07
June
patchnotes
Patch 4.6 notes
Hi Summoners,
Since this is the patch the 2014 All-Star tournament will be played on, we’re taking it a little easy on the changes. After 4.5’s laundry list, here’s what we’re tackling next.
Reworks: We've released a number of reworks over the past few patches and we're committed to following up to get these champs to a better place. We saw quick opportunities to polish up Kassadin, Gragas and Rengar. We also have plans for Skarner, but we're going to keep him in the lab a little longer. You can read about our specific design intentions below, but the general theme (for all of the above) is to make these reworked champions more unique within their role while still preserving game health.
Top lane: We're particularly aware of low champion diversity - especially in competitive play. The current state of top lane is a couple of champs go to fight on an island and that makes the balancing act tricky. We know that nerfs won’t work because taking down today’s bullies (hi Renekton!) means that others would rise to the spot. Instead, we're going to be buffing(!) champions over time that have teamfight-oriented, healthy gameplay. In this vein we have changes in store for Jarvan IV, Malphite, Rumble and more, but Rumble is the only one shipping because he’s the only one done. Stay tuned, as this will be an ongoing project.
Onward to the patch notes!
LoL Patcher
In this patch we've fixed a bug responsible for creating errors during the patching process. We've also added crash logging to the patcher as another tool to help us discover, track and fix issues going forward.
- Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented new patches from properly updating game files
- Players can now submit logs if the patcher crashes
Champions
Aatrox
W - Blood Thirst
Bugfix Fixed a bug where the stance effect would sometimes trigger every 2 attacks instead of 3
Gragas
Now that Gragas is a full-on drunken brawler, he needs a little help in the mid-fight mobility department.
W - Drunken Rage
removedSelf slow Gragas' movement speed is slowed while channeling
E - Body Slam
Cooldown 16/15/14/13/12 seconds ⇒ 12 seconds at all ranks
Kassadin
We're happy with Kassadin's direction as a high-mobility mana-fueled void mage, but he's a little under-equipped for the job. Old Kassadin could survive by blowing up targets (dead targets don't deal damage), but since the rework put more emphasis on his mobility and close combat, he's had some problems sticking around the fight. These changes are to give Kass more opportunities and rewards when he Riftwalks into the fray.
General
Movement Speed 340 ⇒ 350
Mana per level 45 ⇒ 70
Q - Null Sphere
Magic Shield 40/70/100/130/160 (+0.3 ability power) ⇒ 40/80/120/160/200 (+0.8 ability power)
Bugfix Now correctly interrupts Anivia's Glacial Storm, Twisted Fate's Gate and Urgot's Hyper-Kinetic Position Reverser
W - Nether Blade
Active damage 40/65/90/115/140 (+0.6 ability power) ⇒ 40/75/110/145/180 (+0.7 ability power)
Maokai
This is a fix for a longstanding bug where Maokai's slow didn't accurately match his tooltip. We're giving him the benefit of the error.
Q - Arcane Smash
Bugfix Slow value now matches tooltip ( 20/25/30/35/40 ⇒ 20/27/34/41/48%)
Rengar
Following up on our Rengar rework, we're giving him power back in two areas where we've heard your feedback: Savagery and Thrill of the Hunt. Rengar's rework is currently doing a lot of things successfully, but we agree that kitty needs a little more claw.
Q - Savagery
Attack animation speed Increased by 40%
Bonus damage 20/40/60/80/100 ⇒ 30/60/90/120/150
Q - Empowered Savagery
Attack animation speed Increased by 40%
Bonus damage 20-235 by champion level ⇒ 30-240 by champion level
R - Thrill of the Hunt
newStealth alert Now only appears if enemies would be able to see Rengar out of stealth
Rumble
We're adding more danger to the Danger Zone in order to separate the good Rumbles from the great Rumbles.
W - Scrap Shield
Danger Zone shield bonus 25% ⇒ 50%
Danger Zone movement speed bonus 25% ⇒ 50%
E - Electro Harpoon
Danger Zone damage bonus 25% ⇒ 50%
Danger Zone slow bonus 25% ⇒ 50%
Bugfix Harpoon slows now stack correctly
Twitch
Twitch has received a visual update. And legs. Check out the full details here! We've also bundled a few quality of life improvements and ability name changes for skills that've mutated past their original designs over the years.
General
Icons As part of his visual update, Twitch has received all-new ability icons
Q - Ambush
newUtility Added new particles and sounds for the moment Twitch enters stealth
E - Contaminate
Name Expunge ⇒ Contaminate
newUtility Added a range indicator
Visuals Particles now shoot from Twitch to his victims
R - Rat-ta-tat-tat
Name Spray and Pray ⇒ Rat-ta-tat-tat
Visuals Particles now better indicate when secondary targets are hit by splash damage
Items
Wriggle's Lantern
We wanted to err on the stronger side with Feral Flare's release so that players could see exactly what it offered as a carry jungle item. That certainly hasn't been a problem, as it's performed extremely well thus far. Too well.
Total cost 1650 gold ⇒ 1800 gold
Feral Flare transform 25 large monster kills ⇒ 30 large monster kills
Summoner Spells
Heal
The Heal debuff was something we should have left in when we updated the summoner spell. Without the debuff, there's no real drawback to bringing multiple Heals to a fight instead of an assortment of spells.
newMulti-heal debuff Heal is 50% less effective on allies previously Healed within the past 35 seconds. This debuff only applies when an ally has been healed by the Summoner Spell Heal.
Twisted Treeline, Crystal Scar & Howling Abyss
Hextech Sweeper
The recent update to Twin Shadows made for a lot of design overlap with Hextech Sweeper, so we're pushing Hextech Sweeper into more of a tanky mine-sweeping direction.
newRecipe Fiendish Codex + Kindlegem + 330 gold ⇒ Glacial Shroud + Kindlegem + 330 gold
Total cost 2000 gold ⇒ 2130 gold
Health +250 health ⇒ +225 health
newArmor +25 armor
newMana +250 mana
removedAbility Power +40 ability power
Cooldown reduction +20% (unchanged)
Active Stealth detecting mist (unchanged)
Twisted Treeline & Crystal Scar
Blackfire Torch
This change was also spurred by the recent changes to Twin Shadows. Generally speaking, we knew Blackfire Torch needed to be toned down, so when we started seeing piles of additional movement speed on casters, we felt we could step in now.
removedMovement speed +5% movement speed
Twisted Treeline
Now that we've hit the middle of the 2014 season, we were able to safely assess how to update Twisted Treeline to the new game flow mechanics.
Inhibitor respawn rate 5 minutes ⇒ 4 minutes
Inhibitor mechanics Destroying an enemy inhibitor only buffs the minions in that lane
Jungle rewards Experience and gold scaling increased
We also took this opportunity to create more viable jungle routes and to alleviate some early jungling concerns.
Health relic spawn 1:55 ⇒ 3:00
Bots
We flipped the switch on a suite of bot improvements at the tail end of the 4.5 patch cycle - you can find the changelist in the Patch 4.5 Notes and head over to the dev blogfor the scoop on our goals to make bots more human. This patch is a continuation of those efforts.
- Bots will now purchase and use Warding trinkets, Sightstone and Sight Wards
- Wards are placed as bots roam, granting vision of the jungle
- Wards are used to try to gain vision of enemies in brush when bots are chasing; LESS FACE CHECKING!
- Bots now have a 50% chance of playing Blue-side in Co-op vs. AI, with players on Purple-side
- Fixed a bug where bots would stop to cast instant-cast items and spells (e.g. toggling Ashe's Frost Shot, using a potion)
- Removed some abuse cases that could be exploited while bots were recalling
