Patch 9.4 Summary

[quote=PsiGuard][center][url=/league-of-legends/forum/news/patch-9-4-summary-43265][img=/images/news/patch-94-summary.jpg][/url][/center] [rule] Hello and welcome to the MOBAFire Patch Summary - 9.4! This patch includes a complete rework to the [[Conqueror]] rune as well the usual slew of balance updates to champions. [[Spellthief's Edge]] and [[Ancient Coin]] (and their upgrades) also received nerfs that went live in patch 9.3 to address abuse cases of those items in solo lanes. In addition to the balance changes, this patch includes a fix that prevents players from interfering with the first wave of minions as well as a ton of VFX, SFX and animation updates to various champions. As always, be sure to check out the [url=https://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-94-notes]full patch notes[/url] for details on any changes that interest you. [center][embed=https://youtu.be/SBV4Vx0TxlY][/center] [size=6][color=#ffffff]Balance Changes[/color][/size] [center] [table] [tr] [td padding=20 vertical-align=top] [size=5][b]Buffed[/b][/size] [table border="4px solid #003300" bgcolor="#006600"] [tr] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Rek'Sai size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Azir size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Gnar size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Hecarim size=60][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Varus size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Trundle size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Essence Reaver size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=60][/td] [/tr] [/table] [/td] [td padding=20 vertical-align=top] [size=5][b]Adjusted[/b][/size] [table border="4px solid #0000cc" bgcolor="#003399"] [tr] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Sylas size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Zed size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Conqueror size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=60][/td] [/tr] [/table] [/td] [td padding=20 vertical-align=top] [size=5][b]Nerfed[/b][/size] [table border="4px solid #800000" bgcolor="#990000"] [tr] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Karthus size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Lucian size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Thresh size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Urgot size=60][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Rengar size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Sivir size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=60][/td] [/tr] [/table] [/td][/tr][/table][/center] [size=6][color=#ffffff]Conqueror Update[/color][/size] [table][tr] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Conqueror size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=840]Damaging attacks and abilities grant 3-15 adaptive force (levels 1-18) for 3 seconds (8 seconds for melee), stacking up to 5 times to a max of 15-75. At 5 stacks, 10% of your damage against champions is converted to true damage and you heal for that amount. Damage-over-time effects and ongoing sources of damage (ex. Yorick's R - Maiden of the Mist) can grant one stack every 5 seconds.[/td] [/tr][/table] [size=6][color=#ffffff]Item Changes[/color][/size] [table][tr] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Essence Reaver size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=840]Attack damage increased from 60 to 65. Cooldown reduction is now UNIQUE. Now appears in the correct shop categories.[/td] [/tr][/table] The following updates to the [[Spellthief's Edge]] and [[Ancient Coin]] lines went live as a hotfix during patch 9.3: [table][tr] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Spellthief's Edge size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=840]Tribute procs now require an allied champion within 2000 range to grant gold, otherwise they only deal extra damage. [b]Tribute Gold:[/b] [color=#808080][s]10/20/20 gold (Spellthief's Edge/Frostfang/Remnant of the Watchers)[/s][/color] ⇒ 11/22/22 gold ([[Spellthief's Edge]]/[[Frostfang]]/[[Remnant of the Watchers]])[/td] [/tr][/table] [table][tr] [td padding=5 width=60][icon=Ancient Coin size=60][/td] [td padding=5 width=840]Favor procs now require an allied champion within 2000 range to drop gold coins, otherwise they only drop mana coins [b]Tribute Gold:[/b] [color=#808080][s]25/45/45 gold (Ancient Coin/Nomad's Medallion/Remnant of the Ascended)[/s][/color] ⇒ 28/50/50 gold ([[Ancient Coin]]/[[Nomad's Medallion]]/[[Remnant of the Ascended]])[/td] [/tr][/table] [size=6][color=#ffffff]Other Changes[/color][/size] [list] [*] [size=4][b]First Minion Spawn[/b][/size] [list] [*] The first wave of top and bot lane minions are ghosted for [color=#808080][s]18[/s][/color] ⇒ 28 seconds after spawning [i](mid lane minions unchanged at 18 seconds of ghosting)[/i] [/list] [*] [size=4][b]Champion VFX and SFX Updates[/b][/size] [list] [*] The following champions have had their visual and sound effects updated: [list] [*] [[Kennen]] [*] [[Olaf]] [*] [[Riven]] [*] [[Wukong]] [/list] [/list] [*] [size=4][b]Champion Animation Updates[/b][/size] [list] [*] The following champions have had their animations updated: [list] [*] [[Dr. Mundo]]: [[Infected Cleaver]] throwing animation updated. [*] [[Gragas]]: Base run animation updated. [*] [[Katarina]]: Base run, fast run and movement stop animations updated. [*] [[Lux]]: Base run animation updated. [*] [[Quinn]]: Base run animation updated. [*] [[Shen]]: Bootless walk animation added. [*] [[Twisted Fate]]: Bootless walk animation added. Twisted Fate's cape turns more realistically as he moves. [*] [[Zyra]]: Bootless walk animation added. [/list] [/list] [*] [size=4][b]Ranked[/b][/size] [list] [*] Challenger opens on February 20 [*] LP splashing can now put your off-positions into promotion series [*] You now get decay warnings for your off-positions [*] Once you've earned the Ranked emote, it'll upgrade as you complete promo series and climb the ladder [*] The animated celebrations for promoting into a new tier now includes your summoner name [*] Hovering over your split points now shows you how you earned those points [/list] [*] [size=4][b]Bugfixes[/b][/size] [list] [*] Fixed debug text in the Collection and Profile tabs [*] Neeko's W - Shapesplitter passive now properly damages turrets when Neeko has more ability power than attack damage [*] Kalista can no longer cast E - Rend with insufficient mana [*] Anivia's Q - Flash Frost and R - Glacial Storm slow particles no longer persist on enemies [*] Twitch's R - Spray and Pray now properly procs Energized effects when attacking from Rapid Firecannon's max range [*] Urgot's R - Fear Beyond Death execute indicator no longer shows up on enemies when Urgot is dead [*] Fixed an issue where chargeable abilities (ex. Varus' Q - Piercing Arrow could sometimes become unable to be cast, causing champions to sit through the entire charge window until the ability fizzled [*] Restored Festival Queen Anivia's SFX on her joke, taunt, dance, laugh, idle, and death animations [*] Restored Gun Goddess Miss Fortune's SFX on her death, homeguard, and recall animations [*] Turning off the "Show Loss of Control UI" toggle now properly keeps the option disabled across matches [/list] [/list] [size=6][color=#ffffff]Upcoming Skins & Chromas[/color][/size] The following skins will be released this patch. [center][table width=100%][tr] [td padding=10 width=50%][img=/images/champion/skins/landscape/anivia-papercraft.jpg width=450] [size=5][color=#fff]Papercraft Anivia (1350 RP)[/color][/size][/td] [td padding=10 width=50%][img=/images/champion/skins/landscape/nunu-amp-willump-papercraft.jpg width=450] [size=5][color=#fff]Papercraft Nunu & Willump (1350 RP)[/color][/size][/td] [/tr] [/table][/center] The following chromas will be released this patch. [center][table width=100%] [tr] [td padding=10 width=50%][img=/images/champion/skins/chromas/anivia-papercraft.jpg width=450] [size=5][color=#fff]Papercraft Anivia[/color][/size][/td] [td padding=10 width=50%][img=/images/champion/skins/chromas/nunu-amp-willump-papercraft.jpg width=450] [size=5][color=#fff]Papercraft Nunu & Willump[/color][/size][/td] [/tr][/table][/center] [size=6][color=#ffffff]Share Your Thoughts![/color][/size] That's it on our end, time to hear from you guys! What do you think of the balance changes this patch? Who do you think will use the new [[Conqueror]] best? Will you be buying either of the new skins or chromas? Let us know in the comments below![/quote]

[quote=PhoenixianSlayer]I think the changes to [[Spellthief's Edge]] are bogus. You already couldn't use it if you killed minions and couldn't use it in the jungle, so why do we have to make it so that the gold only works within 2000 units of an allied champ. The item is already restricting as it is. [[Ancient Coin]] is fair though since laners can use it to get gold or mana off minions that they miss.[/quote]

[quote=Hamstertamer][quote=PhoenixianSlayer]I think the changes to [[Spellthief's Edge]] are bogus. You already couldn't use it if you killed minions and couldn't use it in the jungle, so why do we have to make it so that the gold only works within 2000 units of an allied champ. The item is already restricting as it is. [[Ancient Coin]] is fair though since laners can use it to get gold or mana off minions that they miss.[/quote] But you could still abuse them for funneling. If you play a solo laner that doesn't take CS to funnel your jungler, you shouldn't be able to gain gold from support items.[/quote]

[quote=Vapora Dark]No it's got nothing to do with funneling, funneling is already dead. This nerf is to prevent the 0 CS strategies that people were doing mostly top lane but was also used mid [i]and[/i] bot alongside top lane all at once in an LCK game. It consisted of taking Spellthief's, usually combined with [[kleptomancy]], and obtaining gold only by hitting your enemy and ignoring all CS, in order to avoid delaying fully stacking your Spellthief's and eventually ending up with the gold income of a support + carry combined, as well as a ton of free vision. All while allowing you to keep up in gold with the opposite laner without having to worry about all that complicated last-hitting and all the time in the world to harass them without having to leave yourself vulnerable/passing up on harass while CSing.[/quote]

[quote=Nighthawk][quote=Vapora Dark]No it's got nothing to do with funneling, funneling is already dead. This nerf is to prevent the 0 CS strategies that people were doing mostly top lane but was also used mid [i]and[/i] bot alongside top lane all at once in an LCK game. It consisted of taking Spellthief's, usually combined with [[kleptomancy]], and obtaining gold only by hitting your enemy and ignoring all CS, in order to avoid delaying fully stacking your Spellthief's and eventually ending up with the gold income of a support + carry combined, as well as a ton of free vision.[/quote] I'd honestly just rather have had them nerf the gold, nerf farm bounties, and reduce support item costs a bit to compensate. It was an interesting and cool strategy, but it was only better because of farm bounties and a slight nerf to the gold gen would have made it way worse. In addition it really wasn't that great in SoloQ without a competent jungler.[/quote]

[quote=Vapora Dark]Farm bounties actually literally didn't affect it at all, but somehow have been scapegoated for it. Farm bounties work off of overall gold income, not actually farm itself, this is to include things like turret platings and first tower gold as well as CS into calculating how strong a champion is and how much of a bounty it should have. If you're skipping CS but still getting gold as if you were CSing to keep up with your lane opponent, your lane opponent isn't going to get a bounty because he's not ahead of you. It's weird that farm bounties got scapegoated when in the strategy's introduction to LCS, the lane opponent of the Spellthief Zilean was 50+ CS up and only got a measly +150g bounty after 1v2ing Zilean and his jungler and being 2 kills up from it. Nothing about farm bounties lead to the strategy's viability and I don't know why people got that impression.[/quote]

[quote=Hamstertamer]I know that Vapora, I didn't watch that LCK game but 0 CS strategies in lane still have a lot to do with funneling. Because if you gain gold without taking CS it means that your jungler can just swoop in whenever he wants and take them instead. I saw a lot of soloq games where they did exactly that. On its own klepto + support item still gives way less gold than taking CS and there's nothing OP about it. Oh by the way, wanna hear a joke? [[conqueror]] [[lucian]]. 2 stacks on each [[lightslinger]] shot. I think they just buffed Lucian this patch...[/quote]

[quote=White Cr0w]I love the fact that they update the animations of champions like Katarina, that already had a VGU, while others like Shaco have the same rusty animations and models since season 1 xD[/quote]

[quote=Barnous]Thresh got nerfed but Sylas got adjust .. feels bad man at least the Spellthief's Edge and Ancient Coin got buffed lmao the new Papercraft skins are great tho[/quote]

[quote=Hamstertamer][[thresh]] is the most picked support by far right now and he has a completely overloaded kit (3 peel skills on an engage support, wtf). So him getting nerfed is completely deserved. However I think they nerfed him wrong, it's [[dark passage]] that's broken, not his hook. This was a great moment to allow enemies to destroy his lantern by stepping on it, the community's been asking for that for ages, it's only fair that a get out of jail free card for allies has some sort of counterplay.[/quote]