDREMOVEDSword of the Divine

REMOVEDREMOVEDExecutioner's Calling

REMOVEDREMOVEDAtma's Impaler

Shop Search Shortcuts

Defence. Anaesthesia. Authorise. Doughnut. Pyjamas.

SEARCH CLARITY!Jungle items are searchable in the in-game store as "jungle"

CENTRE COLOUR CONNEXIONYou can now search for armour in the shop. Reconnoitre. Neighbour. We can go all day. Manoeuvre.

STREAMLINED SHOPPING"Starter Items" has been added as an item category with subcategories for "Lane" and "Jungle"

Summoner Spell Level Requirements

Along with Smite getting super complex, we figured we could re-assess the Summoner Spell level requirements.

OLDSummoner Spells were previously unlocked at levels:

LEVEL 1 :: Clarity, Ghost, Heal, and Revive
LEVEL 2 :: Cleanse
LEVEL 3 :: Smite
LEVEL 4 :: Garrison
LEVEL 6 :: Barrier and Teleport
LEVEL 8 :: Exhaust and Ignite
LEVEL 10 :: Clairvoyance
LEVEL 12 :: Flash

NEWSummoner Spells are now unlocked at levels:

LEVEL 1 :: Clarity, Garrison, Ghost, Heal and Revive
LEVEL 4 :: Barrier and Exhaust
LEVEL 6 :: Cleanse and Teleport
LEVEL 8 :: Clairvoyance and Flash
LEVEL 10 :: Smite and Ignite (\m/)

Scoreboard Changes

COUNT THOSE DRAGON BUFFSIconographic Dragon Slayer counters have been added to the scoreboard

COLORBLIND ACCOMODATIONSColorblind mode has been removed from the scoreboard - it just uses red and blue

Active Item & Buff UI Updates

We've given active items a more impactful UI treatment by adding their ability icons to the space above the center HUD. No more excuses if you forget to pop Zhonya's! We've also split buffs into two categories with different UI spaces to prioritize information that feeds into your moment-to-moment decisionmaking. Together, these updates should cement the center ability bar as your tactical command center. These changes are...for clarity!

Active item hotkeys and cooldowns are now displayed in the space above your Summoner spells. In this new display, cooldowns are tracked by both the blue "sweep" and their numeric values
- Active item tracking in the inventory is unchanged (no numeric cooldowns)
Buffs have been split into two categories: ability trackers and ambient buffs
- Ability trackers (stacks toward an ability proc, remaining charges of an ability, remaining duration of an ability effect, etc.) retain their spot above the center HUD
- Ambient buffs (persistent buffs, stance indicators, auras, etc.) have been moved to a second buff bar above your champion portrait. Debuffs have been moved to this space as well.

LeaverBuster

BUSTEDWe'll soon be launching a brand new system that greatly reduces leavers and AFKs, with more severe penalties for Ranked offenders.

Patcher Improvements

A volume slider and mute button have been added to the patcher to control the recently-added "Launch" and "Patching Complete" sounds
Clicking ticker notifications in the patcher will now take you to the Service Status page for more information

End of Game Gifting & Store Improvements

End of Game Gifting

End of Game Gifting is a new way for players to gift fellow Summoners via the post-game lobby. We'll be launching in waves starting in the weeks following the launch of Patch 4.20 and extending into the next patch. Launching the feature in stages keeps us light on our feet during the rollout period, leading to the best experience possible for everyone once we're fully activated!

Soon, whether you want to thank a friendly player or reward someone's first Pentakill, you'll be able to show your appreciation after the match! Here are the details:

You do NOT have to be friends to send a gift
You can send gifts to players on both teams
At launch, you'll be able to choose from Mystery Skins, Mystery Champions, the champion the recipient played (if unowned), and available skins for that champion
The prices will be the same as in the store
Gifts will count towards the daily gifting limit. In other words, you can only send/receive up to five gifts each day (For example, sending three mystery skins from the store and two end of game gifts hits your limit)
Available in all queues except for custom games
Check out the full FAQ here!

Store Improvements

Ward Skins have been added to the options in the store's Gifting Center! Standard gifting rules apply.
Expanding on the icon changes made last patch, we've updated the icons for IP and XP boosts

Bugfixes

Fixed a Mac compatibility issue that caused the cursor to drop to the bottom of the screen (sometimes becoming completely stuck) when attempting to Smart Ping
Various buff icons that went missing in 4.19 should have reappeared via the new Active Item & Buff UI changes
Fixed a bug where Tryndamere's E - Spinning Slash was dealing double damage in rare cases

Upcoming Skins

The following skins will be released at various times during Patch 4.20:

Constable Trundle

Captain Volibear

Safecracker Evelynn

Pickpocket Twitch

Battlecast Alpha Skarner

Battlecast Kog'Maw

Blood Moon Kalista

Points of interest in 4.20

Here's a brief look at a few of the new things included in patch 4.20, including things mentioned above in the patch notes and things discovered during the last PBE cycle! Most of this coverage includes preview screen shots and video taken during the 4.20 PBE cycle and may vary from what is pushed to live.

New Champion - Kalista

Our latest champion, Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance is piercing her way on to live with 4.20!

Check out these links for more info on League's latest spear throwing, ally bonding champion:

We also have her release skin, Blood Moon Kalista!

Check out a preview video here!

New Champion Skins

Patch 4.20 also includes SIX new skins that will be enabled sometime after the patch goes live, although typically not right away! Expect a dedicated post for them once they are made available.

Battlecast Alpha Skarner

Battlecast Alpha Skarner will be rolling out at 1820 RP and includes a completely new animations, model & texture, visual effects, voiceover, sound effects - the whole package! Check out the PBE coverage for a better look or this preview video!

Battlecast Kog'Maw

Battlecast Kog'Maw is priced at 975 RP and includes a GLORIOUS EVOLUTION's worth of new visual effects! Check out the PBE coverage for a better look or this preview video.

Next up we have a set of four new 750 RP tier skins - Safecracker Evelynn, Pickpocket Twitch, Captain Volibear, and Constable Trundle !

Safecracker Evelynn - Shared Splash Art / Video Preview.
Pickpocket Twitch - Shared Splash Art / Video Preview.
Captain Volibear - Shared Splash Art / Video Preview.
Constable Trundle - Shared Splash Art / Video Preview.

Maokai Model and Texture updates

As mentioned above, Maokai has received significant visual updates this patch! He's got a new splash, new model & textures, new vfx, and more!

and here's a before and after!

Check out these preview videos for a better look of his updated base and skins!

New Ward Skin

Joining the new Battlecast Kog'Maw and Battlecast Alpha Skarner skins is the glorious Battlecast Ward skin, which will be priced at around 640 RP and made available sometime after the patch goes out!