Patch 4.6 has arrived and it comes with a lot of changes to an item that has recently made some jungle champions a lot more viable in competitive play. It also contains additional reworks to 3 more champions to make the transition to their new play styles easier. And finally, the Visual Upgrade for the Plague Rat has arrived!
Here’s Pwyff with the full notes and context on changes:
“Hi Summoners,
Since this is the patch the 2014 All-Star tournament will be played on, we’re taking it a little easy on the changes. After 4.5’s laundry list, here’s what we’re tackling next.
Reworks: We’ve released a number of reworks over the past few patches and we’re committed to following up to get these champs to a better place. We saw quick opportunities to polish up Kassadin, Gragas and Rengar. We also have plans for Skarner, but we’re going to keep him in the lab a little longer. You can read about our specific design intentions below, but the general theme (for all of the above) is to make these reworked champions more unique within their role while still preserving game health.
Top lane: We’re particularly aware of low champion diversity – especially in competitive play. The current state of top lane is a couple of champs go to fight on an island and that makes the balancing act tricky. We know that nerfs won’t work because taking down today’s bullies (hi Renekton!) means that others would rise to the spot. Instead, we’re going to be buffing(!) champions over time that have teamfight-oriented, healthy gameplay. In this vein we have changes in store for Jarvan IV, Malphite, Rumble and more, but Rumble is the only one shipping because he’s the only one done. Stay tuned, as this will be an ongoing project.
Onward to the patch notes!
LoL Patcher
- Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented new patches from properly updating game files
- Players can now submit logs if the patcher crashes
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Champions
Aatrox
W – Blood Thirst
Gragas
W – Drunken Rage
E – Body Slam
Kassadin
General
Q – Null Sphere
W – Nether Blade
Maokai
Q – Arcane Smash
Rengar
Q – Savagery
Q – Empowered Savagery
R – Thrill of the Hunt
Rumble
W – Scrap Shield
E – Electro Harpoon
Twitch
General
Q – Ambush
E – Contaminate
R – Rat-ta-tat-tat
Items
Wriggle’s Lantern
Summoner Spells
Heal
Twisted Treeline, Crystal Scar & Howling Abyss
Hextech Sweeper
Twisted Treeline & Crystal Scar
Blackfire Torch
Twisted Treeline
Bots
- Bots will now purchase and use Warding trinkets, Sightstone and Sight Wards
- Wards are placed as bots roam, granting vision of the jungle
- Wards are used to try to gain vision of enemies in brush when bots are chasing; LESS FACE CHECKING!
- Bots now have a 50% chance of playing Blue-side in Co-op vs. AI, with players on Purple-side
- Fixed a bug where bots would stop to cast instant-cast items and spells (e.g. toggling Ashe‘s Frost Shot, using a potion)
- Removed some abuse cases that could be exploited while bots were recalling
Source: Here