Patch 2.3.0 drops this week with Empires of the Ascended! Here's the scoop of what's coming in the patch including our highlights.

  • Empires of the Ascended goes live at 11 AM Pacific on March 3. (2 PM Eastern, 20:00 CET)

Here are the highlights of this week's patch:

  • 110 collectible cards have been added to the game with Empires of the Ascended. This includes 9 champions!
  • Aphelios has received a nerf.
  • Region Roads have been extended for Demacia, Noxus, Feljord, and Shadow Isles.
  • Champion Mastery! Read more about it in our guide.
  • A new 2v2 lab - United Front PvP.
  • New shop cosmetics - the usual.
  • Five new archetypes in expeditions.
  • Cross-server friend challenge is still disabled and will be until patch 2.4.0 due to issues.

Quote From Riot

New Expansion: Empires of the Ascended

It’s finally time to awaken your empire. The Empires of the Ascended expansion introduces a new region — Shurima — as well as 110 collectible cards across all regions including Shurima, 9 champions, and new keywords and mechanics that can completely alter your destiny!

Empires of the Ascended arrives in patch 2.3.0, which will be playable at approximately 11AM PT, March 3.

New Region: Shurima

The empire of Shurima stands strong once again in Empires of the Ascended, and revolves around a theme of ascension and inevitability. The power of the great Sun Disc can raise the powers of Shurima’s Ascended champions by unbelievable magnitudes… but only if it can be restored from ruin.

Updates to Challenges, Quests, and AI Decks

New Challenges and Quests have been added to introduce you to the keywords, archetypes, and champions being added in Empires of the Ascended. AI decks featuring Shurima, as well as other cards added in the expansion have also been added to the Vs. AI opponent pool.

Card Updates

Aphelios (Level 1 & Level 2)
Base Stats:
Level 1 3|3 → 3|2
Level 2 4|4 → 4|3

We want to flatly decrease Aphelios' survivability and increase counterplay. Given the power and versatility of his kit, we will continue to monitor his performance and make follow up changes in the future if need be.

Region Road Updates

With Shurima’s rise comes a new Region Road, and Demacia, Noxus, Freljord, and Shadow Isles have also been extended for the addition of their newest champions.

  • Shurima Region Road added, featuring 25 levels, including a Shurima card back.
  • Demacia, Noxus, Feljord, and Shadow Isles extended an additional 4 levels.

Champion Mastery

Patch 2.3.0 introduces the Champion Mastery feature. Play your favorite champions to increase their Champion Mastery level, and unlock special card borders to show off your prowess! Learn all about Champion Mastery here.

New Lab: United Front PvP

Patch 2.3.0 brings a new rotation to Multilab:

  • Lab of Legends
  • United Front PvP (New in 2.3.0!)
  • Heimer’s Madness

Heimerdinger has taken another crack at his United Front Lab, upgrading it to a 2v2 PvP tag-team battle!

Just like in United Front PvE, each player is offered a champion at the start of the game, which determines the deck they’ll bring into battle, but they share a board & units, and must work together in order to achieve victory!

You can queue with either a friend or random partner, but regardless of your recruitment strategy, communication is essential to optimize your plays. Use the experimental P.I.N.G. system by dragging special social emotes onto the board to suggest attackers, blockers, send a friendly fistbump, and more!

Personalization

Boards

Ascended Oasis

For legends who come back stronger than before.
This Board has special visual effects and music.

Guardians

Fen

The desert holds many wonders, and Fen may just be the cutest of them all.

Personality: Clever
Hobby: Sand Surfing

Fen is available in the Empires of the Ascended Event Pass.

Card Backs

4 new card backs available as part of the Empires of the Ascended Event Pass.

The Curator of the Sands

For legends who do what is right, not what is easy.

The Butcher of the Sands

For legends who succumb to the beast within.

The Stoneweaver

For legends who move mountains.

The Emperor of the Sands

For legends who overcome the past.

Emotes

  • 4 new emotes available as part of the Empires of the Ascended Event Pass.

Bundles / Event Pass

  • Empires of the Ascended Event Pass available for 975 Coins. Purchasing the Event Pass will immediately unlock the Fen Guardian. Additional details:
  • Grants access to an upgraded event path with premium rewards. Play games to earn Sun Discs and unlock more rewards, including Guardian variants, Emotes, Card Backs, Prismatic Cards, and more!
  • Purchase before March 16 to get an exclusive quest that awards 10 Sun Discs and a Rare Prismatic Chest!
  • Event ends and pass expires March 31 at 11:00AM PT.

Deck Bundles

Jump straight into the heat of battle (and the Shuriman desert) with 2 new deck bundles available in the store. Challenge your enemies with powerful combos with the Wardens of War deck featuring Renekton and Jarvan IV, or strike fast and hard to activate Reputation with the Mistresses of Battle deck.

  • Wardens of War - Available for 2115 Coins, prorated for any cards you already own.
  • Mistresses of Battle - Available for 2052 Coins, prorated for any cards you already own.

Ranked Rewards & New Season

With the release of Empires of the Ascended, the Cosmic Creation Season has come to a close. Fight hard in the Empires of the Ascended season to earn your place in the next Seasonal Tournament, which will be run using a new format! Get all the details on the future of Seasonal Tournaments here.

  • Ranked will be disabled from 9:00-11:00AM PT to prepare for the new Ranked season.
  • Rewards based on your Cosmic Creation rank will be delivered to your account.

Expeditions

For Empires of the Ascended we’re adding five new archetypes to the Expeditions pool, featuring the new champions and strategies highlighted in this expansion.

  • Five new Empires of the Ascended archetypes added to the Expeditions draft pool.
    • Ascension
    • Challengers
    • Incubators
    • Reputation
    • Slayers
  • Empires of the Ascended archetypes will temporarily be four times as likely as they would otherwise be to appear in the initial Champion Picks. We’ll even out these chances in a later patch.
  • Cards from Empires of the Ascended have been added to various appropriate archetypes.
  • NOTE: Active Expeditions will not roll over into Empires of the Ascended, and players will be forced to retire any active runs. Active trials (not those mid-draft!) will be compensated normally. 

Miscellaneous

  • Increased the maximum number of deck slots in the Collection from 30 > 50.
  • Known issue - cross-server friend challenge has been disabled until patch 2.4.0 to address several high-severity bugs. We apologize for the inconvenience; please keep an eye out for additional updates.

Bugfixes

  • Fixed an issue where Katarina would occasionally strike the Nexus while being the target of Dragon's Rage.
  • Fixed a visual issue where Stress Testing would cause Fleeting cards to overlap in hand.
  • Fixed several visual issues with tooltips occasionally being overlapped by other UI elements in the tutorial.
  • Fixed an issue where The Cloven Way would occasionally get stuck on the board.
  • Fixed several text issues in card text, descriptions, and tooltips in our continued focus on improving consistency.
  • Fixed an issue where Aphelios could sometimes create Moon Weapons without the Phase requirements being met.
  • Fixed an error where casting Pick A Card would occasionally result in a visual bloom effect.
  • Fixed an error where an interaction between Aurelion Sol and Celestial cards would occasionally result in a visual bloom effect.
  • Fixed an issue where a silenced Jinx would occasionally allow Super Mega Death Rocket to persist over multiple turns.
  • Fixed an issue where Tahm Kench would occasionally not play any VFX when obliterating units.
  • Fixed an issue where Wiggly Burblefish would occasionally not play any SFX when attacking.
  • Fixed an issue where the numbers for Wildcards / Currencies on mobile would display incorrectly.