Patch 4.8 notes
Riot··14 votes·37,432 views
Hey Summoners,
It's a light patch! We've got some bigger projects in the oven and they've taken up a lot of our time as we figure out the right approach to take. We'll keep you updated as we go.
Soraka's our highest visibility change in 4.8, who we've mentioned before as having an overbearing presence in solo lanes. You can read below for the full context, but we're always aware of champions who impose low interaction in lane without having meaningful weaknesses (and before anyone mentions Nidalee [who exemplifies this beyond the laning phase] or LeBlanc, they're both in the lab).
With a quiet patch we also saw the chance to "modernize" a few champions with low impact, high value changes (Blitz buffs yesssssss). This isn't, however, a strategy we can consistently take because there are a lot of design challenges involved. Given there are champions who are objectively strong but don't have a clear identity in the current competitive landscape, 'tinkering' with them could set off a larger negative chain reaction if someone (or something) without clear weaknesses became the new hottest thing on the block. It's not to say that'll happen with a small mana cost buff, but League evolves and shifts so quickly over time, it's something we need to be aware of!
Final note, we've also got some map changes for Twisted Treeline that are focused on turrets and the jungle. For fans of the map, make sure you stay up to date before queueing up!
Final, final note: as we mentioned last patch, we're continuing the process of patching out files for a new audio engine. The audio team recently dropped some knowledge on the forums - head to their thread for more info!
Chris "Pwyff" Tom
Patch Updates
General
We made an error! These changes weren't intended to ship with the patch as we found a few inconsistencies with them so they're back to simmering in the kitchen. We'll keep you posted on these fixes in the future, but it could be a while.
We investigated a few cases where turret aggro was behaving inconsistently. These changes should address most issues.
Champions can no longer drop turret aggro by entering stealth or using the summoner spell FlashTurret aggro can now only be lost if a champion leaves its targeting range, dies, or enters a state of untargetability (eg: Zhonya's, Elise Rappel, Vlad pool).
Champions
Blitzcrank
Rocket Grab and Static Field cost less mana.
With popular utility champions providing additional utility beyond vision control and a body on the field, Blitzcrank needed some small upgrades to keep up. Given Blitz already has strong utility (gated by his long cooldowns), some mana cost reductions means he should be able to bring Amumu to your team more often.
Q - Rocket Grab
COST 120 mana ⇒ 100 mana
R - Static Field
COST 150 mana ⇒ 100 mana
Cho'Gath
Cho can eat things a little faster and from a little further away.
This is a change we've wanted to do for some time, given how sad Cho gets when his meals flash away. Basically this means Cho's Feast range will correctly match his attack range when he's at 6 Feast Stacks. Nom nom nom nom nom nom nom!
R - Feast
RANGE 150 ⇒ 175
CAST TIME 0.5 seconds ⇒ 0.25 seconds
Kha'Zix
Evolved Wings' cooldown is now the same as Leap.
Kha'Zix is currently strong at all levels of play, but when we discovered this bug (heh), we felt the right thing would be to fix it to work as intended, even if it meant giving him a slight buff. Long term, we're still considering changes to Kha'Zix that allow him to retain his assassin playstyle without having the raw strength to brute force his way out of most situations.
E - Evolved Wings
KHA'ZIX FIX Fixed a bug where Evolved Wings had a longer cooldown than Leap - 24/22/20/18/16 ⇒ 22/20/18/16/14
Malzahar
Nether Grasp is cheaper. We probably don't need to summarize these.
We realize that high mobility mages are currently valued in the competitive landscape, but buffing Malz against his identity ends up flattening the role of a mage and inhibits other forms of role experimentation. Still, streamlining Nether Grasp's mana cost to be in line with other high cooldown ultimates was a change Malz could use, so we heeded the call (... of the void).
R - Nether Grasp
COST 150 mana ⇒ 100 mana
Pantheon
Last patch, we made a functional change to Pantheon without documenting the change (sorry!). Before the change, Pantheon's Grand Skyfall was dealing damage a full 0.5 seconds after he visually hit the ground, which was inconsistent (not to mention weird). Visually it's confusing that Pantheon can stun opponents before he's even finished landing from Grand Skyfall, so we made the change for Clarity purposes while also affecting his power. That said, we've heard a lot of your feedback that this hampers Pantheon's ability to use Grand Skyfall effectively (or at all), and we're going to keep a close eye on him in this patch.
R - Grand Skyfall
CLARITY Pantheon can no longer cast spells until he's finished landing
BUGFIX Grand Skyfall's animation and damage now better match each other. The timing is unchanged from when the enemy indicator appears to when damage occurs, but Pantheon now visually lands 0.5 seconds later.
Soraka
Starcall does less damage and Infuse costs mana when used on an enemy.
Soraka's solo lane patterns are pretty obnoxious, as she can simply shove out opponents with Starcall while inhibiting their ability to fight back with her free Infuses. Soraka should be brought to a solo lane as someone who can consistently support her team, rather than dealing high ramping magic damage via Starcall.
Q - Starcall
DAMAGE 60/95/130/165/200 ⇒ 40/65/90/115/140
UTILITY If Starcall hits an enemy, Astral Blessing's cooldown is reduced by 5/6.25/7.5/8.75/10% ⇒ 5/8/11/14/17%
E - Infuse
newCOST Costs 50 mana at all levels when cast on an enemy
Udyr
E - Bear Stance
CLARITY Udyr now sees an indicator when he stuns a target that shows how long to wait before he can stun that target again
Minor Changes & Bugfixes
Nami
Q - Aqua Prison
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where Aqua Prison could interrupt certain abilities that were intended to be immune to disabling effects (e.g. Jarvan IV's Cataclysm, Malphite's Unstoppable Force)
Sejuani
Q - Arctic Assault
BUGFIX Fixed a bug where Arctic Assault would stop on collision with, but fail to knock up, really large enemy champions (Cho'Gath with 6 Feast stacks, Zac with a lot of bonus HP, large champions that were Wild Growth'd by Lulu, champions who weren't watching their diet, etc)
Twisted Treeline and Crystal Scar
Twisted Treeline
Turrets
Turrets deal more damage and ramping damage, as well as having more defenses.
Currently on TT, turrets simply aren't threatening enough to super-bruisers that stack armor and dive for their squishier teammates. While this change alone may not fix this, it's the start of us enforcing turrets as a meaningful safety zone for players on the losing team. We're also beefing up turret resists in the case of a siege - you can still 'chip' turrets over the course of a game before breaking them down in a big push, but we felt they could stay up a little longer.
newDAMAGE BONUS Turret basic attack damage increased by 10% (now matches Summoner's Rift turrets)
DAMAGE 'Heating Up' passive now increases turret damage by 20% ⇒ 25% per shot
ADDENDUM "Heating Up" passive scales up to a total 60% ⇒ 75%
DEFENSE Turrets lose 150 armor / magic resistance ⇒ 75 armor / magic resistance when enemy minions are nearby
Jungle Monsters
Large Monsters have way more HP, small monsters have slightly less.
The low base health on the original jungle camps in TT cuts their threat scaling significantly, making jungling a little too easy for anyone with a small amount of Attack Damage (or in 120% of all cases, Ravenous Hydra). We'll be watching this closely as we don't want junglers to feel hyper-vulnerable, but with the recent buffs to scaling jungle experience, we felt increasing the risk/commitment of the jungle was appropriate.
Big Golem health 850 ⇒ 1250
Small Golem health 550 ⇒ 500
Big Wolf health 650 ⇒ 1150
Small Wolf health 430 ⇒ 400
Big Wraith health 550 ⇒ 1000
Small Wraith health 380 ⇒ 350
Team Builder
- Team Builder wins and losses are now added to total Normal wins and losses
- Captains in Team Builder can now grant invite powers to invited friends
Upcoming Skins
The following skins will be released at various times throughout Patch 4.8:
!!! Just like Sejuani, his E (Tectonic Disruption) doesn't knock up units within it's radius all the time. I tested it in custom mode and I was right. It seems to knockup units only 1/3 of the time. Please thumbs up for Riot to see this, it's very upsetting..
recently and it is kind of inconstant with the hit box on that and the feral scream is a bit clunky too.
DOE
DOEE
in lane while you play 
, that 
