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!
Read on for the changes below:
Card Updates
Here’s a look at each of the card updates coming in this patch:
Buffs
Nerfs
New Cards
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.
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Fixed an issue in TPoC where Pyke’s Star Power could add a duplicate “Mariner’s Ruse” to allies that already had it.
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Fixed an issue in TPoC where Teemo’s 2-Star power was being erroneously triggered by Flashbomb Traps.
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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.
Editor’s Note: We’ve gotten your community requests to get this Nasus bug fixed, and this is our response: YES. UNLEASH SUSAN UPON THE WORLD.