LoL 4.4 Patch Notes revealed

Kassadin

Old Kassadin's combination of high mobility, strong disables and high burst damage left his victims with very few to no options against him (other than banning him in every single ranked game), especially when he snowballed ahead. Our focus here is to introduce more counterplay to Kassadin's kit, something we couldn't do with number tweaks alone. For example, lowering Kass's damage doesn't make for an interesting gameplay interaction (it just means you can turn around and smash him in the face if you survive the burst), while increasing his cooldowns means he just needs to wait longer before blowing somebody up.

In the end, we opted for a full-on kit rework to reinforce his core theme as an anti-magic assassin with unrivaled mobility. These changes mean Kassadin must rely on his mobility to pick fights while finding opportunities to dive in and out of combat to take out targets. It's worth stressing: these changes are to make Kassadin less of a "blow someone up when you can" champion and more of a mobile attacker who wants to get in to fight while using Riftwalk to stay safe. Obviously, this is a significant change, so we'll be watching his performance very closely.

We've increased Kassadin's attack range and changed his passive so it no longer grants attack speed but avoids unit collision. We reduced Null Sphere's damage and pulled off the silence, although it will still interrupt channeled abilities. Instead, Null Sphere now grants Kassadin a shield on use. Nether Blade now passively deals bonus magic damage per autoattack and, when activated, deals higher bonus magic damage as well as restoring some of Kassadin's missing mana. No big changes to Force Pulse though we did reduce its damage a bit. Riftwalk, on the other hand, has a lot of changes. We've reduced its cooldown and it now scales with max mana instead of AP. Each stack now doubles the mana cost of the next Riftwalk but we reduced the mana cost and the number of max stacks to compensate. It also no longer refunds mana on hitting enemy champs.

General

Passive - Void Stone

Q - Null Sphere

NEWW - Nether Blade

E - Force Pulse

R - Riftwalk

Annie

We like Annie's versatility, but some of her base damage is too high for how she's currently being used. Our goal is to introduce more interesting choices in Annie's kit (particularly on that Disintegrate buff) as we looked for ways to buff her late game scaling when she builds more traditional AP items.

We've reduced Disintegrate's cooldown by half on any kill (champion or minion). We've also fiddled with Incinerate and Tibbers so they do less base damage but scale better with AP.

Q - Disintegrate

W - Incinerate

R - Summon: Tibbers

Diana

The Lich Bane changes affect Diana pretty hard, so we're tweaking her numbers a little to make sure she still packs a punch.

More on Lich Bane below.

Passive - Moonsilver Blade

Elise

Reiterating what was mentioned in the foreword of the patch notes, we like champions that have different strengths and weaknesses at various points in the game, but jungle Elise was an extreme outlier with her super strong spider-of-all-trades early game. This is definitely a nerf, but we'll keep an eye on Elise as she adjusts.

We lowered Neurotoxin/Venomous Bite's damage versus monsters while making Cocoon's stun shorter at early levels and higher at later levels. We also shortened the cooldown of Rappel and lowered spiderling health at early levels but raised it at higher levels.

Q - Neurotoxin

Q - Venomous Bite

Ezreal

We saw the Lich Bane changes as an easy opportunity to preserve the AP Ezreal off-build without jeopardizing the health / balance of his primary build.

More on Lich Bane below.

Q - Mystic Shot

Fizz

Lich Bane's a pretty key item for Fizz, so we're giving the little fish dude a buff to compensate for the item change.

More on Lich Bane below.

W - Seastone Trident

Heimerdinger

We've been paying close attention to Heimerdinger since his kit rework and felt he could use a little more late game help. Turret basic attacks deal a hell of a lot more damage than people realize, so we're tying their power in with the “flashier” big sister: The Beam. This way, Heimerdinger must position his turrets for maximum effectiveness on both attacks (basics and beams).

Heimer's got a visual update! We bumped up Heimer's move speed and made some changes to his turrets. Turret health now scales with AP and champion levels, and turret basic attacks now reduce the cooldown of turret beams instead of CDR. Also, turrets are now a little worse at last hitting minions unless Heimer orders them to attack specific ones.

General

Heimerdinger has received a visual update, including one hell of a haircut! Check out the full details here.

Q - H-28G Evolution Turret

Kog'Maw

Late game, Caustic Spittle's lower cast range often clashed with Kog's Bio-Arcane Barrage empowered attack range, so we're clarifying Kog'Maw's role as an artillery-lobbing, tank-shredding, spittle-spitting, purple people-eating, puppy-monster… thing.

Caustic Spittle is now a straight line skill shot with a longer range. It has a higher base damage and now shreds the target's armor and magic resistance.

Q - Caustic Spittle

W - Bio-Arcane Barrage

R - Living Artillery

Nautilus

We're giving Nautilus some love so he can be a little safer in the jungle while scaling better into the late game (particularly with his slow early game).

W - Titan's Wrath

Sivir

Continuing our Sivir watch since her rework. These nerfs mean Sivir can't create an unhealthy lane by auto-pushing her opponents to the tower without interacting with them. The higher mana costs combined with a buffed mana restore on Spell Shield means Sivir needs to take more risks to keep using her abilities.

Q - Boomerang Blade

W - Ricochet

E - Spell Shield

Skarner

We said we'd monitor Skarner after his changes, and we're continuing to do so. The buffs in patch 4.3 were a good direction but it looks like Skarner could use a little more reliability.

E - Fracture

Thresh

8 seconds is really all the time a soul needs before it realizes it can escape from Thresh. The shorter window to pick up souls means Thresh will have to take more risks as he tries to collect distant souls.

Passive - Damnation

Tristana

Using Rapid Fire is about timing and opportunity (not mana costs!), so we're clarifying its use.

Q - Rapid Fire

Twisted Fate

Twisted Fate was another Lich Bane fan who relied on its extra damage to stay strong. Now that we've knocked Lich Bane down a few notches, we're giving the Card Master a couple buffs to keep him happy.

More on Lich Bane below.

W - Pick A Card

E - Stacked Deck

Vi

Vi deals a lot of damage when building tanky and we want to incentivize her to go back to what she does best: punching things. The change to Assault and Battery gives a little more breathing room for her opponents between her oppressive early ganks while also giving foes more opportunities to capitalize on poorly planned ults.

Vault Breaker has a lower base damage now but scales better with AD. We also raised Assault and Battery's cooldown at early ranks and reduced the knockback duration and distance to secondary targets.

Q - Vault Breaker

R - Assault and Battery

Font Updates

We're switching our loading screen and in-game announcer fonts to a better recognized, stable font.

We changed the loading screen and in-game announcer fonts!

Recall

Attacks and damaging spells that hit a shielded target will now cancel a recall cast in progress, even if the shield is not broken by the incoming damage

Jungle

We've gussied up the health restoration particle you get when you kill large jungle monsters. Now comes with 100% extra swirl

Fiora

R - Blade Waltz

Karthus

We fixed a bug that caused Karthus to lose certain item buffs for varying amounts of time when he became a spirit. We'll keep an eye on Karthus after this patch as this fix is a significant buff to his damage while in his undead-er form.

Passive - Death Defied

LeBlanc

E - Ethereal Chains

Lux

We're updating Final Spark's targeting indicator so players who use quick cast can see the range of the spell easier.

R - Final Spark

Quinn

With this change you'll still have to figure out what Valor likes to do, but at least you'll know when he's taking a break and won't help you out on his own.

Passive - Harrier

Udyr

E - Bear Stance

Yorick

We fixed a bug that caused Yorick's Omen of Death'd target (well that's awkward to write) to lose certain item buffs for varying amounts of time when they became a zombie. We'll be watching Yorick after this patch as this fix is a significant buff to Omen of Death.

Q - Omen of War

R - Omen of Death

Lich Bane

Historically we've run into a lot of problems with champions who use Lich Bane because of its high-power AP burst, so we're taking a look at the item itself. Lich Bane is designed to be a damage supplement for AP champs that incorporate basic attacks into their spell rotations, unlike Deathfire Grasp which is for champions who want to optimize their burst damage. This adjustment lets us take a look at champions who traditionally depend on Lich Bane for their damage output. We've given a bit of power back to Diana, Ezreal, Fizz and Twisted Fate for now and we'll keep a close eye on the state of the game after this change to see if we need to help out anyone else.

We're lowering Lich Bane's damage.

Trinkets (Warding Totem, Sweeping Lens, Scrying Orb)

A lot of players were relying on the early Warding Totem to protect standard invade paths, which ended up preventing meaningful aggression. We like that invading can be a team strategy, so we're hoping this helps out. Plus, lowering the swap cooldown for trinkets should allow for more flexibility.

Wriggle's Line

We're currently working on the Wriggle's line of items and, in patch 4.5, we'll be introducing an "evolution" to Wriggle's Lantern where it transforms into a more powerful item called Feral Flare when you accumulate a large number of monster kills. Once again, that item will hit in 4.5 but you can play with the minor Madred's and Wriggle's changes for now.

The specific goal here is to fill in the “missing link” of jungle items for basic attack reliant champions. We really want to give 'carry' junglers an item that focuses on a weaker early game for mid to late game payoffs.

Madred's Razors now gives attack speed rather than armor. Wriggle's Lantern now gives attack damage and a little more attack speed rather than armor and attack speed.

Madred's Razors

Wriggle's Lantern

Teleport

We like the offensive pressure that comes from taking Teleport, but its defensive use (ie: lane recovery or base protection) could use some love.

Graphical Updates

We're continuing along our goal of making gameplay more readable, satisfying, and visceral. Also pretty.

• Barrier particles and sound effects updated
• Heal particles and sound effects updated
• Teleport particles and sound effects updated
• Ignite particles updated
• Ghost sound effects updated
• Screenshots in the spells tab of your profile have been updated according to recent changes.

Renekton

The crocodile can be pretty overwhelming in a 3s match, so we're taking a little power off.

R - Dominus

Syndra

As a zone control mage, Syndra was designed and balanced to fend off 5 attackers, but she can be oppressive in 3v3 matches.

E - Scatter the Weak

R - Unleashed Power

Talon

Talon's invisibility is really strong on wardless maps, so we're upping the cooldown a bit to compensate. We're also lowering his mid/late game burst because really, it's too damn high.

Q - Noxian Diplomacy

R - Shadow Assault

Thresh

Thresh's soul pickup rate on Dominion is pretty low in comparison to SR, which leaves him lackluster in the stats department. So, we're giving him some help to hit parity with other tanks and supports.

Passive - Damnation

R - The Box