Card Updates
Dev Notes: Balance in 1.10 & 1.11
Patch 1.10 lands three weeks after the Call of the Mountain patch rather than the usual two, which has given us room to lock in more balance changes than usual for the first post-release patch. It’s also not quite enough room to gather data on all the new stuff, so we’ll be following up with more balance changes in just two weeks as part of Patch 1.11. For that patch, we’ll have a greater focus on Targon-specific tuning after using the additional time to observe and test.
Here’s a preview of a few things to expect in 1.11:
- Adjustments to the difficulty of Aurelion Sol’s level up requirement
- Adding escalation to Hush’s repeatable cost
- Grandfather Rumul giving more hugs
– RubinZoo, Live Design Lead
Champions
EZREAL
Ezreal’s an exciting build-around and a unique combo/control finisher (all things we want to preserve), but his design also presents some “is this fun to play against?” challenges that we’ve discussed previously. Increasing the difficulty of Ezreal’s quest will ask for additional investment to reach his extremely potent level 2 form, and create more tension in the choice between leveling up his quest and saving damage for the opponent’s Nexus.
LEE SIN (LEVEL 1)
COST: 6 → 4
HEALTH: 6 → 4
LEVEL UP: You’ve cast 7+ spells. → You’ve cast 8+ spells.
LEE SIN (LEVEL 2)
COST: 6 → 4
HEALTH: 7 → 5
LEE SIN’S SONIC WAVE
Followers & Spells
WAR CHEFS
FLASH OF BRILLIANCE
OVERGROWN SNAPVINE
CRACKSHOT CORSAIR
JAGGED TASKMASTER
COST: 3 → 2
POWER: 4 → 3
HEALTH: 3 → 2
YORDLE GRIFTER
OLD TEXT: Create a [Warning Shot] in hand.
Allegiance: Nab 1
NEW TEXT: Allegiance: Nab 1 and create a [Warning Shot] in hand.
Allegiance cards are intended and balanced to be quite powerful given the expected cost of their deckbuilding constraints. Yordle Grifter has proven too easy to rely on in decks that stretch those constraints too far, so we’re extending the Allegiance requirement to both of its effects.
CYGNUS THE MOONSTALKER
POWER: 4 → 5
HEALTH: 2 → 3
Standard Gauntlet update: Multi-deck pick & ban
Last month, we updated the Singleton Gauntlet to allow tri-region decks, and now the Standard Gauntlet gets its own update with the introduction of a pre-match multi-deck pick & ban lobby.
You’ll now start off the Standard Gauntlet by picking three different decks you’d potentially like to field. Different how? Well, there are a few rules in place:
- No champions duplicated between decks
- Different region combinations for each deck
- Maximum one champion-less deck
After locking in your decks (and before each new match), you’ll queue like normal until you’re matched with an opponent and enter the pick & ban lobby. Here you’ll get to view regions and champions for your opponents decks and ban one of them from being played (while they return the favor), then pick which of your remaining two decks you’d like to pilot into the following single-game match. Each opponent brings a new pick & ban phase.
New Lab: Welcome to the Jungle
This patch also brings us our first-ever constructed Lab! Instead of receiving random cards or choosing from a set of preconstructed options, you’ll be challenged to brew the perfect deck… or, if you’d rather get right into the action, you can choose quickplay and queue up with one of Heimerdinger’s own concoctions!
Welcome to the Jungle is Inspired by the jungling gameplay of League of Legends—take the time to clear your opponent’s jungle camps and you’ll be handsomely rewarded.
- Both players have Vulnerable, Immobile jungle monsters on their board.
- Killing your opponent’s jungle monster grants you a powerful buff spell with your choice of potent effects.
- Killing a jungle monster also spawns another in its place next round. Watch out—the new ones may be even stronger as the game goes on!
Expeditions Archetypes
Tightening things up after the debut of Call of the Mountain, we’ve diluted the Invoke-heavy Targon archetypes, which have been a bit too consistent, made the usual buffs to struggling archetypes, and adjusted Cohesiveness Rating increase for some archetypes that were showing up too far into drafts when you weren’t focusing on them. We’re also heavily reducing the offering bonus for Call of the Mountain archetypes:
- Call of the Mountain archetypes will now be offered during the initial champion picks half as often as previously, or 50% more than normal for the duration of Patch 1.10. The offering bonus will be removed completely with Patch 1.11.
Afterlife
- Added: Ravenous Butcher, Vile Feast
- Removed: Mark of the Isles, Mist’s Call
Cloning Program
- Wild Pick Bonus Chance increased to Medium from None
Collective Support
- Cohesiveness Rating increased to Medium from Low
- Wild Pick Bonus Chance increased to High from Medium
- Added: Mountain Sojourners
- Removed: Broadbacked Protector, Fledgling Stellacorn, Silent Shadowseer
Death’s Door
- Added: Black Spear, Deadbloom Wanderer, Sump Dredger, Tri-beam Improbulator
- Removed: Trueshot Barrage, Vile Feast
Fishbones
- Added: Solari Soldier, Spacey Sketcher
Luminous Dusk
- Wild Pick Bonus Chance increased to Medium from None
- Added: Atrocity
- Removed: Black Spear, Mountain Sojourners, Shroud of Darkness
Moonlit Heist
- Cohesiveness Rating increased to Medium from Low
- Added: Chum the Waters, Prowling Cutthroat
- Removed: Jailbreak, Shellshocker, Star Shepherd
Otherworldly Creatures
- Cohesiveness Rating increased to Medium from Low
- Added: Ember Maiden, Startled Stomper, Take Heart, Yeti Yearling
Radiant Dawn
- Added: Broadback Protector, Sunblessed Vigor
- Removed: Moondreamer, Mountain Sojourners
Shadows and Dust
- Removed: Barkbeast, Encroaching Shadows, Fading Memories
Suit Up
- Added: The Tuskraider
Terrors from the Deep
- Cohesiveness Rating increased to High from Medium
The Black Mist
- Wild Pick Bonus Chance increased to High from Medium
- Added: Atrocity
- Removed: Duskrider
Cross-shard Friend Challenge
- Friend challenge now available with all friends, regardless of which regional shard they play on.
Bugfixes
- The Empyrean and Dragonling (created by Eye of the Dragon) now correctly have the Dragon type.
- Fixed an issue where Nightfall card VFX would take excessively long to complete when triggering Nightfall.
- Fixed an issue where Taric would incorrectly gain level-up progress from targeting your Nexus or allies in hand.
- Fixed an issue where Hush would delay stun effects to the following turn.
- Fixed an issue where Supernova would represent inaccurate results when using Oracle’s Eye.
- Fixed an issue where Zenith Blade wouldn’t be revealed when drawn off its Daybreak effect.
- Fixed an issue where Dragon’s Rage, spells copied by Karma’s (Level 2) effect, and Riptide Rex weren’t correctly counting towards Ezreal’s level-up progress.
- Fixed an issue where Flame Chompers wasn’t being correctly buffed by Vision when both were simultaneously discarded.
- Fixed an issue where Aurelion Sol (Level 2) would reduce the cost of opponent’s Celestial cards.
- Various minor bugfixes for deckbuilder and the rewards panel.
Upcoming Patches
- Patch 1.11 – September 29 (balance update focused on Targon)