League of Legends Season 3 Begins

It’s patch time, and League of Legends Season 3 is now underway. The patch that is going live today brings with it plenty of champion balance changes, item tweaks, and a brand new ranking system for solo and team ranked play. There’s a lot of information to sift through while you wait for your client to update, so let’s talk about a few of the updates, watch the patch preview from Riot, and take a look at the full patch notes.

New Ranking System

By far the biggest change that is coming to League of Legends in Season 3 is the new ranking system. Riot is moving away from the Elo system that LoL players are so familiar with, and going to a new League system similar to something like Starcraft II uses. Instead of being placed on a ladder with every other ranked LoL player, you will be placed into a League with 250 similarly skilled opponents (your Elo does still help determine who you are grouped with, but is no longer a visible ranking stat). Your league will be one of several within a Division. You will need to win games in order to progress to a higher Division. Once you’re in the highest of the 5 Divisions, you will have an opportunity to play for a change to move up a Tier. The Tiers should be somewhat familiar to you in that they are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and the new Challenger Tier, which gives players a shot at becoming professional League of Legends players.

So to explain it in the reverse order, there are the six big Tiers of Bronze through Challenger, each is broken up into 5 divisions. You have to get to the highest Division within, for example, the Bronze Tier in order to be eligible to move up to the Silver Tier. These Divisions are broken up into Leagues which are simply a group of 250 folks that you are grouped and ranked alongside which are of similar skill to our own.

The new ranking system is nice in that it can give you an idea of your progression withing the game, and a nice sense of accomplishment when you move up a Division or Tier. Plus there is always the goal of making the Challenger Tier for a shot at becoming a League of Legends pro player.

If you’re still confused, the League system is explained again in bullet-point format in the full patch notes below, and in the patch preview video that is attached to this article.

Item Changes

The full patch notes are below, but let’s talk about a couple of the item changes coming in this patch.

The Seeker’s Armguard is a new item targeted at AP mage’s who have been having trouble with assassin’s and bruisers recently. The item builds out of two cloth armors and an amp tome, and provides +.30 armor and +25 ability power while also giving a passive that gives an additional 0.5 armor and ability power on kills, stacking up to a maximum of 30. This item now builds into Zhonya’s Hourglass as well, so this should prove to be a nice answer to the problems AP’s have been having recently.

Warmog’s is getting some fine tuning. Since the uber stacking of health builds began, Warmog’s has been seen on damn near any and every champion in the game. AD carry’s are rushing it as second items and bruisers are buying multiples. To help bring Warmog’s back into balance the Giant’s Belt is losing 20 health, bringing it down to 380. The recipe for Warmog’s is now Giant’s Belt, Ruby Crystal, 2x Rejuvenation Bead, and a total cost of 2830 gold (up from 2650). If this doesn’t slow down the amount of Warmog’s being built by everyone and their momma, you can expect more “adjustments” in the future. Riot likes the fact that health is being used as the primarily defensive stat at the moment, but this item is just a little out of control.

Champion Balance

Lulu is getting a small but significant change. The damage of Pix, Fairie Companion is being adjusted to 9-105 from 15-87. That’s a little less power on the front end, but the max damage for Pix has always felt low, so later on you can get a little more bang for your buck with from that little fairie (or dragon, depending on which skin you like).

Nasus and Veigar are both seeing an increase to their abilities that scale with kills. These changes give a bigger bonus when Nasus or Veigar use these abilities to kill either a champion or a primary jungle creep such as the large Jungle mobs, Dragon, or Baron Nashor.

Ezreal is receiving more tuning as well, and these changes come complete with a little note included.

“These changes are a continuation of our earlier effort to carefully scale back some of Ezreal’s excess power. Although these nerfs affect AP Ezreal, right now we’re focused on stabilizing AD Ezreal. After that we’ll assess the state of AP Ezreal.”

So let’s take a look at the full set of patch notes for the League of Legends Season 3 Patch.

Patch Notes

League System

The League System has arrived for ranked play!
- Players and teams will now be placed into a League upon finishing their placement matches
- Leagues are assigned to a skill tier and are split into divisions, e.g. Gold IV
- Winning and losing matches will now cause you to gain and lose League Points (LP)
- Advancing to 100 LP will now start a Division or Promotion Series
- Top players and teams can now advance to the Challenger tier, which is visible to all in the client
- Champion losses and win ratios will no longer be displayed to other players
- Elo ratings have been replaced by matchmaking ratings (MMR) which are no longer displayed
- The time penalties for queue dodging have been shortened and an LP penalty has been added

Annie

Annie has received a visual upgrade! Check out the article.

Blitzcrank

Base mana reduced to 240 from 300

Rocket Grab
- Mana cost increased to 120 from 110

Cho’Gath

Feral Scream
- Silence duration reduced to 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds from 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3

Diana

Pale Cascade
- Adjusted orbs to better account for enemy model size

Elise

Neurotoxin
- Mana cost increased to 80/85/90/95/100 from 60

Cocoon
- Mana cost reduced to 50 from 65

Ezreal

These changes are a continuation of our earlier effort to carefully scale back some of Ezreal’s excess power. Although these nerfs affect AP Ezreal, right now we’re focused on stabilizing AD Ezreal. After that we’ll assess the state of AP Ezreal.

Base movement speed reduced to 325 from 330

Rising Spell Force
- Duration reduced to 5 seconds from 6

Trueshot Barrage
- Damage falloff per target hit increased to 10% from 8%

Heimerdinger

Though these aren’t all the Heimerdinger changes we’d eventually like to do, these are some quality of life adjustments that should help smooth out Heimer’s current gameplay.

H-28G Evolution Turrets
- Now displays timer of when Heimerdinger will get his next ammo charge
- Turrets will now attempt to prioritize enemies hit by Heimerdinger’s basic attacks or his CH-1 Concussion Grenade

UPGRADE!!!
- Cast time removed

Katarina

These changes are focused on once again increasing the risk of Katarina’s gameplay by forcing her to build more offensive stats and focus on pulling off well-timed Death Lotuses.

Bouncing Blades
- Initial damage reduced to 60/85/110/135/160 from 60/90/120/150/180

Shunpo
- Damage reduction duration reduced to 1.5 seconds from 3

Death Lotus
- Total ability power ratio increased to 2.0 from 1.75

Kennen

Slicing Maelstrom
- No longer has an energy cost

Lulu

Pix, Faerie Companion
- Damage adjusted to 9-105 from 15-87

Master Yi

Meditate
- Total heal amount increased to 200/350/500/650/800 from 140/280/420/560/700
- Total ability power ratio reduced to 2.0 from 4.0
- Mana cost reduced to 50/65/80/95/110 from 70/80/90/100/110

Miss Fortune

Bullet Time
- Bonus attack damage ratio reduced to 0.35 from 0.45
- Targeting cone is now attached to Miss Fortune

Nasus

Nasus now gains double the bonus from Siphoning Strike when it’s used to kill more significant (“large”) targets such as enemy champions, cannon minions, the giant wolf or even Baron Nashor. This change reinforces the game’s general reward structure, wherein more important units provide additional rewards.

Siphoning Strike
- Permanent damage bonus is now doubled to 6 when killing a champion, large minion or large monster

Nunu

These changes are focused on forcing Nunu to play more actively in his support role by reducing the power he passively contributes to his allies.

Base movement speed increased to 350 from 340

Blood Boil
- Duration reduced to 12 seconds from 15
- Attack speed bonus reduced to 25/30/35/40/45% from 25/35/45/55/65%
- Movement speed bonus reduced to 8/9/10/11/12% from 11/12/13/14/15%

Olaf

Undertow
- Slow now fades over the duration

Vicious Strikes
- Cooldown increased to 16 seconds from 12

Ragnarok
- No longer passively grants bonus armor penetration
- Now only grants bonus armor penetration while active

Shaco

Deceive
- Range reduced to 400 from 500

Two-Shiv Poison
- Slow reduced at earlier ranks to 10/15/20/25/30% from 20/22.5/25/27.5/30%

Shen

Ki Strike
- Cooldown reduction per attack reduced to 1 second from 1.5
- Cooldown reduction per attack while Feint is active reduced to 2 seconds from 3

Sion

Sion now receives twice the bonus stats from Enrage when he uses it to kill more significant (“large”) targets such as enemy champions, cannon minions, the giant wolf or even Baron Nashor. This change reinforces the game’s general reward structure, wherein more important units provide additional rewards.

Enrage
- Permanent max health bonus is now doubled to 2/3/4/5/6 upon killing a champion, large minion or large monster

Tristana

Rapid Fire
- Mana cost reduced to 50 from 80

Explosive Shot
- Damage increased to 110/150/190/230/270 from 110/140/170/200/230

Tryndamere

Base Attack Speed increased to 0.670 from 0.644
Fury decay now begins after 8 seconds of being out of combat from 5 seconds

Veigar

Veigar now receives twice the bonus stats from Baleful Strike when he uses it to kill more significant (“large”) targets such as enemy champions, cannon minions, the giant wolf or even Baron Nashor. This change reinforces the game’s general reward structure, wherein more important units provide additional rewards.

Baleful Strike
- Permanent ability power gain is now doubled to 2 when killing a champion, large minion, or large monster

Updated Recommended Items

Vault Breaker
- Fixed a bug where Vault Breaker’s area of effect was inconsistent at the end area of the dash
- Fixed a bug where Improved Recall was refunding Vault Breaker’s cooldown and mana cost

Excessive Force
- Fixed a bug where Excessive Force could fire multiple times if used on an invulnerable target or while blinded

Volibear

Volibear’s base attack speed was below average for an attack-based melee champion. This change helps address this deficiency and helps him clear the jungle.

Base attack speed increased to 0.658 from 0.625

Items

Seeker’s Armguard (New Item)
- Recipe: Cloth Armor + Cloth Armor + Amplifying Tome + 125 gold = 1160 gold
- +30 armor
- +25 ability power
- Unique passive: Kills grant 0.5 bonus armor and ability power. This bonus stacks up to 30 times.

Zhonya’s Hourglass
- Recipe changed: Seeker’s Armguard + Needlessly Large Rod + 650 gold = 3410 gold (from 3100)
- Ability Power increased to 120 from 100

Sightstone
These changes are to reduce the excessive amount of early vision teams can acquire with little cost. This should create more opportunities to gank and reward counter play, especially for junglers.
- Recipe changed: Ruby Crystal + 475 gold = 950 gold (from 700)
- Health increased to 180 from 100
- Gold reward for Sightstone wards increased to 25 from 10

Ruby Sightstone
These changes are to reduce the excessive amount of early vision teams can acquire with little cost. This should create more opportunities to gank and reward counter play, especially for junglers.
- Total cost increased to 1550 gold from 1300
- Health increased to 360 from 300
- Gold reward for Ruby Sightstone wards increased to 25 from 10

Giant’s Belt
- Health reduced to 380 from 400

Warmog’s Armor
- Recipe changed: Giant’s Belt + Ruby Crystal + Rejuvenation Bead + Rejuvenation Bead = 2830 gold (from 2650)

Sunfire Cape
- Combine cost increased to 930 gold from 780 (total cost increased to 2650 gold from 2500)

Fiendish Codex
This change allows Fiendish Codex and its various build paths to be more versatile and universally attractive for ability power champions.
- Faerie Charm removed from recipe
- Total cost is now 820 gold from 1000
- No longer grants any mana regen

Nashor’s Tooth
- Combine cost reduced to 200 gold from 250 (total cost reduced to 2270 gold from 2500)
- No longer grants any mana regen

Banner of Command
- Recipe changed: Fiendish Codex + Emblem of Valor + 890 gold = 2360 gold (from 2400)

Deathfire Grasp
- Recipe changed: Fiendish Codex + Needlessly Large Rod + 880 gold = 3300 gold (from 3000)
- Ability power increased to 120 from 100

Morellonomicon
- Recipe changed: Faerie Charm + Fiendish Codex + Kage’s Lucky Pick + 435 gold = 2200 gold

Athene’s Unholy Grail
- Combine cost reduced to 900 from 920 (total cost reduced to 2600 gold from 2800)

The Bloodthirster
- Combine cost increased to 850 gold from 650 (total cost increased to 3200 gold from 3000)

The Black Cleaver
We are now fairly comfortable with Black Cleaver’s strategic niche, but we want to scale back some excess power.
- Health reduced to 200 from 300
- Maximum stacks increased to 5 from 4
- Armor reduction per stack reduced to 5% from 6%
- Fixed a bug where spells were applying more reduction than intended

Trinity Force
- Combine cost reduced to 3 gold from 300 (total cost reduced to 3903 gold from 4200)

Spirit Stone
- Combine cost reduced to 40 gold from 140 (total cost reduced to 700 gold from 800)

Spirit of the Spectral Wraith
- Combine cost reduced to 100 gold from 400 (total cost reduced to 2000 gold from 2400)

Frozen Heart
- Combine cost reduced to 400 gold from 500 (total cost reduced to 3000 gold from 3100)

Doran’s Shield
- Health regen per 5 seconds increased to 8 from 5

Matchmaking

The matchmaking system will now take into account matchmaking rating and number of wins in the player’s current queue when creating matches

General

We’ve made database upgrades which have cleared displayed match history in player profiles. All stats are still stored, but your previous 10 games will not show up.
Tenacity now appears on the character sheet as a stat.
- All champions with abilities that reduce the duration of disabling effects now gain tenacity instead.
  - e.g. Singed, Trundle, Irelia, Garen, etc.
- Champion tenacity stacks with item tenacity, mastery tenacity and cleanse.

Fixed a bug where Rengar and Kha’zix “On The Hunt” quest might fail to activate when Kha’zix was dead.
Fixed a bug where chat messages from Anivia would display the incorrect champion name while she was in egg form.
Inhibitors and turrets now have kill callouts.

Co-op vs. AI: