Official Patch 4.1 Notes Released!

The official patch notes for the first patch of Season 4 are here! Check out some of the highlights below!

Buffs: Anivia, Janna, Yasuo
Nerfs: Annie, Evelynn, Jinx, Nasus, Rengar, Riven, Shyvana, Thresh
Item Nerfs: Spirit Visage, Sunfire Cape

Official Post:

Hey Summoners,

Riot Pwyff here with the first update of 2014! Since this is the beginning of a new year, we’re rolling over our patch numbering from 3.x to 4.x. Aside from getting that +1, our general design philosophy for the new season isn’t changing. We’re still closely watching the state of the game as it evolves with the preseason, and this update is just another step down that path.

The general theme of patch 4.1 is more refinement and tuning. We’re in the process of de-fogging more of those outliers like Shyvana, Riven and Annie. That said, now that the dust has settled we can also take another look at modernizing certain items (the Spirit line of jungle items, for example) and systems (2v1 lane swaps).

Quick note, any text in red will be myself guiding you through some of our changes and our thought process behind them. On with the patch notes!

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Leagues

The 2014 ranked season reset will take place within the next few days. We’ll have a full list of changes in the patch notes when it happens.

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Vision Code Changes

While these changes won’t be immediately noticeable at first, you should see some positive differences over time with vision becoming more dynamic and responsive. These changes let us do more with vision while tackling larger issues in 2014. No promises for now as to what timelines we’ll be hitting with our updates, but hopefully you’ll be able to see the difference.

• In-game vision should now be more responsive and dynamic as it interacts with abilities (like Lux’s Lucent Singularity)
• Ward sweeping abilities will now cause wards to darken the fog of war when they are disabled.
• Projectiles should register more quickly when a champion casts an ability from the fog of war

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Champions

Anivia
Summary: We’ve increased the speed of Anivia’s basic attack projectile and brought down the mana cost of Flash Frost and Crystallize. Additionally, Anivia’s ult will now have a warning effect when she is almost out of Glacial Storm’s range.

We call these kinds of changes “modernizations,” where we bring a champion up-to-date with the current state of the game. Usually this means mana cost changes (typically reductions), but it also extends to playability improvements, like range indicators or gameplay improvements.

General

• Basic attack projectile speed increased to 1400 (from 1100)

Q - Flash Frost

• Mana cost reduced to 80/90/100/110/120 (from 80/100/120/140/160)

W – Crystalize

• Mana reduced to 70 at all ranks (from 70/90/110/130/150)

R - Glacial Storm

• Now displays a warning particle over Anivia that only the Anivia player can see when she is close to the maximum range of her ultimate

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Annie
Summary: Pyromania’s stun duration is now shorter at earlier levels but Summon: Tibbers’ cooldown has been reduced at later levels to compensate.

Annie’s a terrifying kid to play against in the early phases of the game – even before Tibbers joins the party– mostly due to her long duration stun at level 1. With these changes, we want to give Annie’s lane opponents some more room to breathe against her early threat, but we’ve given Tibbers more late game playtime to compensate. This should lessen a bit of Annie’s power without incinerating her overall strengths.

Passive - Pyromania

• Stun duration now scales 1.25/1.5/1.75 seconds at levels 1/6/11 (from 1.75 seconds at all levels)

R - Summon Tibbers

• Cooldown reduced to 120/100/80 seconds (from 120 at all ranks)

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Evelynn
Summary: We’ve slowed down Hate Spike’s missile speed, changed Ravage’s damage from magical to physical and Agony’s Embrace now grants its shield instantly.

Evelynn’s newfound strength in the preseason is partially a result of our changes to the vision system, but she’s also been blowing up enemy champions during the mid-game when she can stack Magic Penetration. Changing Ravage’s damage to physical will reduce some of Evelynn’s burst, but our core focus is on the Hate Spike change. By reducing its missile speed, Evelynn’s victims should feel more rewarded for keeping her at a distance, especially if they have some speed boosts to outrange her spikes. We also cleaned up the response time of Agony’s Embrace – it feels pretty bad for Evelynn to die before the shield but after the cast.

Q - Hate Spike

• Missile speed reduced to 1250 (from 2000)

E - Ravage

• Damage changed to physical (from magic)

R - Agony's Embrace

• Now grants the shield instantly (instead of 0.5 seconds later after the projectiles return to her)

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Janna
Summary: Monsoon now channels immediately on activation and the channel duration has been reduced. Additionally, we’re increasing Monsoon’s heal per second and total heal amount.

Since we removed a lot of Janna’s invisible power, we can now buff up some of the cooler parts of her kit. Since Monsoon is one of Janna’s big moments in the spotlight, we decided to throw caution to the wind and buff her up with more healing potential and immediate gains.

R - Monsoon

• Now begins channeling immediately upon activation (from an initial 0.25 second cast time)
• Total channel duration reduced to 3 seconds (from 4 seconds)
• Heal per second increased to 100/150/200 (+0.6 ability power) (from 70/110/150 (+0.35 ability power)
• Total heal amount increased to 300/450/600 (+1.8 ability power) (from 280/440/600 (+1.4 ability power))

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Jinx
Summary: We’ve lowered Jinx’s base health but increased her health per level. We’re also standardizing Flame Chompers! arm time, reduced its damage at earlier levels and fixing a slight bug.

Given all of Jinx’s other core strengths; we’re looking to reduce some of her early game laning power.

Despite Flame Chompers! taking a little longer to arm – and doing less damage at early levels –  Jinx can at least get excited about their increased reliability against champions who could use movement-based abilities to get over them (Vi, Lee Sin, etc).

General

• Base health reduced to 462 (from 500)
• Health per level increased to 82 (from 80)

E - Flame Chompers!

• Standardized arm time to 0.7 seconds (from 0.5 to 0.74 seconds)
• Fixed a bug that would cause Chompers to sometimes not activate on champions dashing over them
• Reduced damage at earlier levels to 80/135/190/245/300 (from 100/150/200/250/300)

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Nasus
Summary: We’re reducing Wither’s range and removing the increased Wither and Spirit Fire range granted through Fury of the Sands.

We want to keep Nasus’ core strengths where they are while toning down some of his power. Reducing the cast range of Wither and removing Wither’s bonus cast range from Fury of the Sands means that Nasus must position better and make better decisions about which target to Wither, rather than “sniping” fragile opponents with long-range Withers before eating them.

W - Wither

• Range reduced to 600 (from 700)

R - Fury of the Sands

• No longer increases the cast ranges of Wither and Spirit Fire

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Rengar
Summary: We fixed a bunch of bugs in Savagery and tweaked Empowered Battle Roar.

Rengar’s overall sustain with Empowered Battle Roar is incredibly high, especially because he can transition from a tank in the mid-game to an unseen predator in the late-game. While this is definitely a nerf to Rengar’s overall sustain, we wanted to maintain his ability to survive in a fight, so the scaling heal will remain a good choice when Rengar’s low on health. The Savagery change means that Rengar now has two seconds to pull off his empowered basic attack instead of six seconds.

Q – Savagery

• Savagery basic attack buff (not attack speed buff) reduced to 2 seconds (from 6 seconds)
• Fixed multiple bugs that allowed Rengar to use Savagery more frequently than intended

W - Battle Roar

• Empowered Battle Roar heal changed to 20 + (10 x level) amplified by a 1% per 1% of Rengar’s missing health (from 40 + (20 x level) health)

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Riven
Summary: We lowered Riven’s base attack damage but increased her attack damage per level to compensate. Additionally, Broken Wings’ damage has been decreased and Valor’s shield duration was shortened.

Riven’s burst damage is just too high at early levels, so we’re dulling her blade. Broken Wings scaling off total AD from bonus AD means that Riven will do better when she’s behind (because she won’t be able to buy so much raw AD), but worse when she’s far ahead. We’re reducing the duration of Valor to hit some of Riven’s flexibility in lane – if she’s going to rely on Valor’s shield to trade damage, she’ll need to commit quickly or risk losing the shield.

General

• Base attack damage reduced to 54 (from 56.7)
• Attack damage per level increased to 3 (from 2.7)

Q - Broken Wings

• Damage per strike decreased to 10/30/50/70/90 (+40/45/50/55/60% total attack damage) (from 30/55/80/105/130 (+70% bonus attack damage))

E - Valor

• Shield duration reduced to 1.5 seconds (from 2.5 seconds)

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Shyvana
Summary: We’re lowering Burnout’s overall damage and Flame Breath’s damage at earlier levels. Dragon’s Descent also received a bug fix and the damage now matches the tooltip.

Shyvana’s doing a lot of damage in the early to mid-game, even when she builds tanky. It turns out that when Shyvana can push, wave clear and out-trade opponents all at once, things can get a little frustrating. We’re cooling some of that dragon blood down to make her early bullying more manageable.

W - Burnout

• Damage per second reduced to 20/35/50/65/80 (from 25/40/55/70/85)
• Minimum magic damage reduced to 60/105/150/195/240 (from 75/120/165/210/255)
• Maximum magic damage reduced to 140/245/350/455/560 (from 175/280/385/490/595)

E - Flame Breath

• Damage reduced at earlier levels to 60/100/140/180/220 (from 80/115/150/185/220)

R - Dragon's Descent

• Damage now correctly matches the tooltip at 175/300/425 (from 200/300/400)

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Thresh
Summary: We made it more obvious that Dark Passage is a clickable item and gave it a small collision radius. We’re also slightly increasing the time it takes for The Box to form.

Giving Thresh’s lantern a small collision radius means that he can’t cover things like minions or wards to prevent enemies from clicking them. Similarly, this also means that minions can’t accidentally cover up a lantern, and that enemies can’t block Thresh’s lantern with a bunch of wards. Instead, Thresh’s lantern will now slightly push units out of the way when it’s thrown on top of them – or if the unit can’t be moved (ie: wards or champions), Thresh’s lantern will land beside them and champions won’t be able to walk directly on top of it. Click that lantern!

The increased delay on The Box’s wall formation is to clarify its use as a trapping ability when Thresh has the right position. Sometimes Thresh will just throw out The Box when walking behind a fleeing opponent to “clip” them on the edge, but Thresh should fail in those situations because he didn’t bother to have the proper positioning.

W - Dark Passage

• Now shows indicator particles to nearby allies to indicate that it is a clickable object
• Lantern now has a small collision radius

R - The Box

• Delay on wall formation increased to 0.75 seconds (from 0.5 seconds)

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Yasuo
Summary: We’ve smoothed out Yasuo’s gameplay overall and made Steel Tempest auto-smartcast. Additionally, Last Breath now gives maximum Flow when cast and has a slightly shortened animation.

While we’re still keeping an eye on how Yasuo is performing at all levels, we wanted to smooth out his gameplay and give Last Breath more use to turn around a fight when he’s behind.

General

• Now properly applies the 10% critical strike damage reduction to Statikk Shiv critical hits
• Improved the functionality of his E – Sweeping Blade to Q – Steel Tempest combo

Q – Steel Tempest

• All casts are now automatically smart cast

W – Wind Wall

• No longer blocks friendly Syndra orbs

R – Last Breath

• Now grants maximum Flow on cast
• Spell animation shortened by 0.1 seconds
• Now less likely to be teleported out of by enemies spamming flash
• Now properly alerts spectators and allies when it is on cooldown

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Minor Changes and Bug Fixes

Caitlyn
R – Ace in the Hole

• Fixed a bug where Ace in the Hole's visual effects would continue, even after the projectile was destroyed by its target becoming untargetable. Caitlyn players should now have better visual feedback for when their ultimate will not hit its target.

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Darius
R – Noxian Guillotine

• Duration after kill when Darius can re-cast Noxian Guillotine increased to 20 seconds (from 12 seconds)

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Fiddlesticks

This is a change we’re planning to make with more testing, but it went out accidentally and we’re reverting it for now.

Q - Terrify

• Fixed a bug where Terrify would cause enemies to flee in a straight line, rather than in random directions

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Fiora
R – Blade Waltz

• Fixed a bug where Fiora could teleport while casting Blade Waltz

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Hecarim
W – Spirit of Dread

• Amount healed now correctly matches the tooltip at 20% across all ranks (from 10/15/20/25/30%)

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Jarvan IV
Passive – Martial Cadence

• Fixed a bug where Martial Cadence would sometimes trigger on towers

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Lux
R – Final Spark

• Now goes on cooldown when it finishes casting, instead of when it begins casting
• If Lux dies while casting Final Spark, it will no longer go on cooldown

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Malzahar
R – Nether Grasp

• Now halts the target's movement if they were being moved by a friendly effect (dashes, jumps, etc.)

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Nami
R – Tidal Wave

• Now goes on cooldown when it finishes casting, instead of when it begins casting
• If Nami dies while casting Tidal Wave, it will no longer go on cooldown

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Nidalee
W - Bushwhack

• Fixed a bug where Nidalee's Bushwhack traps could be placed in walls
• If Nidalee casts a trap that would fall in a wall, the trap will instead be placed in the nearest non-wall position less than or equal to Bushwhack's maximum cast range (900 units)

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Olaf
Q – Undertow

• Slow reduced to 29/33/37/41/45% (from 35/40/45/50/55%)

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Talon
E – Cutthroat

• Now teleports Talon slightly further behind his target

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Twisted Fate
Q – Wild Cards

• Targeting indicator updated to show the individual targeting lines

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Items

Rabadon's Deathcap

• Tooltip now displays the amount of Ability Power gained from its UNIQUE Passive.

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Spirit Visage

The cooldown reduction for Spirit Visage is to reduce its high gold efficiency for almost all tanky champions, especially since many were just buying Spirit Visage as part of their “core” tank build, regardless of the enemy team composition.

• Cooldown reduction reduced to 10% (from 20%)

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Sunfire Cape

This change is to reduce the overwhelming power of early Sunfire Capes.

• Magic damage changed to 25 + character level (from 40)

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Jungle Items

We really like Spirit of the Spectral Wraith’s healing passive, so we decided to make it a staple passive on every Spirit item.

Spirit Stone

• Now gives 8% of damage dealt to monsters as health and 4% as mana (half effect for area of effect spells)
• No longer has health or mana regen
• No longer has Maim passive

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Spirit of the Ancient Golem

• Now gives 8% of damage dealt to monsters as health and 4% as mana (half effect for area of effect spells)
• No longer has health or mana regen

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Spirit of the Spectral Wraith

• Now gives 8% of damage dealt to monsters as health and 4% as mana (half effect for area of effect spells) (from 8% of spell damage for both health and mana)
• No longer has health or mana regen
• Now grants 2 ability power for every large monster kill (max: 30)

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Spirit of the Elder Lizard

• Now gives 8% of damage dealt to monsters as health and 4% as mana (half effect for area of effect spells)
• No longer has health or mana regen

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Summoner's Rift

These changes are for Summoner’s Rift only

With these changes, we want to tackle the 2v1 lane swaps that many competitive teams have adopted in order to shut down enemy laners while also taking quick objectives. Initiating a 2v1 lane swap to shut down an opponent should have inherent risks, like leaving your bottom tower vulnerable to early pushes.

Turrets

• Outer turrets no longer gain bonus armor and magic resist for the first eight minutes of the game.
• Top and middle lane outer turrets now have 20 damage reduction from champion basic attacks

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Crystal Scar and Twisted Treeline

These changes are for Crystal Scar and Twisted Treeline only

Much like when we removed Needlessly Large Rod from Twisted Treeline and Crystal Scar (due to its high cost in a faster game mode), we’re doing the same with B.F. Sword while reintroducing items with alternative build paths. Lord Van Damm’s Pillager has the exact same stats and total cost as Infinity Edge, but is easier to build up over time.

Blackfire Torch

• Movement speed reduced to 5% (from 10%)

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Wicked Hatchet

• Re-introduced with a new build and effect
• Builds from a Long Sword and Brawler's Gloves
• Costs 1200 (440 combine cost)
• 20 AD and 10% Critical Chance
• Critical strikes cause your target to bleed 60% of your bonus AD over 3 seconds (physical damage)

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Lord Van Damm's Pillager

• Re-introduced with a new build and effect
• Builds from Wicket Hatchet, Pickaxe, Agility Cloak
• Costs 3800 (995 combine cost)
• Stats and effect are identical to Infinity Edge

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Infinity Edge

• Removed

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Crystal Scar and Howling Abyss

These changes are for Crystal Scar and Howling Abyss only

Entropy

• No longer builds out of BF Sword - Now builds out of pickaxe
• Damage reduced to 55 (from 70)
• Total cost reduced to 2700 (from 3475)
• Combine cost reduced to 500 (from 600)

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Crystal Scar, Howling Abyss, Twisted Treeline

These changes are for Crystal Scar, Howling Abyss and Twisted Treeline only

Grez's Spectral Lantern

• Total cost reduced to 1350 (from 1450)
• Combine cost reduced to 250 (from 350)

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The Lightbringer

• Total cost reduced to 2200 (from 2500)
• Combine cost reduced to 375 (from 575)

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Hextech Sweeper

• Total cost reduced to 2000 (from 2200)
• Combine cost reduced to 330 (from 530)

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New Player Experience

We’ve introduced a stable roster of free champions for new players to play. Our goal is to improve the way players learn to play League of Legends when they’re first starting out. These champions were picked because of how easy they can be learned and how enjoyable most new players find them.

• These changes will be turned on at a later date
• Players new to League of Legends will now have a static roster of free champions to play during their first few levels; after which, they will use the normal Free to Play rotation