Leagueoflegends News: 2017

Hey team, Safelocked here. I'm the Lead Gameplay Producer, aka the Gameplay version of Lead Producer Joe "Audible Chocolate" New001, and before you dive into one of LoL’s biggest patch notes to date, I want to take a moment to recap this year. Side note: If you landed here looking for more Runes Reforged information, click here.

Let’s start with class updates. Last preseason, we updated Assassins as a continuation of these (i.e. Juggernauts, Marksmen, Mages), and in midseason, we updated Tanks. After seeing the mixed impact of class updates though, we decided to move away from this approach to push individual champions further in bigger and more targeted ways. We went big with Warwick’s blood hunting, Galio’s colossal impact, Urgot’s infamous shotgun knees, and Eve’s charming mind games.

We went more targeted with ability updates: smaller scale changes on champions that might’ve worked a few years ago but now needed some extra love to better define their space within LoL. There were a bunch of them starting with Alistar stampeding his way, to giving Rek'Sai more teeth, to more recently bringing Azir's groove back and modernizing Xin Zhao.

We also welcomed new champions: Xayah and Rakan as the ultimate power-couple; Kayn, the wall-walking shadow reaper; Ornn, your resident blacksmith demigod—and we have one more bubbling up soon.

Supports got a few more legendary item options like Redemption and Knight’s Vow, and Rift Herald’s evolved to become a meaningful strategic objective on Summoner’s Rift.

Now it’s finally preseason, and we’re ready to introduce some big changes we've been working on. We’re combining runes and masteries into one new system that lets you customize your playstyle, streamlines your choices, and is free for everyone so we’re all on the same playing field. Additionally, you’ll be able to progress beyond level 30 and get more satisfying rewards that level up with you.

We've been talking about preseason changes for about six months now, and if you haven't heard about them just yet: They’ll look crazy. They might actually be crazy too—it's preseason, after all! We’re looking to discover with you, outplay each other, and learn again. We’re in our most ambitious preseason yet, and we're excited to chart this unknown territory together.

See you on the Rift,

Safelocked

RUNES REFORGED

Runes Reforged is hitting the Rift this preseason, and if you have no idea what's this about, here are some useful links:

/dev: On the Purpose of Pre-game
Coming This Preseason: Runes Reforged
Runes Reforged: Picking your playstyle
Runes Reforged: World Around Runes
Riot Pls: Leveling, IP, and Rewards
Preseason Update Website <- (click this one if you want a visual tl;dr!)
Ask Riot: Preseason Edition
Ask Riot: Preseason Edition, Volume 2

Resolve

LIVE FOREVER! Resolve is about durability and crowd control.

Path Bonus

RESOLVE + ANY PATH+130 Health

Keystone

Strength

Resistance

Vitality

You may choose one of the following:

Grasp of the Undying

NOODLE SLURPEvery 4 seconds in combat, your next basic attack on a champion will: Deal bonus magic damage equal to 4% of your max health, heal you for 2% of your max health, and permanently increase your health by 5

NO CHOPSTICKSRanged champions’ damage and healing are halved and they gain 2 permanent health instead

Aftershock

CALL ME QUAKEAfter immobilizing an enemy champion, increase your Armor and Magic Resist by 20 + 30% for 2.5 seconds, then explode, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies

DAMAGE40 - 140 (+3.5% of your maximum health)

COOLDOWN20 seconds

Guardian

DEFINITELY NOT BRAUMGuard allies within 175 units of you and allies you target with spells for 2.5 seconds. While Guarding, if you or the ally take damage, both of you gain a shield and activate haste for 1.5 seconds.

COOLDOWN45 seconds

SHIELD60 - 150 +(0.20 AP) + (+10% bonus health)

HASTE+20% Movement Speed

Domination

HUNT AND ELIMINATE YOUR PREY! Domination is about burst damage and target access.

Path Bonus

DOMINATION + ANY PATH+11 Attack Damage or +18 Ability Power, adaptive

Keystone

Malice

Tracking

Hunter

You may choose one of the following:

Electrocute

FOUR!Hitting a champion with 3 separate attacks or abilities within 3 seconds deals bonus adaptive damage

DAMAGE50 - 220 based on level (+0.50 bonus AD, +0.3 AP) damage

Predator

THE HUNT IS ONEnchants your boots with the active effect “Predator.” Predator to channel for 1.5 seconds out of combat to gain 45% movement speed for 15 seconds. Damaging attacks or abilities end this effect, dealing 60 - 140 (+0.4 bonus AD)(+0.25 AP) bonus adaptive damage.

COOLDOWN180 seconds to 120 seconds based on level. Starts the game on cooldown and goes on cooldown if interrupted while channeling.

Dark Harvest

2SPOOPYChampions, large minions, and large monsters drop soul essence on death. Collect souls to become Soul Charged. Your next attack on a champion or structure consumes Soul Charged to deal bonus adaptive damage.

DEFINITELY NOT THRESHSoul Charged lasts 20 seconds, increased to 300 seconds after collecting 150 soul essence

HOARDERBonus damage: 40 - 80 (+0.25 bonus AD) (+0.2 AP) + soul essence collected

21 GRAMS?Champions - 6 soul essence // Monsters - 2 soul essence // Minions - 4 soul essence

Precision

BECOME A LEGEND! Precision is about improved basic attacks and sustained damage.

Path Bonus

PRECISION + ANY PATH+18% Attack Speed

Keystone

Heroism

Legend

Combat

You may choose one of the following:

Press the Attack

GROOVYHitting an enemy champion with 3 consecutive basic attacks deals 30 - 120 bonus adaptive damage (based on level) and makes them vulnerable, increasing the damage they take by 12% from all sources for 6 seconds

Lethal Tempo

CRUISING SPEED1.5 seconds after damaging a champion gain 30 - 80% Attack Speed (based on level) for 3 seconds. Attacking a champion extends the effect to 6 seconds.

COOLDOWN10 seconds

OVER 9000!!!Lethal Tempo allows you to temporarily exceed the attack speed limit

Fleet Footwork

LIKE THE BUNNYAttacking and moving builds Energy stacks. At 100 stacks, your next attack is Energized.

FULL BATTERYEnergized attacks heal you for 5 - 50 (+0.10 Bonus AD, +0.20 AP) and grant +30% Movement Speed for 1 seconds

SMOL GUYSHealing is 60% as effective when used on a minion

Sorcery

UNLEASH DESTRUCTION! Sorcery is about empowered abilities and resource manipulation.

Path Bonus

SORCERY + ANY PATHSorcery + Precision +15 attack damage or +25 ability power, adaptive

Keystone

Artifact

Excellence

Power

You may choose one of the following:

Summon Aery

FAIRY POWERYour attacks and abilities send Aery to a target, damaging enemies or shielding allies

DAMAGE20 - 60 based on level (+0.10 AP and +0.15 bonus AD)

SHIELDShield: 30 - 80 based on level (+0.25 AP and +0.40 bonus AD)

COME BACKAery cannot be sent out again until she returns to you

Arcane Comet

COMET ME BRODamaging a champion with an ability hurls a comet at their location, or if Arcane Comet is on cooldown, reduces its remaining cooldown

ADAPTIVE DAMAGE30 - 100 (based on level) (+0.20 AP and +0.35 bonus AD)

COOLDOWN20 - 8 seconds (based on level)

COOLDOWN REDUCTIONSingle target: 20% // Area of Effect: 10% // Damage over time: 5%

Phase Rush

ZOOM ZOOMHitting an enemy champion with 3 attacks or separate abilities within 3 seconds grants 15 - 40% Movement Speed based on level

DURATION3 seconds

COOLDOWN15 seconds

NO REALLY, ZOOM ZOOMAdditionally, melee champions gain 75% Slow Resistance for the duration

Inspiration

OUTWIT MERE MORTALS! Inspiration is about using creative tools and bending some rules.

Path Bonus

INSPIRATION + RESOLVE+20% Potion and Elixir Duration +145 Health

INSPIRATION + DOMINATION+20% Potion and Elixir Duration +16 Attack Damage or +27 Ability Power, adaptive

INSPIRATION + SORCERY+20% Potion and Elixir Duration +16 Attack Damage or +27 Ability Power, adaptive

INSPIRATION + PRECISION+20% Potion and Elixir Duration +20% Attack Speed

Keystone

Contraption

Tomorrow

Beyond

You may choose one of the following:

Unsealed Spellbook

KEEP YOUR RECEIPTGain a Summoner Shard at 2 minutes and another every 6 minutes after (max 2 shards). While near the shop, you can exchange 1 Summoner Shard to replace a Summoner Spell with a different one.

UR A WIZARDSummoner Spell cooldowns are reduced by 25%

CAN'T BUY TALENTBuying Smite won't grant access to Smite items (you'll have to start with Smite)

SUMMONER FRAUDYou cannot have two of the same Summoner Spell

Glacial Augment

SLOW-MOBasic attacking a champion slows them for 2 seconds. The slow increases in strength over its duration.

CHILLRanged attacks slow by up to 20% - 40%

SUPER CHILLMelee attacks slow by up to 40% - 50%

WITH MY FREEZE RAYSlowing a champion with active items shoots a freeze ray through them, freezing the nearby ground for 5 seconds and slowing all units inside by 50%

COOLDOWN7 - 4 seconds per unit

Kleptomancy

STICKY FINGERSAfter using an ability, your next attack on a champion grants bonus gold. There's a chance you'll also gain a consumable.

CHAMPIONS

Our old rune system gave champions a lot of raw base stats, and especially early game those stats heavily impact the feeling of basic actions, like last-hitting and jungle clears. We want a lot of the instincts players have about the game to remain consistent, so we're pumping a lot of base stats directly back into the champions themselves. For the most part, this means Health, Armor, or Attack Damage, but we've also taken this opportunity to introduce a new stat into the game: bonus Attack Speed at level 1.

A - E

Aatrox

BASE ARMOR24.38 ⇒ 33

BASE ATTACK DAMAGE60.38 ⇒ 68

W - Blood Price

BASE DAMAGE45/80/115/150/185 ⇒ 50/85/120/155/190

E - Blades of Torment

BASE DAMAGE70/110/150/190/230 ⇒ 75/115/155/195/235

F - K

Fiddlesticks

BASE ARMOR20.88 ⇒ 30

L - R

LeBlanc

BASE HEALTH516 ⇒ 528

HEALTH GROWTH STAT80 ⇒ 92

S - U

Sejuani

BASE ARMOR27 ⇒ 36

BASE ATTACK DAMAGE56 ⇒ 64

V - Z

Varus

BASE ATTACK DAMAGE54.66 ⇒ 63

BASE ARMOR23.21 ⇒ 32.21

E - Hail of Arrows

BASE DAMAGE65/100/135/170/205 ⇒ 70/105/140/175/210

ITEMS

Coin line, Spellthief's Edge line, and Targon's Shield line

Similar to the base stat adjustments, we also want to make sure that supports have the ability to spec into Bandit. To make it less of a direct rune tradeoff, we're pushing that passive into support items.

HEY!All support starting items now have Bandit as a passive effect

Targon's Shield Line

The new runes have given many ranged supports much higher poke damage in the early game, making it more punishable for Tanks to cash their Spoils of War stacks. We're giving the heal on Targon's a small bump to ensure they still have ways to secure their gold.

SPOILS OF WARKilling a minion with a Spoils of War charge heals for 2% of missing health in addition to the flat heal

Spellthief's Edge Line

Spellthief's Edge

GOLD8 ⇒ 10

DAMAGE10 ⇒ 13

Frost Fang, Frost Queen's Claim, Eye of the Watcher

DAMAGE15 ⇒ 18

WOOPSWe accidentally removed the 10% cooldown reduction from the tooltip, but we guarantee it is there.

Poacher's Dirk

Cost reduced. Camps poached to transform increased. Cooldown between camps removed.

Read the Jungle Experience section for context!

COMBINED COST250 ⇒ 150 (500g total cost)

CAMPS NEED TO TRANSFORM3 ⇒ 4

REMOVEDCooldown between camps taken

EXPERIENCE

Takedown Experience

When we implemented the team-catchup experience, we'd intended it as a mechanic to keep supports relevant in levels, but the impact has largely been to snowball teams which are already ahead.

[REMOVED] NO LONGER RELEVANTEarning a kill or assist while below your team’s average level no longer grants bonus experience

Jungle XP

Comeback jungle experience is important in ensuring that an early game deficit isn't too hard to come back from, but at the moment it's creating some weird patterns. First, it's just too much overall, so we're cutting the total amount significantly. Second, linking it to little monsters has made one side of the map (Raptors and Krugs) disproportionately important to secure. Putting the bonus experience on the large monsters instead balances the sides out, while also making it more rewarding to counter-jungle.

We're also taking this moment to standardize jungle cs indicators. Because camps had wildly different numbers of monsters in them, cs becomes a pretty poor marker of gold. Is the enemy jungler outfarming you or have they just taken Krugs and Raptors twice? With this change it should be easier to ballpark a jungler's strength/lead from comparative cs.

COMEBACK EXPERIENCE30 XP per level behind on any monster ⇒ 50 XP per level behind only on Large or Epic Monsters

[REMOVED]First clear experience reduction no longer applies to Wolf camp or small Razorbeaks

DINGYou'll now be able to reach level 2 by starting at the Wolf camp

GROMP FIRST CLEAR EXPERIENCE REDUCTION25% ⇒ 50%

RED BRAMBLEBACK200 experience ⇒ 180 experience

BLUE SENTINEL200 experience ⇒ 180 experience

TRACKINGAll camps are now worth 4 monsters (e.g. Gromp = 4 monsters, Little Razorbeaks are 0.4 monsters)

EXTRA DAMAGE TO MINIONS

With the removal of masteries that brought a bit of PvE damage to the table, we wanted to ensure that champions didn't feel overly weak against lane minions. We will be continuing to evaluate the power of this as we see adjustments to Runes and champion changes.

IT HURTSBasic attacks deal 5 bonus damage to lane minions

There's a lot of waiting around at the start of the game, and even with invades, there's still some downtime. We're trying to reduce the idle time, so you'll see things like Bard Chimes, Skarner's Crystals, and Smite Cooldown being enabled a little bit quicker. To compensate those 10 seconds, the Homestart effect is also a tad stronger

GAME START TIME1 minute and 20 seconds ⇒ 1 minute and 10 seconds

SUPPAH FASTHomestart effect when the game starts is stronger now

CHAMP SELECT

We're temporarily adding 15 seconds to the "Select Loudout" part of champion select to give people more time to pick their Runes.

UNCAPPED LEVELING

The level 30 level cap has been removed, and the new cap is… infinity!

Instead of getting IP after every game, you'll receive a capsule each time you level up. Capsules almost always contain champion shards. Exceptions to this will be on certain milestone levels such as 50, 75, 100, etc, where you can get extra goodies. When these levels are reached, you'll get exclusive rewards to show off your status in-game. These rewards include a special high-level ward skin, milestone emotes which you can upgrade using blue essence, and at very high milestone levels, maybe even a gemstone.

IP TURNS INTO BLUE ESSENCE

We're connecting the leveling and loot systems by merging IP and blue essence. The newer, bluer essence will work in all the places IP and BE worked before, including loot and the champion store. Everything in the store will cost the same as it did in the old, IP-based system—for example, a newer champ like Kayn will be 6300 BE.

LEVEL 1 THROUGH 30

We’re shortening the time it takes to get to level 30. For more info on changes to leveling, check out the preseason FAQ

CHANGES TO BOOSTS

IP boosts are being removed from the store. XP boosts will still be available. Any active IP boosts will get automatically converted to XP boosts.

With rewards being tied to leveling up, XP boosts helps increasing the speed you unlock content (you'll level faster, thus earn capsules faster). To reflect this, we’ll be increasing the price of XP boosts to be closer to the value of an IP boosts. Check out the new price table in the FAQ.

ROTATING GAME MODE

Claim the incredible power of Ascension to conquer the Crystal Scar of Shurima. Ascension is now live from 11/10/17 at 12:00 p.m. PT - 11/14/17 at 04:00 a.m. PT and 11/17/17 at 12:00 p.m. PT - 11/21/17 at 04:00 a.m. PT.

TL;DR:

Go 5v5 to claim the incredible power of Ascension by taking down Ancient Ascendant Xerath. Use Ascension to conquer the Crystal Scar of Shurima.
First team to reach 200 points wins. Score:
- 1 point for champion kills.
- 3 points for capturing a Shuriman relic.
- 5 points for landing the killing blow on an Ascended champion.
- 2 points for each kill you acquire while Ascended.

Go forth. Conquer. Ascend.

Ascension Changelist

You can now use Enhanced Recall from anywhere on the map while in the play space

NO HEALSFountain healing is still disabled.

I JUST DIED FOR THATThis change enables you to shop and buy items during the game, without having to die to do it.

Runes Reforged is now available on Ascension

You can customize and select your runes, however we have swapped out some of the runes that are not compatible with Ascension by default; if you have these particular runes in your page, they will be automatically swapped for you once in game

Waterwalking

Waterwalking gives you movement speed while walking in the River, which wasn’t useful in the desert. Waterwalking will become Scorch, which allows your next ability to set the champion on fire, dealing damage.

Zombie Ward

Zombie Ward spawns a new, allied ward wherever you kill an enemy ward (or a new allied ward when your allied wards expire); however, there are no wards in Ascension… so, we’re testing out Ghost Poro. Ghost Poro allows you to summon a poro after entering a brush. The poro will stay behind and give you vision until you summon a new one, or until an enemy scares it away.

If Ghost Poro doesn’t happen, we’ll be swapping Zombie Ward out for something more useful regardless.

Minion Dematerializer

Minion Dematerializer lets you kill and absorb lane minions… if you had any! So you'll be getting Future’s Market instead. Future's Market lets you enter debt to the shopkeeper to buy items. Careful with those interest rates!

Kleptopmancy

Kleptomancy lets you auto attack champions and get gold and potentially consumables. However, since we balance gold and disable consumables in Ascension, we’ve disabled this rune as well. You'll be getting Glacial Augment, which gives your auto attacks a slow effect on champions. If you slow them with an active item, it’ll freeze the ground around them for five seconds.

Demolish

Demolish allows you to make powerful attacks against turrets. The only turret that exists in Ascension is Azir’s, when Xerath is de-spawned, so we’ve disabled this rune.The one you'll be getting instead is Font of Life, which allows you to mark an enemy when you have impaired their movement. Allied champions will heal when they attack marked enemies.

Overgrowth

Overgrowth increases your maximum HP for monsters and minions dying near you, but there are no monsters or minions in Ascension. There's always Second Wind though, which allows you to heal for some amount of your missing HP after being hit by an enemy champion.

SKINS BUGFIXES

Snow Bunny Nidalee's legacy border has been restored
River Spirit Nami's Tidecaller's Blessing (E) once again has on-hit SFX
Shields now follow Dark Star Varus' model during his recall animation
Tundra/Grey/Hyena/Marauder Warwick no longer has classic green idle VFX on their backs
Arcade Miss Fortune Chromas no longer have parent skin textures on her guns during death animation
Katarina and all of her skins’ SFX have been restored and are no longer quiet
Death Sworn Katarina's smoke VFX on her daggers during her Recall (B) no longer appear below the ground
Death Sworn Viktor no longer uses classic SFX during his joke animation
Scorched Earth Renekton no longer has missing ember VFX when using Cull of the Meek (E) with 50+ fury
Surprise Party Amumu's Curse of the Sad Mummy (R) can no longer be heard in Fog of War
Death Sworn Viktor's character texture now scales with character quality

EMOTES IN LOOT

Emotes are now available to drop in Hextech crafting.

UPCOMING SKINS & CHROMAS

The following skins will be released in patch 7.22:

Monday, December 11, 2017

Friday, December 1, 2017

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Sunday, November 12, 2017

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Monday, November 6, 2017

Resolve

Grasp of the Undying

Aftershock

Guardian

Domination

Electrocute

Predator

Dark Harvest

Precision

Press the Attack

Lethal Tempo

Fleet Footwork

Sorcery

Summon Aery

Arcane Comet

Phase Rush

Inspiration

Unsealed Spellbook

Glacial Augment

Kleptomancy

A - E

Aatrox

Ahri

Akali

Alistar

Amumu

Anivia

Annie

Ashe

Aurelion Sol

Azir

Bard

Blitzcrank

Brand

Braum

Caitlyn

Camille

Cassiopeia

Cho'Gath

Corki

Darius

Diana

Dr. Mundo

Draven

Ekko

Elise

Evelynn

Ezreal

W - Blood Price

E - Blades of Torment

F - K

Fiddlesticks

Fiora

Fizz

Galio

Gangplank

Garen

Gnar

Gragas

Graves

Hecarim

Heimerdinger

Illaoi

Irelia

Ivern

Janna

Jarvan IV

Jax

Jayce

Jhin

Jinx

Kalista

Karma