Riot decided that Blizzard shouldn’t have all the attention today and released the gigantic League of Legends preseason patch on the PBE. There are some amazing new skins, including Bard Bard, end of season rewards and the long-awaited Assassin Update. Riot also took a crack at balancing all of the broken burst champions at once, including Leblanc, Rengar and Talon.
Here’s all the information Riot Whale gave us on the LOL PBE forums:
Katarina
Goals
Tactical Play and Counterplay: Katarina and her opponents should have the ability to make moment to moment plays against each other. While this has largely been true for Katarina, we now hope that opponents have more to do than pray someone saved an instant CC for her.
Laning and Interaction : We want Katarina to play more dynamically in lane, taking risks and jumping in and out of combat with her opponent.
Mastery and Skill Expression : While playing Kat, you should feel that there are dynamic and unique ways to use your skills and feel skillful when you pull off that crazy combo.
Reworked Play Pattern
The Dagger Katarina throws in her Q now stays on the ground after bouncing.
Sinister Steel has been replaced by a spell that directly allows her to place a Dagger where she is (after a delay), so she can jump back to it later.
She can Shunpo to her Daggers. Walking over a dagger/Shunpoing to one will effectively fully refund Shunpo's cooldown and deal massive AoE damage around her (Pre-Rework Sinister Steel, but amped up WAY past 11 - like, nearly lethal amounts of damage).
She goes crazy and bounces all over the place killing everyone (but only if she sets herself up correctly).
Some Extra Tidbits
She can now Shunpo to anywhere around a unit, instead of always behind it. This is controlled by the player's mouse offset relative to the target. Really looking for feedback on this, but expect it to take a while to learn!
Use this to your advantage to position better around enemies, or daggers! The AoE damage from the dagger is based on where you are when you pick it up, not the dagger.
Your Q Dagger always drops 350u behind the primary target, and always takes the same amount of time to bounce to get to the ground after the first hit, so you aren't punished for bouncing through multiple people. Try to trick shot Q daggers from one enemy onto a more important target using this offset.
Please put any questions or feedback on Katarina in this thread!"
Rengar- via Riotrepertoir
P - Unseen Predator
Ferocity
Maximum Ferocity reduced 5 >>> 4
Using an empowered ability gives Rengar 30/40/50% (at levels 1/7/13) Movement Speed for 1.5 seconds
Rengar no longer has to damage an enemy with a spell to gain Ferocity from it
All Ferocity is lost instantly upon leaving combat (4 seconds of dealing/taking no damage)
Leap
Range increased 600 >>> 725
Leaping from out of combat (see Ferocity out of combat rules above) generates 1 Ferocity
Rengar now jumps slightly offset from the target in the direction he came from (rather than dead-center in the middle of the target's model)
Bonetooth Necklace
Now only grants stacks for unique champion kills (Rengar has to damage them within 1 second of their death)
Stacks capped at 5
Old bonuses removed
Now grants 1/3/6/10/15 Attack Damage
Now grants 2/6/12/20/30% Bonus Attack Damage
No longer gets the short end of the stick in the Kha'Zix/Rengar quest
Bonetooth Necklace progress is represented by a UI element that Kindred players will be familiar with
Q - Savagery - redesigned
Rengar slashes all enemies in an arc before piercing all enemies in a line
This spell is now a skillshot; it still resets Rengar's auto attack timer
Casting Savagery outside the max range causes Rengar to lunge forward with the piercing attack, moving a small distance in that direction
Deals 90/130/170/210/250 plus 1.0 Bonus AD physical damage
Ferocity effect: deals significantly more damage
Deals 80+20/lvl plus 2.4 Bonus AD physical damage
W - Battle Roar - redesigned
Rengar deals magic damage to nearby enemies and heals for 50% of the damage he took in the last 1.5 seconds
Ferocity effect: additionally removes crowd control effects and prevents incoming ones for 1.5 seconds
The amount Rengar will heal is represented by Grey Health on his health bar
Damage healed from monster attacks is doubled
E - Bola Strike - basically the same, with some numbers adjustments
R - Thrill of the Hunt
Now Camouflages Rengar, meaning he can be seen by nearby champions or truesight only
Duration increased to 14/22/30 seconds
Fade time removed
Movement Speed increased to 40%
Now only reveals the enemy champion nearest Rengar
This puts eyes over the target that both teams can see
Rengar can only leap to the enemy champion nearest him (unless in brush)
Leaping to the enemy champion nearest him results in a guaranteed critical strike on the target
Leblanc- via 20thcenturyfaux
Rework goals:
Make LeBlanc healthier by giving her opponents have time to respond when she goes in. By adding a little time between when LeBlanc goes in and when the full burst hits, the choice of whether to snap back to W's origin means LB has to give up damage.
Give LeBlanc unique strategic tools and capabilities so she brings something to her games that other assassins don't.
In doing the first two things, emphasize her thematic identity as the Deceiver -- emphasize her tricky side.
The Changes
LeBlanc's Sigil of Malice is now her passive. The mark is applied by all her spells, cooks for 1.5 seconds, and can be popped by any spell for massive damage. If LeBlanc's Q pops a charged Sigil of Malice, it chains to nearby ready Sigils (taking some of the waveclear duty off her W/RW).
Mirror Image is now a part of LeBlanc's ultimate -- when she copies a spell, she splits and both her and the clone cast the spell.
Mimic can now copy any spell, not just the most recently cast; she presses R secretly, and the next button press is the Mimic version of that spell.
Mimic's R -> R is a new ability: LeBlanc creates a clone anywhere on the map. That clone runs toward the nearest enemy champion and casts a fake version of the most recent spell LeBlanc cast before creating the RR Mimic. This has a separate cooldown from the ult itself.
Smaller changes
W and RW now have a brief (0.3s~) delay after dash completes before LeBlanc can snap back. For most players, farming the wave is the only time they'll feel this; casting any spells after the dash 'covers up' the delay time entirely. This is mainly something for extremely high level LeBlanc play.
E now displays the tether range to LeBlanc and her victim. It hasn't changed in size, but it's really really big xD
RR has a gem on the corner of the R button to track its cooldown timer.
This is the real LeBlanc feedback thread announcement sentence the first one was a clone the whole time
Talon- via Riot Stachu
Goals
Add skill expression in his kill pattern (consequently, improve game health)
Give him unique, Assassin appropriate abilities to differentiate him
Lean into his identity as the roaming AD assassin
Play Pattern
In lane, Talon will look to land both ends of his updated Rake (W) to stack up his new Passive. With it's higher payout but increased delay, Rake is the main thing for opponents to watch out for.
If successful with his W, he can posture for an all in with his updated Noxian Diplomacy (Q) to proc his passive and go for the kill.
Whether or not lane trades are working out, Talon will be looking for opportunities to dip out of lane and take advantage of his new Assassin's Path (E).
If he can clear the wave and make room to roam, Talon can make record time in his ability to jump, flip, and roll over any obstacles in his way to ambush the enemy jungler or gank a side lane.
In team fights, Talon will look to take advantage of the unique and unexpected flanking routes that only he could.
If successful in flanking with Assassin's Path, Talon should be able to make quick work on an enemy squishy with a Q/W/R/P combo.
Questions
Anything at all about the new E. Is it fun? Difficult to use? Does it suit Talon? Bugs?
With his new but different set of mobility tools, do you feel able to get on your desired target?
With higher potential damage but lower up front damage, do you still feel empowered to kill your target enemies?
When in the game do you feel powerful / weak (early / mid / late) and in which circumstances (enemy has all/no squishies, I was able to roam / I was pushed in, etc.)?
Lastly, known bugs:
Rake's spell effects are not displaying correctly to enemies. We'll have a fix for this out in the next PBE build.
Talon crashes the server when using E in a number of places on the Crystal Scar. This fix will take a while, so we'll be disabling him on those maps ASAP while we work on that one.
And that's all for now! Please put any and all reactions/questions/comments here -- Talon's new mechanics are pretty unique, so every bit of feedback helps!"
Everyone Else- via Shrieve
Akali
You now dash before dropping your Twilight Shroud (W). Also Pink Wards no longer reveal you
Twin Disciplines (Passive) has been reworked into a more interactive pattern
Ekko
Increased effectiveness for building AP and making riskier plays
Chronobreaking (R) through Parallel Convergence (W) will activate the stun and shield
Fizz
Fizz's Chum the Waters (R) now summons different sized Sharks based upon how far his fish flies before activating
Seastone Trident (W) has been reworked into providing a bigger payout when timed effectively
Kha'Zix
Created unique strengths for each Evolution and balanced their power
Void Spike (W) provides more Crowd Control
Void Assault (R) provides more Map Mobility
Shaco
Early game abuse reduced, tricks increased while providing more playmaking and teamfighting options in the late game
Backstab (Passive) has a cooldown, but provides a greater effect
Shaco's Deceive (Q) duration starts small and scales with rank
Shaco can place Jack in the Boxes (W) while Invisible, briefly revealing him
Twitch
Ambush (Q) now provides Camouflage and a massive Movement Speed bonus when stalking enemy champions
Venom Cask (W) now lingers, creating a zone of control and adding Deadly Venom Stacks (Passive) over time
Zed
Zed's Living Shadow (W) no longer has a passive that grants him bonus Attack Damage
The strongest victim of Zed's Death Mark (R) permanently grants him a % of their Attack Damage
Do you think this is what Riot needed to do to keep the game balanced or will it ruin League of Legends? Tell us in the comments.
