Pwyff: Changes to Kha’Zix, Hecarim and the Jungle in this episode of the Patch Preview.
Pwyff: Hey Summoners, I’m here with game designer, Feral Pony, and we’re going to be discussing some of the bigger changes in this update.
Let’s start with Kha’Zix.
With the new changes, evolved Void Spikes will no longer deal the bonus magic damage from his passive.
This seems to be a big hit to Kha’Zix’s standard playstyle. What were we going for?
Feral Pony: Void Spikes was so good that players were rushing it as their first evolution no matter what.
It deals high damage, heals and it has huge poke potential if you use it while proccing with Unseen Threat. So there were very few reasons to not evolve it first.
With these changes, we really wanted Kha’Zix to feel better about his other evolutions. By nerfing Void Spikes we’re able to buff Taste Their Fear and Active Camoflague.
The problem with Taste Their Fear was that all of its evolutionary damage was based on your target being isolated and low on health,
but you got nothing if they weren’t.
We still want to reward you for catching isolated targets, but we didn’t want the evolution to rely on it so completely.
So now Taste Their Fear’s evolved form just deals a flat missing health percent as damage.
Pwyff: Do you think this’ll open up new ways to play Kha’Zix?
Feral Pony: I think his overall approach will stay about the same.
We’ve taken away some of his poke, but we’ve increased the threat of his in-fight damage.
So getting hit by two Void Spikes won’t be the end of the world, but when you see him go in, he’ll be even more threatening.
Pwyff: The other champion getting major changes this patch is Hecarim.
Onslaught of Shadows no longer deals damage on impact. We’ve instead moved some of that damage to the ghost riders that travel with him.
Overall, we’re reducing the damage of his ultimate. Why the change?
Feral Pony: We lowered the damage on Hecarim’s ultimate because it was dealing huge burst damage to squishier targets on top of the fear effect.
So your AD carry might be sitting outside the fight, and Hecarim could ult passed everyone to instantly blow them up.
Hecarim should be a strong sustained fighter, and his kit reflects that,
so it’s always a bit overbearing when he can throw out that much damage from Onslaught of Shadows alone.
Pwyff: We’re also buffing Devastating Charge where Hecarim can now hop over small ledges while he’s dashing to his target.
Do you think this was something that Hecarim needed?
Feral Pony: Honestly, we made the change because it was a really bad experience for Hecarim players.
Before, if you tried to use Devastating Charge on someone over a small wall, it would push your opponent back,
but it would leave Hecarim sitting in front of the wall being a sad pony.
This change will help him feel really cool about jumping over those little divides to punch his enemies in the face.
Pwyff: Let’s talk about Summoner’s Rift. We’re moved the initial time of jungle monsters from 1:40 to 1:55.
What drove these changes?
Feral Pony: We wanted to address the frustrating experience advantage players could get by clearing a jungle camp before heading to lane.
When we spoke to competitive teams around the world, this was the most highly requested change, and we agreed.
Some teams would value this experience advantage so much that they’d play hyper defensively for it.
There was just very little counterplay from this aside from jungle invades, or switching lanes and giving up map control.
Pwyff: We’ve made some smaller jungle changes with lower spawn times for Wolves, Wraiths and Golems.
The Ancient Golem and Elder Lizard also give more experience now. How do you see this affecting junglers?
Feral Pony: We mainly wanted to reassure junglers that we weren’t going after them with the initial spawn time increase on the smaller camps.
The experience increase means a jungler can still hit level 2 when starting at the blue or red camp,
and they can hit level 3 if they do them both back to back.
The overall increased spawn times on the smaller camps should also help those junglers with super fast clear times if they want to play the farm game.
Pwyff: Moving to our last topic, we have some big item changes.
In order to open up more starting item builds, we’ve reduced the cost of Doran’s Ring, Doran’s Shield and Boots of Speed, so now you can start with these, and one or two extra health pots.
Feral Pony: Exactly. Doran’s Blade was a good foundation to work from because it strikes that balance between early game power and sustain,
without being an “all-in” item like Elixir of Fortitude.
Doran’s Ring had no inherent HP regen, so it was tough to start with in almost any lane matchup.
Champions like Morgana or LeBlanc will definitely appreciate this change.
Giving an extra potion for Boots of Speed or Doran’s Shield adds a little extra sustain to make them more attractive as starter items.
Pwyff: We’re also changing Madred’s Razors and Wriggle’s Lantern.
Here the 25% chance to deal bonus damage is being scrapped in favor of dealing flat bonus damage per hit to monsters.
We’re adding a lot more consistency to these jungle items – why?
Feral Pony: The 25% chance to deal bonus damage to neutral monsters was a bit of a gamble.
If you got lucky, you could full clear a jungle really fast. If you were unlucky, you could get set back just as far.
There were a few other problems, like junglers failing to donate buffs to their teammate because of wayward procs,
or objectives going down too fast because of a lucky streak.
In the end, the new consistency should help junglers plan their routes more efficiently without having to rely on luck for their clear times.
Pwyff: Our last set of item changes have to do with attack speed on-hit items.
Malady has been removed from the game, but Wit’s End and Nashor’s Tooth have taken over its passives.
So Wit’s End will now steal MR per hit, while Nashor’s Tooth will now deal AP damage per hit.
On-hit builds do not seem to be working very well in Season 3. Do you think these changes will help that?
Feral Pony: We hope so. We removed Malady because it was a poor fit in the overall game.
Players only had the budget to pick up Malady or Nashor’s Tooth before getting more AP, and rarely were they getting Malady.
We really wanted to solidify Nashor’s Tooth position as a strong AP attack speed item
so champions like Diana, Kayle or even an AP Teemo can optimize for that playstyle.
As for Wit’s End, the problem was that it almost never felt great to build.
With this added passive, Wit’s End will be an even better item for champions like Shyvana, Udyr or Irelia.
It also synergizes very well on fighters that rush Sunfire Cape, since the cape itself deals magic damage.
For this set of changes, we really wanted to clarify the role of attack speed on-hit items,
so we’re really looking forward to seeing that playstyle evolve.
Pwyff: That’s all for this week. For the full list of patch changes, be sure to visit the official League of Legends website.
Thanks for tuning in!