Wild Rift Patch Notes 4.2a

Wild Rift Community Team, Wild Rift Game Design Team

08/06/2023

Unbearably wild—Welcome to Patch 4.2a!

We’re hot off our big update to marksmen and have loved seeing all your new builds, experimentations, and clips! However, we’ve seen that some champions have been toeing the line and been benefiting way too much from our updates, so we’re here with some balance adjustments. We also have the release of two titans: Ornn and Volibear. They have a bit of history, so watch out as there's a chance a nemesis duel could trigger if you’re in a game with these two! We’ve also got the return of the leaderboard event and some fun new skins!

Good luck in your games and we’ll see you here soon for Patch 4.2b!

*Please note that some of the changes to Gragas and Kai’Sa will not appear in-game, but they are live. The updates to in-game text strings will come in a following patch

Reminder: content will be released throughout the patch.

NEW

NEW CHAMPIONS

ORNN, THE FIRE BELOW THE MOUNTAIN

Ornn is the Freljordian demi-god of forging and craftsmanship. He works in the solitude of a massive smithy, hammered out from the lava caverns beneath the volcano Hearth-Home. There he stokes bubbling cauldrons of molten rock to purify ores and fashion items of unsurpassed quality. When other deities—especially Volibear—walk the earth and meddle in mortal affairs, Ornn arises to put these impetuous beings back in their place, either with his trusty hammer or the fiery power of the mountains themselves.

Ornn will be released on June 20 at 08:01 GMT+8.

VOLIBEAR, THE RELENTLESS STORM

To those who still revere him, the Volibear is the storm made manifest. Destructive, wild, and stubbornly resolute, he existed before mortals walked the Freljord’s tundra, and is fiercely protective of the lands that he and his demi-god kin created. Cultivating a deep hatred of civilization and the weakness it brought with it, he now fights to return to the old ways—when the land was untamed, and blood spilled freely—and eagerly battles all who oppose him, with tooth, claw, and thundering domination.

Volibear will be released on June 20 at 08:01 GMT+8.

EVENTS

FORGE & FURY

Will you make it to the top of the leaderboard?

Forge & Fury will begin on June 20 at 08:01 GMT+8

JOIN THE FLUFT DEMACIA

Gear up to go on another adventure with everyone's favorite fluffy friends!

Join the Fluft Demacia will begin on June 22 at 08:01 GMT+8

CHAMPION CHANGES

AKALI

Akali has been struggling in the earlier stages of the game, especially when up against foes with longer range. We’re making some adjustments to help her survive during the laning phase while also giving her the ability to clear minion waves a little easier. We hope this help makes her early game smoother.

base_stats

Base armor: 30 → 34

FIVE POINT STRIKE

Base damage: 30/65/100/135 → 35/70/105/140

DARIUS

In the current Baron Lane meta, Darius is falling behind the pack. We’re lending this fighter a hand, and increasing his damage. But, we’re also reducing the amount of damage he can do to monsters so we can make sure this boost doesn’t push him into a different lane.

HEMORRHAGE

Bleed damage per stack: 11.5 - 31 → 14.5 - 34
Damage to monsters: 200% → 150%

EZREAL

While we adjusted a lot of stats for marksmen last patch, we didn't make any adjustments to Ezreal’s base stats. We’re noticing that because of this he is falling slightly behind other marksmen, so we’ve mapped out some buffs that we think will help this explorer out.

base_stats

Attack Damage per level: 3.6 → 4
Base attack speed: 20% → 30%

Mystic Shot

Base damage: 30/65/100/135 → 35/70/105/140

Trueshot Barrage

Cooldown: 70/70/70s → 70/65/60s

GALIO

We’ve seen Galio struggling in the current meta, so we’re reducing the cooldown on his ultimate so that he can make a grand entrance and peel for his teammates more often.

HERO'S ENTRANCE

Cooldown: 110/100/90s → 100/90/80s

GRAGAS

Due to some of the changes we made to items and runes, Gragas can now spam his third ability, Body Slam when he gains a lot of Ability Haste over the course of the game. Because of this, we’re adding a new rule to this ability so that we can prevent him from slamming into you over and over and well…over again without any cooldown.

Body Slam

[NEW] Cooldown: Will always have a minimum cooldown of 1.25s.

GRAVES

Last patch we made adjustments to crit across the board and also adjusted Grave’s base critical strike damage. In doing this, it ended up weakening Graves way more than we expected, even with the new items. So we’re reverting the changes we made last patch to adjust this.

New Destiny

Crit: 6 bullets, 120% damage each → 6 bullets, 130% damage each
Crit with Infinity Edge: 6 bullets, 130% damage each → 6 bullets, 140% damage each

JHIN

Jhin has been per-four-ming too strongly, especially in lower levels of play, so we want to cut back on some of his damage so that he’s not such a menace during fights. We’re also going to increase the movement speed Jhin’s passive grants him so that there is still room for players in higher levels to outplay their opponents.

Whisper

Attack Damage bonus: 5% per level → 4% per level
Movement bonus crit ratio: 10% → 15%

Dancing Grenade

Attack Damage bonus: 40/50/60/70% → 35/45/55/65%

KAI'SA

After our adjustments to Kai’Sa last patch she is one of the strongest carries, by far. We’re tuning back some of her base stats to bring her more in line with her fellow marksmen, and also making some adjustments to her ability to kill jungle monsters so efficiently.

base_stats

Base attack speed: 30% → 20%

ICATHIAN RAIN

[NEW] Damage factor to monsters: 50%

VOID SEEKER

Attack Damage bonus: 130% → 110%
Ability Power bonus: 70% → 60%

KAYN

Our adjustments to marksmen last patch make it more difficult for Shadow Assassin Kayn to recharge and transform. However, once he does manage to transform into this form it's still an uphill battle, because his abilities aren’t strong enough to target and kill opponents with longer range. So, we’ve adjusted his transformation efficiency and increased his damage across the board.

THE DARKIN SCYTHE

Energy required for transformation: 8000 → 7000
Energy gained from damaging ranged champions: 18 → 24
Energy gained taking down ranged champions: 90 → 120
Shadow Assassin bonus damage: 38 - 52% → 44 - 56%

BLADE'S REACH

Bonus Attack Damage ratio: 120% → 130%

SHADOW STEP

Mana cost: 80 → 50
Bonus Attack Damage ratio: 40% → 50%

KHA'ZIX

Our previous adjustments seemed to have squashed this bug, so we’re back to give him some more damage to help with his jungle clears and ganks.

TASTE THEIR FEAR

Base damage: 50/85/120/155 → 55/90/125/160

MASTER YI

Master Yi hasn’t been performing well in higher levels of play. We’re improving his jungle clear speed and giving him room to use his abilities to dodge damage from foes more often in teamfights.

base_stats

Attack Damage: 52 → 54

Alpha Strike

Cooldown: 17/16/15/14s → 16/15/14/13s

MISS FORTUNE

Miss Fortune hasn’t been a viable pick in higher levels of play, even after our adjustments last patch. We also feel the new items don’t suit her as well as they do everyone else, so we’re giving her some love and increasing some of her damage.

base_stats

Base Attack Damage: 52 → 54

Love Tap

Bonus damage when attacking a new target: 44% - 100% Attack Damage → 49% - 105% Attack Damage

PANTHEON

Pantheon is struggling across the board and has been having a hard time finding his place on the Rift. To help The Unbreakable Spear out, we’re making his spear stronger and giving him some more mana so he can cast it more throughout the game.

base_stats

Base mana: 390 → 420
Base mana regeneration: 9 → 12

COMET SPEAR

Bonus Attack Damage ratio: 110% → 120%
Mortal Will bonus Attack Damage ratio: 110% → 120%
Cooldown return on not releasing: 50% → 60%

GRAND STARFALL

Spear damage bonus Attack Damage ratio: 110% → 120%

PYKE

Pyke has been having a hard time finding a way to enter fights in the later stages of the game since he's on the squishier side. We’re slightly increasing his resistances and damage so that we can help improve his performance in the late game.

base_stats

Armor per level: 4.3 → 5
Magic resist per level: 1.6 → 2.5

GIFT OF THE DROWNED ONES

Stored damage cap: 60% Health and 140 + 800% the lower value of the bonus Attack Damage → 65% Health and 160 + 800% the lower value of the bonus Attack Damage

BONE SKEWER

Base damage: 110/175/240/305 → 120/185/250/315

DEATH FROM BELOW

Execute threshold: 250/375/500 → 250/400/550

SETT

While we’re still sett-ling in from the changes last patch, we’ve been feeling like this brawler's punches aren’t packing enough punch, so we’re giving him some more damage.

PIT GRIT

Right hook bonus damage: Level 5 + 50% Bonus Attack Damage → Level 7 + 50% Bonus Attack Damage

HAYMAKER

Ability damage: (25% + 0.2% Bonus Attack Damage) of Grit consumption → (25% + 0.25% Bonus Attack Damage) of Grit consumption

TWITCH

Sneaky sneaky! Twitch uses stealth…it’s very effective! This rat has been ambushing opponents left and right from the jungle and it’s a little strong. So we’re reducing some of his jungle and gank effectiveness.

DEADLY VENOM

Monster damage modification: 170% → 130%

AMBUSH

Movement speed bonus when not detected by enemy champions: 30% → 20%

CONTAMINATE

Damage factor to monsters: 170% → 130%

URGOT

While Urgot crab walked his way onto the Rift, he’s been struggling to hit his stride, so we’re lending him a hand… we mean claw and increasing some of his damage.

PURGE

On-hit effect ratio: 50% → 70%

FEAR BEYOND DEATH

Bonus Attack Damage ratio: 50% → 70%

VARUS

The ability that Varus has to execute foes is too high, so we’re decreasing some of his burst damage.

Blighted Quiver

Blight Detonation damage: (4.5/5/5.5/6% + 0.02% Ability Power) Maximum health → (4/4.5/5/5.5% + 0.01% Ability Power) Maximum health

VAYNE

Vayne doesn’t rely on crit as much as other marksmen do, so she didn’t benefit much from our changes last patch. And since the strength of marksmen have increased overall, we’re going to give some buffs to Vayne’s stats to put her on the same level as everyone else.

base_stats

Base attack speed: 20% → 30%
Attack speed per level: 2.2% → 3.2%

YONE

With the addition of the new items, we’ve seen Yone become an unstoppable force in the jungle, so we’re slashing some of his power.

base_stats

Base attack speed: 30% → 20%

SPIRIT CLEAVE

Maximum damage to monsters: 80 - 290 → 30 - 280

GAMEPLAY CHANGES

ITEMS

BLOODTHIRSTER

After adding a Shieldbow and some other new vamp items, the amount of vamp Bloodthirster grants is too high, so we’re making some adjustments to its stats.

Stats: 50 Attack Damage → 55 Attack Damage
Bloody: 15% Physical vamp → 12% Physical vamp

ESSENCE REAVER

Our adjustments to Essence Reaver last patch did not meet our goals, so we’re adjusting its value some more. We hope these changes make it a more desirable pick up in the earlier stages of the game.

Essence Flare cooldown: 6s → 4s
Ability Damage ratio: Crit rate × 30% → 20% + Crit rate × 10%

IMMORTAL SHIELDBOW

Similarly to Bloodthirster, when Shieldbow is paired with other vamp items, the amount of vamp a player can end up stacking is too high. In addition to this, the shield that this item grants some champions like Yasuo and Yone is too high. So we’re reducing its vamp and shield power.

Lifeline shield value: 200 + 5 Points per 1% crit rate → 200 + 3 Points per 1% crit rate (200-500)
Battle Furor physical vamp: 10% → 5%

PHANTOM DANCER

When picked up as a first item, Phantom Dancer has proven to be too strong. So we’re increasing its cost and lowering how much attack speed it grants.

Additional cost: 400g → 500g
- Total cost: 2900g → 3000g
Spectral Waltz bonus attack speed: 30% → 25%

SYSTEM CHANGES

RIFT HERALD

After reducing the overall health of turrets last patch, Rift Herald has too many benefits for whoever summons it, especially if there isn’t anyone defending the enemy turret. So we’ve made sure that Rift Herald is guaranteed to die when hitting the second turret.

Health loss on charge: Current health level × 70% → 70% of the Current health or 30% of the maximum health, the higher of the two