Patch 4.19 notes
Hi Summoners,
Welcome to patch 4.19! Not much in terms of design content as we continue work behind the scenes on the 2015 preseason and the eventual arrival of the updated Summoner's Rift.
As a reminder, this is the last week for the 2014 season, so good luck for those of you trying to power through to the next tier! Just remember that losses are inevitable, and it's what you can learn for the future that counts. That's some deep philosophy for a patch notes foreword.
On with the changes!
Chris "Pwyff" Tom
Patch Updates
11/07/2014
Loading Screen
BUGFIX Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the load screen to go black, preventing players from seeing their progress toward loading into a match
Bots
THEY'RE (RE)LEARNING Certain bots have remembered how to use self-cast abilities
Summoner's Rift Update: Open Beta
The last major set of SRU files is going out with 4.19 (so expect another large download!) and we'll be starting the Summoner's Rift open beta soon. Check out the beta release plan for additional details!
Champions
Singed
STICK 'EM IN THE GOO! ... Also Insanity Potion gives more bonuses at rank 3. And Singed has been updated!
Our initial context was to say, "Sometimes you just want to buff Singed, man," but then someone read it and said it wasn't very informative. So. Right now we like Singed and how he fits into the game, but thought we could give him some small, exciting buffs to stay interesting. For the "LONG PATCH NOTE" section, we'll reiterate: it's a neutral change, just that we've shifted the mini-stun on landing into the actual throw itself (this came from re-scripting Fling to fix the bug where Singed was occasionally tossing people in the completely wrong direction). Also, Singed has been updated! Check out the article if you want the full story, or below if you just want the specifics.
General
VISUALS Updated model and textures for base and all skins
ICONS New ability icons
SPLASH New base splash
E - Fling
newSTAY WITH ME If Singed Flings a target into Mega Adhesive Zone, they will be snared for 1 second
FLIP FLOP Fixed a bug where Singed would occasionally Fling his targets in completely wrong directions (we believe this is fixed for most cases, let us know if it keeps happening!)
A LONG PATCH NOTE Singed's arm is stronger, thereby letting him Fling targets higher into the sky for slightly longer durations. In exchange, targets will be able to move immediately after being flung. This is a net neutral change, as we basically took the mini-stun from Fling's landing and put it into duration of the Fling itself.
R - Insanity Potion
STAT ENHANCEMENT 35/50/65 ⇒ 35/50/80 ability power, armor, magic resist, movement speed, health per 5 seconds and mana per 5 seconds
Sion
Lots of bug fixes along with a small mana cost shift from Sion's Q + W to E.
We've got a little room to give Sion some post-update love, so we decided to focus on his best stat: health. Additionally, we've made a lot of quality-of-life changes & bug fixes to help Sion be the best he can be. Final note for that passive change, we changed it because it was punishing Sion for building HP, which was dumb. Now health-stacking Sion should stay up a little longer in his zombie form in comparison to a damage-focused, low-health Sion. Logic!
General
HEALTH PER LEVEL +70 ⇒ +73
Passive - Glory in Death
COMPLICATED ZOMBIE MATH Sion's health decay in passive form now scales with his max health (0.5% max health first tick, increasing by 0.4% max health per tick) ⇒ champion level (2 x level first tick, increasing by 1.4 x level per tick)
FIERY DEATH Fixed a bug where Sunfire Cape wasn't working while Sion was in his passive zombie state
YORICK IS HELPING Glory in Death no longer fails to activate in cases where Sion is targeted by Yorick's Omen of Death, doesn't trigger the revive effect and then dies later on in the match
Q - Decimating Smash
COST 50/55/60/65/70 mana ⇒ 45/50/55/60/65 mana
SMASHING PARITY All crowd-control types now correctly refund Decimating Smash's cooldown to 2 seconds when they interrupt Sion while he's charging up
YELLING AND SMASHING Sion can now properly cast Decimating Smash immediately after Roar of the Slayer
W - Soul Furnace
COST 70/75/80/85/90 mana ⇒ 65/70/75/80/85 mana
PASSIVE HEALTH GAIN 8 ⇒ 10 on large monster kill and champ kill/assist (minion and small monster bonus unchanged)
E - Roar of the Slayer
IT'S A JUNGLE SION BUFF Knocked back minions are no longer invulnerable to damage while in flight but can't be killed before landing unless Sion casts Smite on them
COST 25 mana at all ranks ⇒ 35 mana at all ranks
Anivia
Q - Flash Frost
WHOOPS Fixed a bug where Anivia wouldn't cast Flash Frost in the direction of the cursor if she wasn't in range to cast it (in other words, Anivia will now immediately cast Flash Frost rather than moving into range to cast it).
Azir
Passive - Shurima's Legacy
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where the damage from Azir's Sun Disc would not ramp up properly like a tower.
R - Emperor's Divide
BUGFIX Fixed a number of bugs around detecting enemies that are behind Azir at cast time
BUGFIX Fixed a number of double bounce bugs
BUGFIX Fixed a number of bugs that allowed enemies to dash through the wall if they timed their dash correctly
Fiddlesticks
CAW CAW CAW!
R - Crowstorm
CAW CAW CAW Fixed a bug where rapidly spamming a basic ability at the very end of Crowstorm's channel sometimes caused that ability to go on cooldown without casting or appearing to be on cooldown in the HUD
Janna
W's cooldown stays the same at all ranks (aka higher at later ranks).
While this isn't a very large change, we want to create harder choices for Janna for when she should use her W, giving her enemies more windows of vulnerability to engage on their target (or her!).
Q - Howling Gale
WHOOPS Fixed a bug where Janna wouldn't cast Howling Gale in the direction of the cursor if she wasn't in range to cast it (in other words, Janna will now immediately cast Howling Gale rather than moving into range to cast it)
W - Zephyr
COOLDOWN 12/11/10/9/8 seconds ⇒ 12 seconds at all ranks
LeBlanc
Helping you make those... flashy plays.
Passive - Mirror Image
FLASHY PLAYS Flashing no longer de-stealths LeBlanc and her clone when Mirror Image is triggered
Lucian
W no longer has an attack damage ratio, but gives more movement speed bonuses at later ranks. R's cooldown has been significantly raised (particularly at later levels).
You know, for a 'short-range' champion, Lucian's got access to a lot of long-range damage once he gets past the early game. Our big focus here is to push Lucian into closer combat range more often by reducing the power on some of his safer spells. At this point you might ask why Q has a 1100 range (well, 500 cast but 1100 total), and that would be a good question. Also, when you consider it, The Culling's 50 second cooldown at rank 3 is pretty crazy.
W - Ardent Blaze
removedATTACK DAMAGE RATIO 0.3 ⇒ 0.0
MOVEMENT SPEED BONUS 40/40/40/40/40 ⇒ 40/45/50/55/60
R - The Culling
COOLDOWN 100/75/50 seconds ⇒ 110/100/90 seconds
Pantheon
R - Grand Skyfall
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where rapidly spamming a basic ability at the very end of Grand Skyfall's channel sometimes caused that ability to go on cooldown without casting or appearing to be on cooldown in the HUD
Ryze
Q's base damage has been reduced across all ranks.
As a strong late game scaling champion, Ryze's ability to bully out other top laners early is pretty bonkers, so we're reducing his base damage in lane while still leaving his ability to scale past laning phase intact. We'll be keeping an eye on Ryze over the next few patches, however, as these nerfs might be on the light side for how dominant a champ he is.
Q - Overload
BASE MAGIC DAMAGE 60/85/110/135/160 ⇒ 40/60/80/100/120
Vi
E - Excessive Force
EXCESSIVE FALLOFF Fixed a bug where Excessive Force wasn't properly dealing splash damage in its cone of damage
Warwick
R - Infinite Duress
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where rapidly spamming a basic ability at the very end of Infinite Duress's channel sometimes caused that ability to go on cooldown without casting or appearing to be on cooldown in the HUD
Zilean
This is it, we got the last global passive in the game.
While our stance on global passives is fairly well known (hidden power, impacting lanes outside of an opponent's control, etc), we typically don't like nerfing champions when they're down (as in unpopular or seen as underpowered). With Zilean's rise as a high-priority competitive and - by extension - normal pick, we can now at least reduce that global passive to a more manageable range.
Passive - Heightened Learning
LOCAL EDUCATION Heightened Learning affects allies globally ⇒ within 1500 range
Splash Updates
As we've mentioned previously, the splash art team is engaged in a long-term effort to update our oldest base splashes. We've got 18 more ready to go this time!
SPLASH The following champions have received updated base splashes (click the portraits for the full image!):
Blitzcrank
Blitzcrank
Ezreal
Ezreal
Gragas
Gragas
Graves
Graves
Janna
Janna
Jarvan IV
Jarvan IV
Kayle
Kayle
Rengar
Rengar
Rumble
Rumble
Singed
Singed
Shaco
Shaco
Shen
Shen
Talon
Talon
Tristana
Tristana
Udyr
Udyr
Veigar
Veigar
Wukong
Wukong
Zilean
ZileanJungle
Crest of the Ancient Golem & Blessing of the Elder Lizard
RENAMED Renamed from Crest of the Ancient Golem & Blessing of the Elder Lizard ⇒ Crest of Insight & Crest of Cinders, respectively
End of Season Rewards
The 2014 ranked season began in January, and now the battle for League Points draws to a close. The 2014 season ends on November 11, 2014 at 12:01 AM PST. Visit the End of Season page to learn more about the end of the season rewards and the new Master tier.
In addition to other rewards, players in Gold tier or higher in any ranked queue at the end of the season will receive the Victorious Morgana skin!
Suggested Players
We've been working to improve Suggested Players since launch in 4.14 so players have an easier time filling out their premade lobbies. This patch, we're addressing two common points of feedback. Suggested Players will now prioritize players you've honored over other potential suggestions, and the friends-of-friends component will now take your skill level into account to ensure better matches. We're continuing to closely monitor the system for further upgrade opportunities, so please keep giving us feedback!
- Players you’ve honored will now be suggested more frequently and with higher priority
- The system now looks for players close to your skill level when suggesting friends of friends
Patcher Improvements
We've made a couple usability and polish improvements to the patching screen!
NOBODY PUTS PATCHER IN A CORNER The patcher now plays a sound effect when patching finishes to better let you know when you can get back in game
YOU CLICKED IT! The "Launch" button now has an on-click sound effect
IT WASN’T YOUR IMAGINATION Fixed a small misalignment in the patcher's layout
Store Improvements
- Load times for the Featured tab have been improved, reducing the delay when first entering the store
- Various store images have been updated:
- Summoner Name Change
- Single Rune Page
- Unlock a Champion for a friend
- Unlock a Skin for a friend
- Mystery Champion
- Mystery Skin
Upcoming Skins
This skin will be released during Patch 4.19:
