The new PBE patch hit the servers yesterday, and here are all the goodies you can expect to see live in Patch 14.4 on February the 22nd.
New Cosmetics
The Porcelain skinline is back, with six new champions donning the iconic whites and blues that make this skinline distinctive. The Porcelain skinline is based on the Chinese Zodiac, with each character holding a "Relic" that symbolises a different animal.
Aurelion Sol is protecting the Dragon Relic, and this legendary skin will run you the usual 1820 RP. Porcelain Darius, Graves, Irelia, Miss Fortune, and Morgana will all join the roster as epic skins, costing 1350 RP. Additionally, Porcelain Kindred is receiving a mythic variant, which you can purchase for 150 Mythic Essence.
The usual assortment of Summoner Icons, Emotes, and Ward Skins in the Porcelain theme will also be available for 250, 350, and 640 RP respectively
Also coming in Patch 14.4, or, spinning-slashing into it, is Victorious Tryndamere. Players who have achieved gold in any ranked queue will receive Victorious Tryndamere for free. You will additionally get free Chromas corresponding to your end rank, plus each rank below it. If you've achieved Gold, you will receive the base Victorious Tryndamere, as well as the Bronze, Silver, and Gold chromas.
Game Changes
The biggest game change coming in Patch 14.4 will adjust how tethers work in the game. Many champions employ tethers in their abilities, such as Fiddlesticks with their Bountiful Harvest or Karma's Focused Resolve. Riot has employed a change that will effectively make tethers a lot more responsive, triggering and disconnecting more smoothly across the board.
Major Champion Changes
As usual, many champions are getting adjusted in the following patch. The most significant changes concern Bard, K'Sante, Volibear, and Rek'Sai.
Overall, Bard's AP rations are being increased, while their armour and base damages are being lowered. Their attack speed and attack speed ratio is also getting increased, which will only make those nasty on-hit AP builds a lot more difficult to deal with.
K'Sante is getting quite a few adjustments across different abilities to try to make the champion more manageable. His base health and mana are getting a boost, as well as the armour and magic resistance ratio on Path Maker (W). Footwork (E) is slower now, making it easier for champions to get out of the way. His All Out Bonus on each ability has received a small nerf. Ntofo Strikes (Q) will no longer slow enemies while All Out is active, his Cooldown on the W is increased, and Footwork's dash range under All Out has been decreased.
Volibear is getting just a little touch up. Thundering Smash (Q) will now grant him more bonus movement speed, while Sky Splitter (E) and Stormbringer (R) are getting lowered cooldowns. His ultimate abilitiy's tower disable duration is also being reduced by 1 second across each rank.
Rek'Sai is receiving changes across the board, mostly improving her healing abilities, speed, and damage. Her passive will now generate Fury and heal her more. Queen's Wrath (uQ) has been reworked to function as an attack instead of an ability, and now grants an attack speed buff. Burrow (uW) will now scale off ability ranks, and can reach a bonus speed of 25, whereas previously 15 was the maximum. It will also give her more vision, and no longer reduce her attack range. Furious Bite (uE) has a lower cooldown and an increased AD ratio. It will also do damage based off a target's maximum health at maximum Fury, rather than true damage.
Preyseeker (bQ) now deals magic damage instead of pyshical damage, and its AD ratios and base damage have been reduced, though so has its cooldown. Unburrow (bW) will also deal magic damage from now, with a reduced base damage, and a newly-implemented AP ratio. Its knock-up will now affect multiple targets. Tunnel (bE) has a reduced cooldown and reuse timer.
Finally, Void Rush's bonus AD ratio has been reduced. Looking at all of these changes across the board, it seems clear that Riot wants to make Rek'Sai's builds more dynamic and interesting. Rek'Sai's unburrowed abilities deal more physical damage, whereas her burrowed abilities now scale off and deal magic damage.
Major Item Changes
Black Cleaver has a new recipe, building out of Phage, Caulfield's Hammer and a Ruby Crystal now. The price remains the same, 3000 gold. Its armour reduction per stack has been increased, though the maximum stacks are now 5 rather than 6.
Terminus is also receiving a new recipe, now building out of two Recurve Bows and one B.F. Sword. Like the Black Cleaver, its stacks have been reduced to 3 each (from 5), but their effects have been increased. Light attacks will now grant you more resistances, while Dark attacks will grant more resistance penetration.
World Atlas, the starter support item, will grant more gold for damaging champions and killing minions, but its quest recharge timer will increase by 5 seconds. Its upgrade, Runic Compass, has received similar changes. It will now give you 1 less gold per 10 seconds, and its quest recharge timer has been increased by 5 seconds. However, you will now receive more gold when damaging champions or killing minions. Bounty of Worlds, Runic Compass' free upgrade, will now give you more Health, Health Regeneration, and Mana Regeneration.
Solstice Sleigh, one of Bounty of Worlds' possible upgrades, will now scale off your maximum health when determining the healing you get from immobilising a champion. The bonus movement speed will also no longer be a flat amount, but a 30% increase, though the movement speed buff will now expire 1 second faster.
Zaz'Zak's Realmspike, the AP upgrade to Bounty of Worlds, has a lower cooldown and a lower base damage. However, both the AP ratios and the target's maximum health % have increased, so it will still pack a punch.
