We've got two brand new cards arriving in Legends of Runeterra this week with a load of balance changes. This patch officially begins the beta season for the 2023 competitive revamp. Read on for all the details which include the balance changes, new cards, patch of champions adjustments, and bug fixes.
New Cards
Two new cards have been added to the game! They join Shadow Isles and Shurima respectively.
Announcement
Quote From Riot Welcome to Patch 4.1! In this patch we start our new Beta Season in which we’re rolling out the first phase of our changes to competitive play in LoR. We also have a whole slew of balance adjustments and even two new cards for you to experiment with!
Here’s a look at each of the card updates coming in this patch:
Buffs
ILLAOI (LEVEL 1)
CHANGE: 1|6 → 2|6
ILLAOI (LEVEL 2)
CHANGE: 2|7 → 3|7
Illaoi’s playrate has sunk faster than Gangplank’s ship after a run-in with Miss Fortune. We are hoping that a few targeted changes to her stats can turn the tides.
NAGAKABOUROS
CHANGE: The card effect will now activate on summon as well as round start.
TENTACLE SMASH
CHANGE: 4c → 3c
In addition to giving some more power to Illaoi, we wanted to nudge up damage-based interaction in this patch.
JAX (LEVEL 2)
CHANGE: No Keyword → Overwhelm
We wanted our Grandmaster at Arms to be able to pick up any weapon and still maintain his leveled-up threat.
Editor’s Note: Oh snap. Now he has a REAL weapon.
ROAR OF ICATHIA
CHANGE: No subtype → Weaponmaster
These cards are strong tools in Jax’s Arsenal so we wanted to unlock access to give an additional bump to our favorite Weaponmaster.
FISH FIGHT
CHANGE: No subtype → Weaponmaster
ORNN (LEVEL 1)
CHANGE: 4|4 → 5|5
ORNN (LEVEL 2)
CHANGE: 5|5 → 6|6
Ornn’s forges have lain dormant since his release. We hope these stat changes, coupled with some more adjustments to Forge cards, are the spark that’s needed to turn up the heat. Our team is still keeping an eye on Ornn after these changes.
WEAPONSMITH'S APPRENTICE
CHANGE: 1|1 → 1|2
Apprentice was a bit too cautious on release, so we’re going to unleash some of their power. We hope this change will reignite Ornn's forge while potentially providing some general utility for Freljord as well.
FAVORED ARTISAN
CHANGE: 1|4 → 2|3
We couldn’t very well buff Kindral without also buffing our favorite granny Hertha as well!
HEARTHBLOOD MENDER
CHANGE: 5|5 → 4|5
CHANGE: Play: Forge an ally and heal it and your Nexus 3 → Play: Forge an ally twice and heal it and your Nexus 3This change is to move some of Hearthblood Mender's power from his statline to his Forge ability.
Editor’s Note: Hah. Forge. Ability. Forgeability. Very, very forgeable.
SHARD OF REVERENCE (RYZE)
CHANGE: …When I'm Played or activated, refill 2 spell mana → When I'm Played or activated, refill your spell mana
A minor boost to aid Ryze in playing Delve into the Past and the numerous spells included in his Origin.
Editor’s note: EQEQEQEQEQEQ
SHADOWSHIFT
CHANGE: 3c → 2c
We wanted to revive this cool effect since lately it seems to have faded into the shadows… not in the way we intended.
HATE SPIKE
CHANGE: Kill an ally to deal 2 to a unit → Kill an ally to deal 3 to a unit
Our previous nerf to Hate Spike went a bit too far. The additional damage should let these hateful spikes fit into a few more gameplans.
MASTER YI
CHANGE: I’ve dealt 12+ damage → Allied Master Yis have done 12+ damage.
Ever the eternal student, we’ve decided that Yi should keep his knowledge (and level up progression) from his previous lives. He’s historically had trouble leveling up, and this should help make that more feasible.
MAOKAI (LEVEL 1)
CHANGE: 1|4 → 2|4
MAOKAI (LEVEL 2)
CHANGE: 2|5 → 3|5
Small bump to our friendly tree. These additional thorns on his trunk will hopefully let his blocks be a bit scarier.
SHYVANA (LEVEL 1)
CHANGE: Level Up: I've seen Dragon allies deal 12+ damage → Level Up: Dragons have dealt 16+ damage this game
SHYVANA (LEVEL 2)
CHANGE: Attack: Give me +2|+2 this round and create a Fleeting Strafing Strike in hand → Attack: Give me +2|+2 this round and create a 2c Fleeting Strafing Strike in hand
Let the dragons take wing. This change should make it feel less punishing to draw Shyvana a little later.
TRISTANA (LEVEL 1)
CHANGE: Quick Attack → Quick Attack + Impact
TRISTANA (LEVEL 2)
CHANGE: Quick Attack → Quick Attack + Impact
Tristana has underperformed and never found a home. We are hoping that this little push, alongside the Bandle City changes we have been pushing in the last several patches, will finally let the Gunner Chief gun.
LISSANDRA (LEVEL 1)
CHANGE: When I'm summoned, summon a Frozen Thrall → When I'm summoned, summon a Frozen Thrall and advance it 2.
LISSANDRA (LEVEL 2)
CHANGE: When I'm summoned, summon a Frozen Thrall → When I'm summoned, summon a Frozen Thrall and advance it 2.
The Frozen Thrall nerf shattered our ice sorceress’s carefully laid plans. This gives her some minor acceleration for the Thralls gameplan.
Editor’s Note: IAmWalrus, is this tempo? I’m still trying to figure it out.
KAYLE (LEVEL 1)
CHANGE: 6c → 5c
CHANGE: 2|6 → 1|5
CHANGE: When I'm summoned, grant other allies +1|+0 → When I'm summoned, grant allies +1|+0KAYLE (LEVEL 2)
CHANGE: 6c → 5c
CHANGE: 3|7 → 2|6
CHANGE: When I'm summoned or level up, grant other allies +1|+1 → When I'm summoned or level up, grant allies +1|+1At 6 mana, Kayle had trouble coming down fast enough to live her dream.
Additionally, Kayle's summon buff now affects her, too, preventing the situation where she was summoned without any buffs and couldn't start scaling by herself.
Editor’s Note: This has got to be Tempo.
LUCIAN (LEVEL 1)
CHANGE: 2c → 1c
CHANGE: 3|2 → 2|1LUCIAN (LEVEL 2)
CHANGE: 2c → 1c
CHANGE: 4|3 → 3|2Lucian has seen only sporadic play for quite some time. We are hoping a shift down the curve (and a corresponding stat drop) will create some exciting opportunities for him.
ALBUS FERROS
CHANGE: Attack: Deal 1… → Attack: Deal 3…
Albus was very alarmed to no longer be included in his employee's decks. Something HAD TO BE DONE.
Editor’s Note: Yes Albus, we deposited it. No we won't tell anyone.
WEIGHT OF JUDGMENT
CHANGE: 4c → 3c
CHANGE: Deal 2 to a champion or 7 to a follower → deal 2 to a champion or 4 to a follower.Shurima has always had decent follower removal. This change increases the general utility of the card, while sacrificing its use as an emergency button.
DRAGONCALLER
CHANGE: 6c → 5c
At six cost this card was six feet under. We are hoping at 5 cost it can help players really get in the Flow.
Nerfs
SUPER MEGA DEATH ROCKET (JINX)
CHANGE: Deal 4 to the enemy Nexus and 1 to all enemies → Deal 3 to the enemy Nexus and 1 to all enemies
Small nerf to pull Jinx back down to mortal levels.
PORO CANNON
CHANGE: 0c → 1c
Poro Cannon has escaped the nerf chopping block at least a half-dozen times. But with the dominance of Jinx/Lulu in the meta, its time has finally come.
QUIETUS
CHANGE: Kill a unit 2 Power or less, or destroy a unit's equipment → Kill a unit with total Health and Power of 4 or less, or destroy a unit's equipment
Quietus was intended to efficiently shut down inexpensive units, but also took out many low attack/high health champions as collateral damage. This change aligns more closely with our intent. You're welcome, Braum, Galio, and Illaoi. (and now Maokai)
Editor’s Note: Smiles in Kayn
EYE OF NAGAKABOUROS
CHANGE: Burst → Focus
This card has overperformed in a number of meta decks, ranging from control to aggro. We wanted to preserve its utility for Illaoi while taking it down a peg-leg elsewhere.
KATARINA (LEVEL 1)
CHANGE: 3|2 → 2|2
KATARINA (LEVEL 2)
CHANGE: 4|3→ 3|3
Katarina has been dominating in multiple decks, so it was time for a change. We are hoping this checks her power without destroying her utility.
New Cards
SOUL CLEAVE
Shadow Isles gets a new toy! It should find use in Ephemeral strategies, or to get multiple Last Breath or summon abilities out of a single unit.
CASTIGATE
Tired of your champions getting blocked by those pesky followers? No more!
Path of Champions Adjustments
Buffs
Hymn of Valor (Rare Relic)
- Change: When I'm summoned, create a Redoubled Valor in hand → When I'm summoned, create a Redoubled Valor in hand. It costs 3.
- This relic was far below the power level of being a Rare Relic, so we're making it easier to play Redoubled Valor by halving its cost. That makes sense, right?
Reset (Common Power)
- Change: Rarity: Rare → Common
- Shuffling cards into your deck doesn't feel strong enough to be Rare, so we're changing this power to Common.
Guardian Angel (Rare Relic)
- Change: Start adventures with +1 Revive → Start adventures with +1 Revive, Last Breath: If it's the first time I've died this game, revive me with 1 Health.
- We wanted this to feel a bit more interactive, so we’ve added a revive effect to the Champion this is equipped to, as well as the adventure-wide Revive. Hopefully this boost makes it feel more worthy of being a Rare Relic, as well as feeling like the Guardian Angel we all know and love!
Radiant Plate Armor (Rare Item - Unit)
- Change: +4|+4, but increase my cost by 2 → +3|+3, but increase my cost by 1
- +2 mana cost felt pretty hard to stomach in most situations, so we dropped the buff slightly in exchange for a much smaller drawback.
Spirit Stone (Rare Item - Unit)
- Change: This item can appear on units that cost 5 or less → This item can only appear on units with 3 cost or less.
- Rarity: Epic → Rare
- This item had trouble finding its ideal use case, leading it to feeling like an Epic low roll. Changing its rarity and the max cost of units it will appear for will help lift its spirits.
- Editor’s Note: I’m usually fun and flippant, but I'm here with a peek behind the Game Design curtain: When you visit an item or shop encounter, the randomly generated items have restrictions set by game designers for what kind of card they can appear on. These are often practical restrictions - like preventing Spirit Stone from being offered with a unit that costs 6 or more. However, even though it’s technically practical on a 4 or 5 cost unit, it’s unlikely to actually be useful. Reducing its minimum cost restriction further increases the chance that it’s a useful and compelling option when it appears.
Special Delivery (Common Item - Unit)
- Change: Attack: Plant 3 Poison Puffcaps on random cards in the enemy deck → Attack: Plant 5 Poison Puffcaps on random cards in the enemy deck
- It was easy to have a game where you wouldn't see the effect of this item at all, so we're increasing the Puffcaps planted to let it ruin the AI’s day in true Teemo style.
Standard Starchart (Common Item - Spell)
- Change: Rarity: Epic → Common
- This effect wasn't in the same ballpark as other Epic Items, so we reduced its rarity to increase its odds of being chosen.
Nerfs
Pickaxe (Common Item - Unit)
- Change: This item can appear on any cost Unit →This item can only appear on Units with 2 cost or higher.
- While stacking stats on cheap units is an effective strategy, it's not the most interesting one. Changing the minimum unit cost at which these items appear should change how cheap units are utilized.
Studded Leather (Common Item - Unit)
- Change: This item can appear on any cost Unit →This item can only appear on Units with 2 cost or higher.
- While stacking stats on cheap units is an effective strategy, it's not the most interesting one. Changing the minimum unit cost at which these items appear should change how cheap units are utilized.
Stalker’s Blade (Rare Relic)
- Change: When I'm summoned, I strike the strongest enemy → When I'm summoned, I strike the weakest enemy
- The strength of this relic made it an obvious choice on a large number of champions. Ubiquitous choices make the game less interesting, so we're bringing this relic down to more closely match the power of other Rare Relics.
New
Norra’s Tea (Common Item - Any)
- Effect: Game Start: Plant a Mysterious Portal on me.
- You never know who's coming over for tea time!
Emperor’s Favor (Rare Item - Spell)
- Effect: Create a random card from the Emperor's Deck in hand.
- It certainly pays to be on Azir's good side.
Entrancing Lure (Common Item - Unit)
- Effect: Strike: Draw 1
- Throw it on a cheap unit for a one-off draw, or get it on Aatrox and deck yourself before you realize it. The choice is yours!
Poro Fluft (Epic Item - Unit)
- Effect: Reduce my cost and stats to 1. I am a Poro.
- What do Kadregrin the Infernal, Commander Ledros, and Riptide Rex all have in common? They all secretly want to be poros.
Chemtech Duplicator (Rare Relic)
- Effect: When you play a spell, if you have 6+ mana gems, copy it with the same targets.
- Hey! Psst! Over here in the alley! Got a duplicator for sale, runs off chemtech. Takes a minute to get started but once it's running… Hoo boy, you're in business! And for you, 50% off. Whadaya say?
Competitive
This patch kicks off the Beta Season for Competitive in 2023. There is a lot of change coming with this patch and in the future. For a full run down please check out this article.
2023 Roadmap
This is a Live Balance patch to kick off the year, check out this article to see the Roadmap for 2023 as well as our future patch cadence.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where after having played Duskpetal Dust earlier during the same round, if the user plays multiple copies of Unspeakable Horror on a single spell stack, Duskpetal Dust's cost reduction effect is applied to all copies, instead of only applying to the first copy on the stack.
- Fixed an issue where The Shadow Assassin was erroneously listed as having the Darkin subtype.
- World Ender now correctly states that only follower allies Equipped with Darkin items are assimilated.
- Fixed an issue where Rockbear Shepherd was incorrectly advancing the landmark being destroyed by Desert Naturalist when Teen Spirit resolves.
- Fixed an issue where Twin Wind Technique was not summoning an exact copy of its targeted unit.
- Fixed an issue where Children of the Forest incorrectly summoned Equipment versions of Darkin units that were recalled.
Fixed an issue in TPoC where Pyke's Star Power could add a duplicate “Mariner’s Ruse” to allies that already had it.
Fixed an issue in TPoC where Teemo’s 2-Star power was being erroneously triggered by Flashbomb Traps.
Fixed an issue in TPoC where the Mana Potion item did not function on all Darkin equipment.
- Fixed some VO and SFX issues that were either missing or playing incorrectly.
- Fixed an issue where The Restored Sun Disc created by Nasus' Boon of the Ascended II had no effect when summoned during TPoC encounters.
Comments
After how long it took for this balance patch to arrive, I find the actual changes pretty disappointing. The only serious nerfs are to Poro Cannon, Quietus and... Weight of Judgment, somehow. There's a couple of significant buffs, like those for Kayle and Shyvana, but the rest look mostly pointless; if you take a terrible card and buff it ever-so-slightly, it's still unplayable. If the goal was to shake up the metagame, then this patch is a swing and a miss.