Wild Rift News May 2023

Welcome to Wild Rift News May!

This month we’re gearing up for Patch 4.2, Playhem! It’s been a minute since our last Patch Preview, but we loved seeing David and Maddy live out their reporter dreams and give the latest updates on what to expect this month! What was your favorite part of their report?

Since it's been a minute since the Patch Preview, we’re going to be giving a high level recap of what you can expect to see before 4.2 goes live! So grab a jacket, cause things are about to get chilly!

PATCH 4.2 RUNDOWN

CHAMPIONS

This patch we’re cooling things down with a little sibling rivalry and envisioning a path to victory with the arrival of Ornn, Volibear, and Swain! We hope these new champions bring joy to your gameplay, and can’t wait to watch your clips and guides once they're live!

GAMEPLAY

As David mentioned we are continuing to look at different roles, and this patch we’re focusing on our carries in the Dragon Lane, the marksmen! We’ll be adding and updating the following items, and will have all the nitty gritty details in the Patch Notes:

• Immortal Shieldbow
• Collector
• Phantom Dancer
• Manamune

In addition to the new items we’ll also be releasing Wild Rift’s first exclusive new epic monster, the Ice Dragon! This frigid foe is ready to bring the temperature down, and will be available to slay the first day of Patch 4.2! We’ll be sharing more information about this icy beast in a /dev from our design team in the coming days!

BALANCE UPDATES

In Patch 4.2, we’ll be making some changes to a few in-game systems. These will all be covered in more detail in our Patch Notes, but we wanted to share some of them with you all now.

Earlier this year we mentioned that we wanted to make some adjustments to the early, mid, and late stages of the game. In the beginning of the year we added inhibitor respawns and turret burning, but in Patch 4.2, we’re going to be taking another look at the mid to late game.

The first adjustment you’ll see is that Baron and Elder Dragon will respawn earlier, the time between each Dragon’s spawn will also be shortened, and we will be removing the second Rift Herald spawn. Our goal with these changes is to keep the frenetic pace of Wild Rift up, while also making sure the transition between the mid and late game is smoother and more defined.

In addition to that we will also be decreasing the overall health of Dragons, decreasing some of Baron's stats, and making adjustments to the buff Baron grants to teams that slay them. The buff Baron grants will be decreased, but in return if you die with it, you will no longer lose it and when you respawn you will still have the buff for its duration. We hope these changes will add even more excitement and impact to the mid-and-late-game!

Another goal we mentioned earlier this year was that we wanted to give you more opportunities to make a comeback. We’re expanding on that this patch by increasing the respawn time in the earlier stages of the game, slightly decreasing the respawn stages in the later stages of the game, reducing the gold that some minions grant, and slightly reducing the amount of gold kills and bounties grant. These changes will give the extra assist you may need if you fall slightly behind in game, that way your opponents can’t snowball their way to victory too hard.

And lastly, we are going to be making some changes to movement speed. We’ll be granting every champion extra base movement speed, as well as adding some additional movement speed to boots. This will help you get back to lane faster or even group up with your teammates faster to take down the next objective or close out the game!

Please note that this is just a quick overview of the changes that are coming in Patch 4.2, and we will have all the details as well as some more context from our design team in the Patch Notes! As always we look forward to hearing your feedback and will always be looking to make adjustments based off of it!

QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES

This patch we’re all about customization! A few patches ago we introduced the Gallery Skin Set feature, and now we’re expanding on it. If you have a complete collection of skins, you’ll be able to unlock a special reward!

We’ll also be adding in the ability to customize your buttons in-game! If our standard buttons don’t match your vibe, no worries, you can now change it up!

We’re also adding a new feature to Ranked! Have you ever wanted to look back to see how long it took you to hit Diamond this season? Or maybe last? Or what about how many games of Eve you played in a season? Well, this patch you’ll be able to with the introduction of Season Stats!

WILD PASS

We’re bringing something so-delightful to this Wild Pass with the arrival of Soda Pop Ahri! If you make it to the end of the Wild Pass you’ll also have the chance to earn a new flavor!

HEXTECH CRAFTING

Hextech Crafting will also be launching this patch! For more information on this system and how it works, check out our latest article that shares all the details! And keep your eyes peeled for a Player Support article in the coming days.

PROMOTIONS

There will be two promotions that will run during Patch 4.2! Shan Hai Scrolls and Battle Cat Prestige Jinx. Like previous promotions we’ll share more in-depth information on how these promotions will run in separate articles ahead of their release, and mention them in Patch Notes.

SKINS

Icons, cats, bunnies and a whole lot of fun! This patch we’re bringing over something for everyone! Let us know what skin you’re most excited for!

Releasing during Patch 4.2*

• Dark Star Malphite
• Iconic Garen
• Mythic Battle Academia Ezreal
• Tyrant Swain
• Sentinel Diana
• Sentinel Graves
• Sentinel Olaf

Releasing during Patch 4.2a*

• Battle Bunny Miss Fortune
• Battle Cat Jinx
• Prestige Battle Cat Jinx
• Dragon Guardian Galio

Releasing during Patch 4.2b*

• Shan Hai Scrolls Aatrox**
• Shan Hai Scrolls Jhin
• Shan Hai Scrolls Nautilus
• Shan Hai Scrolls Volibear**
• Thunderlord Ornn

* If any release timings change we’ll let you know!

**First to Wild Rift skin

WILD FOR WILDLINGS

FAN ART

While David had a hard time guessing it was Ahri (us too, we swore it was Gwen), we’ve been loving seeing all of your fan art of soda Ahri, it’s so-darn cute!

CREATORS

Patch 4.2 is dropping, check out these creators to see the best new builds and hear their thoughts when the Patch Notes drop!

Học Viện Tốc Chiến

Bractwo Rift

SkratiTv

PENTAKILLS

Recently we saw some community chatter about Pentakills. We’re curious what’s the most Pentakills you’ve ever got? We’re support mains so we’ve sadly never got one… but after reading your stories you’ve inspired us to hit the Rift and try for our first!

PAINTOVERS

As we mentioned in Wild Rift News February, we’d be moving paintovers to their own separate article! You can find the paintovers for the month of May coming later this month!

We hope you’re ready for all the new fun content coming in Patch 4.2! Thanks for reading and we’ll see you on the Rift!