Booyah!

Adsense has finally been approved for this blogger account! Woohoo! Now i can finally sort out the bugs with old youtube account and adsense, and get everything on the right track. No more worries about my old email not being able to access adsense, because this one can! Dang, it feels good.

 Also, here's the most recent surrender at 20 post. For filler and such. You know.

I'm definitely pumped for Aatrox to come out on the beta!

Update: I've added several red posts related to this set of PBE changes. I suggest you read them for delicious context.

The PBE has been updated reverted back to how it was! For those who are just joining us, a big AIR client only update, containing Aatrox and loads of balance changes, was pushed to the PBE and immediately removed/reverted. While I have listed the changes below, remember that there is a reason they have been pulled - they may be unpolished or unfinished.

Continue reading Riot's CONTEXT post for patch 3.8 ( which these PBE changes are a part of ). Additionally you'll find our list of the reverted changes, including a ginormous list of balance changes and a preview ofAatrox's lore, abilities, game play tips, and more.

( WARNING: This content is NOT CURRENTLY LIVE ON THE PBE! The changes were pushed out to the Air client and then removed shortly thereafter. Let these serve as a preview. As always, PBE content is tentative and iterative, what you see here is subject to change. )

Riot's Context Post - PBE for Patch 3.08
Here is Riot Pwyff with Riot's official overview of the changes planed for patch 3.08.

"Hey Summoners,
As you know, we use the PBE servers as a testing ground for a lot of our experimental changes, but we’ve run into situations where sometimes a change requires a bit more nuance to understand. As a result, we’ll be driving these PBE context posts when we can offer some more context.
Also note that these changes are tentative, like anything else on the PBE, so they are all very subject to change.
Kha'Zix 

Taste Their Fear

• Isolation bonus redesigned as "increases damage by 45%".

• Evolution adds 8% Missing Health damage. (Which can also be increased by isolation.)

Void Spikes

• Now slows targets hit for 2 seconds.

• Mana cost reduced

• Evolution no longer consumes passive to apply effects. Instead triples shot.

Ultimately we just wanted to increase your viable choices when picking evolutions. Kha’Zix was getting huge damage, high poke, and great utility from evolving Void Spikes. Now Void Spikes gets a slow as part of the base skill, so W is a reasonable one-point wonder. Evolving and maxing it first also works though, just not so well that it dominates the other skills. Taste Their Fear’s evolution was previously reliant on having targets isolated. Now it works whether they are isolated or not, but does more damage against isolated targets, making it a more reliable choice. 

Lissandra 

Ring of Frost

• Cooldown reduced

• Damage reduced

Frozen Tomb

• Slow increases per level

• Damage reduced at later levels

For a control mage with a kit she has, Lissandra was throwing out a lot of front-loaded damage in team fights. The intention of these changes was to lower her damage, but to also increase her crowd control abilities. These were made to better highlight her core strengths as a strong DPS mage with high in-fight control. 

Jungle 

Wolves

• Initial spawn time increased to 1:55 from 1:45

• Respawn time reduced to 50 seconds from 60

Wraiths

• Initial spawn time increased to 1:55 from 1:45

Golems

• Initial spawn time increased to 1:55 from 1:45

• Respawn time reduced to 50 seconds from 60

Ancient Golem

• Base Experience granted increased to 275 from 220

• Now plays a particle effect to show who the buff transferred to

Lizard Elder

• Base Experience granted increased to 275 from 220

• Now plays a particle effect to show who the buff transferred to

We’ve increased the initial spawn times of jungle creeps to get rid of the frustrating experience advantage players could get by killing certain jungle monsters before laning phase begins. This was a much requested change from a lot of pro teams around the world, as the only real counter was to switch lanes or to try to prevent it altogether. The other changes are to reassure junglers since they’ll feel like they’ve “lost” a full camp clear since they won’t be able to start wolves or wraiths before heading to their buffs. So Elder Lizard and Ancient Golem will give more EXP, and jungle camps will spawn a little faster. Faster spawns will also help some champions who have exceptionally high clear times and want to just stay in the jungle. 

Items 

Madred's Razors

• UNIQUE Passive - Maim

• Now deals bonus damage to monsters with every basic attack

Wriggle's Lantern

• UNIQUE Passive - Maim

• Now deals bonus damage to monsters with every basic attack

• Attack Damage increased

• Life Steal increased

• Combine cost increased

These changes are currently tentative. We just want to increase consistency on Madred’s and Wriggles in order to let players plan their jungle routes better with these items. There were a lot of odd cases where junglers would accidentally steal a buff from their teammate due to a random proc, or a jungler would fall behind because they weren’t getting enough procs. Overall we had to lower the damage output in comparison to the old Madred’s and Wriggle’s (if you simply average out the old Madred’s and Wriggle’s damage by four) because of the consistency involved and the fact that it never deals “overkill” damage, where it would proc on a small creep (or on a near-dead jungle unit), thereby wasting its damage. 

Wit's End

• New Recipe: Recurve Bow + Null Magic Mantle + Dagger + 600 gold = 2300 gold

• Attack Speed increased slightly

• Revised Passive - Your attacks steal Magic Resist from the target, stacks up to 5 times

Nashor's Tooth

• Combine Cost increased

• Ability Power reduced slightly

• Additional Passive - Your attacks deal 15 + 15% of your Ability Power bonus magic damage on hit

Malady

• Removed from the game

We've moved Malady's passives to the two other Attack Speed items to further solidify Nashor's Tooth's niche role as an Ability Power focused auto-attacker item, while moving the magic shred onto Wit's End to better synergize with magic damage based fighters (even for those that don’t deal magic damage, Sunfire Cape synergizes quite well with Wit’s End). Malady has been removed as it has simply been a poor fit in the current space that it was in."

Scarizard added in, discussing the absence of Shyvana changes from the original context post:

"One thing some of you may notice is absent are the Shyvana buffs i'd talked about a few weeks ago. 

The buffs make sense, and we're going to do them. Just not for this patch. The reason being that along with the change to Wriggle's Lantern proc'ing on every attack, Wits end reducing Magic Resistance, and lowered respawns for jungle camps - we couldn't accurately assess Shyvana's balance.


As with all of our balance changes, there is always a rippling effect. Items being buffed or nerfed can mean more success or failure with champions who buy them. Taric's nerfs saw a universal increase in performance across every support. In the same vein, each of the above changes are also buffs to Shyvana and until we can judge the effect of the item/jungle changes would have on her power level, i don't want to pull the trigger on the changes just yet. Statikk and i are looking to have Shyvana Balance changes with Patch 3.9 pending iteration after 3.8 goes live."

[3.8] Improvements to the PVP.net experience on smaller resolutionsHere is Damiya with the scoop:

"Summoners,As part of the 3.8 patch, we've introduced some code in PVP.net that will automatically scale itself down to 1150x720 or 1024x640, whichever is most appropriate. The most common desktop resolutions that will see their experience impacted are: 

• 1366x768
• 1280x768
• 1280x700
• 1182x864 

Prior to 3.8, the client defaulted to a specific, unchanging window size; for those of you with widescreen laptops running 1366x768 or smaller footprint monitors like 1280x720, this has meant having key functionality hidden behind the Windows task bar. No more!

This change represents a shift in the player experience and we felt it was important to reach out to those of you affected to see how you feel about it, and better understand what else we can do to improve the PVP.net experience on the above-named resolutions. Please spend some time poking around on PBE once 3.8 has arrived and feel free to share your thoughts on other ways we can improve the smaller-resolution League experience."

Aatrox Ratios, Lore, and More
While he wasn't actually implemented ( again, as this was only the air client ) , we were able to see that his release skin is called "Justicar Aatrox" and peak at his lore, abilities / ratios, and game play tips.

Abilities:

Blood Well ( Passive ) 

When using an ability that costs Health, Aatrox stores the self-inflicted damage into the Blood Well. Upon taking fatal damage Aatrox extracts the blood from the well and recovers it as health over a brief duration.

Dark Flight ( Q )

Aatrox takes flight and slams down at a targeted location, dealing 70/115/160/205/250 (+ratio missing) physical damage to all nearby enemies and knocking up targets at the center of impact for 1/1/1/1/1 second. 

Cost: 10 % of Current Health // Range: 650  // Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12

Blood Thirst / Blood Price ( W )

Activate to switch between Blood Thirst and Blood Price.

Blood Thirst: Every third attack, Aatrox restores 20/25/30/35/40 (+ ratio missing ) Health, increased by 200/200/200/200/200% when below half Health.

Blood Price: Every third attack, Aatrox deals 60/95/130/165/200 (+ ratio missing ) bonus physical damage and loses Health. 

Cost: 0 // Cooldown: 1

Blades of Torment ( E )

Aatrox unleashes and sends forward the power of his blade, dealing 75/120/165/210/255 (+ ratio missing ) Magic Damage to all enemies hit and slowing them by 40/40/40/40/40% for 1.75/2/2.25/2.5/2.75 seconds. 

Cost: 5% of Current Health // Range: 900  // Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8

Massacre ( R )

On activation Aatrox draws in the blood of his foes, dealing magic damage to all enemy champions around him equal to 15/15/15% + 0.01% of their current Health.

For the next 12/12/12 seconds, Aatrox's Maximum Health increases by 100/175/250 + 50/65/80 per champion hit, Attack Speed increases by 25/35/45% + 10/10/10% per champion hit, and he gains 175 Attack Range. 

Cost: 0 // Cooldown: 120/100/80

Lore:

"Aatrox is a legendary warrior, one of only five that remain of an ancient race known as the Darkin. He wields his massive blade with grace and poise, slicing through legions in a style that is hypnotic to behold. With each foe felled, Aatrox's seemingly living blade drinks in their blood, empowering him and fueling his brutal, elegant campaign of slaughter. 

The earliest tale of Aatrox is as old as recorded history. It tells of a war between two great factions remembered only as the Protectorate and the Magelords. Over time, the Magelords won a series of crushing victories, leaving them on the brink of obliterating their sworn enemy forever. On the day of their final confrontation, the Protectorate army found themselves outnumbered, exhausted, and poorly equipped. They braced for inevitable defeat. 

Just when all hope seemed lost, Aatrox appeared among the ranks of the Protectorate. With but a few words, he urged the soldiers to fight to the last before throwing himself into battle. His presence inspired the desperate warriors. At first, they could only watch in awe as this unknown hero cleaved through their enemies, his body and blade moving in unison as if one being. Soon, the warriors found themselves imbued with a potent thirst for battle. They followed Aatrox into the fray, each fighting with the furious strength of ten until they had won a most unlikely victory. 

Aatrox vanished after that battle, but the Protectorate army's newfound fury did not. Their surprising triumph led to many more until they were able to finally return home victorious. Their countrymen hailed them as heroes, but though they had saved their entire civilization from destruction, darkness lingered in the mind of each warrior. Something within them had changed. Over time, their memories of battle faded, only to be replaced with a grim revelation: their acts of heroism were, in fact, brutal atrocities committed by their own hands. 

Tales like these appear among the myths of many cultures. If they are all to be believed, Aatrox's presence has changed the course of some of the most important wars in history. Though these stories remember him as a savior in dark times, Aatrox's true legacy may be a world filled with conflict and strife.

"Some fight for honor, some fight for glory. It matters only that you fight. "
- Aatrox"

Game Play Tips:

Playing him Tips: 

*Avoid engaging in a fight with low health unless your Blood Well is full so that you regain enough health to continue fighting.

*Building Life Steal can be very potent on Aatrox to help compensate for his health costs.

*Massacre is great at turning the tide of a battle, make sure to use it at the right moment to maximize the benefits from it.

Opponent Tips: 

*When Aatrox takes fatal damage he is healed for the amount currently in his resource bar, landing a fatal blow on him while the resource bar is low will result in him reviving with a lower amount of health.

*When Aatrox casts Dark Flight towards your location, avoid being knocked up by moving away from the center of impact.

*Aatrox is auto attack reliant for most of his damage and survivability, reducing his attack speed by purchasing Randuins Omen or Frozen Heart can help reduce both of those components greatly.



New Skins
New strings added for Norse King Darius ( editors note: FUUUU ) and Ghost Bride Morgana.

Balance Changes
Make sure you read the above post on a big chunk of the changes.

Champion Changes

Akali

• Twilight Shroud ( W ) cooldown lowered to 20/19/18/17/16.
• Twilight Shroud ( W ) cost reduced to 60 at all ranks from 80/75/70/65/60

Annie

• Summon: Tibbers ( R ) mana cost reduced to 100 at all ranks from 125/175/225.
• Summon: Tibbers ( R ) now reads that he lasts 60 seconds, up from 45, but does not state that his damage, health , armor, MR, and attack damage increase with rank.

Brand

• Blaze ( Passive ) changed to 8% of their maximum health over 4 seconds from 2% per second for 4 seconds.

Hecarim

• Warpath - tool tip no longer states he can move through units ( editors note: uh oh! )
• Onslaught of Shadows ( R ) damage increased to 150/250/350 ( +1.0 AP ) from 100/200/300 ( +.4 AP )
• Onslaught of Shadows ( R ) no longer deals additional damage when he finished charging.

Karma

• Renewal ( Mantra'd W ) now heals instantly for 20% of Karma's missing health then, if the link is not broken, heals Karma for the same amount.  The old version only healed Karma for 25% over the duration of the tether.

Kha'Zix

• Taste Their Fear ( Q ) isolated bonus damage changed to 45% at all ranks from flat 100/145/190/235/280.
• Evolved Taste Their Fear (  Q ) now deals bonus physical damage equal to 8% of target's missing health. This bonus can be increased by isolation. Old ability dealt 12% of missing health only if enemies were isolated.
• Void Spike ( W ) now slows for 20% for 2 seconds.
• Void Spike ( W ) mana cost reduced to 55/60/65/70/75 from 60/70/80/90/100.
• Evolved Void Spike ( W ) can no longer consumes passive.
• Void Assault ( R ) cast again time increased to 12 seconds from 10 seconds.
• Evolved Void Assault ( R ) no longer reduces damage taken while in stealth but can now be recast 4 times.

Lissandra

• Ring of Frost ( W ) damage lowered to 65/100/135/170/205 from 70/110/150/190/230
• Ring of Frost ( W ) mana cost lowered to 55 at all ranks from 70 at all ranks
• Ring of Frost ( W ) cooldown lowered to 16/14/12/10/8 from 18/16/14/12/10.
• Frozen Tomb ( R ) damage lowered to 150/275/400 damage from 150/300/450 damage.
• Frozen Tomb ( R ) slow increased to 20/30/40% from 20% at all ranks

Nautilus

• Titan's Wrath ( W ) basic attack bonus damage changed to 40/55/70/85/100 ( +.4 AP ) over 2 seconds from 30/55/80/105/130.

Sejuani

• Permafrost ( E ) slow reduced to 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 from 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3
• Glacial Prison ( R ) stun reduced to 1.25/1.5/1.75 from 1.5/1.75/2.

Shyvana
( Editor's note: They added her old passive effects to each ability. Current passive is blank. This is not finished yet )

• Twin Bite ( Q ) basic attacks now reduce the cooldown of Twin Bite by .5 seconds
• Burnout ( W ) basic attacks now extend duration of burnout by 1 second to a maximum of 4 seconds.
• Flame Breath ( E ) now deals 80/110/140/170/200 ( +.6 AP ) amagic damage to all enemies it passes through and debuffs them for 5 seconds. Basic attacks to debuffed targets deal 25% of Flame Breath's damage on hit.
• Dragon's Decent ( R ) no longer grants bonus armor / MR, instead now generates 1 fury very 15 seconds and basic attacks now generate 2/3/4 fury.

Vi

• Assault and Battery ( R ) tool tip now reads "Knockups and Knockbacks" instead of crowd control. ( Editor note: Surely this is just a tool tip change not an effect change... )