Aaaaaand take a guess what's around the corner. Patch 5.5, of course! There's a ton of balance changes with this new patch, a couple of skins, and a new champ as well! Here's a look at what you can expect with the new patch. Skins The following skins will go on sale in the store for 975 RP unless otherwise stated:
Elderwood Bard
Secret Agent Xin Zhao
Headhunter Akali - 1350 RP
Champions - Updates The next champ to receive a VU is Kassadin! His update is a lot like Alistar's in the sense that he's mainly getting new animations, models and textures for each of his skins, but no new voiceover. Champions - General
Azir's soldiers have a longer attack range.
Bard incoming.
Gragas is getting a buff to his base mana as well as the damage cap vs. Monsters on his Drunken Rage.
Kassadin is getting some numbers tuning to his Riftwalk, including a mana cost reduction and a 2 second cooldown at max rank.
Lissandra lost base damage on her Ice Shard.
Nautilus is receiving heavy changes to his Titan's Wrath and Riptide - although the damage on both spells is down, Riptide's cooldown and mana cost have been reduced, and Titan's Wrath has a stronger shield.
Nidalee's Bushwhack no longer deals %health damage.
Shyvana's Flame Breath had its own %health damage buffed - attacks against marked targets deal more damage (damage cap remains the same).
Skarner is getting some damage buffs to both Crystal Slash and Fracture.
Sion is getting a slight adjustment; the scaling mana cost on Decimating Smash has been moved to Roar of the Slayer. Decimating Smash also received a slight boost in AD ratio.
Sona's ultimate now costs 100 at all ranks.
Tristana's Rapid Fire cooldown is lowered by 1 second each time she attacks a unit marked with Explosive Charge (does not affect turrets).
Trundle's Frozen Domain now offers 20% healing/regen from all sources (scaled up from 8% before). His passive's range has also been buffed.
Urgot's Terror Capacitor shield now scales with mana. His ult's cooldown is down at higher ranks as well.
Varus's Piercing Arrow cooldown now starts at the beginning of the charge, rather than the end,
Veigar's Event Horizon now appears immediately instead of after a .25 second cast time, and apparently they cut back on the delay by .25 seconds as well...I dunno. The notes aren't very clear here, and they don't list the dash-stopping power that he had on the PBE.
Vi lost some Movement Speed as well as base damage on Assault and Battery at earlier ranks.
Volibear's Frenzy now gets half its cooldown shaved if it hits a Monster.
Xin Zhao's Battle Cry heal was buffed at earlier ranks, as well as Audacious Charge's base damage at later ranks. WHAT WOULD AP XIN ZHAO DO?
Zac's Elastic Slingshot has been buffed to CC its targets for double the previous duration.
Zilean's Time Bomb cooldown is down at earlier ranks.
Champions - Texture Rebalances The following champs are getting rebalances to their skins, including bases:
Cho'Gath
Janna
Taric
Warwick
Champions - Insignificant Stuff The following champs will be getting insignificant changes, mainly bug fixes: (to be updated)
Gangplank
Karma
Karthus
Kassadin
Rek'Sai
Singed
Sona
Soraka
Trundle
Viktor
Zac
Items - new stuff
The Cinderhulk enchantment is the new green jungle enchantment, replacing Juggernaut.
(Recipe: [smite upgrade] + Bami's Cinder) +350 Health +30 Bonus Gold per Large Monster Kill UNIQUE Passive: Increases bonus Health by 25%. UNIQUE Passive - Cinderhulk: Deals magic damage equal to 15 + (champion level) to nearby enemies each second. Damage increases each second while in combat, up to 100%.
Bami's Cinder is a new HP item that builds into Cinderhulk, and will also replace Giant's Belt in Sunfire Cape's recipe.
(Recipe: Ruby Crystal) +300 Health UNIQUE Passive: Deals 5 + (champion level) magic damage to nearby enemies each second. Minions and monsters take 50% bonus damage.
Luden's Echo is the new major AP item.
Items - General
Zz'rot Portal's Armor and Magic Resist have been buffed.
The Point Runner Passive (Raptor Cloak, Ohmwrecker, Zz'Rot Portal) now works with fallen turrets.
Summoner's Rift - Jungle
The Raptors and Gromp deal less damage.
The Wolves give more gold.
Summoner's Rift - Turrets
The Middle Inner Turret no longer has the Vanguard passive (shields itself and nearby allies).
The Vanguard passive has been nerfed; the tower no longer gives itself as strong a shield.
Turrets in general give less gold and XP.
That's it for now! Kassadin VU...Bard...there's a whole bunch of stuff to look forward to this patch...especially if you're like me and like playing immobile mages, because Luden's Echo is a very good item for them, not to mention Bard can be a big help with his Magical Journey and other tools to help them out.