4/16 PBE Update: Trials Summoner Icons, Emotes & More

Posted on at 1:35 PM by Aznbeat
The PBE has been updated! As we start the 9.9 PBE cycle, today's patch includes new summoner icons, emotes, and loot assets for the upcoming Mid Season event, plus balance changes, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

(Warning: PBE Content is tentative and subject to change - what you see below may not reflect what eventually gets pushed to live servers at the end of the cycle! Manage your expectations accordingly.)

Table of Contents


Summoner Icons

Seven new icons are now on the PBE:

Trials 2019 Pass Icon, Golden Trials 2019 Icon, The United Icon, The Warband Icon
    

The Faceless Icon, The Council Icon, The Trials Icon
  

Emotes

Four new Trials emotes are now on the PBE:

The Council, The United, The Faceless, The Warband
   


VFX Updates for Ashe, Blitzcrank, Caitlyn and Jax, plus an SFX Update for Renekton

Here's Sirhaian with details on VFX and SFX updates now testing on the PBE:
"Hello everyone! 
Similar to the previous VFX updates we’ve made in the past (Kennen, Olaf, Wukong, etc), we're working on updates to the Visual Effects (VFX) of more champions whose spell effects are in need of some love. Our aim is to get their FX to current League standards and improve gameplay clarity. In Patch 9.9, we'll be releasing VFX updates for Ashe, Blitzcrank, Caitlyn and Jax, and an SFX update for Renekton. 
We're looking for feedback on those changes, which should be up on the PBE now. Please try them out there —especially if you're a main— and leave us your feedback! 
Ashe 
VFX update across the board to clean up unnecessary noise and improve gameplay clarity. Ashe wasn’t in such a high risk area, so we just brought up the art aesthetic to keep her more in line with our Freljordian champions.

BA - Basic attacks are now frosty with an updated arrow model
Q - Mostly added more glow and frost
W - Cleaned up unnecessary noise and created a sharper projectile
E - She now fires an icy hawk that explodes into snow on impact. Updated model for the hawk!
R - New arrow model and made it feel more threatening and cold. Should now slightly indicate the hitbox more clearly.
P - Frosty and cool 
Please note that all skins will not be touched, except for the ones that use base VFX for their respective recolors on live. 
Blitzcrank 
VFX update across the board to clean up unnecessary noise and improve gameplay clarity. Keep in mind he is also getting a small gameplay update!

BA - New hit effects.
Q - Blitzcrank’s Q has been updated to (finally) show the actual width and distance of the hook. Should now be more consistent with the hitbox. Also cleaned up a bit and added a small cast effect.
W - Cleaned up, with added electricity.
E - Cleaned up, with added electricity on his fists. New uppercut hit effect.
R - Finally shows the actual range! Yes, it’s always been this big. Should also be more satisfying. The R ready indicator (the body electricity) has also been cleaned up.
P - The barrier has been cleaned up a bit. 
Skins:
Rusty Blitzcrank: Rustier.
Piltover Customs Blitzcrank: Cleaned up and recolored W effects.
iBlitzcrank: Cleaned up his Q and added jetpacks in his W run. Preserved the lens flares in his E.
Riot Blitzcrank: R has a hint of red.
Battle Boss Blitzcrank: Improved R satisfaction and adjusted the R AOE size.
Lancer Rogue Blitzcrank: Cleaned up R noise.
Lancer Paragon Blitzcrank: Cleaned up R noise. 
Caitlyn 
VFX update across the board to clean up unnecessary noise and improve gameplay clarity. Also reinforced her Piltover/Hextech thematic where it made sense, while trying to preserve her iconic feel. Should feel more impactful and on-par with our modern standards.

BA - Cleaned up and removed all the noise. Also new hit impacts.
Q - Cleaned up and removed the noise. Also added a width indicator on both Q1 and Q2 for clarity. New hit impacts.
W - Reduced activation noise. Cleaned up the root effect. Ally traps now glow blue instead of green to match our modern standards.
E - Cleaned up, and now more accurately represent the width of the missile.
R - Reduced the R target effect’s noise and improved timing a bit. Also new cast effect, missile and hit effect.
P - New headshot missile and effects. Should be more readable and satisfying! 
Skins:
Headhunter Caitlyn: Cleaned up the projectiles. Added the width indicator on Q1 and Q2.
Lunar Wraith Caitlyn: Cleaned up the projectiles. Adjusted width of Q missiles to match base. Also cleaned up R charging and hit effects. 
Jax 
VFX update across the board to clean up unnecessary noise and improve gameplay clarity. Made his attacks sharper and more impactful.

BA - Cleaned up and more impactful
Q - Cleaned up and a bit more readable
W - Activation more visible, and added fire to the lamp post. Bigger impact, too.
E - Cleaned up, and now shows the range of the stun!
R - Cleaned up and more visible, with some sand particles!
R P - Third hit now much more clear and satisfying. 
Skins:
Nemesis Jax: New particles over the entire kit, to give it some more uniqueness.
God Staff Jax: Added the stun range indicator on his E to match the changes on base. 
Renekton 
Cleaning up Renekton's Audio to make it more clear! Goal is to EQ original files to clean out unneeded noise. SFX Updates only, as he already received some VFX Updates earlier.

Q - Emphasizing the Blade on the Cast as well as the Hit
W - Cleaning up loops with EQ, adding blade textures to Execute and Super Execute
E - Slice and Dice has applied Tremolo in the cast, more Transient to the Hit
R - Debris in the Loops have more debris texture with EQ as well. The Cast has more texture to represent some faction tonality
P - EQ present on the Cast and cleaner growl. 
Please test those changes on the PBE and let us know if you have any feedback!"

Miscellaneous 

  • Trials event loot assets:
    • MSI 2019 Orb
    • Trials Token
    • Golden Chroma for Challenger Nidalee + Icon
    • Golden Chroma for Conqueror Karma + Icon 
    • Conqueror Alistar Icon + Border
    • Golden Chroma for Challenger Ahri + Icon
    • 100 Prestige Points + Icon
    • Golden Chroma for Conqueror Varus + Icon
    • Golden Chroma for Conqueror Alistar + Icon
    • Challenger Nidalee Icon + Border
    • Challenger Ahri Icon + Border
    • 2019 Conqueror Ward
    • Worthy Adversary Emote
    • Wonderful... Emote
    • Impressive! Emote
           

Balance Changes

* NOTE*: The PBE is a testing grounds for new, tentative, & experimental changes. Be aware that what you see below may be relative to other changes earlier this cycle! These are not official notes.

Champions

 Blitzcrank
[Context / Changelist - back for more testing, expected release in 9.9!]
  • Mana Barrier (Passive)
    • Shield Strength changed from [50% of current mana] to [30% of Max Mana]
  • Static Field (R)
    • [New Passive] "Lightning charges Blitzcrank's attacks, dealing an extra 100/150/200 (+20% AP) + 3% of his maximum Mana magic damage."

Kennen
  • Lightning Rush (E) no longer grants armor and magic resist.
  • Slicing Maelstrom (R) now grants 20/40/60 armor and magic resist

 Ornn
  • [Bug] Living Forge (Passive)
    • Frozen Fist (Masterwork Item) Armor lowered from 125 to 95

 Rakan
[Changelist]
  • The Quickness (R) 
    • charm duration increased from 1/1.25/1.5 to 1.5/1.75/2
    • movement speed during ultimate increased from 50% to 100%
    • bonus movespeed from hitting a champion increased from 150% to 200%
    • movement speed duration lowered from 4s to 3 seconds
    • "Rakan can no longer use his W or his E during his ultimate."
    • "No longer limited to 1 champion hit for the bonus MS (refreshes the MS, doesn't add onto it)"

Teemo
[Context 1 / Context 2 - Early exploration, continuing to test on the PBE this cycle!]
  • Base Mana Regen increased from 1.92 to 2.5
  • Mana Regen per level increased from 0.09 to 0.15
  • Mana/lvl up increased from 20 to 25
  • Base damage lowered from 54 to 51
  • Attack speed per level lowered from 3.38 to 2
  • Toxic Shot (Passive)
    • Teemo’s basic attacks now deal 8-50 bonus magic damage and leave a Poison DoT that deals 24-180 magic damage over 4 seconds.
    • Toxic Shot damage (both the on-hit and the DoT) is amped by 50% whenever there are other Poison debuffs on the target
  • Blinding Dart (Q)
    • Base damage lowered from 80/125/170/215/260 to 70/105/140/175/210
    • mana cost increased from 70/75/80/85/90 to 80/85/90/95/100
    • AP Ratio lowered from 0.8 to 0.6
    • Now is a Poison Debuff
  • Move Quick (W)
    • No longer breaks stealth
  • Guerilla Warfare (E)
    • Cooldown: 40/37/34/31/28
    • [New] "After a 2 second delay, Teemo becomes Invisible indefinitely if standing still or in brush, and can move up to 5/6/7/8/9 Teemos while out of brush, but any non-periodic damage from champions will break him out. Teemo can see 25% farther while stealthed. Upon breaking Guerilla Warfare, Teemo gains e20/30/40/50/60% Attack Speed for 3 seconds. While on cooldown, standing in brush will tick down guerilla Warfare's cooldown faster."
      • Stealth duration while moving: 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3
  • Noxious Trap (R)
    • Base Damage lowered from 200/325/450 to 150/250/350
    • AP ratio lowered from 0.5 to 0.4
    • Mushroom max ammo count up from [3 at all ranks] to [3/4/5]
    • Traps now become invisible after 1 second
    • Traps can continue to bounce on other traps

Context & Notes

1) Here's Riot Scruffy with a post on upcoming gameplay changes in the 9.9 and 9.10 PBE cycles:
"Hey all, Scruffy here giving an early look at some of the gameplay changes we’re planning for patches 9.9 and 9.10. While we still have no plans for a formal midseason patch (big disruptive changes that reshape the way you play League), we'll have a higher than usual amount of changes like the recent Urgot work so these patches will be heftier than what you've seen in the first half of 2019. 
Systems Changes 
  • Early Jungle Lane Dependence - This one is here because we think we can target a common jungler pain point without a big amount of change. Philosophically we like for junglers to participate in the wider game and have to take risks to succeed, but we also want to solve a frustration point that early fights are too important and junglers feel overly reliant on laner rotations to succeed. We’re testing changes around scuttle mechanics and possibly other tactics to see if we can create a less pressured level 2 fight-or-lose situation.
  • Inspiration overuse as secondary - Inspiration is stifling a lot of other cool secondary rune tree options by bringing too much value. We are exploring both nerfs there and also buffs to the other tree minor runes to make them have more splash appeal.
  • Hunter’s Potion - This item is a tempting option that currently is a trap because it’s weak and additionally doesn’t really add a lot of interest beyond a ton of sustain. We’re experimenting with some small reworks to make this usable and fun but if we can’t find any compelling spaces we’ll remove this item altogether.
  • Aftershock - Pretty simple goals here to reduce the power of this rune on champs not building tanky while keeping it good on tanks and bruisers. 
Champion Changes 
  • Blitzcrank - We'll be shipping the quality of life improvements that you saw on PBE recently: making Blitz's passive shield more consistent, removing the randomness from R's passive, and giving Blitz a bit more payoff for auto attacking
  • Tahm Kench - The goal here is to make TK less of an action stopper in very high elo and pro while also making him a playable support pick for the average player. Our current direction makes TK slow when devouring an ally (like when he devours an enemy) to pull a bit of power out of coordinated saves. To compensate we’re buffing his Q slow and making devour -> spit minions cost less so that he can use it more
  • Zac - We’re currently testing a mostly reverted version of the Ult with a few improvements to help it have more clear gameplay and understandable impact.
  • Aatrox - He still has been too hard to counter at high level and pro play which really hurts his playability for normal players. Our current changes make his ult revive only activate if he gets a takedown while his ult is active to remove his reliable ability to deny his own death. To compensate we’re buffing his baseline stats and exploring some other spicy additions. 
As usual, these are all work in progress so we may change or even not ship some of these ideas if they don’t come together well. Thanks for playing with us and I’m looking forward to your feedback and ideas. 
Scruffy" 
2) Riot Jag provided a changelist and context for Aatrox changes coming later in the 9.9 PBE cycle:
[1] Been working with SR team to have some major Aatrox changes coming in for 9.9, with the primary goals being to buff him for normal play while dropping his power in professional play. Mainly going about this by drastically reducing power in the revive, which should drop his 
[2] ability to tower dive in coordinated environments and also prevent him from having so many safe matchups.
Can't promise any of this ships, but here's what we're looking at right now. We might have to drop an additional World Ender mechanic before we're done. 
[3] Umbral Dash (E)
[RETURNED] :: Now has 2 charges, from 1
[RETURNED] :: Cooldown between casts to 3/2.5/2/1.5/1
[RETURNED] :: Charge cooldown to 22/19/16/13/10 
[4] World Ender (R)
Cast time :: .5 >>> .25
Revive Self Slow :: 25% >>> 99%
Revive Heal:: 10-50% Max HP >>> 30% Max HP
[NEW] :: Now also fears enemy champions on cast for 1 second 
[5] [NEW] :: Aatrox now only revives if he gets a takedown during World Ender
[NEW] :: Takedowns extend World Ender by 5 seconds, reset The Darkin Blade (Q)'s cooldown, and add 1 charge of Umbral Dash (E) 

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