The much-anticipated League of Legends Hecarim patch has finally arrived. After about a week delay, the new Shadow of War champion is now available, along with a slew of all-new features including changes to champion XP/gold rewards and runes, the addition of animated combat text, and fixes to the announcement system.
Before we begin on the patch notes, let's first address Hecarim, the Shadow of War. He is now available for 6,300 IP or 975 RP. He can, of course, be bundled with his skins for a slightly cheaper price. Check out his abilities here.
Aside from the new champion, this new patch actually comes with quite a bit of features packed in. One of the big changes is the champion XP and gold rewards for slaying an enemy champion. Champions will now gain more experience for killing higher level champions, but less experience for killing lower level ones. The maximum bounty for killing a champion on a long killing streak has also been increased to 600 gold from 500. Lastly, champions splitting XP now earn 30.4% more total experience when they kill an enemy.
There are some new interface changes also. These include animated combat text that now show text for all damage done. Status text for CC effects and immunities have also been added. The announcement system has received some adjustments and should now be more responsive on kills.
Also remember to reset your Mastery Pages. Riot announced your Mastery Pages will now be stored server-side so they can be accessed from any computer. By doing so, they had to wipe the current setup.
As I mentioned, the Hecarim patch contains a TON of changes. Below you can find the individual changes made to champions as well as in-depth notes of the rune system changes. (via)
League of Legends v.1.0.0.138
Annie
- Pyromania now works like other charged passives (activating a spell with the stun no longer builds a charge, but number of charges required to energize reduced to 4 from 5)
Akali
- Base armor increased to 20 from 17
- Base health increased to 530 from 510
- Fixed a bug where Shadow Dance's recharge time wouldn't update with new ranks or cooldown reduction until reaching full ammo charges (3)
- Fixed a bug where Twilight Shroud was not applying assists properly
Gragas
- Updated recommended items
Graves
- Fixed a bug where Collateral Damage could cost mana and go on cooldown without firing
Irelia
- Fixed a bug where Irelia was reducing the duration of Blinds and Silences by too much
- Fixed a bug around failing to fire any extra Transcendent Blades
Jax
- Relentless Assault (Passive) will now stack even if Jax's attack misses or is dodged
Karma
- Fixed a bug where Mantra's recharge time wouldn't update with new ranks or cooldown reduction until reaching full ammo charges (2)
Kayle
- Divine Blessing
- Heal amount increased to 60/105/150/195/240 from 45/85/125/165/205
- Movement Speed increased to 18/21/24/27/30% from 15/17/19/21/23%
- Movement Speed duration increased to 3 seconds from 2.5
- Mana cost increased to 60/70/80/90/100 from 60/65/70/75/80
Kog'maw
- No longer regenerates health in Icathian Surprise
Janna
- Howling Gale now knocks the target further into the air the longer it is channeled (now 80 + 10 per second channeled from constant 100)
- Monsoon
- Mana cost reduced to 150/225/300 from 200/275/350
- Knock back distance reduced to 875 from 1000
Leona
- Sunlight now has a new particle
- Zenith Blade hit box increased slightly to match the animation
- Fixed a bug where Sunlight could occasionally cause double kills against targets like Kog'maw (Icathian Surprise)
Lulu
- Fixed a display error for Lulu's passive – passive now correctly states how much damage Pix is doing.
- Fixed a bug where Pix could remain helping an ally after it had returned to Lulu.
- Fixed a bug where Lulu was taking damage credit while Pix was aiding an ally.
Lux
- Fixed a bug where Lucent Singularity's cooldown was 11 seconds instead of 10
Malphite
- Fixed a bug where Seismic Shard's Movement Speed was lost if the target died
Miss Fortune
- Fixed a bug where effects like Guardian Angel broke Strut until she died and respawned
Mordekaiser
- Fixed a bug where Mordekaiser could cause minions to attack themselves.
Orianna
- Command: Attack mana cost reduced to 50 at all ranks from 50/55/60/65/70
Sejuani
- Arctic Assault mana cost reduced to 70/75/80/85/90 from 70/80/90/100/110
- Glacial Prison cooldown reduced to 130/115/100 seconds from 150/130/110
Swain
- Ravenous Flock upkeep cost reduced to 5/6/7 from 5/7/9
- Basic attack frame speed increased
Teemo
- Move Quick cooldown reduced to 17 seconds from 22
- Fixed a bug where Noxious Trap's recharge time wouldn't update with new ranks or cooldown reduction until reaching full ammo charges (3)
- Fixed a bug where Teemo's 'Toxic Shot' was doing less damage than intended at higher attack speeds.
Tristana
- Tristana will now attempt to immediately attack champions targeted by Explosive Shot or Buster Shot.
Vladimir
- Fixed a bug where Vladimir could occasionally be hit by projectiles while in Sanguine Pool
Yorick
- Fixed a bug where Ravenous Ghoul failed to heal Yorick before leveling up Decaying Ghoul
Ziggs
- Fixed a bug where Hexsplosive Minefield's slow effect was displayed higher than intended.
Zilean
- * Time Warp mana cost reduced to 80 from 100
- * Chronoshift mana cost reduced to 125/150/175 from 200 at all ranks
Items
- Atma's Impaler Health to Damage conversion lowered to 1.5% from 2%
- Doran's Blade Health reduced to 80 from 100
- Doran's Ring Health reduced to 80 from 100
- Hexdrinker passive shield duration increased to 5 from 3.
- Wit's End combine cost increased to 700 from 550 (total cost increased to 2150 from 2000)
- Last Whisper will now show up as a Pickaxe upgrade in the item shop
- General
Champion XP/Gold Rewards
- Champions gain more experience for killing higher level champions (especially 2 or more levels) but less experience for killing lower level ones
- Maximum bounty for killing a champion on a long killing streak increased to 600 from 500
- Experience split when two or more champions are present increased; situations with two or more champions splitting experience now earn 30.4% more total experience than solo, up from 26.1%
- HP and MANA regen rates are now displayed on your HP and Mana bars
- Minion health bar toggle is now bound to Ctrl+L by default (instead of L)
- Monster regeneration sigils now restore up to 40 mana (from 30)
- Added floating status text (for example "Snared!") to some spells that were missing it (like Cassiopeia's Petrifying Gaze), and removed it from displacement effects that didn't need it (like Gragas' Explosive Cask)
- Fixed another bug causing double kills against targets like Kog'maw (Icathian Surprise)
- Added the rules for making a Summoner Name to the Summoner Creation screen when new accounts log into PvP.net for the first time
Features
- Animated Combat Text
- Added animated text for all damage done
- Damage is now colored depending on what type of damage it is.
- Physical Damage = Red
- Magic Damage = Purple
- True Damage = White
- Legacy damage text can be enabled via the options menu.
- Added animated status text for CC effects and immunities
- Death Recap is now colored based on the damage type done
- Interface Options reworked to support new floating combat text.
- Fixed a bug where damage text would sometimes linger on the screen
- Announcement System
- Improved the priority and responsiveness of kill announcements
- Larger multi-kills will now take priority over smaller multi-kills by the same player (the smaller multi-kill will be dropped)
- The ACE! Announcement should now be more responsive
- Added first-pass animated kill announcement banners for Multi-kills and First blood
PvP.net features
- Added first win of the day status to the summoner profile.
- Added a search function to the custom games list. Searches can be performed by game name or host name.
- Mastery Pages will now be stored server-side so they can be accessed from any computer.
Runes
- Lesser Mark of Warding, Mark of Warding, Greater Mark of Warding Magic Resist reduced by 20%
- Lesser Glyph of Warding, Glyph of Warding, Greater Glyph of Warding Magic Resist reduced by 10%
- Lesser Quintessence of Warding, Quintessence of Warding, Greater Quintessence of Warding reduced by 11.1%
- Lesser Glyph of Insight, Glyph of Insight, Greater Glyph of Insight Magic Penetration increased by 20%
- Lesser Quintessence of Insight, Quintessence of Insight, Greater Quintessence of Insight Magic Penetration increased by 15%
- Lesser Glyph of Potency, Glyph of Potency, Greater Glyph of Potency Ability Power increased by 20%
Co-op vs. AI
- Added Sion Bot and Vladimir Bot
- Improved bots' target acquisition while near enemy towers to reduce amount of tower diving
- Improved bots' logic for assisting each other
- Bots now properly purchase elixirs after finishing their item builds
- Fixed a bug where bots would sometimes randomly path toward the enemy base
- The difficulty level of Co-Op Vs. AI games will now be displayed in the End of Game screen after each game
- Added the ability for the host of a Custom Dominion game to add bots to the game