9/12 PBE Update: New skins for Fiora, Yi, Janna, Singed, Yorick, new ward skin, and more!

Posted on at 10:21 PM by Moobeat
The PBE has been updated! Today's update kicks off the 7.19 pbe cycle, including five new skins for Fiora, Janna, Master Yi, Singed, and Yorick, as well as the gameplay update for Xin Zhao, new summoner icons, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

(Warning: PBE Content is tentative and subject to change - what you see below may not reflect what eventually gets pushed to live servers at the end of the cycle! Manage your expectations accordingly.)

Table of Contents



New Skins

Immortal Journey skins for Fiora, Yi, and Janna, along with Beekeeper Singed and Arclight Yorick.


Soaring Sword Fiora

1350 RP

Here's Riot LoveStrut with a bugs & feedback thread for Soaring Sword Fiora:
"Introducing Soaring Sword Fiora to the Immortal Journey universe! 
"Precision and grace." 
Soaring Sword Fiora flies through battle, dueling all who dare oppose her and her enchanted blade. 
Dueling Details
  • All new model: Flowing garments that trail behind her as she cuts through battle.
  • All new animations: Manifesting new swords with every stab.
  • All new VFX: Multiple swords to duel multiple opponents.
  • All new SFX: Gorgeous sounds that match her elegance.
We always love hearing your feedback and feelings! All bug reports and thoughts help us make these skins even more awesome, so please keep 'em coming! 
Thanks, cuties! <3"

Eternal Sword Yi

1350 RP

Here's Riot LoveStrut with a bugs & feedback thread for Eternal Sword Yi:
"Introducing Eternal Sword Yi to the Immortal Journey universe! 
"A true master is an eternal student." 
Leaping upon the wind, Eternal Sword Yi masterfully wields his magical blade to cut down his foes. 
Eternal Explanations
  • All new model: Yi finally takes off his mask!
  • All new animations: Harnesses the power of the wind to fly during Highlander.
  • All new VFX: Swords, swords, and… even more swords!
  • All new SFX: The sounds of enchanted wind and blades. 
We always love hearing your feedback and feelings! All bug reports and thoughts help us make these skins even more awesome, so please keep 'em coming! 
Thanks, cuties! <3"

Sacred Sword Janna

1350 RP

Here's Riot LoveStrut with a bugs & feedback thread for Sacred Sword Janna:
"Introducing Sacred Sword Janna to the Immortal Journey universe!

"For tranquility." 
Called upon to protect her weapon, Sacred Sword Janna utilizes the blade’s powerful magic (and her enchanted koi fish) to protect all that need her. 
Fishy Features 
  • All new model: Fashioned with flowing cloth and a koi companion.
  • All new animations: Unleashes the power contained in her sacred sword.
  • All new VFX: Harnesses magic to blow away enemies in a flurry of water, wind, and peach blossoms.
  • All new SFX: Serene and powerful magic. 
We always love hearing your feedback and feelings! All bug reports and thoughts help us make these skins even more awesome, so please keep 'em coming! 
Thanks, cuties! <3"

Beekeeper Singed

1350 RP

Here's KateyKhaos with a bugs & feedback thread for Beekeeper Singed:
"According to all known Runeterran laws, there is no way a player should be able to outrun Beekeeper Singed. 
  • New models and textures - They’re bee-utiful!
  • New particles - You won’t bee-lieve your eyes!
  • New SFX - Sweet, sweet honey!
  • New recall animation - Unless you’re a bee, you might not get what all the buzz is about!
C’mon, these bee puns aren’t too sha-bee! ;) 
Beekeeper Singed is now available to play on PBE! As players who experience this content firsthand, your constructive feedback is appreciated. Feel free to leave it in the comments below! If you have any questions, you can also drop them below and I'll do my best to answer them! ^-^ 
Beekeeper Singed is set to be 1350 RP. 
* Prices are subject to change.

Arclight Yorick

1350 RP

Here's KateyKhaos with a bugs & feedback thread for Arclight Yorick:
"She will forgive me. I hope. 
  • New model and textures for the Shepherd of Souls himself, as well as his Maiden of the Mist and Mist Walkers! 
  • New particles - Ascended, golden energy!
  • New SFX - Righteous judgment rings in every spell!
  • New recall animation - Yorick crowns his lost queen! 
Arclight Yorick is now available to play on PBE! As players who experience this content firsthand, your constructive feedback is appreciated. Feel free to leave it in the comments below! If you have any questions, you can also drop them below and I'll do my best to answer them! ^-^ 
Arclight Yorick is set to be 1350 RP. 
* Prices are subject to change."

New Summoner Icons

Two new summoner icons are now on the PBE. These look to be for the Worlds Pick'em:

New Ward Skin

A new ward skin, the Divine Sword ward, is now on the PBE. This matches the Immortal Journey skins:

Divine Sword Ward

[Video soon!]


Nexus Siege is now available for PBE testing!

Here's Riot Stephiroth with more on Nexus Siege coming back for PBE testing:
"Hey guys! 
Now that we've kicked over to the 7.19 version, we have our next upcoming game mode: Nexus Siege! 
It's been a while since we've released this one :) Here's some of the new champions that have come out since the last time we did Nexus Siege: 
  • Xayah
  • Rakan
  • Kayn 
    • Yes, you can Shadow Step into the firey spawn pads of the enemy team... but we don't recommend it! D: 
  • Ornn
    • Yes, you can totally forge deployables from outside of the base! 
Since last time, we've mostly made bug fixes, including: 
  • Xayah and Rakan tandem recall didn't work
  • Kayn transform didn't work properly between rounds
  • Warwick Blood Hunt (W) particles no longer persist through the 2nd round.
  • Sion and Nasus now get the correct amount of Health/Siphoning Strike stacks when killing deployables. 
Feel free to drop any feedback here! As for bug reports, please file them either below or via the Report A Bug Tool
Happy sieging, Summoners!" 

Miscellaneous 

  • There is now a dropdown in Champ Select to sort by Name, Mastery, or Favorite:

Balance Changes

NOTE*: The PBE is a testing grounds for new, tentative, & experimental changes. Be aware that what you see below may be relative to other changes earlier this cycle! These are not official notes.

Champions
Azir
[Oodles of changes on the PBE today. Changelist confirmed by wav3break]
  • Base HP increased from 524.4 to 540
  • HP regen lowered from 1.3848 to 1.38
  • Base movespeed increased from 325 to 335
  • Conquering Sands (Q)
    • AP ratio lowered from 50% to 30%
    • Cast range lowered from 875 to 720
    • Hit box increased to be ~70 units longer.
    • Cooldown changed from 10/9/8/7/6 to 11/9.5/8/6.5/5
    • Base Damage increased from 65/85/105/125/145 to 70/100/130/160/190
  • Arise! (W)
    • Base STAB damage changed - increased at all levels but slightly reduced at level 18.
      • New values: 60/62/64/66/68/75/80/85/95/105/115/125/135/145/155/165/175/185
    • Per Level Soldier Stab Damage scaling - increased
    • Recharge time lowered from 10/9/8/7/6 to 8/7.5/7/6.5/6
    • Cast range increased from 450 to 500
    • Soldier duration increased from 9s to 10s
    • Azir Basic Attack Command - "cast time reduced from 0.5s to 0.35s"
    • Soldier Deactivation Range - "decreased from 800 to 660"
    • Soldiers can no longer attack wards or trinkets.
    • [new effect] grants Azir an additional 20/30/40/50/60% attack speed for 5 seconds whenever he summons or has 3 or more soldiers out on the field
[GIF]
  • Shifting Sands (E)
    • Shield now has a 70% AP Ratio
    • Azir's E now grants him a shield immediately.
    • Shield duration has been lowered from 4 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
    • Dash Speed has been reduced from 1700 to 1400.
    • [new effect] if Azir hits an enemy champions, he halts his dash and instantly prepares a new Sand Soldier (W)
  • Emperor's Divide (R)
    • Cooldown lowered from 140/120/110 to 120/105/90.
    • Wall size increased from 4/5/6 soldiers to 5/6/7 soldiers
    • "Wall Soldiers now only interrupt enemy dashes over them while the soldiers themselves are moving. After reaching their final destination, Soldiers now behave as normal terrain."

Vayne
[context]
  • Tumble (Q) 
    • Bonus damage increased from 30/35/40/45/50% tAD to 50/55/60/65/70% tAD
    • Q bonus damage no longer able to crit**
  • Silver Bolts (W)
    • True damage lowered from 6/7.5/9/10.5/12% to 4/6/8/10/12%
    • Minimum true damage increased from 40/60/80/100/120 to 50/65/80/95/110
  • Final Hour (R)
    • [New Effect] "The duration of Final Hour is extended by 4 seconds whenever a champion damaged by Vayne dies within 3 seconds."
      • NOTE: "Final Hour's duration can''t be increased beyond its original maximum duration."

Xin Zhao
[Xin Zhao has significant changes with his gameplay update. Gameplay Update thread] [Bug Reporting Thread]
  • New Ability Icons
  • Attack speed per level increased from 2.6 to 3.5
  • [NEW] Determination (Passive)
    • "Every third attack deals [20/40/60/80% AD at 1/6/11/16] as bonus damage and heals Xin Zhao for x (+10% tAD) (+40% AP).
      • Heal value: 8/11/14/17/20/23/26/29/32/35/38/41/44/47/50/53/56/59
  • Three Talon Strike (Q):
    • Damage per strike changed from 15/30/45/60/75 (20% AD) to 15/20/25/30/35 (40% bAD)
      • Extra Flat Damage per hit lowered from 15/30/45/60/75 to 15/20/25/30/35
      • AD scaling per hit changed from 20% AD to 40% bonus AD
  • [NEW] Wind Becomes Lightning (W)
45 Mana
12/11/10/9/8 sec Cooldown
Xin Zhao slashes in front of himself with his spear, then thrusts it forward. 
Slash: 30/40/50/60/70 (+30% tAD)
Thrust: 40/75/110/145/180 (+90% tAD) damage and slows by 50% for 1.5 seconds. 
Deals 50% less damage to minions.
Lifesteal is 33% effective on both attacks.
Extends the current duration of Xin Zhao's other abilities by 0.6 seconds.p
  • Audacious Charge (E)
    • Magic damage lowered from 70/110/150/190/230 to 50/75/100/125/150.
    • Slow increased from 25/30/35/40/45% to 50% at all rank.
    • Slow duration lowered from 2 seconds to .5 seconds.
    • [New Effect] "Charging grants Xin Zhao 40/45/50/55/60% attack speed for 5 seconds."
  • Crescent Guard (R)
    • Renamed from Crescent Sweep to Crescent Guard
    • Cooldown lowered from 120/110/100 to 100 at all ranks.
    • [New Effect] "For 3 seconds after casting this ability, Xin Zhao has increased Awareness and will completely block damage from enemies that are far away. Xin Zhao's attacks and spell casts increase the duration of Awareness by 0.3 seconds each


Items

Zeke's Convergence
  • Total cost lowered from 2400 to 2200
    • (Combine cost lowered from 400 to 200)

Context & Notes

1) Here's Meddler with his gameplay thoughts for September 12th, covering the Frost Queen line in 7.19, Brand, and more:
"Hi folks, 
Usual Disclaimers 
These posts will often contain talk about future work we're doing, or planning to do, that isn't yet guaranteed to ship. The nature of the work could change or, depending on what we discover, projects mentioned may get put delayed or even stopped. 
If you'd like to see a Tweet whenever a new one of these posts goes up: https://twitter.com/RiotMeddler 
Frost Queen's line in 7.18 
We've got some late changes for the Frost Queen's line right at the end of the 7.18 cycle I though it would be good to give some more context on. We want to put a bit of power into the FQ's line of items, given they're underperforming relative to Coin/Targon's even on aggressive champs who should be much more drawn to FQs. We also want to offer non direct damage power where possible, both to reduce creep on number of high threat damage dealers on a team and to allow differences in how champs play in different positions (mid versus support for a number of mages). That meant adding AP or additional proc damage was something we wanted to try and avoid. CDR's is somewhat better approach as a result, focusing champs more on frequent casts (more sustained damage, more utility uptime). There are some cases where that contributes to CDR glut on some champs, most of the core FQ's users however are often buying non CDR items regardless however (e.g. Rylai's and/or Liandries). 
We added CDR to T1, T2 and T3 of the Frost Queen's line as a result. We then started running seeing some mid laners swapping to it. Flexibility of item use across positions isn't in and of itself a problem, in this case it looked like it was at risk of making some champs (e.g. Cass) potentially too dominant. We made some late changes to FQ's as a result, uping the CD on minion kills by a couple of seconds and changing it so it gets extra CDR at T2 (now 10%), but doesn't increase further at T3. Intent there is that it's a better choice for supports building it and then going for other items, without pushing it to T3, without being too warping if picked up by others. Making it a support item that you're happier leaving at T2 also then gives a bit of extra distinction versus Targon's/Coin potentially too. 
Brand 
We mentioned we'd take another look at something small to help solo lane Brand out a bit sometime post Worlds patch. Still planning to do that, potentially in this next cycle. Something small's likely to mean something like a small bonus (e.g. mana restored) when CSing with particular spells to give us a lever to put power into non support Brand specifically when needed. Give him some better harass and wave clear if he's CSing well basically. Not expecting that'll solve everything Brand needs, but would like to get something quick for him before pre-season if possible. 
Thinking about another prototypes blog 
Last year we put up a blog that showed prototype versions of various champions: 
http://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/2016/10/dev-on-champion-prototypes/ 
I was thinking it would be good to do another one of those, look at some of the champions that have come and since and maybe a couple of older ones we didn't get to cover last time. Would be interested in people's thoughts on which champs you'd be particularly interested in seeing. One disclaimer though - it'll likely only be covering champs released from around Gnar onwards (getting access to prototype files older than that's a more difficult process alas, easy to get old patch versions, harder to get old WIP stuff). 
In terms of timing on that dev blog it'd likely be a late this year or early next year thing once pre-season work's settled down. Takes a while to get everything in order though, hence the inquiry now." 
2) Riot Xenogenic with full context on Xin Zhao GU.
"“Here’s a [Xin Zhao update], and [the reasons] behind it!” - Not Xin Zhao 
Hey, folks! I’m Xenogenic, the designer that’s been working on the update for our favorite spear wielding duelist: Xin Zhao. Before he hits PBE tomorrow, we wanted to explain our goals for this update and give you an idea of what changes you will see. 
Goals for the Update 
First and foremost, we recognized that a lot of players enjoy playing Xin Zhao, so it was important for us to identify and preserve the mechanics that his current players love. To that end, we’ve largely left his Q and E abilities alone. We felt it was important to satisfy our other design goals without hurting what makes Xin Zhao feel like Xin Zhao. 
The primary improvements we wanted to make to Xin’s kit from there included: 
Give Xin Zhao players more meaningful and interesting decisionsOther than understanding when to engage as a melee, there weren’t a lot of decisions to be made. Having more opportunities to make the right decisions (and therefore, more opportunities to win because of making the right decisions) ultimately makes champions more fun to play. This is because those moments give more chances for what we’d refer to as “skill expression” - demonstrating one’s skill or mastery of a champion or the game as a whole. We felt Xin Zhao was lacking in opportunities for skill expression, so adding these decision making opportunities was one way to improve that. 
Give Xin Zhao a unique identity within League of Legends
Xin Zhao’s fantasy of being a master spear fighter and duelist wasn’t conveyed very well in his mechanics, so he didn’t feel like a champion that stood out enough in our roster. We decided to address this by giving him a new ability that provides a spear attack with considerable range, as well as modifying his ultimate to help him create the fantasy of engaging in a 1v1 duel, even during teamfights. 
Make Xin Zhao flexible
This means giving XZ the ability to contribute both early and late game. Also we want him to have tools that he can use when playing from behind. 
Give Xin Zhao a more meaningful place in teamfights
His success when diving the backline is mostly dependent on his relative stats, and if the opponent has the proper CC tools to peel him. Thus, we aimed to give Xin Zhao players more choices than just diving on the backline and better tools to create his own successes. As games evolve, so can their preferred targets and approaches to team fights so they can continue being a strong contributor to their team. 
Summary of changes 
New Passive - Determination
  • The passive portion of Battlecry (every third hit deals bonus damage and heals Xin) was transferred to the overall passive for his kit. 
New W - “Wind Becomes Lightning”
  • This is a 2 part flowing attack with his spear that includes a sweeping slash in front of Xin, followed by a long-range thrust.
  • Slash - deals damage in a cone in front of Xin.
  • Thrust - deals higher damage at long range and slows targets hit for 1.5 seconds. 
E modified
  • The attack speed steroid that Battlecry provided is now rewarded after dashing to targets with E (Audacious Charge) 
R modified- now called “Crescent Guard”
  • Xin Zhao’s ultimate is still an instant cast sweeping circle that knocks enemies back and deals damage. The knockback still excludes the last target he dashed to or attacked.
  • NEW: For 3 seconds after casting Crescent Guard, Xin Zhao creates a zone around himself and will block damage dealt to him from champions outside of his guard area. The duration of this stance is extended slightly every time Xin Zhao attacks an enemy champion. 
The overall goal of this change was to allow Xin Zhao to knock enemies back (besides his primary target) and become immune to damage from anyone outside of the circle attacking him so he can have his 1v1 with his primary target - at least until enemies walk back into the circle to attack him. 
And lastly, it’s worth noting that he’s received a number of new animations, sound effects, visual effects, and even icons. The overall scope of this update wasn’t the same as a full-blown VGU like Warwick, for example, but we did take this opportunity to improve the quality of a lot of his visuals and sounds. 
Thanks for taking the time to catch up on the upcoming Xin Zhao changes. We’d be happy to answer any questions you might have about the update and look forward to your feedback! 
To triumph!” - Xin Zhao"

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