We've got a new patch arriving in Legends of Runeterra this week with the addition of Battle Academia champion skins. Read on for the full patch notes.
Importantly, if you haven't earned the Malphite and Gangplank card backs, time is running out because on November 10, Riot will be cycling out Lab of Legends Saltwater Scourge and Ultra Rapid Draw.
Quote From Riot Wake up, grab a piece of toast and get ready to dash, because class is in session; Battle Academia has arrived in Legends of Runeterra!
Personalization
The following items are being added to the Store.
Champion Skins
Battle Academia Lux
Alternate art + Level-up Animation
Battle Academia Ezreal
Alternate art
Battle Academia Poppy
Alternate art
Battle Academia Caitlyn
Alternate art
Battle Academia Leona
Alternate art
Battle Academia Katarina
Alternate art
Boards
Durandal Stadium
For legends with big dreams and bigger hearts.
This board has special visual effects and music.
Card Backs
Battle Academia Ezreal
For legends who are probably late for class.
Battle Academia Lux
For legends who help their class shine bright.
Emotes
No Funny Business
"I’m watching you."
Challenge Accepted
"Don't say I didn't warn you."
Bundles
The School Spirit bundle is available in the Store for 2763 Coins, prorated for any items you already own. Bundle includes:
- Durandal Stadium Board
- Battle Academia Lux Skin
- Battle Academia Lux Card Back
- Lux Champion Card
The Battles & Blazers bundle is available in the Store for 6260 Coins, prorated for any items you already own. Bundle includes:
- Battle Academia Lux Skin
- Battle Academia Ezreal Skin
- Battle Academia Poppy Skin
- Battle Academia Caitlyn Skin
- Battle Academia Katarina Skin
- Battle Academia Leona Skin
- Champion cards for all of the above champions
Upcoming Lab Updates
It’s nearly time for some new experiments! Lab of Legends, Saltwater Scourge, and Ultra Rapid Draw will be cycled out in patch 2.19.0 on November 10. Be sure to earn your Malphite and Gangplank card backs and get some high-octane Ultra Rapid Draw games in before then!
Miscellaneous
- Decks can now be marked as Favorites, and will display at the top of your Collection. No more sorting through dozens of meme decks (now they’ll all be at the top)!
- Champions with equipped Skins will now display as the skinned version on deck covers if that champion is set as the cover.
Bugfixes
- Created cards from Prismatic cards will now be properly created as Prismatics.
- The Quest “Bandle Brigade” has had its completion requirement lowered to match other units.
- The Arsenal will no longer be granted a random keyword when a Landmark is destroyed by the opposing player.
- When recalling Claws of the Dragon after playing two spells, Retreat will now correctly create a fleeting Return.
- Fixed a bug where removing the Challenger keyword from a non-committed unit will not resolve correctly.
- Fixed a bug where Overgrown Snapvine was obliterated incorrectly when a level two Viego kills a Champion at Round Start.
- Chronobreaks created when Ekko levels up now have the correct keywords and spell icons.
- Oracle’s Eye will now display the correct outcome when casting Singular Will on Tail-Cloak Matriarch.
- Fixed several UI, UX, and general visual bugs to improve game clarity and player experience.
- Fixed several VO bugs across the game that were causing incorrect or no VO lines to play.
- Fixed a bug for spectators where choice cards like Twisted Fate would disappear after being played.
- Fixed a bug for spectators to close the social panel automatically when beginning to spectate another player.
- Several improvements to text across the game in our continued effort for text consistency.
Comments
I totally understand that Labs needs some fresh air.
I hope Lab of Legends just going to be an independent gamemode, or atleast it will return in time.
Still playing Saltwater Scourge too, it is an interesting next step. I really like the feeling of adventure on the map.
And I'm also glad to the favorite deck option.
I'm probably gonna get downvoted/reemed for this....but the skins themselves don't bother me, but rather the clear reference/inspiration on where it's drawn from just seem so....cringey? To me? I don't know if cringe is the right word but it's the best I can come up with right now.
What I mean is that the whole thing reeks of some schoolgirl outfit tropes.
Not to mention it checks off the "14 overused school anime" checklist. (Including the Ezreal with Toast in his mouth trope)
I much prefer them to appeal to a broader audience through skinsets/events that are broader then to pander to asian audiences (Yes I know LoL is extremely popular there) and the niche weeaboo audience in America.
Some examples:
Broad general artwork that isn't "region specific"
And I'd rather see more event/skins along the lines of Harrowing Shyvana, or Dark Star Shyvana artwork than "Asian School Tropes 101" skin event.
I know it's only my personal opinion, and I certainly don't expect people to agree with me as my opinion may be viewed as unpopular. I just know I absolutely detested the KDA event (not just because of the KPOP themes, but because of the broken spells they introduced that wreaked havoc on the meta for awhile after.)
Thanks for listening to my rant!
"niche weeaboo audience in America"
You do realize that LoR isn't a game made solely for Americans right?
LoR is played by people from every country on the planet and anime isn't exactly a niche thing any more, especially not if you look at it from a global perspective.
Besides, I bet you didn't hear the "weeaboos" complain when the harrowing and dark star skin were released, so why do you feel the need to do it now? Not every single event can be tailored to you specific tastes. Just let people have their skins and maybe the next event will be more to your liking.
Which is why I said....I know that the skin event is for the Asian audience? I said that in addition to their world demographic and core audience in Asia, it felt odd to create an event of that sort.
Let me put it another way. You never see "German Stereotypes" skin event. I mean apart from a super early Gragas skin, they never did a "German beerfest" skin event like this ever to my knowledge.
References to cultures is fine, but instead of being diverse, it just seems like it's always anime tropes. That's what annoys me. Game developers continually pander to specifically the anime subculture (which is based on Asian stereotypes in the first place) and then generally never do any other subcultures.
Why would the anime fans complain about a non-anime event? So once again I'll point out: Anime Tropes event is biased in that it perpetuates both anime and asian stereotypes.
Dark Star and Harrowing don't perpetuate either of those stereotypes because they aren't based out of a culture, they are based on a thematic expansion/alternate universe to an existing story.
If game developers (like Riot) released various culture based events that would be fine; however if you want proof that a game can do multi-culture based events themed around things in real life look no further: Heroes of the Storm
They had a Luchadore event (https://heroesofthestorm.fandom.com/wiki/Nexomania) based around mexican heritage wrestlers. (Which was my favorite, I still love my Luchadore Diablo skin!)
They had a Greek Gods event (https://heroesofthestorm.fandom.com/wiki/Greek_Gods) based around western european ancient gods.
They had Mechastorm event (https://heroesofthestorm.fandom.com/wiki/MechaStorm_II) based around popular "mechwarrior" style anime shows.
And of course the plethora of alternate universe, themed references, holiday events, cross-IP themes, etc that all games generally try to push.
Point is, HOTS was able to incorporate not only the asian mechwarrior theme, but 2 other subcultures into their game just fine (Central/Latin america, as well as western europe). Point is, LoL/LoR don't generally push any other culture based events from what I've seen. And to be honest, it gets annoying/tiresome seeing the same old tropes pushed over and over again.
So before you come to someone and say "YoU dO rEaLiZe ThAt LoR iSn't A gAmE mAdE sOlElY fOr AmErIcAnS rIgHt?" perhaps you should read further.
I guess a large part of why there is such broad appeal for this sort of thing, even outside Asia, is that school is the one thing (nearly) everyone can relate to. Schools vary, as do uniforms, but many of the things you see happen are more or less universal.
Behind the magic, weapons, and anime tropes there are people we recognise in settings we recognise reacting in ways we recognise. I don't even play LoR or LoL, so I barely know the characters themselves, but I do know the people they are representing. For example, I never actually saw a food fight at school, but I certainly saw people (myself included) try to handle noisy, chaotic environments the same way Leona is depicted here.
In contrast, my ability to relate to yet another image of a badass caught in the middle of some badassery is limited. Yeah they look cool, but that's as deep as the attachment goes.
I understand you're trying to take a neutral stance here, and I appreciate it. But I went through school, including college. I've seen my daughter go through school so far (heading into middle school next year). And I've never seen anything like what these things are depicting (including running out the door with food in your mouth??)
These are not school based references with an anime flair to them. They are anime based tropes, in a school environment. And there is a distinct difference between those two varying scenarios.
I concede many of them are exaggerations or fantasies, but that doesn't mean they don't exist in some capacity (even if it's intangible) or aren't relatable. Poppy's demonstrates it most clearly to me: kid gets bullied for being short - that absolutely happens. Kid also imagines a universe in which they could beat the sh*t out of the bullies. Anime makes up the world where they can actually do that, but not the idea itself.
Now I look at them, that does seem to be what happens when each of them levels up: they fulfill some fantasy associated with their first stage.
Sure, it's all covered with tropes (not just anime mind you) and set in a fantasy world where the line between childhood imagination and reality is blurred, but beneath all of that is a nugget of reality.
This is awesome. I can absolutely relate to having too many meme decks (or failed homebrews).
Definitely my favorite change of the patch as well.
I love the Leona skin, with her just trying to eat while a food-fight occurs around her. But what's with her meal: a burger + fries, a sunny-side-up egg, and some broccoli-lo mein dish? That's weird.
I love the fact that when she levels up, she has the whole "now you've gone and done it" look to her.
Only one new level up animation? That's disappointing. Anyway I Like the followers cameo's on the champion's splash art :
-Lux (Cithria of Cloudfield)
-Ezreal ( Academy Prodigy and Crimson Aristocrat)
-Caitlyn ( Corina Veraza)
-Leona ( Boomcrew Rookie)
You can also see Darius and Jayce on Katarina' art.
So excited for the changes to labs.
I’m… hopeful? But also nervous that they’ll take away something fun.
The original Lab of Legends is really fun and I’m surprised by how much I enjoy replaying it. Saltwater Scourge never clicked with me, though. If Reddit can be believed*, most (but not all) people agree with me on that. That means that lightning struck with one attempt but not their follow-up. Do they know how to make another good mode after seeing the response to the disappointment? I really don’t know.
(*Disclaimer: Reddit absolutely canNOT be believed.)
I like the saltwater scourge. It's a rogue-like element to card games. I think it's failing is the end boss always being gangplank. I think of they went with a truly random "map" with generated bosses/mini bosses it would be more exciting/repeatable.
That being said I play it every week for some bonus exp here and there.
On paper, Saltwater Scourge is everything I would have asked for (except for more variety in bosses and characters). I was surprised that I didn’t get into it.
I think these might be the problems, starting with the most important:
(Of course, these are all my opinions and I have no problem with the fact that other people enjoy the mode.)
DreamQuest is one of my all-time favorite games, and I hope that Riot can make something similar. I feel like it’s so close, but everything is mixed together slightly wrong.
I actually agree with a lot of what you said. I didn't realize it at first, but you're right. Why are we punished for managing healers properly? The run should just "end" if you die, not go "ok you revived, j/k!" and reduce your score. Battles do feel random. I don't necessarily mind the randomness of the cards offered though. (I think it helps people realize different unique combos that they wouldn't experiment with otherwise) and it does allow more than 2 regions (which is fun to have like 4 different champions and regions working together).
But you do bring up valid points!
That's a sentiment that I also share. I always play Lab of Legends anytime I get tired of the ladder but for Saltwater Scourge I must played the mode a couple of times ad never returned to it since then.