Surrender at 20: Patch 5.5 Notes

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Patch 5.5 is on the way and the official patch notes have been posted!

Continue reading for the complete notes, including Bard, several new items, balance changes for oodles of tank junglers, upcoming skins, texture rebalances, and more!

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

"Saludos, Invocadores (Greetings, Summoners)

Toot toot! That's the sound of the patch 5.5 buff barge, sailing the ocean of champion diversity. There were a few we had to slap on the wrist for overstaying their welcome but, for the most part, we've got a lot of +1s on the way. As a caveat, while it might feel great for every patch to be held aboard the S.S. Buff Barge, we're being very conscientious about making the directionally right change for each champion. It's still very, very important for champs to remain strategically unique from one another, so we're always hoping to accentuate strengths (or weaknesses) through each update.

So what's our current narrative? For today it's the jungle. We're going to say this up front: we haven't been as communicative on the topic of the jungle as we should have been. Additionally, when we have made changes, we haven't been empathetic to player pain surrounding each patch.

With that said, our focus is to increase champion diversity in the jungle. Some of you might be worried about "double dipping" buffs with the new Cinderhulk enchantment combining with tanky jungler buffs, but these are aimed at two separate things. Bami's Cinder (and Cinderhulk) creates a clear mid to end game item for tanky junglers to pursue, while a lot of our champion-specific buffs are aimed at improving the feel of early clears. We're a little concerned some tank junglers (looking at you, Sejuani & Amumu) might just start rampaging from the forest, but are taking a more "wait and see" approach for now. You've been warned.

But wait there's more! Beyond the jungle, we've also got a new +120 ability power item coming to the game to fill the void left by Deathfire Grasp's departure. There isn't much else we can contextualize in the foreword versus the actual item context, so go read down there.

P.S. We're also at the end of the updated Summoner's Rift Beta! While it's hard to define an 'end point' for these things - since we're always going to be iterating - it's nice to put a "finished for now" sticker while we can. We're shipping some final map-wide iterations for Summoner's Rift (and animated end of game victory / defeat graphics!), so you should expect a hefty download compared to our normal patches. We appreciate all the feedback you've given over this course of time!

And that's all for us! We've got a lot of changes packed into this patch, but we hope you'll make it through it.

Toot toot!

Chris "Pwyff" Tom &

Patrick "Scarizard" Scarborough

Champions

Bard

Bard, the Wandering Caretaker, will be released a bit later during Patch 5.5!

Azir

Increased the range at which soldiers can attack and spears 'pass through' to hit things further. Also base attack speed up.

Recent balance changes haven't been kind to Azir, so we're giving the Emperor some love targeted at his early-game feel when it comes to commanding soldiers. While these buffs don't solve all of Azir's problems, strengthening his sustained damage should ensure he isn't totally mummified.

General

BASE ATTACK SPEED0.600 ⇒ 0.625

SOLDIER ATTACK RANGE325 ⇒ 375

SPEAR PASSTHROUGH RANGE100 ⇒ 50 (total range unchanged)

Gangplank

Weird bugs, man.

Passive - Grog-Soaked Blade

BUGFIXFixed a bug where slow immune targets were also unaffected by the DoT

Gragas

Base mana up, damage cap versus monsters also up.

While not always thought of primarily as a Jungler, with the Buff Barge 2K15 docking at Jungle Island we thought it'd be a great time to pull back some of Graggy's stat restrictions to help drink Gromp and his friends under the table.

General

MANA300 ⇒ 400

W - Drunken Rage

DAMAGE CAP VS MONSTERS250 ⇒ 300

Karma

E - Defiance (Mantra)

BUGFIXFixed a bug where allied champions were granted the inspire portion of the shield, instead of half of the defiance damage

Karthus

W - Wall of Pain

BUGFIXFixed a bug where enemy champions could sometimes dash through Karthus' Wall of Pain without being slowed

Kassadin

R cooldown and mana costs are down, range up slightly.

Unlike Riftwalk, we went a little too far last patch. The focus of the changes were to lower the amount of instant mobility Kassadin had access to without changing his long-term movement too dramatically - this patch, we're tuning up his ultimate to put a little spring back into his Riftstep.

General

VISUALSUpdated model, textures, animations and slight VFX changes for base and all skins

ICONSNew ability icons

R - Riftwalk

COOLDOWN7/5/3 seconds ⇒ 6/4/2 seconds

RANGE450 ⇒ 500

COST60 mana ⇒ 50 mana

Lissandra

Q damage down.

In all levels of play, Lissandra can be summed up in one word: consistency. In each lane she sees play, her relative safety (thanks to her amazing waveclear) sets her up as a top-tier threat thanks to Frozen Tomb's unforgiving CC. Not wanting to over-do it, we're hitting Ice Shard as a way to tone down her damage, clear (and by extension, safety) all in one go.

Q - Ice Shard

DAMAGE75/110/145/180/215 magic damage ⇒ 70/100/130/160/190 magic damage

Nautilus

W damage down, E's cooldown, mana costs, and slow duration are all reduced.

By being the cornerstone to both his offensive AND defensive ability, Titan's Wrath forces Nautilus into a playstyle that is very binary - break the shield and he's harmless, or suffer if you fail to do so. Shifting power into Riptide lets him clear faster and take more actions per teamfight, which are two key areas we thought were weighing him down.

W - Titan's Wrath

DAMAGE40/55/70/85/100 magic damage ⇒ 30/40/50/60/70 damage

RATIO7/9.5/12/14.5/17% max health ⇒ 9/11/13/15/17% max health

E - Riptide

COOLDOWN10 seconds at all ranks ⇒ 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 seconds

COST60/70/80/90/100 mana ⇒ 40/50/60/70/80 mana

RATIO0.5 ability power ⇒ 0.3 ability power

SLOW DURATION2 seconds ⇒ 1.5 seconds

Nidalee

Trap damage now deals flat magic damage rather than a lower base damage + current health damage.

With the introduction of her rework, Bushwhack's current-health paradigm existed to soften up targets for big takedowns and secure vision to play with her new Hunt passive. Now one of the hottest junglers in the scene, it's enabled her to have the fastest clears in the game. For a skill with so many different uses as-is, we're re-balancing the damage so that while still useful with ability power, doesn't trivialize fighting the toughest monsters out there.

W - Bushwhack

DAMAGE10/40/60/80/100 (+10/12/14/16/18 (+0.02 ability power)% current health) magic damage ⇒ 40/80/120/160/200 (+0.2 ability power) magic damage

Rek'Sai

E - Tunnel

TUNNEL COUNTNow uses the ward spawning UI to show the number of existing tunnels vs the maximum as well as displaying which tunnel will be destroyed once you've reached the limit

Shyvana

E's damage proc up!

When looking to punch Shyvana's ticket aboard the Buff Barge, we decided a more general boost to her effectiveness would suffice. Often used for her mixed-damage and innate defensive stats, we like Shy most when she actually has to punch the stuffing out of you to win fights - so that's exactly what we're reinforcing here!

E - Flame Breath

BONUS DAMAGE AGAINST MARKED TARGETS2% maximum health per autoattack ⇒ 2.5% maximum health per autoattack

Singed

It's called "Mega Adhesive," not "Adequate Adhesive." Fling in peace, summoners.

E - Fling

BUGFIXFixed several cases where Flinging an enemy into Mega-Adhesive would not immediately root them

Sion

Q's mana costs down, ratio slightly up. E's mana costs up at later ranks.

When it comes to Super-Tanks in top lane, we actually like what Sion brings to teams and how he interacts with opponents, with the exception of his laning phase - so we're keeping things "power-netural" for the big zombie. Shifting power from screaming at minions to dropping the chopper on frightened opponents means it requires a little more effort to win the wet-noodle-war than just never running out of mana.

Q - Decimating Smash

COST45/50/55/60/65 mana ⇒ 45 mana at all ranks

RATIO0.6-1.8 total attack damage ⇒ 0.65-1.95 total attack damage

E - Roar of the Slayer

COST35 mana at all ranks ⇒ 35/40/45/50/55 mana

Skarner

Q's damage up (hey, it stacks up man), E's damage at later ranks up.

You're not the only one that misses your kind, Skarner. Another beneficiary of our focus on jungles this patch, we're aiming to give more damage back to the scorpion, especially in the later-game where his rank-ups can feel relatively poor.

Q - Crystal Slash

DAMAGE18/28/38/48/58 physical damage ⇒ 20/30/40/50/60 physical damage

BONUS MAGIC DAMAGE18/28/38/48/58 magic damage per stack of Crystal Energy ⇒ 20/30/40/50/60 magic damage per stack of Crystal Energy

E - Fracture

MAGIC DAMAGE40/60/80/100/120 ⇒ 40/75/110/145/180

Sona

For a while we've been normalizing mana costs on ultimates, and Sona's the recipient of the next round. Sona buffs. What a time to be alive.

Passive - Power Chord

BUGFIXNo longer consumed on hitting blue trinket ward or Kalista's Sentinel

R - Crescendo

COST100/150/200 mana ⇒ 100 mana at all ranks

Soraka

Q - Starcall

BUGFIXFixed a bug where Starcall's bonus damage sweetspot was not multiplying the bonus damage from Soraka's AP

Tristana

Rapid Fire's cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each basic attack she lands against an Explosive Charge'd champion.

When it comes right down to it, hyper-carries amongst marksmen usually care about one thing: basic attacking. As her primary source of damage, Tristana often felt awkward about giving up DPS to cast Explosive Shot, only to have them escape before she could make use of its damage potential. Adding the cooldown incentive should make it up to her, as well as giving her things to do when she's forced to shoot the durdling brawlers and tanks that try to scrap deep behind enemy lines.

Q - Rapid Fire

RAPIDEST FIREEach basic attack against a target marked with Explosive Charge reduces the cooldown of Rapid Fire by 1 second

Trundle

Passive range upped to match experience range. W's healing amp is now the same at all ranks, and R's been slightly buffed due to a bugfix.

What's a Tank to a King? While most of these changes are focused on bugfixes and feel improvements, we felt it wouldn't be fair to address such a large number of tanks and tank-enablers without mentioning their natural predator. Focusing on sustain and regen should let Trundle keep pace with his opponents, biding his time before he goes all-out clubbing and takes their hard-earned stats.

Passive - King's Tribute

RANGE1000 ⇒ 1400

W - Frozen Domain

HEALING AMPLIFICATION8/11/14/17/20% ⇒ 20% at all ranks

R - Subjugate

BUGFIXFixed a bug that caused Subjugate to only steal 36% of the target's Armor and Magic Resistance instead of 40%

Urgot

Urgot's shield now also scales with total mana, and R's cooldown has been reduced at later levels.

Urgot's going to need a lot more under-the-hood work before he can hit the big-time, but in the interim we thought he could use some help. A Mana ratio on W makes his beefy/CDR build more rewarding, keeping him active in sustained fights without adding to his snowball potential once the Acid Hunters set their sights on you. Although he has a dark, secret past, even the buff barge couldn't resist giving some love to League's original scuttle-crab.

W - Terror Capacitor

BASE SHIELD80/130/180/230/280 ⇒ 60/100/140/180/220

NEWMANA RATIO8% total mana

R - Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser

COOLDOWN120/110/100 ⇒ 120/100/80

Varus

Cooldown now starts ticking the moment he starts charging.

More of a quality of life change, Varus players should feel encouraged to charge their arrows instead of feeling penalized.

Q - Piercing Arrow

IONIAN SNIPERNow begins its cooldown at charge start, rather than when the arrow fires

Veigar

E's delay before walls appearing has been reduced slightly. Q is around 14% faster!

One of the larger themes for his 5.4 update was lowering reliability in favor of creating consistent high moments for master Veigar players. It appears we overshot (not a short joke), so we're dialing back to help Veigar feel less like a sitting duck when it comes to intense situations. Throw in some 'Quality of Doom' changes for Event Horizon, and the tiny master of evil should be turning tables and cackling like a super villain all the way to the nexus.

Q - Baleful Strike

MISSILE SPEED1750 ⇒ 2000 (~14% faster)

BUGFIXFixed a bug where Baleful Strike would fail to cast if you got CCed during the cast

E - Event Horizon

DELAY BEFORE WALLS APPEAR0.75 ⇒ 0.5

WARNING PARTICLE DISPLAYAfter cast time ⇒ On cast

Vi

Movement speed down, R damage down at early and mid ranks.

Known for punching first (and asking questions while punching), Vi's never been good about giving her opponents much of a chance to fight back. Being one of the toughest champions to peel (combined with devastating ganks) make fighting her feel stacked - so we're draining some power from these areas to even the odds.

General

MOVEMENT SPEED350 ⇒ 345

R - Assault and Battery

PHYSICAL DAMAGE200/325/450 ⇒ 150/300/450

Viktor

E - Death Ray

BUGFIXFixed a bug where the detonation on upgraded Death Ray was canceling Viktor's autoattacks

Volibear

Bite a monster, get half your cooldown back. Winning!

W - Frenzy

NEWTASTES LIKE RAPTORSRefunds half of the cooldown if used on a monster

Xin Zhao

W's base healing up at early levels, E's damage up at later levels.

As a jungler on the borderline of viability, we're giving X to the Z a bump towards his strengths (sustain and skirmishing) to help him get down to business.

W - Battle Cry

BASE HEAL26/32/38/44/50 ⇒ 30/35/40/45/50

E - Audacious Charge

DAMAGE70/105/140/175/210 magic damage ⇒ 70/110/150/190/230 magic damage

Zac

Chunks now reduce W's cooldown, even if he casts it slightly after he picks up a chunk. E knocks up for longer.

Smoothing out Unstable Matter's CDR mechanic and doubling E's knockup time so Zac players can feel better about doing what they've always done: throw yourself with reckless abandon into the enemy team.

W - Unstable Matter

SLAM CHUNKPicking up a chunk now briefly gives Zac a "reservoir" of CDR, even if he casts W within the 1 second following pickup of a chunk.

E - Elastic Slingshot

KNOCKBACK DURATION0.5 seconds ⇒ 1 second

Zilean

Q cooldown down.

As with all changes that both increase complexity and skill-ceiling, Zilean saw a pretty dramatic shift last patch. While we want to give more time for players to learn how to use him effectively, this change enables his Q+W+Q combo that folks are used to.

Q - Time Bomb

COOLDOWN12/11/10/9/8 seconds ⇒ 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 seconds

Mass Texture Rebalance (Part 8)

We're continuing our comprehensive pass at the game's older character textures. As with previous installments, our goal is to improve parity with newer releases and make sure everybody looks at home on the newly-updated Rift. Reminder: texture rebalancing isn't meant to replace - and doesn't delay - larger-scale updates!

Cho'Gath

Base, Gentleman, Jurassic, Loch Ness, Nightmare

Janna

Base, Frost Queen, Hextech, Tempest, Victorious

Taric

Base, Armor of the Fifth Age, Bloodstone, Emerald

Warwick

Base, Big Bad, Feral, Firefang, Grey, Hyena, Tundra Hunter, Urf

Items

NEW

Luden's Echo

IT'S HAPPENING!!!

Our new 120 ability power item is here to fill the void left by the passing of Deathfire Grasp (rest in pieces). Goals up front: we want to provide a unique item that helps out movement-focused, spell-slinging mages, like kitey Lux, bursty-train Akali, or even spell-slingy (that's a word) Karthas. Try it out and let us know what combinations work with you - we'll be keeping a close eye here as new experiments get brought out. It's also important to note that this works on spell hits, not basic attacks!

RECIPENeedlessly Large Rod + Aether Wisp + 650 gold (total cost: 3100 gold)

ABILITY POWER120

MOVEMENT SPEED7%

UNIQUE PASSIVEGains charges upon moving or casting. At 100 charges, the next spell hit expends all charges to deal 100 (+.15 per level) bonus magic damage to up to 4 targets on hit. Applies spell Effects (e.g., Spell Vamp, Rylai's, etc).

Sweeping Lens (Tier 2 Red Trinket)

When the cooldown on the upgraded red trinket was increased, we missed the fact that the middle tier red trinket now had a lower cooldown than the item it upgraded into. We changed the tooltip last patch and we're making the actual change now.

COOLDOWN AT LEVEL 9+60 seconds ⇒ 75 seconds

Wards

THEATRICSUnskinned Sight and Vision Wards now have spawn and death animations to provide better feedback. Don't get distracted.

Jungle Items

NEW

Bami's Cinder

Baby sunfire.

We've mentioned this before, but one of our goals with this 'new' tanky jungle enchant was to provide an item that not only provides valuable tank stats but also helps junglers with their early to mid game clears. We've had to be very careful in balancing champions with this new item (ie: Amumu and Sejuani probably don't need anything in addition to the new Cinder), but we're excited to see what possibilities emerge. Want to play a tank jungler? GET FIRED.

RECIPERuby Crystal + 600 gold (1000 gold total)

HEALTH300

UNIQUE PASSIVEImmolate - Deals 5 (+ 1 per champion level) magic damage to nearby enemies. Deals 50% bonus damage to minions and monsters.

NEW

Cinderhulk Enchantment

Juggernaut has been replaced by Cinderhulk.

See above with our point regarding a tanky item that also boosts clear speeds. This is that item all grown up. It's also important to note that +25% bonus health stat. Note it. Appreciate it.

RECIPETier 2 Jungle Item + Bami's Cinder + 350 gold (2200 gold total)

HEALTH350

UNIQUE PASSIVEGrants +25% bonus health

UNIQUE PASSIVEImmolate - Deals 16 (+ 1 per champion level) magic damage to nearby enemies. Increases with time in combat up to 24 (+ 1.5 per champion level).

Sunfire Cape

Sunfire now builds out of Bami's Cinder instead of Giant's Belt.

Just a very small directional change to make Sunfire Cape more focused on wave clearing for tanky dudes. There's a little less health on that build path, but you can get to your area-effect burn a little faster.

RECIPEChain Vest + Bami's Cinder + 850 gold (2600 gold total [unchanged])

STATSUnchanged. Just so you know.

NEWPASSIVEIs now UNIQUE so you know you can't stack it

Strategic Itemization

Raptor Cloak

BUFFS!

Since those two item build paths are so situational, we want you to feel better about just sitting on a Raptor Cloak.

ARMOR30 ⇒ 40

NEWUNIQUE PASSIVEPoint Runner - You now gain the movement speed while near fallen turrets

Zz'rot Portal

MORE BUFFS!

Now that we think players have good ways to deal with this (see: ability power damage to structures, etc), we're giving it some extra love. Also, please don't build this item against Nasus. Trust us.

ARMOR50 ⇒ 60

MAGIC RESISTANCE50 ⇒ 60

NEWUNIQUE PASSIVEPoint Runner - You now gain the movement speed while near fallen turrets

VOIDSPAWN BASE DAMAGE AGAINST STRUCTURES50 ⇒ 100

VOIDSPAWN BASE DAMAGE AGAINST NON-STRUCTURES20 ⇒ 50

VOIDSPAWN TIME UNTIL THEY BEGIN TO DECAY4 seconds ⇒ 5.5 seconds

VOIDSPAWN ACQUISITION RANGE AGAINST INHIBITORS300 ⇒ 350

VOIDSPAWN ACQUISITION RANGE AGAINST NEXUS300 ⇒ 450

Ohmwrecker

CASUALTY OF THE RAPTOR CLOAK BUFFS.

NEWUNIQUE PASSIVEPoint Runner - You now gain the movement speed while near fallen turrets

Righteous Glory

This item is actually very close to a healthy spot. We're just pushing it a little further so getting it earlier in the game improves its synergy with the new Cinderhulk enchantment.

HEALTH+500 ⇒ +650

This item seems to actually be in a pretty healthy state. It's good for breaking delayed out sieges against an Anivia or Ziggs, and it's a strong augment to your own siege with a Baron buff. Only calling this out to note that we're still looking if it needs anything for later patches. In other words, we're just talking. Hello, how are you. We're fine.

UNCHANGEDUNCHANGED. We just wanted to talk about Banner of Command, man.

Global Summoner's Rift Changes

Inhibitor Turrets

Inhibitor turrets give reduced gold and no experience.

This is going to get a little designer-talkish but here we go: the main advantage of taking down a laser turret is mainly to modify the game state - that is, access to either the inhibitor or nexus. Since taking (or not taking) these turrets are more about access to strategic buildings, the gold they provided acted as more of a "win more" mechanic than an incentive for the opposing team to take action. We're clarifying that! Designer talk over.

GLOBAL TEAM GOLD ON INHIBITOR TURRETS175 ⇒ 50

GLOBAL TEAM EXPERIENCE ON INHIBITOR LASER TURRETS100 ⇒ 0

Nexus Turrets

Laser turrets give reduced gold and no experience.

See above! We can copy paste it here, that's okay: this is going to get a little designer-talkish but here we go: the main advantage of taking down a laser turret is mainly to modify the game state - that is, access to either the inhibitor or nexus. Since taking (or not taking) these turrets are more about access to strategic buildings, the gold they provided acted as more of a "win more" mechanic than an incentive for the opposing team to take action. We're clarifying that! Designer talk over.

GLOBAL TEAM GOLD ON NEXUS LASER TURRETS150 ⇒ 50

GLOBAL TEAM EXPERIENCE ON NEXUS LASER TURRETS120 ⇒ 0

Shield Turrets (inner turrets)

Middle lane inner turrets no longer have a shielding mechanic. Top and bottom lane turrets shield for less, but all turrets have more health.

The goal of turret shields has always been to mitigate the oppressiveness of poke-heavy teams when they hit their stride. That said, the shields are a little too weighted in favor of the defending team, and we're seeing common stallouts on mid-lane inner turrets. With this change, we still want to reward split pushing and smart map rotations as counters to stall-focused teams, but we're reducing a little strength here so they're not just artificially drawing out games.

REMOVEDGET POKEDMiddle lane inner turrets no longer shield nearby champions

TOP AND BOTTOM LANE TURRET SHIELD HEALTH200 ⇒ 30

INNER TURRET HEALTH2000 ⇒ 2300

Minion Health

Minions got healthier, but turrets still do the same damage to them.

The unsung hero of sieging in League of Legends: minions. That said, they're currently not living up to their full potential and are getting washed out before any meaningful sieging can be done. Realizing this, we sent the minions to the gym so they'll be a little more resilient when marching down the lane. Our goal wasn't to affect last-hitting under turrets (hence the weird turret damage upgrade), but a bug made the timing slip by about 1.5 minutes. In other words, from 9:00 to 10:30, when you're last hitting minions under the turret, melee minions will have 6 more health when in "last hit" range (ie: after two turret shots), caster minions will have 3 more health (after one turret shot), and siege minions will have 9 more health.

CASTER MINIONSCaster minion health increased by 3 at 9 minutes, and an additional 3 every 90 seconds thereafter

MELEE MINIONSMelee minion health increased by 6 at 9 minutes and an additional 6 every 90 seconds thereafter

SIEGE MINIONSSiege minion health increased by 9 at 9 minutes and an additional 9 every 90 seconds thereafter

OUTER AND INNER TURRETSOuter and inner turrets (non-laser) deal 3 damage per minion upgrade at 10.5 minutes and an additional 3 every 90 seconds thereafter

Jungle Camps

Some of the inequalities between camp camps were a bit too pronounced, with some jungle routes being much, much better than others. Since one of our goals with the 2015 season was to ensure there wasn't a single best path for the jungle, but that junglers had to modify their clears (and jungle buffs) according to the pace of the game, we're adjusting. TLDR: Making camps easier.

GROMP ATTACK DAMAGE90 ⇒ 83

LARGE RAPTOR DAMAGE55 ⇒ 45

SMALL RAPTOR DAMAGE20 ⇒ 16

BIG WOLF REWARD48 gold ⇒ 53 gold

SMALL WOLF REWARD14 gold ⇒ 16 gold

Gromp Buff Buffs

Say that three times fast. Gromp buff now scales with bonus health so jungle tanks can scale better in their jungle clears, even without Cinderhulk.

GROMP POISON4 + (8 x level) ⇒ 10 + 10% of bonus health

Rift Scuttler Speed Boost

This includes all other things considered 'pets,' so Tibbers, Voidlings, and even clones. It's technically a Shaco buff too, which is concerning.

NEWHERE COMES TIBBERSThe Rift Scuttler speed shrine now affects pets

NEW

Dragon Buff Counter for Spectator

Counts buffs, not kills. Also glows when a team hits 5 stacks. Very exciting.

NEWEXISTSIs now a thing

End of Summoner's Rift Beta

Patch 5.5 marks the end of the Summoner's Rift Beta we launched last November! We're celebrating this milestone with a comprehensive colors pass and the animated Victory/Defeat screens we teased back in our beta announcement video.

Though the beta has come to an end, we're continuing to look for opportunities to update the rift. We really appreciate all the feedback you've given us and hope that, together, we've made Summoner's Rift a place you want to spend your game time in.

Visual Rebalance

We've heard a lot of player feedback around the art style of the updated Rift: many of you feel the new map is less vivid and lively than the original. We've been working on a comprehensive pass to bring back some of the vibrance of the old Summoner's Rift without sacrificing the clarity and readability the update offers.

HUE & SATURATIONAmped up to make the environment feel warmer and help the more colorful map elements pop

VALUE RANGEWidened while maintaining champion and particle contrast against the environment

MAP DETAILSMore have been added to help anchor your champion on the map, similar to how each quadrant of the jungle has a distinct feel. We also added a duck, but he's pretty noncommittal so you might not see him too frequently.

LIGHTING & SHADOWSRedone to be more consistent across the map and give a greater sense of direction and three-dimensionality

Victory & Defeat Banners

Looks cool but we ran into technical issues when we launched the beta, so we decided to ship without them. That's…about all the context we have.

VICTORY & DEFEAT BANNERSImage ⇒ Animated

Landing Page Articles

We're making a change to the landing page which'll allow you to read news articles in-client instead of being linked out to your web browser. We've got a bit more testing to do following the release of patch 5.5 so this won't be active right off the bat, but look for this quality-of-life improvement in the weeks to come!

Upcoming Skins

The following skins will be released at various times during patch 5.5:

Elderwood Bard

Headhunter Akali

Special Agent Xin Zhao

Points of Interest in 5.5

Here's a brief look at a few of the new things included in patch 5.5, 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 5.5 PBE cycle and may vary from what is pushed to live.

New Champion: Bard

Most notably, patch 5.5 includes our newest champion Bard, the Wandering Caretaker!

Get acquainted with Bard in his champion spotlight:

For more on his kit and abilities, check out our PBE coverage!

Elderwood Bard

975 RP

Check out these links for more information on BARD!

Upcoming Champion Skins

Patch 5.4 includes two new champion skins - Headhunter Akali and Secret Agent Xin Zhao. These will be out some point after 5.5 goes to live and we'll have a full preview posts when they are released!

Headhunter Akali

1350 RP

Secret Agent Xin Zhao

975 RP

Kassadin Visual Updates

As mentioned above, Kassadin has received a slew of visual updates in 5.5!

Also included are updates to his visual effects, anomations, and a new set of ability icons!

[Passive, Q, W, E, R]

Kassadin's four skins have also been updated:

Festival Kassadin - Front, Turnaround, Comparison, Preview Video
Deep One Kassadin - Front, Turnaround, Comparison, Preview Video
Pre-Void Kassadin - Front, Turnaround, Comparison, Preview Video
Harbinger Kassadin - Front, Turnaround, Comparison, Preview Video

More Texture Rebalances

This patch includes texture rebalances for Taric, Warwick, Janna, and Cho'Gath! These texture adjustments are meant to align older champions with the current art style. They are not meant to replace full visual updates.

Taric