We've got a balance patch coming to Legends of Runeterra and we've got all the details on the upcoming changes. Riot has also provided some context behind changes, so read on further for those details.
Don't forget about tomorrow's streamed event which is going to announce the new expansion coming out this month!
New Cards in Patch 3.13.0
- Zilean’s Careful Preparation - To play, place a card from your hand into your deck. Predict, then create an exact copy of the chosen card in hand. Create a Zilean in your deck.
- Riot: "Long time coming, but finally Zilean's spell makes sense in Zilean's decks!"
Patch 3.13.0 Card Nerfs
- Illaoi - Now has 5 Health (Down from 6).
- Illaoi - Now has 6 Health (Down from 7).
- Tentacle Smash - Now spawns 2 Tentacles (Down from 3).
- The Wandering Caretaker - Chimes don’t start planting until you have 3+ mana gems.
- Second Skin - Is now a Slow spell (Was Focus).
- Supercharge - Now costs 4 (Up from 3).
- Blighted Ravine - Now heals your Nexus by 2 (Down from 4). Now damages all units, instead of everything.
- Frozen Thrall - Now has a Countdown 9 (Up from 8).
- Boom Baboon - Now has 2 Attack (Down from 3).
- Station Archivist - Addition: "Then shuffle those top 5 into your deck."
- Ravenbloom Conservatory - Now has a Countdown 12 (Up from 10).
- The Stagehand - Now has 2 Health (Down from 4).
- Defiant Dance - Now costs 5 (Up from 4).
- Ancient Hourglass - Now costs 3 (Up from 2).
- The Winding Light - No longer has Overwhelm.
- Papercraft Dragon - Now costs 6 (Up from 5).
Patch 3.13.0 Card Buffs
- Karma - Now has 4 Health (Up from 3).
- Karma - Now has 5 Health (Up from 4).
- Gnar/Gnar - Now reduces the cost of the Pokey Stick by 2 (Up from 1).
- Cosmic Binding - Now plants 6 Chimes (Up from 3).
- Hate Spike - Now costs 1 (Down from 2).
- Harsh Winds - Now costs 5 (Down from 6).
- Kadregrin the Ruined - New Text: "Grant an ally Challenger and +1|+1".
- Mark of the Storm - Now deals 3 Damage (Up from 2).
- Starbone - New Text: "If you behold a celestial, create The Messenger in your deck and grant celestial allies everywhere +1|+1".
- Bloody Business - Now has "Reputation: I cost 2".
- Starshaping - Now heals an Ally or Nexus by 5 (Up from 4).
- Thunder Fist - Now has 3 Attack (Up from 2).
- Masa, Crashing Thunder - Now has 5 Health (Up from 4).
- Rissu, The Silent Storm - Now has 3 Health (Up from 1).
- Stormcloud - No longer has Impact. "When I’m summoned, grant me Impact 3 times".
- Duskpetal Dust - Now reduces the cost of the next card, not the next unit.
- The Traveler - Now has 4 Attack (Up from 3).
- Squeaker - Now has 2 Attack (Up from 1).
- Bandle City Mayor - Now has 3 Health (Up from 2).
- Neverglade Collector - Now has 5 Health (Up from 4)
- Battle Bonds - Now costs 5 (Up from 4). Now is a Burst spell (Was Slow).
- Benemone - Now has 4 Health (Up from 3).
- Scarmaiden Reaver - Now has 6 Health (Up from 5).
- Twisted Catalyzer - Now has 3 Attack (Up from 2).
Full Patch Notes - Runeterra 3.13.0 Update
Note: We have removed the changes and organized them up above. Below you will find the context behind the changed and other notes.
Quote From Riot Illaoi
Our goal here is to enable greater interaction by putting Illaoi more in range of removal
Tentacle Smash
Tentacle Smash proved to be too strong a universal removal tool for Bilgewater, especially against opponent's smaller champions.
Karma
We hope that the jump from 3 Health to 4 (especially on a 5 drop) shifts how easy Karma is to remove and increases her currently low playrate.
Gnar
Small QoL buff to Gnar, who soundly believes that Poking should be free
The Wandering Caretaker
We want to reduce the frustration of early turn Chime high sides and point Bard a bit more firmly towards a midrange archetype
Cosmic Binding
Some compensation to Bard for the nerf, enabling more dedicated Chime decks to do their thing, eventually.
Supercharge
The goal here is to increase the opponent's ability to interact with Kai'sa decks, as well as taking Kai'sa's power down a peg.
Hate Spike
Small buff to Evelyn with likely some broader utility in Shadow Island decks in general.
Harsh Winds
Although this is technically a champion buff, the main goal here is to give player's some better tools for interacting with huge units.
Blighted Ravine
Small nerf to Ravine, retaining its board sweep but losing the superfluous Nexus damage.
Frozen Thrall
Preemptive nerf to Thralls since we are nerfing some of its main predators and not looking to catapult it back to dominance. Should mitigate some of the early turn high sides that players found frustrating.
Boom Baboon / Station Archivist
Both Baboon and Archivist add cards to hand without a suitable tax on their stats, and are over-represented in the meta as a result. The Archivist's ability to stack the top of the deck was also contributing to some frustrating non-interactive combos.
Ravenbloom Conservatory
Increasing Conservatory's Countdown should mitigate early high sides. It was just too easy to consistently level it in hand.
Kadregrin the Ruined
Kadregrin was too narrow to see much play, and the effect was slightly weak for a 6 drop. Hoping this bump should make him an interesting candidate for inclusion in Dragon and other decks.
Mark of the Storm
This and a number of subsequent changes are aimed at revitalizing Bandle City's attractiveness as a recall region.
Starbone
Removing the narrowness from this card in order to make a build around for Celestial decks.
Bloody Business
You should get more for jumping through Reputation's hoop, and hopefully this coupled with some of our more recent changes will make this deck genuinely exciting to play.
Starshaping
Another revert, hopefully enabling some slower decks than the current meta has allowed.
Thunderfist / Masa, Crashing Thunder / Rissu, the Silent Storm / Stormcloud
All of these changes are aimed at amping the Bandle City recall package. This and some of the buffs that follow are aimed at giving players more options for brewing with Bandle and encourage some new decks.
Duskpetal Dust
QoL buff for Nightfall, removing a long-standing frustration for players
The Stagehand
In this patch we are moving a lot of cards in and out of different tiers of interactability. Ephemeral makes The Stagehand enough of a poor target for interaction that it has no need for 4 Health.
Defiant Dance
Small hit to Azirelia aimed at keeping it from dominating the meta after the dust clears on this patch.
The Traveler
Upping the Power here should make this a more attractive Invoke choice.
Squeaker
Rumors that Squeaker has a blackmail portfolio for every designer are completely and totally unfounded.
Bandle City Mayor
Testing this initially brought a lot of apprehension to the team, but afterwards we felt that the meta is in a position to handle an enhanced Mayor.
Ancient Hourglass
Shurima was not intended to be the premier unit protection region. It was, uh, time for a change.
Neverglade Collector
Potentially some indirect help for Husks, and a much needed bump for Collector in general.
Winding Light
We want to put more emphasis on Winding Light as a go-wide finisher and less on its own stats and evasion.
Papercraft Dragon
We want to tap the brakes on Papercraft one-turn kills with this one.
Battle Bonds
Reworked in order to provide a more potent tool for wider Targon strategies.
Benemone
Trying to open up some more playable options for Bandle City.
Scarmaiden Reaver
Bump to bring her more in line with current unit stat lines
Twisted Catalyzer
Reverting Catalyser to give Darkness-stans a better chance in what has proven to be a very difficult meta for them.
Miscellaneous
- The next Expansion is being revealed via live stream! Tune in to Twitch August 17 at 9AM PDT
- Check out some of the amazing artwork that was submitted to our Star Guardian Community Art Gallery!
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue causing players to be unable to reconnect..
- Fixed an issue causing United Front matchmaking to fail.
- Fixed an issue preventing PC players from opening the Options Menu with the ‘Esc’ key.
- Players will no longer get stuck after the first turn of Tutorial 4 - Light and Shadow.
- Mark of the Storm’s impact text will now display the correct amount of damage.
- Using Choice cards with Targeting no longer causes both options to freeze on screen.
- Evelynn and Kai’Sa AI decks now contain copies of Evelynn.
- Fixed an issue causing Relic of Power to draw an incorrect number of cards.
- Fixed an issue causing an incorrect number of Gifts From Beyond to appear while Taric is supporting a unit.
- Uncommitted blockers will now properly return to the backrow.
- Fixed an issue causing targets to be removed.
- Fixed an issue causing Mind Meld’s ‘spells played’ tracker to be incorrect.
- Shen, Kinkou Student, and Void Abomination will now interact with allies as intended.
- Fixed several VO issues that were playing incorrectly.
- Fixed several VFX issues that were playing incorrectly.
- Updated localization for some cards that were missing translations.
- Updated several cards that were missing card text.
- In general, updated several text descriptions to better align with game mechanics
Comments
1 mana Ancient Hourglass was really broken but will 2 mana be enough? We shall see ;)
I think that Ancient Hourglass should cost 3 mana now because the card already cost 2 mana
That is correct and has been fixed now.
Good changes overall, but I don't like the Benemone buff. Prank is extremely vexing to play against.